Romans – But Now

This podcast is presented to you by Pastor Jason Burns and Access Church in Lakeland, Florida.

For more information, visit Access.tv.

Well, I have the great honor of continuing our series in Romans today, and we are in the chapter three.

If you were here last week, Pastor Jason brought the most uplifting message on the wrath of God.

But in all seriousness, who knows that we can't fully appreciate the love of God if we don't know that we were fully deserving of the wrath of God.

We can't fully appreciate the beauty and the love and sacrifice of God if we don't know about his wrath.

So Pastor Jason did an amazing job in Romans chapter 2, talking about the wrath of God and how it was satisfied in the life and the death of Jesus.

Romans 2 · chapter mention

And I get to start today in Romans chapter three.

And I have four kids of my own.

Half of them are homeschooled, half of them are in school.

But as a homeschool mom, we have these like dinner time conversations around the table.

And my seven-year-old, Augie, if he's in the room, favorite child, he's the baby.

Like he's the favorite.

He's so cute.

Sorry, everybody else.

But Augie just cuddles and just got a haircut.

Speaking of Augie, last night he prayed for me when we were talking about this message, and he said, put his hand right here, said, Dear God, please help mom have a good preach.

Amen.

That was it.

So if Augie prayed it, we're about to have a good preach, right?

Augie's amazing.

But Augie said, What are you teaching about?

What are you preaching about?

So I was explaining to him that I'm picking up in Romans 3.

And up until this point, it's almost like a really dun dun dun, like courtroom moment.

Where Paul is like an expert prosecutor, and he has built an amazing case proving that who is deserving of the wrath of God?

You and me and everybody.

In the wise words of Taylor Swift, it's me, I'm the problem, it's me, and it's you.

We are all sinners.

In Romans 1 and 2, and even the beginning verses of Romans chapter 3, we can, we stand condemned.

Romans 3 · chapter mention

Paul has made an amazing case.

And up to this point in this text, there's no way out for us.

There's no hope for us yet.

But in Romans 3, everything begins to change.

But let's see what Paul started in Romans chapter 3.

Romans 3 · chapter mention

In verse 9, he says, Well then, are we Jews better off than they?

Not at all.

For we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks, Gentiles, are under the control of sin and subject to its power.

In Romans 3, the case continues to be built against us.

The airtight case continues in verse 19, when Paul says, Now we know that whatever the law of Moses says, it speaks to those who are under the law, so that the excuses of every mouth may be silenced from protesting, and that all the world may be held accountable to God and subject to his judgment.

For no person will be justified, freed of guilt, and declared righteous in his sight by trying to do the works of the law.

For through the law we become conscious of our sin, and the recognition of sin directs us towards repentance, but provides no remedy for sin.

The case continues to be made against us.

And I told Augie, I said, picture this.

Except in our case, up till this point in the text, nobody comes.

We are condemned.

We deserve the wrath of God.

And have a great day.

It's an encouraging message.

Just kidding, just kidding.

But the part of scripture that I'm about to read with you today, many theologians call the crowning jewel of the Bible.

Many, many people say it's the most beautiful text in all of the New Testament.

Because up until now, Romans 1, Romans 2, Romans 3, 1 through 20, the picture is painted clear.

We deserve death.

But with just two words in verse 21, everything changes for us.

And I want everything to change for me today, and I want everything to change for you today.

I want you to leave different than you walked in.

And those two words are simply, but now.

Let's read starting in Romans 3, 21.

But now the righteousness of God has been clearly revealed independently and completely apart from the law.

Though it is actually confirmed by the law in the words and writings of the prophets, this righteousness of God comes through faith.

Say through faith.

We'll get to that later.

Through faith in Jesus Christ, for all those, Jew or Gentile, who believe and trust in Him and acknowledge Him as God's Son.

