A JUST GOD AND A SAVIOUR
Glen M Barlow
Isaiah 45: 21 (from “And …”) -24 (to “… strength”)
Leviticus 16: 7-10, 15-16, 20-22
Hebrews 9: 26 (from “But now …”) -28
2 Corinthians 5:21
I have been thinking of this verse in Isaiah 45 a little since it was read here a few weeks ago. What struck me as to it is what God says as to Himself, that He is “a just God and a Saviour”. This section we have read begins, “And there is no God else beside me”. I think perhaps that is the starting point in the gospel; God is speaking and He will be heard. Think of those times in the Old Testament when one could say, “Put away the strange gods that are among you”; Jacob says it (Gen 35: 2), and Joshua says it, Josh 24: 23. I think the gospel is a time to put away the strange gods: the one true God is speaking. There are gods of clay, metal and wood, gods of culture and commerce and politics, the gods of this world, the gods that man has made for himself; but when we come to the gospel preaching it is time to put away those strange gods and listen to the one true God. And what is it that the one true God has to say in the gospel? “And there is no God else beside me; a just God and a Saviour”.
We read this hymn at the beginning -
God could not pass the sinner by,
Justice demands that he should die
(Hymn 357)
What impressed me as to this verse in Isaiah is that, to the mind of man it is an impossibility that one God could be both a just God and a Saviour. Those two things, when we consider the sin question as it is often termed, would seem to be irreconcilable. The justice of God demands that the sinner should die, but that same just God is a Saviour! The sinner must die because of the holiness of God and because of the righteousness of God. The nature of holiness and righteousness is such that it cannot accept unholiness and unrighteousness, because it would immediately be polluted; and God is a righteous God, God is a holy God. So when man sinned, the answer of God was that distance must be brought in. You get the feelings of God as to it in Genesis; He says, “And now, lest he stretch out his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever …!”, Gen 3: 22. It gives a sense of the horror to God of the thought that man in sin could abide forever and that unrighteousness, that unholiness, could abide forever.
So justice required that sin must be judged. We read in the scripture in Hebrews, “it is the portion of men once to die, and after this judgment”, a requirement of a just God. Yet God speaks in the gospel because He has glad tidings to convey; that He is both a just God and a Saviour. I am sure all in this room know why, but if we asked the question as to where the just God and the Saviour is found, where through the exercise of that judgment salvation was attained, we would point to the cross. It was at the cross of Jesus where the requirements of a just God were met and where the salvation of man was secured; all in the work of one precious perfect Man. It is little wonder that He is the theme of the glad tidings, that He is the One that God is seeking to convey to every heart, because, when God says in this scripture “a just God and a Saviour”, He looked forward to that One who on that cross would accomplish that glorious salvation; but do so in maintaining the requirements of a just God. The judgment fell on Jesus’ head.
I read in Leviticus 16 because I wonder if in these two goats we see these two sides of the cross of Christ. There is the side in which the Lord Jesus met in perfection the claims of God’s righteousness and holiness, and the side in which He became a Saviour by virtue of that precious work. The first goat was to be presented for a sin offering; it was to be presented before God. It speaks of that sacrifice of the Lord Jesus, the way that He took in offering Himself as a sacrifice: here Aaron was offering a goat as a sacrifice, but the Lord Jesus offered Himself as a sacrifice. The first thing about that sacrifice was that it satisfied God. It entirely satisfied God, as to the matter of sin in its entirety! Think of how this type falls short in that this day of atonement had to be repeated once a year; this blood, as Hebrews10: 4 brings out, was not sufficient; but the blood of Jesus was sufficient. I read the scripture in Hebrews really as a counterpart to the one in Leviticus: “now once in the consummation of the ages he has been manifested for the putting away of sin by his sacrifice”. The spotlessness of the sacrifice, the perfection of the One who bore the penalty that belonged to sin and sins, was such that it has satisfied God as to every righteous requirement. It has formed a basis on which He can be just in coming out in blessing, because that judgment that was required by justice fell on another. It fell on One who could bear it, fell on One who could exhaust it, and fell on One who did! He satisfied God. I think this really brings out what propitiation is: He satisfied God entirely as to His holiness and righteousness.
