God’s Gift of Rightousness, Part 2

I was in turn to the book of
Romans in chapter three. Romans, chapter three, and I
heard from more than a few people just about how nice it was that
I let them up last week by turning to this message and giving hope.
And I’m here to tell you, I didn’t let you up. Paul let you up.
God let you up. We have been, as many acknowledged,
in a very difficult section for several months in chapters one
and two, pondering sin and all of those things. And so last
week in turning and beginning to consider this passage before
us of the great hope of salvation. Well, no wonder so many were
encouraged. Paul had begun his argument,
but there is much to be said about this. And we have positioned
some notes in your bulletin. And I can tell you already, I
won’t get to them. I don’t think that I’ll get to
any of them this morning. We’re going to just have to work
along. You certainly can use the. the
outline of the passage that’s in there that might be helpful
to you. But we won’t get to the notes,
not this week. The theme that we’ve been considering
is righteousness. We’ve seen that man is unrighteous,
both Gentiles established in chapter one were unrighteous.
The Gentiles not only were unrighteous, the Jews likewise were unrighteous,
ungodly in need of salvation. And righteousness here is in
view once again. Just as Paul will do over and
over again throughout the book of Romans, a return to this theme
of righteousness. But here this. The passage before
us, verses 21 through 26, is at the core of that great theme
of righteousness throughout the book of Romans. If you would,
I want to begin back in verse twenty one. We’ll carry that
through in verse twenty six, and then I want to double back
and make some commentary on what I would call the structure of
the passage. Would you consider God’s word,
Romans chapter three, verse twenty one. 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 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, whom
God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood, through faith,
This was to demonstrate his righteousness, because in the forbearance of
God, he passed over the sins previously committed. For the
demonstration, I say, of his righteousness at the present
time, that he might be just and the justifier of the one who
has faith in Jesus. And that was a forecasted or
promised. I want to double back and I just
want to give you Perhaps some understanding as to why everything
looks jumbled if you’re looking at the outline in your bulletin. What is the reason that passages
are indented or not indented? The simple sentence, as we saw
last week, is just this. But now the righteousness of
God has been manifested. That is, in the simplest form,
the simple sentence. But we looked last week at what
I called four qualities. of saving righteousness. What
were the four qualities? Well, the first of them was that
this righteousness is apart from the law. That was part of what
the Jews had to learn is they couldn’t live up to the law of
God. They couldn’t do it. And so God
has established a righteousness which is absolutely requisite
to enter into heaven. You must have the righteousness
of God to get into heaven. But man couldn’t do it on his
own. The Gentiles certainly didn’t do it, they didn’t even try,
and the Jews failed likewise. This righteousness is apart from
the law. Secondly, though, we saw that
it was being witnessed by the law and the prophets. This wasn’t
new, this righteousness. This is exactly what God had
told about through the centuries. This was exactly what God wanted
from the very start. What he wanted was for sinners
to fall on their face and to acknowledge that they were unworthy
and unable to live according to the righteousness of God. By and large, they did not. 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 and here, as I suggested last week,
Paul just recharges. It’s not a it’s not a big structural
element over which you should stumble. Paul just recharges
on the great subject of the righteousness of God because he’s got two more
points. Two more qualities of that righteousness
to consider. This righteousness is not only
apart from the law told about through the prophets, but it’s
through faith in Jesus Christ. And we pleaded with the kids,
don’t miss that point. It’s not just faith. It’s not
just coming to church. It’s not just saying that you
believe in a God. Our faith is to be placed in
the Lord Jesus Christ and in him alone for salvation. But
there was a fourth point. There’s a fourth quality to the
saving righteousness of God. It is freely available to all. Look at the passage again where
Paul recharges and says, even the righteousness of God through
faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. Now, with that foundation established,
We have a great difficulty and the commentators had a great,
great difficulty agreeing on a structure going forward with
the remainder of this passage, not only the remainder of verse
22, but 22 all the way down through verse 26. No. I’m certain that I could be incorrect
here, but I want to give you what I believe is a sound structure
to this passage. And the first thing that I’ve
got to tell you is that the latter part of verse 22 and verse 23
are all pushed over because they are a parenthetical thought.
