Justification by Faith in Christ Alone: The Power of God for Salvation

Old Testament scripture reading this morning is found in Deuteronomy chapter 30 verses 11 through

14.

Please stand in honor of God's Word.

For this commandment that I command you today is not too hard for you, neither is it far off.

It is in heaven that you should say, Who will ascend to heaven for us and bring it to us that we may

hear it and do it?

Neither is it beyond the sea that you should say, Who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us that we may hear it and do it?

But the Word is very near you.

It is in your mouth and in your heart so that you can do it.

New Testament scripture reading this morning is found in Romans chapter 10 verses 5

through 13.

For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandments shall live by

them.

But the righteousness based on faith says, Do not say in your heart, Who will ascend into heaven, that is,

bring Christ down, or who will descend into the abyss, that is, to bring Christ up from the dead.

But what does it say?

The Word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that is, the word of faith that we proclaim.

Because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.

For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.

For the scripture says, Everyone who believes in Him will not be put to shame.

For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing His riches on all who call

on Him.

For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

You may be seated.

Good morning.

Open your Bibles to Romans 1, please.

Romans chapter 1.

It is a great time of year, is it not?

The changing of the guard to winter with the beautiful colors of fall.

And of course we have this wonderful holiday called Reformation Day before us.

It is a special day in which we celebrate the return of the Gospel

to Christendom.

I am a, I don't know, maybe I shouldn't say this, but a proud Baptist.

I love my Baptist brothers who had brought back the true

meaning and way that we are to baptize.

But this is even more special than that of a Reformation, because this gets to the very heart

of God's plan for salvation.

This gets to the very heart of the Gospel.

This gets to the very heart of our unity in the Gospel.

As it was saying by the choir today, there is a universal church that all are connected

by this one beautiful principle that we are saved by grace through faith alone.

And so this is an important time that we remember what happened with Martin Luther and

how God started that chain of events to go from being enslaved to a

false way of salvation by Catholicism to the rebirth of the Gospel anew.

And so to celebrate that we go to Romans 1 today.

We go to Romans 1.

Romans 1, this is the passage that

by all accounts was a light bulb in Martin Luther's head that

made him realize what the Gospel truly is.

In Romans 1, 16 through 17.

For I am not ashamed of the Gospel.

For the Gospel is the power of God for salvation to

everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the

Greek.

For in the Gospel the righteousness of God is revealed from faith

for faith.

As it is written, the righteous shall live by faith.

God in heaven, help us, Lord, to center our hearts and minds on the teaching of your word.

I pray, God, that you would use me as a weak vessel to proclaim truth.

Lord, help me to exposit the text well and bring it into light

of our current context and also the context of history.

God in heaven, you are marvelous in all your ways.

And we see your ways in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins and the power therein.

I pray, God, that we would all be listeners and in obedience by the power of the Holy Spirit

apply your word, God in heaven, and that you would use this as a great means to that end.

Thank you for being with us on this Lord's Day, for your presence to be with the church of a great

magnitude.

It's a wondrous gift.

And so let us celebrate that by being attentive to you and your word this morning and in the

activities this evening, this whole Lord's Day.

Let's devote it to your great power.

In Jesus' name, amen.

The Gospel is the power of God for salvation.

It is the power of God for salvation.

There is something in us humans that really enjoy good displays of power.

And there's something in us that really enjoys displays of power when we're beholding it and it's something

that we could never do of ourselves and the power to do it is before us.

And I think of a lot of like an arena for college football or

pro football in which there's all these people gathered

together, thousands upon thousands to watch these people participate in something that they can never

ever do of their own ability.

Just recently playing football with some of the guys here at LaRue, we had planned to play for

a long time, for I don't know, hours, and we realized that we could only play like a game and a half and then we were done,

right?

There is something that is extremely difficult to do these things that we behold in athletics and the

athletics of other people.

And we see that people love to see the display of the power as people do it to the best of

anyone can do in the world.

And it's something in which the people themselves as they watch and they enjoy it, they can never do to the same caliber and it's part of that

power that makes people really enjoy it to be held before them.

People love displays of power.

I saw a video, I think it was a recent game of the Cincinnati Bengals in which they were

singing the national anthem and right at the end where we sing the land of the free,

there was a great flyover of a couple jets and it was lower than usual and it scared everyone and it was loud and it was

right at the right time, a land of the free, right?

