From now on I’ll start a series of theological discussions leading up to predestination, as I think this is one of the most controversial and confused subject in Christianity. All the stuffs here are obtained from Pastor Tang’s theology lecture series.
Justice
What is justice? Many people today demands justice, they want to be treated fairly. What do they mean by justice?
If my dad tells me to wash dishes while my brother is playing games, I’ll complain “why do you tell me to wash dishes, why not Justin?”
If my dad brings my brother out for a nice diner while I was left at home, I’ll complain “why do you bring him out for a nice dinner, and not me?”
And sometimes my dad will force my brother to study SATs while I go out and play, then my brother will complain: “why can Eric go out and play and I can’t?”
From these examples, it seems like by justice we mean “being treated equally”, “being given equally”.
But is that really the true definition of justice?
If that’s how we define justice, then certainly God is unjust. Because God make some smart and others not-as-smart. Some people are born healthy while others are born blind, deaf, or missing certain parts of their bodies.
So some people are nodding their heads now, saying “yeah, so God is unjust.” But there’s a big flaw here. Then according to your sense of justice, God should make everyone exactly the same. Because if God make two persons look different from each other, then God is unjust, since they are given different bodies. So God should make everyone looks the same, behaves the same, thinks the same, so on and so forth.
Hope by now you see the flaw of this line of reasoning. So our definition of Justice before is wrong. Then what’s Bible’s definition of justice?
For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more. (Luke 12:48)
I remember once my dad share a story of a math professor in Taiwan University with Johnny. This math professor teaches an introductory math course in the university, and all the student who took the class loved him, and they all did well in the course. One day, an alumni asks him: “what’s your secrets to successful teaching? How can you make your students interested in the subject?”
He replied: “When I hand out the quizzes, midterms, and the finals, I hand out different versions to everyone. The smarter ones gets the harder tests, and the not-so-smart ones get the easier tests. Thus, everyone ends up getting a good grade, and they feel confident in themselves. When a person feel confident, he will naturally become interested and work hard on the subject.”
I remember Johnny’s immediate response is: “What is this?! This is injustice! This is inequality!” Now looking back, Johnny is wrong, for this is the true justice, the justice defined in the Bible. For those who are gifted more, you require more, and for those who are not as gifted, you ask less of him.
I read in some book (which I forgot) of a pastor’s testimony. He said that one night God gave him a vision, and he saw two man. The first man grew up in a loving and faithful Christian family, and he also grew up loving God, and often visited the poor and care for the orphans. The second man is an angry homeless guy, and once he’s sitting idly besides the road, and a kitten approached him, then he kicked the kitten softly to scare it away.”
Then God ask him, “Who do you think pleases me more?” He replied, “Obviously, the first man!” God answered, “No, it is the second. For I gave the first man 100% of love, yet he only gave 50% away. While I gave the second man only 30% of love, but he showed 70% to that kitten.”
So let us ask ourselves, how much did God gave us? And how much are we giving back? At the final judgement, can we claim ourselves to be God’s faithful servant, or will we be scolded for our laziness?
May God help us, so we can stand firmly and fearlessly in the day of Judgement.
