HeadTheology

To conclude our Cultivate Beauty Monthy, my church (Sojourn Community Church) here in Louisville just concluded its fifth annual film festival which was pretty good. Some of the stuff was pretty heavy, especially one called Justice is a Blessing. It is a short film (only about 6 1/2 minutes long).

Basically the film is about a boy who was abused as a child then two senarios unfold. The first as a young adult takes revenge on the man that abused him then another where the abusing man dies of another cause (possibly a heart attack) before the young man could exact his revenge. There are no overt themes but it seems there are two that stick out in my mind now:

1. Justice from God is a blessing. We as Christians say that God is good and that he just. Without justice in punishing the a wrong there is no goodness, this is why Christ came to die and that is also why there is a hell. I don’t think anyone wants to live in a society where crimes go unpunished.

2. Let God extract his own justice. This is so hard. In reading CNN and the Drudge Report everyday there are stories that made one’s blood boil and wish for swift and harsh punishment to those that do wrong especially against the weak or precious. I do not think that idea is wrong but it can quickly become a sin when one does not trust in the sovereinty of God to take care of the matter. But it seems at times that God is so slow but we must remember that ‘the Lord is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, forgiving iniquity and transgression, but he will by no means clear the guilty.’ (Num 14:18) We do not have God’s standard for often we have our own standard and it shifts everyday to vindicate ourselves (thinking we are all victims) and condemn others we do not like. We must remember that if God were not slow to anger we should all expect to awaken in hell under the punishment of God along with every demon, Hilter, and Stalin that ever existed. (Where did we get this ridiculous thought that Satan tormented people in hell?) We should have in mind God’s standard that every sin against him or his commands (for instance when we do not love him with our whole heart) is so much greater than the abortion of a child, genocide, or physical abuse against man. So back to my main thought, when we are not apart of God’s mandated government we should not try to achieve justice ourselves but to leave it to God for he says vengence is his (Rom 12:19). It is hard to consider that God might let one’s sins go unpunished on the earth and that a murderer might get into heaven by accepting Christ. For we want justice but when we are not satisfied with the death of Jesus on the cross as atonement for those that do wrong it exposes our selfrighteous thoughts that the cross is not just enough, that Christ was not pure or holy enough. Thinking that God’s wrath is not enough, that it must be supplemented by the justice of man. But we should do as Christ did to us that ‘while we were [God's] enemies’ (Rom 5:10) he fed us and gave us something to drink and overcame our evil with good (Rom 12:20-21). It is easy to look over our sins and point at others who have more visible sins, but all of our hearts are the same rotten and wicked.

For more on the justice of God listen to RC Sproul’s talk that he gave at Southern Seminary last week.