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Divine Justice Romans 3:21-26 |
May 2, 2004 Pastor Tom Marcum |
Sometimes little things matter a lot. Really little things. Things as little as the word, "but."
--"Honey, I love you so much. These months we've had together have been the happiest months of my life. I can't think of anything that would mean more to me than spending the rest of our lives together as husband and wife. BUT…I should probably tell you that I'm already married."
--"Mom, Dad, now that I've been away at college for a semester, I just want you to know that it's been the greatest experience of my life. I can't even begin to thank you enough for making it possible. BUT…I've decided to drop out and get married to the most wonderful guy and I know you'll love him, his name's Spike and his parole's almost up."
It's astonishing to see the way that our entire lives can be so radically and completely impacted by something as small and seemingly insignificant as the word "but."
This morning, as we continue through the book of Romans we're going to encounter the most powerful, life changing and history making "but" ever spoken. But to fully appreciate it's significance we need to take a few moments to review the content of the message leading up to this momentous word.
Summarizing the Horrifying Predicament of Mankind
Paul, the author of this letter that we know as Romans, uses the first 17 verses to introduce himself to us and give us a brief preview of the message that God has given him for us. And the heart of that message is summarized in verses 16-17 where Paul tells us of the incredible gift of salvation that God has made available to everyone through the gospel of Jesus Christ. That's the Good News that Paul is going to be writing about in Romans.
Then, in verse 18, Paul turns his attention to the substance of his message and instantaneously his message sounds like anything but Good News. From 1:18-3:20 Paul paints an absolutely dismal picture of the horrifying predicament of mankind. Here's what he tells us.
God has made Himself known to all people. Through nature, through the Law and through the internal awareness of the Law written onto our consciences, we are all aware that God is a righteous God who demands righteousness from us. Consequently, we are all without excuse.
Unfortunately, we also all live under the dominating influence of our sinful nature from which we are powerless to break free. And this sinful nature works night and day to lead us farther and farther away from the standard of righteousness that God demands of us. Consequently, we find ourselves in this dreadful position: we are guilty sinners standing before a righteous God deserving the full measure of His wrath and condemnation.
That was the point of Romans 3:20 where we ended last week, which said, "Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law." In other words, we just don't have it in ourselves to be good enough to earn God's approval. "No one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law." The only thing any of us will ever deserve from God is condemnation and judgment.
Hope: Righteousness Apart from the Law
So, against the backdrop of that dreadful picture of mankind's awful predicament we come to verse 21 to hear the greatest of all possible words, "But…" "You are sinners standing before a righteous God deserving His condemnation, but…" And just like that, hope suddenly appears. Let's read verse 21, "But now a righteousness from God, apart from the law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify."
Do you see the hope? Verse 20 says that, "No one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law…" Then, verse 21 says, "BUT now a righteousness from God, apart from the law, has been made known…"
So, here's what we know so far.
--Through our own efforts none of us will ever be able to live a life that meets God's standard of righteousness.
--But, there is now another righteousness available to us that has nothing to do with our own efforts.
Well, I've got one response to that: "Sign me up. You just tell me how I can claim this righteousness that isn't based on my own effort and I'm in." And verse 22 tells us how to do just that saying; "This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe…"
The righteousness that you could never have achieved through your own effort will be given to you by God if you will simply place your faith and trust in His son, Jesus. In other words, no one will be declared righteousness because of anything that they have done. Our only hope for being declared righteous is to place our faith in what Jesus has done for us. And in the verses that follow Paul tells us exactly what Jesus did for us.
But before we move ahead there's a part of verse 21 that deserves a brief word of explanation. Verse 21 tells us that, "…the Law and the Prophets (a phrase which refers to the Old Testament part of our scriptures)…testify…" or "bear witness" to the existence of this righteousness that is not tied to the law. So, what does that mean?
Folks, it means that a careful reading of the Old Testament will show you that being declared righteous as a result of one's faith rather than one's ability to meet the requirements of the Law is not a new idea. Going all the way back to Genesis 15:6 we read, "Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness." So, Paul is simply reminding us here that from the very beginning God has counted as righteous those people who responded to Him in faith. Even those Old Testament people who could not possibly have understood how that whole process worked…the process that he is about to explain to us in the verses that follow.
Sin: The Universal Problem of Mankind
Verse 23 tells us that "sin" is the universal problem of mankind. It says, "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." That Greek word translated there as "fall short" literally means, "lack." All have sinned and lack the glory of God. So, what does that mean?
Well, God's glory, in essence, is how He makes Himself known. Through various displays of God's glory we gain insights into His character and majesty. And God created everything that exists so that it would reflect His glory. The stars, the mountains, the seas and oh, yes, you and me…all of us were created to reflect the glory of God. And most of God's creation is doing just fine with that assignment. But God's human creation struggles because we get distracted by our attraction to sin.
Last week we saw that the primary problem with sin is that it is offensive to God. Well, now we see why. Sin diminishes our ability to do the very thing that God created us to do-reflect His glory. In fact, sin not only diminishes God's glory in us, it diminishes our interest in reflecting His glory. That was Paul's point way back in chapter 1 when he told us that sin leads us to "exchange" God's glory for lesser things. We freely trade it away because we find other things more attractive and more desirable. Well, folks, what could possibly be more offensive to God than that?
