When “justice” is an abomination…

The value in using another Christian’s devotional book is in becoming aware of truths that I may not have noticed. Piper does that today. He first quotes:

He who justifies the wicked and he who condemns the righteous are both alike an abomination to the Lord. (Proverbs 17:15)

Then Piper points to Romans 4:5 that says God “justifies the ungodly” and Isaiah 53:5 that says God condemns the righteous, namely, his Son Jesus who was “wounded for our transgressions.” In other words, he who justifies the wicked is an abomination, and he who condemns the righteous is an abomination, but God justifies the ungodly and God put Jesus to death for sins that were not his. Why is this not an abomination?

Piper uses examples of court cases that show how the human way of acquitting the wicked dishonors the law because when this happens, there is no compensation. The law is demeaned, society is degraded, victims are hurt, and recompense is ignored. This treats the law and the person who was assaulted as though they were unworthy of vindication, not too far from the same way the criminal treated them. So it is an abomination.

This kind of acquittal frees a person who will likely commit the same crime again. There is no  guarantee of reform. This too is an abomination.

Condemning the righteous is the same in reverse. The example is a mother who takes the place of her hardened criminal son so she is executed and he goes free. This would not exalt the worth of the law, but exalts the worth of the son at the law’s expense. It would also release a dangerous criminal on society and the mother’s apparent goodness would be lost.

So what about God putting Christ in our place on the cross? This is very different. Christ’s willingness to die in my place is not a desecration but exalts the worth of God's glory and His law: “For this purpose I have come to this hour. Father, glorify thy name” (John 12:27–28). 
God demonstrates His righteousness in justifying the ungodly.

. . . .  This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. (Romans 3:25–26)

The loss of honor that came to the law and to the name of God through our sin was, in fact, restored through the death of Jesus. He paid the penalty for us. Not only that, the justification of the ungodly does not unleash any criminals onto the world. Instead, faith in Him changes lives.

(Christ) gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works. (Titus 2:14)

As Piper says, Christ did not take from society the influence of a good man. Instead He put the Spirit of Christ in all whom He justified. He not only rose from the dead to continue his powerful, positive influence in the world, but gave new life to all that have been set free, a new life that is His life -- lived out in millions of sinners set free to serve Him.

PRAY: Lord God, Your ways are entirely different from ours. You justify sinners, yet that is not at all an abomination. It is the greatest gift ever offered. Love and justice met at the cross and Your goodness reveals how far short we fall. Even in trying to demonstrate love and justice we cannot give Your life to criminals or make society better by releasing them. Forgive our sin of being ‘nice’ to the guilty and so often trampling the innocent in the process. Open eyes so that all who sin will realize how our sin is so degrading to the goodness of You, and how much You can change people by the way You justify those who sin by sending Jesus to die in our place.

Standards of measurement . . .

 

Last night I finished watching a documentary that asks a question related to a current issue that is ruining the lives of our children. This morning, still feeling sick with the power of evil in our world, I read this story:

The curator in the Louvre Museum in Paris overheard two men discussing a masterpiece. One man said to the other, “I don’t think much of that painting.” The curator, feeling obliged to reply to this statement, said, “Dear sir, if I may interrupt, that painting is not on trial; you are. The quality of that painting has already been established. Your disapproval simply demonstrates the frailty of your measuring capability.”

The devotional author goes on to say that in the same way, Jesus is not on trial before people; we are on trial before Him. He has already been approved by God the Father. Those who arrogantly dismiss Him as unworthy of their devotion simply demonstrate their inability to recognize the most precious treasure of all.

That documentary I watched was filled with the same kind of arrogance in people who had no sense of how to measure genuine worth or truth. Their lives, filled with sin and blinded by it, are so far from reflecting the image of God in which they were created, that dubbing them with “frailty of measuring capability” is an extremely polite way of describing their condition. They cannot see, never mind appreciate, the holiness of God nor the precious value of Jesus Christ.

I am thankful to know Jesus, and realize that it is only by grace that I, or anyone else, is saved. He is precious indeed, and I’m humbled to be here instead of being like many people in that documentary.