It’s almost as if Paul says it under his breath because he’s
already made this point, hasn’t he? There were all sinners. And
this is certainly one of the verses that we we learn and quote
early on as being part of the Romans road that all have sinned
and fallen short of the glory of God. I am not in any way saying
that it’s an unimportant verse. Did you hear me? I’m not saying
that it’s unimportant. What I’m saying is Paul makes
a passing comment. Look at the passage again for
all who believe, pardon me, that this righteousness is for all
those who believe, for there is no distinction. For all have
sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Now, the reason
that this is important and we’ll touch more upon this in a moment,
the reason that this is so important is verse 24. If you don’t make
verses 22C and 23 parenthetical, You have a real problem. Because
when Paul says all have sinned and by all, he means categorically
all, not only all Gentiles, but all Jews included. And as we
saw, there isn’t anybody else. You’re either a Jew or you’re
a Gentile and all have sinned. All, and I take that equally
as categorically, all have fallen short of the glory of God. And
if you hang verse 24 on those verses, you have all going to
heaven. And we can’t have that. That’s not what God’s Word says
in its totality. It just doesn’t match up. And
that’s why I say verse 22b and verse 23 are parenthetical thoughts. Verse 24 hangs on that top statement
of verse 22. that the righteousness of God
is available for all those who believe, being justified as a
gift by his grace. Now, we’ll take that up further,
I’ll give you more reasoning behind that when we get there.
But structurally speaking, again, what Paul does is in verse 25,
make another comment referring to the Lord Jesus Christ, he
says, whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation. And we’ll
wrestle with that big word, because I don’t want to lose anybody
as we progress along through our study of Romans. We don’t
want to get hung up or lose sight of great big words like righteousness
and propitiation and and all of the rest. We’ll get there.
But what Paul does throughout the remainder of that section
is just tell us about propitiation. That’s all he does. That’s all
the remainder of verse 25 and verse 26 does is tell us about
the great theme of propitiation. If you would, let’s go back to
verse 21. where Paul issued forth the simple
sentence by saying, but now the righteousness of God has been
manifested. And as we saw, it wasn’t a new
theme. Israel knew of God’s holiness.
Other nations knew of it. They didn’t know the holy God.
But they knew of the righteous standards of God. But in what
sense was it manifest? It was manifest for the first
time as something that we could have, that we could appropriate,
that we could take on as a mantle of righteousness and boldly walk
into heaven. Never before had that been the
case. Man had begun to recognize, all of man had begun to recognize
that in and of themselves, they were completely unworthy of approaching
God and approaching heaven. Isaiah’s approach was entirely
correct. Woe is me. For the first time,
God’s righteousness had been manifested, that pure and holy
standard. That standard that was lived
perfectly by the Lord Jesus Christ and made available through him
to us the very righteousness of God. By way of review, one
pastor said it is precisely this righteousness that we lack as
sinners. We are anything but righteous.
As a result of the fall of Adam and Eve, we are inherently sinful.
We have a complete inability from the moment we’re born to
please God. So the reconciliation that God
has enacted, the plan of reconciliation could not occur until God moved,
until God initiated it. Man couldn’t have discovered
this way, man couldn’t have found it on his own. It had to be God
that moved first. So God has manifested his righteousness,
this righteousness that proceeds from God, a righteousness that
ultimately meets his approval and ultimately enables us entrance
to heaven. It is God’s righteousness. The righteousness, as I’ve already
indicated, had already been a focus for the nation of Israel. They
knew about God’s righteous standard. They knew about the law. They
knew about God’s holiness. They knew about God’s just dealings
with men. They knew that God punished sin
and blessed righteousness. But they also knew that because
of hundreds of years of their own human effort, that they were
absolutely unable to live according to the law. They were unable
to reach that righteous standard and that left them in a deficit. In order to answer that incredible
need, The overwhelming need without which being met every sinner
was destined for hell without that great need being met. But
God did move. And in the gospel, we have the
great news of the righteousness of God, the very way to meet
God’s divine standard, just as had been promised by the prophets.
We saw last week by way of those four matchless qualities that
the righteousness that saves sinners, first of all, is able
to impart what the law could not. It’s able to impart what
the law absolutely could not by living according to this perfect
standard. There was nothing wrong with
the standard. There was nothing wrong with God calling them to
live according to that standard. But the law was unable to see
it through because the law could not grant the grace needed in
order to live that righteous life. The standard was far too
high. The righteousness that saves
sinners is not only able to impart what the law could not, but it
is the long declared plan of salvation. As I said earlier,
this was nothing new. This is exactly what the prophets
had spoken of for centuries. And Paul will go into those arguments
throughout the book of Romans again and again. Thirdly, the
third matchless quality was that this righteousness that saves
sinners is exclusively received. By believing in the Lord Jesus
Christ, and if my word exclusively hangs you up, it’s only available
by believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, there’s only one way.
