God is impartial. He does not make a difference in judgment or mercy because of what He finds in any man. In judgment, He judges all men equally, strictly according to His law, strictly by what He finds in them (Rom. 2:11; 6:23; Eph. 6:9; Col. 3:25; 1 Pet. 1:7). If God condemns us, it will be for what we have done. But if He justifies us, it will be for what Christ has done. In giving mercy, God is gracious because of what He is in Himself (Ex. 34:7). He shows mercy out of His own sovereign will, without respect to us in any way (Rom. 9:11-16). If God gives us eternal life, it will not be for what we have done, but for what Christ has done as one man for “the many” given to Christ in eternal election (Rom. 5:19, 21; Eph. 1:4).
Therefore, if God punishes me or you in hell, it will be for our own sin. But if He gives us eternal life, making Himself known to us in Christ, and receiving us to eternal glory, it will be because of His own righteousness, for the obedience and death of the Lord Jesus Christ as the one for the many, given to us out of sheer grace (Rom. 5:17-21; 6:23; Php. 2:6-8; Heb. 10:7-14). The righteousness of God is the only righteousness by which God justifies ungodly sinners. God’s righteousness is the obedience of Christ in His life and sufferings and death (Heb. 2:10; 5:7-9; Php. 2:6-8; Rom. 10:4; 2 Cor. 5:21). God gives Christ’s righteousness to us by His grace alone, without any regard to what He finds in us, either good or bad (Rom. 5:17-19; 9:11-13; Eph. 2:1-9). It is an act of sovereign crediting to us what Christ has done, because from eternity He made Christ our Head and made us His own (Eph. 1:4).
Thus, we are saved, humbled and overjoyed before God. We deserve wrath. Yet, for Christ’s sake, we are received by God as He receives Christ, with all of the blessings God has given to Him (2 Cor. 1:20; Gal. 3:16, 19, 29; 4:28; Eph. 1:3; 1 Cor. 3:21-23; Rom. 8:17, 32; Eph. 4:32). “As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive” (1 Cor. 15:21-22).
Rick Warta
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