The Verdict: Declared Innocent

Intro: On Dec. 23, 1991, a fire took the life of Cameron Todd Willingham’s three young daughters.

He was asleep in the home at the time, but by the next Christmas, he had been sentenced to death, accused of starting that fire intentionally.

Willingham repeatedly argued his innocence, and the arson investigation was repeatedly called into question by leading experts in the years that followed.

But in 2004, his execution was carried out.

Then AFTER the execution, even MORE evidence mounted… and new scientific standards were established... that strongly suggested the original investigation was faulty and the State of Texas had executed an innocent man.

(https://innocenceproject.org/cameron-todd-willingham-wrongfully-convicted-and-executed-in-texas/)

We would call that injustice.

Consider now a different case... in 2008, the nation watched as Casey Anthony was tried for killing her daughter Caylee.

The evidence presented against her towered high and seemed indisputable.

The judge later said that he assumed that she would be found guilty and that he himself thought she was guilty.

The prosecution had made a fairly solid case.

But still a jury found her not guilty.

Many, including those closest to the situation, mourned what they believed to be a MASSIVE miscarriage of Justice. (https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/29/us/casey-anthony-10-years-later/index.html)

Now I don’t know about you, but when I hear stories like either one of these, I start to get angry.

I have a REALLY strong internal justice meter… and I HATE the idea of a guilty person being declared innocent, or an innocent person being found guilty.

I want to see people PAY for their crimes that they DID commit… and NOT pay for the crimes they did NOT commit.

And I think most of us would agree… these things seem like TRAGIC injustice!

The closer we are to a situation like that…

Say one of those people were in your own family… the greater we feel the injustice.

Even if it’s a smaller thing… imagine getting a speeding ticket you don’t feel like you deserved… it’s going to make you a little bit frustrated, confused, disillusioned...

But I wonder how many of us have ever had those types of feelings about Good Friday and Easter?

We’ve spent quite a bit of time over the last week proving that we are guilty before God in our sin… deserving of eternal death… eternal separation from God.

If you were with us last Sunday, we looked at “what sin deserves” in our series on the book of Judges that we will return to next week.

If you were with us on Good Friday, we looked at the reality that “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God”… and that “the wages of sin is death.”

We looked at the sham trial that led to Jesus’ immediate execution...

And we saw that the guilty was set free, while the innocent was crucified.

Typically, at that point, we would be crying “foul!”

Don’t let the innocent die for the guilty!!! That’s unjust!!!

But when WE are the guilty, we hesitate to even ask the question, “How is this just???”

It’s almost like we just hope that God will not notice the injustice of it all.

And the question we should be asking is, “How can God place the cost of his wrath toward OUR sin upon the perfectly innocent Jesus… and declare US… guilty sinners... innocent??? How can he do that and STILL be a JUST God???”

Have you ever asked that question? If not, you should.

It’s the way that we come to understand the infinite riches of his grace toward us in Christ Jesus...

It’s the way that we understand the purposes of his mercy.

And so it’s the question we want to explore today: “How can God place the cost of his wrath toward OUR sin upon Jesus… declare US innocent… and STILL be a JUST God???”

The answer to that question is the life-altering reality of Easter: because GOD raised Jesus from the dead.

The resurrection… the empty tomb… is OUR ONLY hope… as guilty sinners… to be declared innocent before a holy God.

That’s what we are going to see today in Romans 4:24-25.

Big Idea: Rest all your faith on God who declares guilty sinners innocent through Christ's resurrection.

Let me just give you a little bit of context for the book of Romans...

Paul wrote this book to the church in Rome… a group of believers in Jesus whom he had never met, but hoped to meet soon.

He was writing ahead of a trip he was planning to help the church there understand the gospel message he preached… because there was some confusion about it.

In a lot of churches in the Roman world, the Jews saw the gospel and Christianity as an extension of their Judaism.

Jesus was THEIR Savior… he was ISRAEL’S Messiah…

And therefore, in order to be part of the church, they wanted Gentiles (non Jews) to keep the Jewish law… what we read about in the Old Testament.

They wanted non-Jews to get circumcised (because that was the mark of God’s covenant with Israel)…

They wanted them to observe Jewish holy days and festivals…

All around, they wanted non-Jews to live “Jewishly” in order to worship the Jewish Savior King.

But Paul said, “No! That UNDERCUTS the gospel!”

The Gospel is not about what we DO… but what Jesus has DONE!

God sent Jesus because we COULD NOT be good enough… we COULD NOT live up to his standards in our sin.

