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God, The Just Justifier
An essential part of the nature of deity is justness. God - nature can be no less than just and still be God. He is absolutely just, as compared to man who can be described as just only in a relative way, and God can never do that which would be in violation of His justness (Isaiah 45:21; Acts 3:14; Titus 1:8).
Man, on the other hand, has sinned and, as a violator of law, is worthy only of condemnation and death -- man justly deserves to die (Romans 3:23; 6:23). God's justness and man's unrighteousness presented the dilemma for which man had no answers for eons -- How could God maintain His perfect justness and save man? Could God merely overlook man's sin and say that it was all right? If He did, He would not be absolutely just.
Justness demands two things: (1) the rewarding of the obedient; and (2) the punishment of the disobedient. To assure us of God's fairness in dealing with this matter, Paul said, "Who will render to every man according to his deeds: To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life: But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath, Tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile; But glory, honour, and peace, to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first, and also the Gentile: For there no respect of persons with God," (Romans 2:6-11).
This affirmation is made also in Colossians 3:24-25 -"Knowing that of the Lord ye shall a receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ. But he that doeth wrong shall receive for the wrong which he hath done: and there is no respect of persons." Be assured that God is absolutely fair in dealing with the obedient and the disobedient!
But the justness of God presents this problem: there are no just men, because all men are sinners so, what hope did man have? The way in which God could maintain His justness and make sinful man right in the sight of law was demonstrated in the death of His Son, Jesus Christ. The death of a sinless being satisfied the demands of justness and made possible the justifying of man. Or, to put it another way, Jesus HAD to die in order that we might be made right in the sight of law.
How could unjust man be made right in the sight of law? How could God make man just, when man was a sinner? There is another side of God which is demonstrated in His love but do not misunderstand, God's love could not set aside his justness. It was God's love that prompted the sending of His son to die for the sins of man (John 3:16). And it was Christ's love that moved him unselfishly to die that we might not have to die. In this way God demonstrated Himself as, not only, just but, also, as the justifier of the one who believes in Jesus," (Romans 3:26).
The answer to these proposed questions is summed up in one word -- "forgiveness." Some view man's justification as a matter of bookwork -- that is, that God did not really make man righteous, He only accounted man as righteous by substituting Christ's personal righteousness for man's deficiency. That is not what God says. When God speaks of forgiveness, He is affirming that man is treated as though he had never sinned.
Though Christ died for all men not all men are forgiven (Hebrews 2:9). Why not? That is true because Christ's death is the basis for man's being made righteous but the efficiency of his death is not realized until the individual sinner is willing to accept God's forgiveness on God's conditions. Paul frequently summarizes man's necessary response to God as "faith." By faith in Jesus Christ he means that man must trust in someone other than himself for salvation. Or, by injecting the essential negative -- man cannot save himself by his own merit.
The book of Romans presents a contrast between two systems. One is a system of righteousness by keeping law perfectly and the immediate application is to the system of the Law of Moses. The broader application would be to any system by which man would be righteous by keeping law perfectly. The opposite of that is a system of faith or trust in Christ by one who realizes that he is a sinner and needs God's forgiveness to be made right. But do not misunderstand "faith." Saving faith, as it is used by inspired writers, cannot be separated from obedience (compare Hebrews 5:8-9; James 2:14-26). Upon the basis of Christ's death, faith that makes men righteous incorporates repentance, confession and baptism (note Mark 16:15-16; Acts 2:38; 22:16; Romans 10:10; 6:1-7; et. al.) -- Jim R. Everett
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