Topic: Where Love and Justice Meet [Charles Stanley Daily Devotional 20 May 2020]
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Where Love and Justice Meet
Romans 3:21-26
The Lord can’t have a dilemma, but if He could, it would be this: How can a loving God justly forgive sinners? Although God loves the people He created, He can’t ignore, excuse, or arbitrarily forgive their transgressions, since His justice demands that sin’s penalty be paid.
The solution was the cross, where divine love and justice met. Because God loves us, He sent His Son to earth to shed His precious blood on the cross in payment for our sin debt (Rom. 6:23). Since only a sacrifice without defect was acceptable (Lev. 22:20), Jesus alone qualified: As God in human flesh, He was the only person who ever lived a sinless life. At the cross, our sin was laid on Him, and He died in our place. This satisfied the Father’s justice “so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus” (Rom. 3:26).
From our perspective, salvation is a free gift offered to everyone who confesses Jesus as Savior and Lord. However, for the Son and the heavenly Father, it was a very costly transaction. Therefore, we should never take our salvation for granted or think lightly of it. This gift is our most precious possession.
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