Overcome by Glory

So we're going to be reading Romans 3 verse 21.

Romans 3:21

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's 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 Jesus Christ,

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 has 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.

Then what becomes of our boasting?

It is excluded.

By what kind of law?

By a law of works?

No.

But by the law of faith.

For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.

Or is God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the un...

Sorry.

For is God the God of the Jews only?

Is he not the God of the Gentiles also?

Yes.

Yes.

Of the Gentiles also.

Since God is one, who will justify the...

Sorry.

Since God is one, who will justify the circumcised by faith

and the uncircumcised through faith?

Do we then overthrow the law by this faith?

By no means.

On the contrary, we uphold the law.

Okay.

So today, my topic, our title is Overcome by Glory

and also for Glory from Romans 3, 21 to 31.

Before I start, I just like to...

I mean, for some people here may not know what the term righteousness means

because this passage talks about righteousness a lot.

So in the simple form, righteousness is being straight, not crooked in God's eyes.

And so we can only be either righteous or non-righteous.

There's no more scales in terms of either we are black or white in that.

Either we are crooked or we are straight in God's eyes.

While holiness or godliness are different, we can be more holy or more godly

as we grow in the knowledge of God.

Okay.

Let's pray first before we start.

Father God, we are so thankful that in Christ alone,

that we have our hope based on the meaning of our life.

May you help us to appreciate this as we come to your word this morning.

We pray and give thanks in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

So in my father's old house, there was a large old mirror hanging on one of the walls.

So in this, I only have this picture that's taken 46 years ago.

The mirror is at the back of all the people.

They are all my siblings.

Okay.

I'm from the right, the second front.

That was me.

But the point is that in that mirror, there were a few lines of text written in,

inscribed in the mirror in a very beautiful ancient Chinese choreography.

No one in the house seemed to pay any attention to the writing of the mirror.

It's actually just part of the furniture.

But it somehow attracted me.

What was the writing about?

Because it was an ancient character, it's not easy to interpret and see what that was.

And I asked my older siblings, and nobody seemed to understand what it was either.

It took me many years.

And gradually, I found out that it was written by Mancius.

Mancius is a follower of Confucius.

He's a philosopher, he's written many things.

And this is part of his writing.

So what it meant was something like this in English.

He said, first free yourself of wrongdoings and evil thoughts.

Then bring order to your family, after which govern your people well, and the land is yours.

So obviously it is written to rulers, people want to be leaders, to say that you need to be free yourself from evil first, before you can rule other people.

So this is written about 2300 years ago.

Mancius could see that for a person to rule others, he must first refine his characters.

He understood that no one could rule others simply by using force.

We can, like Russia can occupy Ukraine by using force, but it won't be, not a real rule is that people will be forced into submission.

So he just said that, he knew that for that to be meaningful, for one, like a parent to be able to help the children to grow,

you just can't use, simply by using force.

And the person himself needs to have good characters to start with.

So he urged people to try hard to do that.

But then, like the inscription on the old mirror, this advice has mostly been ignored by people.

Even, I mean, even some people may try to refine their characters, but they would find that impossible to free themselves from wrongdoings and evil thoughts.

In the Old Testament, in the book of Jeremiah, in chapter 13, verse 23, it says,

Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots?

Then also you can do good who are accustomed to do evil.

So, this word does not say that dark skin or spotty skins are evil.

It's saying that evil is just part of our nature.

We are born with it.

We can't change it.

That is what the Old Testament conclusion would be.

And what is evil?

So, we have to go back to chapter 1 of Romans.

We read about the manifestation of evil.

We can summarize it.

First, we replace the worship of our creator with worship of creatures.

So, there are many idols, any other things that we worship rather than the real creator.

And then we replace godly passions with ungodly passions.

So, having passion is God-given capability, but we use it for things that are not pleasing to God.

And replacing godly attitudes with ungodly attitudes.

And so, there's all the hatreds and angers and wars and fights in the world.

So, these manifestations are the result of us doing what we think is right to do in our own eyes.

Evil is suppressing the truth that is revealed by God and replacing it with our own ideas.

And evil is seeking our own glory.

And in Romans 3.10, it says,

None is righteous.

No, not one.

Because, well, we can say that we are more righteous to other people in some way.

But in God's eyes, we are either righteous or unrighteous.

And no one can say, I am righteous before God in God's eyes.

Even without the Bible telling us, like man's shoes,

we can see the effect of evil in the world.

Throughout history, there were leaders who tried to reduce evil in the world.

