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Well, I don't know about you, but I love the gospel. Oh, I'm a Christian, but I love the gospel. Can you hear enough about the gospel, the good news that Jesus saves sinners? I listen to a lot of radio, and I'm always encouraged when I turn on the radio and hear a Christian pastor say, I've got good news for you, let's remind you Christians about the gospel.
I'm very happy when that happens, but sadly, I listen to so much Christian radio, too often it's gospel-less, somehow, like we already know the gospel, so let's move past that because we need to kind of grow, and that's the introductory thing, that's ABCs, you do that at AWANA, and then now we are on to things like how to live a holy life and other things, which it's good to talk about.
For Christians, is it good to talk about the gospel? Do you need the gospel today? Do you need a gospel on your deathbed? In the middle of all my sickness and tests and all those kind of things, I've revisited a few things and reexamined a few things, and I thought, Lord, I've got a few Sundays to preach, and we're going to preach the most jugular passages that I can find.
Not because he's given me four weeks to live and I'm going to pick the foremost jugular. I thought, Lord, I want to be reminded again, if you're sick, what do you need? You need the gospel. If you're struggling in your marriage, what do you need?
The gospel. If you're a brand new Christian, what do you need? The gospel. And the gospel is not how to, the gospel is, this is what God has done. It's an announcement. I mean, we in Christianity can take the announcement of the good news, this is the good news, and turn it into a how-to from, you must be born again, as a statement of fact, to how to be born again.
If you were asked these two questions, how would you respond? Have you perfectly kept God's law since your conception? Number two, have you ever sinned by failing to obey the law of God? All right, let me ask you the third question.
What right do you have to enter God's holy heaven in light of all the sins that you've committed in your life? When I ask those kind of questions, then I say to myself, I need to be reminded of the gospel that can declare me right in God's eyes.
I don't know about you, but I'm fascinated with Mount Everest, the death zone, the climbers. Today, we're going to look at Romans chapter three. If you'll turn your Bibles to the Mount Everest, maybe of all the New Testament, Romans chapter three, verses 21 and following.
If God should mark iniquities, who could stand? The answer is no one, but Psalm 130 says, but there is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared. This morning, we're going to look at these tightly packed verses, and here's what we're going to do.
We're going to parse your salvation. We're going to examine it carefully. We're going to relook at it to see every little nuance. It's not good enough for us to say, Jesus loves me, but how does he love me?
What are the specifics? Because as you learn more, your thankfulness will go up, your praise will go up. Your life, as you struggle with sin, you'll say, that's right. Who am I in Christ? Because that's the missing part of sanctification.
It's not just obey your parents and the Lord. It's not just work hard for your boss. It's not just love your wife like Christ loved the church, submit to your husband. It's who is Jesus, what is the gospel, who am I in Christ, and in light of that, how must I act?
So let's focus this morning on this great passage, the Mount Everest of the Bible, as we parse our salvation. I've never been in the military, but I can imagine if I was in the military and I was over in Iraq someplace, and every night I would probably get out a picture of Kim and the kids.
I don't want to say their names because then I'd owe them all a dollar after the service, so I just only owe Kim one. And I would look at those names that start with H and L and M and G, and would you ever think to me every night as I'm looking at them in my foxhole, you already know what they look like.
Why are you looking at them? She's your wife. They're your kids. Why do you want to keep looking at their pictures? And I would look and I would say, oh, I remember those eyes, I remember what she looks like, I remember when we got married, I remember our life, and I would reflect.
And I would say, and I'm committed to her, I'm 5 ,000 miles away, but I'm committed. That's exactly what we do when it comes to Romans chapter 3 in the gospel. We look again. I can say this as boldly as possible.
There is no one sitting in this room, even if you've memorized the entire Greek New Testament, that can't go back to Romans chapter 3 and say, God, in light of my sins, you're a great Savior. Thank you.
Let me see the glory of your salvation with new eyes, deeper eyes, clearer eyes. How does Jesus love me? How does Jesus love me? Romans 3 says, this is exactly how he loves people. Leon Morris called this possibly the most important single paragraph ever written.
Wouldn't that make you want to listen? The center and heart of Romans, Cranfield calls this. Luther, the chief point, the very central place of the epistle and of the whole Bible. Would you like to know that passage?
