Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other.
Mercy belongs with truth and righteousness with peace as inseparable companions, so divine justice makes no requirement opposed to mercy and mercy never conflicts with justice. There is no peace apart from righteousness, for the wicked are at war with God while the one who receives the righteousness of the law in Christ is brought into harmony with heaven. That meeting took place at Calvary's cross, where through Christ's blood redemption was accomplished for the forgiveness of sins. It was made possible because Christ as the divine-human Substitute took human nature, had every person's sins laid upon Him as the innocent Sin-bearer, and died in the sinner's stead, since no human or angel could have paid the penalty. His life and death show that mercy does not cancel justice or change the law, for God saves without abolishing His law, and through faith sinners are cleansed from guilt, clothed in Christ's righteousness, and enabled to obey its rightful demands.
Meaning of the Meeting
Mercy belongs with truth and righteousness with peace as inseparable companions, for justice and mercy are twin sisters joined rather than set against each other. God's justice makes no requirement that stands in opposition to the claims of His mercy, and His mercy never conflicts with justice but works in cooperation and harmony with all His attributes. He has infinite wisdom, omnipotent power, and unlimited mercy and goodness, and never plans or carries out anything that is not in harmony with perfect goodness, a harmony of qualities that must also be seen in human lives and learned by all workers high and low. Moses saw this harmony in the plan to save through Christ, where the sacrifices were types pointing to His death in which mercy and justice were blended and love was fully expressed. The cross reveals the same union, where mercy and forgiveness are joined with unwavering justice so that repentant sinners can be reconciled to God and find peace with Him.
In Christ mercy and truth meet and righteousness and peace embrace, and together they make salvation complete. Mercy opens the way to God's city, while justice requires holiness and purity of those who enter, so mercy does not abolish justice or admit people regardless of character. Truthful, righteous work must produce peace, which is the standard for those in positions of trust in God's cause who must do decided work correcting faults and dealing with those who have erred or gone astray. Many things must be corrected with decided correction, but never with condemnatory, lordly, and dictatorial speech, and those who correct must keep strict guard over themselves, talk with God before talking with the erring, and honor their position by following the meek and lowly Jesus in calm forbearance with the realization they are in full view of the heavenly universe.
There is no peace in unrighteousness, because the wicked are at war with God. The one who receives the righteousness of the law in Christ is brought into harmony with heaven, where mercy joins with truth and righteousness joins with peace. The verse is the voice of the rainbow above God's throne, always declaring the meeting of mercy with truth and of righteousness with peace. Through the open door is seen the throne overshadowed by the rainbow of promise as the token of the everlasting covenant, and this union of mercy and truth knit together at the throne draws praise to the Lord from the beholder.
That assurance calls for many more workers to take advantage of circumstances by never looking down but looking up. Looking up lifts heart and head and hanging hands all together and keeps them uplifted, so the heart sees and senses that God lives and rewards all who diligently seek Him. It guards the issues of life that flow from the heart, gives the heart to God who gave His life for it, and opens the heart to the divine Spirit to appreciate the value of the human soul. In Christ are found together infinite wisdom, infinite love, infinite justice and infinite mercy, with depths, heights, lengths and breadths passing knowledge. This meeting takes place in the Saviour of men, in whom the divine nature and the human nature are mysteriously blended without either being changed and in whom all the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily, as the meek and lowly sufferer who in His own body bore sins and carried human griefs and sorrows.
He is the Sun of Righteousness and chief cornerstone, in whom mercy joins with truth and righteousness joins with peace as combined beams of light. Believers are living stones in the holy temple who have value and shine only by catching those beams from Him and giving out light to the world.
Fulfilled at the Cross
Calvary's cross is the place where the meeting took place, where mercy and truth met and righteousness and peace kissed to accomplish redemption through blood for forgiveness of sins. There God's justice and truth meet with righteousness and peace, revealing both the unchanging holiness of the law and love in providing redemption for fallen humanity, with the completed plan of salvation accepted by the Father. Christ's voluntary death as humanity's divine Substitute makes salvation possible while justice is satisfied, uniting humanity to God and giving His righteousness through perfect obedience to the law. The cross draws people to Christ and displays mercy toward sinners together with the truth that the law remains unchanged, upholding rather than setting it aside, and it will testify in the judgment to the law's unchanging character. Through that full and perfect sacrifice sinners are reconciled when with faith they receive the righteousness that saves and works through love, with drawing love bringing repentance followed by forgiveness. There justice and mercy were reconciled and mercy reaches out to cleanse from unrighteousness to fulfill the everlasting purpose, so that the guilty who repent and believe bear the robe of righteousness while the Innocent is counted guilty for them, that they may accept redemption and cooperate with wills conformed to God's will.
