Just and Justified – The Eighth Commandment

Just and Justified

Exodus 20:15; Deuteronomy 5:19

“You shall not steal.”

Romans 4:24, 25

[Righteousness] will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.

Jesus fulfilled the justice of God.

We began this look at justice by saying that God Himself defines the nature of justice, since He is both just and the One Who justifies all who believe in Jesus. Jesus accomplished justice in its fullest form. Against the balance of sin which we had heaped into one side of the scale, He placed His own perfect fulfillment of the Law of God, which was more than enough to set right the balance of justice. The retribution we deserve was laid on Him, and He has restored us to God from our condition of wandering from Him. Jesus fulfilled all righteousness, bore all the wrath of God, and fulfilled everything that unjust people such as you and I need in order to dwell forever in the presence of the just and justifying God. Through Jesus Christ alone – and not through the Law – we are just and justified in the sight of God.

Pray

I thank You, Lord, that Jesus came to fulfill all the requirements of justice on our behalf. Help me to live in His righteousness and to pursue justice in all its forms in all my ways.

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“In the Gates” is a devotional series on the Law of God by Rev. T.M. Moore

T. M. Moore is 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.

Editor’s note: The use of a translation other than the Authorised Version in an article does not constitute an endorsement in whole or in part by The Christian Observer.