A. Let me begin with a question this morning: How many of us here today want to escape God’s judgment and wrath against sin?
1. We all want to escape God’s judgment and wrath against sin, don’t we?
2. But how can we do that? How can we make sure God’s judgment and wrath don’t fall on us?
B. Let me offer this vivid illustration.
1. In the early days of our country, when pioneers were moving westward and setting up farms out on the prairies, they were often devastated by raging wild fires sweeping out of control across the plains.
2. The settlers would see the wild fire coming and wouldn’t know what to do.
3. Some would try to grab a few belongings and run for their lives – some were successful and others were not, but either way the fire would burn to the ground everything they had built.
4. But soon, the pioneers discovered a way they could endure the fires.
5. As soon as they knew a fire was coming, they would fight fire with fire.
6. They set fire to the foliage close to their homes and barns, and the controlled fires would then be put out leaving a large burned out area surrounding their homes and barns.
7. Then as the wildfire swept toward them, they simply stayed in place where the fire had already burned, and when they stayed where the fire had already burned, the wildfire couldn’t touch them.
C. Spiritually speaking, where has the fire of God’s judgment and wrath already fallen and burned things up? At the cross of Jesus.
1. The only safe place for us to escape the fire of God’s judgment and wrath against sin is at the foot of the cross.
2. We must take our stand, and put our hope and our trust in the cross of Christ.
3. If we will do that, then the judgment and wrath of God will not touch us.
D. This is the good news that I want us to explore today.
1. This is the good news that Paul shares at this point in the book of Romans.
2. You and I have endured three chapters of Paul’s description of the bad news and why God is justified in pouring out His judgment and wrath on sinful humanity.
3. Now Paul is ready to share the way to be made right with God.
E. So how can all people be made right with God?
1. It is the most important question and the biggest problem facing all people.
2. Throughout history people have been trying to answer that question and deal with that problem.
3. Unfortunately, so many people have tried all kinds of wrong ways to make themselves right with God.
a. Some have offered their children on an altar, hoping to appease their god.
b. Some like Simeon Stylites who died in 459 lived on top a pillar for 37 years.
b. Some have cut themselves with knives, hoping to win the approval of their deity.
c. Some have laid on beds of nails, walked on hot coals or hit themselves with wips.
d. Some have killed chickens and placed the carcasses on their makeshift altars.
e. Some have prayed toward Mecca and recited their prayers.
f. Some have prayed the rosary or the Lord’s prayer.
g. Some have given huge sums of money.
h. Some have tried to never miss a mass or a worship service, or a Wednesday night prayer meeting.
4. My point in this long list is to help us to see that none of these things, whether they are bad or good things, will ever make us right with God or earn us our salvation.
5. So, if none of these ways or things can make us right with God, then what is the way to be made right with God?
F. Let’s turn our attention to Romans 3:21-26.
1. In Romans 3:21-26, Paul explains to us the right way to be made right with God.
2. This paragraph in the Bible is one of the most important in all the Bible.
a. The great reformer, Martin Luther, called this section “the chief point, and the very central place of the Epistle, and of the whole Bible.”
b. The American theologian, Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse called this passage “the heart of the Bible.”
3. Why is this paragraph so important and so special?
a. Because rarely does the Bible bring together in so few verses so many important theological ideas.
4. As we examine this paragraph, we will see how each verse and each phrase is packed with crucial and powerful truth about God’s plan for saving sinners.
G. Paul begins in verse 21: But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it—
1. The first two words are so important: “But Now…”
a. The difference between heaven and hell hangs on the significance of those two words.
b. This has been called “one of the biggest ‘buts” in all world literature.”
c. What is God’s answer to the depravity of the human race?
d. Did God turn His back on humanity? No!
e. Did God allow His judgment and wrath to fall on all of us without rescue or remedy? No!
f. “But now…” those two words signal that God has an answer for our lost and sinful state that deserves His punishment.
g. We are unrighteous and cannot save ourselves…But Now!
h. Ultimately, Christ’s coming announces a decisive shift in the way of salvation.
i. Prior to Christ’s coming there was one way, but now there is a new way.
2. Another thing we learn from this verse is that the righteousness we need comes from God and does not come from the law.
a. To the observant Jews, this was a shocking and troubling statement.
b. In Paul’s day, as in our day, many religious people sincerely believed that their religious devotion will win God’s approval.
c. Many believed and believe that law keeping makes them righteous, but it does not.
d. That doesn’t mean that the law was of no use – it is the law that reveals the righteousness of God.
e. And as Paul said in prior verses, the law makes us conscious of sin, but it cannot make us cleansed of sin.
f. While the law was shining a spotlight on God’s glorious nature and His perfect, holy will, it was also at the same time illuminating just how shabby and inadequate is our own obedience.
g. Nevertheless, the entire Old Testament (the law and the prophets) testifies to the new work of God that was going to come through the Messiah.
h. The new covenant and the cross of Christ were not an afterthought, they were not a “Plan B,” rather this was God’s intention from the beginning to provide a righteousness from God that would come through the sacrifice of His son.
