Let’s take a moment and pray again before we get started.
Lord God, thank you for how you set things right between us and
You. You did all the work. “Nothing was done that You did not do Yourself.” We are justified not by our works but by
Yours. We are not adopted because of any
ability or talent we possessed. We are
adopted because You chose us to be Yours.
Help us to marvel, rejoice, and be refreshed today in what You have done
for us. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.
Before we get started, I want to go back to something which Tim shared
in a message at the very beginning of January.
He explained that cultures are different. As a result of different cultures, he
explained that it is necessary to communicate the Gospel in ways which
different cultures can relate to. Just
as there are different cultures, we as individuals are unique. I think we tend to have different sensitivity
levels to different needs we have. In
this way, we can experience the truth of the Gospel in different ways.
We’ve all experienced that, right?
Two believers go into the same church and hear the same message, and the
one person comes out and says, “Wow!
That was the most powerful message.
It really impacted me.” The other
person who heard the same message and paid attention can come out and think,
“Hmm, I didn’t really see what that was about.
It was interesting and informational, but not more than that.”
God’s great love for us meets all our needs. We can be certain of that. Today’s message made me think about what Tim
had shared because it covers those core “need areas” we have in our separation
from God. The view Tim shared divides
our needs into three main areas. First,
we have guilt before God. We have broken
God’s righteous standard. Therefore, our
relationship is broken. We need someone
to take care of our guilt so that the relationship can be restored.
We are also unable to live a righteous life. We cannot perform or behave perfectly. James 3:2 says we all stumble in many
ways. Our inability to meet a standard
causes us to experience shame. We are
embarrassed by our shortcomings. We are
worried what others might think of us.
We are worried and may even experience negative consequences in family
relationships because we are not able to do what someone else expects of
us. These ideas can be summed up as
shame. We have a need for our inability
to do right to be taken care of.
We are also weak. We cannot
protect ourselves from harm. This varies
among people and the groups of people they live among. We experience fear when we expect something
bad to happen to us. We want to avoid a
negative experience however we can.
Ultimately, we need a protector.
Is there someone who can guard us from harm and keep us safe.
These then are three areas where we need help and deliverance. We have a problem with guilt (because we are
guilty). We have a problem with shame
(because we are unable to meet a perfect standard). We have a problem with fear (because we
cannot protect ourselves from harm).
We all experience these feelings to some degree at different
times. The level to which we feel them
relates to what is going on in our lives (our circumstances) at a given
time. The levels of these feelings are
also affected by the culture that we live in.
That can be a “macro” culture like say American-culture. It can also be a “micro” culture like within
a church or a family.
At the same time, God has worked in each of these areas so that none
of them can keep us separated from Him.
He has made a way to resolve all three of them.
Let’s take a quick look at God Himself, and how He stacks up in each
of these areas. In the area of guilt,
God is qualified to deal with the situation because He is sinless, perfect, and
just. He is the Lawgiver and Judge. In the area of shame, God is glorious, above
all, and faithful. God is our heavenly
Father. He is also sovereign, outside of
time and space, unlimited. He is the
Ruler over all.
God is perfect. He is
holy. His holiness means that He alone
keeps the absolute moral standard. Only
God is perfectly good. He also is
infinitely glorious. There is none like
Him. He alone deserves all honor and
reverence. God is also the only God, Creator
of heaven and earth. He is above all
created things and beings.
God has all authority. He is
sovereign. In His sovereignty, He is
able to forgive our sins and enable our salvation through Jesus’ death on the
cross. He also honors the lowly, the poor,
the downcast. He humbles those who are
proud and think that they are justified by their own works. He defeats spiritual opposition (Jesus cast
out demons. Revelation shows the
ultimate defeat of Satan.) God is
actively involved in ruling the world.
Jesus “holds the universe together.”
God is righteous. He does
nothing wrong. He cannot fail. He is able to punish justly. His judgments are just even when he judges
guilt. He is able to make a covenant
with us that does not fail. He is
faithful forever to His promises.
Because God made the universe, His power is above all the power in the
universe. Rather than “simply” cosmic
power, we can say supernatural or beyond-cosmic power.
This may seem elemental, but at the same time, the foundation of what
we believe is crucial. God Himself is
greater than our every need, even when those needs change. He is greater than all heroes. He is greater than all strongholds. He is greater all than fears. And He has come for us to make us perfect in
His sight, and to make us part of His family.
