Salvation for Anyone, Anywhere
Rev. Sean Lester
July 6, 2003
Romans 3:21-24
But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. [22] This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, [23] for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, [24] and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
Introduction
A. Our passage begins with a word of contradiction. “But” means everything that I am about to say contradicts whatever I have just said, or whatever you have just said. So, we have to ask, “What was just said?”
1. The law justifies no one, it just makes one aware of sin.
a. The law made it possible for you not to have to think too much about how to please God. It told you exactly what to do and not do. It should be easy to remain right with God and man since you do not have to think about it yourself.
b. In fact, the law was nothing more than an explanation of how to fulfill the Ten Commandments. The commands are a simple list of two do’s, and eight don’ts.
c. But it isn’t so simple because in order to please God, you must love Him with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. You must love your neighbor as yourself. But you don’t love God with all your heart, and you love you more than your neighbor.
d. This fact is proven by the presence of sin in your life. Sin shows up differently in people, like a virus that gives me a sore throat but gives my wife arthritis. Sin manifests in one person as murder, another as adultery, and yet another as pride. And wouldn’t it be nice if it only showed up as just one sin!
2. Because we have the laws of right living, we know how we measure up, or don’t measure up.
a. The work of the Holy Spirit makes people aware of their sinfulness. This is His work among those who don’t follow the ways of Jesus Christ so that they will be aware of their shame and come to Christ.
b. This is his work among those who do follow Christ so that every mouth will be silent and pride will not have a hold in the believer’s life. The presence of the Holy Spirit kills my pride every day. I want to be righteous, but I am aware of my sin. I desperately want to be free of it, but it lives in my body. I am helpless to rid myself of sin.
B. The contradiction is made clear with the second word of the verse. “Now” means something has changed from what it was before. The old way was impossible, but now there is a new way to become righteous. What follows will give hope to every one who has tried to live right before God and man but failed.
1. A new way of righteousness from God has been revealed.
a. Revealed, not like a mystery to be discovered by only the most ardent of sleuths or like a CSI piecing together the clues from a crime scene.
b. Revealed like the sun coming out from behind the clouds. I was depressed about my sin and the condition of my life. I was depressed because my world was darkened with despair because I was trapped by the world and there was no way out for me. No matter what I did, nothing got better because the answer was above the clouds, beyond the veil of my understanding. But now, the clouds parted. But now, the Son of God was revealed. But now, my world brightened. But now, there is hope. But now, there is understanding. But now, I am made righteous.
2. The new way is apart from the law. It is not opposed to the law. It does not cancel the law. It keeps a respectful distance from the law. The Spirit of the law remains. The righteous demands remain. But the deadly and burdensome requirements against those who failed to keep the law are gone.
3. The new way of righteousness comes from the law and the prophets. The law foreshadowed the way of righteousness that comes from the heart. The prophets foretold who would give us the new way to be right with God and man.
Proposition: The new righteousness comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe, that is, who trust Jesus enough to conform their lives to the life and teachings of Jesus.
Interrogative: How will conforming your life to the ways of Jesus Christ lift the weight of sin from your life?
Transition: Living according to Jesus’ teaching lifts the weight of sin because His way deals directly with your sin, not just your behavior.
I. Sin is common to all people. There is no difference in the nature from one person to the next.
A. All people fall short of God’s expectations because of sin.
1. “Sinned” means that all people miss the target and therefore have no claim to the reward. It isn’t a contest between people or nationalities. You don’t win the prize by being the best. You win the prize by simply taking aim and hitting the target. In fact, it is possible for all people to win. However, no one ever has.
2. “Fall short” means that the arrow never arrived at the target. The law is the bow, and it requires you to use all of your strength. The arrow represents the acts committed as you live. The target is eternal life.
3. Your sin makes you unsteady as the strength required to obey the law caused you to tremble. You shoot, but not straight. Sin is what causes you to even try to be righteous through good behavior. Sin is what blows your concentration because you were looking to see what others were doing. The result of sin is your arrow falling short of the target, laying motionless on the ground. Waiting to be picked up and thrown away.
B. Sin is common to all people so that no one has the ability to earn the prize that is available to everyone.
1. God wants everyone to win. But he won’t move the target in closer. The standard of righteousness is at the exact spot for anyone who loves God with all of his heart to succeed. Any closer and unrighteous people could attain eternal life.