There is no distinction, since all have sinned and continually fall short of the glory of God and are being justified, declared free of the guilt of sin, made acceptable to God, and granted eternal life as a gift by his precious, undeserved grace, through the redemption, the payment for our sin, which is provided in Christ Jesus, whom God displayed publicly before the eyes of the world as a life-giving sacrifice of atonement and reconciliation, or this weird word, propitiation, by his blood to be received through faith.

This was to demonstrate his righteousness, which demands punishment for sin.

Because in his forbearance, his deliberate restraint, he passed over the sins previously committed before Jesus' crucifixion.

It was to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time so that he would be just and the one who justifies those who have what faith in Jesus and rely confidently on him as Savior.

So Romans 1, Romans 2, Romans 3, verses 1 through 20, we stand condemned.

Romans 3:1–20

There is no defense.

But in verse 21, with two simple words, but now everything changes.

And I know when I talk to some of my friends who have decided to sort of walk away from their faith or deconstruct, right?

They just can't reconcile the wrath of God with the love of God.

But like I said, we can't fully appreciate the love of God if we don't know that we were fully deserving of his wrath.

I like to say it like this that only those who know what it means to be lost can truly appreciate what it means to be found.

We sing an old song if you grew up in church and it's okay if you didn't.

I'm gonna make you sing it.

Sing Amazing Grace with me.

Amazing.

Come on, I'm not a singer.

You got this.

How sweet the sound.

Keep on going.

That saved.

You guys sound great.

Keep it going.

But now I am found.

Sometimes we sing these worship songs on this stage and it just becomes lip service for us.

I grew up in church.

I am the queen of that.

It's all old news to me when I come in here and I'm frustrated with my kids or I'm just checking church off the list.

But we once were lost, but now we are found.

Romans 3.21 is a glorious new reality that we can step into today.

And that is my prayer for you.

Last week, Pastor Jason ended his message with Romans 3.23, which says, For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

And it's a very easy verse to confuse.

Like, were we supposed to be as glorious as God?

Or what does it mean that we fall short?

But if we look back to Romans 1.25, the Bible says that we've simply traded the truth of God for a lie.

We've taken the sin that we like, we've taken our shame that we just feel like we'll have forever.

And we we've taken that as truth.

We've taken a lie on as our truth.

But I'm here to tell you today that we can we can live in the butt now.

We can remember what is true about the Word of God and who He is and who He says we are today.

It reminds me of my kids when they were small.

They would trade Lego minifigures.

Have you guys ever seen?

They're like the little Lego bricks that come with the sets.

And we would spend hours and dollars.

And they're these bags that you can't see inside.

So we just spend so much time like feeling the bags.

It's like blind bags, right?

And is this the one with the sword that you want?

And is this the one with the cool hat?

We'd spend all this time all summer long getting my sons the perfect, I mean, it's the one they wanted so bad for the collection.

Then they'd go to the park with friends and come run up to me and be like, Mom, I just made a trade, because that was the thing.

You traded minifigures.

And I'd be like, You did.

It must be really good, because we wanted that Lego for like six years, and now you have it.

I know you didn't just trade that good Lego for junk, but sure enough, they'd show me this busted Lego, no accessory, no head, one leg, one arm.

And I'm like, you traded something beautiful for something horrible.

And when when the Bible says we've that we've all fallen sin and we fall short of the glory of God, it simply means that we've traded the best gift for something much lesser.

But today we can walk out of this place in a different kind of way.

And there's lots of weird big words in this text of scripture, even though it's just a chapter, but I believe there are three glorious words of salvation that even me, someone who's grown up in church her entire life, it's only until very recently in my life where I can really appreciate and understand what these words mean.

And these words are justification, redemption, and propitiation.

And I know you're like, this is weird.

I promise, stick with me.

If you can understand the beauty of these words that Paul has brought after the butt now, you will leave this place knowing who you are in Christ.

Now, the word justification, in simple terms, it simply means the action of declaring or making righteous in the sight of God.

