Restoring Justice to the New Testament Gospel

Restoring Justice to the NT Gospel

From Lowell Noble – originally written in 2012:

There are two basic reasons: 1) Nicholas Wolterstorff, noted Reformed philosopher/theologian, asserts English Bible translators and NT theologians have a deeply flawed understanding of justice and thus they have "dejusticized" the NT.  See his two recent books, Justice and Justice in Love; 2) based on the book, The New Jim Crow, I have concluded that the American church, from the Puritans down to the present, has either tolerated or participated in the ethnocentrism and oppression behind first slavery, then segregation, and now the unjust mass incarceration of young black and Hispanic males.  From these two basic facts, I conclude that the American church must rejusticize the NT gospel.

The following 12 part outline of a curriculum for a study group or Sunday School curriculum or sermon series or book is designed to bring justice or justice-righteousness front and center in the NT gospel.  It is recommended that this curriculum be used in conjunction with the book The New Jim Crow.  For those who like to be very thorough on the topic of mass incarceration, read also Race to Incarcerate, Punishment and Inequality, Search and Destroy, and Doing time on the outside.  Some teachers might also want to tie this curriculum to the massive racial wealth gap; see The Hidden Cost of Being African American, and Black Wealth, White Wealth.  For me, the racial wealth gap is as serious as is mass incarceration and the two are deeply intertwined.  For the failure of the American church to address these issues, see Divided by Faith.

Lesson/Sermon One:  What is the NT gospel?

Based on Acts 8:12 and 28:23 & 31, the gospel is two-pronged.  Acts 28:31:  Paul "was preaching the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ."  What is preaching Jesus Christ?  Justification by faith based on the cross and resurrection.  What is preaching the kingdom of God?  The incarnation of justice in a community: Jubilee justice for the oppressed poor.  Conclusion:  A sharp focus on the kingdom of God is the key to rejusticizing, restoring justice to the NT gospel.

Lesson Two:  Messianic Passages from Isaiah

The Messianic passages from Isaiah present the characteristics of the coming NT kingdom of God. 

9:7  "Of the increase of his government and shalom, there will be no end.  He will reign on David's throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness."  Ties shalom with justice-righteousness.

11:1-4  "A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; the Spirit of the Lord will rest on him---the Spirit of wisdom and understanding. . . with righteousness he will judge the needy, with justice he will give decisions for the poor."  Ties justice-righteousness to the poor.

16:5  "In love a throne will be established. . . one from the house of David who seeks justice and speeds the cause of righteousness."   Ties love and justice-righteousness together.

28:16-17:  "I lay a stone in Zion. . . a precious cornerstone. . . I will make justice the measuring line and righteousness the plumb line."

42:1-4  "Here is my servant . . . my chosen one . . . I will put my Spirit on him and he will bring justice to the nations."  The Spirit and justice are tied together.

61:1-4  This is my paraphrase.  "The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the oppressed poor, to proclaim freedom and release for the poor by practicing Jubilee justice.  To bestow on the poor, a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.  These transformed poor will be called oaks of righteousness (or trees of justice).  These transformed poor will rebuild the ruined cities. . . .  For I, the Lord, love justice."

There are five key concepts in these passages: the Spirit, the kingdom, love and justice for the oppressed poor.  Note:  Two translations of 61:1 (CEV and NRSV) replace "poor" with "oppressed" so I translate it as "oppressed poor."

Lesson Three:  Luke 4: 18-19

There are four key concepts in this passage:  the Spirit, the poor, the oppressed and Jubilee justice.  There are four implied concepts:  the rich, the oppressors, shalom and the kingdom of God.  Wherever you have the poor in a society, you also have the rich.  Luke spends many more verses warning about the danger of, the evil of, riches then he does on the poor. For Luke, the rich are the social problem; the poor have many problems and need assistance, but they are not THE social problem.

The rich oppress the poor.  The operation of the temple which Jesus called a "den of robbers" was a religiously legitimated system of oppression.  If Jubilee justice is done in a community, then there is a measure of shalom.  Finally, if these two verses are operationalized---"the oppressed poor are released"---then the kingdom of God has come here on earth.  Mt. and Mk. say "Repent, for the kingdom of God is near."  Luke 4:18-19 is Luke's description of that kingdom.

