From Death to New Life

Intro

Two weeks ago, Roland brought up 5 questions

Does God exist?

Is God good?

Is the Bible trustworthy?

Did Jesus rise from the dead?

What is the Gospel?

They are simple in nature, and many of us could answer them briefly to another believer, but if we dive into those questions a little deeper(Maybe in the deeper dive podcast) we realize that these are profound questions that take a deep understanding of God’s word to even begin to explain. Over the course of Christian history, there have been thousands of people who have attempted to compile all of the knowledge of scripture into simplified terms, to establish a baseline answer to these foundational questions of Christian beliefs.

The Catholic church especially was known for Catechisms. The base word Catechism comes from a greek word that means to instruct orally. These instructions were meant to be memorized, so that a believer could articulate an answer to these questions whenever asked. So, in the same way, to catechize, is to instruct systematically. The church’s job(being all of us who are members of the body of Christ) is to catechize the new believer, and the job of the parents, who have been catechized, is to catechize their children.

Paul’s letter to the Romans is commonly called Paul’s systematic theology, his system to understanding the things of God, and there are several systematic theologies that have been formatted after and based off of the book of Romans. As we study through Romans, my hope is that we will all be able to articulate better, deeper and more complete answers to these foundational questions, that come straight from scripture.

The questions that i want to highlight today are;

What is sin?

Who is guilty of sin?

What must I do to be saved?

I want to tackle these in reverse order. When we hear it asked, “what must I do to be saved?” the apostles answer this exact question in

Acts 16:30–31 “Then he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.””

We can’t give any better answer than the one that we get in scripture, but notice the posture of the heart that is asking. This is someone who clearly already recognizes their need for a savior.

Jesus gives us in Mark ch. 1. As jesus returns from being tempted by Satan, to begin his official ministry, we get these two verses. Mark 1:14–15 “Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.””

Repent and believe. Repent first, recognizing that you are a sinner, who falls short of the glory of God, then believe that Jesus is the Son of God, who died on the cross for your sin, then was raised from the dead and seated at the right hand of the Father. Before you can believe in the Savior, you must admit that you have broken God’s law, deserve His wrath, that is, eternal separation from the Father in Hell, then ask forgiveness of the One who is Himself, Grace and Mercy. Only after recognizing our fallen condition and inability to save ourselves can we believe in Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ, the Messiah, and Savior of the world who God promised in Genesis 3.

For me personally, who came to faith as an adult, I can relate to this. I realized that I was missing something in life, and I somehow knew that the Bible was true, but I didn’t trust a church or a pastor to tell me what it meant. I thought they would just tell me what I was supposed to believe it meant, so I just ignorantly started reading holy scripture in the only place you start any other book, In the beginning… As I read, I often found myself confused, but the thing that was clear is that sin had been here for all of recorded history, bar the first couple of chapters of Genesis. I knew that the life that I was living could not possibly hold up to the law that I was reading about in Exodus, but I knew I just had to keep reading. The law, particularly the 10 commandments convicted me, and I felt even smaller, lower, and less deserving of God’s grace than I did when I started reading. Praise God that wasn’t the end of the story. I went to Florida with a friend to visit his family, I had made some assumptions of what a pastor was like, but after a week of living in their house and spending time with them, I was struck by how normal they were. On Sunday, my friend asked me if we could stay to hear his dad preach, and he just so happened to be preaching on the Exodus, which I had read just a couple weeks before on my own. As he is exegeting the passage, my pen is on fire trying to keep up with all of these amazing connections, history, and insight that I am just eating up. Half way through his sermon, I completely stop taking notes, because he connects the passover lamb with Jesus, then proceeds for the second half of the sermon to teach how Jesus is our passover lamb, and in the same way that, although undeserving, God saved Israel through this lamb that was offered, He saves us, though undeserving through the blood of Jesus. I was completely undone, and from that point forward, I attended church every Sunday and sat under the teaching of some amazing pastors who really helped lay the foundation for the faith that I have today.

See, the truth that there is a savior who has already paid your debt doesn’t mean anything until you understand the debt that you owe. Now, for those of you who came to faith at an early age, you understand this truth too. We can all relate, because the more you learn about God and His law, the more debt you realize you owe. It’s like, when your debt is forgiven, you knew you owed that student loan debt, and now, all of the sudden, it’s been forgiven. You’re elated to know that it’s gone. But the more you look into what you owe, you also find that you also have an outstanding hospital bill from years ago that you didn’t know was left unpaid. When you get the collections letter and open it up, it’s been accruing interest, now, you go to the bank to talk to them about how you can reconcile it, only to find out that that debt is forgiven too. See, God’s law is not the savior, it was never meant to save you. God’s law is a mirror. It reveals your sin to you. The longer you stand in front of that mirror, the more dirt and grime and sin you see on yourself. But the beauty of all of it is, that the more you understand just how sinful your heart is, how dirty you were when you first came to faith, and how your flesh is always bent toward sin, the more you have to be grateful for that Jesus’ death on the cross took all of those sins to the grave with him. As He said on the cross, “It is finished.” The work has already been complete, and you, believer in Jesus, have already been forgiven and washed clean. You still see the stain on your life left by sin when you look in that mirror, but God, when he looks at you through that mirror, sees Jesus. The one who is perfect and gave His life for you.

For all of us sitting here, can we just lift up some praise to the Lord that He is a God of mercy. For those of you who haven’t given your life to Jesus, if God’s truth that I have spoken this morning hasn’t convinced you that you are a sinner in need of God’s grace, Paul has more for you. And out of love for you, me, and the church in Rome, Paul started his letter with this teaching to reveal to us all just how desperate we are for His grace.

Romans 1:18-32

v.18-23 Who is guilty of Sin?

Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”

General Revelation

Psalm 19:1 “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.”

Not one is righteous before the Father. There is no good in us except for God’s spirit in us, who is Good Himself.

v.24-32 What is Sin?

1 John 3:4 “Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness.”

We talked about this in exodus, but the law that is written in scripture is one that we see throughout all throughout human history. We don’t need to be told that murder or stealing is wrong, and that committing these acts are deserving of punishment. Jail, fine, or even death. Children are taught to obey their parents. You shouldn’t lie. These are plainly known to us without being taught.

10 Commandments are a mirror.

Ryder- “I don’t like that one very much, that one is kind of tricky”

We stand before it as Adam and Eve did. Naked and ashamed

At the cross, we see the worst that sin can do, as humanity - of which each one of us is a part - crucified the Lord. But at the cross, we also see that the most that sin can do cannot thwart God's salvation.

-Timothy Keller