Third, God is just. This means that according to His perfect holiness and perfect love, He must punish sin. To love sin and evil would compromise His holiness. If God didn’t judge sin, then He would be evil. Yet He wouldn’t be in the wrong to judge man for being evil because He made us good, and we choose to rebel and do evil. This brings us to some truths about man. First, man is not holy. He need only to listen to his conscience, for God has seared morality upon it. Romans 1:32 says, "Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.” Man knows that he is not holy. He tends to rationalize his error and justify his own goodness, but deep down he knows that he is not perfect like God. The law of God shows us our sin. Likely we have lied, stolen, and made other things more important than God, just to name a few violations. If we still think we succeed at being perfect, we need only to ask ourselves if we love God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. The bottom line is that “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). Man has a holiness problem because he has a sin problem. Ever since Adam sinned, man has inherited this propensity to sin. Man has a nature that makes sin natural, and he has a heart that is desperately wicked (Jeremiah 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it)? There is no way that man can be holy. As such, God cannot let us into His heavenly home. Second, man cant justify himself or make himself holy. Man is really in the negative when it comes to morality. Yet there is no amount of positives that can be done to outweigh the negatives. Perfection is the standard, so if a sin has been committed, the game has already been lost. This puts man in a bad place because Romans 6:23 says that “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” The consequences of our sin is death and eternity apart from God in hell. This is the bad news. The good news is that the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Fortunately, God is indeed a God of love. He cannot violate His holy standard which requires that justice be measured out. Thus, somebody must die. Somebody must bear the death penalty that we all deserve. Yet in order for the penalty to be paid, the one who bears the judgment of God must Himself be perfect. Unless God does something, man is doomed. Praise God that He did something in sending His Son. The second half of Romans 6:23 says, “But the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” What man could not do, God did, by sending His own Son. Jesus, though still fully God, became man and dwelt among us. He lived the perfect live, and having been conceived by the Holy Spirit, He was not born in sin like the rest of us. Thus, He was qualified to be the perfect sacrifice. He died to bear the penalty of our sin, but the fact that He was God enabled Him to conquer death and come back to life. Thus, He has made a way for us to be freed from the penalty of sin and to enjoy eternal life with Him in heaven forever.
Posted on: Mon, 09 Sep 2013 14:09:35 +0000