What's the center of the entire Bible? The Mount Everest of the scriptures, Romans chapter 3, verses 21 and following. This will help us as we realize that God has exceeded our need, that God has met our need, that in his eternal plan, he has provided salvation for us and that we can see, you can see that God's salvation is a demonstration of his grace and his righteousness.
Now, for outline, I think maybe we should do it this way. I like digital cameras a lot because you take a picture and then you can just see right away. Oh, discard it or keep it. But there's something to be said for Polaroids.
Remember for those of you who are a little older, a Polaroid, and you remember when you take the Polaroid and you pull it out and then it began to be really exciting and you would try to hurry up the process.
You do all kinds of things to get that stuff and pretty soon you can see the outline and then it would start to be kind of, you know, a few colors and then more colors, crisper, clear, and then you'd say, that's the picture.
So today we're going to look at this passage just like we would with a Polaroid. So it develops more clearly after each point, after each verse, you see God's salvation clearer and clearer. So we'll look at, I don't know how many shades of God's righteousness this morning develop before your very eyes in Romans 3, but we'll get 50 minutes worth, that's what we'll do.
We need to finish next week, we'll finish next week. Shades of God's righteousness develop before your very eyes from Romans 3, 21 and following, so that you'll appreciate your salvation more, praise Him more, and never forget the Gospel.
Number one, the first shade, important for you to understand. Today, by the way, is not a doing sermon, it is a thinking sermon. It's not, these are the five things you need to go do, I know that's probably easier, but this is how to think biblically, how to think as a Christian, looking at the Gospel and Jesus Christ, the risen King's salvation provided to us.
Shade of understanding God's righteousness number one, God's righteousness is not achieved by works of the law, Romans 3, 21. God's righteousness, this is how you have to think, it's not achieved by works of the law.
Now, we're just diving into this passage, but all of Romans talks about the righteousness of God, how we need His righteousness, how He provides the righteousness, what it means to have the righteousness, how it's displayed in our life.
And here we dive into chapter 3, 21, we'll pick up some more of the context as we go, but God's righteousness, first of all, is not achieved by the works of the law, Romans 3, 21, I'm in the ESV this morning.
But now, it's not time change, a reference to time, but it's a change of thought, it's a change of argument, it's a change of logic, but now, the righteousness of God, by the way, those four words sum up Romans, the righteousness of God, has been manifested apart from the law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it.
Here comes the turning point, chapters 1, 2, and 3 through verse 20, it's very dark, it's very murky, it's very sullen, it's somber, there's death language. It's the kind of language that you use when you walk into a mortuary and you say, you know what, there's a different way to talk, you're not happy and jumping up and down and high-fiving people, it's a somber, morgue-like language, yet it turns right here, it turns at 3, 21.
Chapters 1, 2, and 3 up to 3, 20, it was wrath, but now, chapters 1, 2, and the first part of 3, sin, but now, it's doom earlier, but now, death, but now, condemnation, but now, hell, but now. You can see there's a little flicker of hope, there's a ray of hope coming, and that hope has to come from the outside because we can't give the antidote of forgiveness to ourselves.
Sometimes people say, well, it's just like you're really sick in your sins, and here's a little vial right here with some antidote, and all you have to do is reach over, drink the antidote. Well, we're enslaved to sin, captured by sin, dead in sin, Satan's our father, and we can't move our arms because we're paralyzed, no, we're in fact dead, we can't give the antidote to ourselves, and you will never, ever appreciate the greatness of God's salvation until you understand the gravity of your own sin.
Look back at verse 9, what is the immediate context, Romans 3, 9? I could ask you the question before you were a Christian, if you're a Christian now, did you consider yourself under condemnation? Look at 3, 9, what then?
Look at all the questions, are we Jews any better off? No, not at all, for we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin. Then it begins to quote the Psalms, as you know, as it is written, none is righteous, no, not one.
No one understands, no one seeks for God. All have turned aside, together they have become worthless. No one does good, not even one. What kind of damage did the fall do? Verse 13, their throat is an open grave, they use their tongues to deceive.
The venom of asps is under their lips. Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness, their feet are swift to shed blood. Their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes.
God creates Adam and Eve, and he creates them in such a way that he's designed their mouths to elicit praise, their hands to serve him, their feet to run to obey, and everything about the fall has torqued and perverted the human race.
What's our response? Yeah, but I'm better than my neighbor. I'm pretty good sometimes. I've done some good in my neighborhood. No, the response should be the sound of silence. Verse 19, now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law.
