Think about the strangeness of the Gospel. We are confronted by the Law of God and convicted as sinners. This righteousness of God reveals that there is no port on earth where we might safely dwell. We have no personal means of withstanding God’s wrath ourselves and we have no earthly means of hiding from it. All things amount to rotting fig leaves; our invisibility cloak has holes.
But then in the gospel we have the righteousness of God revealed (Rom. 3.20-27). God shows his perfect righteousness in the crushing of Jesus. His standard is inflexible.
In this work of Christ he satisfies God’s requirement perfectly. In his doing and dying he earns righteousness and satisfies righteousness for us. This is as glorious as it is counterintuitive! We end up running from God to God. We run from his righteousness to Jesus the Righteous. We run from Mt. Sinai to Mt. Zion (Heb. 12). We go from the hill of difficulty to the hill of Calvary.
In all of this God never changes. The difference here is that through the work of Jesus, we who have been united to him through faith, have a perfect mediator. We are clothed with his righteousness. Through the doing and dying of Jesus we have peace with God (Rom. 5.1).
This glorious gospel as so many sharp edges to puncture our pride and bid us to cry rivers of joy and thanksgiving.