And it made everyone rupture in joyous worship, or worship is what I'll say later, but in

joyous celebration and cheering, right?

And this is something in which again, people love displays of power.

And I think this, I always like to see things like this and see where does it come forth from?

Why do people like to see power?

Why do people like to see it displayed?

I remember even, not to get lost in storytelling, but I remember even in boot camp with, you know, enjoying shooting an

M9 pistol, right?

It was my first time ever firing a gun and it was just enjoyable, the power behind holding that handgun in my hand

and then also going on from that to the rifle, to the M16, a gun, not the same kind of

gun, but along the family tree of what my father shot in Vietnam, you know?

There's something amazing to hold that power in my hands and also the shotgun, which left many bruises because I didn't hold it right

because of the power of hitting me wrongly there.

But nevertheless, there is just something about power to behold that man likes and enjoys and I always like to go, why is

that the case?

And I think it's because God has purposed us as his creatures to enjoy displays of power.

God himself has created in power.

This is what he has done.

He is a God of power and he has created in that power and we are made to behold that power and say, I

could never do anything like that, and we are to marvel.

One of my favorite passages to display this, this fresh creative power by God and the rifle

response of his creation, of course, I don't think man was here yet, but nevertheless, it's the same kind of ordination

or what God has ordained to happen, that he would be powerful, that he would display his power, and that people would

marvel in response.

Job 38, you can listen or go there if you want.

Job 38, 4 -7, when I'm trying to meditate on the very purposes of creation, of my

purpose, I love to meditate on these verses in which it lays this out.

Job 38, 4 -7, in which God asks, Job, where

were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?

Tell me if you have understanding.

Who determined its measurements?

Surely you know.

Or who stretched the line upon it?

Or what were its bases sunk?

Or who laid its cornerstone?

The point that God is getting at is that you did not do that, Job.

You have nowhere close to the power to do that, but I did.

You weren't even there.

And then notice the response of creation at the very first, when the morning stars sang together,

and all the sons of God shouted for joy.

It reminds me of the big house in Michigan football.

It is the biggest stadium, so I'm going to use that just for the sake, because it is a bigger stadium, of all those people packed into that little

place, and all the shouting that's going on as Ohio State's beating up on Michigan.

Okay, I'll give you that, okay?

I'll give you that.

It reminds me, though.

It reminds me of this great crowd of people in the stadium, right?

As they behold the power of God displayed, and they cheer.

Look at this power.

Look at this majesty by God.

And there is a glorifying of God.

I think this is really, again, the purpose of all

things, right?

That God would display his power, and we would marvel at his power displayed.

That's the purpose of everything.

And, of course, we see what happens when man loses this purpose, right?

What happens when man fails to respond the way he's supposed to respond in marveling?

And I think in our text, Paul gets to that in verses 18 through 21.

You see, God has revealed himself in his power and creation, but man has taken that revealing

of his power and used it in a way that's very unrighteous.

And in that, we see that God then reveals his power in, not creation

per se, but in his wrath.

We see in verse 18,.

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven.

So not only does God display his power in creation, but he displays his power in the wrath

being revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their

unrighteousness suppress the truth.

For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.

For, listen to this, his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power

and divine nature, have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world and the

things that have been made.

So you see, God has displayed his power in creation.

It's been there ever since.

It's been there for us to behold and enjoy and shout for worship.

But yet, in our unrighteousness, we don't worship.

So they are without excuse, he says at the end of verse 20.

For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became

useless or futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.

So you see, there is an aspect in which God's wrath is then revealed whenever we don't properly,

in righteousness, receive the power displayed in creation and respond with shouts

of joy and worship.

That is an unrighteousness that's in man that they would instead be self -centered and not display an

appropriate reaction to his power revealed in creation.

And so we see God's wrath, his power and wrath, is then revealed.

And we see this is a power indeed, this wrathful God.

Look at Romans 9, 17.

Remember, it's almost like a text in which he's playing with Pharaoh like a mouse and a cat.

For the scripture says to Pharaoh, For this very purpose, Pharaoh, I raise you up, that

I might show my power in you,

that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.

So not only is God's power revealed in creation in which his name is proclaimed, that this is an awesome

God because of this creative power, but his power is revealed in wrath as he displays

his name and bearing down his wrath upon unrighteous sinners.

In fact, we see this in a very general sense in Matthew 24, 30.

Just listen as I read.