However, such ways tend to create other evils.

Because those leaders themselves were crooked and self-centered.

If they are not straight, they cannot help to make other things straight.

So, for example, communism was devised to reduce the disproportional distribution of wealth and power in a society.

But the application of communism by self-centered leaders caused millions of death and suffering.

And it still failed to create an equitable society.

And I think even the war now is happening is a remnant of communism in the way how people assess things,

value life, or this is part of the result that we're still living through.

I think about whether we can simply decide to become a different person.

Can we actually change our ways?

One smooth thing to think about our habits.

We used to think that people can change their habits quite easily.

But increasingly, as we read the psychologist's report, or their thinking nowadays,

they are suspecting that people have different capacities to change their habits.

For example, I used to think that people who consistently turn up late for meetings did not try hard enough.

As I read these reports, I realized that I have never tried to be on time.

This is just part of me, to be on time.

It's not trying.

But then I realized that people who are consistently late,

maybe are the ones who actually try very hard, but just couldn't do it.

And that explains quite a lot of things.

And this realization helps me to sympathize with those who are habitually late.

It's not that they lack of trying, but it's just very hard to change a habit.

And if you can't even change such a simple habit,

what hope do we have to change our nature?

Now, you might think that if it's so difficult to change our habits,

does it then let people off the hook in terms of do people have bad habits?

Or should parents let untidy children to remain untidy?

Or a short-tempered child to remain short-tempered?

I'm not saying that, but what I'm saying is that a tidy child does not need to work hard to be tidy,

because tidiness is in the child's makeup.

But an untidy child needs a lot of help to be tidy,

because tidiness is not part of it's makeup.

And the understanding of this helps us to approach our children, other people, and help them.

But then why should a person want to change?

There's another thing that we need to consider.

Because it's so difficult to change our habit, it makes a lot of effort.

Then why would we change in any case?

So why would a habitually late person want to be on time?

And why would an untidy person want to be tidy?

So we are usually forced to change our habit because of the fear of punishment,

or because of shame.

But such change may not last,

and we tend to relapse into our default habit or behavior when there's no threat to us.

So I hope that you can agree that we cannot simply decide to be a different person if we want to.

There's still one more question I need to deal with before we come to our Roman passage.

The question would be, if we cannot simply decide to be a different person,

why does God still find fault with us?

Are we responsible for our unrighteousness or sinfulness?

So if I say I'm not responsible for my evil character,

then who is responsible?

Can I say the devil makes me do it?

James 1, 14-15 says,

James is one of the books in the New Testament.

But each person is tempted when he is low,

and entices by his own desire,

then desire when he has conceived,

gives birth to sin,

and sin when it is fully grown,

brings forth death.

The devil can tempt me only because of

because of me having this desire to be my own God,

to satisfy my own desire.

I choose to disregard and disobey God.

So even if I blame the devil,

I'm still responsible for responding to the devil's temptation.

Now can we blame God for creating us like this?

God gives us a consciousness of self.

So with this consciousness of self,

we can choose to enjoy relationships or other things.

At the same time, we can also choose to destroy relationships

and abuse other things.

Baming God for creating us with a consciousness of self

would be like blaming our parents

for giving birth to us

when we are going through a tough time,

or like blaming God for giving us good appetites

when we are overweight.

In chapter 17 of Exodus,

the Israelites did exactly that.

They were thirsty.

They were in the wilderness.

They couldn't find water.

God brought them up to Moses from Egypt.

So they blamed God and Moses for taking them out of Egypt.

And they could not take their anger out on God.

So they therefore wanted to stone Moses to death.

God told Moses to bring his staff,

there's the stake that's on his hand,

which represents authority and judgment to Mount Horeb.

God said,

Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb,

and you shall strike the rock,

and water shall come out of it,

and the people will drink.

Though it was totally unjust for the people to blame God for taking,

rescuing them,

rescuing them out of Egypt,

God took the blame.

God was standing before Moses when he struck the rock.

Because God took the blame,

there was living water throwing out of the rock for the people to drink.

Can a leopard change his sports?

Can a person do good who are accustomed to do evil?

So the answer to Jeremiah's question comes in our reading this morning,

from Romans 3, 21 to 31.

And the answer is yes.

So in verse 21, it says that,

But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law.

When we try hard to follow the law by our own effort,

we will find it impossible as our own nature goes against the law.

When we think we can obey the law better than other people,

our achievement becomes a means of boasting.

When we think we are not as good as others,

our failure becomes a means of jealousy and resentment.

