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The Lord God Almighty, our Sovereign Lord is a unique entity with unique attributes exclusively inherent to his person. And these qualities are clearly revealed to us in the things that He does. As the Apostle Paul says in Romans 1:20, “Ever since God created the world, his invisible qualities, both his eternal power and his divine nature, have been clearly seen; they are perceived in the things that God has made.” Therefore it is essential for us to study God’s power in creation, his nature and his deeds in order to comprehend who He is and to properly define his attributes. And it is also important for us to note that among the countless deeds of our Lord there is one preeminent act in which greater revelations of his divine attributes are found: the crucifixion of our Lord Jesus Christ. Christ’s redemptive work on the cross reveals to us all the attributes of our God. The cross is a crucial element to consider when we seek to know God, when we seek to understand his attributes. The cross is the place where all our sins were paid for. Christ was hanged on that tree and He bore our sins though He knew no sin, in order to appease God’s wrath and satisfy God’s divine justice. He was our substitute on the cross. As Isaiah 53:4 says, “He endured the suffering that should have been ours, the pain that we should have borne.”
The Sovereign Lord announces his redemptive plan through his Son Jesus Christ since the beginning in Genesis after the fall of Adam. When God, the righteous God pronounces judgement against the serpent in the Garden of Eden, He declares: “I will make you and the woman hate each other; her offspring and yours will always be enemies. Her offspring will crush your head, and you will bite her offspring’s heel.” (Genesis 3:15). The Lord God Almighty, thence, determines the means by which his righteous demand for justice would be satisfied. Under the old covenant, sacrifices for sin were performed yearly by the Jewish High Priest. But these sacrifices did not purify people, but they did “serve year after year to remind people of their sins. For the blood of bulls and goats can never take away sins.” (Hebrews 9:3-4). And Hebrews 10:5-10 tells us that, “For this reason, when Christ was about to come into the world, He said to God: ‘You do not want sacrifices and offerings, but you have prepared a body for Me. You are not pleased with animals burnt whole on the altar or with sacrifices to take away sins. Then I said, ‘Here I am, to do your will, O God, just as it is written of Me in the book of the Law.’” Hebrews 10:10-14 says, “Because Jesus Christ did what God wanted Him to do, we are all purified from sin by the offering that He made of his own body once and for all. Every Jewish priest performs his services every day and offers the same sacrifices many times; but these sacrifices can never take away sins. Christ, however, offered one sacrifice for sins, an offering that is effective for ever, and then He sat down at the right-hand side of God. There He now waits until God puts his enemies as a footstool under his feet. With one sacrifice, then, He has made perfect for ever those who are purified from sin.”
God reconciled us to his grace through the redemptive work of Christ on the cross. Without the cross the entire human race would end up in hell. But “by becoming a curse for us Christ has redeemed us from the curse that the Law brings; for the Scripture says, ‘Anyone who is hanged on a tree is under God’s curse.’” (Galatians 3:13). The cross of Jesus is the revelation of the righteousness of God. Christ’s sacrifice takes away the sins of believers. He was sacrificed once and for all, unlike the sacrifices for sin that were performed yearly into the Most Holy Place under the old covenant by the High Priest. As Hebrews 9:24-28 tells us, “Christ did not go into a Holy Place made by human hands, which was a copy of the real one. He went into Heaven itself, where He now appears on our behalf in the presence of God. The Jewish High Priest goes into the Most Holy Place every year with the blood of an animal. But Christ did not go in to offer Himself many times, for then He would have had to suffer many times ever since the creation of the world. Instead, now when all ages of time are nearing the end, He has appeared once and for all, to remove sin through the sacrifice of Himself. Everyone must die once, and after that be judged by God. In the same manner Christ also was offered in sacrifice once to take away the sins of many. He will appear a second time, not to deal with sin, but to save those who are waiting for Him.”
