The Heart of the Gospel

How do we reconcile the paradox of a loving and merciful God Who will not leave iniquity unpunished? Our God has irrefutably proven Himself to be unmistakenly righteous in saving sinners. He has displayed Jesus to us as our mercy-seat – a reference to the lid of the Ark of the Covenant in the Old Testament Tabernacle, where the high priest sprinkled the blood of the sacrifice once a year on the Day of Atonement. This was a picture or foreshadowing of the blood of Jesus being poured out to cover our sins and pay the price of our iniquities. And even today, God is righteous, and He is the one Who makes us righteous. You do not have enough strength on your own to stand before God's judgment seat, but Christ does. We are never righteous enough to meet the high standard. But Jesus is our sinless Champion Who defeated the devil, and He is our only hope to have any standing before God. Through Christ's blood, we can stand before our righteous God and know that He smiles upon us.