Scripture: Psalm 85
As we stand with the Catechism and face the truth of our devastating spiritual misery, we are led to those questions that arise from the sinner who objects to his treatment by the God of heaven and earth. We have brought upon ourselves a devastating depravity by our guilt in Adam. We have been exposed by God's Holy Word as those who are so corrupt that we are incapable of doing any good and inclined to all wickedness. And every objection that we might raise has been effectively slapped down by the Word of God. We stand before Him Whose righteousness endures forever. There is no injustice with God. Our state and our condition is solely our responsibility. Even a single sin brings us forever under the judgment of damnation. Such is our misery by nature, i.e., as we stand alone before the Holy One Who eternally seeks His own perfect glory. God cannot let a single sin go unpunished. He cannot deny Himself. So we saw, in our consideration of Q & A's 9 and 10, that God hates the wicked every day. His love is particular. It is love for Himself. It is love for His Son in Himself. And therefore it is love for those who are in His Son by a true and living faith. God maintains His just judgment by punishing—not sin. God doesn't punish an abstraction. He punishes the sinner. He maintains His just judgment by punishing the sinner in time and in eternity. So we saw as we considered this difficult truth of Scripture last time.
And so now we come to the eleventh Q & A: "Is not God then also merciful?" You understand this question, don't you? It is the sinner's last attempt to escape. The sinner, even the one unwilling to turn from his sin, will still lay claim to God's mercy. "Well, God will overlook my sins. After all, He is merciful." So says the ungodly man. And he does so, you understand, in the vain thought that God's mercy will supersede and set aside His justice. But the Heidelberg instructors point to Scripture and say, "God is indeed merciful, but also just; therefore His justice requires that sin which is committed against the most high majesty of God be also punished with extreme, that is, with everlasting punishment of body and soul." So we are reminded of:
GOD'S INESCAPABLE JUSTICE
And that is our theme this morning. Under that theme we consider:
I. THE SINNER'S APPEAL TO MERCY
II. GOD'S UNCHANGEABLE JUSTICE
III. OUR INESCAPABLE CALLING
THE CATECHISM GIVES ANSWER CONCERNING THE SINNER'S APPEAL TO MERCY.
TO THE QUESTION, "IS NOT GOD THEN ALSO MERCIFUL," THE CATECHISM GIVES AN ANSWER THAT AT FIRST GIVES THE SINNER A GLIMMER OF HOPE: "GOD IS INDEED MERCIFUL."
And therefore we begin by asking, first of all, what is meant by mercy? What is God's mercy? If we define mercy in capsule form, then we may say that mercy is God's will to bless, His will to make happy. And we must again emphasize a matter that we also emphasized two weeks ago when we examined what the Bible has to say about God's love, namely, that these attributes of God—love, mercy, or any other attribute you care to talk about—all God's attributes are eternal. Which is to say, God is merciful, in the first place, to Himself. I realize, of course, that the concept mercy in Scripture is almost always spoken of as it becomes revealed toward man, toward elect man. But whenever we talk about God's attributes, we must not forget that He had these attributes before ever man was created. All God's attributes are eternal. That is a fundamental principle. We mustn't forget that. Otherwise we will become all confused when talking about God's attributes, and end up in the trap of modernism. To the modernist, God's love and grace and mercy is all tied up in man. The modernist is entirely man-centered. So that even God becomes a servant of man. The faith of Scripture, on the other hand, is always God-centered. And the way to remain God-centered, is by remembering that God is absolutely sovereign, eternal, the Creator; and we are but creatures. The way to remain God-centered is by remembering that before ever a man was created, God lived, the eternally perfect self-sufficient God.