The cross of Jesus is the ultimate revelation of the righteousness of God. We cannot understand the righteousness of God apart from the cross; we cannot fully grasp its meaning apart from the Gospel. The Gospel is the revelation of God’s righteousness: it demonstrates God’s power to save all who believe. “For the Gospel reveals how God puts people right with Himself: it is through faith from beginning to end. As the Scripture says, ‘The person who is put right with God through faith shall live.’” (Romans 1:17). When we say that God is righteous, it simply means that He is morally upright, He is just and He rewards anyone according to his deeds. God has set a standard by which we are to live. Micah 6:8 tells us “What He requires of us is this: to do what is just, to show constant love, and to live in humble fellowship with our God.” This is the standard by which we will be judged – “A good person will be rewarded for doing good, and an evil person will suffer for the evil he does.” (Ezekiel 18:20). By punishing the wicked and by rewarding the righteous, God exercises his judicial authority and role; He demonstrates his righteousness. To quote Dr. Steven J. Lawson, “Righteousness means to give to each man his due based upon his conformity or lack of conformity to the divine standard of perfect holiness.” Because God is righteous, He punishes sin and rewards those who are right with Him. God loves what is right and hates what is wrong; He hates the lawless with all his heart. He punishes evil, He punishes the wicked, but He rewards those who live to the standard set by Him.
Psalms 11:7 says: “The LORD is righteous and loves good deeds; those who do them will live in his presence.” But now the problem is: “We “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23). God created us upright, but we have sought out evil schemes. We are all under the power of sin. In sin we were all conceived and in sin we live. Sin is our inheritance from the blood of Adam. Sin is inherent to our human nature. Sin has separated us from the glorious presence of God our Creator. No human being born of a man and a woman is without sin. Romans 3:10-18 says, “There is no one who is righteous, no one who is wise or who worships God. All have turned away from God; they have all gone wrong; no one does what is right, not even one. Their words are full of deadly deceit; wicked lies roll off their tongues, and dangerous threats, like snake’s poison, from their lips; their speech is filled with bitter curses. They are quick to hurt and kill, they leave ruin and destruction wherever they go. They have not known the path of peace, nor have they learnt reverence for God.”
No human being born of a man and a woman lives to the standard set by God. We are inherently evil. This means we all deserve to die. For the reward for sin is death. But “God so loved the world that He gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16). God Himself provided the atonement for his justice to be satisfied. It was his will since the beginning to redeem his people. It was God’s plan to save people from his own wrath. As Paul says in Ephesians 1:5, “Because of his love God had already decided that through Jesus Christ He would make us his sons and daughters – this was his pleasure and purpose.” Right from Genesis 3 the Sovereign Lord promises the coming of the Messiah who takes away the sins of his people. This promise has been fulfilled on the cross on Calvary, where God offered his own Son as the propitiation for our sins. He sacrificed his only beloved Son in order to appease his wrath, the wrath that you and I have stirred up because of our sins against the Holy Lord God Almighty. God did not spare Him because his justice needed to be satisfied. And the only way you and I could be justified and reconciled to the Holy God was through the blood of his Son. It pleased God to sacrifice his Son, so that you and I may share the glory of the Son. Christ suffered in the hand of his own Father so that you and I may have eternal life.
Christ died as our substitute on the cross. God imputed our sins to his Son and credited the righteousness of his Son to us who believe. “It was not because of any good deeds that we ourselves had done, but because of his own mercy that He saved us, through the Holy Spirit, who gives us new birth and new life by washing us. God poured out the Holy Spirit abundantly on us through Jesus Christ our Saviour, so that by his grace we might be put right with God and come into possession of the eternal life we hope for.” (Titus 3:5-7). The Lord Jesus Christ is our righteousness. His righteousness is imputed to us through faith in Him. Christ is the Way, the Truth, and the Life; no one goes to the Father except by Him. Christ reconciled us to the Father by taking our place on that tree. “God made peace through his Son’s blood on the cross and so brought back to Himself all things, both on earth and in Heaven.” (Colossians 1:20).
We used to be sons and daughters of disobedience, controlled by the evil passions and desires of the flesh. We were dead and slaves to sin. God justified us through Christ in order to bring us holy, pure, and faultless into his presence. “God puts people right through their faith in Jesus Christ. God does this to all who believe in Christ, because there is no difference at all: everyone has sinned and is far away from God’s saving presence. But by the free gift of God’s grace all are put right with Him through Christ Jesus, who sets them free. God offered Him, so that by his blood He should become the means by which people’s sins are forgiven through their faith in Him. God did this in order to demonstrate that He is righteous. In the past He was patient and overlooked people’s sins; but in the present time He deals with their sins, in order to demonstrate his righteousness. In this way God shows that He himself is righteous and that He puts right everyone who believes in Jesus” (Romans 3:22-26).