People, that’s not proud. That’s the world wants us to
believe that when we say that there’s only one way to heaven,
we’re being proud and arrogant. And we need to coexist as the
bumper sticker says, we need to believe that there are multitudes
of ways into heaven and that to claim that one way into heaven
is to to pick a fight that should not be waged. Well, people, it’s
not proud. That is the gospel. That is the
heart of the gospel, that there is one way into heaven. Otherwise,
why would Christ have to die? Why did Christ have to die? If
there is a multitude of different ways, there is one way to heaven.
And it’s only through the Lord Jesus Christ. And it’s only by
placing our faith, not in the church, not in God in general,
not even in the Bible merely, but in the Lord Jesus Christ
and in his work on the cross. It’s only through that. The righteousness
that saves sinners is exclusively, only received by believing in
the Lord Jesus Christ. But the fourth thing that we
learned has to give hope to every person, has to give hope to every
people group, has to give hope to every age group, has to give
hope to every economic group, every racial group, anybody.
Because the righteousness that saves sinners, as Paul says,
fourthly, is freely available to all. That’s what he 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 for all those who believe. And with that, we we do enjoy
the great hope of the gospel. We don’t know who God has set
his sights upon. We don’t know who God purposes
to save, but that motivates us to evangelism, doesn’t it? It
should that God purposes to save sinners. And he has tasked us
merely with telling, telling about the Lord Jesus Christ,
telling about the salvation that is available through him. Now, here’s where it gets difficult
this morning. You have no notes. You have no blanks to fill in.
There really isn’t an outline per se. Here’s what I likened
it to, as I pondered this week, as I studied this passage. Let
me tell you what I liken it to. I love museums. But in the course of 20 plus
years of marriage, I have realized that my wife and I do museums
a little differently. If there was a conveyor belt
or a fast moving machine, Barb would be on it and through the
museum in short order. I, on the other hand, prefer,
especially if it’s Rembrandt, you know, you ponder, you stand
before the thing and you take it in and you go up close and
you view the use of colors and the brush strokes and then you
back away and you view the picture in its totality. But if there’s
one place that maybe I overdo it, it’s in the rock collection. I love the rock collection. And I love to take my time through
the rock collection and look at the rocks with all of their
crystals and all of their various composites and the meteorites
and all of the minerals and things. And then just when you think
you’re done, then you go through the section that they’re under
different kinds of lights, black lights and strobe lights and
all kinds of different lights. And I take my time with that,
too. And, you know, that’s what I would like in this passage.
You know what? And we need to pause. We need
to savor it because this is this is the very richness of the gospel. Going through a museum. At a snail’s pace through the
rocks. I get it, it’s a little much,
it’s a little tedious, maybe you’re waiting for me in the
car in the parking lot. But we need to take our time through
this section, and that’s what I liken it to. To the richest,
most beautiful museum that man has ever entered. Go back, if
you would, to Romans chapter three, verse 21 through 26. 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. As I suggested earlier, those
are parenthetical thoughts, and I told you why, but those words
are not unimportant. Because they begin to pull us
in to understand the great scope. Of that statement that the righteousness
of God has been manifested. Because it was against the backdrop
of mankind’s utter sinfulness, when Paul says there is no distinction,
he says there is no distinction anywhere on Earth. The Lord Jesus
Christ is the one, the only one who has ever lived a righteous
life, there is no one else. And so there is no distinction
between Jew and Gentile. There’s no distinction between
rich and poor. There’s no distinction between
male and female. There’s no distinction. All have
sinned. But that righteousness about
which God has already revealed. There is no distinction about
that either, that it is available through faith in Jesus Christ
to all who believe there is no distinction. And so this whole
thing is understood as a denial, really, that there is any possible
distinction with regards to the righteousness of God. There isn’t
anybody. Nobody can make the argument
that they are good enough holy enough, righteous enough to gain
entrance by that righteousness into heaven, there is absolutely
no distinction. But the beautiful news is. That
likewise is the case that there is no distinction with regards
to access to heaven, if you place your faith in the Lord Jesus
Christ, you have heaven, you have salvation, you have the
Lord Jesus Christ. There is no distinction. As one
