“Justice Served, Justification Provided”

(a repeat from 2011)

"Justice Served, Justification Provided"  

  

    "Christ Jesus: whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; to declare, I say, at this time His righteousness: that He might be just, and the justifier of Him which believeth in Jesus" (Romans 3:24-26).

   An outside observer viewing the relationship between God and man before the advent of the Lord Jesus Christ would surely come to the conclusion that "never the twain shall meet."

   "Your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid His face from you, that he will not hear" (Isaiah 59:2).

   The Lord Jesus made possible the justice of God to be served, while concurrently making possible the justification of those who believe. God's wrath upon sin was fully delivered upon the smitten Lamb of God on the cross of Calvary. "He is the propitiation not for our sins only, but for the sins of the whole world" (I John 2:2). God can therefore offer pardon, redemption and even birth into "the whole family of Heaven and earth" without violating the propriety of His character, nature and way. Indeed, "the wages of sin is death," and a death sentence was served - "Christ died for our sins" (Romans 6:23; I Corinthians 15:3).

   Upon this basis, "all that believe are justified from all things" (Acts 15:39). Indeed, to the degree the Lord Jesus was forsaken on the cross of Calvary, we are "accepted in the Beloved" (Ephesians 1:6). To the degree He bore the wrath of God, we receive the loving favor of God - "Brethren, beloved of the Lord" (II Thessalonians 2:13). To the degree darkness descended upon and into the depths of our Savior's spirit, the light of God shines upon and within us - "Now are ye light in the Lord" (Ephesians 5:8). And to the degree He died, we are "alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Romans 6:11).

   Justice and justification are proportional, as it were. Biblical understanding of how perfectly the Lord's suffering and death atoned for our sins results in our apprehending and accessing just how redeemed we are. This produces in the heart and mind of the born again believer genuine love, devotion and desire to trust and obey God. Conversely, failure to realize the effectiveness of Christ's atoning work on the cross results in a creeping spiritual paralysis and discouragement as the bright sunlight of our Father's grace-bestowed favor is hidden by clouds of ignorance and unbelief. Again, to the degree Divine justice was served on the sinless One who was nevertheless "made to be sin for us," Divine justification envelops the trusting heart with acceptance in the Beloved (II Corinthians 5:21). Growing knowledge of such wonder bears a growing harvest of genuine and impassioned love for so great and so glorious a Savior, resulting in growing expression of "the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ" (Philippians 1:11).

"Ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God."

(I Corinthians 6:11)

Weekly Memory Verse 

   One thing have I desire of the Lord, that will I seek after, that I dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in His temple.

(Psalm 27:4)

    

    

“Crucified Through Weakness”

"Crucified Through Weakness"  

  

    "For though He was crucified through weakness, yet He liveth by the power of God. For we also are weak in Him, but we shall live with Him by the power of God toward you" (II Corinthians 13:4).

    "Be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might" (Ephesians 6:10).

    The Lord Jesus Christ embraced the very extremity of weakness as He submitted Himself to a cross that impaled His hands and feet.  He could seemingly do nothing while hanging upon His tree.  Every appearance gave indication to stillness, emptiness, and despair as the ministry of miracles seemingly came to its end.  "He saved others. Himself He cannot save" (Matthew 27:42).  The very Creator of the universe became helpless as a lamb - "I am poured out like water… My heart is melted" (Psalm 22:14).  "Crucified through weakness…"

    The Savior gave Himself to such frailty because Adam and his race gave themselves to such pride.  Utterly dependent upon God for "life and breath and all things", our native spiritual and moral bent nevertheless deceives us into believing that we can make our own way (Acts 17:25).  "The pride of life" tells us that we are "as gods", possessed of our own inherent ability and knowledge (I John 2:16; Genesis 3:5).  Reality smacks us in the face over and over again, indicting our arrogance and painfully revealing our abject impotence apart from the living God.  We require the being and breath He gives to even make our headlong flight from Him.   Little wonder that the Apostle Paul declared the human mind apart from Christ as "reprobate", or unable to be used for its intended purpose (Romans 1:28).  And little wonder that the Lord Jesus had to embrace the extreme measure of His cross of weakness in order to save us from our utterly wicked and insane delusion of pride.  "Crucified through weakness…"

