Gospel Riches

Introduction

If you have your Bible turn with me to Romans 3:19-26.

If you don’t have a Bible—we have Bible here for you. Our passage starts on page (23). Or you can use the Bible App to follow the sermon and take notes.

A watch looks simple enough when you look at it’s face. But when you open it up it’s full of complexity. There is so much more going on under the surface.

Salvation is like this.

Let’s read our passage this morning.

Romans 3:19–26 ESV

Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. 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, 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. 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.

Takeaway: God’s grace works powerfully to save.

I. Purpose of Law, II. Intervention, III. Justification, IV. Redemption, and V. Propitiation.

I. The Purpose of the Law (19-20)

Romans 3:19-20 “Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.”

The past couple of weeks Paul has been explaining the gospel. Which is the good news that Jesus has come to save people from the judgment of their sin. And Paul has been showing us from Scripture how we are unworthy to receive it.

This gift from God is grace.

Story of my son getting a treat and not deserving it.

But man’s sinful heart doesn’t want grace—we want to earn salvation. And so the law often becomes an “opportunity” for us to be “good enough” —That’s certainly what the Pharisees thought.

But Paul is clear here. The Law has 2 main purposes:

1. Every mouth is stopped.

Mark 10 a rich young ruler comes to Jesus and wants eternal life. Jesus lays out the commandments and the ruler says, “I’ve kept all of these commandments from youth.”

Maybe here the man expected to receive the gift of eternal life.

But the text says Jesus loved him, so he told him a hard thing.

“Go and sell all your possessions, give them to the poor, and follow me.”

Jesus said, “Love your neighbor as yourself. And then give your life to follow me.”

This man did not kept the law perfectly from his youth. The law touches every part of the human heart and where we may be excelling in one place we are dropping the ball somewhere else.

The law is vast because God’s holiness is vast. In Leviticus 21:8 God calls us to “be holy as he is holy.”

The law shuts every human mouth because it calls us to be as holy as God himself is—and we all fall short.

2. That the world may be held accountable.

God the good judge will not let any sin go unaccounted for.

In our world people get away with horrible things. There are terrible injustices that never made right because human eyes and human courts never see them.

But God sees all things. Every single sin that is committed in this world will find itself exposed to the light of God’s justice at the end of days.

Revelation 20:11–15 ESV

Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

All mouths will be shut at their boasting—all sin will be held accountable and judged.

The law is not a glimmer of salvation for us—a ladder so that we can escape the guilt of our sin.

The law is a magnifying glass that shows us just how desperate our situation is.

This is what Paul has been showing us! Now as we continue in our text we turn the corner from the bad news of the gospel and we see the riches that are within salvation. Paul wants us to see under the hood so to speak.

I just recently had the privilege of leading someone to Christ and when they had accepted Christ I told them, “You’re saved. An angel isn’t going to descend from Heaven and fire works aren’t going to go off. But you are changed.”

A lot is going on behind the scenes is that moment when someone turns from death to life and Paul wants us to worship God and marvel at what he does. First treasure of the gospel...

II. Intervention (21a)

Romans 3:21 “But now…”

There are many glorious words in the Bible. Majestic depictions of God’s glory. Powerful pictures of his might and power.

But the most glorious words in all of the Bible are right here. “But now.”

We’ve been studying how deep the wound of sin goes in the human heart. And it’s deep.

The beginning of verse 21 tells us that God did not leave us in this way—He did not leave us as those who cannot seek him—with hearts that are far away from Him.

God has done for sinners what they could not do themselves. He did not leave us in our helpless state.

God has been promising and talking about his rescue of his people from the very beginning.

Genesis 3:15 “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.””

And throughout redemptive history we see God give his people pictures and symbols of the coming messiah.

The ark.

The Paschal lamb.

The lifted serpent.

One of my joys in reading scripture is when I see a new picture of Jesus that I hadn’t seen before.

All of these pointed forward to Jesus—and here in Romans 3:21 we see that the substance of what these types and shadows, ceremonies and symbols pointed to has come!

What did the OT saints look forward to? What do you look back to? All the eyes of God’s people throughout history look to the cross.

And on the cross we see that Jesus justifies us.

III. Justification & Redemption (21-24a)

Romans 3:21-24 “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,”

The law stands to condemn, to shut mouths, and hold the world accountable.

But God shows us that righteousness—which we need to be in right standing before God—has been shown (manifested) apart from the law.

They point to it, but they don’t accomplish it.

The human heart makes an idol of self. We want to save ourselves. We want to be the hero. We want to owe nobody. We want to be beholden to no one. The creature screams against the creator for creating Him.

but Paul is clear here, “the righteousness of God (is) through faith (belief in the promise) in Jesus Christ (and this is) for all who believe.

“Our salvation is not by works, but by faith that God has worked for us through Jesus.”

We are justified in Jesus.

So, what is justification?

It’s a legal term. Paul calls us into the courtroom of the heart and there we are guilty on the stand before a holy judge. We have no defense, blood is dripping from our hands—we couldn’t be more “red handed”.

But now because of the death and resurrection of Jesus we are instantaneously made to be just. In that moment when we call out to Jesus for salvation, God considers our sins as forgiven and acquitted. And it is there that we enter into right relationship with God.

