God’s self-revelation to Moses in Exodus 34:6-7 is referred to by one commentator as the “North Star” of the Bible, anchoring our hope in and guiding us to the one, Jesus Christ, who was sent by the Father of mercies into this world to manifest and magnify the glory of God’s mercy and grace, while upholding the glory of God’s righteousness and justice ((2 Corinthians 1:3) (Psalm 89:14).
Because mercy cannot be granted at the expense of justice, God in His infinite wisdom and in the ultimate expression of His love, determined from the foundation of the world that the Son voluntarily would substitute Himself in place of sinners, taking upon Himself the condemnation and judgement our sin deserved, so that everyone who would believe in Him, that He is the Christ – the promised Messiah, the son of the living God, would not perish in Hell, but be granted eternal life, the glorious life with God for which man was created (John 15:13-14) (Revelation 13:8). (Matthew 16:16) (John 3:16).
This one who was holy, harmless, undefiled, without sin (Hebrews 7:26-28), who went around during His life on Earth doing only good, (Acts 10:38); the one proclaimed publicly by God the Father as “His beloved Son, with whom He is well pleased” (Matthew 3:17), is unjustly arrested and convicted by the religious leaders on trumped up charges of blasphemy. He is given over to the Roman authorities on false charges of insurrection, which has the penalty of crucifixion if convicted. Even though He is found innocent by the Roman governor, Pontious Pilate, Pilate succumbs to public pressure.
The crowd who six days earlier were ready to enthrone Jesus as king, now cry out “crucify Him, crucify Him” and Pilate caves. He has Jesus scourged, which is a penalty usually reserved for a disobedient or incorrigible slave and then placarded, crucified on a Roman cross, a shameful and agonizing execution reserved only for the worst of criminals. He was crucified between two of those criminals, mocked and spit upon by the very people He came to save (John 19:1-18).
We have the exact purpose for these events given to us in Isaiah 53:5-6, 700 years before they occur, wherein we read, “Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed. 6All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, everyone to his own way; And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.”
On the cross Jesus bore the certainty of God’s justice, the righteousness of God’s wrath and judgement we deserved for sin. He was put there ultimately not by the Romans, not by the Jews, but by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God who so loved the world that He gave his only begotten and precious son to suffer the full and exacting consequences deserved by all who would ultimately receive, by faith, the fullness of the riches of His mercy both in this age and in the ages to come (Acts 2:22-24) (John 3:16) (Ephesians 2:4-8).
Jesus, as a man, was personally innocent of even the slightest infraction of God’s holy law, rendering to it a personal, perfect and perpetual obedience. Yet on the cross, He would experience in His body and soul all of the unimaginable agony, horror and torment inherent in God’s wrath and judgement being poured out on Him, so that all of the riches of God’s mercy and grace could justly be poured out on us (Ezekiel 7:8) (2 Corinthians 5:21).
It is on the cross we behold the clearest, the most solemn, and yet the grandest display of God’s righteousness and justice. There we see His holy hatred of sin and the nature and severity of His sentence upon it in the tremendous punishment of sin inflicted upon His beloved Son, the Holy Lamb (John 1:29).
But it is also on the cross where we see the authority of His righteous government maintained. With the requirements of His divine justice fully satisfied, Jesus becomes our merciful and faithful high priest, having made atonement for our sins (Hebrews 2:17-18) such that we have declared in Psalm 85:10 “Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other!” Our friend Samuel Davies, whom I introduced in a prior post, in his devotional titled “The Preaching of Christ Crucified, the Means of Salvation” which is based on this Psalm writes, “The salvation of sinners by the substitutionary death of Christ, gives the brightest display of the perfections of God; and particularly of those which belong to Him as the Supreme Ruler of the moral world. Justice and mercy, duly tempered, and exercised with wisdom—is a summary of those virtues which belong to a good ruler. Now these are most illustriously displayed in a happy union in Christ crucified.”
Another commentator writes, “What an astonishing God-like scheme is this! What a stupendous display of the infinite wisdom of our great and glorious God. While God justly judges men guilty of sin, and worthy of death for our lack of personal, perfect, and perpetual obedience to His holy just and good law, He justly grants mercy, forgiveness, reconciliation and eternal life on the basis of our imperfect, faltering but sincere repentance and faith in His son, our Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ who suffered once for our sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us back to God” (1 Peter 3:18).
We now have the mercy of God available to us on the basis of both the intercession and righteousness of one man, Jesus Christ. Our sins may argue against us, but Christ is our loving advocate who argues for us and prevents us from receiving the judgment we deserve as He ever lives to make intercession for us (Hebrews 7:24-25) (1 John 2:1).
O’ what praise and worship, what love, devotion and adoration are due our precious Lord from the depths of our heart if He has made us partakers of His saving mercy through faith (1 Peter 2:7) (Isa. 61:10) (Psalm 86:1-13). Such worship and adoration is the glad and joyful employment of the saints in Heaven, and I would suggest must be ours now on earth, if we are to one day join them in Heaven, worshiping, with sinless hearts, the Lamb who sits on His throne forever and forever ever, Amen (Revelation 5:8-14).
Below are links to two songs that encourage our continuous praise and worship of the one who loved us and gave His life for us (Hebrews 13:15:16) (Galatians 2:20).
Grace and Peace x
Thank you James my brother.
You are most welcome.
Liked the concluding paragraphs “our sins may argue against us, “but Christ” “❣️
Ever so grateful, thank you Jesus ! 🙌 🙌 🙌