Defining the Gospel

The Right Use of Reason and the Need for Law and Gospel

Yeah, so before we get started, I did see that in the chat that somebody was asking about the books, and I'll show you them on Amazon real quick. The first one is The Lutheran Difference, an Explanation and Comparison of Christian Beliefs, and there is a section that's related to Calvinism there, and then Dr. Cooper's book is titled The Great Divide, A Lutheran Evaluation of Reformed Theology, and that would be, you know, those are the two books that I would recommend as a place to start.

So, you know, let's just say that there are significant differences between the two theological camps, and a major difference between them, between the two, really relates as to what we would call the right use of reason.

Calvinists hold to what's called a magisterial view of reason, Lutherans hold to a ministerial view of reason. And this is one of the fundamental differences. So there are doctrines that the Calvinists believe that are not taught in scripture, but they will argue are the logical consequence of using syllogisms and logic and things like that, and so they have an interesting use of reason, which is what, in part, informs their theological tradition.

So, okay, all that being said, that's not where we're going to spend our time today, and we are instead going to be doing a primer on law and gospel, because this is one of those things we need to do, due to the fact that, because we have the law written on our hearts, you know, when it comes to our theology and our relationship to the law and how the gospel works out, since we have the law written on our hearts, we have an internal ability to steer towards legalism that is just a natural part of us.

You think of it this way, if you've ever driven a high-profile vehicle down the highway when there's a crosswind, a good storm crosswind going, you have to keep your hand on the steering wheel tight, because if you let go of the steering wheel for a minute, you might be able to sing Jesus Take the Wheel, but he's not.

You're going to end up putting that vehicle in the ditch, and so, because that strong, that crosswind is a constant thing, so as soon as you let go, you're going to automatically steer right off the road.

Same thing as Christians, because we have the law written on our hearts, we naturally gravitate towards the law and legalism and self-righteousness. In fact, it just seems to be our default mode, so we have to let the Scriptures inform us of the proper distinction between law and gospel, and then how then it relates, you know, specifically to justification.

Now, we're not talking about sanctification in this lesson, we're talking specifically about justification, so let's pray, and then we will get into it. Blessed Lord, you have caused all holy scriptures to be written for our learning.

Grant that we may so hear them, readmark, learn, inwardly digest them, so that through patience and the comfort of your holy word, we may embrace and ever hold fast to the blessed hope of everlasting life, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen. Okay, now in a discussion of the proper distinction of law and gospel, we're going to need to do a little bit of definitional work. First of all, we're going to define the law in this way. So we'll note that in Scripture, when you see the word law, there is a sense in which the law is talked about in a wide sense, and then there is a way in which the law is talked about in a narrow sense.

And when we're talking about the distinction between law and gospel, we're not talking about the wide sense, we're talking about the narrow sense. So the wide sense would be something like this. If you ever heard of the law and the prophets, the phrase the law and the prophets, when you see that in Scripture, the word law is referring to the first five books of the Bible, the Torah.

Okay, that's the law. So in one sense, the law can be the Bible, the law can be the first five books of the Bible, but that's not what we're talking about. We're not talking about the difference between the Old Testament and the New Testament, either.

So when we're talking about the distinction between law and gospel, we're talking about the commandments, the Ten Commandments that inform us what we are commanded to do, it defines what is right, what is wrong, what is good, what is evil, and so the Ten Commandments are the specific thing that we are talking about when we talk about the distinction between law and gospel.

What the Gospel Is and Why It Must Be Preached to Christians

Now, the second definition is an important one, in fact, a vital one, because of all the confusion that is going on out there. Now, years ago, when the Emergent Church was a thing, it's not a thing anymore, they've kind of disappeared into the wall like cockroaches, but Tony Jones of the Emergent Church, he used to engage in this weird postmodern deconstructionism and word games, and if you tried to pin him down on what his definition of the gospel was, because you could tell he was doing some funny things with the phrase gospel, he made the claim that the Bible nowhere defines the gospel.

That was his claim. And so pretty much, that being the case, that's fair game, but Scripture does not agree with Tony Jones. So when we're talking about the gospel as opposed to the law, so the proper distinction between law and gospel, we are defining the gospel in a very specific way.

