Psalm 89:14

Psalm 89:14

Righteousness and justice, love and faithfulness

Well, we’ve met these pairings before haven’t we! Righteousness and justice, love and faithfulness. I don’t know about you but one of the twins sounds comforting and desirable but the other a little bit intimidating.

We’ve spent several days reflecting on God’s physical power and the authority that He wields across the heavens and the earth. We’ve pondered over the boundaries of His empire and been bemused by the vastness of it all. In every way we find the Lord to be beyond reproach and His authority to be unquestionable. One of the reasons for this is that His righteousness is absolute, it is impossible to find fault with Him. Those who question His character, His methods or his strategy have no idea who or what they are talking about. There is no chink in His armour, there is no hint of wrongdoing, He is righteous in His thoughts, His words and every action. That is why He alone is entitled to head up the cosmic Department of Justice. There will be no cries of “unfair” or “prejudice” or “undeserved” when the Lord passes judgement.  He knows us too well, He is so immense in His knowledge and attention to detail that nothing escapes Him and every judgement He makes and will make, will be founded on absolute truth. His throne of judgement is founded upon these principles.

However, this same God abounds in love and faithfulness to those who are in His family. Have they escaped His judgement? Do His righteous standards not apply to them? Yes and no! Love and faithfulness have driven this righteous, holy God to take steps to enable those who believe in Him to escape His judgement. The choice is yours, accept His Son as your Lord and King and repent of your sins and He will treat you as if you are righteous. This is the wonder of the Gospel that the sentence of death hanging over us all was taken by Jesus Christ, on earth, and He substituted Himself for you and me at the cross. So, instead of being intimidated by God’s righteousness and justice, we have ben embraced by His love and faithfulness. What a God!

 

 

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