Social Justice: The Word of God or the Word of Man

by Joel Saint 

Mid-Atlantic Reformation Society

Mat 23:23 NKJV - "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have neglected the weightier [matters] of the law: justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone.”

What is Social Justice after all? Can we have social justice without first having individual justice?

In a recent Christianity Today article, readers were treated to a most peculiar balancing act between that serial socialist Jim Wallis and Pastor Mark Dever of Capitol Hill Baptist Church.

Titled “Personal but Never Private,” the two authors traded opinions about racism, the poor, etc.

Now here’s the crazy part: They never once mentioned abortion, never once cited God’s Law, and frankly never defined justice. Dever, for example did say that

We need to preach from the prophets. Don't adopt a theology that says the Old Testament and the Gospels are just for Israel and Paul's letters are all we need. We have to deal with all of Scripture carefully and bring it forward.

Not bad, but far from good enough: He mentions the gospels, Paul’s epistles, the prophets, and even the “Old Testament.” We’re almost there! Can Pastor Dever just say...? “The Law of God”?

Apparently not. But, as Christ points out in the passage above, justice is impossible apart from the Law of God. That’s right, Jesus Christ considered the Law to speak to justice, mercy, and faith. How these gentlemen think they can speak to the issue of justice in spite of Christ’s plain declaration is more than I can figure.

As far as abortion goes, do we even need to point out that those who have been murdered in the womb have been denied a standard of justice far more basic than any other category you can possibly name?

Wallis, for example, has a history of being rather soft on abortion.

He has said that he is opposed to abortion, but opposes legal prohibitions against the murder of the unborn. And yet, somehow, he still qualifies as a promoter of Social Justice.

Without the Law-word of God, we have no standard for determining what justice is. For example, in this country, we basically enforce no criminal penalties for adultery. This is contrary to the clear teaching of the Law of God. As a result marriage is cheapened, children are under attack, women are abandoned, and men become ever more irresponsible.

This is justice?

Indeed it is, as man defines it.

But it gets worse, because if man can pervert the meaning of justice, he can also pervert the meaning of mercy and faith. And when that happens, we are all postmodernists.

Even if we’re featured in Christianity Today.

originally posted at the Mid-Atlantic Reformation Society blog