Free from Wrath – Uses of the Law: To Clarify the Good News (3)

Free from Wrath

Uses of the Law: To Clarify the Good News (3)

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. 2 Corinthians 5:21

The Good News that guilty sinners need to hear is that God has made a way for them to dwell in His presence forever, without fear of judgment or wrath (Rom. 8:1). That way is through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

As we have seen, the Law of God, which lays out the Lord’s demands for holiness, was completely fulfilled in Jesus Christ. His righteousness is of infinite value, in that it satisfies the requirement of righteousness all must fulfill who would dwell with God.

But the Law of God is also full of sanctions against guilty sinners, judgments and punishments, all just and necessary, to be applied to those who violate the Law of God. While Jesus fulfills the righteousness God requires for us, how shall we satisfy the justice His Law requires, apart from suffering the infinite pains and judgments revealed in God’s Law?

Only through our Lord Jesus Christ: God has made Him Who knew no sin to be sin for us. He has taken upon Himself all the punishment and wrath due against wicked sinners. He bore our sins in His own body on the cross, and there suffered the infinite wrath of God against us, that through His suffering we might be freed from wrath and the fear of wrath.

The Good News is that the justice of the Law must be satisfied, for God is just and will by no means clear the guilty. But God is also the Justifier of repentant sinners, having sent His Son to fulfill all righteousness and bear all wrath on their behalf, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him through faith and obedience.

In the light of Christ’s righteousness and suffering, we call repentant sinners to embrace Him with gratitude and surrender their lives completely to Him Who lived and died for their redemption.

For a practical guide to the role of God’s Law in the life of faith, get The Ground for Christian Ethics by going to www.ailbe.org and click on our Bookstore, then Church Issues.

–

In the Gates is a devotional series on the Law of God by Rev. T.M. Moore, editor of the Worldview Church. He serves as dean of the Centurions Program of the Wilberforce Forum and principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He is the author or editor of twenty books, and has contributed chapters to four others. His essays, reviews, articles, papers, and poetry have appeared in dozens of national and international journals, and on a wide range of websites. His most recent books are The Ailbe Psalter and The Ground for Christian Ethics (Waxed Tablet).

Scripture quotations in this article are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, (c) copyright 2001, 2007 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.