Getting Job-ed
The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.” Exodus 34:6-7 ESV
If you have been paying attention closely, I subtly introduced a logical problem in the last article. How can an infinitely holy God allow such an insurrection from his people to go unpunished? God actually says that they will die if they disobey His word (Genesis 2:16-17). Like dead, gone, puff, out of here. But they didn’t. They continued to live. That’s what’s being addressed in our opening verses from Exodus: God will not clear the guilty, He will see to it that justice is served. This is what it means to be a just and holy God. So how does this happen and not be a contradiction? The answer: Jesus.
Paul
This is something that Paul absolutely felt needed to be addressed. For sinners, we don’t ever care about God’s justness as long as He lets us off the hook. But for Paul, this was an issue. For God to be holy and just, evil cannot just go free. Mankind’s insurrection in the Garden could not just be overlooked. A holy King does not overlook rebellion, that would make Him unjust. This would muddy His glory and scorn His ultimate worth. Read this carefully:
But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. Romans 3:21-25 ESV
So much can be said about this section. In the last article, we discussed that an animal’s death had to occur in order to cover the sin of mankind’s rebellion (Genesis 3:21). Paul uses the term “propitiation” in regard to Jesus’ blood. “Propitiation” is the removal of divine wrath. Jesus’ sacrifice was the death that removed the divine wrath from us and imputed His righteousness into us (2 Corinthians 5:19-21).
A Short Q&A
Why did God have a redemptive plan this way? God planned that the payment for sin is death. That’s the only way to satisfy the wrath of God. Yet what is interesting is that by God sending Himself to die for His people, it proves His righteousness (repeated twice in Romans 3:21-25, see verses above) and ultimately makes Him both just and the One who justifies sinners. Rebels can’t justify themselves, only God can. This proves God’s righteousness by sacrificing Himself for the sinner, the perfect and most satisfying sacrifice on their behalf.
If a God that lives in perfect community with Himself and did not need to create anything exists, then why did He even go through with this huge complex plan at all? Answer: for His glory. I challenge you, read Romans 9 carefully and slowly. Wrestle with it. Take your time, and watch many sermons and lectures. God does everything for His glory. Christmas is about God’s glory. Chew on that this Christmas season.
-Austin