If you have to keep the law in order to be in right standing with God, no one will be saved… not Jews, not Greeks… NO ONE!

Salvation... right relationship with God... comes through faith in the good news of Jesus’ life death and resurrection alone.

So he writes the book of Romans like a legal defense of the gospel, anticipating the prosecution’s questions... Chapters 1-8 of Romans lay out WHY the gospel is true and essential… the later chapters lay out the practical implications of the gospel…

Ultimately, Paul is defending WHY the events of Good Friday and Easter matter… he’s explaining WHAT God was doing through the death and resurrection of Jesus… and how that changes EVERYTHING.

Chapters 1-3 describe how EVERYONE falls short of God’s standard.

We tend to measure ourselves against other people… or our OWN version of God’s standard…

but if we really understand God, NO ONE is righteous like he is righteous...

We all MASSIVELY fall short.

So at the end of chapter 3, he transitions to show HOW we can be declared innocent even though we have been found guilty of sin that deserves death.

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.

We’ll talk more about that word “Justified” throughout this sermon… but it means to be “declared righteous.”

It’s not about us being righteous on our own… it’s about us RECEIVING CHRIST’S RIGHTEOUSNESS because HE was innocent.

And at that point, someone might say, “But that’s not right! That’s not fair! How can someone be declared righteous simply because they BELIEVE that Jesus died in their place?”

So in chapter 4, Paul says, “Because that’s the way it always was. That’s God’s way. He’s been doing it since the beginning… even the great Patriarch of the Jews, Abraham, was saved that way.”

And he goes on to describe Abraham’s faith in God… that Abraham BELIEVED GOD and it as counted to him as righteousness.

And he wraps up that section like this:

[READ Romans 4:24b-25]

Those are the verses we are going to dwell on today… we are going to allow them to slow cook in our hearts until we are captivated by what they mean.

[Read Again]

Rest all your faith on God who declares guilty sinners innocent through Christ's resurrection.

What does it mean to “rest all your faith on God?”

What does it mean to BELIEVE in God?

A lot of people say that… they “Believe in God”… or they “believe in Jesus”… and what they mean by that is that they believe he existed and did good things like Abraham Lincoln or something...

But that’s NOT what the Bible means when it says “believe in God”.... or “believe in Jesus...”

So what or how MUST we believe in order to be declared innocent even though we have been found guilty in our sin??? and how can God be JUST in doing that?

That’s what we are going to dig out of these two verses.

Rest all your faith on God who...

1) Raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. (v. 24b)

If we are going to receive God’s declaration of “innocent” over our lives, we have to believe first that he ACTUALLY raised Jesus from the dead… and that this resurrection was a statement that Jesus is LORD.

“It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord,” (Romans 4:24, ESV)

Now this might strike you as odd… that someone else is described as raising Jesus from the dead?

We often say, “Jesus rose from the dead.”

It’s not wrong to say that… in John 10:18, Jesus said -

No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.” (ESV)

But the Bible is also clear that God the Father and God the Spirit were also involved.

Acts 2:24 - “God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it.” (Acts 2:24, ESV)

Romans 8:11 - “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.” (Romans 8:11, ESV)

It seems that MOST OFTEN, The Father and the Spirit are described as raising Jesus from the dead when the resurrection is being used to discuss the power by which Jesus was raised.

The Father, Son and Holy Spirit all have the power… all have the authority… and all had the DESIRE to raise Jesus from the dead.

The resurrection is God DECLARING that Jesus is Lord… he IS the Son of God whom he claimed to be.

And Romans 4:24 is telling us that in order for the righteousness of Jesus to be counted to us… we must put our faith down upon this fact.

[Pause] But before we can believe that the resurrection is God DECLARING Jesus is Lord, we need to believe that the resurrection is historical fact in the first place.

In the year 30 AD, Jesus really died… he really was buried… Friday before Sundown (day 1), all through the day Saturday (day 2), and then into the early hours of Sunday morning (day three)...

And on the third day, the ground shook, the soldiers ran, an angel rolled the stone away, and Jesus walked out of his grave!!!

Now… if that’s not true, you shouldn’t even bother sitting here today. Go eat a nice breakfast… find some hidden eggs with candy in them… have fun with your family...

But if it IS true… it changes more than just today… it changes your whole life! Because it proves that Jesus is Lord!

And you have every reason to believe today that the resurrection is true. Here are 5 reasons why:

First, Jesus was verified dead.

The Romans didn’t want any surprises.

When Jesus was crucified, they pierced his side and blood and water flowed.

