"I have seen the affliction of my people...and have heard their cry...and I have come down to deliver them. Go tell Pharaoh, 'let my people go'" (Ex 3.7-11; 5.1). The biblical meaning of justice is derived neither from abstract notions about God nor ethical reflections on human virtue. Rather, it is proclaimed by people who have experienced God's liberating action within a context of oppression. Thus to "know" God's justice the church must begin where the bible itself begins: in solidarity with people oppressed, victimized, and exploited. Within that context we can learn anew the Name, and the revelation of God's justice, and the promise of the covenant, and the celebration of God's power and mercy.

The world should not be the way it is. That is a statement of fact and not simply a 'cliché'. Never before has injustice and oppression been more widespread, the world more fragmented or threatened, or the need for restoring wholeness and shalom more urgent. The mind can barely fathom the data of despair that cries out from "the sinned against" of our world, nor can it comprehend the brutal ways human beings are violated. This really embraces all the cruelty the human brain can devise. A Presbyterian pastor from Mozambique gives dramatic testimony to this point:

We face destabilisation, not a war between two armies. The groups backed by certain western powers and the Republic of South Africa cause us incredible suffering. People die every day. It is difficult to travel from one centre to another except by air. Our infrastructure is destroyed and in addition to the million refugees in neighbouring countries, more than four million of our own population are displaced inside the country. People are being forced to kill, cook and eat their own children by the MNR [Renamo, a "right wing" dissident movement within Mozambique]. Our wages have scarcely increased over the last few years but our currency has been savagely devalued from 40 to the US dollar in 1986 to 450 to the dollar now. Inflation is rampant, medical care very difficult, unemployment a part of daily life.

This is not an isolated witness to injustice in our world. Indeed, the litany of abuse, violence, and inequity in our present age seems endless, and for each story we hear there are a million others unheard, all of them lamentations from the poor and victimised who need deliverance and for whom the covenant God demands justice: "Let my people go". Consider these realities:

800 million people in the world live in absolute poverty: a condition of life so characterized by malnutrition, illiteracy, disease, squalid surroundings, high infant mortality and low life expectancy as to be beneath any reasonable definition of human decency (World Development Report, 1987).
An additional 770 million people do not have enough food for an active working life. 40,000 children die of hunger related causes every day.
An estimated 1 billion people live under a perpetual "state of emergency": a condition characterized by fear, intimidation, indiscriminate detentions, "salvaging" (politically motivated killings), "hamletting" (forced relocation of villages into guarded areas), and the denial of the people's right to participate in the political process (Behind the Mask: Human Rights in Asia and Latin America).
20 percent of the human family uses 80 percent of the world's resources. North America, which constitutes about 6 percent of the world's population consumes about 40 percent of the world's resources.
Since 1975 there have been nearly 100,000 disappearances in South America alone; in most cases these people have been tortured and then murdered; 15,000 petitions by family members in Guatemala for information on disappearances have received no response from the ruling regime.
Since 1978, 50,000 Salvadoran civilians have died violent deaths: murdered by "death squads", air force strafing and bombing, etc.
During the 1985 "state of emergency" in South Africa an estimated 11,500 people were detained without trial, including 2,000 children under the age of 16. Since 1960 in South Africa nearly 4 million people have been victims of forced removals.
More than 45 percent of the population in the Philippines are either unemployed or underemployed. More than 70 percent of the people live below the poverty line. More than 80 percent of the Philippine children are malnourished or undernourished.
In 1950, 17 percent of the third world population lived in cities. By the year 2000 it is projected that 40 percent of the population in Africa and 75 percent of the population in South America will be urban. Most of this growth is occurring in "squatter settlements" where the people live in abject poverty without water, sewage, sufficient food, etc.
There are 15 million refugees in the world today. An estimated 4 million are in Africa, a figure probably low given that 1.3 million are internally displaced in the Sudan alone. In Central America, nearly 900,000 people are being displaced within their own countries, with between 730,000 and 1 million seeking refuge elsewhere. The typical refugee is a woman with a child.

