Romans 3:19-26

Father God, I praise you for making a wretch such as I, your treasure.

And I thank you, Father, that you accomplish this through the redemptive work of Jesus Christ.

!

And so I pray, God, that you come, that you work deep works in our souls this morning.

We pray this in Christ's name. Amen.

First, I want to say, I apologize for the very fragmented way I've taken you through chapter 3

as I've been here and then not been here and then had things laid on my heart that were different.

And I promise, at least Lord willing, that next week we'll finish chapter 3

and let Chris get started on chapter 4.

But I'm really blessed to come to this text today.

It's what I will call the crux of the Bible.

And in case you don't know what a crux is, I've got to tell you a little bit of my background.

In my younger days, not too long ago, I did quite a bit of rock climbing.

It was actually kind of a consuming passion for me.

And in rock climbing, you're setting always new challenges for yourself.

It's a fairly independent sport.

And you're always wanting to climb new routes, new routes.

And in every route, you have a guidebook and you look at it and you know the rating.

You know, this is a little harder than what I've done before.

This has particular moves on it that will be a challenge to me.

And you get what's called beta.

You ask other people who have climbed it, what are the challenges of this climb?

What do I need to be doing to prepare myself to accomplish this task?

I had a climbing wall, a little climbing wall in my room.

And I would actually set up the moves that I knew I was going to have to do and practice them over and over and over again to be able to accomplish this climb.

But every climb always had a crux.

The most difficult part.

The part that if you could get it down, if you could do that part, you could do the rest of the climb.

And every part of the climb, everything leading up to that spot was about getting to that spot.

Being able to conserve your energy, have the strength you needed left to pull off those couple of very difficult moves.

And then beyond that, everything was just a celebration of accomplishing the most difficult part of the climb.

That was the crux.

This text, this is the crux of the Bible.

Martin Luther called this the central passage of all of Scripture.

So we've been ascending.

We've been climbing throughout our Scriptures.

We've seen God create the world and original sin.

We've seen Him destroy the world except a remnant of people and animals through the flood.

We've seen the Tower of Babel.

We've seen the captivity in Egypt of the Israelites, the exodus, all the plagues, the exodus.

We've seen 40 years in the desert, the giving of the Mosaic Law, the temple being built.

We've seen God's people scattered and regathered.

The times of the judges, the prophets.

And then we see in our New Testament, the culmination of redemptive history in Christ coming and dying for the sins of His people.

This text speaks of that.

Paul so far in Romans has left us guilty.

He starts out laying out a very careful case that all men are guilt.

We're all under just condemnation, both Gentile and Jew.

He begins kind of his thesis statement in chapter 1, verse 16.

He says,

The gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.

And he goes on to show us how everyone needs to place their faith in Christ

because everyone is justly condemned, those without the law and those with the law.

The last passage in chapter 3, he fires off a bunch of Old Testament quotations for us.

None is righteous.

No, not one.

No one understands.

No one seeks after God.

He's not leaving us any room to think that anyone is going to escape the judgment of God.

And I think if you look around at the world, you'll find that the world knows.

We all know that we're guilty.

We all carry within us this sense that we haven't lived rightly,

that we deserve some kind of condemnation for the way that we live.

And I think we know that that doesn't just extend horizontally, but it also extends vertically.

We know that it's not just that we sin against our fellow man and we should be judged by our fellow man,

but that we've transgressed some kind of greater law and we deserve the wrath and judgment of God.

If you look in verse 19 and 20, I just want you to see two phrases there,

that we'll be held accountable to God and that no human being will be justified in His sight.

And that's the great tragedy of sin, that we've offended God.

That's the primary problem with sin.

Are there other problems with sin?

Sure.

Social issues as we sin against our fellow man?

Absolutely.

But the primary issue, the number one issue, is that we've sinned against God Himself.

Psalm 51.4, which is David's psalm of repentance after he has taken Bathsheba,

had her husband killed, had a baby by her that died.

He says in 51.4,

Against you, you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight.

He says to God, against you and you only have I sinned.

That kind of seems like an audacious claim, doesn't it?

It seems that He reduces everything that He's done.

He's really sinned against the entire nation of Israel as their king.

He's reduced all of that to say, against you only have I sinned.

But what David understood was that this vertical access of his sin,

this issue that he has with God, is greater than those things.

That sin trumped all the other sin that he had done.

So we all carry this guilt around with us.

In our daily living, and I think we know that someday we'll be judged.

There's coming this final judgment.

And we do some things to cope with that.

