The Wednesday Word - 28JUN23 A.D.
Justice v Love by D.G. Miles McKee
“For God hath made Him (Jesus) to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.”-II Corinthians 5:21 [KJV] God
is Love, but He is also Just. In His Justice, God demanded the death
penalty for those who had sinned (Romans 6:23). But, at the same time
that Justice called for the death penalty, Love called for Mercy. Now,
here’s the problem, Mercy cannot be granted at the expense of Justice.
He who sits upon the Throne is "the high and lofty One, that inhabits
eternity, whose name is Holy." (Isaiah 57:15). The Holy God must
ruthlessly punish sin because He is Just. Now
here is a divine fact that can’t happen in a human courtroom. A man
comes in to stand before the Judge. He is a lawbreaker. He is guilty;
therefore, he must pay. But God takes this person’s sin and charges it
to someone else and that other person has no sin of his own. This is
good news, (especially for the guilty sinner). This is exactly what God
has done for us in the gospel. God has taken our sin, placed it on
Christ Jesus, and punished Him as if He were us. However, that is only
half of the story. The other half is that God then takes all of Christ’s
righteousness, and places it on us. Listen again to the Word of the Lord, “For God hath made Him (Jesus Christ) to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.” Christ
was regarded as a hell-deserving sinner, as He was executed upon the
cross. He received our verdict of guilty and we received His verdict of
righteous. This is indeed very good news. Our verdict of death has been
reversed because of one man. This one man, Christ Jesus, is now our
only hope and indeed all our hope. This is why God can say in Romans
4:5 that He, “justifies the ungodly.” We don’t have to water that down and say He justifies (declares not guilty),
those who are not so bad, or those who try very hard. No, He justifies
the ungodly … that is radical … but it is good news--especially for the
ungodly. Outside of and apart from us In
the same way, as our condemnation took place outside of ourselves, so
our justification also took place outside of us. Adam’s work got us into
trouble while the Last Adam’s work got us out: see
1 Corinthians15:45-47 & Romans 5:12-21. We cannot overstress that our
salvation was accomplished outside of and apart from us. Just as we
weren’t there when Adam got us into trouble, neither were we there when
Christ got us out. We were not there? Well,
that’s almost true. We were there in the Garden when Adam sinned. We
were there by representation. Adam represented us. We were reckoned as
being in Adam. He is the Father of the human race, and as Father of the
race when he rebelled, we rebelled. When he sinned, we sinned. When he
was separated from God, we were also separated. “But that’s not fair,”
says someone, “that all happened apart from me”. Yes, but consider this,
we were not there, except by representation, when the “Last Adam,”
Jesus Christ, went to the cross. When He died, He died as our
representative. He accomplished our redemption outside of and apart from
us. (See Romans .5:12-19). The
big issue for us to face is whether we are “in Adam” or “in Christ.”
In Christ, we receive a new verdict. It’s one of acquittal, not death. And
remember, we grasp and receive our new verdict by faith alone. Genuine
faith lays hold of the fact that all our sins have been given to the
Lord Jesus Christ and that His entire righteousness has been reckoned to
us. And that’s the Gospel Truth!
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