"Through Faith Alone"

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"Through Faith Alone" Oct 15, 2017 Romans 3:19-31

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Psalms that give you praise and declare your good news, the good news of Jesus Christ.
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I pray that you would help us now as we turn our attention to yet another passage of Scripture, and I pray that you would give us ears to hear, give us eyes to see, that we may listen to Christ and look at Christ in your
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Word. Thank you for hearing us, and I thank you for calling us to this time and to worship you in this manner.
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Father, we do not come this morning because we are good at this, because we've figured it out, and we just do this better than other people.
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Father, we are utterly dependent on you. So we ask that you would fill us with your
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Holy Spirit, that what you have written by your
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Spirit will resound in our hearts, and that it would have a changing effect upon us, that we would be brought ever more into loving submission to you, that we would know more and more of the good that you have for us in Christ, so that you would be all the more glorified in our lives.
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We ask these things in the name of Jesus Christ, with whom you are well pleased. Amen. I invite you to open your
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Bibles and turn with me to Romans chapter 3, and we will be reading verses 19 through 31 here in a moment.
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We are continuing our five -fold protest this morning on the basis of Scripture alone.
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We know that salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, to the glory of God alone.
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This month marks the 500th year since Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses on the door of the
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Wittenberg Chapel, a date that the historians have chosen as the beginning of the Protestant Reformation, the protest that was taken up by those who would value and privilege the
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Word of God over the traditions of man. We know our need.
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We have discerned our need. We confess our need to continue that same protest. We protest against works religions and false
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Gospels. We've heard from 2 Timothy 3, 14 through chapter 4, verse 5, that all of our faith and practice is to be based upon Scripture alone.
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We've heard from Titus 3, 3 through 7, that salvation is entirely by grace alone.
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There is no parachute entry into the kingdom whereby we cooperate with grace.
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It is by grace alone. And now we turn to Romans 3, 19 through 31, a pivotal passage which clearly tells us that our justification is through faith alone.
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This is a word from our Savior, from our Lord, from our King, Christ Jesus. So I invite you to stand with me as I read that we would receive it and give him due honor as we hear his word.
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Romans chapter 3, beginning in verse 19. Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be closed, and all the world will become accountable to God.
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Because by the works of the law, no flesh will be justified in his sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
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But, now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been manifested being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe, for there is no distinction, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by his grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, whom
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God displayed, whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in his blood through faith.
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This was to demonstrate his righteousness, because in the forbearance of God, he had passed over the sins previously committed for the demonstration,
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I say, of his righteousness at the present time, so that he would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
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Where then is boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? Of works? No, but by a law of faith.
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For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law.
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Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, since indeed
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God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised by faith is one.
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Do we then nullify the law through faith? May it never be. On the contrary, we establish the law.
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Those of us who have ears to hear, let us hear. You may be seated. Righteousness, that is the key word of this passage.
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Righteousness, that root word in the Greek, shows up ten times in our passage, variously translated in terms of justified, justified, just, or right, righteous.
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The theme of righteousness is further emphasized by Paul's nine references to the law.
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In which the character of the incorruptible God is revealed, the righteousness of God manifested through the law.
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Righteousness is the key term. Righteousness is the theme. But I don't want the term righteousness to remain some abstract idea in your head.
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I want you to try to grab on to what does it mean. What are we talking about when we talk about righteousness and God manifesting his righteousness and showing himself to be just?
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I want to ask you, when was the last time you had an argument? When's the last time you had an argument with somebody?
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Think about the last argument that you had. And I wonder if there was something within your heart that was driving you and pushing you that you wanted to be proven right.
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That you wanted to be proven right. And you wanted the other person or persons involved in the argument to acknowledge that you indeed are right.
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Do you have a sense of that now? What is it about our human nature that drives us to want to be right?
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Blubbering, dirt smeared children confronted with a wide eyed parent fleeing accusations at one another about the mud pie store robbery gone awry.
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Who's more to blame? Who's the one who wronged me first? And each one pointing the finger because each one wants to be proven right.
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My heart broke as I read the email about one of our missionary kids getting mugged in England, having his face bashed in.
