Doing Justice and Mercy – Timothy Keller [Sermon]

this sermon series is part of the special season at Redeemer that we are calling rise during this season we are hoping to accelerate a movement of the gospel for the good of all of New York City our vision is to see the body of Christ in the city triple in the next decade to that end each sermon in this series will focus on one of Redeemers gospel based core values if you would like to go deeper with the passage this sermon was preached from we have created daily rise devotionals available at Redeemer com slash rise

daily reading from The Book of Isaiah chapter 58 verses 1 through 14 shout to the Lord do not hold back raise your voice like a trumpet declare to my people the rebellion and to the descendants of Jacob their sins for day after day they seek me out they seem eager to know my ways as if they were a nation that does what is right and is not forsaken the commandments of its God they ask me for just decisions and seem eager to come near me near them why have they fasted why have we fasted they

say and you have not seen it why have we humbled ourselves and you have not noticed yet on the day of your fasting you do as you please and exploit all your workers your fasting ends in quarreling and in striking each other with wicked fists you cannot fast as you do today and expect your voice to be heard on high is this the kind of fasting I have chosen only a day for people to humble themselves it is only for bowing one's head like a reed and for lying in sackcloth and ashes is this what

you call a fast a day acceptable to the Lord is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen to loose the chains of injustice to untie the cords of the yoke to set the oppressed free and break every yoke is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter when you see the naked to clothe them and not to turn away your own flesh and blood then your light will break forth like the dawn and your healing will quickly appear then your righteousness will go before you

and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard then you will call and the Lord will answer you will cry for help and he will say Here I am if you do away with the yoke of oppression with the pointing finger and malicious talk and if you spend yourselves on behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed then your light will rise in the darkness and your night will become like the noonday the Lord will guide you always he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your

frame you will be like a well watered garden like a spring whose waters never fail your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and will raise up the age-old foundations you will be called rebuilder of broken walls restorer of streets with dwellings if you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath and from doing as you please on my holy day if you call a Sabbath a delight and the Lord's holy day honorable and if you honor it by not going your own way and not doing as you please or speaking idle words then you will find

your joy in the Lord and I will cause you to ride in triumph on the heights of the land and to feast on the inheritance of your father Jacob for the mouth of the Lord has spoken the word of the Lord each week now we're taking a look at a part of Redeemers vision for ministry that we've that's been our animating vision for years in the city and will be in the future we've been talking about the future and that the vision statement you can find on the website this is it as a Church of

Jesus Christ Redeemer exists to help build a great city for all people through a movement of the gospel that brings personal conversion community formation social justice and cultural renewal to New York City and through it the world and tonight we're going to take a look at is one part every week we're taking a piece of that to look at and tonight we're looking at that part that just said we just I'm rich us read social justice why are we doing it tonight this this Sunday a Palm Sunday on Palm Sunday Jesus Christ rode into Jerusalem

and he was declared the king according to the Bible and actually according to common sense the the main job of a king is to do justice is to rule justly and what we're going to do here tonight is take a look at how Jesus did fulfill justice and how he does make us into people who do justice a second reason to do it is that next week we have our Easter sacrificial offering which we do every year goes to hope for New York and it's it's an offering through which we do justice in the city

amongst the poor and the needy but also we've been talking about the rise campaign we've been talking about our future and that future includes starting far more new churches in the city and we've ever done before and part of that plan is very it's absolutely in the plan that we want those churches not just simply to be another more churches but churches that do justice and mercy in the city and so we actually have incorporated into the plan training and equipping of all those new churches to reach out to the poor the marginalized in their

neighborhoods so if justice is that important what what we what is it what are we talking about here and this great passage is one of a number in the Bible it's certainly not the only one I'll show you but here in Isaiah 58 we're going to learn three things about Justice the startling importance of justice startling I warned you you might be startled secondly the fulsome nature of justice what it really is and then lastly how you become able to do justice so the startling importance the fulsome nature and how you get the ability to

do justice uh first of all let's talk about the startling importance look at verse 2 and 3 as special verse 2 it's describing somebody as a group of people God is describing them and he's he's telling him this is this is who these people are day after day they seek me out now to seek out God meant to worship him to go to the temple you know he they're fasting it says in verse in verse 3 we have fasted once a year at least faithful believers in in the god of Moses would fast that Yom

