Evening Sermon

December 30, 2007

...AND JUSTICE FOR ALL

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I was born and raised in the town of Hamburg, New York, and I didn't leave until I went away to college at age 18. In the years that have passed since then, I have kept a sort of sentimental attraction with Hamburg. Although no one in my family still lives anywhere near there, I always have a desire to return to visit. I still remember what it was like living there, and the passing of years has glossed over any of the bad things. Hamburg seems to represent everything that is right and good, and I frequently make comparisons to "how things were in Hamburg." In my heart, Hamburg can become an almost mythical place, a utopian memory of times past. Looking back, it seems everything there was perfect. Everything there was the way things ought to be now. No other place can measure up.

My heritage is a secure and happy childhood in a very special city. Tonight we will study another very special city--a city in the country of Israel. Actually, six very special cities. The cities of refuge.

These cities of refuge provide us with much more than simple Bible stories. The cities of refuge teach us about justice. God's justice. And,

I. GOD'S LAW DEFINED JUSTICE IN ISRAEL. What is justice? Today we might say that justice would be a solution to the problem of crime. Justice in our country would be a victory in the so-called war on crime.

I often wonder about the effectiveness of our government. What are they really debating in Washington? What are the real issues in the crime bills that Congress pass? Will any bill that is passed really affect our lives at all? Do crime bills that are enacted into law actually promote justice, or are they just an example of political maneuvering? Are they anything but power politics?

Honestly, I think that in this country, we have really lost a sense of justice. But they didn't have that problem in Israel. God himself told Israel what justice really was. There was no need to debate a crime bill, like our representatives in Washington often do. God personally gave Israel their crime bill, and one key part of that crime bill was the establishment of six cities of refuge. And those cities teach us a great deal about real justice.

First, those cities of refuge teach us that,

A. Justice provides protection for the innocent. The essential purpose of the city of refuge was to provide protection, protection for the innocent. v.1-3, 7-9

Notice how practical God's law is. God's law recognizes the difference between cold blooded murder, and accidental death. If a person killed someone in an accident, if it happened unintentionally, without malice aforethought, without any intention of causing harm, then the person was innocent.

Good example: Deut.19:4 "And this is the case of the manslayer who flees there, that he may live: Whoever kills his neighbor unintentionally, not having hated him in time past-- 5 "as when a man goes to the woods with his neighbor to cut timber, and his hand swings a stroke with the ax to cut down the tree, and the head slips from the handle and strikes his neighbor so that he dies--he shall flee to one of these cities and live; 6 "lest the avenger of blood, while his anger is hot, pursue the manslayer and overtake him, because the way is long, and kill him, though he was not deserving of death, since he had not hated the victim in time past. 7 "Therefore I command you, saying, 'You shall separate three cities for yourself.' 8 "Now if the LORD your God enlarges your territory, as He swore to your fathers, and gives you the land which He promised to give to your fathers, 9 "and if you keep all these commandments and do them, which I command you today, to love the LORD your God and to walk always in His ways, then you shall add three more cities for yourself besides these three, 10 "lest innocent blood be shed in the midst of your land which the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, and thus guilt of bloodshed be upon you."

Protection for the innocent is a hallmark of any just society. In Israel, that included protection for foreigners and aliens. Everyone living in Israel was protected. No distinctions were made. All the innocent were given protection. And we have some of that in our country. Our legal system is based upon the idea that a person is innocent until proven guilty, and that is the essential basis for allowing people to flee to a city of refuge for protection.

Also,

B. Justice provides due process for the accused. Justice means, "Let's find out what really happened!" v.4

Presumption of innocence, initial responsibility given to the elders of the city. Corresponds to a preliminary hearing.

v.6a Full and fair trial. A trial of his peers, much like our current jury system.

And what about the results of that due process? If an accused was found innocent, he was granted permanent protection in the city. He was not handed over to his accusers.

But if he was found guilty, he was indeed handed over to his accusers for punishment.

Deut.19:11 "But if anyone hates his neighbor, lies in wait for him, rises against him and strikes him mortally, so that he dies, and he flees to one of these cities, 12 "then the elders of his city shall send and bring him from there, and deliver him over to the hand of the avenger of blood, that he may die. 13 "Your eye shall not pity him, but you shall put away the guilt of innocent blood from Israel, that it may go well with you."

Let me emphasize as strongly as I can, these cities were not intended to provide an arrangement for a murderer to avoid justice. These cities were not intended to protect the guilty! Indeed,

C. Justice provides appropriate punishment for the guilty. What is appropriate punishment? That standard can be stated clearly: Exod. 21:23 "But if any harm follows, then you shall give life for life, 24 "eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, 25 "burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe."

