Good morning! We’re continuing in our series on the book of Romans. Today, we’ll finish up the end of chapter 3. Even though we’re in the same chapter, we are turning a page compared to the last three weeks. In those passages, we were confronted with humankind’s need for salvation. All people need saving, Jewish people, non-Jewish people, lawless and lawful, everyone needs saving.
In
fact, Romans explains that all people are aware that God exists, deep down
somewhere. It says more than that. It
also says people know the law. Carl explained a few weeks ago, “They know on a
fundamental level what is pleasing to God and what is offensive to God. It is
written on their hearts. They don’t need to read a book to know it. And therefore
God is just to judge all people for what they do in this life.”
As
a result of this, people often cannot escape feelings of guilt, not only for
doing things they know are wrong but for being the way they are. Today’s passage is going to respond to our
desperate need. It is going to explain how
to be right with God.
I
hope that it will be a little like opening a window shade in a darkened room
and letting light come flooding in.
We’re going to see how this universal need of all people has been met by
God. So, let’s take a moment and pray
and ask God to make “his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the
knowledge of God's glory displayed in the face of Christ.” (II Corinthians 4:6)
Dear
God, please help us to hear and understand the good news freshly this
morning. Please show us how to encourage
one another in these truths and how to share them with others who do not know
the good news. Glorify Your Name. Amen.
We’re
going to start in Romans 3:21.
Righteousness is going to be a crucial topic that we’ll be addressing
throughout the passage. In the last
weeks, we’ve seen that people cannot accumulate righteousness. We cannot do things that make us perfect. The righteousness that makes us right in our
relationship with God can only come from God Himself. Let’s read now starting in verse 21:
But now apart from the
law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the
Prophets testify. –Romans 3:21
Verse
20 says that “no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of
the law.” Instead, the law, rather than
being a means to bring about righteousness, causes us to be aware of our
sin. The law in part is a yardstick
which tells us we’re never going to work ourselves to holiness or righteousness. God can’t accept imperfection, but we cannot
provide perfection. Isaiah 64:6 says, “All
our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and
like the wind our sins sweep us away.” Thankfully,
that’s not the end of the story.
“But
now,” there is good news. The use of the word now here is less a temporal
“now.” It is more a logical or
sequential now. It is a “now”
contrasting the impossible righteousness that could never be gained from
observing the law and the righteousness provided by God. Now is the time when righteousness from God
is made known at our point of need.
This
righteousness has been foretold. The Law
and the Prophets talk about it. Here are
just a few examples:
Genesis
15:6 says, “Abram believed the LORD, and He credited it to him as
righteousness.”
Psalm
32 begins, “Blessed is the one whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins
are covered. Blessed is the one whose
sin the LORD does not count against them and in whose spirit is no deceit.” (v.1-2)
Back
in chapter 1, Paul quoted Habakkuk 2:4 which says, “the righteous person will
live by faith.”
Speaking
of the Old Testament, Jesus said in John 5:39, “You study the Scriptures
diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the
very Scriptures that testify about me.”
The Old Testament points to Jesus who as we will see is the source of
God’s righteousness for us.
One
more point about God’s righteousness as told in the Old Testament bears
pointing out. God’s righteousness is
eternal.
Psalm
119:142 says, “Your righteousness is everlasting.”
Isaiah
51:8 says, “My righteousness will last forever, My salvation through all generations.”
God’s
righteousness for us is sufficient for all time, forever.
Let’s
continue with Romans 3:22 …
This righteousness is
given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference
between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of
God, and all are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came
by Christ Jesus. –Romans 3:22-24
Where
does God’s perfect righteousness for us come from? It is given through faith in Jesus. Who can receive God’s perfect
righteousness? All who believe. There is no difference. We are all in the same needy situation both
Jew and Gentile. All of us have sinned. All of us fall short of the glory of God.
In
this case, the glory of God applied to us is what God intended humankind to
be. It is the glory which Adam and Eve
had before the fall, living in perfect righteousness in an undamaged
relationship with God. That glory is
restored to each believer through Christ.
Ephesians 4:24 and Colossians 3:10 both talk about putting on the new
self which is “created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness” and
“is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.” Christ will bring about the ultimate
fulfillment as described in Hebrews 2:5-9.
That’s good news. Great news.
Verse
23, the phrase “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” flows
into verse 24, “and all are justified”, and some have taken this to think that
while all have sinned, all are justified.