Why? For what reason? For what purpose? So that every mouth may be stopped. Every mouth might stop saying, you know, but I am better, I am good, I do have some righteousness, I'm not that bad. I've done more good than bad.
No, so that every mouth may be stopped. That's why we have the law, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. Did you know regularly in the Old Testament when sinners were in God's presence, they couldn't talk?
They didn't speak at all. Job 40, behold, I am insignificant. What can I reply to thee? I lay my hand on my mouth. Once I have spoken and I will not answer, even twice and I will add no more. Habakkuk, I heard and my inward parts trembled at the sound my lips quivered.
Decay entered my bones and in my place I tremble because I must wait quietly for the day of distress. Why should everyone be silent before God when they're trying to earn their own salvation? Verse 20, for by the works of the law, no human being will be justified, it doesn't matter about anybody else's side, society's side, the world's side, my friend's side, the school's side, the government's side, in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.
We know because we've been taught no one can ever be saved by law keeping. Law keeping just shows we're sinners. It doesn't help save us. It shows us our sin that we can't save ourselves. No one is ever saved by good works.
God's standards are too high. There are two ways to be right in God's eyes. One, the gospel way that we'll get to in a minute, and two, the legal way where you try to obey the law perfectly. For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law will be justified, Romans 2 .13.
But how can we do it? We're standing guilty before God. What does Paul want to do here? Paul wants to do this. If you say to yourself, yes, but I'm pretty good, and I'm not a murderer, and I'm not a this, and I'm not a that, and I know I'm not born again, but I'm a fairly decent fellow.
And by the way, I've met a lot of very sinful people, but the ones that need to hear this the most are people like our grandmothers and grandpas, decent, law-abiding citizens who vote, who never go to jail, and who raise up their kids to be moral.
It's the ones who are in prison who say, yes, I'm really bad, and I know it. It's the ones who maybe live in our own houses that say, you know what, I'm pretty good. Paul says, good is perfect. You can't be perfect enough.
The law shows that. The law shows you are in need of a savior. Romans 2 .1, therefore you are without excuse. Every man of you who passes judgment, for in that you judge another, you condemn yourself.
For you who judge, practice the same things. I couldn't believe that person was so rude to me. I can't believe that person was so offensive to me. And even a statement like that, Romans 2 .1 says, if you know that another person can be rude to you, you also know that there's a standard, and you also know you've been rude to other people.
And by your own condemnation of the other, you condemn yourself. How do you get to heaven? What does the text say back in 321? Apart from the law, apart from the law, no works-based righteousness with the American bootstrap ethics.
What are the six solas of the Reformation? One of them is sola fide, sola gratia, sola dea gloria, sola scriptura, sola christus, and sola bootstrapsa. We always say here, you pull yourself up by your own strength.
No one is accepted by God by being good or doing better. Why? Number one, God says so, and our mind is tainted by the fall, so we have our own kind of way to do it. Two, it adds to the work of Christ.
Why would Jesus die for us if we could be good enough? Wouldn't that be horrible to slaughter your son on the cross naked and torture him for three hours if people could be good enough to get to heaven on their own?
It's an insult. Our works are tainted like filthy rags. We're sinful. The law is too unforgiving. David Brainerd, the great Indian missionary, said this, talking about the law and how strict and how high and how holy.
He said, for I found it was impossible for me, after my utmost pains, to answer its demands. I often made new resolutions and as often broke them. How many people made New Year's resolutions this year?
It's already whatever the day is, and we're already done with those resolutions, past the Ben and Jerry's. Brainerd said, I found all attempts fail. Then I quarreled with the law of God as unreasonably rigid.
I thought if it extended only to my outward actions and behaviors, I could bear with it. But I found it condemned me for my evil thoughts and sins of my heart, which I could not possibly prevent. I was extremely loath to my own utter helplessness in this matter.
The law says, condemned to death. And the offender, if they know what's good for them, should say, commentator said, that law, having spoken its inexorable conditions and having announced the just sentence of death, stands stern beside the now silent offender.
It has no commission to relieve his fears, to allay his grief, to pay his debts. It is awful, and it's awful business is to say the wages of sin is death. What if our Bibles ended there, 321, 320? Thankfully it doesn't end in 320.
Look at verse 21 again. But now the righteousness of God has been made manifest. Oh, I'd like to know about that, but it's apart from the law. Even though the Old Testament, the law and the prophets bore witness to it, it's not something new.
