We are all in the same boat. (Romans 3:21-4:25)
Billy Milton - February 20, 2005
Last week I believe that Satan sowed doubts in my mind. I was sitting at home after the morning service, having a cup of coffee and doing the crossword, and the thought popped into my mind, “These poor folks. For about the past month or so all I seem to have been saying is that you’re not good enough. In fact you can’t even begin to try and be good enough because it just isn’t in your nature.” Satan was telling me, “Tone it down or they’ll be getting fed up with this message week after week.” Then, almost immediately, I sensed God saying, “Don’t worry Billy this is the best news you could share with anyone! You see if there was any chance that any one of you, anywhere in this world, at any time in history, was good enough then the rest of you would stand condemned by that one perfect life. This not bad news you’re preaching, in fact it’s the best news anyone could hear!” The fact that I can stand here with all my record of sinfulness and failure and tell you in all your sinfulness and failure that Jesus actually loves sinners is just so wonderful, isn’t it?
Again and again I speak to people who don’t feel saved, who don’t feel that they have the abundant life that Jesus promised, and obviously this can lead to a feeling of despondency. I believe that there are many Christians who are in this position because they’re not clear about certain foundational truths that they should have dealt with right at the start of their Christian life. This condition seems to be particularly the case with those who have been brought up in a Christian home. They seem to be able to go through most of their Christian life spiritually weak and ineffective. They see other Christians who apparently find the Christian life just wonderful; they listen to dramatic testimonies and think, “Oh how I wish that that was my experience. They’ve got something that I haven’t.” They read Christian books that promise excitement and fulfillment if they just do this or the next thing, but it never quite works for them and, understandably, they become disillusioned. Very often the answer to their ongoing struggle is quite simple. They are concerned with the problem of sanctification (becoming more like Jesus day-by-day) when in actual fact they have never really understood justification.
Remember, justification takes place when a sinner stands before a holy God and is declared ‘not guilty’ because Jesus took their punishment. What does verse 28 say? “For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law.” Many of us fail to grasp this foundational, essential truth and Satan is very happy about this. He sees many Christians striving to be righteous when they haven’t really grasped what it means to be justified.
In many churches someone will be considered a Christian if they work hard enough, do good to others and try to live within the law. It’s the age-old problem of trying to be good enough for God, and Jesus always cautioned people against taking that route. Think of most of his conversations with the Pharisees. They revolved around their observance of the law as a means to salvation and, by trying their best; they thought that all was well. Jesus constantly rebuked that attitude which in actual fact leads to a lack of reliance in God.
I expect most Christians would agree that there is no lasting happiness or peace in life until we are right with God? But what makes some people miserable is their idea of how that right-ness with God is going to be obtained. The Jews believed that they could obtain it by keeping the Law. In fact they had got it completely wrong. The Law was given not to save people but to condemn them. (3:20) Not to make them think how right they were but to prove, rather, how bad they were. In the act of failing it was hoped that they would recognise that none of us can perfectly keep God’s law so all of us are condemned - unless we turn to Jesus in our weakness and ask him to save us.
So, what am I saying is the foundational problem today? Well this might seem a bit strange after what I said right at the start, but its back once more to what we’ve been majoring on over the past few weeks - the first thing we must be absolutely clear of is our own sinfulness. Now, I hear you say, “You said you felt a bit guilty about continually talking about how bad we were and now you’re going to do it again! Do you want us to become even more miserable?” Well…yes! Unless, and until, you have a clear view of your own sinfulness, and the misery that it will bring you, you cannot know real Christian joy. That’s why I mentioned at the beginning that this problem of not feeling saved is most common in those brought up in a Christian home. I was well into my teens before I had any real sense that I was absolutely a sinner. Some folk can live their whole lives without a deep conviction that they are sinners. Sure, they’ll pray it, and admit it in public, but they don’t really feel it. But ultimately there is only one thing that is going to drive a person to Christ and make him rely on Christ alone, and that is a true conviction of sin in their life.
The person who thinks that they’re not so bad often thinks of sin in terms of actions or particular ways of behaving. So if they don’t do these particular things, or behave as badly as other people they know, then they are not really sinners. And if they don’t feel this deep conviction of sin then they will never see their desperate need of the Lord Jesus Christ. How then can such people become convicted of their sin?