This data points to the gross inequities separating the nations and peoples of the world, and underscores the massive human suffering of the two-thirds world. And it is important always to remember that behind each tally is a human being, named by God and created in God's image, and for that reason having an inalienable right to life. The data needs repeating: there are nearly a billion human beings in our world who live in poverty, and hundreds of millions more for whom political terror, torture, and tyranny are the daily context of their lives. But it is not this data alone that is the scandal to the church and all humanity; the scandal lies in the fact that the impoverished and oppressed co-exist with the many who live in unprecedented affluence and opportunity. Oppression and poverty amidst plenty, with the gap becoming greater: this is the scandal. And this is the world we have created for ourselves. It is a world with which only the indifferent or imperceptive privileged could be satisfied.

I

It is beyond the purpose of this paper to analyse in detail the causes of this situation. It is important, however, to note at least the following general points. The conditions creating the massive poverty and injustice described above are neither accidental nor unintended: the conditions emerged over the course of centuries and for the most part are the result of interaction between the expansionist interests of the nations from the Northern hemisphere and the present third world. This expansion accelerated in the nineteenth century when the newly industrialized powers in the North reached out forcefully to establish white control over vast brown, black and yellow populations in Africa, Asia, South America, and the Pacific Islands. Represented by traders, generals and missionaries, these Northern powers presumed the right to make their "idea of progress" a universal value, and in the process they destroyed many of the traditions of these peoples, claimed their resources as their own, and rendered them colonized and impoverished. In short, the Northern powers did not "discover" what today is called the two-thirds world; on the contrary, for the most part they created this world.

The roles of racism and religion formed a powerful ingredient in this whole process. In presuming their right to rule over entire brown, black and yellow populations, it was psychologically almost inevitable that these Northern white powers should also see those whom they dominated as inferior and in need of guardianship. In fact the moral validation of the North's imperial enterprise rested on the conviction that it had a "manifest destiny" to civilize and uplift these people. The church played a vital role in all of this by giving moral legitimacy and theological self-justification to the North's expanding interests throughout the world. It is doubtful whether this whole expansionist operation could have been psychologically viable without the support and underpinning of racism and the church. (Cf. James Morris, Heaven's Command: An Imperial Progress.)

Two important factors make this a crisis situation in our present age. One is the ideological conflict between the "super powers", which is a principal cause of division and war among and within the nations of the third world. Trapped in this confrontation which they neither want nor created, the peoples and nations of the two-thirds world are often used and violated to serve the interests of the United States and the Soviet Union, causing massive suffering, displacement, exploitation and other human rights violations. It must also be noted of course that this conflict threatens

all of life and the whole creation with the horrible nightmare of nuclear holocaust. To "protect our interests" the super powers and their allies are spending the equivalent of nearly 1.8 million US dollars per minute on armaments and military installations, money that could be used in the "war" against disease, hunger and poverty in the world. It is obvious that the issues of justice, peace and the integrity of creation are interconnected and weave one global tapestry: to tear the thread of any one of these is to shred the whole cloth.

The other critical factor is the unequal distribution of capital wealth. We live in one interconnected world. But it is at the same time a gravely unequal world. As noted above, to a large extent this is the result of the expansion of the free-enterprise nations of western Europe and North America during the past centuries. Today these nations (together with Japan) exercise power over the resources in much of the third world. In addition, they have in place a world economic system by which they control the production and marketing of these resources in ways advantageous to their own interests. The "widening-gap" in the world between rich and poor peoples and nations is for the most part the consequence of the operation of this world economic system. It is also the principal cause of the catastrophic external debt of the two-thirds world, which now totals over 1,250 billion US dollars. All of this continues even though there has been a process of decolonization and the emergence of new nation-states in recent decades.

In most of these new nations power is exercised through a select number of very rich families in collaboration with giant transnational corporations (TNCs), which are instruments of the free enterprise countries within the world economic system. Together these elites and the TNCs manage and control much of the industry, commerce and land in these nations, and shape their political, economic and social life. All of this is part of a grand program aimed at the "development" of the poorer countries, in which the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank also play a role.

