51. U2 and Justification

For those of you who like U2 out there, there new album has a kick'n song called Magnificent.

They have a sequence in this song that talks about justification. Wanna hear it, here it go....

Justified till we die, you and I will magnify
The Magnificent
Magnificent

Some people say that this is their most spiritual song yet. I personally think "Where the Streets have No Name" is their most spiritual one. Anyways, later on in the song, they repeat this stanza, with a subtle distinction that is hard to pick up from the song. In fact, every web site I looked at that displayed the lyrics to this song totally missed this distinction and wrote the second stanza down wrong. Here is the second stanza:

Justify till we die, you and I will magnify
The Magnificent
Magnificent

Did you catch it? Instead of justified, it is justify. I think Bono has been drinking from the well of NT Wright! The idea behind this distinction is that justification is a setting to rights what has gone wrong, and this setting to rights, or rectification, is on all levels. Creation, personal, spiritual systemic etc. The concept is that God sets things right in us through the gospel, and then we go around in the world, co-operating with him in setting things right in the world. By dying and rising with Christ, we are rectified, or justified. Then the journey begins of dying and rising with Christ our whole lives. In doing so, we begin to play a vital role in setting this world to rights. Not in our own strength or power. No, it is through the dying and rising of Christ, the gospel, that this happens. Yet it is the gospel that pushes into the world where the Spirit flows through us in compassion and love. The "setting things to rights" is what the community of the gospel proclaims and embodies. It is doing some theology!