神的奥秘 慈爱也公义 (6)

主本是满有恩典的，但那些不听从他命令，到基督那里去，祈求罪得赦免的人，他们只能自己偿还犯罪的代价。凡有罪的，必归有罪。耶和华必施行他的公义。他没有改变，我们不能枉费他的仁慈。

我们知道上帝是仁慈和仁慈的。他忍耐，愿意原谅。我们也知道上帝不会让恶人免于惩罚

爱与正义。 愤怒与原谅。 判断与宽恕。

不悔改的 王

诗篇 89:14 “公义和公平是你宝座的根基；坚定的爱和信实在你面前。”

诗篇 33:5 “他喜爱公义公平；大地充满了主的慈爱。”

过去几周，我们一直专注于上帝对我们的爱。现在我想扩大我们的焦点，包括主对公义的爱。上帝深切关心并有动力为他所创造的人们的最大利益行事。主也喜爱公义，深切关心并有动力按照他的标准行事。

换句话说，上帝是被他对人的爱和对公义的爱所驱动的。许多人不认为公义是上帝爱的对象，但我们不能错过这个至关重要的神学真理。

上面引用的诗篇中的两节经文非常清楚地表明，主喜爱公义和正义。确实，公义和正义是他宝座的基础。

主对公义的爱和对人的爱是每个基督徒都应该了解的关键神学真理。

人的背叛和罪恶使上帝陷入了两难境地，因为这使他所爱的这两个对象发生了冲突。神爱人，也爱公义，但人是有罪的，是不义的。如果上帝只是宽恕人而不应用他的法律标准，那么上帝就无法满足他对公义的热爱。但如果神只是定了人的罪，不施怜悯，就不能满足他对人的爱。

鉴于人的罪恶状态和主的圣洁标准，神怎么能满足他对公义的爱和对人的爱呢？

答案是基督的十字架。在十字架上，耶稣作为我们的代表而死，从而满足了上帝公义的标准。罪的工价就是死，所以神在他对我们难以置信的爱的驱使下，派他的儿子代替我们上十字架，为我们的罪付出了代价，从而将我们从罪的刑罚中解放出来，使我们与神和好。

2哥林多前书5:21完美地说明了这一点：“为我们的缘故，他使他成为无罪的人，以便我们可以在他里面成为上帝的义。” 在十字架上，神对我们的爱和对公义的爱都得到了满足。主为此付出了巨大的代价。

“因为神爱世人，甚至将他的独生子赐给他们，叫一切信他的，不至灭亡，反得永生。因为上帝派他的儿子到世界上来，不是要谴责世界，而是为了让世界可以通过他得救。” （约翰福音 3.16-17）

对于从主而来的这令人惊奇的恩典和爱的礼物，只有一个恰当的回应：悔改我们的不义，接受他的恩典礼物，并以配得上他对我们生命的呼召的方式生活每一天。

Just because God forgives your sins does not mean that He lowers his standard.

Exodus 34:1 CSB1 The Lord said to Moses, “Cut two stone tablets like the first ones, and I will write on them the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke.

Exodus 34:4–7 CSB4 Moses cut two stone tablets like the first ones. He got up early in the morning, and taking the two stone tablets in his hand, he climbed Mount Sinai, just as the Lord had commanded him. 5 The Lord came down in a cloud, stood with him there, and proclaimed his name, “the Lord.” 6 The Lord passed in front of him and proclaimed: The Lord—the Lord is a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger and abounding in faithful love and truth, 7 maintaining faithful love to a thousand generations, forgiving iniquity, rebellion, and sin. But he will not leave the guilty unpunished, bringing the fathers’ iniquity on the children and grandchildren to the third and fourth generation.

God’s standard does not change, His forgiveness is not a license to sin.

Exodus 34:1 CSB1 The Lord said to Moses, “Cut two stone tablets like the first ones, and I will write on them the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke.

Illus: There is a temptation to think that since God is a loving God, and since he forgives our sin, he does not take our sin as seriously.

We might say something like, “God loves me just the way I am”.

Or we might say, “The God of the NT is a God of love.”

Or even “Only God can judge me.”

Hear me friends, God takes your sin just as seriously today as he took sin in the Old Testament.

Also, Just because God loves you does not mean that he does not also hate the sin in your life.

Also, God loves you, but he does not love you just as you are… he loves you through the precious blood shed on the cross. God loves you enough to free you from your sin, to poor his wrath on Jesus because of his hatred of sin, so there is no way that God will tolerate a complacent attitude for sin in your life.

Romans 6:1–4 CSB1 What should we say then? Should we continue in sin so that grace may multiply? 2 Absolutely not! How can we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Or are you unaware that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 Therefore we were buried with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too may walk in newness of life.

God will punish the unrepentant.

Exodus 34:5–7 CSB5 The Lord came down in a cloud, stood with him there, and proclaimed his name, “the Lord.” 6 The Lord passed in front of him and proclaimed: The Lord—the Lord is a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger and abounding in faithful love and truth, 7 maintaining faithful love to a thousand generations, forgiving iniquity, rebellion, and sin. But he will not leave the guilty unpunished, bringing the fathers’ iniquity on the children and grandchildren to the third and fourth generation. ​

Illus: God understands that we sin. He does not take it lightly, but knows that men a re broken. That is why he sent Jesus.

​That said, the attitude which God does not tolerate is unrepentance.

​When you willfully ignore, reject and turn a blind eye to your sin, God does not take that lightly.

​When you love your sin so much that you reject what scripture says, and turn a deaf ear to God, you will face his punishment.

​God’s patience is ready for you to repent. What in your life have you ignored the voice of God on, rejected the clear teaching of scripture on and refused to obey?

