Righteous Justice and Glorious Grace

Righteous justice and Glorious grace.
Read Genesis 6-9, 2 Peter 2:1-9

"The Lord said, 'I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land'…Then God spoke to Noah and to his sons with him saying, 'I will establish my covenant with you.'" (Genesis 6:7 and 9:8-13).

     Under the domination of sin, humanity did not merely want to reduce God to our image. We desired to ignore and alienate ourselves from him altogether. Casting off all restraint of God's moral law, humanity became hell-bent on embracing every form of evil (6:5). The world became so steeped in sin that judgment became avoidable. For God to remain silent would involve the acquiescence to evil. For God not to bring judgment would be to approve evil, thus making God himself evil. As a result, his righteous justice demanded that sin be judged. What initially had been pronounced good became corrupted to the point where every intent of the thoughts of people's hearts and desires was only for evil. They had forsaken his image to create an image of their own making, one corrupted by sin to its core.  
However, even as humanity cast off the remaining image of God's character, God found one man who had remained faithful to him: Noah. Noah not only rejected the sin of his culture and surroundings, but he had remained steadfast in his obedience and worship of God. God's judgment is never unwarranted and capricious. While God brings judgment upon sin, he never forsakes his people and always protects and saves those that turn to him. Consequently, God provided Noah with a way of deliverance: an ark. This ark would bring protection for himself, his family, and the animal kingdom so that through them, God might restore the world so that his purposes might be realized.  
     In the story of Noah and the flood, we find the righteous justice and glorious grace of God in perfect balance. A just and holy God cannot allow sin to run rampant and remain unpunished. But, conversely, a God of glorious grace does not judge capriciously, and even as he threatens judgment, he offers a means of escape. To understand God, we must keep his grace, mercy, and love in perfect balance with his holiness, righteousness, and justice. We see this balance in the record of the flood. While God declared the certainty of impending judgment, he also offered people an escape through the preaching of Noah. For 120 years, God gave humanity one more opportunity to repent and avert the coming judgment (6:3, see also 2 Peter 2:5).
     As we read the story of the flood, we also find a visible expression of God's justice and grace: the rainbow. The rainbow is a continual reminder of the promise that God would never again destroy the world through a flood. Thus it becomes a symbol for us of the grace and mercy of God. However, the rainbow also warns that a just and holy God will bring judgment upon sin. If he did it once, he will do it again. Peter points to this dual reminder of the flood and the rainbow when he writes: "If God did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah…then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation, and to keep the unrighteousness under punishment for the day of judgment" (2 Peter 2:4-9). Grace and justice are both essential aspects of God's divine nature; one leads to salvation, and the other leads to judgment. Both attributes are in perfect balance.
     When we see a rainbow today, it is to be a reminder of both aspects of God's character. It serves as a promise of salvation and a warning of judgment. It reminds us that we are sinners in need of God's grace. In Noah's day, God provided an ark, a boat of deliverance. God provides another ark for us today—a person who brings salvation through his substitutionary death (see Matthew 24:37-39, John 10:9).
     The next time you see a rainbow, remember the lesson it presents. It is a reminder that God will again bring judgment upon those who lack any moral restraint in sexual immorality (2 Peter 2:7). It serves as a reminder that God will judge sin. Yet it is also a reminder that judgment can be averted if one seeks God's forgiveness and cleansing. The rainbow confronts us with our sin and points us to the grace God offers through Christ.