Latest / Reformed Thinking / Oppression as Sin of Action: God’s Justice, Man’s Dignity, and the Coming Judgment

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Oppression as Sin of Action: God’s Justice, Man’s Dignity, and the Coming Judgment · Reformed Thinking

• 0:00
  Welcome back to the Deep Dive. We are shifting gears a little
• 0:04
  bit today. Just a bit.
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  Yeah, usually we're bouncing between technology, history or
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  science, but today we're looking at something, something very
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  specific. We are calling this session
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  Reformed thinking. It's good to be here and yeah,
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  this is a topic that we just can't rush through.
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  We're looking at a specific theological framework and we're
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  definitely going to need to take our time with.
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  It we are we're looking at a stack of documents here that
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  that tackle the biblical view of oppression.
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  Specifically, we have two main texts, Oppression is sin of
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  action and the cry of the laborer and the Lord of hosts.
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  Now I have to be honest with you.
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  When I hear the word oppression, my brain immediately goes to,
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  you know, sociology. Of course I think of political
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  rallies, hashtags, Catal news, debates.
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  It feels like a buzzword that you know belongs to the culture
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  wars more than anything else. And that's the default setting,
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  isn't it? For most people living in the
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  modern West, you hear oppression and you think of power dynamics,
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  systemic analysis, political slogans.
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  But the goal here for this deep dive is to to really strip away
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  that cultural baggage and look at the theological definition.
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  We're not here to discuss social mood or or the latest hot take.
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  We're here to conduct a rigorous, reformed examination
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  of the topic. We need to ground this in
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  something older, something more stable than the current news
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  cycle. And that's where the Westminster
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  Confession comes in. That's it.
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  Specifically, the Westminster Confession and the idea of the
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  general equity of God's moral law.
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  So we're moving from the picket line to the what, the pulpit or
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  maybe the courtroom? Because looking through these
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  sources, the biggest thing that jumped out at me is the core
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  thesis. It is the oppression is not just
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  a state of being. It's not just a systemic glitch.
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  It's an active sin. That is the absolute crux of the
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  matter. The sources argue that
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  oppression isn't passive. It's an active violation of
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  God's commandments. It is something people do.
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  And the scary part, which I'm sure we'll get into, is that it
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  often wears a what did the text call them?
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  A clean suit. A clean suit?
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  Yes. It hides behind legal contracts,
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  policy language, professional respectability.
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  That's the part that really got me.
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  You expect oppression to look like a villain in a movie, You
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  know Twirly A mustache or tying someone to the railroad.
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  Track something obvious and dramatic.
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  Exactly, but these sources are talking about oppression that
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  happens in in air conditioned boardrooms.
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  Precisely And so today we're going to see why this is a
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  vertical offense against God, not just a horizontal issue
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  between people. OK, we need to look at the
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  anatomy of how it happens, the actual verbs of oppression.
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  And then, and this is key, the only sufficient remedy which is
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  found in the gospel and true repentance.
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  OK, let's unpack this then. We have to start by defining our
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  terms. The sources make a huge
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  distinction between how the world defines injustice and how
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  the Bible defines it. You mentioned vertical versus
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  horizontal. What does that mean in this
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  context? Well, the world, you know, the
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  secular view, sees injustice primarily as horizontal.
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  Friction. Horizontal friction.
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  Yeah. It's Group A versus Group B.
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  It's about resource distribution, power struggles
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  between humans. It's all in one plane, OK, but
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  the biblical view is that oppression is first and foremost
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  a vertical insurrection against God.
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  An insurrection. That's a strong word.
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  It is, and the source uses an even more striking phrase here.
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  It calls oppression practical atheism.
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  Practical atheism. Wow.
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  OK, break that down for me. Think about it this way.
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  If you treat a weak person with cruelty, or if you defraud
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  someone because you know they can't fight back, what are you
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  doing? You're being a bully.
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  You're being unjust. You are, but at a deeper level.
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  You are living as if God does not see you.
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  You are acting as if that hidden injustice has no witness.
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  Ah, so you're practically denying his existence, or at
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  least his character as a judge. Exactly.
