How Can a Man Be Right with God?

I thought about this and found the top questions that junior high and high school aged people ask themselves daily. Here are a few of my favorites. Why is class sooo early? Is it socially acceptable to wear pajamas in public? What major should I study in college that makes the most amount of money with the least amount of work? Fries or a salad? (Which is absurd, because the answer is clearly fries. The question should be fries or garlic fries? When will I get a real job? How many times can I hit the snooze button and still make it to school on time? Does he even notice me? Who should I go to the dance with? What college will I go to? Does algebra really effect my life? And my favorite, does this shirt smell too bad to wear again? How many of you asked that question when packing up to come here?

But there is one question that I couldn’t find, but it is the most important question. This is the question that has been asked by nearly everyone for all of history. This is the question Job asked God in of How can a man be right with God?

This is the same question the apostle Paul echoed , In you see Peter preaching a sermon and after people asking him What do we do? This question you will find all of Scripture. This is the most important question you will ever ask yourself. So let’s we transition to the book of Romans in chapter 3. And will see here how a man can truly be made right with God.

We will first pray then I will be reading out of the ESV and starting in verse 20.

I will be reading out of the ESV and starting in verse 20 read silently as I read aloud

Pray

Roman 3:20-24

“For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,”

To answer this question of How can a man be right with God, I want to look at three things.

What is the problem?

Or said differently Why can’t man be right with God on his own work?

The answer is simple is sin.

Sin is what holds us back from being right with God.

Look back at Verse 20

(ESV)

20 For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.

No matter what you do, everything is tainted by sin.

The text here says that no human being will be justified in Hid or God’s sight. Because we have not followed God’s perfect law. Let’s talk about the Law for a second.

Let’s break down this verse.

The Law in the Bible can be defined as something that covers and regulates every area of life of the covenant people of God in accordance with the commands of God. Although the laws may be divided into categories of civil, criminal, social and God’s law.

Now God’s gives to commands that all other law fall into. Turn to the book Matthew in chapter 22 in verse 37.

(ESV)

37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

Here you see 2 commandments that all other laws fall into. Underneath that you see the 10 commandments. And under those laws there over 600 more laws or commandments. But I will not go through all those less we would be here all night. I do want to look at a few of the 10 commandments though.

How many us have dishonored our parents? Raise your hand

How many of you have hated someone?

Who here has stolen something?

Who has wanted something that someone else has?

We have looked at just a few commands and we have broken just these select few.

If we have broken these how are we we supposed to be right before God. And how are we supposed to get to Heaven. We can’t work our way to heaven. Yet this is what our world thinks is true. Our world thinks that if we do enough good we can get to heaven and be right with God.

This is like us thinking here about all the different people here. We are all different heights, we some who are really short and some who are like James, who is probably the tallest person in the room. But none of us can touch the stars. I can jump as high as I possibly can but I am never going to get any where close to touching the stars.

In the same way no one, no matter how hard they try will ever reach God’s righteous. Verse 20 is clear. We can not do it. Look at verse 23.

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

This is why we have the Old Testament. If you read it the response should be I can’t do that.

So now some of you may be thinking well that is depressing. And may be asking is this true. Is there really no way I can get to Heaven. And the answer is yes, there is nothing you can do. But there is wau

That brings us to our second point

2. What is the solution?

Lets go back to our text.

(ESV)

The Righteousness of God Through Faith

21 But now

Let’s stop there. I would encourage you to underline these words in your Bible. These two little words “But now” mark a transition. Until now we have only seen the hopelessness, the darkness, the ugliness of man’s state. But Now we have hope, lets continue

(ESV)

The Righteousness of God Through Faith

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,

Verse 21 tells us that there is a righteousness that is available, Praise God for that. I can speak for you, but I know what my life was like. I know that according the laws I am no where near the perfect holy standard of God’s law. I am amazed that there is a way and it is available apart from the perfect standard that the Old Testament shows us.

What does 22 says, who that righteousness is through. It is through who? it is through CHRIST JESUS.

There is a way, there is a path and it is through Christ Jesus. and verse 24 says that we are justified by God’s grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

I want to break down verse 24 here.

What does it mean to be justified? The text here says that we are going to be justified.Justified comes from a term called justification

You receive Justification.

Now this is a big word that means a legal declaration righteousness

Or said a different way, when God looks at your life and judges, because you will be judged by Him. God will see Christ’s merits and not your own. God see Christ instead of our sinfulness. How amazing is that. Because if I were sitting in the judgement room of God and he were to play over my life it would be tainted by sin. And after the first sin, God could stop and say “Alex you have not lived up to my perfect standard, depart from me.” Then I would be punished. And what is the punishment for sin? The beginning of says that the wages of sin is death

The debt we owe God because our sin is death.

But through Jesus Christ coming down from heaven and living on this earth perfectly, upholding ALL the laws on our behalf, and then dying on cross. He died a brutal death on the cross. He came down to live the perfect that we couldn’t, on our behalf and died on the cross to take away the sins of the world. He did that for u, for us.

Now how is that possible why can we be justified?

