5-Minute Christianity

In the last two episodes, I talked about righteousness and justice. The fact that God is both righteous and just has huge implications. One thing it means for us is that God always treats people as they deserve. Without partiality, he punishes all sin and everything that is against his will and nature. While that is true, God also offers forgiveness, and those whom God has forgiven will not be punished. How can that be? Well, God established a system of justice whereby someone who didn’t deserve punishment could step in and take someone else’s punishment. That’s what Jesus did when he died. God’s righteousness and justice were satisfied by Jesus, and in turn, God can forgive those who respond in faith.

What is justice? When we perceive injustice, we’re outraged by it. Humans are born with a need for justice, but we don’t always know what it means. I’ve always defined justice as equal treatment under the law. That fit’s closely with what the Bible says. Leviticus 19:15 says: “You shall do no injustice in court. You shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great, but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbor.” So, justice has at is core a lack of partiality. By way of example, racism is a form of injustice because it reveals partiality based on skin color. Biblical justice demands that we’re not lenient to some groups and harsh to others, but that we remove partiality in our judgments.

What does it mean that God is righteous? The easiest way to understand God’s righteousness is to know that everything he does is the right thing to do. Moses said it like this in Deuteronomy 32:4. Speaking of God, he said: “The Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is he.” Simply put, it means that God always does what is right. By the way, this is part of what it means to be God. That’s because God is the standard of what is right. As humans, if we want to do what is right and good, we don’t define what that means for ourselves. The way for us to do what is right is to follow God’s commands and his moral character.

How does God's holiness relate to us? Well, for the Christian, the implications are significant. The Bible tells us that the holiness of God provides Christians with an example that we are supposed to follow. We certainly can’t do it perfectly as God can, but we are supposed to live lives of holiness and seek to remove sin from our lives. God declared to his people in Leviticus 19:2 that “You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy.” Now remember, this is what we strive for, even though we often fail. Hebrews 12:14 says “Strive for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.” So, Because God is holy, those who seek to follow him pursue holiness as well.

Is God selfish? God is holy in that he can’t sin. God is also the one who determines what is or is not sin. So for God to be holy means that he is devoted to his own will, and devoted to continually pursuing his own honor and glory. I used to be a children’s pastor and children struggled with this because it seems selfish. It’s not. If I live my life in pursuit of my own glory, that would be sinful. It’s idolatry to honor anything above God. But we need to remember that the same is true for God himself. If God were to pursue the honor and glory of something other than himself, he would be committing idolatry, which he can’t do. Because he is holy, he must pursue his own glory.

The Bible declares that God is holy. One very clear example of that is Psalm 99:9 where David gives us this command: “Exalt the LORD our God, and worship at his holy mountain; for the LORD our God is holy!” To be holy means to set apart from what is worldly or common, and to be completely separated from sin. So there is nothing about God that is impure or sinful. Everything that he does is right and good. In 1 John 1:5, John didn’t use the word holy but he described what holiness is when he said this: “This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.” Nothing about God is or ever could be sinful. God is holy.

A few episodes back, I read a verse from 1 John where Jesus is said to be the propitiation for our sin. That’s a word that most people don’t use often, but it’s important to know what it means. Webster dictionary defines it as “the act of gaining or regaining the favor or goodwill of someone.” That accurately represents how the word is used in the Bible. Because of our sin, we are out of favor with God. Jesus accomplished propitiation for us. His sacrifice appeased God’s wrath and made it possible for us to have God’s favor. Not because of what we’ve done, but because of what Jesus did for us when he died on the cross for our sins. We simply respond in faith.

Why is racism a blasphemy against God? It is, and here’s why. The Bible tells us that God created the first human couple and that all humans since then are descendants from that one family. Any belief that one person is inherently better than another, violates God’s created order. He created one human race, and we are all part of it. In Genesis chapter 12, God called Abraham to be the father of the faith and declared that in Abraham, all the nations of the world would be blessed. Then in Revelation 7, John sees a vision of people from every nation and language worshiping together before the throne. From beginning to end, the gospel unites us in Christ, and God’s Word teaches that racism in any form is sin. Thanks for listening.

I’ve spent the last few episodes considering God’s love, and today I turn it around to consider our love for each other. The Bible says that because God loves us, we are able to share that love with the people in our lives. Jesus said this in Matthew 22: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. And you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” We all know how hard that really is. Loving people as God expects is only possible because God loved us first. We are to take God’s love for us and share that same love with others. John said it like this: “Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”

Does God love sinners? Well, the simple answer to that is "yes" and a key truth to remember if you’re a Christian is that God loved you before you loved him. In fact, that’s part of what makes God’s love so amazing - he gives it to sinners like us. Paul said this in Romans 5:8: “But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” People sometimes make the false assumption that God loves people who are good. Or maybe you tend to think that God will love you more tomorrow if you could be better today. That’s not how God’s love works. The ultimate expression of God’s love for you - his death - happened for you and all people while we were still in sin.