The Best Deal Ever

The Best Deal Ever

“The Best Deal Ever”

(Romans 3:21-31)

Series: Not Guilty!

Rev. Todd A. Linn, PhD

First Baptist Henderson, Ky

(5-31-09) (AM)

 

  • Take God’s Word and open to Romans, chapter 3.

 

We are preaching our way, verse-by-verse, through the Book of Romans.  We preach verse-by-verse because we believe it is the best way to understand correctly, what God is saying to us in His Word.

 

At the risk of sounding overly dramatic, let me say that the text this morning is one of the greatest and most glorious texts in all the Scripture.  If you had to assemble a “Top 10 List” of important passages, today’s passage would make the list, especially the first six verses of it.

 

The Apostle Paul gives the answer to the problem.  What is the problem?  The problem is that every person everywhere is entirely and thoroughly and comprehensively “messed up” and under the wrath of God.  That’s the problem. The problem is that God’s wrath is directed to all of us because of our sin.  We’re in trouble.  We cannot impress God with our goodness because none of us—from God’s perspective—is good.  From our perspective, from the perspective of secular morality, we feel that we’re pretty good, but from God’s perspective we are not.  We are sinners and if we stand before God in our own righteousness we’re in big-time trouble because our good works and our good deeds and our righteousness do not impress Him.

 

Look at verse 21.  “But now.”  Those two words!  But now.  That is, “Get ready.  I’ve got some good news.  I want to tell you not about the righteousness of man—which is no righteousness at all—I want to tell you about the righteousness of God, a righteousness that can be yours!”  Listen to this now as I read the text and then pray.

 

  • Stand in honor of the reading of God’s Word.

 

21 But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets,

22 even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference;

23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

24 being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,

25 whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed,

26 to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

 

  • Pray.

 

Introduction:

 

I really want to just get down to business this morning and get on with this text because it is so rich.  Preaching professors say that you have to have some joke, story, quote, illustration, video, something like that get everyone’s attention.  Well, forget all that.  If you need an attention-getter, here it is: my aim this morning is to shine a floodlight upon the Lord Jesus Christ so that you and I fall in love with Him more deeply and regard Him as the most glorious treasure in all the world.  I want us to leave this morning full in the joy of our Lord.

 

Okay?  So that’s the aim: to shine a light upon the Lord Jesus to the end that we fall in love with Him more deeply and regard Him as the most glorious treasure in all the world, leaving here in the joy of the Lord.  Or, if you like, the first question of the Baptist Catechism, “What is the chief end of man?”  Answer, “Man’s chief end (or central purpose) is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.”  So that’s where we’re going.  Let’s see how this passage of Scripture helps us do that.

 

I want to talk to you about this “righteousness of God” and reflect upon it in several ways as we make our way through this text.  First:

 

I.  Consider the Way of Righteousness (21-23)

 

Now before we go any further, let’s define “righteousness.”  Righteousness is the stuff you need to stand in the presence of God.  Righteousness is the stuff God is looking for when He looks at you.  If you want to “get in,” you need righteousness.  Do you have it?

 

The Jew thought he had it.  If we think of righteousness as a card you need to gain entry into the presence of God the Jew proudly had his card.  But the problem was that the Jew’s card had all of the Jew’s own writing on it.  It was all his own accomplishments, a card with writing on both sides that said, “I kept this law and this law and I didn’t do that and I was good here and walked the line there.  I am a good person.  I obeyed the moral commands of the Old Testament.  I kept the 10 Commandments.”