In the moment of salvation when we look under the hood. We see that a mighty work is being done.

All of our sin is cleansed by the blood of Jesus. His perfect righteousness covers our Sin. The sentence of judgment is passed, but not on us. Because God has already dealt with our sin in the death of Christ.

As we continue in our passage we see that this leads to...

IV. Redemption (24b)

Romans 3:24 “and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,”

The picture now shifts from the courtroom to that of slavery.

Sin has captured us. In Romans 7:14 Paul says he is “sold in sin.”

Galatians 4:4–7 ESV

But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.

What is redemption?

We were enslaved to sin, but now we are free in Christ. Our price of redemption has been paid. Jesus paid it fully. Jesus acccomplished it.

Not only did Jesus want to redeem us, but he was able to redeem us.

And it is in this moment that we fulfill the purpose of our creation to know our God and to love Him forever. The curse of death dies. Life springs forth from the dead soil of our heart and we grow in this life.

Amen?

Redemption means that we have been delivered from slavery to be sons and daughters of God.

We are redeemed into the family of God.

Q. Are you walking in the freedom of your redemption?

If we are going to do this we have to constantly reset our mind on the truth of our redemption. Because what happens is the effects of sin—the memories of it—creep back in—if we are not careful we start ttying to wear the chains again.

We’ll say that we are walking In Christ, put we can hear the clink of chains—faintly in the background—and before we know it we have shackled ourselves again.

And God comes along and says, “Son, daughter, you are free—why are you putting these chains around your wrists and feet? They don’t fit you anymore. See they fall off.”

How does this happen? We believe wrong things about ourselves. About others. We consume the world while we neglect the word. We are quick to become defensive against any kind of conviction or accountability. We crave the approval of the lost world—we desire to fit in instead of stand out. And in various other ways we pull the chains up and try to find comfort in them.

But we have been redeemed. Child of God you have been justified—you have been redeemed from the life of death. Don’t look at your chains longingly. Live in the freedom that Christ has given you!

Justification and redemption are two great treasures in the good news of the gospel. Let us now move to the question of how? How did Jesus accomplish this? How did he pay the price? Let’s look at...

V. Propitiation (25-26)

Romans 3:25-26 “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. 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.”

Matthew 20:28 “even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.””

There was a ransom to pay—a price to be exacted--

Jesus was put forward to satisfy God’s righteous wrath. Propitiation involves the paying of debt of sin.

God does not look at our sin like a slightly dissappointed parent. No the Bible tells us that God has wrath for sin.

Proverbs 6:16-19 “There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers.”

Romans 2:5 “But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.”

Matthew 26:39 “And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.””

Sinners store up wrath for themselves and that wrath will break against them on the day of Judgment. Unless Christ has taken the wrath for them.

When we are saved in Christ he takes that wrath. This is propitiation.

In Christ there is no wrath for us from God. Because Christ took all the wrath that was due us on himself. He drank the cup.

Crucifixion was an awful way to die, but by far the worst part of the cross for Jesus was that he experienced the wrath of God for our sins.

This truth is thoroughly biblical, but some hate it. “The Father did not pour out wrath on the Son. The Father loves the son.”

Propitiation—the cross— is not something that God the Father did to God the Son.

We cannot divide the Trinity here. Propitiation is something that God did together.

God the Son took the wrath for the elect’s sin from God the Father through God the Holy Spirit.

Propitiation is an act of love from the trinitarian God to those who are being saved.

The rest of our passage explains this.

Romans 3:25-26 “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. 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.”

From the very beginning the sins of God’s people were being “passed over”.

Not meaning that they were ignored—but that the wrath for them—the judgment for them was being reserved for Christ.

Abraham, Moses, David, our ancient brothers and sisters—the church of the OT—their hope was the same as ours. They put their faith in the coming savior and we put our faith in the savior that has come.

Moses’ sins were passed over until the day that they would be paid for in Christ. The wrath for his sin was reserved for the day of the cross. When Jesus drank the cup of wrath he drank down the wrath of all of God’s saints in all of time. All those saints in the past and all of those saints who are yet to have been born.

And in this God is just and justifiers.

His justice is not harmed because sin is paid for. Wrath is expended against the sin that brings death. The judge is just.

And He is the justifier because it is by the will of the father that the son came to die for sinners.

Bottom Line

This salvation that is offered to us by the grace of God. Justifies us. It redeems us. It frees us. It sets us in our rightful place as worshippers of our God. It puts us back into relationship with God. We are returned to our created purpose.

This salvation brings blessings. It brings life. It is glorious. And it is for you. If you have been saved it is for you to live in—to dwell in.

If you’ve never come to Jesus to receive his righteousness—Paul reminds us as we close our text that this great gift. This good news of Jesus is appropriated— “by the one who has faith in Jesus.” All that we have discussed this morning will take place in you too if you will put your faith in Jesus to save you.

Are you putting your faith in Jesus? Justification is for you. Redemption is for you. Freedom is for you. In Jesus these are yours. Let’s pray.

Discussion Question:

What is something from this passage that excites you? Why?