Creekside Church, Sunday, August 29, 2021
Championing Social Justice Jesus’ Way
Locations & Times
Creekside Church
660 Conservation Dr, Waterloo, ON N2J 3Z4, Canada
Sunday 9:00 AM
“Social justice is one of the most epic and age-defining controversies facing the twenty-first century church.” Thaddeus Williams
THE BIBLICAL WORLDVIEW AND JUSTICE:
1) The Bible Views Every Person As Made In The Image Of God
If everyone is made in the image of God then the ramifications of this truth directly address the whole issue of how we see and treat one another.
So, God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.
Genesis 1:27 NLT
For God made human beings in his own image.
Genesis 9:6 NLT
Because we’re all created in the image of God we’re commanded to treat one another justly . . .
2) We Are Commanded To Treat Everyone Justly
The bible is a book devoted to justice from front cover.
Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice, and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?
Isaiah 58:6
Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter – when you see the naked, to clothe them . . . then shall your light will break forth like the dawn . . .
Isaiah 58:7-8
Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow.
Isaiah 1:17
And what does the Lord require of you, but to
Micah 6:8
justice is the Hebrew word is mishpat. Mishpat – is to treat people equitably. It is found some 200 times in the OT. It is to acquit or punish everyone on the merits of the case regardless of race or social status
Do not oppress (mishpat) the widow or the fatherless, the foreigner or the poor.
Zechariah 7:10
mercy is the Hebrew word chesedh. Chesedh – is God’s unconditional grace and compassion.
When you take the two words together you find that Mishpat which is to treat people equitably is the action we are to take and Chesedh which is unconditional grace and compassion is directing the attitude we are to have or the motive behind doing justice.
If we are going to walk humbly with God we need to do justice out of merciful love.
Speak up for those who cannot speak up for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute.
Proverbs 31:8
“If I have denied justice to any of my servants, whether male or female, when they had a grievance against me,
14 what will I do when God confronts me? What will I answer when called to account?
15 Did not he who made me in the womb make them? Did not the same one form us both within our mothers?
16 “If I have denied the desires of the poor or let the eyes of the widow grow weary,
17 if I have kept my bread to myself, not sharing it with the fatherless—
18 but from my youth I reared them as a father would, and from my birth I guided the widow—
19 if I have seen anyone perishing for lack of clothing, or the needy without garments,
20 and their hearts did not bless me for warming them with the fleece from my sheep,
21 if I have raised my hand against the fatherless, knowing that I had influence in court,
22 then let my arm fall from the shoulder, let it be broken off at the joint.
Job 31:13-22
3) Jesus’ kingdom vision. What the world would look like if justice flowed like a mighty river?
Jesus announced the good news that the Kingdom of God was near. To participate in this coming Kingdom, this move of God, was to become a person who works for justice in the world.
16 He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. He stood up to read, 17 and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:
18 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”[f]
20 Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. 21 He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”
Luke 4:15-21 (NIV)
---
DEFINING BIBLICAL SOCIAL JUSTICE
Biblical references to the word “justice” mean “to make right.” Justice is, first and foremost, a relational term — people living in right relationship with God, one another, and the natural creation.
The Bible makes social justice a mandate of faith and a fundamental expression of Christian discipleship. ... From a scriptural point of view, justice means loving our neighbor as we love ourselves and is rooted in the character and nature of God. As God is just and loving, so we are called to do justice and live in love.
Biblical Justice can thus be defined like so: Treating others, in all areas of life, in such a way as to uphold God’s revealed standards of good and evil (giving them what they are due as image bearers) and rendering judgments through duly-enacted means of human judicial enforcement that punish wrongdoers and reward the injured accordingly.
---
WHERE DOES INJUSTICE COME FROM?
Injustice Comes From Bad Worship
They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.
Romans 1:25
Notice that there is this shift in worship. What you worship defines what you value. It is where you get your security, meaning, worth, and life direction.
Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; . . .
Romans 1:28-30
Injustice flows out of bad worship.
You shall have no other gods before me.
Exodus 20:3
All injustice is a violation of the first of the Ten Commandments.
Acknowledging that God is God – not the universe, not physical sensations, not shiny objects not government, not our own desires – is where real justice starts. If justice means giving others their due then we must ask the question, “What is due to the ultimate Other?”
Thaddeus Williams Confronting Injustice Without Compromising Truth p 18
Social justice is driven by what we worship, worshipping God produces the right kind of justice
Injustice Comes from Sin
Social injustice is sin against other human beings who are made in the image of God and social injustice is sin against the Creator of everything.
---
HOW CAN WE BECOME PEOPLE WHO DO JUSTICE?
There is a direct relationship between a person’s grasp and experience of God’s grace, and his or her heart for justice and the poor. (Tim Keller)
When the Spirit of God enables us to see and experience what it is that Jesus has done for us it drives us to a place of seeking justice for all.