The meeting was made possible because Christ took human nature and as divine-human Substitute united divinity with humanity and linked Himself with every son and daughter of Adam. Every person's sins were laid on Him as the innocent Sin-bearer and punished in Him as though His own, and He willingly bared His soul to the sword of justice and died in the sinner's stead out of love that bound His interest with each sinner so rebellious man would not perish but have everlasting life. No man on earth or angel in heaven could have paid the penalty for sin, for Jesus alone could save, and that union of divinity and humanity gave efficiency to His offering on the cross. As the meek, holy Sufferer He bore individual sins and carried sorrows and purchased the church with His own blood as the price paid for ransom, fastening each sinner to Himself with threads of sympathy and love that can never be broken until He declares the unjust still unjust, the filthy still filthy, the righteous still righteous and the holy still holy, and announces His quick coming with reward to give every man according as his work shall be.
At the cross the Father showed satisfaction and delight in the complete offering, for God looking upon His dying Son is satisfied that justice is satisfied and the atonement completed. God placed the cross between the world and heaven and came with angels, archangels, cherubim and seraphim in solemn march to the cross, with thousands upon thousands of angels, and the Father bowed in recognition and bowed His head to accept the sacrifice as enough, joining mercy with truth and righteousness with peace for the salvation of the race. That meeting holds because Christ pays the sinner's debt and suffers the penalty for transgression without changing or excusing the law, upholding the law as changeless instead of detracting from it, so grace does not excuse continued sin. There the sinner by faith appropriates the merits of the blood of the crucified Redeemer and receives Christ as the Lord his righteousness.
Through that sacrifice the guilty who repent and believe are counted guiltless and clothed in spotless righteousness while the Innocent is counted guilty for them, for Christ took the sinner's place and bore the penalty of sin and of transgression under the covenant made before man was created. He espouses the cause of the repentant sinner and presents him to the Father guiltless, asking the Father to lay the guilt on Him and to look no longer on the sinner as guilty, with the guilt laid on Christ. He holds out hands bearing the marks and nail-marks of crucifixion as proof He has borne it and that the sinner is graven there, and God bows in recognition of the offering for sin as enough and accepts it as complete. Because of that complete offering the gulf made by sin is bridged without setting aside the law, opening the way to receive mercy and peace, so all may now come boldly to the throne of grace seeking help in every time of need.
The cross is the great center of attraction where all influence centers and from which all influence goes forth, drawing sinners to look and live. When a sinner who has transgressed the law looks up to Calvary and rolls the burden of the broken law off at the foot of the cross, forgiving kindness unites with truth and righteousness unites with peace to provide salvation, and there sins are to be brought across the gulf and rolled into the sepulchre to find pardon and mercy and forgiveness in repentance. Though Satan accuses, the guilty one can come to the Lamb of God, look and live, because He draws sinners to look to Him and be saved, and repentance follows the revelation of drawing love. This meeting is the means to move the world, drawing all men, creating an influence in its favor through every generation as present truth and finally vanquishing every earthly and hellish power, accomplished when Christ gave His life to restore man to original perfection and to give entire transformation making him more than a conqueror, so that those who in His strength overcome will occupy a position in the heavenly courts above angels who never fell, while earthly honor is soon effaced but a name put into the book of life is immortalized to live among angels.
That meeting broke Satan's power, laid hold of the pillars of his kingdom and destroyed him who had the power of death. By dying as the sacrifice Christ satisfied justice so that justice could blend with mercy and God could be just while justifying all who believe, giving the race another trial and opening a way for all, Jew and Gentile, bond and free, hopeless and perishing, to come and be saved. By His death He perfected forever those who are sanctified, making true the triumphant cry It is finished, with holiness and justice joined in finishing redemption and Satan's power to tempt and trouble ended, proving God true and gracious so faith needs no more proof and none need doubt whether mercy is forgotten. That meeting displayed together holiness, mercy, goodness, wisdom, justice and amazing love, exalted the Lord of heaven, settled the controversy between sin and righteousness, and proved by sacrifice that the law is from everlasting to everlasting. It established God's character before the saved human family, before unfallen worlds, and before all evil workers from greatest to least, even giving Satan as he looked upon the vast army under his banner and the fruit of leading angels and men away from happiness and holiness a comprehension of his warfare to overthrow God and an appreciation of God's throne, holiness, justice, goodness and love such as he never had before, while Christ lifting guilt by standing Himself under the condemnation of the Lawgiver and living the law in humanity proved false the charge that man cannot keep it and revealed that every provision has been made so that through imputed righteousness all who receive Him by faith can show loyalty by keeping the law as partakers of the divine nature.