Lesson Four:  Romans 14:17

My paraphrase of this verse is: "The kingdom of God is justice (see NEB), shalom, and joy in the Holy Spirit."  There are four interrelated concepts:  the Spirit, justice or justice-righteousness, shalom and the kingdom of God.  Though I can't prove this, I think this verse is Paul's summary of Isaiah's messianic passages.  If the oppressed poor are released by doing justice, Jubilee justice, the resulting shalom produces authentic joy.  The kingdom has come on earth.

Lesson Five:  Oppression in the OT

According to Thomas Hanks, a Hebrew scholar, there are 555 references to oppression and its synonyms, in the OT.  To my knowledge, the important biblical concept of oppression has been almost totally neglected by white American theologians.  For example, IVP bible dictionary, third edition, has no entry on oppression.  From Hank's book, God So Loved the Third World, we learns that oppression crushes, humiliates, animalizes, impoverishes, enslaves and kills people created in the image of God.

See Exodus one for a vivid description of oppression; use NIV.  Also read Exodus 6:1-9 where we learn that the Hebrew slaves "did not listen [could not believe] to Moses [and God], because of their broken spirit and their cruel bondage [oppression]."

Lesson Six:  Oppression in the NT

See Hank's analysis of flawed translations of "thilpsis."  Should be translated oppression more often instead of the weaker words such as affliction or distress.  See James 1:27:  "visit the oppressed widows and orphans."  See my essay on James for a fuller description of the importance of oppression in the book.

A second example of oppression can be found in the operation of the Temple.  The religio-politico-economic elite ran the temple as a religiously legitimated system of oppression.  A French scholar  described the operation of the temple treasury as the rough  equivalent of the Federal Reserve System, Wall Street, and the US Treasury combined; in other words, truly a "den of robbers."

Lesson Seven:  Ethnocentrism 

Though the word ethnocentrism never appears in the NT (ethnos meaning people, nation, culture, Gentile is widely used), the concept is all over the NT.  Ethnocentrism refers to the supposed religio-cultural (not bio-racial) superiority of the Jews over the Samaritans and Gentiles and their supposed inferiority.  Jesus exposed the ethnocentrism of the Nazareth Jews (Luke 4:25-30) early in his ministry and for this "heresy" he was almost killed on the spot.  Had he been a mere human mortal, his life would have ended.  Lesson:  ethnocentrism often leads to murder or cultural genocide.

Luke 9:51-56 reveals the ethnocentrism of Peter and John.  Had it not been restrained by Jesus' rebuke, their ethnocentrism would have resulted in the misuse of God's power to destroy an entire Samaritan village, men, women and children.  Ethnocentrism is very dangerous.

Had the Nazareth Jews and Peter and John known Amos 9 (The Message), they would have known better:  "Do you Israelites think you're any better than the far-off Cushites?  Am I not involved with all nations?  Didn't I bring Israel up from Egypt, the Philistines from Caphtor, the Arameans from Qir?"

Lesson Eight:  Justice in the NT

For documentation on the poor English translations on justice, see Steven Voth, a professional bible translator, chapter 14, "Justice and/or Righteousness" in The Challenge of Bible Translation.  Voth notes some stunning data; in the KJV, justice is found zero times in the NT.  In the NIV, a modern translation, only 16 times.  But in a typical French or Spanish or Latin Vulgate translation of the NT, justice occurs approximately 100 times.  In English translations dikaiosune is usually translated righteousness, seldom as justice.

Nicholas Wolterstorff cites the flawed translations as the primary reason for the "dejusticizing" of the NT.  Centuries of English-speaking peoples and scholars have been misled by these flawed translations.  See the three chapters on the Bible and justice in Justice:  Rights and wrongs.  

In English translations of the whole bible such as the NKJV, RSV or NIV, a person will find justice 125 to 134 times.  In Spanish, French or Latin translations, justice occurs around 400 times.

Next, some further documentation from C. D. Marshall, Beyond Retribution, chapter two, "The Arena of Saving Justice:  the Justice of God in Paul and Jesus."  As does Wolterstorff, Marshall laments the inability of the English language to communicate the meaning of and the close relationship of the 300 dik-stems in the Greek NT.  Dikaiosune is usually translated as righteousness and the average reader thinks about individual righteousness, justification and transformation, but not social justice, social transformation or a Jubilee-type justice.  The result according to Marshall:  "Modern [English] readers seldom realize how often justice language features in the New Testament. . . .  English-speaking readers sense little obvious connection between the 'right' language of the New Testament and the concept of justice."

