God's Justice - 1

Following on from some of the posts below, I have recently finished reading R.C.Sproul's EXCELLENT book - 'The Holiness of God'. I'm going to share some of the quotes from the book that have specifically affected me and reminded me of the truth of who God is. (By the way anything that is in blue text are my thoughts, and everything else...isn't!)

The purpose of this post isn't to become introspective and burdened by sin. It is a chance to take a fresh look at God's justice. When looking at God's justice afresh, the first and primary point is that his justice has been fully and completely satisfied at the Cross. Nothing we can do can ever go any way to appeasing his wrath and satisfying his justice. As J.I.Packer writes in his book, 'Knowing God'

"...Our sins have been punished; the wheel of retribution has turned; judgement has been inflicted for our ungodliness - not on us, but on Jesus, the lamb of God standing in our place" (Knowing God Ch 18 p212)

Speaking in relation to creation, Sproul writes:

"In creation God is not obliged to give us the gift of life. He is not in debt to us. The gift of life comes by His grace and stands under His divine authority. The task that is given to mankind in creation is to bear witness to the holiness of God, to be His image bearer. We are made to mirror and reflect the holiness of God. We are made to be His ambassadors.
God put Adam and Eve on probation and said "If you sin, you will die." Sin brings the loss of the gift of life. The right to life is forfeited by sin. Once people sin, they forfeit any claim on God to human existence" (Ch 6 "Holy Justice" p109)

As Romans 6:23 says "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord"

When we were created by God, we were created in His image and likeness (Genesis 1:26), as Dr Sproul writes, we were created to bear witness to His holiness, but when sin came into the world it marred that image.

Adrian Warnock quotes C.J.Mahaney from his sermon 'The Holiness of God':

"I don't believe it's unjust for God to take away the gift of life that he gave freely if it wasn't used for the purpose for which he gave it. Because when we sin, what we are saying is—we are not just making a mistake—we are saying no to God's law; we are saying your law is not good; we're saying—God, your law does not cut it, I'm not under your authority; my judgment is superior to yours; I'm defying and opposing you, who in reality I owe everything to."

(http://adrianwarnock.com/2008/06/c-j-mahaney-on-people-god-killed-sermon.htm)

So as soon as Adam and Eve sinned and ate the apple in active disobedience against God, they should have been wiped out for their transgression. However God chose delay his righteous justice


Sproul continues:

"In the case of creation and mankind's fall, the full measure of justice was delayed so that grace would have time to work. Here the delay of justice was not the denial of justice but the establishing of mercy and grace"(p115)

Ultimately God's purpose in everything is to bring glory to himself first and foremost. If he had, quite righteously, wiped out Adam & Eve as soon as they sinned, he would not have been any less just. But he chose to display his attribute of grace in delaying the display of his justice.


To be continued...

He see the depths of our hearts...

Ok, so not so much of a quote, but at church this morning we were singing the song 'Indescribable' and one of the lines of the song blew me away in a way that it hasn't done before. The refrain at the end goes 'Incomparable, Unchangeable, You see the depths of my heart and you love me the same...'

What really stood out to me was that God knows us inside out, he knows our sinful nature and our sinful motivations for doing things that seem good to other people. He knows our deepest thoughts that no-one else every finds out and we would be utterly ashamed if anyone else ever found out. These sins are abhorrent to God, he cannot abide sin in any way shape or form. He is Holy and every time we even think like this we instantly deserve death, because we have disobeyed God. The Bible teaches that the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23) but then the verse follows on to say that the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

How can a God that knows us so completely, better than we know ourselves and so completely Holy love us at all? Romans 5 speaks of this in verse 6 onwards:

"6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— 8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. 10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. 11 More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation."

And also in Ephesians 2:

"1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast."

What a glorious gospel! What an amazing mystery! What scandalous grace! God doesn't only love us even though he knows us inside out, he has made us alive together with Christ and raised us up with him in the heavenly places. He has provided Christ as our mediator to stand between us and the Father, to pay the penalty for our sins that we could not have paid, he lived the perfect life for us and died the perfect death for us.

Psalm 139 perfectly illustrates the extent to which God knows us. He knew us before we were even formed in the womb. I found verse 4 a particularly challenging verse "Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it altogether." Whether that word is glorifying to God or not, he knows it. He can use it to work out his purposes in our lives. He can use it to carry out his sanctifying work in order to help form us and shape us to be more like Him. He can use it as an opportunity to reveal areas of our heart that need to change, in order to help us become more like Him. Here is the Psalm in its entirety:

"1 O Lord, you have searched me and known me!
2 You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
you discern my thoughts from afar.
3 You search out my path and my lying down
and are acquainted with all my ways.
4 Even before a word is on my tongue,
behold, O Lord, you know it altogether.
5 You hem me in, behind and before,
and lay your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
it is high; I cannot attain it.

7 Where shall I go from your Spirit?
Or where shall I flee from your presence?
8 If I ascend to heaven, you are there!
If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!
9 If I take the wings of the morning
and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
10 even there your hand shall lead me,
and your right hand shall hold me.
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me,
and the light about me be night,”
12 even the darkness is not dark to you;
the night is bright as the day,
for darkness is as light with you.

13 For you formed my inward parts;
you knitted me together in my mother's womb.
14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works;
my soul knows it very well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my unformed substance;
in your book were written, every one of them,
the days that were formed for me,
when as yet there was none of them.

17 How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!
18 If I would count them, they are more than the sand.
I awake, and I am still with you.

19 Oh that you would slay the wicked, O God!
O men of blood, depart from me!
20 They speak against you with malicious intent;
your enemies take your name in vain!
21 Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord?
And do I not loathe those who rise up against you?
22 I hate them with complete hatred;
I count them my enemies.

23 Search me, O God, and know my heart!
Try me and know my thoughts!
24 And see if there be any grievous way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting! "

I trust that this truth will spur us on to a greater trust and a deeper faith in our glorious God. He knows us inside out yet he has shown us the ultimate example of love in fulfilling our greatest need, which is our need for a Saviour, a rescue from the punishment that we so richly deserve. Praise Him!