H. Let’s work with verses 22 and 23 together: 22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, …
1. Paul points out that this new righteousness that comes from God is through faith in Jesus.
a. Under the OT law, righteousness came by man behaving (doing), but now through the gospel, righteousness comes by believing.
b. Not just by believing anything, but through faith in Jesus Christ.
c. Our salvation depends on more than a vague, quasi-religious confidence in “the Man upstairs,” but a faith in Jesus Christ, and a life-leaning trust on Him and His righteousness.
d. Paul will have more to say about this faith in Christ in the next verses.
2. Paul also emphasizes the fact that this righteousness is available to all who believe.
a. Why does God’s righteousness need to be available to “all who believe?” Because “all have sinned.”
b. Paul has spent three chapters convincing us of the universality of sin and now he clearly says that there is no difference or distinction between people, especially between Jew and Gentile, all are under sin’s power and all “fall short of the glory of God.”
c. The good news is that God’s cure is just as universal as the disease – it is available to all who will believe in Jesus.
d. We spent a lot of time last week talking about the fact that there is no one who is righteous.
e. None of us can save ourselves – all of us fall way short when we compare ourselves to the perfection and holiness of God – all of us fall short of God’s glory.
f. And because we all fall short, we all need the righteousness that comes from God.
g. In our human pride, we may want to save ourselves, we don’t want to admit that we are helpless, hopeless sinners, but that is what we are and that is what we have to admit, if we want to be saved.
3. So, how is it that God will make helpless, hopeless sinners become righteous in His sight?
I. The answer is found in verses 24 and 25a: 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith…
1. Paul uses three crucial words that provide illustrations of how we are made right with God.
a. The three words are: justification, redemption, and propitiation.
2. Before we examine those words and the pictures they provide, it is so important that we notice and understand that the salvation we are offered is all by God’s grace as a gift.
a. Some translations use the phrase “justified freely by his grace,” rather than the ESV “justified by his grace as a gift.”
b. The focus on God’s grace being given “freely” or as a “gift” declares the truth that it is given to us “without a cause.”
c. God’s free gift of grace means that we get what we need, not what we deserve.
d. There is nothing in us that causes God to want to save us – God wants to save us because He loves us and wants to give us a gift that we haven’t earned and don’t deserve.
e. God offers salvation to people who actually deserve condemnation.
f. Romans 6:23, “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Jesus.”
3. Now let’s focus on the heart of the gospel of Jesus Christ – how is it that the death of Jesus saves sinners?
a. Paul used three word pictures to illustrate how the death of Jesus saves us.
4. The first word picture is justification.
a. This is a legal term which means “to be set right” or “to declare not guilty.”
b. Someone has said that the way to remember what “justification” means is to remember that it sounds just like “just-as-if-I’d” never sinned.
c. The opposite of “justification” is “condemnation.”
d. Justification is the act of God whereby He declares the believing sinner righteous in Christ on the basis of the finished work of Christ on the cross.
e. Justification is an act, not a process – there are no degrees of justification – it is all or none.
f. Justification is something that God does to us and for us, not something we can do for ourselves.
g. God puts the righteousness of Christ on our record in the place of our own sinfulness.
h. And one more thing about justification: we must not confuse justification and sanctification – justification is an immediate declaration and transfer of the righteousness of Christ, whereas sanctification is an ongoing process whereby God helps us become more and more like Jesus.
i. When God, the judge, declares us justified, we are acquitted and are free from punishment.
5. The second word picture is redemption.
a. Redemption is an economic term that means to “buy back” or “to set free by the payment of a price” as when a slave was able to buy back their freedom.
b. Redemption brings to mind other words like ransoming, redeeming, and liberating.
c. When the Lindbergh baby was abducted back in the 30’s, Charles Lindbergh paid $50,000 in an attempt to redeem his son. Frank Sinatra paid $240,000 for the return of Frank, Jr.
e. Jesus tells us in Mark 10:45 that he came to “give his life as a ransom for many.”
f. God paid the price to set us free from slavery to sin - the price was the blood of His Son.
g. When we sing “Redeemed, how I love to proclaim it,” we are declaring our gratitude at having been “bought back” by the sacrifice of Jesus.
6. The third and final word picture is propitiation.
a. Propitiation is an old word that describes something that happened at the temple.
b. The NIV uses a three-word phrase “sacrifice of atonement,” but in the original Greek it is a single word.
c. The word means “to turn away wrath by the offering of a gift.”
d. In the Old Testament, the High Priest would enter the Holy of Holies in the temple on the Day of Atonement and sprinkle blood on the top of the Ark of the Covenant.
e. By the sprinkling of the blood, the sins of the people were “covered” or “atoned for” and the wrath of God against sin was thus turned away.
