THE TURNING POINT
Romans 3:21-31
The message of Romans get more fun at this point. The accumulated bad news that makes the good news worth hearing.
This morning we begin to add in the good news. THE GOOD GOD HAS DONE IN RESPONSE TO OUR BAD.
JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH is our topic today and actually the central message of Romans.
I recently read that EVERY REVIVAL IN THE LAST 500 YEARS has directly related to the rediscovery of the DOCTRINE of JUSTIFICATION by FAITH. That basically means that we have no hope of standing right before God in our own good works but only by FAITH in one good work. The truth is that works save us, just not ours, one work done on our behalf when Christ died upon the cross to make the payment for our debt of sin.
We live in a culture that does not see themselves that as sinners. The Word of God has been so removed that most think that they will get to heaven someway. Being a good person, doing religious works, because God wouldn’t send somebody to hell.
GOD SENDS NOONE TO HELL. IF YOU WANT TO GET TO HELL YOU HAVE TO CRAWL OVER ALL THAT GOD HAS DONE SINCE THE BEGINNING OF TIME INCLUDING THE SACRIFICE OF HIS OWN SON!!! He doesn’t send us to hell we choose it. The only thing God does do is to not force a person into heaven. We all make our own choice.
SIX STATEMENTS REGARDING JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH:
To help us gain an understanding of what God has really done for us.
When He found us in our sinful condition how did He solve our dilemma.
(21) But now APART FROM THE LAW the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the LAW and the prophets.
(22) even the righteousness of God THRU FAITH IN JESUS CHRIST for all those who believe; for there is no distinction.
(23) for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
(24) being justified as a gift(freely) by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus.
David Dykes pastor of Green Acres BC in Tyler says that when he was in seminary he was given the assignment of studying 8 sermons from a Billy Graham crusade. He was to see how many times Romans 3:23 was quoted. ‘For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God’. In one crusade it was quoted 56 times.
This morning I want to look at three very important words:
Justification, Redemption and Propitiation
JUSTIFICATION IS APART FROM THE LAW:
(21) But now APART FROM THE LAW the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the LAW and the prophets.
Paul has spent all this time showing us the purpose of the Law.
The Jew’s mistake was thinking the Law was given to make us righteous. Pharisees even added additional things.
The LAW was actually given to show us that righteousness is IMPOSSIBLE unless is it given by God. IMPUTED RIGHTEOUSNESS.
Some make the same mistake with SERMON ON MOUNT or the Ten Commandments,
The Sermon on the Mount is the amplification of the Law.
It makes it very clear that no one can stand there and say I AM WITHOUT GUILT. (Schoolmaster, Tutor):
Did you know that Charlie Chaplin once entered a Charlie Chaplin look alike contest and came second. Amazing, the judges could not tell the authentic Chaplin from the imposter. But similarly, a lot of Christians don’t know the gospel or cannot recognize it.
Many have heard about forgiveness but not repentance.
They have heard the call to believe but not the command to obey.
They know about heaven but not about discipleship.
(21) But now APART FROM THE LAW the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the LAW and the prophets.
JUSTIFIED: Means that I am ‘right standing to the laws I am responsible to’. An American Citizen with no outstanding warrants is in good standing with the government. Paul has shown that all of us are outlaws, have outstanding warrants against us that declare our guilt. Justification does not mean that we are without sin but that we are declared sinless. Our account is clear, we are guiltless.
If you have a name and a mailbox then you are probably pretty used to getting credit card offers. Visa, Mastercard, Chase, Bank of America, American Express. They seem to constantly come. They usually offer you a special fee for an ‘account transfer’. You can take what you owe on other cards and transfer those debts to a new card. They may or may not be a good idea. The problem is that you may have a new card but your name is still on the debt. I am still waiting for the credit card offer that allows me to transfer all my credit card debt to somebody else’s account.
I stand before you a very flawed person, far from perfect and fighting the good fight against sin every day. But I stand before God completely sinless and justified because the righteousness of Christ has been placed upon my account before Him.
As far as He is concerned I stand before Him just-as-if-I have never sinned. But I don’t like that way of saying it and I will tell you why in a few moments.
