Good morning. My name is Matt, I'm one of the pastors here, and if you have a Bible, would you turn there, turn with me in that Bible to Romans chapter 3. We're going to take a look at the last several verses of Romans 3 and the first few verses of Romans 4 this morning as we continue our sermon series called the Difference. If you're going to use one of our Bibles underneath the chair in front of you, it's on page 1,196. Here now God's holy and true word from Romans chapter 3, starting in 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. Then what becomes of our boasting, it is excluded by what kind of law, by a law of works, no, 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. What then shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh. For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness. Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his do. And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly. His faith is counted as righteousness, the word of the Lord. Father in heaven, this passage has truth that is absolutely amazing. And life changing and we praise your holy name this morning as we ponder these things as we receive and rejoice in your acceptance of us because of what Christ has done. So we pray now, Father, would you fill us with your spirit and give us eyes to see and ears to hear of the glory and majesty of Jesus that we see in this passage and use this time to transform us into the likeness of your son and to equip us to run with this amazing news to our neighbors and to the nations for it is in Jesus name that we pray and for his sake. So for the next few weeks, we're in a sermon series that we've called the difference and we are looking at some of the really foundational truths doctrines that are found in the Bible, things that are absolutely critical that we understand as followers of Christ, things that change our lives. So that's the plan and we're going to be looking at one of those doctrines this morning and it's so important that we understand these things so that we believe what the Bible actually says and apply what the Bible actually says to our lives. It's also important because we want to be able to communicate these amazing truths to the people outside and the reality is some of the things that we're going to talk about especially today what we're talking about today are very misunderstood by people outside the church. And so it would also be a shame if these things were misunderstood in the church and I do believe that the majority of us understand what we're going to talk about today but it is always good to revisit these absolutely foundational and fundamental things and we're talking about this morning. One of the most important doctrines or truths in all of Christianity and that would be what we call the doctrine of justification by faith alone. And it is absolutely amazing. It is such a phenomenal truth that we get to look at this morning. It's one of the things that makes Christianity unique because of all the different religions and world views that are out there. There is nothing anywhere remotely close to this amazing truth. A lot of times you hear people say all religions are basically the same. They kind of teach to be a good person. And the reality is this doctrine is the one that sets Christianity apart. It's by itself and it makes it absolutely not only unique but absolutely amazing and rightly understood it makes a huge difference in our lives. You see think about the what is the question that religions are usually seeking to answer and I think a common question is this what makes a person acceptable? What makes a person valuable or good or acceptable especially in the eyes of God? What makes a person acceptable to God or what makes a person able to go to heaven when they die? These are the types of questions that religions are usually seeking to answer and the Bible provides this answer that is absolutely amazing because what it tells us what we see in this passage and all through the scriptures is that we have God's full acceptance. We are totally acceptable to God as a free gift that he would give to us for free his complete acceptance and it's received through faith and so this is what we're going to be talking about this morning that we receive the full acceptance of God through faith in Christ. The full acceptance of God through faith in Christ and through faith in Christ alone not according to any of the things that we do or ever could do we receive the acceptance the full acceptance of God through faith in Christ and so here's how we're going to do this this morning if you're making an outline we're going to break down this doctrine of justification by faith alone into some simple parts. Because ultimately if we're going to talk about this and understand how we have God's acceptance through Christ we need to talk about something that's removed and something that's added and then everything changes so that's our trajectory for this morning something removed something added and everything changes. Okay let's start with something being removed what is removed would you look at me a chapter look with me at chapter three verse 22 the second part of verse 22 all the way through 25 and here's what we want to see on the cross Jesus paid for our sin and removed our guilt so we can be forgiven so that's the key to forgiveness is the removal of that sin and guilt this is what's removed let's take a look for there's no distinction Paul writes. Verse 23 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 so right there in verse 23 we see the major issue the major problem all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and this means wouldn't Paul is saying all he means all except for Jesus Christ of