Big Words--"Justification by Grace"

What do we mean by the words, “righteousness” and
“justice?” Sometimes we use these words but what do
they really mean? Their definitions in, say,
Webster’s Dictionary are also hard to understand. But
what if we look for their definitions in the Bible?
Now, certainly we can’t page through it as we would
Webster’s and expect a definition and yet, I think the
true meaning of “righteousness,” “justice,” and
“salvation” are perhaps ONLY found in the Bible.
There the answer to “What is justice?” is simple and
direct. Justice, righteousness, is the Exodus. God
told the children of Israel, “Stand still and you will
see salvation...and those enemies behind you, you’ll
never see them again. Things were bad for Israel at
this point. The Jewish people have faced so many
sorrows and horrors but the Exodus was different.
Israel was not just facing a massacre, not just a war,
but total annihilation. Had the Egyptians in their
chariots been able to overtake them that would have
been the end of Israel forever. All were gathered
together on the banks of the Red Sea, none had been
left behind in Egypt. When the Israelites look behind
them they saw correctly not the death of a portion of
Israel, however large, but the wiping away of Israel
from the face of the earth. At a Passover meal the
family and guests do not say, “Thank you Lord for
saving those other people, way back when” but rather
“Thank you Lord for saving me, for saving us.”
Because quite literally there would be no feast, no
guests were it not for God’s actions at the Red Sea.
And these actions, as we learn from the Bible are
justice, are righteousness, salvation. If we want to
know the definition of that rather long word,
“righteousness” now we know where to look. It’s when
Moses stretched out his hand and the sea parted and
the children of Israel walked through on dry ground.
The chariots followed after but the Lord told Moses to
stretch out his staff again and the waters closed over
those Egyptians. When Israel, standing on the bluffs,
saw the dead bodies of the Egyptians, they believed in
God and in his servant Moses. All of the above,
that’s righteousness.

In this same way we can understand “justification by
grace." When Jesus died on that cross on Golgotha,
he makes a “way out of no way,” an exodus for you and
me, one by one we are being freed, and one by one,
seeing this salvation we believe in God and in his
servant Jesus. All of the above, that’s justification
by grace! Simply put, justification is the Exodus,
the Exodus through Jesus. God makes a way out of no
way by dying and rising for the sake of the world.
The waters have parted and our enemies are kaput.
“Justification by grace” seems like something hard to
understand, and we can’t depend on Webster’s for the
definition, but if we look to the Bible story the
meaning is opened to us. “Justification by
grace”--God carrying out his plan from the beginning,
to bring the world, “the nations that sat in darkness”
to the table of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, that all
might be heirs, children of our Father in heaven.