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I wanted to get on a plane, go over to England and find the muggers and do some dental work of my own.
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What is that in me that wants to take vengeance, that wants to set things right? Why is that found in every human being that lives on the planet?
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We are created in the image of God. We are created in the image of the righteous God. And even in our sin, even in our transgressions and sin, even in our death, in our exile from the life of God, we still have a passion and an interest and a desire to be right and to pursue something right.
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Even though it gets twisted into something that is more about personal vindication. We tend to make ourselves the arbiter.
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We appoint ourselves the judge of our own condition, conversation and conduct, where we tend to pardon, acquit, excuse and suspend sentence.
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God remains unchangingly right and true, assessing our lives according to his own pure, holy character.
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And why does God judge us that way? Well, first of all, he made us. And he made us in his image.
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So he's the judge of us and he judges us according to his own character. And even though we have a desire.
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Even though we have a desire to be right, even though we have a desire to pursue justice in some sense, that desire cannot translate into the ability to make ourselves right.
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In God's sight, we're talking about. Righteousness, we're talking about justification, what?
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We're talking about justification through faith alone. Why does it matter? Why does it matter?
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We're talking about what the Bible says. That's why it matters. We're talking about why God would welcome us. Why would God ever love us?
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Why would God ever treat us according to the way that he delights in his son? Why would we ever care about that?
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I hope you do. Justification is by faith alone, through faith alone. So notice the righteousness of God in verses 19 to 20.
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The righteousness of God in verses 19 to 20 is manifested in terms of condemnation.
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The righteousness of God manifested in condemnation. And our focus is upon the law.
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The law. The law of God is the revelation of his incorruptible character.
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The law is the manifestation of God's righteousness. And though we may be interested in proving ourselves right and excusing ourselves, what does the law of God prove about us?
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Well, first of all, verse 19, God's righteousness condemns us. Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law that every mouth may be stopped and the whole world may become guilty before God.
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And if you follow Paul's line of reasoning carefully, you discover that the whole world is under the law.
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The whole world is under the law because every mouth is stopped and the whole world is accountable to God because the entire world is under the law of God.
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It should give us some pause. It should spark some curiosity. How is it that the whole world is under the capital
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L law? How is it that Malaysian Hindus and Himalayan gurus are under the law?
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They've never heard the Torah. They never received the scripture. How is it that they're under the law? Because God made them in his own image.
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And he wrote on the heart a conscience that says that they must love God supremely, love others rightly, and steward the creation responsibly, which they try to do in perverted and pagan ways.
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And they pursue a spirituality, and they pursue a morality, and they pursue a life here on earth, but they do so in ways that are sinful.
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This is true of every human being. Made in God's image, we are to love
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God, love others, steward the creation, and yet what happens?
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We do not love God supremely. We are idolatrous blasphemers. We do not love others rightly.
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We are lying, adulterous thieves. We do not care for the created order. We are covetous addicts.
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And can we change that verdict? Can we do something to change the verdict? Well, verse 20 says no, because not only does
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God's righteousness condemn us, it also exceeds us. Verse 20, because by the works of the law, no flesh will be justified in his sight, for through the law comes the knowledge of sin.
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Here's why every mouth is stopped. Here's why we have no excuse. Here's why we can't accuse
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God, because by the law comes the knowledge of sin.
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As soon as we know the law, we know we are sinners. The more law we find, the more law is revealed to us, the more our sinfulness is revealed to us.
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To give someone the law is to give them a mirror which displays to them their sinfulness before God.
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The law is a mirror that shows us our sinfulness before God. Can a mirror clean your face?
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Will you take the mirror off the wall and scrub your face with it? It is not the purpose of the mirror to clean your face.
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It is the purpose of the mirror to show the filth on your face so that you may find cleansing elsewhere.
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And that is what the law does, and it does it so very well as it manifests the righteousness of God.
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Through the law comes the knowledge of sin. Through the law, we understand that we are sinners. The righteousness of God which condemns us also exceeds our capacity to achieve, but, verse 21, but the righteousness of God is also manifested through justification.
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See that in verses 21 through 25. Notice that God's righteousness is manifested through faith in Jesus Christ.
