THE GIFT OF RIGHTEOUSNESS #21

The law of sin and death is clearly stated in the Bible: 'when you eat of it you will surely die', 'the soul that sins shall die', 'the wages of sin is death'.

Because God is there, because we are his creatures, because he is holy and just, there is such a thing as morality and justice ' in an absolute sense that is far removed from the relativism and subjectivism of the contemporary era.

As humans we express this innate awareness of the rightness and existence of morality and justice when we question God's morality and justice in circumstances in which it seems that 'innocent' people are suffering. In our questioning of God's justice and morality in these situations we are expressing the belief that morality ought to be seen, that justice ought to be done.

We also express this innate awareness of morality and justice when we automatically want to pay people back, or to see people punished, for things they have done that we believe are wrong. A sense of justice and just retribution seems to be built into us.

Thus both the Scripture and our own human conscience testify to the rightness of justice: to the appropriateness of sin being punished, and the guilty party condemned.

But the Bible states: 'there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus'. No condemnation ' even when it is deserved.

How can this be? The Bible teaches that the person who believes in Jesus Christ has been liberated from the 'law of sin and death' by the law of the Spirit, the law of life in Christ Jesus. How? Because in his life and death Jesus Christ fulfilled all of the moral requirements and the justice of the law on our behalf: he lived a perfect human life according to the law, and in his death he bore sin's condemnation.

If we were to approach God as we are in ourselves, we would most certainly be condemned. But if we approach God always, only and ever 'in Christ', trusting in his righteousness, not our own, there is no condemnation. This is the freedom, the joy and the peace of the believer.

Scriptures: Genesis 2:17; Ezekiel 18:4; Romans 6:23; 8:1-4.