uh tonight we're looking at romans chapter 3 uh romans chapter 3 tonight uh we're at verse 21 and we're reading through verse 26 this is found on page 1118 tonight and give our attention tonight to god's holy word this is found on page 1118 again beginning at verse 21 but now the righteousness of god has been manifested apart from the law although the law and the prophets bear witness to it the righteousness of god through faith in jesus christ for all who believe for there is no distinction for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of god and are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in christ jesus whom god put forward as a propitiation by His blood to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness because in His divine forbearance, He had passed over former sins. It was to show His righteousness at the present time so that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. And there will end tonight the reading of God's Word. well it seems somewhat anticlimactic to tell you tonight this is one of my favorite verses in the bible because i say that a lot but i mean it regarding this i always mean it but right now i mean this whenever this verse comes up this is a great verse this is a great section of the bible in fact because for me at least personally this was the section of scripture where i was converted i told you a little bit of the story having grown up in the in the church and in the faith and heard many sermons over the course of 20 years but it was this it was this passage it was romans 3 21 when i was up at humboldt state years ago in a bible study that i led for student athletes seeing about 20 athletes come to this study football players and basketball players and softball players and we were sitting studying this and I was as I was preparing for that study in the book of Romans I still remember it like it was yesterday I was at my desk and I was reading Romans 3 21 but now but now notice they're so beautifully the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law although the law and the prophets bear witness to it and i stopped and i said that is really a remarkable verse what is he saying there the righteousness that comes he says by faith and it was the aha moment for me if it could be said my conversion story is not nearly like luther's but that walking away from that i walked away and everything had had changed i walked away as Luther would say the same way like a free man this verse was so powerful when I first grasped it was at that moment that all those sermons that I heard my whole life and it's really remarkable that I had heard so many sermons and this had not clicked for me that I understood that what was being described here is that God was giving me a gift did you notice that in Romans 3 did you notice as I read that there it's a remarkable statement where he says that we are justified by his grace as a gift what better gift could we ever have what better gift could be ever given to us there is nothing in this life that anyone could ever give you no amount of money brand new car any earthly material thing that could even come close to comparing to this gift well as this that wonderful passage had set me free this passage had set me free and i want to say tonight that i understand that in preaching you can say these things over and over but it's not until the spirit of god works in somebody's heart that they finally grasp and come to grasp the great thing that's being said being said to us in the gospel and that's why we have to continue to preach this gospel it could be tonight that some young person is sitting here and finally they get it finally they are set free so we can't always just assume that people understand this gospel we can't always just assume that people have grasped this again 21 years old after hearing a life of sermons and i had not grasped it until that moment that was the spirit this is so important tonight i can't say that cheaply this is so important tonight to see the radical thing that is being said to us in this text the radical presentation in this text of all that we've considered so far in the book of romans and we've been through some tough chapters in romans we have been through some difficult things somebody came up last week after we went through Romans 3 and it is blow he said it is blow after blow after blow after blow thinking did you hear it have you submitted and understood the condition that to which we are in and how God has assessed it and what God has said of our human nature and the predicament that we are in and the diagnosis and verdict that he has given Romans 3 has just shown us that with language that gives us blow after blow after blow and tracing back those chapters we've seen that in the book of romans he said that right now the wrath of god is being revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness people are being given over in their sin people are being turned over in their sin they're being handed over to just what they want their consciences totally seared and then the shock was to make his case the great aim of the first two chapters was to show that all are alike under sin that all includes everyone and so chapter two was aimed at the religious person or in this context the jew who took pride in all of his symbols, who took pride in his circumcision, in his status, in his bloodline. Paul went after all of that. People confident in their morally upright lives. And the shocking