The Judge’s Son
When God made man he made us in his image, he made us good but when man chose allegiance to himself it triggered a series of events that led to all of the evil and pain we see in the world today.
“So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.”
God loves us but hates the things that mess up his good plan for us. He hates evil because evil leads to pain and death. The Bible says God is the perfection of love but it also says God is perfectly Just and Holy.
“There is no one holy like the Lord; there is no one besides you; there is no Rock like our God.”
He cannot wrongly judge or fail to deliver justice. We might like this idea when we think of Hitler or people who hurt our loved ones. But when we consider ourselves it should make us a bit uneasy.
There is a famous street preacher named Ray Comfort who goes around and asks people this simple question. Do you think you are a good person and do you think you are going to heaven?
To which most reply yes.
He then walks them through four of the ten commandments asking if they have broken them. The people who are honest reply yes. He points out that by their own admission they have broken God's divine laws; they have lied, lusted, used God's name as a curse word, or slandered someone. By their own admission, they are lying, adulterous, blasphemous thieves. They soon realized that if left to their own morality and if God judged them by the Ten Commandments or by his standard of righteousness they would fail the test.
The Bible says all have sinned and fall short of his standard. Our righteousness is like filthy rags before him. It is extremely difficult for us as humans to wrap our heads around just how serious our violations of his law really are. We do not realize that these tiny little acts of rebellion against divine law which we commit on a daily basis have led to all the evil and pain that we see in this world. It’s scary that we can’t comprehend how great the consequences really are for many of our actions.
For example, when someone gets behind a wheel drunk they rarely understand just how serious their crime is until they have to look into the eyes of the mother whose son they killed. Every day for the rest of their life they know they caused her unending suffering.
Their sin was much more serious than they knew because of the consequences they caused.
Do you think Adam and Eve really understood that a single act of disobedience would throw all of their future offspring into a state of rebellion and cause a curse on the creation around them?
“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—”
You might think the system is unfair, but unfortunately your opinion doesn’t matter because you don’t get to make up the rules. You might think you have a better plan, but did you ever create a universe from scratch?
Most people who murder don’t have this huge response of conscience before they do it. In fact, at the moment they think it’s a pretty great idea. They feel compelled to do it. But when they stand before the judge, if they try to plead “it wasn’t a big deal,” the judge will say I’m sorry, I disagree. Your punishment is life without parole.
When God created us to be his image bearers, we were meant to reflect the image of his character in the world and to cultivate creation and interact with one another from a place of perfect love. Sin is so serious because as Ravi Zacharias says, it is a “violation of our very purpose”.
If we stand before God depending on our own good deeds to save us, it is like jumping out of an airplane, flapping our arms and hoping to fly. It is impossible because it is impossible for humans with their current nature to fly and it is impossible for humans in our current fallen state to reflect the perfect holiness and character of God. The punishment for breaking his divine law is separation from him. It is death. Physical death- separation of the soul from the body and spiritual death - separation of the soul from God.
We are guilty of capital punishment but God loved us so much that he made a way.
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
He paid the fine on our behalf by dying on the cross in our place.
“In him, we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and understanding, ”
“For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit.”
Let's go back to our drunk driving analogy. Let’s say you went out and due to your recklessness crashed, destroying thousands of dollars worth of property. They impound your car and bring you straight to the courthouse to face the judge.
Well, the good news is that the county you got busted in just happens to be the county in which your dad is the judge. So you’re thinking that you’re golden. He loves you, he’ll let you off, everything will be fine.
But just as you are entering the courthouse, you remember that your dad is a really good judge. He never punishes the innocent. He always punishes the guilty. He is a good and just judge.
Now you’re a little nervous. Which is going to win out, his love or his justice? He’s your dad and he loves you, so he’ll want to do good to you. But he’s just, he’s a good judge and therefore he’ll want to follow the law and render a just verdict.
What do you think he’ll do? Which would win, love or justice?
How might he solve the dilemma?
You stand before your dad the judge and he says to you, “Son, this officer says you were intoxicated and going 50 mph over the speed limit. How do you plead.”
You say, “guilty”.
So he looks at you and says, “That will be $5000 or a week in jail. Guilty as charged.” And he bangs down the gavel.
Well, you don’t have any money, so the bailiff comes to take you away so you can start serving your time, when your dad, the judge stands up and says, “Wait a minute, bring him back here.” Then he stands up, takes off his robe, and walks down from behind the bench. Then he reaches into his coat pocket, takes out his checkbook, and writes the court a check for $5000, the exact amount of your fine. Then he offers it to you.
What is going on here is this. He is just, so he declares you guilty since you are. And he demands that a penalty be paid. But he loves you, and so he is determined to pay that penalty himself, on your behalf.
“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
“for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement,[a] through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished—”
Now as he stands there offering you the check, what do you need to do? You can accept his payment on your behalf, or for whatever reason, you can reject it.
This is the picture of what God did for us. The two things primarily true about God are that he is loving and just.
“All the ways of the Lord are loving and faithful toward those who keep the demands of his covenant.”
He loves you, he always has. He cannot love you more and will not love you less. He is also just. He always renders a just verdict. He always does the right thing.
“He is the Rock, his works are perfect, and all his ways are just. A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is he.”
Those two things put him in an interesting situation when it comes to us because every one of us has broken his laws. We are guilty before him. So which would win out? Is it his love that wants to let us off, or is it his justice that requires a penalty to be paid?
The Bible says that he declared us guilty, because we are, and demanded that a penalty be paid. Then he left heaven, came to earth, became a man, and died to pay our penalty. The Bible says that sin earns us a death penalty, so he died to pay that debt.
“He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one whom God appointed as judge of the living and the dead. All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”
Then he comes to us to offer his life on our behalf. Just like your dad with the check, Jesus stands before you and says, “I’ll take the blame for every rotten thing you’ve ever done, and give you credit, with my perfect life. All you need to do is accept it.”
Does that make sense?
Have you ever come to the point where you accepted his death on your behalf, that substitutionary payment?
Jesus' death wasn't just about him making judicial payment. It was also a demonstration of his unconditional love wooing us to follow him. It was a reminder to us of how much he loves us, how much we matter to him and how much he values us. It was a demonstration of the footsteps we are to follow in if we choose to follow God. It was the picture of sacrificial love that we are called to emulate. Lastly, his death led to his resurrection, his conquering of death, giving evidence that the things spoken long ago to the prophets were true. He was the king, the messiah of the new kingdom of God and his kingdom of heaven has begun among men.
Personal salvation from sin and death is not where the story ends. This is only where the story begins. He doesn't just save you from something, he saves you for something.
“For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. ”
He is creating a kingdom and he is inviting you to the party. He is inviting you to play a role. The choice is yours: keep your allegiance to the ways of this world or accept his offer and follow the king of kings.