When Abraham Lincoln was a young man, he tended a store in southern Illinois. One day a farmer’s wife purchased eight ounces of tea. Young Abe weighed out the ounces of tea on a balance scale. He counted out the ounce weights and dropped them on one side of the scale and then dropped tea onto the other side until the beam looked perfectly horizontal. After the lady had left, Abe was putting away the little weights and discovered he had shortchanged the customer by only giving her six ounces of tea. The next day when the lady came in to town, he sought her out and gave her the missing two ounces of tea.
Abe Lincoln had a high regard for justice. Justice is the virtue of seeing that others are treated fairly and that they get what is due them. Abe Lincoln would later be elected to the highest office of the land and work for justice on a grander scale.
On a far grander scale than any human, God is concerned with justice. God is supremely interested in seeing that all men get their proper due. He has a lot to say on the subject of justice in the Bible. A verse in Ecclesiastes reads, “There is not a just man upon the earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not.” That is, if God were to weigh each individual’s life in a balance scale and measure them against His perfect justice, the beam of the scale would never level out. The scale would always tip drastically to one side, showing that we have come short of living the right way.
“Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting” were the words written to describe an ancient king. These words aptly describe the rest of us too. Each member of the human race has been found “wanting” in regards to sin and righteousness. Even those who have been well-respected like Abraham Lincoln have come up short. “All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:2323For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; (Romans 3:23)).
“Against Thee [God] ... only have I sinned, and done this evil in Thy sight,” David wrote in Psalm 51:44Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest. (Psalm 51:4). This verse shows us that, in the final analysis, all sin is against God. “In Him we live and move and have our being ... for we also are His offspring.” Every sin a man commits is an act of dark ingratitude and impertinence against the God who made him and who holds his very breath in His hands.
The truth that all sin is against God gives sin its awful gravity. It is an offense against His greatness and majesty. Therefore, the price tag of sin must be equally great too. The wages of sin will be everlasting punishment in a place called hell.
If you know something of the hatefulness and hurt of sin, don’t despair. The good news of the gospel declares what God has done in the day of grace, so men may not have to face Him in the day of judgment. The gospel reveals what God has done so that lost souls might be saved.
“The Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world” (1 John 4:1414But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. (John 4:14)). God came to this earth in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, and He took upon Himself the nature of a man. As a man He died on Calvary’s cross for His creature’s sin. As God, His death has the infinite power to cancel out the debt and guilt of sin. “The blood of Jesus Christ [God’s] Son cleanseth us from all sin.” When a sinner believes on the Lord Jesus, the blood of Christ washes him so clean that God sees them whiter than snow. “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool” (Isaiah 1:1818Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. (Isaiah 1:18)).
At the cross, God showed to the world both His supreme justice and also His super-abundant love — supreme justice, in that sin got its proper due in the death of His Son, and super-abundant love, in that through the death of His Son sinners might be justified and accounted righteous before Him. Because of the wonderful work which took place at the cross, God can remain just and yet offer forgiveness to guilty sinners.
Abe Lincoln was a great president who worked for justice in this world. But there is One far more excellent than he, who is perfect in justice. His justice outshines the best of men more than the sun outshines a flickering candle. In the end, through His almighty power, justice will reign supreme.
Friend, sin has tipped the scale of justice against you, and nothing you can do will ever set it right again. No amount of good works, religious devotions or wishful thinking will ever bring it back to level. The only way for you as a sinner to be reckoned right with God is for you to believe on Him who justifies the ungodly: “To him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness” (Romans 4:55But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. (Romans 4:5)).
Only through faith in Christ is the debt of sin cancelled. Oh that, through grace, you might trust the Lord Jesus for salvation, for He is worthy!