Romans 3:20-26
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First off let me welcome you once again to Mt Pisgah Baptist Church.
If you’re visiting with us this morning, we are so glad that you are here.
After the service, I will be at the back. I would love to meet you and tell you how you can be more involved here at Mt. Pisgah Baptist Church.
But we are genuinely glad that you are here today to celebrate the resurrection of our Lord Jesus.
This is always a special day and a special service and we’re so glad that you have joined us today.
Over the past few weeks, we have been walking through a series on the “Storyline of the Bible.”
You know, the Bible is an amazing book.
It was written by over 40 different authors, but ultimately the Bible is about one grand story of God’s gracious work to save His people.
We believe this important to understand, so we did this series in preparation for Easter and as a help to those who are doing our Bible reading plan together with.
But for the benefit of those who may have not have been here in the previous weeks, the storyline of the Bible comes to us in four parts.
Creation, Fall, Redemption, Consummation.
Repeat.
In Creation, God created the world and he called it— very good.
All things were very good, and most importantly, man’s relationship with God was very good— unhindered by sin.
But something happened to that creation, didn’t it?
The next piece in the grand storyline of the Bible is the fall
And n the fall, Adam and Eve broke God’s law.
And that breaking of God’s Law, brought in sin and sickness and pain and death and every kind of evil that we face today.
As a result, Adam and Eve are kicked out of the garden, the sacred space designed for face to face communion and fellowship with God, and they are told that they will die physically.
After that fall, every human being has suffered under the reality of those covenant curses brought to us through the representation of Adam in the garden.
So there is the Fall.
Last week, we dealt with basically the whole Old Testament, and the storyline of it.
We dealt withthe time period in between the fall and when Jesus the redeemer enters in to creation.
And so we’ve dealt with creation. We’ve dealt with the fall. Last week we dealt with the lead up to this moment.
And so this morning, we come to the next part of the Grand story of the Bible.
Redemption.
And we are going to look at this from Romans chapter 3.
Some have called this text “the greatest paragraph ever written.” (HB Charles)
If you are willing and able, please stand out of reverence and respect as we read God’s word and submit ourselves to it.
Pray
This morning— we are picking up in the middle of a letter.
So let me explain just for a moment what is going on here.
The apostle Paul is writing to the church at Rome.
This was a church he had not yet been able to visit.
And this letter from the Apostle Paul is a little different than the other letters that Paul wrote.
Paul most of the time, just jumped right into whatever issue or problem that particular church was having that he needed to address.
In Galatians, Paul was addressing a church that had been led away by false teaching.
In Philippians, Paul is dealing with a suffering church.
With Corinth…. that church had a lot of problems.
Romans is different, in that Romans is more of an introduction of Paul and His theology to the church at Rome.
It’s not that the Church of Rome didn’t have problems.
They did and he will address that.
But In Romans, it seems at least to me that Paul make a point to begin this letter by laying the the very theological foundation of salvation.
Really in the first 11 chapters, Paul answers the question how can sinful man in a holy God be reconciled together.
And so He starts off the letter, ultimately dealing with the biggest problem that we all have.
Sin and Unrighteousness.
Ever since the fall of Adam and Eve, humanity has been sinful.
By nature and by choice, we are sinners.
That is Paul’s point in the first three chapters.
SDFS
In chapter 1, Paul talks about how Gentiles (anyone outside the nation of Israel) are disqualified before God.
Even though they’re not born under Israel’s law that God gave them, they are disqualified by virtue of the fact that they live in God‘s creation, he has made it known through creation, so that no one has an excuse.
All of that is found in chapter 1.
In chapter 2, Paul proves that Israel, those born under the law, the Jews, are disqualified before God.
And so they’re in no better shape.
In chapter 3, he lumps them all together and just so they understand he says this beginning in verse 9.
What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, as it is written:
“None is righteous, no, not one;
no one understands;
no one seeks for God.
All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;
no one does good,
not even one.”
And so that is the first major premise and purpose of the book of Romans.
Paul wants to understand just how sinful we are.
But there’s one more thing that we have to mention.
Back in chapter 1— Before Paul goes through and disqualifies both Gentiles and Jews before God.
He made a statement at the beginning of the letter.
And the statement is about God’s position towards the unrighteous.
Listen to what he said in Romans chapter 1, verse 18
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.
In that verse, Paul says God’s wrath is revealed against all unrighteousness and all ungodliness.
This tells us something fundamental to our understanding of God.
The God who created this world and all that it contains, including you and including me is a holy God.
Meaning he is perfect and His standard is perfection.
And God’s holy and just response toward sinfulness is wrath.
It’s wrath.
And so, as we come to our text this morning.
There are two things that Paul has made abundantly clear
God is against unrighteousness and ungodliness.