​Today repent. Turn to him and find life and freedom.

​2 Peter 3:9 CSB9 The Lord does not delay his promise, as some understand delay, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish but all to come to repentance.

What is that tension? Love vs. justice. Wrath vs. pardon. Judgment vs. forgiveness. God reveals himself as loyal in covenant love, willing to spare, to give undeservedly, and even to grant free pardon to all kinds of sin. But then he says, “who will by no means clear the guilty.” So, there it is. Clearing and not clearing the guilty. Tension. And the resolution for that tension, we are reminded, is found only in the cross of Jesus Christ. Amen and amen to that.

Exodus 20:5-6 and Exodus 34:6-7📷

Do you wonder if your idolatry, like Israel, has so distanced you from the jealous, righteous God who made you that he couldn’t possibly want to receive you now? God forgives.

He revealed it on Sinai. He sealed it on the cross. God forgives and forgives and forgives.

https://thecripplegate.com/the-god-who-forgives-and-punishes-us-why-exodus-34-says-more-than-you-think/

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/smith_chuck/SermonNotes_Exd/Exd_35.cfm

ROM 2:4 Do you despise the riches of the goodness of God, and His forbearance and longsuffering? Don't you realize that it is the goodness of God that leads you to repentance?

e. He is also abundant in truth.

1. Man often declares that he is on a quest for truth.

2. That was the whole inspiration for the age of Philosophy.

3. These same men often reject the truth, and today declare that truth does not exist.

f. At the trial of Jesus, Pilate cynically asked, "What is truth?"

g. The one who Pilate asked was the One who the night before had said to His disciples, "I am the way, the truth, and the life, no man comes to the Father but by Me."

5. He shows His mercy by "forgiving iniquity and transgressions."

a. There are conditions for the forgiveness; they are:

1. Repentance.

2. Believing.

3. Obedience.

6. "By no means clearing the guilty."

a. How does that equate with the fact that He just said in mercy He forgives iniquity and transgressions?

b. The forgiveness is to those who in repentance will come to Him. Jesus said, "Unless you repent, you shall perish."

III. THE BIBLE DECLARES ITSELF TO BE GOD'S REVELATION OF HIMSELF TO MAN. THIS IS HOW GOD DESCRIBES HIMSELF.

A. I guess the whole issue is, which God do you want to serve?

1. We all serve some god, you can't escape that fact. Either the gods of this world, or the God who created this world.

2. Many serve the gods of this world, but you need to consider this:

a. In the final analysis the gods of this world will ultimately leave you empty and destroy you, then cast you into hell.

b. The God of the Bible will forgive your sins, be merciful and gracious unto you, and give you eternal life in His kingdom.

Three words are used to describe the actions and attitudes that God forgives. The first word, עָוֹן (“iniquity”), refers to an action that involves crooked behavior, a turning away from the straight and narrow way. The second word, פֶשַׁצ (“transgressions”), refers to a breach of relationships, civil or religious, between two parties (Gen. 31:36; Isa. 58:1). In the context of international relationships the cognate verb designates a revolt against rulers. In a religious sense it refers to a rebellion against God’s authority. Livingston regards it as a “collective which denotes the sum of misdeeds and a fractured relationship.”43 The third word, חַטָּאָה (“sin”), is related to the verb חָטָא, “to miss the way.” Missing God’s standards or failing to fulfill His requirements constitutes an act of sin. Cassuto is not convinced that Moses intended to differentiate between three varieties of sin; he says that the three are synonyms that are used to cover “the entire range of wrongdoing.”44 While this may be the case, there are significant differences in nuance between the words.

J. Carl Laney, “God’s Self-Revelation in Exodus 34:6–8,” Bibliotheca Sacra 158 (2001): 49.

Regarding the "you" ("thou" KJV), Spurgeon observes that

The apostle is intensely personal in his address. This verse is not spoken to us all in the mass, but to some one in particular. The apostle fixes his eyes upon a single person, and speaks to him as "Thee" and "Thou."... I will give nothing for that kind of hearing which consists in the word being heard by everybody in general, and by no one in particular. It is when the preacher can "Thee" and "Thou" his hearers that he is likely to do them good. When each man is made to say, "This is for me," then the power of God is present in the word. One personal, intentional touch of the hem of Christ's garment conveys more blessing than all the pressure of the crowd that thronged about the Master...Observe that the apostle singled out an individual who had condemned others for transgressions, in which he himself indulged. This man owned so much spiritual light that he knew right from wrong, and he diligently used his knowledge to judge others, condemning them for their transgressions. As for himself, he preferred the shade, where no fierce light might beat on his own conscience and disturb his unholy peace. His judgment was spared the pain of dealing with his home offenses by being set to work upon the faults of others. He had a candle, but he did not place it on the table to light his own room; he held it out at the front door to inspect therewith his neighbors who passed by...The poet of the night-watches wrote,--"All men think all men mortal but themselves." As truly might I say, "All men think all men guilty but themselves." The punishment which is due to sin the guilty reckon to be surely impending upon others, but they scarce believe that it can ever fall upon themselves. A personal doom for themselves is an idea which they will not harbour: if the dread thought should light upon them they shake it off as men shake snow-flakes from their cloaks. The thought of personal guilt, judgment, and condemnation is inconvenient; it breeds too much trouble within, and so they refuse it lodging. Vain men go maundering on their way, whispering of peace and safety; doting as if God had passed an act of amnesty and oblivion for them, and had made for them an exception to all the rules of justice, and all the manner of his courts. Do men indeed believe that they alone shall go unpunished? No man will subscribe to that notion when it is written down in black and white, and yet the mass of men live as if this were true; I mean the mass of men who have sufficient light to condemn sin in others.  (Earnest Expostulation [Objection])