Justice Redeemed: Abraham's Prayer and Christ's Intercession

Because of God's character and Jesus' completed work, the injustice you face today, as important and real and and severe as it may be, it's for a short time. You can count on Jesus making it right. Amen. [00:31:49] (20 seconds)  #JesusMakesItRight

But note that what Jesus does is he is the righteous person. He is the righteous man, not in a hypothetical sense. He is that person. He appears before God as the righteous man, fulfilling all obligations, able to stand in the gap for those who are in need of justice. The gospel is Jesus did just that for you and me. He's free and again. When we needed justice, he did that based on his own righteousness and his own saving death and victorious resurrection. [00:31:08] (41 seconds)  #JesusOurRighteousRedeemer

So Abraham's appeal is to to God's character. He's not asking God to ignore wickedness. He's not asking God to turn a blind eye to it. He's asking the people to be dealt with according to God's own care according to his own justice and mercy. And so this is the the key observation as far as appealing to God's justice. Abraham is not bargaining with God. He's not saying, oh, God, [00:17:41] (34 seconds)  #AppealToGodsCharacter

So oftentimes when we think of justice, it's not just about, hey, I'm gonna deal out things the way I think it ought to be done. It's about self control and letting God's justice reign supreme. Let him work his justice. One last thing I've I've purposefully, you know, left out and waited to mention until now is that all of this, in fact, does point to Jesus. [00:28:52] (29 seconds)  #LetGodsJusticeReign

And so if you're experiencing injustice or you're troubled by the injustice that you see in the world, then take that appeal to God. It's what he wants you to do. It's what scripture teaches us to do, to appeal to his justice. But then it doesn't end there. Justice isn't just for us. It's also for us to participate in. So God's justice participated in. [00:21:39] (31 seconds)  #ParticipateInGodsJustice

And so often, when we seek God's justice on behalf of others, that's that's what we're doing. We're seeking prayerfully to provide that firework so the fires of injustice don't destroy the people behind it. Right? We take up an active participation in God's justice. Our prayers aren't just for our comfort. Our prayers are also so that they can serve to restrain evil by God's mercy. That's what Abraham participated in. [00:26:14] (35 seconds)  #PrayerAsJustice

And so we can know that, you know, for us, you know, in human terms, we have something that's sometimes referred to as vigilante justice. We think of somebody, you know, rounding up a posse and and going out to to put a hurting on somebody because they've done something wrong. That's not the justice that that God knows and that he deals it. He's impartial. He's in control. Right? He's fully, in charge. And so his justice, it may, at times, come swiftly. Not always, but it certainly may. It may at times come slowly, but we can be sure that it always comes right. [00:12:11] (43 seconds)  #GodsImpartialJustice

Sometimes we may say things like, well, I'm not gonna bother God with that. He's got other problems. He's got other people. Other people are worse off than me. I'm gonna bother him with that. But scripture doesn't know that. Scripture only knows people calling out to the Lord saying, God, help me. Lord, help me. I know you love me, Lord. I know you're good. I know you're just. Help me. That's the normal posture of God's children. [00:21:09] (30 seconds)  #CryOutToGod