Is that cool or what?
Let’s move one and talk some about justification or being justified to
God.
I think we all are experienced at justification or at least attempting
it. Trying to be justified is what we do
when we want to feel right about our actions.
Perhaps you guys are better at this than I am, but I find after certain
encounters, I’m rethinking what I said or how I dealt with the situation. I replay the scene in my mind. I think of all the things that happened, and
I try to decide, did I do the right thing?
Even if the situation didn’t go the way I had hoped, I find that I will
analyze my behavior and if it wasn’t terrible, I’ll comfort myself with the
thought, “Well, at least I am justified in the way that I acted.”
Most children are experts at justifying themselves. If something happens which shows any
preference to someone other than themselves, then they immediately will inform
you, “That’s not fair.” If a child does
something wrong even when they know it was wrong, they will readily tell you
why it wasn’t their fault. And then
there’s the plain, you just don’t understand.
When Elijah who is three needs to pick his nose, but he’s in public,
Melissa will gently explain that he shouldn’t do that. To which he invariably replies, “But Mom,
there’s boogies up there,” which is of course true. He’s justifying his behavior.
Biblically, when it talks about justification, the word that is being
used has a sense of legal justification behind it. In other words, how do we gain a right legal
standing before God?
We’ve talked about it in previous weeks, but we recognize that we are
guilty of not living to God’s righteous standard. Jesus explained in the Sermon on the Mount in
Matthew chapters 5-7 that anger produces guilt equivalent to murder and lust
produces guilt equivalent to adultery.
Romans 3:23 says that we all have sinned and fall short of the glory of
God. Romans 3:10 says that there is none
righteous, not one.
God has to solve our guilt problem and make us clean in a “legal”
way. He doesn’t just wave a magic
wand. If He did that, He wouldn’t be
consistent in treating us as real persons.
We would no longer be free, nor would we be creatures made in the image
of God. Making our sin disappear without
dealing with it truly would make us more like robots or animals, our status
would be lowered not raised.
We are justified by faith as it is described in Romans 3 (v.28). Romans 5:1 says, “Therefore, since we have
been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus
Christ.” Galatians 2:16 says, “a man is
not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ.”
Justification is an instantaneous legal act of God in which He counts
our sins as forgiven and Christ’s righteousness as our own, and He declares we
are righteous in His sight. It happens
after our faith response and repentance.
Here’s a little visual of what goes on in justification. First, we are taken from our guilt and our
sins are taken away. That’s a big deal,
but it’s not enough. It doesn’t solve
our problem entirely. We’d be like Adam
and Eve before the Fall. One slip up,
and we’d be back in the first circle. We
need to be moved from being just morally neutral to being positively righteous
before God. God does this by counting or
reckoning us righteous. We have the
righteousness of Christ. (Philippians 3:9)
Let’s take just one short passage from Romans 3 going into Romans 4 to
look at what Scripture says about justification. We’re going to look at this particular
passage because the book of Romans is “justification” central. One trivia item for the book of Romans is
that it was used in law schools as the example of the perfect legal
argument.
Now we
know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so
that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. Therefore
no one will be declared righteous in
his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of
sin.
But
now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the
Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith
in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned
and fall short of the glory of God, and are
justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ
Jesus. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his
blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he
had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished—he did it to demonstrate his
justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.
Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. On
what principle? On that of observing the law? No, but on that of faith. For we
maintain that a man is justified by
faith apart from observing the law. Is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the
God of Gentiles too? Yes, of Gentiles too, since there is only one God, who will justify the circumcised
by faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith. Do we, then, nullify
the law by this faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the law.—Romans 3:19-31
What
then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather, discovered in this matter? If,
in fact, Abraham was justified by
works, he had something to boast about—but not before God. What does the
Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as
righteousness.”
Now
when a man works, his wages are not credited to him as a gift, but as an
obligation. However, to the man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith
is credited as righteousness.—Romans 4:1-5
We
are found “not guilty” in God’s sight forever.
Before we move on, I feel compelled to deal with one potential
controversy that can arise when talking about justification. I’m not going to beat around the bush. Here are two verses:
For we hold that one is
justified by faith apart from works of the law. Romans 3:28
You see that a person is
justified by works and not by faith alone.
James 2:24
Well, that sounds pretty confusing.
Which one is it and who is right Paul, the author of Romans, or James?
