Righteousness, Road Construction, And Redemption

What exactly does that mean – faith in Jesus Christ? Faith is two things. Faith is, first of all, giving up. In other words, you give up trying to earn your way to heaven by being a good person, a good family man, a good worker. Those are all good things to do, and we do them. But you give up trying to earn your way to heaven by doing those things. Faith is, first of all, giving up. Faith is, second of all, completely trusting in Christ to earn your way to heaven for you. That’s faith. And it has to be that way.

“But why?” you ask God. “Why don’t those other roads work?” God answers you in verse 23: “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” No matter how hard you try be a perfect person, you still fall short of what God wants you to be. You can never be the perfect family man, the perfect worker. All have sinned, and fall short. When I see that passage I think of the bridge that collapsed in Oklahoma this past week. The bridge was hit by a barge, the interstate collapsed into the water, and people drove into the river and to their death.

That’s how it is with all those other roads to heaven. You think everything is alright. But then you turn the corner, and it’s too late – the bridge to heaven is gone, and you drive into the water. Just as that bridge in Oklahoma was destroyed by that barge, so also the bridge to heaven has been destroyed by sin. It’s gone. And so you have people trying to earn their way to heaven all their lives. At the end of their lives they die, they turn the corner, and they see that the bridge is out, it isn’t there, and they plunge into hell. All those different roads that seem good are dead ends.

Except one road, and that road is the “faith in Jesus Christ” road. There is a new road that God has built, a new bridge between himself and you. Look at how God built that bridge: You “are justified freely through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” The word “redemption” contains the idea of someone buying your freedom. Imagine being thrown in jail because you have piled up hundreds of speeding tickets and parking tickets. You’ll probably be in jail for a long long time, because of all the fines you can’t afford to pay. But then someone shows up and pays all of your fines for you, out of his own pocketbook. You’re released from jail – that’s redemption.

That’s what Jesus does for you. In the eyes of God, you have all kinds of fines piled up against you. Every time you sin, you have to spend an eternity in hell – that’s the fine. You’ve sinned millions of times – there’s no way you can pay off the fine. But Jesus Christ comes into the picture, and he pays the fine for you – he sets you free.

But how, you ask. How does Jesus do that? Look at the next verse – “God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement through faith in his blood.” Jesus shed his blood on the cross, and that was a sacrifice of atonement. Atonement means that God no longer plans to fine you, to punish you for your sins. Now, you and God are at peace, because Jesus paid that fine for you. He did that by dying on the cross, shedding his blood, and that sacrifice was enough to pay off that huge debt of sin you owe to God. Atonement means that nothing stands between you and God, that there is no broken bridge. The sin is gone, and that bridge has been mended by the blood of Jesus Christ.