Chapter 66—Established in Justice and Judgment
Justice and judgment are the habitation of thy throne: mercy and
truth shall go before thy face.
Psalm 89:14
.
Through Jesus, God’s mercy was manifested to men; but mercy does
not set aside justice. The law reveals the attributes of God’s character, and
not a jot or tittle of it could be changed to meet man in his fallen condition.
God did not change His law, but He sacrificed Himself, in Christ, for man’s
redemption. “God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself” (
2
Corinthians 5:19
)....
God’s love has been expressed in His justice no less than in His mercy.
Justice is the foundation of His throne, and the fruit of His love. It had been
Satan’s purpose to divorce mercy from truth and justice. He sought to prove
that the righteousness of God’s law is an enemy to peace. But Christ shows
that in God’s plan they are indissolubly joined together; the one cannot exist
without the other. “Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and
peace have kissed each other” (
Psalm 85:10
).
By His life and His death, Christ proved that God’s justice did not destroy
His mercy, but that sin could be forgiven, and that the law is righteous, and
can be perfectly obeyed. Satan’s charges were refuted.
The grace of Christ and the law of God are inseparable. In Jesus mercy
and truth are met together.... He was the representative of God and the
exemplar of humanity. He presented to the world what humanity might
become when united by faith with divinity. The only-begotten Son of God
took upon Him the nature of man, and established His cross between earth
and heaven. Through the cross, man was drawn to God, and God to man.
Justice moved from its high and awful position, and the heavenly hosts, the
armies of holiness, drew near to the cross, bowing with reverence; for at the
cross justice was satisfied. Through the cross the sinner was drawn from
the stronghold of sin, from the confederacy of evil, and at every approach
to the cross his heart relents and in penitence he cries, “It was my sins that
crucified the Son of God.” At the cross he leaves his sins, and through the
grace of Christ his character is transformed.
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