“But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.” -Isaiah 53:5 (NIV)
(This post is the final post in a series on the character of God, based on Exodus 34:6-7).
Good News for God’s People
When God passed in front of Moses on Mt. Sinai, he had a lot of good news to share about the kind of God he is. If you’ve read my previous posts on this passage, then you may remember some of the words God used to describe his heart to us:
Compassionate — God is like a loving father and a nurturing mother. He cares deeply about us and is moved to action when he sees us in distress.
Gracious — God invites us to come into his presence and seek his favor.
Slow to Anger — Although God feels angry right away when his people sin, he gives them time and space to come to their senses, repent of their sins, and seek him again.
Abounding in Love — The kind of steadfast, loyal love that stays faithful to us even when we are unfaithful to God.
Abounding in Faithfulness — God is trustworthy, reliable, and a firm foundation to build on. He has earned our trust by constantly telling the truth and following through on his promises.
(Pro Tip: You can click on each word underlined word for a link back to the original article)
All of that is overwhelmingly positive, isn't it? These five characteristics stand out even more when you remember that Israel had just broken God’s trust by constructing and worshipping the golden calf a couple chapters before. This isn’t exactly the kind of response you might expect in the aftermath of such an egregious sin, but that shows you the kind of God we serve.
Despite the fact that Israel had broken their covenant vows almost immediately after making them, God was not going to abandon his people. He wasn’t going to destroy them and start all over with Moses. He was going to renew his vows and recommit to the covenant with Israel. Praise God for his mercy!
The Justice of God
But not everything God said in Exodus 34 sounded like good news. The second part of his statement had to do with holding guilty people accountable. Israel had to accept—like we do—that the God of grace is also a God of justice. Stories like the Golden Calf remind us of the tension between these two aspects of God’s character.
If God lets his people off the hook, he shows a lot of grace, but he sacrifices justice.
If God punishes people in the exact way they deserve, there’s lots of justice, but little grace.
Really what we’re asking is how can the God of justice confront the problem of sin in a meaningful way while also demonstrating grace and mercy towards the people who are responsible for it? Is that even possible?
The Good News of the Gospel is it is possible—through Jesus!
Justice and Mercy at the Cross
“Before we can begin to see the cross as something done for us, we have to see it as something done by us.” -John Stott
In Romans 3:21-26, Paul helps us understand how God can solve the problem of sin without condemning the sinners responsible for it. Take a moment to read that passage, and then come back for my bullet point highlights:
There is a way of being right with God that doesn’t involve perfect obedience to the Law of Moses (Romans 3:21).
The key to this right standing with God is our faith in Jesus, no matter our background (Romans 3:22).
All of us have sinned, so all of us need some kind of relief from the consequences of those sins (Romans 3:23).
God sent Jesus to be a sacrifice of atonement on the cross, and his death allows us to be justified (made right with God) through God’s grace (Romans 3:24-25).
God left a lot of sin temporarily unpunished throughout the Bible, but he eventually demanded that a price be paid in full for those sins. He proved he is a God of justice by sending Jesus to suffer the consequences and pay the price for our sins (Romans 3:25). If you’d like to sing “Jesus Paid it All” to yourself, I wouldn’t mind.
God proved he is a God of grace by not requiring us to suffer and die for the sins we were guilty of. In this way, God proved he is both “just and the one who justifies” (Romans 3:26).
I hope you were able to see Paul’s logic at work. Everyone has sinned, and everyone deserves to be punished. A God of justice wouldn’t forgive people’s sin without holding them accountable, but a God of grace doesn’t want people to die in their sins. Before the cross, it didn’t seem like there was a workable solution that wouldn’t cause God to compromise on his mutual commitments to justice and mercy.
But then God broke the impasse by sending Jesus to solve the problem of sin in a way that ensures we get to experience the blessing of his grace.
Jesus takes the punishment that we deserve on himself and then extends the blessing that he deserves on us. By sending Jesus to the cross, God is able to solve the problem of sin without undermining his nature as a God of both justice and grace.
Moses tried to offer his life for the sins of the people back in Exodus, but God wouldn’t allow it. Moses was a sinful man too. He wasn’t a worthy sacrifice. In order for this whole plan to work, it needed to be Jesus.
The Cross Demonstrates The Heart of God.
“The cross is proof of both the immense love of God and the profound wickedness of sin.” -John MacArthur
The cross of Jesus proves that God really is a compassionate and gracious God, a God who is slow to anger, a God who abounds in love and faithfulness. But it also proves that God is a God of justice — and he cannot let sin go unpunished. Sin is costly, and Jesus paid a high price to save us from it.
My prayer is that we’d never lose sight of the grace and mercy that we have in Christ, and that we would never take Jesus’ sacrifice for granted.
Thank you for this reminder about the cross and the way God demonstrated both justice and mercy in such a magnificent way.
As I continue in my faith journey, I have grown to appreciate the power and simplicity behind Paul’s words about the cross-
“And so it was with me, brothers and sisters. When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.” 1 Corinthians 2:1-2