A Wicked Balance and Deceitful Weights

 

Shall I count [them] pure with the wicked balances, and with the bag of deceitful weights?” (Micah 6:11)

 

Here the Lord God asserts in unequivocal terms that he abhors all injustice. If he saves, he will be “a just God and a Savior” (Isaiah 45:21). If he damns, it will be upon the grounds of strict justice. He will never use a wicked balance or deceitful weights. He has named himself a God that will by no means clear the guilty (Exodus 34:7). — “Behold, God will not cast away a perfect [man], neither will he help the evil doers” (Job 8:20). — “He that justifieth the wicked, and he that condemneth the just, even they both [are] abomination to the LORD” (Proverbs 17:15).

 

Christ made Sin

 

Because the Lord God is holy, just, and true, he could not and would not impute sin to his dear Son and punish him for our sins, except he make him to be sin for us who knew no sin (2 Corinthians 5:21). No court on earth can impute guilt where there is none, unless the court itself is corrupt and unjust. The court of heaven is neither corrupt nor unjust. In fact, the Lord God specifically declares, “By mercy and truth iniquity is purged” (Proverbs 16:6).

 

            When the Lord Jesus Christ bear our sins in his own body on the tree, he was made sin for us. When he was made sin for us, he became guilty as our Substitute; our sins were imputed to him. Then, the Lord God, the Triune Jehovah, cried, “Awake, O sword, against my Shepherd, and against the Man that is my fellow: smite the shepherd” (Zechariah 13:7). When Christ died at Calvary, he died because he was found worthy of death.

 

Justice could not punish an innocent man. Therefore Christ Jesus was made to be sin, that sin might be imputed to him, that he might be justly punished for our transgressions. By the just balance and honest weights of the court of heaven, the Son of God was justly executed upon Calvary’s cursed tree as the sinner’s Substitute. — Wondrous mercy! — Amazing grace! — Incomprehensible love!

 

Sinners made Meet

 

Just as the Lord Jesus Christ was so completely made to be sin for us that he fully deserved to die under the furious wrath of God, so all God’s elect, all for whom Christ was made sin, all for whom he died are made the very righteousness of God in him (2 Corinthians 5:21). Our great and righteous God accepts his elect; he embraces us and assures us of everlasting blessedness in heaven righteously and justly.

 

            He does not count us pure with a wicked balance and a bag of deceitful weights. He does not bend his law and compromise his justice to save his chosen. Rather, by the wondrous works of his grace in Christ, he makes his chosen righteous. By the obedience of his Son as our Representative we have fulfilled all righteousness. By the sin-atoning death of the Lord Jesus Christ as our Substitute, justice has been satisfied for us, for we were crucified with him (Romans 5:19; Galatians 2:20).

 

            In the new birth God the Holy Spirit makes every chosen, redeemed sinner a new creature in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17). All who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ have been made “partakers of the Divine nature” (2 Peter 14). That new man created in us is “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27), “created in righteousness and true holiness” (Ephesians 4:24). That new man is not going to be righteous and worthy of heaven some day. He is born of God and “cannot sin because he is born of God” (1 John 3:9).

 

            Because we have been made righteous by redemption and regeneration, all who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ are “meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light” (Colossians 1:12). If I am in Christ and Christ is in me, I am really and truly righteous, so perfectly righteous in him that I am worthy of God’s approval, worthy of heavenly glory, worthy of eternal life! Yes, we who live in hope of eternal life have a good hope through grace, a confident “assurance of hope” because we are worthy of heaven in our Savior!

 

Everlasting Damnation

 

Be assured, O poor sinner, be assured, the Lord God will not count you pure with wicked balances and deceitful weights! He will judge you in the last day according to the record of heaven. You shall receive wages according to your works, when you stand before the Great White Throne (Revelation 20:11-15). “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). Everlasting hell will be your just portion forever!

 

            Flee away to Christ! Trust the Son of God. He is the only refuge for your soul. — “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved!” Trust Christ, and the righteousness of God is yours forever. He has made you the very righteousness of God, just as he was made sin for you! God will, with the true balance of his strict justice and the honest weights of his holy law, count you pure in that great day!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Don Fortner

 

 

Listen to sermons at FreeGraceRadio.com