The ‘Thesis’ statement of Romans 3:21, uses the concept: “God’s Saving Justice”.  It is the verse that I reached in studying and thinking and writing exposition exegisis on the use of ‘pistis/FAITH’ in New Testament.  It is my ‘biblical stuck place’… so High, so Deep, so Wide… as though there is NO GETTING AROUND nor past this verse of scripture.  There is, here, the most ultimate concern for “Justice”.

“But now the justice of God has been manifested apart from law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it, the justice of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.” (Paul)

“And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of justice” (Paul)

Each time I visit this “stuckness” I realize how difficult a thing for the modern mind to grip— this thing of ‘Justice and Righteousness being one and the same!’.  Most glaring in Romans is seeing the word for Justice used 66 times in this Book.  Where English translators take this ONE WORD and translates it as ‘Justice’ PART TIME and Righteousness PART TIME.  But, seeing this played out in the world & Times in which I have lived, my Hashtag on social media is occupied with “#Americas1Sided2FacedJusticeSystem” (BWRW)

What remains clear is how the greatest thinkers of the planet have reached into this omnipotent theme.

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you tithe mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law, justice and mercy and faith;” (Jesus)

“So the law is slacked and justice never goes forth. For the wicked surround the righteous, so justice goes forth perverted.” (Habakkuk)

“Do horses run upon rocks?  Does one plow the sea with oxen?  But you have turned justice into poison and the fruit of righteousness into wormwood” (Amos)

“A superior man in dealing with the world is not for anything or against anything.  He follows righteousness as the standard.” (Confucius)

Others who dig deeper find the non-canonized book ‘The Wisdom of Solomon’ to read: “(Wisdom) teaches temperance, and prudence, and justice, and fortitude, which are such things as men can have nothing more profitable in life.”  Or to the Philosophical writings of Plato where he discusses the character of a good city.  Some make this the first citing of ‘4 Virtues’ when he states that “clearly this (good city) will be wise, brave, temperate and just.”

“Man perfected by society is the best of all animals; he is the most terrible of all when he lives without law, and without justice.” (Aristotle)

“Perfect wisdom has four parts, viz., wisdom, the principle of doing things aright; justice, the principle of doing things equally in public and private; fortitude, the principle of not flying danger, but meeting it; and temperance, the principle of subduing desires and living moderately.” (Plato)

“What we have in us of the image of God is the love of truth and justice.” (Demosthenes)

It is no small thing, then, that the Church Fathers would institute as a very fundamental part of the teachings of Christianity these ‘Virtues’ as a means of transmitting life in faith.  Among those early Christian scholars, Ambrose is credited with having first used ‘Cardinal Virtues’ as he too, named 4: “temperance, justice, prudence, fortitude”.  Augustine offers a definition of each and all four using the word “Love”.

“In the absence of justice, what is sovereignty but organized robbery?” (Augustine)

“Academic chairs are many, but wise and noble teachers are few; lecture-rooms are numerous and large, but the number of young people who genuinely thirst after truth and justice is small.” (Einstein)

Every year in January, this Nation pauses to memorialize, the work of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr… yet ‘stuck’ in a narrative that pertains to ‘a dream’.  He used Amos as his life’s end driving and striving force as he could be heard bellowing from the depth of his being… “Take away from me the noise of your songs; to the melody of your harps I will not listen.  But let Justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.”

His Legacy is autobiographical: “Yes, if you want to say that I was a drum major, say that I was a drum major for justice, …say that I was a drum major for peace.  I was a drum major for righteousness.  And all of the other shallow things will not matter.”  (MLKing, Jr.)

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