Although there is much that is praiseworthy about these efforts, critics from these "poorer countries" believe it merely adds to their already massive injustice and fails to put an end to poverty. They say that to understand "development" only in terms of modern technology and economic growth is short-sighted. More than that, they argue that it is racist and unjust in a variety of ways: it sets the framework for world order based on values and interests of the white order; it presupposes that to be human is to produce, to grow, to transform and dominate creation; it makes profit making for the individual and not equity within community the primary value; it continues in subtle and sophisticated ways the centuries-old domination of the non-white "poors" by Northern countries; it plunders the nation's resources, prevents necessary land reform, destroys the eco-system, and displaces villages and people. And, these critics conclude, perhaps most seriously it renders democratic government essentially dysfunctional: the people's interests are made subordinate to the interests of others: the nation's elite, the free enterprise countries, the transnational corporations, foreign or domestic armies or, in some places, the international cocaine mafia. This contributes to repression, and raises serious questions about legitimate authority in these nations.

As the pressure increases upon the poor they often resort to protest and resistance. At such times in many of these countries the national elites join hands with free enterprise countries to impose a military regime upon the people. This is invariably followed by declarations of a "state of emergency" or the imposition of "martial law." Indeed, martial law has become a way of life for most of the nations in the two-thirds world, which means that most of these people much of the time are denied the right of participation in the decision making process of their nation. Martial law also means the following: civil courts "temporarily" replaced by special Tribunals and military courts; censorship and the denial of the people's right to freedom of information; the banning of trade union activities and student activism; and often restrictions upon the church and clergy. In short, martial law means that neither the leaders nor the military in these nations are accountable to the people or the just rule of law. This in turn results in gross violations of human rights, including the torture, detentions, disappearances, "salvaging", "hamletting", and so on, noted above. The tragedy in all of this is that the root causes of the "presumed" threats, namely, the massive poverty of the people, is left untouched.

The same pattern of domination exists in socialist countries; socialism also uses military, cultural and ideological means to exploit the resources of people and materials in third world countries for its own interests, only in different ways and with different objectives than capitalism. Like the United States, the Soviet Union has its established zones of influence in our global village in which it exercises its dominion and, at times, arbitrary intervention. And socialist states can also be repressive. The world is not that far removed from the revolution in the Soviet Union or the cultural revolution in China, both of which were drenched in human blood. And although the brutal elimination of dissidents may no longer be the rule in socialist societies, their governments have not yet introduced the necessary reforms to allow for the people's genuine participation in the decision-making process. Indeed, in some cases the interests of the state appear to be in direct contradiction to the human rights of its own people. The Soviet policies of "Perestroika" and "Glasnost" are in fact a tacit admission that socialist governments have kept their people under close state control and supervision. And even as "Glasnost" is pursued in the Soviet Union, it stands in stark contrast to massive human rights violations in various other socialist countries, most notably Romania, and to its own crushing denial of the legitimate aspirations of the Armenians in Azerbaijan.

By no means is this brief overview the full story of either the causes or scope of injustice in our present world. The gaps are obvious: unacceptable levels of poverty, unemployment and social injustice within the rich countries of the north; suffering and repression among indigenous peoples throughout the world; and the banal and oppressive affects of apartheid on the majority non-white population in South Africa, which also disrupts and destabilizes the people and nations of the frontline states in southern Africa. In addition, the brutal, pervasive, and growing influence of racism has not been sufficiently emphasized; systemic racism, together with the insatiable greed of human beings, religious and political extremism, and the militarism of the super powers are clearly the dominant underpinnings of all the injustices noted above. Finally, the paper does not address the various forms of injustice and human rights violations to particular groups of people: for example, women, children, the elderly, the disabled, ethnic minorities, migrant workers, "squatters", "street people", aliens, exiles and refugees. (Note: Both the critical situation in South Africa and the issue of women's rights will be studied by other committees at the Alliance's general council in Seoul. In addition, the Alliance has published an important new study on "refugees, sanctuary and international law" which also will be examined by a special committee at the general council.)

Perhaps, however, the overview provides sufficient substance to call attention to the undeniable truth that our present age is gravely imperilled and in great crisis. Humanity has reached new levels of injustice and oppression which must be resisted and stopped. Millions of people are denied the right to participate in the decisions that affect their lives. Millions more are on the run as homeless exiles and refugees. Millions of children and others die each year of hunger. Hundreds of millions more are being unjustly accused, tortured, detained, imprisoned, assassinated, or in various other ways suffering the indignities of rights denied or violated. In addition, the unequal distribution of capital wealth is a global plague which now threatens the human race with extinction. The richest nations of the world cannot maintain their present rate of consumption and production or press their present model of "development" without risking catastrophic levels of starvation, disease and death throughout the world. As noted above, this is already a terrible reality for much of the third world, and the prospects for the future are unthinkable.

