GOD: Lawgiver, Lawyer & Judge
God, the Lawgiver:
The God of the Universe has not only created physical laws but also moral laws. Those moral laws can be found throughout the Christian Bible. They are summed up in the ten commandments. The ten commandments were given to mankind by God, through the man Moses, on Mount Sinai. So this is how we know that God is our lawgiver.
God, the Judge:
God’s laws reveal something very important about His character… He is holy. He loves righteousness and He hates sin (lawlessness). In order to display His love for righteousness God judges mankind for their sin and rebellion against Him and His laws. Sometimes that judgment is in this life and sometimes in the next life. The Bible says that according to God’s standard of perfect righteousness, we all fall short, we all like sheep have gone astray, we all are lost, condemned and in dire need of a Savior.
God, the Lawyer:
The Bible declares that God, in the person of Jesus Christ, acts as a lawyer – a legal intermediary or advocate – for sinners. Jesus Christ is the intermediary for those who cast themselves upon the mercy of the Divine Court, and seek forgiveness for their sins from the only One who can forgive sins. Jesus is the only being in the universe who can forgive a person’s sins because He himself paid the penalty for sin by His death on the cross. The death of Christ on behalf of those He came to save is an act – the only act – that satisfies Divine justice. No one is forgiven their sins just by saying they’re sorry or by doing some kind of good deeds to try to make up for their sins. Their sins are an enormous offense against an infinitely holy being. So great is that offense in the eyes of God that only eternity in hell is a satisfactory punishment for those sins. Not only that, an unsaved sinner is so unfit for heaven, for fellowshipping for all eternity with an infinitely holy God, that to be in such a place would be sheer hell for that unconverted sinner. And so the only way out of this dilemma and the only escape from our eternal death sentence is by the sacrificial death of an infinitely holy being – God Himself. Yes, Jesus Christ was fully God and fully man. Only such a being could pay the penalty that God requires for our sins. And it is that substitutionary death – the punishment of the innocent (Jesus Christ) for the guilty (sinners like you) – that uniquely and solely provides the complete pardon for sin that God requires.
Conclusion:
Don’t attempt to represent yourself at the bar of Divine justice. You will most surely be cast into Hell. There is no mercy whatsoever for those who think they can be made fit for heaven by their own self-righteousness. But there is much mercy available to those who humbly come to God and throw themselves at the mercy of the court of God’s grace.
“And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner.” [Luke 18:13]