I can ask you this question. On whose righteousness are you betting your eternity? Are you saying, you know what? I think I'm good enough to get to heaven on my own goodness. Or are you saying, you know what?
I'm not good at all. I have to rely on someone else's goodness. Number two. Let's make it get a little clearer here. The text makes it, gets clear, not me. The second shade of God's righteousness. The bell before our eyes.
First, remember that you can never be good enough to get to heaven. Number two, God's righteousness is through faith. The question should be, well, I'm not righteous. There is a righteousness apart from the law.
How should I get that? How can I get that? I would like that. I personally, I was an unbeliever, would say, I would like to be right with God. I would like to be right with a God who makes the world. You remember Genesis?
I think it's a King James. He's making all the whole world and everything. And he just says with almost a throwaway line, and the stars also. There's this God who makes the stars also. I'll stand before him one day.
How do I get that? It's through faith. 322. Romans 322. The righteousness of God through faith in Christ Jesus. Or here in Jesus Christ. It comes through faith. If I said to you, say the opposite word, up.
You say down. I say black. You say white. I say law. You say? Faith. It's through faith. Now you could translate this a couple different ways. You could translate this through Christ faithfulness. And was Jesus faithful in his life?
Did he perfectly obey the law? Did he have what we call active obedience, that he kept the law? He got baptized in order, Matthew 3, to fulfill all righteousness. Perfectly conforming to the requirements of the law of God.
Jesus did that. But I don't think Paul is describing Christ here. I think he's describing how we can obtain this righteousness. Faith in Christ Jesus is what he has in mind. And here we have the first time faith in this epistle linked to the real object of faith, Jesus Christ.
Faith in this object. Linking our faith to what Jesus did on behalf of sinners. Now I said earlier, how are you right in God's eyes? One, legally obey all the law. Two, how are you right in God's eyes?
Justified through faith. By saying I believe what you say about me and I can't add anything. I can't do anything. I can't give you anything, God. And so I believe what you say about that. And I'm going to take your word for it that you have given righteousness, right standing, another way.
By the way, what is faith? I like to think in my mind, that's just taking God's word for it. I take you at your word. You say I'm condemned. I know I'm condemned. I have a conscience and I see the law.
And you say there's a way I can get righteousness and that's a way by believing in what you say I take you at your word. Through faith. Now we're going to talk about justification by faith a little bit more later.
So let's hold on. Number three. The third shade of righteousness. We're trying to develop a picture of God's righteousness. One, we don't have it and can't get it through the law. Two, it's through faith.
And three, it's for people without distinction. Now, 2000 years ago, I would have heard a Baptist amen. 2000 years ago, I would have heard a reformed Baptist say, mmm. Baptists say amen and reformed Baptists, they're a little more holy.
They say mmm. In case if you look over to them, their mouth isn't moving. Some kind of charismatic thing. Are you talking during the service? Mmm. God's righteousness is for people without distinction.
Let's see what the passage says and what it means. 322. The righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe there is no distinction for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
How great is God's righteousness? It's great enough to save Jews and it's great enough to save Gentiles. It's great enough for people in Kuwait, great enough for people in Puerto Rico, great enough for people in India, and great enough for people in Germany.
They're all without distinction sinners and there's this righteousness of God that comes through faith for all kinds of people without distinction. He just has got done talking, he just got done talking in chapter 1 verse 18 and 32 about how perverse people are with their idolatry and their sexual perverseness.
Now he says there's a righteousness that's great enough to cover those people, to give to those people. How great is this righteousness? It's great enough to take care of Romans 1 .18 people. All are sinners.
He's got to give a great salvation, no distinction. For all have sinned. Look at 323. For all have sinned. By the way, what is really the difference between you and Hitler? What really is the difference between you and Jeffrey Dahmer?
What really is the difference between you and Pol Pot? Now you say, well why Mike are you not including you in that? Well I am included in that, but now I'm preaching to you. What's the difference? Because every one of those people and every one of us has sinned against the holy God.
And what do we see here? Whether it's a Pharisee or Stalin or the woman of the well or me. For all have sinned. It's like the tenses. It's Arist. You take all the sin of all the human race. You put it all in one big pile and say all have sinned.
The cumulative sin of everybody throughout all time and keep on falling short of the glory of God. All come short. You say, you know what, but I was never in the mine down in South America. I was never in the mine of sin.