A Roman Centurion, with no vested interest in Jesus, and who would have seen thousands and thousands of crucifixions signed off on it.

Second, Roman Soldiers guarded his body.

Again… no surprises…

They were afraid someone would steal it because Jesus had said he would rise again…

So they put their killing machines and a big stone in front of the tomb.

And those killing machines would lose their life if they didn’t do their job.

Third, Jesus’ enemies acknowledged the empty tomb.

They KNEW it as empty, and Matthew says that they came up with a story that someone stole it.

Well, we know THAT wasn’t true because of those Roman soldiers in point #2… so they are basically admitting, “Yeah… the tomb was empty...” without a good explanation for why.

Fourth, his Disciples died giving witness to the Resurrection.

During the trial, his disciples were nowhere to be found… they were fearful… they were scattered.

After the Resurrection, they are willing to die to say that it was true.

You don’t do that for a guy you believe to be dead.

Fifth, the Church was born.

The central message of the apostles upon which the church was built was that Jesus was raised from the dead.

The first century believers took this testimony to heart, even though it cost them everything.

There was no EARTHLY benefit to believing this… and yet the church exploded in growth almost overnight.

The Church started meeting on Sunday mornings instead of the Jewish Sabbath, Saturday because of their foundational belief that Jesus rose from the dead on a Sunday morning.…

And we’ve been meeting on Sunday mornings for the last 2000 years as his body!

And WE KNOW that it was the power of the resurrected Jesus that brought dead people to life and brought them to faith in him.

You can EVERY reason to believe today that Jesus rose from the dead 2000 years ago. The question is, what difference does that make?

Why is it worth spending a special holiday a year remembering this? Why get dressed up and go to church? Why does it matter?

Well if it only matters that much, then it doesn’t really matter at all.

But it matters SO MUCH MORE than that!!!

If God rose Jesus from the dead… then it means that Jesus is LORD!!!

Sometimes we treat this story like it’s old news… “Yeah… Jesus rose from the dead. Now where’s the chocolate eggs???”

But imagine this happened today...

Your Teacher… your friend… the one you thought was the next big thing… has now been defeated by the Government in collusion with a bunch of Religious leaders...

You watched his life… he was such a good man… you never saw him commit even the tiniest sin...

Not only that, he had the power to heal people…

You wouldn’t believe it except that you saw it with your own eyes that he cast demons out of some people who were possessed…

And when he taught… OHHH… when he taught!... he captivated the crowds with his teaching...

But on Friday he died. Not just any death. The death penalty.

This wasn’t just a bad dream you had the night before… it’s been setting in all night Friday… all day Saturday… all night Satuday night… and even still, his body is lying in a tomb. Or so you thought.

But this morning, some of your friends… some women who also followed him... went to do the final embalming...

And all of the sudden… you get a text message from one of them: TOMB EMPTY!!! SAW ANGEL!!! HE IS RISEN!!!!!!

What emotions are you feeling in that moment? What is going through your head?

The resurrection is a Historical Fact… which makes it a Spiritual Phenomenon of unmatched proportions.

Someone who has authority over death is most certainly the Lord of all.

God raised from the dead Jesus Christ our Lord.

If we believe that God raised Jesus from the dead, then we must believe that Jesus is Lord.

Which changes EVERYTHING about our lives.

To put our faith down on Jesus as Lord is to devote our lives to him.

If he is Lord, we go where he leads… do what he says… love who he loves…

We tell everyone we can about the life that he provides!

We gather with his people… and celebrate his life in us week after week.

Not perfectly… but increasingly.

That’s what it looks like to rest all our faith on God who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead.

But maybe you are still thinking, “So God raised Jesus from the dead… and he is Lord...

But I’m a pretty good person… if Jesus is Lord, he probably likes me a lot.

OR you could be thinking the opposite… I’ve done WAY too many bad things… God would NEVER call me innocent...

If you have ever thought EITHER of those things, you need to believe not only that God raised Jesus our Lord from the dead… but also that God....

2) Delivered Jesus our Lord to bear our sin. (v. 25a)

“It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses...” (Romans 4:24–25, ESV)

“Who was delivered up for our trespasses.”

Now if something is delivered… it generally requires five things… the thing being delivered… the sender… the carrier… and the destination… and the reason why.

If an Amazon package is being delivered up to me… the package is the thing delivered… the seller is the SENDER of the package… the driver is the CARRIER of the package… and the destination is my house.

So in this delivery in Romans 4:25, obviously Jesus our Lord is the one BEING delivered… but what about the other three parts?

Who is delivering him? How? What is the destination?