Puritan said, the apostle introduces this parenthesis to preclude
the supposition that the receiving of righteousness of God of the
righteousness of God is not absolutely necessary to every individual. It’s like it’s as if somebody
is suggesting that this is an alternate way in. If you mess
up in your life, if you sin enough and and become a notorious sinner
in your community, there’s still this backdoor plan. He says that’s
nonsense. That the receiving of the righteousness
of God is not absolutely necessary to every individual, the human
race for salvation. Unless it should be imagined
that there is any difference in the way or on account of which
it is received. Just as there is no difference
between Jews and Gentiles with respect to their character as
sinners. So there is no difference with
respect to them as the receiving of God’s righteousness. What
great hope there is here. And that’s why I say we would
ponder we would pause and ponder. There is no distinction. The
only way to heaven is through the Lord Jesus Christ, and it’s
available for all. Look at verse 23 again, it gets
even better, for there is no distinction for all have sinned
and fall short of the glory of God. You say, how is that good
news? Because it’s against that backdrop,
it’s like putting a diamond on a black piece of velvet. That’s
what it’s like. And that’s what Paul is doing
here. He’s saying, look, let me show you how utterly terrible
it is. And how absolutely glorious God
is. Here, Paul clarifies the absence
of distinction mentioned above, and in doing so, Paul returns
back to the positions that he’s already asserted in chapters
one and two. There is no distinction between
Gentiles and Jews. All have sinned. And it’s also the reason why
there’s No difference to the condition for all men, all are
sinners, all are utterly in need of God’s grace. They all have
proven themselves as utterly sinful. And that whole sinfulness
is represented as past and present. And the the continuing consequence
of that is the fact that they lack the glory of God. We’ll
touch upon that one in a moment. But it is a universal condition.
It sums up the conclusion of that great argument that Paul
presented in chapter one, verse 18, all the way through 320.
All have sinned. All have sinned, Paul says, and
fall short of the glory of God. They lack what it needs. What
does it mean to fall short of the glory of God? What is the
glory of God? What is it? What is Paul referring to here
in Romans 3 when he speaks of the glory of God? Some said that
it was a failure to render God the glory. We don’t glorify God.
We don’t give him the credit, if you will. Some said that it was to fail
receiving the glory or the honor which God bestows, which seems
rather absurd in the context, you know, as if God is going
to lavish his glory upon us because we’re sinners. I think the third option is best
to fall short of reflecting back the glory of God, a failure to
live as we’re called to live, and according to how we’re called
to live, we have failed to reflect the glory that we should have
reflected. And as a result, we are destitute.
We are sinners, absolutely destitute of the glory of God. It’s interesting
that the form of this verb seems to imply not only do we fall
short of a goal, but we are utterly lacking in something. Which the
need is almost palpable, you sense it, you feel it, you know
that you are absent the glory of God. The glory of God, as
one said, is the exhibition of God in their own character, which
man’s proper work, which is man’s proper work. God is not seen
in them as he ought to be seen. That’s the point. They didn’t
live as they should have lived, they didn’t manifest God’s glory
as they should have. God had given them a simple task. to reflect back his glory to
to live according to him. But man had utterly failed. And
then the share of divine glory, which, according to the Jews,
was supposed to be reflective of every life, every human life
was supposed to reflect back the glory of God and his relationship
with God. But as a result of that sin,
all men utterly failed to illumine or to reflect back. Divine glory. And you can almost hear somebody
say. Yeah, I know that. God’s righteousness
has now been fully displayed. The one thing that people need
most has been given to us by God and that it’s apart from
an attempt to live according to the law and that it was declared
for centuries by the writers of the Old Testament, that this
righteousness is appropriated by faith and only in the Lord
Jesus Christ, that it’s widely available for all that believe.
I get all that. I get it. But how does it work? It’s a good question. How does
God take an unrighteous sinner like me and impart this righteousness? But I so desperately need and
beyond all that, why? Why would God do that? Why would
what would motivate God to such a magnanimous act? And isn’t
there something I can do in return? Isn’t there something I can do
to show God that I’m worthy? To catch his eye, to make him
to move, to nudge him. Isn’t there something I can do
to contribute to this great cause of saving my soul? And to that, Paul says simply.