However, this is not in agreement with verse 22 which talks about faith
and belief, as well as verses 26, 28, and 30.
All who believe are justified.
The
Greek word dikaioo translated justified
is used 22 times in Romans. It is used
in verse 20 where it says no one will be declared righteous by works of the
law. The contrast is no one will be justified
by works of the law.
Being
justified can be looked at in a couple of ways.
On the one hand, we can think of it in a negative sense = not
guilty. Then, it can be considered in a
positive sense = declared righteous. Both
are true. The debt of guilt and sin is
canceled. And, righteousness is credited
to the believer. Justified saint = Us
(sinner) – sin (i.e. + forgiveness) + righteousness
Even
though all are sinners, God will declare everyone who puts their trust in Jesus
not guilty but righteous. This is a
legal declaration. It is binding and
permanent. It is valid because Jesus
died to pay the penalty for our sin and lived a life of perfect righteousness
that can be imputed (transferred/attributed) to us. This goes right back to Romans 1:17 … in the
gospel the righteousness of God is revealed.
How
are believers justified? They are “justified
freely by His grace” … as a gift … for no cost … without cause … through faith
… through redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
You’ve probably heard it explained this way before. Grace is God’s unmerited favor. We don’t deserve, but He gives it to us
anyway. Another explanation of grace
that I saw which is a neat way to think of it, grace is love in action.
The
word redemption there is a slave market term.
This redemption means obtaining release of a slave by paying a
ransom. For the believer, it means
delivery from slavery to sin and release from guilt and its liability for
judgment. As Mark 10:45 says, “The Son
of Man [Jesus] came to give His life as a ransom for many.”
Acts
13-14 gives the account of Paul’s first missionary journey. In speaking to the Jews in Pisidian Antioch,
he explained, “My friends, I want you to know that through Jesus the
forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. Through Him everyone who believes is set free
from every sin, a justification you were not able to obtain under the Law of
Moses.” (Acts 13:38-39)
As
Hebrews 11 exhaustively lays out, there has never been a means of salvation other
than faith in the true God. “This is a
radical plan that excludes everything people by themselves might do to attain
righteousness. The righteousness of God
has its origin in what God did, not in what people may accomplish. It is received, not earned. God justifies the ungodly, not the well
intentioned.”
God presented Christ as
a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of His blood--to be received by
faith. He did this to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance
He had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished-- He did it to demonstrate
His righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who
justifies those who have faith in Jesus. –Romans 3:25-26
This
expression sacrifice of atonement means a sacrifice satisfying the righteous
wrath of God. Without this appeasement
all people are justly destined for eternal punishment. The sins of God’s people were punished
symbolically in the animal sacrifices of the Old Testament period have been
totally punished in the once-for-all sacrifice of Jesus on the cross.
Saving
faith looks to Jesus in His sacrificial death for us.
I
John 2:2 also explains “He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only
for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.” Jesus is the one who turns aside God’s wrath,
taking away our sins.
God
cannot accept imperfection, but we cannot provide perfection. God’s holiness demands punishment for man’s
sin. God therefore out of love sent His
Son to make substitutionary atonement for the believer’s sin. In this way, the Father’s wrath is satisfied;
His wrath against the Christian’s sin has been turned away and directed toward
Christ. Forgiveness through Christ’s
atoning sacrifice is not limited to one particular group; it has worldwide
application. It must however be received
by faith. Again, the thought is not one
of universalism but rather one of impartiality.
God is an impartial God.
Isaiah
45:21 explains, “Who foretold this long ago, who declared it from the distant
past? Was it not I, the LORD? And there is no God apart from Me, a righteous
God and a Savior; there is none but Me.”
God’s
provision of salvation is also a demonstration of His righteousness. God is both just and the one who
justifies. We’ll come to it at the end
of our passage, but God has not abolished the law but rather fulfilled it. He has shown himself totally just.
Where, then, is
boasting? It is excluded. Because of what law? The law that requires works? No,
because of the law that requires faith. For we maintain that a person is
justified by faith apart from the works of the law. –Romans 3:27-28
Following
the expression “justified by faith,” Martin Luther (and Origen and others) added
the word “alone” to their translations of the Bible. It’s not in the Greek, so it is not found in
our translation here. It’s worth
mentioning because it accurately reflects the meaning of the passage.