One way is to accept what the Bible says. Rom 3:10, “There is no-one righteous, not even one;” or Rom 3:23, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Nothing has changed between then and now. Every one of us still finds that these verses apply to us today. If we are concerned about a conviction of sin, the first thing we need to do is to stop thinking about sin in terms of particular actions. We don’t just do sin - we are sinners. Just consider what Jesus cited as the most important commandment, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength…and love your neighbour as yourself.” Forget the drunkard, the serial adulterer, the murderer and so on, here’s the acid test. If you do not love the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength… you are every bit as much a sinner as the men who blew up the Twin Towers!
In 1Tim.1:15 Paul says, “Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners –of whom I am the worst.” Jesus himself said in Matt 9:12 that it wasn’t the healthy that needed a doctor but those who knew that they were sick. And Paul, who was well aware of his own sin, had grasped that principle so well that he was determined that we should all see our sickness. So that’s the first thing - conviction of sin. If you don’t feel your own sinfulness then you cannot have a true experience of salvation.
The second principle is that God has chosen to provide for our salvation through Jesus Christ. v22 “This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.” One reason that people become disillusioned spiritually is that they have not fully grasped what this means. As I’ve said already it’s much more than just ‘asking Jesus into your heart’ or pointing to a date in a diary. We’ve seen already this morning that sin separates us from God. That’s why one of the ways of describing salvation is by using the word ‘reconciliation’. Reconciliation, simply put, means that the two separated things are brought back together. But before a person can be brought back together with God their sin must be removed. God has said that he will punish sin, and that punishment is eternal death and banishment from the face of God. These are God’s standards and cannot be ignored or negotiated away.
Paul in v25 then shows us God’s answer to this awful problem, “God presented Jesus Christ as a sacrifice of atonement.” In other words God has laid on Jesus the responsibility for your sin. Some folks find this offensive that God would punish his own Son in this awful way for us. I can understand that sentiment. We live in a very squeamish age where the public spilling of blood is a no-no. I hear that the animal rights people are going to be targeting fishing soon as the next barbaric sport. In an age when blood is not seen very much, unlike Bible times, I don’t pretend to fully understand why the shedding of the blood of Jesus is so important, but in the hours of darkness, on a cross on Mt. Calvary, by faith I believe that God dealt with my sin by punishing his son Jesus. Sin has been atoned for and God can now justly forgive us. Here’s how it works: -
God accepts that his son is 100% righteous; Jesus has fulfilled the Law in every respect. And yet he has also borne the penalty for breaking that same Law. If we can see our need because we know that we haven’t a hope of keeping God’s Law, then God gives to us (or imputes) Christ’s righteousness, and as a result we too are declared righteous. Or in simple terms, I see my need and believe in Jesus and I look to nothing or no one else except to the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation. Its like Paul says in v27, “What do I have to boast about then?” And the short answer is, “Nothing, because all have sinned and come short of the glory of God!”
Once you’ve really grasped these 2 facts - my own sinfulness and Christ’s death on my behalf you need never torture yourself again with the fear that you don’t deserve to be a Christian and therefore might lose it. Of course you don’t deserve it - not one of us does - but the fact of the matter is that Jesus is good enough and we are in him. As Col 3:3 puts it, “..your life is now hidden with Christ in God.”
Do you want to be rid of this disillusionment that is based on feelings? Then face up to the sin in your life and, again as Paul says in Col 3, cast it off like dirty old clothes. When we do this God says that he consciously consigns your sin to a place that it can never be recovered from. It is gone from his mind forever. Take that step and you will begin to experience a joy and a release that you have never known in your life before. We can say with Paul in v28, “For we maintain that a person is justified by faith apart from observing the Law.”
I don’t have enough time left to examine ch4 this morning but basically it’s a working example of what we’ve just been speaking about this morning. A sinner called Abraham being declared righteous by faith in God rather than by any of the amazing works that he carried out. Let me close by quoting the words of David in vv7-8. Let’s take these words to heart – “Blessed are they whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will never count against him.”