Who doesn’t love justice?  

Well, I certainly do—that is, as long as it’s not being dealt out to me.  What benefit would there be from retribution, however justified it might be?

And what about Jesus Christ Himself?  Even as a man who had the Divine foresight to comprehend His role for dispensing equity to God’s people in the future, do you think He looked forward to it?  

I’m inclined to think He did, but not because He sought control and recognition.  Nor do I believe He loved justice as a motive to repay those who persecuted Him.

But He did love justice.  He loved it because it demonstrates the character of a patient, forgiving and even-handed God, One whose absolute authority can never prevail in a domain of insufficiency or in the absence of love.  

So is this an attribute Christ’s co-heirs are capable of imitating?  

I believe it is.

The author of the Hebrews letter revealed the Lord’s just nature behind His mechanism of human discipline.  God must discipline in order to be just and to render His people just as well. Otherwise, He can’t be God.  The wise man accepts His justice at any cost, because he’s aware of the remedial authority behind it:

All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful.  Yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.  Therefore, strengthen the hands that are weak and the knees that are feeble, and make straight paths for your feet, so that the limb which is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed.”  [Heb. 12:11-13]  [my emphasis]

[δικαιοσύνη:  righteousness, what is right, justice, the act of doing what is in agreement with God’s standards, the state of being in proper relationship with God]

But this isn’t just a New Covenant concept.  The author of the Book of Nehemiah recorded the penitent prayers of the Israelites, crying out to their Lord, having rebuilt the temple infrastructure and the city walls of Jerusalem after returning from exile:

“…You are just in all that has come upon us, for You have dealt faithfully, but we have acted wickedly.”  [Neh, 9:33]  [my emphasis]

It seems they were teeming with contrition and appreciation for His just nature, not only in regard to their own conduct, but also for that of their ancestors. Centuries later, the words of St. Augustine’s effectively describes the heart of a man caught in his own trap:

“If, therefore, someone turns aside from justice, he is carried by his free will, led by his concupiscence [or lust], deceived by his own persuasion.”  [brackets mine]

Could it be that our Lord’s justice is widely unacknowledged among His people because they deny what they’re afraid to experience?  

I hope not.