Law and Justice Upheld
Mercy does not cancel justice nor set aside or change the law, for God saves without abolishing His law or changing His character. In the plan of redemption through Christ sin can be forgiven while the law remains righteous and can be perfectly obeyed, which refutes the claim that God's justice is opposed to mercy or that His law prevents peace. God unites humanity to Himself through Christ, who gives His righteousness through perfect obedience to the law, and the cross draws people to Christ while displaying both mercy toward sinners and the truth that the law remains unchanged. Christ's death upholds the law rather than setting it aside, and the cross will testify in the judgment to the law's unchanging character. The law points to Christ and Christ points to the law, for the gospel is the law unfolded, nothing more nor less, giving no more latitude to sin than the law and ignoring none of the obligations due to God. The gospel calls men to repentance from sin, which is transgression of the law, back to obedience to the law of God, and Jesus in His life and death taught the strictest obedience, dying the just for the unjust and the innocent for the guilty, so that the honor of God's law is preserved and yet man does not utterly perish.
Grace does not excuse continued sin but upholds the law as changeless, because Christ pays the sinner's debt and suffers the penalty for transgression of the law and thereby satisfies justice. God looking upon His Son dying upon the cross is satisfied. There the sinner may by faith appropriate the merits of the blood of a crucified Redeemer to his own case and receive Jesus as the Lord Our Righteousness, the Lord my righteousness.
Through faith in Christ sinners are cleansed from guilt and enabled to obey the rightful demands of the law, for grace establishes the law rather than weakening its claims. Christ lifts guilt from the sinner by standing Himself under the condemnation of the Lawgiver, and He came to live the law in humanity and kept it in humanity to prove false the charge that man cannot keep the law. That work revealed to the heavenly universe, to unfallen worlds, and to sinful men that every provision has been made, so that through His imputed righteousness all who receive Him by faith can show loyalty by keeping the law. The repenting sinner who lays hold of Christ as personal Saviour is made a partaker of the divine nature, with assurance that whatever love devised in man's behalf will be executed.
Law and gospel cannot be separated but are interwoven as warp and woof in God's standard for human minds, with pardoning mercy standing together with truth and righteous law, and observing that law is for human happiness. True love to God leads by heaven's inspiration to obedience, while love leading to disobedience is from the devil. The law exposes impurity and failure, and the sinner is to flee to Christ the Stronghold as the sin-pardoning Saviour who pardons sins of ignorance, following His example of keeping His Father's commandments in order to enter in. The cross of Calvary is the place where the law and the gospel meet and pardoning love is revealed, and a growing sense of that pardoning love and responsibility to God reaches the deepest motives of conduct. That inward work produces love for suffering humanity in compassion, tenderness, helpfulness, and relief of human suffering.
Through Christ's pleading of His blood God remains just while justifying the repentant sinner who believes in Jesus. The law in the ark represents justice, while the mercy-seat above it represents mercy where Christ pleads His blood for sinners and pardon is granted, restoring fellowship with fallen humanity and clothing the redeemed in Christ's righteousness. This union of justice and mercy fills heaven with wonder. At the cross mercy could punish the transgressor justly, while justice could forgive without losing its dignity or purity, for Christ gave His life to atone for breaking of the law. Thus righteousness and peace meet through His saving work while God's law remains binding.
Christ's Person and Heavenly Work
In the plan of redemption mercy and truth come together and righteousness and peace are joined, and that joining displays a character full of love and goodness and mercy. The love is seen in the gift of Jesus and in His continuing intercession, so that even those who doubt and tremble can give glory to God. Saving work therefore reveals both love and goodness at once, never one without the other.
The meeting came when grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. The Word who was God became flesh and dwelt among men full of grace and truth, the Messenger of the covenant and Sun of Righteousness, the appointed Instructor and divine Teacher, the Majesty of Heaven and King of glory come from the bosom of the Father. He was sent in the likeness of sinful flesh because the deep necessity of the human race called for a remedy for sin. In His life on earth truth sprang out of the earth while righteousness looked down from heaven, the Lord gives what is good and makes the land yield its increase, and righteousness goes before Him to set believers in the way of His steps.
His life in the flesh perfectly revealed the Father and made God's goodness fully known. He lived out the law and in His humanity showed the Father to the world. In Him provision of mercy for sinners stands together with condemnation of sin.
The sanctuary illustrates the same union. The ark holds the tables of the law, which declare the transgressor guilty and pronounce death. Above the law is its cover, the mercy-seat, where pardon is granted to the repentant sinner through the atonement by Christ pleading His blood.
When the law is presented the throne arched with the rainbow of promise points to Christ. His righteousness is the glory of the law, for He came to magnify it and make it honorable. The rainbow above the throne represents the promise of mercy joined to the presentation of righteousness alongside the law. Looking to that throne with penitence and with praise and thanksgiving brings peace that passes all understanding, forms Christian character, and makes people represent Christ to the world in mutual abiding with Him. Minds are to be directed to Jesus and fastened upon Him, with every discourse dwelling on the divine attributes.
