God is just and true and God’s righteous acts culminate in the cross where Christ satisfies the demands of God’s justice. In Revelation 15:3-4, we have a glimpse of the great day to come, where a great throng sings before the Lord, rejoicing in the God who is merciful and the God who is just.įor your righteous acts have been revealed. No wonder, then, that for all of eternity our minds, our hearts, will be fixated on this Savior, Jesus Christ. We have seen that mercy is expressed in patience-in wrath delayed-but now we see that mercy may also be expressed in grace, in wrath substituted, wrath transferred to someone else.
PROBLEMS WITH IN CHRIST ALONE LYRICS FULL
God has been patient so that Christ’s work could be accomplished and so we could reach out by faith and become recipients of that work and there receive full forgiveness and full exoneration.Ĭhrist took my sentence upon himself so that I can experience more than patient but temporary mercy. 2 Peter 3:9-10 says it so well: “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.” God does not wish that any should perish, so he gives time to repent.Īnd now we see why God has been patient in mercy. This is the mercy of the cross, the sinless one serving the sentence of the sinner. Now we see that God has a purpose in his mercy there is a purpose in his patience. He poured out his wrath upon Christ until that wrath was absorbed and exhausted, until every bit of justice was satisfied.Ĭhrist served the complete sentence of just wrath that I deserved. He became vile and detestable in God’s eyes–the most vile and detestable thing that could ever exist–and God poured out the full measure of his wrath upon him. He took upon himself sin to such an extent that he became sin. Let me explain. Christ has never sinned, so, why would a sinless man be suffering God’s wrath? Because he walked into that courtroom, he stood between the judge and the guilty person, and said, “I will serve his sentence.” He took other people’s sin upon himself. How can I say that wrath and mercy meet here? So where is the mercy of the cross? All we see here is Christ experiencing all wrath and no mercy. There on the cross, he faces the justice and the torment of hell. He faces an eternal measure of wrath for sins against an eternal being. He is punished consciously for sin done in conscious rebellion against God. He is punished by facing the fury of the wrath of God. He also faces spiritual death, spiritual destruction. There on the cross Christ experiences physical death, so his heart stops beating and his body begins to decay. When we look to the cross we see Jesus Christ serving the just sentence of a sinner. We see both of them in their glorious fullness–the ultimate display of God’s wrath and the ultimate display of God’s mercy. Here at the cross we see wrath and mercy meet. We see that God will not violate his own holiness even in order to save the ones he loves. But the cross answers this question: How can a holy God be reconciled to unholy people? That question demands this one: How can the relationship between a holy God and an unholy people be restored without some gross act of injustice?Īt the cross we see just how much God values his holiness. That may seem strange, that a place of blood and suffering and torment would be all about holiness.
The cross of Jesus Christ is all about God’s holiness. Sponsor Show Your Support Become a Patron
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