In Matthew 24, 30, Jesus himself says, Then will appear in heaven the sign of the

Son of Man, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming

in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

You see that's Jesus returning with his wrath under his wings, and

all of the earth will see his power in bringing that wrath.

In fact, we see that God displaying his power revealed in wrath

is for a very particular purpose that we talked about in Sunday school this morning.

In verse 22, there's a very particular purpose that God has for revealing his power in wrath, and

that is in verse 22, we get that in chapter 9, it's very offensive to the unbeliever, but

Paul says, What

is he

saying

there?

That God displays his power in wrath so that those who receive his

grace instead will behold his powerful wrath and marvel and worship.

The whole point that God has in displaying his power in his wrath is so those who do not receive his wrath but his

grace will behold it and worship.

Again, God loves to display his power, and he has created us to receive that and to

shout worship to him.

It has always been God's goal to display his power fully to his

church.

His church, his people, the recipients of grace are the direct objects in which we

display the full totality of God's powerful working in

creation, in wrath, and in salvation.

If you are not a recipient today of God's salvation, of his power revealed in salvation, if

you are not a recipient of that today, you are not enjoying him in his creation or enjoying

him, may I say, in his displays of wrath.

You are either enjoying the power of God in salvation, in which you enjoy everything else of displays of his power,

or you are languishing in his wrath today, in which you enjoy nothing of his displays of power.

It is a great benefit for you to behold the power of God in salvation so you can

enjoy the totality of how he has revealed himself.

But if you are not within his salvation, you are simply languishing in the

power displayed in his wrath.

This has always been Satan's goal for all people,

to keep you, to keep me, to keep everyone born after Adam, to keep

Adam himself from the power of God for salvation and to keep them in his wrath

instead.

And Satan has used a common deceit, a common lie since the beginning.

It's an age -old trick.

A common deceit to do this is to create a false salvation power.

And it's a salvation power not of God, but of who?

But a man.

Satan has always tempted people into a false assurance of salvation, a false

salvation that says it's not found in the power of God completely, but rather it's found in the power of

you, that you can be righteous before

God, not by a gift from God as he gives it to you for you to receive by faith, but rather

you can be righteous by doing, by earning it.

This is a lie.

This is the same lie that Satan has proclaimed since the beginning, that you can be right with God by your

own works.

And this is the lie that Martin Luther found himself in, in the Roman church, in the system

controlled by the Pope, because the Pope had taken over the church.

And he has proclaimed this lie ever since, that to be right with God, you must

earn it.

You must earn salvation.

And sadly, it always looks a little bit like you must serve the Pope.

You must serve a wicked and false church.

See, this is the world that Martin Luther lived in as he approached Romans 1, and he

was a professor in this system, and he needed to teach this, and he did not know what to do

with the righteousness of God.

How, as Paul is labeling it here, Romans 1, 17, how is the righteousness of God something for us

to behold in beauty and pleasure?

To him, Martin Luther, he saw this as something I had to earn, and I can't do enough to earn it.

And so this is terrifying to me.

In fact, Martin Luther, when writing about this after the fact, as he is

grappling with this verse, grappling with this, and I would argue he's in the realm

of God's wrath, trying to grapple with the power of God displayed in salvation.

He doesn't understand it.

He says, meanwhile, I had already during that year returned to interpret

the Psalter anew.

I had confidence in the fact that I was more skillful after I had lectured in the university on St. Paul's epistles to the Romans,

to Galatians, and to the one in Hebrews.

So I had indeed been captivated with an extraordinary ardor for understanding Paul in the epistle to the

Romans.

In other words, he had a very great desire to understand Paul here in Romans as he is going to teach it.

But up until then, it was not the cold -blood ab out of the heart, but a single word in chapter

1 that he struggled with, and that is, in it the righteousness of God is revealed.

That had stood in my way, for I hated the word righteousness of God, which according to the use and custom of

all the teachers in that day, I had been taught to understand philosophically regarding the formal, or act of

righteousness as they call it, with which God is righteous and punishes the unrighteous sinner.

So in other words, he was taught to learn that this is the righteousness that he must earn.

This was an act of righteousness that you must grab hold of to make yourself right before God.

And his problem was, I can't do that.

I can't be right before God.

I'm a sinner.

He said, though I had lived as a monk and without reproach.

That's like Paul, remember, saying that I was the greatest of all Pharisees when he's talking about his works

-based righteousness.

This is the same thing.