Justification: God's Remedy to for Our Sin
Thankfully, verse 24 tells us that God has a remedy for our sin problem. Verse 23 tells us that "all have sinned," now verse 24 tells us that (all)…"are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus." I want you to notice, here, 4 ways that God has acted on our behalf to remedy the problem created by our sin.
First, we are "justified." What does that mean? It means that God credits His own righteousness to us and in a once and for all time act declares that we are right with Him. So, being "justified" doesn't change our character, it changes our standing before God.
Next, notice that we are justified, "freely." That means that there is no possible way for us to pay for this declaration of righteousness from God. It is a gift to be "freely" received.
Third, notice that this gift also comes, "by his grace." And that means that there is no possible way for us to earn this declaration of righteousness from God. We aren't justified because God owed it to us. It is a gift.
So, "freely" means you can't pay for it and "grace" means you can't work for it.
Finally, notice that this gift comes, "through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus." The root of the Greek word "redemption" is "ransom." And, in this context, it means that in order for God to declare us "justified" a price...a ransom…had to be paid. And since we've already seen that the price wasn't paid by us, the question we have to ask is, who paid it? And the answer is, Jesus. Jesus Christ paid the price of our redemption on the cross. In fact, in Mark 10:45 Jesus tells us that he came to us for that very reason saying, "The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."
God Demonstrates His Justice
Now, as we move to verses 25-26 we're going to consider an aspect of Jesus' sacrifice on the cross that is extremely important, yet rarely considered. As we read the verses I'm going to make some explanatory comments along the way. Beginning at verse 25 we read:
"God presented him…(meaning Jesus)
…as a sacrifice of atonement…(that word "atonement" means that Jesus' sacrificial death on the cross fully satisfied God's demand for justice against the sins of mankind. Everything that justice demanded to be don on account of our sins was done through Jesus' sacrifice. There's nothing left to be done by us or anyone else.)
…through faith in His blood." (I want to come back to that phrase in just a moment)
"He did this to demonstrate his justice…"(This is the aspect of Jesus' sacrifice that is seldom considered. We frequently talk about Jesus dying to pay the penalty for the sins of mankind. But Paul tells us here that Jesus' sacrifice had another purpose as well. Jesus' death demonstrated that God is a just God. Now, the question prompted by that statement is this: Why does God need to demonstrate His justice to us? Does that mean that God had done something that, absent the cross, might have led us to conclude that He was unjust? And the answer is, "yes, He had." And here's what Paul says about that.)
"He did this to demonstrate his justice, BECAUSE in his forbearance…(or "patience")…he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished…" What are these "sins committed beforehand?" They are the sins committed by people who lived prior to Jesus' "sacrifice of atonement."
So, why did God need to demonstrate His justice? Because if all sin has to be paid for…and God counts Jesus sacrificial death on the cross as payment for our sin…then that seems to suggest that everyone who lived prior to Jesus' atoning sacrifice had to pay the penalty for their own sin…consequently if God did not condemn to hell every person who lived prior to Jesus some might conclude He can't be a just God because He never dealt with those sins.
But verse 26 tells us that even those sins were dealt with at the cross. Verse 26 says, "he did it"…(that is, He allowed Jesus to die on the cross for the sins of mankind)
…"to demonstrate his justice at the present time"…(and that means that while those who lived prior to the cross never got to see the full out-working of God's justice, those living "at the present time" that is, with the knowledge of Jesus atoning death on the cross…can see how the cross demonstrates God's justice by paying in full the penalty for every sin ever committed. So, God didn't overlook those prior sins and He didn't forget them or fail to deal with them. He simply exercised patience in judging them.
And if the process seems hard for us to understand it's only because we live within the constraints of time. God doesn't. God is eternal. So, while we experience life as a sequence of events, God experiences all of eternity in what might be called the ever-present now.
Finally, verse 26 concludes by saying that God demonstrated his justice in the cross…
…"so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus." Here's the point. God could have demonstrated His justice by making each one of us pay the full penalty for our sin. In other words, condemning each one of us to hell would have proven that He is a just God who never overlooks sin. But God's passion was to find some way to satisfy both the demands of justice as well as a Father's love for His children. So, God accepted Jesus' death as payment for our sin and in doing so the demands of justice were fully satisfied and He was then free, in love and mercy, to offer us forgiveness, righteousness and eternal life.
Faith: Claiming God's Gift
And how do we claim this loving offer from God? The answer is woven throughout the text we've been reading.
Verse 22 says, "this righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ."
Verse 25 says that the righteousness offered through Jesus' sacrifice is claimed, "through faith in his blood."
Verse 26 says that this offer of right standing before God is for, "those who have faith in Jesus."
So, here's the Good News:
You can get right with God, but you can't buy your way into it.
You can get right with God, but you can't you're your way into it.
You can get right with God by trusting that everything necessary for you to be completely forgiven was done for you by Jesus on the cross. Just trust Him and you'll be right with God.
© Copyright 2004 Pastor Tom Marcum