THE TURNING POINT
Romans 3:21-31
• The message of Romans get more fun at this point. I have been spending the last series of Sundays telling you how bad man is, how bad we are. 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: That is our topic today and actually the central message of the book of Romans.
READER’S DIGEST STORY: Car pulled over by the Police. ‘Sir could I see your drivers license and registration?’ ‘MAYBE I COULD IF I HAD ACTUALLY HAD TAKEN A TEST AND GOTTEN ONE OF THOSE’.
Then the lady next to him said, ‘DON’T PAY ATTENTION TO WHAT HE SAYS, HE ALWAYS ACTS LIKE THAT WHEN HE IS DRUNK’.
Then the guy in the back seat woke up and saw the policeman, ‘OH NO, I KNEW WE SHOULDN’T HAVE STOLEN THIS CAR’.
Then there was a knock from the trunk, ‘ARE WE ACROSS THE BORDER YET?’
Ever feel sins just keep piling up. Feeling you get reading the first 2 ½ chapters of Romans. You may have never felt so LOST.
WICKED WITCH OF THE EAST: Under the house in the WIZARD OF OZ. Only feet with RUBY SLIPPERS was visible. Dorthy asked, ‘IS SHE DEAD?’. No Dorthy she enjoys resting with a 3 bedroom house on her, block the wind’. The munchkins said, ‘She was actually, totally, physically, indisputably, undeniably DEAD!’
That is where Paul has wanted us to see ourselves after this first part of Romans. That we are dead in our trespasses and sin and without hope without Jesus Christ.
Live in a world that does not see themselves that way. The Word of God has been so removed from our society 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.
• VERSES 19-20: We saw the LAW does THREE THINGS:
1) Stops every mouth. Shuts down any argument.
2) Shows that every person on this earth is accountable to God
3) Gives us the knowledge of Sin. It defines sin. It demonstrates righteousness and shows us the standard we have fallen short of.
SIX STATEMENTS REGARDING JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH: To help us gain an understand of what God has really done for us. When He found us in our sinful condition how did He solve our dilemma.
MARTIN LUTHER: These passages are the Central part of the Book of Romans as well as the CENTRAL PART OF THE BIBLE.
JOHN CALVIN: The very MARROW of the Bible. (Center of life of Scripture.) The rightousness of God is more profoundly presented here than in any other part of the Bible. 24-25
(1) 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.
a. 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
b. Make same mistake with SERMON ON MOUNT. Ten Commandments, Sermon on the Mount(amplification of the Law), It should become very clear that no one can stand there and say I AM WITHOUT GUILT.
c. Schoolmaster, Tutor:
d. JUSTIFIED: Means that I am ‘right standing to the laws I am responsible to’. Just American Citizen(no outstanding warrants). Paul has shown that all of us are outlaws, have outstanding warrants against us the declare our guilt.
e. 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.
f. 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 APART FROM THE LAW
(2) 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.
a. That is the avenue of Justification. The Law is a roadsign to direct us to that destination: Jesus Christ.
John Bunyan: Struggled with trying to live up to the Law. Realized he continually fell short. Discovered in reading the Book of Romans, ‘I came to realize that when I look at John Bunyan thru God’s eyes and not John Bunyan’s eyes I didn’t see myself as a sinner anymore but I saw myself from the soul of my foot to the crown of my head as SIN’. EVERY PORTION
Walking thru a cornfield one night and a verse out of Philippians came to his mind: 3:9 and to be found in Him not having mine own righteousness which is of Law but that which is thru FAITH IN HIM.
TULSA RUN: walking back and passed man jogging. I recognized him and said hi. I said to Lynne did you know who that was? No. He is running for Governor. NO He held the record for the most passes caught in NFL history. NO
Somebody she needs to know. Jesus is somebody the world needs to know. The Law introduces Him. Says, “Do you know who THIS IS’
Anybody not know who I was talking about?
b. 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 OFTEN 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 ……Chosen to be evangelists to the world but became overly impressed with how much better they were than the Gentiles.
We can do the same thing: Think the world is so ugly and godless that we retreat into our own little religious cliché and stop taking God’s message of Jesus Christ to them.
Bible reading this week came across account where Jesus cleansed the Temple. Threw out all the moneychangers and merchandizers. Famous line, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer but you have made it a den of thieves, a house of merchandise’
We often use that passage to preach against selling in the church. It struck me different for the first time. This week I saw the emphasis different. On the MY HOUSE SHALL BE CALLED A HOUSE OF PRAYER. Merchandizing was just one of the many options that can keep God’s house from being house of prayer. MY HOUSE SHALL BE CALLED A HOUSE OF PRAYER BUT YOU HAVE MADE IT ___________Social Club/miracles/religious clichés/power struggles/sleeping saints/entertainment CALLED what would world call Living Oaks a house of?
c. An offer needed by every person: (23) for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
(1) 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.
(2) 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.
(3) 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.
WHAT IF: We held an event for the city of Tulsa: Sponsored something called, ‘Jumping the Arkansas River’. Invited people of all ages, sizes, athletic ability. Gave them as much room to get a running start, wear any shoes they wanted, and then GO. Remember it is jumping THE Arkansas, not JUMPING INTO the Arkansas river. Michael Jordon show up, last Olympic long jump champion,…..some would make bigger splashes than others, some would get stuck in the sand deeper than others but NO ONE WOULD MAKE IT TO THE WEST SIDE. It is physically impossible. NO ONE CAN LIVE UP TO GOD’S PERFECT STANDARD, it is morally impossible do to our sin natures. Childish to say I jumped farther than you…does not matter.
Every definition of Sin describes how we are missing what we aim at: Fallen short, missed the mark, not hitting the target,
We can gain victory over things thru God’s power: But as soon as we win over one thing another is made evident in us. It is a constant work which makes us more and more like Christ.
JUSTIFICATION APART FROM THE LAW JUSTIFICATION THRU FAITH IN JESUS CHRIST
(3) JUSTIFICATION WITHOUT A REASON: (24) being justified as a gift(freely) by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus.
a) Freely literally means, ‘without cause’. Meaning that God didn’t anything in you or me that was worthy of His grace.
Ever imagine what someone sees in another person they are dating.
Remember overhearing a conversation my parents had when I was around 10 or so. We were traveling to Colorado and stopped at an outdoor hamburger stand. A mangy group rode up on motorcycles: dirty, tattoos, scraggly beards, smelly, uncombed hair. Young girls with them who were no nearly so unkept. WHY WOULD THEY BE WITH MEN LIKE THAT?
WHY WOULD GOD BE WITH SINNERS LIKE US? ‘without cause’
b) AS A GIFT: nothing we have earned or deserved. Imagine your boss handing you your paycheck and saying ‘here is a gift for you’.
G. Campbell Morgan was talking with some coal miners about how God’s righteousness was a free gift. One particular man did not understand and asked ‘isn’t there something that I have to do on my part to meet God halfway?’ Made no sense.
‘HOW DID YOU GET DOWN INTO THE MINE TODAY?’ The Elevator DID IT COST YOU ANYTHING No, but it sure cost somebody a lot to have it put in.
VERY EXPENSIVE but not to me.
Salvation is a gift, freely given but the actual cost of salvation is emense.
Somebody walked up to me and handed me the keys to a new LEXUS. What an expensive gift but it did not take a scent out of my bank account.
c) 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.
Why I hate 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.