II

Nothing described above overdraws the gross injustice within our present world. We live in dark times, and for the poor and oppressed classes of the world these times are desperate and obscene. For the church, any analysis of our world situation is futile and incomplete without mention of the "fall" and the significance of the fall (Gen 3). In the bible, the fall refers to the profound disorientation affecting all relationships in the totality of creation. The fall means the reign of chaos throughout creation now, so that even that which is ordained by the ruling powers as "order" is, in truth, disorder (cf. 1 Cor 2. 6-8; Gal. 4.1-11; Eph 2.1, 3.10, 6.12; Rev 13). The fall means the consignment of all created life, and of the realm of time, to the power of death.

Thus to understate or diminish the reality of the fall from any analysis of the forms and causes of injustice noted above not only misrepresents the biblical faith but also fails to recognize the profound spiritual malaise in our world and thus radically distorts the truth of our situation. On the other hand, to face the biblical meaning of the fall liberates people to view our world with unflinching, resilient realism. Indeed, it is only from within the biblical description of human and systemic sin that we can recognize that the initiative for the world's liberation must come from God, and in recognition of that truth to realize that a primary part of our vocation will be confession and repentance. The content or message of such confession and repentance is the radical acknowledgement of our own helplessness before the power of sin. It is only then that awareness of the judgement of the word of God can take place. And, paradoxically, that is when God's liberating action can begin. For in our weakness the judgement of God is manifested as the justice of God. God's

justice is expressed fully and finally in the word of God, who is Jesus Christ. God's justice is essentially God's gracious and irreversible commitment to the creation, implementation, and consummation of that word in the world (Rom 1.16-17; 5.6-11; 8.38; 1 Cor 1.26-31; Phil 2.1-11). In the "one story of the bible", this meaning of God's justice is best viewed through the lens of the covenant.

III

The central vision of the bible as disclosed in the covenant is that we are one people, each of us in relationship with God, creation and each other, living in harmony and security towards the joy and shalom of all. This vision is disclosed through God's acts of justice, power and mercy within the history of the covenant people.

Within the covenant, therefore, justice is always relational and never some abstract moral norm. The network of relations in which the Old Testament people were involved - as families, spouses, neighbours, nations, buyers and sellers, members of a community, and so on - were already the "norms": to live "faithfully", "loyally", "equitably", in these relations was to be "just", to practice "justice". All of these relations, however, were within and subject to a fundamental and decisive relation: the relation of the covenant community to God. Therefore justice can be understood only as related to covenant, the relation which God initiated by calling and liberating a people for God's own self. These acts of deliverance were acts of justice in which God demonstrated faithfulness to the covenant partner. It is the same faithfulness that is required from the partners, both in relation to God and within the covenant community. Thus justice is a dynamic and not an abstract term. It is realized within history and community and created ever anew in the changing relations of life, and always qualified by a common relation to the covenant God.

The Hebrews' understanding of justice was decisively formed by God's liberating action which freed them from Egyptian slavery. In response to this saving initiative, as a sign of gratitude, they made a decision at Sinai to organize their communal life within the framework of a covenant relation with God. From that point on the Hebrews perceived their faith in terms of covenant for the just ordering of their life together.

This decision took concrete shape after the Hebrews crossed the Jordan River into Palestine. In recent years biblical scholarship has opened up this important history for us. It now seems clear, for example, that the process by which the Hebrews became established in this "promised land" was long and difficult. When they entered the country they were a poor and divided band of refugee tribes who gathered around the worship of Yahweh. The Canaanites held political and military power in the land, and the Hebrews were an exploited, disenfranchised and marginalized class of people. Slowly, however, under the leadership of Joshua, Deborah and others, partly by military conquest, partly by negotiation, resistance, civil disobedience, or strategic armed revolts this band of tribes succeeded in occupying the land and becoming essentially one covenant people under God. The Israelites celebrated this victory in song as "the righteous acts

of the Lord", that is, as God's acts of justice (Judges 5). And this struggle for liberation reaffirmed their understanding of God's justice as both saving power and a covenant which is not finally based on race or ethnic origin but on a common commitment to this God. To separate these two dimensions - God's liberating justice and the social process which forged the Hebrews into one covenant people - denies both history and Israel's own self understanding. God discloses the meaning of justice through participation within the struggles and longings of a covenant partner.

