"Though hand join in hand, the wicked shall not be unpunished: but the seed of the righteous shall be delivered. " - Prov 11:21
Just, and the justifier of him which believeth." — Rom_3:26
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Our last couple of posts have been about the mercy of God ... time now to take a look at His justice.... the other side of the coin.
The justice of God inspires fear and terror, knowing that it demands payment for each and every transgression, and His Grace and Mercy seems --unjust-- , bestowing favor on those that do not merit it!
Our text today reinforces the concept of Justice, but like a coin, contains both a curse and a blessing! The wicked shall by no means go unpunished, but the seed of the righteous --shall-- be delivered!
Justice is something we instinctively sense and respond to. Karma, "what goes around comes around" are concepts and sayings that are not inspired by any text, but from human experience.
In the real, physical, world, the scales must always balance. Energy, Mass, Momentum must always be conserved, every action has an equal, and exactly opposite reaction!
Our world is built upon justice!
God's justice, like the world we inhabit, is no respecter of persons. His Laws, and His throne are founded upon righteousness, and that righteousness will not let anyone "skate" around punishment, just as the Laws of Nature do not bend for anyone or anything.
The mechanism of His Grace however, is a marvelous, and a wonderful thing to behold, where at the Cross, His justice was satisfied, once and for all -- and humanity could now ---LEAN ON--- His Justice, for COMFORT , ASSURANCE, and STRENGTH.
What was death to us, now becomes the ---guaranteed--- way to life !!!!
Charles Spurgeon says it the best, and we will leave you with his words :
" Being justified by faith, we have peace with God. Conscience accuses no longer. Judgment now decides --for the sinner instead of --against him.
Memory looks back upon past sins, with deep sorrow for the sin, but yet with no dread of any penalty to come; for Christ has paid the debt of his people to the last jot and tittle, and received the divine receipt; and ----unless God can be so ---unjust--- as to demand ---double payment for one debt--- , --no soul-- for whom Jesus died as a substitute can --ever be cast into hell.
It seems to be one of the very principles of our enlightened nature to believe that God is just; we feel that it must be so, and this gives us our terror at first; but is it not marvelous that this very same belief that God is just, becomes afterwards the pillar of our confidence and peace!
If God be just, I, a sinner, alone and without a substitute, must be punished; but Jesus stands in my stead and is punished for me; and now, if God be just, I, a sinner, standing in Christ, can never be punished. God must change his nature before one soul, for whom Jesus was a substitute, can ever by any possibility suffer the lash of the law.
Therefore, Jesus having taken the place of the believer-having rendered a full equivalent to divine wrath for all that his people ought to have suffered as the result of sin, the believer can shout with glorious triumph, "Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect?" Not God, for he hath justified; not Christ, for he hath died, "yea rather hath risen again."
My hope lives not because I am not a sinner, but because I am a sinner for whom Christ died; my trust is not that I am holy, but that being unholy, he is my righteousness. My faith rests not upon what I am, or shall be, or feel, or know, but in what Christ is, in what he has done, and in what he is now doing for me.
On the lion of justice the fair maid of hope rides like a queen."
- C.H. Spurgeon, Morning and Evening (Sep 25, Morning)
Hallelujah!!!