Look at the world around you.

I'm going to give you some evidences of this.

Everybody knows the guilt that they carry with them.

I'm going to tell you quickly about three coping mechanisms.

You can see the world carrying out.

We tend to cope intellectually, physically, and religiously.

We cope intellectually by trying to justify our actions,

turning vices into virtues,

such as greed and intimidation and self-exaltation.

Our culture is about that, about justifying sinful acts,

about justifying transgression of God's law.

We cope physically with the abuse of alcohol and drugs,

both legal and illegal,

things just to kind of numb the pain of living.

We wrap ourselves up in things like TV,

social activities, and sports,

to occupy our minds with other things than the guilt,

just so that we won't let in that deafening sound of silence,

as Simon and Garfunkel talked about.

We're afraid that if we stop for just a moment,

we might hear the condemnation that's upon us.

And most divisive among all of them,

we cope with things with religion.

Religiously, we cope.

And you see the world about this action.

Because of explaining away our guilt or distracting us from it,

religion tells us that we shouldn't be guilty.

That if we do certain things,

if we face a certain way and pray a certain number of times a day,

if we're really careful about stepping on grasshoppers,

if we follow a man's written code,

that we're okay.

We're going to be all right.

We're going to achieve a higher level of understanding,

or we're not going to be judged for our actions.

But none of these coping mechanisms,

none of these things actually get rid of the guilt, do they?

None of them actually free us from the condemnation of God.

Thankfully, the text goes on, right?

Chris asked me before we started,

we were singing the sheet song,

and he said,

are you going to preach after this?

And I said, thankfully no,

but this is a really happy text,

so it wouldn't be a terrible mood setting for such a text.

So we all have this guilt.

We know that.

We have a guilt bearing down upon us prior to being saved,

but thankfully we have salvation in Christ.

And that's where Paul begins to turn,

and why this is the crux.

If we can get this right, everybody,

if we can understand the salvation that comes through Jesus Christ,

how it is that that exchange happens,

we're going to get the rest of it.

It's all going to turn out okay.

We're going to understand the rest of the book of Romans

if we can get this one clear point.

So let's get after it.

Verses 21 through 23.

But now, and he doesn't mean now in my argument,

he means now in this present age,

but now the righteousness of God

has been manifested apart from the law.

What is he talking about?

The righteousness of God,

the right living,

the perfect, holy, right living of God.

Can people do good things?

Absolutely.

I'm not going to negate that.

People can do good philanthropic things.

We saw Mother Teresa live a very sacrificial life.

But if Mother Teresa didn't place her faith in Jesus Christ

for his righteousness,

her righteousness,

the things she did,

will not be enough before God.

So we can do good things apart from Christ.

We can go about the activity

of what the Bible tells us to do.

I can share with others.

I can love people.

I can share the gospel with people

and not be justified in his sight.

So the righteousness of God,

Christ himself,

has been manifested apart from the law,

although the law and the prophets

bear witness to it.

And I want to point out to you

that he has been talking repetitively

about the law lowercase in my ESV,

but then here,

the last part of 21,

he says law uppercase and the prophets.

And what he's essentially saying is

the scriptures that we have up to now.

So all that ascending I was talking about,

all those stories that I mentioned,

all of those things,

the law and the prophets,

have been speaking of the righteousness of God

that we find in Christ,

have led us to this point.

Verse 22,

the righteousness of God

through faith in Jesus Christ

for all who believe.

Now I'm going to get there.

I'm going to go beyond what I'm about to say,

but I want you to see

that there is an action required on our part

to have the righteousness of God.

We have responsibility

in this equation.

Okay?

And what is that responsibility?

It is belief.

That we believe that Jesus

is the Son of God

and the only way

back to God

to restore our relationship

with Him.

We're all under condemnation.

We all carry this guilt of sin.

The only way back

is Jesus Christ.

And faith requires our belief

in Him.

Our salvation is dependent

on that very thing.

Last part of 22,

for there is no distinction.

Verse 23,

for all have sinned

and fall short

of the glory of God.

Right?

This fits.

This fits where He's been

and where He's going.

Okay?

He's been talking about

the Jew and the Gentile

all under condemnation.

all must then

place their faith in Christ

for their salvation.

Right?

There is no distinction

between the two.

All must place their faith

because all of us

have sinned

and we fall short

of the glory of God.

All right,

man,

I just lost my thought.

Verse 24 and 25.

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.

All right,

let me stop there.

So we see

that what is required of us

is a belief of faith

in Jesus Christ

and what happens

in that equation.

