God Is The Merciful Redeemer And Lord of His People

[The following is the devotion I delivered at last week's pre-work prayer meeting I had with my friends from UPS.]

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight,

O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)

As we have seen from Genesis 1:1, which says, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth,” as we have seen from John 1:1-3, which says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God; He was with God in the beginning; all things were created through Him, and apart from Him not one thing was created that has been created,” and as we have seen from Hebrews 1:3[b], which says, “He sustains all things by His powerful word:” God is the Sovereign Creator and Sustainer of all things, whereas we– as seen in Genesis 3 and in our own experience– have become rebels against His rule. As we have seen from Exodus 20, where the Ten Commandments are given through Moses, and Acts 17:30-31, where the Apostle Paul talks about the judgment to come, God is the Holy Lawgiver and Judge over the world, whereas we– as our consciences confess– have broken God’s Law.

We’ve read about the self-centered rich man that Jesus spoke of in Luke 16:19-31, and that upon dying this rich man faced torment– thirst, anguish, flame, frustration, and rejection. As rebels and lawbreakers, we are all deserving of this same kind of punishment: our sin has earned God’s wrath. THIS IS JUSTICE, and it is good.

But God is rich in mercy and has provided a Way for us to escape the Hell that our sins deserve. This is why Jesus was sent into the world. The name Jesus means “God saves”– as we see in Matthew 1:21, Jesus came to save His people from their sins. This salvation was costly, for God’s justice against our sins had to be satisfied: Jesus, who committed no sin, took God’s just wrath against our sins, experiencing Hell upon the Cross, so that we may be justified– made right in God’s sight [SEE ROMANS 3:23-26]. Jesus rose from the dead and offers eternal life to everyone who trusts in Him. This is the gospel– the “good news”– proclaimed by the apostles [SEE 1 CORINTHIANS 15:1-4].