Warren Wiersbe tells the story about a man who purchased a Rolls Royce and decided to tour through Europe. As he was enjoying his drive when suddenly his Rolls Royce broke down and no one around could fix it. He sent a cable to Rolls Royce in England and they flew a man over who did the repairs. The man thought, “This is going to cost me a ton of money.” He waited for a bill but it never came’ He sent a letter to the company telling what had happened, how the mechanic had fixed his car, and wondered what the charge would be. He got a letter back from the Rolls Royce Company which said, Dear Sir, Thank you so much for your letter. You need to know that we have no record in our files that any Rolls Royce has ever broken down at any place, at any time, for any reason. You may fail, you may break down and run yourself into a ditch, but God Almighty looks down at you and says, “There is no record that my child has ever broken down at all.” Your sin record is wiped away and you are credited with the perfect, eternally secure righteousness of our Lord Jesus Christ.
MANIFESTED: Comes from two words meaning, ‘strike and hand’.
To be struck with the hand does not go unnoticed. How holy God is does not go unnoticed when we truly understand both the LAW and the PROPHETS.
LAW/PROPHETS: Two sources that attest to God’s Holiness. From Genesis thru the entirety of the OT demonstrates that man has a sin problem that is offensive to the holiness of God.
(1) Sacrifices from Genesis 3 onward. All those blood sacrifices were meant to remind man of the seriousness of sin and to look forward to the time that God would send His perfect sacrifice. The one that would satisfy His holiness.
JUSTIFIED THRU FAITH IN JESUS CHRIST:
(22) even the righteousness of God THRU FAITH IN JESUS CHRIST for all those who believe; for there is no distinction.
That is the avenue of Justification.
The Law is a road sign to direct us to that destination which is Jesus.
An offer made to every person: no distinction.
We all make distinctions we shouldn’t.
Distinctions cause us to choose relationships with some and not with others.
It causes clichés to develop, it is the root of loneliness in many people’s lives.
GOD DOES NOT CHOOSE FAVORITES.
JEWS THOUGHT they were God’s favorites. Something special about them.
DUET 7:6 The Lord God has chosen you to be a people for His own possession who are on the face of the earth. The Lord did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were MORE IN NUMBER than any of the peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples(1 man), but BECAUSE the Lord loved you ……
They were chosen to be evangelists to the world but they became overly impressed with how much better they thought they were than the Gentiles. We can do the same thing: We might think the world is so ugly and godless that we retreat into our own little religious cliché and stop sharing God’s message of Jesus Christ to warn them.
(23) for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
Sinned: Greek aorist tense: Past event with lasting effect. Not just our own personal sinful behavior but in Romans 5 Paul shows how we all sinned in ADAM(past event) and the lasting effect was DEATH.
Fall short: Not have ‘fallen short’ but a present tense ‘continually fall’.
Not just that Adam’s sin condemned us with the lasting effect of death but that we continue to fall short of God’s standard in our own behavior.
If you grit your teeth and go out into this week saying, ‘I will not sin’. It won’t happen.
Somewhere a thought, an attitude, a behavior, something you fail to do will show your sin nature at work.
‘Jumping the Mississippi River’. Our family lived for years along the Mississippi river in Hannibal. The distance to Illinois on the other side was about a mile. What if I invited people of all ages, sizes, athletic ability? Then I gave them as much room as they wanted to get a running start. They could wear any shoes they wanted. Remember it is jumping THE Mississippi, not JUMPING INTO the Mississippi. Nothing short of landing in Illinois makes it.
Michael Jordon shows up as well as the last Olympic long jump champion. Some would jump farther while others would make bigger splashes but NO ONE WOULD MAKE IT TO THE OTHER SIDE. It is physically impossible.
NO ONE CAN LIVE UP TO GOD’S PERFECT STANDARD, it is morally impossible to do because of our sin natures.
It is childish to say I jumped farther than you…does not matter.
Every definition of Sin describes how we are missing what we aim at: Fall short, missed the mark, not hitting the target,
JUSTIFICATION WITHOUT A REASON: (24) being justified as a gift(freely) by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus.
Freely literally means, ‘without cause’.
