"As sin has reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord." Romans 5v21
We have been looking at the fact of grace being on the throne and we continue this theme. It is indeed a wonderful theme because grace is God's benevolence to the undeserving, and it is great to think that this is what is reigning in the universe.
Each dynasty has its own characteristics, usually following the disposition of its leader. There have been cruel dynasties, warmongering dynasties, oppressive dynasties and there have been the opposite, benign, peaceful and prosperous kingdoms. What then is the characteristic of the reign of grace? What is the principal by which it operates? The answer is clear, grace reigns on the principal of righteousness. Everyone knows that everything is not right in this world; there are things that need to be put right, and scripture confirms that God is moving towards this end. The apostle Peter says "We, according to His promise look for new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness." 2nd Peter 3v13 That is the horizon of God's glorious plan, a world where everything is right, where everything and everyone is in harmony with His own perfect and righteous character. In order to achieve that He places grace on the throne ruling on the basis of righteousness.
In the bible there are 306 references to the word righteousness, and notable scriptures describing it would be as follows; Psalm 97v6; Psalm 98v2; Psalm 119v172; Proverbs 16v12; Isaiah 11v5; Isaiah 32v1.
The fact that the two words grace and righteousness can appear together in the same breath is at the very heart of the gospel message. God will have a world operating in absolute righteousness and will achieve that end by means of grace. Kings and dynasties normally achieve their selfish ends through force and at the expense of others. God will achieve this glorious end through the display of extreme generosity of love and mercy, and by that which cost Him very dearly. I suppose the essence of this would be found in Romans 3v26 where Paul says "to declare at this time God's righteousness, that He might be JUST and the JUSTIFIER of him which believes in Jesus. Contrary to the many heresies that are being propagated today, God's salvation is not a compromise. God has never changed His attitude to sin and never will: He has not overlooked it, He does not ignore it. Some say that the God of the Old Testament was a tribal, warrior God, but the God of the New Testament is a God of love. This is absolutely false because God has ever remained the same, a righteous, holy, sin hating God, as well as being the God of great mercy and love towards His creatures. The Psalmist cites in Psalm 45v7 "Thou hast loved righteousness and Thou hast hated lawlessness." Thus was true in David's day, it is true today and it will always be true. In achieving salvation for us God did not sweep away sin, did not ignore it, but met it head on in the Person of Christ at Calvary and so God has achieved righteousness, the full extent of which is yet to be seen, through the greatest loving and gracious act that the world has ever seen.
The high and holy God of heaven can be just (no compromise to His eternal holy character) and the Justifier (the incredible display of divine mercy) of all who believe Him.
Grace is not turning a blind eye to sin, grace is antagonistic towards sin, grace is the antithesis of sin, grace is the only antidote to sin, and will forever be opposed to sin; but it was not achieved at the expense of righteousness, it was achieved on the very basis of righteousness.
Christ met the demands of a holy God at Calvary. The price was exacted and He became answerable, because human beings could never pay the price. The Lord made to meet on Him the iniquity of us all, the Lord made His soul an offering for sin. All the sin transferred from Adam, all the sins added by billions of people were dealt with at the cross. God achieved righteousness on the basis of grace, and so grace is on the throne. We shall see as we go on that the message here by Paul is that grace is a greater power than sin ever was and will oppose sin at all levels and the believer can now live in the power of grace, which God has enthroned as the ruling principal in the universe.
Tomorrow d.v. we look at the dispensation of grace.
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