SERMON GM16-073
SERIES: Renewal Through Romans: The Gospel Defined, Explained,
and Applied
SETTING: North Kelso Baptist Church
SERVICE: Sunday AM (February 14th, 2016)
SUBTITLE: How to Be Right with God – Part 4
SCRIPTURE: Romans
3:24-25b
SUBJECT: The Righteousness of God
SUMMARY: The righteousness of God which cannot
be obtained by merit comes to all men through faith in the atoning work of
Jesus on the cross which fulfills the law of God.
SCHEME: To enable my people to transcend
present ecclesiastical understanding of righteousness by appreciating God’s
benefits of the atoning work of Christ on the cross
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
Our theme is: God Provides Righteousness through Faith
Proposition: The righteousness of God which cannot be obtained by merit
comes to
all men through faith in the atoning work of Jesus
on the cross which fulfills the law
of God
Interrogatory Sentence: How do sinners
obtain the righteousness required by God?
Transitional Sentence: The passage before us suggests
three (3) devices that enable the sinner to obtain the righteousness that is
required by God; The Introduction to Righteousness, The Illustration of Righteousness, and
The
Illumination of Righteousness.
[Announce the Text]
Please open your Bibles to Romans
3:21-26
[The Title of the Message]
How to Be Right with God - Part 4
Today’s Truth:
The
righteousness of God which cannot be obtained by merit comes to all men through
faith in the atoning work of Jesus on the cross which fulfills the law of God
Re-announce and read the text
Our text for today is Romans
3:21-26
Prayer for illumination & understanding
Our gracious Father, help us as we
hear your holy Word that we may truly understand; and that, understanding, we
may believe and believing, we may be in all in all things faithful and
obedient.
So Father we ask you, through your
Holy Spirit to open our hearts and minds for the sake, the honor, and the glory
of your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, so that as the Scriptures are read and your
Word explained, we may hear with joy what you say to us today. We ask you
Father to show us all that Christ is and what He has done for us by His atoning
work on the cross of Calvary.
Father, will you enable me to
clearly communicate the word of God to your people, I ask you for power and
unction to preach your word. Amen.
[Main Introduction]
Attention Getter
Some
of you may recognize the name P.P. Bliss. If you know evangelical music and
hymnology, you may have seen his name in various hymnals. He was a man who
served as a musical song writer and associate evangelist for D.L. Moody.
In the
early years of Moody’s career, Bliss was his favorite songwriter and the man he
took with him to all his revival campaigns. Although Bliss died on December 29,
1876 while trying to rescue his wife from a train car that was on fire just 38
years old, he had written many gospel songs that entered evangelical tradition.
If you were raised in the evangelical church, even without knowing it, you have
sung many songs written by Philip Bliss. He wrote the song "Hallelujah,
What a Savior". He also wrote the invitation song "Almost
Persuaded". He wrote the music to the words "It is Well with My
Soul". He also wrote that peppy little chorus, "Dare to be a
Daniel". He also wrote the song "Jesus Loves Even Me".
I will
say this about P.P. Bliss, of all the songs that he wrote, without any doubt in
my mind the most famous and most loved, and the one sung the most in the
evangelical church and what I consider to be his best is the song that goes
this way:
“Sing
them over again to me, wonderful words of life. Let me more of their beauty
see, wonderful words of life. Words of grace and beauty, teach me faith and
duty, beautiful words, wonderful words, wonderful words of life.”
I actually
thought about that famous gospel song this week as I was preparing this
message. We are beginning today a study of some of the wonderful words of the
Bible.
I don’t know if you’ve ever stopped to study
the words of the Bible, but if you take your Bible and begin to read through
it, especially the New Testament, you will soon discover there are some words
in the New Testament that are of such crucial importance, that if you
understand what those words mean, you understand what the Bible is teaching.
And they are so important that if you don’t understand what those key words
mean, then you have missed the whole message of the Bible itself.
For example:
William
Newell in his commentary, Romans; Verse
by Verse, wrote: “We now come to the
greatest single verse in the entire bible on the manner of Justification by
faith: We entreat you, study this verse.” [1]
Orient the Text: God has
declared all sinners who believe, “just.”
This
morning I want to speak about the products or the benefits to the sinner that
stem from the righteousness of God that he has made visible to all sinners who
by faith believe in Jesus Christ.
Raise a Need: Since all types of
men have sinned, both Jew and Gentile, all types of men are in need of
justification
State the Purpose
My purpose today
is to answer some very
important questions that legitimately arise from discussing justification and
defining the results or effects of the righteousness that has been provided by
God in order to deeply understand and appreciate it.