It is one thing to initiate a "revolution" and quite another to institutionalize and sustain it. Thus Israel's task in this new land was to order its life in concrete ways under the covenant-making God. This was done through the law, which Israel interpreted as God making God's own self sovereign in the social, economic and political life of the people. The writer of Deuteronomy summarizes the law's purpose in this way:

Keep them and do them [the commandments]; for that will be your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say 'Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.' For what great nation is there that has a god so near to it as the Lord our God is to us, whenever we call upon him? And what great nation is there that has statutes and ordinances so righteous as this law which I set before you this day? (Deut 4. 6-8).

We know of course that Israel failed to keep covenant with God and thereby failed to keep covenant with each other. The relation between God's justice and law became separated, causing widespread disorder in the nation. It was at such times that the prophets cast their denunciations: the wicked "pervert justice" and make mockery of God's righteousness. Called to be God's covenant people and a "light to all the world", Israel exploits the poor (Amos: 6-8), is greedy (Isaiah 5.8f), faithless (Hosea 7), perverts the courts (Micah 3.11), and engages in inequitable real estate practices (Micah 2.1-4). Even the land "mourns" (that is, dries up) as a result of such perversions (Hosea 4). By denouncing the violations of the law, the prophets denounced the whole social system that had replaced the vision given by God in the covenant. But at the same time the prophets reaffirmed the fundamental feature of the covenant: the right of the unprotected. Protection of the marginalized - the poor, the widow, the orphan, the outcast, the hungry, the exiled - is again declared as the non-negotiable touchstone of justice within God's covenant (Amos 5.21-24; Isaiah 58.6-7). And God promises to stand in covenant solidarity with these victims of the abuse of power and bear the pain of power misused (Is 53.5). Indeed, for the sake of their liberation the Pharaoh's of the world will be allowed to do their worst to God (Is 52.14-53.12). Thus, biblical faith places its hope for justice in the covenant promise which looks to God's redemptive activity. Jeremiah points us to the future of this promise in these dramatic words:

Behold the days are coming says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with Israel and Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their fore[bears] when I took them by the hand and led them out of Egypt. Although they broke my covenant I was patient with them, says the Lord. But this is the covenant I will make... I will set my law within them and write it on their hearts; I will be their God and they shall be my people (Jer 31.31-34).

IV

God's abiding faithfulness to the covenant finds full and definitive expression in Jesus Christ. Christ is the "new covenant" expected by the remnant preachers, and he himself fulfils "all the law and the prophets" (Matt. 7.12). His person and work are in complete solidarity with God and God's covenant purposes: "And they glorified God saying 'a great prophet has risen among us'. And 'God has visited us'" (Luke 7.16).

Christ announced and established the new covenant order, or as he himself called it in the language of the time, the kingdom of God (Mark 1.15). This kingdom consists of the full reign of God in the world, and places both humanity and the universe under the power of a new age: "All things are made new" (2 Cor 5.17). In Christ the conflict between divine faithfulness and human unfaithfulness is resolved. Shalom finds its expression. God's just-saving power breaks into history and is secured. And this is not a static situation: through the person and power of the Holy Spirit, the kingdom drives towards its consummation.

In all of this the original promises of the covenant are radically manifested and expanded. This age is totally new because in Jesus Christ a new order has dawned. But it is at the same time totally the same God, the same faithfulness to the covenant, the same demands for covenant justice.

In embodying this new order Jesus reaffirmed God's covenant faithfulness to the unprotected of the world (Luke 6. 20-21; 7.18-23). He lived among the victims of injustice, showing "compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd" (Matt. 9.36). Like the poor, he himself had "no place to lay his head" (Matt. 8.20). His life's work was characterized by healing the sick, forgiving sins, feeding the hungry, comforting the afflicted, challenging the powerful, and reaching out to the outcasts of his world. In summing up his ministry, Jesus quoted from Isaiah 61.1-2. "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor, to proclaim release to the captives, recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year [Jubilee?] of the Lord" (Luke 4.18-19).

