“Between the Lines: Balancing the Books”
Romans 3:21-31
It never fails. I get the checkbook balanced and then it doesn’t agree with my computer budget program. Or I get the computer totals balanced and it doesn’t agree with the bank statement or my checkbook. It is so important to balance the books – but it can be so frustrating. I imagine I’m not the only one here today who has, more than once, thrown up hands and said, “I quit!” Sometimes we’d like to do the very same thing with the balance in the book of our lives. No matter how hard we try, we cannot seem to balance out the scales of good and evil in our lives. As we throw up our hands in frustration we agree with Paul (verse 23): “There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God…” We need help to balance our books.
To begin with, we are in AN UNSOLVABLE SITUATION. Let’s review what we have learned from Paul in the last few weeks. The most succinct summary is to say that the world is in chaos because non-Christians have refused to acknowledge God, but Christians are guilty as well as they have refused to live up to the standards God has set in His law. There is no difference – all have sinned and come up short of God’s glory. We stand naked before Him as he declares us guilty because of our sin.
So the reality is that WE NEED TO BE SAVED FROM GOD. Salvation does not mean, primarily, we are saved from sin, from the devil, from the world, or from the flesh. To be saved means that God has saved us from Himself. Through our sin, God has become our enemy. The worst scenario, the most painful situation anyone can ever experience is to face the wrath of God’s judgment. Who, in his right mind, wants to stand naked before the throne of an almighty, holy God? What would that be like?
Chapter one gives us a slight glimpse. There we discover that GOD’S WRATH HAS BEEN REVEALED. As part of God’s judgment in this life God gives people up to their own lusts and desires; it is not a pretty picture: “…Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another… God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion. Furthermore…he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless.” And this is just a glimpse, a hint of the full extent of God’s wrath. This represents only God removing Himself from the world and letting people experience the results of their own actions. Can you imagine what it will be like when God actively issues forth his punishment? And as Paul said, we are all guilty!
The problem is we are so accustomed to sin we do not recognize it’s gravity. I once read the news account of the two Lake Worth, Florida, high school boys. They were suspended from school because they ate so much garlic that no one could stand to have them around. They had read that garlic has properties for cleansing blood and lowering blood pressure. So they each ate half a head of garlic. The next morning for breakfast both students consumed three or four more heads of garlic. When the teachers and students complained about their odor, the boys simply laughed and went on eating garlic. When confronted by school officials, one of the boys stated that it couldn’t be all that bad because, “We’re blowing in each other’s face, and we couldn’t smell garlic.” They were so accustomed to the garlic, they were desensitized to the smell. Similarly, we become so accustomed to a world and a heart of sin, that we fail to grasp the depth, the stench, of our sin. As A. W. Tozer put it, “UNTIL WE BELIEVE THAT WE ARE AS BAD AS GOD SAYS WE ARE, WE CAN NEVER BELIEVE THAT HE WILL DO FOR US WHAT HE SAYS HE WILL DO.”
Because we are as bad as God says we are, God has established a day in which he is going to judge the world. His holiness demands it. To be holy, God must judge sin. JUSTICE MUST BE SERVED. And if we have never contemplated the wrath of God, we can never fully experience the grace of God. We cannot appreciate light until we have been enveloped by darkness. If we are wrapped in garlic, we are, according to Paul, treasuring up wrath for the day of wrath! We are all obligated to bend our knees to Jesus Christ. Every moment we spend outside of total submission to Jesus we are treasuring up wrath. The Heidelberg Catechism (Q&A 12) reminds us that “…God requires that divine justice be satisfied. Therefore the claims of this justice must be paid in full, either by ourselves or by another.”
