God’s Two Most Important Attributes

I was recently asked "what are the two most important attributes of God?" My answer is simple - His love and His justice. They are opposite sides of the same coin.

God is love the Bible says. It is His love for man that underlies his plan of redemption. He created man for fellowship. But man failed (as He knew man would) and so man fell into the arms of a loving God. His plan of redemption shows how much God loves us and how merciful He is to allow us, as sinners to have a way back to Him.

What makes God, God - it is His justice. He has no sin. And no sin can come into His presence. As a result, all sin MUST be punished or God would violate His own character. His justice is what makes God so perfect. Hence the dilemma, how can God, who is justice, provide a loving pathway for the sinner who must pay the price for his sin? The Bible says the pricetag of sin is death. So all sin must be punished by death. When the body dies, death is total and complete separation from God for all eternity. This is the exact opposite result of what God planned when He created man. God intended for man to live in fellowship with Him for all eternity.

What to do?

God showed His love for us, in that while were were still sinners, totally and completely devoid of any goodness, He first loved us. He became flesh and dwelt among us as Jesus Christ, the son. As the son, Jesus had to fulfill two elements of the Law to fulfill God's justice.

First, He had to live a perfect life. The Bible says that He who knew no sin became sin for us. Jesus lived a sinless life until He was crucified. He was falsely accused by the Pharisees and Sanhedrin and was tried illegally. They violated their own laws. He was then taken to the Romans who found Him innocent and yet,

Second, He was slain because the crowd rejected Him and accepted Barabbas, the thief in His place. Jesus is the lamb of God who came to take away the sin of the world. He fulfilled 350 plus prophecies foretelling of His coming, perfectly. He was the fulfillment of the Passover, God instituted for the Jews to remember the exodus from Egypt. His blood was symbolic of the blood placed on the doorpost so the angel of death would passover the Israelite's homes and only strike the the Egyptians. The Bible says the life is in the blood. Jesus' blood was the payment for the sins of all believers.

Jesus fulfilled both requirements. He lived a perfect life and died a perfect death. God, in His love and mercy, provided the perfect, sinless man to die the perfect, sacrificial death to pay for the sins of all mankind who would believe He is God. He came to earth for our redemption. There was no other solution. God's justice demanded payment - our death. But God's love provided the payment - the substitutionary death of Jesus.

God's two greatest attributes are His love and His justice. They are God and they are unique to the God of the Bible. No other religion has a God like Jehovah Jirah. He is our provision. He is the way, the truth and the life. No one gets to God (to heaven) but through Jesus. He is the door. Knock and it will be open unto you. Seek and you will find. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. But Jesus is the Way. Amen.