Being justified as a gift by his grace. Being justified as
a gift by his grace, and here we must pause. As I’ve already suggested, those
words hang on the middle part of verse 22, where Paul says
the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all
who believe being justified as a gift by his grace. That’s how
it works. That’s how a sinner gets into
heaven. That’s how a sinner gains the righteousness of Christ.
Once he believes in the Lord Jesus and it’s available to all,
he is justified as a gift by his grace. It is a free act of
God, as a gracious act of God is this source of justification. It is only by his grace. It has
nothing to do with what we deserve. Look at this word briefly, justified,
let’s pause just there being justified. As one pastor said,
the word Zikio means to declare the rightness of something or
someone. Justification is God’s declaration. It’s not that God looks at you
and says, oh, my, he’s changed. He’s not quite there, but he’ll
do. It’s not that God suddenly begins to grade on the curve
or lowers his standards. He looks at you and he declares
you as righteous, perfectly righteous. He sees you as you are not. He
sees Christ as he is. He sees Christ and not you. Justification is God’s declaration
that all the demands of the law are fulfilled on behalf of the
believing sinner through the righteousness of Jesus Christ.
God sees the righteousness of Christ, if you have placed your
faith in him. In justification, God imputes
the perfect righteousness of Christ to the believer’s account
and then declares the redeemed one fully righteous. You said,
but I still feel like a sinner. You still are a sinner. You have
a long way to go. Don’t confuse justification with
sanctification. Justification occurs in an instant. Sanctification takes your lifetime.
This righteousness of which Paul speaks here, this being justified,
this being bathed in righteousness is instantaneous, but a life
of sanctification of working out practically righteousness
in our lives takes a lifetime. And even then, even after a lifetime
of walking in God’s grace, feeding our minds with his word, encouraged
along by his spirit, we still are not perfect. And that’s where
we need glorification. One Puritan spoke of this, what
is called imputation, where God gives us what we need. We don’t
earn it. We can’t work our way up to it.
God just imputes it to us. He gives it to us much like that
garment of righteousness about which we spoke several weeks
ago. One Puritan said imputation is an act of God. It is of his
mere love and grace whereby on the consideration of the mediation
of Christ, where Christ did his work on the cross, we place our
faith in the Lord Jesus and he makes an effectual grant and
donation of a true, real and perfect righteousness. Even that
of Christ himself unto all that do believe and accounting it
as theirs on his own gracious act, he both absolves them from
their sin and grants them the right and title to eternal life.
John Owen hit the nail on the head. That’s what God does. He slams down his gavel and he
pronounces you instantaneously righteous, not guilty. Forgiven
in Christ. Righteousness, the divine moral
excellence, the standard that is so high and so impossible
and for centuries proved itself over and over again to be an
impossible standard to the Jew. The Gentiles didn’t even try.
It’s suddenly, by way of justification, equated to the sinner given to
us. The very thing that we need to
get into heaven is all of a sudden handed to us on a silver platter. It is the declaration that the
individual has now been restored to a state of righteousness in
God’s eyes, God sees you as righteous. Now, we know ourselves, we know
ourselves to be thoroughgoing sinners, how can it ever be said
that we have become the righteousness of God? We have God’s righteousness. Let me ponder for a moment. Justification,
as the Bible presents it, is absolutely instantaneous. It’s
not the process of sanctification. It’s not a process at all. It
is God’s declaration about the sinner. Justification takes place
as it were in the courtroom of God, where, as I said, God slams
down his gavel and pronounces you innocent. It changes our
status before God, but it doesn’t change our nature. And that’s
where we begin the path of sanctification, of working out that practical
righteousness in our lives. As one said, we are righteous
with the righteousness of God, not with our own, which is but
filthy rags, but with that which is provided, which consists in
the infinitely meritorious righteousness of his own dear son. It is instantaneous. It is also imputed. Just as our sin was put on Christ,
Christ’s righteousness is put on us, that’s the simplest way
to understand it. We put all of our sin on the
Lord Jesus Christ and he puts all of his righteousness upon
us. Righteousness is reckoned, that’s
biblical language, it is reckoned or considered or credited to
the account of those who believe. They stand justified before God,
not because of their own righteousness, but because of a perfect righteousness
outside of themselves that is reckoned to them, accounted to
them. It is God’s own righteousness
and it is ours in the person of Jesus Christ by faith. As one said, how are we to be
considered and conceived as righteous in the sight of God? In the same respect in which
Christ was made sin. So that he might be dealt with
as a sinner, because Christ was no sinner. Not for his own offenses,
but for those of others, and in the same manner, assuredly,
we are now the righteousness of God in him because we are
judged in connection with Christ’s righteousness, which we have
put on by faith. And we return to the great theme.