2. The problem is universal. No one can win the prize. It is possible for everyone to attain righteousness through the law. But no one ever has, or will. Except, of course, Jesus Christ.
3. Therefore, righteousness must come by some other way that earning it, if anyone other than Jesus Christ is to attain it.
Transition: The good news is, the new way of righteousness comes by grace so that no one has to attempt to earn their way into eternal life.
II. People are justified by grace.
A. Justify means to render someone or something innocent. It is not proclaiming them to have reached the standard. It is proclaiming them not to need to meet the standard.
1. God simply declares someone to be innocent. It is really that simple. By entrusting your life to Jesus Christ, God decides to treat you as if you were as holy as Jesus Christ. There is no need for a contest. There is no need for quality control to weed you out.
2. Anyone who does not love the Lord will justify themselves.
a. But it won’t work. It is like getting pulled over for speeding 5 miles beyond the legal limit. You can’t justify your sin by saying the other drives were going 10 over.
b. You can’t claim justification because you don’t know the law. In America, Bibles are cheaper than white bread. We have the Word of God at our disposal if we care enough to look.
c. In fact, every religion or philosophical belief has the golden rule as its cornerstone. “Do to others as you would have them do to you.” And yet, there is no one anywhere that will match that standard. Indeed, they don’t want to because as has been stated, all people love themselves at least a little more than they love others.
3. God is the judge, and he alone renders a verdict.
B. God’s grace allows Him to overlook your sin and to proclaim you innocent.
1. There was a story of the Queen of England hosting a banquet where one of the guests was a pauper. The other guests, apparently from the sophisticated class in society, giggled as the pauper picked up his finger bowl and drank from it. The queen, not wishing to embarrass the guest, picked up her finger bowls, and with pinky properly extended, drank from her own finger bowl as the other guests became silent with chagrin. The point is: God can declare proper anyone He wishes to declare proper.
2. Jesus told the parable of the king who had a subject who owed him thousands of dollars. The servant fell on hard times and begged the king to forgive the debt. The king did. The point is: God can cancel any debt of sin that you owe Him. All sin is sin against God. All sin is rebellion against God. Therefore, if God wants to disregard sin, He can.
3. God is not moved by the efforts of people who attempt with all of their might to justify themselves. He is moved to extend grace to anyone who is ashamed of their sinfulness and come to Him for forgiveness.
Transition: God can extend grace to anyone, and extends it to all people who Jesus asks him to forgive.
III. God extends grace to all people who follow Jesus Christ because Jesus redeemed all people who belong to Him.
A. Jesus Christ won the prize.
1. Once again, back to the shooting range. Jesus Christ won the prize, in fact, is the only one ever to have won the prize. Therefore the prize is given solely to him.
a. He lived a sinless life.
b. He obeyed the Father’s will.
c. He submitted to death by sinful people even though he could have gotten out of it.
2. The prize is everything God created and eternal life to enjoy it. Jesus Christ has won it all for himself.
B. However, once a prize has been won, it belongs to the one to whom it has been awarded.
1. For instance, if I win a photography contest, the prize money is given to me. It is mine to do with as I please. There are no strings attached to it.
2. So it is with Jesus Christ. He has the prize and can do with it as he chooses.
3. He loves the Father and will not allow anything unholy to enter His presence. Therefore, he will not share the prize with anyone who is not holy.
4. But anyone who follows Jesus becomes holy. Therefore, Jesus will extend salvation to them and usher them into God’s presence.
5. Jesus simply gives to all who follow Him all creation and eternal life with which to enjoy it.
Transition: The prize is worthy of all who love God because of the salvation that only comes through Jesus Christ.
Conclusion:
A. Jesus Christ won the prize of eternal life that you will never be able by your own effort to win.
B. Because of God’s grace, Jesus Christ was allowed to come to earth and win the prize. This required God to see His only son suffer and die unjustly. He allowed it so that you would not have to spend eternity in hell, but spend eternity with Him.
C. All people have failed. But, all people are offered salvation. That means you can be saved regardless of how you have failed in life. You are no different from any other person. And God’s salvation is for you, just as it is for everyone.
Application:
Communion is for all who are following Jesus’ ways as revealed in the Gospels. You can’t participate in communion unless you are. But, we want you to participate with us. So, right now, you can accept salvation through Jesus Christ. You can be forgiven of your sins right now. Come to Jesus. Come to salvation. Come to be proclaimed innocent of your sins.