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  You are practically denying God's nature as the all seeing
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  judge. You're living as if he's blind
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  or indifferent, or maybe just not there.
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  He reminds me of that verse that the text brought up, Proverbs
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  14.31. Yes, whoever oppresses a poor
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  man insults his maker. There it is, the vertical
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  connection. That's the whole thing in a
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  nutshell. You can't crush the artwork
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  without insulting the artist. When you step on the neck of the
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  vulnerable, you're not just hurting a person, you are
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  shaking your fist at the God who made them.
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  So if we're going to think like theologians, we need to, we need
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  to change our vocabulary. The sources bring up some Hebrew
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  words that I think are really helpful here, Mishpat and
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  sadaka. These are absolutely essential.
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  Mishpat is usually translated as justice or maybe judgment, and
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  sadaka is righteousness. And in modern English, those
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  words can feel a little abstract, a little floaty.
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  They can, but in the Hebrew Bible they are incredibly
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  concrete. They are not abstract ideals.
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  They are concrete fidelity to God's revealed will.
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  Mishpat is about doing what is right according to a standard.
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  And that standard is not what feels fair to me in this
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  particular moment. Correct.
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  It's not subjective. It's the fixed, objective
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  standard of God's law. And then you have the word for
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  oppression itself out Shack. Yeah, This term focuses on the
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  use of advantage. It's about using your strength,
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  your wealth, your office, your leverage.
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  That word leverage seems key. It is using that leverage to
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  crush or defraud someone. It's not just being mean, it's
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  using your advantage to take something from someone who has a
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  disadvantage. OK, that's a much clearer
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  definition. But we also need guardrails
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  here. The sources are very, very
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  careful on this .0 So, well, if we define oppression too
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  broadly, it loses its meaning. Everything becomes oppression.
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  And so nothing is right. So first, not every hardship is
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  oppression. We live east of Eden.
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  There is scarcity in the world. There's sickness.
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  If you have a bad day or you run out of money because of bad luck
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  or, you know, a poor decision, that's tragic, but it's not
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  necessarily oppression. And the second guardrail.
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  Not every inequality is injustice.
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  That is a very hard pill for modern culture to swallow, but
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  it is biblical. Providence varies.
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  Gifting varies. Diligence varies.
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  Some people are taller, some are faster, Some have different
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  talents. The Bible doesn't condemn
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  difference. It condemns Ashaq, the active
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  exploitation of others. So to put it plainly, oppression
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  is not defined by my feelings. I can't just say I feel
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  diminished, therefore I am oppressed.
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  The standard is the violation of God's law, not the subjective
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  feeling of the individual. That is the Plumb line the
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  sources talk about. If we lose that objective
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  standard, we we end up in a completely chaotic world where
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  everyone is a victim and no one knows what sin actually is.
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  This brings us to the Why then why does human dignity matter so
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  much in this framework? The sources talk about the Imago
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  Dei, the image of God. And this is the well, the moral
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  dynamite of the biblical worldview.
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  Human dignity is not a social construct.
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  We didn't vote on it. We didn't invent it.
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  It just is. It exists because Genesis 1
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  tells us that every single human being, no exceptions, is made in
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  the image of God. That's why oppression is so
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  heinous. It's not just breaking a rule,
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  it's defacing God's image. And the 10 commandments are the
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  guide for how to not. Do that exactly.
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  The Reformed view of the moral law holds that the 10
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  commandments are the structure for how we treat these image
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  bearers. Oppression isn't just mean, It's
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  crooked. It bends away from the straight
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  line of God's character revealed in His law.
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  OK, let's get specific with that crookedness.
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  The sources do something I found really interesting.
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  They take the 10 commandments, which you know most people are
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  familiar with, and they apply them directly to this issue of
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  oppression and they call it active law breaking.
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  Yes. This is where we move from
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  theory to anatomy, where we're dissecting the body of Prussian.
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  Now. OK, let's.
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  Start with the 6th commandment. Thou shalt not kill.
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  Now usually I think, OK I haven't murdered anyone today so
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  I'm good. I checked that box.
