Everything is Backwards

A.W. Tozer’s chapter in Knowledge of the Holy on the justice of God is so potent and powerful, yet so painfully brief! Yet here are a few observations.

First, he says that justice is not a standard that exists above God and which God is required to obey. This would be to imply that God is not the highest standard of justice but is subject to a higher standard of justice. No, God is Himself the standard of justice and he executes his justice perfectly. Yet, Tozer says that “there is nothing in His justice which forbids the exercise of His mercy.” God’s justice is free and perfect, and there is never a time when he is unjust. As the Psalmist Asaph ponders the prosperity of the wicked, he is reassured with this knowledge:

“ 18Truly you set them [the wicked] in slippery places;
you make them fall to ruin.
19How they are destroyed in a moment,
swept away utterly by terrors!
20Like a dream when one awakes,
O Lord, when you rouse yourself, you despise them as phantoms.” (Psalm 73)

When he considers the justice of God with the mercy of God, he concludes first that “no attribute of God is in conflict with another.” Secondly, he says that “mercy does not become effective toward a man until justice has done its work.” That’s the rub; that’s the cross. He’s referring to a theology of redemption that teaches the severity of God’s wrath, the depth of God’s love, mercy, and compassion, the absurdity of the cross, and how God is completely consistent with Himself in the whole matter. At no point is His justice compromised in His exercise of mercy. On the contrary, the very manner of his demonstration of mercy vindicates His justice, because mercy is accomplished via the cross.

It breaks down like this. God is always just. If one wonders if God is just towards the wicked, he need look to only two places: the cross, or to hell. Does God punish sin? Yes. The punishment for every sin will be meted out in either hell or on the cross. There is not one solitary sin in all existence that his escaped the scrutiny of God’s just eyes and His vengeful wrath poured out upon the sinner. For me, and all my sin, God’s vengeful wrath was poured out on Jesus Christ. And all the riches of the glory of Christ, his glorified body, his righteousness and favor with God, are all mine (not that they were taken away from Christ to be given to me, the resurrection proves that he can suffer punishment for sin and yet be raised again to live because God is himself the source of all life).

For those who do not know or love Christ, who do not repent of their sins and obey him, they will meet the justice of God in hell. When someone dies apart from Christ, they will get nothing more or less than they deserve. God will not punish them more than their sins require, nor less. His punishment for sin is just, and that justice is hell.

So then, God’s justice for sin is seen in two places: on the cross (for believers) and in hell (for non-believers).

That was the hope of Asaph in the Psalm, as well as the hope of Job, Jeremiah and others who wonder, “why do the wicked prosper? (Jeremiah 12:1).” The wicked prosper for only a season. God has his own purposes in not handing down judgment immediately, otherwise he would have destroyed Adam and Eve and this whole human experiment put to an end right then. No, God desired to redeem humanity, which required a temporary suspension in his justice. This suspension would have been unjust were it not for the fact that God knew he would redeem in the future. If God had no plans to redeem in the future, then why suspend judgment? Why not just send Adam and Eve to hell right then? Why allow them to procreate when there was never any hope of anyone ever living a righteous life who was their descendant? This is why it is appropriate to say that anyone who lived before the time of Christ “borrowed” from the cross the mercy that they may someday hope for. Old Testament believers, such as David, Samuel, Enoch, and so on, lived in a time of suspended judgment under a system that could not permanently redeem them from their sin. “For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins (Hebrews 10:4).” God’s mercy was extended during a time when mercy had not yet been purchased by the cross. They borrowed mercy from Christ not knowing from whom or by what means mercy would come.

This is the hope of the Christian. God’s justice for my sin was met in Christ on the cross. But death could not hold Christ down. Because he is God and is the source of all life, the resurrection secures for all who are “in Him” all the things that are his. We will be like him, glorified in body, purified in heart and conscience, righteous before God in deed. Perfected. God’s justice also insists that those who are righteous before Him and are in Christ receive those things promised to Christ and belonging to Him, an eternal inheritance. Amen!

What a wonderful picture of the worship of God. The voice of the great multitude in 19:6 sounded like the roar of many waters and peals of thunder, and their refrain was simple: “Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready; it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure”. The Bride has clothed herself with “righteous deeds” as the verse indicates.

This picture is quite inspiring. God has chosen his Bride, and has redeemed her, but has not yet taken her to the wedding ceremony. Our role as Christians are to make ourselves ready for that day and to clothe and adorn ourselves with the beauty of godly character.

John, the apostle, would certainly have had the proper theology to know that one worships God alone. And yet here, we find him bowing down to a glorious creature in worship. Although I have not yet read The Weight of Glory by C. S. Lewis (I intend to today), I understand he uses an analogy of our glorified bodies in the new creation are to be so wonderful and glorious that were we to see them now we would be tempted to bow down and worship ourselves.

This is a wonderful thing to long for and anticipate that someday we will be made like Christ’s glorious body. Romans 8 says that the creation “waits with eager longing” for that day when our bodies are resurrected in glory. The pain we experience now and the heartaches that we experience – these “sufferings” – Paul says that these sufferings “of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.” To think about these thinks is exciting and I can’t wait for it. I want to have a deeper longing for eternity and the appearing of Christ where my earthly dwelling is made to resemble his glorious body.

The ugly underbelly of the prosperity that western Christians now experience is that we have so many comforts and so many of our pains have been taken away that we cannot very well relate to texts like these. Romans 8 and Revelation were written at a time when Christians were a heavily persecuted minority and the vision of the glorified and resurrected Christ coming in power at the end of all things was an awesome and hopeful sight. Now, we tend to see this world as really not all the bad, and the new creation will be a nice long vacation. But a theology of pain is a reminder that this world is not our home.

We have lost our ability to connect with the idea of real pain and suffering in a very real sense and thus our longing for the new creation is lessened. Our outward nature is wasting away but our inner nature is being renewed day by day. So now, in our current state, the “whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.” Lord, I long for that day! Help me to think of that day and to be making myself ready now as a bride adorns herself to make herself ready for her wedding day. Amen.