Lev. 24:17 "Whoever kills any man shall surely be put to death. 18 'Whoever kills an animal shall make it good, animal for animal. 19 'If a man causes disfigurement of his neighbor, as he has done, so shall it be done to him-- 20 'fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth; as he has caused disfigurement of a man, so shall it be done to him. 21 'And whoever kills an animal shall restore it; but whoever kills a man shall be put to death."

That principle can be stated in today's words: the punishment must fit the crime. That is a definition of justice. Unfortunately, much too much of our legal system is bogged down in trying to defend the guilty instead of punishing them. Have you seen that in our legal system? In terms of justice, it is absurd for a lawyer to attempt to prove someone is not guilty, knowing that the person is, in fact, guilty. If an attorney knows his client his guilty, then he should be required to plead him guilty. It is an absurd abuse of the justice system to have confessed criminals released on legal technicalities. It is absurd when the truth becomes inadmissible in court, or irrelevant to the proceedings of the case. It is absurd when legal technicalities become more important than the truth and more important than justice.

Do we violate these principles of justice in other ways in our country today? Without question, yes we do. Do we protect the innocent? Not always. Not when we allow the public media to print and publish all sorts of slanderous and unsubstantiated accusations. We destroy the reputation of many innocent, law-abiding citizens by allowing frivolous accusations to be leveled in the court of public opinion. The tabloid magazines and television shows are a filthy expression of violating the protection we owe to innocent people. Even news shows have joined that circus. And they thrive because American people love to hear dirt about someone else. And we ought to repent of that sin, and provide protection for the innocent.

We should not allow false and frivolous accusations in any form. And what about witnesses? Need witnesses to bring about a conviction.

Deut.19:15 "One witness shall not rise against a man concerning any iniquity or any sin that he commits; by the mouth of two or three witnesses the matter shall be established."

And what does God's law say to someone who makes a false accusation?

Deut.19:16 "If a false witness rises against any man to testify against him of wrongdoing, 17 "then both men in the controversy shall stand before the LORD, before the priests and the judges who serve in those days. 18 "And the judges shall make careful inquiry, and indeed, if the witness is a false witness, who has testified falsely against his brother, 19 "then you shall do to him as he thought to have done to his brother; so you shall put away the evil from among you. 20 "And those who remain shall hear and fear, and hereafter they shall not again commit such evil among you."

Do we provide due process for the accused? Again, I believe that we often do not. Many, if not most, of our judicial cases today are settled by plea bargains. An accused makes a deal with his accusers. The District Attorney and the Defense Attorney make a deal. A person who knows he is guilty pleads guilty to a lesser crime, in exchange for the promise of a lighter sentence, or no sentence at all! Or an innocent person pleads guilty to get a reduced sentence, rather than risk an all or nothing result of a public trial. Plea bargains do not accomplish justice, under any circumstances!

And do we provide appropriate punishment for the guilty? Sometimes yes, but often no. Justice, and punishment, is far more than building prison cells. Actually, biblical punishment doesn't even speak of prisons. For most crimes, prisons are actually pretty useless. The biblical punishment emphasizes restitution. In other words, if cause harm, you fix it. You pay for it. The victim receives the benefit. That is the punishment. If you steal, you pay it back. With interest and penalty. If you cause injury, you are responsible to see that the person you injured recovers. You owe them a debt, because of the suffering you caused. You are responsible for your actions.

Unfortunately, prison sentences only make criminals more irresponsible. After months and years in prison, months and years of being told when to eat, what to eat, what to wear, and when to use the bathroom, we wonder why inmates are not rehabilitated when they are released. Prison sentences don't rehabilitate. Responsible restitution rehabilitates.

And what about violent criminals, especially those who murder? Well the biblical standard of restitution is abundantly clear. Capital punishment is the only appropriate biblical standard of restitution for premeditated murder. Period. The problem of crime in our country, identified by many as the greatest problem in our country, is a result of a faulty understanding of justice. In Israel, God's law defines justice. And that,

II. JUSTICE IS FOUNDED UPON GOD'S CHARACTER. If you want to learn what justice is, then you have to learn who God is. Civil laws, then and now, must related to God. There must be some absolute standards of justice, or everyone will do whatever is right in his own eyes. I'm not just talking about a stone statue outside the courthouse with the 10 Commandments carved on it. I'm talking about biblical thinking.