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  Right, we tend to have a very minimalist view of it.
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  The sources say it goes much deeper.
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  Much deeper, the Westminster catechisms have always taught
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  that the commandments forbid not just the final act, but the
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  roots and the consequences too. So the 6th Commandment extends
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  to threatening life and safety even without a corpse.
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  So give me an example. If I run a factory and I know
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  the machines are dangerous, but I don't fix them because it
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  costs too much and I send workers in there anyway.
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  That is 1/6 commandment violation.
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  You are endangering life for profit.
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  The source talks about the slow killing of crushing a soul or a
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  livelihood. Is slow killing.
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  Yes, or think of domestic tyranny where a person lives in
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  constant physical fear inside their own home.
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  That is 6 commandment territory. You are attacking the life and
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  the safety of an image bearer. OK, that expands my
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  understanding of that commandment quite a bit.
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  Then there's the 8th commandment, Thou shalt not
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  steal. This is where that phrase
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  stealing with a fountain pen comes in.
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  I love that. Image.
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  It's so vivid, isn't it? Because we usually think of
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  stealing as a guy in a mask breaking a window.
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  Right, the criminal element. But most depression, according
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  to these sources, is stealing with a fountain pen.
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  It is wage theft. It's withholding payments that
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  are legitimately due. It is fine print designed
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  specifically to trap people who can't afford a lawyer to review
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  it. Inflating claims.
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  Inflating claims. Exactly.
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  It is a clean, respectable, often legal way of taking what
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  belongs to your neighbor. It's the hidden fees of life,
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  but weaponized against vulnerable people.
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  That's a great way to put it. That we have the 9th
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  commandment. Thou shalt not bear false
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  witness. I have to admit I hadn't really
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  connected this one to oppression before, but the sources say
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  injustice relies on lies. Think about it, how do you get
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  away with crushing someone, especially in a community?
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  You have to control the narrative.
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  You have to make them look like they deserve it.
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  Precisely. You have to slander the victim
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  to discredit them. You have to create official
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  statements, you know, PR releases that obscure what
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  actually happened. Oppression hates the light.
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  It needs a cover story. So bearing false witness is the
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  mechanism that protects the oppressor.
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  It is. It's the shield.
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  It's also silence purchased through intimidation.
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  If you talk will ruin you. That's a form of bearing false
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  witness against their future. And finally, the 10th
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  commandment, thou shalt not covet.
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  This one is described as the engine room.
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  Because it all starts in the heart, doesn't it?
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  Oppression doesn't just happen by accident, it starts with
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  desire. I see what you have, your labor,
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  your land, your dignity, and I want it.
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  It's not just wanting it, it's the willingness to take it.
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  Yes, covetousness isn't just admiration.
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  It's greed with a plan. It's the internal motor that
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  drives the external machine of oppression.
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  So we have the commandments as the framework, but the text also
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  lists the six verbs of oppression.
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  I think this is helpful to make it even more concrete.
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  It's not just abstract law breaking, these are specific
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  actions. Right, let's run through them.
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  It makes it very practical first to defraud.
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  Defraud. This is theft by deception or by
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  delay. Leviticus 19.13 is the key
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  reference there. If you owe someone money for
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  work they did and you have the money now, but you say eh, I'll
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  pay you next week. You're using their money.
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  You're defrauding them. You are keeping their capital to
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  benefit yourself even for a short time.
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  OK. 2nd is to pervert judgement. This is tilting the scales.
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  Bribery is the obvious one, but also procedural injustice.
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  It's when the referee is on the payroll of one of the teams.
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  When the system itself is rigged so that the outcome is
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  determined by strength or connections, not by truth. 3rd
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  is to exploit weakness. This is predatory.
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  It's actively targeting those who have no recourse, the
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  immigrant who doesn't speak the language, the widow who doesn't
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  understand the complex contract. The oppressor looks for
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  vulnerability and sees it as an opportunity, not as a call to
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  protect. That's chilling. 4th is to
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  intimidate. This is ruling by fear.
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  If you complain, you will never work in this town again.
