We are the Church because...

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Whenever we look at the idea of the church there are many different ideas that come about. We may think of a building. We may think of bibles or crosses or stories. We may even think of the people of the church. We probably rarely think of ourselves as being the church or even why we are the church. Over the past couple of Sundays Brother Ronnie has been preaching about the early church and the leaders of the early church and today we are going to dive into the reasons we are the church. WE ARE THE CHURCH this building is not the church it is only a pretty building where the church gathers. This morning we are going to be diving into some of the verses in Romans 3.

A little background of Romans is that Paul wrote this letter to the churches of Rome. The churches of Rome were tons of tiny house churches and the letter was passed from church to church and read to the congregation. The first three and a half chapters of Romans describes our unrighteousness and how we are unworthy of having a relationship with a Holy God. These chapter describe how all people are under the condemnation of sin, both Jew and Gentile. There is not a single person who is good enough to enter the righteousness of God except through Christ. There was also some major divisions between the Jewish believers and the Gentile believers due the different customs each section believed in.

The scriptures in the last half of Romans 3 reveals to us the importance of the gospel and the reason we are the church. The verses we are going to look at this morning describe the entirety of the letter to the Romans and the main point of the entire epistle.

I am going to begin reading our scriptures for the morning from Romans 3:20-26.

Romans 3:20–26 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. 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, 25 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. 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.

These verse proclaim the Gospel of Christ. The good news about the Gospel is that the gospel is for everyone despite who we are. The Gospel is the reason we are the church! The Gospel allows for the church to be perfect despite us.

1. We are the church because WE ARE IMPERFECT!

(3:20-22a) 20 For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. 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,

I am 100 perfect correct when I say that there is not a single perfect person in this sanctuary today. The Old Testament law was written to prove that we are imperfect beings and to show us that we fall short of God and cannot be made righteous through works. Since we are imperfect that means that there is not a perfect church!

I have heard a story of a person who was searching to find the “perfect” church. The pastor kindly told her that she would not find it here because as soon as she joined the church it would be come imperfect.

The law was used to show people’s unrighteousness and those who are under the law are judged through the law. There is no possible way for people to uphold the law of God due to God being perfect. This makes His law perfect and humans are imperfect creatures and imperfection cannot obtain perfection alone.

Again I am going to reiterate that there is not a single perfect person in this building because there is not a single person here that is God because there is not a single person who has kept every aspect of the law.

James 2:10 ESV

10 For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it.

We are the church or a group of believers because we are imperfect.

Because we are imperfect are reliant on the God who is perfect. These verses clearly explain that the righteousness of God is for all people. The righteousness of God is not just for the people who have it together and seem perfect but are for ALL PEOPLE.

There is no distinction (22b) Paul groups all people together as breaking the law and being condemned to death through their sin nature. “For all who believe” indicated that all nationalities and races can obtain the righteousness of God through Christ.

The Roman church had a lot of division between the Jewish believers and the Gentile believers. Paul completely leveled the playing field for all believers by placing them all as sinners because we all fall short of the glory of God.

All people have fallen short because all people are unable to achieve perfection, despite how moral of a person you claim to be. It would be the same as climbing up a mountain to touch the stars. The further up the mountain you climb you are no closer to reaching the stars. With this example in mind all people are unable to work towards perfection.

God’s salvation is not for the perfect people but rather the imperfect in order to be made perfect. The church is made up of hundreds of thousands of imperfect people who God has made righteous through their Faith.

We cannot clean ourselves up enough to be presentable in front of God. We come to God as imperfect people who are completely reliant on a Holy God to make us righteous!

Aren’t we thankful that the Righteousness of God is for the group of imperfect people called the church.

The church is a group of imperfect people.

2. We are the church because we have FAITH!

(3:24-25a) 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25a whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.

We are the church because we have faith in the Gospel. The total reason we are able to be the church is through the Gospel. I have heard it said that if you are a Christian and you get tired of hearing the Gospel then you need to hear it again. Our entire faith is based solely on the Gospel of Christ. We cannot be called the church without the meaning of these verses.

The church is justified to Christ through his grace by our faith.

A person becomes part of the church not through something that we can do but only through the free gift of God through Jesus. We are the church because we have Faith in Christ.

