By: The Rev. Dr. W. Ross Blackburn
Of all words in our cultural vocabulary, justice may be the most meaningless. Why? Because we have no agreement as to what it might mean. Abortion is a perfect example. One argues that the rights of women trump the rights of the unborn. Another might argue that the unborn child’s rights trump the rights of the mother. Notice how both are appealing to justice. Everyone is for justice, but we disagree on what is just. And so justice becomes a wax nose, to be manipulated according to my desires or thoughts about what must be right. How can we know what is just? Apart from knowing the ways of the Lord, we cannot. All we are left with are preferences. It is the essence of sin to declare, when our preferences conflict with the ways of the Lord, “the ways of the Lord are not just.”
Sinful man would always rather decide for himself. To know justice is to know God. The ways of the Lord are just. This is far more than simply taking the right positions on certain issues. It is good and right to know what the Lord says about abortion. But it is not enough just to take a correct position. We will know justice in the area of abortion when we both defend the fatherless and plead for the widow (Isaiah 1:17). In other words, we seek to protect the unborn while at the same time seeking to bless the mother (and father) in crisis.
If we find ourselves thinking “the ways of the Lord are not just,” there is one solution. It is Ezekiel’s solution. Repent.