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  It's using the threat of retaliation to maintain control
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  and silence dissent. 5th is to bear false witness, which we
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  touched on weaponizing someone's reputation.
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  And the 6th is to coerce or abuse.
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  This is using a position of authority to treat people like
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  objects. It's the dehumanization of the
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  other for your own ends. It is a grim list, but it really
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  clarifies things. It takes oppression out of the
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  clouds and puts it right on the ground with, you know, specific
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  actions. It does.
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  It gives it hands and feet. Now I want to move to what the
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  source is called the flagship exegesis.
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  We're going to do a deep dive into James Chapter 5.
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  James 5 verses one through 6. This is a powerhouse text.
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  It's a it's not for the faint of heart.
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  The sources call it a covenant lawsuit or a woe Oracle.
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  What does that mean? It sounds very Old Testament.
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  It is in the Old Testament. The prophets would come and
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  essentially bring a lawsuit on God's behalf against the people
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  of Israel. James is stepping into that
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  prophetic role. He is not writing a polite
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  letter here. He is thundering.
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  And what does he say? He opens with Come now you rid,
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  weep, and howl for your miseries that are coming upon you.
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  Weep and howl. That's intense.
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  There's no gentle introduction, it's a direct confrontation.
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  And he's targeting the rich. But the sources are careful to
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  clarify it's not just because they have money, right?
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  I mean, Abraham was rich. Job was rich.
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  Correct. This is a critical distinction.
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  The Bible does not condemn wealth intrinsically.
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  It condemns the method of accumulation and the use of that
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  wealth. The target here is the specific
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  method of getting rich by crushing others.
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  And James gets very specific about that method.
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  Very specific, he says. Behold, the wages of the
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  laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud,
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  are crying out against you. There's some really interesting
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  grammar analysis in the sources about this passage.
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  They talk about the grammar of Greed I.
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  Love that phrase. Yeah.
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  Specifically, the Greek verb apostoregu, which means what
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  defrauded or kept back. Yes, defrauded or kept back.
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  And looking at the Greek is really eliminating.
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  Here. The verb is in the perfect
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  tense. OK, my high school English class
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  was a long time ago. Remind me what the perfect tense
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  implies? It describes an action that
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  happened in the past but has results that continue on into
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  the present. Oh, OK, So the fraud, the
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  holding back of the wages that happened yesterday or last
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  month, but the guilt and the state of that money being
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  stolen, that reality remains right now in the present.
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  So the money. Sitting in the rich man's bank
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  account out is essentially a crime scene.
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  That is the perfect image. The money is sitting there
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  actively testifying against the holder.
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  It's radioactive with guilt. And then James uses
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  personification, which is just haunting.
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  He says the wages cry out. Yes, the cries of the harvesters
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  have reached the ears of the Lord of Sabeov.
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  So even if the laborer is silenced, maybe they signed an
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  NDA, maybe they're just too afraid to speak.
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  The money itself has a voice. The inanimate silver and gold
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  are screaming to God. It shows that you cannot
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  actually hide injustice. You can hide it from the human
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  resources department, you can hide it from the public, But the
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  physical reality of the theft cries out to heaven.
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  And who is it crying out to? This is where it gets really
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  interesting for me. The text highlights that
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  specific title for God Curious Saba Hoth.
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  The Lord of Saba Hoth, and it's critical to know this is not the
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  Lord of the Sabbath, which is about rest.
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  This translates to the Lord of Hosts or the Lord of Armies.
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  The Lord of Armies, so James is not appealing to God as a gentle
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  shepherd. Here, not at all.
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  He is appealing to the warrior God, the commander of angelic
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  armies. The theological implication is
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  frankly terrifying for the oppressor.
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  James is saying you think you are safe because you are rich
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  and powerful and have good lawyers.
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  You have just provoked the General of the Universe's
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  armies. It is a warning that the
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  respectable oppressor in his clean suit is actually in a
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  state of war against God. That definitely changes the
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  tone. It's not just God is
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  disappointed in you, it is God is arming for battle against
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  you. That's the force of the text,
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  and it gets even more direct in verse 6.
