True Justice: God’s Judgment, Our Only Hope in Christ

Two things stand out in these passages. One we see in Isaiah, and the other we see in Matthew.

Isaiah is foretelling One who will come, sent by the Lord, who will bring justice and set the captives free. In Matthew we see Jesus now on the scene. He is baptized, and God publicly confirms, “This is my Son, with whom I am well pleased.” This is the One Isaiah spoke of.

As I was reading these Scriptures, Isaiah 42 especially caught my attention because of one word: “justice.”

Today our world is full of cries in the streets for justice. But we often do not really understand what justice means. We hear about “social justice,” which sounds good on the surface, but what many promote under that label is not what Scripture means by justice. There is a justice that people construct, and there is justice that comes from God.

When people study Isaiah 42, they often try to read that word “justice” straight into social programs in the church. But we have to be careful to let Scripture define its own terms. If you lay the ESV or NIV beside the King James in Isaiah 42, you will see two different English words in the same places: one translation says “justice,” the other says “judgment.” That naturally raises the question: what does the original word mean?

If you open a concordance and look up the Hebrew, you will find there are two main words that can be translated “justice.” One leans more toward fairness—equity among people. The other leans more toward judgment—a verdict rendered by a righteous Judge. The word used in Isaiah 42 is the second: it speaks of judgment. So Isaiah is describing One who comes to bring judgment.

What does that mean for us?

Whether the emphasis is on fairness or on judgment, both must be measured by God—by God’s Word, God’s will, and God’s way. True justice is never detached from who God is and what God has said.

But in this world we are confused. We are confused about justice. Most of the time, when people cry out for “justice” in the streets, what they really want is not a careful, honest look at all sides of a situation so that a truly just conclusion can be reached. More often, people are looking for vengeance. “You took this from me; I’m going to take that from you.” That is not justice. Justice, in its true form, is from God and governed by his Word.

In Acts 10, Peter is giving a testimony. In verse 34 he says, “Truly I understand that God shows no partiality.” Here is where justice comes into clear view: God shows no partiality. His justice applies to Jew and Gentile alike. Whenever we do anything, we are judged against his Word—his commands, his teaching. No matter Jew or Gentile, believer or unbeliever, justice is the measure of our lives against God’s commands and God’s ways. That is true justice.

Now look at Romans chapter 2. Often what we call “justice” in our world quickly becomes a human judgment. We form our opinions first, then we cry out for “justice” based on our judgment. Think about much of what has been in the news lately: every side already has a preconceived belief. We make up our minds, pass judgment, and call it justice—without knowing the full story and without comparing the situation to God’s will.

We do that in our humanity, in our limitations, and often in our unbelief.

Listen to what Paul writes in Romans 2, beginning in verse 1:

“Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things. We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things. Do you suppose, O man—you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed. He will render to each one according to his works. To those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality he will give eternal life, but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury. There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. For God shows no partiality.”

The justice that belongs to God is impartial. All of us—the saved and the unsaved alike—will stand before God and give an account of our lives. That judgment will be a fair accounting of how we have lived in light of God’s will. But the good news Isaiah brings is that there is One who comes to bring justice.

Isaiah says this Servant will not break a bruised reed or snuff out a faintly burning wick. He comes gently to heal those who cannot see or know any better, those who are held captive by their sin, and to release them. There is One who comes and takes upon himself the penalty of our sin.

There is not one of us who, by our own merit, could stand faultless before the Almighty. Not one of us is righteous in his sight on our own. Only through the blood of Jesus—only through the blood of Jesus—can we be counted righteous. God allows his justice and our guilt to be covered by the blood of Christ.

In Romans chapter 3 we read how this works. Starting at verse 19:

“Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it—the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness… so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”

Our faith in Jesus—our belief in him—is the only thing that brings us to a place where we can be seen as righteous in God’s sight. The only place, the only way.

You might ask, “What do you mean by belief in God? What do you mean by belief in Jesus?” Scripture puts it this way: “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”

“Lord” means ruler over all things. If Jesus is your Lord, the ruler of your life, then you follow him. You live by his words. Confessing Jesus as Lord and believing in your heart that God raised him from the dead—that is faith. And it is not just an opinion; it is a belief that produces action in our lives.

To believe is to trust that God loved you so much that he sent his only begotten Son into the world to die on the cross for your sins, and not only to die, but to be raised on the third day. His resurrection shows that in him resides the fullness of God and that he truly has lordship over all things. He is the One who has the authority to make the rules. That is what our faith is: faith in Jesus.

