“It is Finished”
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a knowledge of God’s love. By beholding His character he might be
drawn back to God.
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 sacri-
ficed Himself, in Christ, for man’s redemption. “God was in Christ,
reconciling the world unto Himself.”
2 Corinthians 5:19
.
The law requires righteousness,—a righteous life, a perfect charac-
ter; and this man has not to give. He cannot meet the claims of God’s
holy law. But Christ, coming to the earth as man, lived a holy life,
and developed a perfect character. These He offers as a free gift to
all who will receive them. His life stands for the life of men. Thus
they have remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of
God. More than this, Christ imbues men with the attributes of God.
He builds up the human character after the similitude of the divine
character, a goodly fabric of spiritual strength and beauty. Thus the
very righteousness of the law is fulfilled in the believer in Christ. God
can “be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.”
Romans
3:26
.
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.
God had given man unmistakable evidence of His love.
Another deception was now to be brought forward. Satan declared
that mercy destroyed justice, that the death of Christ abrogated the Fa-
ther’s law. Had it been possible for the law to be changed or abrogated,
then Christ need not have died. But to abrogate the law would be to
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immortalize transgression, and place the world under Satan’s control.
It was because the law was changeless, because man could be saved