The Line Judge Series

Series Title: The Line in the Sand

Title: The Line Judge

Scripture: Romans 3:9-18

(Romans 3:9-18) What shall we conclude then? Are we any better ? Not at all! We have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under sin. 10 As it is written: "There is no one righteous, not even one; 11 there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. 12 All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one." 13 "Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit." "The poison of vipers is on their lips." 14 "Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness." 15 "Their feet are swift to shed blood; 16 ruin and misery mark their ways, 17 and the way of peace they do not know." 18 "There is no fear of God before their eyes."

Looking through the words contained in the Epistle to the Romans at the everyday news that has highlighted this week demonstrates to us just how timeless God’s Word is.

Up to this juncture in Romans, Paul has pointed out that the heathen are lost because, even though they had the witness of both nature and conscience, they suppressed God’s truth to them. Paul has also shown that the moral man is lost because even though he outwardly put on a façade to judge the heathen, inwardly he was guilty of the same sins. Likewise the Jew is lost because he has not kept the law, and neither his circumcision, ancestry, nor arguments can save him from the condemnation of disobedience.

(Romans 3:23) for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

It doesn’t take a scholar to see the applications and principles found in Romans can be applied throughout every vestige or hint of human thought or action. And, dare we say, much more today than ever before?

Every day of every week there is something going on in the world that proclaims the inferiority of someone else. Human beings are fast to point out others’ shortcomings. And, as time goes on, it seems as if this finger pointing is becoming even more brutal. It seems that we talk about others or look at news reports to assure us of just how good we are. Or, to calm any fears that might be getting out of hand in our own actions.

We quickly report how a man kept his daughter hidden in his basement for 24 years and fathered several children. We quickly bring down judgment on this man, while in the back of our own minds we’re happily saying, “I’m not like that!”

The world is swift to renounce a man or woman for making racist remarks in the media, while at the same time feeling quite content and justified for the personal release of such allegations, “because, well, I’m not like that!”

Inside the Christ-less soul, inside the Jesus-deprived heart, there is a deep down sense of imperfection or insufficiency that has been repudiated for a time, it’s been placated for a short season. They think that they have, in their own minds, reached a point of self-actualization through a flippant comparison or the unwarranted condemnation.

A human being without Christ is a lonely individual that has no release for their own imperfections and thus they attack others to harvest a short-term release. A human being without Christ is a lonely individual that has no release for their own inadequacies and insufficiencies and thus they attempt bring others down to their own level to placate those inadequacies and insufficiencies.

Conversely, a Christian has such a release for those imperfections. It is to the detriment of a believer that there is a balm in Gilead.

Refrain

There is a balm in Gilead

To make the wounded whole;

There is a balm in Gilead

To heal the sinsick soul.

1.

Sometimes I feel discouraged,

And think my work’s in vain,

But then the Holy Spirit

Revives my soul again.

Refrain

2.

Don’t ever feel discouraged,

for Jesus is your friend,

and if you look for knowledge

he’ll ne’er refuse to lend.

Refrain

3.

If you can’t preach like Peter,

If you can’t pray like Paul,

Just tell the love of Jesus,

And say He died for all.

Refrain

There is a Balm in Gilead, and He is Jesus. Your release from all your imperfections, inadequacies, and insufficiencies are found in separating yourself from the world and joining Christ, through faith in the finished work of the cross.

There is a balm in Gilead

To make the wounded whole;

There is a balm in Gilead

To heal the sinsick soul.

If you can’t preach like Peter,

If you can’t pray like Paul,

Just tell the love of Jesus,