“…We have one who speaks to the Father in our defense—Jesus Christ the Righteous One.”

If there is anything that we can say about human beings that is true, it is that they are marvelously inconsistent creatures.  For example, one group says that God does not exist.  A sizeable percentage of this crowd hangs out at colleges and universities, sometimes masquerading as professors.  From such we will hear that since God is merely a myth — not a timeless truth, but a false idea that needs to be dropped like a hot coal — life has no purpose, meaning or direction.  Thus, things like laws and ideas like beauty and justice are merely social conventions, not absolute truths to hang onto.  But it gets really interesting when advocates get caught speeding and are handed a ticket.  “I’m innocent!” they’ll shout.  Innocent?  Innocent of what?  Aren’t laws just conventions, a construction of society?  Why then the fuss?  Mostly because they’ll have to pay a fine.  But isn’t the fine supposedly another construction of society?  Isn’t that just the way society works?  At least that’s what they claim…in the abstract.  But in realty, in real life, they say they’re innocent.  Innocence has to do with laws and justice, things they deny.

Or how about this: let’s say a person takes your purse or burns down your house or steals your car.  You’re obviously upset and legitimately so.  You’ve incurred a loss through no fault of your own.  Someone else has violated your possessions.  When authorities catch the perpetrator, you want justice served.  Ideally you’d love to get reimbursed or receive restitution.  Short of that, you’d like the criminal to spend some quality time in the ‘big house’, and the longer the better.  However, flip the example.  What if you’re the guilty party?  What if you’re facing jail time?  What do you want now?  Mercy, plain and simple.  And you’ll come up with a thousand reasons why you “deserve” a lighter penalty, or none at all.  We don’t want justice; we’ll look for any way out, or any way to scrounge together a bit of leniency.

What is it that causes us to act so inconsistently?  It’s our selfishness…of thinking we’re Number One.  That this life is all about us first and foremost.  Such thinking is what got our first parents (and us!) into so much trouble in the first place.  Perhaps no other quality of God gives the lie about our human condition more than his righteousness.

You know, God could have been perfectly satisfied staying up in heaven, invisible to human sight.  He could have declared his righteousness through the prophets, manifested by the law, and said, “If you can’t reach this standard, too bad!”  And he would have been completely righteous in still judging us and measuring out all the due punishment that was legitimately ours.

But he didn’t want the story to end that way.  And aren’t you glad?  No, God was not done.  He sent his Son to follow the law’s descent down to man, to reveal, as Romans 3:21 says, “a righteousness from God, apart from the law…to which the Law and Prophets testify”.  Jesus was righteousness incarnate, perfectly and fully lived out in the flesh.  That’s what 1 John 2:1-2 says, “…If anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.  He is our atoning sacrifice for our sins…”  The one who would cover our backs had to be righteous himself, else we’re still facing God’s justice.  Since Jesus is God, he is righteous; he thoroughly and uniquely qualifies for God’s side of the equation.  Because he is also human, he perfectly qualifies to take our place in death.

In all this we see the justice of God directed by his love and compassion.  He didn’t have to come, but he did. And he didn’t come grumbling about the pain and sacrifice.  No, just the opposite: he came to demonstrate his overwhelming desire for us to be with him.  Speaking of the implications of what was about to unfold, he told his disciples on the night before he died, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer” (Luke 22:15).  It was at the cross that we find not only God’s justice at work, but also his “love and faithfulness meet[ing] together, righteousness and peace kiss[ing] each other” (Psalm 85:10).  Righteousness by itself doesn’t kiss or bring about peace unless love and faithfulness are involved. So at only that moment and only that place do we find the most incredible and beautiful character of God at work, majestic at every angle, more beautiful than any multi-faceted diamond could ever be.

How much of your life reflects the balanced beauty of God’s character at work in your heart?