What’s your walk through life look like? Busy? Full of regrets? There’s a better path. We have a gracious God who pours out His mercy upon us because Jesus satisfied justice. Walking with our just and holy God is His gift.

“Therefore the LORD will wait, that He may be gracious to you; 
And therefore He will be exalted, that He may have mercy on you. 
For the LORD is a God of justice; 
Blessed are all those who wait for Him” (Isaiah 30:18 NKJV)

The Beautiful Walk With God

Imagine walking in the cool of the day with God. Adam and Eve lived in the Garden of Eden—a perfect garden, no thorns, no weeds … perfectly beautiful and peaceful. Our holy and perfect God walked with them. They knew God intimately in this beautiful garden.

God told Adam he had one thing he couldn’t do. He wasn’t supposed to eat the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. In the day that he ate it, God told him that he would die.

The Disobedient Walk

Lucifer came to Eve one day and told her that God had lied to her. If she ate the fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, she would become as wise as God. Eve took the fruit while Adam was with her, and she ate it and gave it to Adam. He ate it. They had disobeyed God’s one commandment. Their perfection was marred. They had become sinners. Their walks with God were forever changed.

Our loving Father expelled them from the garden so that they wouldn’t eat of the Tree of Life and live forever in their sinful state (Genesis 3:22-24).

The Redemption Walk

The walk toward redemption began. Our Most Holy God would provide a way for men and women to walk with Him forever. That way was through His only begotten Son, Jesus. 

Yes, we call God our Father, but have you thought of God as your parent? A parent disciplining you?

Think about the depth of God’s love—that He would send His Son, the Just, to die for you and me, the unjust, so that we could live with Him forever. 

“For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit” (1 Peter 3:18 NKJV). 

Jesus, the Just Son of God, was sent to earth as a man specifically to pay the price for your sins and my sins. The Just became unjust so that we would become justified in the eyes of our Most Just God. Justified means that we are cleansed from our sins just as if we had never sinned.

“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9 NKJV).

The Righteous Walk

• 21 But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets,
• 22 even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference; 
• 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 
• 24 being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 
• 25 whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, 
• 26 to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. 
• 27 Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? No, but by the law of faith. 
• 28 Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law.  (Romans 3:21-28 NKJV)

God is holy, without a speck of sin.

Verse 23 reminds us that we have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. We have disobeyed God’s Law.

The Justified Walk

Verse 24 tells us that we have been justified, made right with God, as if we had never sinned. How?

Verse 24 continues: “freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.”

How did Jesus redeem us or pay the price we owed for our sins, for those who put their faith in Jesus?

He became our propitiation (verse 25) by taking our sins upon Himself. The wrath of God was poured out on those sins that lay on Jesus on the cross. The price was paid. And we became right with God—just as if we had never sinned.

Verse 26 tells us that Jesus, the Just, became the Justifier of those who believe in Him. We can’t justify ourselves.

There’s nothing we can do to make ourselves right with our Most Just God.

Jesus paid the price! He did it all for us! None of our works will make us right with God. Only the work of Jesus on the cross.

Has Jesus become your Justifier?

“But for those in whom the image of God is being restored, the Holy Spirit works in conjunction with our consciences, that we would act justly for the purpose of bringing glory to God” (Jen Wilkin, In His Image: 10 Ways God Calls Us to Reflect His Character, p. 61).

How is the Holy Spirit working with your conscience to prompt you to act justly and bring glory to God as you walk with Him?