justice as the destination

I've been thinking lately about the relationship between compassion and justice. Would you bear with me as I try to flesh it out some? Maybe you'd consider adding your thoughts too.

A verse that has really stuck in my mind this past month is found in Psalm 89:14 "Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne; love and faithfulness go before you."

I actually visualize this Scripture in picture form. God's throne sitting on a big base named justice and righteousness with this unending river of love and faithfulness flowing down from the throne out onto and down a road that leads to the throne.

When I consider this picture, I think of justice and righteousness as the destination. The vision. The desired outcome. The destination postcard that God gives us. The "place" where His will is being played out and where there is rightness, right relationship in everything.

It starts with God's desire to make us right with Him. The end goal is for justice and righteousness to play out for my life. Why does God desire that for me? Because He made me, knows me, loves me. He has a knowledge of who I am in that "right" state as opposed to who I am in my broken and sinful state. He desires to redeem and restore me to the righteousness He created me in and created me for.

Because in my sinfulness, I can't get to the destination by myself, He sent Christ. Christ is the road that leads to the throne. He is the only one who could make me right with God and bring me to a place where I'm justified and right with God through faith in him.

What moved God to act in such a way as to send Jesus Christ not only to earth but to a life of service and sacrifice? Love and Compassion. He knows us and cares so deeply for us that it was His compassion for us that fueled His action. It was compassion, which means 'to suffer with', that brought God to earth in human form to join with humanity and come along side of them. But compassion was not the destination. Compassion was not the end goal. Justice was the goal. God didn't stop with some gestures of care and goodwill toward us. He fought for us...he advocated for us....he gave us undeserved favor....all the way to a sacrificial death on the cross to make us right. And when we open this precious gift, we are made right for good (justification), He continues to make us right (sanctification), and He wants to live and work through us to restore others and His world to righteousness and justice (mission).

So, as I think about analogies, I think about our trip out West. We had a destination of Salem, Oregon. We needed a mode of transportation which was the truck, and the truck needed fuel to keep moving forward toward the destination.

I think of justice as the destination. The mode of transportation is our lives, and the fuel that moves us toward the destination is compassion.

These are just a few of some ramblings that I'd like to boil down better at some point. I'd love to get some of your thoughts about the relationship between compassion and justice.