I was traveling recently visiting family. Each of my six flights were good with the exception of one incident regarding the inflight movie: “Nuremburg.” I liked the film, but we landed ten minutes shy of its conclusion! I nearly rushed the cockpit and ordered the pilot to circle the runway a few times so I could see how it ended.
Fortunately, I knew how the actual story finished. Spoiler Alert: Bad guys lose. Good guys win. Justice prevailed. (Well, sort of. Millions died before the good guys liberated the survivors.)
Made me think about justice on the grandest scale, the justice at the end of the world as we know it. Today, justice is reduced to rubble in so many places and so many ways. It’s not entirely here. Not yet. But if you’ll sneak a look at the back of the book, justice, not the “sort of” kind, but the worldwide and perfect kind, where not only do the bad guys lose; the good guys win. (Technically, there are no actual purely “good guys,” just saved-forgiven-justified-good-in-the-eyes-of-God guys and gals.)
But full-on justice will arrive in the Person of Jesus when he appears. All that’s wrong with the world will be made right when “the time comes for God to restore everything, as he promised long ago through his holy prophets.” (Acts 3:21) One of those holy prophets, Isaiah, was obsessed with the coming of justice.
- The new world will be called “the Home of Justice” where “the Lord of Heaven’s Armies will be exalted by his justice.” (Isaiah 5:16, 1:26)
- “He will give justice to the poor and make fair decisions for the exploited.” (Isaiah 11:4)
- “He will bring justice to all who have been wronged. He will not falter or lose heart until justice prevails throughout the earth.” (Isaiah 42:3-4)
- God says, “My mercy and justice are coming soon. My salvation is on the way. My strong arm will bring justice to the nations.” (Isaiah 51:5)
We’re not at the end of the story yet. Maybe it’s just ten minutes till its end, when the credits roll and the new world materializes. Nobody knows the date. But, knowing it’s coming is a comfort to me. We may not always appreciate his timing, but he will come and bring his justice with him. We have to be patient.
I still haven’t seen the movie’s end, but I know how the story we inhabit ends and justice makes an appearance. The world as it should be is not just a future fantasy, it’s the eternally planned reality to come. Though still a matter of hope, it is something to be imagined by faith in the present. When the only worthy King who “loves justice” (Isaiah 61:8) sits on the throne in the center of it all.
barney wiget 