Through His completed work of redemption mercy and truth and righteousness and peace are brought together in Him, because His sacrifice fully satisfied heaven and received the seal of heaven and completed the atonement. At His return to the Father after His sacrifice, bringing with Him the saints raised with Him as the antitype of the wave sheaf, the firstfruits of those who slept, as assurance that He is conqueror over death and the grave, He asks that justice be declared satisfied and that those given Him be with Him where He is. The voice of God answers that justice is satisfied and Satan is vanquished. The Father showed His joy and delight by giving all honor to the Son, embracing Him as King before the universe of heaven, seating Him at His right hand above all power, commanding all the angels to worship Him, and crowning Him with glory and honor. That embrace takes in everyone who receives Him by faith as personal Saviour, giving power to become sons of God. All the favor shown to the Son is shown to His people: they are justified and accepted in Him, loved as the Son is loved, stand between God and judgment with Christ covering their defects and transgressions with His own spotless righteousness, suffer with Christ and share His glorification as chosen sons and joint-heirs who overcome as He overcame, and the way is opened for them to be with Him.
Conversion and Personal Faith
The verse describes what takes place in the conversion of souls to God, which is the greatest and highest work in which human beings can have a part. In the conversion of a soul mercy and truth meet and righteousness and peace are joined, and every true conversion reveals God's forbearance, unbounded love, holiness and power and brings glory to Him, so that angels break forth into singing. The converted soul who believes in Christ as the world's Redeemer is thereby laid under obligation to cooperate with Him who gave His life for a perishing world.
The cross shows how the Lord receives the repenting sinner, pictured by the reception of the prodigal son. Every penitent is enfolded in the arms of the Heavenly Father with no taunting and no casting up of his evil course. He meets the Lord as merciful and gracious, long-suffering, abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands and forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin.
Mercy and truth and righteousness and peace meet in the full and perfect sacrifice of Jesus Christ, and through that sacrifice accepted by God sinners can be reconciled to God. The sinner must ever look to Calvary and with childlike, simple faith as a little child trust in the Saviour's merits, rest in them, accept His righteousness, and believe in His mercy. Faith in Christ's death receives the righteousness that saves and works through love. The law must be presented with Jesus and with the fact that where sin abounded grace much more abounds.
What is given in Jesus as the indwelling Saviour is that in Him mercy and truth meet and righteousness and peace are joined, and He dwells among His people full of grace and truth. All who reveal the power of that indwelling Saviour receive of His fullness grace for grace, and the more they reveal Him in trouble and affliction by faith and trust instead of doubt and gloom, the more of His power is manifested to them. The verse means the blending of God's mercy, tenderness and love with His holiness, justice and power, seen more distinctly as at the close of this earth's history when the glorified Redeemer is beheld as on the Isle of Patmos. It means sinners find a Father in the One whom their sins had made them afraid of, so that instead of fleeing from God because of sin they flee to His arms for protection and pardon, and the throne that is terrible in unbelief becomes a place of refuge in repentance.
Lived Out in Community
The meeting of mercy with truth and righteousness with peace is the standard for all who hold trust and must correct faults in those who have erred or gone astray. Decided work must be done and many wrongs corrected, yet never with condemnatory, lordly and dictatorial speech, but by first talking with God before talking with the erring and following the meek and lowly pattern in calm forbearance. Mercy is the twin sister of justice, so truthful and righteous correction must produce peace, upholding rules and justice while mingling mercy with justice. Discipline is to be kept without injustice, falsehood, sharp words or uncontrolled spirit, dealing with others as Christ has dealt with them and looking to His love and divine sacrifice as the example, with the constant sense of acting in full view of the heavenly universe.
That same rule joining mercy with truth and righteousness with peace is to be felt in the home. It forbids all oppression from parents and all disobedience from children, for the law is holy, just and good and flows from a heart of infinite love. Parents must place themselves under that rule and administer it in their households, and children must obey it. Households so governed walk in the way of the Lord to do justice and judgment, and the rich blessing of God rests upon both parents who govern thus and children who obey.
The union is to be talked and then carried out in practice in schools by reformers who are continually improving in spirit and practice. Teachers are to be Bible Christians who treat youth and children aright, dealing with human minds in self-control, meekness and love that seeks their conversion. Correction is to be without passion, harshness or indulgence, avoiding both too much indulgence and too much passion. They are to come to the cross to see why Christ suffers to save souls and bring sons and daughters to God, for righteousness and mercy meet there because Christ is in the law.
Mercy, truth, righteousness and peace came together in the sacrifice for fallen humanity and belong inseparably to it, and they must stay woven together in Christian work. When these are separated from it, even the most wonderful and apparently most successful work is empty and without value, with nothing truly to it. When God is heard and obeyed as director and king, with no men acting as kings to dictate and control His cause, mercy and truth meet to remove all alienation and strife and end all oppression. Truth and righteousness also meet as the practical influence of health reform enlightens people and leads them step by step to receive the special truths for the present time.
