A Curse and A Gift
Romans • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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ILLUST: What personal characteristic would you like most?
If I could change anything about people - inability to lie
Politicians, Pharma, News media, False “religious” teachers…
Paul - Romans 3, harsh/direct truth, truth needed - a summary of “good news/bad news”
READ: Romans 3
1) The Faithfulness of God
1) The Faithfulness of God
He is faithful, He is true
All the way back to the Garden
Faithful to the Hebrews - faithful to Abraham even before the Law
Faithful living preceded the Law - (big point to make)
Faithful to save them by faith
Faithful to judge them, to reject them when they rejected Christ
Faith was ALWAYS individual/personal, while promise given to a people
Our faithful God holds to His word
Israel broke the covenant - even consequences show God’s faith
Even then, He did not turn people away - He offered Hope
2) The Testimony of Scripture
2) The Testimony of Scripture
“Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.
Paul quotes OT Scripture (not his thoughts)n(vv 10-18)
All God is really saying is REPENT - own your sin, and then come to Me on My terms
We think…it is good that we sin, so that God’s righteousness shines!
After all, he is in control, so if all sinned, then all will be saved, or God is unjust and unfair
WRONG! - This is ‘human’ thinking
Scripture is very clear here
Faith was, is, and always will be INDIVIDUAL - to any who will believe
Clear - Jews and Gentiles, all under sin
SCRIPTURE shows a few aspects
All have sinned, all turned away - universality of sin
Ramifications/consequences to sin in the human life
The whole body is affected (vv 13, 14, 15, 18)
What’s wrong with the world? Two main...
Sin - curse
No fear of God before the eyes of people
Yahweh’s response to that is to silence the mouths of people (19)
Their word is meaningless
God’s Word is what prevails, reigns supreme, has first and final authority
All sin, nobody succeeded in keeping the Law - Jesus said as much in John 7:19
“Did not Moses give you the Law, and yet none of you carries out the Law? Why do you seek to kill Me?”
Q - Greatest human need? - the Gospel, to be free from sin
Humans need to not be affected by sin - that’s Heaven
3) The Gift of Justification
3) The Gift of Justification
Romans is about salvation, righteousness of God through Christ
MAJOR principles in Scripture
Forgiveness, following repentance, prefaced by justification
Yahweh had a plan - Israel, Messiah
They rejected the plan, nationally, though
some, by faith believed
Yahweh’s plan included faith
Yahweh made man, who sinned, by choice
All sinned, all sin - 3:23, born sinners, due to mankind’s choice
Since all sinned, Yahweh’s plan would also need to include all in salvation
Yahweh, by His Grace, offered the choice to trust by faith (Eph 2:8-9)
For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men,
Offer open to all - God does desire all to be saved, see 2 Peter 3:9
The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.
The reason all must come by faith is because all have sinned and are guilty - Bad news, good news
Yahweh’s plan, same as always - Trust, and be justified
JUSTIFICATION!
Defined- acquitted, not guilty - a legal term
We are not “made righteous’
We are declared righteous - and then sanctification begins
Repent, forgiven, justified - now you can live for Christ
(You will hear this theme repeatedly in Romans)
Paul has made his case
Faith - received, not earned - God does not save the well-intentioned
He saved the ungodly who repent and receive the gift
Now, this v. 25 word, propitiation
Appeasing God’s wrath
Private vs Public propitiation
(Compare mercy seat behind holy of holies…)
Jesus was public
The Ark of the Covenant (contents)
Resided behind the holy of Holies in the temple
Only the High Priest went there - curtain separated it
(SHOW SLIDE of temple layout)
Mercy seat, the lid - where the blood of the sacrifice was spilled, offering symbolic atonement for the people
Mercy seat, this is the root aspect of propitiation, where atonement was made
Jesus Christ was, is, that propitiation - and the perfect High Priest (Hebrews)
And his was a PUBLIC propitiation - the most amazing event in History!
His sacrifice, the propitiation, was on public display, in the middle of the hostile world
Yahweh placed His offer of mercy, forgiveness, out in the open, for all to see and know Him
“And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself.”
The mercy seat, the propitiation, Not visible to all - suddenly was clearly visible, and available
And behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth shook and the rocks were split.
Revealed the Holy of Holies - access to Yahweh was shown
REM - Romans 1 - no excuses to not trust in God, Jesus, by faith
The offer is to anyone who will believe
The offer to avoid Yahweh’s eternal wrath, justice for sin for those who will not repent
And VV 27-30 - leaves no room for us to boast
But may it never be that I would boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.
I understand sin
I do not understand grace or justification
But I am thankful for grace and justification
CLOSE - Let’s think about God’s offer of mercy, on display
Even though the Holy of Holies protected, “hid” the Ark of the Covenant, Yahweh still expected His people to show others how to be related to Him - that’s grace and mercy
Abraham trusted by faith - was to be example to others
God placed him in the pagan world of Canaan - to be light to the lost world around Him
Israel, after the bondage in Egypt, is to settle in the land of the Canaanites, surrounded by God-haters
Israel, Judah, after the exile in Babylon, returns to the land, again a pagan land, to settle there and show what it meant to live in relationship with Yahweh
Jesus comes, into a Roman-Greco world - idolatrous
Trying to steer the Hebrews back to Yahweh
A hostile world - in the middle of it all - MERCY on display
The church - everywhere it grew, it grew in the middle of a world hostile to Yahweh, anti-God, anti-Jesus
Why are we here, right here?
Because Yahweh knows the people around us need grace, mercy, forgiveness
Maybe some of us would like to live in a more “Christian-friendly” environment?
Where is that in this world? A red state? A religious town? Maybe a commune?
The “Christian friendly” world is ultimately not of this world
We get the opportunity, today:
To live in a way to point to the Righteousness of God
To demonstrate and uphold the Testimony of Scripture
And to share the joy that comes from being justified - declared not guilty, innocent
If we do this - then Yahweh’s mercy is on display, publicly
For all to see, and then choose what they do with that
“Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.
That light you shine, comes from the works you display, that stem from your justification, made possible by Jesus’ sacrificial payment
Live for Him, work for Him, boast in Him!
You just might help make a difference in our lost world.
