Living in an Unjust World

We live in a cruel and unjust world.

For example, what are the consequences, or what should be the consequences, of grievous and horrible acts of violence and hatred?

From the purely human point of view, people DO get away with murder.  Scoundrels cheat, lie, and steal, and live quite well at the expense of others.  Some use brute force and naked power to oppress their victims and keep them in virtual slavery to their wants and wishes.  And, whether by official and legitimate means (as in the use of business and/or government office) or by unofficial and illegitimate means (as in the use of gangs or the mafia, for example) the end is the same.  People suffer dearly under their tyranny.

How will this be made right?  How is justice had, for those who suffer and die by the hands of unjust and unscrupulous individuals?

If there were no God, the question doesn’t matter.  Death equals nothingness.  And, here on earth, it becomes a simple matter of the survival of the fittest.  And so, the cruel, unjust, power hungry, oppressor types, live as such, embracing the old adage: “Eat drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die”; which is to say, “Grab what you can, while you can.  Kill if you have to.  Do whatever you need to, in order to get what you want, for we’re here today and gone tomorrow.  Live it up!”

Will one eventually pay for one’s sins?

Funny, even the word, “sin,” is dismissed as outdated and immaterial these days.  People laugh at the word, a silly topic, too unsophisticated for polite conversation, even distasteful.  The word has become irrelevant for all too many.

But then, from whence is real justice?  Certainly not from us humans; we want it, even long for it.  We try with all our might to properly exercise it.  Still, we fall short of it, often missing the mark quite badly even phenomenally so!  But it doesn’t stop us from aiming for it.  Yet, when push comes to shove, we want it for others, but seldom for ourselves—when we are the ones in the wrong, that is.

And so, accepting that God IS, we also would hope that God is Just—a Just and Righteous God, Holy and True.  But if that is the case, how will we measure up to this just, righteous and holy God?

Ah, therein is our dilemma.  What will God do, what shall God say about our own unrighteous acts, our own unjust deeds, our own little wrongs that we’ve committed against others?

Perhaps we need take more seriously the wise observation made in Ecclesiastes (12:12-14): “Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the duty of all mankind.  For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil.”

There is good reason why the message of the Gospel of salvation offered to humanity in the person of Jesus the Messiah is called “Good News”!  For, in terms of God’s standard of righteousness, justice, and holiness, do any of us stand a chance, if we are to trust in our own self-righteousness?  To even consider the possibility that we have the self-sufficient potential to pass God’s moral scrutiny, with approval, reveals our blindness to the real truth of our moral failings.