Justification - Translating Christianese

Intro - Translating Christianese
Christians share what we believe to be a common language. It carries with it words that we believe to hold common meaning. We don't, for instance, need to explain to one another who is Christ... But then again are we so sure that everyone holds the same view? Christ is Jesus, born of a virgin, was man and God, suffered on a cross, and rose again. Good. End of story. Or is it? How much meaning does Christ hold in your life? Do you see the storyline of the Christ throughout the entire Bible? Can we rely on the stories that talk about him in the Bible or can he only be seen to us today by what we can verify historically? Exactly what can be verified historically about this man? How little or how much of a man was he? Was he completely God or half God or both man and God?

I think we suffer from a common language that the blogosphere has termed Christianese. The term defines the phenomenon when Christians think they are speaking the same language when in fact they may not be. I will put more thoughts down later to this Christianese idea, but in the meantime I thought it would be helpful (at least for me) to try and more thoroughly define some Christianese words that we Christians too often throw around and assume the meaning is defined in stone for everyone when it may not be. This post by no means gives a complete definition of the term, but attempts to give more real world application and meaning to the term for me and, I hope, maybe helps another.

JUSTIFICATION

Luke 10:29

Is it hard for you to ever admit that you are wrong? And if you are able to admit that you are wrong at times, do you at least feel that you were misunderstood and the whole turn of events came about unfairly?

I think we all have an extraordinary ability to justify our actions. This ability is most clearly seen when we think others will see us at fault.

If you don't see this as being the case then permit me continue from another angle. Have you ever seen somebody spin a personal story in such a way that they looked better in their account then in what actually happened? I for one know that I have the peculiar ability to win an argument (every time!) when I recount the episode to another person after the fact.

It is almost as if something very deep inside of us (as if it were part of our very nature) demands that we justify our actions.

Another way in which we justify our actions is seen by how we divide up our world between 'good' and 'bad' people. What I mean by this is that we all see the world as liberal versus conservatives, religious versus secular, patriotic versus communist, or educated versus working-class... And all of it is just another way in which we can find justification for our actions, 'My 'good' people do this and so I am not doing anything out of the ordinary' or 'This may be a bad thing that I am doing, but at least I am not like those 'bad' people.'

And since most of us justify our actions and identify ourselves as being part of the good in the world, there are honestly not many left that actually see themselves as bad. I think this revelation should bring clarity to a few things, which I will get to in just a few paragraphs.

"I am just a businessman, giving the people what they want... All I do is satisfy a public demand... I have spent the best years of my life giving people the lighter pleasures, helping them have a good time, and all I get is abuse, the existence of a hunted man."

That was Al Capone speaking during the early decades of last century. For those that don't know, Capone was one of the most ruthless sociopaths in American history, someone who corrupted law and order in Chicago and destroyed lives at whim so that he could live a luxurious lifestyle.

The warden of the infamous Sing Sing prison was interviewed at about that time revealing some striking insight into man's ability to justify, "Few of the criminals in Sing Sing regard themselves as bad men. They are just as human as you and I. So they rationalize, they explain. They can tell you why they had to crack a safe or be quick on the trigger finger. Most of them attempt by a form of reasoning, fallacious or logical, to justify their antisocial acts even to themselves maintaining that they should never have been imprisoned at all."

Today we see the same justification from modern people. From the infamous Bernie Madoff to Al Quaeda to Rafid Ahmed Alwan al-Janabi, these people feel justified in their behavior. Whether it was for a 'good cause' or they were misunderstood or others were also in on the behavior too, people must simply find a way to live with themselves and do that by finding the spin on the story that will give them peace.

I will not get into the many stories I know of people who were unable to find that perfect spin and who instead found suicide as their only relief.

Check out this clip from the movie Casino Jack (go to 1:30 for the clip and watch beforehand for a briefing on the man profiled). Kevin Spacey's depiction of the infamous Jack Abramoff justifying his behavior is striking. But is it all that different from what we would do if we ever found ourselves in his place?From the perspective of modern sociologists, psychologists, psychiatrists, and criminologists, "deviance" (behaviors that violate cultural and social norms) is indeed often justified. The Neutralization Theory, proposed by Gresham Sykes and David Matza, explains how deviants justify their behaviors by providing alternative definitions of their actions and by providing explanations, to themselves and others, which explains their lack of guilt.

If Al Capone, the desperate men and women behind prison walls, Madoff, Janobi, Abramoff all don't blame themselves for anything - what about the people with whom you and I come in contact?

I think we all have a primal need to justify our behavior.

Can you take criticism? I have a hard time with it. Are you quick to justify your behavior when criticized? I sure do. Can you take responsibility for something wrong that you did if you know that you can get away with it? Have you EVER viewed yourself as guilty without somebody else pointing out your guilt first? If not, can we really be sure of our ability to judge our own morality and behavior? Are we not biased? Will we not always see ourselves better then we actually are?

Galatians 2:21 says if we were justified to God (the one I believe we all long to be justified with and reconnected to) through the law, or by our own merit, Christ died for nothing. But the Christian's great hope is that we are justified by faith to God that just as "one trespass [Adam's] led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness [Christ's] leads to justification and life for all men." (Romans 5:18). This means that the Christian has been given the freedom to not have to play games. We are given the freedom to rest from man's daily struggle to be seen in the best light. We don't have to justify our behavior because our God already has. Without shame we can assume the responsibility for our mistakes. We can reflect into the dark chasms of our souls with introspection and admit how evil we really indeed are. We do not have to pretend and we can be refreshed in doing so.

And we can look to others and forgive because we understand that we are just as broken. We can look to those people with genuine love because we are loved by God even though we too are evil. And incredibly we are loved by a God who simply does not condone the evil, but paid for it fully HIMSELF. And because of this we are broken and moved to love those who wrong us because we first were forgiven ultimately by the greatest act of love the world has ever seen.

Even while we were enemies of God (in direct opposition to his purposes for creation of wholeness and perfect community of brotherhood and love) he took our punishment to justify our behavior, so that we can live more fully, without shame and guilt, and with vitality and love - the purpose that God had planned for us to thrive under along.