I am speaking at our FCA this week and I am going to talk about what most Biblical scholars consider to be the greatest paragraph ever written: Romans 3:23-27. Someone else does FCA at our school, so this is only the second time I have had the opportunity to speak this year. I figure that if I have only one opportunity to glorify God, I am going to talk about the gospel, which is summed up so well here in Romans 3. I am giving students this outline to go along with this study as well. If you want a deeper look into the gospel, click on the links at the top right of this page.
 |
| Photo by Kenny Nobles |
23 For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; 25 whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed; 26 for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. 27 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.
Romans 3:23-27
Most theologians consider this to be the greatest passage in all of Scripture, because it sums up the message of the gospel. It has been called the heartbeat of the heart of the gospel. There is so much deep meaning that we could speak for hours on each verse and still barely scratch the surface of the depth of its meaning.
v. 23 – “For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God…” What Is Sin? Sin is missing the mark, and the mark is perfection. We are to perfectly obey God’s commands and His will. It is not just having perfect deeds, it is to be perfect in every word we say and in every thought that we think. This verse condemns all of you because all have sinned. Sin is the opposite of glorifying God, and it is sin whenever you do not glorify God perfectly with the life and breath that He has given you.
God is holy and hates sin. Sin is what we are born in and what we know, but God is not like us. He is transcendent, which means He is far above us and our sinful ways. We have no idea how awful sin truly is and how costly are its consequences. Romans 6:23 says that, "The wages of sin is death," and that we deserve death when we sin just one time against a holy God.
v. 24 – “being justified as a gift by His grace…” Salvation is an unmerited gift given by God only to those whom God has mercifully chosen. Ephesians 2:8-9 says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.”
v. 24 – “through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus…” The word redemption has to do with slavery and paying the price for a slave to be free. We are born as slaves, as slaves to sin and to Satan. Only Jesus can redeem us from this slavery.
Charles Spurgeon from Charles Hannon Spurgeon: Morning and Evening Devotional:
“That God should consider His fallen creature, man, and instead of
sweeping him away with the besom [broom] of destruction, should Himself
undertake to be man's Redeemer, and to pay his ransom price, is, indeed
marvellous!”
v. 25 – “propitiation…”
The word propitiation is essential to understanding the gospel. This word, besides the name of God, is the most important word in the Bible, yet it is never mentioned in most churches today. It is also not found in most versions of the Bible. I never heard the word myself until I began an in-depth study of the gospel. This word propitiation means “substitution; appeasement or satisfaction of God’s wrath by Jesus Christ.” God is just and must punish sin, and He did punish our sin by Jesus dying in our place and drinking down the cup of God’s wrath on the cross. Our sin makes us enemies of God, and a propitiation is a sacrifice that does two things:
1. It satisfies the wrath of God.
2.
It allows God to be merciful to the
guilty.
v. 25 – “whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed…” God could have taken away our sins in a private manner, but He wanted to demonstrate and tell us something about Himself. God displayed Christ like a billboard in the religious capital of the world for all to see. He did this to set something straight, to reveal something about Himself, because in God’s forbearance and patience, He passed over previous sins and had given forgiveness to sinful men, causing serious doubt about God’s justice and if He would really punish sin or not. He demonstrated that He will punish sin, even if it meant that Jesus Christ, God the Son, had to be punished.
v. 26 – “for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time…” When the Bible wants to emphasize something, it repeats it. Here, the righteousness of God is emphasized. We can imagine that Satan, the Great Accuser, had a real problem with God’s righteousness and forgiveness of His own people. I mean, look at David, who committed terrible sins and deserved to die. Satan, on the other hand, had sinned and was offered no forgiveness for his transgression and rebellion. We can imagine Satan being bold enough to point the finger and accuse holy God of not holding sinners accountable, “Where’s your justice, God! You’re letting David into heaven?! Didn’t he commit adultery?! And murder?! Are you kidding me?! And you call Yourself righteous!”
Then finally it was on the Cross when Christ drank the cup of the Father’s wrath for sins that God said, “There it is! You see that? There’s my justice!” It was with this act and this demonstration that God forever shut up Satan’s accusations of His injustice because the price for sins had been fully paid. God could freely forgive a multitude of sins because He had determined before the foundation of the world that He would more than pay the price for those sins through the amazing sacrifice of His beloved Son.
v. 26 – “so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus…” Just and the justifier – this means that God was righteous and just because He punished our sin through Jesus, and that He is able to justify us through His sacrifice. God is able to justly punish Jesus and forgive us through Christ’s redemption. All of the fierce fury and hatred of God against men and their wickedness fell upon Jesus Christ, and God the Father crushed His only begotten Son under the furious wrath that belonged to you.
v. 27 - “Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded…” Many would agree that salvation is a gift, but they would try to add to that and say it was their own faith that saved them. They forget that even the faith they have is a gift. There is nothing to boast of. You must humble yourself and realize that the only thing you can contribute to salvation is your own disgusting sin that makes it necessary. This is why the doctrine of justification by grace is so hated by prideful men and why Paul said, “Then what becomes of boasting? It is excluded.”
v. 27 – “By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith.” Ephesians 2:8-9 says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.”
J.C. Ryle from his book, Holiness:
Think, if you want stirring motives for serving God, what it cost to
provide a salvation for your soul. Think how the Son of God left heaven and
became Man, suffered on the cross, and lay in the grave, to pay your debt to
God, and work out for you a complete redemption. Think of all this and learn
that it is no light matter to possess an immortal soul.
We know that God is holy and hates sin and that He is righteous and just, so that He must punish sin. We were born as slaves to sin and all we can do is sin. How can God forgive wicked men and punish their sin? He did that through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ to pay the price of your sin that you deserved to be punished for in Hell throughout all eternity. Jesus calls us in Mark 1:15 to “repent and believe in the gospel,” which means to turn away from this world to Him.
We consider a man to be careless if he does not have a backup plan or an alternative escape route, if he has not diversified his investments, if he has put all his eggs in one basket, or if he has burned bridges behind him. Yet this is the very thing that the man who receives Jesus Christ must do. To receive Christ is to throw off hope in everything but Christ alone. So if you don’t trust in Christ, today is the day to turn away from your sin and from this world and turn to Him.
No comments:
Post a Comment