As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it stands in Scripture: “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.” So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,” and “A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense.” They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do. (1 Peter 2:4–8)

By God’s standards, Jesus is the perfect cornerstone. The leaders of Israel had a faulty standard and even though they inspected Him, they rejected Jesus because He didn’t fit their concept of a Savior. Sadly, millions of men and women throughout history have followed their lead, choosing their own way and sin as a better option. For some, that rejection shows up in self-effort that appears successful but no one is saved by doing good deeds. For others, the rejection puts them on a slippery slope that makes their lives a mockery of all things good. Either way, Christ is rejected.

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you. (Romans 8:1–11)

PRAY: Jesus, hearing of what happens in the lives of those blinded by sin feels like a kick in the gut. It motivates me to intercede, but also to bow before You in gratitude for giving me life in You, for rescuing me from certain judgment. I love You, Lord. And I need to pray for those who have measured You by their own willfulness rather than seeing You as their precious Savior who forgives sin and delivers us from its clutches.

 

 

The only remedy for Guilt . . .

 

Occasionally I see condemned buildings. Usually they are not safe, made so by neglect or abuse. When selecting today’s word that describes God, I wanted to skip this negative one, CONDEMN, yet God does condemn. Interesting though, this word in its various forms occurs far less than the wonderful word, REDEEM which is used at least two times as much. This is hopeful!

The positives are in the words of Jesus and the NT. Jesus makes it clear the criteria for both redemption and condemnation . . .

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved (redeemed) through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. (John 3:17–18)

Condemnation is about unbelief, about rejecting God’s offer of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. It includes sin, yet if sin were the only criteria, no one could be saved “for all sin and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). This is why the Word of God says, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 8:1) He is our only escape.

The reason sin is not in this equation is that everyone sins and no one can stop it without a drastic change of heart and mind. God tells us to obey Him but takes into consideration our inability to do so. We need His help.

Another factor is also in play with the human issue of sin. Sin is driven by Satan’s activity of lies, false signs and wonders, and wicked deception in the lives of those who “refuse to love the truth and so be saved.” God reveals Himself in creation and is refused, or God reveals Himself through His Word and is rejected, or God revealed Himself in Jesus Christ and He is crucified. “ Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false, in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.” (2 Thessalonians 2:9–12)

Persisting in unbelief at any level leads to condemnation and condemnation makes a person much like those old, boarded up buildings. We were created in the image of God to glorify Him. Sin marred that image. If anyone persists in sin, they are abusing and neglecting that for which they were created. Their lives become useless to their original purpose and therefore are boarded up, eventually falling apart for that lack of being meaningful.

The Bible defines sin as going our own way, doing our own thing, saying NO to the Owner and the Owner’s manual. Condemnation, like that of a building, happens through an authority who declares guilt. The Hebrew word means “to declare guilty of wickedness or immorality” like an inspector who checks out the building to see if it is fit for what it was created for. The Greek word means, “to be or become subject to a pronouncement of guilt and a punitive sentence in a legal context.”

We all fall short and deserve the “CONDEMNED” sign over our heads yet the good news is that Jesus took our condemnation and bore its penalty and, in the sacrifice and rising from death to life, He offers us new life — a reconstruction job. This is like those TV shows where a crew comes in and totally rebuilds a rundown house and makes it new.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. (2 Corinthians 5:17)

The remake is both instant and takes a while, but there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ!

Why would anyone not want this? Is it because of the difficulty of looking in the mirror and both realizing and admitting the reflection is not like the image of God —  that it has flaws and imperfections, also evil in varying degrees? Human pride also likes to be in charge, to think we can do it right without help, or at least do it our way without correction. Any rejection says very simply that “I don’t believe what God says” and therein calling God a liar and condemning ourselves.

GAZE INTO HIS GLORY. This next verse fills me with joy and tears: “Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.” (Romans 8:34) Jesus died for me, lives for me, prays all the time for me. His incredible love puts me on my face before Him, glad that He convicted me of sin and unbelief, and glad that He gave me new life in His Son. Sometimes I feel like an old, abandoned building, but that is not what God says about me; I am a new creation and I belong to Him; He can use my life as He wishes because the condemned sign that should have been nailed on me was nailed to the cross and He was condemned for my sake. Hallelujah, what a Savior!