And so what we're gonna do here, we're gonna talk a little bit about what that gospel is. So by way of preparation for defining it, I want to show you what Paul does in Romans 1. In Romans 1, verse 15, Paul says something very interesting to Christians.

He says to the churches in Rome, he says, I am eager to preach the gospel to you. Now, I'm pointing this out because in much of evangelicalism, in my experience as an evangelical, there's this kind of unspoken, understood idea regarding the gospel, and it goes something like this.

The gospel is the thing that you preach to an unbeliever, and then if they make a decision to ask Jesus into their heart, they don't need to hear the gospel anymore. There's this weird belief that the gospel is only to be preached to really unbelievers, and now that I'm a Christian, I don't really need to hear it.

I would say, note that the Apostle Paul says that he's eager to preach the gospel to Christians in Rome, okay? So that kind of blows up that idea. We Christians need to hear both the law and the gospel constantly, all right?

We need to hear both. And then he says these words, I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it, the gospel, it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek, for in it, in the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, the righteous shall live by faith.

This is his thesis statement, if you would, as we start to get into the theological portion of the book of Romans, and it begins talking about not being ashamed of the gospel, the gospel being the power of God for salvation, and in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed, which is an important bit, because we'll see in Philippians 3 what that righteousness of God is used for.

It's used for me and for you, it's given to us. So all of that being said, this doesn't define what the gospel is, but you're going to note that this is the gospel, that this gospel is the power of God for salvation.

In fact, Romans 10 makes it very clear when it comes to how somebody believes in Christ and trusts in Him for salvation. Romans 10 says, for Scripture says, everyone who believes in Him will not be put to shame, that's a big deal, right?

Everyone who believes in Jesus won't be put to shame, so there's no distinction between the Jew and the 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.

And by the way, everyone means everyone. So everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. And then Paul asks the question, how then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How are they to believe in Him of whom they've never heard?

And they can't, by the way. How are they to hear without someone preaching? Someone's got to preach to them, and how are they to preach unless they're sent? As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news.

But they've not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, who has believed what he's heard from us? And so watch what he says, faith comes from hearing and hearing through the Word of Christ. Remember, the gospel is the power of God to salvation.

In other words, we need to be about the business of preaching the gospel, which then begs the question, okay, we need to preach the gospel, and faith comes by hearing, hearing by the Word of Christ, and the gospel is the power of God and salvation.

So what is the gospel? Well, before we answer that directly, let me point out where Paul got his gospel from. In Galatians 1, in Galatians 1, we have the Apostle Paul writing a very terse, strong letter to Christians in the churches of Galatia, apparently after he had planted those churches, the Judaizers showed up.

And the Judaizers, that was the first heresy that Christianity had to deal with. And we get a flavor for what the Judaizers taught, because in Acts 15, you get their teaching. It says this in Acts 15 about the Judaizers, some men came down from Judea, they were teaching the brothers, unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.

So they are taking the requirements of the Mosaic Covenant, and binding people's consciences, and threatening them with eternal damnation if they're not circumcised, if they're not keeping the Passover, if they're not keeping the Sabbath, and if they're eating bacon, alright?

So that's the Judaizing heresy. So what does Paul do? He writes a very terse letter to them, and watch again what he says here in Galatians 1. He says, I'm astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ, and are turning to a different gospel.

Not that there is another, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. And then, in probably the strongest language that you could possibly see in the New Testament, he says, even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preach to you, let him be anathema.

Anathema is strong, it means to be damned. And you'll note when Paul wrote this, he didn't have access to Microsoft Word, so he couldn't highlight a text, he couldn't bold it or underline it, and you know, the conventions of written language hadn't evolved that far.

So the only thing he could do in order to emphasize the point is repeat himself, and he does. So as we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be damned.

Those are strong words. So you'll note then, to get the gospel wrong, it is an eternal damnation issue. You preach a different gospel, a gospel contrary to the gospel, the New Testament, God the Holy Spirit, is threatening you with eternal damnation.

That's how important getting this right is, all right? So where did Paul get his gospel from? So Paul then tells the churches in Galatia, I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel that was preached by me is not man's gospel.

I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it. I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ. So the gospel that Paul preached, he got it directly from Jesus himself. So you could say, this is Jesus's gospel.

He just gave it to Paul to preach. That's where Paul got it from. Now the question then is, did Paul ever write down the gospel that he received from Jesus? The answer is yes. He wrote it down in 1st Corinthians 15.

