Romans 3:23-26
“The Gift of Redemption”
I. The Reason for the Gift (23)
• Gifts are always given for a reason, special event or even out of need.
• “All have sinned.”
o Not will or might, but have sinned aorist tense- one time past event that is affecting the current condition.
o Romans 5:12
o Looking at it through God’s eyes even those yet to be born are already condemned by sin and declared guilty.
Psalm 51:5 (NKJV)
5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, And in sin my mother conceived me.
• “Come short of the glory of God.” Present tense.
o We have all sinned and are still falling short of God’s glory.
o God’s glory = His presence and His fellowship.
• Why do we keep falling short?
o Can we try our best to be a good person or to keep God’s commandments and then somehow make up for our sin (Vs. 20)
Jeremiah 2:22 (NASB95)
22 “Although you wash yourself with lye And use much soap, The stain of your iniquity is before Me,” declares the Lord GOD.
o God’s standard is perfection in every aspect of the Law and no one is able to do it.
o Jesus taught in Matthew 5 that we must even keep the spirit of the Law.
• Until we come to this point, realizing in ourselves and our own power that we are helpless and hopeless, we cannot receive God’s gift.
II. The Purpose of the Gift (24)
• If the reason for the gift was sin, then the purpose of the gift is for us to be justified.
• “Justified” “just as if I have never sinned” is not entirely accurate.
o Its not that God ignores or turns a blind eye to our sin, it’s just that Jesus Christ paid the debt of our sin.
• “Being justified freely” means without cost or as a gift and is a continuous action.
• “By His grace” that is by God’s unmerited favor.
o Illustration of the widow and the princess.
• “Through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus”
o That is the gift of God, that was needed because of sin and whose purpose was to declare us justified.
o The redemption is the gift that sets us free from the penalty of sin (justification), keeps us from the power of sin (sanctification), and will deliver us from the presence of sin (glorification).
o Redeeming a coupon who pays for it?
o Target illustration cashing it in.
• *turn to Ephesians 2:8-9; but what we do with the gift is just as important as receiving the gift, Vs. 10.
III. The Price of the Gift (25a)
• “When God hath set forth” publicly displayed.
• Jesus was made the “propitiation,” that is a sacrifice that satisfies the wrath of God. (How it was in the OT mercy seat, Day of Atonement).
• The only way we can get from being guilty sinners to standing justified before God is that our debt was paid in full.
• God made a transaction on our behalf, He took Christ’s sinless perfect life and deposited it into an account with our name on it.
• “Through faith in His blood.”
o Without faith it is impossible to please God!
o Faith is how we claim our redemption, how we tap into that account.
o The price for our gift was that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, spilt His own blood.
o While our salvation was free, it was not cheap!
• Has you ever taken this gift from God and opened it, and if so how has it changed your life?
2 Corinthians 5:17 (NKJV)
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
IV. The Power of the Gift (25b-26)
• The power of Christ’s sacrifice allows God to judge sins past, present and future while declaring His righteousness.
• The argument could have been made that because of “the forbearance of God,” that is His restraint in pouring out His wrath against past sin, that God was overlooking it.
• Vs. 26 God chose to show His righteousness at this time and this way so that:
1 Corinthians 2:5 (NKJV)
5 that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.
• The power of God’s gift of redemption brings together a just God and a sinful man through the justifier, Jesus Christ. For all those who believe!
1 John 1:6-7 (NASB95)
6 If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; 7 but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.
