Right With God
Romans 3:21-25
Job 9:2, 3-20; 25:4
Job wondered how a person could ever hope to approach a God like this. Bildad agreed. Job 25:4
This question has always troubled man...
* The People hearing John the Baptist preach "asked him saying, What shall we do then?" Luke 3:10
*The crowd Jesus fed "...What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?" John 6:28
* The rich young ruler asked Jesus "Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?" Matthew 19:16
* Hearing Peters message at Pentecost some said, "...men and brethren, what shall we do?" Acts 2:37
* Paul, blinded on the road to Damascus, cried out, "What shall I do Lord?" Acts 22:10
* The Philippian jailer asked Paul and Silas, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" Acts 16:30
Man has always asked these questions...
...that Job and these others asked. That is why man is so religious. Man is not naturally good but he is naturally religious!
People sense their lostness, God’s holiness, and their sinfulness. People fear death, existence after death, and the possibility of punishment for sin. So enter religion! But every religion except Bible believing Christianity is man made, works-centered, and can never make a person right with God! There is a way to God, there is a way to be right with God but is not in anything man can do to earn it or merit it. the way to be right with God is on God’s terms not mans terms.
Jeremiah 42:1-43:7
This story illustrates seeking mans typical response. They seem sincere, but when they hear about the true and only way to be right with God, which is through trust in Jesus Christ, they are unwilling to accept that. They are seeking salvation by their own terms and not God’s!
Man can’t come on his own terms!
Men can not come to God, be right with God, in their own power. Being right with God is a provision of God’s grace. Faith, responding to the offer of God’s grace has always been the only way to be right with God. Man can not even be saved by God’s own divine law given through Moses. The Law was never a means of salvation. Its purpose was to show how impossible it is for a person to measure up to God’s standards. A sincere desire to obey the law and proper observance of the rituals were pleasing to God...but only as they reflected faith in Him and His Grace!
Back to the question, "how to be right or righteous?"
The text (3:21-25) focuses on God’s righteousness, the standard by which all righteousness is measured. (You could measure your righteousness by mine and come out looking pretty good.)
Man’s only righteousness is unrighteousness. (Is.64:6)
God’s righteousness is different from all other righteousness.
1. Because of it’s source- Isaiah 45:8
2. Because it fulfills the precept and the penalty of God’s law under which all men stand judged- The precept of God’s law is sinless perfection which only Christ fulfilled. (Heb. 4:15)
But to fulfill the penalty of the law God "...made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." 2 Cor. 5:21
1 Peter 2:24
"So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many;..." Heb. 9:28
3. Because of its duration- Everlasting! Psalm 119:142 "Thy righteousness is an everlasting righteousness..."
Review 1:18-3:20 and READ TEXT
* Brief mention of the Gospel in 1:16 which he will explain in the rest of the book.
* All are guilty. The heathen, the moral religious man, even his brethren the Jew.
* 3:19,20 summarize teaching to this point.
* "But now..." We are turning the page in the Book of Romans. He has plainly laid out what is wrong (All are GUILTY!) and now will move to how to be right with God.
Seven elements of the Righteousness God gives
to those who trust Him
1. It is apart from the law
2. Built on revelation.
3. Acquired by faith.
4. Provided for all.
5. Given freely through grace.
6. Accomplished by redemption.
7. Paid for by atoning sacrifice.
1. Righteousness is apart form the law.
3:21a
A wonderful and marvelous contrast between man’s total depravity and inability to please God and God’s own provision of a way to Himself.
Up to now He has painted a dark picture, backing all mankind into the totally dark and seemingly inescapable corner of God’s wrath, now He opens the window of grace that lets in the light of salvation!
Law- Any law. either God’s own law or the laws and codes added by men to God’s law. See Phil. 3:4-6 for a review of Paul’s background in legalism.
Legalism carried over into the church. Col 2:16 Gal. 2:16, 5:1,2,6 Romans 3:28
God holds before men the standards of His righteousness in order to demonstrate the impossibility of keeping them by human effort.
Because of that inability law brings:]
wrath Rom. 4:15
God’s judgment on man’s sin. Gal. 3:10-11
Eph. 2:8,9
Other verses repeat the truth that rightness with God can never be achieved by human effort. Phil. 3:9 2 Tim. 1:9 Titus 3:5
The righteousness of god has been manifested "in Jesus Christ unto and upon all them that believe.
2. Righteousness is built on revelation
5:21b
The law was not given as a means of achieving righteousness but of describing God’s righteousness and showing the impossibility of men’s living up to it.
The sacrifices were not a means of atoning for sin but of pointing to Christ who Himself became the sacrifice once for all. They could never remove sin, forgive sin, atone for sin, or give a new and righteous life to a sinner, no matter how zealously and sincerely he tried to abide by them.
3. Righteousness is acquired by faith.
3:22a
Saving faith is more than simply making a verbal declaration of believing about Him.
Demons ...Mark 5:7 Acts 16:17 Quote from Tozer
4. Righteousness is provided for all
3:22b,23
Acts 13:39 Gal. 2:16 John 6:37
"there is no difference..." just as there is no difference in that all are lost, guilty, all who believe will be saved even the chiefest of sinners as Paul refered to himself.
5. Righteousness is given freely through grace
3:24a
Refers back to the "alls" of the previous verses. All those who have believed, of whom all were sinful.
Justified means to declare the rightness of something or someone. The demands of the law are fulfilled. god justifies believers as a gift by His grace, not because of any good thing in the one who is justified.
Gift is something given freely. Gal. 2:21
The law reveals God’s righteousness and exposes man’s unrighteousness. Grace, not only reveals God’s righteousness but gives His righteousness to those who trust in His Son. That gift of grace cost the death of His Son the Lord Jesus Christ.
6.Righteousness is accomplished by redemption
3:24b
As a ransom being paid for a criminal with no ability to pay. The ransom of a sinner could only come from the Lord.
7. Righteousness was paid by atoning sacrifice
3:25a
Propitiation- appeasement or satisfaction. The only propitiation that could be accepted by God had to come from God.
1 Tim. 2:6 He appeased the wrath of God.
1 Peter 1:18,19 It was paid in his divine blood.
The equivalent in the Old Testament in reference to the mercy seat and the holy of Holies. The high priest went in once a year to offer sacrifice for the sins of the people and his own sin. He sprinkled blood on the mercy seat symbolizing the payment of the penalty. That yearly act had no power to remove or pay the penalty for a single man. It could only point to the true and effective Offering of Christ, Heb. 10:10,14
Col. 2:11-14