Here are the words of the Apostle Paul. Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you. Well, here it is, he's gonna remind us. Which you received, in which you stand, by which you are being saved.

Notice you are saved, and you're standing, not in the law, but in the gospel. And you're being saved in the gospel. Now that is if you hold fast to the word that I preached to you, unless of course you believed in vain.

And then notice the words, for I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received. Who did he say he received the gospel from? Jesus. So here it is. This is the gospel he received directly from Jesus, and this is the gospel, there is no other.

Period. And here it is. Christ died for our sins, in accordance with the Scriptures. He was buried, he was raised on the third day, in accordance with the Scriptures. He appeared to Cephas to the Twelve, he appeared to more than 500 brothers at one time, he appeared to James and all the other Apostles, and last of all to one untimely born, he appeared to me.

So the gospel is Christ died for our sins, he was buried, he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures. Now this is vital stuff here. So you'll note then, the salvation of sins is proclaimed because of the gospel.

The forgiveness of sins, salvation, and grace. But also note this then, that the resurrection, Christ's bodily resurrection, is part of the gospel, the good news, that was given by Christ to Paul to preach.

So if somebody is claiming to be a Christian pastor today, and they deny the bodily resurrection of Jesus, that's a different gospel that they're preaching. Because the bodily resurrection of Jesus is wrapped up in the gospel.

But so is salvation by grace through faith alone, because Christ died for our sins. How many of them? All of them? Not some of them, all of them. Alright, so you'll note here. So getting the gospel right, so we've now we've got a definition of the gospel, it's found in 1st Corinthians 15.

We know who Paul got his gospel from, directly from Jesus. We know that to preach a gospel that is contrary or different than this gospel is...you are in danger of the fires of hell. That's how extreme the threats of God are regarding those who preach a contrary gospel.

So this is a big, big deal. Now all that being said, you'll note that we human beings, because we have the law written on our hearts, we have a real hard time believing that gospel. Salvation by grace through faith alone is what flows from the gospel.

Romans 3: No One Is Righteous by Works of the Law

So we're gonna look at three texts then. We're gonna look at Romans 3, Galatians 3, as well as Philippians 3. So as we look at Romans 3, I'll start off in one just to kind of make a point regarding the structure of Romans.

And in Romans, we already saw the thesis statement, I'm not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. That's his thesis statement. And then Paul, beginning in verse 18, will put together a cohesive, unified thought that is considered a logical argument that begins in 18 and will end in chapter 3, talking about basically how every single human being, Jew and Gentile, everybody has sinned and transgressed God's law and is a sinner.

And so he'll begin kind of in the wide sense about everybody, the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth, talking about all of them out there.

But then in Romans 3, in the conclusion of this very well-constructed argument, in Romans 3, Paul will turn the law on even the Jews, so that at the end of this argument, nobody, nobody can say they are righteous.

Again, and he's gonna explicitly explain what the purpose of the law is. So here's what Paul writes, Romans 3, 9. He asks then, are we Jews any better off? Note that in the Church of Rome at the time, there was a substantial number of first-century Christians who were, who grew up Jewish in the synagogues, heard the good news of Christ and that He is the Messiah, and so within all of the churches of the very first generation of Christians who heard the preaching of the Apostles, there were large numbers, a significant portion of them, who were genetically Jewish, and so Paul is telling them, because you'll note that there's this weird thing that we human beings have an ability to do, and that is that we somehow think that because we know the law, that somehow we're better than other people.

Well, the law says, you shall not commit adultery, and da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da, as if somehow just merely invoking the commandment somehow makes you the keeper of it. It doesn't, it doesn't work that way.

Sorry, yeah, Jerry Falwell and the moral majority needed to do more than just quote the Scriptures. Anyway, all of that being said, so Paul's addressing this issue, so he asks the question, are we Jews any better off?

He says, no, not at all. And then he says this, for we've already charged that all, and I always like to point this out, in the Greek, all here means all. You know, it's, I know it doesn't sound like rocket surgery, but you get the idea.

All means all. All, both Jews and Greeks, that's the only, those are the only two categories that exist, by the way. You're either a Jew or you're a Gentile, and if you're a Jew or a Gentile, if you're, and that would mean, Greeks is another way of saying Gentiles.

