Wednesday, December 22, 2010

The Gospel from Psalm 37

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25: I have been young, and now am old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken.

But I am yet young and have seen the righteous forsaken. I have seen one whom we should mark as blameless and he was on whom "the wicked watches for and seeks to put him to death" (v. 32). Yet the Lord did abandon him to the power of the wicked and let him be condemned when he was brought to trial (v. 33). So is the promise void and should I fret at the prosperity of the wicked because the Lord is not just?

For truly there is only one truly righteous man and he was truly forsaken by his own admission. What then of those who are not truly righteous? What then of those who claim to find refuge in God if he cannot uphold his promise to the truly righteous one, who claims to be His one true Son? Does Jesus and the cross make this promise void?

Praise God it is a resounding NO! But how it is a no is the amazing reality of the gospel. You see for God's promise to be true here he must not see Jesus as perfectly righteous on the cross or to forsake him would be a breach of character in God which cannot be for he is unchanging. So God credits him [Jesus] with the sin of the wicked and the curses promised to them rush upon Jesus like unrelenting waves.
Destroyed (38)
Perish (20)
Cursed (22)
Cut off (9, 22, 28, 34, 38)

"God made him who knew no sin to be sin so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. " (2 Cor. 5:21)

So God credits Jesus with the sins of the wicked and cuts him off, so that the wicked (us) can be counted in the blessings of the righteous (Jesus). These blessings are so numerable in this passage but find their apex in delighting in the Lord! This delight in God is purchased by Jesus being cut off so that we who find refuge in Him may never be fully and truly forsaken.

So Jesus makes God's promise effective. So that God would rescue His people and count them among the righteous by becoming a man and counting himself among the wicked. This is truly Good News (gospel!) for the people of God.

In Christ alone,

Josh Holowell

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