thing about it, the conclusion was, to say this to the Jewish nation, to say this to the Jews, we conclude we are not any better than the Romans 1 people. Now, you remember I told the account last week, if you were here, if you put those categories as I did, I was the Romans 2 person. I told you about the young man who, when I was a child, who came knocking on my door at one in the morning. He had been beaten by his father all of his life, and he snapped and ended up beating his father back. His father, it was a sad situation. The young man went to prison for a while. You know, he became a believer. Somebody came up last week and asked, well, what happened to that young man? I said, well, he became a believer. And he said, why didn't you tell us that? So, okay, I need to tell you that. It's kind of a crucial point to the story, isn't it? He became a believer. I was no better than him, even though I had all these things. And so we still communicate to this day. And he's amazed at how the Lord used that night, he believes, to plant the seed for where he is today. Well, we moved in Romans 1 and 2, and this severe indictment of the human race was set before us. And think of the thing said, your throat is an open tomb. Destruction and misery are our ways. Our feet are quick to shed blood. the fear of God we have not known there's none who does good know not one there's none who seeks after God there's none who sought him and found him no one wants him it was a severe indictment to the whole human race justifying God's righteous judgment which is what Paul was making the case for and I say this tonight because I've said this over and over again it's similar to this morning and what we looked at with false prophets and false teachers, if you don't deal with the wound of God's people well, if you don't deal with the problem, you'll never get to the solution. The solution will never matter. And that's exactly what Paul's doing here. He had to show us the wound. It's a bad wound. It's sin. It's ruined us. It's corrupted us. And it's made us all liable to the just judgment of God. And that day is coming. And it's the last thing we want to talk about today. but it is a severe judgment that's coming because of this problem. So this was the diagnosis. It is not that we get to judgment day and try to figure out what the diagnosis is or what the verdict is when we're speaking with legal language, which is what Romans does. The verdict is guilty. All have sinned. Did you see that here? All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. That's the verdict. The verdict is read. We're in court. Job said, how then can a man be righteous before God? That's the perennial question of all scripture. How then can a man be righteous before God? Or how can he be pure who is born of a woman? How can a holy God dwell with sinners? You might even think when the ark was thrown out on the battlefield in the days of the Philistines with Israel, and they realized this question, who can stand before the holy God of Israel? That's sort of the conclusion that's drawn as the last part of chapter 2 says, chapter 3, verse 19 and 20 says, whatever the law says, it speaks to those under the law so that every mouth may be stopped and the whole world may be held accountable. to God for by the works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight there is no work that we could do there's no amount of work not even any amount of effort that we could do that will enable us to stand before the holy God of Israel and he said the great purpose of the law why God gave those 10 commandments was to show you your heart and sin well paul's now explaining that something that he said in verse 26 here you'll notice that he gives emphasis to in romans chapter 3 that it was to show his righteousness at the present time so that he might be justified justified just in the justifier of the one who has faith in jesus christ and just previous to that because in his divine forbearance he passed over former sins you have the whole testament period you have the whole old covenant where god did not enter into the final judgment with people it's a remarkable thing you had all this time of forbearance you had all these many years of forbearance and god didn't enter into the divine judgment he set up a covenant with noah to to give a sort of common preserving mercy to the world so that he wouldn't flood it again he um he made a promise in genesis 3 that he would send a champion to save us and all those years all those years all those years he was forbearing to reveal something that the law and the prophets wanted to see to reveal at the right time to reveal he says at this present time the revelation of something and that's where we are tonight paul is saying all this given forbearance was to reveal at the center of history the great moment of all the history of the world when the light dawned on this world in darkness when jesus came all of your life my life our life boys and girls young adults young people old alike we won't get into what old is how old is old right no one wants to talk about that all of our lives hang on these verses right here i submit we have come tonight to this central message of the bible we have come to this great text of after all that revelation of sin god's good news to this fallen realm good news that's what gospel is that's what the definition is by fact it means good news good news in a world that offers us bad news if you haven't figured