And Paul gives us

some pretty big words here.

We have three

rather churchy words

that I think are very

important for us

to define.

Many people take

words like

redemption,

I'm redeemed,

I'm forgiven,

I'm justified.

Those terms,

we take them

and we simply make them

synonyms to say.

And in one sense,

they are.

But they're different lenses

by which to look

at our salvation.

There are different ways

to understand

this great exchange,

as Martin Luther called it,

where we got

the righteousness of God

and he took our sin

and bore the wrath of God.

Different lenses

by which to look at it.

So he starts out

by talking about

being justified.

So what does it mean

to be justified?

And it's fairly simple,

it's kind of a court term.

It means simply to be

declared not guilty.

It's a declaration.

So you stand before the judge

with your traffic ticket

and you say,

Judge, I actually

was not speeding.

This was a false ticket.

Cops crazy.

He says he radared me,

but he didn't.

And the judge says,

I believe you.

You did not do the thing

that you did.

And you're justified

in that thing.

You've been forgiven

of the possibility

that you even had

anything to do

with the wrongdoing

that you've been

blamed for.

That's justification.

So we're in a right standing

if we have our faith in Christ.

We're in a right standing

before God.

We've been justified,

but how is it

that we've been justified?

We've been justified

by his grace

as a gift,

a free gift

given to us

through redemption

in Christ

who was our propitiation.

So these are terms

we need to understand.

Redemption

and propitiation.

Now Paul was not

trying to be

super booky

and smart

and blow everybody

in the Church of Rome's

minds

when the letter was read.

His intention was not

that somebody stood up

in front of the church

and read this letter

and they all said,

that Paul is amazing.

He uses big words

that we don't even understand.

Paul spoke very plain language

so that people totally got

what he was saying.

We just don't live

in that culture.

We don't really use

the word redeemed.

in our culture.

Or certainly

we don't use the term

propitiation

in our culture.

So we have to kind of

look at what was going on.

What is the culture?

What is this

Greco-Roman world

that they lived in?

And redemption

was a big deal.

It was a term

that they really

would have taken hold of.

I've explained to you

before that

the redemption

process in war

looked a little like

this.

If I were to conquer

another king,

I would capture

that king

or take him back

to my city

and I would put

a price on his head.

So I would say

your people,

in order for your king

to be redeemed,

I need this much

in gold.

And if you paid

that price,

your king was said

to be redeemed

and I would return

him to you.

So it's a picture

of redemption.

A price

that the captor

cannot pay

is paid by somebody else

and the captor

is set free.

But it gets

a little neater

than that.

A little deeper

to the common man

that lived in this time.

Today,

we file bankruptcy

if we have to default

on our loans.

We just say,

I cannot pay my loans

and we have a little

loophole

that gets us out of that.

But there wasn't

a loophole like that

in this day.

And the way

they got out of debt

was they either

sold themselves

to somebody

into slavery

and used the money

to pay their debtor

or they became slaves

of that person

that they owed money to.

That was the way it worked.

That was your way out.

So if I borrowed

a great sum of money

to start a business

and my business failed,

I would become a slave.

Unable to pay the debt,

I'd have no possessions

left at this point.

Me and my family

as slaves.

Now let's say

I'm in slavery,

I'm sold into slavery

and I have a cousin

who lives in another city

who's well-to-do

and hears

that I have this problem.

The way that cousin

would go about

buying my redemption

is they would go

to the local pagan temple.

This is so cool.

They would go

to the local pagan temple

and they would pay

the amount that I owed,

my debt,

they would pay my debt

plus a fee

to the priest

at the pagan temple.

The priest then

at the pagan temple

would take the money

owed to my slaveholder

and I would be

set free

from that slaveholder

but I would become

the slave

of the pagan god.

That way,

culturally,

I still had the shame

of being a person

who defaulted on my loans

but because pagan gods

had no real rules,

I could go about

my business.

Isn't that fascinating?

As Paul talks

all throughout

the Old Testament

about us being set free

but being slaves.

You understand that?

If we lived in that culture,

we would have really understood

what was going on.

We've been set free

from the captivity of sin,

from the dominion

of the devil,

but we're now slaves

of a new god,

the god,

who causes us

to live

in a different way.

And that's the picture

of redemption.

Isn't that an amazing way

to look

at your salvation?

Every time I think

of redemption,

I think I'm getting

a little broken record-ish

about this,

but I think of

the prophet Hosea

who was told by God

to marry a woman

who he knew

would be unfaithful to him.