Jeremiah 13, 23 in the Old Testament already hindered that

there needs to be another way for people to become acceptable to God.

The righteousness of God in this verse means that

it means the righteousness that comes from God

and the righteousness that is required by God.

And God has provided this other way.

So in verse 22, it says,

The righteousness of God is through faith in Jesus,

Christ for all who believe.

Jesus gave himself up to take the blame for our sinfulness.

We can become acceptable to God through Jesus and in Jesus.

When the statement into the Bible study was asking,

Why is that phrase,

it said,

Through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.

Can't the sentence be shortened to

true faith in Jesus Christ?

Why?

Why?

Why?

For all who believe.

There is redundancy in the sentence.

It could be this emphasis in terms of

its true belief,

true faith in Christ.

In this verse,

I like the King James Version better.

It says,

By faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe.

I think the King James Version translation is more helpful here.

I make righteous,

not because of my faith as such,

even though I do believe,

but it's because of the faith which Jesus Christ has,

the faith of Jesus,

and which has been given to me.

I can't even have that strong faith that the Lord Jesus has

in trusting God to do all that God would.

But Jesus did,

and that was being given to me as I believed in Him.

Verse 23,

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

Everyone needs to come to the cross

to be able to be free from themselves and their sinfulness.

And how does this happen?

And why does the change happen?

Just like,

why do a person change the habit?

So,

God initiated the move to change us.

So,

in Jesus Christ,

God took the blame

and suffered for the consequence of sin.

In Jesus,

God also held us to see His glory,

and that is important in seeing God's glory

that affects our change.

In our society,

in our life,

what do we see as glory?

So,

some people will think that display of military power,

or in a wedding,

we have a cavalcade with a hundred expensive cars,

a beautiful building

plated with gold,

or Superman defeating the bad guys.

these are only

worldly glories.

The glory of God is far more than this.

We can see the glory of God

in the face of Jesus Christ.

It is a glory of grace,

a glory of truth,

a glory of purity,

a glory of kindness,

a glory of love.

So,

when we are shown such a glory,

we realize that we have not lived up to such a glory

that God created us to be.

And that's why we have fallen short of that glory

as God's people,

God's creatures,

and God's men and women.

When we see the Lord Jesus Christ,

we realize how much we have fallen short of that.

And when we face such a person as Jesus Christ,

what can we do but to bow before Him,

to repent of our sin,

and to worship Him?

In verse 24 and 25,

He says,

We 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.

So, in the bulletin,

there is a helpful writing about these terms

justification, redemption,

and righteousness.

I can also think that we are justified.

Why is that?

Justified as a gift,

redemption,

justification and redemption.

So, I'm thinking,

when we are justified by God,

we are justified by God as a judge,

the judge of all the earth.

When we are redeemed by God,

we are redeemed by God as the king and the father.

So, justified means that I was crooked before,

now I'm made straight in God's eyes.

Redemption means that I wasn't God's people before,

now I'm God's person.

I'm not God's child before,

I'm now God's child,

a son of God.

So, this initiative is taken by God,

and we see that this change has to come from God.

He put forward Christ Jesus as a propitiation.

And what is propitiation?

There's a word that we hardly use nowadays.

So, propitiation is related to wrath and relationship.

Propitiation is required to reverse wrath

and to restore relationship.

Romans 1, 18 tells us that the wrath of God

is revealed from heaven

against all ungodliness and unrighteousness.

The rest of Romans 1 then tells us

how the ungodliness and unrighteousness

manifest themselves in this world.

So, God actually requires this propitiation

for his wrath to be resolved

and restore the relationship.

So, is God being petty-minded

in requiring propitiation

to mend our relationship with him?

So, in our relationship with people,

we might be petty-minded

if we require propitiation

for an offender to reconcile with us.

If somebody offend me

and I said,

you need to buy me a chocolate

so that I would be friends with you again,

that's the requirement.

But,

such requirement

would be seen as petty-minded.

Why is that so?

Because,

in a conflict between two persons,

usually there's wrong in both sides.

I can't just say that you are the party of wrong.

I can't say I've got no wrong in that.

And that's why,

usually,

we cannot say that it requires propitiation.

But,

in our relationship with God,

it's different

because God has done

no wrong towards us.

It's not only that,

he has done all the good things,

given us all the good things for us,

and yet,

we repay him

with contempt.

That's more.

We do not only repay good with evil to God,

but we also rebel against our creator God.

We have committed treason of the highest order

when we choose to worship idols in terms of God,

and ignoring him.

