Divine Justice
God Incarnate’s Atoning Blood
Sinful Man
A ‘transgression’ is a crossing over of the line which God has laid down in His word. An ‘iniquity’ is a want of equity, that is, a lack of the “right spirit” within which God alone can give, and without that right spirit, right thoughts, right works and right actions are impossible. A “sinner” is a creature which commits crimes against its Creator. You have provoked God to anger by your transgressions and iniquities: you have not loved Him with all your heart, you have rejected His Son’s bleeding love and free Salvation, you have set up your will against God’s will, and you have continually insulted and blasphemed God by your words and actions. Now understand - a sinner can only be saved from the wrath to come by Blood, that is, the Precious Blood of God manifest in the flesh - The LORD JESUS CHRIST Himself.
You may conceal your real character from your friends and relatives, but God knows all about you. The only claim you have upon God is Justice. You are a Felon against the Majesty of Heaven. You have been caught red-handed, and you have forfeited all your rights. Judgment and Punishment are the only rights you can now claim. You are simply in the hands of God awaiting your death sentence. The Ten Commandments will be swift and sure witnesses against you at the Judgment bar of God. You can never solve your sin problem on your own - you need the power of God - Christ Jesus Himself.
Picture yourself standing in front of a firing squad of ten men, where you are condemned to die for your crimes. There are ten loaded rifles pointing directly at your heart. You begin to sweat and tremble and cry out for mercy. Likewise, you stand now condemned before God, and His Ten Commandments are all aimed right at you where you stand; they are ready to unload their justice on you at any time. You are dreading the coming doom that you know you deserve, and all God has to do is speak the word, and His swift and awful punishment which your sins justly deserve will be meted out upon your soul.
But then a Substitute steps forth, and stands in front of you, and willingly takes all the bullets that your crimes deserve. The name of that Substitute is Christ Jesus, God manifest in the flesh. This is only an illustration to help show you what Jesus did for you on Calvary’s Cross. No Gospel is ever preached where Substitution is omitted. Sinners must be plainly and simply taught that Christ Jesus bore their sins and guilt, and died as a Substitute in their place to bear their sins away. Divine Love found a way to have mercy on my sinful soul through through the blood of Calvary's Lamb. *Colossians 1:14*
Years I spent in vanity and pride,
Caring not the Lord of glory was crucified,
Knowing not it was for me He died on Calvary.
Mercy there was great, and grace was free,
Pardon there was multiplied to me,
there my burdened soul found Liberty - At Calvary.
The Lord Jesus Christ has met the severe demands of God’s divine justice to the uttermost. God the Father requires perfect obedience to His holy Law, and Jesus lived that pure and spotless life for us all. The offended majesty of God’s divine Law demands retribution and punishment for our violations of the Law, and Jesus’ sinless life and perfect Atoning Sacrifice on Calvary’s tree has fully paid the penalty due to our sins. Jesus by His obedience magnified and glorified the Law, and by His bloody death, He has completely satisfied divine justice. *Colossians 1:20* His innocent blood fully atoned for our sins; He has suffered everything that we deserved to suffer, and now God will accepted His substitutionary sacrifice for the sinner who believes in Jesus. God Himself in the flesh for sinful man a bleeding Victim made. Let me give you some good advice, trust your soul with Jesus Christ, God manifest in the flesh. Come to the Cross now, look up and see Pity divine in Jesus' face.
Jesus suffered in my place, I trust in His Blood, and now divine justice demands that I go free forever. Through the Blood Atonement of His Son, God has made a way by which He can satisfy all the demands of His inflexible justice, yet still bestow His mercy upon the guilty. As Creator and Judge, God has the right to punish the guilty, but as the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, He has the right to pardon the ungodly without violating His justice in the slightest degree. God is willing to hand down a pardon even for you if you will receive and trust to His dear Son. God gave His sinless Son to die for the crimes you have done. Simply take God at His word. On the Cross, the debt was paid for my sins fully. The work was finished and the whole debt was paid, and the only thing left for you to do is to trust what Jesus has finished, and then praise and glorify Him the rest of your life out of gratitude to His forgiving love.
How can divine justice ever smile on a sinner? When Jesus bore our sins and offered up Himself on Calvary, He made full reparation to God’s broken Law, and rendered complete Satisfaction to God’s offended justice. Jesus took all the divine vengeance that our sins deserved. All the thunderings and lightnings of God’s divine vengeance were launched at Jesus on Calvary that day, and now divine justice is fully satisfied, because the dear Lamb of God endured the full penalty of all your guilt. That is what Jesus meant when He cried out, “It is finished!”, when He was dying upon the Cross for you. I no longer owe any debts to divine justice, for all my debts have been paid with Jesus’ Atoning Blood. There is no longer any condemnation for me, for the Lord Jesus Christ has suffered on my behalf all the punishment that was due to my sins.
If God had dealt with you with His strict justice without any mercy, you would not be living upon the Earth right now. God is inflexibly stern in His justice, but He is gracious to us sinners for Jesus’ sake. You must believe on Jesus, for God could never forgive your sins without exacting a harsh penalty for them. God hates your sins so much that He had to allow His Son, Jesus, to become Sin for you, that is, He bore your sins in His own body on the tree, and then He died to pay for those sins, so His enemies could be freely forgiven through His own life’s blood. Jesus endured the full penalty for all my sins (past-present-future). Because of Calvary, God is Just, and also the Justifier of every sinner which believes in Jesus. God’s justice is so inexorable that it cannot be persuaded or affected by human entreaties or works. Inexorable means unbending, severe, unrelenting, inflexible, rigid, unappeasable, unflinching.
The only thing that can appease God’s wrath that now abides on your sinful soul is the Precious Blood of Jesus Christ. If you had only committed one sin in your entire life, God’s justice is so severe that it would have to condemn you for that one solitary offense. If you had only sinned once in the past, and the remainder of your life was faultless, divine vengeance would still be pursuing you, and the wrath of God would abide on you. Unless you have a sincere interest and saving faith in Christ’s Blood, you are condemned where you stand right now. The soul that sinneth against God, it shall die. But Jesus Himself loved you and bled to death in your place, and now God is able to righteously and freely pardon the guilty, only because Jesus met all the claims of divine justice on your account.
Man’s religions make up a god who is loving but without any Justice. But the God found in the Holy Bible is severely dreadful in His wrath while at the same time, He has provided a way through His beloved Son that He can be gracious, merciful, and compassionate to His enemies. The God of the Bible must your punish your sins; He will never violate the principles of His eternal justice. Shall not the Judge of all the earth do Right? The Cross is where the Goodness and Severity of God shook hands. At the Cross, we see both the bleeding love and divine justice in the person of the Lamb of God. What are you going to do with all your sins? At the Cross, there's a dear bleeding God and hope of pardon even for you.
Christ the great Mediator shed His own life's blood and came between us and God’s fierce justice and took all the consequences due to our sins, and endured all our sins’ death penalty. Trust your immortal soul upon Jesus’ Atoning Sacrifice, rest implicitly on His Blood with simple childlike faith, and your soul is safe forever from the wrath to come. Now understand – The Holy Spirit must first prepare the sinner’s heart by plowing the field of the heart with His ten black horses – The Ten Commandments – and then by cross plowing that same field with His white horses - The Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.