If, yeah, every one of us falls into one of these two categories, he says they are all under sin as it is written. And then you're gonna note these words, 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, their throat is an open grave, they use their tongues to see the venom of aspes under their lips.

These words right here, these words appear three times in the Scripture, almost verbatim. And the first time they appear is in Psalm 14, verses 1 to 3. The second time they appear is in Psalm 53, 1 to 3.

Third time they appear is here in Romans 3. It's almost as if all three persons of the Holy Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, are speaking their verdict on all of mankind. None is righteous, no not one.

Father, what do you say? None is righteous. Holy Spirit, what do you say? None is righteous. Son, what do you say? None is righteous. Three times these words appear in Scripture. Now, by the way, this then, let me ask you this, alright?

What are the implications of what this text says regarding newborn infants? None is righteous, no not one. Okay? Notice, this nails us all. So, a three-fold judgment from all three members of the Holy Trinity.

None is righteous, no not one, okay? All have turned aside, together they've become worthless, no one does good, not even one, 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, in their paths are ruin and misery, the way of peace they have not known, there is no fear of God before their eyes.

This is describing me. This is describing you. And you'll note here that you may be tempted to say, well, this doesn't make me feel good about myself, this is hurting my self-esteem, to which I would say, right, exactly.

And here's the thing, just listen to the phrase, self-esteem. Do you see a problem there? Because I will note that the devil himself suffers from what I would consider to be a really large self esteem, all right?

He esteems himself very highly. In Isaiah 14, we have a picture of how the devil operates, how he thinks. Here's what it says, O how you are fallen from heaven, O Daystar, son of the dawn! How you were cut down to the ground, you who laid the nations low!

You said in your heart, I will ascend to heaven above the stars of God, I will set my throne on high, I will sit on the mound of the assembly in the far reaches of the north, I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will make myself like the Most High.

Seems to me like the devil has a really healthy self-esteem. Yeah, you kind of get the idea. But not only that, I mean, also remember in Matthew 4, I mean, you want to talk about healthy self-esteem.

Look at what the devil asked his Creator to do, okay? So it says in Matthew 4, the devil took Jesus to a very high mountain, showed him all the kingdoms of the world, their glory, he said to him, all these I will give to you if you will fall down and worship me.

The devil wants his Creator to worship him. Yeah, he has a pretty healthy self-esteem, don't you think? See, your self-esteem is the problem, it's my problem too, right? So you know, the verdict stands, none is righteous, no not one, all right?

And that's the purpose of the law, to show you that. So watch what Paul says in verse 19, now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law. Why? So that every mouth may be stopped and the whole world may be held accountable to God, all right?

The purpose of the law, if I could say it in a blunter way, is to shut you up. Because here, over and again, I find this fascinating. You confront somebody regarding their sin, and the most amazing thing comes out of their mouth.

How dare you judge me, God knows my heart. To which I say, oh yeah, he does. And believe me, that's not good news, right? Because, so you point somebody's sin out, they'll go, yeah, but. Yeah, but. Or worse, they'll say, well at least I'm not as bad as Hitler.

Really, you think that? Okay, you really, you think that? You see, what do you do with somebody like that? You have to give them more law. Because they still do not yet understand how ungodly they are, and how much they are in need of a Savior.

They are holding on to a, the delusion of self-righteousness. As if somehow, the way the judgment works is what God's gonna do, is He's gonna spread humanity out, okay? And take their sins, you know, cumulatively, and then put it all on a bell curve, right?

All right? And as long as, as long as you, as you are above the median, then you're in. Because, well, everybody knows Hitler's at the bottom of the bell curve, right there with Mao Tse Tung, and, and, you know, Stalin, and all those guys, right?

That's not how that works. No, the judgment doesn't work off the bell curve, and being in the, in the median doesn't help. And then, of course, Elizabeth says, well, nobody's perfect. That's the problem!

The standard is perfection. So when you say, nobody's perfect, you sit there and go, right! And don't you understand, you gotta, okay, here's how it works, okay? When women are pregnant, they are either pregnant or they are not, okay?

There's like no in-between, okay? It's either you're pregnant or you're not. And when it comes to the standard, you are either righteous or you are not. So if you ain't righteous, then you're not, you're damned.