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Notice, first of all, what we're talking about is the righteousness of God himself is manifested, put on display, shown in the lives of those who have faith in Jesus Christ.
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This is what was known as justification, that the righteousness of God himself is on display, manifested, imputed to those who have faith in Jesus Christ so that God would look at a sinner full of sin who repents and turns to Christ in faith, and he would say of this sinner, just, all because of Jesus Christ, because of their union with Christ.
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That's what we mean by justification. We're going to learn more about that as we go along, but I want you to notice that this justification, that we learn about it in scripture alone.
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We do not learn the doctrine of justification by the examination of various kinds of flowers.
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We do not discover the doctrine of justification by spending time meditating by ourselves about the inner man.
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We discover the true gospel of Jesus Christ, we discover this good news in scripture alone.
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Verse 21 says, but now apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ.
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The first part of that says apart from the law, because if you follow the law, you are condemned by the righteousness of God displayed there.
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But if you believe in Christ, you are justified by the righteousness of God displayed there.
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Where do we learn about this gospel? It is witnessed by the law and the prophets, meaning the whole
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Old Testament, or by extension, all of the scriptures. This manifestation of the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ is not a novel interposition, this is no desperate move by a reeling
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God because his original plans did not work out. The righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ has been testified throughout the scriptures, all the law, all the writings, all the prophets, all up until the time of Jesus Christ and affirmed by the apostles.
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In chapter 1, Paul introduces himself here in the book of Romans as set apart for the gospel of God which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holiest scriptures concerning his son.
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This has been his point, his message all along. This is nothing new,
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Paul says. I have been appointed to preach something that is good news, but it is not new news, it is old news.
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This is well -established truth. Yes, indeed, the scripture foreseeing that God would also justify the
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Gentiles by faith preached the gospel beforehand, Galatians 3, 8, even to Abraham.
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And Jesus said, Abraham, rejoice to see my day. And so the gospel has been preached for a very long time throughout the scriptures.
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And when we come to the scriptures, in the scriptures alone, we discover the truth, the gospel of being justified by faith in Jesus Christ, faith alone in Christ alone.
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The scriptures have long been a source of religious inspiration.
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The Pharisees were just one among many who would search the scriptures hoping to find the pattern of behavior that compiled together would lead them to eternal life.
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And Jesus tells them in John 5, you search the scriptures because in them you think you can find eternal life, but it is these that testify of me.
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You're looking for the end, the means to get you to the end, but you're not looking for me, and it's the scriptures that testify of Christ.
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Justification we learn in scripture alone, we see here in Romans 3.
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And justification is by grace alone in verses 22 through 24. Even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe, for there is no distinction.
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There is no distinction. Why is there no distinction? For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God being justified as a gift by his grace.
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The righteousness of God comes through faith in Yeshua Messiah, Jesus Christ.
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Yes, he is the Jewish Messiah, but he is the savior for all kinds of people, not just the
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Jews. There is no distinction, Paul says. How can that be? How can you lump
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Jews and Gentiles together without some dignified privilege for the Jews? Explanation, verse 23, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
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That's why there's no distinction. You see, when you look at earthly matters from a heavenly perspective, when you evaluate humans by divine standards, there is no distinction.
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We have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Now, that has often been used,
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I think, in the lives of saints where we tell ourselves, well, everybody messes up.
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All have sinned. We all fall short, don't we? We all fall short. This is not a passage you want to cite as an excuse in your favor.
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This is not good. You were made in the image of God. You were made to so mediate his goodness that you manifest his glory.
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If you fall short of his glory, it means that you constantly betray the uniform you can never take off.
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You are profaning the glory of God. And this is the truth for every single human being.
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For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, which means God's motive to save us,
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God's reasoning to save us is entirely void of any consideration of our merits.
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When it comes to being justified, declared right in God's sight, he bestows it as a gift.
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And not because he's particularly inclined toward us because we did him a favor. It's a gift by grace, which means it's a gift without any consideration of how qualified we are or what we can do for him or our merits.
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It's a gift by grace. Sometimes we give gifts because we like the person.
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We give gifts because they've done something for us. God gives gifts by grace without any consideration to the merits potential quality of the people.