out that tonight just turn on the news good news i would suggest that of all the struggles that christians have if you keep this truth before you it will lighten your path it will give you joy the rest of your life the hardest part is to hold on to it to keep this in front of you after a long section of indictment guilt grace gratitude after going through the guilt section after working through coming to the great conclusion all have sinned coming through all of us none of us are better than anyone else after working through all of that paul breaks into the heart of what he wanted to get to in this book that will now drive the rest of the book but now but now that's the change in the book. That's the radical shift in the book. But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the law and the prophets bore witness to it. But now the greatest news in all of history is being announced. But now the greatest news that could be given to you is being announced. I want to begin by focusing on this little statement apart from the law. at the end of chapter 2 he said to set this up no flesh no person no human being will ever be justified will ever be able of putting it in simple terms be able to stand before the holiness of god nobody will be able to do that by keeping the law now that has to constantly set afresh too because we miss exactly the the level of what he is saying there the depth of what he is saying What he's presented to us here, whatever he's presented, he wants out of the gates, everyone to understand something that is absolutely crucial to making any progress in anyone appreciating or understanding the Christian gospel. What is it? This has, hear me clearly, I think it's the really big point tonight. This has absolutely nothing. What is now to be presented to you has absolutely nothing to do with your performance. zip, zero, none, apart from the law, apart from your doing, apart from your working, apart from your achieving, in whatever form you want to take it, whatever the law demands, this is what now is being presented is 100% apart from you. Chapter 3 has told us what performance-based works looks like before a holy God. And I've made the distinction. Sure, there is what we call common grace or providence. And what that means is people do civic good. Or sin is restrained and we might have a nice neighbor across the street who mows our lawn for us and sometimes puts us to shame. And we say, how are they bad people? in terms of the righteousness that god demands there is no one that can achieve this that's what he's saying this is really important to grasp tonight this great implication because i think the way that christianity is often presented the way that christianity often comes at us and i can't stress this enough for our young adults and young people and especially teachers and parents who are trying to help their children appreciate the Christian faith. The last thing we want to do in presenting the Christian faith is make them think that it is simply a bunch of rules and that the end of Christianity is just to make us a better person. That is not the end of Christianity. That is not the great purpose in the message of Christianity. We believe in sanctification. We believe that we are saved unto good works. That's not what I'm talking about here. We're not talking about sanctification. What do we think Christianity is today? What is the message that is so powerful today? Well, it's not just learning to clean up your lives or to become a morally better person. I think this has confused many of our young people. Most people addressing our young people, and I put this to help our young people because I think it helps all of us when thinking about this because we want to think about how to help people appreciate the Christian message. Presents Christianity with a great pressure to get life together, to stop patterns of sin. If I can think of my past and most chapels that I heard, most presentations of the Christian faith when I was given Christianity was simply a major guilt trip. That was about everything that made me feel guilty about how much I was doing. That was true. But the solution seemed to be just do better. Just do better. Is Christianity, the primary message of Christianity, just about becoming a good and better person? A lot of people can achieve that in life. Luther warned against this. He called it the glory story. Luther said, let's just take an addict for a minute. The addict comes under great conviction. Thou shall quit is the law. But you see, he's only, the one presenting it, he's only, for the addict, made matters worse. Thou shalt quit. Thou shalt quit. It has shown that he is addicted. And so he thinks that Christianity is God helping us to do the law and clean up our lives. Think of the testimonies. Most, a lot of testimonies come down in Christianity too. you know, I was doing this terrible thing, God helped me to stop. Luther says, in that scheme, the law itself becomes a defense against anything outside of me. Now think about that for a minute, something to ponder. The law itself, thou shall not, becomes a defense of anything outside of me, against anything outside of me. And so like the addict, he may stop for a period of time, and the better he does, more false confidence begins to grow and what happens when he falls he falls hard he falls hard when i was a kid i've said this before years ago i had a poster on my wall and it was one of my favorite posters it was a