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  You have condemned and killed the just one.
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  Killed the just one. How does that connect to wage
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  theft? This is what the sources called
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  judicial murder. It's using the legal system, the
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  courts, the judgments, the contracts to strip a person of
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  their livelihood. In the ancient world, if you
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  took a poor man's land or his wages, you were effectively
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  killing him. You were taking away his life
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  support. The law was your weapon.
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  And the sources connect this ultimately to Jesus.
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  Yes, the ultimate just one who was condemned and killed by a
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  corrupt court was Jesus Christ. So every time an oppressor uses
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  the system to crush an innocent person they are in a sense re
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  enacting the great crime of the crucifixion.
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  They are siding with Caiaphas and Pilot against the innocent.
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  That is a very heavy realization.
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  OK, so we've defined the ACT. We have look at the law that it
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  breaks. Now we need to look at the root.
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  Where does all of this come from?
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  The heart. And the sources here are very
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  specific about contrasting the reformed view with with other
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  popular theories like critical race theory or liberal theology.
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  This is a vital distinction to make.
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  Modern secular theories often locate sin and abstract
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  structures or specific identity groups.
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  Right, they'll say, you know, this group is the oppressor,
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  this group is the oppressed based on their identity.
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  Exactly. The Reformed view grounded in
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  Scripture rejects that. It affirms the doctrine of total
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  depravity. Which means the problem is not
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  just out there in the system. The problem is in here in the
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  heart. Jeremiah 17.9 says the heart is
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  deceit above all things and desperately sick.
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  The root of oppression is the human heart, and that sinful
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  heart is common to all men. Rich, poor, powerful, weak.
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  All of us. We all have the same root system
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  of sin. Which means you cannot just fix
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  the system and expect utopia. You have to go deeper.
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  So let's look at the specific idols of the heart that the text
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  lists. There are four big ones.
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  The 1st is Pride. Pride.
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  It's the demand to be feared. It's entitlement.
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  I'm important, therefore you are a tool for my I use.
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  It's seeing other people as extensions of your own will.
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  Then there's greed, which we've talked.
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  About yes, the love of money valuing profit over people.
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  It's the cold calculus that says I am willing to trade your
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  well-being for my quarterly bonus.
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  The third one is the fear of man.
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  This one is sneaky. This one is huge, especially in
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  institutional or corporate structures.
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  You commit oppression not because you hate the victim, but
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  to protect the brand, to protect your own reputation.
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  So you silence a victim not out of malice, but because you're
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  terrified of what people will think if the truth gets out.
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  Exactly. It's a sin of cowardice.
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  And finally, the 4th idol Unbelief.
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  Which undergirds all the others. It's the practical denial that
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  God will judge. If you really, truly believe the
• 18:50
  Lord of Sabbath was listening to the cries of the laborers, you
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  wouldn't do it. So at its root, oppression is
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  always a failure of faith. And this leads to consequences.
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  It's not just that people get hurt.
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  The oppressor gets damaged to the sources.
• 19:03
  Talk about A hardness of heart. Oppression is habit forming.
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  Sin sears the conscience. The more you do it, the less you
• 19:10
  feel it. You lose the ability to self
• 19:12
  examine. What starts as an act becomes a
• 19:14
  habit, and what the habit becomes your character.
• 19:16
  And it creates institutional corruption.
• 19:18
  It has to. One sin requires a cover up.
• 19:21
  The cover up requires a lie. The lie requires intimidating
• 19:25
  witnesses. Suddenly you have built an
• 19:27
  entire machine that exists to protect the ruthless and silence
• 19:30
  the wounded. And in the end, there is divine
• 19:33
  judgement. God acts sometimes.
• 19:35
  He acts in history. Empires fall, businesses
• 19:38
  collapse, reputations are ruined.
• 19:40
  But he always acts eternity. No one gets away with it.
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  This is a very dark picture, but the sources don't leave us there
• 19:48
  in the dark. We need to talk about the
• 19:49
  remedy, but first they warn US against false gospels.