Meaning that God didn’t see anything in you or me that was worthy of His grace.
AS A GIFT: nothing we have earned or deserved. Imagine your boss handing you your paycheck and saying ‘here is a gift for you’.
Redemption: A word found repeatedly in the Bible. One of the words used speaks of a slave market. AGORA.
The idea of this word: Seedy place, surrounded by terrible slave buyers, you up on the auction block, SIN OWNS YOU, calls the shots in your life, JESUS STEPS into this ugly place and pays the purchase price for you.
The reason why I don’t that definition often used of JUSTIFICATION: Just As If I Never Sinned. It leaves something very important out. We do stand guiltless and in the righteousness of Christ which has been imputed to our account BUT It is not as if we have never sinned. JESUS PAID THE DEBT OF OUR SIN AND ALL THE GLORY SHOULD GO TO HIM.
A great illustration of this is found in the OT book of RUTH. It is the concept of the KINSMEN REDEEMER. Elimelech and Naomi were from Bethlehem but went to Moab and had two sons. Those sons married two Moabite women named Orpah and Ruth(Oprah’s mother gave her this name but misspelled it on birth certificate). Elimelech and the two sons died so the three women stood deciding what to do and where to go. There was a famine so Naomi was going back to where she came from which was Bethlehem(house of bread/one day born the Bread of Life). She encouraged the women to return to Moab and find husbands. Orpah did but Ruth chose to go with Naomi to Bethlehem. Through married Ruth had become related to Elimelech’s family to a man named Boaz who was very rich. Until he redeemed her she would remain outside the family. Boaz fell in love with Ruth and sought to redeemer. The problem was that he was not first in line to do so. Boaz went to the closer relative and purchased the right from him to redeem Naomi and with her Ruth. He and Ruth were then married. We like Ruth had no hope and yet like Boaz the God who loves us steps forward and offers to redeem us and bring us into a relationship with Him.
JUSTIFICATION COMES THRU GOD’S SON: which is in Christ Jesus (25) Whom God displayed publically as a propitiation in His blood through faith.
Think of the shame of standing on an auction block and being bid for.
Jesus hung on the cross for you and me and took our shame.
Displayed publically. JESUS became a PROPITIATION:
“propitiation” in the NASB and “sacrifice of atonement” in the NIV. The Greek term is hilasterion, for which we have no direct English translation. The Hebrew related word in the Old Testament is kippur, as in the holiday, Yom Kippur,”day of Atonement’. On Yom Kippur the high priest was to take two male goats before the congregation of Israel and cast lots to determine the fate of each goat. The priest was then to “offer the goat on which the lot for the LORD fell, and make it a sin offering” (Lev. 16:9). The high priest entered behind the 9-10 inch thick veil into the Most Holy Place of the tabernacle, where the Ark of the Covenant rested. The high priest—and only the high priest—could enter the Most Holy Place once each year on Yom Kippur. The priest was to sprinkle the blood of the sacrificed goat on the kapporet which means “mercy seat, propitiation/ satisfaction” This symbolized the satisfaction of God’s holy wrath against sin by means of death. The high priest then laid his hands on the head of the other goat symbolically transferring the sins of the people to the “scapegoat.” This more fortunate goat was then allowed to run free into the wilderness, bearing Israel’s sins’.
In HIS BLOOD: That is why His Shed blood is so important. It is His shed blood that satisfies God’s Holiness.
Jesus’ life was given but His blood met the requirements of the Law.
Jesus Christ took HIS OWN BLOOD as our GREAT HIGH PRIEST and provided a satisfactory offering.
This was to demonstrate His righteousness because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed; (26) for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
The Jew’s sin was not forgiven completely when he went to the temple and offered a bull or a goat. God PASSED OVER.
Their offering was meant to be an ACT OF FAITH that looked forward to when God’s perfect sinless sacrifice would be provided.
Daniel, David, Moses, none were saved by their sacrificial offering but they were saved as we are saved by Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross. When we observe the Lord’s Supper it is in remembrance of Jesus’ death and sacrifice: We look backwards at a FACT while they looked forward through FAITH because of God’s promises.
We remember the shed blood and they looked forward thru its reminder.