Mercy belongs with truth and righteousness with peace as inseparable companions, so divine justice makes no requirement opposed to mercy and mercy never conflicts with justice. There is no peace apart from righteousness, for the wicked are at war with God while the one who receives the righteousness of the law in Christ is brought into harmony with heaven. That meeting took place at Calvary's cross, where through Christ's blood redemption was accomplished for the forgiveness of sins. It was made possible because Christ as the divine-human Substitute took human nature, had every person's sins laid upon Him as the innocent Sin-bearer, and died in the sinner's stead, since no human or angel could have paid the penalty. His life and death show that mercy does not cancel justice or change the law, for God saves without abolishing His law, and through faith sinners are cleansed from guilt, clothed in Christ's righteousness, and enabled to obey its rightful demands.
Meaning of the Meeting
Mercy belongs with truth and righteousness with peace as inseparable companions, for justice and mercy are twin sisters joined rather than set against each other. God's justice makes no requirement that stands in opposition to the claims of His mercy, and His mercy never conflicts with justice but works in cooperation and harmony with all His attributes. He has infinite wisdom, omnipotent power, and unlimited mercy and goodness, and never plans or carries out anything that is not in harmony with perfect goodness, a harmony of qualities that must also be seen in human lives and learned by all workers high and low. Moses saw this harmony in the plan to save through Christ, where the sacrifices were types pointing to His death in which mercy and justice were blended and love was fully expressed. The cross reveals the same union, where mercy and forgiveness are joined with unwavering justice so that repentant sinners can be reconciled to God and find peace with Him.
In Christ mercy and truth meet and righteousness and peace embrace, and together they make salvation complete. Mercy opens the way to God's city, while justice requires holiness and purity of those who enter, so mercy does not abolish justice or admit people regardless of character. Truthful, righteous work must produce peace, which is the standard for those in positions of trust in God's cause who must do decided work correcting faults and dealing with those who have erred or gone astray. Many things must be corrected with decided correction, but never with condemnatory, lordly, and dictatorial speech, and those who correct must keep strict guard over themselves, talk with God before talking with the erring, and honor their position by following the meek and lowly Jesus in calm forbearance with the realization they are in full view of the heavenly universe.
There is no peace in unrighteousness, because the wicked are at war with God. The one who receives the righteousness of the law in Christ is brought into harmony with heaven, where mercy joins with truth and righteousness joins with peace. The verse is the voice of the rainbow above God's throne, always declaring the meeting of mercy with truth and of righteousness with peace. Through the open door is seen the throne overshadowed by the rainbow of promise as the token of the everlasting covenant, and this union of mercy and truth knit together at the throne draws praise to the Lord from the beholder.
That assurance calls for many more workers to take advantage of circumstances by never looking down but looking up. Looking up lifts heart and head and hanging hands all together and keeps them uplifted, so the heart sees and senses that God lives and rewards all who diligently seek Him. It guards the issues of life that flow from the heart, gives the heart to God who gave His life for it, and opens the heart to the divine Spirit to appreciate the value of the human soul. In Christ are found together infinite wisdom, infinite love, infinite justice and infinite mercy, with depths, heights, lengths and breadths passing knowledge. This meeting takes place in the Saviour of men, in whom the divine nature and the human nature are mysteriously blended without either being changed and in whom all the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily, as the meek and lowly sufferer who in His own body bore sins and carried human griefs and sorrows.
He is the Sun of Righteousness and chief cornerstone, in whom mercy joins with truth and righteousness joins with peace as combined beams of light. Believers are living stones in the holy temple who have value and shine only by catching those beams from Him and giving out light to the world.
Fulfilled at the Cross
Calvary's cross is the place where the meeting took place, where mercy and truth met and righteousness and peace kissed to accomplish redemption through blood for forgiveness of sins. There God's justice and truth meet with righteousness and peace, revealing both the unchanging holiness of the law and love in providing redemption for fallen humanity, with the completed plan of salvation accepted by the Father. Christ's voluntary death as humanity's divine Substitute makes salvation possible while justice is satisfied, uniting humanity to God and giving His righteousness through perfect obedience to the law. The cross draws people to Christ and displays mercy toward sinners together with the truth that the law remains unchanged, upholding rather than setting it aside, and it will testify in the judgment to the law's unchanging character. Through that full and perfect sacrifice sinners are reconciled when with faith they receive the righteousness that saves and works through love, with drawing love bringing repentance followed by forgiveness. There justice and mercy were reconciled and mercy reaches out to cleanse from unrighteousness to fulfill the everlasting purpose, so that the guilty who repent and believe bear the robe of righteousness while the Innocent is counted guilty for them, that they may accept redemption and cooperate with wills conformed to God's will.
