The Integrity of God; Gal. 2:15
Galatians 2:15, 16 NASB
“We {are} Jews by nature and not sinners from among the Gentiles;
Dikaiosune
[dikaiosunh]: the verb is dikaioo
[dikaiow], and another noun is dike
[dikh]. All of these have as their root the idea of
righteousness and justice. They have two different meanings, depending on the
context. Righteousness refers to the absolute standard which underlies this
concept of perfection, and justice looks at it in terms of the application of
the standard. Righteousness is the absolute standard of the Law and justice is
the application of the Law to specific situations. In the Scripture God’s
character is the standard of righteousness, the standard by which all things
are evaluated. So righteousness is the standard of divine essence and justice
is the application of divine essence—how it relates to man.
Romans 1:16, 17 NASB
“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation
to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
The righteousness of God
is the standard by which God judges; it either approves or rejects. What the
righteousness of God demands the justice of God executes or applies. In light
of that we can say that what the righteousness of God approves the justice of
God blesses, and what the righteousness of God rejects the justice of God
condemns.
1. Justice guards divine essence. Justice as an
application of the divine standard of righteousness guards the essence of God
from compromised. God cannot be compromised with sin.
2. Righteousness guards divine justice. Righteousness
provides the absolute standard that divine justice must adhere to.
3. Righteousness is the key to God’s character.
Everything depends on the righteousness of God. God cannot tolerate anything
less than His perfect standard.
4. Perfect righteousness protects divine justice when God
is dealing with sinful man. If God was just just
without having an absolute standard for His justice then there would be no
absolute criterion and God’s justice would therefore not be stable, it would be
unstable. Perfect righteousness provides that absolute standard for divine
justice to utilize in dealing with sinful men.
5. Perfect righteousness rejects all sin, therefore
justice must condemn sin. God is required by His absolute righteousness to
condemn all sin.
6. Perfect righteousness must also reject all human good
because it is relative. Isaiah 64:6 – “All our righteousness is as filthy rags.”
Divine love: 1 John 4:16 NASB
“…God is love…” This is the most profound statement in Scripture which
summarises all of the divine character in one attribute. How does divine love
fit within the complex of righteousness and justice? If righteousness is the
standard and justice is the application, then love is the motivator. Love is
the motivation of divine integrity. John
Grace is the policy of God
in dealing with mankind. In stating our formula in its full form we see the
four aspects are: the righteousness of God, the justice of God and the love of
God comprising the integrity of God, and then its expression through grace
which is the policy of God.
1. Divine love is infinitely superior to human love. They
are analogous but they must not be confused. Analogous describes the human
conception of love. There is human love and there is divine love but there are
certain overlapping points of identity but there is much that is dissimilar. An
analogy is a comparison but there has to be some point of similarity for that
comparison to be real. There is a point of analogy but there are vast
differences between human love and divine love.
2. Human love is sentimental, emotional, superficial and
constantly changing. Human emotion is by definition unstable and shifting.
3. Divine love is eternal and immutable based on God’s
perfect righteousness and totally devoid of emotion. God cannot,
will not, and never does, fall in love; His love never changes.
4. God is independent, therefore
none of God’s attributes depend upon any creature for their fulfilment. In His
Trinitarian existence God has eternal and perfectly righteous objects for His
love and is eternally satisfied in those relationships. So God does not create
man in order to have an object for His love.
5. God is eternal, therefore His
love demands an eternal object.
6. Divine love has as its eternal o0bject each member of
the Trinity.
God’s love and creatures: If God’s love is superior to human love and God’s
love is based on His absolute righteousness how can God love sinful creatures?
1. When God first created man Adam and Eve were both +R
(perfect righteousness). God created man in His image, which means that man was
created in perfection. He was perfect righteousness and therefore was
compatible with God’s perfect righteousness; they could have a perfect
relationship. Therefore God can love him. Divine love in this case is personal
because there is something of value in the object of love. In personal love the
object has some attraction to the subject. “I love you” because there is
something that is attractive to me and that meet my standards. So that the
standard of God, which is His righteousness, approved the righteousness in Adam
and Eve so that the justice of God could bless them through the love of God. In
fact, in the garden of Eden justice is not an issue at
all because of the perfect compatibility of man with God (+R with +R).
The only place we see justice functioning in the garden has to do with the tree
of the knowledge of good and evil. God hangs His justice out there on a tree
and says they can eat from any tree in the garden except for one: “On the day
you eat of that you will certainly die,” a very emphatic expression in the
Hebrew. When they ate of the tree they were immediately separated from God;
they were –R; God was +R; there could no longer be a
relationship between God and man.
2. +R can only love +R. This is personal love from God
for a creature who possessed +R.
3. Personal love is that category of love that is
selective, conditional and dependent upon the appeal or merit of the person
loved. In God personal love is always virtuous because God has perfect
integrity. In man personal love is not virtuous because man does not possess
perfect integrity. If God can’t love man with personal love now because man
possesses –R, how can God love man? By means of unconditional or impersonal
love. If the object has no value or compatibility then instead of basing the
love on the character or merit of the object the love must be based exclusively
on the character, merit and integrity of the person doing the loving. “I love
you” in this sense means “I love you regardless of what you do because my love
is not conditioned on anything you do, my love is based on the stability of my
own character. So when God says “I love you” to the unbeliever who possesses
negative righteousness it is not based on any appeal, any merit, ant value in
the person being loved. Nothing about any of us is attractive to God. We are
all sinners; we all fall short of the glory of God. Therefore by nature we are
all obnoxious and repugnant to the character of God. We will never understand
grace if we think that there is something in us that causes God to love us
personally. Impersonal love keeps the highest and best for the person loved
regardless of likes, dislikes, attraction, repulsion, knowledge, lack of
knowledge, or any other factor other than the virtue and integrity of the
person loving. One characteristic of impersonal love is that it is stable,
unchanging. Therefore for impersonal love to truly function it must be based on
something that is unchanging and immutable. Frankly, that is not our character.
So how in the world can we exercise impersonal love? We have to go back to our
model. Divine impersonal love is based on the perfect virtue and absolute integrity
of God. So human impersonal love must be based on who God is and what Christ
has done on the cross. That is what we see in Ephesians 4:32. In Scripture
forgiveness is always based on the fact that a payment has been made, that the
sin has been recognised and dealt with.
4. Prior to the fall God could love man personally because
there was complete compatibility and rapport between perfect God and perfect
man.
5. But after Adam sinned and lost +R there was
no longer any rapport or compatibility between God and man. This God’s personal
love was replaced by impersonal or unconditional love. God’s impersonal love
becomes the basis for God’s actions toward man which are expressed through His
grace. So all of God grace policies toward man after the fall is based on who He is and what Christ has done for us on the
cross.
6. With the loss of rapport with God the divine love was
no longer the point of contact with man. The point of contact between man and
God now becomes divine justice. Divine justice has to be satisfied before God
can personally love man again. He can only relate to man on the basis of
impersonal love, He cannot have personal love with man.