And remember, we cannot balance the books by ourselves, by good deeds, by being nice or religious, or even by religious ceremonies. Baptism does not save anyone. It is pure symbol – a very important one. It is an opportunity to claim God’s faithfulness and to make promises to Him; but it does not save anyone. When we take communion, it does not save us. It enriches us – Jesus Christ is revealed to us; but it does not save us. Our books can only be balanced through death. And only the death of someone unblemished is acceptable to a holy God. Who do you know that is unblemished? There is nothing we can do. A bankrupt man cannot pay creditors without help. A drowning woman cannot pull herself up by her hair. We do not have it within us to bridge the gap between God and us.
And no other mere human can help us. Years ago – long before the internet and advanced technology – our family went on vacation. I needed to have my paycheck deposited while we were gone so my father offered to go to the bank an deposit it when the check was available. The teller would not allow him to make the deposit for us; she said only the owner of the account could do so. He politely argued with her that he wasn’t withdrawing money he was putting money in and there should be no problem. (As a lawyer he had certain ways of saying things effectively!) But her stance was that no one else could deposit it for me. It sounds just like the Catechism, doesn’t it? (Q&A 14) “Can another creature any at all pay this debt for us? Answer. No. God will not punish any other creature for what a human being has committed. Besides, no mere creature can bear the weight of God's eternal wrath against sin and release others from it.”
Let’s say I challenge you to jump from this platform to the Narthex. Some of you will come closer than others, but no one will make it all the way. That’s the way it is when it comes to trying to rescue ourselves through our goodness: some come closer than others, but no one comes close. And there is no one who could hold your hand and jump with you to enable you to make it all the way. So we need help. We cringe at such bad news – and preachers today aren’t supposed to preach such bad news. BUT WE CANNOT UNDERSTAND THE GOOD NEWS UNTIL WE UNDERSTAND THE BAD NEWS. The bad news is that we are in an unsolvable situation. Holiness demands the God punish sin. Mercy demands that God love the sinner. We are condemned by God to die for our sin. And we are incapable of bartering a deal to save ourselves. Mercy demands that God find a way to love us. There is no way out.
But the good news is that there is AN UNBELIEVABLE SOLUTION. God has solved what we cannot! God has offered us a way. The Heidelberg Catechism, in question and answer 18, states that Jesus was given to us to set us completely free and to make us right with God. That’s a beautiful way to restate what Paul wrote. First of all, JESUS HAS REDEEMED US. Verse 24: “…we are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” We are set free. Redemption means the act of freeing someone by the paying of a price. A solider captured during war by the Roman army was doomed to a life of slavery – unless someone paid a steep price for his liberty. A criminal sentenced to life could receive freedom if a wealthy person paid a huge sum. A worshiper, because she offended God, deserved to die, but was allowed to live if she offered the life of a sacrificial lamb as a substitute. These all represent redemption. But understand that we are the slaves, in bondage to sin and the power of evil; we are the lawbreakers sentenced for life; we are the rebellious worshipers condemned to die. And Jesus paid the enormous price – His own life – to set us free. (23-25 NLT) “For all have sinned; all fall short of God's glorious standard. Yet now God in his gracious kindness declares us not guilty. He has done this through Christ Jesus, who has freed us by taking away our sins. For God sent Jesus to take the punishment for our sins and to satisfy God's anger against us. We are made right with God when we believe that Jesus shed his blood, sacrificing his life for us.” All our offenses against God, all of our shortcomings, all our injuries to other people, all of the missed opportunities, the wasted resources and gifts, all our selfishness – cancelled, forgiven, forgotten, forever! Jesus has cleared up our account and balanced our books! No matter who you are – there is no difference – you are forgiven because of Jesus Christ. Jesus has paid the price. Jesus has redeemed us.
Then, too, JESUS HAS RECONCILED US. Verse 25: “God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement…” In the Old Testament there was an elaborate drama that centered on the sacrifice of a lamb. An unblemished lamb was killed and taken by the high priest into the most holy of places, the Holy of Holies. There, behind a veil, was the throne of God, the Ark of the Covenant. Inside the ark was a copy of the law of God. Covering the ark was the mercy seat. The blood of the slain lamb was sprinkled on that mercy seat. This re-established right relationship with God. Here’s the significance for us: the New Testament Greek word for the Old Testament ‘mercy seat’ is translated ‘reconciliation’ and is the same word that is used to describe Jesus. Jesus is our mercy seat – our reconciler. Through Jesus we are right with God. That’s why Paul wrote of Jesus (2 Cor. 5:19): “…God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them.”