All people without distinction are unrighteous and ungodly.
And so, the result of this is—left in our sin, if something doesn’t change, God is right and just in pouring out his wrath on the unrighteous.
Now we have to say as well, God’s holy and just response toward righteousness, holiness, and godliness is approval and blessing because those things align with his character.
But here’s the problem. Do you know what the problem is?
None of us are righteous.
There is a standard that God has, but none of us meet the standard.
A couple weeks ago, to celebrate our 10 years together, you all blessed us with a family trip to go to Disney World. And we are so grateful for that. We are very much looking forward to it. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.
The hard part now for the girls is the waiting time.
I think Anna Claire has asked me 20 times already: When are we going to Disney World?
Is it May yet?
Abi and Evan Grace girls have been online watching these roller coaster rides to see which ones they want to go and ride on.
I am excited personally to get to go, because my girls are big enough now to where I can go and actually enjoy some of the rides with them.
And this brought back a memory to me.
You know, I am the youngest of three brothers.
My middle brother is five years older than me.
My oldest brother is seven years older than me.
And for our summer vacations, whenever I was a little boy, our family would often travel to Atlanta.
During the day, We would go to a theme park “Six Flags Over Georgia.”
And then at night we would go to the Atlanta Braves game as a family.
It was so much fun.
But as you know, if you’ve ever gone to a theme park like that, there are height requirements to ride the rides for the safety of those who are riding.
If you’re too small, then the seat won’t be tight enough and, then it really becomes a thrill ride. But only for a few seconds.
But anyhow, I remember as a little boy, watching the joy on the faces of my two older brothers, who, obviously were at that time, much bigger and taller than me as they got to go and ride all the rides while I was stuck on the kiddie rides.
Imagine the disappointment for a little boy five years and seven years younger to watch his brothers get to go on all the stuff I wanted to go on.
You’ve all seen the signs outside of those rides at the amusement park.
You must be this tall to ride this ride.
And so as a little boy, I remember every time I saw one of those signs, I’d ask my mama.
Can I go check and see if I’m tall enough?
And I’d walk up and I poked my chest out and I’d stretch myself standing on my tippy toes.
And it seemed every time I would go check, I would be an inch or two shy of meeting the requirement.
Of course, my older brothers would not have made that any better for me.
Here’s my point.
There was a height standard that had to be met that I did not meet.
I fell short of that standard and so I did not get to go in.
Please understand this morning—
God has a standard as well.
His standard is holiness.
His standard is perfection.
None of us meet that standard.
There are many ways in which people try to stand on their tippy toes, pathetically trying to meet the standard.
Whether it’s-
• Moral decency-I’m a good person.
• Comparing self to others- i’m not as bad as that person.
• Religious activity- look at all the stuff I do. I go to church.
• Christian upbringing / heritage- my dad was a pastor. My grandmother was a saint. My daddy built that church.
• Behavior modification- I just need to quit this and quit that.
• Head knowledge / doctrine- you know a lot about the Bible.
• Maybe it’s Good works / charity- look at all these good things I’ve done in my life.
Imagine with me for a moment all of those are attempts to stand on your tippy toes, but you must understand. The standard is so much higher than that.
In chapters 1, 2, and 3, Paul’s goal was to explain for the Church of Rome that we are all disqualified before God.
God has given us the standard in his law and We don’t meet it.
In fact, this is precisely what he says in verse 20.
For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.
In Other words, you won’t do it. You can’t do it. The Law just makes you aware of your sin.
And beloved, if that feels like a helpless and hopeless state… it should.
Because on your own, it is.
That is precisely Paul’s point.
But in verse 21, there is a shift.
There is a shift in the language of Paul where he begins to talk about what God has done.
God has made something happen.
Look in verse 21.
But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it—
He says, but now.
Paul is speaking of something that has recently been achieved.
In other words, he’s setting up a contrast from that which came before to that which is presently true through Jesus.
In other words, something new has now been accomplished.
And what is it?
Look right there in verse 21
The righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law.
Now I want to try to explain this very simply and very quickly.
He isn’t saying that the law was a bad thing.
He isn’t saying that the law doesn’t matter anymore.
He isn’t saying that the law has been thrown away.
He is saying—God has revealed a righteousness that we could never achieve through the Law.
There is righteousness to be come apart from our abilities.
And it comes through a person.
It comes through another one’s ability.
He has revealed this in Jesus Christ.
Now, there are a Few things to keep in mind here.
This was God’s doing. It is the righteousness of God.
You can actually translate this in the possessive. God’s righteousness.
And here’s my point— God did this. It’s not earned by us.
We don’t want what we earned.
SFTLY
Beloved friend— you do not want to be standing before God one day, pleading your case before him talking about all the good things that you’ve done.
