God's grace and mercy - R.C.Sproul quote

"We soon forget that with our first sin we have forfeited all rights to the gift of life. That I am drawing breath this morning is an act of divine mercy. God owes me nothing. I owe Him everything. If He allows a tower to fall on my head this afternoon, I cannot claim injustice"

(R.C.Sproul - The Holiness of God, Chapter 6 - Holy Justice p126)

God's Justice - 2

Continuing with some quotes from 'The Holiness of God' by R.C Sproul.

Sometimes, in fact often, we forget the seriousness of our sin in the face of a righteous, upright, Holy God. We forget the message it portrays to others but most importantly the true act of defiance every one of our sins are against God. As I wrote and quoted in the previous post
http://outstandingchristianquotes.blogspot.com/2009/05/gods-justice-1.html every time we sin, we deserve to die.

Sproul writes "Sin is cosmic treason. Sin is treason against a perfectly pure Sovereign. It is an act of supreme ingratitude toward the One who has given us life itself. Have you ever considered the deeper implications of the slightest sin, of the most minute peccadillo (small sin)? What are we saying to our Creator when we disobey Him at the slightest point? We are saying no to the righteousness of God. We are saying, "God, Your law is not good. My judgement is better than Yours. Your authority does not apply to me. I am above and beyond Your jurisdiction. I have the right to do what I want to do, not what You command me to do."

He continues "The slightest sin is an act of defiance against cosmic authority. It is a revolutionary act, a rebellious act in which we are setting ourselves in opposition to the One to whom we owe everything. It is an insult to His holiness..." (p116 Ch 6 Holy Justice)

As it says in Romans 5:10 - 18:

"...as it is written:

“None is righteous, no, not one; 11 no one understands; no one seeks for God. 12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one. 13 Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive. The venom of asps is under their lips. 14 Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness. 15 Their feet are swift to shed blood; 16 in their paths are ruin and misery, 17 and the way of peace they have not known. 18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

What hope do we have? Romans 5:6-11:

"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."

Here lies the amazing dilemma of the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ! We as sinners commit cosmic treason against a perfectly pure Sovereign God. We daily commit acts of defiance and ingratitude towards the One who gave us life itself! As the Rom 5:10-18 passage tells us "NONE is righteous, no NOT ONE"

But Romans 5:6 "...at the right time, Christ died for the UNGODLY..." and verse 8 "...but God shows his love for us in that WHILE WERE STILL SINNERS, Christ died for us"!! & verse 9 "Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more SHALL WE BE SAVED BY HIM FROM THE WRATH OF GOD" (my emphasis added)

As Christians, we are saved from our unrighteousness, our ungodliness, while we were still sinners, from the wrath of God!!! Amazing Grace! What a glorious Saviour we have in Jesus! We have and can do NOTHING to add to our salvation. We did nothing to deserve our salvation. Every time we sin we deserve God's wrath to be poured out in its entirety on us. We deserve to spend eternity in hell. I can't even begin to imagine the seriousness and terror of God's wrath. As a mere creation of God, a human being, I can't relate to what it meant to Jesus to bear God's wrath upon himself. But the response has to be of gratitude and worship! What else could we do?

Sproul talks about the Cross as follows:

"The most violent expression of God's wrath and justice is seen in the Cross. If ever a person had room to complain of injustice, it was Jesus. He was the only innocent man ever to be punished by God. If we stagger at the wrath of God, let us stagger at the Cross. Here is where our astonishment should be focused. If we have cause for moral outrage, let it be directed at Golgotha.

The Cross was at once the most horrible and the most beautiful example of God's wrath. It was the most just and most gracious act in history. God would have been more than unjust, He would have been diabolical to punish Jesus if Jesus had not first willingly taken upon Himself the sins of the world. Once Christ had done that, once He volunteered to be the Lamb of God, laden with our sin, then He became the most grotesque and vile thing on this planet. With the concentrated load of sin He carried, He became utterly repugnant to the Father. God poured out His wrath on this obscene thing. God made Christ accursed for the sin He bore. Herein was God's holy justice perfectly manifest. Yet it was done for us. He took what justice demanded from us. This "for us" aspect of the Cross is what displays the majesty of its grace. At the same time justice and grace, wrath and mercy. It is too astonishing to fathom." (p121-122 Ch 6 Holy Justice)

What a wonderful, fresh reminder of grace, of God's free, unmerited favour, that he shows to us daily, indeed that he sustains and transforms us with! As Christians we should be the most grateful people on the planet. Let us never lose sight of the wonder of the Cross and what it accomplished.

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...