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Justice.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is both vertical and horizontal. It has always been both, not one or the other. This is good news! Jesus’ sacrificial love on the cross means that both our eternal reality and our present reality are transformed by the Kingdom of God.

As followers of Jesus and believers in this cross-shaped, vertical and horizontal Gospel, we are called to be concerned about our own salvation (vertical Gospel) and to also be concerned with others’ devastation (horizontal Gospel).

In other words, as a people who want to live and love as Jesus did, we are called to pursue justice.

God’s heart for justice is revealed throughout the entirety of scripture. We see story after story of God’s pursuit of justice for His people, which confirms for us that justice is originally a God idea. This mission and this assignment are a kingdom agenda, not a political or social agenda.

One of the first stories in the Bible that shows us God’s heart for justice is found in Genesis 4, just a few pages after the front cover. We don’t get very far into the story of scripture before we see how much justice matters to God.

The story of Cain and Abel in Genesis 4 can be summarized like this: God is not only concerned with our individual relationship with Him. God is also deeply concerned with our relationship with one another. Cain and Abel lived many generations before Jesus’ life and ministry on earth, but right from the dawn of humanity, we see God’s priority for both vertical and horizontal relationships. Abel’s blood on the ground - representing the injustices of our present reality - has reached the ears and heart of God. Has it reached our ears and hearts as well?

Fast forward to the New Testament and we encounter more blood, but this time its Jesus’ blood shed for us on the cross. Jesus’ blood not only makes right our vertical relationship with the triune God, but it also turns up the volume of the blood on the ground.

Do we have ears to hear the cries of our brothers and sisters? We don’t get to choose whose blood we listen to; God invites us to hear both. Because after all, justice is Jesus’ idea.

The love of Jesus makes right what is wrong. The cross is both vertical and horizontal: concerning our relationship with God and concerning our relationship with others. Remove either aspect - as many are tempted to do - and we miss out on the fullness of the gospel!

What would it mean for us to examine ourselves according to the cross, to cross-examine our lives vertically and horizontally?

Spend some time considering your faith.

Do you prioritize your personal salvation and relationship with Jesus at the expense of loving others and pursuing justice?

Do you find yourself easily and naturally pursuing justice and loving others in the present, but unconcerned about others’ salvation and eternal reality?

Invite the Holy Spirit to illuminate the ways in which your faith can become more like the cross: vertical and horizontal.

For His glory, amen.