Christ's ministry was also for the reconciliation of the world. In his saving and redeeming work Christ opens the way for fallen humanity to receive peace with God (John 14.27; 2 Cor 5.17; Col 1.19-20). He is the "righteousness of God" (that is, the justice of God) revealed in the gospel (Rom 1.16-17). This is the same "righteousness of God" sung and celebrated by the covenant people in the Old Testament at the time of their liberation from oppression (cf. Judges 5). As the "righteousness of God", therefore, Christ is the active, faithful, self-revealing word of God in the world; he is the "power of God for salvation to everyone who believes" (Rom 1.17).

This claim is repeated throughout the New Testament, and is the gospel the early Christians were "not ashamed" to proclaim (Rom 1.16). Through his cross and resurrection, Christ "disarmed" the "powers", conquered death, and broke down the dividing wall separating peoples and nations from each other (Col 2.15; 1 Cor 15; 2 Cor 5.17; Gal. 3.28). And now God has enthroned Jesus Christ "far above all rule and authority and powers and dominion", and has made him Lord of all (Eph 1.21; Rev 17.14). Though it does not yet appear that this is so, our hope is grounded in this claim of the gospel. Jesus Christ is Lord. Even now the power of this claim is at work in the world for its transformation. And one day the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdoms of our Lord and of our Christ (Rev 11.15). In a sermon preached in 1988 in Cape Town, South Africa, Dr Allan Boesak poignantly made the point:

And so I want to say this as calmly as I can. Mr [government] Minister, you can threaten us all you like - Jesus Christ is Lord. You can put us in jail as many times as you like - Jesus Christ is Lord. Let your security police terrorize our children and threaten our lives - Jesus Christ is Lord. You can come into the streets and into our churches and you can massacre us - Jesus Christ is Lord. The battle is on. But Jesus Christ is Lord... No government can challenge the living God and survive. And that, Mr Minister is the good news for the people of God, and the bad news for you.

V

The church is called in the Spirit to give witness to this "good news" as instruments of God's justice in the world. As Reformed Christians we understand that the normative ground of this calling is the word of God, which is never without effect on the church (Isaiah 55.10-11; Heb 4.12). Through obedience to the word, in the Spirit, the church is constantly being reformed as it becomes more and more conformed to the image and likeness of Jesus Christ (Phil-2.1-11). For Reformed Christians, this means at least the following:

1. We are a people on pilgrimage (1 Cor 10.1-4; Heb 11.29, 37-12.2). That is, the church is on a restless quest for the realization of God's reign in its own life and in the world (Matt. 6.10). As the covenant people of Israel were called, liberated and led by the Lord through the wilderness and into a promised land, so the church is on the move in history, anticipating in its own life the fully realized "new" covenant age. In calling the church a pilgrim people, both words in the phrase are important. We are truly a people, the covenant people of God reconstituted in Jesus Christ (Rom 9.6-8; Gal. 6.16; Eph 2.11-13; 1 Peter 3.20; Heb 13.13-14). The church is capable of "pitching its tent" in every place and culture. Yet as a pilgrim people, we can never be fully at home in any one place (Phil 3.20; Heb 13.13-14); the primary loyalty of each particular church and Christian is to the universal covenant community, under the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

2. We are people who stand under the judgement of God. Indeed, divine judgement begins with the church (1 Peter 4.17). The church, therefore, must always be engaged in self-examination. This is no small matter, particularly when placed in the context of the injustice in the world. It means, for example, facing the fact that churches and individual Christians have been and are part of the unjust and conflictual reality that has caused so much suffering in human history, and especially in our own history. Indeed, the church produces and reproduces this reality day after day. Thus, for the church to engage in self-examination means raising the critical question of our own particular role in the greed, racism, exclusivism, paternalism, zealous nationalism and other forms and causes of alienation and injustice in the world. That is, it means facing and accepting the fact that God's justice, which is fully embodied in Jesus Christ, is present in the church in shattered, broken, and sometimes perverse forms. For the church to put itself under the judgement of God in this way makes the whole issue of injustice ecclesiologically relevant. It also makes possible the creative discontent and repentance that is necessary for transformation.

