THE JUST ONE
1 Peter 3:17,18 (to “God”); 2 Corinthians 5;19-21; Galatians 2:15,16
These are immense statements that we have read. Firstly, that there is one Person who could be described as “the just”. Does anyone have any difficulty with that? There has only ever been one Man who could be described as “the just”. In every detail of His life and of His being, the Lord Jesus was “the just”.
You will remember that there was once a Roman court, and the judge who was presiding was a careless man. During the course of the proceedings, a messenger came in with a message from the judge’s wife, and the message was this: “Have thou nothing to do with that righteous man”, Matt.27:19. Someone once said that that was like light shining out of darkness1. I do not know whether it was a message whispered to Pontius Pilate, but he must have been quite disconcerted to find this message being brought to him, and even more so when he discovered what it was; “Have thou nothing to do with that righteous man”. That is Jesus. Jesus had, just a few hours before, been arraigned before the high priest, and he answered nothing in His defence. He only answered the high priest when it was a question of His own Person, who He was, because it says about Him that “he cannot deny himself”, 2 Tim.2:13. Then, when He was before this Roman court, the governor asked Him, ‘Do you not hear these things that you are accused of? Are you not answering anything? (Matt.27:13). But Jesus answered nothing, and it says that “the governor wondered exceedingly (v.14). He was a careless man, but all of a sudden, there was this statement of wonderful truth that came as a message to him; “Have thou nothing to do with that righteous man”.
So we have read that Jesus “suffered for sins, the just for the unjust”. I cannot, I would not, and indeed I need not put any qualification on that statement whatever. Jesus is “the just”; singular, eternally true – never another one like Him. And “the unjust” – how I thank God that I need make no limit to “the unjust”. That is the human race, the world of which it is said that God so loved it that He gave His only-begotten Son (John 3:16). There is no limit to that. I hope that there is no-one here who thinks that they are outside of that, who thinks that they are too bad. If there is, I can tell you simply that Christ has once suffered for sins, the wrong things that we have done, or thought of, even perhaps the wrong things that we wanted to do but did not have the opportunity to do. They are the things that Jesus suffered for. If anyone thinks that they are outside of that description, “the unjust”, I have to say – you are not outside of it.
Or is there somebody here who thinks that they are so good that they do not need Jesus? I had a serious conversation recently with a man who I have known through my work for a long time, and he has a serious illness. I had an opportunity to speak with him, but I am not sure I was able to convince him that in the sight of God he is a sinner, and that his works cannot save him. He spoke of how he had tried to help people, and I do not doubt that that would be true, for he is an upright sort of person. He said that if he ever saw someone in need or in any kind of trouble, he had tried to help them, and I do not doubt that he did. I do not believe that there persons in this room who think that they are not sinners, but if there are, just allow me to say that that is not so. There is nobody here that does not need the Saviour. This scripture is telling us how the Lord Jesus has dealt with our sins. He has dealt with them, so fully and so completely and so perfectly, that we might be brought to God. The unsaved, the lost will suffer because they will be excluded from God. The scripture describes how awful it will be, and the essence of what they will experience is that they will be eternally separated from God.
Man needs God. Person who would deny even the existence of God, and who want to live their lives away from God – these persons need God. They do. And it is a very wonderful thing that God needs His creature. Yes, he does; not at a distance but near to Him. We spoke yesterday of the altar of earth (Ex.20:24); that represents how God has come right down to where man is. We read in Romans that God has set forth Christ as a mercy-seat (Rom.3:25). That part of the ark which was the mercy-seat, made of gold, was hidden away in the holy of holies, shrouded by a veil, and once a year the high priest would go in. God has changed all that. It is a wonderful thing that what the mercy-seat represented is a Person, Christ Jesus, and God has set Him forth as a mercy-seat. You do not need to make any endeavour of your own; God has brought Him out to you. He sets Christ forth as a mercy-seat, and He is doing it today. God will not always do that. I do not think that He will give any notice of it when it ceases. I think that it will happen in an instant, because when that happens, it will be because the day of grace has ended. It will not go through a twilight or an autumn; it will go straight from noon to darkness. It is noon today because Christ is at the right hand of God.