Her name was Gomer.

And the picture,

this real-life charade

that God carried out

in Hosea's life

was the picture

of Israel and God.

Israel was a harlot,

not faithful to God.

So you see this process

in the first three chapters

of her continual betrayal

of Hosea.

And she gets herself

to the position

where she's living

with another man

and finds herself

in such a hard financial time

that she is sold

into slavery.

And then God tells Hosea

to go to the slave market

and to purchase her back.

And the amount

he purchases for

is a huge amount,

a huge amount of money.

He goes back

and he purchases

his bride

who had betrayed him.

It's a picture

of redemption.

We ought to hear

the word redeemed

sing these songs

and it ought

to blow our minds.

Totally without

any worth

of our own.

Isn't that what

Paul has been saying?

None of us are righteous.

I don't care

if you were born

in Georgia.

I don't care

if your parents

took you

to the Southern Baptist Church.

It doesn't matter.

You could have worn

a tie from the time

you were six months old.

No righteousness

of your own.

It doesn't matter

how many mission trips

you've been on

at all.

None of that

matters

if you don't

place your faith

in Christ

for your salvation.

You are a

poor,

wretched slave.

Nothing

of your own.

Pitiful.

The slave market,

slaves were put

on display

without any clothes on

so people could see

what they were buying.

That's you.

You have nothing

of your own

to offer

to God.

But yet

he's

purchased us.

And how has he purchased us?

Through

a propitiation.

Christ himself

is our

propitiation.

Now here's another term

that we have to understand.

In this Greco-Roman world

there were many

gods.

And if you wanted

a god to favor you,

to be

proprietous

towards you,

you offered

a sacrifice

to that god.

So if I were

to sail

someplace

and I wanted

to offer

a sacrifice

to the god

of Neptune,

I wanted

the god

of Neptune

to shine

on me

to make sure

that I wasn't

in a terrible

wreck

as I was

sailing,

I would

offer

a

propitiation

to turn

God's anger

to

propietousness,

towards favor

toward me.

See,

the Greco-gods

were seen

as kind of

fickle.

I mean,

you've never read

any of the

Greek literature?

Very fickle gods,

easily angered,

bickering amongst

each other.

And so these people

understood

Jesus Christ

is a propitiation.

We are enemies

of God.

Now our God

is not fickle.

Our God

is full of wrath,

full of indignation.

The law and the

prophets have spoken

of that all

throughout the Old

Testament.

We've seen God's

wrath and His love

combined.

And then we see

Christ as the

propitiation,

this sacrifice

to turn God's

favor back to

us.

It's a beautiful,

beautiful picture.

So,

in the Old

Testament we see

the picture of

the Passover,

the final plague

that God brought

amongst Egypt

to bring about

the Exodus.

And what happens

in the Passover?

The firstborn

of all the

Egyptians is killed.

The angel of

death comes

through.

But those who

have killed a

spotless lamb and

spread the blood

on the doorpost

of their house,

the angel of

death passed

over.

Right?

What is that a

picture of?

That's a picture

of the wrath

of God

against sinful

man.

And those of

us who are

found in

Christ,

the perfect

Passover lamb

being passed

over.

Living as a

result of

such a thing.

Christ is the

bull slaughtered

on the day of

atonement.

I've spoken to

you about this

before.

In the temple,

the Holy of

Holies, there was a

day, one day a

year, the day of

atonement.

And I won't get

into all the

particulars of it,

but there was a

blood sacrifice

required one time

a year as part

of the Mosaic

Law to make an

atonement for all

the sins of

Israel.

There was a

constant sacrifice

happening amongst

individuals, but

this was the big

sacrifice, the big

laying of blood

on the altar to

atone for those

sins.

And as I

mentioned, Christ

is the price.

He's the price

that Gomer paid.

Hosea paid to

purchase Gomer

out of slavery.

Last part of

verse 25,

verse 26.

So all this,

all this activity,

this was to

show God's

righteousness

because in

his divine

forbearance,

he had passed

over former

sins.

Stop there for

a second.

This was to

show God's

righteousness.

righteousness.

This process of

placing our

faith in Christ,

the perfect

sacrifice,

came in order

to show us,

to show us

God's righteousness

because in the

past, he had

passed over sin,

hadn't he?

He had given a

way out.

The way was

always Christ,

but it was

faith that God

would deliver his

people.

Does that make

sense?

faith in

the Old Testament.

The New Testament

has not nullified

the Old Testament.

It was always

the same.

It was faith

in Christ.

They didn't

know that.

