No Acts of Tolerance or Inclusivity

From The Good News We Almost Forgot by Kevin DeYoung:

...the crisis of the human condition: 

• On our own, God is not for us but against us.  
• God's wrath cannot be wished away from the pages of Scripture...
• He cannot let lawbreakers go free with the wave of His hand in some act of tolerance or inclusivity.  

From the Heidelberg Catechism Lord's Day 5:

Q. Can we by ourselves make this payment? 

A. Certainly not. 

• On the contrary, we daily increase our debt.

Q. Can any mere creature pay for us?                                                   

A. No. 

• In the first place, God will not punish another creature for the sin which man has committed. 
• Furthermore, no mere creature can sustain the burden of God’s eternal wrath against sin and deliver others from it.

Q. What kind of mediator and deliverer must we seek? 

A. One who is a true and righteous man, 

• and yet more powerful than all creatures; 
• that is, one who is at the same time true God.

For the Bible Tells Me So...

Psalm 130:3 If You, LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?

Matthew 6:12 And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. 

Ezekiel 18:4,20 “Behold, all souls are Mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is Mine; the soul who sins shall die. The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not bear the guilt of the father, nor the father bear the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself.

Nahum 1:6 Who can stand before His indignation? And who can endure the fierceness of His anger? His fury is poured out like fire, and the rocks are thrown down by Him.

Hebrews 2:17 Therefore, in all things He had to be made like His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.

Isaiah 53:9 And they made His grave with the wicked; but with the rich at His death, because He had done no violence, nor was any deceit in His mouth.

Romans 8:3,4 For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, 4 that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

From The Good News We Almost Forgot by Kevin DeYoung:

We need a bridge 

• that goes far enough in both directions, 
• spanning the gulf that exists between a holy God and rebellious people.