Romans 5:20
One of the most difficult things for us to wrap our minds around is the justice of God. It is easy for us to understand that “...God so loved the world…,” but God is not one dimensional. One of the principles for living in a free world is that when we sin, there is punishment that ensues. Without that in place, lawlessness takes over, and freedom is replaced with fear. In our inner cities where gangs have taken over and control the turf, old people live as virtual prisoners in their own homes. What a sad indictment against our “system” that we cannot control our own people!
The justice of God and how God judges men is something we cannot understand because we cannot see the big picture that God sees. God judges the secrets of men’s hearts, whereas man judges by the outward appearances (I Samuel 16:7). Not only does God judge our hearts as individuals, but He also judges nations of the world, as we see in the judgments shown in the prophetic books of the Bible.
There is a downward spiral which takes place when nations of the world turn their backs on God. Paul describes it to the Ephesians by saying, “Live no longer as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their own thinking. They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more” (Ephesians 4:17-19).
There were times in history when things looked so black and when evil had so totally engulfed humanity that it seemed that everything God had done had been totally defeated. It was that way prior to the coming of Christ. Because of continual disobedience, God’s own chosen people were carted off into captivity, where they desecrated themselves by merging pagan religious practices with their own. They took the sacred and profaned it and used it for their own gain. God’s choices seemed to either be to wipe humanity from the face of the earth and start over again, or…to manifest to all the universe the one great act of grace from which all other blessings in the future would flow. God’s singular, eternal purpose was to bless mankind through grace and to open the throne of the universe to a company of believers, brought up from the depths of humanity, made lower than the angels, and to raise them far above the highest angel, even to the position of joint-heirs—heirs on an equality—with His own dear Son. This is the breath-taking purpose of God. This is the raison d’etre of creation, the reason behind the reason.
God has no other purpose for man’s existence on the earth. All that He is doing in human history is sifting out those who will believe the doctrine of grace from among those who choose to be “captain of their own ships” and “master of their own fate.” All that the angelic hosts are doing is related to God’s one great purpose of calling out His own through grace. God had no other purpose in creating the angelic hosts or in creating man or in ordering the events of history. All of the actions and reactions and interaction of events and personalities were determined by God to bring believers to acknowledge their complete ruin in sin and their complete redemption by the superabounding grace provided through the death of Jesus Christ on the cross. All of the rays of divine light that have ever shone upon this dark world are focused on the cross and on the offer of salvation that came as a result of Christ’s death and sacrifice for our sins.
Someday the truth will be brought out in the open for every man to see. We are not passing from a formless past to a vague future! Man will not triumph over evil and bring the world together in a harmonious peace. He will not unite all monetary units and all governments and all religions and all ideologies with a common center and a common leadership, no matter how hard he tries. The cross of Jesus Christ is the sieve which separates the believer from the unbeliever. God has made the mesh fine enough so that only those who believe in sovereign grace apart from works can pass through. He has even declared that a man who believes intellectually in the person of Christ but adulterates grace with the slightest measure of human effort cannot benefit by the grace of Christ. “You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law, for you have fallen away from His grace” (Galatians 5:4). You cannot move toward one spot without moving away from another.
When time has run its course and the judgments of God are executed, when all the smoke and mirrors and camouflage are stripped away and every soul stands naked before God and the universe, it will be seen that God had no other purpose than to take out of the mass of humanity those who consciously turn away from the ways of the world and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ with all their heart, soul, mind and strength (Mark 12:30). He opened the fountain of superabounding grace so that lost human beings could be lifted to the heights of Heaven, to sit in the heavenlies with His own dear Son.
In all that God has done, we see one definite, eternal purpose that stands out above all others. The members of the Godhead planned and decreed all things in order that the grace of God might abound and be seen by the world. In Colossians we read that “...all things were created by Him and for Him, and it is He that holds all things together” (Colossians 1:16, 17). But not only did he create all things, He also created the plan for man’s salvation. He was the Lamb that was slain from the foundation of the earth (Revelation 13:8). So, coexistent with creation was the plan for man’s salvation. Paul said that we were “...chosen in Him before the foundation of the world...” (Ephesians 1:4-6) and that it was “...done for the praise and glory of His grace.” The universe is no longer a riddle. The purpose of all things is to show the heart of God. Christ is the center of history. All things as we know them flow from Him and are for Him. The purpose of our life on the earth is to reflect God’s love and His grace. God in turn lifts us up so that together with Christ the world will see the attributes and character of God.
But as we look at history apart from God’s purposes, it is a pretty dismal picture. Kings ascend their thrones in pompous ceremony only to descend to their graves. Dynasties rise and fall, teaching us that there is no hope in man. Men fought and died to get to the top only to find that what they were searching for was beyond their reach. The burden of sin pressed heavily upon mankind, bringing with it disillusionment and despair. Solomon summed up man’s condition when he said, “Vanity of vanity. All is vanity. It’s like trying to catch the wind.”