The meeting was made possible because Christ took human nature and as divine-human Substitute united divinity with humanity and linked Himself with every son and daughter of Adam. Every person's sins were laid on Him as the innocent Sin-bearer and punished in Him as though His own, and He willingly bared His soul to the sword of justice and died in the sinner's stead out of love that bound His interest with each sinner so rebellious man would not perish but have everlasting life. No man on earth or angel in heaven could have paid the penalty for sin, for Jesus alone could save, and that union of divinity and humanity gave efficiency to His offering on the cross. As the meek, holy Sufferer He bore individual sins and carried sorrows and purchased the church with His own blood as the price paid for ransom, fastening each sinner to Himself with threads of sympathy and love that can never be broken until He declares the unjust still unjust, the filthy still filthy, the righteous still righteous and the holy still holy, and announces His quick coming with reward to give every man according as his work shall be.
At the cross the Father showed satisfaction and delight in the complete offering, for God looking upon His dying Son is satisfied that justice is satisfied and the atonement completed. God placed the cross between the world and heaven and came with angels, archangels, cherubim and seraphim in solemn march to the cross, with thousands upon thousands of angels, and the Father bowed in recognition and bowed His head to accept the sacrifice as enough, joining mercy with truth and righteousness with peace for the salvation of the race. That meeting holds because Christ pays the sinner's debt and suffers the penalty for transgression without changing or excusing the law, upholding the law as changeless instead of detracting from it, so grace does not excuse continued sin. There the sinner by faith appropriates the merits of the blood of the crucified Redeemer and receives Christ as the Lord his righteousness.
Through that sacrifice the guilty who repent and believe are counted guiltless and clothed in spotless righteousness while the Innocent is counted guilty for them, for Christ took the sinner's place and bore the penalty of sin and of transgression under the covenant made before man was created. He espouses the cause of the repentant sinner and presents him to the Father guiltless, asking the Father to lay the guilt on Him and to look no longer on the sinner as guilty, with the guilt laid on Christ. He holds out hands bearing the marks and nail-marks of crucifixion as proof He has borne it and that the sinner is graven there, and God bows in recognition of the offering for sin as enough and accepts it as complete. Because of that complete offering the gulf made by sin is bridged without setting aside the law, opening the way to receive mercy and peace, so all may now come boldly to the throne of grace seeking help in every time of need.
The cross is the great center of attraction where all influence centers and from which all influence goes forth, drawing sinners to look and live. When a sinner who has transgressed the law looks up to Calvary and rolls the burden of the broken law off at the foot of the cross, forgiving kindness unites with truth and righteousness unites with peace to provide salvation, and there sins are to be brought across the gulf and rolled into the sepulchre to find pardon and mercy and forgiveness in repentance. Though Satan accuses, the guilty one can come to the Lamb of God, look and live, because He draws sinners to look to Him and be saved, and repentance follows the revelation of drawing love. This meeting is the means to move the world, drawing all men, creating an influence in its favor through every generation as present truth and finally vanquishing every earthly and hellish power, accomplished when Christ gave His life to restore man to original perfection and to give entire transformation making him more than a conqueror, so that those who in His strength overcome will occupy a position in the heavenly courts above angels who never fell, while earthly honor is soon effaced but a name put into the book of life is immortalized to live among angels.
That meeting broke Satan's power, laid hold of the pillars of his kingdom and destroyed him who had the power of death. By dying as the sacrifice Christ satisfied justice so that justice could blend with mercy and God could be just while justifying all who believe, giving the race another trial and opening a way for all, Jew and Gentile, bond and free, hopeless and perishing, to come and be saved. By His death He perfected forever those who are sanctified, making true the triumphant cry It is finished, with holiness and justice joined in finishing redemption and Satan's power to tempt and trouble ended, proving God true and gracious so faith needs no more proof and none need doubt whether mercy is forgotten. That meeting displayed together holiness, mercy, goodness, wisdom, justice and amazing love, exalted the Lord of heaven, settled the controversy between sin and righteousness, and proved by sacrifice that the law is from everlasting to everlasting. It established God's character before the saved human family, before unfallen worlds, and before all evil workers from greatest to least, even giving Satan as he looked upon the vast army under his banner and the fruit of leading angels and men away from happiness and holiness a comprehension of his warfare to overthrow God and an appreciation of God's throne, holiness, justice, goodness and love such as he never had before, while Christ lifting guilt by standing Himself under the condemnation of the Lawgiver and living the law in humanity proved false the charge that man cannot keep it and revealed that every provision has been made so that through imputed righteousness all who receive Him by faith can show loyalty by keeping the law as partakers of the divine nature.
