RIGHTEOUSNESS, ROAD CONSTRUCTION, AND REDEMPTION (Romans 3:21-25a, 27-28)
Romans 3:21-25 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. 25 God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood.
It’s summertime now, and that means that the road construction season is in full swing. If you’ve driven to Milwaukee, or to Madison, you’ve seen the barrels, the flashing lights, the signs that tell you to slow down. There are ways to avoid the road construction – take a side road here, a county road there. Sometimes, as I experiment with these side roads, I wonder if it’s really worth it. Maybe I would have gotten to Milwaukee or Madison faster if I just would have stayed on the freeway slowly driving through the barrels. That might be true, but it doesn’t stop me from looking for another way.
We live in a world where people are looking for other ways. Not other ways to Milwaukee or Madison, but other ways to God. There are so many religions in the world today, so many ways people are trying to find God. And each way, each religion, is trying to answer a very important question: “What is the way to be right with God? What am I supposed to do, so that God will be happy with me, and bless me, and someday let me into his heaven? The Bible calls that “righteousness.” “Righteousness” means that you are right with God, and many people are looking for this in their lives. Are you? Are you sure that God is happy with you right now? Are you sure that when you die, God will let you into his heaven? No doubts? No worries?
What is the way to be right with God? Which religion is right? Is it the religion that focuses on the Triune God – the God who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit? Or is there another way? This morning we are going to focus on that question, and see what God says to us in his Word.
Where is the last place people look when they want to learn about God? It’s ironic, really – for many people, the last place they look is the Bible. It reminds me of what happens in my house - when my wife or I buy something that requires assembly, usually I will spend an hour trying to put it together intuitively, without directions, and it doesn’t work out. Finally, my wife, suggests to me that maybe I should try reading the directions. Then I do, and suddenly, it’s not so difficult after all.
The reason there are so many religions in the world is that people are trying to figure out God intuitively – without reading his directions. Where do you find the directions on how to be right with God? You look in his Word, the Bible. And step one is this passage right here… Romans 3:22 says, “There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Everyone is sinful, and no one is right with God. Step one of understanding God is first of all, understanding that you’re sinful.
Before coming to Lakeside, I spent a few years in the mission field, talking to people who didn’t have a church home. I would ask them, why do you think God will let you into heaven someday? 99% of the time, the person would say, “Someday, God will let me into heaven because I’m trying hard to be a good person. I try hard to be good to my family. I try to work hard at my job. I don’t break laws, I pay my taxes. I try to be a good person. I think that’s why God will someday let me into heaven.”
But are you sure, I would say. Are you absolutely, positively sure? “No,” was always the answer. Do you see the problem? This person hasn’t read God’s directions. This person doesn’t understand that all have sinned, and fall short of God’s glory.
Have you ever seen the Grand Canyon? It is beautiful – a huge canyon with different colored rocks all the way down. Is it possible to jump over the Grand Canyon? No. Even if you took the greatest of all the athletes in the world, and the wind was at his back, and he tried hard, he still wouldn’t be able to jump across the Grand Canyon. He still would fall short.
God tells us that no matter how nice you are, how hard you try, you still fall short of the glory of God. And the reason why, is that God requires perfection, if you want to earn his love. “Be perfect,” Jesus says, “as your Heavenly Father is perfect.” That’s a big canyon to jump across! How can anyone be perfect? We all have moments of weakness, moments when we are selfish or impatient, moments when we say or do the wrong thing. Even thinking the wrong thing is a sin in the eyes of God. We try hard, but how can anyone be perfect? “All have sinned,” it says here, “and fall short of the glory of God.”
If you have chosen this road to get to heaven, you’ve chosen a popular road, but it’s a dead end. Everyone who travels on this road goes to hell, every religion based on this concept of earning God’s love by being a good person is going the wrong way - and will never see the heaven that God wants them to have.
What is the way to be right with God? It’s the road that focuses on Jesus. “All are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” There’s the road – redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
What is redemption? It’s the idea of buying something back that once belonged to you – maybe there’s even something wrong with it. If you buy something at a store, and you don’t like it – you found something wrong with it – you take it back to the store – and they buy it back, even if there’s something wrong with it. That’s redemption. You and I once belonged to God. But we sinned. There’s something very wrong with us. But God buys us back. He redeems us.
And how did he do that? It was the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. You and I could never be perfect, so Jesus was perfect for us. He was the perfect child that you and I could never be. He was the perfect citizen, even obeying the corrupt Roman government. He was the perfect friend, even to the friends who abandoned him. He was the perfect worshiper, the perfect pray-er, the perfect listener of God’s Word. Jesus did all of this as your substitute. Since you and I can’t be perfect, Jesus was perfect in our place. And God freely gives you the credit for his perfect life. We “are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”
When God bought you, it was expensive. How much did it cost God? “God presented (Jesus) as a sacrifice of atonement through faith in his blood.” God offered his Son Jesus, who died that perfect death on the cross. Instead of you and I being punished for our sins, Jesus was punished in our place. A gigantic price was paid. God did all of this because he was buying you, making you right with him.
This is the way to heaven. This is the right religion. “This righteousness comes from God (not from you, trying to be a good person) through faith in Jesus Christ (not faith in yourself) to all who believe.” On this Father’s Day, we remember our Heavenly Father. And what is it that makes him special? Only in Christianity is God presented as a loving Father who gives you righteousness for free, who makes big sacrifices for you because he loves you. All the other religions of the world picture God as a mysterious angry father who makes all kinds of demands on you that you could never measure up to. But here, in the Bible, we find a Father who loves you so much that he gives everything to you through his Son Jesus.
And so as you see all those construction barrels this summer, all those flashing lights, remember this: the road to heaven stands wide open before you, and that road is Jesus Christ. Travel on that road, and you will find righteousness. Travel on that road, and you will find redemption. Are you sure that God will let you into his heaven someday? Yes I am sure, because I trust in Jesus Christ, not in myself, and I trust in the promises of my loving Father, and he will never let me down. Amen.
