Justice and the law of divine Love

Robert A. Johnson

Lawmakers often struggle long and hard to make laws they feel will serve their constituents and their country well. Even so, there are times when a higher law is called for—times when justice calls for solutions that are not provided for in human law, or when the applicable law is obscure and hidden from view.

When faced with an apparently unsolvable problem, we can always appeal to God's law of divine Love for a just solution. There is no higher law. It can adjust whatever needs adjusting, even when all hope seems lost. Our appeal to divine law, though, must not be for the purpose of personal profit, advantage, or manipulation, but for the purpose of seeing God's will done in human affairs.

Someone who regularly called on divine law both for himself and for others was Christ Jesus. He understood the higher law of Love to be just, merciful, and impartial—always blessing and never cursing. When an angry mob threatened to throw him off a cliff, he walked through the midst of the crowd and went his way (see Luke 4:28–30). Again, when he was asked to pass judgment on a woman caught in the act of adultery, one whom the law said should be stoned, he answered, "He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her." When the accusers left one by one without accusing her, Jesus evidently recognized her repentance, for he said, "Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more" (John 8:7, 11).

I recall helping a newly married couple find a home to buy. At the last minute we learned that a government-insured mortgage loan they had been promised would not be made. The lender had thought the insurance was approved when it was actually denied. Now the lender said that without the insurance it could not legally make the loan, even though the young man's father agreed to cosign.

On the basis of the mistaken promise, the renters living in the house had moved, leaving the house vacant, and the owner had made a down payment on a house in another city. Everyone was greatly inconvenienced, and the owner stood to lose considerable money. I prayed fervently, knowing that the divine law of justice is above human law, is universal, and is supreme. I didn't outline how the situation should be resolved; I just affirmed that God's mercy doesn't leave anyone deprived of good. I realized that God's plan is for everyone to be blessed in the way that does the most good.

I affirmed that God's mercy doesn't leave anyone deprived of good.

My prayers were in accord with this statement in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures: "In the scientific relation of God to man, we find that whatever blesses one blesses all, as Jesus showed with the loaves and the fishes,—Spirit, not matter, being the source of supply" (p. 206). Within three days, the lender found an obscure law that permitted it to make the loan without the government insurance. The young couple moved into the house, and a few years later, when I had occasion to talk with the father, he said all was going well with the house.

Some problems are more serious than others, but whatever the problem, we can appeal to and rely on divine law. God's law of justice and mercy is always supreme. As the Psalmist said, "Justice and judgment are the habitation of thy throne: mercy and truth shall go before thy face. Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound: they shall walk, O Lord, in the light of thy countenance" (Ps. 89:14, 15).

(Robert Johnson is a contributing editor.)

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