Kippur it was in Leviticus chapter 16 is required that on Yom Kippur you would fast and you would humble yourself and you would think about your sins before the Day of Atonement so these are people who seek God out that is they are fast idiots and religious observance they observe the festivals they observe the feast they do fasting they they they do the sacrifices they go to worship on the Sabbath and it even says here day after day they do that it's not just a burst of enthusiasm for a while and they they give up

their faithfully religious not only that they're not just religious they're ethical their moral it says as if they were a nation that does what is right has not forsaken the commands of its God they seem eager to know my ways so they're there moral they're ethical in fact they're eager to know my ways which shows there's there's a passion so they're passionate they're moral they're ethical they pray they fast they read their Bible they are they're always there every week in worship and here's what's startling God says to Isaiah shout aloud eyes I declare to

my people their rebellion and they're startled down in verse 3 why we fasting have not seen it we've humbled ourselves you have not noticed why are you angry with us why aren't you answering our prayers look at we're doing everything right and Jesus and pardon me and the Lord says no and he finally says in verse 6 this is the kind of fasting I have chosen to loose the chains of injustice to set the oppressed free to share food with the hungry to provide the poor wander with shelter all right now what's God saying here's

why they're startled they seem to be doing everything right and God is saying to them if you think you have a relationship with me and you don't have a relationship with the poor and the oppressed you're mistaken if you don't have a relation with the poor and the oppressed you don't really have a relationship with me why would they why would God say that now this isn't the only place God says this you see how startled they aren't how startling it is Zechariah chapter 7 is almost a perfect parallel passage to Isaiah 58 in Zechariah

chapter 7 this is what God says to the people when you fasted and mourned was it really for me that you fasted administered true justice show mercy and compassion to one another do not oppress the widow or the orphan or the immigrant or the poor and then in verse excuse me chapter 1 of Isaiah the very same book this is what God says stop bringing your meaningless offerings when you spread your hands to pray I'm going to hide my eyes seek justice encourage the oppressed defend the cause of the fatherless plead the case of the

widow so over and over God is saying if you think you have a relationship with me and you're not involved in the needs of the poor if you think you're seeking me but you're not seeking out the poor and the oppressed you actually aren't seeking me you don't have a relationship with me now why would God say that here's why proverbs 1431 says if you insult the poor you insult the Lord proverbs 19 verse 17 says if you give to the poor you're giving to the Lord what's going on here God identifies with the people

at the bottom of the ladder you know somebody asked me how should I introduce you I say just introduce me either as the pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church and or husband and wife husband of a wife and father of a children and so forth so say I'm a husband and I'm a father I'm a pastor why do I say that's how you should introduce me because that's what I do mainly that's that's the main thing I'm here to do those things why is it that over and over again God says I'm a fatherless to the

Father listen I'm a father to the fatherless I am a husband to the widow he says that in Psalm 68 for example I'm a father to the fatherless to the orphan I'm a husband to the widow he identifies with the poor and the oppressed do you know how radical that was historians will tell you there was no other culture and it was no other religion like that in ancient times at all always in ancient cultures the ancient religions that gods identified not with the people at the bottom of the ladder they always identify with the

people at the top in other words uh the kings the generals and the priests that work for them why were they at the top they were at the top because the gods must have favored them big why because they have lived the right way so if you live the right way you get to the top why else would they be at the top religion was a religion of good works and moral effort and they were the best people they're the most respectful respectable and they were the most successful and they were at the top so

