JUSTICE - My Friend!
It
is an astounding thing that such a sinner as I could ever call the
justice of God my friend. God is infinitely and unchangeably holy. I
know that. Also, He is just and His justice is inflexible, the same
for all as it pertains to sin. He must and He will punish all sin.
Being a sinner, there is no way that I in myself could ever look at
divine justice with anything but absolute terror and fear!
Having
made myself an enemy to God, I became a fugitive from His justice. At
least that’s what I thought for a good portion of my life. What I
didn’t know and what I found out at His appointed time, was that He
had already dealt with the matter of my sins. He had already
dealt with them justly,
satisfying His justice by demanding the full penalty of them against
Another. He had in grace appointed a Substitute for me, the Lord
Jesus Christ.
The
eternal Son of God had become Surety for me. He had assumed all the
responsibility for my sins before I was even born. God had been
pleased (for a reason known only to Himself), out of His free and
sovereign grace to not impute (charge) my sins to me. In turn,
He imputed them to my Substitute who came into this world and in His
own body bore that penalty on the cross. The death my sins deserved
He died on the cross.
I
found that what I did not deserve which was eternal life,
forgiveness, mercy, I now must have! I must have it because God’s
justice now requires it! I found that the justice that would have
required my eternal death now requires that I have life! I found that
this is the good news of the gospel of God’s grace to sinners like
me. For that reason, He sought me out and brought to me a messenger
with that Message. The message of grace, of salvation in Christ, of
imputed righteousness, of blood redemption.
What
I thought was bad news to me the sinner was really good news! The
message was that He had died in MY place! Paul’s words in Romans 5
clearly state this: “Therefore as by the
offence of one judgment came
upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the
free gift came upon all men
unto justification of life”
(ROMANS
5:18). The “all men” here is all in Christ. All
those the Father chose, all Christ represented, all the Holy Spirit
calls. This was wonderful news! God is just to forgive my sins and He
wouldn’t be if He didn’t. Justice my friend!
-Gospel report by preacher Gary Shepard
Sovereign
Grace Baptist church of Jacksonville, North Carolina USA
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