Justice is the outcome of a person getting precisely what he deserves- according to his conduct and deeds which stem from the intentions of the heart, and according to his words which overflow from his heart. Because the Lord looks at the heart and not outward appearance, we must look at what Jesus said about us- we love darkness because our hearts our deeds are evil and we entertain evil thoughts in our hearts. Therefore, justice for the evil is not when there is no poor in the land, when every sick person is healed or that God gives us many good gifts so that we may store up things for ourselves and not be rich towards God. We think that when God doesn’t heal us, or answer our prayers, or bless us some more, He is failing us and is being an unjust God, and we are the victims of His injustice. But God is justice- and is never unjust. It is that justice to man in God’s eyes- is the outcome of our receiving our due punishment for the evil we refuse to repent of and change, for His justice will not leave the guilty unpunished. But in His mercy and grace, know that He has already forgiven us and healed us of our waywardness if only we put our faith in His Son and listen to Him and the Holy Spirit.
Now, justice to God for God is the outcome of Him getting precisely what He deserves. To even fathom what He deserves, and thus what is rightfully His, we have to look at what He sowed- for Justice does not harvest where He has not sown and gather where He has not scattered seed. See that very molecules of the chair you are sitting on belongs to my Father, the air particles you breathe is supported by the breath of life exhaled from Him into our nostrils, and the very blood that your heart pumps around your body is the blood of His Son – so tell me- is there a limit to the good things that He deserves for all the good things that He has done and said, planned and dreamt? The injustice here is that He has not been receiving what He deserves since the foundation of the world- but all that is about to change and is changing because in us exclaimed a heart-felt cry that demands justice for Jesus- justice for His words- and His return and His kingship- and His Holy Spirit whom they love.
And so if we want the injustice suffered by God to be corrected into perfect justice for Him- then let us look at these 3 areas which we have been delivering an injustice to our Father and our God:
1. First injustice- Our attitude hampers His freedom to do what He wants to do with His creation
He who has ears- let them hear God’s justice for God- in the parable of the workers in the vineyard:
Matthew 20: “For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire men to work in his vineyard. He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them out into the vineyard. About the third hour he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. He told them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right”. So they went. He went out again the sixth hour and the ninth hour and did the same thing. About the eleventh hour he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, “Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?” “Because no one has hired us”, they answered. He said to them, “You also go and work in my vineyard”. When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, “Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first”. The workers who were hired about the eleventh hour and each received a denarius.
So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each of them also received a denarius. When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. “These men who were hired last only worked one hour”, they said, “and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day. But he answered one of them, “Friend, I am not being unfair to you. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? Take your pay and go. I want to give the man I hired last the same as you. Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?”
Do you see that God’s idea of justice is not that the workers get paid according to the hours they spent working the vineyard. To us- to be paid one denarius irrespective of having worked 10 hours or half hour is an injustice and an incorrect calculation. But to God- the true justice is His freedom to do whatever He pleases with what rightfully belongs to Him- which is everything- and still be acknowledged as the righteous God and the loving Father that He truly is. For His righteousness is in the methods in which He delivers a just outcome and His way of administering justice- that even when He does whatever pleases Him- He does not change as a just and righteous God. This is the beauty and splendour of His justice and righteousness that man cannot imitate unless that have attained the heart of Jesus- the Son who does what is pleasing to His Father without being asked- and the wisdom of the Holy Spirit which goes hand in hand with His power- and a heart which loves justice, and the spirit of truth behind justice- just like my Father. King Solomon could not achieve it because though He was given a wise and discerning heart to administer justice- he did not use it to extend His understanding to pursue justice for His God. Solomon’s perspective was earth to earth- not heaven to earth. But even now the Holy Spirit who teaches us all things and guides us into ALL truth will teach us God’s perspective not from heaven to earth- but from New Heaven and New Earth to earth.