bunch of basketball players playing basketball they were it was in the 70s so they had terrible shorts on those were short do your best god will do the rest is that christianity i'll come back to this thought because it might make us a little nervous of what we call antinomianism i'll come back to that i think it's a fair assessment of what people think the christian gospel is today i rehearse all that to emphasize what paul says now here's the heart and soul and heartbeat of the christian message you have a righteousness that is provided for you apart from the law this is apart from you listen to it stop fighting against it listen to it it'll change your life it has nothing to do with your work yeah it's that good it's that good it's God's righteousness it's not yours two kinds of righteousness in this life there's human righteousness and there's divine righteousness the jews would not submit to this this was at the heart of what they fought against he'll get there in romans 9 they did not know the righteousness of god and saw it this is romans 10 verse 3 actually and sought to establish their own righteousness and in doing that they did not submit to the righteousness that comes from God there's the two righteousness righteousness that I do and the righteousness that comes from God chapter one chapter two and the first half of chapter three has shown us human righteousness before God all of it's a giant failure even for the moral or the upright and so for the first time in the book of romans apart from the initial referencing of this when he said in romans chapter 1 in the thesis of the book remember what he said for in it in the gospel the righteousness of god is revealed from faith to faith as it is written the just shall live by faith this is the gospel now he's unpacking that in verse 23 we finally got there. He's describing the righteousness of God that is revealed. It's a righteousness that absolutely conforms to the law. It's a righteousness that fulfills everything we need. It's a righteousness that God has provided for us in giving us a mediator and giving us a savior this is the righteousness that god revealed in the fullness of time when you looked at the person in the work of jesus when he came to this world it was a righteousness that all the law and the prophets talked about when he came his entire concern in coming to this life was to do what? Fulfill it. Remember when he was baptized? I have to fulfill all righteousness. And so that he would not just be obedient. He would then place himself under the curse of the law. He would honor every command of the law. He would then suffer the penalties of your law-breaking and that he would stand before the holy and the just God and take the punishment and take the pain and take the judgment and take your wrath that you deserve Paul is saying all the Bible testified to this in describing it's all describing the righteousness that God provided for us In Jesus Christ. And after Paul describes this righteousness, he tells us a crucial thing about this righteousness. It doesn't just hang over there. It's brought to us. It's given to you as a gift. And so he says in verse 23, to sort of set this in stone, there's no difference. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. No one attained to this righteous standard because of sin. but here's what he did for you. Here's what he did for you. Think of the greatest gift that could ever be given to you boys and girls. What would it be? He justified you. Listen to the language. Freely. By his grace. As a gift. Here's my gift to you children. I'm giving you free life. I'm giving you free grace. I'm giving you a free gift. I'm giving you the righteousness you need. That is the most wonderful announcement in all of the Bible. This is everything we are about. It stands us apart from every other world religion. Nobody has ever said such a thing. No religion has ever proposed such a thing. No other religion would ever think of putting their God on a cross. And what did God do in return? There's a shocking statement when it comes to Father Abraham. It is God, listen carefully, who justifies the wicked. Wicked. Let that set in. The verb is passive. It's communicating a great truth that it's all God's work. It means to declare righteous. The connection is back to verse 21. He made this righteousness known. Think of Romans 1, 16, 17. He's made this righteousness known how I want to come to you, said Paul, because I have one great goal in coming to you in Rome. I want to preach the gospel to you because in it, the righteousness of God is revealed. You see? And so he takes the righteousness of Christ and he reckons it or accounts it to us legally so that just as our Heidelberg says, as if we had never sinned or been sinners, as if we had been perfectly obedient as Christ was obedient for us. what a beautiful beautiful truth beloved a righteousness entirely outside of us the perfect righteousness of jesus he covers us if you need imagery for this boys and girls you can think of the prodigal son who's coming home and he's covered in the muck of the pigsty slop and the father throws a robe on him or if you need another one it's joseph's robes of many colors or if you need another one it's zachariah chapter 3 where satan comes to accuse joshua of his filthy garments and the lord says clothe them in good garments righteous garments it's all over the place this is justification freely by grace which you didn't merit through faith