Justice vs Justification?

Excess leads to error. 

An over extension of how God's sovereignty works leads to a once saved always saved mentality. An over extension of how human free will works leads to an eternal insecurity mentality. 

One thing that I have been noticing is his over extension in the Church particularly on the issue of justice and justification. Often a group will be solely focused on "justice", and seek to work for the poor, needy & oppressed. On the other hand another group will be focused so much on "justification" and only ever evangelize, never caring for people in this life.

In the movement of liberation theology that arose from primarily Roman Catholic scholars in Central & South America that has a focus on liberating people socially & politically to bring on human flourishing has some interesting perspectives. One of the more fascinating ideas was that even atheists who do good for the poor should be canonized in the Church as a saint. That is excess. With an overbearing focus on earthly justice and flourishing that completely forgets the work of Christ, and the message of the Gospel. Thus reducing it to good ideas that only answer problems here and now.

On the other hand there are places like in the tradition I grew up in that had a narrow focus on "justification", where much of the here and now really are on the periphery. There really isn't a need to do much of what Scripture talks about for the widow, orphan & oppressed because everything is about becoming so much like Jesus that you will be apart of a special rapture before or during the great tribulation, then you can reign and rule with Christ in the millennium and through eternity (a simple reduction of the general worldview).

The reality is that the Gospel holds both of these in an active tension where followers of Christ are to do both. Sadly, it seems that these tow characteristics have been picked up by partisan sides, which exasperates the issue further. Yet Christ calls all of His followers as part of His Kingdom to care about both justice and justification.

 I highly encourage you to check out this sermon by the late Timothy Keller HERE where he tackles this topic. If the Church is to be the salt and the light in the world we are called to be, we must hold both justice and justification in correct balance. 

Justice does not matter if it is grounded and flows out of the working of the Gospel.

Justification is not demonstrated if justice is not the fruit in the lives of those justified.

Excess either way leads to error.