ROMANS 3:22-24 THE MOST IMPORTANT QUESTION OF THEM ALL
“If you could ask God one question, what would that question be?” That was one of our questions on our survey we handed out at the LaPorte County Fair. “If you could ask God one question, what would it be?” There were different choices – why do bad things happen to good people, what really happens to a person when he dies, what is my purpose in life, and why don’t all my prayers get answered. You could also write in your own question if those choices didn’t suit you – one man said that his question would be this - why did God make mosquitoes? If he could ask God one question, that would be it.
Do you know which question was “x”ed the most? It was “why bad things happen to good people.” We have just been talking about that in our sermons the last two weeks. Which question is the most important one of them all? What is the most important question you could ask God, if you had the change. I’ll give you a hint – it has nothing to do with mosquitoes.
The most important question you could ask God is a question that was not on the survey. Maybe next year I’ll put it on there. That question would be this: “Am I ‘right’ with God?” That is the most important question of them all – “Am I right with God?”
Do you know what it means to be “right with God”? To be “right with God” means that you and God are on the same page – you have a good relationship with God – your relationship with God is so good that you know for sure, without a doubt, that when you die, your soul will be in heaven. No doubts. No worries. Not even a little. Is that you? Are you “right with God”?
That is what we are going to be talking about this morning. It is my goal that by the time you are done listening to this sermon, by the time you leave church this morning, you will know that you are right with God. It is possible to have no doubts, no worries, as you think about the eternal future of your soul. May God bless my speaking, and your listening, as we think about this most important question of all.
Where is the last place people look when they want to learn about God? It’s ironic, really – the last place people look is the Bible. It reminds me of what happens in my house - when my wife and I buy something that requires assembly, usually I spend an hour trying to put it together. It doesn’t work out. I get frustrated. Finally, my wife, Jennifer suggests to me that maybe I should try reading the directions. Then I do, and suddenly, it’s not so difficult after all. Maybe I should have done that right away.
So it is with God. If you want to learn how to be right with God, don’t try to figure it out yourself, because you won’t get it right. Read the directions. They’re right here, in this book called the Bible. If you want to find answers to life’s most important questions, the first place to look is the Bible. Let’s see what it says about being “right with God.” Romans 3:22 says, “There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Wait a second – that doesn’t sound good. “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”? That tells me that no one is right with God.
That’s not what I heard at the fair last week. A number of people came up to the booth and told me that the way to be right with God is to be a good person. If you try hard to be a good person, do the best you can, then you will go to heaven when you die. Then you will be right with God. Sounds good, but it’s not true. Those people haven’t read the directions. Here it says, “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” That whole “good person theory” doesn’t work, because no matter how good you are, you’re still a sinner. You still fall short of the glory of God.
How many of you have ever been to the Grand Canyon? It is beautiful there – a huge canyon with different colored rocks all the way down. Is it possible to jump over the Grand Canyon? Obviously not. Even if you took the greatest athlete in the world, and the wind was at his back, and he ate 100 energy bars, he still wouldn’t be able to jump across that canyon. No matter how far you jump, everyone would fall short.
God’s Word says that no matter how nice you are, you still fall short. Even the nicest person in the world falls short of the glory of God. God tells you here that you can never be good enough. You see, God requires perfection. “Be perfect,” Jesus says, “as your Heavenly Father is perfect.” That’s a big canyon to jump across! How can anyone be perfect? We all have our moments of weakness, moments when we have been selfish, moments when we say or do the wrong thing. Even thinking the wrong thing is a sin in God’s eyes. How can anyone be good enough to get to heaven? “All have sinned,” it says here, “and fall short of the glory of God.” In other words, no one is right with God. No one can earn their way to heaven by being nice.
That’s bad news. But there is good news. There is a way to be right with God. There is a way to heaven. The very next verse talks about you: “and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” This is God’s solution – “I will give you a way to heaven, and it’s free.”