Romans 1, 2, 3, 1 through 20, we had no business, we had no right, we could never stand before the Almighty God.

But now we have been made righteous.

A price has been paid for us that no matter how good we are or how bad we are, nothing can take away this precious gift that has been offered to us.

In Romans 3.24, we read that we are being justified, which means declared free of the guilt of sin and made acceptable to God.

That's what justification means.

We're free of the guilt of sin.

We've been granted eternal life as a gift by his precious, undeserved grace.

And through the redemption, the payment for our sin, which is provided in Christ Jesus.

When someone gives you a gift, do you just stick it on the shelf and leave it?

No, you you unwrap it.

You want to see what the gift is, you want to use the gift, you want to wear the gift.

Today I invite you to take this gift.

You don't have to do anything for it.

It's a gift freely given to you because God loves you that much.

I like to say it like this: justification means acquittal and acceptance.

Acquittal and acceptance.

Again, more legal terms, right?

Paul's really smart, way smarter than me.

But acquittal simply means that we're not guilty anymore.

We're not guilty of sin anymore.

But this is my favorite part, and you're like, that's obvious.

Acceptance means we are accepted.

We are accepted as a child of God.

Acquittal means that we've been saved from hell.

And if that's where it stopped, hallelujah.

I do not want to spend eternity separated from God in hell.

If that's all it meant, that's beautiful.

But it means so much more.

Acceptance means that we are adopted as children of God.

Now, like I said, I have four kids and they have a wonderful dad right here, Mr.

Nate Mundell.

My kids have full access to everything he brings into our house: food, fun, a roof over their head, so much Chick-fil-A, so much.

That's why two of our kids work at Chick-fil-A.

I'm like, they're gonna have to start paying us for all of the times we're at Chick-fil-A.

They have full access to everything that their dad provides for them.

There's so many of us that have already even met Christ, but we don't live accepted.

We live tolerated.

But I'm here to tell you today that God doesn't just tolerate you, He celebrates you.

He has given you the gift of His Son.

And He wants you to walk in the identity of a child of God today.

And if you do that, it changes everything.

So many of us are living Romans 1, 2, and 3, 1 through 20.

We're not even aware of the but now.

But I want you to know that when God looks at you, he sees the righteousness of his son.

His son who never sinned, his son who was perfect, his son who doesn't have all of our hangups.

That's what God sees when he looks at you if you receive through faith the gift of his son.

The next word is redemption.

And redemption simply means deliverance or release by the payment of a price.

In Romans 3.24, we'll read it again.

It says, We've been justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

Justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption of Christ Jesus.

I want you to know that redemption is sort of like ransom.

How many of you have watched the movies Taken?

I'm gonna be honest with you right now, I can't do it because I have kids and I am a chicken and I'd rather watch like Bluey or something.

Can I get an amen?

Woo! Blueie! Next time I'm preaching on just Blueie.

We're just gonna do like object lessons about Blueie.

But uh but a ransom had to be paid, right, for people that were taken.

I want you to know if someone took my children, this like averagely strong mom would be busting down doors, crossing bridges, flying planes, doing whatever it took to pay the ransom for my kids.

Nobody could stop me.

I know you're looking at me and thinking, yes, I could.

I'm telling you right now, if it came to my children, nothing would stop me from getting to them.

And the same is true with God to us.

He saw the problem of sin and he knew that we could never fix it on our own.

We can't be good enough, bad enough, right and right enough, wrong enough.

There's nothing we can do to fix it.

So he paid our ransom through the precious blood of his son, Jesus.

God said, There's a problem, but let me fix it.

We don't have to fix it on our own.

In Mark 10, 45 we read, For even the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.

For many.

We read earlier, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

But Jesus gave his life for all.

You're not too far.

The neighbor that you can't stand, guess what?

He gave his life for them too.

For all.

Propitiation simply means averting the wrath of God by the offering of a what?

A gift.

