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Nate Roten / Attributes of God / Righteousness; Justice; Grace; God’s Mercy
Main Idea
You cannot rightly understand God’s righteousness and justice without seeing His grace and mercy.
When Moses was with God on Mt. Sinai, God gave Moses the 10 commandments. God wrote them with His hand the first time He gave them. Could you imagine holding tablets with God’s handwriting on them? While on that mountain, Moses also received many other laws and requirements, including detailed descriptions of what the Ark of the Covenant and Tabernacle should look like. Afterward, God told Moses that trouble was brewing at the mountain’s base. As Moses descended the mountain and saw the golden calf and idolatrous worship, he threw God’s tablets down in anger, shattering them, and was a visual representation of what they had done to God’s law with their actions. So, God gave the commandments a second time but made Moses chisel them out this time. And as Moses put chisel to stone, God proclaimed this of Himself:
Exodus 34:4–7 ESV
So Moses cut two tablets of stone like the first. And he rose early in the morning and went up on Mount Sinai, as the Lord had commanded him, and took in his hand two tablets of stone. The Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty…”
This succinctly summarizes the attributes we will see today as we look at four of God’s communicable attributes or those characteristics that He shares with humans.
Outline
- Righteousness
- Justice
- Grace
- Mercy
Righteous & Just
Psalm 89:14 ESV
Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne; steadfast love and faithfulness go before you.
Jeremiah 9:24 ESV
but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the Lord.”
Righteousness and Justice are found together 185 times in scripture.
Think of these two attributes as two large tree trunks that stem from the same root system because, for God, they are interlinked. Because of our sinful nature, humans often separate these. We can be quite unrighteous and twist justice to meet our own selfish needs, but God will always dispense justice in perfect righteousness. To dive into the importance of that reality, let’s define our terms.
Righteousness
The quality, state, and characteristic of being in the right.
-Bird, Michael F. 2016. “Righteousness.” In The Lexham Bible Dictionary
If righteousness is a characteristic of being in the right, then it is impossible for God to be unrighteous. Remember our talk from last week: God is unchanging because He is the pinnacle of perfection. He can’t be any lesser than that, or He wouldn’t be God. That concept spills over into His righteousness. He is always in the right; therefore, He is always righteous.
Adjective – characterized by or proceeding from accepted standards of morality or justice.
This second definition is critical because being in the right depends on your standard of what’s right and wrong. Where does the standard come from? That is the million-dollar question!
We live in a post-modern world that doesn’t have an answer to that question. Why? Because when you deny the existence of absolute truth, all you are left with are individual truths. You have your truth, and I have my truth. My standard of right and wrong comes from my brain, not from an outside source. It is all subjective to my feelings and interpretation of reality. That is why, for example, we have an ever-growing list of gender pronouns today. When you reject the reality of two genders, and you feel as though you are something else, like a Zim/Zer… whatever that means… then there is virtually no end to the number of genders a person can be. That is an absurd truth because there is absolutely no standard of what we call morality.
For there to be righteousness, a standard must exist, which brings us back to the million-dollar question. Where do standards come from? Does a society create a standard for its people? If so, how do you define a society? Is it at the county level? State level? Country level? What happens if new people are put in power and they change the rule? Is what was once right now wrong? Do you see the issue? The only logical explanation is God. He existed before the heavens and earth were created. He doesn’t change, so He has always been in accordance with this ‘standard’; therefore, He must be the source of the standard.
Justice
The Lexham Bible Dictionary Justice in the Old Testament
In the Old Testament, the concept of justice refers to divinely ordained actions that promote the well-being and equality of all humanity. Whether justice is served by punishing oppressors or by vindicating the oppressed, there is always the concept of returning humanity to שָׁלוֹם (shalom), an equilibrium in which wrongs have been made right and the impoverished have been restored to prosperity.
In this light, justice has two functions: punishment and vindication. Those who do wrong will be punished, and those who have the wrong done to them or those falsely accused of doing wrong are exonerated and restored.