And so,

it is only right that we should live under the wrath of God

until an appropriate propitiation has been put forward.

And we do not have any resource

to put forward this propitiation.

God did this for us.

The blood of Jesus propitiated

for our offense towards him.

And this action of God

is consistent with God's nature.

He's both merciful and just.

The consequence of rebellion against God is death.

Partly because God is the source of life,

partly that is because of the consequence

that God has warned Adam and Eve

that the day you disobey me,

that you will taste death.

But then,

God is the source of life.

When we distance ourselves from God,

that's the natural consequence anyway.

God does not actually need to do anything

active to show his wrath.

If he does nothing at all

to bring us back to him,

then our destination is death.

And we,

I mean,

like the world,

we will fight.

We will be at war

with one another

and destroy ourselves.

So,

there is a consequence anyway.

But in God's mercy,

he forbore our rebellion in the past

as he waited for the appointed time

to reveal how he can forgive sinners

and not compromise his own holiness.

The proposition by the blood of Jesus

is the way he can call us back to him

without destroying us.

So,

verse 26 tells us

why Jesus is the only way

for God to reconcile with us.

There's no other way

for God to be just

and at the same time

forgive our rebellion and treason.

So,

for people who say that

all the ways

will bring us back to God,

that's totally nonsense.

if you know

how badly we have offended God

and rebel against God,

there's no other way

except through the proposition

of the blood of Jesus.

So,

God initiated the proposition.

God has held us to see

that through the sacrificial work

of Jesus Christ,

we can be justified.

When we are justified by God

in Jesus Christ,

it means that

God cancels our sins

and bestows us

the righteousness of Jesus.

God justifies everyone

the same way,

whether you are

a religious person

or an irreligious person.

Religions cannot make us

acceptable to God

because even if we can

somehow fulfill

the demands of religious laws,

we will become proud.

Proud.

Pride is a hallmark

of self-centeredness.

Pride seeks glory for self.

And we like boasting

because we want to

justify our existence.

Do you know that

when you don't need to boast

to justify your existence,

you can feel so free.

You don't need to

let people know

how good you are,

how successful you are.

This is all that we think about

day to day

when we interact with people.

And if you know that

you don't need to boast anymore

because God has accepted you,

you are wearable in His sight.

That's freedom.

You don't need to justify yourself.

God has justified you.

So,

is there any use

for the Old Testament laws then?

Yes,

they are there

to keep our mouth sharp

as in verse 19,

the same chapter.

It said,

now we know that

whatever the law says,

it speaks to those

who are under the law

so that every mouth

will be stopped.

Actually,

it stops us from

boasting

because we know

that we can't attend

anything that the law requires.

and so,

at least it would do that.

But also,

the Old Testament law

tells us

what pleases God

and how we should

live a life

that is pleasing to Him.

So,

we don't throw away

the law

now that we

have been accepted by God.

Instead,

we uphold it

because we know

that there's

what pleases Him.

Not only that,

we also know

that through

this law,

through following

the law,

we are given

the life to live,

a life that is

glorious,

honorable,

and eternal.

Okay.

So,

this is why

we are justified

for.

We are not just

being accepted

and then became

justified and righteous

and then our life

seems to just end there.

But no,

no,

that is

only the beginning

and there's a lot more

to come

once we are

right with God.

and we

have to understand

that there's

not the end of it,

there's only the beginning.

So,

in Romans 2,

7,

it tells us,

to those

who by patience

in well-doing

seek for glory

and honor

and mortality,

he will give

eternal life.

in a way,

it implies that

none of us

seek this thing

and then we need

to understand

what they mean,

how we should

live our life.

have a look again

in my

old family

photograph

with my siblings.

So,

there was,

I was 14 years

old then.

None of us

in the picture

knew

Jesus.

We,

we did,

we worship

idols,

we did

hope to have

a good life

in some way.

Have some

job when we

get older

or have family

and

that's about it

and we all knew

that we would die

one day

because

as we worship

idols,

we worship

all sorts of God,

we also

burn incense

and supplies

to our ancestors

so that they

don't suffer

in hell.

So,

that is the hope

that we have

basically

you just

live their life

and die

and hope that

somebody

from your

descendants

would keep

supplying

things for you

while you're

in hell

so that you

don't suffer

so much.

I'm not sure.

So,

that's what

made me

quite unsatisfied

with life.

What sort of

life that is?

Why should we

live for?

In particular

because we were

quite poor.