It was to justify us, to put us right with Himself that God sacrificed his only Son. Christ redeemed us and therefore his righteousness got imputed to us who believe in Him. We do not have a righteousness of our own; our righteousness comes from God through faith in Christ. We are ruled by the love of Christ; He died to reconcile us to God. Christ died to satisfy the righteous demand of God’s divine justice. Through his blood we are put right with God through our faith in Him. “By Him we are put right with God; we become God’s holy people and are set free. So then, as the Scripture says, ‘Whoever wants to boast must boast of what the Lord has done.” (1 Corinthians 1:30). God through his Son changed us from enemies into his friends. God did not keep an account of our sins. He gave his own Son as a propitiation in order to cancel our sins, not as the result of our own efforts, but as a gift, the result of his love, mercy and grace.
We have been legally justified before God. Christ bore our sins and has brought us into this experience of God’s grace, in which we now live. We are free from the bondage of sin; we are no longer slaves to sin. Romans 8:1-4 tells us: “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so He condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”
Christ came on earth to fulfill the law; He paid all the penalties for us who believe in Him. His substitutionary death on the cross paid for our sins; it set us free and reconciled us to God. There is no more separation, no more condemnation – God’s divine wrath is appeased; justice is satisfied. Romans 5:17 says: “All who receive God’s abundant grace and are freely put right with Him will rule in life through Christ.” God has put his stamp of ownership on us who believe in Christ by giving us his Spirit. God in his goodness and saving grace has blessed us who believe in his Son with the Holy Spirit – “The Spirit is the guarantee that we shall receive what God has promised his people, and this assures us that God will give complete freedom to those who are his.” (Ephesians 1:14). “Law was introduced in order to increase wrongdoing; but where sin increased, God’s grace increased much more. So then, just as sin ruled by means of death, so also God’s grace rules by means of righteousness, leading us to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 5:20-21).
Now that through God’s grace we have received the righteousness of Christ our Lord and Saviour, the question is: Can we continue to live like when we were still foreigners to God’s grace? Should we go on sinning because we have been justified before the Holy One? Christ has satisfied the righteous demand of God’s divine justice, He has appeased God’s wrath on our behalf by paying for our past, present and future sins. Should we continue to be ruled by the flesh? We have been called by God through his Son to live a holy life. We have been redeemed so that we can live to the standard set by God. Romans 8:12-13 tells us, “we have an obligation, but it is not to live as our human nature wants us to. For if you live according to your human nature, you are going to die; but if by the Spirit you put to death your sinful actions, you will live.” We are urged to be like our Master, to be filled with the Spirit, to be humble, loving and kind. We are no longer slaves to sin, but Christ’s slaves, slaves of righteousness. For we have be called by God to follow Christ in his steps, to live like Christ, to live a righteous life.
As Paul says in Romans 6:18-20, “You were set free from sin and became the slaves of righteousness. At one time you surrendered yourselves entirely as slaves to impurity and wickedness for wicked purposes. In the same way you must now surrender yourselves entirely as slaves of righteousness for holy purposes. When you were slaves of sin, you were free from righteousness.” 2 Corinthians 5:15 says, Christ “died for all, so that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but only for Him who died and was raised to life for their sake.” Colossians 3:1-4 tells us, “You have been raised to life with Christ, so set your hearts on the things that are in heaven, where Christ sits on his throne at the right-hand side of God. Keep your minds fixed on things there, not on things here on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. Your real life is Christ and when He appears, then you too will appear with Him and share his glory!”
It is written: “God has made us what we are, and in our union with Christ Jesus He has created us for a life of good deeds, which He has already prepared for us to do.” (Ephesians 2:10). We are to offer ourselves as living sacrifices to God, fully devoted to worshipping and serving Him. “God has revealed his grace for the salvation of the whole human race. That grace instructs us to give up ungodly living and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in this world, as we wait for the blessed Day we hope for, when the glory of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ will appear. He gave Himself for us, to rescue us from all wickedness and to make us a pure people who belong to Him alone and are eager to do good.” (Titus 2:11-14). The Lord commands us in Matthew 6:33, “Be concerned above everything else with the Kingdom of God and with what He requires of you.”