That He would be the JUST and the JUSTIFIER. God did both.
This is what is so amazing about the Gospel.
God remains JUST: His holiness was not sacrificed in our being forgiven of our sin. WHEN A GUILTY MAN IS SET FREE THE JUDGE IS CONDEMNED.
God also provides for our JUSTIFICATION: His own Son came and met the requirements.
(27) Where then is boasting? IT IS EXCLUDED. By what kind of Law? Of works? NO, but by the law of FAITH.
JUSTIFIED TO GOD’S GLORY: (27) Where then is boasting?
If I am drowning and someone swims out to save me and drags me into shore. Would I start to brag about myself? A pat on my back because I allowed Him to bring me to shore, I rested in His strength, allowed His work to happen on my behalf.
I AM GOING TO BRAG ABOUT THE LIFEGUARD FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE. Buy him gifts, send him cards, let him know at every opportunity how grateful I am. To brag about how God should love you because you are so special is to steal the credit that should go only to one person: Jesus Who left holy heaven for sinful earth and was beaten and killed for us.
LIFESAVING CLASS: Taught to dunk the person if they began to exert their strength while we were trying to bring them to shore.
When we understand the doctrine of justification by grace through faith,
We will cease trusting our efforts more than His grace
We will understand that there is no class distinction in Heaven. Boasting erects walls; grace takes them down.
We will give glory to God
We will be encouraged in our witness because we will know that it is possible for even the most wayward and broken to be saved
It will make us softer rather than hard; humble rather than arrogant
There will be boasting in Heaven, but the focus of our boasting will not be our greatness but the greatness of the Lord!
In Revelation 4:10,11 we are told that the redeemed “are casting their crowns before the throne, while they say, ‘Thou are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power.’”
When we understand the gospel we are filled not with pride, but gratitude and worship.
WILLIAM COWPER: Years ago lost his mother at age 6. Put into a boarding school. Beaten and bullied by bigger kids. Felt in terror all day long. By the age of 25 had twice tried to take his life. At 25 was committed to an asylum and put under the care of a man named DR. COTTON. Dr. Cotton led William Cowper to faith in Christ. He began to go to the Bible for comfort when he would have his fits of terror. One day he turned to Romans 3:24-25. It transformed his life when he understood what the blood of Jesus Christ really meant. A brand new person. Wrote later:
There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel’s veins,
and sinners plunge beneath that flood lose all their guilty stain.
The dying thief rejoiced to see that fountain in his day, and there have I though vile as he washed all my sins away.
Ere since by faith I saw the stream Thy flowing wounds supply, redeeming love has been my theme and shall be till I die.
JUSTIFICATION CLARIFIED: (Summarizing statements)
(28) For we maintain that a MAN IS JUSTIFIED by faith apart from the works of the Law.
(31) Do we then nullify the Law through faith? May it never be!
On the contrary, we establish the Law. It’s real purpose is realized.
When the Law takes its proper position in our lives and we respond to what it reveals about us with an attitude of faith then we can find our hope of righteousness through God’s chosen way: Jesus Christ.
On June 23, 2000, a deaf couple stood before Judge Donald McDonough in a Fairfax, Virginia, court and offered no defense to their landlord’s complaint that they were behind on the rent. Their recent marriage unfortunately resulted in the loss of disability benefits, most of which kept a roof over their heads. Now they were $250 behind and had no hope of making up the deficit.
Judge McDonough couldn’t disagree. The landlord was due his rent, the couple was indeed guilty of nonpayment, and justice could not be set aside. Once the attorney for the plaintiff had closed his case, the judge suddenly left the courtroom. A few moments later, he returned from his chambers with $250 in cash, handed it to the landlord’s attorney, and said, “Consider it paid.”
With a transfer of funds from the just to the unjust, the debt was paid and the case dismissed. The law had been satisfied.
Jesus’ last words from the cross were recorded in John 19 when He said, ‘It is finished’ and then breathed His last breath. ‘CONSIDER IT PAID’.
That deaf couple could have refused to accept what the Judge did to pay their rent and they could have remained condemned and still responsible to pay their own debt. That is the choice of many today when they hear the gospel.
