Psalm 11:5-7 (ESV)
5 The Lord tests the righteous,
but his soul hates the wicked and the one who loves violence.
6 Let him rain coals on the wicked;
fire and sulfur and a scorching wind shall be the portion of their cup.
7 For the Lord is righteous;
he loves righteous deeds;
the upright shall behold his face.
In the psalm above, we see a very clear contrast. God looks upon the righteous in one way, and he looks upon the wicked in an entirely different way. We see that the righteous shall stand before him, beholding his face. Thus, the picture is simple: The righteous will live and be rewarded while the wicked will be judged.
On the surface, that kind of view of God and man is by no means strange. Almost every world religion in existence argues that, if you are good enough, you make it in with the deity of the religion. If you are bad, those religions go onto argue, you are in deep trouble.
The difference in the view that I just mentioned and of Christianity, however, is vast. Yes, God welcomes the righteous into his presence. Yes, God curses and judges the wicked. But the problem is, we are all guilty before him. We are all the wicked. When our lives are measured against God’s holiness, we cannot stand. We are hopeless if left alone.
What makes biblical Christianity different is that the righteousness that we have that will make us stand before God is a righteousness given to us. It comes to us from outside.
Romans 3:20-27 (ESV)
20 For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.
21 But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— 22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. 26 It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
27 Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith.
In Paul’s letter to the Romans ,we learn something about ourselves. None of us can be right with God by obeying any set of laws or rules. No, we are all sinners. But God has chosen to grant favor to those whom he has brought to himself through faith in Christ. It is Jesus who was put forward as a propitiation, a sacrifice that turns God’s wrath against us to favor on us. But, as we see in verse 27 above, we have no grounds for boasting. Our boasting is excluded because our salvation is not because of our righteousness, but because of God’s righteousness given to us in Jesus.
So, the above Psalm is truly accurate. There is no person who can stand before God as a wicked person. It is also true that we are all wicked. But God accepts the righteous. None of us is righteous on our own. But God will grant us righteousness if we will simply come to Jesus in faith. We are given credit for the perfection of Jesus, not because we are good, but because we have placed our trust completely in the One who is actually righteous.
It is good, then, to let passages like the psalm above remind us of the gospel. God welcomes the righteous, but we are not righteous on our own. Jesus paid for our wickedness and grants us his righteousness. The psalm reminds us that Jesus has paid our debt and granted to us a record of goodness that we could never have lived out. Thus, the gospel shows us the love of God and the mercy and grace of Christ. These concepts should lead us to joy-filled worship as we express gratitude and amazement to God for his kindness given to unworthy sinners.
A passage like the psalm above should also remind us with great clarity of what God thinks of us now. He does not see us as the wicked any longer. Though we can never fully live out the righteousness we have been granted, we are not in danger of having God crush us for our failures. He has already punished our failures when he poured out his wrath on Jesus, our propitiation. Now we experience only God’s favor because of Christ’s perfection. We do not need to grovel and fear his anger, because that anger has already been satisfied. This should never embolden us to sin, but it should help us to live in joy, knowing that our God accepts us as his children because of –and only because of—the work that he accomplished through his Son.
Pastor Travis Peterson 