We must not surrender any part of our being to sin to be used for wicked purposes. Instead, we must give ourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life, and surrender our whole being to Him to be used for righteous purposes. For we were set free from sin and became the slaves of righteousness. (Romans 6:13). We must feed ourselves on the words of faith. Like Paul says in his second letter to Timothy, we must keep away from godless legends and human doctrines and train ourselves for godly life. “Christ was without sin, but for our sake God made Him share our sin in order that in union with Him we might share the righteousness of God.” (2 Corinthians 5:21).Therefore our minds and hearts must be made new now that we are Christ’s slaves. We must clothe ourselves with kindness, gentleness, love, patience, goodness, endurance, faithfulness and obedience.
Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Paul in his letter to Ephesus urges us to put on the new self, which is created in God’s likeness and reveals itself in the true life that is upright and holy. We have been called to live like Christ, to walk in the Spirit. Our lives must be controlled by the Spirit. The Spirit of God works in us to sanctify us, to conform us to the image of Christ. In the same way we are freely justified by God through faith in Christ, our sanctification does not depend on us: we do not have the capacity on our own to change the evilness of our flesh. It is the power of the Holy Spirit within us that brings us life and leads us into the pursuit of righteousness. As the Scripture says, “There is nothing in us that allows us to claim that we are capable of doing this work. The capacity we have comes from God; it is He who made us capable of serving the new covenant, which consists not of a written law but of the Spirit.” (2 Corinthians 3:5-6). It is the Spirit of the Lord that transforms us into Christ’s likeness. We must let the Spirit control us, for it is the Spirit that saved us. We must all be good servants of Christ, for He bought us at the cost of his blood.
We have been redeemed by the blood of Christ for Christ, in order that we may be parts of his body, not because of anything good we have done. Christ has given us life. The Sovereign Lord says in Isaiah 43:25, “I am the God who forgives your sins, and I do this because of who I am. I will not hold your sins against you.” We were once spiritually dead because of our sins. “But God has now brought you to life with Christ. God has forgiven our sins; He cancelled the unfavourable record of our debts with its binding rules and did away with it completely by nailing it to the cross. And on that cross Christ freed Himself from the power of the spiritual rulers and authorities; He made a public spectacle of them by leading them as captives in his victory procession.” (Colossians 2:13-15). “As the one sin condemned all people, in the same way the righteous act sets all people free and gives life. And just as the mass of people were made sinners as the result of the disobedience of one man, in the same way the mass of people will all be put right with God as the result of the obedience of the One man.” (Romans 5:18-19).
We are justified by faith alone in Christ alone. Anyone who rejects the sacred blood of God’s covenant is under divine wrath. Wrath is God’s righteous response to human depravity, sin and rebellion against Him. Those who reject Christ and think that they are good enough to be right with God are in for a rude surprise. Christ is the only means to be justified before the Holy God. Those who reject or hinder this truth reject God’s grace that sets people free and gives them life, and all that is left for them is damnation. Anyone who rejects the Gospel is given over to their reprobate mind. This is plainly brought to everyone’s attention in Romans 1:18-32 – it is written: “God’s anger is revealed from heaven against the sin and evil of the people whose evil ways prevent the truth from being known. God punishes them, because what can be known about God is plain to them, for God Himself made it plain. Ever since God created the world, his invisible qualities, both his eternal power and his divine nature, have been clearly seen; they are perceived in the things that God has made. So those people have no excuse at all! They know God, but they do not give Him the honour that belongs to Him, nor do they thank Him. Instead, their thoughts have become complete nonsense, and their empty minds are filled with darkness. They say they are wise, but they are fools; instead of worshipping the immortal God, they worship images made to look like mortal human beings or birds or animals or reptiles. And so God has given those people over to the filthy things their hearts desire, and they do shameful things with each other. They exchange the truth about God for a lie; they worship and serve what God has created instead of the Creator Himself, who is to be praised for ever! Amen. Because they do this, God has given them over to shameful passions. Even the women pervert the natural use of their sex by unnatural acts. In the same way the men give up natural sexual relations with women and burn with passion for each other. Men do shameful things with each other, and as a result they bring upon themselves the punishment they deserve for their wrongdoing. Because those people refuse to keep in mind the true knowledge about God, He has given them over to corrupted minds, so that they do the things that they should not do. They are filled with all kinds of wickedness, evil, greed, and vice; they are full of jealousy, murder, fighting, deceit, and malice. They gossip and speak evil of one another; they are hateful to God, insolent, proud, and boastful; they think of more ways to do evil; they disobey their parents; they have no conscience; they do not keep their promises, and they show no kindness or pity for others. They know that God’s law says that people who live in this way deserve death. Yet, not only do they continue to do these very things, but they even approve of others who do them.”