Our attitude toward Scripture is important. The choice of that attitude is one of the
most difficult and important questions that we decide in all of life. “… I personally refuse to pronounce the
verdict of “error” on any [parts of the Bible which seem to have problems]. “--
John W. Alexander
Mr. Alexander went on to give two reasons why he refused to pronounce
a verdict of error. First, he’d have to
start sifting and sorting which is something Jesus never suggested we do. In fact, Jesus repeatedly upheld the validity
of Scripture. His second point was to
ask what more reliable source would he turn to for criteria to find and handle
errors.
“The inspiration of the Word of God is like the incarnation of the Son
of God. When the Son of God became a human being he became vulnerable to abuse
and death. When the Word of God became human language, it became vulnerable to
ambiguity and misunderstanding.”-- John Piper
Our language is not perfect.
There are difficulties and weaknesses in the structure of the
language. We have some words which have
more than one meaning. Then, there are
many words which can have the same or similar meaning. Ian and I sat on the couch at home fellowship
last Sunday and had this very same discussion.
When you’re have a deep, thoughtful conversation, you need to be careful
what people mean by the words they are using.
If you don’t understand that, it’s easy to be confused.
What Piper is saying is the quote is that when God allowed His Word to
be communicated in human speech, it became vulnerable in unique ways. One of those vulnerabilities is in the
potential risk of misinterpreting what it says.
That’s why Carl has often talked about understanding Scripture in its
context. What do the surrounding passages
say? What do other passages say which
talk about similar things?
And so these two verses which seem to be saying something contrary to
one another can be reconciled. In short,
Paul is saying that we don’t do anything on top of what God has done to be
justified. James on the other hand is
saying that if you have genuine faith, you can’t help but do things which
exemplify that faith.
In the same chapter as the Romans verse, Paul in part addresses the
distortion of justification by faith alone saying, “Some slanderously accuse us
with saying, ‘Why not do evil that good may come?’ Their condemnation is
just.” James in verses 17-20 talks about
three kinds of faith which are counterfeits:
dead-faith, demon-faith, and empty-faith. Then, consider Galatians 5:6 where Paul wrote
“For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything, but
faith working through love.”
[And so if you could] ask them, "Does justification as an ongoing
and final right standing with God depend on the works of love?" Paul is
going to say, "No, if by works you mean deeds done to show that you
deserve God's ongoing blessing (the point of Romans 4:4)." And James is
going to say, "Yes, if by works you mean the fruit and evidence of faith
like Abraham's obedience on Mount Moriah." And Paul is going to say,
"I agree with James, based on his definitions." And James is going to
say, "I agree with Paul, based on his definitions." --John Piper
Let’s put up the two verses one more time:
For we hold that one is
justified by faith apart from works of the law. Romans 3:28
You see that a person is
justified by works [of love] and not by faith alone. James 2:24
Just to be clear, I’ve added “of love” to the James verse. If you take the whole passage from James
2:14-26, I think it is reasonable to sum up what you find there in the two
added words. I’m not trying to add words
to Scripture. My hope is that you can
study this out and understand that the two verses are not in contradiction but
are complementary.
I’ve added a link to the transcript to the full article by John
Piper. Please go and read through it if
you have curiosity or deeper questions about his thinking. If you’d like, I’ll be glad to discuss it
with you further.
In the time that we have remaining let’s talk about our adoption as
members of God’s family.
Is it true? Really? Well, you can check out the verse on the
front of your programs, Romans 8:15:
For you did not receive the
spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by
whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.” Romans
8:15 NKJV
But to all who did receive him,
who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, John
1:12
At the same time, we sometimes experience fears of adoption. When we talked about the Elect a few weeks
back, I mentioned that the Greek New Testament doesn’t really call us the
Elect. Instead, we are the
Eclectic. We’re a mix of a whole bunch
of unique individuals. As a unique
individual, that’s really encouraging.
As a unique individual with conformance tendencies, being associated
with a bunch of unique individuals can maybe be, well, scary.
Yesterday, I brought the boys with me over to the church to work on
the message. They were doing
school. They packed lunches to
bring. Elijah took my elementary school
lunchbox and brought his lunch in it.
Here’s a picture:
The next lunchboxis one I found on Ebay.
It’s in mint condition (no kid ever ate out of that lunchbox). It also has its original thermos. Anyway, you can buy one like mine off of Ebay
for $50. What is old is cool again …
Another difference with my lunchbox is that the original yellow
plastic handle is broken off. In its
place, my dad took a strap off of an old purse that my mom had and hooked it on
instead. As most of my father’s repairs,
it was a good one and has lasted thirty years more than the original.