course who never. But the rest of us every human being we have sinned we are sinners we are all guilty of breaking God's laws and this is why it's important that we don't understand that we understand that we're not good people it's not like we're good people and the non Christians are the bad people that is not the way the Bible teaches every one of us is bad every one of us has sinned every one of us deserves God's just wrath his punishment for that sin in fact in Roman 6 23 Paul says that the wages of sin what you get when you sin what you earn for yourself is death eternal death hell the reality that we all have done these things we've all sinned we all deserve God's wrath is something the Bible teaches it's one of the offensive teachings of scripture because nobody likes to feel guilty we hate feeling guilty you never said to your friend you know I really need right now I just need to feel guilty bring it on you never say that we never say that we hate the idea of feeling guilty and the reason is because guilt is this recognition that we deserve punishment that we deserve to suffer for the things that we've done that's what guilt is and that's why we hate it but the reality is guilt is this feeling that we have it's it's much more like a warning indication light on your dashboard right when the light comes on on your dashboard and there's a little engine there the goal is not to get the light to turn off right the goal is to figure out what's wrong with the engine and guilt is like the dashboard light that tells us there's this major problem and the major problem is that because we have this guilt we do deserve God's punishment for our sins and we hate that I hate that you hate that we hate feeling guilty so we usually try to deal with it sometimes we try to deal with it by pretending that we're not guilty okay this is very common we just kind of pretend like I haven't really done anything that bad we pretend like we're not guilty or we shrink the list of right and wrong to a very small manageable set of rules that's what our culture is doing it's it's shrinking the list of right and wrong why because our culture hates the idea that we are guilty and that we deserve punishment so we pretend that we're not guilty the other things sometimes we do and this happens a lot in church we can try to make up for it we know we're guilty and we think well I'll just try to do everything right now and I'll make up for it I'll make it up to God I'll go to church and I'll pray and I'll sing and I'll give my money and I'll do all these things and I'll make it up that's another thing that we try to do but ultimately neither of these things does anything with our guilt it still remains upon us and we continue to feel it which is why we're still in need of something better and the reality is what we see in this passage is how the guilt is dealt with how our guilt can actually literally be removed from us by being paid for would you look at verse 25 one of the sweetest words in the scriptures Paul writes God put Jesus forward as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith propitiation what a sweet word propitiation what it means it means something that satisfies wrath something ultimately that satisfies divine wrath this is the key to our forgiveness and our freedom from guilt the satisfaction of God's wrath and see we don't like the idea that God has wrath either but he does God has wrath for the sins of mankind mankind think about this you you know that there's justice we we feel that deep down the reason we know that is because if somebody were to come into your house or let's say me if somebody was to come into my home and do something terrible to my family you better believe I'm not going to sit there and say oh that's okay no I'm going to do something and if God doesn't hold me back I'm going to do something real bad right and you would too because justice must be served we feel that sense of justice and the reason that we feel justice must be served when wrong is done is because we're made in the image of God and God is just and so inside of us we know that justice must be served and so here's the other piece of that is that God is all knowing and so his sense of justice is way better than yours or mine and God who is all knowing says that any sin and all sin justly deserves wrath punishment hell and so therefore that's what we're faced with this reality that we deserve God's wrath God's wrath must be poured out it must be satisfied in some way justice must be served and so the reality then we're left with is either we are going to satisfy God's wrath by paying for our sin ourselves a debt we cannot and do not want to pay or somebody else pays that debt for us and that's what we're seeing here that's what Jesus is God put him forward as a propitiation to satisfy his wrath that Jesus would be the one to pay this debt of sin that you and I cannot and do not want to pay that on the cross Jesus was doing just that paying for our sin paying the debt receiving the wrath sin Corinthians 5-21 says that he who knew no sin became our sin that we might become the righteousness of God and so Jesus takes our sinful record all the things that we've done past present and future and he willingly takes them upon himself and then God pours out his wrath for those sins onto Jesus who never sinned but became our sin bearer and all this wrath that God had built up for his people is poured out onto Jesus on the cross and in the end Jesus said what had happened when he said it is finished he had paid the debt he had paid our debt in full which means that God doesn't want us to try to pretend we're not guilty God doesn't want us to try to make up for our sin he wants to receive he wants us to receive by faith