GOD’S JUSTICE
Neil C McKay
Romans 2: 1,2
John 18: 18-24, 33-40
Luke 23: 33,34, 44-46
1 Peter 2: 21-25, 3:18 to “bring us to God”
I had in mind to speak of judgment and justice, though we must see that the gospel is about Jesus Christ, the Lord Jesus, and whatever is said tonight will be of no avail to you unless you are brought to Him. The gospel involves a Man, and the great issue in the gospel is that man is estranged from God - not on good terms with God. Should that situation with men and women continue, then eventually man will have to meet with the judgment of God. God will have to say to man about his sins, because man is God’s creature. God is Himself perfect and looks seriously upon the disobedience of His creature, and that is the issue.
Justice is a recognised principle in the world; I do not think the world could exist without some measure of judgment and justice. There is a well-known figure of justice on top of many courts, a figure of a woman - ‘Justitia’. She holds out in one hand a set of scales, representing justice and equity. These represent the balance of good and evil, of right and wrong, and of fair and right judgment. In the other hand, she holds an upright sword: that represents judgment, the execution of justice. At one time if a man killed someone they would have to answer for that with their life. It was called the death penalty, and still exists in some countries. It was ordered of God that men should answer for the sins which they commit, and government exists for that reason. Nowadays persons are sent to prison, they are restricted in their movements to limit their evil, limit their sinfulness. That is what the judicial system does, and it is ordered of God.
So God has ordered justice and judgment in the world. The apostle Paul is writing to these saints in Rome, setting out the terms of the gospel. What he says to them is applicable to everyone: “thou art inexcusable, O man, every one who judgest”, for when you judge another person you condemn yourself, Rom 2: 1. You may say, ‘Well, that person is wrong: he stole!’, or ‘He is wrong: he lied’. But what you are showing is that you know that it is wrong to steal, and you know that it is wrong to lie. Every time, if you have ever lied or you have ever taken anything that is not yours, you know that it is wrong. God says, ‘Even you know that what you do is wrong’. Men may avoid it and say, ‘Well, I am relatively good; if you took the scales of justice and put good on one side and evil on the other I might just about balance out on the side of good’. I might just do that. That is not how God looks on things, because Paul goes on to say, “the judgment of God is according to truth”, v 2. That is, God has a plumb line and His righteousness is absolutely straight and undeviating. God judges everything according to the truth, not on a balance of good and evil. He says He is looking for righteousness and truth, and nothing else.
The problem with that is that nobody, nobody, measures up to that. Nobody measures up absolutely to what God requires. It is a concern then, how do we meet God when none of us actually have ever met what God is looking for? Now, the great thing to see is that justice has been fully met in the work of Christ. It is the only way in which it could ever be met. God foresaw that there was no man on earth who could ever meet the matter of their sinfulness before God and that the resolution of that matter would require God Himself to come in flesh. God would come here as Man in order to meet the matter, and that is what He did.
It is most amazing grace that God has come here in manhood. It meant that God in the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ had come from Godhead glory and taken up the condition of manhood. It says He “lays aside his garments” John 13: 4 - He laid aside the dignity which belonged to Him in Godhead glory - and became a man in order to serve man and take every matter up for God. He lived here as a Man in all the circumstances that man was in. In fact the circumstances that the Lord Jesus lived in were not at all like ours as far as living conditions go. He worked as a carpenter for many years in a small village in Galilee, and in everything He did and in everything He said He was wholly perfect and righteous. He was in accord with all that God looked for in man.
And more than that, He pleased God. The reason He did so was because there was no sin in Him. We read that in 1 Peter, “who did no sin”, chap 2: 22. He was another kind of man altogether because He was a divine Person come in manhood. Not only did He do what was right; He loved to do what was right; He rejoiced in it. He was never out of communion with His Father, and He always rejoiced in doing what was right.
So He lived His life here and taught people as we read today. He went into the temple and taught and healed persons and did good. But that goodness, His healing and His love towards men aroused the anger of men; it aroused man’s conscience. Men recognised that this Man was perfect and that they were not. You might think that a Man coming here in perfection of goodness and compassion would be the best Person in the world to them, but the Lord showed them up so badly that they wanted to kill Him. He represented God in all His goodness towards men; they saw here a perfect Man. Where then do I stand before God? If that is what God wants, where do I stand? It just showed men up for what they were. It eventuated in this passage where the high priest and the leading Jews brought Christ before Caiaphas the high priest - the Jewish tribunal - and then to the political power of Rome, the government. Can you imagine a Man being so good that they took Him to court? To try Him - to kill Him. And why did the Jews take Him to the Roman court? Because they had no authority to put Him to death. Pilate says, “Take him, ye, and judge him” (John 18: 31), and they said, ‘No, we cannot, we have no authority; we cannot put Him to death’. The Jewish court had not that authority.
This account in John’s gospel bears out a section of scripture in the prophet Micah: “they shall smite the judge of Israel with a rod upon the cheek” (chap 5: 1), and, “out of thee shall he come forth unto me who is to be Ruler in Israel”, v 2. They smote the judge of Israel, the One who will yet judge Israel and all the world. He was standing before the Jewish High Priest and they smote Him on the cheek. Why? Because He spoke the truth. He says, “If I have spoken evil, bear witness of the evil”. This was a court; it should have the highest standard of judgment and justice. ‘I speak the truth, and you smite me on the cheek?’: what a terrible indictment of the standards of man away from God. The most religiously favoured people on the earth were against God. God allowed the Lord Jesus to be placed before the judgment system of the religious world, and the judgment system of the political world, and allowed them to pass judgment on the Lord Jesus - as if to say, ‘Here is my perfect Man. Tell me your estimation of Him’. And what did they say? ‘Put him to death’. That is what they did. The best that man had could only put Christ to death because He exposed what they were. What a terrible indictment as to the state of man away from God.