Is Jesus delivered by Satan? By Judas? By someone else? Who is the sender?

Well, the book of Romans actually answers this question for us…

Romans 8:32 says - “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all...” (Romans 8:32, ESV)

That word, “gave him up” is the same word translated “delivered up” here in Romans 4...

In other words, God the Father DELIVERED UP God the Son for us all.

Now let me just say something really quick: don’t think that God did this against Jesus’ will.

The Bible says elsewhere that Jesus laid down his life WILLINGLY… he TOOK ON the form of a servant and endured the cross...

So he is a WILLING VESSEL being delivered.

God the Father is the SENDER… Jesus is the one BEING delivered… but then who carried him??? and where was he going???

Well, we see this word “delivered” used elsewhere in the Bible to refer to Judas, to the Chief Priests and Scribes, and to Pilate DELIVERING Jesus...

You can think of them as the Amazon Carrier… they were not the ultimate actors… but they were the means by which God accomplished his will.

That doesn’t mean they were innocent… God in his providence… turned their own willful, sinful choices into a channel for his ultimate plan.

But where did they deliver him to? Where was God sending him?

Into death itself.

Into physical torment.

Into spiritual anguish...

Now here’s the question we need to ask: WHY?

When I order my Amazon package, I have a reason… I need a birthday present for someone… or I need beard balm to tame my mane...

So WHY did God the Father deliver Jesus… sending him with such evil carriers… to a place of pain and anguish???

And here’s the answer Paul gives in verse 25: FOR. OUR. TRESPASSES.

He was delivered up FOR OUR TRESPASSES.

You see, you can’t celebrate Easter unless you realize that Jesus was delivered up FOR OUR TRESPASSES.

You have nothing to celebrate if you do not see YOURSELF in that word “OUR.”

You don’t have an empty tomb unless you have a bloody cross.

And you don’t have a bloody cross without someone delivering Jesus there.

And God did not send his son to a bloody cross for no reason.

He sent him to a bloody cross FOR OUR TRESPASSES.

That word “Trespasses” is an interesting word… the King James uses the word, “Offences...” the NIV uses the word, “Sins...” the New American Standard uses, “Transgressions...”

It means to trip and fall… in this case over God’s standard of the law.

God created all things for his own glory… he created the world so that WE could enjoy HIS GLORY through it...

But instead.... we traded his eternal glory for the lesser glory of created things.

We trip and fall short of his glory.

So God set in motion a rescue plan...

First he rescued a people for himself… the nation of Israel… and he gave them a law...

That law revealed who he is, who he is not, and how they should relate to him.

But they tripped over that law.

In fact, we ALL trip over God’s standard.

We know, intuitively, that we are NOT ULTIMATE… and yet we still act like we are.

We know, intuitively, that there is something more than the material existence of this world… and yet we act like there is nothing.

And we reject God… we turn away from him and worship create things rather than the creator.

THAT is a trespass…

Your sin is not some little mistake that can be brushed off.

It is a failure to satisfy the legal demands placed upon you by a Holy God.

It is an infinite offense against your Creator deserving of eternal conscious torment in hell.

[soft] And Jesus... was delivered up... for your trespasses.

You don’t get to celebrate Easter… you CANNOT celebrate Easter… unless you believe that.

There is no resurrection without the death of Jesus. And there is no death of Jesus without OUR TRESPASSES.

And so if you do not believe that, you have nothing to celebrate.

You are still dead in your sin.

You are raising your glass in celebration while the room is burning around you! Open your eyes and see your salvation!

The truth that we saw last week in Judges 3, and the truth we saw on Good Friday remains...

Without Jesus, we are guilty.

“For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:23, ESV)

All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. (Romans 3:23-24 ESV)

Do you believe God when he says that you are a sinner deserving of death?… have you put all your faith down on the fact Jesus was delivered up for your trespasses?

That is the only way you get to experience the rest of this verse...

...who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.” (Romans 4:24–25, ESV)

Rest all your faith on God who...

3) Declared Jesus our Lord to be our innocence. (v. 25b)

Jesus our Lord… as RAISED for our Justification.

Explain: God is stating the purpose of the resurrection. The purpose of Easter.

The innocent DIED for the guilty. The price was paid. The work was finished. The wrath was satisfied.

BUT if the innocent was never vindicated… it he was never shown to be righteous… then we have a MASSIVE miscarriage of justice.

And if he was never vindicated by the Eternal Judge, how do we know that his death really DID pay the price for our sins? How do we know he wasn’t just another con-artist… or lunatic religious leader???