This is the same thing as saying I was the best of Pharisees, right?

As Paul said, and he says that was rubbish.

But here, the monk, Martin Luther, says, though I lived like a monk without reproach, I felt that I was a sinner

before God with an extreme disturbed conscience.

I could not believe that he was placated or he was...

Oh, placated, what's another word for... I should have wrote it down.

Help me out here.

Placated...

Satisfied, thank you.

Satisfied, yeah.

I couldn't believe that he was satisfied by my satisfaction.

Oh, there it was.

I did not love, yes, I hated the righteous God who punishes sinners and secretly, if not

blasphemously, certainly murmuring greatly, I was angry with God and said as if, he's talking to God here on his own,

as if indeed it was not enough that miserable sinners eternally lost their original sin are crushed by every kind of calamity,

by the law, the Decalogue, without having God add pain to pain, by the gospel, and also by the

gospel threatening us with his righteousness and wrath.

Thus, I raged with a fierce and troubled conscience.

Nevertheless, I was beaded impertinently upon Paul at

that place, most orderly, desiring to know, what does Paul mean?

You see, because Martin Luther at this time was stuck within the wrath of God, he

saw that the gospel of God was only something to be beaten up with.

He did not understand righteousness to be a free gift offered to be received by faith, but rather he

understood it to be something to be earned.

This is God's righteousness here, and you must grab hold of it to be right with him, and if you don't, you are

only going to be condemned by the gospel, not saved by the gospel.

Indeed, Martin Luther hated the gospel.

He hated the idea of righteousness.

This is a man who is caught up in a system at this time in which the gospel was not

faithfully proclaimed.

The gospel had been pretty much lost.

The idea that you can be made right with God, not by your work, but by a gift from God was

absolutely absent, and so he hated the idea of righteousness.

And again, this works -based righteousness, this idea that you can be made right

with God if you just work hard enough, is a timeless trick by Satan.

It is not just a historical point.

It's not just a Martin Luther issue.

It's not just a Catholic issue, but it is a lie we are always so ready to

believe.

How many, I wonder, come into these doors of this church,

and their motives for being here is because, they might not say this, but it's because this is the way that

I am right before God.

Their motivation for their obedience to God is rooted, and this is the way that I am right before Him.

This is my motivation for doing what I do for God, is this is what makes me right before Him.

Beloved, that is a false gospel that will send people to hell in a house.

This is the lie from Satan.

It's the same works -based righteousness.

And I can't tell you, in evangelizing, how many times, this is the common falsehood that I hear that's

sending people to hell.

As I ask, are you right with God?

They say, yes, I am right with God.

Usually I ask that in a way that says, if you were to go to heaven right now, why would God receive you?

I ask first, would God receive you?

And most people would say, yeah, I think He would receive me.

And I say, why would He receive you?

What makes you think that?

And they say, because I have done this, that, and the other.

I have been a pretty good person, right?

I can't tell you how that lie right there is the major lie that I hear from people that

is sending them to hell.

It is a works -based righteous lie that Satan has been propagating since the beginning.

Or even believers, true believers, which I believe, I pray, most of us are here,

right?

How much, how often can our motivations turn from, I am so overwhelmed by the power of God

displayed in salvation to give me such a gift that I can't wait to live for Him in light of it, to go from, well, this is

what Christians are to do.

So your actions are not rooted in the gift of God and salvation and you're overwhelmed by

the power of God displayed there and you can't help but cheer for Him in your life.

Instead, if you really chase the motive to the heart, you would see that, well, this is just what Christians are to

do.

I go to Sunday school because I've always gone to Sunday school.

I used to do it because I just enjoy God so much.

I want to know more about Him.

But to be honest with you, now people just expect me to be there.

And if I were not to be there, I might get weird emails or texts.

How often can we do the things we do, no longer hitched to

the horse of free grace, but it's hitched to the horse of legalism,

of this is just what Christians are to do, or this is how I'm right with God.

This is a true problem.

We all, not just Luther, need to know and celebrate and to remind ourselves

of the power of God's free gift of righteousness in the

gospel of Jesus Christ.

The gospel is the power of God for salvation, for in

the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed from faith

for faith, is what Paul says here.

This is the gospel message.

This is the central focus of the church.

This is what unites us.

This is why we can have fellowship with those weird Presbyterians who like to sprinkle their babies' heads and act like that

does something.

We can have fellowship with those beloved brothers of ours because we both proclaim the same gospel message,

that one is saved by grace through faith alone.