Romans
8:2 talks of the Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. This is the law that requires faith. Work, merit, and individual effort do not
justify a person. We are justified by
God when we trust in Him for salvation.
James
2:14-26 describes a kind of faith which is not saving faith. This empty faith is an intellectual
acceptance of certain truths without trusting Christ as Savior. A saving faith changes a person and that
faith will produce good deeds. But, we
are justified by faith alone.
Or 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. –Romans 3:29-30
The
expression “there is only one God” is reminiscent of Deuteronomy 6:4, “Hear, O
Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.” which is essentially the first
article of Jewish faith. This logic
would be especially meaningful to the Jewish believer. To them it would be inherently obvious that there
is only one God. If both Jew and Gentile
are reconciled it must be through the one true God. As a result, there is only one way to
salvation both for Jews and Gentiles.
The expression circumcised and uncircumcised is another way of saying
Jew and Gentile.
Carried
forward, this passage brings Ephesians 4:4-6 to mind, “There is one body and
one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord,
one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through
all and in all.” God is unifying all
believers into one body through His Spirit.
Do we, then, nullify
the law by this faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the law. –Romans 3:31
Paul
anticipated being charged with opposing the law. If justification comes by faith alone, then
doesn’t it follow that the law is rejected? We will return to this topic in
chapters 6 and 7 as well as reasserting the validity of the law in chapter 13
(v.8-10).
The
Mosaic Law lays down both moral and social responsibilities: familiar commandments like do not murder, do
not steal, do not covet. Ultimately, we
see that love is the fulfillment of the law.
Leviticus 19:18 explains that you should, “Love your neighbor as
yourself.”
As
we already discussed, God has fulfilled the righteous requirement of the law in
each believer through the life and death of Jesus. Jesus fulfilled the obedience requirement by
living a sinless life. He paid for our
sins by the sacrifice of His perfect life.
Jesus Himself said in Matthew 5:17, “Do not think that I have come to
abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill
them.” And this He has done to the glory
of God.
Earlier
this week, I heard a short explanation of religion by John Lennox who is a
professor of mathematics at Oxford. Dr.
Lennox is also a Christian apologist and has debated a number of well-known
atheists including Dawkins and Hitchens.
One lesser known fact is that he is also the uncle of Kristyn Getty.
He
will use one expression which is probably unfamiliar to some. He is going to talk about going to university
and trying to get a first. In that
context, what is a first? Well, in the
United Kingdom, you can get an ordinary bachelor’s degree or a bachelor’s
degree with honors. First-class honors
are typically called “a first.” I think
with that, we can just listen.
John
Lennox explanation of religion an excerpt from his talk, “Can Science Explain
Everything” (part
6 May 27th) 8:19-12:57 (4:42 total)
What is a
religion? And I’ve gone through this
with many people from different cultures. And roughly summed up, most people tell me,
even professing Christians tell me, religion is like Oxford University. There’s an entrance exam (at least there was
when I went to Cambridge), and there’s some ceremony that gets you in, and then
you’re on the way and three years later you face the final judgment, it’s
called finals. And you know you might
have the most delightful professors, and they’re there to help you, to teach
you, and supervise you. But they cannot
guarantee you getting a first, they can’t guarantee you getting anything. Why is that?
Because the system is based on merit.
You’ve got to pass that final exam. And the majority of people when I talk to them
say, “Yes, my religion’s like that.” I
get in some ceremony performed on a child or an adult. And then we’ve got various people to teach
us: priests, gurus, imams, all sorts.
But they cannot guarantee that when I come to the final
assessment which will happen that God will accept me. I’ve got to hope and try to behave as well as
I can and eventually cast myself on the mercy of God. That’s not Christianity. And this comes like a bombshell to many
people. Christianity is not a merit
based system. If what I’ve just
described is religion, then Christianity is not a religion. Christianity for me is a personal
relationship with God through Christ.
And the difference is, and it is a massive difference, that in religion,
by and large, acceptance comes, you hope, at the end of the
journey. In Christianity, it comes at
the beginning. Because the entrance is
not a ceremony it is a step of commitment rationally based on evidence. And what Christ promises, and you asked me
the question so what I have to make it clear to you, is that if a person faces
the mess they’ve made of their own lives and the lives of others and repents,
and trusts Him for salvation, they receive in that moment peace with God and
Christ assures them that you’ll never come into judgment but have passed from
death to life. That is a huge
difference. You see, as I sit here, I’m
not doing this kind of an interview to gain brownie points. So God’ll say Lennox isn’t so bad you know,
he’s made up for a few difficulties by doing this. No, no, no, no, no. I do this not to gain acceptance but because
I’ve got it. Now that’s a vast
difference. Dare I put it this way,
Jesus Christ, at that level, competes with no other religion. Why?
