Judgment vs Justification

I am still plowing my way through the Bible...about 2 weeks to go.  I've been finding the prophets difficult with all the warnings of woes and judgment.  (Just finishing up Amos.)  It makes me ever more thankful that I am living in this present age of grace.  Under the Law, there was the constant need to offer animal sacrifices for sins and trespasses and iniquities.  

Interesting to think about the fact, though, that when a sacrifice was brought, the priest did not examine the person who presented it, but rather the lamb, or whatever animal was brought.  It always needed to be without blemish.  When we present ourselves before God, He is not examining us, but our Sacrifice, the perfect, sinless Lamb of God, without blemish.  How completely amazing!  How freeing to know that we can come freely to our heavenly Father and He will not turn away from us in disgust and disappointment!

Sometimes the apostle Paul answered accusers who thought he was teaching the idea that, because we are under grace, we are free to live lawlessly, and sin as much as we happen to feel like sinning.  For example, Romans 5:1, 2 and 15:  "What shall we say then?  Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?  Certainly not!  How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?...What then?  Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace?  Certainly not!"  And Romans 3:8:  "And why not say, 'Let us do evil that good may come'? - as we are slanderously reported and as some affirm that we say..."

So why not go ahead and sin, exactly?  Paul, in I Corinthians, repeated this thought:  "All things are lawful for me, but all things are not helpful (profitable).  All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any...all things are lawful for me, but not all things edify"  (6:12 and 10:23b).  Choosing sin is first unprofitable, secondly addicting, and thirdly not edifying, which is to say, it won't build up but rather tear us down.  It's a little like choosing poor diet, sedentary lifestyle and all kinds of unhealthy choices.  We're free to do those things, but they only ruin us.

Though we are completely free in the grace of God, we still reap what we sow.  That is a law as sure as the law of gravity.  Jesus taught this:  "Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy" (Matthew 5:7) and "Judge not that you be not judged.  For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you...Judge not and you shall not be judged.  Condemn not, and you shall not be condemned.  Forgive and you will be forgiven.  Give and it will be given to you:  good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom.  For with the same measure you use, it will be measured back to you" (Matthew 7:1 and Luke 6:37, 38).

Let me just  make a clarification here about the "Forgive and you will be forgiven" part.  Since Jesus became our propitiation, bearing our punishment and God's wrath against sin for us, we are already forgiven.  Ephesians 1:7, 8 says, "In Him, we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and understanding."  God's forgiveness is ours.  But our own feelings of guilt and condemnation can keep us from fellowshipping freely with our Lord.  Also forgiveness from people will come your way more freely if you are one who forgives easily.  "Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap" (Galatians 6:7).

So, all that rambling to remind us that we are so, so blessed to have Jesus as our substitutionary sacrifice, giving us the freedom to live in God's marvelous grace and freed from any judgment, but we are foolish to abuse the grace whereby we were justified.  

Ezekiel to Easter

I have been plowing my way through Jeremiah, Lamentations and now Ezekiel with all their woes and warnings, and this blog sort of randomly wanders its way through these books. 

Jeremiah does have its bright spots, assurances of restoration sprinkled throughout the prophecies of doom and destruction.  It starts out with the Lord assuring Jeremiah, "Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you.  Before you were born, I sanctified you."  It's true for all of us too:  God knew us before we were born and set us apart for a holy purpose, which He will show us as we seek it out.  

Then, when Jeremiah expressed his doubts about his assignment, he is assured, "...whatever I command you, you shall speak.  Do not be afraid of their faces, for I am with you to deliver you."  We've looked before at the "fear not for I am with you" scriptures.

One of the well-known Jeremiah passages shows up in chapter 9, verses 23 and 24:  "'Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom; let not the mighty man glory in his might, nor let the rich man glory in his riches; but let him who glories glory in this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord, exercising lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth, for in these I delight,' says the Lord."

We used to sing Jeremiah 32:17 KJV:  "Ah, Lord God, Thou hast made the heavens and the earth by Thy great power/Ah, Lord God, Thou hast made the heavens and the earth by Thine outstretched arm./Nothing is too difficult for Thee, nothing is too difficult for Thee,/Great in counsel and mighty in deed./Nothing, nothing, absolutely nothing, nothing is too difficult for Thee.

It used to be said that Jeremiah 33:3 was God's phone number.  I guess that was in the days when letters were used in combination with numbers.  Anyway, this is where God says, "Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know."  That's a great verse to memorize, meditate on and keep close.

Lamentations is a collection of five songs of Jeremiah, in which he wails over the destruction of Israel and Judah.  In the middle of this, he reminds himself, "Through the Lord's mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not.  They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness.  'The Lord is my portion,' says my soul, 'therefore I hope in Him'" (3:23, 24).

Then in Ezekiel, God pours out His grief and anguish, indignation and wrath at the rebellion and rejection and what He calls the harlotry of His own people as they turn from worship of Him to bowing down and burning incense and sacrificing to gods of their own making, and He pronounces His judgments on them as a result.  

Actually, I'm not very far into the book of Ezekiel so far, but from previous readings I know that it ends with a description of the restoration of Israel, and the rebuilding of the holy city, and the last sentence says, "the name of that city shall be 'The Lord is there (Jehovah Shammah).'"

This is my sort-of segue to the days we have just celebrated, Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday.  Father God laid all the judgments and punishments we deserved on Jesus, our willing sacrifice.  The prophecies of woe and wailing no longer apply to us.  The wrath of God was fully appeased by the propitiation of the perfect, sinless Lamb of God.  Hallelujah, hallelujah!  Praise to the matchless name of our God!  Thank You, thank You, Jesus!  Endless praise and blessing and thanksgiving and glory and honour are due to our wonderful Lord who made the way for us to be free in His presence and to know that He is our Jehovah Shammah, always with us, always welcoming us, with His face of mercy and grace turned beaming toward us.  Blessed be His name forever!