alone he's describing a standing before god that he's provided for you in his son a standing now of not guilty not guilty well freely by grace that has come under a lot of scrutiny we need always maintain it's freely by grace and this is what our whole fight was in the reformation without cost is what it means you don't have to pay this you're not paying him back he doesn't want you to try to pay him back grace means that this righteousness is provided for you from the sheer goodness of god and you don't owe him anything back in return it's a gift listen it's a gift completely free wasn't free for christ you understand it's free for you a provision of his sheer electing love and kindness and good pleasure where he gives you a righteousness outside of you to cover you so that you can stand before him and know his fatherly love and favor so that you might hear anticipating romans 8 1 there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ. Praise the Lord that he would do such a thing. If you heard the first few chapters, praise the Lord. Paul will say in chapter 4, Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace, but as debt. But to him who does not work, but believes on him who justifies the wicked. His faith is accounted for righteousness. See? We don't work for this. It's so important. You go to work tomorrow, stamp the time clock. After work, you clock out. And you've done what you did. You put in the time. You think your boss has an obligation to pay you. Right? It doesn't work that way. We owe so much debt. And I think, maybe to set this in stone, we do this a little bit in the natural world on this sort of workspace formula. I do think people should work. I think that's right. Work is good. I saw a homeless man last week and he looked terrible. And my first thought was, get to work! Think of how absolutely shocking this message is. What other religion says, stop working. Listen to me. Believe me. Receive it. Receive it. Just receive it and be thankful. Your working is an offense for this. Don't even try it anymore. Have you listened to the first chapters? Rest, receive, believe. That's how you get it. And that, by the way, is a free gift too. Faith. And when you die and you peer for the judgment seat of Christ, without which, no faith, hell is the consequence. You can say, thank you for the free gift. Thank you for your love. I believe you. But to him who does not work but believes on him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness. Remember when you first understood this? Have you? Have you? Listen to him. When the father was saying to the restless disciples, listen to him. This is my beloved son. Listen to what the son is in the gospel. What is being preached to you? God has answered you. God's answered your distress about sin. God's taken away the sting of death. not even death hurts you anymore if you've heard this correctly then it may be bothering you to some degree still because you're thinking it can't be that good or you're preaching now some license for going out and sending do you really think that paul will say do we make now because we preach this free doctrine of justification by grace through faith alone do we make void the law through faith certainly not on the contrary we establish the law in our lives we we pursue good works we we'll get there but we shouldn't have to always qualify this away to take away the beauty of it right the lord has done it for you what a message he once believed fix your eyes on him god has made all things possible through the redemption that is in christ jesus whom god set forth notice here as a propitiation by his blood through faith to demonstrate his righteousness god set forth his son he's the burnt offering of the old testament he's the lamb slain he shed his his blood he pacified the wrath of god he satisfied the demands of the law that were broken as we broke sin was expiated using the language the offering of his only begotten son the lamb provided without spot saves us and the lord is saying by faith in him you have everything that you need i set forth as a propitiation that means boys and girls the way the the justice and the wrath of god is appeased if you will is is dealt with my beloved son came and stood in your place he apart from you fulfilled the demands of the law he paid the debt all your sin and misery fell upon him and he collected it from that righteous substitute i want you to believe that and i want you to know dear children i'm not angry at you anymore i love you says the lord i wouldn't give this gift and renege on it there's no working for it i want you to throw yourself in my arms and believe it i want you simply to stretch out your hands and receive it i want you to stop working and rest i want you to come with a believing heart i want you to know i've cast a robe of many colors on you it's all my free gift and i promise everything that you're looking for all your anxieties about sin still all the burdens and the sin you still struggle with i've dealt with it you will be able to stand look to my son that is the good news of the christian gospel beloved and i had the privilege to preach it to you tonight may you believe it amen heavenly father thank you for such a free gift as this thank you for loving us like this we still feel such shame because of ongoing sin may we always look and recognize that in Christ we have everything we need thank you for this free gift may we receive it and be thankful in Jesus name amen