Becky and I are doing some vacationing. There will be no zionwisdom posts for the week starting tomorrow (and for the week at the end of June). If you feel inclined, you can look back over past posts of which there are about 3,000 now. Kent.
Continuing from The Logic of Justice II, Adam S. Miller writes:
Jesus makes this same argument in the Sermon on the Mount. He knows that people have “heard that it hath been said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth” (Matthew 5:38). He knows this is how people commonly define justice, he knows that any departure from this form of logic will look like he is destroying the law. But he also knows that if the kingdom of God is ever going to arrive, that logic must give way. “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, Jesus tells the multitude. “I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill? (Matthew 5:17).
How does Jesus intend to fulfill the law? Not by changing the letter of the law, but by investing the law with a different purpose. “Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth: but I say unto you, . . . whosoever shall smite thee on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if any man sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also. And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain” (Matthew 5:38-41).
Again Jesus knows this is not what you’ve been told. “Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate thine enemy” (Matthew 5:43). But this logic is exactly the problem. Using the law in this specific way—that is, in accordance with the logic of punishment—is what prevents the law from being fulfilled. This is what prevents justice from being accomplished.
How then should the law be used? “I say unto you, love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you” (Matthew 5:44).
In Jesus’ hands, the logic of the law is clear: not good for good and evil for evil, but good for good and good for evil. And what’s more, returning good for evil is not positioned as an act of mercy that counterbalances justice. Rather, returning good for evil is justice. Returning good for evil is how you fulfill the law.
As Jesus describes it, this is how God himself judges. This is how God fulfills the law and accomplishes justice. This is God’s logic. “Love your enemies . . . that ye may be children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matt. 5: 44-45) God, too, sends good for good and good for evil. “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. (Matthew 5:48). Be ye therefore just even as your Father in heaven is just. ~Adam S. Miller, Original Grace (Deseret Book Company © 2022) 36-37 (continued)
Continued, click: Logic IV
