Thread: "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" (Rom. 3:26).
"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" (Rom. 3:26).
Posted : 17 Oct, 2011 02:18 AM
Devotional
The awful glory of God's justice shines in Jesus. Justice is but another term for holiness. It is holiness in strict and awful exercise. And yet it is a distinct perfection of Yahveh, in the revelation and acknowledgment of which he will be glorified.
The basis of the atoning work of Christ is righteousness, or justice. So the apostle argues, "...whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness..." (Rom. 3:25). Before the Fall of man into sin, the only revelation of God's justice was the threat annexed to the law: "...in the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die" (Gen. 2:17). After the Fall, the appointment of a bloody ritual�the institution of expiatory sacrifices�not only recognized the existence, but illustrated the nature, of this awful attribute.
There are those who madly dream of acceptance with a holy God at the expense of this perfection of his nature. But they acknowledge him in some of his perfections in vain if they deny him in this, tramping it with indifference beneath their feet. Such was Cain in the offering that he presented to the Lord. He acknowledged God's dominion and goodness, but he did not distinctly recognize God's holiness. He did not solemnly apprehend his justice. He had no conviction of guilt. He made no confession of sin. He entirely set aside the claims of God's moral government, and by consequence, he totally denied the necessity of a Mediator.
Not so Abel. His offering honored God in that in which he most delights to be honored�in his spotless purity, his inflexible justice, and his infinite grace in appointing a Savior for the pardon of iniquity, transgression, and sin. Therefore it is recorded, and we do well deeply to ponder it, "By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous, God commending him by accepting his gifts" (Heb. 11:4).
But this was only a prefiguring of God's justice, a mere type and shadow. The great Antitype and embodiment are seen in Jesus offering himself up as a whole burnt-offering to God amid the fearful blaze that ascended from Mount Calvary. It was then that this perfection appeared in its most fearful form�Jesus bore sin; Jesus endured the curse of the law; Jesus sustained the wrath of his father; Jesus surrendered his holy soul a sacrifice for man's transgression. Oh, never before did God's justice so imperatively assert its claims and so loudly demand its rights. Never before did God's justice so strictly exact its penalty and so fearfully grapple with its victim. And never before or since had such a sacrifice been bound to its altar; never did Yahveh appear so just, as at the moment the fire descended and consumed his only-begotten and well-beloved Son.
