Heath Ledger’s performance as The Joker in the summer blockbuster Batman received high praise from movie goers and film critics alike.
At the heart of the applause was his unrivaled portrayal of evil. While Darth Vader was admittedly ruthless, he was still a bit alien to us; after all, he was, at the end of the day, wearing a cape. Ledger’s Joker was a bit too close to home. He was fluent in evil. His conscience was uncomfortably absent, along with fear, compassion and humility.
In the Scriptures God introduces us to the chief villain. In the early part of the book of Romans God unpacks the painful details of our evil résumés. There is a particularly high point (or low point if you will) where God is seen to be surveying his creation to find any that are not “under sin” any that are not evil at their core.
Listen to the horrific results of the survey: we “suppress the truth in unrighteousness” (1.18), “do not honor Him as God or give thanks” (1.21), “exchange the glory of the incorruptible God” (1.23), “exchange the truth of God for a lie” (1.25), “are storing up wrath for the day of wrath” (2.5), are unrighteous (3.10), lacking understanding (3.11), not seeking God (3.11), not doing good (3.12), are useless (3.12), do not fear God (3.19) and are, with the rest of humanity, “under sin” (3.10).
Gulp.
Why in the world would God be so exhaustive in his indictment of our sin?
In verse 19 we read, “so that every mouth may be closed and all the world may become accountable to God.”
In other words, “that you would shut your proud mouths that make excuses, belittle my glory, and that you would, in a posture of fearful accountability, be horrified by your own sin and lack of righteousness.”
Through the Scriptures God ushers all of humanity into the corner. His goal is that we might be horrified by our sin to such an extant that we turn away in fearful disgust from our own reflections in the mirror of truth, the Word of God.
It is here that God desires that all men realize where they are sitting before reading further in Romans. Apart from Christ we sit in this self-made dungeon of our sin and the door is sealed by the inflexible righteousness of God.
We are deficient in righteousness. And there we sit, hopelessly horrified by our sin and the unflinching shadow of divine righteousness….Until God breaks in!! We are deficient in righteousness, so God supplies sufficient righteousness!
His beloved Son is born under the Law to redeem those who are under the Law (specifically the curse of the Law!). Christ becomes a man, lives a perfect life (loving God perfectly and loving others perfectly) in the place of sinners like you and me, because we could not and would not. Then he dies a sinner’s death to the pay the penalty for sin. Jesus in all of his manifold perfection is set forward by God to be the wrath satisfying, guilt removing sacrifice for sinners.
In a most moving and worship provoking scene, God the righteous puts forth Christ the righteous to punish unrighteous sinners. God unloads the artillery of divine wrath upon him and therefore wrath is satisfied, guilt is removed. Jesus’ perfect life of obedience is then charged to a sinner like you and me that we might stand before God as righteous (Rom. 3.21-5.15).
Do you see the gloriously ironic view from the corner of the room with all of the rest of horrified humanity? You run from the righteousness of God to the righteousness of God. You run from wrath to Savior. But the difference is, in yourself you are deficient in righteousness but in Christ Jesus you are sufficient in righteousness. This is why humble thanksgiving is to pervade the life of the one who is in Christ Jesus. We have seen the horror movie of our sinful hearts and now, by the grace of God, we are clothed in righteousness divine. Hallelujah, What a Savior!