God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished—he did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus. Romans 3:25-26
No Sweeping Allowed
When you are expecting company and short on time, it’s tempting to sweep the dirt on the floor under the rug. Out of sight, out of mind. Sometimes we wish God would treat our sins the same way. We hope that because God is loving and merciful, he might look the other way, ignore our daily failures, and sweep our guilt under the rug of eternity.
But a truly just judge can’t simply ignore a crime. If a human judge let a guilty criminal walk free just to be “nice,” we would call that judge corrupt. If God swept the world’s sins aside without a second thought, he would cease to be righteous. The crushing reality of God’s law is that every sin creates a debt, and the wage of sin is death.
Our debt can’t be casually hidden; it must be dealt with. God’s justice doesn’t allow sin to be ignored. That’s why he did something far more profound and far more costly: he presented Jesus Christ as a “sacrifice of atonement.” Rather than ignoring the mountain of the world’s sin, God the Father took every single one of them and laid them squarely on the shoulders of his perfect Son. In Jesus, the unyielding demands of God’s perfect justice were met, not by lowering the standard, but through his perfect life of obedience and death on a cross.
There at the cross, God demonstrated that he is both “just” and the one who “justifies.” He is just because the full penalty of sin has been paid by Jesus’ perfect sacrifice. And he is your justifier because through faith, Christ’s perfect payment is freely transferred to your account.
Your sins have not been swept under the rug. They have been washed away by the blood of the Lamb. Your debt is not ignored; it has been paid in full. Your forgiveness is complete.
Prayer:
Jesus, thank you for paying the debt of my sin once and for all. Amen.
