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Daily Devotionals
Grace for Today
Psalms 85:10
Glorious redemption
Read John 19:8-30
‘Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other.’ Modern theologians seem to be bent upon making a mockery out of our Redeemer’s sacrifice. They have made a substitute for substitution. Their doctrine appears to be that Jesus Christ did something or other which, somehow or other, was in some way or other connected with man’s salvation. But David had a better vision of Christ’s redeeming work. Looking through the types and shadows of the law, he saw the coming Lamb of God and sang of glorious redemption. He saw that the coming Redeemer King would be God’s propitiatory sacrifice, showing his favor to his people. Before it ever took place, he declared the deliverance of the chosen seed.
Looking upon the merits of his coming Redeemer, David sang of the full forgiveness of sin: ‘Thou hast forgiven the iniquity of thy people, thou has covered all their sin. Selah. Thou hast taken away all thy wrath: thou has turned thyself from the fierceness of thine anger.’ Then he prophesied of the coming of Christ, declaring that his appearance would be the revelation of divine glory.
Never was the glory of God more fully revealed than in the substitutionary sacrifice of Immanuel at Mt Calvary. At the cross, David foresaw all the glorious attributes of God embracing one another to accomplish man’s redemption. At the cross, God’s love shines forth in undiminished glory, and his justice appears in blazing wrath! In putting away our sins by the sacrifice of his Son, God is as merciful as if he had never punished sin. And he is as true as if he had fulfilled every threat to the sinner, In mercy, God sent his Son to die in our place. In his love and pity he redeemed us. In truth, he fulfilled every threat of his holy law in the person of our Substitute. As a merciful God, he pitied us, but as a holy God, he could not but hate our transgressions; as a God of truth, he could not but fulfill his own threatening; as a God of justice, he must avenge himself for the offense against him. He gave Christ as a God of mercy and required satisfaction as a God of justice.