You are, you are under the condemnation of God. You are guilty. And righteous, by the way, means perfectly sinless. Perfectly sinless. Like, again, so you're gonna note here, so the purpose of the law is to shut you up, to knock off this nonsense.

Stop telling me nobody's perfect, because you're just making my point, because the standard is perfection. Stop telling me God knows your heart, because God, in His Word, says, out of the heart, Christ says, out of the heart comes all kinds of vile sin.

So that's, the heart is the wellspring. That's the, that's the, that's ground zero for the problem that you have, okay? So note the verdict. So the purpose of the law is to silence you and hold you accountable to God.

And then you'll note then, all right? So Stephen, I'm gonna make fun of you, not funny, I'm gonna put you on the spot because I can see you, you know, you're one of the brave today and I appreciate your bravery, I really do.

All right, so I'm gonna put you on the spot. So here's, here's our text then. For by works of the law, no human will be justified. Now, real quick, the Greek word dikaiao means to be declared innocent, or declared righteous.

It's a verdict spoken by a judge, okay? So by works of the law, no human being will be declared righteous in God's sight, since through the law comes the knowledge of sin, all right? So here it is, all right?

I know you're not a prophet or the son of a prophet, and I forgot to ask you to wear your turban so you can do predictions like Johnny Carson used to, but so here, so on the Day of Judgment, on the Day of Judgment, how many people will be declared righteous in God's sight by works of the law?

Very good, very good. See, that's right, that you get two stars on your Sunday school star chart. Good job, Stephen, good job. Zero, not one person. But here's the thing, we intuitively think what we need to do is just apply ourselves a little harder to keeping the law, as if somehow God's going to say, you are righteous because of your obedience to the Torah, or the law, or the Ten Commandments.

It doesn't work that way. Not one single person will be declared righteous in God's sight by the law. Instead, then, it's through the law comes the knowledge of sin. The primary job of the law is to convince you and to show you you're not righteous.

Remember, Christ died for the ungodly. If you don't recognize that you're part of that group, you're not ready to hear the gospel yet. You're not, because you don't even think you need a Savior. If you, I'm just a, I'm just a confused person who needs a little bit of life coaching, you know, you get the idea.

It don't work that way. Okay, now, before we get, before we get too far, let me check what Kara says. Our family is NAR, and they act as if they must keep working because Christ died for them. Yes, but now they must upkeep their salvation with works, or else Christ will say, get away from me.

That's not how that works, okay? It's a great, greatest weight to put on a Christian. When we saw the glorious gospel, the American gospel, Christ alone, our lives were changed. Such a weight was lifted from both of us, and we wept.

Yeah, the gospel does that. The gospel does that. NAR just cast the devil out, yeah. So Heather says, I'm confused. When you say law, you mean Ten Commandments. Yes, but when you think of legalism, I think of NAR Pentecostals, for example, even though they all say, Jesus loves you, and you're so great.

Okay, so here's the thing, is that, so when we talk about the law, we're talking about the Ten Commandments, but note here that within different strains of legalism that have a Christian veneer. What they often do is they create a different list, because apparently you can keep that different list.

So when I was in Nazarene, the Ten Commandments wasn't the standard, okay? They would pull out the Ten Commandments when they were really kind of pushing down hard on the pietism screws, but at the end of the day, they created a secondary list that everybody could keep, and the list was, as long...you could really tell that you were truly a Christian if you didn't dance, didn't drink, didn't smoke, didn't chew, didn't play cards, and voted Republican.

Those were, you know, this is a secondary morality list, and so, are me and God okay? Well, I haven't had a drink today. Are me and God okay? Well, I haven't smoked a cigarette today. And so back in the day, I can't imagine what the Nazarenes that I grew up with, what they would have thought of TikTok, okay?

Could you imagine if I put a TikTok video together? It would go viral for all the wrong reasons, so I'm just saying. So the idea here is, when you think of the legalism of the NAR, oftentimes I will note this, that in modern-day evangelicalism, including the charismatic churches and the NAR, the standard is not the Ten Commandments.

They never will go there. So the standard instead is something like this. Do you daily go and meet God and have intimacy with Him in the secret place, wherever that is? Do you go to the gym five days a week?

Are you out of credit card debt? Have you applied all of the financial principles of that guy who teaches everybody to hair up their credit cards and get rid of that? Have you, you know, so they create a different list altogether, but it's not the Ten Commandments.

