Romans 3:21-31
July 21, 2013
M. Kelly
No man will be justified in God's sight through the works of the law. v.20
These are frightening words to those who are trying to earn their way to heaven. It might be pleasing to the flesh and build your self esteem but it won't justify you before God. We can only be justified in and through true faith in Jesus Christ. We are justified apart from the works of the law.
Does this mean the law is nullified? No! It is rather established!
A view of the gospel that does not include the law is no Gospel at all. The Gospel reveals the justice of God. The law leads us to Christ.
Faith establishes the law. Faith looks to the law. It is specific and particular. It is not blind. It is the exact opposite of being blind. How can you have righteousness without law? How can you have punishment for sins without the law? The whole point is the law and that is why Christ came...to keep the law perfectly in our place! Our only hope is in the righteousness of Another.
The law of God has no mercy. The penalty for sin is death. God did not change it even for His own Son. He took our sin on Himself and took the punishment for our sins in our place.
Faith looks to the law and sees that it condemns! And it continues to condemn through the conscience of believers. The law is a way of life for the believer but it is not the way to life for the believers.
Faith is receiving and believing in God's interpretation of Christ's death. The Christian believes God not merely in God.
Faith comes by hearing....preaching is important! The gospel is no gospel if the law is eliminated.
Faith is a gift of God and comes already defined by the one who give the gift of faith. God defines it!!
Justification is different than pardon. Pardon removes sins. Justification is the righteousness that says come, you are entitled to it. It is the earned right to heaven because Christ earned it for us! Our sins are forgiven and imputed to Him and His righteousness is imputed to us.
Our righteousness in Christ is tied to the law.
Justification is the opposite of condemnation. It is treated as ours as a gift. Titus 3:7
God is the one who justifies.
Redemption~ we are saved, bought and saved from the wrath of God. The price is paid and God really redeemed His people. Ephesians talks about this. His people are already redeemed.
Propitiation~ The removal of wrath because the means of that has already been accomplished.
Only a person can be propitiated, but expiation refers to things. The substitution of expiation for propitiation in some translations is wrong.
Sin is not a thing. It is an action directed at God and against God Himself!
Many teach that God is all love and shows no wrath to man. We just need to let Him love us and help us line up our lives with His plan. Paul says, "Who has bewitched you?!"
We can not define God. He comes defined already! We don't get to make up a God of our imagination.
1. Faith is active. Many want to define faith as something that does away with doctrine but Paul defines faith as actively asking questions about doctrine. True faith is applied faith. It requires asking questions about its application.
You can not get away from truth and its application. You can not turn the conscience off. What do my actions mean in light of the Truth? We need to teach the true doctrines of the Bible. It's not just knowing these things in an academic way. These things mean something to us personally. How do we apply these truths? People like to focus on obscure doctrines rather than holding the mirror of the truth up to their own lives and apply it. It is important to defend the truth but if that is all we are doing we are in error....it is to be applied to our own lives. How am I living out this truth in my own life. When we fail to apply truth, it is knowledge wasted. You can't just know it, you need to personally apply it to your own life.
2. Boasting is not allowed. Paul had a lot of room to boast. He was blameless in obedience to the law prior to conversion but he says boasting is now allowed. The Jews boasted in the fact that they had the law. Many boast in the fact that they possess the truth. All men are boasters by nature...self righteous by nature. In Eden....you will be like God. All men hold others to their standard of righteousness. But grace in salvation through faith leaves no room for boasting. It is excluded! It's all of God! There is no boasting in possessing or being obedient to the law. We are self righteous by nature. We indeed boast in our obedience to the law in comparison to others.
We are to reject pride and boasting. What do we have that we have not been given by God?
Boasting is the language of our fallen self centeredness. As long as a man boasts of his own deeds it is impossible for him to trust in the act of God's redemption.
We have a difficult time realizing that we are not the ones who provide the propitiation and bring ourselves into God's favor. People sacrifice things in an effort to bring themselves into favor with God.
Praising God not boasting will be our activity throughout eternity.
Gal. 6:14 boast only in the cross of Christ.
1 Cor. 1 Let him who boasts boast in The Lord!
Eph 2:5-10 ...by grace you have been saved...surpassing riches of his grace is the whole reason we have been saved....not of works so no one may boast.
Trying to make ourselves acceptable to God robs God of His glory and makes room for boasting.
Why do we make excuses? We are trying to maintain our righteousness!
3. The Gospel does not discriminate. God is the God of both Jews and Gentiles that have come to God through faith.
Salvation is not by rite, ritual, race, social status, intellect, religious privilages and practices or by works or anything else but by grace through faith.
Men are elitist by nature. We boast about everything. Most conversation is boasting about ourselves, our experiences and possessions. We love to be privileged and part of something exclusive. We deserve special treatment. We are elitist by nature. Injured vanity/pride inflames us because of the fact that we are by nature elitist.
4. True faith establishes the law. The law reveals the righteousness and holiness of God. It reveals God's character. The law makes all the world accountable to the law. There is no Gospel without the law. There is no Salvation without the law.
Heb. 9:22 no forgiveness without shedding of blood.
This text can't be understood without the law.
The law continues to give us the knowledge of sin in our lives after conversion.
There is no such thing as faith that does not establish the law or ignore the law. God defines faith not us. There is no part of faith that does not directly or indirectly refer back to the law.
5. Let us meditate on Christ often, more, continually, daily! What has God done in Christ?
Do we reflect on the fact that our sins are more heinous in God's sight than in our own?
God deals with us as He is pleased with Christ. Christ is our righteousness. God is pleased with His righteousness.
🌞🌻Marsha🌻🌞
He is the Α and Ω and everything in between. Îστιν ÏŒ Α Ω. (Revelation 22:13)
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