Him That Judgeth Righteously

Him That Judgeth Righteously

I Peter 2:23

Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously:

“And Abraham drew near, and said, wilt thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked? Peradventure there be fifty righteous within the city: wilt thou also destroy and not spare the place for the fifty righteous that are therein? That be far from thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked: and that the righteous should be as the wicked, that be far from thee: Shall not the judge of all the earth do right?” (Genesis 18:23-25). “If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do? The LORD is in his holy temple, the LORD’S throne is in heaven: his eyes behold, his eyelids try, the children of men. The LORD trieth the righteous: but he wicked and him that loveth violence his soul hateth. Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest: this shall be the portion of their cup. For the righteous LORD loveth righteousness; his countenance doth behold the upright.” (Psalm 11:3-7). “Thou lovest righteousness, and hatest wickedness: therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.” (Psalm 45:7) “The LORD is righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his works.” (Psalm 145:17).

In what circumstance is it right, that “Jesus Christ the righteous” (I John 2:1) should suffer for the wicked? How is it right that the Holy One should be “numbered with the transgressors” (Isaiah 53:12)? How can God be holy in all His works, when He appointed that the Christ should suffer for sins, “the just for the unjust” (I Peter 3:18)? Is it just that God “justifeth the ungodly” (Romans 4:5) and has “spared not” (Romans 8:32); but, condemned the Just One?  While at the same time He said: “He that justifieth the wicked, and he that condemneth the just, even they both are abomination to the LORD.” (Proverbs 17:15). Are the LORD’S actions abominable in His own eyes? As said the Apostle Paul: Nay, God forbid; for, our Lord Jesus said “I Am the vine, ye are the branches:” (John 15:5).

The Vine and its branches are one plant; but, the Vine, is not the branches; and the branches are not the Vine, yet they are one. In human anatomy a head and a body make up a human being; but, the Head is not the body and the body is not the Head, but, both together make one person. And so it is concerning Christ and His Members: “And he is the head of the body, the church:” (Colossians 1:18) the individual members of the church, taken together, are the body of Christ; and they are and have always been one with Christ in the judicature of God. In the eye of God’s law and justice the church is one with Jesus Christ. As it is written: “Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also. At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you. (John 14:19-20).  

Guilt and condemnation under the law are not charged against members of persons; but, they are charged to the persons to whom the members belong. And so it is with the justice of God, God will not impute sin to the members of Christ; (Romans 4:8; II Corinthians 5:19) but God has imputed the sins of the members of the body of Christ: to Christ to whom the members belong. Jesus Christ and His members are one in the counsels of God: but still Christ is the Christ, and His members are members in His mystical body the church, and yet one in the reckoning of God. This union of Head and body has united the Christ and His members from everlasting, and it is according to the righteousness of God, that the Head, Jesus of Nazareth, who is the Christ, should suffer for the sins of His members the body of the Christ. Let all the daemons of hell howl over this Bible truth, still it is the truth; and it is the reason God is just to justify the ungodly, by the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ.

“Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree,” (I Peter 2:24). And since it is right that the head should bare the sins of the body, it is also right that the righteousness of the Head should be charged to His members, for it is written: “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” (II Corinthians 5:21). The church of God is made the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ, and they who are made the righteousness of God have no guilt in the sight of God; but, “you that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight:” (Colossians 1:21-22). 

Our Lord Jesus Christ is God’s appointed, suitable, substitute, who has satisfied the law and justice of God in His life and in His death: that is, as the law of God stands in relation to the covenant people of God. As said the prophet: “The LORD is well pleased for his righteousness’ sake; he will magnify the law, and make it honorable.” (Isaiah 42:21). That “God manifest in the flesh” (I Timothy 3:16) should obey the law of God: This magnifies and honors the law of God. That one who is “over all, God blessed for ever. A-men” (Romans 9:5) should consent to being “made of a woman, made under the law,” (Galatians 4:4); and that He should delight to do the will of God as man under the law (Psalm 40:8), this magnifies and honors the Law. That, that Man standing in office of Mediator, and being acknowledged of God, as being God (for it is written: “therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows” Psalm 45:7), that this Person, this God-Man should say “I delight to do thy will, O my God, yea, thy law is in my heart.” (Psalm 40:8) this magnifies the law and shows it to be honorable. God the Son took flesh into indissoluble union with Himself (John 1:14); and in “the likeness of sinful flesh” (Romans 8:3) fulfilled the precept of the law of God by living perfectly according to the precept of the law; and in the same body He demonstrated the righteousness of the law in that He died under it’s curse in the room of those with whom He is in covenant union. In the life and death of Messiah under the law, in the infinite glory of His most sacred Person; and because of the infinite glory of His Person, He demonstrated the glorious righteousness of the law of God in its precept and in its penalty. He the God Man magnified the law and demonstrated its glorious righteousness by His obedience to it unto death, even the bloody, violent, death of the cross.  

“He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth.” (Isaiah 53:7). Why? Why did not the Righteous Lord defend His own righteousness and glory? It is not because of lack of power: witness, “I Am” in the garden, when the soldiers went back and fell to the ground at His declaration of His identity. No it is because of His union with His ancient people, with whom He had been one “from of old, even from everlasting” (Micah 5:2). He did not complain, He did not revile, when He was reviled by those who were far inferior to Himself, He did not threaten when He suffered; no, He suffered silently, He committed Himself to Him who judgeth righteously: as Surety of the New Testament, He, “his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree.” (I Peter 2:24). He acknowledged the righteousness of God His Father, when God charged the sins of Christ’s sheep to the Lamb of God. He owned the guilt of the sins of His people as His own, not because He had committed anything that bore any resemblance of sin; but because He stood in union with those who are themselves sinners. He suffered, the just for the unjust (I Peter 3:18) according to the justice of God, and He justified the people of God, when He put away the sin with which He had been charged, by the sacrifice of Himself. (Hebrews 9:26). Christ Jesus the Substitute, the sin Bearer, the propitiatory Sacrifice, the Lamb of God, was delivered to the justice of God to satisfy its penalty; and He was delivered from the grave because that penalty has been forever satisfied: as it is written: “Who was delivered for (because of; see Strong’s G1223 writer) our offences, and raised again for (because of) our justification. (Romans 4:25). All those for whom Christ died are “justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses.” (Acts 13:39). Those who are justified by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ shall never perish (John 10:28); this is proof unanswerable that Jesus Christ died for “His people” (Matthew 1:21) whom the Father had given Him before the world was made (John 17:2); and not for the whole world that lieth in wickness, as it is written: “And we know that we are of God, (the children of God: writer) and the whole world lieth in wickness.” (I John 5:19). The whole world that lieth in wickness is that world that cannot receive the Spirit of God (John 14:17); and that world to whom the Lord will not manifest Himself (John 14:22).      

AJ Ison     

See the writers blog at www.hebrews915.blogspot.com hear the true gospel preached at www.13thstbaptist.org webcasting live at listed service times.