3. We are called to be the servant people of our servant Lord (1 Pet. 2.22-24; cf. Isaiah 53). This means that our churches can carry out their prophetic function in human society only insofar as they are prepared to enter into solidarity with the victims of oppression and violence, experiencing their pain and sharing their abuse. The servant church affirms in Jesus Christ that God has a special commitment to the poor, the unprotected, and the wronged of the world, and that God calls the church to stand with Christ against all injustice and with the wronged (Luke 1.46-53; 4.16-21; 6.20-21; 7.18-23; Rom 5.8-11; 12.16). The church knows, moreover, that such witness will be considered subversive and threatening to the "powers" and present values of the world, and that it may require resistance, civil disobedience, and even the giving of its own life (Matt. 16.24-26; Mark 8.34-38; Phil 1.29; 2.1-11).

As a servant church, we seek in our witness to conform our life to our servant Lord, Jesus Christ; the gospel does not separate means from ends. Jesus came "not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many" (Mark 1.45). He incarnated God's love and was himself the suffering servant, "like a lamb that is led to the slaughter", making himself vulnerable to the abuse of power with and for the powerless (Isaiah 53). But Jesus' powerlessness must not be exaggerated or misunderstood. Jesus' powerlessness is also his authority as God's representative by which he resists abusive power with an alternative power, namely, God's new covenant order of love and justice. Indeed, Jesus not only resists every form of abusive power, he absorbs them in suffering love on the cross, and thereby decisively judges them. Thus, through the vulnerable, suffering love of the crucified Christ, the apparent powerlessness of God is made the power of God and the wisdom of God for the salvation of the world (Rom 1.16-17; 1 Cor 1.28-29).

God's identification in Jesus Christ with human suffering does not imply any justification of the suffering human beings inflict on each other. Indeed, it is its sharpest judgement. In affirming the suffering Christ, therefore, we must make our protest against any and every form of abusive power in the world. This is an especially important confession for the Reformed "family" because nearly two-thirds of our member churches live and worship in situations where abusive power violates them every day of their lives. At the same time, Reformed Christians have in view and stand with all who suffer similarly. In many of these cases the situation is desperate in the extreme: there exists no relationship between God's justice and law in the nation-state; the ruling regimes prevent the people's participation in the political process; the people live in a perpetual "state of emergency"; there is no constitution or an independent judiciary to test the legitimate rights of the people; and all attempts at non-violent resistance have been countered and "put down" by brutal and violent counter measures, including threats, intimidation, and the murder of women and children.

In all such cases, as a servant church we stand in the name of Jesus Christ with the victims of violence. The church's solidarity with them takes several forms with respect to the oppressors: it prayers for their repentance, transformation and forgiveness; it also prays for the dismantling of their regime; and it supports active resistance against their abusive rule. The church acknowledges, moreover, that only from within these situations can decisions be made concerning what form such resistance can and should take. In every case, however, the church affirms that it is only on the basis of a commitment to non-violence that the painful and prayerful corporate decision for violent resistance can properly be made. Finally, all of this begs the question for Reformed Christians: In what concrete ways can we demonstrate and live out together, as a family, the validity of our common commitment to the non-violent way of our servant Lord? Our response to that question, which for many in our family is a life and death issue, can give substance to any discussion we might have around the "family table" on the issue of violent or non-violent response to the persistent violence of repressive regimes.

4. We are people of God who are called to herald the coming consummation of the new humanity in Christ Jesus (2 Cor 5.17). The pilgrim church, subject to judgement, conforming itself to its servant Lord, living in solidarity with the victims of injustice, and always open to renewal and transformation partakes of and proclaims this new humanity; we live in tension between the "already" and the "not yet", and make our witness, through the Spirit, to sustain hope in what is not yet (Matt. 6.10; Luke 11.20). Thus we are called to be an anticipatory community, embodying in our own life those features of the new age which are present possibilities. To the extent that we are faithful to Jesus Christ in our life and witness we are a sign, foretaste, or "kind of first fruits" of this new age that one day will be fully realized (1 Cor 11.26-27; James 1.18).

It is a significant fact of our times that such signs are emerging in fresh and creative forms among "Peoples Movements" throughout the world, both within and outside the church. These are bringing together in solidarity Christians and others among the poor and wronged of the world in a common struggle for justice in their own contexts. As such they are indications that God's new covenant age is already present in power in our history. This is seen especially, for example, in the "Christians for National Liberation" movement in the Philippines; in the "Christian base communities" movement in South America; in the "Minjung theology" movement in Korea; in the sanctuary movement in North America; and in the "Christians in solidarity with the third world" movement in Europe. Many in the church are heralding these and other such movements as a "Christological irruption," a sign of hope, through the Spirit, of God's faithfulness in empowering the people for their liberation and the worlds.