Even if you are, in your own humble opinion, the most humanitarian, loving, person out there, there is still the reality of your own sin and your own law breaking for which you stand guilty before a holy God.
You don’t need more of you.
You need someone better than you.
Verse 21 says God has provided that, and by the way, the law and the prophets were all anticipating this moment when Jesus would come.
We talked about this last week.
All the Old Testament pointed forward to someone that would come that would be better.
We needed someone better than Adam to defeat the serpent for us.
We need a better Moses, who can lead us into the promised land.
We need a better priest than Aaron, and we need a better sacrifice than the blood of a bull or a goat.
Paul is saying- Jesus is that better one
Very simply verse 21 is a verse that shifts the conversation from talking about our inability and our insufficiency and our sinfulness, to Jesus Christ, who has all ability, who has all sufficiency, and who was perfectly righteous in his life.
And so he continues verse 22 to tell us about what God has provided.
the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction:
He says it’s Jesus and his righteousness.
The righteousness of God that he’s talking about that has been manifested apart from the law is Jesus.
And so Paul was making this argument-
There’s a righteousness that has been revealed
I actually love the way the KJV translates this- because I believe it captures better what is going on here.
Listen to how the King James words this—
Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference:
The reason why I love the king James there is because it captures what I believe Paul is trying to say.
That the righteousness of God was achieved by the faith or probably even better the faithfulness of Jesus Christ in his righteous life.
And then that gift of righteousness, that benefit of what Jesus has done is received by faith in Jesus Christ through believing.
Just as when Abraham in the Old Testament believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness.
Whenever we put our faith and trust in Jesus, the righteousness of Jesus is credited to us.
And just so we understand why this has to happen and why it can’t be another way, He says this in verse 23
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
In other words, it has to happen God’s way because you and I are sinners and we fall short of the standard.
And so just for clarity- I don’t want lose anybody.
Follow the line of thought in Paul’s argument.
Point #1 - God’s wrath is directed toward ungodliness and unrighteousness.
Point #2- We are all unrighteous and ungodly.
The conclusion after those two points is this- if God’s wrath is pointed at all unrighteousness and ungodliness, and everybody, Jew and gentile, you and me are unrighteousness and ungodly, then who is God’s wrath pointed at?
Everybody.. That’s right.
That’s the helpless and hopeless state we find ourselves in.
The good news is God has provided help and hope.
This is Point #3—
The righteousness that God requires that we couldn’t produce, God has provided for us through the righteous one Jesus Christ, who came and faithfully lived according to every word of the law of God.
He was obedient and faithful to every aspect of God’s law.
He was without sin and perfect.
In other words, he met the standard we didn’t and couldn’t.
When God the Father looks at Jesus, he is pleased.
Now we come to Point #4
Look at verse 24
and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,
Point #4-We have been justified.
That is a legal term referring to the declaration of righteousness.
And so this is how it works.
On the basis of what Jesus has done, at the moment of faith, the moment a sinner realizes the hopelessness and the helplessness of their own sin, and the moment they turn and look to Jesus with the eyes of faith… in other words, the moment they cry out to Jesus, trusting in what he has done, at that moment, the righteousness of Jesus Christ is given to us.
This verse says it’s by Grace this happens
And so it’s an undeserved and an unearned gift.
But it’s real.
Fanny Crosby said it this way
O perfect redemption, the purchase of blood,
to ev'ry believer the promise of God;
the vilest offender who truly believes,
that moment from Jesus a pardon receives.
Justified.
Declared in the courtroom of God, righteous by no merit of my own.
Believer this morning hear this. If you have trusted in Jesus Christ, this is true of you.
Your standing before God now is based upon the work of Jesus Christ.
Which means this- if you have believed, and you have been saved, you are as justified as you will ever be.
Albert Martin a wonderful Baptist preacher said this—
“If God declares us righteous by his justifying act, there is none who can cancel or alter his declaration…. My sins are pardoned never to be brought against me. It is a marvelous thing to know that in God‘s justifying act, I am right now as justified as I will ever be even when I have been in heaven a million years. When I haven’t sinned for a million years. I’ll be no more justified than I am standing in this pulpit this morning.”
The apostle Paul said it this way
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
But what about my sin?
What happened to my sin and my guilty standing before God?
What happened to the wrath of God that my sin deserved?
Understand something this morning.
God does not set aside his requirement.
The wrath of God still must be satisfied.
It’s not that God says “Ah… we won’t worry about those sins.”
No, those sins must be paid for.
And this is the very next thing Paul says in verse 25.
It’s paid for through Jesus.
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.
What verse 25 is saying very simply and very quickly, is this—
Jesus has taken on the sin of all those who will believe past present and future.
And on the cross propitiated.
That is, he has satisfied the wrath and the justice of God through his life and through his death.