Even though the emphasis of Scripture when it comes to what are called God's "communicable attributes" is found to be on the Christian's enjoyment of these attributes, that does not take away from the fact that these attributes belong to God Himself eternally. Nor does Scripture ignore that truth. It is just that the Scripture is God's revelation of Himself as He stands in relation to His creation and His creatures. It is the gospel. Thus we find God revealing Himself to His people as the merciful God. And He is—to you and to me. But I say again, Don't forget that God is merciful in Himself. Scripture teaches that too. In the two books of the Chronicles, you will find the expression several times, as also in Psalms 118 and 136—the Lord's "mercy endureth forever." If you look at those texts, you will find that the word endureth is in italics, which means it was inserted as a verb, in order that in our English language the sentence would be complete. But you might substitute for the word endureth the simple verb is. His mercy is forever. It is as eternal as He is eternal. The praise recorded in Psalm 136 is a praise to God for that mercy that is His from eternity, and which He has chosen to reveal to us His people in every situation of life, and even into all eternity. To confirm that truth that God's mercy is eternal, I point you also to Psalm 33:22. There we read, "Let thy mercy, O LORD, be upon us, according as we hope in thee." Very clearly that mercy is something that Jehovah has in Himself. The prayer there is that He be pleased to bestow that mercy upon us. Mercy belongs to God as an attribute of His own eternal Being.
Now you might ask, "How can God be merciful to Himself?" That's a fair question. Remember, I defined God's mercy as His will to bless, His will to make happy. In God that simply means that His mercy is His desire to bless Himself. That is fundamentally God's mercy as the eternal attribute of His own perfect Being—His will to bless Himself. Even as we saw concerning God's love, so we say in connection with mercy that God wants to bless Himself. He seeks Himself always. Because He is good. He is full of everlasting and infinite perfections. We can't define God. But that is how He has revealed Himself to us in the Bible. He is the God of infinite perfections. He is full of goodness, full of truth, full of righteousness, full of faithfulness, full of grace. He is the perfectly Holy One. So He seeks His own happiness in all things.
It is nothing short of a wonder that God chose to take human creatures into the blessedness of His own life. But that is the gospel that finds its focus in Christ. So that when we speak of God's mercy, as we consider it in the light of the revelation of Jesus Christ, we say that God's mercy is His amazing will, according to which He blesses a people that He created to that end. To put it another way: Mercy is that eternal virtue of God according to which He desires to make man blessed by taking him into the fellowship of His own covenant life. God will make a people happy in Him through Jesus Christ. That mercy is revealed, I say, especially in Christ, Whom God gave to make forever happy the people of His own good pleasure. But we jump ahead of ourselves here. Mercy is seen in a God Who forgives, and Who loves a people, leading them to heaven. That is what God wants—that the people of His choosing enjoy that blessed life of His own fellowship and love. For in that way, God adds to His own infinite blessedness.
NOW YOU CAN UNDERSTAND HOW THE SINNER THAT IS TALKING HERE IN Q & A 11 WOULD QUICKLY RAISE THE QUESTION: "IS NOT GOD THEN ALSO MERCIFUL?"
Having seen from Scripture that God is terribly displeased with our sins—our original sin as well as the sins we commit daily—and having seen that God will justly punish the sinner both in time and forever in hell, the question is raised: "Is not God then also merciful?" Now, let us understand, this question is posed for the sake of instruction. This question is not one that comes from the child of God. The child of God knows that we cannot set God's mercy over against His justice. The child of God cannot continue in his sin with the plea that God is merciful. The child of God, in love for Him and in the consciousness of His holiness, must turn from his sin entirely, longs to turn from his sin, and will do everything necessary to keep from returning to that which has held him in bondage. But the Catechism poses the question from the viewpoint of the natural man who would try to escape God's righteous judgment of him. "Is not God then also merciful?" Notice how he puts the question. He means to say, Is not the mercy of God superabundant over His justice? Is not God so merciful, that He will overlook my sins?
That is the question raised by the natural man. And that is really the idea of mercy that is prevalent in our day and in our modern church world. The prevalent idea today concerning God's mercy is the same as the idea concerning God's love. Those two ideas go hand in hand, you know. When modern theology speaks of mercy, or of God's love for that matter, it speaks of a mercy that can compromise sin, that blithely receives the sinner for who he or she is. The idea is that God will bless every sinner—perhaps sinner isn't the word to use. After all, some even deny that. Let's say then that the modern idea is that God will bless the creature and be merciful to the creature apart from His justice. His mercy sets aside His justice, is greater than His justice. Some, who haven't completely disregarded the Bible, will still acknowledge that God is just. They won't talk much about His justice. But the Bible teaches the justice of God throughout. So they will acknowledge God's justice. It is just that, in their minds, God's mercy is much greater. His mercy is so great, it supersedes His justice. So that when they are pointed to the truth of Scripture, such as we saw in the tenth answer of the Catechism when it quoted from Galatians 3:10—"Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things, which are written in the book of the law, to do them"—they immediately object, "But is not God then also merciful?" Doesn't His mercy set aside that curse? That is the idea behind that objection. And while the answer to that question seems immediately to hold out some hope—"God is indeed merciful"—it is immediately followed with a very significant "but." That is a very significant conjunction here. "God is indeed merciful, but also just; therefore His justice requires that sin which is committed against the most high majesty of God be also punished with extreme, that is, with everlasting punishment of body and soul.