God, the righteous God, condemns those who rebel against Him. He gives them over to their reprobate minds and they do what they are not supposed to do, and it this way they compound their punishment, making their pains even greater for the Day of Judgement. The picture presented in Romans 1 describes exactly what we see around the world today. Nations are under God’s judgement because many have rejected the truth to uphold lies. They have rejected Christ and his teaching and embraced human doctrines. Such have already been judged because they do not believe in God’s only Son. They remain slaves to sin and are condemned to face the second death. The Lord Jesus Christ is our righteousness, the Only Saviour. Salvation is found in Christ alone. He died so that everyone who believes in Him may live. He is the substitutionary atonement for our sins. And whoever believes in Him will not die; but those who reject Him will be damned. Christ is the only means to be right with God, He is the only way to Heaven, the Life-giving Water. “No one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit.” (John 3:5). No one can inherit the Kingdom of God without being regenerated by the Spirit. The Spirit is Christ, the Spirit is life. Regeneration is a new birth and a new life in Christ. Only those who are in Christ can receive the new birth and eternal glory, thanks to the blood of the Lamb of God who paid their penalties.
Those who reject Christ will die in their sins and go to hell, where they will spend eternity. The Lord redeems anyone who seeks Him, anyone who remembers how God wants us to live. He has atoned for our sins and He wants us to honour his Son, to have faith in Christ in order to be right with Him. And so everyone who believes in Christ is legally justified before God through their faith. But those who reject the Son of God continue to bear the guilt of their sins and will remain accountable for all eternity. John 3:18 says, “Those who believe in the Son are not judged; but those who do not believe have already been judged, because they have not believed in God’s only Son.” There is no other way people can be justified before God, Christ alone is the Saviour – we are saved by God’s grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. “Salvation is to be found through Him alone; in all the world there is no one else whom God has given who can save us.” (Acts 4:12) The Lord says in John 12:48, “He who rejects Me, and does not receive my words, has that which judges him - the word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day!”
As you read this message today, if you are not in the faith yet, if you are not committed to Christ, do not continue to reject the free gift of God’s grace, which is found in Christ alone. For Christ is the only means by which sinners are justified before God through their faith in Him. Christ suffered the curses that you should have suffered, in order to reconcile you to God’s grace. Recognize your need of Christ the Saviour. Do not harden your heart. Lay down your pride and believe onto Jesus, the righteousness of all who have faith in Him. Renounce to your self-righteousness and cling to Jesus. He died to save sinners not those who consider themselves righteous. You cannot escape God’s righteous wrath, you cannot escape eternity in hell unless you are clothed with the righteousness of the Son of God. Turn to Christ, confess your sins to Him and believe on Him.
Christ laid down his own life to justify the wicked. He freely redeems those who recognize that they are sinners and turn to Him, the Saviour. Anyone who confesses Christ as Lord and has faith in Him is set free from the bondage of sin and death; they escape hell. Call upon the name of the Lord Jesus and He will impute his righteousness to you and you will appear blameless before God on the Day of Judgement. Anyone who rejects Christ rejects his share of this grace and therefore can never be right with God. All you have to do is to believe in Christ and confess Him as Lord and Saviour, for He is the atonement for all our sins. Do not close your heart to God’s redeeming grace. Turn to Christ and trade in your sins for his righteousness in order to be right with God. He was sent by God the Father into the world in order to redeem those who have faith in Him. He will return soon, but this time not to save the world, rather to judge it. And all those who are not in the faith will suffer divine wrath and spend eternity in hell – for there is no other way except through the blood of the Lamb to be right with God. God justifies people exclusively through their faith in Christ.
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