So let us do a stock take from what is written in the Word, what does belong to our Father so that we may know without a shadow of doubt how far and wide and high and how beautifully the freedom of His perfect justice does extend:
To God belong wisdom and power, understanding and power are His (Job 12:13) – To Him belong strength and victory (Job 12:16)- Salvation and glory belong to our God (Rev 19:1)- Dominion belongs to the Lord (Psa 23:28)- Judgment belongs to God (De 1:17)- That day of vengeance, for vengeance on His foes belongs to the Lord (Jer 46:10)- To Him belongs eternal praise (Psa 111:10).
To the Lord your God belong the heavens, even the highest heaven, the earth and everything in it (Deut 10:14)- the mountain peaks belong to Him, the sea is His for He made it and His hands formed the dry land (Ps 95:5)- Everything under heaven belongs to Him (Job 41:11)- For every living soul belongs to Him (Eze 18:4).
The secret things belong to the Lord our God (De 29:29) - interpretations belong to God (Gen 40:8)- the words of Jesus you hear belong to the Father who sent Him (Jn 14)- the words your hear from the Holy Spirit is the Father’s because all that belongs to the Father is the Son’s, and the Holy Spirit takes them from Jesus and makes it known to us- and the Book of life belongs to the Lamb (Rev 13:8) for salvation belongs to Him. The command to lay down His life for His Father was for the Father to give but the blood was Jesus’ to shed. For His blood purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation (Rev 5:9), and have made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God. The priests belong to our Father- the high priest is His Son and the Levites are His (Num 3:12). Jesus is the King of kings, and the kings of the earth belong to God. And so we belong to Jesus Christ- we belong to Him whether we love or die (Ro 14:8) And we were given the Spirit of Sonship because a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. Since we belong to God because we hear what God says- we definitely do not belong to the world, and it does not love us as its own for we have been set apart to carry out our Father’s desire.
So see that justice for God is His freedom to do whatever He pleases - with this world- with us- with His Word- with His Son- and with His glory and salvation and so on. But when He does- we complain and grief Him, we accuse Him and blame Him- but all this time- Doesn’t He have the right to do what He wants? Or are we resentful because He is righteous and just, good and kind, faithful and patient- most of all angry and hurt? When will we learn to see justice from His perspective as not being for us- but for Him? And when we do- He wants to know- will we still love and cherish Him as our Father?
2. Second injustice- We restrict His freedom to treat us the ways He wants to treat us
In the parable of the talents where a man entrusted property to his servants- To one he gave five talents of money, to another two talents, and to another one talent, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey. The man who had received the five talents went at once and put his money to work and gained five more. So also, the one with the two talents gained two more. But the man who had received the one talent went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money. After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them. The man who had received the five talents brought the other five. The man with the two talents also came with two more, but the servant with one talent had hid it in the ground and returned it back to the servant, and the worthless servant was thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Do you see that our Father does not really care about whether you bring Him back 5 talents or a hundred? What He is looking at again is our hearts and the effort we put into it- the servant with the 5 talents went at once to put his money to work. He wants to taste the fruits of faithful determination we place in His Word and the appreciation we show towards His Holy Spirit. What He is looking for is the growth and training we receive under the counselling of the Spirit of Sonship and Daughtership- the Holy Spirit guides us according to the blueprint who is Jesus the way and the truth and life. My Father is a God of abundance and creative power- He can raise up children out of stones and ordain praises from them- but what is the justice for God in that? What if we are not rewarded for putting his talents to work- for are we not unworthy servants who have only done our duty- would we still put 110% of our effort and time into it?
Yet the reality is that your Father wants to put you in charge of many things- and it is not a new dream for He had once charged Adam with ruling over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth and over all the creatures that live along the ground- but Adam- like us the church- could not keep one simple command so he lost it- we have dropped the keys of the kingdom of heaven and the Lord lost His chance to share with us His happiness. Adam and Eve couldn’t stay away from the one tree in the garden (tree of knowledge of good and evil) - and the church also cannot follow the single command to listen to Jesus and it could not stay away from running here and there to increase knowledge. We have one tree- Jesus the tree of life to focus on- but apparently it is not good enough for us.
