The Cross

As with the Apostle Paul in the first three chapters of Romans we need to begin with our predicament as human beings before turning to God's solution and the response we need to make. Let me warn you now – our predicament does not make easy listening.


Introduction

JC Ryle, the evangelical writer of the nineteenth century, wrote that 'a right knowledge of sin is the basis of a true understanding of Christianity. Without that such truths as justification by faith alone (being declared to be in the right with God by God on the basis of his Son's death on the cross), conversion and sanctification (being made more like Christ by the Holy Spirit) are only words.'

The first thing that God does when draws people to himself is to give them an inner awareness that they are guilty sinners. Perhaps God is doing that for the first time in someone's life here this evening. Jesus in John 16:8 says that:

The Holy Spirit will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgement.

So apart from the Spirit's convicting work, people cannot see themselves as guilty sinners in need of a Saviour.

Sin is serious with serious consequences, the most serious of which is separation from a holy God. In Romans 6:23 Paul writes:

The wages of sin is death, eternal death, eternal punishment in hell.

The world around us including some in the church downgrade and trivialise sin and its consequences. You've probably noticed that the word 'wicked' is now used to describe something as exciting or fun!

There are those who call evil good. One political journalist on Radio 4 called the former PM John Major a more well rounded figure after the news broke of his four year adulterous affair with Edwina Currie. In Romans 1Paul says this will be the case. Romans 1:32 states that:

Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things [as greed, depravity, murder, disobedience of parents] deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practise them.

That same attitude to sin was also true in the time of the prophet Isaiah. Isaiah 5:20 says this:

Woe to those who call evil good and good evil…

There are some who don't believe they've ever sinned. Sophia Loren, the famous film star of the 60's, apparently believes she hasn't and therefore believes she is right with God. One man I visited just after his wife died told me straight up that he had never sinned. Often on funeral visits the bereaved will say to me - he was a good man, he never did anything to hurt anyone – so he'll be in heaven won't he? There are others, rather like the Jews here in Romans 3 in their attitude to the Gentiles, who fall into the trap of being self-righteous believing themselves to be more righteous than others, a trap that we can all fall into at times.

However the truth about the human condition, sin and its consequences, which the Apostle Paul has been outlining up to this point in his letter to the Romans, from 1:18-3:20, is this. It is that all human beings, all of us here this evening, of every race and rank, of every creed and culture, Jews and Gentiles, the immoral and the moralizing, the religious and the irreligious, are without exception sinful, guilty, inexcusable and speechless before God.

Look back at v9-18 of chapter 3. Paul writes:

What shall we conclude then? Are we any better? Not at all! We have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under sin. As it is written: "There is no-one righteous, not even one; there is no-one who understands, no-one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no-one who does good, not even one. Their throats are open graves; their tongues practise deceit. The poison of vipers is on their lips. Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood; ruin and misery mark their ways, and the way of peace they do not know. There is no fear of God before their eyes. "

According to v11&18 sin is 'I in the middle'. I on the throne which belongs to God alone. Sin is the revolt of the self against God, the dethronement of God and the enthronement of oneself. According to v13-17 sin affects every part of us. Our limbs and organs were created and given us so that we might serve people and glorify God. Instead they are used to harm people and in rebellion against God. This is the biblical doctrine of the 'total depravity' of men and women. Total referring to the extent of our depravity (that every part of us has been twisted and tainted) not the degree of our depravity. As someone has put it:

No-one is as bad as he or she might be while on the other hand no action of ours is as good as it should be.

According to v10-12 we have all gone our own way and not even one of us is righteous or in the right in relation to God. For to be righteous is to live in absolute conformity to God's law and none of us have. Who here tonight can say that they have obeyed the Great Commandment and loved God with all their heart, mind, soul and strength? I can't. And who has always obeyed the second - 'Love your neighbour as yourself'? This term I have students living either side of me who are not always quiet so I have to admit that I haven't always obeyed the second either! We may never have committed an act of murder but Jesus says in Matthew 5:21-22:

You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, 'Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgement.' But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgement.

We may never have committed the physical act of adultery but Jesus says in Matthew 5:28:

But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

In v23 of Romans 3 Paul says:

There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God…

We all fail to live up to God's standards. We have all sinned and fall short of his glory. Yes there are degrees of sinning but none of us even approaches God's standard. One nineteenth century bishop put it like this:

"The prostitute, the liar, the murderer are short of God's glory; but so are you. Perhaps they stand at the bottom of a mine, and you on the crest of an Alp; but you are as little able to touch the stars as they."

Imagine we're all in a court of law. Who is in the dock in this passage having been found guilty without excuse, speechless because of the weight of the evidence which has been brought against them? It is you and I. In fact, v19, all the inhabitants of the whole world, without any exception, both Jews and Gentiles, are inexcusable before God. As Romans 1-3 makes plain, the reason is that all have known something of God and of morality whether through Scripture or nature but have gone their own way. So all are guilty and stand condemned before God, the righteous Judge. Romans 5:12 also reminds us that 'sin entered the world through one man [Adam], and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned.' We do not start life with even the possibility of living it sinlessly; we begin it with a sinful nature. King David put it like this in Psalm 51:5:

Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.

