When there is a wrong, or a perceived wrong, done to us or in the general vicinity of our awareness, the initial instinct is to seek justice. We want things to be made right. And we want to be the one to make those things right. We feel a responsibility to correct, to redeem.

It is an appropriate desire, Jesus installed justice in our souls. But we have to remember who is God. Conviction is the Spirit’s job, not ours. When we put on God’s robe and sit in his judgment seat, we are simply out of order. 

God promises he will bring all things to account, including every deep and hidden thing. And he also decides when that will occur. We are often eager to have justice now. We don’t want to wait for God. But another way to say that is that we don’t really believe God.

One of the reasons we jump at the injustice we see in others is that it helps us mask our awareness from the deep injustices within our own soul.  Perhaps it would do us better to reflect that Jesus discerns the thoughts and intents of the heart. He promises that all things will be brought to light.  We love the idea of God bringing others to account (although we lose patience with him). But we don’t really love the idea of being brought to account, being pierced and evaluated below the joints and beyond the marrow.

“For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”
– Hebrews 4:12