THE PATH TO PEACE WITH GOD THROUGH THE PRIESTHOOD OF HIS SON
Gospel of Grace
God cannot overlook sin. He is not corrupt like human systems of justice and cannot let the innocent off or condemn the guiltless. We must be and often have been punished (paradise lost, the flood, the confusion of tongues at the Tower of Babel etc.) for acts of godlessness, and our godless characters cannot dwell with a Holy God who cannot bear even to look upon sin (Habakkuk 1:13).The response of the Almighty to mankind's sins and sinfulness is not blessing but cursing and righteous indignation, holy anger. In the beginning the penalty that would follow rebellion against God our Creator, " the wages of sin is death." (Romans 6:23). was issued as a warning before sin was ever committed on earth and the promise of punishment " in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die." (Genesis 2:17). was fulfilled in Adam for his disobedience and continues to be in his sinful offspring: but a man has arisen to halt our destruction and speak peace and salvation to the peoples, the man who is also the Lord Jesus Christ.
Christ taught that the salvation he offered was not merely salvation from physical death but salvation for our body and soul from the punishment that God would justly inflict when he comes to judge the world. Rewarding every man and woman according to their works - which for all those who denied God and had broken His law meant everlasting torment comparable to such things as being burnt by unquenchable fire or being eaten by never dying worms. (Isaiah 66:24, Mark 9:44, 46 & 48). God's punishment and instructions to punish evil are often very severe demonstrating his great hatred of evil. It should be noted however that His great hatred and severe punishment of evil is not evil, also that deceiving someone as to the true nature of God (the Devils work) is the nastiest thing you can do (securing their temporal and eternal condemnation).
To desire justice and act in righteous indignation surprisingly requires a heart of love. For example if you love your parents a little bit (teenage years!) you will be a little annoyed if someone derides them or maybe not, you may deride them yourself! However when you have grown up, or perhaps when you were younger, your appreciation and love for your parents, may be, or have been, far greater and an unfitting word against them may arouse or have aroused more than a little anger. Or again imagine you read of an incident of rape in the paper. You are likely to have some desire that the man is brought to justice. Now if the lady abused turned out to be your wife, or your daughter, or your mother, because of your love for them your desire that justice is done on their behalf, would be far greater than that of Joe Bloggs reading the paper down the road. In turn your efforts towards making sure that the criminal serves his sentence would reveal the depth of your love. In the same way God's laws are an expression and extension of His character which the Bible declares to be love (1 John 4:8). His ceremonial and moral laws are both primarily concerned with the well being of His people, and to disregard and disobey the laws He has given is to show disregard for the well being of your fellow man as well as distrust of God. The excuse that God's laws are not actually going to produce our well being and happiness and must be supplanted for others of our own making is clearly absurd. If the God of the Bible really is the omniscient (all knowing) wise Creator of the Universe and we are mere men, then whenever we disagree with such a God clearly the error must be with the finite not the Infinite, the limited not the Unlimited. The moral laws are ‘higher` than the ceremonial laws (Matthew 12:30-34) - which are nonetheless the laws of God. So it can never be claimed that you can't fulfil a moral duty because you are serving the Lord in some religious ceremony i.e. going to church or reading the Bible (Matt 12:3&4, 11-12).T
The point of ceremonial laws are after all is to be the soil from which the seed of obedience can grow and flourish to the end that His image set out in the moral laws may be restored in us. It is always right to do what is morally right. So just as we - at our best - make and implement laws for the good and safety of others so we follow in the footsteps of God; only His laws are unquestionably right and to break them is to provoke the Lord of Glory to anger! This is often done by neglecting or distressing those He in His mercy sustains; and who His laws were made to protect.
The depth of His love is revealed in the punishment He meets out to those who break His commandments - the commandments of their Creator and Sustainer that flow from His heart of love. Yes at times the awesomeness of His judgement is a reflection of the magnitude of His mercy and love towards mankind. "Ye shall not afflict any widow, or fatherless child, if thou afflict them in any wise, and they cry at all unto me, I will surely hear their cry and my wrath shall wax hot and I will kill you with the sword and your wives shall be widows, and your children fatherless." (Exodus 22:21-24).
The keeping of His moral law perfectly would mean living a life full of compassion see(Exodus ch20 & ch23, Leviticus ch25, Deuteronomy ch2, ch5 & ch19).This ideal of compassion is captured well in the image of the kinsman redeemer. These were people with financial resources who purchased the freedom of a slave, their relative, who had been reduced to such poverty that they had had to sell themselves into slavery (Leviticus 25:47-50). This character of a saviour or redeemer is one seen throughout the Old and New Testaments not only as the character that God wants and expects of man but also as the character of God Himself. The Son of God even has ‘Jesus’ another form of Joshua, which means ‘God Saves’ as His first name.
God is revealed throughout the Bible not only as Creator but also as Sustainer of all living things. The God who provides for all our needs whether we realise it or not (Acts 15:16&17). God knows all of our needs better than we know them ourselves like a mother the needs of her child. He is conscious (though we are blissfully unaware) of our need of salvation from under his wrath. He would be just to send us to hell and let us all endure His judgement on our godless ways forever. Yet He has chosen not only to be just, but also to be very merciful and become the justifier of all those who call out to Him and trust in His Son for salvation.
