Salvation and Godly Rule

Justice and Mercy

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Justice and Mercy

Lesson: Mercy

Genre: Speech

Track: 57

Dictation Name: RR136AE57

Location/Venue:

Year: 1960’s-1970’s

From the book of the prophet Isaiah 45:20 following, with particular emphasis on one verse. In fact, almost exclusive emphasis on one verse, the 21st. Justice and mercy. “Assemble yourselves and come; draw near together, ye that are escaped of the nations: they have no knowledge that set up the wood of their graven image, and pray unto a god that cannot save. Tell ye, and bring them near; yea, let them take counsel together: who hath declared this from ancient time? who hath told it from that time? have not I the Lord? and there is no God else beside me; a just God and a Saviour; there is none beside me. Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else. I have sworn by myself, the word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and shall not return, That unto me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear. Surely, shall one say, in the Lord have I righteousness and strength: even to him shall men come; and all that are incensed against him shall be ashamed. In the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified, and shall glory.”

We saw last week as we analyzed Matthew 23:23 that our Lord said that such things as tithing were the easy matters of the law, but the weightier matters of the law were judgment, or justice, mercy, and faith. We are not accustomed to thinking of justice, mercy, and faith as being closely related and then being aspects of law. Last week we saw that mercy is not antinomian. This week our concern is with justice and mercy, but also at the same time with salvation.

Now our text is an indictment by God of all nations, and in particular, of the remnant of Israel. He indicts them for their past apostasy, for their idolatry. He declares emphatically that his word is one of righteousness, and righteousness is word that is cognate with justice. His justice shall prevail, and his righteousness he declares that every knee shall bow and every tongue shall swear unto him.

Moreover, men shall say that in the Lord have I righteousness and strength. He also declares, and this is the key passage, this is the phrase we meet with often in scripture in varying forms, and yet we are so accustomed to it that we never stop to consider its significance. There is no doubt {?} me a just God and a savior. Now he does not say a just God, and still, in spite of my justice, a savior. A construction scholars of the Hebrew tell us that requires that both be cognate. That is, because he is a just God, he is also a savior. Now, this goes contrary to the modern antinomian trend, to say that because God is a God of justice, because God is a God of law, he is also therefore, a savior. Let us examine the connection there so that we can understand one of the key ideas of scripture.

For our Lord, when he spoke in Matthew 23:23, of the weightier matters of the law as justice, mercy, and faith. He was speaking in terms of all scripture and he was declaring that, for all of scripture, justice is inseparable from law and righteousness from the covenant and from faith. As one contemporary scholar, Hart Harrison{?} has said, “The time honored distinction between the Old Testament as a book of law and the New Testament as a book of divine grace is without grounds or justification. Divine grace and mercy are the presuppositions of law in the Old Testament, and the grace and love of God displayed in the New Testament event {?} issue and a legal obligation of the new covenant.”

Moreover, because Christ presented himself as the king, the Messiah, because messiah means king, every word that he spoke was law. Every word in scripture was his word, and his law. He declared that not one jot nor one tittle of the law should pass as long as heaven and earth endureth, and he had come not to destroy the law but to fulfill it. That is to put it into form. If there is a king, there is law. If there is no law, there is no king. The modern idea that we have in such countries, and as a result of the modern experience in such countries as Britain, of a king who reigns but does not rule was unknown in Antiquity. Today, the royal power to make law is invested in Parliament. Parliament exercises the royal right. It laid claim to this royal right in 1688. As a matter of fact, the idea of the divine right of kings, a pagan doctrine which the monarchs of the Europe had adopted, was simply transferred from the king to Parliament. It is still a part of British law. So that you had such things as the attorney general of Britain, in the 1950’s, declaring that because of that divine right, Parliament could decree that all blue eyed babies be killed at birth, and it could be done because Parliament had the divine right that once belonged to kings.

Now, of course, the biblical idea is neither the pagan idea of kingship nor the modern separation of kingship and law. Thus, because our Lord was the Messiah and is king of king and lord of Lords, his every word is law. When we were studying biblical law, you may recall that I pointed out that, in India, we have referenced an ancient document to Christ, and a legal case appealed to the highest court since the king in India, the case was decided by an appeal to a word of our Lord, not because they recognized him as savior, but because he was king and therefore, as a king, his words were law and they constituted a legal precedent which could be cited by a court in rendering a decision, and so there was a specific reference to the words of our Lord in the New Testament.

Now, not only is justice, mercy, and grace related to law, but justice is also related to the idea of peace, and in the scripture, peace means not merely the absence of war and conflict. It is not a negative idea in scripture, but a positive idea. It means wholeness, health, prosperity, security, and the spiritual completeness of the covenant. Those are its varying meanings.

