The Cross Of The Christ Series

Romans 3:25b–31. 25 (whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith). This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. 26 It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. 27 Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith. 28 For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. 29 Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, 30 since God is one—who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. 31 Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law. (ESV)

In the summer of 1865, Hudson Taylor became tremendously burdened for the land of China. His biographer reports that he also became greatly troubled about the church he was attending in Brighton, England. As he looked around the congregation he saw pew upon pew of prosperous bearded merchants, shopkeepers, visitors; demure wives in bonnets and crinolines, scrubbed children trained to hide their impatience; the atmosphere of smug piety sickened him. He seized his hat and left. “Unable to bear the sight of a congregation of a thousand or more Christian people rejoicing in their own security, while millions were perishing for lack of knowledge, I wandered out on the sands alone, in great spiritual agony.” And there on the beach he prayed for “twenty-four willing skillful laborers.” Out of that prayer eventually came the China Inland Mission. Due to that ministry and others like it, there are reportedly twenty-five million to perhaps fifty million believers in China today, despite its officially atheistic government. God could use someone like Hudson Taylor because his attention was not focused on his own interests but on God’s. (John Stott. Our Guilty Silence. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1969, p. 24)

If there is anything that defines modern life, it is self-centeredness. It’s one dominated by self-ism, manifested in self-centeredness, selfishness, self-gratification, and self-fulfillment. People tend to be absorbed in their own feelings, their own desires, their own possessions, and their own welfare. Sadly, self-ism has found its way into Christianity. It you listen to the overwhelming public call in Christian circles, it’s a call to come to Jesus who will make everything better. They say: “Come to Jesus to have everything you could possibly desire”. The shocking thing about this message, is that it’s the same one Satan used to tempt Jesus. If we would just compromise a little, we can have the whole world. But the call that we heard about last week, embedded in the Gospel, is first one of self-denial, to take up our Cross and follow Him.

Salvation is first and foremost a way of glorifying God. The fact that it saves people from hell and gives them eternal life, marvelous and wonderful as that is, is secondary to the glory of God. The cross of Jesus Christ has the most dramatic effect on humanity in providing the way of redemption. But Jesus’ death on the cross was primarily to glorify God. He glorified God during His earthly ministry, enabling Him to say to His heavenly Father, “I glorified Thee on earth, having accomplished the work which Thou hast given Me to do” (John 17:4).

There will, of course, be bliss beyond description in heaven, but even that bliss will itself be an eternal testimony to the grace and glory of God.

The theme of the book of Romans, and the heart of the gospel message, is the doctrine of justification by faith alone in response to God’s grace. It is a doctrine that has been lost and found again and again throughout the history of the church. It has suffered from understatement, from overstatement, and, perhaps most often, simply from neglect. It was the central message of the early church and the central message of the Protestant Reformation, under the godly leadership of men such as Martin Luther and John Calvin. It is still today the central message of every church and believer that is faithful to God’s Word. Only when believers understand and proclaim justification by faith can we truly present the gospel of Jesus Christ. One of the most significant passages that teaches that truth is the present text (Rom. 3:25b–31). At first reading this passage seems terribly intricate, complicated, and baffling. But its basic truth is simple, while also being the most profound truth in all of Scripture: Justification for sinful people is made possible by God’s grace through the death of His Son Jesus Christ on the cross, and it is appropriated by people when they place their trust in Him as Lord and Savior. Justification is indeed God’s answer to the most important of all human questions: How can a man or a woman become right with God? We are not right with God in ourselves. We are under God’s wrath. Justification is vital, because we must become right with God or perish eternally (Boice, J. M. (1991–). Romans: Justification by Faith (Vol. 1, p. 380). Baker Book House.).