Being right with God begins and ends in faith.

This is what Paul means when he says that in verse 17, the

righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith.

It begins in faith and it ends in faith.

The righteousness of God is not something to be earned.

It doesn't begin with law and end with faith.

It doesn't begin with faith and end with law.

Paul's very clear with that in the book of Galatians.

Have you began by grace and faith?

Are you being finished now with the law, Paul asks?

Absolutely not.

No.

The true gospel is that as I have began to be right with God only by faith, and

so I shall end being right with God in eternity, being right with God through faith.

See, Paul's gospel, the gospel of Jesus Christ, the gospel of our Lord himself, is one in which you are

made right.

You grab hold of righteousness.

God declares you or justifies you only by your trust in

Jesus, only by your faith in Christ.

It starts with faith and it ends with faith.

The thing that we must understand, we must try to fathom within our little minds,

is the power of the object of that faith must be beyond what our

minds can understand fully.

I'm going to say that again.

I was saying that to my wife earlier this morning to see if it made sense, and she said, wait, say it again.

So I'm going to say it again because even as I said it, it kind of got rambled.

The power of God of salvation is found in faith.

And if that salvation saves you, the power of the object of that faith, what your faith

rests on, okay, that entity, whatever that is, that must be a

powerful, powerful force.

Do you get what I'm saying?

The power of the object of that faith must be beyond what our minds can

understand fully.

If, as Paul says, the power of God for salvation is in the gospel, that is, faith and

trust, whatever we are placing our faith and trust to receive salvation must be more powerful than we can

even fathom.

Do you understand how much God hates unrighteousness?

That you can be made righteous as a gift by placing your faith in something.

The fact that you can be made righteous.

Do you understand how much God hates unrighteousness?

That he would actually look at you and see your sin, see your filth and say, but I declare you to be righteous

because of your faith upon someone or something.

Do you understand how much God hates unrighteousness?

And how powerful that faith, whoever we are putting our faith in, must be in order to take away

your unrighteousness.

God hates wickedness.

And in our culture of girliness, that doesn't get said enough.

Men need to proclaim that more, that God hates wickedness.

And we see this in the fact that God's wrath is placed on wickedness, and it's a terrifying wrath.

As we talked about, his power is revealed in that wrath.

Look at Romans 2, 8 and 9.

In fact, I think we get an even more graphic picture of this in Matthew 13.

In Matthew 13 from our Lord.

Look at what Jesus says in Matthew 13, 49.

Actually, let's just do 47.

Matthew 13, 47.

Again, the kingdom of heaven is like the net, a net that was thrown into the sea and gathered fish of every

kind.

When it was full, men drew it ashore and sat down and sorted the good into containers, the righteous, and threw away the

bad, the unrighteous.

So will it be, he says.

That's just a picture for you to think about, to understand better.

So it will be at the end of the age.

The angels will come and separate the evil or the unrighteous from the righteous.

There will be a separation.

And throw them into the fiery furnace.

In that place, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth forever.

Can you imagine that?

A fiery furnace, whatever that entails completely, in which there's anger, gnashing of teeth, angry.

Why am I here?

I hate this.

Gnashing of teeth, weeping forever.

I can't even fathom the fury.

And you know who's directing that?

It's not Satan, beloved.

Satan is in there gnashing his teeth in fury too.

He hates it just as much as anyone else.

You know who's directing that?

Wrath.

It is the power of God and his wrath.

He hates unrighteousness.

Period.

And he's going to bring his judgment upon it with full fury because of his hatred of

it.

And it's not just the Hitlers.

It's not just the Stalins.

It's not just the Democrats.

It's not just the Michigan fans.

It is every one of us who have any sort of wickedness within our bones.

And you know what that is?

And it's all sorts of things, but to connect it with my sermon point today, it is not fully

giving God what he deserves

in his powerful creation.

Our worship is incomplete.

Our worship is focused on us.

We sin in ways that you will not even know until you receive more understanding in the new heavens and new

earth.

Do not think for a moment, well, I'm not as bad as that guy because guess what now you're doing?

You now have a workspace righteousness.

Love it.

We are sinful beyond degree because God is a holy God, perfect in all his ways.

And we fall short in any moment that you fall short of that as an eternally falling short, and it is

absolute wickedness to our perfectly holy God, and he will not put up with it.

