“Righteous art thou, O Lord, and upright are thy judgments.” Ps. 119:137
I have an impression that people who are not yet converted they quietly hope for God’s mercy. We frequently speak about God’s love and it is true. God is love – that is what the Bible tells us (1 J. 4:16). But how easily we tend to forget that God is also holy and righteous. Therefore today I want us to talk about the demands of God’s righteousness and what are its implications. What it means to break the law? That means that if you live in sin, you are an abomination to the holy and righteous God.
“For all that do such things, and all that do unrighteously, are an abomination unto the Lord thy God.” Deut. 25:16
“Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die.” Ez. 18:4
“For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.” Jam. 2:10
So what does it mean? In the book of Torah, the 5 books of Moses which are part of our Bible, there is 613 commandments, which you have to obey all of them if you want to be found righteous by works before the Holy God. If you break one single commandment at any point in your life, you are guilty of all of them. This is the consequence. If you broke the smallest of God’s commandments and have not repented, you are an abomination to God.
Have you broken the law? Well, we probably know the answer to this.
“For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;” Rom. 3:23
We also know the demands of the law as explained by the Lord in the sermon on the mount. There is for example the commandment ‘Thou shalt not kill.’ We may think in our minds that we have not killed anyone. But have you ever been angry with anyone? This is how Lord Jesus explained the commandments. Here is another one: ‘Thou shalt not commit adultery.’ But yet we know that whoever looks with lust at a woman, he already committed adultery with her in his heart.
You simply cannot fulfil the demands of God’s righteousness.
Because what is acceptable before God? God who is perfect only accepts that which is perfect. He cannot accept you as you are in your unconverted state. “Thou shalt be perfect with the Lord thy God.” Deut. 18:13
In the book of Exodus in the passage in which the feast of Passover is established, there is the requirement of what the lamb needs to be: “Your lamb shall be without blemish” Ex. 12:5
And this is why it was Christ who had to die for our sins. I have a book here, by Henry M. Morris. It is called ‘Many Infallible Proofs – Evidences for Christian Faith’. It is not that we Christians need evidences. Indeed, no evidences would ever be able to persuade anyone to believe the gospel. We know that one has to be born again. The Christian faith is not a matter of evidence. The evidence is there. The history of Christ and creation is there and is sufficient to take the claims of the Bible as real and authentic. Nevertheless, it is a very interesting book, because it is overwhelming how much actual scientific evidence is there that tells us that what we find in the Bible is truth. I wanted to quote from that book:
“Of no one else in history could the claim ever be made in seriousness that he lived a whole lifetime without one sin, in thought or word or deed. But this very thing was claimed by Jesus’ closest friends, by His worst enemies, by the greatest of the apostles, and by Jesus himself.”
The author further supports this claim by unquestionable biblical evidence, which I encourage you to refer in your Bibles: 1 Pet. 2:22. 1 J. 3:5, Mt. 27:4, J. 27:4, Mt. 27:4, J. 18:38, 2 Cor. 5:21, J. 8:29.
As the author continues,
“Jesus Christ was the one man who never sinned; He was the unique, representative Son of Man, man as God intended man to be.”
The evidence provided is overwhelming!
Now let me tell you this.
God has no obligation to answer your prayer until you believe in Jesus. Because if we understand properly the demands of God’s righteousness, we will see that our ability to pray is a wonderful gift of mercy. Until we believe in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Saviour, God is under no obligation to hear or answer. It is indeed against His holy nature to do so. We read and we understand that our sin is abomination to the holy righteous God.
What does it mean? What is abomination?
It means you cannot expect God’s mercy being turned away from Him in unbelief to the truth as revealed by the Holy Bible. You have to turn to God. You have to repent. And to repent means to turn to God for salvation. Not my works of any kind in any time can save me. Only the sinless, perfect Lamb of Christ is my hope for being righteous before God. Jesus Christ is my hope.
In Ps. 27 v. 7 we read: “Hear, O Lord, when I cry with my voice: have mercy also upon me, and answer me.”
Have mercy also upon me, and answer me. In this psalm we see that when God answers our prayer it is only because He has shown us mercy.
But how different things become when you receive Christ Jesus.
You acquire certain rights. The Bible clearly speaks about rights, blessings of those who love God’s name. You are now under God’s mercy and under His covenant of grace if you believe in the name of Jesus.
What is this new covenant? Well, God looks at the Christian believer and sees His very own body. He sees His very own blood. We are now God’s family, born of God. You remember that verse from 1 P. 2:9?
“But ye are a chosen generation,
a royal priesthood,
an holy nation,
a peculiar people;
that ye should shew forth
the praises of him who hath
called you out of darkness into his marvellous light;”
We only studied the second part the last week, “who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light”. We spoke about the marvellous light of Jesus Christ. But there is also the first part, which is very interesting. You are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people. You are chosen! You now belong to God’s family!
God promised to save all them who would believe in His Son and that promise extends now unto you if you believe in the gospel.
Few verses earlier in Psalm 119, in the previous section of the psalm:
“Look thou upon me, and be merciful unto me, as thou usest to do unto those that love thy name.” Ps. 119:132
We can see that there is two immediate privileges described in this verse. Look upon me. Look thou upon me. That is the first privilege. When I believe in Jesus, I have the privilege to ask God to look upon me. God look upon my circumstances. Look upon my prayer. Look upon my condition. Whatever is happening now in my life. Look upon me, God. Because I believe and I know thy name.
Look thou upon me – as thou usest to do unto those that love thy name.
I love thy name. I love the name of Jesus. God, please look unto me.
Of course, we have to talk to God with reverence. He is the everlasting, Almighty God. But we gain certain privileges. We have that confidence in the blood of Jesus. Look thou upon me.
And the second privilege: And be Merciful unto me. God’s mercy becomes our privilege the very moment when we believe in Jesus. He is showing us mercy. And of course we have also the wonderful promises for all them who would believe, like:
“And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” Romans 8:28
So you remember I told you God is under no obligation until you believe in Jesus. But now, if you do believe you no longer have to suffer God’s silence and that is because it was Christ who suffered God’s silence for you. He cried on the cross:
“My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?” Ps. 22
God prepared the way of your salvation. He prepared you a way in which you can have an abundant life. You can now pray to Him and He will save you if you pray in Jesus name. And we know that His mercy endureth forever. So you can always turn for His mercy. If you believe the gospel, heaven is open for you. How can it be that God is both righteous and merciful? I will turn to one more Scripture from Psalm 85.
“Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other.” Ps. 85:10
There is seemingly a paradox in this verse. Because God’s righteousness demands my eternal punishment in hell. I have sinned and I made that which is abomination to the Holy God. Yet, God says: righteousness and peace have kissed each other. They have met. Where have they met? How is it possible that righteousness and mercy have met? They have met in the person of Jesus Christ and on the cross on which He died for our sins. The demands of God’s righteousness were fulfilled there. Jesus rose again on the third day because He was found righteous before God. The cross of Jesus is where you find God’s mercy.
May the gracious God grant you His salvation at this very moment. For the glory of Christ.