Justice is actionable and dispensed based on one’s interaction with the standard God has created, which we call His LAW. And He has communicated His law to us in scripture. By nature, God is not a lawbreaker because He is perfectly righteous. He gave His law because fallen humans needed a standard in which to live in a way that is pleasing to Him and a relationship can flourish. Many times in scripture, humans are commanded to keep God’s ways by DOING righteousness and justice, and this is His way of doing this, as He said in Isa. 28:17:
Isaiah 28:17 ESV
And I will make justice the line, and righteousness the plumb line….”
Now, let’s put these two things together.
The natural result of righteousness and justice is judgment. Not only is God’s throne kingly, but it is also a judicial throne. Because He is perfectly righteous, He MUST judge sin and pronounce a verdict on those who sin (or those who fall short of His perfect righteous standard).
Scripture is full of God’s judgments. Open the Bible to nearly any of the prophets, and you will see a judgment on a nation, whether it be a pagan nation like Babylon or Edom or on Israel herself when she turns her back on Him. God being a Judge can be challenging for many to accept, but trust me when I say you want Him to judge.
Consider for a moment that you are in a courtroom because a wicked man has murdered one of your family members, whom you were very close to. The man on trial smirks every time he gets a glimpse of your pain and grief. When the Judge slams his gavel, do you want him to say, “You know what… I’m sure you were having a terrible day. I’m going to let you off this time with a warning. You may go.” What would you do in that case? You would cry out for justice, wouldn’t you? The man killed someone you love in cold blood! What would you think of the Judge? Would you consider Him to be unjust?
This is why I emphasize God’s justice and implore you to refrain from viewing a human Judge. People are fallible and prone to corruption. In our courtrooms, justice isn’t always served. But with God, His judgments are always wholly just because He is wholly righteous. He cannot issue a false conviction even when His judgment seems harsh to us (such as God wiping out a nation in the Old Testament, we must realize that we cannot see the complete picture. But God does. He sees all the angles and always makes the right judgments.
Concerning us, these two attributes are both praiseworthy and terrifying because we are imperfect. Every human has, and according to Romans 3, fallen short of His perfect standard, meaning we all fall under His wrathful judgments, and there is nothing we can do about it. And let me emphasize one thing… there is nothing that WE can do about it.
Grace and Mercy
Ephesians 2:4–5 ESV
But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—
Like righteousness and justice, grace and mercy often go hand-in-hand in scripture. They are also like that two-branched tree. Many see grace and mercy as synonyms, but they are different.
Grace
Grace can mean a lot of things. A skilled dancer on the stage can move so smoothly and precisely, and we call her performance graceful.
Scripturally, grace is often seen as God’s kindness toward humans. More specifically, it is God’s undeserved favor given to His people.
In Exodus 34, God told Moses that he was gracious directly. Turn to any book of the Bible, and you can see an example of God’s undeserved favor on his people. Even in their rebellion, His anger didn’t last forever, and He promised to bless them and bring them to fruition once more.
God doesn’t give grace. He is grace. It is a part of His very being, and John makes it quite clear how we, as humans, receive that grace:
John 1:17 ESV
For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
This doesn’t mean God did not give grace before Jesus’ time on earth. Jesus is eternal because Jesus is God, so grace has always been there. Either God’s people were looking forward to the Messiah who would crush the head of the serpent or looking backward to the cross, where Jesus accomplished that mission. The cross of Christ is the cross of grace.
On the cross, the great, eternal Judge stepped down from His seat and took your place at the executioner’s station. The one you sinned against bore the penalty for your sin so that you could be free from its grasp to run into His arms. That is grace!
Grace comes through Christ. He is the riverbed where grace flows over us like a perpetual waterfall.
Mercy
Though similar to grace, mercy has a different focus. Grace is undeserved, divine favor. Mercy, on the other hand, is when God refrains from giving you what you deserve.
Mercy is linked closely with compassion and forgiveness (which are also God’s attributes) because it is defined as someone showing leniency and compassion to another. Mercy ministries exist to give help and show compassion to those in need. Many of you are familiar with a term in the courts when a person under scrutiny realizes they have no power of persuasion and says, “I throw myself on the mercy of the court.” What does that mean? It means – though I likely deserve punishment, see that I recognize my wrongdoing and am repentant. Please don’t give me the full weight of the penalty.” …or something along those lines.
