Romans: While We Are Messy, God's Favor is Upon Us

Well, good morning.

We're continuing our study through the book of Romans this morning.

This is a letter in the New Testament that Paul wrote to the church in Rome.

It's his theological masterpiece.

He's surgically explaining the gospel to us.

In the first two chapters, we have God's judgment.

It's a diagnosis of our human condition.

Maybe you caught the phrase in our confessional prayer.

We are created beautiful in God's image, yet we are imperfect in need of God's perfect grace.

That's our story.

Beautiful, yet fallen in need of God's grace.

And God's judgment comes and reveals our need of God's grace.

So today's text, as we get into it, Romans 2, will move us past our behaviors into our hearts, which our hearts, our desires, and motives are not always great.

But we will get to great news by the end of the sermon.

All right, Romans 2, verse 6.

Romans 2:6

He, God will render to each one according to his works.

Point number one is this God sees deeper than behavior, God sees our hearts.

Paul begins with a universal principle that God will judge every person.

Me and you, those other people, those horrible people, those immoral people.

Yes, and me and you.

It's universal.

We're all created worthy and yet we're fallen.

About five years ago, Christy and I got on a plane.

Uh toward the end of the flight, I started feeling a little iffy.

Um, and then it was like, hey, let's look for a bag.

Like I'm gonna be, I'm gonna be that guy.

Like I've gotten to that point.

It's like, oh no, here we go.

I'm the guy.

Um but I made it through the flight and I got off the flight, got back on stable ground, and I started to feel good.

And then realized, like, oh, oh no, like you just got motion sick.

I've never been motion sick on a plane before.

I thought, ah, that's a one-time thing, something funky.

Get on the next flight, come home, again, happens again.

And I am like, it's over.

It's over.

I'm I'm gonna be in Marietta the rest of my life.

We're not gonna go anywhere, nowhere fun, no fun, all the fun's gone.

I'm never gonna get to go out west and fish again.

My life is over, my dreams are crushed.

About a week later, Christy, we're in our kitchen, and Christy goes, like, what's dramamine?

Like, I've heard about dramamine.

Like, what's dramamine?

I'm like, I have no idea what dramamine is.

Had no idea.

Well, let me tell you something.

Unbelievable.

Unbelievable.

Take one little pill before I get on the plane, I can go anywhere I want, anytime I want, I can go as long as I want, no problem.

Solved me.

I can go anywhere.

So if I have the illness, I'm in trouble.

If all I have is the illness, I'm in trouble.

If I have the illness and a diagnosis, I'm in trouble.

If all we have is Romans 1 and Romans 2, we're in trouble.

We need more.

But if I have something wrong and the light is shined on it, and then I have a diagnosis, and I have a remedy, now I'm rescued.

Because I can live out of the remedy.

I can just take more germamine anytime I want.

It's amazing.

So this phrase, it's interesting.

He will render to each one according to his works because it sounds like merit salvation, salvation by what I do rather than what God does for me.

But it can't be what Paul means because the whole argument of Romans as a whole is justification by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ's finished work alone.

So it can't be that.

So what does the verse mean?

Well, it means that these works that Paul speaks about are evidences of faith.

They're not causation, it's the fruit of who you are.

It's the fruit.

And Paul and Jesus and the Bible, God always digging past our behaviors, sees our behaviors, but wants to go to the heart.

Even in the Old Testament, we see it.

Jeremiah 17, 10, I the Lord, search the heart and test the mind.

He searches the heart, tests the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.

So God sees the behavior, but he's always wanting to dig deeper, not just do behavior modification on us, but get to the root, get to the heart, our desires, our motives.

We see this in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus pushing past the behavior.

At one point, Jesus even says, be perfect like God.

Oh, well, that's crazy.

I mean, it's it's crushing.

I mean, there's no worse verse in the Bible for me to read, I don't know about you, than to be perfect like God.

I mean, it's like part of me is like, oh, that's wonderful, praise God.

But like the reality is like I'm immediately in huge trouble because I can't even come close to that.

The rest of the Sermon on the Mount puts me in my place.

Have I ever loved my enemy perfectly?

Have I lusted?

Do I hold greed, selfish ambition?

Have I ever been self-righteous or judgmental towards somebody else?

Not you, just somebody else, never you.

Have I loved God and others with an undivided heart?

See, we're all in the same boat.