[Sub
Introduction]
Review
Last week
we continued to answer the question, “How
to be right with God?” I am convinced that our text contains the answer
to this question! I am convinced, and you should be also, that the reason we
must understand this truth is that his text is because it is the essence and heartbeat
of the gospel. If you miss this text, if you miss its meaning, you will miss
the gospel. You cannot understand the gospel without understanding this passage.
[So, last week
began with Paul’s argument with an examination of…]
1A THE INTRODUCTION TO RIGHTEOUSNESS (VSS. 21-31)
Last we stated
that Paul is making two arguments in
his introduction
to righteousness. We are looking at his fist argument. In his first
argument…
1B Paul explains
the basics of God’s righteousness (VSS. 21-26)
I said that
as Paul explains the basics of God’s righteousness, he does so by introducing
us to the revelation, the recipients, the remedy, the reason, and the results
that are contained in this argument which proves that God’s righteousness is
through faith, and not by any human efforts or works.
[And so far, we have looked at…]
1C The
Revelation of Righteousness (21-22)
“But now
the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the
Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus
Christ…”
“…the
righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed…”
[Secondly we looked at…]
2C The Recipients of Righteousness
(VSS.22c-23)
We
asked ourselves who are the recipients of this righteousness of God which God
has revealed or made visible for all to see? The answer was contained in…
1D The Identification of Sinners – …for all have sinned…”
In
other words, all Jews and all Gentiles, equally and alike have sinned. There is
no distinction between the Jews and the Gentiles.
[This definitive
declaration of Paul led us to…]
2D The Implication for Sinners – all sinners fall short of the glory, or the character
or the nature of God, which is holy perfection
[We
answered the all-important question:]
What does
it mean “fall short of the glory of God?”
Paul
means that the human race, all Jews and all Gentiles lack or have need of the
glory of God. All sinners are in want of the perfection that God requires. They
don’t have it, they need it.
[So, now we
move to the…]
TRUTH FOR TODAY
3C The Results of
Righteousness (VSS. 24-25b)
dikaioumenoi dwrean t autou cariti dia ths appolutrwsews
ths
en cristw ihsou on proeqeos o qeos ilasthriov dia
ths tnspistews en tw autou aimati,
eis aimati eis endeizin
tns dikaiosuns
autou dia thn paresiv twn progegonotww
amarthmatwn en
th anoch tou qeou
“Being justified freely by his
grace through the redemption in Christ Jesus, whom God had set forth as a
propitiation through faith in his blood, to be received by faith…”
So let’s begin with some very
pertinent and important questions shall we? Like:
·
How does God actually provide this grace-gift of
saving righteousness?
·
What role does Jesus Christ and his death plan in
God’s plan?
·
Can God actually treat a sinner as being righteous?
·
How is this gift obtained by sinners?
To
answer these questions and to make this portion of the text as clear as
possible, we need to examine four (4) key words in verses 24 and 25.
[The first
key word that we need to examine is…]
1D Justification
- dikaioumenoi (vs. 24a)
“…being
justified…” (Pres/Pass/Pct.)
What does
Paul mean by this particular word?
First – this
word probably represents the key theme of Paul’s entire letter. It is an
important word & we must understand it.
Second – this
word and its meaning has been grossly misunderstood causing tragic confusion as
to its meaning.
Thirdly – this
word separates all genuine believers from every other individual in the world.
Fourth – Paul
uses this verb for the first time in his letter probably to demonstrate the
essence of Christian salvation.
Fifth - The way
that Paul used this word and this context demonstrates conclusively that it
does not mean:
·
“to make one righteous”
· Nor does it mean “simply
to treat someone as righteous”
It means “to
declare righteous.” This is important. It is the key to genuine
salvation. The difference between genuine Christianity and counterfeit
religions is the fact that God legally or judicially declares a sinner who
believes in Christ to be just or to be righteous.
Other
religions teach that God makes a sinner righteous by first, infusing
righteousness into a sinner, and second, by the sinner’s cooperation through
“good works.”
So to be
justified means to be acquitted by God from all “charges” that could be brought
against a person of because of their sins. This verdict, this declaration is
declared at the very minute a sinner believes in Christ by faith.
Once
declared to be just or justified gives genuine believers a right relationship
with God through faith in the death of Christ, the atoning work of Christ.
Justification
is what undoes and removes the wrath
and condemnation of God
against the believing sinner.
To show you
exactly what it means to declare vs. to make or to treat one as righteous or
just, let me share with you what Catholic doctrine teaches:
Catholicism
teaches that when God justifies a man he makes a man righteous. As a result, justification
in the Catholic Church is progressive,
not an instantaneous declaration. They teach that through justification God makes
a man better and better and better and better.