The great thing we are justified by faith. It’s exactly what Paul
alluded to in Romans one sixteen. I’m not ashamed of the gospel
for 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 to faith as it is
written, but the righteous man shall live by faith. That’s us. That’s our condition. In the sight of God, the father,
he sees the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. One. Other puritans put it this way,
let it be counted folly or frenzy or fury or whatsoever, it is
our wisdom and our comfort, we care for no knowledge in the
world, but this that man has sinned and God has suffered.
That God has made himself the sin of men and that men are made
the righteousness of God. It’s that simple. It’s that simple. Look back at the text, though.
Look back at the text of verse 24, where Paul is stringing along
a thought. Having already set the parenthesis
aside, being justified as a gift by his grace. Could it be any
more clear that there’s nothing we can do to earn this? There’s
nothing we can do to repay. There’s nothing we can do to
add to it. It’s not incomplete at all. And
there’s nothing we can do to prompt God to give it. This word
gifts. describes the manner of this
justification as being a freely given gift of God. Many young
people today will give their moms some trinket or treasure
or favor or kindness. It’s not even a good analogy,
because in a sense, mom has earned that. It’s the least we could
do, right? But in this particular gift,
this gift is an amazing gift because it’s given not only to
those who don’t deserve it. They absolutely don’t deserve
it. They deserve much worse. And instead, they’re given this
magnanimous gift of God, this gift of righteousness. And it’s a gift by his grace,
there’s no way that we can repay him. There’s no way that we can
prompt him, there’s no way that we can urge him to move in our
direction. It’s absolutely by his grace. As one pastor said, this expression
is redoubled as a gift by his grace. It is redoubled to show
that it is all of God and that nothing in this act of justification
belongs to or proceeds from man. Justification is bestowed without
the smallest regard to anything done by man, but solely by grace. free, unmerited favor. And that’s the part of the Gospel
that is, as you first hear it, it’s too hard to believe. But
believe we must. Another pastor said it this way,
this action, this bestowing of this righteousness on the part
of God derives its whole motivation. What made him do it? Why did
God do it? Why did God give us his righteousness? It derives its whole motivation,
explanation and determination from what God himself is and
does in the exercise of as a free and sovereign God. Merit of any
kind on the part of man, when brought into relation to justification,
contradicts the gospel. Did you hear that? It’s absolutely
contradictory to say, well, I’ve got to do something to earn God’s
kindness. I’ve got to do something to repay
him. Certainly this righteousness, yeah, but I’ve got to be good
now. I’ve got to do something to add
to it because it can’t possibly be enough. Being justified as a gift by
his grace. And we have to move on through
this grand museum of truth. Look again at verse 24. It is
available for all those who believe being justified as a gift by
His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus. The word translated here, redemption.
Tells us about the cost. It tells us about the price that
it cost God to bring this whole thing about man, mankind. Humanity is delivered from this
condition of sinfulness by the free act of God working through
the Lord Jesus Christ and the atonement that he made, the payment
that he made on the cross. This word is an interesting word
that has the idea of delivering someone from something, but especially
with regards to paying a price And as such, it was used frequently
of a ransom paid for a prisoner. You would go and you would pay
the jailer a fee in order to ransom out someone that was being
held, perhaps someone who had been kidnapped. A more modern
day application of that word. But one of the most frequent
places where the word was used was to buy a slave out of his
slavery, to buy him from out from under that master. When God sent. The Lord Jesus
Christ, he sent him to pay your ransom. He sent him to pay the
ransom, the fee that would take to free you. From. No earthly master, but from sin
itself and from the grip of the devil himself. The amazing thing
was that some were quick to set aside this idea of ransom. They
just thought it meant deliverance or some kind of freedom. But
they lose the idea of this payment, they lose the idea of a price
that was given for that ransom. And yet the language, the word
was used frequently, as I said, of buying slaves out of bondage
and throughout the scriptures, it’s used to speak of that very
thing, a price that freed us. First Corinthians 620, you have
been bought with a price. Therefore, glorify God in your
body. First Corinthians 723, you were bought with a price.