AND SO WE ARE BROUGHT TO STAND BEFORE THE TRUTH OF GOD'S UNCHANGEABLE JUSTICE.
THE SINNER'S APPEAL TO MERCY IS AN APPEAL THAT WOULD SET MERCY OVER AGAINST JUSTICE.
But that, beloved, is absolutely impossible. That is a corruption of Scripture's truth. Scripture not only speaks of mercy. It certainly does that. And what a wonderful truth to all who believe, who are one with Christ by faith. But Scripture reveals God as a God of many attributes, all of which are inseparably connected in Him and all of which are one in Him. When we talk about God's attributes singly—and we do that. We see that all the attributes are distinct, and we study each one, in order to better know our God. —But when we do that, we must always remember the danger of separating the attributes of God. We make distinction. But we may not separate His attributes.
When you talk about mercy, you may not separate that mercy from God's justice. The distinction, you see, is not such that mercy and justice stand side by side in God. Rather, they are connected in Him in such a way that His mercy is a just mercy. And His justice is a merciful justice. We might say that too. When one denies this truth and attempts to shove God's justice in a closet and cover it up with a curtain that has "mercy" written over it, when he does is to deny the cross. That is the seriousness of that error. Not that they deny the historical fact that Christ was crucified. But they deny the truth that Christ was necessarily crucified, crucified as an act of God's perfect justice. They might speak of that crucifixion as an example of righteousness. They might speak of it as a great moral act of Christ, demonstrating His amazing self-denial and love for God. But they deny the truth of that cross as God executing justice, and Christ willingly subjecting Himself to that just judgment of God in order to atone for the sins of His people. Modern theology wants nothing of that. They rather have their mercy that compromises sin, that belittles God's holiness, that obstructs His justice. But I say again, that is a denial of the truth of Scripture. All God's virtues are one in Him. You can never separate His righteousness from His love, His grace from His holiness, His justice from His mercy. You may talk about God's love and grace and mercy and all the rest—as does Scripture. But don't forget: That love of God is a just love; and His grace is a just grace; and His mercy is a just mercy. All His attributes are perfectly united, one in Him.
That truth is seen in Psalm 85, which we read earlier. "Shew us thy mercy, O LORD, and grant us thy salvation." And so God mercifully grants the psalmist's request, and speaks to him the gospel. And the response of the psalmist is seen in verse 10: "Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other." That is what God gives him to see. Those expressions, you will recognize, are parallel the one to the other. That means that they express the same truth. Mercy and truth, righteousness and peace, go hand in hand. They are inseparable. The sinner will lay claim to God's mercy, believing that he is not so bad as others. The impenitent sinner always points the finger, comparing himself to others. That is a sure sign of a hard heart. "God will be merciful, because, after all, I'm not so bad as others are. My sins are nothing compared to theirs. Besides, God didn't make men to destroy them. Surely in mercy He will save them, me included!" All this the sinner will claim; but he does so at the expense of the truth. But in Psalm 85, mercy and truth are met together. No, mercy does not deny truth, but is maintained by the truth. And righteousness is not set aside for peace, but is upheld in the way of peace. Mercy cannot be where righteousness is absent. And righteousness is not, where there is no mercy. If we are to experience God's mercy, we are to appeal to His righteousness. That is the only way.
LET US NOW ASK THE QUESTION MORE SPECIFICALLY: WHAT IS GOD'S JUSTICE?
Here too we must be careful not to define God's righteousness by using man as the standard. Man is righteous when he obeys the law. God, however, is above all law. God is the One Who established the law. Again, God's righteousness is His from eternity. And what that means is that everything He thinks and everything He does is in perfect harmony with His own holiness. "Righteousness shall go before him," we read in Psalm 85:13. Everything He thinks and wills and everything He does is in perfect harmony with His own holiness. That is God's righteousness. But we speak now of that righteousness as it comes to expression toward men. And then some of you probably remember a very simple definition of God's righteousness that you learned years ago in catechism. His justice or righteousness is that virtue according to which He rewards the good with good and punishes the evildoer. That is a very basic definition. But it shows how God upholds His own holiness. He rewards the good with good, and He punishes the evildoer. That is His justice.