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So it's grace alone. Justification we discover in Scripture alone, and it is by grace alone, and it is through faith alone.
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Verse 22 says, The righteousness of God is manifested through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe.
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God has displayed his Son publicly as a propitiation in his blood through faith. Now look at verse 28.
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For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the law.
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It's faith alone. It's not a faith that is alone.
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It's not faith in terms of mere intellectual consent, but it is a saving trust and it's a transforming grace of God that we believe in Christ.
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This has everything to do with our union with Christ. To be justified by God does not mean that we are proven that we were right all along.
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That is not what it means to be justified. When God justifies us, he manifests his righteousness in us so that he puts his own righteousness, the righteousness of Christ, he puts it to our own account.
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And the record of our glory -profaning, damning guilt is entirely taken out of the way and nailed to the cross.
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Which is what it says in Colossians 2 .14. God displayed Jesus Christ publicly as a propitiation in his blood, meaning
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Christ died as a substitutionary sacrifice satisfying the offended glory of God, the wrath of God, the righteousness of God concerning our guilt, concerning our sins.
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Jesus Christ's death upon the cross, his propitiation of God through his blood upon the cross completes his thoroughly perfect satisfying obedience to God in our place for our sake so that it is his righteousness which stands before God on our behalf and it is his death upon the cross that satisfies the justice of God upon our behalf.
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This is what it means to be justified. This is what it means to have Christ as our sacrifice to be substituted for us.
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It is through faith alone, not any merit of ourselves, not any works that we can do. It is by faith alone in Christ that we are declared righteous and not guilty and welcome and acceptable to God as acceptable as his very own son is welcome to him.
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That is justification. So we see in this text it is only by faith in Christ that we are justified, declared right with God.
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And it is Christ alone. Verse 24 says that Christ, the redemption is in Christ Jesus.
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Verse 25 says that God displayed Christ publicly. It was Christ's blood that was shed.
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So it is Christ alone. It is not faith in whatever. It is not because I am a sincere person but it is faith alone in Christ alone.
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For there is no other name.
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There is salvation in no one else. For there is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.
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There is only one savior for us and that is Jesus Christ. The righteousness of God is manifested either in the condemning force of the law toward us or through the justifying faith in Jesus Christ.
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And there is no hope of anyone, anywhere, at any time in the whole history of the world being justified before God outside of Christ.
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It is only by believing in Christ that any have been or will be declared right by God before God.
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It is appointed to us a day to die and after this comes the judgment. A moment in which is anticipated
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Christ's return when he will judge all men. Goats on his left, the sheep on his right.
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When the gavel of righteousness slams down, those who have
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Christ as their advocate, those who have trusted in Christ will receive the gracious, merciful, and just verdict, not guilty.
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And the sentence is eternal life. And yet those who do not have
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Christ as their advocate, those who do not trust in Christ will receive from this same thunderous gavel the holy, truthful, and just verdict, guilty.
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And the sentence is eternal damnation. So when the gavel comes down, what will you say?
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What involuntary, instinctive, honest reply will issue from your heart?
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I prayed that special prayer. I walked the aisle. I took my family to church.
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I read my Bible. I, I, I, I. Or will your deepest, truest belief spill forth in lively confession?
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Christ fulfilled the law in my stead. Christ suffered for all of my sins.
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Christ is raised as my living righteousness before God. Christ is all my hope. Christ, Christ, Christ, Christ.
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That's why it matters. It matters like all of eternity matters that were justified by faith alone.
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And not by our works, not what we do. And truly, according to the scriptures alone, by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, we are justified, which all amounts to the glory of God alone, as expressed in verses 25 and 26.
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Notice that the righteousness of God is manifested as vindication, the vindication of God himself.
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We have this sinful desire to be proven right. I want to be proven right.
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I want to win the argument. I want to be shown as, I'm the one who has the right ideas, and I did the right thing at the right time. And I had that sinful passion in me, the boastful pride of life.
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But you know what? When God, when God wants to be proven right, that is a good passion for a good purpose.
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Notice God's motive for displaying Jesus Christ publicly, for so manifesting his righteousness in the saving way.