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  There are a lot of counterfeits out there when it comes to the
• 19:56
  topic of justice. We have to identify these traps
• 19:59
  or we'll end up doing more harm than good.
• 20:01
  The first one the sources mentioned is privatize pietism.
• 20:05
  Privatize pietism. This is the error of saying just
• 20:08
  preach salvation, just focus on souls.
• 20:10
  Justice doesn't matter. That's a social issue.
• 20:12
  The source refutes this by showing that loving your
• 20:14
  neighbor is a command, not a suggestion.
• 20:17
  It's evidence of salvation, not an optional extra.
• 20:20
  OK, what's the next counterfeit the social Gospel?
• 20:22
  This is the opposite error. It's seeking A structural fix
• 20:25
  without regeneration. It's trying to build the Kingdom
• 20:28
  of God without the King. So changing the laws but not the
• 20:32
  people. Precisely.
• 20:33
  And if you change the system without changing the human
• 20:36
  heart, you just redirect the sin.
• 20:38
  You end up with new oppressors flying different flags and using
• 20:41
  different slogans. The third one is ideological
• 20:45
  justice. This is a modern one.
• 20:46
  It's redefining right and wrong based on group identity rather
• 20:50
  than the 10 commandments. It essentially says justice is
• 20:54
  whatever helps my side win. That's not biblical justice,
• 20:58
  that's just tribalism with a moral sounding vocabulary.
• 21:01
  And the last one, pragmatism or prosperity?
• 21:04
  This is the great era of the business world and sometimes the
• 21:07
  church. It's calling success a blessing,
• 21:09
  regardless of the sinful means used to get it.
• 21:11
  Look how much money we made God must be pleased with.
• 21:14
  Us exactly. But if you made that money by
• 21:17
  violating the 8th Commandment and crushing the poor, God is
• 21:20
  not pleased. He is profoundly offended.
• 21:23
  So if those are the counterfeits, what is the true
• 21:25
  remedy? It can only be the gospel.
• 21:27
  There's no other answer. Specifically, it starts with the
• 21:29
  cross. How does the cross address
• 21:31
  oppression? The cross is the only place in
• 21:34
  the universe where perfect justice and perfect mercy meet.
• 21:38
  At the cross, God did not shrug at sin and injustice.
• 21:42
  He took it so seriously that he punished it in his own Son.
• 21:45
  It shows that God is not indifferent to evil.
• 21:48
  And then justification. This is the only ground for our
• 21:52
  standing before God. We are not saved by our justice
• 21:55
  work. We aren't good enough.
• 21:57
  We are saved by Christ's perfect work credited to our account.
• 22:01
  And union with Christ. I think this is the key to the
• 22:03
  how. How does a person change?
• 22:06
  Absolutely. This is the engine of
• 22:07
  sanctification. We don't stop oppressing just by
• 22:10
  gritting our teeth and trying harder.
• 22:11
  That's willpower. We start because we are united
• 22:14
  to Christ, the source says. We are united to the one who
• 22:16
  became poor for us so that we might become rich in him.
• 22:19
  So it's grace that motivates the change.
• 22:21
  It has to be when you realize the immense, intense grace you
• 22:24
  have received, it breaks the power of greed and pride.
• 22:27
  You start to become a conduit of grace to others, not a hoarder
• 22:30
  of strength for yourself. OK, now we get to the really
• 22:33
  practical stuff application, because if this is just head
• 22:38
  knowledge, we've missed the entire point.
• 22:40
  The sources talk about repentance and reform, yes, but
• 22:44
  they make a critical distinction.
• 22:46
  Repentance is not just remorse, it's not just feeling bad.
• 22:49
  You got caught and it's definitely not image management.
• 22:52
  And we see a lot of image Management Today, don't we?
• 22:55
  The carefully worded PR apology mistakes were made, right?
• 23:00
  True biblical repentance requires first confession naming
• 23:05
  the sins specifically not mistakes were made, but I stole
• 23:08
  wages not We had a communication breakdown, but I bore false
• 23:12
  witness. And 2nd cessation.
• 23:15
  You have to stop immediately. You cannot repent of hitting
• 23:17
  someone while your fist is still swinging.
