Part 3: Righteousness

Justice, righteousness, and faith

With justice linked so closely to righteousness, we also need to define that latter word. Let’s begin with Genesis 15:6, which notes that Abraham “believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.”

Righteousness and faith often go together, as in 1 Samuel 26:23, “The Lord rewards every man for his righteousness and his faithfulness.” Solomon gets the connection when he tells God in 1 Kings 3:6, “You have shown great and steadfast love to your servant David my father, because he walked before you in faithfulness, in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart.”

Similarly, Ezekiel 18:9 states that he who “keeps my rules by acting faithfully—he is righteous.” Nehemiah 9:33 notes that righteousness and faithfulness are parallel attributes of God: “You have been righteous in all that has come upon us, for you have dealt faithfully.” When we are faithful, God restores our righteousness. When Proverbs 18:5 teaches that it is wrong to “be partial to the wicked or to deprive the righteous of justice,” it criticizes whatever lessens the faith of the faithful.

As God instills faith, so God is the initiator of any righteousness on earth. Psalm 23:3 notes that God “leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake.” (God does that for his own glory.) Psalm 71:2 implores, “In your righteousness deliver me and rescue me.” That God is the sun, and righteous people the moon, becomes clearer in the New Testament when we learn that God imputes righteousness to believers because of Christ’s sacrifice.

We know that God’s righteousness has found a place in us when we have the faith to be thankful: Psalm 97:12, “Rejoice in the Lord, O you righteous, and give thanks to his holy name!”

The author of Psalm 85 also shows poetically that God is the starting point when he writes in verse 11, “Faithfulness springs up from the ground, and righteousness looks down from the sky.” In other words, God is the sun and the rain that cause plants to grow, as Isaiah 45:8 makes clear: “Shower, O heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain down righteousness; let the earth open, that salvation and righteousness may bear fruit.” Since our desire is for God’s love, our goal is righteousness: Proverbs 15:9 notes that “The way of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord, but he loves him who pursues righteousness.”

We attain righteousness through faith in God who is righteous, and Isaiah 48:8 shows that faithfulness leads to more righteousness: “Oh that you had paid attention to my commandments! Then your peace would have been like a river, and your righteousness like the waves of the sea.” Isaiah 30:18 states that “the Lord is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for him.” Given the close connection of these words, another translation could be: God is a God who is faithful; blessed are they who are faithful.

Similarly, “He will faithfully bring forth justice” – that’s Isaiah 42:3 – I could just as well read, “He will faithfully engender faithfulness.” Isaiah 56:1, “Keep justice and do righteousness,” could be, “Be faithful, be faithful.” Justice, righteousness, and faithfulness are so closely tied that Proverbs 18:5’s declaration that it is wrong to “deprive the righteous of justice” could be translated as “to deprive the faithful of their faith.” Ezekiel 13:22 shows that injustice works against faith in God: “You have disheartened the righteous falsely, although I have not grieved him, and you have encouraged the wicked, that he should not turn from his evil way to save his life.”

In short, the purpose of justice is to increase righteousness, because when we see righteousness our faith in God increases. This means that whatever decreases faith in God is unjust. Programs that make people depend on government rather than God are unjust. Programs that make politicians seem like God are unjust. The ultimate injustice came in Vietnam when Communists tried teaching a new faith by having children close their eyes and pray that God would give them pieces of candy. When no candy arrived, students would close their eyes again and pray that Ho Chi Minh would give them candy: Lo and behold, the chocolate appeared.

New Testament uses

As noted earlier, “justice” makes only 12 NT appearances in the English Standard Version, but they are still evocative. Kreesis, the Greek word commonly translated as justice, is the opposite of equality: It means separating, putting on trial, differentiating. The proclamation in Matthew 12:18 that Jesus “will proclaim justice to the Gentiles” means that he will show them righteousness in contrast to the arbitrariness of purported gods of the polytheistic ancient world.

Verses in Acts, Romans, and Revelation make the justice-righteousness connection clear. All three include the Greek word, dikaiosune, that generally means righteousness, and the English Standard Version translates it that way – but the New International Version each time translates it as justice. “He will judge the world in righteousness” is “he will judge the world with justice” (Acts 17:31, ESV/NIV). “This was to show God’s righteousness” is “He did this to demonstrate his justice” (Romans 3:25, ESV/NIV). “In righteousness he judges and makes war” is “With justice he judges and makes war (Revelation 19:11, ESV/NIV).

Although I believe the ESV is a better translation, the NIV’s use of “justice” here, given all the Old Testament precedent, is not a stretch: Justice and righteousness go together. Other passages equate faith and righteousness: Paul notes in Romans 4:5 that if anyone “trusts in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness.” He notes in Romans 9:30 that “Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it, that is, a righteousness that is by faith.” That righteousness is God’s faithfulness in having Jesus die on the cross, since long before, in Genesis 3, He had promised redemption. God’s faithfulness thus required Christ’s righteous sacrifice, which though forced by the unjust yielded justice for all those who are faithful.

Paul connects God’s righteous justice to faith in Galatians 2:16, where he writes that “a person is not counted righteous by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ.” In Galatians 3:6 he ties this together with the story of Abraham, who “believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.” (This was foreseeing that God would count as righteous the Gentiles by faith – Gal. 3:8 – so that in Abraham all nations would be blessed.)

Paul stipulates again in Galatians 3:11 that “no one is justified before God by the law, for ‘The righteous shall live by faith.’” He writes in Philippians 3:9 that “righteousness comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith.” Hebrews 10:38 stresses that “my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.”

Once again, we see that the goal of justice is to show, one way or another, the righteousness of God, a sun-brilliant righteousness that can illuminate millions of glory-reflecting moons. The purpose of our experience is to drive us toward more faith in God, but not sugar daddy faith. Justice should help us to understand more about God, so “justice” that inhibits faith cannot be just. Such justice is actually unjust, because anything that points us away from God is lying about the nature of the universe by suggesting that we can have satisfaction apart from God who loves us.

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Part 1 in the series:  Social Justice vs. Righteousness

Part 2 in the series:  Justice as Righteousness

Dr. Olasky is Editor-in-Chief of World magazine, Provost of The King’s College, New York City, and a Fellow of The Wilberforce Forum.