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Verse 25, in the middle of it, we find that God is vindicated in his forbearance. This was to demonstrate his righteousness because in the forbearance of God, he passed over the sins previously committed.
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In his forbearance, he passed over the sins previously committed. Ezekiel 18 .4
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says, behold, all souls are mine, and the soul that sins will die.
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What about Abraham? He sinned. He lied.
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He compromised. Where's his soul? Does he languish in Hades?
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What about, didn't he sin? He sinned royally, didn't he?
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Where's his soul today? Do you see the question mark?
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Did God concerning the sins previously committed, did he just sweep the sin under the cosmic rug?
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He would not be just. He would not be holy. He would not be righteous. And so there's a question mark.
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What did he do about the sins of the believers who lived before Christ?
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It says right here, by publicly displaying Christ in a propitiation through his blood, in his blood through faith, this was to demonstrate his righteousness.
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This was to demonstrate his righteousness. He proved his rightness. Because in his forbearance,
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God had passed over the sins previously committed until the such time as Christ came and died upon the cross and satisfied the justice of God concerning all of the sins of the old covenant believers who had trusted in the promise and so believed in the promised one who took hold of the shadow and therefore grabbed hold of the substance.
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And they were saved by faith alone in Christ alone, which is the point of Romans chapter four.
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So God is vindicated in his forbearance and he's vindicated in his continuing forgiveness.
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Verse 26 says, for the demonstration, I say of his righteousness at the present time so that he would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
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How can God be righteous and declare sin filled, sin loving sinners righteous in his sight?
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How can he do that? God remains just as he justifies the unjust because of Jesus Christ.
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For Christ has satisfied God's righteous demands of us through his obedience. And Christ has satisfied
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God's wrathful justice toward us through his sacrifice. So God who justifies is just.
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He does not declare us justified because we've got it all together. He calls us justified because by his grace we believe in Christ.
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Christ who does have it all together. Christ who lives the perfect life. Christ who is his dearly beloved.
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Do we understand this? Do we understand how God glorifies himself in this way?
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The baptism of Jesus Christ. God the Father sent God the Spirit in the form of a dove upon God the Son incarnate
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Jesus Christ, the Trinity. And God the Father from heaven declared of God the
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Son upon whom he had placed God the Holy Spirit. He said, this is my beloved Son with whom
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I am well pleased. He's well pleased with Jesus Christ.
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That's who he's well pleased with. He's not well pleased with me. He's not well pleased with you.
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He's well pleased with Jesus Christ. He's all our hope of salvation.
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And that same face of God, that same favor and delight that shines upon his Son Jesus Christ also shines upon all those who have been united with Christ through faith.
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Martin Luther's own explanation for this was that Christ came for his bride. Christ came for his bride.
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He paid the dowry in his own blood and suffering on the cross for his bride.
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Who was his bride? Luther says she's a prostitute. A prostitute who has now just been declared queen by her royal betrothment to Christ.
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It is his status that utterly changes her status.
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She is queen only insofar as she is united to the king.
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It's all because of him that her status has changed. And though still she walks and talks and looks like a sinful woman,
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Christ, however, loves her and washes her with the water of the word so that she begins to look more and more, ever so more, the part of the queen.
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Although she has a long, long way to go. And her position as queen can never be put in danger by her lack of queenliness.
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Because her status rests not on anything in and of herself, but her status as queen rests entirely upon the kingliness of Christ and his unbreakable love for her.
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This is how we're supposed to understand justification by faith alone. That leads me to worship.
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That leads me to faith. It leads me to thankfulness.
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Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father, I confess that this passage of scripture is just so full and rich.
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We can and should spend a long time in this word. But I thank you for our brief time in the text by which we are, which our faith is so invigorated to see in Christ your righteousness manifested for our salvation.
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Father, I pray that you would work in the hearts of every person here this morning.
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Please clarify for us how we are saved.
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I ask that you would bring to faith, bring to salvation those who have been trusting in themselves.
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I pray that you would encourage and bear up those who have been despairing of your love for them.
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Turn us all to Christ and help us to know the joys of being justified by faith through faith alone.