“God… just, and the justifier of him which believes in Jesus” (Romans 3:26).
“Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called the children of God” (1 John 3:1, N.Tr.).
To know God in the former character is to find peace of conscience; in the latter, rest of heart.
GOD, MY JUSTIFIER—the God against whom I have sinned—the only Being who has power over my soul and able to call me to account for my sins. Can I look up into the face of the only One I need fear and call Him my Justifier? Yes, every believer on the Lord Jesus is entitled to do this.
In natural things man can only justify the innocent; God alone can justify the ungodly. And more. Love is the spring of our justification. True, God’s righteousness must be vindicated in respect of our sins; His justice must be upheld, and this is done in virtue of the atoning work of the Lord Jesus, a work so glorifying to God and so abundantly able to meet our dire need that God can justify the believing sinner, and be just in doing so.
But, as I say, love is behind it all. For instance, a man is falsely accused. He has to furnish the proofs of his innocence, and then, as a mere matter of justice, he will be justified; but the judge may not care where he gets the next meal from, nor where he will sleep. But the judge goes home, and now down the gravelled path a fair-haired child runs and flings herself into her father’s arms. Does he care where her next meal will come from, and where she shall sleep that night? Surely.
When we come to divine love we find God is not only Justifier, but Father.
He has furnished the means of justification. “The Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world.” It is no cold justice that meets us, but a divine heart planning our blessing at infinite cost to itself, and delighting that the believer is justified in all the efficacy of a finished work, and in all the light of the glory of the resurrection of Christ.
And that same divine love makes us children, and we can call the One who justifies us our Father (1 John 3:1).
GOD, MY FATHER! Men boast if their father is some great man. What shall be said of the love that makes us children of God? Well might one who drank deeply into that love exclaim, in the very wonderment of his soul, “Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called the children of God.”
Rest of conscience and heart should indeed be ours; not a question as to how we stand before God should cross our mind if we can indeed call God our Justifier; not a care should rest on our hearts if we can call Him Father.
These relationships are indeed real and lasting, the latter involving our being “born of God,” and of our having the affections proper to that relationship. If only God’s children would take up this relationship in reality, what rest of heart would be theirs! In its higher aspect we are undoubtedly set in this near and dear place that God may have pleasure in us, and that we may worship Him as His children according to truth and in the energy of the Holy Spirit; but in a lower sense how happy to know in all one’s circumstances in this world that we have a Father in heaven who cares for us, and who has numbered the very hairs of our head.
What magnificent challenges follow. “If God be for us, who can be against us?” Hear the answer: “He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” Judge of God’s deep interest in His people in the light of that great gift, even His well-beloved Son.
Again, “Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? It is GOD that justifies. Who is He that condemns?”
Again, “It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?”
No wonder the Apostle is unable to find any circumstance, or combination of circumstances, that shall ever be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
What a position to be in! How rich the grace that makes us able to say, “GOD, MY JUSTIFIER; GOD, MY FATHER!”
Blessed be God, our God!
Who gave for us His well-beloved Son,
The gift of gifts, all other gifts in one.
Blessed be God, our God!
What will He not bestow,
Who freely gave this mighty gift, unbought,
Unmerited, unheeded, and unsought?
What will He not bestow?
He spared not His Son!
’Tis this that silences each rising fear,
’Tis this that bids the hard thought disappear—
He spared not His Son!
Who shall condemn us now?
Since Christ has died and risen and gone above,
For us to plead at the right hand of love,
Who shall condemn us now?