Lets look back at our text it say we are justified by his grace as a gift. God gave us grace and Grace is the answer. How can a man be right with God? It is only through what, HIS Grace.

What is grace? Grace is God’s unmerited favor that is made known through Christ Jesus. Simply, grace is a gift that we do not deserve. Grace is a gift we do not deserve. Think of grace like this..

You have a girl driving through back roads of Kentucky. And she gets pulled over by a police officer for driving over the speed limit. She tells that she can not pay the ticket so, the officer take her to court. When she gets there and stands before the judge, she sees that the judge is her fathers. Now the judge can not let her go free because she broke the law, and if he lets her go he knows that would not be fair to anyone else and he would also be breaking the law. The judge also knows that according to the law that if his daughter can’t pay she would go to jail. So the judge throws gavel down and says you may go, the ticket has been paid. She asks her father, “who paid the ticket?” And he responds saying, “I did, you broke the law. But I still love you and do not want to see you in jail.”

This is what our heavenly Father had to do with us. We broke the law. Yet God loved us so much that he gave his only Son, to pay the price for us. Remember the payment for sin is death and Jesus was that grace. He was that gift for us. The redemption for our sin is only available because the of grace God gave us through his Son, Jesus Christ.

Some of you are probably asking well what do we do? How should we respond?

And that brings us to our third and final point for the evening.

3. What do we do?

What do we do now? We have all this information on our problem of sin and our solution in the grace God gives us through Christ. But what do we do with it.

from the gift

1. You receive Justification.

This is a big word that means a legal declaration righteousness

Or said a different way, when God looks at your and judges, because you will be judged by Him. God will see Christ’s merits and not your own. God see Christ instead of our sinfulness

2. You will also receive Redemption

Defined it means the payment of debt for freedom

The beginning of says that the wages of sin is death

The debt we owe God because our sin is death. But through Jesus Christ living the perfect life and fufilling the Law on our behalf and also dieing the death we deserve we are redeemed. And our now free from the debt we owe.

3. Here in this text we also see we will receive Propitiation.

Propitiation is the sacrifice that satisfies the wrath of God and brings peace. God’s wrath towards sin must be satisfies and through Christ it is satisfied for all who believe. And now we no longer have to fear His wrath but can find peace in his love and promises that are available for believers

Point 3 take the gift

To receive this gift we see that is it only available to those who have faith in Jesus Christ and the work he accomplished through the cross.

Read with again verse 22

22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction:

Verse 22 is says it is available for all those who believe .For there is no distinction.

This is an amazing statement, it doesn’t matter where you come from or what you have done. Because Paul is saying that anyone can be God right with God. Read verse 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

It does not matter if you are a murder and the “worse sinner” or a church kid who looks good on the outside but inside is corrupt and sinful. According to God’s standard everyone has sinned and therefore has fallen short. But if you believe in Jesus Christ your Lord and Savior, if you admit to Him that you are a sinner and you need Him and then put your whole faith and trust in Him you can be made right with Him.

This just reaffirms the statement before that there is no distinction.if you are the most righteous person or murder, everyone still falls short. But if you believe in Christ you can be made right

Here is the answer the our question. How can a man be made right with God? Because we are sinful it is nothing that we can do but it only through is grace by sending His Son for us. There is the answer. But you that the sad thing is that some in this room will still reject this. The answer is here and yet there will still be those you reject it.

There is the answer

Please see that the answer is here. Please see the incredible gift God has given through Jesus. Christ lived perfectly in here on earth and has upheld every law. Then the only one to ever walk this earth and truly deserved to be right with God, died. Died a brutal death on the cross and bore our sin. Turn to is a perfect verse here.

2 Corinthians 5:21 ESV

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

“For our sake he (meaning God) made him (meaning Christ) to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

2 corinthinas “For our sake he (meaning God) made him (meaning Christ) to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

“For our sake he (meaning God) made him (meaning Christ) to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

God did this for us and all we have to do is believe. It does not matter what you have done. As long as you have faith in Christ you may be saved. He has given us a gift will you open it.

However this is not something to take lightly. This means you are to be different. You will hate your sin in and turn from it. This means that life you currently live is not what you are now called to. By saying yes to Christ it means this book is your life. However consider what you will gain, you will have to be different but consider what you will gain.

You will gain CHRIST, the greatest thing in the world. Listen as read

(ESV)

This talking about Christ

15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. 17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. 19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

21 And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, 22 he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him,

This is what we will get. We will get to serve this type of master, one who is Awesome. And one who while we were sinning against us saved US. How amazing is this gift.

For those of you who have this gift, remember everything Christ has done for you. Remember your testimony. Think about the work Christ has done in your life. Think about how he has transformed you. It is incredible isn’t it? The good news that is available in Christ is truly great news. Now I challenge you also to share. Proclaim your faith. Take those opportunities you have to talk about Christ at school or work or even when you are out with friends. Proclaim His name above all else.

Now in the beginning I posed the question of how can a man be made right with God?

Well its simple, you can’t do it, but God has given us an amazing gift. All you have to do is have faith, will you?

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