Unfailing Love and Just Judge

TNIV Scripture for Monday, September 22, 2008 [Psalm 51:1-7]

Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight; so you are right in your verdict and justified when you judge. Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me. Yet you desired faithfulness even in the womb; you taught me wisdom in that secret place. Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.

The God of the Bible is full of contradictions making Him hard for human minds to comprehend. How, for instance, can He be unfailing love and the just judge all at the same time? Thankfully, God graciously provided the cross  and life of Jesus to explain Himself. The cross of Jesus demands that God be a God of unfailing love. If He was not a God of love, why would He have come to live and die for you? Only a God of unfailing love could sacrifice Himself in that way. However, if God was only love, there would have been no need for someone to die for your sin on the cross. The cross demands that God's character be one of love, as well as, of justice. May you be blessed today as you praise the true God, the God of the cross.

God
Merciful
Unfailing love
Great Compassion
Blots out transgressions
Washes away iniquity
Cleanses me from my sin
Right in His verdict
Justified in His judgment
Desires faithfulness
Teacher of wisdom
One who washes me whiter than snow


Beth Warlick, 9/22/2008