There's people in this room, perhaps, because it is such

a tenacious error that don't understand just how sinful they are.

In fact, I don't understand how sinful I am.

We can never fully understand how sinful we are because we are comparing ourselves with the holy God, and we can't fathom all the holiness

that's found in God.

Beloved, we are wicked, sinful creatures.

God hates wickedness and unrighteousness.

Now, if this is starting to sound depressing, this is to set something up for you.

If God so hates unrighteousness, if he so hates wickedness that he's going to bring his

wrath crashing down for eternity, yet it's turned away by our faith

in something, whatever that thing is that turns away that wrath must be

more powerful than we can ever imagine.

It must be a powerful person that we place our faith in to turn away God's hatred

of such unrighteousness.

You know, one thing we should ask ourselves.

I know you're saying, get to Jesus already!

Okay, just one second.

Instead of wondering how God could punish sinners so extremely, which I get all the time.

In fact, I think a lot of Christians, to be honest with you, sometimes when I'm at night, I just think about hell,

I get overwhelmed with it.

It's hard for my little mind to fathom that sin could be so wicked.

But instead of wondering how God could punish sinners so extremely, we should ask, if God

hates unrighteousness this much, how could I be made righteous in light of my sin?

That's what that should drive you to.

If God hates sin that much as displayed in hell for eternity, how can I be made

righteous and turn away and not have that as my future?

That's what that should drive you to.

The answer of Satan and

his minions is that it is by the power of your works, to some degree.

Oh yeah, grace is there, they'll say.

But you gotta work something to get it.

You gotta have some of your works.

You gotta give to the church a certain way.

You gotta do certain penance to the Pope and to his bishops and minions and everything.

You gotta do certain things, and it's always wrapped up in all sorts of different works -based religion.

You understand that every single false religion has the same thing in common.

To be right with God, you must have some kind of works to be right with God.

And that's what it is.

To have that mindset, what you're doing is you're undermining God's perfect holiness and the extent of

your sin.

If you say that I can have enough works to earn righteousness, you are undermining the perfect holiness of

God and you are undermining your sin.

That's like a guilty serial child rapist asking the judge if he could just serve community

service instead of the death sentence.

You understand that?

That's like a serial, think of the worst wicked person you could think of, and the judge, he's guilty, and the judge is gonna

hand out a sentence and the guy's just expecting, well, let me just work a little bit to get out of this sentence.

And the answer is always, absolutely not.

What a wicked judge that would be if he were to just say, okay, I'll give you community service.

No, no, no, no.

A righteous judge says, nope, you deserve death and you shall receive death.

And God, who is perfectly holy, who sees sinners, he says the same thing.

So again, this faith that turns away

the wrath of God to you, whatever we're placing our trust in, whatever faith, whatever that

rests in, that man, that God -man must be powerful to turn away

God's angry wrath against you.

And we find that it is.

We find that in Jesus Christ, I, pathetic sinner as I am, I can place my trust and confidence

in him, that through him I can be made right with God.

And that's exactly what we get in Romans 3, 21 through 28.

See, Paul is making a summary statement now of his argument of what

is this faith, who do we place it in?

Well, he details it here in Romans 3, 21 through 28.

He says, but now the righteousness of God has been manifested.

And again, this righteousness here is not the perfect standard that we are to earn, but rather

it is a righteousness that he gives by faith.

And he says, this righteousness that we earn by faith, that is from God, the power of his salvation,

has been manifested, it has appeared.

And it's apart from the law, it's apart from works.

It can't be with the works because then we wouldn't be able to have it, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it.

They proclaim it, they say it's coming.

I could talk more about that, but it's not the point of the sermon.

And that is the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ.

He is the powerful one who can turn away the wrath of God from you.

It is only by him that Jesus, or God who hates sin so much, can

turn away from his hatred gaze of your sin and actually see you as his beloved.

It is because Jesus Christ is that powerful beloved.

It's the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who have faith or all who simply

believe.

That is the means or the vehicle that gets you to Christ.

For there is no distinction, Paul says in verse 23, for all have sinned and we've all fallen short of the

glory of God because of Adam being in him.

And yet we can be justified or we can be made righteous by his grace as a

gift, not as something to be earned.

And it's through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

So it's not like Jesus Christ came to earth and said, here I am, believe upon me, and just went back up.

That's not what happened, is it?

Jesus Christ came and that man was on a mission, wasn't he?

Read the gospels.

He wasn't lazy.