You see, if Jesus remains in the grave… then it means that HE was guilty of some sin of his own… that God did NOT accept his sacrifice on our behalf… and therefore WE ARE STILL DEAD IN OUR SIN. He’s just another one of us dying because he’s a sinner.

But God rose Jesus from the dead as a statement of his innocence… as a statement of his acceptance of his sacrifice...

And he rose him for OUR Justification.

His innocence becomes our innocence. His resurrection life becomes our source of life.

That’s what it means for God to JUSTIFY… or that Jesus was RAISED for our JUSTIFICATION: Justification is the decision God makes to IMPUTE or APPLY Christ’s righteousness to US.

He transfers Christs innocent status… he clothes us in Christ’s righteousness.

I’ve heard it simply explained this way: To be justified is that God sees me “Just as if I never sinned.”

WHAT!?!?! How can that be??? That feels almost scandalous… like I’m living in denial or something...

But God is not merely sweeping sin under the rug: To justify is to count sinners innocent based on the innocence of Jesus, not based on their own record.

Because Jesus was perfectly righteous… and he paid the price for OUR sin IN FULL…

and since the debt is paid, his innocence can be… MUST BE applied to US.

This is the way that God can be JUST when the innocent was crucified and the guilty goes free...

Because it was the intent all along for the innocent to pay the penalty of the guilty and to be raised to life again.

Back to Romans 3 that we reflected on Friday night:

“God put [Christ Jesus] forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. 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.” (Romans 3:25–26, ESV)

God could not just OVERLOOK sin… he had to deal with it… and yet he wanted, in his mercy and grace, to rescue a people for himself.

And so God maintained his justice in justifying sinners by willingly giving over his own Son… who himself willingly went to the cross…

And satisfied the penalty for our sin…

But then… once the payment was made... God raised Jesus from the dead… declaring Jesus our Lord to be our innocence.

Our right relationship with God… is found through HIS righteousness.

We are UNITED to him through faith… his death is our death… his life is our life.

[Righteousness] will be counted to us who believe in God who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord.... WHY? because he was crucified and raised FOR THAT PURPOSE… for our justification!

Now I want to return to a question that I asked at the beginning but didn’t answer: What does it mean to BELIEVE in God in such a way that God counts that belief to us as righteousness?

A lot of people say that they “Believe in Jesus”… kind of like someone might believe in Aliens or Bigfoot or the Loch Ness Monster...

But is that what this means when it says “believe in God”???

And the Bible is clear that belief… or faith (which is the same original word).... faith is far more than agreeing with something… or knowing ABOUT something.

Belief… faith… trust... is putting the full weight of your life down upon what God has said to be true.

The best illustration I know is this stool. If I say, “I believe in this stool...”

I’m not just staying, “I believe it exists.” That’s a pretty worthless statement. OBVIOUSLY it exists.

And I’m not just saying that it COULD hold me, theoretically.

No one needs a theoretical stool sitting around taking up space.

To say that I believe in this stool is to say that I’m going to rely upon it.

I’m going to put my full weight down on it.

To believe in Jesus… to have faith in him… is to believe ON him (if you have a KJV, your Bible says, “Believe on”… we don’t talk that way anymore, but it’s a better translation of the word)...

It’s to put the full weight of your life down upon what God has said to be true. It’s to put all your eggs in his basket.

And God has said that Jesus is Lord.

God has said that he delivered up Jesus for OUR trespasses....

And he raised him up for OUR justification… so that we could be DECLARED INNOCENT before him… EVEN when we were found guilty in our sin.

God has said that Jesus is the only way to salvation… the only way to true life… the only way to have a right relationship with the God for whom you were created.

And so it is through THAT KIND of faith in Jesus ALONE that we are declared innocent before God.

It’s not in how good you try to be.

It’s not in how good or bad you have been.

It’s in how you rely ONLY upon Jesus our Lord for your salvation and your life.

Rest all your faith on God who declares guilty sinners innocent through Christ's resurrection.

Do you have that kind of faith in Jesus today?

If not, turn to him in faith today… and then live by faith in him every day… we are here as a church to do that together...

If you DO have that kind of faith in Jesus today, then what are you going to do with your new life? The rest of the book of Romans would give us a number of things that God intends… I’ll just name a few:

Praise him at Lord.

Present your body as a living, righteous sacrifice to God.

Humble yourself before him.

Endure suffering with joy.

Bless those who persecute you.

Be a part of his living body, the church.

And actively love them with a genuine love.

The resurrection gives us a whole new life… a life of freedom and joy and trust…

Let’s seek God to lead us in that life right now.