Because He offers me something none of the others do. And that is not the only reason I am a Christian,
because that was signed to you very subjective, so let me make my final
point. I’ve many Jewish friends and
Muslim friends. And if you take the
three great monotheistic religions which all believe in Genesis and
creation. Then, they all have views
about Jesus. My Jewish friends believe
that He died and did not rise. My Muslim
friends believe He didn’t die. I believe
He both died and rose. They cannot all
three be correct. How do you answer the
question? You have to get your hands
dirty and investigate the evidence. For
me the evidence is at two levels. There
is the actual working out the history and logic. But then there’s that thing I just
explained. There’s the personal
experience. That this business of
forgiveness and knowing acceptance is something that I’ve experienced
personally.
I
can’t remember where I picked this up, but from one of the biblical
commentators regarding the passage in Romans that we looked at today.
“There
are only two religions. The religion of
divine accomplishment which is biblical Christianity and human achievement
which includes all other kinds of religion by whatever name they may be called.”
Divine
accomplishment, what God has done for us.
God has provided righteousness, forgiveness, acceptance for humankind
through His Son Jesus. That
righteousness, forgiveness, and acceptance is received by faith, and no other
way.
Does
anyone know what these picture are?
Yes,
it’s a space shuttle. Do you know which
space shuttle it is? It’s called
Buran. It’s the Soviet space shuttle. You may not even have heard of such a
thing. They actually made several, and
one was actually flown into space back on November 15, 1988. It only spent 3 hours in space making two
orbits of the earth.
Most
of you know that I’m engineer by trade and a nerd by birth, I guess. I grew up watching the American space
shuttles fly. One of my uncles and one
of my aunts worked for the space program out in Houston. So, I’ve had this thing for rockets and
things since I was a kid.
I’ve
been aware of the Soviet space shuttle for years. After the fall of Soviet Union, their space
shuttles were left to corrode and decay.
In fact, the one shuttle and rocket combination that had gone to space
was kept in a building which was not maintained. Back in 2002, the roof collapsed and
destroyed all of it.
Fast
forward to November 2018. I was in Germany,
and my boss takes me to the Technik Museum.
We walk in, and there on the wall is a picture of the Buran saying come
and see it. It turns out there are two
technik museums. In the second one, the
space shuttle is on display. We didn’t
go to see it that day because it was farther away in the wrong direction and we
had other plans. Last weekend though, I
was in Germany again. So, I was able to
go to that other museum. The pictures above
are pictures that I took last Saturday.
Yes,
I imagine you’re wondering what in the world does this have to do with Romans
3. Well, to me, this space shuttle was
an un-seeable thing. It’s not supposed
to exist. It’s certainly not supposed to
be somewhere I could go and see it. To
me, going to visit the museum and see that space shuttle was like seeing the un-seeable. Seeing something which doesn’t exist. It was a wonder.
What
we have in Christ through faith is far more than seeing the un-seeable. It’s experiencing and living the
unlivable. By our own merits, we’re not
supposed to be here. Apart from Christ,
there is nothing that can meet our need for righteousness. It is truly only a righteousness which God
can provide. And yet, there it is. It’s free for all. All who believe.
II
Corinthians 4:6 says it this way, “For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of
darkness,’ made His light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the
knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ.”
God
who created the universe, who spoke it into existence first by saying “let
there be light” has made His light shine in our hearts. That light gives us light, light of the
knowledge of God’s glory. God’s glory
displayed in the face of Christ. Christ
in You is the hope of glory. (Colossians 1:27)
It is a wonder. It is a wonder to
be shared. Who is waiting to hear the
good news from you?
Let’s
pray.
Lord
God, fill us freshly with a sense of wonder and gratitude for all the good that
You have done for us. May we reflect the
light of Your glory to those around us.
Embolden us and give us compassion for those we come in contact with who
do not know You. Grow Your Kingdom we
pray, in Jesus’ Name. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment