The Universal Cure

Recap the Universal problem

We just got done with another awesome Advent season. I hope that everyone had a great time. We have entered the New Year. Some of us have gone back to work. Others are waiting for school to start. Then there are others like Dania and me who have decided to start the year off away. We just celebrated 20 years of marriage and we have never been on a honeymoon before. So now we are finally making that happen. I think I’ve told the story before. We got married on New Years Eve because that was the first day off I had when I was pushing recruits. I had what we call a “grad and go” division, so that Friday morning, we had graduation and from there I put my new Sailors on a bus to head to the airport or to go across the street to follow on training. What that meant was that they were no longer my headache! I had a buddy that came in on the 30th, we built a model ship of my first ship, and then Dania and I were married the following day. We celebrated the New Year and then made it out for one night at Lake Geneva Wisconsin. It’s beautiful, but frozen this time of year. While we were there, I got the phone call saying my recruits were there so it was time to come pick them up. Good times. Anyway, that’s what has taken me so long to make this happen. And you know what they say, “better late than never”.

We are jumping back into our sermon series on the early church. The early Christian church was born out of Christ’s arrival. Before we took a break for advent, we were looking at the universal problem of sin. Everyone suffers from the issue of sin. That sin causes our separation from God. That sin also causes us death. Long ago, God promised Adam and Eve that if they broke His commands they would suffer death. While they did not physically die the day they committed sin, they definitely died spiritually that day. We talked a bit ago on Christmas Eve about our problems. Some problems we have can be solved by a specialist. I have my sinus issues, so annually I go see my ENT to make sure that I’m not having any more issues. He has managed to solve that one problem. When I have car problems, if I can’t solve them, I’ll take it to a mechanic to solve that problem. Death is not a problem that anyone can solve. That is a God sized problem and the only solution to a God sized problem is God Himself. That is why the story of Christmas is so important. That is why a few months from now when we see Gary Dotson, he is going to say “Merry Christmas” because even though the secular world may be out of the season, as believers, we should always be in the mood to celebrate Christ. He was the One sent to take away our sin and shame. When John the Baptist is out baptizing and he sees Jesus, he declares. John 1:29 “The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”

How blessed are we that event though we struggle with sin, every last one of us is doomed, we all suffer from a universal problem, God gave us the cure. That cure is Jesus. He is the One that can save us from that death. He is the One that makes us worthy to stand before God. (Sailor of the quarter board example?”

This is incredibly important for us because we know that we all struggle with sin. Before we went into the Advent season, we were working our way through Romans chapter 3. Romans is a very intense letter that Paul wrote to the Christians in Rome. The letter is chock full of good theology. Right before we went into the Advent season, we were looking at the universal problem of sin. Sin did not just affect the Gentiles, but it affected the Jews as well. Though the Jews had the Law to measure how they were holding up to God’s commands, they were still falling short. When we look through the Bible, we see plenty of times where people fall short. Not only the weak leaders in the Bible fall, but the strong ones do as well. Not one person in the Bible is righteous except for One. The only One is Jesus.

Today we are going to jump back into Romans. If you have your Bibles, please turn them to Romans 3:21-31

Romans 3:21–31 CSB

But now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been revealed, attested by the Law and the Prophets. The righteousness of God is through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe, since there is no distinction. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; they are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. God presented him as the mercy seat by his blood, through faith, to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his restraint God passed over the sins previously committed. God presented him to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so that he would be just and justify the one who has faith in Jesus. Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By one of works? No, on the contrary, by a law of faith. For we conclude that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law. Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles too? Yes, of Gentiles too, since there is one God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. Do we then nullify the law through faith? Absolutely not! On the contrary, we uphold the law.