In Exodus 34, God didn’t destroy everyone at the foot of the mountain who was engaging in idol worship right in front of Him. God was with Moses on the top of the mountain, and the Israelites were at the base, crafting the golden calf, which was worshiped as the lord who led them out of Egypt. That would be like your spouse having an affair while you were in the same house. God delivered them from Egypt in chapter 13, and they were already committing adultery with idols by chapter 32. It was deplorable and worthy of death, but God relented, demonstrating His mercy.
What is even more amazing is that in between the golden calf incident and Moses crafting new tablets, there was this incredibly intimate moment between Moses and God:
Exodus 33:17–19 ESV
And the Lord said to Moses, “This very thing that you have spoken I will do, for you have found favor in my sight, and I know you by name.” Moses said, “Please show me your glory.” And he said, “I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name ‘The Lord.’ And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.
Amid all the infidelity, God approaches Israel’s representative head and explains his grace and mercy. WOW.
Now, for the New Testament believer, God’s mercy on sinful humans allows His grace to extend to them in Jesus so that we can be saved from our deplorable condition.
Return to the courtroom scene where the murderer is on trial, but this time, you are the accused. You have committed the sin and are awaiting the verdict. This is where you don’t want God to be fair. If you are repentant, you want Him to extend mercy, not judgment!
In Christ, that is precisely what He gives you! Earlier, I mentioned Romans 3, where we have all fallen short of His glory, but in the second half of that verse, we are justified freely by His GRACE.
And because it came through Jesus, we can reflect the same attributes:
Micah 6:8 NIV
He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.
The requirement to walk with God is to emulate His characteristics. What are the key characteristics mentioned here? Act justly. Love mercy. Walk humbly.
One more point for mercy, and then we will tie all of this together.
As we have learned, God’s throne is a Kingly throne where He rules. It is also a throne that is established on righteousness and justice, but there is another element of God’s throne that He has communicated to us through the writer of Hebrews:
Hebrews 4:16 ESV
Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
Do you see why it is so important to view God’s righteousness and justice in light of His grace and mercy?
Takeaways
Even though we stand guilty before the eternal Judge whose foundation is righteousness and justice, we can fall upon the mercy of that same throne. He must judge sin, and He will do so in perfect righteousness, but His grace was demonstrated by atoning for your sin at the cross. The penalty has been paid! You have been set free! The judge’s gavel has slammed the table, echoing through the courtroom halls, followed by the verdict – not guilty!
God has graciously taken your sin and guilt away by putting it on Jesus, which was done according to His righteousness, which always aligns with His holy standard. Therefore, He has satisfied justice in perfect righteousness. Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe… so the song goes. That is His mercy at work. But that’s not all He did! Not only did He take away your punishment and subsequent condemnation, but He also gave you Christ’s righteousness! Did you catch that? When God looks at you, He sees the same righteousness as Christ has, which is perfect righteousness! And what’s more, you become a son and daughter with all the benefits of the Kingdom and eternal life. That is truly an amazing outpouring of grace!
Your homework for this week is to read Romans 5 every day. To help you along, here is the progression of Romans 5: We have been justified by faith and, therefore, have peace with God and stand in grace through Christ. We were once God’s enemies; now, we are reconciled to him. In Adam, we all die. In Christ, we all live: under his grace, fully justified and made righteous.
I want to end today’s sermon with a quote from A.W. Tozer, which serves as a call to all of us:
Grace is God’s good pleasure, and it is what God is like. I have said over and over again that one of the big problems of the Church is the loss of the proper concept of what God is like. And if we could restore that again, we could have an army of preachers going up and down the land preaching about what God is like. Pastors and teachers would begin again to tell the people what God is like. It would put strength and foundation under our faith again.1
- 1 Tozer, A. W., and David E. Fessenden. 2003–. The Attributes of God: A Jouney into the Father’s Heart. Vol. 1. Camp Hill, PA: WingSpread.
Questions to Consider
- Reflect on when you experienced God’s grace in a situation where you didn’t deserve it. How did that impact your understanding of His character?
- How does knowing that God’s throne is established on righteousness and justice and characterized by grace and mercy influence your perspective on approaching Him in prayer and worship?
- How can you cultivate a deeper understanding of God’s standard of righteousness in a world that often promotes subjective morality and truth?
- In what ways can you seek to balance justice and mercy in your interactions with others, following God’s example of perfect righteousness and compassion?