Live Justified

Last week I wrote about injustice and anger that boils within. Today, I share a story about justification that was framed from injustice. It’s a story that many of us have heard in some fashion – a story that I believe we can all relate to if we will pause to hear it.

It’s a story about a person who lived a life many of us would applaud, yet whom was killed by people of power. He fell victim to a system that may have been born of good intentions, but somehow ambled into a gait of arrogance and superiority. The perpetrators, in the form of an organized aristocracy and as individuals, didn’t like him messing with the good thing they had going.

So, they plotted to slap a death penalty on a man who did no wrong. And they carried out their plot to the bitter end.

May I tell you about this victim of injustice?

 

His name is Jesus.

In many ways, we can say there are people in America and in other countries, throughout the generations, with the same story. Jesus was a victim of injustice, and it was a painful time when He was arrested, shamed, beaten, and killed. We live in painful times today and it should never have been this way. Under the authority of a flawed justice system and the fuming of an oppressed society, we are sometimes robbed of the peace and assurance that come with simply living an honest life. Many of us are robbed of even more.

I wish I had a solution for that. I can’t fix the lack of civility we find at many levels in this world. But Jesus has prepared an eternal home for us, and He offers hope that we can experience today. We can live with a promising future, for the injustice toward Jesus opened the door to our own justification. It opened the door for God to see us as righteous and to accept us into His Heavenly home. The unjust death of Jesus satisfied God as payment for our sins.

This is how God showed His love among us:
He sent His one and only Son into the world
that we might live through Him.
This is love: not that we loved God,
but that He loved us and sent His Son
as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 

1 John 4:9-10

 

Jesus came to earth by choice. The Son of God, perfect in character and compassion, left His Heavenly home to die for our benefit. He came to unite all humankind with God, His Father.

 

Jesus’ birth was anticipated for generations. He represented life and freedom and relief. He was the Son of God and King of kings. Jesus should have been adored, applauded, worshiped, and served by all, but His story played out differently. He was despised, betrayed, abandoned, accused, bullied, beaten, sentenced, and executed. He died a cruel death on the cross. He died a criminal’s death, yet He committed no crime.

But amidst the injustice, rising from the pit of oppression, God’s plan to restore privileged life to all was carried out. Those who hated Jesus, and those who were too afraid to stand against the fury of the crowd, thought they could forever rid themselves of the threat to their superiority when they sealed His grave.

But they did not succeed because God planned life.

Jesus shook the earth. He rose up in victory! He walked away from death.

We can’t do what He did, but we can rise with Him. We can walk through life with Him. We can live with the hope of Heaven and the confidence that we have His favor…even if we are mistreated, disrespected, devalued, or worse.

We join Jesus by owning up to this:

1. While people in this world fail to meet God's holy standards (sin), we fail as well (Romans 3:23).
2. Sin is punishable by eternal death (Romans 6:23).
3. Jesus paid the penalty for our sins (Romans 5:8).
4. Jesus rose from His grave and death has no power over Him (John 11:25).
5. Jesus is Lord of all and we need to allow Him to be Lord of our lives (Romans 14:8-9).

Tell God you understand. Tell Him you own up to and believe wholeheartedly each of these 5 truths. Make it about you and Him, not anyone else. Just like your response to injustice and crushing emotions, this is a personal step that needs to happen deep in your own heart. Tell God, then tell someone who believes the same truth. Walk hand in hand. Walk with sure hope. Walk with Jesus. This is what He said: 

I will not leave you as orphans,
I will come to you.
Before long, the world will not see me anymore,
but you will see me.
Because I live, you also will live.
On that day you will realize that I am in my Father,
and you are in me, and I am in you.

 John 14:18-20

 

  

If you want to know more about Jesus and how to have a relationship with Him and His Father who values people, please email me at authordlv@att.net. He understands injustice and He helps us rise above it.

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