Paul cuts through any theological confusion that the readers may have had. We know that some of these Roman Christians were previously Jewish. They had come back to Rome after Pentecost and founded the church there. They grew up with the idea that they needed the Law to be righteous. The Law was good for instruction, but it did not make anyone righteous. People could still follow the Law and not be righteous in their hearts. We’ve talked about that before. Just because there is an outward sign of obedience does not mean that the heart is not raging with sin. We saw that happen a lot with the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Scribes. By all appearances, they looked like they had it all figured out. They looked like they were righteous and living lives that were right with God. However, we know that is not true. Jesus calls them out for their hypocritical behavior. They might look nice from the outside, but on the inside they are rotten. Their righteousness is only evident from their outward actions. Matthew 23:27–28 ““Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which appear beautiful on the outside, but inside are full of the bones of the dead and every kind of impurity. In the same way, on the outside you seem righteous to people, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.”

So there is that problem with outward appearance. Everything that glitters is not always gold. Just because people put up a good front does not mean that they are not filthy on the inside. So on the one hand the Law is not show what righteousness is for these Hebrews that converted.

Then there are the pagans that converted. The pagans had a different level of worship of gods. The gods within the pagan pantheon, be it Greek or Roman, they are all sinful. None of them are good. These gods have the same flaws as the people that worship them. If you read any Greek or Roman mythology, we see just how terrible these gods were. They were adulterous and envious. They were guilty of immorality and being spiteful. The pagans made sacrifices to these gods. However, when they made these sacrifices, the intent was different than the sacrifices the Israelites made. The Israelites made sacrifices so that their sins could be covered. They shed the blood so that they could become righteous. Not so with the pagans. They made sacrifice, but atonement had nothing to do with it. Instead, they made them so that they could stop their gods from being angry at them and smiting them. Sacrifices were also made to curry favor with the gods. They took these sacrifices as more of a bribe, a little quid pro quo action. “I’ve brought you this bull, so now I expect something in return.” Righteousness had nothing to do with it.

Both parties have been confused about righteousness, until now. We just celebrated Christmas, the birth of Jesus. It is through Him that we understand true righteousness. Jesus is God the Son. He is righteous. He lived a righteous life as a man. He maintained His righteousness throughout His time here on earth. Jesus came and showed us what it is like to live a life devoted to following the One true God and doing His will, walking in fellowship with Him. God Himself sent His Son to show us the way. We know that Jesus is God the Son. John puts it like this in John 1:1–3 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. All things were created through him, and apart from him not one thing was created that has been created.” Jesus shows us what it is to live a righteous life. Neither the Israelites nor the Gentiles had any idea of what real righteousness is until they met Jesus.

What’s more is that since they have faith in Jesus, they have God’s righteousness imputed on them. It’s a difficult concept to grasp. We are sinful, we are broken, Paul even says that everyone sins and falls short of the glory of God, but right before this he announces that those in the faith have that righteousness on them. It’s not from sacrifice, it’s not from following the Law. It’s from faith in Jesus. That grace that we give is freely given. There is nothing we can do to earn it.

It sounds too good to be true, doesn’t it? We look at this and we think to ourselves “what’s the catch?” That’s the cynical American coming out in us when we think like that. Up there on Grey Hill, we get a lot of solicitors. They show up at the door and we answer then we listen to their little spiel about whatever product they are trying to sell and they make it sound like it is the greatest thing ever and they can do whatever to make whatever happen. When they get done, my first question off the bat is “how much is it going to cost?” There’s always a catch. At least we think there is. Did you know that when it comes to gift giving, some folks feel compelled to turn around and give that person a gift to that person. Which pretty well takes away the entire point of giving a gift, right? We give freely not expecting anything in return. At least that’s how it should be.

We are used to things coming at a price. Here’s the thing. Our salvation did come at a price. However, we did not pay it. God paid that price. He is the One that paid out. This gift of grace that is given freely cost The LORD. Jesus gave up His majesty and His splendor to come here as a baby. Before He came to earth, He was served by angels. He had full authority. Yet, He gave it all up for our benefit. Philippians 2:5–8 “Adopt the same attitude as that of Christ Jesus, who, existing in the form of God, did not consider equality with God as something to be exploited. Instead he emptied himself by assuming the form of a servant, taking on the likeness of humanity. And when he had come as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death— even to death on a cross.” What a Savior and what a friend that He would give that up for our salvation.