I came across a definition that Mr Darby provided on propitiation, and I will just read it for accuracy; he says, ‘Propitiation is presenting to a holy God what the righteousness and holiness of that God necessarily claim, while infinite love has provided, and infinite love has offered, the spotless sacrifice’, JND Collected Writings vol 23 p241. Although it falls far short in the type, this first goat represents the propitiation that the Lord Jesus has accomplished by offering Himself on our account and exhausting God’s wrath against sin. So when the Lord Jesus hung upon that cross and when He suffered at the hands of a holy and righteous God, there could be no question of some forbearance, of some point at which God would withdraw the judgment sword. Think of a time in the Old Testament when that happened, at the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite; the sword was withdrawn, 1 Chron 21: 15. But at the cross of Jesus the sword was not withdrawn; the judgment in its entirety fell on Jesus’ head. There was no mitigation by virtue of who He was, because He was made sin, and all God’s wrath against sin was poured out on the head of Jesus. So what lies behind “a just God and a Saviour” is incomparable love; infinite love has provided and infinite love has offered the sacrifice. Think of the heart of God that He should give such a One, that He should accomplish such a way, the only way in which He could be known as “a just God and a Saviour”. Think of the Lord Jesus as taking that way in love with the desire for the salvation of man.
I think one thing to say as to propitiation is that God is satisfied as to the matter of sin entirely. We are told in the New Testament that “he is the propitiation for our sins; but not for ours alone, but also for the whole world”, (1 John 2: 2); so there is no question in the gospel as to whether God can be satisfied as to your sin. Sin in its entirety has been met; He has been made a propitiation not for our sins only, but “for the whole world”. That is why the world is referred to as being in provisional reconciliation. When it comes to God’s side the sacrifice has entirely satisfied Him, and so the question of sin has been resolved. But then in the gospel preaching we come to our responsibility, because in the second part of the scripture we read in Hebrews it says, “thus the Christ also, having been once offered to bear the sins of many”, not the sins of all. Did He bear your sins? We have those spoken of in relation to the second goat in Leviticus; the second goat bore their sins. If the first goat represents propitiation, the second goat represents substitution: the fact that Jesus took my place. He satisfied God in the offering of Himself, in that blood that was sprinkled, in His going into death. The satisfaction of God as to His claims, as to His righteousness, as to His holiness, as to justice being satisfied, are evidenced completely in the fact that the Lord Jesus has been raised from among the dead. If that work was incomplete, if there was any dissatisfaction on the part of God as to the work of Jesus, He could not have been raised, but He has been raised and He has been glorified. God is satisfied in that work.
But, is it for you? I can tell you that from God’s side the way is open, the way is open for the just God to be a Saviour to you, but did the Lord Jesus bear your sins? Christ offered to bear the sins of many! These sins are carried into a land afar off. It says, “to a land apart from men”. Perhaps others have heard the recording of a preaching where, in recognising that this type falls short, a brother said very touchingly that the goat went to a land apart from men, but the Lord Jesus went, as it were, to a land apart from God. The Lord Jesus was forsaken of God in order that He might be your substitute, in order that He might take your place and bear the penalty for every sin that you have committed or will commit, and for the matter of sin itself that dwells in your flesh. He has borne it all: precious, precious Saviour. Can you put your faith and trust in Him now? He is available to faith. If your faith and trust is not yet in Him, He is available. God’s claims are satisfied, and the Saviour is available, and you can have perfect peace if you rely on that work because God is satisfied as to the work. No more judgment has to be borne; Jesus has borne it all. No more condemnation has to be borne; Jesus has borne the condemnation. And now the message of love and grace and mercy proceeds from the throne of God, from a glorified Man, the same Man who took that place, who would be your Substitute if you will accept Him tonight.