Law and Justice Upheld
Mercy does not cancel justice nor set aside or change the law, for God saves without abolishing His law or changing His character. In the plan of redemption through Christ sin can be forgiven while the law remains righteous and can be perfectly obeyed, which refutes the claim that God's justice is opposed to mercy or that His law prevents peace. God unites humanity to Himself through Christ, who gives His righteousness through perfect obedience to the law, and the cross draws people to Christ while displaying both mercy toward sinners and the truth that the law remains unchanged. Christ's death upholds the law rather than setting it aside, and the cross will testify in the judgment to the law's unchanging character. The law points to Christ and Christ points to the law, for the gospel is the law unfolded, nothing more nor less, giving no more latitude to sin than the law and ignoring none of the obligations due to God. The gospel calls men to repentance from sin, which is transgression of the law, back to obedience to the law of God, and Jesus in His life and death taught the strictest obedience, dying the just for the unjust and the innocent for the guilty, so that the honor of God's law is preserved and yet man does not utterly perish.
Grace does not excuse continued sin but upholds the law as changeless, because Christ pays the sinner's debt and suffers the penalty for transgression of the law and thereby satisfies justice. God looking upon His Son dying upon the cross is satisfied. There the sinner may by faith appropriate the merits of the blood of a crucified Redeemer to his own case and receive Jesus as the Lord Our Righteousness, the Lord my righteousness.
Through faith in Christ sinners are cleansed from guilt and enabled to obey the rightful demands of the law, for grace establishes the law rather than weakening its claims. Christ lifts guilt from the sinner by standing Himself under the condemnation of the Lawgiver, and He came to live the law in humanity and kept it in humanity to prove false the charge that man cannot keep the law. That work revealed to the heavenly universe, to unfallen worlds, and to sinful men that every provision has been made, so that through His imputed righteousness all who receive Him by faith can show loyalty by keeping the law. The repenting sinner who lays hold of Christ as personal Saviour is made a partaker of the divine nature, with assurance that whatever love devised in man's behalf will be executed.
Law and gospel cannot be separated but are interwoven as warp and woof in God's standard for human minds, with pardoning mercy standing together with truth and righteous law, and observing that law is for human happiness. True love to God leads by heaven's inspiration to obedience, while love leading to disobedience is from the devil. The law exposes impurity and failure, and the sinner is to flee to Christ the Stronghold as the sin-pardoning Saviour who pardons sins of ignorance, following His example of keeping His Father's commandments in order to enter in. The cross of Calvary is the place where the law and the gospel meet and pardoning love is revealed, and a growing sense of that pardoning love and responsibility to God reaches the deepest motives of conduct. That inward work produces love for suffering humanity in compassion, tenderness, helpfulness, and relief of human suffering.
Through Christ's pleading of His blood God remains just while justifying the repentant sinner who believes in Jesus. The law in the ark represents justice, while the mercy-seat above it represents mercy where Christ pleads His blood for sinners and pardon is granted, restoring fellowship with fallen humanity and clothing the redeemed in Christ's righteousness. This union of justice and mercy fills heaven with wonder. At the cross mercy could punish the transgressor justly, while justice could forgive without losing its dignity or purity, for Christ gave His life to atone for breaking of the law. Thus righteousness and peace meet through His saving work while God's law remains binding.
Christ's Person and Heavenly Work
In the plan of redemption mercy and truth come together and righteousness and peace are joined, and that joining displays a character full of love and goodness and mercy. The love is seen in the gift of Jesus and in His continuing intercession, so that even those who doubt and tremble can give glory to God. Saving work therefore reveals both love and goodness at once, never one without the other.
The meeting came when grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. The Word who was God became flesh and dwelt among men full of grace and truth, the Messenger of the covenant and Sun of Righteousness, the appointed Instructor and divine Teacher, the Majesty of Heaven and King of glory come from the bosom of the Father. He was sent in the likeness of sinful flesh because the deep necessity of the human race called for a remedy for sin. In His life on earth truth sprang out of the earth while righteousness looked down from heaven, the Lord gives what is good and makes the land yield its increase, and righteousness goes before Him to set believers in the way of His steps.
His life in the flesh perfectly revealed the Father and made God's goodness fully known. He lived out the law and in His humanity showed the Father to the world. In Him provision of mercy for sinners stands together with condemnation of sin.
The sanctuary illustrates the same union. The ark holds the tables of the law, which declare the transgressor guilty and pronounce death. Above the law is its cover, the mercy-seat, where pardon is granted to the repentant sinner through the atonement by Christ pleading His blood.
When the law is presented the throne arched with the rainbow of promise points to Christ. His righteousness is the glory of the law, for He came to magnify it and make it honorable. The rainbow above the throne represents the promise of mercy joined to the presentation of righteousness alongside the law. Looking to that throne with penitence and with praise and thanksgiving brings peace that passes all understanding, forms Christian character, and makes people represent Christ to the world in mutual abiding with Him. Minds are to be directed to Jesus and fastened upon Him, with every discourse dwelling on the divine attributes.