who got to interpret God the gods will to the people well the people at the top and if you oppose the people at the top if you oppose the leaders you are opposing the gods and that's how it worked in every culture except for this one makes for Israel that's the reason why when naman the syrian general in second Kings Chapter five when he has leprosy and he hears that there's a prophet in Israel that might be able to heal him he comes with a pile of money and letters of recommendation and he goes to

the king of Israel and he says now give me my healing because he believed that Israel was like the God of Israel was like all the other gods in the world that basically it was the king at the top who would channel the will and the power of the gods and he thought that naman thought well if I give the King my the money he'll just order his prophet whoever that is was Elijah to give me my healing and the king of Israel rips his clothes remember in grief and he says the biblical God doesn't

operate like that he is not in bed with power he judges the people in power he stands and he's the only guy in the world that stands with the people at the bottom and I can't order him to do anything I'm a king the Prophet judges me I don't tell the Prophet what to do think about this in societies in which males dominated God says I'm the god of the widow he stands with poor women where families matter I stand with the orphan he says I stand with the immigrant the alien member Zechariah is 7

he says this is the fast I choose this is what it means to honor me administer justice to the widow the orphan the immigrant a person of a different race that's in your midst and the poor there's no other God that stands in a male-dominated society with the poor woman stands in a family patriarchal society with the orphans stands in a society dominated by one race with the people of another race stands with the poor against a successful let me just summarize it here's 0.1 God says over and over again especially for the Old Testament

but also in the New Testament that if you think you have a good rule if you think you have a saving vital relationship with me but you are not caring about the poor and involved in the needs of the poor then you are mistaken you can't because that's where I identify that's where I am that's what I'm doing you say well that's the old test what about the New Testament yeah in the New Testament Jesus Christ looks at the Pharisees and it is exactly the same thing that you see in Isaiah one Isaiah 58 Zechariah

7 he looks at the Pharisees and say you tithe mint and cumin in other words you're very very very careful about religious observances but he says you neglect justice and the love of God and you devour widows houses you exploit the poor to accrue wealth for yourself and so as religious as you are as morally ethical as you are if you don't care about social justice you don't have a relation with God that's Jesus not only that Jesus tells a story and he says on the last day there's gonna be two groups of people and

he's going to say to them I was hungry he says to one group and you gave me food I was thirsty and you gave me drink I was naked and you clothed me I was without shelter and you took me in I was in prison and you came to me and then he's going to say to another group I was on greeting you didn't feed me I was thirsting you didn't give me anything to drink I was naked and you didn't clothe me I was in prison and you didn't come to see me and each

group is going to say when did we see you in those situations Lord and he's going to say when you did or didn't do it to the least of these my brethren you did or didn't do it to me so Jesus identifies just as much with the people at the bottom when if there's anybody here who's rejected Christianity you kind of walked away from it not interested did you know that this was at the heart of it when you did that well it is and by the way those of you who are Christians those of

you who embrace Christianity those of you who say I'm a Christian did you know this is at the heart of it the guy says if you don't have a relationship with them you don't have a relationship with me you see the start aren't you startled you I even gave that I even gave this particular point the name startled just so you're warned there's the startling importance secondly what then is justice if it's that important what is it and let's talk about the fulsome character the fulsome nature of justice the reason I use the term fulsome

is this Michael Sandel a professor philosophy and political science I think at Harvard teaches an undergraduate course is very very well known and popular it's called just a course on justice what is justice and he's written a book that basically puts the the course into a book form it's called justice what's the right thing to do and what's brilliant about the book is he points out the reason why our society is so divided is because we actually don't agree on what justice is he says there are competing theories of what justice is it's the reason

why the candidates can't agree and the political parties can't agree and the individuals can't agree this is this is unjust everybody says they're on the side of justice but nobody can agree on what justice is what was intriguing to me as a teacher of the Bible as I was reading through the book was I realized that every one of the theories you know one theory stresses this and one theory stresses this and I realized as a Bible teacher that basically when the Bible talks about justice it actually deals with every one of those aspects the