That's what Paul's doing in Romans 1 and 2.

He's getting us in the same boat where we are in need of God's grace.

See, the law does its work, shows us who we should be, but crushes us into our need of the gospel.

It's a diagnosis.

And we need the dramamine.

We need the remedy to live out of.

Jesus hints toward it in the Sermon on the Mount.

He's always a little vague, Jesus.

He likes to be a little vague, a little Jedi-like, Matthew 5.20.

For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

Now, Paul always explains Jesus for us.

Paul's much more direct, 1 Corinthians 1.30.

And because of him, you are in Christ Jesus.

Who is this Jesus who became to us the wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption?

Okay, so that means if you want to know how to be righteous or sanctified or redeemed, just be in Jesus.

That's what it means.

That's who he is for us because we can't do it on our own.

Romans 1 describes the sinful person.

Romans 2 describes the moral and religious person.

I'm not like those people.

And Paul's point is that we're all in need of God's pursuing saving grace.

Paul is crushing us into the reality of our diagnosis in order for our joy in God's grace to expand all the more.

Romans 2, 7 through 10.

To those who by patience and well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life.

That's who we should be.

Verse 8.

But for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury.

There will be tribulation, distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek.

In verse 8, there's a key word in there.

The Greek word for self-seeking is Erethia.

It means selfish ambition, creating factions to get your way.

The word carries the idea of self-interest, creating rivalry, putting oneself forward.

How can I better myself with no concern for you or maybe my family, or maybe my neighbors, or maybe my community?

Because it's just all about me.

These people fundamentally orient their lives toward their own well-being without concern for the well-being of somebody else.

Which is right, Romans 2 is incredibly dangerous for me and for you.

Because moralism and works righteousness is incredibly self-interested.

It is all inward.

Look how good I am in comparison to you.

It puts ourselves at the center and puts us in a position of judgment on the other.

It is self-interested, it creates rivalry, it's putting myself forward.

Good news to come.

Point number three.

Good news.

God's grace changes our hearts and what we live for.

So in contrast to verse eight, is verse seven.

This is who we should be.

Verse 7, to those who by patience and well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life.

The word patience there is a Greek word hypomene.

It means steadfast constancy, persistence.

It is a patient, steady walk in one direction.

It's not perfect, but it's steady.

It has mess ups, but it's steady.

It has complications, but it's persistent.

Back in 1955, there's a grandma, Grandma Emma.

This is Emma Gatewood.

And Grandma Emma became incredibly famous and well known because one day she goes to her kids and she says, Hey, I'm going out for a walk.

And then she just doesn't come back because the lady goes and hikes the entire Appalachian Trail in a single season.

First woman to ever do it, 67 years old.

No tent, no sleeping bag, no boots, no preparation.

She walks the whole thing in kids' tennis shoes.

And people would ask her, How did you do it?

Grandma Emma, how'd you do it?

How'd you do it?

All these interviews, how'd you do it?

She always says about the same thing, very simple.

She would say something like, Well, you just keep walking.

You put one foot in front of the other.

You just keep going.

You just don't stop.

That's how you do it.

What's she saying?

She's saying steady persistence in one direction.

That's what our Christian walk is.

It's not perfection.

It's not an up and always holiness climb.

No, not even close.

Your walk with the Lord is not a sprint and it is not perfection.

It's communion with Jesus in one imperfect direction.

It's steady, it's one foot at a time.

Now, here's the good news in that direction.

The gospel doesn't merely change where you are going when you die.

That's good news.

We love it.

The gospel also empowers how we live today.

So the very thing that God asks us to be and live is the very thing He's going to help empower us to do.

And we'll be imperfect in it.

So it'll be filled with confession and grace and another step in the imperfect walked.

Redeemer has a core value at the front of our bylaws, founding principle number eight, and it says this grace does not motivate our spiritual growth.

So it's not simple, simply motivation.

Grace animates our spiritual growth.

Grace is the power of God.

It animates, it empowers, it brings to life.

Got me thinking about Toy Story 5, an animation film that just came out.

Back in 1995 was Toy Story One, the first ever computer animation, full-length movie, groundbreaking,$400 million.

It won Oscars.

It was a big deal.

So I got curious how many animators did it take to pull that off?

It was 27 animators, 110 people total, three years, 400 computer models, 1700 shots to bring Woody to life.