The church lives between the times of the creation, implementation and consummation of the word of God in human history. This word is Jesus Christ, who is God's justice in the world, for the world. The church, through the Spirit of Christ, is called to proclaim this word in its life and witness. As long as we are faithful covenant partners in this witness we will be signs of the new age, which is surely coming and is already here. And "the powers of death will never prevail against us" (Matt. 16.18).

VI

The paper points to a number of affirmations in relation to God's justice. These are not unique to Reformed Christianity, but are affirmations that Reformed Christians make in common with the universal body of Christ. More than other traditions, however, Reformed Christians through the years have given great importance to the role of confessing; to be a Reformed Christian has, from the beginning meant confessing. Confessing the faith confers our identity as people of God. And from confessing springs our witness: to offer ourselves as instruments for Christ's mighty work in the Spirit by which he calls humanity to repentance and transformation to the new age. Thus the following statements of faith should not be taken lightly. They emerge from the paper, and are suggested as non-negotiable affirmations to inform and empower the witness of Reformed Christians to God's justice in the world:

Jesus Christ is the "new covenant". In him all of God's original covenant promises are fully confirmed, established and sealed.
Jesus Christ is the justice of God. He, though rich, became poor for our sake, that we by his poverty might become rich. He, knowing no sin, was made to be sin, that in him we might become the justice of God (Phil 2.1-11; 2 Cor 5.21).
Jesus Christ fully embodies in his life what God intends for the life of all humanity. He is the life of the world.
In his person and work Jesus Christ confirms and reconstitutes God's covenant option for the poor and wronged of the world.
In the saving and redeeming work of Jesus Christ, God's victory is secured over every form of abusive power.
Jesus Christ is the sovereign Lord over every realm of life.
Jesus Christ calls the church through the Spirit to stand with him in solidarity with the poor. This call means that the life of every church and the whole people of God must reflect a spirituality that gives witness to our solidarity with the poor. It also includes resisting every form of abusive power by means which reflect the power of love.
The Spirit of Jesus Christ is at work in history moving people and events irreversibly towards the fullness of the new humanity.
The primary loyalty of any particular church must be to the universal body of Jesus Christ.
The Spirit of Jesus Christ is present among people whose full participation in decisions regarding their lives must be encouraged and defended.

Empowered by these affirmations, Reformed Christians are called to covenant with God and each other for justice in a world gravely imperilled which cannot remain the way it is. This point must be underscored. There are conditions in our world which cannot be accepted, and especially by the church if we are to bear faithful witness to what we say we believe: that so many children are dying of starvation every day cannot be tolerated by the church for one day more; that millions have been made refugees, demeaned and uprooted without their consent, is a cry unto God to which the church must respond; that hundreds of millions live under repressive regimes and suffer in poverty the indignities of rights denied, having little or no participation in decisions that affect their lives must be actively denounced, and the church, as an instrument of God's justice, must find new and imaginative ways to establish solidarity with these people; that hundreds of millions are condemned to the vicious cycle of poverty and debt while rich nations and peoples become more wealthy must be addressed and challenged, and especially by churches which themselves profit from this gross systemic inequity. And for Reformed Christians, bearing witness to these and other injustices is made more urgent by the fact that so many of those who suffer are members of our "family".

The question for Reformed Christians is whether we can transcend our fears and parochial interests, and with bold trust in our risen and reigning Lord who promised never to desert us, join hands in covenant to give witness to God's justice in the world. Translated, that question asks whether the Reformed family of churches can be converted. Can we risk our own individual and institutional lives for the sake of the indivisible liberation of the whole world?

Although the evidence from our past does not give cause for optimism, there are hopeful signs presently emerging within "the remnant of the remnant" in the church and in the world. These signs can be seen most clearly among Christian communities in the poorest countries of the world: the people themselves are being empowered by God to demand justice: "Let my people go". In addition, there are growing numbers of Christians from the "one-third" world who have been grasped by God's covenant vision, and thus transformed, and are working and witnessing in bold new ways. Jesus Christ is Lord. The call and challenge for Reformed Christians and the whole church is to incarnate that affirmation, at whatever cost, for the sake of God's justice through Jesus Christ in the world. Everything is at stake.