How God can be Just and the Justifier of Sinners
In the Old Testament we get an unfolding vision of God and His attributes through the stories of the people that He called. First we see that He is the creator that made man in His image, giving man the commission as the 'king priest' of the garden, ruling and subduing creation while expanding the borders of the Garden. Adam failed to crush the serpent and so he was removed from the Garden temple sanctuary. God repeated Adam's commission to his children, choosing Abram to be the father of a new nation (a corporate Adam) that would once again be commissioned to be a nation of priests. Eventually God gave them the Holy Land (a new Garden for corporate Adam) and called them to grow it's boarders. Just as the Garden had been the place where man "walked with God" experiencing God's presence, the land of Israel was home to the tabernacle which was where the presence of God rested.
The purpose of these stories in their fullness is to teach us that God is incredibly holy, righteous and just. He made man perfect, and when man sinned he had to be sent away from the presence of God. God is so holy and righteous that He cannot have sin in His presence, and He is so just that He must judge sin - He cannot allow the guilty to go unpunished.
Before God gave Israel the Holy Land He gave them the Law. The Law was a written version of who God is (His attributes), and since God made man in His image all people are to be like God. Since God is unchanging He can never bend His Law's requirements for those that are in contact with Him, they too must be perfect. Since no one could ever live up to God's perfect standards, He also gave them the sacrificial system as a way to cover for sins done in ignorance. However, there were certain sins that were 'unforgivable.' Even the sacrifice was unacceptable for these sins and so it was required that instead of the animal dying for the sins of the person, the person was to die for their own sin.
This is how the Bible stories progress, God is perfectly holy and as the people sin they must offer a sacrifice or they must pay with their own lives depending on the type of sin. But then we come to the story of David and Bathsheba and we run into a huge problem...
Some background is important to fully understand just how important this time was in Israel's history. As we have seen God had repeated the Adamic (Adam's) commission to Israel to be king priests expanding the new Garden sanctuary or Holy Land. Upon coming to David we see that he is a man after God's own heart and God makes him the king of Israel. But David is unique in that on occasion he also performs certain priestly functions, so David is helping to fulfill the commission by leading Israel to be a nation of king priests. Finally Adam's commission is being fulfilled through the nation of Israel. David has secured the borders of the land and is subduing and expanding the kingdom. Any Israelite in this day that knew their Bible would have been amazed that the time of rest was upon them. They have a righteous king and they are acting as a kingdom of priests worshiping God and being a light to the nations around them. And so it is with this background in mind that we come to see how horrendous the story of David and Bathsheba is.
The story goes that David ignored his kingly duty by not going to war, and walked out upon his roof and he saw Bathsheba bathing. David lusted after her and called for her, he seduced her and committed adultery with her from which she became pregnant. Knowing that she was the wife of Uriah (one of David's mighty men!!) and that David would be exposed as an adulterer, David called him home from battle to attempt to make the child look as though it was from Uriah. However, Uriah was a far more honorable man than David and refused to go home and be with his wife, so David ordered him to be left in the worst part of the battle. Essentially David ordered the assassination of the man whose wife he had just had an affair with.
This is the great let down. David was the hope of the nation, the great king who had led Israel to victory over her enemies, but he had committed two capital offences. David broke God's law twice and was deserving of death, not even a sacrifice could cover for these sins. But then something even more scandalous happens when God breaks His own law by forgiving David. The God of perfect righteousness, holiness and justice forgives the law breaking king, but how?
The questions overwhelming us at this point are, "How can God simply forgive David? Doesn't that make God unjust? Doesn't that prove that God is not good after all, that He isn't faithful to keep His word and to keep His own standards?" Or more specifically, "How can God break His own law and not require David's life?"
This is a far greater problem that it looks at first glance. We might be tempted to say that God can do whatever He wants to do, but we cannot forget that God gave the Law and it is derived from His character. In other words, if God were able to simply choose to ignore the requirements of His own law and not require David's life from Him, then God could choose to not be good, righteous, holy, or just. This issue of God upholding His own law is HUGE because in the balance hangs the very fact of whether God is good or not. If God is not unchangingly good, righteous, holy, and just, then He could decide to be evil if it suited Him. God's character and attributes must not and cannot change, or else He must not and cannot be trusted.
To phrase this question the way that the Apostle Paul taught it, "How can God be both just and the justifier?"(Rom 3:26) How could God forgive David and not require David's life from him, but still remain a truly holy and just God?