Why is this important? Because the judgment of God is real. God’s judgment falls on individuals—you, me, and everyone else—and it also falls on groups of people, on nations.

Just look at the Old Testament. Look at Israel, whom God called his chosen people. When Israel decided to step out of God’s will, to turn away from what he commanded and live their own way, God’s judgment came upon them. Often outside nations would come in, take their goods, take their people, take their land, and Israel would live in captivity. Only when they finally cried out, “God, forgive us; we will follow your ways,” did God bring release. Then they would return to their land and resume living in obedience to him.

Why does this matter for us? Because we need to look at where we are as a collective, as a country. When you see the direction much of our society is heading—the things we do, say, and promote—it is not hard to see how far we have wandered from God. We wonder why things are such a mess. Perhaps God’s judgment has been upon the United States for some time.

When God applies that kind of judgment, he does it to bring people to their knees—to cause them to cry out to him, to seek him, to follow him. Have we reached that point as a nation? Or are we still resisting him?

There is deep division. We toy with the sanctity of life and allow abortion to function as a form of birth control. We toy with human sexuality, claiming that a person can be anything they want to be, and we even provide surgeries for children who are not old enough to truly understand or decide for themselves. We remove God from public life and government, and when national tragedies occur, we hear, “This is not a time for prayer; we just need action.” We hear, “We are not a Christian nation; we are not beholden to God.”

God’s judgment is not reserved only for the end of time when we stand before him. It can also come corporately in history. There is a battle raging between Satan and God for the soul of this nation. Even in something that sounds as small as a word—“justice”—we see how important it is to understand terms the way God uses them.

Justice is not something humans can redefine at will. It belongs to God. Without knowledge of his Word, we cannot administer true justice. When we throw words together like “social justice,” it can sound very compassionate: feed the hungry, house the homeless, clothe the naked, provide medical care. Those works of mercy are good and biblical when done in obedience to God. But the modern ideology of “social justice” often goes far beyond that and becomes a disguised system of forced redistribution and power, detached from God’s authority. I would encourage you, if you do not understand what is meant by “social justice” in the cultural sense, to investigate its definitions and see how the biblical idea of justice is being twisted and hijacked.

God’s justice is measured and carried out in his judgment of how we walk with the Lord. To close, I want us to hear Psalm 1, which holds together themes of justice and judgment:

“Blessed is the man” (and that means all humanity—man, woman, and child) “who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners” (that does not mean blocking them; it means joining in with them), “nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does he prospers. The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous; for the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.”

In Revelation we hear Jesus say, “Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense with me, to repay each one for what he has done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.” Jesus says, “I am coming to reward and to repay, and I have that authority because I am the Alpha and the Omega.” There is none higher.

You might ask, “Pastor, why such a solemn message? Why not something more joyful?” There is joy in this message, because, as Isaiah said, God sent Jesus into the world so that we would have the opportunity to be saved through him. Apart from Jesus there is no hope, but God has made a way of hope—for you, for me, and for all people—in Jesus.

Yet many, as Paul says in Romans, have chosen to worship the created instead of the Creator. Our world says, “It’s all about me. It’s all about now. It’s about what I can get.” Many refuse even to believe that God exists. But God does exist, and he has made a way for you to be seen as righteous in his eyes in the day of judgment. His name is Jesus. And he died for you.

Let’s pray.

“Father, we thank you that even in the midst of our sinfulness—sinfulness that goes all the way back to the disobedience of the first two you created in the garden—you have shown mercy. That disobedience is in our spiritual DNA. It does not matter whether our sin seems small in our own eyes or huge and ugly; all sin separates us from you and places us outside your will and your fellowship.

But Father, you have made a way in Jesus Christ. You have made a way through his death. You have made a way through his resurrection. I pray that today we would understand your justice and your judgment, and that understanding would drive us to seek you.

Help us to seek your way and your will. Move our hearts to be in relationship with you through Jesus Christ, and then to follow his teaching and live as we ought. We pray for this nation and for other nations around the world, where it is so clear that your judgment is falling. We pray that you would not let us go so far that you must completely break us before we realize our need of you and turn back to you.

Like Abraham pleading for Sodom and Gomorrah, we plead with you: ‘Lord, if you find the righteous among us, have mercy.’ We thank you for your goodness, your love, your mercy, and your compassion. Above all, we thank you for Jesus Christ our Lord, who took our sins upon the cross.

I pray that the eyes and hearts of all people would be opened to him, that they would confess his Lordship and truly believe in their hearts that you raised him from the dead, and that they would receive salvation in Jesus.

For this we humbly pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.