“WHO
WILL STAND UP FOR ME?”
Psalm
94:16
As
the psalmist desired the Lord God to stand up for him before his enemies, every
sinner convicted of his depravity, sin, and moral inability before the holy
Lord God desires someone to stand up for him before God. The convicted soul
cries, “Who is able to stand before this holy Lord God?” Convinced of his own
utter corruption and God’s infinite holiness, the sinner under conviction of
the Holy Spirit cries, “Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? or who
shall stand in his holy place?”
Here
is the good news of the gospel - Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is a
representative Man who is able to stand before the holy Lord God! He has stood,
He is standing. And he shall yet stand before God as the representative and
substitute of God’s elect. Let every poor, helpless, bankrupt sinner, who
trusts the Lord Jesus Christ as his only, all-sufficient Savior, take this
sweet revelation and go just as far with it as sanctified thought will carry
him - The Lord Jesus Christ is our representative before God. He stands before
God for us.
CHRIST REPRESENTED US AS OUR SURETY IN THE
COVENANT OF GRACE. Before the worlds were made, God the Father, God the
Son, and God the Holy Spirit met together in the counsel chambers of eternity
and made a solemn compact of mercy, a covenant of grace in which the three
divine Persons swore themselves to the salvation of the chosen. In that
covenant, Christ stood as our Surety (Heb. 7:22), and in him we were blessed of
God with all the blessings of salvation, grace, and glory (Eph. 1:3; II Tim.
1:9).
THE SON OF GOD REPRESENTED HIS
PEOPLE IN ALL HIS EARTHLY LIFE. When he came into the world to do the will of God
(Heb. 10:5-9), when he went about his life doing the Father’s business as a
child (Lk. 2:49), and when he fulfilled all righteousness as a man (Matt.
3:15), he was representing us. As he fulfilled all the law and obeyed God
perfectly as a man, so all God’s elect have fulfilled the law and obeyed God
perfectly in him. He is Jehovah-tsidkenu, THE
LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS! And his
obedience is ours (Rom. 5:19).
OUR SAVIOR REPRESENTED US UPON THE CURSED
TREE. When Christ died under the wrath of God, it was as a substitute in
the place of God’s elect (Isa. 53:8; Gal. 1:4; 3:13; II Cor. 5:21). When Christ
died, we died in him. Hence, we are dead to the law (Rom. 6:4; Gal. 2:20; Rom.
7:4; 10:4) The law can demand no more from us.
CHRIST REPRESENTS US AS OUR ADVOCATE IN
HEAVEN. He took possession of heaven as a forerunner for us (Heb. 6:20).
And he successfully pleads our cause with the Father (I John 2:1-2). Because he
is the propitiation for our sins, God will never charge his elect with sin
(Rom. 4:8).
This is the thing I want you to see -
Whatever Christ did, we have done in him. Whatever Christ is, we are in him.
Whatever Christ possesses as our Mediator, we must possess. Wherever Christ is,
we must be. He stands for us; and we stand in him before God.
Grace Baptist Church of Danville - Grace For
Today Radio Message #613
2734 Old Stanford Road -
Danville, Kentucky 40422-9438
Donald S. Fortner, Pastor -Telephone 606-236-8235 - Email grace@mis.net