July 19, 2009Matthew 22:35-40; Romans 3:21-27A few weeks ago, we spoke on “What’s Right with God?” And last week we turned it around on “What’s Wrong with Me?” Here’s what we found. God is holy; I’m not. The Lord is Sovereign; I’m rebellious. Our Savior knows; I only think I do. There is no one righteous, no one who seeks God, no one who does good. Left to ourselves we human beings are a sorry lot.
But praise God, he has not left us to our sorry selves. In God’s sovereign, eternal plan, the Lord wants to re-create, rebuild, redeem a relationship with us. God is always in the business of setting things right. That’s his purpose, that’s his plan. I’ve never been there, but I understand that the entrance to the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem is surprisingly low and for most adults decidedly inconvenient. With so many visitors passing through every day, you wonder why such an impractical approach is retained. Then I read how there used to be a larger entrance. The nobility and upper class rode into the church on their horses. The authorities decided that a low entrance would be far more appropriate bringing everyone down to the same level. That’s some pretty good theology. Here’s the gospel message. You and I are on the same level in our standing or entering with God. Nothing we can ever do can win for us the forgiveness of God that brings this new, renewed, right-with-God life. Only what God has done for us can accomplish that. Right relationship with God does not lie in a frenzied, desperate attempt to win his blessing by our performance. It lies in the simple, humble acceptance of the love and grace that God offers us in Jesus Christ. Here in Romans 3, Paul describes our dire circumstance. “There is no difference (no difference between high and low; educated or ignorant; high-power career or just making ends meet; religious or irreligious; blue blood or commoner). There is no difference. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” We are all condemned and await the execution of God’s wrath. We sit silently in the miserable darkness of the prison cell of our own sinful selfishness. And all hope is extinguished. This is how the apostle Paul describes us in Romans 1, 2, and 3 without Christ and without faith. But then, abruptly, the door swings open. Darkness becomes light. Bondage becomes freedom. “You are pardoned,” a voice tells us. Death becomes life.
Romans 3:21 begins what many have called the most important paragraph ever written. It is the center and heart of the book of Romans. It is the very essence of the gospel. “But now a righteousness from God (the right relationship with God and with each other), apart from the law (remember, the law serves the purpose to make us aware of our sin and our desperate need for a Savior), has been made known. A righteousness from God, apart from the law, has been made known to which the law and the prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.” (vs. 21, 22) Then Paul borrows three important words to describe what Jesus Christ has done for us: justification, redemption; and sacrifice of atonement. I. We Are Justified “We are justified freely by his grace.” Justification is a term borrowed from a court of law. In this metaphor, we are on trial before God. Usually the judge condemns or acquits the accused. Here, God justifies. He treats us, reckons to us, accounts the righteousness of Jesus Christ to us by faith. There is both forgiveness and reinstatement. God says, “You may go; you have been let off the penalty which your crime deserves.” And God also says, “You may come; you are welcome to all my love and presence.” God is in the process of moving you and me from things like denial, fear and guilt to things like self-worth, openness, trust, relatedness, purpose and freedom for life. Justification changes our whole relationship with God. By faith in Jesus Christ, we are conscious of our sin, but we are no longer in terror and no longer estranged. We are in right relationship with God because we believe with all our hearts that what Jesus told us about God is true. II. We Are Redemption “We are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” Paul borrows this term, redemption, from the slave market. It is the purchase of the slave’s freedom, to release him from the debt that brought about the slavery. We were in the power of sin. By faith in Jesus Christ, God frees us, liberates us, and redeems us from it. A price was paid. The perfect, full price was paid. The only debt we have now is a debt of love. The London Times publishes the price paid for art objects sold around the world. If a painting sold in New York, Paris, Rome, or London, the Times gives the full details of the sale. If you heard that a painting sold for $10,000 and another for $2 Million, you know quite a lot about the relative value of the two paintings. Which one was the Rafael and Rembrandt is obvious. You can judge the painting by the price that is paid for it. Redemption means we can judge ourselves by the price Christ paid for us, the price he offered to reach in order to buy us back, redeem, save us. Christ died for our sins and when we learn the price that was paid for our redemption, we realize how great was our sinfulness but also how great is the grace and love of the Lord. III. Sacrifice of Atonement “God presented Jesus Christ as a sacrifice of atonement through faith in his blood.” Paul now borrows from his own tradition of the Hebrew sacrificial system. Under the old system, when you broke the law, you brought to God a sacrifice to turn aside the punishment that should fall upon you. This was a frustrating experience for me growing up in the Roman Catholic Church. I’m sure many other religious constructs (Islam, LDS, Church of Christ, fundamentalism of various stripes) can create the same kind of struggle. I would go to Confession on Saturday afternoon, do Penance, maybe receive Holy Communion on Sunday, sin on Monday through Friday and start over on Saturday. The cycle of sin, confession, penance, grace and sin again was awful. Paul knew that same yearly cycle with the Day of Atonement (Yon Kippur) and the many other high holy days. So Paul now says, “Jesus Christ, by his life and his death and his resurrection, made the one sacrifice to God which once and for all atones for sin.” When you and I accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, our sin is forgiven (past, present, or future). There is no need for this cycle being in God’s favor one day and out of God’s favor the next. We are justified and redeemed through Jesus’ perfect sacrifice of atonement on the cross. Conclusion Paul concludes this marvelous section of his letter: “Where then is the boasting? It is excluded.” We are all on a level playing field. “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” All are offered justification and redemption by faith in the sacrifice of atonement Jesus offered. To enter the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, indeed to receive the Lord Jesus into one’s life, each one of us simply, humbly bends down, With grateful hearts, knowing what’s right with God and what’s wrong with us, God himself sets things right for now and evermore. Let us pray together. |