When we accept that social injustice is a result of sin it gives us an action plan. Acknowledge the sin, confess the sin, ask forgiveness for the sin, turn away from the sin, restore the wrong done.
THE BIBLICAL WORLDVIEW AND JUSTICE:
1) The Bible Views Every Person As Made In The Image Of God
If everyone is made in the image of God then the ramifications of this truth directly address the whole issue of how we see and treat one another.
So, God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.
Genesis 1:27 NLT
For God made human beings in his own image.
Genesis 9:6 NLT
Because we’re all created in the image of God we’re commanded to treat one another justly . . .
2) We Are Commanded To Treat Everyone Justly
The bible is a book devoted to justice from front cover.
Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice, and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?
Isaiah 58:6
Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter – when you see the naked, to clothe them . . . then shall your light will break forth like the dawn . . .
Isaiah 58:7-8
Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow.
Isaiah 1:17
And what does the Lord require of you, but to
Micah 6:8
justice is the Hebrew word is mishpat. Mishpat – is to treat people equitably. It is found some 200 times in the OT. It is to acquit or punish everyone on the merits of the case regardless of race or social status
Do not oppress (mishpat) the widow or the fatherless, the foreigner or the poor.
Zechariah 7:10
mercy is the Hebrew word chesedh. Chesedh – is God’s unconditional grace and compassion.
When you take the two words together you find that Mishpat which is to treat people equitably is the action we are to take and Chesedh which is unconditional grace and compassion is directing the attitude we are to have or the motive behind doing justice.
If we are going to walk humbly with God we need to do justice out of merciful love.
Speak up for those who cannot speak up for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute.
Proverbs 31:8
“If I have denied justice to any of my servants, whether male or female, when they had a grievance against me,
14 what will I do when God confronts me? What will I answer when called to account?
15 Did not he who made me in the womb make them? Did not the same one form us both within our mothers?
16 “If I have denied the desires of the poor or let the eyes of the widow grow weary,
17 if I have kept my bread to myself, not sharing it with the fatherless—
18 but from my youth I reared them as a father would, and from my birth I guided the widow—
19 if I have seen anyone perishing for lack of clothing, or the needy without garments,
20 and their hearts did not bless me for warming them with the fleece from my sheep,
21 if I have raised my hand against the fatherless, knowing that I had influence in court,
22 then let my arm fall from the shoulder, let it be broken off at the joint.
Job 31:13-22
3) Jesus’ kingdom vision. What the world would look like if justice flowed like a mighty river?
Jesus announced the good news that the Kingdom of God was near. To participate in this coming Kingdom, this move of God, was to become a person who works for justice in the world.
16 He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. He stood up to read, 17 and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:
18 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”[f]
20 Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. 21 He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”
Luke 4:15-21 (NIV)
---
DEFINING BIBLICAL SOCIAL JUSTICE
Biblical references to the word “justice” mean “to make right.” Justice is, first and foremost, a relational term — people living in right relationship with God, one another, and the natural creation.
The Bible makes social justice a mandate of faith and a fundamental expression of Christian discipleship. ... From a scriptural point of view, justice means loving our neighbor as we love ourselves and is rooted in the character and nature of God. As God is just and loving, so we are called to do justice and live in love.
Biblical Justice can thus be defined like so: Treating others, in all areas of life, in such a way as to uphold God’s revealed standards of good and evil (giving them what they are due as image bearers) and rendering judgments through duly-enacted means of human judicial enforcement that punish wrongdoers and reward the injured accordingly.
---
WHERE DOES INJUSTICE COME FROM?
Injustice Comes From Bad Worship
They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.
Romans 1:25
Notice that there is this shift in worship. What you worship defines what you value. It is where you get your security, meaning, worth, and life direction.
Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; . . .
Romans 1:28-30
Injustice flows out of bad worship.
You shall have no other gods before me.
Exodus 20:3
All injustice is a violation of the first of the Ten Commandments.
Acknowledging that God is God – not the universe, not physical sensations, not shiny objects not government, not our own desires – is where real justice starts. If justice means giving others their due then we must ask the question, “What is due to the ultimate Other?”
Thaddeus Williams Confronting Injustice Without Compromising Truth p 18
Social justice is driven by what we worship, worshipping God produces the right kind of justice
Injustice Comes from Sin
Social injustice is sin against other human beings who are made in the image of God and social injustice is sin against the Creator of everything.
---
HOW CAN WE BECOME PEOPLE WHO DO JUSTICE?
There is a direct relationship between a person’s grasp and experience of God’s grace, and his or her heart for justice and the poor. (Tim Keller)
When the Spirit of God enables us to see and experience what it is that Jesus has done for us it drives us to a place of seeking justice for all.
When we accept that social injustice is a result of sin it gives us an action plan. Acknowledge the sin, confess the sin, ask forgiveness for the sin, turn away from the sin, restore the wrong done.