The first part of God's "double pain" is when we sin in His presence, against His light and love. The sin itself is not what grieves God, however, but the fact that He knows the consequences of our sin. God knows our sin is going to drive us to grief and misery.

The second part of God's "double pain" is that our sin compels Him to keep His Word in judging us. He has to stand by like a loving father and listen to our cries of anguish as He chastens us—all for the purpose of producing godly character in us.

At one time I came to a crisis—to the end of my rope. Slanderous things were being said about me and after this had gone on for some time, I began to remind God of His Word:

• "A false witness will not go unpunished, and he who speaks lies shall perish" (Proverbs 19:9). 
• "A liar listens eagerly to a spiteful (destructive) tongue" (17:4).

After some time, I cried out in despair: "Oh, God, how long will You let this go on? The lies keep changing so much, I don't even know what they are from day to day. You are my defender, Lord, and You say You will avenge Your people. But I don't see You working any justice.”

As I thought of all the slander coming against me, I began to think of other beleaguered pastors and servants. There are many righteous people today who are enduring awful trials because evil words are being spoken against them.

"Why, Lord?" I prayed. "Why do You continue allowing Your people to be hurt?”

The Lord answered, "David, I am merciful, longsuffering and slow to anger because it pains Me to mete out My justice. If you could feel My pain, you would never, ever, desire to see My judgment fall. You would understand why I wait so long to bring it down. You know how painful it is to discipline your children. It is the same for Me. It pains Me to chasten those I love!"
 

“And the Lord said to Moses, ‘Go, get down! For your people whom you brought out of the land of Egypt have corrupted themselves. . . . They have made themselves a molded calf, and worshiped it and sacrificed to it. . . . I have seen this people, and indeed it is a stiff-necked people! Now therefore, let Me alone, that My wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them’” (Exodus 32:7-10).

“Then Moses pleaded with the Lord his God, and said: ‘Lord, why does Your wrath burn hot against Your people whom You have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? . . . Turn from Your fierce wrath, and relent from this harm to Your people. . . .’ So the Lord relented from the harm which He said He would do to His people” (verses 11-14).

In reading this passage, many Christians mistakenly attribute more grace and mercy to Moses than to God. They think, "Moses is pleading for great mercy upon Israel, while God is ready to destroy them." Nothing could be further from the truth. The only reason Moses could pray as he did was because He knew God's heart of mercy.

God’s justice demanded that the people be consumed but Moses knew it would pain God too much to destroy His children, so he lifted this plea to God, "I know that Your justice is crying out and these stiff-necked people should be wiped out, but I know You would not be able to stand the pain if You did that. I know Your heart, God, and I know You cannot destroy Israel—because You love her."

The Bible says God "relented", which means He changed His mind about how He would judge Israel. He was not going to destroy them; instead, the people would waste away in the wilderness. Although the people would continue to pain His heart for thirty-eight more years with their unbelief, the Lord would still protect them, lead them, feed them and clothe them to their dying day.
 

When Paul first taught the truth of justification by faith, it shook the church. It was incredible news at that time. In fact, some theologians responded, "If I'm pardoned, if God is so merciful to forgive me freely by faith alone, then let me sin even more, so God can enjoy giving me more grace!" Those theologians did not understand the gospel.

Because of the cross, God considered everything about our old flesh-man done away with. Paul asked, "Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?" (Romans 6:1) and he continued quickly, “Certainly not!" I believe Paul was saying, "Why would any Christian, having been set free from such death, go back and resurrect the corpse? Why go back to a life of sin when God wants to take away all guilt and condemnation and give you security and peace? Now, because of the cross, you can serve the Lord with joy and gladness and obey Him in a new obligation called love."

"So," you ask, "are we simply to take by faith the righteousness of Jesus?" Yes, absolutely! That is what the Christian walk is all about—resting by faith in what Jesus accomplished.

Our old man is dead, and the new Man is Jesus. When we put our faith in Him, God fully accepts us. He considers us righteous, hidden in the bosom of His dear Son. So whenever you sin or fail, run quickly to your Lawyer, your Advocate. Confess your failures to Him, and rest in His righteousness.

You may ask, "Don't good works have any place in this doctrine?" Of course they do, but on this condition: Good works cannot save you, justify you or make you righteous or acceptable to God. The only thing that saves you is your faith in what Jesus did!

What did Jesus do? He saved you, pardoned you and accepted you in the beloved—sins, failures and all. God sees you now only in Jesus Christ and that is why we must come to our Savior every time we fall. The blood that forgave and cleansed us the first time we came to Jesus is the same blood continues to keep us until He returns.

Along with this security comes a higher obligation of doing all our works in His strength and power rather than trying to do them on our own. "If by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live" (Romans 8:13).
 

When we first came to faith in Christ, we trusted that our sins were forgiven. We believed we were accepted, that we could lay down all guilt and fear and say, “I am saved by faith alone in what Jesus did for me at the cross.”

Then, as we proceeded in our walk with Jesus, we committed fresh acts of disobedience. We were crushed by our sins and quickly lost our vision of the cross. We tried to work out our own righteousness, to win back God’s favor by trying harder, but life then became a nightmarish merry-go-round of sin and confession, sin and confession.

We sometimes act as if trying harder on our own can save us. We think if we could just reform this flesh of ours, God would be pleased. Soon we are constantly working on our old man, to shape him up for a victorious Christian walk.

Some Christians may say, “I paid a high price for the victory I’ve achieved. I went through a lot of pain and suffering. I fasted, prayed, and successfully put down all my lusts and sinful desires. Is my struggle to obey worth nothing to God? Does He consider all my righteousness, all my hard work, as filthy rags?” Yes! It is all the flesh and none of it will stand before Him. There is only one righteousness and that is the righteousness of Jesus Christ!

“For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God” (Romans 10:3).

The only way to get into God’s good grace is to admit the truth: “There is no good thing in my flesh, nothing in my good works to merit my salvation. I cannot become righteous through anything I do in my own strength. My righteousness is in Christ alone.” Paul says of the gift of righteousness: “Those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.” (Romans 5:17).
 

Paul gives us a list of those who will not inherit the kingdom of God:

"Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, not adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God" (1 Corinthians 6:9-10).

But then the apostle adds: "And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God" (verse 11).

How did these people who were saved out of such horrible sin become righteous before God? What happened to them that they no longer were evil but, rather, were accepted by God?

First of all, God is no respecter of persons. He is not at all impressed by a person’s title or earthly honor—whether a king, a queen, a president or a prime minister. And second, God is not charmed by any goodness in us. Long prayers, fasting, tithing, Bible study, benevolent acts—none of these makes us righteous or acceptable to God. Even our "good" flesh—good character, speech, thoughts and deeds—are a stench in His nostrils if used as a plea for our own righteousness.

When Jesus went to the cross, He crucified our "old man" of the flesh. There is only one Man left, only One whom God will deal with—and that is His Son. When Jesus finished His work on earth and sat down at the right hand of the Father, God said, “From now on I recognize only one Man, only one righteousness. Anyone who comes to Me must come through Him—My Son. All who would be righteous must accept His righteousness and no other!"

We are accepted in God's eyes only by faith in Christ and His work: "He made us accepted in the Beloved" (Ephesians 1:6).

Do you see how important it is to abide in Jesus, to come to Him quickly whenever you fail? You must learn to run to Him, crying, "Jesus, I have failed You! I cannot work this out. No matter what I do, I can never be recognized before the Father, except as I come to Him in You!"