GOD IS A GOD OF JUSTICE
By The Well Staff
The murder of George Floyd while in police custody has thoroughly shaken our country. The last ten days have weighed tremendously heavy on the hearts of our staff team. Our intention both as a church, and as individual followers of Christ, is never to stay silent in the face of injustice. Our nation is crying out for real justice to occur for those oppressed, and as God’s church we are the light of the world, meant to lead the way towards God’s righteousness.
And yet also, as Christians, we must look inwardly at where we have sinned, both by omission and commission. We must repent of our actions and admit that far too many times we have failed to stand up to racism, violence, and injustice. Far too many times, we have looked the other way, or even at times further perpetuated injustice and inequality by word or deed. We need to look to God as our authority and teacher, who shows a unique care for those who are most vulnerable, the God who decreed leaders should govern with justice and righteousness, and ultimately, the God who will hold those in authority accountable for their actions.
Jesus declared these words at the onset of his earthly ministry (Luke 4:18):
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives
and recovering of sight to the blind,
to set at liberty those who are oppressed…
Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
Central in Jesus’ ministry was his justice for those oppressed. God has also given us his Spirit and has appointed us to continue Christ’s ministry on this earth. Micah 6:8 says: “He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”
Justice, loving kindness, and humility. Three things the world desperately needs. Three things we can only attain with the help of the Spirit. We pray to model these in our world today. Our God is a God of Justice. From the beginning to end, the Bible teaches that God cares deeply for the oppressed, as a matter of utmost importance. How then do we respond in the face of this injustice in our society? Through confession and repentance. We confess that we have failed to love as we should, and we repent.
We have to admit that we all have blind spots and biases, and that is why we need The Spirit to renew our minds. We see only in part, so we look to Him to lead us in all truth. We need to resist the temptation to view this as a matter of a fight between the political right and left, and instead see it as a matter of God’s justice against the enemy who rules this world. We recognize that the God of the Bible does not change, and so the role of the church as an advocate for reconciliation is as permanent a part of our being as our sacraments.
We cannot allow ourselves to stand on the sidelines. James 4:17 reminds us: “Whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.” The Bible condemns apathy, Jesus stated that the “lukewarm” would be spewed from his mouth. Jesus himself identifies so heavily with the oppressed, that Matthew 15 tells us that whatever we do (or do not do) for the least of these will be counted as though it was done (or not done) for him. We also need to identify with those suffering from injustice. Hebrews 13:3 tells us: “Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body.” We confess that we have failed this command to always remember those being mistreated unfairly and repent of this. We must pray to become advocates for the oppressed. When the protests end, and the hashtags are gone, the church will still be there, and we need to continue the mission to bring about God’s reconciliation to the world.
What Jesus’ life and death have shown us is that restoration, not retribution, is at the heart of Biblical justice. It’s not that sin goes unpunished, but that the punishment was in service to our salvation. That is the way that God so loved the world. God is perfectly just, and yet his son was unjustly killed for us, paying the penalty for our sin. We know that the church living out justice and mercy with the Spirit of God is a blood bought privilege. Jesus has commanded us to love our enemies, because he loved us when we were his enemies. Therefore, we know that we cannot win the world with more hate. We believe that God desires for the abused and the abuser to find reconciliation with himself and each other. Nothing short of the power of the Holy Spirit can accomplish that.
We as a staff are unified with the many voices in our nation calling for systemic reform to end racial oppression and inequality, and we pray that the full sense of justice for George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and countless others in the black community would be fully realized. We pray for the leaders of our country to have wisdom from above on how to enact changes that will truly see the fruit of righteousness and justice.
In light of this, we encourage you to listen to the voices of those speaking out against systemic oppression. We realize that you may not agree with everything that they have to say, but please, just listen. You might find you agree on more than you realize, all the more so if they are brothers and sisters in Christ. We want to be slow to speak and quick to listen. We want to better educate ourselves as well as elevate the voices that the world has long attempted to silence. To that end we have some resources to share:
The Bible Project’s video on Biblical Justice
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A14THPoc4-4
Dr. Esau McCaulley, assistant professor of New Testament at Wheaton College has a podcast that highlights how the gospel should “disrupt” our status quo on issues like race.
https://esaumccaulley.com/podcast/
In addition, we want to invite you to participate with us as we all process and work toward change:
1) PRAY
Our desire is not to simply make a statement and move on, instead, we are committed to growing as a church that advocates for justice. We believe at the core of this societal change is the church united in prayer. We ask that you pray with us for justice and reform to come to our nation. We also invite you to come alongside us every Monday night in the month of June as we gather weekly for our Night of Prayer meetings at 6:30 pm at Northeast Baptist Church, 2930 MacArthur View.
2) PROCESS IN COMMUNITY
We also encourage you to actively process and participate in reform together in community. Our Community Groups are places where open and honest conversation can occur, where sin can be confessed, and where we can all work together to create meaningful, Christ-centered change. If you have not connected to a Community Group and want to be, click here.