Preacher: Rev. Canon Christopher Allan
Romans 3:21-31
Righteousness Through Faith
21 But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. 22 This righteousness is given through faith in[h] Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. 25 God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement,[i] through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— 26 he did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.
27 Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. Because of what law? The law that requires works? No, because of the law that requires faith. 28 For we maintain that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law. 29 Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles too? Yes, of Gentiles too, 30 since there is only one God, who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith. 31 Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the law.
Here is my transcript...
Do we understand the mystery of Easter?
I remember many years ago, it seems like when the Internet first came out, one of my favourite websites, the website I seem to check everyday, was one that flashed up on its screen a different medieval object everyday. It was a curious object, always something that was… well there was fine craftsmanship. It was exquisite in its appearance. Always polished steel or gold or silver. Studded with gems all over it and this website that showed you a picture everyday of this object and you would have to guess what the object was. A bit like the crossword puzzle with yesterday's answer.
I remember there was a padlock and a telescope, reading glasses and a travel sewing kit. You'd never think that that's what they were when you looked at them so beautiful were they. And now they're in museums all over the world. But the point is they were objects that had a purpose. Functional
It seems to me that some might view Christianity, and especially Easter, in the same way that I was viewing those objects, from antiquity. That is, a beautiful object, something from way in the past, something to be held in high esteem, of great value, to be gazed upon, even to be shared a couple of times a year, all the while never understanding the true purpose, its true function.
Last week, Christians all over the world and particularly here in this cathedral, we celebrated and we remembered the resurrection of the man Jesus in an event we call Easter. But just why did Jesus die? What result did Jesus’ death have? Is it just something noble, honourable, something for us to look back on?
For most people, and dare I say even for many Christians, the events of Easter can be something of a bit of a mystery.
What did Easter achieve?
Today, we're going to take just a very brief moment and ask the question - what did Easter achieve for us? What happened on the Cross?
I want to say today is not going to be exhaustive at all. In fact we're barely going to scratch the surface but it will begin us on the road to answering that question and the passage that we've chosen this morning to read is from Romans and I think it will help us greatly.
To help us this morning, I have four points. Four very simple points. Four functions of what Jesus’ death achieves, what he has won for us, what he has provided for us. But before we get into the passage, very quickly, a word on the context because I'm aware that for most of us we've just parachuted into this verse. You've caught us, if you're visiting with us, mid sermon series. We're about to start another one in a few weeks time, on the book of Genesis. So a bit of early warning for you to be prepared for that.
None of us are righteous...
But here we read this letter to the Roman church that the apostle Paul has written and he has just been, very basically, for three chapters, been making a very sobering point and it's this. All of us, all of us are in a very catastrophic position without Jesus. Paul says, and this in just one verse in those first three chapters. Verse 10 of chapter 3, Paul says without Jesus, none of us are righteous. Not even one. There is no one who understands. There is no one who seeks God.
The point is it's a dire predicament. An outlook that is bleak a situation. That is hopeless.
Imagine, just for a second, that Paul has painted for us a huge black canvas. The colour is deeply black. Foreboding and gloomy. And the first three chapters bring that black background before us.
Now in verse 21, Paul swathes up bright a blazingly white stroke of paint! And that is what we call the Gospel. That is the message of Easter. And it is great news and Paul now pulls apart this message of hope and he begins by saying firstly, my first point for us this morning, Jesus restores our relationship with God.
1. Easter restores our relationship with God
That's my first point, that's the first function of the Cross at Easter. Jesus restores our relationship with God. And the news is given to us in verse 21, with two very simple words. With that black background in the view, Paul says “But now.”
The great preacher Martin Lloyd Jones said there are no more wonderful words in all of scripture than those two words ‘but now’.
He'll go on to say in Verse 22, almost a mirror copy of verse 21, “This righteousness,” he says, “is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. A righteousness is given, he says and what that means is that our relationship with God has been restored. A right standing with God is established.
At the end of World War Two, newspapers, if you remember what they are, they had one word printed on them on the front page. “Victory!” And that one word on the front page of the newspapers in 1945 meant peace, the end of hostilities, families reunited, loved ones returning home. Nothing would be the same again.
Peace with God
And like those headlines, for those who come to Jesus in faith, now we have peace with God and that is terrific news. And if that weren't amazing enough, the peace isn't because we finally reached our full potential. It's not because we've had a good week. It's not because we've made promises to God that he's finally found acceptable. No! Notice, will you, that God himself has acted for us. This righteousness is not achieved by us but received by us.
A gift from God, received by trusting alone, not by working harder
Paul will describe it later in this same letter as a gift from God through faith in Jesus. Received not by working harder but by trusting. When Martin Luther translated this verse from Latin to German 500 years ago, so strongly did he feel the weight of what this passage was saying, he added the word alone. By faith alone. Because God has done it all for us. But as quickly as Paul describes our relationship with God, he moves us on, saying what the cross means also. And I want to say this morning, the second way that the cross functions for us is seen in verse 24 where we're told that God justifies.
2. God justifies
Paul uses a legal word here straight out of the law courts and it means ‘just as if you'd not sinned. Acquittal. No charge. Justifies.
I remember when I was younger, I did something, well I did many things that were really stupid, but I remember this one. That was pretty harmless, it didn't impact on anyone else but it's something for which at my age, I'm still terribly embarrassed about. I just wish I could scrub it from my past. Erase it from my memory.
At Easter Jesus' death for me justifies my sins, all my sins, just as if they did not happen. They are no longer counted against me. Jesus died a sinners death, although he was perfect, although he was righteous, although he kept the law of God perfectly. And he died a death that he didn't deserve. For me, For you. And paid in that one transaction, as he dies on the Cross, what I owed.
