Justified Freely

It is good to have Christ as our Savior and Lord, and to know that we are part of the family of God. We have this family we meet with every Sunday, and we have an even larger family that has gone on before us; and we will be united with them very soon.

It will a great day when the eastern skies will roll back and the -

…Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.

Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.

(1Thessalonians 4:16-17)

This day may be a day of pain, sorrow, tragedy and loss, but -

We have confidence in knowing that there is a better day coming.

The cares of this world will vanish in but a twinkling of an eye.

We have Christ to thank for this promise of the eternal hope.

This morning, I want us to consider who we are, and where we would be if it were not for being justified by our faith in Christ.

Text: Romans 3:21 thru 26

Prayer:

We may find ourselves happy with where we are with the Lord. We may even become confident in ourselves. We look around at our friends and relatives and we see how they are not living for the Lord. Sometimes this can cause us to be discouraged, while other times we may think we have made something of ourselves.

Ha! The Word of God is adamant about the condition of our own righteousness. Let me introduce you to some cold hard facts about our righteousness (that is, where we would be without the righteousness of Christ).

I have mentioned before how confrontational the Book of Romans is. Perhaps one of the most challenging scriptures from the Bible is found here in our text.

For the saint of God that will read, understand and accept the Truth of this chapter, he or she will find a greater dependency on Christ being the Master of their lives.

These words are coarse, especially when we read things like what we find in verse 4. “Let God be true. And every man a liar.”

Tough words for many of us, but God’s Word is without error.

The fact of the matter is life is fragile. It is here today and yet it may be gone tomorrow. The things of this life are temporary.

1 Peter 1:24-25

24 …"All flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of the grass. The grass withers, and its flower falls away,

25 But the word of the Lord endures forever."

We are helpless and insignificant without the Lord and His righteousness. Sure we can try hard to make ourselves a better person, but without God we will surely fail.

Only the Word of the Lord will prevail. God has tried to get man to rely only on Him throughout history.

King Solomon was a man that understood God and His wisdom. He spoke these words to us in the Book of Ecclesiastes 7:23,

All this I have proved by wisdom. I said, "I will be wise"; but it was far from me.

Do you think you can make it on your own?

Are you tough enough, or wise enough, or smart enough?

I am a man of God who has studied the Word, and taught the Word, and (for the most part) has lived the Word of God. But this day I know that I am inept and insignificant without Christ.

In and of myself, I cannot achieve wisdom or understanding.

God knows this about you and me, and I am of the thinking we need to look closer at what God is saying to His people.

We need to listen closer to what He has to say about us.

God is kind to us in our text we have read. He comforts His people by letting them know they have been JUSTIFIED FREELY by the GRACE and REDEMPTION of Jesus Christ. Good News, right?

But listen to what He said in verses 10 thru 12.

If you are not careful, you might be offended by all of that. I don’t think God is overstating this. He is serious with what He says. Go ahead and wrinkle up your nose if you want to, but it won’t change how this is written.

Folks, we have to deal with this.

It doesn’t matter who you are, or who you think you are.

We need to settle this issue this morning with ourselves and God.

I have to believe that the church at Rome had some pretty good church folks. There were folks like you and me that showed up at the house of God every time the doors were opened.