They didn't

know it was

Christ, but it

was in the

promises of

God that he

would deliver

them that

justified them

in his sight.

Because he had

passed over

those former

sins.

So you see

both his

wrath and his

love, even

in the Old

Testament.

Verse 26.

It was to

show his

righteousness at

the present

time.

So in the

past his

righteousness,

now in the

present time,

so that he

might be just

and the

justifier of

the one who

has faith in

Jesus.

These are some

interesting words

here, doesn't

he?

Some nice

choice of

words, so

that he

might be

just.

In order for

God to be

just, he

must condemn

sin.

We've all

transgressed

the law.

And no

righteous judge,

no earthly

righteous judge,

ever forgives

a lawbreaker,

they justly

deliver the

sentence due

to the

person, right?

You have

done this

thing, here's

the consequence,

there you

go.

That is a

just judge.

God is

perfect justice,

completely

holy.

He's just.

So how is

it, what's

the loophole

that we've

survived in

if we're

Christians?

How is

it that we're

not given

the condemnation

due us?

Because Christ

bore it for

us.

See that?

God had to

punish the

sin.

Every single

sin you

commit in

your lifetime

was punished

in Christ.

You see that

picture?

He had to

punish sin.

I've done this

also before for

you.

I heard this

somewhere, I

don't remember

who, but I

just want you

to know this

is not original

to me.

We all as

individuals have

at some point

in our life

stood at the

bottom of a

dam 10,000

miles tall and

10,000 miles

wide.

And what that

dam is holding

back is the

wrath of God

against all of

our sin.

Can you picture

that, standing

at the bottom

of this dam?

And that dam

splits open and

that water comes

rushing forward.

none of us

would survive

such a thing.

That amount

of water,

wrath in this

case.

And because of

what Christ has

done, if you

place your faith

in Him, a

gaping hole

opens up just

before you.

And all of

that water goes

rushing in to

that gaping hole.

You're standing

at the edge of

this hole and

that wrath that

should be yours,

that's billowing

towards you, gets

swallowed up into

a hole.

You remember

that Jesus, before

He was crucified,

prayed, Father, if

there's any way for

this cup to pass

from me, if there's

any way we can do

this some other

way, can we

please?

It wasn't the

Father's will.

So what did He do?

He drank that cup.

And what was that

cup?

It was the wrath

of God.

He drank every

last bit of it,

He turned it over,

He slammed it

down, and He

said, it is

finished.

What a great

Savior we have.

Just condemnation.

We deserve it.

I deserve to be

smashed by that

wall of water,

because my offense

is vertical.

Right?

I've sinned

against you guys,

certainly.

Should I make

reparations there?

Absolutely.

But more than

that, I've sinned

against the Holy

God.

I've begotted

God.

I've made myself

Him.

That is a great

offense, and I

deserve death.

But thankfully,

there's a way.

There is a hole

that can open

if I place my

faith in Christ.

There's a

responsibility on

my part to do

so.

If I ever want

to see the

gates of glory,

if I don't want

to be destroyed

because of my

sinfulness, I

must place my

faith in Christ.

I must believe

that He is the

only way to

salvation.

But I want you

to remember in

the text,

verse 24,

that this grace

is a gift to

us.

We'll deserve

it.

We'll get into

this next week.

I don't deserve

the grace of God

because I believe,

but it's given

to me as a gift,

my faith.

So we see both

the sovereignty of

God and the

responsibility of

man working

together.

I worked a

homeschool conference

for Truett McConnell,

and I've built

some new displays

and one display

says from the

very first verse

and the other

display says to

the very last

tribe.

It's a wonderful

slogan that our

school is using

now.

And I had a

homeschool mom

walk by me and

she said,

to the very last

tribe, don't you

think that's a

little offensive?

And I said,

how so?

She said,

because it

presumes that

everybody needs

Jesus.

And I said,

yes, that's very

offensive because

it's the gospel.

And she went.

I walked away.

But that is the

gospel.

What she wants me

to do is to say

there are many

ways to heaven.

There's all kinds

of things we can

do to deal with

our guilt.

We all know

we're guilty.

There's all kinds

of stuff you can

do.

There's varying

forms of religion

and activity.

For a lot of

years, my religion

was spending time

outside.

not a chance

I'm going to

stand at the

feet of the

white throne

with a bunch

of climbing gear

and go,

but look what

I've been doing.

Right?

Only

will it be

justified

through the

redemption of

Jesus Christ

because he is

our propitiation.

Let's pray

together.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.