Every other religion on Earth requires that a person must do something in order to be justified. In all the other religions of the World a person must make their good deeds outweigh their bad deeds to be called worthy of “god”. Christianity and the church states that Christ has already done the work we just have to accept the gift. I would never rely on my best 2 seconds of my life to make me part of the church because we are not worthy to be called God’s chosen people.

In the “church” today there are so many people who are too prideful about their personal lives that they will not allow for God to become Lord of their lives. They would rather God count their good deeds vs bad deeds so that they can control the outcome of their salvation. This is PRIDE.

In Oswald Chambers My Utmost for His Highest devotional the pride of most people is described as:

“There is a certain pride in people that causes them to give and give, but to come and accept a gift is another thing. I will give my life to martyrdom; I will dedicate my life to service—will do anything. But do not humiliate me to the level of the most hell-deserving sinner and tell me that all I have to do is accept the gift of salvation through Jesus Christ.”

It is difficult for humans to lay down their pride in order to accept a gift in which they did not earn. The American dream begins with people working to earn their living to live comfortably. People love to have the satisfaction of working to achieve something, but that is not how salvation works. People cannot work for salvation because it is only acceptable through Christ. When we place our faith in Him then we are accepting a gift that we do not deserve.

We are the church because of Christ!

Jesus became the PROPITIATION for us.

What exactly is propitiation?

Since we have seen that all have sinned and all are guilty of their sin how can anyone be made righteous? How can the church be made righteous? We (the Church) are made righteous through Jesus being our propitiation for sin.

The word propitiation describes the action in which God’s wrath is appeased by being poured out onto his Son.

I have always wondered why there was mention of so much of God’s wrath displayed in the Old Testament. From God wiping out entire cities to God flooding the entire Earth and why was this wrath not displayed in the New Testament. That question was answered whenever I understood the meaning of this verse.

The totality of God’s wrath is poured out on his son for us to be made righteous! This is the only time in scripture where the entirety of God’s wrath is poured out onto one person. The wrath that we all deserve was placed on Jesus in order for the church to be made righteous.

This one verse should shake us as the church. Jesus Christ took on the wrath of God because of the love HE had for us! We are the church because we have accepted a free gift through Christ blood. I feel like we just need to ponder on this more often that God sent his Son (who is God in the Flesh) to take on the entirety of HIS wrath in order for us to be made righteous. This fact should draw us to Christ and should draw us to our worshipping HIM.

The church is a group of imperfect people who have placed their faith in a perfect God.

3. We are the church because we are JUSTIFIED!

25b This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. 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.

Jesus died for the church so that we can be justified through his blood. Whenever Jesus died on the cross for our sins God was showing his righteousness for us and through his divine forbearance he passed over all former sins for those who believe.

Divine forbearance is God showing his perfect Godly patience towards us because we did not deserve to be forgiven. God would have been perfectly justified in allowing all of us to completely separated from Him for eternity but rather God being righteous has allowed for us to become part of his family. God’s patiences is unlike anything we could ever imagine and through his passing over sins it allows for us to be seen a righteous.

This is the reason why we can be saved because the death of Christ brought about our justification as the church. The legal system states that a person is innocent until they are proven guilty, however the God calls us guilty until we are proven innocent.

This means that he does not count our sins against us but rather looks at us through the blood of Jesus which is perfect and sees us as perfect. Jesus took the punishment in which we deserve by taking on the wrath of God for all sins committed in the past, present, and future.

God was able to pay the debt for our sins because He is the one in which we all sin against. Whenever we commit the simplest of sins we are sinning against a HOLY GOD.

God, who is the judge, also paid the price for the guilty party, the sinners. God justified the church through the blood of Christ.

Jesus’ blood is what appeased God as a sacrifice. Why did His Son’s blood appease God? Jesus’s blood appeased God because He was the perfect sacrifice. Jesus never committed any sin throughout his life, thus being able to appease the wrath of God for the unrighteous. For us to partake in the righteousness of God Jesus had to die and we must have faith in this sacrifice. The church was formed through the death of the perfect sacrifice.

Whenever a person is believes and accepts the free gift of salvation they are then ushered into the church. The church is a group of people who are imperfect but God makes them righteous through His son.

The church is a group of imperfect people who have placed their faith in a perfect God and the perfect God has made the church justified.

The church should be a group of people that is not silent about sharing the great news of the savior that rescued them from the wrath that we all deserve. We are the church who is justified through Christ and we should be proclaiming him throughout our lives.