“He will bring forth your righteousness as the light,
and your justice as the noonday.” Psalm 37: 6 ESV
Jumping right in …
Righteousness
Righteousness, there’s a loaded word. Is it earned or gifted? My studies reveal a gifted righteousness, received by faith then worked out in the details of our lives over time. Over much time.
Justice
Justice, another hot button term. In various translations, the word is translated:
just dealings,
justice of your cause,
vindication
judgement
right
and to publicly defend a just cause.
I could study justice thoroughly and parse it out carefully. And so could you. (1) A dive into Greek word roots, commentaries, and biblical usage charts could give us what I imagine to be a beautiful view, if this is the trail our rabbit is leading us down.
Your
For me and my mind today, the word that is sticking like rock candy to my brain teeth is: “your” (again).
your just dealing
the justice of your cause
your vindication
your judgement
your right
and to publicly defend your just cause
Could the God of the universe - and beyond - honestly stand before a public crowd and publicly defend us? you? me?
Q (Yes, the Star Trek one)
Q, of Star Trek fame, comes to mind when he put humanity on trial. But Q himself was faulty; the Q Continuum had issues, too. A court is only as good as its members.
What if our public defender is also the all-knowing judge?
And what if - gasp - he’s completely honest and unbiased?
How does our just dealing look now? A bit wilted?
Before we lose hope and chuck the towel that wipes our feet, let’s remember the roots of our righteousness: gifted, not from ourselves, but by the death of Christ on the cross.
No matter the fancy terms of apologetics (the study of defending our faith through reason) we may learn to describe and debate the topic, the baseline is:
We screwed up A-a-ron and we need a Savior. Thank God, He figured that out before we did and had a plan in place to make it happen. Our crimes paid for by the Creator Himself, when our public defender presents before the all-knowing judge, He can honestly say, “Justice has been served. I was there when it happened. I have the wounds to show for it.”
Does that get us off the hook temporally in the human, earthly experience?
Not at all. Crime is crime and humans need to be held to earthly account. Brazenly running amok is not grace. Neither is falsifying records by pretending it didn’t happen.
Justice can be served in the light of noonday, for the righteousness is not ours of which to boast.
To follow the rabbit… Psalm 37:6