“Steadfast love and faithfulness meet; righteousness and peace kiss each other.” (Psalm 85:10, ESV)
There is a place steadfast love and faithfulness meet, where righteousness and peace kiss each other. Love does not diminish righteousness in this place. Nor is peace replaced by faithfulness. No, in this place, justice and goodness and grace and holiness are all present.
But where is this place? It is the cross of Jesus Christ.
It is only at his cross that the holiness, the justice, the faithfulness, the righteousness of God interacts with the steadfast love and mercy and grace and forgiveness and patience of God.
How could God provide us with love and holy justice? How could God grant us grace and still be righteous? Only through the blood of the second person of the triune Godhead, the willing Son who offered himself for us. There at the cross, righteousness and peace, justice and mercy, kissed.
