David Bahn – Reflections

Nehemiah 13:2

Our God turned the curse into a blessing.

2 Corinthians 5:19

In Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us.

There is no more unjust treatment of a human being than that which was visited on Jesus of Nazareth. Consider this: He was fully and unwaveringly committed to doing the will of God from a perfectly pure motive. He did not seek his own glory. He did not do good so that good would come to him. He did not flinch from the truth or stray from the path of love. He showed God’s mercy and love to those who needed it. He expressed God’s word of truth and judgment to those who deserved it. He was gracious with sinners, yet calling them to “go and sin no more.” He was outraged at the self-righteousness of the religious leaders who hid behind false pretenses in order not to show love and mercy to those in need.

Jesus did everything right. Everything. And not just right, but right from the heart: loving, merciful, gracious, and good. All that Jesus did was done for God’s glory and man’s benefit, with a pure heart, without ulterior motive.

Then God, man, government, and religion all conspired against him for his demise. And as if that weren’t enough, the means by which he was tried, convicted, and executed was unfair, contrived, and falsely based. He was charged with things he did not do, convicted of things he was not responsible for, and executed like a common criminal on a shameful cross – a physically-excruciating experience of human torture, and a naked-to-the-world experience of shame and humiliation.

Out of all that, however, God brought us salvation. For Jesus embraced all this injustice, sin, and unrighteousness willingly, taking to himself the sin of the world, and dying in faith in the face of the abandonment of God. Because Jesus saw it through, we have been saved. God’s wrath has been appeased. True righteousness has been vindicated. What no one else could do, Jesus did. And by his stripes we have been healed.

Injustice has gone good in Jesus, and we have the privilege of spreading the message of reconciliation between God and man to everyone. In fact, it is only because justice was so thoroughly miscarried and fully embraced that the result is as powerfully good. Thanks be to God!