That scripture in Isaiah 45 goes on to say, “Only in Jehovah, shall one say, have I righteousness and strength”. I wonder if this brings out to our hearts a further aspect of the work of the Lord Jesus, a further aspect of what it means for the God we know to be “a just God and a Saviour”; and that is that He has not only delivered us from judgment but He has made us righteous, and as righteous we can be reconciled to Him. That scripture in 2 Corinthians 5 speaks of reconciliation; it says, “how that God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, not reckoning to them their offences; … Him who knew not sin he has made sin for us, that we might become God’s righteousness in him”. The Lord Jesus was made sin on our account, and we are made righteousness on His account! The fact that He has dealt with that question and exhausted it, the fact that He has laid the basis for man in righteousness before God, means that you can be in righteousness before God in the righteousness of Christ Himself!
So God has a desire in the gospel. We speak of the fact that He is “a just God and a Saviour”, and what a wonderful thing that is, that He has delivered all who believe on the Lord Jesus from judgment, but He has a desire. There is a desire in the heart of God underlying His work, underlying His presentation of Himself as “a just God and a Saviour”, and it is the desire that man would be reconciled to Him, brought into nearness. That was mentioned in the gospel here too recently, brought into nearness. Where there was distance, the righteous basis has been established for nearness, for God to have the answer to His heart that He desires. The fact that the Lord Jesus has established righteousness means that we are to become God’s righteousness in Him. We can stand before God on the same ground as the One who has secured our redemption. The One who has reconciled us has brought us near, has brought us into that glorious place that has been established. So there is an appeal in the gospel, an appeal to the believer as well as the unbeliever, as to the response that God desires by virtue of the way that He has gone. He has held nothing back. Let there be no doubt that the love of God has not stopped at anything to secure you, and, having secured you, He wants you for Himself. So that there are those that can say, “Only in Jehovah … have I righteousness and strength”. The Spirit is the power to enter into these things and the glad tidings extend to that glorious gift. Having been glorified by virtue of the perfection of His work, the Lord Jesus has sent Another who would establish us and bring us in to the present knowledge of that nearness. We know that it is the prospect of every believer to be in nearness and to answer eternally to the One who has accomplished this work; the ones who “look for him the second time without sin for salvation”. But there is the opportunity now to be in nearness and the Spirit’s power is available for it.
The last thing I wanted to draw attention to in this scripture in Isaiah 45 was that God says, “I have sworn by myself, the word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness and shall not return, that unto me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear”. That would take us back to where we began, that the one true God is speaking; and if He is speaking He must be listened to. What a glorious message this is, what glad tidings they are, that the speaking of God at this moment is such as it is! He might have spoken in many other ways but the heart of God is such that He is speaking in love and grace and mercy, and He is offering it, He is commending it. What a wonderful section of scripture Romans 5: 8 is: “God commends his love”. It is not only that God has made the way but He is commending His love; He is saying take it! But “every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall swear”. The opportunity is now for salvation! The opportunity to put your faith and trust in the Lord Jesus, to say He bore my sins, He delivered me from judgment, is now; and it may only be now. There may not be another moment; it may only be now that that opportunity remains available, but “every knee shall bow”. We are often reminded that if the knee does not bow now voluntarily it will be forced to bow in a day to come. The gospel is a solemn thing because if God has presented Himself in such a way, if He has shown such love, if He has given so much, there must be an answer to it. How can we be negligent of so great a salvation, Heb 2: 3? I just leave that final word with us because the message is one of love, the message is one of mercy and grace, of how a just God could also be a Saviour to you, and the wonderful way that has been accomplished through the precious work of the Lord Jesus; but it must be relied upon in the heart and soul for it to be availed of, for that salvation to be known and for that nearness to be enjoyed.
May that be the portion of all here, for His Name’s sake.
Sidcup
14th March 2021