Moreover, peace scripture declares, like salvation and like all creation is of God. God declares in the same chapter of Isaiah in the 7th verse, “I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these things.” Moreover, in Isaiah 52:7, we read that the covenant is an everlasting covenant of peace. Justice in scripture means the righteousness of God. It means also moral and religious perfection in man. It means the application of that standard to every day life, so that we are told in the law that it means just weights and just balances. It also means that one that ruleth over men must rule in righteousness, we are told. Justice and mercy, moreover, are declared in scripture to be two complementary aspects of holiness. Justice is the foundation and mercy advances it.

Last week, we saw that no mercy is possible if there is no justice. Mercy is not antinomian but an aspect of law. It is not separable from justice, but an essential aspect of justice, as we shall see. Moreover, law itself in scripture is presented as a blessing. Moses commanded us a law, even the inheritance of the congregation of Jacob, so that the law itself is given as a blessing. Thus, scripture makes clear that, for a fallen world to receive God’s law is not only justice, but also mercy and an aspect of salvation.

Now, to understand how these things are tied together and how they lead inescapably to salvation, we must remember that law in scripture means restitution and restoration. This is its inescapable meaning. The broken moral order must be restored. A fallen world must be made again very good, and must fulfill its purpose under God, its creation mandate. Man is incapable in his fallen estate of accomplishing this restitution and restoration.

Therefore, salvation and mercy are necessary aspect of restitution. For God’s law, which requires restitution and mercy, to come to any completion, there must be salvation, and salvation itself is an act of restoration by God, so that we are restored to that image from which we fell. We are restored to that righteousness which man falls{?} .

Now, this relationship is very clear in David’s prayer in Psalm 51:14. “Deliver me from blood guiltiness, O God, thou art God of my salvation, and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness.”

Now, to the modern mind, this does not seem to ring right. If a modern were writing it, he would say, “My tongue shall sing aloud of thy grace,” which is true, but David is also very right and brings out {?}. My tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness (or justice),” when you saved me. Why? Because it is a restoration. I have fallen into sin and thy forgiveness restores me to it, so that your forgiveness, your grace, your mercy, and your justice have in common one purpose. To restore man and the world to their original and intended righteousness so that all things can be fulfilled in terms of God’s purpose.

Now, this brings out very clearly of our text. God says there is no god else besides me; a just God and a savior. The two are placed side by side, because he is a just God, he is also a savior. Because it is his purpose that all things be restored to their original righteousness, that restitution be fully made. God not only gives his law which states that the end of restitution and restoration throughout all man’s dealings toward God and man, and towards the world around him, that he brings this to completion through the cross of Christ, wherein he satisfies his justice and enables man to fulfill that restitution and restoration to which he has been called, so that God restores us in Christ that we might further the work of justice, restitution, and restoration.

Restitution thus, is basic to God’s order, it must be basic to the redeemed man’s order. So we are told over and over again in scripture such things as this: Learn to do well, seek justice, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow. Of the righteous man, God says “He judged the cause of the poor and needy; then it was well with him: was not this to know me? saith the Lord.” God’s righteousness, we are told, and his judgments are saving judgments. Thy righteousness is like the great mountains. Thy judgments are a great deep. O Lord thou preservest man and beast. God’s judgment, his righteousness, his justice has, as its end the preservation of man and beast, to restore all things to their original righteousness, and then to bring them to their fulfillment in terms of his creation mandate, and so the purpose of his judgment is to preserve man and beast.

Thus, the justice of God cleanses his creation. There are two sides to his righteousness. There is salvation and there is condemnation. There is deliverance and there is punishment. We never find the righteousness of God dealing with condemnation apart from deliverance. Wherever there is any condemnation, there is also deliverance, restoration, restitution.

It is strongly dividing the word of truth, therefore, to separate justice and salvation and to separate deliverance from condemnation. Thus, we begin to understand why our Lord spoke of justice, mercy, and faith as the weightier aspect of the law. We begin to understand why, therefore, they are inseparable from salvation. The good news of salvation is precisely restitution and restoration, that we have now been recreated in Christ so that the work of God’s justice, having been satisfied through Christ, can now be furthered in his people. Our salvation, therefore, is supremely an act of justice, God’s justice not man’s, and its purpose is that we further the weightier matters of the law. God’s righteousness, God’s mercy, and the manifestation of our faith in him. Let us pray.

Almighty God, our heavenly Father, we give thanks unto thee that thou hast called us and made us thy people, and restored in us that which the Fall destroyed. Make us zealous, O Lord, in the furthering of thy righteousness, in bringing every area of life under thy dominion, in developing and furthering those talents which thou hast given us to thy praise and glory, so that all things may magnify thee, and every knee bow unto thee and every tongue confess thee. Bless us, O Lord, to this purpose in Jesus name. Amen.

Are there any questions now, first of all, with respect to our lesson? Any questions? Yes?

[Audience] You said in the past that capital punishment {?} generated {?} faith. Several weeks ago, I remember hearing a news report saying that President Nixon was in favor of capital punishment for certain federal crimes. {?}

[Rushdoony] Not entirely. Yes and no. It does include hijacking and certain other things, but it does not include crimes against a person, specifically. So, in a sense, it is that type of legislation in part that he has in mind. Crimes against the state, or crimes that the state feels violates its security. Now, some of those that it has in mind are still crimes against a person, but the primary emphasis is on crimes against the state. So, it’s a step in that direction, but the crimes against the person, primarily, private citizens, no longer are considered a significance. Yes?

