Romans 3:19-31
Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.
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.
Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith. For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, since God is one—who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law.
Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. Today we're celebrating Reformation Day. It's the celebration not of nailing a particular bullet thing on a bulletin board. It's not really the celebration of a man, Martin Luther, or even all of the historical events that happened during those days. Reformation celebration is a celebration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And that from Martin Luther and the work that he did, a church grew, that is so focused on being saved by grace through faith on account of Christ, that that is the center of our work, that God's great gift of salvation through Jesus is the very center of all of our theology and practice. And the readings today are chosen to reflect that. Today, we're going to take a look at what St. Paul writes in Romans chapter three, about God and His justice, I think is very interesting about this passage is the passage where he writes, so that he God might be just, and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. We may be used to hearing that phrase, but I think it's, it's interesting, because how does one be both just and a justifier? It's an important question, because in many times, times in places this, these things are opposites. So let's ask, what does it mean to be just? What does it mean to uphold justice? Now we have a justice system that includes the idea of being just right. We have officers, police officers who go out into the world who are charged with enforcing the law. In a perfect world, a police officer is there to help the victims of crimes and to arrest or punish the guilty, right? They are there to protect the innocent, and get the bad guy that is justice. The innocent are safe, the guilty or imprisoned. our court system is also charged with being just and the outcome should be the same. The guilty punished, the innocent, protected. I think that is what justice means. And God is just for God to be the perfect, almighty Holy God that he is he must also have perfect justice so that the guilty are punished, and the innocent freed. And St. Paul reminds us of what that means for human beings. He says. Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by works of the law, no human being will be justified in His sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. This is God's justice. When we look at what God demands of every human being, he demands innocence, total and perfect innocence. When we look at his law, and all the things He commands us to do, we can only say that we have failed at that. Because God demands perfection. And we have a very simple phrase that reminds us. Nobody's Perfect, right? And we all know it. Because each and every one of us feels guilt for the things that we have done. And God's perfect justice is very simple. Each and every one of us must be perfect, as he is perfect. And if we are not, then we are guilty. We deserve nothing but wrath and punishment, Death and Hell. And it goes all the way back to the very beginning when God gave a single command to Adam and Eve, do not eat of this tree and the first thing they did was eat it, of course, kind of reminds a parent of having a young child, doesn't it? First thing you do is say, Don't do that, and they do it immediately. Except in that case, the parents are much nicer than a truly just God would be a truly just God just gives us the punishment, Death, and Hell. And that is what we deserve. That is why St. Paul says every mouth may be stopped. Because when we are presented with our sin, we simply have nothing to say, No excuse counts. No justification gets in the way. We are sinners, and we deserve punishment. Now God also wants to be the one who justifies the justifier. That means someone who gives excuses for the guilty, right? We justify ourselves all day long. Don't wait. We know that we do bad behavior that there are times when we do things, we make mistakes. And all the time, we have excuses. I come up with excuses why I didn't clean up after myself after I cook. I'm tired. I didn't want to. Yeah, that's a really good one, right? That just grunting. It doesn't mean that I get to get rid of my mistakes. Because I just give an excuse. I'm just trying to get out of what I'm supposed to do. That's justifying. Now sometimes in our world, when we justify ourselves, we have a good excuse. If you are on the road, going 90 miles an hour, and a police officer pulls you over. And it's because the baby is coming out. That might be a good excuse. Right? If you are going 90 miles down the road, and the police officer pulls you and pulls you over and you say I was a little late. Not so good excuse. God wants to be the one who justifies who gives an excuse, who allows the guilty to go free as it says, 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. What that means, then is sinners are given righteousness as a gift. The guilty are freed, the guilty or not punished. Not only that, the unrighteous are called righteous as if they are innocent, as if they are perfect. The real question is, how can God then be just as we confess that he is a perfect judge who has the holy standard that Nan can live up to? And also someone who justifies the sinner as a gift? How can God give that to someone without work? Without making up for it without doing anything? These things would seem impossible, in fact, but God does it through his son Jesus Christ, by sending His Son to die on the cross for us, he gives grace to the guilty. This is what it says. through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith.
There are a couple of words in that that are really important for understanding how this works. The first one is a one we might know pretty well. Redemption. This is an economic term. Sometimes you would redeem some thing with a coupon, right? You, you redeem a coupon by turning it in and you get 25 cents off a can of whatever, right? Redemption is also a word that we would use in ransom. you redeem someone when you buy them out of a condition. One of the ways they would use this in ancient Rome is if someone is in slavery, and you bought them, to free them, you would say they are redeemed from slavery. And here, Paul says that this gift of grace is through the redemption of Jesus Christ. Jesus buys us out of our guilty condition, by the amazing sacrifice of His blood on the cross. He spends the most precious thing that has ever been made the perfect blood of the Son of God sacrificed on the cross for you and me, to give in exchange for us. So that we can be freed so we can be treated as innocent. We are redeemed by Jesus Christ. The other word is propitiation. Now, this one is one that we don't normally hear. In fact, when we get to it in the Bible, I always have to pause and say, Have you heard this one before? Everybody says, No. It propitiation is a sacrifice that pleases a God. Now, if you use this term in in the pagan gods around the area, they would offer these things as a sacrifice, and the smells of it would please the gods up in heaven, and it would feed them and their worship. And it's a similar idea, not the smell, but a similar idea that the sacrifice of Jesus Christ appeases God's wrath. And it does, because the perfect justice of God requires that someone be punished for guilt, that when the guilty sin, there must be consequences. And what happens is that that wrath was poured out on Jesus Christ who took on himself the sin of the whole world. So that with that sacrifice, God's wrath could be vented on Jesus in our place. And his sacrifice becomes the propitiation for us. So that God no longer punishes us, no longer condemns us, but gives us His grace. In this way, God's justice can be expended it can be fulfilled, God can be truly just because he punishes the guilty in the form of Jesus Christ, who took on our guilt. And God can also be gracious and loving, and be the one who justifies all of those who believe. Because Jesus spent his blood for you, to save you from your guilty condition. And the amazing sacrifice of Jesus Christ, with the just God and the justifying God helps us to see exactly what our position is. What it means to be a Christian who believes we are saved by grace. St. Paul says, then what becomes of our boasting, it is excluded by what kind of law by law of works, no, but by the law of faith, for we hold that one is justified by faith apart from the law. This is an important piece of what it means to be saved by grace through faith on account of Christ, that we can never boast in who we are. We Christians, we can never say that we are good, because we are Christians. We can never say that we are better than anyone else. Or look at what we do and say, Look how amazing I am. Because we're all in the same position. We all stand before God and we hear what the law says and our mouths are stopped because we're sinners, and nothing we can do could change that. Our prayers don't make us holy. Our habits don't make us holy. Our offerings don't make us better. The times we give to charity don't make us more more wonderful. Because none of these things could ever outweigh the sin that we have. And so there is no boasting. We simply say, over and over. I am a poor, miserable sinner. But then we can know that with confidence, we are still saved, because we're not justified by our actions, or by our prayers or our giving or our volunteering or anything else that we do. We're justified by Jesus who delivers us salvation through faith. In his name, amen.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai