Street Meeting Thirty Second

But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.

Romans 4:5

It is a wondrous mystery that the thrice-holy God should delight to reveal Himself as the God who justifieth the ungodly. He who is infinitely righteous declareth the guilty, "not guilty." He pronounceth the condemned to be innocent, not by overlooking their sin, but by satisfying His own justice in the person of His beloved Son.

The ungodly are those who, by nature, desire nothing of God and have no delight in Him. They are estranged from His life, at enmity with His holiness, and content to remain far from Him. Yet it is precisely such sinners that God delighteth to justify. He doth not wait until they have become godly before receiving them; rather, He justifieth the ungodly, that by His grace they might become what they never could have been by nature.

Herein shineth the glory of the Gospel. God is not merely the Judge who condemneth the wicked, but also the God who, through Christ, justifieth the ungodly without compromising His own perfect righteousness. The unrighteous declared righteous, the ungodly made godly.

As the flesh cannot fully explain that which is divine, so words fail to convey the full measure of this glorious truth. Regeneration is a mystery beyond the reach of human wisdom. The dead know nothing of their own condition, much less possess any power to raise themselves unto life. They are made alive only by a power that is wholly outside themselves.

We may understand something of how a child is conceived through the physical union of his parents, yet the ordering of that life belongeth unto God alone. Scripture declareth that He "giveth to all life, and breath, and all things," and "hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation." (Acts 17:25-26) Every birth is governed by His sovereign providence. Never did a man will himself into existence; neither can a spiritually dead man will himself into godliness. As no infant first desired to be born into this world, so no sinner first desireth to be born into the kingdom of God. Both life natural and life spiritual are gifts that proceed from the sovereign hand of God alone. We cannot impart life, but only be the appointed means by which God is pleased to continue it. Life itself is not ours to create, but His alone to give. Thus, even in the propagation of life, man remaineth wholly dependent upon the sovereign ordination of God, who alone openeth the womb, formeth every child in secret, and sustaineth every breath thereafter.

There was a moment in history when, according to the measure of man, God appeared most unjust. The guilty was pardoned, and He who was innocent, delivered unto death. The Groom was wounded that His Bride might be healed. He who knew no sin was made to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him (2 Corinthians 5:21).

The Beloved Son took upon Himself the sentence meant for us, that we might be brought near. Death, which rightly belonged to us, was laid upon the Guiltless One; and in laying it upon Him, God condemned death itself to destruction and opened the way for our reconciliation with God. The cross became the place where justice was fully satisfied, mercy freely bestowed, and the sting of death forever undone. God's triumphant love in full glorious display.

The heavens, once closed against guilty men, now opened unto those whom Christ had redeemed. Clothed in His righteousness and received in His beloved Son, they hear the Father's gracious declaration: "These are My beloved sons and daughters, with whom I am well pleased." What was spoken over the Son by the Father is now spoken over His people by grace, for they stand accepted in the Beloved.

Bearing this glorious truth, we look beyond the weariness and reproach that often accompany the preaching of the Gospel, fixing our eyes instead upon the greater end for which we labor: the declaration of the glorious name of God among all nations! The believer's task is not merely to share the good news, but to exalt the excellencies of Him whose mercy endureth for ever.

As God elected Israel to show forth His praise among the nations (Isaiah 43:20-21, Deuteronomy 7:6-8), so also hath He justified His elect that they should declare His marvelous works before all men (1 Peter 2:9). Those who have obtained mercy become heralds of that mercy; those in whom Christ lives His life in now reflects His; those who have been brought out of darkness are sent forth to proclaim His marvelous light. 

Thus the Gospel is not chiefly the story of what man hath received, but the proclamation of who God is and what He has done. Every redeemed soul becometh a living witness to His sovereign grace, that the knowledge of His glorious name might be made known throughout all the earth, until every one whom the Father hath given unto the Son is gathered unto Him, and all things redound unto the praise of His glorious grace.

For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.
Habakkuk 2:14