the earth if full of His unfailing love.
The Lord loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of His unfailing love.” (Psalm 33:5 NIV). I have to admit that I started getting discouraged when I started thinking about the first part of this verse and how the Lord loves righteousness. That’s because I know how sinful I am and I know that I can’t measure up to His perfect standard.
This is a guest post by Beth Harris. She is a wife, mother, Bible study leader and volunteer editor for markalanwilliams.net.
Later in the day, I realized that I was feeling badly because I was only focusing on His righteousness and justice. I neglected to consider the rest of the verse about His unfailing love. I had temporarily forgotten about His mercy and grace. As I contemplated the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross which satisfied God’s righteousness and justice; my hope was restored.
Then I went to Walmart and as I approached the checkout lady, I noticed that her name tag said Mercy. I was quite surprised but, I think that God led me to this checkout line at Walmart to remind me of His mercy. I remarked on what a beautiful name she had and that her name reminded me of God’s mercy for us through Jesus Christ. She agreed and said,
“Yes He is merciful.”
I am grateful that the Lord loves righteousness and justice. I think that He has created human beings with a desire for these. In fact, we have an inherent sense of morality.
I believe this is true because I usually feel strongly and even indignant when I see acts of mistreatment. I’m sure you do also. In fact, most of us don’t like it when we and others are denied justice.
Why do we have these desires and feelings?
I think it’s because the Creator Himself made us in His image and we feel this way because He loves righteousness and justice.
The Lord works righteousness and justice for all the oppressed.” (Psalm 103:6 NIV)
Do you love to see justice served? What about when the bad person in the movie gets what’s coming to them? We may express joy or relief. That is until we realize that we are not good either and we lack righteousness as the Bible explains.
Romans 3:11 says, “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God.” (ESV)
Ecclesiastes 7:20 says, “Remember: there’s no one on earth so righteous as to do good only and never make a mistake.” (CEB)
Ezra 9:15 says, “Lord, the God of Israel, you are righteous! We are left this day as a remnant. Here we are before you in our guilt, though because of it not one of us can stand in your presence.” (NIV)
We wouldn’t like God to treat us as we deserve, because then He would have to judge and punish us for our sins.
But, God’s righteousness and justice were satisfied on the cross where Jesus died a sinner’s death and took the full punishment for our sins. He was condemned instead of us.
God chose to forgive and save us because of His kindness and love. He knew we could never be good enough to meet the demands of His righteousness and justice. So, He sent His Son, Jesus Christ who never sinned to die for us.
Titus 3:4-7 says, “But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.” (NIV)
“It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption.” (1 Corinthians 1:30 NIV)
1 Peter 2:24 says, “‘He himself bore our sins’ in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; ‘by his wounds you have been healed.’” (NIV)
2 Corinthians 5:21 says, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (NIV)
In an incredible exchange Jesus became our sin so that we might become His righteousness.
For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: ‘The righteous will live by faith.’” (Romans 1:17 NIV)
We are saved by grace alone and declared righteous through faith in what Christ did for us. We are not saved through good works or anything we can do.
We’ll all stand before God one day. We must choose now to either face Him with our own imperfect righteousness or with the perfect and only acceptable righteousness of Christ.
However, it isn’t enough to just know what Jesus died for us. Each person must personally believe and receive Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior to be forgiven and receive the gift of eternal life.
Have you ever made a decision to believe and receive Christ? Click here if you would like to now.
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“The Lord loves righteousness and justice; the earth if full of His unfailing love.” Psalm 33:5 | CLICK TO TWEET
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