• 23:19
  The harmful action must cease. And 3rd restitution.
• 23:23
  This is the one nobody likes to talk about.
• 23:25
  Yeah, the Zacchaeus principle. Zacchaeus is the biblical model
• 23:28
  for repentance from this kind of thin He meets Jesus and he
• 23:31
  doesn't just say I'm sorry. He stands up and says if I have
• 23:34
  defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.
• 23:36
  Wow, four times as much. That's the principle.
• 23:39
  If the sin was material, if you took money or land or time,
• 23:43
  words are not enough. You must, as much as is
• 23:46
  possible, pay it back. And the final piece is
• 23:49
  accountability. Submitting to oversight.
• 23:52
  You can't be The Lone Ranger who promises to do better.
• 23:54
  You need to be under the authority of the church or other
• 23:57
  legitimate structures to ensure the change is real.
• 24:00
  The sources break this down even further into head, heart and
• 24:04
  hands. Let's run through that.
• 24:05
  What needs to change in the head?
• 24:07
  In your head you're thinking you have to believe that God is the
• 24:10
  proprietor of all wealth. It is not yours.
• 24:13
  You are a steward and you have to believe, really believe, that
• 24:17
  he is the final judge. OK.
• 24:19
  And the heart. In your heart, your affections,
• 24:21
  you have to cultivate a holy revulsion for extortion and
• 24:24
  injustice. You have to learn to hate it
• 24:26
  like God hates it. And you must love the Savior
• 24:28
  more than your bank account. And finally, the hands, the
• 24:31
  action. What does this look like for
• 24:33
  employers? For employers, pay promptly.
• 24:38
  Honor your contracts, both the letter and the Spirit, and do
• 24:41
  not threaten. Ephesians 6.9 explicitly says
• 24:44
  masters should give up threatening.
• 24:46
  That is a direct command. What about for the church?
• 24:49
  For the church, practice impartiality.
• 24:51
  James chapter 2 is all about this.
• 24:54
  Do not favor the rich donor in the front Pew over the poor
• 24:57
  member in the back and use biblical discipline for
• 25:00
  scandals, not cover ups. The church should be the safest
• 25:03
  place in the world for the vulnerable, not a hiding place
• 25:06
  for oppressors. And for the civil sphere, what's
• 25:08
  our role there? We have to acknowledge the
• 25:10
  magistrate's God-given role, Romans 13 says.
• 25:13
  Their job is to be a terror to evil, to punish wrongdoing.
• 25:16
  So if a crime has happened, fraud, abuse, theft, it should
• 25:20
  be reported to the civil authorities.
• 25:22
  It should not be handled internally to save the
• 25:24
  reputation of an organization that is usurping the
• 25:27
  magistrate's role. This has been a heavy deep dive,
• 25:29
  a really heavy one, but a necessary one.
• 25:32
  I think we've gone from the definition of oppression as
• 25:35
  active sin. All the way to the terror of the
• 25:37
  Lord of Sabef. And then to the hope that's
• 25:39
  found only in Christ's atonement.
• 25:40
  And that's the walk we have to take.
• 25:43
  We tackle this difficult topic not to despair, but to reform.
• 25:48
  The reform stance has always been that we work for justice
• 25:51
  not to save ourselves, but as a fruit of the salvation we have
• 25:54
  already received by grace. I want to leave the listener
• 25:58
  with a final thought from the text.
• 26:00
  It's that image that we started with, the image of the clean
• 26:02
  suit. Oppression isn't always a
• 26:04
  villain in a movie. It can be a policy, it can be a
• 26:07
  silence, it can be a signature on a contract.
• 26:10
  And the challenge that the text leaves us with is this.
• 26:12
  The question it asks is, is your treasure testifying against you,
• 26:17
  or is your stewardship testifying to grace?
• 26:20
  James says the judge is standing at the door.
• 26:22
  That's a warning to the wicked, but it's also the ultimate hope
• 26:25
  for the weary. St.
• 26:27
  Thanks for diving in with us on this one.
• 26:28
  It was a privilege. Thank you.