Before we can answer that question, we also discover that, in fact, God's law was far more severe than anyone believed. It would be easy to point fingers at David and say that all murderers deserve to be put to death, but Paul showed us that the wages of ALL sin is death.(Rom 6:23) Not that only some sins require the death penalty, but ALL sins require the death penalty. Whether stealing bubble gum, having a bad attitude, or getting angry with someone, they all require the death of the offender. Sure, the animals for the sacrifice died in place of the sinner, but in his letter to the Hebrews we learn that those sacrifices were never truly sufficient to fully cover for our sin.
The penalty demanded death, and yet God forgave David. The penalty for our sins, no matter how small, demands death and yet God has not required our lives from us. Why? How can God be both just and the justifier is the question screamed at us the moment we come to understand the incredible holiness of God and the hideousness of sinning against such a holy God. The answer was given hundreds of years after David. God did not break His law, but rather He delayed His judgement.
The answer to our question is found in the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. You see by Jesus dying in our place, God has remained perfectly righteous, holy and just because the penalty for all of our sin has been satisfied. It was satisfied through the death of God's own Son, where Jesus became sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. (2Cor 5:21) This is the gospel, the story of the incredible Creator-Savior and there is no salvation apart from this message being proclaimed and believed.
We also learn a very practical lesson from this story of David. Since we have seen how God's holiness demands that His justice be meted out, there is no place for pride. Christians need to remember that we too are completely unworthy to come before God, that we were all equally condemned under the law. Because our salvation is achieved by the incredible grace of God, pouring out the punishment we deserved on Christ, we are in no way superior to the non-believers around us.
Sadly many Christians often confuse being saved with being better than the unbelieving world around us, but that is not the case. One pastor has said that we are not the good guys, there is only one good guy and that is Jesus. All mankind are bad guys, and Christians are still bad guys, yet they have been saved by the self-sacrifice of the only good guy. Christians should approach unbelieving neighbors, coworkers, family, etc without any sense of superiority because we have none. But what we have we should share - grace upon grace in the story of salvation through the faith-creating Good News of Jesus Christ our Savior.
The purpose of these stories in their fullness is to teach us that God is incredibly holy, righteous and just. He made man perfect, and when man sinned he had to be sent away from the presence of God. God is so holy and righteous that He cannot have sin in His presence, and He is so just that He must judge sin - He cannot allow the guilty to go unpunished.
Before God gave Israel the Holy Land He gave them the Law. The Law was a written version of who God is (His attributes), and since God made man in His image all people are to be like God. Since God is unchanging He can never bend His Law's requirements for those that are in contact with Him, they too must be perfect. Since no one could ever live up to God's perfect standards, He also gave them the sacrificial system as a way to cover for sins done in ignorance. However, there were certain sins that were 'unforgivable.' Even the sacrifice was unacceptable for these sins and so it was required that instead of the animal dying for the sins of the person, the person was to die for their own sin.
This is how the Bible stories progress, God is perfectly holy and as the people sin they must offer a sacrifice or they must pay with their own lives depending on the type of sin. But then we come to the story of David and Bathsheba and we run into a huge problem...
Some background is important to fully understand just how important this time was in Israel's history. As we have seen God had repeated the Adamic (Adam's) commission to Israel to be king priests expanding the new Garden sanctuary or Holy Land. Upon coming to David we see that he is a man after God's own heart and God makes him the king of Israel. But David is unique in that on occasion he also performs certain priestly functions, so David is helping to fulfill the commission by leading Israel to be a nation of king priests. Finally Adam's commission is being fulfilled through the nation of Israel. David has secured the borders of the land and is subduing and expanding the kingdom. Any Israelite in this day that knew their Bible would have been amazed that the time of rest was upon them. They have a righteous king and they are acting as a kingdom of priests worshiping God and being a light to the nations around them. And so it is with this background in mind that we come to see how horrendous the story of David and Bathsheba is.
The story goes that David ignored his kingly duty by not going to war, and walked out upon his roof and he saw Bathsheba bathing. David lusted after her and called for her, he seduced her and committed adultery with her from which she became pregnant. Knowing that she was the wife of Uriah (one of David's mighty men!!) and that David would be exposed as an adulterer, David called him home from battle to attempt to make the child look as though it was from Uriah. However, Uriah was a far more honorable man than David and refused to go home and be with his wife, so David ordered him to be left in the worst part of the battle. Essentially David ordered the assassination of the man whose wife he had just had an affair with.
This is the great let down. David was the hope of the nation, the great king who had led Israel to victory over her enemies, but he had committed two capital offences. David broke God's law twice and was deserving of death, not even a sacrifice could cover for these sins. But then something even more scandalous happens when God breaks His own law by forgiving David. The God of perfect righteousness, holiness and justice forgives the law breaking king, but how?
The questions overwhelming us at this point are, "How can God simply forgive David? Doesn't that make God unjust? Doesn't that prove that God is not good after all, that He isn't faithful to keep His word and to keep His own standards?" Or more specifically, "How can God break His own law and not require David's life?"
