Always righteous, always right

When the LORD goes through the land to strike down the Egyptians, He will see the blood on the top and sides of the doorframe and will pass over that doorway, and He will not permit the destroyer to enter your houses and strike you down. –Exodus 12:23 (NIV)

Pharaoh had many chances to obey, but ultimately, inevitably, his clock ran out. Judgment Day came for Egypt. God poured out His wrath on an unrepentant king, to the ruin of his people. Often in the Old Testament, God orchestrated the sequence of such events to allow each group or king to play out their fate in turn. In His divine timing, He displayed His glory, disciplined and saved His people, and inspired dread or repentance among other kings and nations whose turns were pending.

We are mistaken to think of the God of the Old Testament as different from the God of the New Testament – God has always desired relationship and He holds judgment and mercy with equal authority and equal skill, though I think He has more fun with mercy. As our Creator who loves us, He knows us best and gives us commands and principles for our blessing. Some use the consequences of our fallenness and examples of God’s judgment on a rebellious world as an excuse (“How could a loving God allow…?” “I don’t think I could ever follow a God who would…”). This too is a mistake.

God is always right. His judgments are always righteous. He holds no malice. He offers chance after chance to repent. But God is no fool. He is sovereign. He answers to no authority except His own Word, His own character, His own all-seeing, all-knowing, unbound by time or space understanding of right, wrong, and reality. Who am I to question my Creator or instruct Him in matters of fairness and justice? The truth is we have all fallen short. We all deserve judgment. We are all subject to punishment.

God looks down from heaven on all mankind to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God. Everyone has turned away, all have become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one. –Psalm 53:2-3 (NIV)

This condition gives God no pleasure. It just proves God has a standard I can never meet, regardless of how good I think I am. So how do I stand before a perfect and holy God? The same way the Israelites did. He finds me under the protective cover of the blood of the Lamb. Because the idea of forever losing contact with His children was so abhorrent to God that He provided a way for us to come home. It involved Him becoming one of us and giving His life for ours. Perfect life, perfect sacrifice.

Why does this satisfy the requirement for righteous perfection? How does it work? A lot has been said and written on the topic, using big words like redemption, atonement, substitutionary propitiation. I understand something of those concepts, but the “Why?” I can’t really say. I just know that He has declared me holy based on my faith in that sacrifice. Again, who am I to argue with God?

God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. –2 Corinthians 5:21 (NIV)

My redemption makes me no more worthy than anyone else. It makes me safe. And grateful. And holder of an ambassadorship in the Ministry of Reconciliation. Next week, let’s talk about what that looks like.

Blessings y’all!