I can remember when my dad fixed that lunchbox. I have no idea what I said or what I looked
like. I don’t remember pitching a fit or
anything, but I’m pretty sure I did not say thank you either. I can remember carrying the lunchbox with the
flowery leather handle. I think I must
have died a thousand deaths over that silly lunchbox. I never got in a fight with anyone about
it. Maybe the other kids just had pity
on me and decided that I would never have chosen to carry a lunchbox like that.
And so yeah, I’m sorry. If
you’re in the family of God, you might just have to sit next to the kid with
the beat up Peanuts lunchbox with the dorky leather strap with flowers. Or it may happen that God asks us to carry
that lunchbox ourselves. Regardless, the
family that we are a part of is not some random chance, and we should not be
afraid of it.
“In friendship...we think we have chosen our peers. In reality a few
years' difference in the dates of our births, a few more miles between certain
houses, the choice of one university instead of another...the accident of a
topic being raised or not raised at a first meeting--any of these chances might
have kept us apart. But, for a Christian, there are, strictly speaking no
chances. A secret master of ceremonies has been at work. Christ, who said to
the disciples, "Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you," can
truly say to every group of Christian friends, "Ye have not chosen one
another but I have chosen you for one another." The friendship is not a
reward for our discriminating and good taste in finding one another out. It is
the instrument by which God reveals to each of us the beauties of others. They
are no greater than the beauties of a thousand other men; by Friendship God
opens our eyes to them. They are, like all beauties, derived from Him, and
then, in a good Friendship, increased by Him through the Friendship itself, so
that it is His instrument for creating as well as for revealing.”” ― C.S. Lewis,
The Four Loves
If then, there is tension in our relationships, consider as a warning
these words from James 3:
Who is wise and understanding
among you? Let him show it by his good life, by deeds done in the humility that
comes from wisdom. But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your
hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth. Such “wisdom” does not come
down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, of the devil. For where you have envy and selfish ambition,
there you find disorder and every evil practice.
But the wisdom that comes from
heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full
of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. Peacemakers who sow in peace
raise a harvest of righteousness. James
3:13-18
It is jealousy and selfishness which in turn drive us to all sorts of
wrong behavior. But what then do we have
to be jealous about.
At the beginning of the message, we talked about shame as one of the
primary issues that God addresses in the Gospel. God deals with shame in a very upside down
sort of way. You could call it
counter-cultural from the viewpoint of an honor-shame culture.
“He makes His relationship with us more important than His own honor
in the eyes of those who don’t follow Him. … [He] allows Himself to be shamed
in the eyes of the nations … (Ezek 36:20). He promises a Savior who will be
shamed for His people (Isa 50:6). … It is possible that He will call on His
people to bear shame before others for His sake (Psa 42:3; Acts 5:40-41). … His
people find hope in the fact that He saves those who are weak and have been
dishonored and gives them honor (Zeph 3:19). He deserves honor Himself because He is
powerful and wealthy but—even more importantly—because He is faithful to His
people even to the point of sending His Son to bear their sin and shame (Heb
12:2) and to give them honor as a gift.”--
http://honorshame.com/yahwehs-counter-cultural-honor/
Jesus associates with us first. He bears every scorn and shame on our
behalf. Even though He did nothing
wrong, He was tortured and executed in the most disgraceful way. He likely hung on the cross naked before
everyone to gawk and stare, to ridicule and deride the King of kings and Lord
of lords.
“He has impressed upon our natures or states—must be an imitation of
God incarnate: our model is the Jesus, not only of Calvary, but of the
workshop, the roads, the crowds, the clamorous demands and surly oppositions,
the lack of all peace and privacy, the interruptions. For this, so strangely
unlike anything we can attribute to the Divine life in itself, is apparently
not only like, but is, the Divine life operating under human conditions.” ―
C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves
We should not be afraid to be associated with
one another. On the contrary, we should
be excited to get to know ones for whom Christ died. Jesus gave us an example here too:
Then
Jesus entered a house, and again a crowd gathered, so that he and his disciples
were not even able to eat. When his family heard about this, they went to take
charge of him, for they said, “He is out of his mind.”
Then
Jesus’ mother and brothers arrived. Standing outside, they sent someone in to
call him. A crowd was sitting around him, and they told him, “Your mother and
brothers are outside looking for you.”