I heard that all week at the fair – the booth next to us was giving away a photo session in a drawing – “it’s free, it’s free, come and sign up, it’s free” – I listened to that all week. People were skeptical – nothing is really free – there must be some strings attached.
God is giving to you a way to heaven that is free. There are truly no strings attached. It’s natural to feel skeptical, but as you read the Bible, you find out that God’s way to heaven is truly free. You are “justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” The reason God is giving you a free pass to heaven is because of what Jesus Christ did – the redemption that he earned when he died on the cross.
Imagine God the Father and God the Son having a conversation about you. God the Father says, “Tom is trying to be good. But he isn’t good enough. He keeps falling back onto his own ways. He keeps committing the same sins over and over again. He’s falling short. He’s trying to earn his way to heaven by being nice, but it’s not working. When he dies, I’m going to have to send him to hell, even though I don’t want to.”
Then God the Son says, “Isn’t that how it is for all people?” “Yes,” God the Father says. “They’re all trying to earn their way to heaven by being nice. But it’s not working. I don’t want to punish them, but I’m a just God. Those sins have to be punished. Justice needs to be served. If I don’t punish those sins of selfishness and lust and greed – if I don’t punish those sins, then I am not a just God.”
Then God the Son says, “Why don’t you punish me instead.” “What do you mean?” God the Father asks.
Jesus says, “Let me take Tom’s place. Instead of punishing Tom for his sins, punish me. I’ll take the blame. I’m the Son of God. I can take the blame for the whole world. I’ll take the world’s place. Punish me instead of them.”
“But that would be a terrible thing for you to go through,” God the Father says. “I would have to punish you for some pretty terrible sins. Sins of murder. Sins of rape. Every sin of the world would be on you. I would have to punish you for everything. I would have to disown you, abandon you.”
“I’ll do it,” Jesus says. “I want to save the world. I will be the Lamb of God, that takes away the sins of the world.” And so God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son.
Jesus snuck into this world as a human being. He allowed God the Father to punish him for your sins, and for the sins of the whole world. As he hung on that cross he cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me.” God the Father turned his back on his very own Son. It was a terrible thing. And yet, it was a good thing. Three days later Jesus rose from the dead, to prove that his plan worked.
Your sins were taken away when Jesus died on the cross. You were saved when Jesus said, “It is finished.” You were forgiven when Jesus rose from the dead. Today you are right with God, and it has nothing to do with how nice you are. It has everything to do with what Jesus did – his sacrifice on the cross as your substitute. Today, you are right with God because of what Jesus Christ has done for you. You can be 100% confident that when you die, God the Father will welcome you through the gates of heaven. He will do that because of his Son, Jesus Christ.
There is a beautiful story about a minister who, on his vacation in the mountains, taught an illiterate boy the 23rd Psalm and its rich meaning: “The Lord is my Shepherd.”
When the minister returned a year later, he found that the boy had frozen to death the previous winter. In trying to comfort the bereaved mother, the minister told her how he had taught her son, “The Lord is my Shepherd” by having each finger represent a word. The word “The” was the first finger, “Lord” was the second, and so on.
Suddenly the mother understood the strange circumstance of her boy’s death. With a gleam of joy she said, “When we found him we wondered why his right hand was frozen around the fourth finger of his left hand.”
It was the finger for the word “my.” The boy knew and loved Christ the Good Shepherd as his very own. That was his comfort in the last hours of his life: “The Lord is MY Shepherd.” **
Is Christ yours? Believe, and he is. Believe that he came to this world to take your sin away. Believe that he has risen from the dead. Believe that he is preparing a place for you in heaven right now. Believe that he is with you always. He is the answer to the most important question of them all. Ultimately, he is he answer to many of the unsolved mysteries of life. You ARE right with God, because of him. You will always be able to say, “The Lord is MY Shepherd.” Amen.
** illustration from Lutheran Hour Broadcast, July 9, 1961, The Rev. Armin C. Oldsen, speaker.