We've already established that God gave us the greatest gift when he gave us his son Jesus.

We read in Hebrews, therefore he, meaning Jesus, had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people, for the sins of who?

For my sins, for your sins, for the person you've been praying for, that you think they may never come, God has made a way for them too.

In 1 John we read that He, Jesus Christ, is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.

The whole world.

No one is too far, no one is excluded.

I like to study different religions with my kids because who knows it's a different world that they're growing up in.

And I want them to be able to stand in their faith.

I want them to stand strong.

I want them to know what our friends believe that aren't like us.

I want them to understand it.

And in our study of different world religions, and you'll know this too if you're interested in other religions, every other religion demands that man make propitiation for himself, that we appease the false God, right?

We can see in the Old Testament there's people cutting themselves, dancing wildly.

You may have friends who believe differently than you that they are always bound in shame.

They have to do things a certain way just right, or they've blown it.

Only in Christianity does God make propitiation, does God appease his own wrath for us.

Every other system of the world, you can clap for that, every other system of the world demands that we bring an offering.

But if you know yourself and if I know myself, there's nothing I can bring that's good enough.

So God makes a way for us, he reaches for us through the gift of his son.

In 1 John 4 10, we read that in this is love, not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins.

We can't love him enough, we can't hate him enough to be too far away.

You can't curse too much, you can't swear too much, you can't lie too much, and you can't be goody two shoes enough.

This is a gift.

Acceptance as a child of God.

But how do we walk it out?

How do we live in the glorious reality of salvation?

Now what?

It's simple, but it's not easy.

You follow, it's simple, but it's not easy.

It's not by works, but it's by faith.

Everybody say by faith.

Faith was so important to make this point to Paul that he we're gonna read multiple verses in the short text that he says, by faith, by faith, by faith, by faith.

So let's read those together.

Romans 3, 22.

This righteousness is given, say it with me, through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.

Keep him going.

The blessings of propitiation are to be received by faith.

And we can keep them rolling.

God is shown to be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

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

By faith.

I said that it's it's simple, but it's not easy.

When I think of my four kids, I picture like when they were smaller and lighter in weight, all of them would, with full force, full faith, full confidence, full dependence, they would run to Nate, their father.

They would run full force and they would know he would catch them, throw them up in the air, and catch them again.

Not once ever, even when we're hiking in the mountains and they're 14 now, not once did they think their dad was going to drop them.

This is a perfect picture of what by faith means.

This is not in my notes, but I think of Matthew 18, when Jesus is talking to a group of people, and he says, Let the children come to me, unless you become like a child, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

That's where we get the phrase, the faith of a child.

By faith.

It's not simple, but it's not easy.

And this is my invitation to you today.

Could you live by faith in the reality of what God has done for you?

In Ephesians, we read that for it is by grace, God's remarkable compassion and favor drawing you to Christ, that you have been saved, actually delivered from judgment and given eternal life through faith.

And this salvation is not of yourselves, not through your own effort, but it is the undeserved, gracious gift of God, not as a result of your works, nor your attempts to keep the law.

Thank God, because my attempts always fail, so that no one will be able to boast or take credit in any way for his salvation.

By faith, we can live in a new reality.

By faith, you can step out of shame and condemnation and disbelief.

And you might be like my friend from Axis Kids that got baptized today.

You may have even said, I will never believe.

It's too much.

The science doesn't add up.

That's a whole other thing we can preach about, right?

You might be like my little buddy that says, I'll never believe.

It can't be real.

But today I give you the simple invitation that, like a child, runs to their father, you can run to God today by faith and leave here a child of God.

So we are going to close out in prayer now.

If everyone in this room can bow their head and close their eyes, God, we thank you for the gracious gift of Jesus, that through faith we can leave this room accepted, celebrated, loved, cherished as a child of God.

God, I thank you that I don't have to reach to you because you're already reaching to me.

God, I thank you that my works don't have to be enough because you made a way for me.