It just

didn't

make sense

and I didn't

think that

that should

be the

way

and that's

what

made me

started to

look

for the

truth.

At that

time,

I mean,

I wasn't

seeking

anything

in no-go.

So,

I wasn't

even having

any concern

with my

family

even though

my parents,

they worked

very hard

for the

family.

My older

siblings

also worked

very hard.

I was

only

thinking

about

myself.

Though

the

saying

of

Mancius

did

sort of

point

to the

fact

that I

might

have

this

wrongdoing,

the evil

thoughts,

but I

didn't

actually

understand.

I didn't

think that

I was a

bad

person

and

I

didn't

think,

even

I was,

I didn't

even know

how to

change

in terms

of what

do I

do.

all

this

changed

when I

see the

glory

of

honor

of

the

Lord

Jesus

Christ.

So at

first I

thought

glory

was just

being

majestic

and

shining

something

like the

sun

until I

saw

Jesus.

So in

the

Gospel

of

John

we are

told

that

and

the

word

became

flesh

and

dwelt

among

us

and

we

have

seen

his

glory

as

the

only

son

from

the

father

full

of

grace

and

truth.

So what

as the

word

said

we should

seek

for

glory

and

honor

and

immortality

what do

they

mean?

And

when we

see

Jesus

then we

know

what

they

mean.

Jesus

is

full

of

glory

we've

seen

his

glory

as

of

the

only

son

from

the

father

full

of

grace

and

truth.

Well

Jesus

did not

have

a

shining

appearance

he

did

not

have

earthly

power

or

wealth

he

didn't

even

have

attractive

faith

as the

Bible

told us.

So where

is

Jesus'

glory?

He was

full of

grace

and

truth.

Grace in

that when

you talk

to him

you will

know that

he is

not there

to belittle

you

but to

show you

compassion

but to

show you

compassion.

Truth in

that when

you talk

to him

you will

know that

he is

not there

to endow

you

but to

set you

free.

There's

only two

things

but there

are a lot

more in

terms of

when we

see

Jesus

Christ

we will

see

glory.

glory.

And I

thought

honor was

being

respected

by others

and that's

why I was

as a

teenager

I was

trying to

get more

respect from

my friends

and that's

honor.

but when

I saw

Jesus

then I

knew that

that wasn't

the true

honor.

Jesus

lived out

the honor

of being

a man.

Though he

was not

respected

by man

but he

completed

his mission

of restoring

our honor.

Psalm 8

chapter 5

says

yet you

have made

man a

little lower

than the

heavenly

beings

and crown

him with

glory and

honor.

You know

when God

created us

he

crowned us

with glory

and honor.

We have

lost that.

What is

honor?

Do you

feel honor

to be

a woman

or a man?

Is that

something special?

Is it

something

that

is

exciting?

Do you

feel honor

to be a

husband

or a

wife?

A

father

or

mother?

feel

honor to

be a

teacher

or a

musician?

Feel

honor to

be part

of the

church?

We lost

that sense

of honor

in terms

of God

has created

me,

God has

given me

this.

It's

an honor

to be

God's

creature

in that

way.

We

lost

that.

C.S.

Lewis in

his nine

years story

helped me

in some

way.

in the

Prince

Caspian

story.

After the

battle,

this little

mouse,

Rupichi,

he was

injured

and his

tail was

cut off

as well.

Aslan

healed him

but the

tail was

still

missing.

when Rupichi

appeared

before

Aslan,

he bowed

before him

and then

he realized

that he

didn't have

the tail.

Then he

felt

ashamed.

He said,

I can't

come before

you without

my tail.

Aslan

said,

why?

What's

important

of the

tail?

Rupichi

said,

I'm

created

as a

small

mice.

the tail

means that

this is

part of

me as

being

created

by him,

by Aslan.

That's

why he

felt ashamed

not being

complete

before him.

It just

helped

me to

see that

I'm

created

by God

and I

have a

mission

and I

have

I'm

reflecting

God's

glory

in the

way I

live.

And so

that affects

how I

take my

role in

different

aspects of

life.

When we

have this

sense of

God,

then our

life will

be different.

How we

react,

act with

people,

how we

face the

stress that

we face,

we experience

day to

day,

if we

have this

sense of

honour.

About

immortality,

so I

thought immortality

was being

alive forever,

but I

didn't even

know what

life is

until I

heard Jesus

saying,

I am the

resurrection

and the

life,

whoever

believes in

me,

though he

dies,

yet he

shall

live.

death,

you

word death,

so I

live

Gas