Deuteronomy 32:4 extols God in His righteousness. "He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he." To the sinner, however, that is a terrifying truth. Ethan the Ezrahite sang it in Psalm 89:13,14: "Thou hast a mighty arm: strong is thy hand, and high is thy right hand. Justice and judgment are the habitation of thy throne: mercy and truth shall go before thy face."
You understand what that means, don't you? If you could say to God, "I am good; I am righteous,"—not merely in comparison to others, but in relationship to the Holy God and His perfect law; if you could say, "Lord, I have kept all thy commandments perfectly," then God would say to you, "In my just mercy I will bless you. I will make you happy in time, and especially in your heavenly future. I will take you into my own blessed life of fellowship and love. I say, If you could say that. But don't forget, you cannot. There is not a man in all the world, who can stand before God and say, "Lord, I am good; I have kept all thy commandments perfectly." All have sinned. All have fallen far short of the glory of God. We have heard before His righteous judgment: "There is none righteous, no, not one." And therefore, because God is just, and because His mercy is indeed a just mercy, God must—He must—punish the evildoer. He must punish according to the very nature of the evil committed. That is the terror of His justice.
Beloved, that is why it is impossible for the sinner to be happy. No one can be happy in sin. The sinner may put on a mask, so that to all appearances he is enjoying life to the full. But no sinner, in the bondage of his sin, can be happy. The wrath of God is upon him! He faces hell. There is no comfort for him! He has no idea of what is involved in fellowship with God! God's wrath abides upon him according to the very nature of the sinner's sin. Because sin is infinite in its offense against God. It doesn't matter what the sin is. You can take what appears to be the smallest sin, such a minor matter, and it is sin committed against the most high majesty of God. Sin is an attack upon God's glory, upon His holiness, His majesty. God is so great, so glorious in His majesty and holiness, that even the least sin must be punished with extreme, i.e., with everlasting punishment of body and soul.
AND SO GOD'S UNCHANGEABLE JUSTICE BRINGS US CONSTANTLY BEFORE OUR INESCAPABLE CALLING.
WE MUST APPEAR BEFORE GOD, WHO STANDS INESCAPABLY JUST IN HIS MERCY.
We must all stand before the judgment seat of God and give answer to every thought and to every deed and to every word. What then? Is there no way out?
There is no way out, if you mean by a way out that you can escape the justice of God and can simply get away with your sin, to enjoy God's mercy. That is impossible. The wages of sin is death. That is sure.
BUT—AND THIS IS THE GOSPEL OF SO GREAT A SALVATION—THERE IS INDEED A WAY OUT, PROVIDED BY GOD IN JUST MERCY.
The wages of sin is death, to be sure. But God, to satisfy His own justice, sent His Son. And He took upon Himself all the responsibility for the corruption and guilt of the sins of His people. He took upon Himself all that sin which makes us damnable before God. He took upon Himself all the responsibility for the corruption of that sin. And He went to the cross, in perfect obedience to His Father, walking in perfect love, and there shed His own blood to satisfy God's justice. He satisfied! And by that I mean that all the guilt of sin is atoned for all those for whom He died, so that there is for them no guilt of sin left. And He now calls them by name, and they hear His voice and follow Him, and He gives them life everlasting. That is the work of our Savior, beloved! Do you hear Him?
We must appear before God Who is inescapably just. But in Christ, we may stand before Him and say, "O Lord, by thy grace we are righteous. We are holy. Jesus so satisfied thy just mercy, that all our sins are blotted out! Heavenly Father, we are the proper objects of thy everlasting mercy."
Believe that, beloved. Abandon all vain attempts to excuse your sin. Repent and believe. Turn from every evil way, and look upon the only Savior. And then confess—will you—"that I am not my own, but belong with body and soul, both in life and death, to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ, Who has fully satisfied for all my sins, and delivered me from all the power of the devil." That is our only comfort. Amen.
Preached:1) Randolph PRC 8/25/96 (am)
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