Bible includes all those aspects in their understanding of justice the biblical authors the biblical authors understanding of justice is much more fulsome so and you can even sit here there's three things at least they're part of biblical justice when the Bible says you must when God says I want you to do justice he means three things lise there's probably more the first is equal treatment the first is social and social equity equal treatment where do you get that well it's all through the Bible but it is even here for example Leviticus 24 verse 22 one

of your favorite texts I know but it ought to be gives us what it says you are to have the same law for foreigners as for native-born do you know how radical that was go to the code of hammurabi go to all the other legal documents of the time God says you are to have the same law for the foreigner foreigner with somebody from another culture another race may be of another religion but you are to have the same law for the foreigner as the native-born you treat them the same you have one law for

them in one law for this group over here you treat them equally if you read the the Bible you'll see the Bible is absolutely down on bribes God is always cursing people who offer bribes and people who who receive them I do know that our New York culture is to a great degree based on bribes of various sorts but God was against it why well because the poor don't have the money for bribes it's unjust but actually right here take a look at verse 7 there's an interesting place in verse 7 where God is talking

about justice what is justice he says among other things is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter clothing and not turn away from your own flesh and blood that's one sentence there and here's what you need to know commentators find this fascinating because the word poor wanderer doesn't really get across when you see the word wanderer you think of traveler it's actually the word for an alien that is to say an immigrant or refugee and when a destitute refugee comes you are supposed to what give

them a hunk give them shelter and clothe them and not turn away from your own flesh and blood in a tribal society where blood does everything my you're my family you're my clan your might and you're not you're not my family you're not my client God has the audacity to say that every other human being is your flesh and blood now that doesn't mean you know this whole idea of equal treatment of the law and all human beings are you know we're all one one flesh and blood you say well of course that's obvious and

it wasn't obvious then and where do you think you got the idea it wasn't obvious then and it's actually still not obvious to most people and yet God says we're all you're all made in God's image go back to Genesis 9 and you'll see in Genesis 9 God says if anyone sheds the blood of any other human being I'll require that blood of your hand why because every human being is made in the image of God so first of all justice means equal treatment very important justice first of all means treating people equally secondly however

justice means something more as I said Michael santel points are there certain people that say ok that's what justice is equal treatment period well there's more to of the biblical idea of justice and what is that the bit of alleged idea of justice is yes we have to treat everybody equally and yet the vulnerable populations the widows hmm the orphans the oppressed they are objects of special concern in proverbs 31 verse 8 it says speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves that's a command everybody if you're a believer speak up for those who

cannot speak up for themselves that's not equal treatment speak up for the widow why you don't have to doesn't say in the Bible speak up for the men is to speak up for the poor women that's what widows were poor women doesn't say speak up for the families is to speak up for the fatherless the orphans doesn't say speak up for the successful says speak up for the poor and what that means is don't anybody hit me here this is actually saying that to do justice according the Bible means not just a treaty but equally

but for the vulnerable populations you're supposed to go beyond equal treatment and do some things for them that you don't do for other people because they don't need it just say speak up for those who can't speak up for themselves that's not charity that's advocacy that's not charity that's advocacy it's saying I got we've got to do something these folks don't have power these folks do not have an advocate you have to be in advocates not just help them a little bit you know do token charity speak up for them see so justice is number

one equal treatment but number two special concern for the vulnerable populations and number three its generosity again this is not a terribly popular thing especially for most Americans to hear but when notice this happens over and over again I'll just show you where it said what here verse 6 says loose the chains of injustice do justice and then verse 7 says and what is doing justice is it not to share your food with the hungry to provide the poor wanderer with shelter than down to verse 10 it means to spend yourself on behalf of the

hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed now what does it mean to do justice share your assets not only share them spend yourself when you get down to verse 10 it doesn't just say spend your money it does mean that spend yourself means not a token charity but kind of radical giving and not only detached arms-length but really getting involved in your whole life and not to do that is injustice now the reason Americans don't like that is Americans like to say well you know I yes I think it would be good for me

to help the poor but if I help the poor that's my choice I'm not under obligation to help the poor but when you say I'm not under obligation of the poor you're actually not doing justice to the biblical language you're just not in the book of Job job chapter 29 and Joe chapter 31 job says if I treated my gold and my money and my bread as my own and didn't share with other people that would be a sin to be judged go look it up the Bible says if you've got and you're not sharing

it it's a sin it's not yeah you saw was voluntary well see when Americans say if I want to help people I can help them but I'm under no obligation you're assuming here's the American approach the American perch is if I've got money if I've got status yeah I got a little bit of help but basically I earned it here's what God says if you have status if you have wealth yeah you you you did a few things but basically I gave it to you you say what do you mean you gave it to me

well for example I was the one who decided what century for you to be born in I was the one who put you where you are ninety percent of what makes you you are you know all the and all the breaks you guy think I'm behind all that see the only way God could say it's unjust if you do not share what you have with the poor it's unjust not just stingy but unjust the only way he could say that is if he assumed that ultimately what you have is his gift that he gave it

to you he enabled you to get it he gave you the talent he gave you the desire he gave you the influences he opened the doors and therefore if you don't share with people who don't have as much in this broken world you're being unjust one example in this city and many many seasons in the country there are some kids growing up with a combination of three things they're growing up with very unstable families they're growing up with under-resourced educational institutions and they're growing up with very very nice way to put it is not the

most helpful peer social environments and put that together and sometimes by the time they're 40 15 years old they're functionally illiterate they may never be able to find a place in our job market or our economy now the Liberals say that's because of economic inequality and the Conservatives say that's because of the family breakdown but nobody nobody nobody nobody says it's the kids fault you know what yeah seven year-olds shouldn't be saying you know I need to move to another school district and three-year-olds should not be saying I got to get a pair of parents

that will read to me so it's not their fault and if it's not their fault and they're just one that's a one example of how in this world the assets and opportunities and the goods of this world are not equitably distributed and if you've been appointed to get more than it's unjust for you not to share with people who've been given less it's in the Bible so there's the nature of justice that's what you should do and this is why it's so important now are you feeling guilty yet and the reason I ask that question

is I want you to know that's not good enough it's all not not all that helpful because that comes to our last point the last point is how are we going to become people who actually can do justice like this and if an Americans almost always say well the main thing is we need a plan we need machinery we need the right social policy you know we need the right tax law we need we need to we need the right educational system we need we need technology we need a plan and then it'll work that

has never been the main problem in the history of the world when it comes to injustice and poverty it's never been that people didn't know what to do so people don't want to do it Beatrice Webb who was one of the architects of the British welfare state she liked a lot of the European intellectuals who lived in the late 18-hundreds early 1900s they put together I'm and they did a good job of putting together a more more just European societies in which there weren't as many inequities and so on they worked on what we would

call today the welfare state but they almost all believed in the goodness of humanity that if they just put the machinery in place things would be great but there's an interesting place in Beatrice Webb's diary in 1925 and she looks back to when she was a young woman in 1890 35 years before and this is what she says she says in my diary in 1890 I wrote I have staked all on the essential goodness of human nature now 35 years later I realize how permanent are the evil impulses and instincts in man and how little

you can count on changing them by any change in the social machinery and listen no amount of knowledge or science will be of any avail unless we can curb the bad impulse no amount of knowledge or science when it comes to dealing with poverty and justice will be of any of you unless we can curb the bad impulses of the human heart here's somebody had given her life to trying to deal with injustice she's there's something in the heart I didn't realize that I just thought education machinery is something in the heart what's what are

