Review: Judgment: Grace and Salvation
Adam and the woman in the garden
were there in order to serve God, and God has a relationship with them. But this
relationship doesn’t operate in an ethical vacuum. In order have this
relationship God establishes ethical boundaries, and what we learn here is that
relationships have to function on the basis of integrity. A relationship cannot
function apart from integrity, and we need to understand that. It is true about
a marriage, about friendship, about whom we work for in a company or
corporation—if there is no integrity at the corporate level then there
can’t be a real relationship. When there is no integrity in the relationship
then the relationship serves as a prop to arrogance. It is always serving
somebody’s self-interest. It is there for self-promotion, self-indulgence and
self-gratification. When there is no integrity that relationship is only there
for one reason and that is to benefit the person in charge. So in a marriage
where a person lacks integrity then that relationship is really a sham.
What we learn from the first few
chapters of Genesis is that the God of the Bible is a God of righteous, absolute
standards and that is the standard of His integrity. Justice is the application
of that integrity and this works in conjunction with His veracity. If God is
not true in all that He does and all that He says, then He is not trustworthy.
So integrity relates to His love, justice, and His veracity. Integrity
highlights God’s righteousness, His justice, His love, and His truth. Those
four always go together when talking about integrity, and that lays the
foundation for God’s relationship with man. The reason why God can enter into
unconditional covenants with man where God binds Himself legally to a contract
is because of the high level of His integrity. That is something He binds
Himself to without binding man to it because He knows the sinfulness of the human
race. So the post-fall unconditional covenants are all unilateral, with the
exception of the Mosaic covenant, which was in some sense unilateral but was
temporary.
Righteousness is the standard of
God’s integrity. Justice is the application of that righteousness to man, but
this is always in the context of love. Love means that God always has the
highest and best in mind for the object of His love; it is not self-serving.
God’s righteousness and justice does not operate toward man in a self-serving manner
but has the best in mind for the object of love, and it always operates in
veracity.
Once man sins there is a break in
the relationship with God. And the sin is defined objectively. It is not just
some sort of subjective line that is crossed, but he violates a specific
commandment. This changes the fabric of the universe basically. God’s
righteousness is violated and in justice God has to condemn man. For God to
remain God He has to judge the violation of that righteousness, but in love He
wants to do the best for the creature consistent with His veracity, and so He
is going to now express grace to the creature. Grace is defined as God’s
unmerited favor, unearned kindness. Grace can’t operate before the fall because
before the fall man has perfect righteousness. It is not undeserved kindness;
he deserves it; he has the same righteousness that God has. After the great
white throne judgment when all unbelievers are sentenced to the lake of fire
grace doesn’t operate any more. Why? Because believers are all in heaven
without a sin nature and there are no sinful creatures out there for God to be
gracious to. Grace is limited in history; it is bounded by the fall and the
great white throne judgment, between Genesis 3 and Revelation 20. Something
else is also bound and limited, and that is evil.
The fall introduces the problem of
evil and it also introduces for us in an extremely abbreviated sense the
solution to sin, which is salvation. We saw that in Genesis chapter three, that
God solves man’s problem of nakedness (which represents the sin problem) by
making them tunics of skins, and this is done through animals sacrifice which
pictures the ultimate death of Christ on the cross. Genesis chapter four shows
that the sin problem isn’t restricted to Adam and Eve but it is generational
now, it is going to affect the entire human race, everyone who descends from
Adam. So in Genesis chapter three we have this very abbreviated picture of
God’s solution, but the picture that Genesis really gives us of salvation is
the next big event is the flood, which begins in Genesis chapter six. Genesis
chapters four and five really focus on the ongoing problem and consequences of
sin on the human race and how it continues to play itself out generationally
until man gets to a point where God is not going to put up with it any longer.
In Genesis seven and eight, in the flood, we have a picture of judgment that
goes along with salvation. This is always how the Noahic flood is used in the
New Testament. It is always treated as a literal and actual event but it is
always used to teach the doctrine of judgment as well as salvation. So when we
look at Genesis we see a hint of judgment and grace and salvation in the curse
but it is really developed in its full picture with the flood. The first
mention of grace (not the first act of grace) in the Bible is in Genesis 6:8:
“But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.” This shows what the Holy Spirit
wants to emphasize in this flood event.