Do not become slaves of men. Galatians 313, Christ redeemed
us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us.
Galatians 4, 5, the purpose of which that he might redeem those
who are under the law, that we might receive adoption as sons. Mark 10, 45, the son of man did
not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as
a ransom for many. Act twenty twenty eight be on
guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the
Holy Spirit has made you overseers to shepherd the Church of God,
which he purchased with his own blood. First Timothy two six,
speaking of Christ, who gave himself as a ransom for all. First Peter 1 8, speaking of
Christ, knowing that you are not redeemed with perishable
things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited
from your forefathers, but with a precious blood as of a lamb
unblemished and spotless. The blood of Christ, that’s what
he paid with. And it was a ransom. And he paid
it to God, he paid with his own life spoken of here in terms
so graphic The blood of Christ. So the word redemption. The more
traditional word redemption is appropriate, it points out that
the believers righteous status has been brought about by means
of a definite act of God, a decisive act of God, where he placed down
Christ as a payment for sinners. One Puritan said this, he said,
Man had rebelled against God and had incurred the just condemnation
of his law. But God, by his free grace and
of infinite compassion, substituted his own son in the place of the
guilty and transferred from them to him the obligation of their
punishment. He made him to suffer and die
for their sins, the just for the unjust. No wonder Paul writing
to Titus. said of Christ that he gave himself
for us to redeem us out of every lawless deed. Jesus did that. He’s our redeemer. Jesus willingly
and completely accomplished our redemption through his death
on the cross. There’s nothing to add. There’s
nothing to add. Christ’s death was in our place.
And that death was a sin was sinless, and because of that. God accepted. That sacrifice. Jesus willingly accepted the
opportunity to take on our punishment. And as such, his death was a
propitiation for our sins, it paid the ransom. It paid the
ransom for sin which we had accumulated, and as such, it redeemed us out
of the curse of the law. This is exactly why Jesus came.
Remember Zacharias? In the opening chapter of the
Gospel of Luke, Zacharias, filled with the Holy Spirit, said this,
Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited us and accomplished
redemption for his people. If you are a Christian. You cannot
race through this museum. You cannot but pause. And mull
over every word. And savor it and realize that. It wasn’t you that saved yourself.
It wasn’t you that worked yourself up to goodness, that somebody
along the way came to you with the gospel. Some friend, some
neighbor, some relative, some pastor, somebody came to you
with the gospel and they proclaimed Christ to you and you knew it
was available, freely available. You didn’t know how it works.
But now you do, because Paul said that it is through a process
of being justified by his grace. God declared you righteous, not
because you’re righteous, but because Christ is righteous and
he accomplished that on the cross. My concern is for those who don’t
know that yet. You do not know. That you own
salvation, that you are going to heaven, if you’re still of
the mindset that you’re trying to work your way, be good enough,
come to church every Sunday and be here frequently and read your
Bible. If you’re merely trying to do
it by a list of do’s and don’ts. There’s no way you’ll ever make
it. For thousands of years, Israel tried and tried and tried, and
it was utter failure. And yet, in an instant, in an
instant, you could be declared righteous. And as we said last
week, there’s only one way. That’s not a proud statement,
that’s the truth. It is only through faith in the Lord Jesus
Christ and believing what God accomplished through him on the
cross. Let’s pray. Oh, Lord God, we love this museum. We love these truths. We love
to pause and ponder and to sit at the feet of the Apostle Paul
as he meditates on the great theme of justification. Of righteousness, the very righteousness
of God imparted to sinners, the key that unlocks the door to
heaven. Lord God, we know that every
one of us needs it. There isn’t any one of us in
this room that would ever. Make it into heaven based on
our own goodness. If we have any to claim. But
in an instant, you give us what we so desperately need. Because
of what Christ accomplished on the cross. And his accepted sacrifice. If we place our faith, if we
believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, we will be saved. Lord, I pray
for any who are in here who don’t know that in their heart. I pray that you would do a work
in their hearts, open their hearts and minds to believe and to be
saved. It’s in Jesus’ name that we pray. Amen. Okay. Yeah. Thank you.