7. The apostle Peter described it this way: “For Christ also died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God.” (1 Peter 3:18)
a. That is as good an explanation of the process of salvation as we can find in the Bible.
b. And so, Jesus is our justification – we are declared innocent, even though we are guilty sinners – we are acquitted.
c. Jesus is our redemption – he paid the price for our sins – forgiveness may be “free” to us, but not “free” for Jesus – He had to pay the price for us – we have been freed.
d. Jesus is our propitiation – our atonement – Jesus is our High Priest and He sprinkled His own blood (not animal blood) on the mercy seat to make atonement for our sins – God’s wrath has been turned away and we are made acceptable.
J. Let’s explore one final theological concept about the gospel that Paul presented in this section.
1. Look at verses 25b and 26: This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. 26 It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
2. In these two verses, Paul explains how God’s method of salvation demonstrates His justice.
3. Sometimes we think that because God is God, He can do anything He wants, but we must understand that God cannot act in ways that violate His own nature.
a. God must act perfectly consistent with Himself – He cannot break His own law or violate His own nature.
4. And so here is the dilemma God faced: As a God of love He wants to forgive sinners, but as a God of holiness and justice, sin must be punished and cannot be swept under the carpet.
a. So how could God love sinners and yet not overlook their sin?
b. No one would ever have dreamed of God’s solution.
c. When God sent His own Son to die for sinners, then the just punishment for sin was fully met in the death of Christ and sinners who trust in Christ could be freely forgiven.
5. Paul explains that God is therefore both just (in punishing sin) and is the justifier of those who believe in Jesus.
6. But also note the power of Jesus’ death – even the sins of those who lived before Christ are forgiven by His death.
a. When Jesus died for sin, He reached all the way back to Adam and took care of those sins, but His death also took care of the sins of those who would live long after Him.
K. The Gospel – the Good News of Jesus – is so wonderful and unbelievable.
1. When Paul wrote to the Ephesians and explained the gospel to them he did so in this brief manner: For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. (Eph. 2:8-9)
a. Note the four important words and concepts: Grace…Faith…Gift…Not Works.
2. Our salvation is indeed a gift of God’s grace and it is faith, not works, that makes the difference.
3. The words of the hymn “My Hope Is Built on Nothing Less” express this truth so well:
My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness;
I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus’ name.
When he shall come with trumpet sound, O may I then in Him be found,
Dressed in his righteousness alone, Faultless to stand before the throne.
On Christ, the Solid Rock, I stand; All other ground is sinking sand.
L. Allow me to end with this illustration: In the spring of 2002, Denise Banderman was taking a class in Youth Ministry at Hannibal-LaGrange College in Missouri.
1. When it came time to take her final exam, it unexpectedly turned into less of a test and more of a learning experience all its own, one she would never forget.
2. She writes: When I got to class, everybody was doing their last-minute studying. Dr. Hufty, the professor, came in and said he would review with us before the test.
3. Most of his review came right from the study guide, but there were some things he was reviewing that she had never heard.
4. When questioned about it, Dr. Hufty said those things were in the book and that they were responsible for everything in the book. The students couldn’t argue with that.
5. Finally it was time to take the test. (He placed a test on each desk, then instructed), “Leave them face down on the desk until everyone has one, and I'll tell you to start.”
6. When the students turned them over, to their astonishment every answer on their tests was (already) filled in and their names were even written on the exam in red ink.
8. The bottom of the last page said: “This is the end of the exam. All the answers on your test are correct. You will receive an A on the final exam. The reason you passed the test is because the creator of the test took it for you. All the work you did in preparation for this test did not help you get the A. You have just experienced…grace.”
9. Dr. Hufty then went around the room and asked each student individually, “What is your grade? Do you deserve the grade you are receiving? How much did all your studying for this exam help you achieve your final grade?”
10. Then he said, “Some things you learn from lectures, some things you learn from research, but some things you can only learn from experience. You’ve just experienced grace. One hundred years from now, if you know Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, your name will be written down in a book, and you will have had nothing to do with writing it there. That will be the ultimate grace experience.” [Source: www.preachingtoday.com]
M. There is only one way to be made right with God.
1. Have you received the gift of grace by faith?
2. The Bible says “when they believed… the good news… they were baptized.” (Acts 8:12)
3. Jesus said, “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved.” (Mark 16:16)
4. On that first day of the church, in Acts 2, after the apostle Peter had told the crowd about the gospel of Jesus, the people asked what they should do.
a. Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.” (Acts 2:38-39)
5. Have you been made right with God?
Resources:
Romans: Be Right, The Bible Exposition Commentary, by Warren Wiersbe
Romans, The NIV Application Commentary, by Douglas Moo
Romans, Interpretation – A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching, Paul Achtemeier
“The Only Way to Be Right With God,” Sermon by Ray Pritchard.
“Part 5 – A Righteousness From God,” Sermon by Dan Williams
“Righteousness From God, Part 10: ‘The Mercy Seat,’ ” Dan Williams