But there is more. We read in the epistle to the Corinthians that “God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself”. What grace that was! You can read in the gospels how the Lord Jesus was not here to push people away because of their sins. He was not like that; in fact, in chapter 15 of Luke’s gospel, it tells how the sinners and the tax-gatherers were coming near to hear Him (v.1), and not just on that day – it was usual. That was God “in Christ, reconciling the world to himself”. I think that is marvellous. And do you know how He was going to do it? He was going to do it on the occasion of the greatest enmity that could ever be expressed towards God. The very Man, Jesus, who was here displaying God’s grace – that Man would be put on the cross. Men would say, ”We will not that this man should reign over us”, Luke 19:14. God’s grace turned that very occasion at the cross, as His counsel had determined, to be the moment of the infinite outshining of His nature and His grace, and the upholding of His righteousness. What a wonderful thing!
The apostle Paul entreats here, “Be reconciled to God”, and I would like to entreat for Christ, “Be reconciled to God”. If there is anyone here who is not, I would entreat that you are reconciled now. I would not even advise you to go home, I would advise you to settle it now. We had a young man where I work, twenty nine years of age, and he dropped dead just like that. There were three first-aiders on him straight away, but he was gone. It was a solemn thing. If anyone here is away from God, I would entreat you, be reconciled to Him. There is no work left for you to do – everything has been done, for Jesus has done it all. He has borne our sins in His body on the tree (1 Pet.2:24), in that precious body, but not only that, He was “made sin”. Now this may mean more to some of you than to others, but for anyone who has discovered what it is that is in themselves, the workings of sinful flesh, this will be precious to you. “Him who knew not sin …”, refers to Jesus as One in whom there never could be sin, who had never had the feelings that we have about sin and lawlessness. Sin was completely foreign to His being, horrible to Him, and He was made that thing for us. It is a very great relief for anyone who finds the workings of sinful flesh in themselves to find that Christ was “made sin for us, that we might become God’s righteousness in him”. God will eternally have a witness in the presence of the universe to what His righteousness has effected.
In the epistle to the Galatians, we have the apostle Paul drawing attention to the fact that there was a certain class of people who could be regarded as not so bad as others, and as having certain advantages. You will notice this striking phrase, “We, Jews by nature, and not sinners of the nations …”. That is quite a puzzling statement, because scripture very plainly says that “all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God”, Rom.3:23. There is no exception to that, so “all have sinned”. That is to say, Paul had done wrong in the sight of God: that is history. Then, “come short” is current: what I am doing, what I represent, what I am, is a dishonour to God where I should have been an honour to Him. Man was made in the image of God (Gen.1:27) so that he might be an honour to God as his Creator, but I have to say that I have been a dishonour to Him. So “all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God”.
But Paul is saying, “We, Jews by nature, and not sinners of the nations”: I think that that has a very current bearing, and I would like to give it a current application. Most of us in this room have not known the excesses that some people have. For example, I do not think that anyone here has been in prison, but we have certainly all sinned. Most of you here have been preserved from the excesses of sin in the world, so it is possible that, bringing this scripture up to date, there may be someone here thinking ‘I am not as bad as the people who go to prison; I am not as bad as people who deal in drugs and that sort of thing’. There may be someone here who is even thinking, ‘I take the bread and the cup at the Lord’s supper’. I would just like to appeal to everyone here, whoever and wherever you are, that there is no justification for you, and therefore no salvation for your soul, apart from “the faith of Jesus Christ”.
I have dwelt much personally on this little statement here, “knowing that a man is not justified on the principle of works of law”. In other words, you are not justified by being a good brother or sister in the meeting. Then, “nor but by the faith of Jesus Christ”. That word “nor” is in brackets, and it has come powerfully to me many times that it means never, ever by any other means, but only by the faith of Christ. And this is a day of grace; we are presenting the Saviour for your acceptance, and God will “with him grant us all things”, Rom.8:32. With that blessed gift of His Son, and the knowledge of Jesus as your Saviour, He would love to give you the Holy Spirit so that all these things become living to you. Then you can be on the inside, rather than on the outside looking in.
May the Lord bless the word.
Preaching of the gospel, Linlithgow
10 November 2018
G.J. Richards