 

So Paul has gone to great lengths in chapters 1-3 teaching that no person can be righteous by keeping the law, by keeping the moral commands of Scripture.  The Jew thought he could earn a righteousness by keeping the laws of the Old Testament.  Paul, himself a Jew, says, “No way, Jose!”  That was never the intent of the moral law.  It was never given so that by your keeping it you could get “in.”  Look at verse 21:

 

21 But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed,

 

The righteousness of God “apart from the law” is revealed.  The kind of righteousness you need is a righteousness “apart from the law.”  No person goes to heaven by being a good, moral person.  You cannot impress God with your personal resume of righteousness.  The Gospel is that God has revealed His righteousness, a righteousness apart from the law, verse 21:

 

being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets,

 

That simply means that that the Old Testament pointed ahead, pointed forward to this coming righteousness of God.  The Law and the Prophets testify to it.  Verse 22:

 

22 even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ,

 

Paul is saying, “If you have been carrying around a card with your own righteousness on it, a card on which you have written all your good deeds, you need to know that card is absolutely worthless in terms of getting “in.”  You cannot impress God, you cannot gain his favor, you cannot get into heaven, you cannot earn His blessing, you can’t do anything with your record of achievements written all over that card.  Your card is worthless.  What you need is a different card!  You need a card on which is written on phrase, “The righteousness of God!”  That’s what you need.   How do you get it?  Next phrase there in verse 22, “through faith in Jesus Christ.”  That’s the way of righteousness: through faith in Jesus Christ.  And this is a righteousness available to everyone, verse 22 again:

 

to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference;

23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

 

This righteousness is available to all who believe.  There is no difference, or no distinction, from one person to the next.  Every person, whether Jew or Gentile, rich or poor, educated or uneducated, black or white, may receive this righteousness because every person needs this righteousness.  “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

 

Most of us know verse 23 by heart.  All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.  That doesn’t just mean that we try to aim for God and we keep coming up short.  In context, falling short of the glory of God reminds us of what Paul wrote in Romans 1:23 about mankind apart from God’s grace.  He describes us as those who have “exchanged the glory of God” for other things, exchanging the truth of God for the lie, worshiping and serving the creature rather than the Creator (1:25).”  So to “fall short of the glory of God” means that we naturally exchange the glory of God, the truth of God, for cheap, temporary substitutes.  And this is why we have no joy.  We try to find life in things that don’t last.  We have put them ahead of God, whether they are our careers, our education, our pursuit of material or worldly success, our houses, our cars, our vacations, even our families—all of these are things we allow to take the place of the glory of God.  God has made us for the chief end of glorifying Him and enjoying Him forever.  We must not settle for anything short of the glory of God.

 

So the way to this righteousness, the way to getting the “stuff” we need to stand before a holy God is—verse 22 again—is “through faith in Jesus Christ.”  Faith is the instrument and Christ is the object.  Listen, this is very important.  It is not “faith” in and of itself that saves us.  It is not “faith” independent of anything that grants to us a righteous standing before God.  Some people talk about their “faith” as though it were faith itself that saved them.  Faith is nothing without an object.  I must have faith in something or someone.  There must be an object.  The Christian faith is an objective faith.  We have faith “in Jesus Christ.”

 

Faith means our hearts are fully open to Jesus Christ.  We believe all that the Bible teaches about Him.  We believe that He died for our sins and rose from the grave, and we are yielding our lives to Him and that nothing is more important to us than His lordship over our us.  That’s the way of righteousness.  We must have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, believing who He is and what He did for us on the cross.  Specifically what did He do?  Number two:

 

II.  Consider the Work of Righteousness (24-26)

 

24 being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,

 

If we place our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ we are “justified freely by His grace.”  That means we are “declared righteous” freely.  We receive this righteousness as a gracious free gift.  Grace is freely receiving God’s favor when we deserve nothing but His wrath.  That’s grace.  Grace is freely receiving God’s favor when we deserve only His wrath.

 

Now really get this.  Paul says that if we place our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ that God will “justify us freely,” He will “declare us righteous,” He will declare us “Not Guilty” freely by His grace.  To be justified is to be declared righteous.  It is a legal term, a forensic term, a term from the courtroom.  It is like this: I stand before God thoroughly guilty because of my sin.  My sin is everywhere.  But because of my faith in Christ, God says, “You are hereby declared righteous.  I declare you ‘Not Guilty.’”

 

Paul teaches that the popular idea of his day was wrong–and I might add of our day, too.  The wrong idea is that somehow if I live a good life then at the end of my life, God declares me righteous.  So I sort of run this race in life whereby I try to live a good life and at the end hope that God will say, “Okay, you’re in.”  Get this, you all: Paul teaches that if we place our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, God declares us righteous not at the end of the race, but at the beginning of the race.  At the beginning!

 

And He just “declares” us righteous.  He doesn’t “make” us righteous.  There’s a difference.  We are not “made righteous.”  We are declared righteous.  That’s justification.  Who deserves that?!  No one.  This is why we love the Lord Jesus Christ.  Because Christ’s work of righteousness makes this all possible.

 

Verse 24 says that we are justified freely by His grace “through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.”  Christ redeems us from our sins.  Redemption is a term from the slave market.  Paul taught in Romans chapters 1 and 2 and now into 3 that all of us are locked-up under the power of sin.  Jesus Christ is the key to get us out.  That’s redemption.  He is the way out of our bondage.  He purchases our freedom so that we may then live for Him.  I love Him, don’t you?!  Look at what else we learn about the work of righteousness Christ procures for us. Verse 25:

 

25 whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness,

 

That word “propitiation” means primarily an “atoning sacrifice that turns away God’s wrath at our sins.”  It means that Christ’s sacrificial death satisfies God’s righteous anger directed toward our sins.  Remember Romans 1:18?  “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.”  God’s wrath is directed toward us because of our sin.  God set forth Jesus Christ as a propitiation, an atoning sacrifice that satisfies His wrath.

 

Remember that wrath doesn’t mean some angry god who’s out of control and emotionally cranky.  God’s wrath is a settled, holy displeasure with what He sees in people He loves.  God’s wrath is grounded in love.  The opposite of love is not wrath.  The opposite of love is hate.  And the ultimate form of hate is indifference.  God loves us and He sees our sin and He wants us to get out of this sin and so He “set forth” His son as a “propitiation,” an atoning sacrifice who shed His blood, who died so that we might “through faith” receive His righteousness.

 

Now that word “propitiation” also has another meaning.  It is used 20 times in the Greek translation of the Old Testament to refer to the golden cover of the Ark of the Covenant.  Remember the Ark of the Covenant?  Remember “Raiders of the Lost Ark?”  Here’s a picture of the Ark.  The Ark contained the 10 Commandments, Aaron’s rod and manna.   The word “propitiation” also refers to the mercy seat, the golden cover of the Ark of the covenant.

 

Here’s another picture of it from the top, looking down at the cover.  On the top of the Ark is the mercy seat, the place upon which the Jewish priest would sprinkle blood from the animal sacrifice which was made to turn away God’s wrath.  Leviticus 16 gives the background for all of this.  On one day of the year, the Day of Atonement, the Jewish High Priest was to come into the innermost part of the tabernacle, behind the veil, into what was called the “holy of holies.”  This is where the Ark of the Covenant was.  Inside that ark was the 10 Commandments, a reminder that a broken law stood between sinful man and a holy God.  The High Priest then offered there upon the mercy seat the blood of an animal.  He would sprinkle the blood of that animal seven times upon the mercy seat in order to turn away God’s wrath at the people’s sins.  So this mercy seat became the place of reconciliation between sinful people and a holy God.

 

Do you see this now in Christ?  What was prefigured in the Old Testament tabernacle is fulfilled in Christ.  The animal sacrifice was a foreshadow, a looking forward to the coming One who would come to turn away God’s wrath at people’s sins.  The writer of Hebrews says in Hebrews 9:12, “Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.”  Jesus Christ is the mercy seat, the point of reconciliation between sinful man and a holy God.  Verse 25:

 

because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed,

26 to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness,

 

This simply refers to the sins “previously committed” before the coming of Christ, the sins of all those who lived before Christ.  God patiently, lovingly, put off His judgment until the coming of Christ and His death on Calvary’s cross, thereby demonstrating “at the present time,” at the time of Calvary, “His righteousness.”  Paul continues at the end of verse 26:

 

that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

 

That’s a good phrase.  God is at once “just” and the “justifier.”  He is just.  That is He punishes sin.  Who of us wants a judge who is not just?  I mean, if a man is caught red-handed stealing a purse from an older woman, beating her mercilessly in order to steal it, imagine this man standing before the judge and the judge says, “Oh, no big deal.  I’m a loving judge.  You’re free.”  We’d say, “I want justice!”  God is a loving God who is just.  He must punish sin because His character demands it.  So you see, this is the best deal ever.  God punishes us by setting forth His son to take our punishment.  This way He can be both “just” and the “justifier.”  He punishes our sin in Christ and declares us righteous.