Now, I am no different to that in the flesh, in what I was as a sinner. There is nothing in me that would have stood up for the Lord Jesus; in the flesh I deserved the judgment of God. We need to recognise that the Lord Jesus met the whole matter of the judgment of God. In chapter 18, Pilate says, “I find no fault whatever in him”. Pilate had that judgment that he could not find fault in Christ; nonetheless he ordered Him to be put to death. What justice is that? A faultless Man put to death. At that point, friend, the Jewish system and the man in responsibility were judged of God. They thought they were judging Christ, but God was judging them. ‘There is Truth, there is the Truth of God in front of you; and what did you do with Him? You put Him to death’. The ways of God are most remarkable.
So where we read in Luke, “Jesus said, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do”. Do you know what that meant? The Lord Jesus said in effect, ‘Forgive them and I will take the judgment myself; make it as a sin of inadvertence’. How magnificent that the Lord should do that! Justice was served, friend, in God’s eyes, but He did not execute judgment on those who deserved it; Christ took the judgment on Himself in order to save man. There was no other way to save persons other than to take on Himself the full force of the judgment of God.
And so it says, “And it was about the sixth hour, and there came darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour”. It was the time of God’s judgment. The sword, the judgment sword, fell on Christ. Christ took it on Himself; He took it on for me: such was the grace of God. Two things happened there: one is that Christ bore the full judgment of God against sin and sins - against all my sins; the other thing that happened was that God showed His love in a way that could not be questioned - He loved man so much that He would give His only Son as a sacrifice for us all.
Do you think there is a man that is intelligent enough to work out that immense matter and to understand and appreciate what it meant to God? Only God could design and effect such a salvation! When man’s utter hatred was revealed, justice was served on the one hand and God’s love and mercy and righteousness was shown on the other. I think it is the most wonderful thing how God has managed to save a sinner such as me, who could do nothing for himself, and do it to the satisfaction to His own nature.
So Peter in his epistle writes to the saints of the dispersion, Jews who had been scattered abroad, but had come to believe on the Lord Jesus. “For to this have ye been called; for Christ also” - Christ was an example to them - “who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth”. When reviled, that is when He was sorely insulted, He did not revile again - He did not give abuse back to them. When suffering He did not threaten the persons. He could have called on legions of angels, but did not threaten any “but gave himself over into the hands of him who judges righteously”. He placed the whole matter with God, and in those three hours of darkness on the cross God dealt with it as only He could. He laid the full burden of sin, His wrath against sin, on the Lord Jesus: “who himself bore our sins in his body on the tree”.
What unmitigated judgment the Lord Jesus bore in His body. It was sufficient not only to satisfy God but to glorify God in the very scene in which God had been traduced, in which God had been slighted. The scene in which man was doing his own will in ignorance of God - in that place the Lord Jesus bore God’s judgment and wrath against sin that “we may live to righteousness: by whose stripes ye have been healed”. “Christ indeed has once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God”.
So what is God doing now? He is bringing persons, through Christ, to Himself. Why? Because those who are saved through faith in His blood are clear of sin and sins! The matter of justice has been met. Everything has been righteously settled and man, where he once stood on this earth as a judged person, now can be brought to God. Christ can bring them into the very presence of God because of sin being completely dealt with by the One who bore our sins in His body on the tree. He went into death and He rose again and God glorified Him, set Him down at His right hand.
You may say that you are thankful for the scales of justice in this earth, but, friend, be sure, be sure of your place before God. Be sure that the whole matter of your sin and sins has been met, as there is a wonderful blessing in being brought back to God. God made man to be in His presence, and so much does God want that that He will forgive your sins through faith in the work of Christ - that is, by putting your faith in what Christ has done, and not trying to work the matter out yourself, but simply believing on the Lord Jesus, repenting of your sins before God and believing on the Lord Jesus. “Repentance towards God and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ”, Acts 20: 21. Faith simply means believing. You believe that the Lord Jesus died for your sins:
The Just One for the unjust died. (Hymn 407)
Then, after Christ was raised from among the dead, God gave of His own Spirit to man. It is such a wonderful thing you can hardly take in what it means, that the very Spirit of God, His own Spirit, is given to indwell man: “of his Spirit”, Acts 2: 17. It is not some other Spirit to help man be good; it is His own Spirit in order that man should feel things like He does, and be sympathetic with God in all that He does.
That would help us to work out this matter of being righteous, that we may live to righteousness, because that would be impossible without the Holy Spirit of God. God gives everything to a believer and He gives him the Holy Spirit in order to appreciate and to enjoy all that He has given him. I would that you would appreciate that, dear young soul. Think on these things. And in addition to this, He has brought you into a Christian household. I often wonder what would have happened to me had I been born into the household next door. Where would I have been? But God has brought me into the place where I would be blessed. I have ever been thankful for that.
Well, I trust you appreciate these things and think on what the Lord Jesus has done for you, for His Name’s sake.
Port Seton
13th October 2024