God’s mercy and justice in the cross of Jesus

STUDIES ON THE CROSS SERIES

(III) God’s mercy and justice in the cross of Jesus

SCRIPTURE:

For God sent Christ Jesus to take the punishment for our sins and to end all God’s anger against us. He used Christ’s blood and our faith as the means of saving us from his wrath. In this way he was being entirely fair, even though he did not punish those who sinned in former times. For he was looking forward to the time when Christ would come and take away those sins. And now in these days also he can receive sinners in this same way because Jesus took away their sins.

But isn’t this unfair for God to let criminals go free, and say that they are innocent? No, for he does it on the basis of their trust in Jesus who took away their sins. Romans 3:25-26(Living Bible)

OBSERVATION:

On the cross, Almighty God let His Son take the complete punishment for all our sins. Through the cross, God made the way to end His anger against us. At one stroke, God showed both His everlasting mercy and justice at the same time on the cross. He showed His mercy by allowing our undeserving selves to be saved while allowing for His justice, which was fulfilled in the punishment of His Son for our sake. If God was only merciful but not just, He could forgive us without requiring any payment, but that would be unjust. If God was just but not merciful, we would all die in our sins and be condemned to everlasting suffering. Only because God is both merciful and just that He allowed His Son to die for us that we can be saved. Sin had to be paid for. And only our perfect and holy Lord was worthy to pay for our sin and take our place so that we would not need to be punished.

The world cannot understand this because they cannot understand God’s righteousness. In a small way, we can only comprehend justice at our level when seeing murderers and robbers be punished by the law for their wrongdoings. The great majority of people think they don’t need mercy and they do not deserve wrath. They think they are supposedly good people, compared to the criminals of society.

However, in God’s eyes, there is no one righteous before Him, not even one. All the seed of Adam are corrupted and evil. All of us are selfish, all of us greedy, all of us will step over and discard others for our own benefit at the root of it. Parents know how to teach children that it is good manners to respect and thank those that have done good things for them. However, we ourselves fail to thank or acknowledge our God in Heaven who gave us all things and blessed us abundantly with every good blessing that we have. What we need to realize is that because God is so holy, even a single sinful thought or word or action by anyone already disqualifies him from entering God’s perfect, holy Heaven and there is not one of us on earth who pass a day without sinning in one way or another.

The problem is, we look at things only from our own perspective, and think we are ok if we are morally better than our neighbors. We don’t realize that we continually disrespect God by ignoring Him day by day, taking His grace for granted. We don’t realize that we show contempt for God by ruining His creation around us, and hurting each other who are special creations made in God’s own image. We are all actually criminals. Whether greater criminals or lesser criminals, we are still criminals, condemned by God’s righteous law, and without hope except for God’s mercy.

But because God is merciful, He made the way to salvation possible through Jesus Christ who died on the cross and shed His blood for the forgiveness of our sins. However, this salvation is not just a blanket gift without any requirement. There is still a condition, and that condition is that we must put our trust in Jesus, believing that His work on the cross takes away our sins!

While Jesus’ death on the cross is a one time sacrifice, never to be repeated, putting our trust in Jesus is not a one time event! Instead, we need to keep on trusting in Jesus. The meaning of the Greek verb means to go on trusting, to go on having faith in Jesus. Jesus has warned that in the last days, there will be a great falling away and the love of many will grow cold! Many will stop trusting, stop having faith in Jesus! He has warned us so. We are not to be among those who fall away, or those whose love grow cold!

APPLICATION

Let us reexamine our faith, our trust in Jesus. What does it mean to trust Him? Jesus warned that in the Day of Judgment, many would come to Him and say “Lord, Lord, didn’t we do this and that in Your name” and He would say “I never knew you, depart from me, you workers of iniquity?” Mere profession of faith or even works seen to be done for God in the eyes of men were not accepted by Jesus. Instead, Jesus’ words showed two things. Firstly, they did know Jesus. Secondly, they had continued to live in sin. Their professions did not save them. Their service for God did not save them.

The Greek word for “know” here does not mean simply whether Jesus knows our names. Of course He does! Instead, it is a deep kind of “know”, like when a husband knows his wife. It is very deep and intimate, a knowing shared by the best of friends. If we genuinely put our whole trust in Jesus, we will naturally want to press in to know Him personally and intimately. To trust in Jesus means to be willing to hear His voice, and to please Him in whatever way we can. He is to be not just our Savior, but our Lord and Master.

Paul says in the letter of Romans that if we go on confessing with our mouth that Jesus is Lord and we go on believing in our hearts that God raised Him from the dead, we will be saved. Many Christians then think that this is easy, just keep saying Jesus is Lord, and believe in my heart He died on the cross for me and is raised from the dead! However, we need to realize that for the Roman Christians at that time to say “Jesus is Lord” instead of “Caesar is Lord” could come at a terrible price – death by crucifixion or being thrown to wild animals. Therefore, to be willing to keep saying Jesus is Lord means to be so sure of the reality of our faith that we are willing to give up everything, even our lives to stay faithful to Jesus! In these last days, this exact test looks to be coming again very soon, when the Anti-Christ will force everyone to say that he is Lord upon pain of death! Only those who are not cowardly, who truly believe with all their heart that Jesus is truly Lord, will keep the good confession that Jesus is Lord!

Christianity is not a set of rules, or a preset formula to get a ticket to Heaven! Christianity is real, just as the cross of Jesus is real! God is looking for real disciples who genuinely will turn to Him in completeness and work with His Holy Spirit to change them into the likeness of His Son. Christianity is about God taking what is useless like a piece of rubbish, and making it beautiful and precious to Him. And God does not force us. Only those who yield to God and work with Him will He change and transform by the power of the cross. Its no use professing Jesus is Lord, but showing by our actions that we are liars, and that we worship the world instead of God.

If we are not right with God, turn to Him, even right now! Be honest with Him! Tell Him that we need Him, that we know we need to change, that we want to work with Him to change us! Jesus said that whoever comes to Him, He will never turn away. Come to Jesus as we are, but desire and press on to know Him, and let Him teach us and change us by the power of the Holy Spirit!

PRAYER:

Abba Father God, Lord Jesus Christ, You did everything that we might come to You. You gave us the cross, that the way may be open for us to be reconciled to You, to have peace with You, to have fellowship with You and have eternal life. Great, wonderful Lord, You are merciful and You are just and righteous. Everything You do is good and perfect and right! We thank You and praise You, precious Lord. We bring our hearts before You, Lord, we come as living sacrifices before You. Take us, mould us, break us, change us. Turn our hearts to You more and more. Burn away the dross, the unclean things that do not please You. Show us O Lord, the mighty power of the cross! Work deep within our lives to change us, to revive us, to give us new freshness and new peace in You. Let Your Word spoken to us even today burn deep within our hearts. Forgive our pride, our impatience, our prejudice. Show us the way You want us to live, Lord. We praise You, and thank You, and love You, Lord. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.