I was kind of up on K2. I'm pretty good. I know there are people like in jail. They're down in some mine shaft someplace in the journey of the center of the earth. They're way down there. But for me, I'm kind of up on Mount Wachusett.
I'm pretty good. I'm kind of up there. 2 ,000 feet up. By the way, when you ride your bike up Mount Wachusett, it seems a lot higher than 2 ,000 feet. Molf said, the harlot, the liar, the murderer are short of God's glory.
But so are you. Whether you stand at the bottom of the ocean or on the crest of an Alp, you are as little able to touch the stars as they. Sometimes when I've evangelized, I've said, if you go to Woods Hole and you need to get to Martha's Vineyard by jumping, that's a good illustration of salvation.
You've got to jump from Woods Hole to Martha's Vineyard. Seem more romantic in California when I said, stand in Long Beach and jump to Catalina. But we are now in New England, and so the point is the same.
I, with my legs and young 50-year-old heart, could jump pretty far, especially compared to someone like Dave Farah or someone older like that. Dave's a pretty good jumper. I've seen him. I say, jump.
Dave says, how high? The common denominator for all of us, older, younger, more athletic, less athletic, we all fall short of the glory of God because no one can jump there. And that's the thing that if you're not a Christian today that you first need to understand.
Aren't you weary of trying to do better, save yourself, please God, please others, try harder, get baptized, go to church? You can climb from the Dead Sea to Mount Everest and still fall short of the glory of heaven.
So the law says, say you're guilty and look to someone else. Joseph Hart said, come ye weary, heavy laden, bruised and broken by the fall. If you tarry till you're better, you'll never come at all. Not the righteous, not the righteous, but sinners Jesus came to call.
And now we get to the good stuff, number four. You've got to have bad news before you get to good news. I'm not going to be like some that I've heard recently say, I'm not going to talk to a Christian about their sin.
They know they are. Well, I don't think Paul took that advice. I don't think Jesus took that advice. The greatness of our sin explodes the greatness of God's righteousness. Just how much righteousness do you need to cover somebody like me?
Number four, the fourth shade of God's righteousness. One, it's not achieved by works. Two, it's through faith. Three, it's without distinction. And four, it's by legal declaration. How many people here have been in a court before, on a jury, or involved in a case?
Okay, we're now entering into the courtroom with courtroom language. By legal declaration. How are you right in God's eyes? It's not going to be by taking communion, by getting baptized, by having something poured in you, infused into you.
It's going to be law language, legal declaration. I have in my office a gavel, and I don't use props here because I don't need to. You can just hear me as I preach. But if I had a gavel right now, I would slam it down and say, not guilty.
That's the kind of language right here, Romans 3 .24. He didn't have to do this, but by his grace, by his love, by his goodness, what does God do? He could condemn those who have no righteousness, but he's going to give his own righteousness to those who don't deserve it, 3 .24.
And are justified by his grace as a gift. Justification by faith alone. Why is this so important? Edwards said, you want to turn a town around and have a revival? What doctrine do you preach? Justification by faith alone.
Luther said, the article, justification by faith alone, the article with and by which the church stands, without which it falls. Without it, the church of God cannot exist for one hour. Without this article, the world is in utter death and darkness.
Justification by faith alone, Luther said, is the master and prince, the lord, the ruler, and the judge over all kinds of doctrines. Calvin said, this is the main hinge on which salvation turns. Cranmer said, this is a strong rock in the foundation of the Christian religion.
Thomas Watson said, justification is the very hinge and pillar of Christianity. An error about justification is dangerous, like a defect in a foundation. Now don't say it out loud, but if I were to ask you, the hinge of Christianity, the foundational doctrine of all the Bible is justification by faith alone.
What is it? If I gave you a piece of paper today and said, define it, write it out, it's the most important Christian doctrine that talks about Christ's greatness, please define it, what would you say?
I don't think these men were writing hyperbolically about how important this is, to be justified by faith alone. Well let's open it up a little bit, and if you answer, because God treats me just as if I've never sinned, I'll give you partial credit, 5%.
I'm just kidding. It's only partially right, but we've kind of just defaulted to this catchphrase, what's grace? Well you know it's good to think grace, acronym, God's riches at Christ's expense, that's pretty good.
Faith, forsaking all, I trust him. Those are kind of good, aren't they? I like them. Justification by faith alone, just as if I've never sinned. But it's not the whole doctrine. If I'm going to parse my salvation and I want to see exactly what it looks like, and I want to get it right, by the way, you say, no, we just teach that to the little kids.