Woody had to be animated, empowered.

See, we don't walk the Christian life in our own power, but by God's grace.

We're empowered to do the very thing God calls us to do.

We're not left on our own.

Philippians 2, 3 and through 5.

Think about this in contrast to what we read about self-interest and being self-bent.

Paul says, Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.

Okay, how am I going to do that?

Verse 4, let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.

Okay, how am I going to do that?

Here's how we do it have this mind among yourself, which is yours in Christ Jesus.

The very thing we're called to do, we do it by living in Jesus.

Titus 2, 11 through 12 explains it more, for the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people.

Fantastic, wonderful.

All right, here's how the grace of God works: training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age.

See, grace trains us because the Holy Spirit takes what Jesus did for us and just presses it into our hearts.

The Holy Spirit's taking the gospel, the good news that you are his child, apart from your resume or your record or your mess ups or your righteousness report.

You are his child and he loves you because Jesus alone is just pressing that into your heart and it redefines the very core of who you are.

And then what you find is old wants and old desires start to disappear, and a new set of desires and wants are being birthed out of the new self.

That's the way the gospel works in our hearts.

More good news, verse 11.

For God shows no partiality.

Now, knowing the rest of Romans is why it's good news.

If that's true just based on the diagnosis, we got a problem.

But we don't have just Romans 1 and 2.

We have the rest of it.

We know where it's going.

And it's going to the sufficiency of Jesus' death and resurrection for our forgiveness and righteousness.

Therefore, we can have point number four.

God shows no favoritism, yet God favors you completely in Christ.

The word partiality is that word favoritism.

So for God shows no favoritism, for God shows no partiality.

The word picture is receiving the face.

Meaning God doesn't look upon you because you're a certain someone.

You've been so religious and church going, good for you.

Now God looks upon you.

No, no, no, no.

It's not you make the grades or you have the job or you have the body or you catch the fish or your team won yesterday.

No, no, no, it's none of that.

And also in Jesus, he doesn't hide his face from you.

He doesn't turn away from you on a Wednesday because your faith level went from 100% down to 70%.

Doesn't exist, doesn't happen.

His favor is fully upon you in a one-way direction of a flood of love because of Jesus.

And Jesus' record.

So his face doesn't turn from you because you're a little messy or you're from a messy family or life has become messy.

Not at all.

He shows no favoritism, which means in Jesus, he completely favors you.

His face is upon you.

In 1773, Pompeo Bottoni, Battoni, an Italian artist, Battoni, he painted the return of the prodigal.

It's not my favorite prodigal in the back lobby.

We have Rembrandt's prodigal hanging.

It's not the original, it's just a copy, don't worry.

And Rembrandt's is still my favorite because the child is so needy and broken, and the father has the hands holding the child.

But this batoni I love because of the father's face.

I love the face of the father here.

His face is not hidden.

His face is actually quite highlighted in this painting.

It's not condemning.

The father's face is fully turned upon the child.

See, because of Jesus, the father's face is turned upon you.

He adores you.

Isn't that wild?

He adores you before.

He adores you before you get your act together.

He adores you while.

He adores you while you're a mess.

He adores you and loves you like he loves his very son Jesus because it's not your record that he's looking at.

Jesus already solved that issue.

You're fully forgiven and fully righteous.

So you're safe with the Heavenly Father.

His face is upon you.

It's hidden in the Old Testament.

We sing it all the time.

Numbers 6, 24 through 26.

I'll close with this.

The Lord bless you and keep you.

The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you.

The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.

If you have any questions or any prayer afterwards, there'll be a pastor down front to pray for you.

Let's pray together.

Heavenly Father, we're so thankful that you're willing to be honest with us about ourselves because we're not always honest with our own selves.

And thank you while you created us beautiful.

You're willing to shine a light on our imperfections, that our behaviors are not always up to your standard, and certainly our hearts are filled with self-interest.

Forgive us for our own self-interest.

Forgive us for our judgmentalism and self-righteousness.

Forgive us for the ways we don't consider our neighbor, our family, our loved ones, our community.

For that, we're the first confessors to say, Oh Lord, we're sorry.

Forgive us.

Show us even more our sin that we might be even more joyful in the sufficiency and the abundance of your grace to us.

That we live in your favor, not because of our record, but because of the record of Jesus for us.

Amen.