It's more, it's a secondary, but it's an alternative holy list, because you can do that. But they don't go to the Ten Commandments, because when you start pushing on those Ten Commandments, you realize you're not keeping it.

But the thing is, is that we all have the law intuitively written on our hearts. We know these commandments intuitively, so we all kind of, even though they come up with these alternative lists, we keep steering back into these lists understood via the commandments, so you get the idea.

But the thing is, at the end of the day, you're not going to be able to say to Christ, well, Jesus, I never murdered anybody, Jesus, I never committed adultery, at least not physically, and Jesus, I never stole anything, and Jesus, I never coveted.

You see, when you start going along those lines, nobody's gonna be able to say that, right? By works of the law, no human being will be justified, declared righteous in God's sight. Now, here's what it says, then, and this is where we're gonna focus in on this text just a little bit, and we'll let Philippians 3, when we get there, define what this means.

But now, the righteousness of God. And I'm gonna note here in the Greek, the diakosyne theou. Theou here is in the genitive, and I will make the argument that that's a possessive genitive. This is God's righteousness, alright?

This isn't some standard we're supposed to be living up to in order to be saved, this is instead something that God possesses, it's His that He gives to us. And you can kind of see it as you work your way through the the finer details of how the prepositions work in this passage.

But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, and here I'm gonna say this first appearance of law means the Ten Commandments, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it, and here it's referring to the Torah, alright?

So this is the righteousness of God manifested apart from the law. This is the righteousness of God, and watch this, through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. This is the righteousness of God for all who believe.

So this is a righteousness for you, for there is no distinction. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified, there's that Greek word again, dikayao, means to be declared righteous or innocent, and are declared righteous, are justified, how?

By His grace, as a gift. And here's where the self-righteous, the pietists, will just lose their minds. No, no, no, no, yeah, sure it's a gift, but it's not that free. I know it says it's free, but it's not really free.

You still got to do your part. Really, what's my part of receiving a free gift? What are exactly my steps in receiving a free gift? And so they bristle at the freeness of this, because here's the other bit about this.

In the pietistic, legalistic, self righteousness groups, the gospel makes it impossible for them to have control, because they use guilt and fear for the purpose of controlling people. And if you just freely give people salvation, then they're never going to pay to have, to spring somebody out of purgatory.

If you just freely give salvation as a gift, then people don't have to do penance, and don't have to pay indulgences. You kind of get the idea, right? Okay? But it's a free gift. The righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, it is for all who believe, there is no distinction, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and they are declared righteous by His grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation.

Now hear the Greek word hilasterion, it's a little complicated. A good way to think of it is just as an atoning sacrifice. This is invoking the gospel that Christ died for our sins. That's a super loose definition of propitiation, but you get the idea, okay?

Whom God put forward as an atoning sacrifice by His blood to be received by, how? How was it received? By faith. How is a free gift received? You just go, I believe. Thank you. This was to show God's righteousness in His divine forbearance.

He had passed over the former sins, it was to show His righteousness at the present time so that He might be the just, and God is the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. So Stephen, let me put you on the spot again, because I can see you.

This is what happens, you turn your camera on and, you know, you're fair game. So, alright, so if salvation is given to you completely as a gift, you've done nothing, not even the smallest amount of work in order to earn it, do you have any ability to boast about your salvation?

No. Did you see what God gave me, man? This is awesome, right? When it's totally a gift, there is no boasting, and that's what Paul then says. So what becomes of our boasting? It's excluded! By what kind of a law?

By a law of works? No, by the law of faith. So there is no boasting, for we hold that one is justified, here it is again, declared righteous by God, we declare that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.

And you'll note, chorus means apart from, completely separate from works of the law. Now, does this mean that we then can go out and sin like there's no tomorrow, and that the commandments have nothing to say to us in our sanctification?

No! Sin is slavery, okay? So you're gonna note here, we are not saying that Christians do not look at the law and know what a good work is because of the law, we're saying that when it comes to the justification column, salvation, period, is completely 100 gift, there is nothing you have done to earn it in any, even an infinitesimal part, it is given by God as a gift, and it is received through faith.

Full stop. So then he asks, is God the God of the Jews only? Is he not the God of the Gentiles also? Yes, of the Gentiles also, since God is one who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith.