People have all sorts of notions about God and what He is like, but the testimony of Scripture is plain: unless you know Jesus Christ, you do not know God, and you cannot walk with Him.

So what is our only hope for harmony? The answer is not in our own attempts at living justly but in “the righteous acts of the LORD” (Micah 6:5). To every Christian, God has demonstrated His righteousness most clearly in the Gospel. Indeed, God has shown each and every one of us what is good—namely, the Lord Jesus Christ and His mission “to reconcile to himself all things” (Col. 1:20).

We will never fix the world. We can never restore harmony. Only the Conductor can cause His world and everything in it to live at peace and to reverberate with beauty and euphony. But until God chooses to fully restore order and harmony, we can all pledge, by the power of the Spirit, to live in a manner worthy of the Gospel by doing justice, loving kindness, and walking humbly in our spheres of influence, however great or small.

This article has been adapted from the sermon “What God Requires” by Alistair Begg.