we going to do about that well this text tells us what doesn't work and what does what doesn't work well here's what doesn't work what doesn't work is these religious people it's interesting by the way when when it says they seek me out they seem eager to know my ways they they do not believe they forsaken the commands of God and then it says what on the day of your fasting this is verse 3 you do as you're pleased and you exploit all your workers now that's fascinating they certainly were religiously observant which means they

would have kept the Sabbath and on the Sabbath you don't work and they would have kept Yom Kippur and on Yom Kippur they would have fasted and they didn't work but according to the law of Moses when you don't work on the Sabbath you also should not have your workers working even your animals are supposed to work you're supposed to limit your profit taking and and be good to your workers and be good to your animals see so when you're resting they're resting but they didn't do that what they did was okay well we'll do

the Sabbath of course we'll be very religious observers are observant but we're going to lose a lot of money if our workers don't work on the Sabbath so they made them work here's what we have these are people who thought they were being incredibly religious and and they were obeying everything in the Bible and by the way the Bible does actually have things in there where it says to give to the poor and don't exploit your workers but they did the minimum they cut corners and this is that here's the first here's what will not

work this is what will not bring justice any religion or I'm saying this carefully I thought this out so listen any religion or secular morality that tries to motivate people to do justice through duty and self-interest will fail not only religion but even secular morality that tries to motivate people to do justice through duty and self-interest which is by the way how everybody tries to do it today I mean when I was growing up Jerry Lewis every year did the muscular dystrophy telethon he was trying to raise money trying to get people to give money

to the to the people with this disease and he used to always say you can give that money and as soon as you phone in your pledge you can look in the mirror and you can tell yourself I am a good and loving person okay what is that self-interest duty you need to be charitable why because then you can feel good about yourself now today we do a little different we have Twitter and we shame people say if you're not doing justice we're going to shame you we're going to shame you until you get it

right and this text is trying to say when either you're religious or you have secular morality and you're trying to motivate people to do justice because it's in your best interest it's a matter of duty and it's in your best interest if you do it you'll feel better about yourself if you do it we'll stop shaming you if you do it then somehow world will work better never works they do justice for a while then they cut corners hmm they don't go all the way it's superficial it doesn't last well what eles the way is

there how else do you motivate people to do justice not through duty but through beauty not through duty but through beauty what yeah look at look at the contrast at the end look at the look at verse 13 and 14 if you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath and from doing as you please on my holy day now probably almost immediately all the the people that God is denouncing would say of course we keep the Sabbath of course we don't do work on the Sabbath and then he says if you call the Sabbath a

delight if you do it out of joy if you do it not because you have to because you want to if you give your if you give your workers time off and you lose all that money not because you have to because you want to not because you have to otherwise God won't answer my prayers because you want to then you will find your joy in the Lord God will not be just a means to an end I'm going to obey God so he gives me things I just want to please him I just instead

of duty there's beauty now the person talked about the relationship of Beauty to justice is a Harvard professor another Harvard professor named Elaine Scarry who some years ago wrote a book kind of not very noticed but a great a fascinating book called on beauty and being just on beauty and being just and using the aesthetic theory of Plato and Augustine of a bunch of other people she made this case and she said basically duty and beauty are two different things duty is self-absorbed beauty gets you out of yourself the illustration I got from her but

I'll adapt it to myself when I was a college student I had to take a course on music appreciation to get my degree so I had a study Bach and Mozart and people like this so I had to be able to identify it on a test so I listened to Mozart in order to get a good grade in order to get a degree in order to get a good job so I could make money in other words I listened to Mozart in order to make money but today I would be willing to spend quite a

bit of money just to listen to Mozart because originally Mozart was a duty but now it's a beauty and frankly when it was a duty I only did what I had to do but now there's a beauty I do it all I can why because it's a it's a satisfying thing in itself Mozart's not a means to an end and that's something I listen to in order to get something else it's it's it's satisfying in itself and Elaine Scarry said only when justice is a beautiful thing he says what Duty is self-absorbed Duty is okay