I believe that the judicial crisis in our country is a result of abandoning any reference to God in our definition of justice. We argue about whether or not the death penalty is a deterrence to crime. We talk about "three strikes and your out," locking up three time felons for the rest of their life. We talk about social programs dealing with the environmental and social causes of crime. We pour money into public welfare programs and educational programs, assuming that if we spend enough money, the problem will be solved. We talk about banning certain types of guns, legalizing certain types of drugs, building more prison cells, or hiring more police officers.

But any crime bill, if it is to promote justice, must reflect God's character. Let me explain what I mean. God's character, in one word, is holiness. God is holy, completely and absolutely without sin. Because of that holiness, he cannot stand sin or tolerate sin in any form. By definition,

A. God's character requires retribution for sin. That is a foundational principle of justice, a foundational principle for any just law. God's character, God's holiness, requires retribution for sin. Sin deserves punishment.

That is true in a spiritual sense. This aspect of God's character is why Jesus Christ had to die. He HAD to endure God's wrath and God's justice and God's condemnation. At least, he had to endure it if we were to be saved. By nature, God has to punish sin. He cannot overlook its offense without exacting a just punishment.

That is true in a civil sense, also. A just law must aim to provide retribution for sin. A just law must provide punishment. And a truly just law must recognize that God is the one who has been offended against. Any sin, which in a civil sense is called a crime, brings true moral guilt before God, something our modern generation knows nothing or little about. And that guilt must be taken seriously.

Justice must provide the opportunity to make people responsible for their actions. And just laws must teach people that they will bear the penalty for certain crimes.

Our legal system is in crisis, in large part, because we have abandoned the absolute reference of justice founded upon God's character, which requires retribution for sin. A penitentiary, which name reflects the purpose of punishment, is now called a correctional institution. Our crisis comes from failing to understand the purpose of those prisons. Are they for punishment or are they for rehabilitation? Virtually impossible to do both at the same time.

Justice must be founded upon God's character. And God's character is reflected in human life. Human beings, made in the image of God, were created to be moral, rational, and holy creatures, bearing in our essential nature the image of God Almighty. Therefore,

B. Human life must be protected because it reflects God's character. The necessity of the cities of refuge show just how seriously the nation of Israel considered murder. Israel was to protect the sanctity of human life, the sacredness of life created in the image of God.

The distinction made is between intentional murder and unintentional manslaughter. The cities of refuge provide protection for the unintentional killing, but note even then, that the one who caused death accidentally still has to stay in the city of refuge for a definite period of time. He must stay in that city until the death of the high priest. The sanctity of life is so significant that even accidental death, without the guilt of murder, requires some sort of atonement and restitution.

Yet the only possible restitution for premeditated, willful, malicious murder was capital punishment. That principle goes back well before the giving of the Mosaic law.

Gen. 9:5 "Surely for your lifeblood I will demand a reckoning; from the hand of every beast I will require it, and from the hand of man. From the hand of every man's brother I will require the life of man. 6 "Whoever sheds man's blood, By man his blood shall be shed; For in the image of God He made man."

Repeated in the law of Moses, with the further reasons given: Num. 35:30 "Whoever kills a person, the murderer shall be put to death on the testimony of witnesses; but one witness is not sufficient testimony against a person for the death penalty. 31 'Moreover you shall take no ransom for the life of a murderer who is guilty of death, but he shall surely be put to death. 32 'And you shall take no ransom for him who has fled to his city of refuge, that he may return to dwell in the land before the death of the priest. 33 'So you shall not pollute the land where you are; for blood defiles the land, and no atonement can be made for the land, for the blood that is shed on it, except by the blood of him who shed it. 34 'Therefore do not defile the land which you inhabit, in the midst of which I dwell; for I the LORD dwell among the children of Israel.'"

From a study of biblical justice, I believe that murder, all murder, ought to be punished equally and appropriately, with the most final and serious of all punishments. Bloodshed pollutes the land, and atonement cannot be made for the land on which blood has been shed, except by the blood of the one who shed it.

That principle has been misunderstood, attacked, and much often rejected in our society. And I believe that our society is paying the price. As a society, we cannot expect to receive God's blessings if we will not protect human life, and will not appropriately punish those who commit murder.

There are many examples. Obvious examples of murderers who are simply imprisoned for a number of years, and then released. There are obvious examples when the lives of senior citizens are intentionally ended. Dr. Kevorkian is but the most prominent example of those who are promoting the individual freedom to take one's own life.

And there is the terrible, terrible example of the tens of millions of lives lost by children living in their mother's wombs. The sanctity of human life is build of the conviction that as human beings, we are created in the image of God. And the Scripture teaches us directly that we were created by God, and known personally by God, while we were still in the womb. And yet millions of children's lives are ended each year through legalized abortion.