[Audience] {?}

[Rushdoony] Well, not yet on that, but, and I doubt that we’ll come to that because there is more and more disillusionment with the power of the federal government, so its ability to increase its power while still there is, to a degree, weakening. Yes?

[Audience] {?}

[Rushdoony] 1 Thessalonians 3:4

[Audience] {?}

[Rushdoony] 1 Thessalonians 3:4, “For verily, when we were with you, we told you before that we should suffer tribulation; even as it came to pass, and ye know.” Now, I’m glad you called attention to that verse, because while there are many, many people today who are insistent that the Great Tribulation is ahead, there are too many references in scripture such as this that indicate very clearly that it was something that the apostles saw in the near future, and that it began in their lifetime, and it was the persecution of the early church at the hands of Rome. An attempt for well, almost 250 years to wipe them out, totally, and the massive executions that took place, the beheading by the day and week, people just being lined up to be executed, certainly constitutes a fearful tribulation that the church went through, and while now, as a result of this Scofield Bible in this century, people have gotten used to thinking of it as something in the future. If you go back to writings of the past, as well as the New Testament, you recognize that it was not so deemed. Warfield, for example, one of the greatest American biblical scholars, there was no question in his mind, this was something in the past that had taken place in the experience of the early church. Any other questions?

I have an announcement to make that I think is of considerable interest. There will be a creation seminar this Saturday, April 7, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Los Angeles Baptist College, in Newhall, California, and anyone who is interested in going can get directions to the college from my son, Mark. Now, the conference will be more or less under the auspices of the Creation Research Society, which is to be distinguished from the Bible Science Society, which is essentially layman. This is made up of scientists, and Dr. Duane T. Gish, a biochemist, will speak on the main theme, Speculations and Experiments Relating to Theories on the Origin of Life. Other speakers and their topics are Geologic Evidence for an Early Earth, by a geologist, Stuart Nevins. Then, Dr. David Hyzer{?}, a biologist, The Effects on Evolution on Modern Thought, and Dr. {?}, Probability and the Origins of Proteins and DNA. There will be a documentary film, “Footprints in Stone,” which showed something which has been very upsetting to evolutionists, because it shows the human footprint inside a dinosaur tracks. This was discovered in the Southwest not too many years ago. There will be a book table, and there will be a catering truck, as well as the school cafeteria, and a two dollar donation is requested at the door. The seminar will be held in Brock Gymnasium. This is this Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. These will be, all of them, very superior lectures by experts in their field, so I think you will find it highly worthwhile. Yes?

[Audience] Would you care to make a report on your trip to Mississippi?

[Rushdoony] A report on my trip to Mississippi? Well, I was in Mississippi for two weeks and returned home a week ago yesterday. I was there yesterday to give a quarters{?} course in concentrated form, crash form, in two weeks time, on epistemology, or the theory of knowledge. How do we know and what can we know? It was very worthwhile. The students there are very superior. It is rapidly on its way to becoming the outstanding seminary in the country, and growing by leaps and bounds. I lectured in various other courses: systematic and apologetics, and church history as well. I was on television twice with a very good response. In fact, some of the viewers came out to the seminary to hear me, and on the radio as well, and I also was invited to speak and spoke before the House of the Mississippi State Legislature, and had a very good response. I spoke on the theological foundations of law. It was a very rewarding two weeks. There is a very powerful movement in the Southern Presbyterian Church. There may be a new church coming out of it as the church splits probably, in the next two or three months and thoroughly orthodox group uniting and the seminary will no doubt supply men for that new church. The thing that most appealed to me was the fact that the seminary is having a very marked influence on laymen, not only up and down Mississippi, but in surrounding states. They come there regularly to attend chapel and to go to the classes, and sit in, and they’re taking the faith very seriously. They’re ready to consider biblical law and act on it. This includes men who have plantations who are thinking very seriously and planning to start observance of a Sabbath year for the land. So, there are some very remarkable things happening in Mississippi and surrounding states as a result of this seminary, Reformed theological Seminary, and does deserve your prayers and interest. It’s only seven or eight years old. I was there eight years ago, I believe, and they were just planning to begin it, three years ago and they had one building, and this time they had six buildings, and are planning to put up a seventh, and are really growing by leaps and bounds and having a very powerful influence throughout the Deep South. It’s also a beautiful time of the year to be there. It was just the beginning of spring, and in spite of the floods at the first of my stay, it was very, very lovely. I’ll be back in Mississippi in June when it may not be quite as pleasant in view of the heat they have there, but I’m looking forward to being there again.

Are there any other questions? If not, let’s bow our heads for the benediction.

And now go in peace. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost bless you and keep you, guide and protest you this day and always. Amen.

End of tape