And so the injustice is that the Father has been deprived of treating us the way He had always wanted to- the way He had hoped before He sent forth the Word “Let there be light”, and then seeing us shed off our darkness to grow into the stature and likeness of Jesus- so that He can also treat us and show us all things like He does with Jesus, while we crouch at His side, rejoicing in His whole world, delighting in mankind. The injustice of God is that He has been restrained in His ways of dealing with us- He has been forced to react to sin, instead of responding to pure love. Do we even have any idea what it is like to be treated by a good father who is completely pleased with his son? The answer is in Jesus and no one else. If you don’t listen to Jesus- you will never know what that is like and what to strive for, for the sake of His Father.
3. Third injustice- We limit His freedom to BE the person who He want to be to us
What restricts my Father in being the person He wants to be for us is in the parable for the 2 Sons. The Lord asks you, “What do you think? There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work today in the vineyard’. ‘I will not’, he answered, but later he changed his mind and went. Then the father went to the other son and did the same thing. He answered, ‘I will, sir’, but he did not go. Which of the two did what his father wanted?”
The perfect answer in Jesus’ eyes is neither- for neither of the 2 sons gave the Father comfort and relief. With the first son- he had upset his father with his disobedience and indifference to his father’s problem. With the second son, though he said yes, in the end the vineyard remained unattended. So how is either of them a desirable outcome for the Father, and if He is disappointed and frustrated with the hearts and efforts of His sons- how can He be the loving and doting Father He wants to be? The perfect answer is the third son- Jesus- who only ever does what the Father wants for it is not His will but His Father’s will be done.
Our Father is deprived of receiving the complete joy of seeing a job well done by a loving son or daughter, and being the generous Father that He is, He is further deprived of the pleasure of rewarding us accordingly. You want to catch a glimpse of your Father rewarding someone accordingly- again you have to look no further than Jesus whose bride is the holy city of God, New Jerusalem. I am not saying we are to usurp Jesus’ position in God’s heart and demand a New Jerusalem of our own- for if you are thinking that- you have missed the point. The point being the pride and joy and delight and glory your Father will experience not only as He presents this wonderful gift to Jesus, but all the while when He is preparing it, and most importantly knowing that His Son is not someone who will take a gift and run off with it in wild living- but in His heart- what is His in inheritance still remains a belonging of His Father forever. This is the complete joy of being the person He is in His relationship with Jesus.
So, be a son and daughter like Jesus- be one who will go forth and work in the vineyard before the Father has to find you and ask you to do it. Do it before your Father gets out of bed so that when He wakes up, He finds a basket of fresh fruit from His vineyard. Surprise Him a little- and give to Him before He asks- open the door to invite Him in even before He knocks at the door of our heart. BUT- in your maturity- learn to go forth in the right time and to deliver using the right method- for there is a fourth son who went forth before the Father asked, but had worked in the vineyard using the wrong tools and machinery, and may even jeopardise the harvest itself.
So in all things, let us keep our eyes and ears open towards the Holy Spirit- especially when a move feels right in our hearts and it corresponded with men’s words. But how can we depend solely on our hearts? The heart is deceitful above all things and the Lord testifies to it as evil. Let us be careful though we know that the Lord requires workers to be sent out into the harvest field- we still need to know the time and which part of the harvest field we have been assigned. The focus is on the heart of the Father who eagerly anticipated the return of His sons and daughters who are bringing in the harvest of the resurrection and the life- the focus is not only on the fruits themselves. So if you can accept that justice for our Father is the return of sons and daughters bearing good news like Jesus does and hauling in a great harvest which the kernel of wheat fell to the ground for – then once again the spotlight shines back on Jesus who shows us the place where we are going with Him.
And so to each of our position in the fields- we say “Amen Holy Spirit!” and may our work in the vineyard bring about justice- God’s perfect justice- for our Father and our God.
Father BE set free from all the injustices we have caused you and your Son and your Spirit- be set free to do as you please without so much as an eyebrow raised at you- be set free to treat us as you have always longed to – and be set free to be the Father to us you have always desired. And may our love for your freedom increase our love and desire for justice for Jesus forevermore.
AMEN HOLY SPIRIT- thank you.
