Proverbs 17:15, A Plague On Both Their Houses!

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November 13, Proverbs 17:15

Matt. 7:1-5; 13:9-17; Rom. 14:1-12 “Right is mightier than Might!”

A Plague On Both Their Houses!

Justifying the criminal and incriminating the just, how prevalent it is, but no less wicked for all that! God, who loves righteousness, sees this injustice and declares both are an abomination to Him. His thoughts are not our thoughts.

1. Man’s Perversion: He that justifies the wicked, and condemns the just. Again and again the wealthy are able to pervert justice, while the poor and innocent are at the mercy of the system. This is what brought the O.T. Theocracy to an end (1 Sm. 8:1-5; 1 Kg. 21:13-24). How often Amos thundered against the perversion of justice in the eighth century B.C. (5:7, 12; 6:12)! When the crowds cried, Away with this man, and release unto us Barabbas, Luke recorded this gem, Pilate gave sentence as they required (Lk. 23:18, 24). Pilate gave the people what they wanted! No wonder James says, Ye have condemned and killed the just, and he does not resist you (Jas. 5:6). The perception of the onlooker is that in most of our advanced nations, justifying criminals is the enlightened way to go! Yet, bad as it must be to live in a State where everything is forbidden, it is much worse to live in one where everything is allowed. Jesus challenges us, Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgments (Jn. 7:24). Salon, an Athenian law-maker said, “A republic walks on two legs, one being the just punishment for the unworthy; the other, due reward for the worthy. If it fail in either of these it goes lame. How, if it fail in both?” Justice is one thing, law is another!

2. God’s Provision: They both are an abomination to the Lord. “God never condemns the righteous, but it is his peculiar glory to justify the ungodly, through the execution of the curse upon his righteous Son” (Lawson). Do not the perfections of God shine brightest at Calvary’s Cross? Justification is not the infusion of grace into us, as Rome (Council of Trent, 1547), and others teach, but the pronouncement of a sentence. “Justification does not refer to any inward work of grace as regeneration does. It has nothing to do with moral improvement, but to judicial standing. It means acquittal, vindication, acceptance before a judgment seat” (Cole). It is the opposite of condemnation. Condemnation does not make anyone wicked; it only pronounces a sentence on the transgressor of the law. So justification does not make one righteous; it is the pronouncement of a sentence (Rm. 8:1,34). O what a wonder for ungodly sinners to be pronounced righteous in God’s own court because of the righteousness of another (2 Cor. 5:21)! Let all be careful here, both private and public citizens, how they deal with the wicked and the innocent, for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, a judgment that will be according to truth, God’s Truth! So confident is Paul of God’s Court of justice that he challenges the whole universe to lay anything to the charge of God’s elect (Rom. 8:33). Again, remember, “Justice is the activity of God’s holiness.”

Thought: To condone wrong and condemn right leads to moral anarchy.

Prayer: Lord, keep me from trying to explain away Thy commandments.