Biblical Justice: Generosity and Equality

• Biblical justice is rooted in the character of God.

• God's justice is both retributive and reparative, punishing evildoing and restoring victims.

• God's restorative justice is more prominent in Scripture than retributive justice.

• God's justice is a manifestation of his grace

• The Lord's justice involves punishment for the wicked.

• The Lord will give everyone what justice dictates and renew all things.

• Final fulfillment of justice will occur at the end of history.

Facets of Biblical Justice:

• Radical Generosity
• Universal Equality
• Life-Changing Advocacy
• Asymmetrical Responsibility

Generosity

• Biblical justice emphasizes radical generosity.
• All money belongs to God, who entrusts it to individuals.
• People are stewards of wealth.
• Taking someone's money or goods is injustice, but property rights are not absolute.
• The Sabbath year law cancelled debts every seventh year.
• The Jubilee year returned land to original allotments every 50 years, providing a fresh start.
• Landowners were required to leave produce in fields for the poor and hired workers to glean, ensuring ownership for the vulnerable.
• Mosaic Law does not demand abstract equalizing of wealth or elimination of social class.
• It is neither optional charity nor State redistribution.
• Theologians believe the theological ideas about wealth and justice reflect God's law.
• The righteous willingly disadvantage themselves to advantage the community.
• To be radically generous is a matter of justice.
• Ungenerosity is unjust.
• Being rich toward God involves sacrifice and giving to the poor.
• Biblical teaching prioritizes the relationship with God.
• Individuals have moral obligations to use money unselfishly to love others, according to ability and needs.

Equality

• Biblical justice requires universal equality, treating everyone with the same standards and respect.
• This applies regardless of social category.
• Surrounding cultures lacked the idea of equal dignity and worth.
• Genesis teaches that all humans are created in God's image.
• Treating the poor with contempt dishonors God.
• Jesus treated all classes of people with equal love and respect.
• He defied social norms by interacting with social outcasts and those considered inferior.
• Jesus exhorted disciples to be generous and welcome the poor.
• Loving one's neighbor involves giving practical, financial, and medical aid.
• The New Testament emphasizes not showing favoritism and avoiding discrimination.
• People in need should be met with aid.
• It is important not to consider peoples evil intention/s

Advocacy

• Biblical justice involves significant, life-changing advocacy for the poor.
• Believers should actively consider the weak and poor, understanding their condition and working to change it.
• The righteous care about justice for the poor.
• Special concern should be given to the poor, weak, and powerless.
• The call to advocacy assumes equal rights for the poor and immigrants.
• People have a right not to be robbed.
• There is an uneven distribution of opportunity and resources in the world.
• Being born into privilege provides connections and social capital.
• The poor often lack such capital and face detrimental environments.
• The wealthy and powerful can exploit others in courts, marketplaces, and communities.
• It is important not exploit the poor for being poor.
• The Westminster Larger Catechism teaches the duty not to neglect necessary means of preserving life.
• The supreme advocate for the poor is God
• God's people are called to advocate for the needy and address unjust systems.
• Direct relief involves providing material needs.
• Empowerment helps people gain self-sufficiency.
• Advocacy can challenge social structures that disadvantage certain groups.
• Churches and religions can denounce unjust social structures.

Responsibility

• Biblical justice includes corporate and individual responsibility.
• A basic definition of justice is giving people what they are due.
• People are responsible for actions and those of others

Corporate responsibility

• Joshua 7 explains Achans sins by stealing, his family was executed.
• In Numbers 16 families of Korah of Datham and Abiram died.
• In 2 Samuel 21, God sent three years of famine to Israel because King Saul had done to the Gibeonites
• God punished the Amalekites in 1 Samuel 15:2
• God excluded members of some nations (Ammon, Moab)

Corporate bonds

• Corporate responsibility is at the heart of the bible.
• It can only be saved because Jesus was punished for others sins.
• Corporate responsibility depends on community
• This includes
• Familial
• Political and Civil
• Communal
• Institutional

The personal becomes structural injustice.

• People justify by looking down on people
• This bolsters self worth
• Generations and races are ethnically different
• Social creatures form unnatural institutions

Individual responsibility

• Express repentance for sins
• Ezekiel 18:1-32 "sins will die"
• The individual being the strongest

Responsibility and complexity

• Secular world views seek for causes
• Progressives stress responsibility
• The elect believe outcomes are virtually always due to personal responsibility
• the rendering of justice requires wisdom deliberation and prudence
• Christians have power and use it wisely