Equal Justice Requires Universal Laws

As a matter of moral justice, crimes and other kinds of social wrongdoing require a just consequence. Although the details of each wrongdoing vary, and should be balanced and meted against relevant circumstances, real justice is ultimately “equal” to the offense committed (or else it is not truly just). Yet “equal” justice, whether penal or compensatory, requires universal laws in order to achieve equality in application.

Universal laws don’t emerge randomly or by accident. Universal laws, and thus also equal justice, must come from a universal and just Lawgiver, God Himself.

When our desire for equal justice through the application of universal laws is frustrated, this frustration is an indication of our sense that there is a lawgiver (and judge) above and beyond our society and culture (as well as all others). People throughout history have held the expectation that they will be judged after death. The timeless practice of recognizing injustices in this life, and expecting all injustices to be resolved hereafter by a truly equal justice, reveals an intuitive sense that God’s universal justice, some day, will be meted out according to His universal laws.