what Christ has done and to know that if we do that the debt is paid we want to make this so complicated it's not when a debt is paid it would be unjust for somebody to try to continue to collect that debt from you right let's say let's say you and I go to the gas station I pull up at one pump you pull up at another I'm in a really giving mood for some reason that day and so I kind of come over and I stick my card in your pump and I say heaven you've got a tank on me and you fill up your car and then you call your wife and you're like hey get down here Matt's paying for gas and so you fill up a couple cars or whatever and then imagine this imagine now you got your gas you're ready to leave you get in the car you start it you're about to pull out imagine if the gas station attendant ran out slammed his hands down on your hood and say now hold on a second you didn't pay for that gas you would say yeah but my friend did and he would have to let you drive away right and the reality is God will never hold us accountable for our sin he will never punish us for our sin because the debt is paid and so that guilt that we feel that we carry around which is actually just a fear of that judgment can lift because the judgment is gone there is therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus here here's another story that I think helps understand this reality that Christ paid for our sin and removed our guilt and it's gone the debt has been paid so here if I've said this before it's a story of this farmer who was on the plains during the dust bowl era when everything was really dry and everything was really in bad shape and forest fires were sort of raging through and burning up entire farms and making it even worse and there's this story of this man this farmer who was out in his field and he saw that there was flames on the horizon and smoke and so he knew that he had just minutes to act and then this fire was going to come through and burn up his whole farm and kill his family. So he runs into his house and he gets some matches and he runs back out into his field where he was just standing and he leans down and he lights a fire which begins to burn his own field and then he runs back into his house he gets his wife and his children and they go back out into the field and now there's a pretty large area of scorched earth from his own fire. They go into the middle of that they lie down put the blankets over them and that fire comes through. It takes up their whole farm their whole field their whole house their fence everything goes up and smoke but they were fine they were totally unharmed. Once something has been burned it can't be burned again so when that raging fire came to the area of scorched earth that he had lit it just went right around. And the gospel is that Christ is our scorched earth he has already been burned by the wrath of God and by faith we are in him so when God's wrath comes for the sin of mankind on judgment day we won't even feel the heat. He has paid the debt he has satisfied God's wrath we are in a place we are in him where there is no wrath for him for us it's gone the debt is paid and that is what changes our lives that's what makes such an amazing difference we don't have to be weighed down with our guilt and our shame because we can receive this freedom from that sin and guilt through faith in Christ when we believe that he did what he did for us. We know that the debt is paid and therefore there's nothing hanging over our head except a God who loves us. That's amazing news but you know what here's what's interesting and here's where the understanding begins to break down considering this doctrine. We talked about something being removed but we also need to be talking about something added because the reality is we need more than forgiveness to be accepted by God we need more than forgiveness. One pastor puts it this way says forgiveness says you may go but only righteousness says you may come. If we want to be accepted by God we not only need to be forgiven of the sins that we've committed but also we need to have righteousness positive righteousness acts of obedience and think about this way look take a scale of 10 down to zero down to negative 10. Okay forgiveness brings us to zero but we still need righteousness in our account for God to accept us and that's what's so amazing is the perfect righteousness of Christ is given to us as a free gift. All of the righteous things that Christ did in his life all of this righteousness that he built up during his life all of his perfect obedience is handed to you and me for our record. For free received through faith take a look at Romans 4 verse 1 for verse 1 Paul says what then shall we say was gained by Abraham our forefather according to the flesh. For Abraham was justified by works he has something to boast about but not before God and there it is Paul is saying right there if Abraham was justified that means declared to be righteous. Okay declared righteous accepted fully accepted if Abraham was accepted by God by works meaning by the things that he did then he would have something to boast about. He would have a reason to feel pretty good about himself right he would be able to say here's why God accepts me because I do this and I do this and I do this and I don't do that and I don't do that. That's what he could say right he could boast about those things and the reality is so many of us get caught up in that we forget that our righteousness is all from Christ that we are not earning it and so we too can kind of can find ourselves boasting about the things that we do trying to make ourselves look like we're good like we're earning God's acceptance. And if we believe that God accepts us or even if we just