“Who
are my mother and my brothers?” he asked.
Then he looked
at those seated in a circle around him and said, “Here are my mother and my
brothers! Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.” --Mark 3:20-21, 31-35
Jesus’ family was concerned that Jesus was “out of his mind.” Perhaps their motive was to protect
Jesus. Perhaps it was to “protect”
themselves in the court of public opinion.
Most likely it was a combination of the two. But Jesus is focused on those who do His
will, they are the ones who are part of His family. Happily, Jesus’ own earthly family … his
mother and brothers would come to join in the mission with Him.
Before this faith came, we were held prisoners by the law, locked
up until faith should be revealed. So the law was put in charge to lead us to
Christ that we might be justified by faith. Now that faith has come, we are no
longer under the supervision of the law.
You
are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus-- Galatians 3:23-26
We are so blessed that we are part of the family of God. As His children, we have many
privileges. Let’s look quickly at some
of them:
Privileges of Adoption
1. We are able to speak and relate to God as a
good and loving Father.
a.
He loves us. (I John 3:1)
b.
He understands us. (Psalm 103:13-14)
c.
He takes care of our needs (Matthew 6:32)
d.
He gives us many good gifts (Matthew 7:11)
e.
He gives us the gift of the Holy Spirit (Luke
11:13)
f.
He gives us a great inheritance in heaven
(Galatians 4:7, Romans 8:17, I Peter 1:4, Revelation 2:26-27, 3:21, Hebrews
1:14)
2.
We are to
pray in the context of the relationship with God as Father. (He forgives our sins as a restoration of
relationship rather than as eternal judge of the universe; Matthew 6:9-12, I
John 1:9,3:19-22)
3.
We are
led by the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:14)
4.
We are
disciplined as children (Hebrews 12:5-6, Proverbs 3:11-12, Hebrews 12:7,10)
5.
We share
in both His sufferings and His subsequent glory (Luke 24:26, Romans 8:17)
6.
We are
brothers and sisters in Christ (Romans 1:13, 8:12, I Corinthians 1:10, 6:8,
James 1:2, Matthew 12:50, Romans 16:1, I Corinthians 7:15, Philemon 1:2, James
2:15, I Timothy 5:1-2)
a.
We are members of one family.
b.
The work of the church is “family work”
i.
We should not compete with one another
ii.
We should not hinder one another
iii.
We should encourage one another
iv.
We should be thankful for whatever good and
progress comes to any member of the family
v.
We should have great joy and fellowship when we
work together to build up the church
vi.
We should welcome new members of the family of
Christ eagerly and with love
7.
We are to
imitate God (Ephesians 5:1, I Peter 1:14-16)
8.
We are to
honor our Father (Matthew 5:16, Philippians 2:15, I John 3:10)
What about bad earthly father relationships? Heb 12:10, Matt 7:11, Luke 11:13, I Pet 1:18
[This collection of privileges is taken from Systematic Theology by Wayne Grudem, Chapter 37, Adoption]
A couple of weeks ago in the teaching on regeneration, Fred mentioned
that our lives should no longer be described as ‘sinner’ but something like
‘obedient to Christ’ or ‘obedient to Scripture.’” Then, he asked us, “If you were asked right
now to characterize your own life would it be ‘sinner’ or ‘obedient to Christ’
or somewhere in between? If it is
anything but obedient to Christ, then you need to change today.”
A similar thought arises when we consider the doctrine of
adoption. The behavior of children
reflects on the character of the parents.
We don’t look at an unruly child without considering also how the
parents react to the situation. And so,
if we are the children of God, how does our behavior reflect on God our Father? I’m not trying to create a shame
reaction. My hope is that we consider
rightly where we are that we don’t use our freedom or our blessing in the
family of God as a cover for wrongdoing or evil. (1 Peter 2:16)
See what kind of love the Father
has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. --I John
3:1
Let’s pray:
Father God, thank you for setting things right with us. Thank you for adopting us into your
family. Please help us to trust You each
day that You have plans to prosper us and not to harm us, plans to give us a
hope and a future. (Jeremiah 29:11) Please help us to grow closer together as
members of Your family. We need You in
our relationships so much more. Please
break down barriers and rekindle brotherly and sisterly love for one
another. May we be a unified family who
helps, supports, encourages, and comforts in Your love. Shine brightly in and through us, we pray. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.
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