Does it bother you that God is Just and Holy? It bothers most people. They want to determine what is right or wrong based on what they think is right or wrong. They don’t understand that one day they will stand before the only true and living God and be judged by the standard of He who is, “Holy, holy. holy.”
God is Just and Holy. His perfections are beyond human comprehension. Holiness can perhaps best be understood as “perfection.” 1 Tim.6:16 states that because of His intense perfections,
God,“… lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see.”
The words ‘holiness’ and ‘perfection’ can be interchanged. The fact is, because God is holy, he demands we be holy or perfect. Mt.5:48 states;
“Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
And we have the clear declaration of;
Heb.12:14, “…without holiness no one will see the Lord.”
Without being perfect, morally, spiritually perfect, no one will ever see God, meaning no one can enter glory. So dreadful is the minutest particle of sin that,
The Prophet Habakkuk 1:13 declares; “Your eyes are too pure to look on evil; you cannot tolerate wrongdoing.”
Moses warned In Ex.34:6-7;
“he does not leave the guilty unpunished;
When Adam, who was our representative for Scripture declares that we were all in Adam, when he disobeyed, sin entered the world and changed our relationship with God. Sin alienated us from God and made us enemies. His sin was imputed to us, that is put to our account since he represented us.
Rom.5:12 “Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned—5:18, “one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people,”
“Condemnation for all people!”
Because God is holy, He is also Just. His perfect standard has been broken. Everyone has rebelled against Him, disobeyed His word, ignored His warnings and therefore deserve nothing but condemnation. Eph.2:3 tells us we are all sinners “by nature” and experience proves we are also sinners “by choice.” Therefore,
“All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.”
What then is the inevitable future?
Heb.10:27 “…only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God”
Puritan Thomas Boston described those fires writing;
“There they will find a prison they can never escape out of; a lake of fire where they will be ever immersed and burning; a pit whereof they will never find a bottom…The fire that is not quenched shall devour them…Their eyes shall be kept in blackness of darkness without the least comfortable gleam of light. Their ears shall be filled with frightful yelling of the infernal crew. They shall taste nothing but the sharpness of God’s wrath, the gregs of the cup of His fury. The stench of the burning lake of brimstone will be the smell there; and they shall feel extreme pains forevermore…There is no intermission there, no ease, no not for a moment. They shall (as Rev.20:10 states) “be tormented day and night for ever and ever.”
That condemnation is expressed again and again in Scripture in terrifying language towards the wicked and all who refuse to believe.Mt.13:49-50;
“This is how it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come and separate the wicked from the righteous 50 and throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
Mt.24:50-51; “The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he is not aware of. 51 He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
Those who receive condemnation “they will be forever dying but will never die, never cease to exist.” This is the sentence upon every person who ever lived. This is God’s just judgement upon sinners. For though He calls everyone to “Be perfect for I am perfect,” all have failed to meet that standard. “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” We are all polluted by sin and unclean and the Holy God cannot even look upon us. Rev.21:27 sets the criteria for entering heaven;
“Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful,”
“Nothing impure” nothing less that sinless perfection qualifies one for heaven. Yes, one sin is enough to sentence us to hell. So, we stand guilty of imperfection and helpless to pay the debt of our imperfections and make them perfect, though we may try. As J.C. Ryle wrote of human efforts;
It will not cleanse away your sins to be sorry for them. You may shed floods of tears and acknowledge your own guilt and danger. But sorrow cannot make atonement for sin. The convicted criminal in the court of justice may be sorry for his offenses. He sees the misery and ruin they have brought upon him. But the judge does not let him off because he is sorry. The deed has been done; the law broken; the penalty has been incurred. The punishment must be inflicted, notwithstanding the criminals tears. This is precisely your position in the sight of God. Your sorrow is right, good and proper. But your sorrow has no power whatsoever to cleanse away your sins. It needs something more…
It will not cleanse away your sins to mend your life. You may reform your conduct and turn over a new leaf. You may break off many evil habits and take up many good ones. ..You may, you must, you ought to do so. Without such change, no soul ever was saved. But you will not, by doing so, wipe away one particle of your guilt in God’s sight. Improved conduct makes no atonement for sin.
It will not cleanse away your sins to become diligent in religion. You may alter your habits about Sunday and attend services from morning to night. You may take pains to hear preaching on weekdays, as well as Sundays. You may receive the Lord’s Supper at every possible occasion…It is all very well as far as it goes. It is right and proper…Yet religious formalities cannot make atonement for sin.
It will not cleanse away your sins to look to man for help. It is not in the power of any child of Adam to save another’s soul. No bishop, no priest, no ordained man of any church has power to forgive sins…It is useless for a pauper to beg a pauper; for a prisoner to ask a fellow prisoner for release…It requires a hand far stronger than that to take the chains off conscience and set the prisoner free.
As regarding salvation, even our many good works, the Scripture says are but “filthy rags.”
So we stand convicted before God, condemned and awaiting execution, completely helpless and in ourselves, hopeless knowing that WE belong on that cross. We deserve the coming, inevitable punishment. So we cry out with Paul;
“What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?”
Our God is Just and holy. But He is also loving. He has not abandoned His chosen but has provided a way of escape. Rom.5:6&8;
“You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly… 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
Since sinful humanity is powerless to satisfy God’s demand for perfection, God took the initiative. He sent His one and only Son into this world to bring the perfection needed. Two things needed to happen. First, The sins of our imperfections must be punished. So we read in the first part of 2 Cor.5:21;
“He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf,”
Peter writes in 1 Pet.2:24;
“He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross,..”
God, in incomparable mercy, takes our sin and the punishment it deserves and places them on Christ, the perfect, ‘spotless Lamb of God.” They were our sins and that exchange was done on our behalf. Mercy there was great indeed.
But that was not enough to gain salvation. The penalty was removed, but it still left us to live a perfect life to gain the reward of heaven. That we still could never accomplish. That something was accomplished in Christ as the second part of 2 For.5:21 reads;
“…so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him”
This is what is called the ‘double imputation’ of Christ. Imputation means, ‘To put on one’s account.” Our sins were put on Christ’s account as He bore them on the cross. Then, When a person believes, Christ’s perfections, His righteousness is put to our account.
Isa.61:10 states it;
“I delight greatly in the Lord; my soul rejoices in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of his righteousness,..”
That means when God looks at the believer, He sees the perfections of Christ. 1 Cor.1:30;
“It is because of Him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God-that is our righteousness, holiness and redemption.”
In Christ’s sacrifice our imperfections are removed, as far as the East is from the West, and Christ’s perfections becomes our claim!
Therefore, in God’s court of justice, no charge of sin or imperfection can be held against the believer! Listen to Rom.8;
“Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2 because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. 3 For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”
The believer is freed and has no fear of condemnation and the terror of hell’s fire because Jesus has satisfied God’s requirements both in punishing imperfection and rewarding us with His perfection. Thereby, God is both, “just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.” He is satisfied with Christ our Savior and substitute. Forgiveness and reward are ours by His grace granted to us through the faith He birth’s in our hearts.
“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast.”
Salvation comes through Christ alone, for,
“Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.”
Tonight, we reflect and remember Christ’s atoning sacrifice on the Cross. The suffering, pain and death that was really ours, He bore on the behalf of all believers. We belong on that cross! Every person who ever lived who was less than perfect, belongs on that cross. The only way to avoid such punishment is to trust in God’s substitute, The Lamb of God, Jesus our substitute.
Worthy is the Lamb who was slain!