We cannot expect God's blessings upon our society if we will not promote justice, founded upon the character of God. And justice, biblical justice, requires that we defend and protect the sanctity of human life.

Let me specifically identify one final issue that I have really been addressing all evening. What about today? God's law defined justice in Israel, but what about today? How do we make applications to today from a study of OT justice? What can we learn about justice today from the cities of refuge?

Let me answer those questions directly and simply.

III. GOD'S LAW DEFINES JUSTICE TODAY. Since justice is founded upon God's character, and God's character doesn't change, then,

A. The principles of biblical justice have never changed. As far as the principles of justice, what was just in the OT is just in the NT.

I believe Jesus teaches that clearly. Matt. 5:17 "Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill."

God's law hasn't changed. God's sense of what is right and what is wrong has not changed. God's will for our lives has not changed. God's commandments have not changed. God's expressed definition of moral righteousness and holiness have not changed. God's definition of justice has not changed. And so Jesus teaches his disciples that:

Matt. 5:19 "Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20 "For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven."

To be sure, the outward ceremonial regulations have changed, for the purpose of the ceremonial regulations and the worship at the altar was to provide a picture of Jesus Christ. We no longer offer sacrifices on an altar because Jesus has made the perfect sacrifice once for all. We aren't bound to perform the ceremonial regulations of washings and cleanliness because we now know that we are cleansed by the blood of Christ, not by the blood of an animal.

But God's standards of moral and civil justice have not changed one little bit. Yet there is one difference today. There is one significant change that was initiated by Christ. And this is crucial to understand my whole sermon this morning:

B. The responsibility for enforcing civil laws has changed. Whose responsibility was it to enforce the laws against murder in the OT? v.3,5

Who is the "avenger of blood?" Literally, it is a kinsmen-redeemer. In OT Israel, if a person was murdered, his family selected a representative to carry out this justice, to avenge the murder. Normally, that person was the closest male relative of the murdered person. It was the god-given responsibility of that avenger-of-blood to accomplish justice.

NOT REVENGE, but retribution. An important distinction. Not personal vengeance, but biblical justice. The job of the avenger of blood is similar to the job of the district attorney today. The avenger of blood in Israel is the prosecuting attorney of today.

The Elders also bore responsibility to enforce the civil laws. v.4

Israel was a theocracy. The president of Israel was God. The government of the nation was also the government of the church. Unbelievers, non-Jews, could not be Israelites. To be a citizen of the nation of Israel was to be a believer in Jehovah God. An infidel, an unbeliever, could not remain a citizen, though they could live in the land as a foreigner.

And this is the change that has come with Christ. The individual family member no longer has responsibility to enforce civil laws, including their prescribed punishments. The theocratic elders, governing both the church and the state, no longer has responsibility to enforce the civil laws.

In the NT, that responsibility of enforcing civil laws is given entirely to the civil government. Therefore, as a church and as individuals, we are not to enforce civil laws. We are not to take the law into our own hands. We are not to seek personal revenge. Jesus teaches that clearly also:

Matt. 5:38 "You have heard that it was said, 'An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.' 39 "But I tell you not to resist an evil person. But whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also."

That is how we are to live our personal lives. But the Scripture doesn't cancel the responsibility of the civil government to enact justice. Paul says so specifically,

Rom. 13:1 "Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God...4 For he is God's minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid; for he does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God's minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil. 5 Therefore you must be subject, not only because of wrath but also for conscience' sake."

The state is now the avenger of blood. The state now is the appropriate authority to promote justice and enforce civil laws. But what laws should the state enact? What laws should the state enforce? Laws that reflect principles of justice. Laws that reflect the moral laws of God.

I am thankful that the Commonwealth of Virginia considers it a crime to commit murder, or to steal, or to slander. I only wish that those absolute laws of God's justice were applied and enforced equally and thoroughly. And I don't hesitate to proclaim that as Christians, we ought to make every effort to see to it that our civil government does what God has ordained it to do, namely to punish evil and promote good.

And if want to see justice in our country, and if we want to see good laws, then we must allow God's law to be the basis of our civil law today. I do not advocate a theocracy today. I believe that the church must have its own authority to watch over the souls of its members. And I believe that the civil government must have its own authority to watch over the public lives of its people, enforcing the laws of the land with equity. I believe that it is appropriate to elect a President and to allow our elected representatives to make laws and enforce them. But I do believe that those laws of our land ought to reflect the principles of biblical justice. Only when God's unchanging and absolute law is used as a foundation will there really be justice for all.

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