When we have faith in Christ and we follow Him, His blood covers us. That blood causes God’s wrath to Pass over us. This is reminiscent of the Exodus when God had the Israelites paint lamb’s blood over their door mantles as the angel of death went through Egypt killing the firstborn from every family that did not have the blood. Exodus 12:13 “The blood on the houses where you are staying will be a distinguishing mark for you; when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No plague will be among you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.”

We talked briefly last week about Pharaoh and his desire to exterminate the Jews in Egypt. He commanded that all two year old and younger Jewish boys be thrown into the Nile. It was his attempt to thwart God’s plan. It didn’t work, though. In that order, there was a woman that had given birth to a son. She put him in a little ark and floated him down the river. None other than Pharaoh’s daughter finds him. She adopts him and names him Moses. Moses spends the time until he is weened with his mother because his sister followed along to make sure he got picked up by someone. When the time was done for him to be weened, he wound up back in Pharaoh’s court. Ironic that Pharaoh had tried to extinguish all the Jewish male babies and one wound up living in his court as his grandson.

Through a series of events, Moses winds up going away because he tried to take matters into his own hands. He goes away, marries, and is then called by God to go back to Egypt and free the Israelites. Moses does as God commands, but Pharaoh is hesitant. So The LORD sends a series of plagues to get Pharaoh free the Israelites. Sometimes he relents and lets them go, but eventually he changes his mind and makes them stay. So God sends the final plague. He is going to kill the firstborn of every Egyptian. However, God will spare the Israelites. To make sure that the shadow of death passes over the Israelite household God tells them to paint their lintels and doorposts with the blood of the sacrificial lamb. The angel sees the blood and passes over the house. Everyone remains safe inside. That’s the first passover. It is celebrated today by Jewish people. Jesus celebrated passover with His disciples. It’s an important part of the Jewish calendar.

Just like the angel of death passed over the houses that have the blood painted on the doorposts, death will pass over those of us that believe in Jesus. When we come to know Him as LORD and Savior, we are washed in His blood. That’s why we won’t die. We might die a physical death, but we won’t die a spiritual death. When God sees us, He does not see our sinfulness and our shame. Instead, He sees His Son’s blood. Psalm 51:7 “Purify me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.”

There is white, then there is snow white. I have two white dogs and they look super white until it snows out. When there is snow on the ground, suddenly Duke looks dirty because he is up against the white white snow. When we are washed by the blood of Jesus, we are made whiter than snow. All of the nastiness, all of the sin, all of the shame we carry is blotted out.

That’s the beauty of the Gospel. It is that even though we are stuck in sinfulness. Even though we all sin and fall short of God’s glory, He reached down and fixed us. He condescended His glory, gave it all up, so that we could be forgiven. Paul is trying to convey to these Christians here in Rome that they are only free because of what God did. They have no reason to boast because God is the One that did the work. So if there is going to be any boasting, it should be in God Almighty and what He has done. It’s not what they have done. Yet, there are folks that will brag and boast as if they have done anything, but they haven’t.

It’s almost like sports fans. We all like some level of sport. Within those sports there are teams that we follow. We may sit and watch the game and when they have a victory, we are pretty happy about it. However, what we see a lot of the time are people acting as if they were the ones that made a difference to how the team performed. There is bragging and boasting about the team, but ultimately it’s not the fans that did any of the work, it was the team on the field. So if the fan base is going to brag, it should be based on what the team has done, not about what the folks watching did. Yet, how often do we see people act like they did something. Fans are superstitious and there are certain behaviors we think will jinx the performance. My cousin for instance will not sit down during a Clemson game. He went to one game and stood the entire time, they won that game and now 25 years later he refuses to have a seat when Clemson is playing. To his credit, when Clemson wins, he doesn’t take credit and say things like “the only reason Clemson won is because I stood the whole game. I stood during half time and the commercial breaks even, so therefore I contributed to the victory.” The only reason we have victory is because of what God has done. He is the One that owns the victory.