Established in Justice and Judgment

[Daily Devotional]

Established in Justice and Judgment 

Justice and judgment are the habitation of thy throne: mercy and truth shall
go before thy face. Ps. 89: 14. 

Through Jesus, God's mercy was manifested to men; but mercy does not set
aside justice. The law reveals the attributes of God's character, and not a
jot or tittle of it could be changed to meet man in his fallen condition.
God did not change His law, but He sacrificed Himself, in Christ, for man's
redemption. "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself" (2 Cor.
5: 19). . . . 

God's love has been expressed in His justice no less than in His mercy.
Justice is the foundation of His throne, and the fruit of His love. It had
been Satan's purpose to divorce mercy from truth and justice. He sought to
prove that the righteousness of God's law is an enemy to peace. But Christ
shows that in God's plan they are indissolubly joined together; the one
cannot exist without the other. "Mercy and truth are met together;
righteousness and peace have kissed each other" (Ps. 85: 10). 

By His life and His death, Christ proved that God's justice did not destroy
His mercy, but that sin could be forgiven, and that the law is righteous,
and can be perfectly obeyed. Satan's charges were refuted. 

The grace of Christ and the law of God are inseparable. In Jesus mercy and
truth are met together.... He was the representative of God and the exemplar
of humanity. He presented to the world what humanity might become when
united by faith with divinity. The only- begotten Son of God took upon Him
the nature of man, and established His cross between earth and heaven.
Through the cross, man was drawn to God, and God to man. Justice moved from
its high and awful position, and the heavenly hosts, the armies of holiness,
drew near to the cross, bowing with reverence; for at the cross justice was
satisfied. Through the cross the sinner was drawn from the stronghold of
sin, from the confederacy of evil, and at every approach to the cross his
heart relents and in penitence he cries, "It was my sins that crucified the
Son of God." At the cross he leaves his sins, and through the grace of
Christ his character is transformed. 

>From God's Amazing Grace - Page 73