In the OT "the central concern of biblical law was the creation of shalom [or shalom-justice], a state of soundness or 'all-rightness' within the community."  So in biblical law, there is much "biblical legislation devoted to 'social justice' such as care for widows, orphans, aliens and the poor."  This shalom-justice is supposed to characterize the NT kingdom of God as well.  "In biblical usage 'justice' goes beyond the legal sphere to invoke the idea of comprehensive well-being, wholeness and peace."  But "few [English-speaking] people today sense any positive relationship between the doctrine of justification by faith and issues of social justice."

It takes the Holy Spirit's power for the church to do justice, to create a kingdom of God community.  In both the OT and NT justice is tied to a "power language or an action language. . . .   The prophetic symbol of justice is a mighty, surging river (Amos 5:24).  Or as Abraham Heschel states it, biblical justice is "power that will strike and change, heal and restore, like a mighty stream bringing life to the parched land. . . .  Justice is more than an idea or a norm; justice is charged with the omnipotence of God.  What ought to be, shall be!"

Jesus in Mt. 6:33 urges us to seek unceasingly his kingdom and his justice.

Lesson Nine:  Justice in the NT continued

Wolterstorff claims that medieval theologians, including John Calvin, said the theme of Romans was the justice of God.  This was, in large part, because they were using the Latin Vulgate which translated dikaiosune often as justice in Romans.  Wolterstorff thinks they, not modern English scholars, were right.  Our flawed understanding of Romans has contributed heavily to the dejusticizing of the NT.  Also, according to Wolterstorff, theologians have failed to make a close tie between love and justice in the NT.  Instead they have examined each concept either in isolation from each other or at times love and justice are put in conflict with each other.

For me, love is the motivation; justice is the action; or does justice that flows from love.

There are 300 dik-stems in the NT; though these dik words are translated in different ways---righteousness, justification, justice---the underlying meaning is justice.  This is obscured in English translations.  Some suggestions: justice-righteousness, saving justice, liberating justice or shalom-justice.  Justice is a divine norm or standard that flows from the character of God.  This divine norm or standard should become a social norm.  The doing of justice in an oppressed society restores the divine norm.

Lesson Ten:  Sermon on the Mount

See my blog entitled, Rejusticizing the Sermon on the Mount (revised), which uses justice to reinterpret the Sermon on the Mount.  Most scholars see the sermon primarily about personal character.  I disagree.  I see it primarily about social justice, the kingdom of God, a Jubilee justice that releases the oppressed.

Lesson Eleven:  Reconciliation

Using Eph. 2, I see both personal reconciliation with God and social reconciliation.  2:1-10 teaches personal reconciliation based on the cross.  2:11-22 teaches social reconciliation between Jew and Gentile based on the cross.  Gender reconciliation and economic reconciliation are also taught in Gal. 3:28, Col. 3:11; James 2; Acts 4:32-35; II Cor. 8 & 9.

Lesson Twelve:  The Four Ministries of the Holy Spirit

The four ministries of the Holy Spirit are:  1) the Spirit of truth/wisdom, 2) the Spirit and the kingdom, 3) the fruit of the Spirit, and 4) the gifts of the Spirit.  There is a chapter on the four ministries of the Holy Spirit in the life and ministry of John Perkins in the forthcoming book from the University of Mississippi Press tentatively entitled Journey Toward Justice: The Lived Theology of John Perkins.

The Holy Spirit as truth/wisdom is found in John 14, 15 and 16.  The Holy Spirit and the kingdom of God are closely tied together in Isaiah's messianic passages, Acts 1:1-8 and Romans 14:17.  The fruit of the Spirit are needed to control the exercise of the gifts of the Spirit; see Gal. 5:22-23.  The gifts of the Spirit are discussed in detail in I Cor. 12 and Rom. 12.

At the beginning of this essay, I suggested that this restoring justice in the NT curriculum be used in conjunction with the book The New Jim Crow.  Michelle Alexander, in her Sojourners, March 2012 article entitled "When the Spirit Says Go," recommends this study guide from the Samuel Dewitt Proctor Conference:  "The SDPC created a faith-based study guide for The New Jim Crow so church study groups can explore the connections between their spiritual beliefs, the crisis of mass incarceration, and the need to stand for justice."