By the way, what you teach little kids, old kids remember. We've all been taught justification by faith alone is just as if we'd never sinned as kids, and that's how we still remember it. So I've got a good notion here, just had an immediate revelation from God, here it is.
Thus saith the Lord. Why don't we teach our kids the truths about justification by faith, so the next generation, they know the right answer. They understand the glory, the gravity, the greatness of their salvation.
Let me give you some words to properly think about this term, justified. Remember, legal courtroom status, talk. Let's give you a word first, forensic. Let's give you another word, legal. Let's give you two more words, declared not guilty.
I guess that's three words. Okay, declared and not guilty. This denotes the status before the court, standing before the law, you are declared as innocent. Legal on what grounds? We're going to talk about those grounds in a moment.
God declares you as if you are innocent. He does more than that, but just for a starter. He regards you as if you are innocent. He deems it that you have kept the entire law. He declares that you have met all the requirements of God's holy law and perfect righteousness.
He pronounces you just. You are no longer liable to any penalty. One man said, the biblical meaning of justify is to pronounce, accept, or treat as just. As on one hand, not penally liable, and on the other, entitled to all the privileges due to those who have kept the law.
God vindicates us. He declares us righteous. Here's an easy way to think about justification. What's the opposite of justification? Romans chapter 8, verse 1, now therefore there is no, what? Condemnation.
So, it's the exact opposite. The gavel goes down and God says, you're not guilty based on your guilt. Well, you're guilty, but someone else has paid for your guilt. Christ Jesus, the guiltless one, and someone, Jesus, the great, pure, unblemished lamb of God has obeyed in your place.
And so, God says, I'm going to treat you as if you have perfectly obeyed the law because Christ gave you his righteousness, the righteousness of God, and I'm going to freely forgive you because I'm a holy God and a just God and your sins have been forgiven because they've been paid for by someone else who has stood in your place as a substitute.
Sinners are justified by the work of Christ. Legal declaration, dealing with our guilty position and standing before God. It doesn't mean to make righteous. It means to declare righteous. God, can you imagine?
Now, let's make it personal as possible. Now, just remember, we all lived in Romans 3 .9 through 3 .20 and just the weight of our sin. And now God says to you, if you're a Christian, that before the law of God and his perfect standard, you are perfect and you've never sinned.
Before the law of God, God declares to the Christian who has believed by faith that these things are true, that you perfectly obeyed the law of God since you were born, totally living in obedience to the law.
And if you obeyed the law perfectly, you get all the blessings of the law. It's not just as if I've never sinned. It's just as if I've never sinned and just as if Jesus paid for my sin and just as if I've always obeyed the law because it's just as if Jesus obeyed the law in my place.
When OJ Simpson was declared not guilty, I remember where I was. Did the verdict change the moral character of OJ Simpson? He was declared not guilty, but his moral character remained the same as it was the day before.
A sinner who needs to be saved. Justification doesn't say you are now righteous. That's another doctrine of Christianity. The doctrine of justification says with a legal declaration based on the work of Christ, I now declare you as if you perfectly obeyed because Jesus did for you and if you had your sins all paid for because you did through the work of another and I declare you righteous.
It's not I make you righteous, I infuse you with righteousness. The problem is the word justification, the Latin justice means to make, so we think it means to make righteous, but it's to declare. Listen to Deuteronomy 25.
If there's a dispute between men and they go to court and the judges decide their case and they justify the righteous and condemn the wicked, what does that word justify mean? Does it mean to make better?
Let me read it to you with the words make better. If there is a dispute between men, Deuteronomy 25 one and they go to court and the judges decide their case and they make better the righteous and condemn the wicked.
No, they declare them righteous in God's eyes. This is no process. This is a verdict. And if you see how we're granted this, look at verse 24 of Romans three being justified as a gift by his grace freely.
This reaches back to 321 apart from the law. This is by grace. It's a gift undeservedly. If I were going to teach you this in an IBS class, here's what I'd say. You need to write one, two, three to understand justification.
Number one, the first transaction, Christ, perfect, sinless life of his obedience. His obedience was credited to my account. Jesus perfectly obeyed during his life on earth. His obedience, his merit is credited to my spiritual bank account.
That's number one. Number two, our sinful life was credited to Jesus spiritual bank account. He bore the curse of the law in our place. Second Corinthians 521. He made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf that we might become the righteousness of God in him.
Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law. Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree. Jesus is legally responsible to receive our punishment. And then number three, don't forget this one. I wonder if it worked.
Here's the transaction. Here's what went on. Christ perfectly obeyed. I get credit for that. Christ died in my place, paid for my sins, and he got credit for my sins. I wonder if that great transaction, that double substitution, that double imputation, that double declaration, I wonder if it worked.
And Romans 425 said that Jesus was raised for our justification. So by resurrection, number three, God demonstrates that that transaction was acceptable to God the Father. It proved it. So what is justification?
One, Jesus lives a perfect life credited to my account. Two, I lived a perfectly sinful life that Jesus pays for, and my sin is credited to his account. Did Jesus become a sinner? No. He was declared to bear my sins, and then God raised him from the dead.
That is what justification by faith is. Okay, one more. One more for today. The fifth shade of God's righteousness is found in verse 24 towards the end of the verse, and it has its ground in redemption, the liberating, redemptive work of Christ Jesus.
So number one, not by works of the law. Two, taking God at his word. Three, it's for all kinds of people, including Gentiles like most of us. Four, it's by legal declaration. Five, it has its ground in redemption.
Do you see that in 324? Through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. By the way, just a side note, not found in anyone else. The exclusivity of Christ. If you'd like to have justification by faith alone, through grace as a gift, it is only through Jesus, through no one else.
Now when I think of the word redemption, what comes into my mind? I'll tell you how old I am. S &H Green Stamps. For those of you that don't know those, Google it. When you see someone with a big garbage can full of two liter bottles, and they're going to some little area in the supermarket, it's called the what? Redemption Center.
I said to Luke the other day, I thought, this was a couple nights ago in the storm, I thought, if I took a two liter bottle of full Diet Mountain Dew and put it in one of those, I wonder what would happen.
There's probably some mechanism, but I was thinking about it. Kind of fun fireworks. Luke's like, can we dad, can we dad? I said, sure, I'll use you as an illustration in my sermon on what not to do. Okay, so here's what's happening.
You say, you know, but this is all too big. This is all too theological. I can't get my arms around it. Courtroom, forensic, legal. Well, friends, here's what I'd like to encourage you by. Encourage you with.
You need to know this. If you're a Christian, you need to know this. It's not good enough to say I'm a Christian for 20 years, and all I know is, Jesus loves me, this I know for the Bible tells me so.
That's a great truth. It's true. I like to sing it. But if you're a Christian, you're to grow, and you go, you know what? I've got some big trials in my work. I've got some trials that are going on at home.
I've got trials with my health. Friends, you need to have your salvation parsed out so you remember how great it is, because Jesus loves me, this I know for the Bible tells me so. If you're a 20-year Christian, it's not going to take you through these trials.
So what does Paul do? As he writes to the people in Rome, half of them probably were illiterate. Three-quarters of them were probably slaves. He says you need to know. This is a doctrine that if you don't need to know, today's the last day you should say to yourself, I can just kind of skate on that one.
Get me to that practical stuff. I'd like to learn how to be a good neighbor and learn how to be a good back scratcher for my neighbors, and that's what I really need. Friends, of course you need to know how to love your neighbor, but here's how to love God.
How do you love me, God? Let me count the ways. Let me parse your salvation. So how about this? Courtroom language earlier in this very verse, and then he turns right here and says now we're leaving the courtroom and we're going to the slave pit.
Through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Because what's Paul trying to get us to do? He's trying to get us to think we should be standing there in court. Chairman of the foreman, have you reached a verdict?
Yes, we have. Handed to the judge, I pronounce you based on your life of not obeying the law of God, not loving God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, not loving the neighbor as yourself, I declare you not guilty, sentenced to death by hanging today.
That's what we're supposed to feel. Like before God, he sees me, he knows me, he's created me. I am guilty. I'm going to die. The eternal death penalty. And then you think, yes, but someone in the middle of the courtroom has said, excuse me, your honor, I will gladly pay for that person's sins and step in my place.
Step in as a substitute. And you said, who would do that for me? Who would give his son to die for a sinner? Now, I have one son. And I could pick anybody here. I'll use Dave Farrah again. Dave, I owe you two dollars.
As nice as Dave is, as kind as Dave is, as much as you want Dave to come visit you when you're in the hospital, pray with you and love on you, I would not have my son die. Now, let's turn it up a little bit.
