God's Grace and the Consequences of Sin

Excellent quote over at Of First Importance today.

“We can think of forgiveness as something real only when we hold that sin has betrayed us into a situation where we deserve to have God inflict upon us the most serious consequences, and that it is upon such a situation that God’s grace supervenes.

When the logic of the situation demands that He should take action against the sinner, and He yet takes action for him, then and only then can we speak of grace. But there is no room for grace if there is no suggestion of dire consequences merited by sin.”

- Leon Morris, The Apostolic Preaching of the Cross (London, England: The Tyndale Press, 1955), 185.

Praise God that He took action for us, by sending Christ to die on the cross, when He could have taken action against us as the just punishment for our sins.

HT: First Importance