You could call it a defining moment.
I looked up the word "just" in the 1828 Webster's American Dictionary of the English Language. I learned that...
JUST: an adjective. It comes from the Latin, justus. The primary root idea is probably "straight, as adhering to a standard set or erected."
It can be used to describe that which is
1. Regular; orderly; due; suitable.
2. Exactly proportioned; proper.
3. Full; complete to the common standard.
4. Full; true; right.
THEN it got really interesting...
5. In a moral sense, upright; honest; having principles of rectitude
Our God is JUST. That is JUST the way He is. He says of Himself, "...there is no God else beside me; a just God and a Saviour; there is none beside me" (Isaiah 45:21). He is a JUST God AND a Saviour!
6. Righteous. The final definition lets us know that to be just means to meet the exact standard of the law of God. And right in the section, was the following verse, given as an example of the word's usage:
"For there is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not" (Ecclesiates 7:20).
All people are sinners. WE are unJUST, and JUSTLY deserve death and HELL.
You and I are wholly unable to be good enough to escape that judgment, for we are guilty. We cannot be good enough. "Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin." (Romans 3:20). We cannot save ourselves.
But God the Son, Jesus Christ came, Whose name is "the Just One" (Acts 7:52).
And He Who is JUST was sent to earth to take the JUST punishment of the unJUST. The Lord Jesus Christ willingly shed His precious blood when He died on the cross, was buried and came back to life the third day. Why would He do this? "For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God..." (I Peter 3:18).
And all who turn and trust in Jesus Christ alone as their personal Saviour SHALL be saved, for He is a JUST God and a SAVIOUR. He is JUST and the JUSTifier! As it is declared in the Scriptures:
"To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus" (Romans 3:26).
And He Who is JUST was sent to earth to take the JUST punishment of the unJUST. The Lord Jesus Christ willingly shed His precious blood when He died on the cross, was buried and came back to life the third day. Why would He do this? "For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God..." (I Peter 3:18).
And all who turn and trust in Jesus Christ alone as their personal Saviour SHALL be saved, for He is a JUST God and a SAVIOUR. He is JUST and the JUSTifier! As it is declared in the Scriptures:
"To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus" (Romans 3:26).
WHAT A GIFT! TO BE JUSTIFIED!
"Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus" (Romans 3:24).
"Therefore being justified by grace, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" (Romans 5:1).
"Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him" (Romans 5:9).