Human knowledge is insufficient to solve the problems of the world: God confounds the wisdom of the wise and the knowledge of the scholar so that men may see that the foolishness of God in saving us by the blood of the cross is wiser than the wisdom of men who go their own way. The wars of our time are fought to make the world safe for democracy, but each sows the seeds of a greater war, and mightier weapons of death are created to destroy man’s illusions of peace. There will be neither peace nor righteousness in our day or any other apart from the cross of Christ. Yet in the midst of the world’s colossal failure, God is constantly demonstrating His ability to pour forth His grace and to feed hungry hearts and to give heavy-laden sinners rest from their burdens.
Now, looking to the future, the cross of Christ is still the center of God’s plans. All of the glories that Christ will possess in eternity flow out of the fact that He went to the cross to die: “...that at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:10, 11). What a picture of the eternal purpose of God! It can all be summed up by saying that God has centered all eternity in the infinite act of superabounding grace that flowed forth through the Lord Jesus Christ on the day He died on the cross. Nothing has ever happened, is happening or will ever happen apart from the cross.
Christ has been “...appointed heir of all things...” by God the Father (Hebrews 1:2), and He is “the brightness of God’s glory” and the One Who “...holds all things together by the power of His Word.” What an answer to the atomic physicists who seek the power that holds together the flying satellites of the atom’s nucleus in spite of tremendous centrifugal force! What an answer for quantum physics! The next verse in Hebrews says, “When He had by Himself purged our sins, He sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high” (Hebrews 1:3). So the cross, the symbol of the outflowing superabounding grace of God, takes earth to heaven, time to eternity, and sinners to the very throne of God.
Since Christ has been appointed heir of all things, we who are the redeemed children of God are now heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ (Romans 8:17). A joint heir means that we don’t get just a piece of the pie but that we share the whole thing with Christ. We inherit all that God has and all that He is because we are joined with Christ through His act of grace when He redeemed us by His death at Calvary. In the eternity to come, the glory of Christ will fill the universe and will shine through each and every believer. The beauty of the Lord will be revealed through the myriad of personalities lifted from the dust of the earth and made in His likeness, made to reign with Him forever, sharing His throne, objects of His love, exhibits of His grace, and ornaments of His glory. What a sight for men, angels, and demons to behold! Before the final judgment of Satan and the lost, these will behold us and acknowledge that God is the God of superabounding grace. The angels of God who remained faithful to Him with holy joy will serve the company of the redeemed of the earth, the heirs of salvation (Hebrews 1:14).
We ourselves will rejoice in our likeness to the Savior and will continually praise and glorify Him Who saved us by His grace. Christ Himself will rejoice with us, since “...for the joy that was set before Him, He endured the cross, despising the shame, that He might see the travail of His soul and be satisfied” (Hebrews 12:2, Isaiah 53:11). And the heart of God will be thrilled by the sight of the company of the redeemed Whom He was able to admit to the throne of the universe as associates, made in the likeness of His own beloved Son.
Jude concludes with these words: “Now unto Him who is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God our Savior be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen.” His grace will shine forth in all its beauty. The purpose of eternity past and the work of the present will be the accomplished wonder of eternity future. Praise His matchless name!
-QUESTIONS-
1. List as many of the attributes of God as possible. Explain the “justice” of God. What all does it entail? On what basis will we be judged? What if I did not know about God?
2. What is meant by the statement, “God will judge the nations of the world?” What do you think that judgment will look like? Can you give examples? Study the downward spiral in Ephesians 4:17-19. Can you give some examples of each stage?
3. If you talked to the average man on the street, what would he say man’s purpose is on the earth? Why do most people not end their lives, and what drives them to continue living?
4. When someone says Heaven, what picture pops into your mind? Using your concordance, look up some references to Heaven. Did you know that many of Christ’s parables were actually about Heaven? Can you give some examples?
5. During their captivity, how did the Jews take the sacred and profane it and use it for their own gain? (Google “Jewish captivity”.) How were they different coming out of their captivity?
6. What is the difference between an heir and a joint-heir?
7. God’s grace is something misunderstood by most. Read I Peter 1:10-12. Notice especially the last sentence of Verse 12. Also, talk about the meaning of Ephesians 2:7 and 3:10.
8. Finish the sentence, “When all the smoke and mirrors and camouflage are stripped away and every soul stands naked before God and the universe, it will be seen that God had no other purpose than…..”
9. If you want to stretch your mind, Google “quantum physics” and then study Colossians 1:16, 17 and 26. What does science say is the “mystery” of what holds things together, and what does the Bible say the mystery is?
10. How can we humans, made from the dust of the earth, ever be used to glorify God?