believe that society accepts us because of the things that we do we can't help but to boast and be puffed up and look down on people who do not do the same things. That's what happens but that's not the gospel Paul says no not before God that's not the way it is before God here's how it is with God. First three for what does the scripture say now he's going to quote from the Old Testament Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness let that sink in whether for the first time or the millions Abraham believed God and it his faith was counted to him as righteousness. And the righteousness that's referred to is the righteousness of Christ all the righteousness that Christ had built up during his life was given to him. It was counted his faith was counted to him as if it was that perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ absolutely unbelievable it's not our works it's not the things that we do or don't do that causes God to accept us. It's what Christ has done in his life look at verse four not to the one who works his wages are not counted as a gift but as his do what he's saying is if you'd work for something and you get something in return that thing is not a gift right like if you were. It was Friday and your boss came into your office knocked on your door and said hey great job at work this week here's a free gift for you to pay check. I mean what would in that moment you'd be sitting there like I don't think the math adds up here no if you work for it you deserve it but Paul is helping us see that's not how it works with God it's not that we work for it and therefore we deserve it is that we do not deserve it. But Christ worked for it look at verse five and to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly his faith is counted as righteousness this is so amazing Paul is saying to the one who does not work meaning to the one who does not do things in an effort to earn God's acceptance but instead of doing that he believes he believes that what God has said is true that faith is counted as righteousness that is a absolutely life changing truth so often we're trying to defend ourselves defend our righteousness and we actually don't even have any and we can be set free by receiving all of the righteousness we could ever want or ask for through faith in Christ. When we believe when we put our faith in Christ God counts it as righteousness it's absolutely amazing and this is where every other religion every world every philosophy goes the other direction because everywhere else what you're going to get what you find is the opposite what you find is the idea that God justifies the godly but as one ungodly person to another this is amazing news what Paul is saying that we through faith in Christ faith in the one who justifies the ungodly we receive that righteousness it is ours we never be taken away Christ has removed our guilt if we have faith he has removed that sin he's removed that guilt so that way that guilt is lifted and then he's added in its place his own perfect righteousness and these are the reasons that we are accepted by God totally because of what Christ has done and therefore nothing can make us be less forgiven nothing can make us be less accepted nothing can make us be more forgiven or more accepted it's all because of Christ we're all perfectly forgiven perfectly accepted forever because of Christ received through faith 100% of our forgiveness is because of what Jesus has done 100% of our righteousness is because what Jesus has done. When we receive these things by faith when we believe these things are true everything changes everything changes when you believe Jesus has removed literally remove the sin from your record and then added in its place his own righteousness everything changes so let's finally let's talk about that. Okay one thing we should realize is every single week we're really talking about how this applies okay but in specific terms this morning let me just talk about two things two ways that this changes two ways we feel different or there's a difference in our lives when we receive forgiveness when we receive righteousness freely from God through faith in Christ number one the power of guilt is broken it's broken we will still feel guilty from time to time but then it will fade away it goes away it gets broken because we can look at the empty cross we can think of the empty tomb and we can celebrate that the debt is paid there's no reason for me to feel guilty and feel the fear of this debt that I would have to pay because it's gone it's been paid look if somebody came up to you and said hey good news somebody paid off your mortgage couple things one you'd stop making payments right and number two you would never wonder how am I ever going to pay this thing off and when Christ has come to us on the cross and said the debt is paid it is finished that is what breaks that power of guilt no matter what we've done. No matter what we do in the future we always can look to the cross and remember the debt is paid the debt is paid and as we focus on Christ keep our eyes fixed on Christ it lifts the power of guilt is broken the other thing is our appetite for acceptance is satisfied I mean how much of our lives how much of the things that we do are really chasing after somebody's acceptance this person's acceptance my parents acceptance this groups acceptance and the reason that we just crave approval and crave the acceptance of people is because we're hoping that that will satisfy us because what we really really desperately want is to know that we are accepted by the only one who truly truly matters when it comes to acceptance. And that's what is so powerful about this doctrine as well that appetite is satisfied we finally feel