Here is Catholicism’s
definition of justification:
“The grace
of the HS has the power to justify us, that is, to cleanse us from our sins and
communicate to us the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ and
through baptism.” [2]
First, the HS does not justify, God does
and second the HS cannot cleanse us from sin that is done by Jesus Christ and
baptism is not needed for justification.
Second, Catholicism teaches that
justification is the remission of sins and the sanctification and renewal of
the interior man. It is not. Justification & sanctification are two
different things.
Third, they teach justification is
conferred in baptism.
Fourth, Catholicism teaches that
justification establishes cooperation between God’s grace and man’s freedom.
What that
means is man assents or agrees to God justifying him and God then justifies
him.
By the way, this information comes
from “Catechism of the Catholic Church,
which Pope John II called “a special gift.” My point in sharing this is to show
you how important this is, justification in the Bible is a declaration of God
where he declares sinners to be just or righteous. It is not something that we
obtain by baptism, in cooperation with God, whereby God progressively makes us
better people.
God pronounces men to be just, God
does not make a man just. Now, as a result of God pronouncing or declaring a
man to be just, God then treats that man as just from that moment onward.
Because God declares us to be righteous, he treats us as righteous as Jesus
Christ is righteous.
So, what is justification? Albert
Barnes sums it up so well in his definition. Let’s finish this point with his
definition:
What is justification? It is the declared purpose of
God to regard and treat those sinners who believe in Jesus Christ...on the ground of the merits of the Savior. It is not mere
pardon. Pardon is a free forgiveness of past offenses. It has reference to
those sins as forgiven and blotted out. Justification has respect to the law,
and to God's future dealings with the sinner. It is an act by which God
determines to treat him hereafter as righteous...the
basis for this is the merit of the Lord Jesus Christ, merit that we can plead
as if it were our own. He has taken our place and died in our stead; He has met
the descending stroke of justice, which would have fallen on our own heads if
He had not interposed. (Albert Barnes)
I am not
sure that we can really ever fully appreciate this word and its implications
for us. Suffice it to say that God has provided the means by which we can “be
right with God” and enter into his holy presence and maintain a relationship with
him. God, because of our faith in the atoning work of Christ Jesus declares us
to be righteous and then treats us as righteous, just as he treats his Son.
And so the
first key word is so vital; this key word “justification.”
[Let’s move
then to the second key word that we need to examine, and that is…]
2D Grace
– the manner by which justification is declared
“…freely, by His grace…”
First, of all notice the word freely.
Matthew
used this word in Matthew 10:8 when he wrote, “…freely you have received,
freely give…”
It is the
same word that John used in 15:25, where John says, and “…they hated me without a cause.”
Paul used
this word in Galatians 2:21, when he wrote, “…for if righteousness comes
through faith, then Christ died in vain.”
The word
that is translated as “freely, cause, and vain” is used 8 times in the NT. It
means “for nothing, or by nothing, or due to nothing.”
Paul is
stressing that justification is a gift of God. In other words, genuine
believers are saved, they are justified for no cause, or no reason, or by
nothing that is in us or done by us. We as sinners have no merit, virtue, or
value. The great news is no merit, virtue, or value is needed to be justified
by God.
Philippians
3:9 makes this so very clear, “…and be found in him, not having my own
righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in
Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith.”
God does
not make us righteous by progressively making us better, nor do we receive it
by baptism, nor is righteousness infused in us because we cooperate with God in
good works or obedience. God freely, or at no cost, expense, effort, or merit
by us, declares us to be righteous.
Second – “…by his grace…”
The only
reason that sinners, even though they are guilty, can ever be justified is due
to the grace of God. Grace is a key word in all of Paul’s letters, as a matter
of fact he uses it over 100 times.
charis - grace – is the free and unmerited favor of god. Grace is the
aspect of God’s love that causes him to grant us his free forgiveness of our
sins even though we are wicked and rebellious sinners.
You need to
always remember and be thankful that this grace is free – it is unfettered.
There is nothing that constrains, compels, or causes God to offer forgiveness.
Nothing. He is not forced.
·
Sinners desperate need
·
Sinners inability to save themselves
·
Sinners final judgment in the lake of fire
·
Sinners possession of any moral goodness
There is nothing
that forces, coerces, or demands that God gives forgiveness to anyone – other
than the sake of Christ who is the sacrifice that appeased God’s wrath.
This is
what the free grace of God means. We believe and teach and hold dearly to the
free grace of God in salvation.
So when
Bible writers talk about God’s grace, his free grace, they make it clear and we
need to understand that salvation comes from God’s initiative and not from
ourselves.
This is why
Paul made it clear in 3:9-18 that no man initiates salvation. No man seeks
after the salvation or the God of the Bible.
Although
grace is offered freely to us it is not free and it costs very much. It cost
the life of Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary.
