Challenge Central: a CBC devotional
By: Pastor Lars Janssen
Our world calls out for justice, and rightly so. Have you heard the cry?
In Canada, it sounds like slogans such as Every Child Matters. It sounds like our government’s ongoing conversation with our indigenous peoples about truth and reconciliation. It sounds like calling out against racism, oppression, poverty, bigotry, violence … and the list goes on. The organizations pursuing justice and their slogans are numerous and often familiar.
Our culture loudly affirms the biblical desire for justice that we should “give justice to the weak and the fatherless; maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute” (Psalm 82:3). Culturally, we say that we want to “learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause” (Isaiah 1:17), but what justice can be done when we re-define what is good, re-assign the standard for what is just, and deny what is true?
As believers, we must notice how our world is becoming — perhaps has already become — a place that can look the truth in the eye and, without ever expecting an answer, honestly ask Him, “What is truth?” (John 18:38)
This is what Pilate did on the morning of Jesus’ crucifixion. Jesus had just told this government ruler, “I have come into the world — to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice” (John 18:37, emphasis mine). Pilate did not listen. Today, it seems our world is not listening either.
Whether they listen or not, the truth remains that Jesus still “died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, [and] that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:3-4). Jesus brings the world justice either by making us just or crushing the unjust.
When our world calls for justice, it may not know, but it’s calling for Jesus.
Those who are abused, misused, crushed, mistreated, ignored, and refused justice have always been on God’s mind. From Israel’s Exodus out of Egypt when “God heard their groaning” (Exodus 2:24-25) and saved them, to the martyred saints’ cries for justice in Revelation 6:10 (“How long …?”), God has always been and will always be just. This should be a comforting thing for his children and a terror to the unjust.
Jesus is the fullest revelation of both truth and justice. He is the answer to the call for justice that our world is making. This is why Matthew 12:17-21 (quoting Isaiah 42:1-4) says that Jesus “will proclaim justice to the Gentiles” and with perfect gentle patience he will bring “justice to victory.”
Our world needs to hear this. By the Holy Spirit’s transforming power, the Father’s sovereign timing, and Jesus’ justifying gift we have been given this wonderful opportunity. We can help a world calling out for Justice see that his name is really Jesus.
Who do you know that needs to hear that calling for justice is calling for Jesus?
