Rock Solid Foundation of Our Faith and Hope!
When
God describes Himself in Isaiah, He declares and identifies Himself
as a “just God and a Saviour” [ISAIAH
45:21 - Tell ye, and bring
them near; yea, let them take counsel together: who hath declared
this from ancient time? who hath told it from that time? have not I
the LORD? and there is no God else beside Me; a just God and a
Saviour; there is none beside Me].
Since this is true, it must be important to God that we see His
justice in the salvation of sinners.
Every
aspect of God’s salvation of sinners in Christ is glorious but none
more glorious than this: God is just, righteous, and unchangeably
so, even as He saves His people from their sins. Therefore, to
rest in His grace is to rest in His justice because it is that grace
that reigns through righteousness [ROMANS
5:21]. God
satisfied His strict justice in the matter of the sins of His elect
by paying Himself what His justice required.
In
other words, God in flesh satisfied His own just Self when He had by
Himself purged our sins by His death. This is the wisdom of God. This
is central to what His gospel declares as Paul said: “For
I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God
unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and
also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed
from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith”
[ROMANS
1:16,17]. But
satisfied justice is not only the glory of God, it is the rock solid
foundation of our faith and hope. There can be no condemnation to
them that are in Christ Jesus because there is no sin to
condemn.
And
why is there none to condemn? Because He put it away by the sacrifice
of Himself, suffering “the just for the unjust that He
might bring us to God.” God is both just and the Justifier
of all who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ! So great and sufficient
is His work of justice that these justified sinners are free from
all charges of sin! Can you believe this precious truth? “Who
shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that
justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea
rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God,
who also maketh intercession for us” [ROMANS
8:33-34]. Christ
crucified is both the just God and the Saviour! “Payment God
cannot twice demand, first at my bleeding Surety’s hand and then
again at mine.”
-Unknown Gospel preacher
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