Do we really understand justification?
And friends a word of application for all of us this morning. Many of us have been Christians for a long time and I wonder if we fully grappled with what being justified means. Maybe for you there is something in your past, something you did, something you didn't do when should have done, something that you said, something that you thought - so shameful that you think I can never forgive that, I can never wipe that away. The good news friends is that God does. The barrier that has been created by us between God and us is cleared.
You need to hear those words friends and when we confess our sins, know that God has forgiven us because Jesus has died for us. And while we are faithless, God is faithful .
3. Redemption of our status with God
Third Point. On the cross Jesus redeemed my status before God, Jesus redeemed my status before God. Verse 24 again. “And all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus." Here again Paul borrows another word from the society around him, although this time it's not the law courts. He goes to the Westfield, he goes to the shopping centre, the slave markets where human beings people like you and I were bought and sold for as little small misdemeanors as running out of money and owing somebody money. Being sold into slavery, people would literally be owned and the only way to get your freedom back again was for some wealthy benefactor to come and outlay a huge amount of money and buy that slave. And that's the word that Paul deliberately chooses. Redeems. And it means here that Jesus literally redeems you and I from what we owe. Isn't that amazing! While we've all been redeemed, you personally have been redeemed. That's astounding. Jesus redeems us. He pays the penalty, he outlays, he pays the debt. My cost, your cost. His life for your life.
Friends, a question for you today. Do you feel as though not much has happened for you in your Christian life? Do you feel as though God hasn't done that much for you? Your prayers are unanswered. Your life isn't as good as those you look around and see. Or friends, maybe you've forgotten. Maybe you've forgotten the Gospel. Jesus died for you. He ransomed his life for your life. He gave and paid everything for you.
Be comforted in the love of God poured out through his son the Lord Jesus Christ. If you feel as though nothing has been given to you, know that Jesus’ life was given for you. And I'll go as far as to say when we truly know this, when we truly know this, we can't read those Passion narratives, that we spent all last week reading, and hear them in the the same way ever again.
4. Jesus redeems us by sacrificing himself
And I say this because our final point this morning is we have that right relationship with God. We know that we've been justified. We know that we've been redeemed through one single act. And this is my fourth and final point. Jesus does this all by sacrificing himself. Jesus does this all by sacrificing himself. Look with me at verse 25. “God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement through the shedding of his blood to be received by faith.”
You know friends in 2000 years of history the event of Golgotha, that account we read last Friday as Jesus died on the cross, it has been airbrushed by Michelangelo and Rubens and countless artists and sculptors. And the cross has become mainstream has it not? Our buildings, centre pieces in buildings, even jewellery around our necks and on our ears - there the cross hangs. But there is no other way to say this, we can't neaten or gloss up what really occurred on the Cross. Jesus was a sin offering. Jesus was the transaction, literally his blood for mine. Sin was paid for.
Our sin is paid for by Jesus' death. No more sacrifices
This morning, after the early morning service, a visitor to the cathedral, a lovely visitor, said I can't see your little red light here in the cathedral, that exists in so many churches around the world, that signifies that Jesus body is in the building during communion, because a sacrifice has been made. And I said the wonderful news of Easter that we've just heard here is that Jesus has paid it all! We don't need to sacrifice anymore. There is no need. No need for the Old Testament sacrificial system anymore. And I said to this lady, “Can you imagine if every week we had a sacrifice here. A lamb or a goat or a bull. She said that would be awful. I said, “That's the great news that's been paid once and for all. Done and dusted by Jesus.
Why the Cross was necessary
You might be asking a good question - why couldn't God have just done something like an amnesty? Why couldn't you just wiped away sin, held the shift button down, highlighted everything, all my past and deleted it? The answer is in verses 25 and 26. Because God is righteous himself.
I remember my kids would play cricket and my older son would bowl out the younger son and then after the wicket, he do a song and dance, claiming victory. Rubbing it in his face as older brothers are wont to do. And of course my heart would break, so I’d go out there and say “That's a no-ball, he's back in." Now of course I can do that, because I'm a dad and I'm in charge at home. My younger son is happy but my elder son is devastated and he cries out “Unfair dad!” And he's right, it is unfair. It is unjust. It's partial and it’s bias. I'm fickle as just like you, but God isn't. God is just.
God is righteous, just
The one thing that galvanises our society is when, after some horrific crime, it comes out that the perpetrator was given early release or a light sentence. And he didn't get justice. And we cry out “Where is the justice?”
And friends, here is the point. If God were to do that, we would say the same thing! Where is the justice? Friends, there will be justice for the wrongs done to us which is why Jesus had to die. And Paul will say again and again, particularly here in verses 25 and 26, he did it to demonstrate his righteousness. In Jesus’ death, God shows his justness.
The message of Easter is more than a curiosity
Which is why friends I say to you this morning, the message of Easter is more than some curiosity of antiquity. It's more than something to gaze upon and say “Wasn't that beautiful, coming into the cathedral, singing those hymns and hearing our musicians and wonderful, uplifting and encouraging messages.”
The message of Easter, friends, while is unpalatable in its rawness, and offensive for those of us who do not believe in sin, for those of us who have put our trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, it is the message of salvation. It is a message of great joy.
Friends, I'm going to ask that all of us just spend a moment reflecting on this and to help us I want to point us to the next hymn that we're going to play. And Sam, before he plays, is just going to give us a brief moment to reflect on verse two. "Because the sinless saviour died," we're about to sing, “my sinful soul is counted free, counted free for God that justice is satisfied, to look on him and pardon me."
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