To appreciate the word translated “justification,” imagine a courtroom with a judge, jury, prosecuting attorney and the accused.  The evidence against the accused points to the expected sentence of death.  Instead, a Savior steps forward to take his place and by virtue of his dependency and indebtedness for such a gift, the accused is allowed to go free and treated as if he had never committed the wrong.  Justification is the sentence of the judge allowing the accused to go free (an acquittal). 

Here, we see another characteristic of God – His justice.  Understand the justice of God demands punishment (Rom. 1:18, Hebrews 10:31, 12:29; 2 Thes. 1:9) not because he is vengeful, but because he is just and will always be true to the principles of His nature.   Justice required the removal from the garden, the tree of life,  receiving ground cursed with thorns and thistles,  pain in childbirth and the serpent would now crawl on its belly.

 Imagine how you feel when you experience a theft or violence committed against you.  Remember how we all felt on 9/11. We all felt violated and angered.  If we were God, and had unlimited power to right the wrongs and correct the injustice, we may not have stopped short of complete annihilation.  Yet, God’s justice is always tempered by His mercy.  A promise of a future redeemer is soon offered in Genesis 3:15 that one from the seed of woman would crush the head of Satan.  This promise corresponds to his love (Gal. 4:4).   The closest relationship which we may relate is the child/parent relationship, even though parents are not as consistent.  Still, we understand how punishment is not retribution/vengeance nor does it negate love.  This illustrates how love and mercy may coexist in a single relationship.  God wanted that relationship back so much that Heaven itself would give up one of its own (John 3:16)  to fulfill the demands of justice while showing mercy.

Meanwhile, we must learn the great cost of sin – separation of the ungodly from the Godly.   This death is not so much physical (though that is included) but spiritual (Romans 6:23) separation.  Adam did not die physically “in the day that he ate,” but he did die spiritually.  What once included a daily walk and communion with God is now gone.  Now, he is cast out of the Garden and barred from it entrance to live in a sin-cursed world where there is death (physical), toil and pain.  To appease or propitiate God’s justice, there had to be an adequate punishment.  The sacrifices of the Old Testament were not adequate (Heb. 10:4-6).  It met the requirements each year, but there was a remembrance of sin and its consequences every year.  The sacrificial system did give a glimpse into what God required:  (1) a life must be given for another (2) the sacrificial life must be perfect.  The lamb on the Jewish Day of Atonement had to be without blemish.  Jesus, too, had to be perfect else his death would have only satisfied the punishment for his own sins.  Sinlessness was required to substitute his life for ours.

Mercy (relating to justification) and justice (relating to “propitiation”) met at the cross.  Paul explains in 2 Cor. 5:21 that God made Jesus, “who knew no sin to become sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.  Isaiah 53:5-6 says he was wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities, and by His stripes we are healed.   Notice verse 6 explains who wounded him.  “And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.”  Verse 10 reads, “Yet it pleased God to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief…”   Peter describes it in 1 Peter 3:18, “For Christ suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God…”  The Lamb of God had come to (1) satisfy God’s justice and (2)  justify the sinner through faith.  Romans 3:23-26 reads, “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness…to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.  Thank God for this unspeakable gift!

Contact Timothy Glover at timothy.j.glover@att.net.