How Can A Man Be Right Before God?
Romans Exposition Student Ministry • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Romans 3:21-31
Romans 3:21-31
21 But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— 22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. 26 It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. 27 Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith. 28 For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. 29 Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, 30 since God is one—who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. 31 Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law.
Main Proposition:
Statement of Doctrine or Application (SILVER BULLET)
There is only one way that a man can be right with God and that is to have faith in His Son.
Intro:
Statement of proposition
This morning we talked about the humiliation of Christ, what he gave up and also what he had to endure. He gave so much up for God’s elect and what we have to do to inherit the kingdom of God is to have faith in Christ.
Scripture makes it very clear that there is a way to be right with God, but it is not based on anything that we can do or achieve. It’s not based on man’s terms. We have seen what the world would be like it man could decide what is righteous, good, fair and tolerable.
Now we are going to see Paul switch gears in his letter. He delivered the body shots for the last few chapters and now that they are like “Well then what now Paul? How can we be saved” and Paul get’s into the good news of Christ
Paul did a great job at establishing the fact that man cannot save himself, it is not about his deeds, heritage or history there is only one way to salvation
By chapter 3 verse 20 there is a sense of hopelessness, but not one can be a Christian without realizing how hopeless he truly is.
There is only one reason why you come to Christ
Other texts that support
2 “Truly I know that it is so: But how can a man be in the right before God?
Why does this matter?
We are incapable of coming to God on our own, it is only through God’s grace that any of that is possible.
The law was never meant for a means of salvation. It’s only purpose was to show us that it is impossible to measure up to God’s standards by human effort.
This passage focuses on God’s righteousness, by which all righteousness is measured.
Main Point #1: The Way to Salvation
Statement
Now we are going to see the transition from the previous passage which was the “bad news” to this upcoming passage where Paul is going to tell us the “good news of Christ”.
Prove
Verse 21:
“But now”, this is our transition. This is incredibly important because everything leading up to this from Romans 1:18-3:20 was everything wrong with society and their search for salvation.
What is this good news? Well, first off God has provided a righteousness and it has been revealed.
What we need to focus on though is this path was not an afterthought. This wasn’t Adam was plan A and he failed and then the Mosaic Laws were plan B and then Christ on the cross was Plan C.
The Gospel was planned before the foundation of the world
God knew exactly what it would take to redeem each and every one of us.
We can see that in the OT. We have prophets that told us straight up what was going to happen with incredible detail.
Leading up to this “but now” man had been trying to produce righteousness that would satisfy God (through the law) Jews
Others thought that they could do it through their own moral lifestyle (Gentiles)
Paul proved that all of this was in vain
“But now” is the beginning of “apart from the law” Jew and Gentile must no longer think that anything that they can do is ever going to satisfy God.
The righteousness that was needed is now available because of what Jesus Christ did when he came into the world and what he completed by going back to the Father.
Verse 22:
So, How then does God’s righteousness come to me?
By faith in the Son of God.
What does faith mean? It means you have knowledge of the truth, approval of the truth and a trust in the truth.
Faith is not just an intellectual awareness or an intellectual acceptance of the truth. It means having real trust in Jesus Christ and what he did on our behalf and for our salvation.
With that faith you take your sins, face them, recognize them, acknowledge them with shame and you lay them on Christ. Because you know that you can’t bear that weight by yourself.
Verse 23:
Once again Paul is making it known that EVERY ONE is on the same playing field.
There isn’t one race, place or face that is rated higher in the eyes of God.
Every person has sinned and fallen short of the glory of God therefore no one is exempt of God’s wrath or his path to salvation.
Every single person has died in Adam because as the federal head of humanity he failed
Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—
Because of that we all lack and have a need for Jesus to fill the gap taht we couldn’t fill.
Verse 24:
Salvation is a gift from God.
It is something that comes to us freely.
This gift is 100% outside of the law
What makes any of this possible? It is only by the redemption which is in Jesus Christ
Redemption is the action of saving or being saved from sin, the actin of gaining possession of something in exchange for a payment.
The thing is none of us had to pay the required toll because we are all broke when it comes to righteousness
The only way someone can get saved is written in Ephesians:
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,
Illustrations:
Apply or Confront
Main Point #2: The characteristics of the way to salvation
Statement:
What is the meaning of the death of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross?
Verse 25-26: Revealing God’s righteousness
Verse 27-28: Exalting God’s grace
Verse:29-30: Revealing God’s universality
Verse 31: Confirming God’s Law
Prove
A. Revealing God’s Righteousness
Verse 25:
Salvation is first and foremost a way of glorifying God
The second part is that it does save man from hell and gives him eternal life.
Now we are going to find out how this is possible:
“Propitiation and Blood”
Propitiation means to appease or avert wrath
Christ did both of these. He appeased what was needed by God and at the same time because of that he averted the wrath that was meant for us and stood in our path of God’s wrath.
John Owen’s 4 elements to Propitiation:
An offence to be taken away
A person offended who needs to be pacified
An offending person, guilty of the offence
A sacrifice or some other means of making atonement for the offense
What Paul is teaching us here is that what Christ did by his death on the cross was to appease God’s Wrath
He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.
The second Word that sticks out to me is “blood”. Why did Paul use the term “blood” instead of death? I feel that death could have fit in here as well.