 

This is an incredibly awesome deal!  And it is a reminder of why Jesus Christ is both God and man.  He is one 100% God and 100% man.  As man, Christ dies for man, absorbing the judgment incurred because of sin.  As God, Christ gives to us His grace, forgiveness, and righteousness.  As Paul puts it in 2 Corinthians 5:21, “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”  So all that we are and have done becomes Christ’s.  all that He is and has done becomes ours.  God treats Christ as if He did what we did.  And God treats us as if we did what He did.  Is that not just the best deal ever?

 

John Newton, the writer of “Amazing Grace” wrote another hymn that describes the double transfer, of how it is that God treats Christ as if He did what we did and treats us as if we did what He did.  He writes:

 

O LORD, from Whom there’s naught concealed,

Who sees my inward frame; to Thee I always stand revealed exactly as I am.

 

Since I, at times, can hardly bear what in myself I see;

How vile and foul must I appear most holy God to Thee.

 

But since my Savior stands between, Who shed His precious blood,

‘tis He, instead of me is seen when I approach to God.

 

Thus, though a sinner, I am safe;

He pleads before the throne His life and death on my behalf and calls my sins His own.

 

What wondrous love, what mysteries, In this appointment shine!

My breaches of the law are His and His obedience mine.

 

And so we come to this final consideration, what I call the “wonder of righteousness.”  What effect does all this have upon us?

 

III.  Consider the Wonder of Righteousness (27-31)

 

27 Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law (better, “principle”)? Of works? No, but by the law (“principle”) of faith.

 

Paul’s point here is that if God’s righteousness is freely credited to us then we have nothing to boast about.  We did nothing to earn God’s favor.  That’s why he says in verse 28:

 

28 Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law.

 

You see?  We are not declared righteous by our good deeds.  We are justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law.  And Paul says

 

29 Or is He the God of the Jews only? Is He not also the God of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also,

30 since there is one God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith.

 

Paul is saying here that there is this one God who justifies all people in one way.  All people are declared righteous the same way, whether Jew or Gentile, rich or poor, etc.  Perhaps someone would say, “Well, then of what use is the Old Testament Law if we’re not saved by keeping it?”

 

31 Do we then make void the law through faith? Certainly not! On the contrary, we establish the law.

 

That is, the law is simply put in its proper place.  It is the law that points us to Jesus, the one who keeps the law perfectly, the one who said in Matthew 5:17, “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy the law, but to fulfill it, to establish it.”  The law points us to Jesus.  We read the Old Testament Law with all of it’s moral commands, laws like the 10 Commandments and we say, “I cannot keep these laws as I should.  What am I going to do?  I mean, “I’m trying to write all my good deeds on a card, but it’s not looking so good.  How will I ever be able to stand before God?  I feel that the Prophet Isaiah knows me personally because when he said that all my righteousnesses are as “filthy rags,” I felt as though he were talking directly to me (Isaiah 64:6).  How will I ever be able to stand before God?  And the answer is, “Look from the Law to the Jesus to Whom it points.”

 

  • Stand for prayer.

 

Imagine you have a tumor growing within you.  You’ve been to the doctor and the doctor runs some tests and comes to you and says, “I’m afraid I have some bad news.  This is difficult for me to say.  You have cancer.  Now, it is a cancer we can treat.  We caught it early.  We caught it in time.  We’re going to take it out and you should be fine.”  Would you consider that good news?  Absolutely!  You see, the Bible first gives us bad news.  It tells all of us that we have a problem and the problem is sin.  But provision has been made for our treatment.  We can be cured and the cure is the Lord Jesus Christ.  We can be cured today if we act quickly, while there is time.   Bow your heads with me as we pray.

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