On the Day of Atonement there was a special sacrifice. Following the regular sacrifices the high priest put his hands upon a goat, symbolizing the transfer of the sin of the people to the goat. Called the scapegoat this goat was then driven outside their camp into the wilderness where it would be a stranger to the household of God. So God took our entire account and put it on Jesus, who carried it away into the very depths of hell itself. The treasure of wrath that we have been storing up, the mass of evil that has infected us, was taken from our account and placed on Jesus. In 2 Cor. 5:21 Paul wrote, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” It’s not just that Jesus bore my sin – he became my sin. The treasure of wrath that I have been storing up, the mass of evil that has infected me, all the sins I have committed, all the pain and disharmony and dysfunction I have caused, all the separation I have experienced – Jesus took into Himself. And not just mine, but yours – and yours – and yours – and yours. All our sin, all the affects of our sin, Jesus took into Himself. And not just ours, but the sin and consequences of the whole world – Jesus took into Himself. No wonder He felt separated from God. A holy God had to abandon Him. No wonder Jesus cried from the cross, “My God, my God – why have you forsaken me?” All that, just to reconcile us to God our Father.
But the good news continues! GOD STILL OFFERS US A WAY. God did not make salvation a one time event or offer. The offer of salvation is still on the table. We need no coupons for our redemption. Our acquittal is not based on our good deeds; it is based on our faith NLT, vs. 27-28): “So we are made right with God through faith and not by obeying the law.” The way out of the chaotic world of sin and its consequences is THROUGH FAITH IN JESUS. I don’t fully understand how it all works. But then I don’t understand electricity either; but I’m no fool – I’m not going to sit in the dark or stick my finger in a plug until I do. I don’t understand the thermodynamics of internal combustion and the hydraulics of an automatic transmission either, but I’m no fool – I’m not going to refuse to drive a car until I do. The truth is that I don’t understand a great deal of the things that are part of my everyday life, but I make them a part of my life anyway. The same is true of salvation. No one can fully understand how God could become a man in Jesus, how He could die, how his death could be the basis for our forgiveness, how He could give you and me a new life, and all of the other aspects of salvation. But only a fool would ignore such a great opportunity just because he didn’t understand it. Just believe it. Have faith in Jesus. As John wrote (Jn. 1:12-13) “But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. They are reborn—not with a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan, but a birth that comes from God.” Just believe it. Have faith in Jesus.
And realize that IT IS THE ONLY WAY. Jesus said it, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6) Paul confirmed it (1 Tim. 2:5): “For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all.” Christians have been called intolerant because we proclaim Jesus is the only way. But Confucius didn’t pay the price; Mohammed never paid the price; Buddha can’t pay the price. Only Jesus, the Son of God paid the price. He was the only One sent from God. Only God can satisfy God. We are not intolerant – we are compassionate. We are deeply desire live between the lines and to help other people to get between the lines by believing in Jesus, to let the death of Jesus balance their books. Romans 3:21-14 (MSG) summarizes it clearly: “The God-setting-things-right that we read about has become Jesus-setting-things-right for us. And not only for us, but for everyone who believes in him. For there is no difference between us and them in this. Since we've compiled this long and sorry record as sinners (both us and them) and proved that we are utterly incapable of living the glorious lives God wills for us, God did it for us. Out of sheer generosity he put us in right standing with himself. A pure gift. He got us out of the mess we're in and restored us to where he always wanted us to be. And he did it by means of Jesus Christ.”
The Books are balanced. But salvation through Jesus Christ is more than a theological doctrine to be understood; it is a source of transforming power to be channeled into our hearts through faith. So believe it. Share it.