what do I have to do in order to get the things I want Duty is how do I get the Twitter people off my back duty is how do I feel good about myself so I look myself in the mirror Duty is how do I do the right thing so God will answer my prayers and duty is self-absorbed and it will never do just you'll never do justice that way because you're trying to remember what Beatrice Webb said we're trying to this bad impulse is selfishness right that's the bad impulse that's why justice isn't working

so you're going to try to deal with the bad impulse by enhancing it doesn't work but Elaine Scarry says an experience of beauty dissenters the self gets you out of yourself makes you want not just have to do justice but want justice she believed that the experience of beauty naturally got you out of yourself and made it easier for you to do justice now a lot of people have criticized her saying what you mean you mean the Nazis didn't listen to Mozart a lot of people have criticized her maybe rightly for saying it's not just

any experience of beauty they'll make you just but I can tell you one experience of beauty that will in the Old Testament the Bible says that God identifies with the poor but in the New Testament we know he literally identified with the poor how when Jesus Christ came to earth God became poor he was born in a feed trough when he was dedicated at the temple his parents gave two pigeons which was the offering given by the poorest of the poor he he wandered virtually homeless he said foxes of holes birds have nests the son

of man has nowhere to lay his head and when he got to the end of his life he had to he had to ride into Jerusalem on a borrowed donkey and he had to eat in a borrowed room and he finally was stripped of his last possession which was his robe they cast lots for it and he was buried in a borrowed grave he became poor but not only that he became oppressed he didn't just identify with a poori identify were the oppressed why because it was his trial was a miscarriage of justice and in

that he identified with a millions of people who have been tortured who've been in prison who have been put to death unjustly some years ago an african-american woman who has pretty much almost lost her faith because she of the injustice she experienced she writes about this in a book that I read and she was this was also a Time magazine article some years ago she was in a class in a graduate school in class and they were actually having to look at the teachings of Christianity and so she was having to listen to somebody lecture

on the meaning of the crucifixion and suddenly it hit her she says I suddenly realized Jesus Christ didn't just suffer for us he suffered with us he didn't just die for us he died with us and he said Jesus Christ went under the lash Jesus Christ knew what it was like to be whipped and suddenly she saw something beautiful John Stott says in a world of injustice how could you believe in a God that was immune to it and therefore I can't believe in God if it wasn't for the cross there's no other religion in

the world that says that God experienced injustice but Jesus Christ says this to everybody in this room I who deserved vindication and justice went to the cross and got condemnation so that you who deserve condemnation when you believe in me can have vindication and pardon Jesus Christ fulfilled the Justice we deserved and what does that do that's beauty that's a beautiful thing that's what will get you out of yourself she's right about that how so I have trouble being doing justice when I feel superior to certain kinds of people but the gospel puts me into

the ground and says you're no better than anybody else you're a sinner saved by grace and I had trouble doing justice when I feel empty when I feel like well I've got to get my status and I've got to get some money and I've got to feel better about myself but the gospel gets rid of that it lifts you up and it gives you that all - such affirmation that I don't have to be jockeying for it I don't have to be stepping on other people to get up any kind of ladder and what does

miss me and what this means is because Jesus Christ fulfilled justice for you that grace the way he did it Jesus Christ became oppressed and poor so that you could be rich toward God and the beauty that will get you out of yourself and make you someone who can do justice let's pray our Father we ask that you would help us see what it will take to curb the bad impulse in our heart it won't be through self-interested duty it'll be through seeing the greatest beauty something we want something we want something that attracts us

father we pray that you would show us how Jesus Christ became poor and oppressed for us to make us rich toward you and let that be the thing that gets us out of ourselves so that we become finally the people in this world who can do justice and therefore show the people who you are show the world who you are and now make us people like that we pray in Jesus name Amen thank you for listening to this week's sermon please join us in praying for gospel renewal both where you live and in New York

City