    For all who believe in the Savior's sacrifice, the mad flight comes to its end.  Indeed, God provides salvation without works because the notion that we can work constitutes the very essence of sin.  We cannot exist apart from God - "it is He that hath made us, and not we ourselves" (Psalm 100:3).  We cannot continue apart from God -  "by Him all things consist" (Colossians 1:17).  And we cannot do anything that we do apart from God - "in Him we live and move and have our being" (Acts 17:28).  The new birth in Christ stills us, demanding that we bring nothing to the spiritual cradle because we have nothing to bring.  We die, in the sense of acknowledging that the pride of life is, again, utterly wicked and insane delusion.  "Crucified through weakness…"

    We do well to begin our days in loving and grateful remembrance that our Creator embraced our weakness in order to save us from our delusion.  Indeed, the Lord Jesus possessed "life in Himself" (John 5:26).  He lived His earthly lifetime, however, according to the life He found in His Father - "I live by the Father" (John 6:57).  Thus, we also do well to greet each new day in the acknowledgement of the Divine provision of "life and breath and all things", and the human need of "without Me, ye can do nothing" (Acts 17:25; John 15:5).  Thereby, we "live with Him by the power of God…"

"We are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh."

(Philippians 3:3)

"LORD, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is; that I may know how frail I am."

(Psalm 39:4)

Weekly Memory Verse 

   One thing have I desire of the Lord, that will I seek after, that I dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in His temple.

(Psalm 27:4)

    

  

“A Boundless Measure of Mercy”

"A Boundless Measure of Mercy"  

  

    Lack of patience regarding the failings of others confirms our need for a greater awareness of how merciful the Lord has been with us.

    "Then his lord, after that he had called him, said unto him, O thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that debt, because thou desiredst me: shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellowservant, even as I had pity on thee? And his lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due unto him" (Matthew 18:32-34).

    In present day currency, the forgiven servant who would not forgive had owed his lord millions of dollars.  His vast obligation erased, the servant then would not forgive his own debtor a sum of fifty dollars.  Torment ensued, of the forgiven man who would not forgive.  "Rightly so!" we might initially cry - until we realize the Lord uttered this parable to confront our own native tendency to seek the Lord's forgiveness for our sins against Him, while failing to bestow mercy upon those who sin against us.

    Terrible as human to human sin is, our wrongs committed against each other pale in comparison to our sins against God.  This is why David uttered those strange words of repentance after he finally came to his senses regarding the matter of Bathsheba and her late husband Uriah (consigned to death by David in order to cover the king's sin):  

     "I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me. Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in Thy sight" (Psalm 51:3-4).

    What?  Against God only?  How could David not consider that his actions constituted grievous sin against Bathsheba and Uriah?  The answer lies in emphasis and that which must always constitute our first response to the realization of our sins.  Regardless of the severity of our wrongs against people, our wrongs against God must loom largest in our hearts and minds.  We sin against perfection of love and good will when we distrust and disobey our Heavenly Father.  Moreover, our sins led Him to deliver His beloved Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to a field of battle far more fierce than the one which took the life of Uriah.  In this most basic sense of truth and consequence, our sins are always against God and God only.  Indeed, only in this light do we then see clearly the seriousness and significance of our sins toward people.

    Such illumination regarding how much for which God has pardoned us, and the extent to which He went to make forgiveness possible, insulates us from the utterly and absurdly wicked tendency to keep the ledger open regarding the sins of others against ourselves.  Indeed, the worst sin any fallen human being has ever committed against another fallen human being, terrible as it is, pales in comparison to our sins against God.  In such holy and solemn light, we cannot fail to view each other with a view toward the cross and its boundless measure of mercy.  Our Father grants to us the peace of bestowing forgiveness in the awed remembrance of our having been forgiven.   Millions of dollars of debt owed to Him wiped clean through the love of Christ for us.  Fifty dollars of debt owed to us by others wiped clean by the same love of Christ in us.  

"Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering; forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye."

(Colossians 3:12-13).

Weekly Memory Verse 

   One thing have I desire of the Lord, that will I seek after, that I dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in His temple.

(Psalm 27:4)