Through His completed work of redemption mercy and truth and righteousness and peace are brought together in Him, because His sacrifice fully satisfied heaven and received the seal of heaven and completed the atonement. At His return to the Father after His sacrifice, bringing with Him the saints raised with Him as the antitype of the wave sheaf, the firstfruits of those who slept, as assurance that He is conqueror over death and the grave, He asks that justice be declared satisfied and that those given Him be with Him where He is. The voice of God answers that justice is satisfied and Satan is vanquished. The Father showed His joy and delight by giving all honor to the Son, embracing Him as King before the universe of heaven, seating Him at His right hand above all power, commanding all the angels to worship Him, and crowning Him with glory and honor. That embrace takes in everyone who receives Him by faith as personal Saviour, giving power to become sons of God. All the favor shown to the Son is shown to His people: they are justified and accepted in Him, loved as the Son is loved, stand between God and judgment with Christ covering their defects and transgressions with His own spotless righteousness, suffer with Christ and share His glorification as chosen sons and joint-heirs who overcome as He overcame, and the way is opened for them to be with Him.
Conversion and Personal Faith
The verse describes what takes place in the conversion of souls to God, which is the greatest and highest work in which human beings can have a part. In the conversion of a soul mercy and truth meet and righteousness and peace are joined, and every true conversion reveals God's forbearance, unbounded love, holiness and power and brings glory to Him, so that angels break forth into singing. The converted soul who believes in Christ as the world's Redeemer is thereby laid under obligation to cooperate with Him who gave His life for a perishing world.
The cross shows how the Lord receives the repenting sinner, pictured by the reception of the prodigal son. Every penitent is enfolded in the arms of the Heavenly Father with no taunting and no casting up of his evil course. He meets the Lord as merciful and gracious, long-suffering, abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands and forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin.
Mercy and truth and righteousness and peace meet in the full and perfect sacrifice of Jesus Christ, and through that sacrifice accepted by God sinners can be reconciled to God. The sinner must ever look to Calvary and with childlike, simple faith as a little child trust in the Saviour's merits, rest in them, accept His righteousness, and believe in His mercy. Faith in Christ's death receives the righteousness that saves and works through love. The law must be presented with Jesus and with the fact that where sin abounded grace much more abounds.
What is given in Jesus as the indwelling Saviour is that in Him mercy and truth meet and righteousness and peace are joined, and He dwells among His people full of grace and truth. All who reveal the power of that indwelling Saviour receive of His fullness grace for grace, and the more they reveal Him in trouble and affliction by faith and trust instead of doubt and gloom, the more of His power is manifested to them. The verse means the blending of God's mercy, tenderness and love with His holiness, justice and power, seen more distinctly as at the close of this earth's history when the glorified Redeemer is beheld as on the Isle of Patmos. It means sinners find a Father in the One whom their sins had made them afraid of, so that instead of fleeing from God because of sin they flee to His arms for protection and pardon, and the throne that is terrible in unbelief becomes a place of refuge in repentance.
Lived Out in Community
The meeting of mercy with truth and righteousness with peace is the standard for all who hold trust and must correct faults in those who have erred or gone astray. Decided work must be done and many wrongs corrected, yet never with condemnatory, lordly and dictatorial speech, but by first talking with God before talking with the erring and following the meek and lowly pattern in calm forbearance. Mercy is the twin sister of justice, so truthful and righteous correction must produce peace, upholding rules and justice while mingling mercy with justice. Discipline is to be kept without injustice, falsehood, sharp words or uncontrolled spirit, dealing with others as Christ has dealt with them and looking to His love and divine sacrifice as the example, with the constant sense of acting in full view of the heavenly universe.
That same rule joining mercy with truth and righteousness with peace is to be felt in the home. It forbids all oppression from parents and all disobedience from children, for the law is holy, just and good and flows from a heart of infinite love. Parents must place themselves under that rule and administer it in their households, and children must obey it. Households so governed walk in the way of the Lord to do justice and judgment, and the rich blessing of God rests upon both parents who govern thus and children who obey.
The union is to be talked and then carried out in practice in schools by reformers who are continually improving in spirit and practice. Teachers are to be Bible Christians who treat youth and children aright, dealing with human minds in self-control, meekness and love that seeks their conversion. Correction is to be without passion, harshness or indulgence, avoiding both too much indulgence and too much passion. They are to come to the cross to see why Christ suffers to save souls and bring sons and daughters to God, for righteousness and mercy meet there because Christ is in the law.
Mercy, truth, righteousness and peace came together in the sacrifice for fallen humanity and belong inseparably to it, and they must stay woven together in Christian work. When these are separated from it, even the most wonderful and apparently most successful work is empty and without value, with nothing truly to it. When God is heard and obeyed as director and king, with no men acting as kings to dictate and control His cause, mercy and truth meet to remove all alienation and strife and end all oppression. Truth and righteousness also meet as the practical influence of health reform enlightens people and leads them step by step to receive the special truths for the present time.