Let's go down to the Worcester jail and find somebody who committed murder in the last week and say, you know what, I think I'll just have Luke take their execution. I wouldn't do that either. And the thing about it is, Luke isn't even perfect.
So what kind of God is not just and holy but is also gracious and says, I'll send my son to live for them, to die for them, that's a gracious God. That's why it's called a gift. And then we see this language.
We need to wrap it up. Through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Only there. And if you were a Jew, you'd be thinking to yourself, with a flood of experiences about the exodus and how they were slaves in Egypt and God with his powerful right arm redeemed them.
Forget bottles, forget cans, forget S &H green stamps. This is God who swore to his forefathers, Deuteronomy 7, the Lord brought you out by a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt.
But here it's not geographical redemption, it is what? Spiritual, slave language, liberation language. If you're a sinner, you're enslaved to sin. How can you, the slave to sin, be free without someone paying a price for you?
So Jesus was the ransom and he's the one who made redemption. Relations 4 says, in order that he might redeem those who are under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. I think that's probably why we sing songs like, redeemed, redeemed by the blood of the lamb.
Redeemed how I love to proclaim it. There is a redeemer, Jesus, God's own son. Without painting the picture too vividly, I can just imagine the floor of the sin, excuse me, of the slave traders. And there are people there, no clothes on, the shackles around their necks and around their arms and they're paraded before these people and with the saliva coming out of their mouth, not bidding on people to say, you know what, I want to own you, I want to use you, I want to use you as my slave.
Slavery is a horrible thing. I think there's only one thing worse than real slavery and that is people who are enslaved to sin. So, what makes it good is, I'm no longer a slave to sin, based on the work of Christ.
Well, if you like homework, here's your homework. We didn't get through the whole paragraph. We didn't make it through. We missed 25 and 26. If you're a Christian today, you're a Christian because God has justified you by His grace alone.
He's declared you righteous. Is there anything you wouldn't do for the Lord? Is there anywhere you wouldn't go? And if you're not a Christian, God has pronounced you guilty and you're going to die an eternal death and you have one hope.
I remember my seminary professor once said, just imagine, of course the analogies break down, imagine a football field and imagine the press box is lined with army snipers, professional snipers. They all have their high-powered rifles and you're standing there in the very center of the football field and you are condemned and they're going to execute you.
Could you make it? I don't know. I don't think you could. But he said, then you look up and just to the side of your vision, you see there's a tree. There's a tree and you can hide behind that tree because certainly the ammo can't make it through the tree.
And he painted this beautiful picture because Jesus Christ died on a what? Tree. And so we duck behind the cross and the wrath of God is assuaged by Christ and it should have been for us. I love the Gospel.
I say, Pastor, you know, we're beyond all this stuff. We want to get the inside scoop. We want the joy of the Christian life. We just want more of Jesus. We want to experience Him more and know Him more.
We're going to get down to the nitty gritties. Friends, this is for you. This is more of Jesus. And when you say, I want more of Jesus, you're making less of justification by faith alone. If you say, Lord, I want to appreciate what you did for me more, that's a great prayer and that's why Romans is for you and that's why your assignment this week is to read Romans 1 to 16.
The Mount Everest of the... If someone were to ask you, what is justification by faith alone? I wonder what you would say. Alright, let's pray. Thank you, Father, for this day. Thank you for this great passage.
Thank you for making our minds think. Thank you that you demonstrated your righteousness and the sacrificial death of Jesus in our place. So, Lord, if the response to this great salvation is to love our husbands who are unlovable, Lord, grant that to these dear people.
If it's to husbands who are supposed to love their wives who are unlovable, I pray that you would grant them that. In light of this, knowing what we deserve and now knowing what we get, to submit to the boss at work who is almost wicked in behavior, Father, for your glory.
For evangelism, Father, help us to never be afraid to talk about the excellencies of Christ Jesus. Father, I pray for Bethlehem Bible Church. This would not be some secret club where we know all these doctrines.
We'd be like Northampton. We'd learn about these doctrines and you would revive New England. First us, then those in New England. And, Lord, I pray that you'd give this congregation a real experience this week.
That they would experience in their heart and feel with their hearts this week the glory of your salvation. How great you are. How wonderful you are. How articulate all this is. How magnificent. How full of details.
How could holy God make sinners right? The answer is found in the cross. Thank you for pushing us behind that tree and making us hide behind your wrath because you loved us in Jesus' name. Amen.