what we are longing for so deeply we feel the acceptance of God our father who loves us perfectly forever and ever. And you know the reason that it's hard to accept others sometimes is because we struggle to really believe that we are fully accepted by God that's always a good indicator that we're not resting fully in justification by faith alone when we struggle to accept others when we do accept God's acceptance through faith in Christ it changes us it helps us it makes us more loving it makes us more joyful it makes us more peaceful more patient more kind more gentle I mean it makes us more like Jesus. Which is God's intent in all of this that we would become more like his son and when we believe that acceptance has to be earned we kind of want to turn around and make people earn it from us and there's a lot of this that happens in the church that there are messages that are preached and sermons that are given and Sunday school classes in churches in our country and unfortunately around the world as well that are not the gospel but rather just what we would call moralism. A list of things to do and a list of things not to do and I'm not denigrating the law of God at all next week we will see more about how powerful and amazing the law is but the message of just do what's right do the law do this obey this is not the gospel because what that sense is this idea that you've got a if God's going to accept you you're going to have to shape up God does not accept people who have not shaped up that is a message that comes across in Christian churches it's not the gospel and it drives people away from their savior not to him. I'll give you an example this is a story told by a pastor in Dallas and his name is Matt and he when he was a freshman in college he attended. A class and the first day there he sat next to this woman named Jen and Jen was older she's about 27 she had a child out of wedlock she'd been around a little bit and but Matt believed the gospel and he believed justification by faith alone so he knew that all of his forgiveness is because of what Jesus has done and any righteousness that he has is all because of what Jesus has done and so he was able to accept her and even though she'd done some things in her life and so he they became friends and talked each week and and then he says that one of his friends got an opportunity to play his band got an opportunity to play at this event where this man was going to preach the gospel. And so Matt was thinking this is awesome I'll bring Jen she can hear about how much God loves ungodly people like us and they go and the guy at the band plays and it's probably good and then this guy gets up there and he says he's going to talk about abstinence and immediately Matt is like oh boy here's Jen. Here's Jen has not been abstinent and this guy starts speaking a little bit and then he says he takes out a rose and he says hey by the way look at this rose is this not a beautiful rose smells it touches it he says this is just amazing I mean who would not want this rose right who wants to hold this rose and then everybody's hands goes up at this youth event and he says you come up here take this rose and make sure everybody gets to touch it it's that amazing and so he the kid takes the rose and everybody starts passing around the rose and it's going all the way around the room and meanwhile he's back to his moralistic do's and don'ts on abstinence and then after just throwing a bunch of law at people and telling him to shape up and that's the only way they'll ever be acceptable. He says where's my rose bring that rose back up here and some other kid runs up gives him the rose the stem is broken most of the pedals have fallen off the ones that are still there are wilted and basically ruined and this man he says see guys this what you end up like when you just give yourselves a weight everything and he says who would want this who would want this and Matt says he didn't say anything but everything in him wanted to scream Jesus wants that Jesus wants that rose that's the point of the gospel given ourselves a way to all sorts of things we've broken ourselves we're all falling apart that's the gospel we're all ungodly yet Jesus wants us Jesus comes to us Jesus removes our sin and guilt Jesus gives us his righteousness in its place he wants the rose Jesus wants the rose that's the gospel
and that's what we need to hear and that's what we need to say to this world because the world doesn't understand but as we live this and proclaim this the world comes to know you're not amazing now I usually like to say that when you're really understanding justification by faith alone there's a question that will eventually get to your mind and the question is wait a minute if 100% of my forgiveness is because of what Christ has done and if 100% of my righteousness before God is because of what Christ has done then why would I not just go on sinning and that's exactly what we're going to talk about next week in the meantime all of us broken roses can celebrate we have God's full acceptance forever because of Christ he wants the rose let's pray father we just praise your holy name and we ask that you would deliver us from our fear of judgment because Christ has paid our debt we ask that you would deliver us from pride and attempts to earn acceptance because Christ has given us righteousness for free and Lord forgive us if we've ever taught moralism instead of the gospel and empower us to cling tightly to the cross and tightly to Jesus and tightly to this news that you are just and the justifier of those who have faith in Jesus that you are a God who justifies the ungodly because of the sacrificed and perfect life of your son our Lord it is in his name that we pray amen