Paul uses the term blood because it is in line with OT teaching.
It is the same God, same salvation and the same sacrifice is needed.
In the OT it wasn’t enough just to kill an animal. The blood needed to be produced.
Without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins.
We even see this kind of terminology with John the Baptist: “ He is the Lamb of God”
Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.
“Forbearance”; All of this is possible because of God’s patience and self restraint.
Because of his patience with us, his tolerance for our lack of righteousness, Christ’s sacrifice at the cross was able to pass over our formerly committed sins.
So every sin will either be paid for by the sinner himself in the form of eternal death and punishment in hell or will be paid for him because he has placed his faith in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on his behalf.
9 The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.
Verse 26:
Now he is going to explain how he is able to pass over those past sins and also how is he going to deal with sins that are committed in the future.
The answer is short for both of those questions: Sins were dealt with once and for all on the cross by Jesus Christ.
Here is the justification of God for forgiving any sins whenever committed.
The cross tells us that this is God’s way for making forgiveness possible.
How can God be just and justify the ungodly? Because he punished their sins in His own son.
He poured the wrath that we all deserved upon him.
At the cross God was making a way to salvation so that you and I would be forgiven, but he had to do it in a way that would leave his character absolute and unbroken.
The part of this that we need to focus on is how can God accept sinful men without violating his justice?
Only through the cross
B. Exalting God’s grace
Verses 27-28:
The cross proves the uselessness of man coming to God by his own way and power.
Because the power of salvation is in the cross of Christ alone, an has no cause for self satisfaction or congratulations.
One of the greatest lies of this world is that by doing certain works on your own, man is able to make themselves acceptable to God.
With this mindset you are completely taking away God’s glory.
What doesn’t exalting God look like:
Someone can appear to be morally good on the outside yet still not be saved
16 And behold, a man came up to him, saying, “Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?” 17 And he said to him, “Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good. If you would enter life, keep the commandments.” 18 He said to him, “Which ones?” And Jesus said, “You shall not murder, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not steal, You shall not bear false witness, 19 Honor your father and mother, and, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 20 The young man said to him, “All these I have kept. What do I still lack?” 21 Jesus said to him, “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” 22 When the young man heard this he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.
You can’t exalt God just by your intellectual knowledge of his Word or Him. It is possible to have a great amount of knowledge about God’s word and still not be saved
third, religious involvement is not proof of salvation
Fourth, Active ministry in Christ’s name is not proof of salvation
What do all of these have in common? they all exalt themselves.
What does exalting God look like:
What does your repentance of sin look like? Do you hate it? The person who genuinely loves God will have this built in hatred of sin. It is impossible to love two things that are contradictory to one another like Yankees an Red Sox.
24 “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.
The true believer will hate his sin even while he is doing it because it is contrary to his new heart in Christ
It is more then just be sorry about sin
No Christian becomes completely sinless until he goes to meet the Lord.
Second, Another marker is having a selfless love, not just for God, but for other people, especially fellow Christians. If you are constantly arguing, tearing down, being confrontational with other believers. You need to repent and ask for forgiveness. Yes, we are called to rebuke someone if they are teaching something not 100% accurate, but how are you doing that? when are you doing that? are you doing it to help them grow as a believer or are you trying to be a bully?
Third, Obedient Living. Yes, we are never saved by good works, but those who are truly saved will produce good works because we are God’s workers, created in Jesus Christ for good works.
What is the difference between this and being morally good on the outside. Because it’s the heart posture on the inside that counts. You truly know if you are doing things because the Holy Spirit has worked in your life or because you want to appear like the you have a regenerated heart. No one but you and God can tell.
This is how we exalt God’s grace. It has nothing to do with boasting about your accomplishments, your keeping of God’s laws better than someone else.
C. Revealing God’s universality
Verse 29-30:
Many Jews in Biblical times believed that Gentiles were somehow outside the domain of “their God”. Instead of themselves as belonging to God, they considered God as belonging only to them.
This is where their sin can blur facts: Rahab pagan gentile found favor with God, Ruth the great grandmother of David the Jews greatest king found favor with God
Despite all of this the Jews persisted on their deep hatred of the Gentiles.
They really looked at them as lower class human beings like dogs essentially.
Paul is telling them very clearly that he is the God of EVERYONE, Jew, Greek, Gentile.
The God who will justify the Jews and the gentiles is the one. Just as there is only one God there is only one way to salvation and that is faith in Jesus Christ
Verse 31:
Well then, because the Law does not save, cannot save and will never save does that mean we can just avoid it?
Paul responds, absolutely… not.
Because of the cross of Jesus Christ, through justification by faith was made possible only confirms the law.
Paul says we establish the law.
As far as salvation, the gospel does not replace the law, because the law was never a means of salvation. It was given to us to show the perfect standard of God’s righteousness and to show us that level is impossible for us to achieve.
It’s only purpose was to drive men to faith in God and being sinful men we took those laws and thought well I can do this by myself.
24 So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith.
The law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ that we may be justified by faith
Illustrations
Apply or Confront
Application Points:
Everything that happens in the world is meant to glorify God and to bring people to him.
2. Realize that God has absolute control over everything.
3. It takes a repentant heart to truly come to Christ
Pray for forgiveness, tell Christ that without him you can’t overcome your sins. They are too much for us but not for him.