This idea
of grace is so crucial it cannot be misunderstood even in the tiniest
fraction. Justification is completely a
declarative act on God’s part and an act of faith on the sinner’s part.
Pascal
caught this truth and summed it up nicely when he wrote, “Grace is indeed needed to turn a
man into a saint; and he who doubts it does not know what a saint or man is.” [3]
So the manner by which
justification if provided is freely by the grace of God. Next we see the method
by which justification is made possible. This is our third key word
3D Redemption
“…through the redemption that is in Christ
Jesus…”
This is a
great word! Paul informs his readers the method of how God can judicially
declare sinners to be righteous – it is understanding and believing that the
death of Jesus Christ was a sacrificial death.
Redemption
is the Greek word - apolutrwsis. This word
means “to buy slaves in the market place for the sole purpose of setting them
free.”
Slavery is
the condition that prohibits or prevents the slave from every obtaining freedom
on his own. The slave’s condition was absolutely hopeless unless something or
someone from the outside of the slave willingly intervened.
Sin is an
imprisonment – it is bondage and it is slavery. Sinners are completely unable
to do anything about it, especially break free.
But God
himself intervenes on the enslaved sinner’s behalf, pays a ransom price to
himself which is the death of his own Son, and causes the sinner to be freed
from the imprisonment and bondage of sin and to become free. Jesus is the
ransom price that God demanded to free sinners.
There is
also something very crucial to understand about this word redemption, it is a
ransoming away. This suggests that sinners will never again come into the same
slavery to sin.
God has
provided the price or the ransom that satisfied his holiness and justice and
this satisfaction was secured by the substitutionary death of Jesus Christ. As
a result the sinner is freed or delivered from sin.
By the way, before I forget, the
ransom that was paid was not paid to:
- Satan
- Sin
The ransom that was paid was paid
to God. It was God’s price to be appeased and to free sinners. God had been
offended. God was angry with sinners. God was paid the ransom price.
So, there you have it, three key
word, justification, grace, and redemption. Let’s finish with the
fourth and final key word concerning justification:
4D Propitiation
“…whom God
set forth as a propitiation by His blood through faith…”
Paul joins
together the idea of redemption and propitiation. We have seen this word when
we studies through 1 John.
There is
some real and damaging confusion about this word in the church. It can be
connected to two things:
·
The mercy seat – that which covered sin and God
resided upon in the OT
·
The idea of expiation and appeasement of God’s wrath.
·
It is relating to an appeasing or expiating, having
placating or expiating force, expiatory; a means of appeasing or expiating, a
propitiation
There
exists those who deny God has wrath against anyone in the human race. They take
the fact that God is love and therefore could never be wrathful or vengeful or
angry with human beings. Of course the abuse and misunderstanding that John
3:16 takes on a daily basis does not help.
Therefore
they accept trite little sayings like God loves you or God loves everybody.
But Paul
made it clear in chapter one that God is angry and has even poured out his
wrath in judgment against sinners. God does not condone sin. His nature his
holy it is righteous. God cannot forgive and reconcile sinners without a
judicial and moral satisfaction. He must be appeased. He must be satisfied.
Propitiation
is the satisfaction of God’s anger and wrath and the removal of sin from the
sinner who places faith in Christ. Next week we will, Lord willing see more
truth about this, about why God made Jesus to be a propitiation.
But for
now, Paul makes it clear that the only thing that can satisfy God and free
sinners from bondage is the blood or the death of Jesus Christ. Through faith
in Christ.
Not what my hands have done
Can save my guilty soul
Not what my toiling flesh has borne
Can make my spirit whole
Not what I feel or do
Can give me peace with God
Not all my prayers and sighs and tears
Can bear my awful load
Thy grace alone, O God
To me can pardon speak?
Thy power alone, O son of God
Can this sore bondage break?
No other work save thine
No other blood will do
No strength save that which is divine
Can be me safely through.
(Horatius Bonar)
Well, we
have looked at four (4) very technical but very important theological terms. I
have tried to answer some very important questions:
·
How does God actually provide this grace-gift of
saving righteousness?
·
What role does Jesus Christ and his death plan in
God’s plan?
·
Can God actually treat a sinner as being righteous?
·
How is this gift obtained by sinners?
[What do you say we wrap this up?]
[CONCLUSION]
"Night
and day I pondered until I saw the connection between the justice of God and
the statement that 'the just shall live by his faith.' Then I grasped that the
justice of God is that righteousness by which through grace and sheer mercy God
justifies us through faith. Thereupon I felt myself to be reborn and to have
gone through open doors into paradise."
- Martin Luther
Let’s pray!
1 comment:
Thanks for a good read Gregg, soory I am late in commenting,
Yvonne.
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