He wasn't just kind of like, ah, we'll see.

He wasn't like a royalty, right?

That was just kind of lazing around, eating grapes and wine and enjoying all the good

things of this life.

No, Jesus was on a mission.

He had to come and he did something very particular, didn't he?

He had to give himself up to redeem his people and are

justified by the grace that's found in Jesus as a gift through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ.

You know what redemption means?

Redemption has the idea that you were in the slave market, you were a slave to sin, you were

condemned as guilty, right?

And someone comes in and pays your way out.

You are redeemed.

And the one who came to redeem you out is Jesus Christ, our Lord, who paid by his blood

and said, this is the payment that is needed for him to come with me now.

And so he redeems you by his blood and he says, you are with me now.

And I want you to keep in your head how amazing it is that the God who

hates sin so much would be placated by the blood of Jesus Christ.

What power must be displayed in that blood for it to turn away the wrath of our God.

It is a gift given to those who have faith in Jesus because he has redeemed his people by

his blood.

In verse 25, whom God put forward.

God put forward.

You got to understand, it's not like just God being angry with sin and that's it.

No, God does something about that anger.

He puts forward Jesus.

He's the one that put forward Jesus.

And he put him as a propitiation, it says in verse 25, by his blood.

Propitiation means to appease something.

God is angry and so he's angry with our sin, he's angry with your unrighteousness.

And so in love for you, he puts forward Jesus and sacrifices him, his blood is worthy

and it appeases him, it turns away his wrath.

Again, if I can say it again, how mighty and powerful must that

sacrifice be to appease such an angry God.

And it says to be received by faith.

Right?

What a gift that is.

Such an expensive gift that our Lord would sacrifice himself and be dead on a

tree, perfect in all his ways, killed by wicked men.

And for that to be received simply by faith, simply by looking to him and trusting,.

That's it.

What a gift that is.

What a treasure that is for us.

It's received by faith.

This was, again, to show God's righteousness.

Because in his divine forbearance, he passed over former sins, but it was to show his righteousness at the present

time so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

You understand?

For God to be just, that means for him to punish sins.

But yet he is also the justifier because he punishes your sins in Jesus Christ.

And you receive that by simple faith in him.

You see how this doesn't undermine the holiness of God?

It doesn't say, well, I can work my way into this and undermine the holiness of God and undermine your sin.

No.

It says, I am a wicked sinner, fully deserving of this, but my Jesus is stronger.

And I shall believe upon him and he receives my sin.

You understand the power of God and salvation in this.

And he says, what's the conclusion?

What becomes of our boasting?

Can we boast as Christians?

No.

It is excluded.

We can't boast.

You know why?

Because God likes to boast.

And when we boast, we kind of try to taint that.

No.

God shall boast.

I shall boast my weakness in boasting God.

God boasts.

I don't boast.

So what becomes of our boasting?

It is excluded, right?

It's all praise and worship and cheering to God.

But what kind of law?

By what kind of law?

By a law of works?

No, but by the law of faith.

For we hold that one is made righteous or justified by faith apart from your

works of the law.

This is the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And when Martin Luther saw this and he sees, oh, the

righteousness of God.

That's not something I must earn and he's just holding it over me saying, you'll never get it.

Ha ha, you wicked sinner.

I hate you.

No, no, no.

The righteousness of God here is what he gives me as a gift by looking at Jesus.

When he understood that, it changed everything for him and for Europe

and for Christendom and for all time ever since.

The gospel was reborn.

And he says at that moment, he says, at last, at last, by the mercy of God, meditating day and

night, I gave heed to the context of the words.

Namely, in it the righteousness of God is revealed as it is written, he who through faith is righteous shall

live.

There I began to understand that the righteousness of God is that by which the righteous lives by

a gift of God, namely by faith.

And this is the meaning, the righteousness of God is revealed by the gospel, namely the passive righteousness

with which merciful God justifies us by faith.

As it is written, he through faith is righteous shall live.

In other words, God gives us that righteousness and we are passive in that.

We're not active in that.

Active means we're grabbing it.

We're grabbing hold of it.

It's our righteousness.

No, no, no.

We're passive, Martin Luther says.

We receive it as a gift.

Here I felt that I was altogether born again and had entered

paradise itself through open gates.

There a totally other face of the entire scripture showed itself to me.

Thereupon I ran through the scripture from memory.

And Martin Luther could do that, by the way.

I also found in other terms and analogy as the work of God, that is what God does in us, the power

of God with which he makes us wise, the strength of God, the salvation of God, the

glory of God.

And I extolled my sweetest word with a love as great as the hatred of which I had before.

See, as much as I hated it before, now I loved it.

The righteousness of God is what he loved.

Thus, that place in Paul was for me truly the gate to paradise.

So it's amazing.

The righteousness of God was one thing he hated.

I hated that word.

I hated God.

I hated everything to do with it because I couldn't achieve it.

Then he realizes, oh, it's a gift through Jesus.

And so now he absolutely loved it.

See, Martin Luther went from receiving the revealing of God's wrath to revealing of God's power of

salvation, and it was glorious to him.

God's goal for all his creative acts is to have a people that are so

in awe of his power displayed in creation, wrath, and salvation, that all the cheering

and joyful screaming of all the Super Bowls and Rose Bowls and everything combined won't hold a

candle to the worship Christ's bride will give to God in eternity.

God's goal is to be magnified and cheered and celebrated for his power

revealed in creation, wrath, and salvation.

And Jesus Christ, all those things come together beautifully, and we, his church, proclaim that

and worship him in light of that.

So the unbeliever needs to stop doing your works to be right with God.

Ask yourself, what is your motivation for what you do for God?

And if it is rooted because in some way this makes me right with him, beloved, that is going to send you to hell.

The believer says, I can't do anything.

My unrighteousness is far too great.

God's holiness is far too great.

I cannot work my way even close to his holiness.

And so you humbly submit to Jesus Christ.

And you say, Christ, I have nothing.

You have everything.

I am yours now.

And you see, this is going to be a two -parter.

Because we just talked about justification.

That is, when God declares you to be righteous based off of Jesus Christ alone, he says you are righteous not by your works but because of

Jesus' work.

And so now you are righteous because of your faith in him.

But there's also the righteous shall live by faith.

There is a way you then live your life that shows that that reality has happened.

Your life becomes dramatically different.

Not because of your work's earned righteousness, but because God has done such a powerful work in you that not only is his power

revealed in justification, but it's revealed in sanctification that he can change a wicked sinner

and make him live for the glory of God.

But why do we want to do that?

Why do we live the way that we do as Christians?

Not because we're trying to earn anything, but we've already been given it.

And we're so overwhelmed by gratitude that we say, my life is now lived in thanks to my God.

So all that we do, we do it out of gratitude because we have received a gift.

So what is your motivation for being here?

That's my possible sermon for next week.

I just gave it though, so.

What's your motivation for being here?

Is it because God has done a marvelous work and you're just beholding it and you're in awe of it?

Or are you in some way thinking that this is what I do as a Christian, this is what I'm supposed to do?

Beloved, repent from that.

Turn to Jesus and may all your actions, all your doing, may it be because Christ has done a great work for

his people.

Believe upon him and you are his.

What a great gift that is.

God in heaven, I thank you for Jesus Christ.

Lord, I thank you for the fact that I still sin today.

I see what Jesus has done for my sin, and yet I find myself living in disobedience.

And even then, I am to, in faith, look to Jesus and be saved.

Lord, Jesus isn't just held up for one time and one time only, but this is a life that righteous shall constantly live

by faith.

It is the power of God for salvation that you would look away from my sin and look to Jesus and be

placated.

That you would be appeased because of what Jesus has done.

Lord, may I, may the people before me, may their boast, may my boast be, not in my own

strength, but rather may our boast be in what Jesus Christ has done.

And may we live a life in keeping of that boast.

May we do what we do, Lord, because we have just been so overwhelmed by the grace found in Christ.

Lord, again, I know that there's unbelievers.

They're convinced that they can be right with you because they've done enough good.

Oh, Lord, may you show them your holiness.

And may you show them just how wicked their sin is, so that, not that they would just sit in there and be depressed, but then they would see

Jesus as the one who faithfully and wonderfully takes away that sin.

And so may the redeemed, those who have believed upon Jesus and are believing upon Jesus, those before me, the church of

God, may we be reminded of our lives that we are to live.

It is not to earn anything, but it's because we've already earned everything in Jesus.

And our goal is to show our gratitude because we are truly thankful for his work.

God be glorified in all things.

May God, may you receive the glory in all things.

Thank you for this salvation by faith through grace alone and Jesus alone.

Be glorified, our Lord.

In Jesus' name, amen.