This is a far greater problem that it looks at first glance. We might be tempted to say that God can do whatever He wants to do, but we cannot forget that God gave the Law and it is derived from His character. In other words, if God were able to simply choose to ignore the requirements of His own law and not require David's life from Him, then God could choose to not be good, righteous, holy, or just. This issue of God upholding His own law is HUGE because in the balance hangs the very fact of whether God is good or not. If God is not unchangingly good, righteous, holy, and just, then He could decide to be evil if it suited Him. God's character and attributes must not and cannot change, or else He must not and cannot be trusted.
To phrase this question the way that the Apostle Paul taught it, "How can God be both just and the justifier?"(Rom 3:26) How could God forgive David and not require David's life from him, but still remain a truly holy and just God?
Before we can answer that question, we also discover that, in fact, God's law was far more severe than anyone believed. It would be easy to point fingers at David and say that all murderers deserve to be put to death, but Paul showed us that the wages of ALL sin is death.(Rom 6:23) Not that only some sins require the death penalty, but ALL sins require the death penalty. Whether stealing bubble gum, having a bad attitude, or getting angry with someone, they all require the death of the offender. Sure, the animals for the sacrifice died in place of the sinner, but in his letter to the Hebrews we learn that those sacrifices were never truly sufficient to fully cover for our sin.
The penalty demanded death, and yet God forgave David. The penalty for our sins, no matter how small, demands death and yet God has not required our lives from us. Why? How can God be both just and the justifier is the question screamed at us the moment we come to understand the incredible holiness of God and the hideousness of sinning against such a holy God. The answer was given hundreds of years after David. God did not break His law, but rather He delayed His judgement.
The answer to our question is found in the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. You see by Jesus dying in our place, God has remained perfectly righteous, holy and just because the penalty for all of our sin has been satisfied. It was satisfied through the death of God's own Son, where Jesus became sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. (2Cor 5:21) This is the gospel, the story of the incredible Creator-Savior and there is no salvation apart from this message being proclaimed and believed.
We also learn a very practical lesson from this story of David. Since we have seen how God's holiness demands that His justice be meted out, there is no place for pride. Christians need to remember that we too are completely unworthy to come before God, that we were all equally condemned under the law. Because our salvation is achieved by the incredible grace of God, pouring out the punishment we deserved on Christ, we are in no way superior to the non-believers around us.
Sadly many Christians often confuse being saved with being better than the unbelieving world around us, but that is not the case. One pastor has said that we are not the good guys, there is only one good guy and that is Jesus. All mankind are bad guys, and Christians are still bad guys, yet they have been saved by the self-sacrifice of the only good guy. Christians should approach unbelieving neighbors, coworkers, family, etc without any sense of superiority because we have none. But what we have we should share - grace upon grace in the story of salvation through the faith-creating Good News of Jesus Christ our Savior.
Great point you made about how we our to view our selfs as Christians who believe the gospel, saved by grace alone. Sometimes I know for me that I either move to far to the left or to far to the right. Either Not good enough righteously or not bad enough morally. But recognizing that being saved by sheer grace means we still are no better then anyone, instead still wicked and perverted but have a living hope that the Savior Jesus Christ has saved us from the judgment we All deserve. That is humbling!
ReplyDeleteI've been having a hard time praying lately because I feel like the same sins keep coming up and how can I be continually forgiven for something I just don't seem to learn from? And then there are other times that I almost justify my sins by saying "well A isn't as bad as B." But the story of David really destroys this concept: all sin is death. If I get angry at my coworker but say "hey, at least I didn't sleep with his wife and then have him killed!" is that true to the extent that the outcome could have been worst but I still sinned and need forgiveness? This post was a good reminder that the price has been paid and that we (I) shouldn't feel unworthy turning to Him for forgiveness.
ReplyDeleteHey Michael,
ReplyDeleteGreat to hear from you bro. Praying for you! I would say that yes we always are capable of sinning in a worse manner than we do. There is a great old saying to thay affect, "But for the grace of God, there go I." Meaning that apart from Gods grace we are all murderers. However we also have to be careful on this front because that can fall into the whole comparing A with B too.
Instead we need to do exactly what you said at the end, we MUST NEVER feel unworthy for He has already settled our debt. The great paradox is thay we stand before the all-knowing God, yet He has chosen to forever forget our sins because of Christ's payment on the cross. The more we come to grasp at the depths of this truth the more we should be captivated to worship this incredible Savior, God. And the more we worship and stand in awe of Him, the less we are worried about and getting tripped up in our sins. That is what sanctification is all about.
blessings!