THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD

By Charles N. Spence, Jr.

“For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith as it is written, the just shall live by faith.” (Rom. 1:16-17)

When Adam and Eve violated God's will, they sinned. As a result God was compelled to drive them out of the garden (Gen. 3:24). God, being holy, cannot dwell with sin. “God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth” (1 John 1:5-6). Those who sin are in darkness. Since all have sinned, all have been in darkness (Rom. 3:23). Since God dwells in unapproachable light (1 Tim. 6:16) and since men love darkness and do not come to the light (John 3:20). God would have to draw them to himself without denying himself or his holiness. Jesus said on one occasion, “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me” (John 12:32).

God could not allow sinful man into his presence. Mankind was deserving of nothing less than eternal separation from God. Isaiah 59:2 states that sin separates man from God. Separation is a part of the biblical definition of death (James 2:26). Adam and Eve were told that the day in which they eat of the forbidden fruit they would die (Gen. 2:17). When they did eat they did not die physically that day, but they did die spiritually when they were driven out of God's presence. God did not want to wipe man out of existence, but his holiness and justice demanded he do such.

In eternity past, however, God had a plan to bring man back into fellowship with himself without denying himself. He would send his son to be an innocent sacrifice to die in man's place. Isaiah 53:5 says that Jesus would be wounded, bruised and chastened. This God would do to bring about forgiveness of sins and peace between Himself and man. So “it pleased the Lord to bruise him; He hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin. . .” (Isaiah 53:10). Paul was careful to record, “For He (God) had made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” (2 Cor. 5:21). Peter also says, "Who (Jesus) his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed" (1 Pet. 2:24) Although Jesus was God's only begotten son, who knew no sin, he bore God's wrath after taking upon himself the sins of the world.

God did not set aside his judgment because it was His only begotten son burdened with the sins of man. Sin was still paying its wages (Rom. 6:23). The justice or righteousness of God was fully demonstrated in the cross. Not only did Jesus have to taste of physical death, but as is the case with all who have sin in their lives, Jesus endured the darkness that sin brings. Psalm 22:1 and Matthew 27:46 record the true agony of the cross. It was not so much the suffering of physical torment that made the cross so terrible but the experience of being separated from the Father. You see, God is “of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on sin!” (Hab. 1:13). While Jesus was bearing in his body the sins of man, the father had to turn away from Jesus. Sin is darkness. This is what Jesus experienced indicating the darkness that overcomes every man in sin. God's righteousness was upheld, even when His own son was involved. This He did because he "So loved the world” (John 3:16). God punished sin and, yet still demonstrated his love toward the sinner (Rom. 5:6-8).