Jesus became sin for us, and God punished Jesus in our place.
And so point # 5 is that God’s wrath has been satisfied.
This paragraph ends answering a question-
Why did God do this?
Look what he says here in verse 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.
Beloved friend, this is redemption.
This is the gospel message.
The bad news was that God in his wrath is against all ungodliness and unrighteousness.
The worse news is We are ungodly and unrighteous.
The good news is
God through Jesus has provided the righteous life you and I couldn’t live.
And God through Jesus has satisfied his own wrath through his death.
And then he defeated death through his resurrection.
And through his resurrection, he has secured all of this for us.
who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.
The resurrection of Jesus proved that everything he said he was, he was.
He is the lamb of God who takes away the end of the world.
He is the light of the world.
He is the bread of life.
He is the door.
He is the good Shepherd.
He is the son of a man
He is the son of God.
And he is the resurrection and the life.
And so now, God through Jesus’s complete work, for anyone who places their faith in Jesus, pardons us, justifies us while at the same time remaining Just and holy and fulfilling his righteous requirement through the death and the punishment of Jesus on the cross.
So that whenever I stand in the courtroom of God, I stand saying in Christ alone my hope is found.
And God, in all justice and righteousness can allow me a sinner, to enter into His presence.
I can have true communion and fellowship with God.
As we close this morning, I want to speak to four groups of people in the room.
First, to the believer, who is walking with God.
My prayer is that you have been reminded of God’s grace once again.
Worship Him. Continue in steadfastness.
The second group I want to speak to are those of you who are believers, but maybe you’re discouraged.
You trust in Jesus, you believe in Jesus, but your walk with Jesus is suffering.
Maybe it’s guilt, or hard times, or it could be laziness.
Hear the good news this morning-
Your sin has been paid for.
Your standing with God if you are truly in Christ is that there is no condemnation for you.
Beloved friend, He did not save and justify you so that you would drift in laziness, walk in disobedience, or live under a constant cloud of defeat and guilt.
He saved you to transform your life to where you would give your heart, your soul, your efforts towards his gospel and towards his kingdom.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
My prayer this morning for you is that you were reminded of what Jesus has done so that you may more fully appreciate the gospel.
And please hear this-
The answer is not do more so you feel better.
The answer is rest in what Jesus has done fall back in love with your first love, the Savior who died for your sins and raised for your justification.
To those first two groups, my encouragement to you believers is to rest in the gospel of Jesus Christ this morning. Rejoice for your souls are saved.
The third type of person I want to speak to you this morning is the person that came here today and you know you’re lost.
You came in here today and you had no issue with anything I said at the first part of the sermon about being a sinner.
You know you’re a sinner.
You know you have broken God‘s law.
If someone were to ask you where you’re going when you die, you would say, that you believe you’re going to hell.
You have no problem believing that because you know just how bad you are.
The problem for you was once I started talking about the righteousness of Jesus and how he can justify you so that you could stand before God righteous, well, that’s when you start to get skeptical.
Here is what I believe.
God‘s enemy Satan has convinced you that you’re too bad to save.
That your past is too heavy for you to have Hope.
That your present circumstance is too intricate to your life for you to just turn your life over to Jesus and start following him in obedience.
But friend, listen, Jesus’s mission and goal was to save people like you.
Jesus said I came not to call the healthy but the sick.
My prayer this morning is that you call upon Jesus today and find a friend that has never rejected the worst sinner who cried out to him in faith.
Lastly, the fourth group, and this is the most concerning group to me, because this was the group that I was in before the Lord saved me
This is the group that knows a lot about Jesus.
There’s a reason why you’re here today. It’s Easter.
You were raised in church.
You may be religious.
Your mom and dad brought you to church.
You consider yourself a pretty good person.
You’ve had your bad days, but overall you try to do the right thing.
Especially in front of other people.
If someone were to come to you today and ask you, where are you going when you die heaven or hell?
You would say— well you know I think I’m going to heaven.
But if that person were to ask you why you’re going to heaven?
You would begin a long list of things you have done or not done, or you would begin comparing your life with other people, and you would give a long list of reasons that you believe make you acceptable for heaven.
The enemy in your case, has convinced you that you’re too good to need a savior.
He’d rather have you pathetically standing on your tippy toes, trying to meet God’s perfect standard while he drags your soul to hell.
The enemy would much rather that than for you to fall on your face before God and cry out to Jesus to save you.
Friend here this message this morning.
Jesus is your only hope. He is my only hope. Jesus said I am the way the truth and the life. No one comes to the father but through him.
Whichever group you find yourself in today if you’re a believer rest and what Christ has done.
You’re an unbeliever, trust and cry out for him to save you and I believe he will. You don’t have to pray a special prayer.
Just cry out to Jesus in faith to save your soul, and I believe he will.
