Central 3

What is God telling us?

1. If you try to live by the law, you’ll fail every time.

If you try to impress God just by doing good deeds, you will fail every time. Just like in the example we gave, if you try to fold that paper 12 times, you will fail every time. Just as it’s impossible to fold a paper 12 times, it's impossible to be saved by living according to the law.

Do you know what it looks like in the eyes of God to just do good deeds without salvation? In the Old Testament there's a verse that clearly and vividly describes this:

We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.

The New King James Version of this verse says:

(NKJV)

But we are all like an unclean thing,

And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags.

2. The righteous live by faith.

Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for “The righteous shall live by faith.” But the law is not of faith, rather “The one who does them shall live by them.” Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree."

Paul states that by trying to live by this law, you are literally living under a curse because you are trying to achieve this level of righteousness in your own strength ... but you will never be able to achieve it.

The only way you can achieve the righteousness that God requires is by faith. How do you apply faith? Well, that's answered in verse 13.

3. Christ redeems.

In verse 13, Paul says we have been redeemed by Christ. Does anyone know what the word redeemed means?

Let’s say you open up a newspaper, and in it, there is an advertisement for a new pizza joint opening up next weekend. On the ad, in the bottom right corner, there is a coupon for a free slice of pizza. So you cut the coupon out of the newspaper, and next week you go to the pizza joint and say, “I'd like to redeem this coupon for a slice of pizza."

Christ has redeemed believers in the same way. I have sinned against God, I have been found guilty of my sin, my punishment is to be eternally separated from Him ... but Jesus is the coupon that says “Paid Punishment for Sin.” Jesus pays the price for our eternal lives. Jesus is the “coupon” given to God.

Salvation is something we don’t earn. We don’t achieve it on our own, and we don’t deserve it. Jesus paid for it all, and there is literally nothing we can do to save ourselves. Our only hope is putting our faith in Jesus to save us from sin, penalty, death, and hell.

How do we apply this passage? Simple.

1. We respond to the gospel, and

2. We live by faith.

That's the picture of the gospel that Paul is trying to paint for us. This is the reason believers must live gospel-centered lives: the gospel is good news, and the good news is that someone saved us, and His name is Jesus.