We have an inbuilt bias to sin rather like supermarket shopping trolleys which seem to always go off to the left or right and never straight ahead.

Therefore', writes Paul in v20, 'no-one will be declared righteous in God's sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin.

The law brings knowledge of sin not forgiveness of sin. No-one will be declared righteous in God's sight by observing the law. There is no possibility of salvation by good works. Even 'our righteous acts are as filthy rags' to God says the prophet Isaiah (64:6).

Yet salvation by good works is still a commonly held belief. Muhammad Ali, the famous ex-boxer and a Muslim, said in an interview last year:

One day we're all going to die, and God is going to judge us – our good deeds and bad deeds. If the bad outweighs the good, you go to hell. If the good outweighs the bad, you go to heaven.

But the truth is that no-one will be declared righteous in God's sight by observing the law, rather through the law we become conscious of sin.

So is there any hope? Is there any good news which might mean forgiveness and freedom? Is there a 'but' here somewhere which will come to our aid so that we won't have to stand before God waiting to hear the words of judgement pronounced?

Well yes, thanks be to God there is! Look at v21 of Romans 3:

But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify.

God himself has intervened. '…a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known', which must refer to the historical death of Christ and its abiding consequences. And this intervention by God is not a divine afterthought rather it is a fulfilment of Old Testament Scripture – 'a righteousness from God has been made known to which the Law and the Prophets testify'. We had the prophecy of Jesus' death on the cross from Isaiah 53 read to us earlier, a prophecy which was given at least 600 years before the event. In v22 Paul tells us that this righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. It comes through faith in Jesus Christ and not by observing the law. And it is offered to all because it is needed by all, for all have sinned, v23, and fall short of the glory of God.

And 'a righteousness from God' is now in v24 identified with justification. '…and are justified freely by his grace', writes Paul. So the righteousness from God is a combination of his righteous character, his saving initiative and his gift of a righteous standing before him. It is his just justification of the unjust, his righteous way of 'righteoussing' the unrighteous.

So what does the term 'justification' mean? It's been said that nobody has understood Christianity who does not understand this word. The word justification is a legal term. It's opposite is condemnation. To condemn is to declare the accused guilty or worthy of punishment. To justify is to declare or pronounce righteous. In the Bible justification refers to God's act of unmerited favour by which he puts a sinner right with himself, not only pardoning or acquitting him but accepting him and treating him as righteous.

So what is the source of our justification?


THE SOURCE OF OUR JUSTIFICATION: GOD & HIS GRACE

Look at v24:

We are justified freely by his grace…

The initiative for our rescue did not come from us but from God the Father. Indeed the saving initiative from beginning to end belongs to him. So the first move was God the Father's and our justification is freely by his grace, says Paul, his absolutely free and utterly undeserved favour. 'Grace is God loving, God stooping, God coming to the rescue, God giving himself generously in and through Jesus Christ.' Grace, to use the pnemonic, is God's Riches At Christ's Expense, which brings us to our second heading.


THE GROUND OF OUR JUSTIFICATION: CHRIST & HIS CROSS

If God justifies sinners freely by his grace, on what ground does he do so? How is it possible for the righteous God to declare the unrighteous to be righteous without either compromising his righteousness or condoning our unrighteousness? His answer is the cross.

Without the cross of Christ our justification would be impossible. The only reason God justifies the wicked, ie you and me, is that Christ died for the wicked. (Ro 5:6). Because Jesus shed his blood (v25) in a sacrificial death for us sinners, God is able justly to justify the unjust.

Paul explains what God did through the death of his Son in our place on the cross once for all in v24-26. Have a look at those verses:

we are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished – he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.

So first, we are told that God justifies us, 'through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus'. What does that mean? In the OT the term redemption was used of slaves who were purchased in order to be set free. We too, if we're Christians, were slaves, in bondage to our sin and guilt and utterly unable to release ourselves. But Jesus Christ redeemed us, he bought us out of captivity, shedding his blood as the ransom price. He himself said that he came to give his life as a ransom for many (Mk 10:45).

Secondly Paul says that 'God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood'. What does this mean? In the original Greek the phrase speaks of a sacrifice that satisfies the righteous wrath of God. Without this appeasement or propitiation (which literally means to placate his anger) all people are justly destined for eternal punishment. You see the human predicament is not only sin but also God's wrath upon sin (1:18). We cannot placate the righteous anger of God because we have no means by which to do so. But God in his undeserved love has done for us which we could never do by ourselves. Look again at v25: It says that God presented him [Christ] as a sacrifice for atonement. 1 John 4:10 says:

God loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

In the gospel we discover that we are far worse off than we thought, and far more loved than we ever dreamed.

God gave his own Son to die in our place on the cross, and in giving his Son he gave himself.

Let's return to the court of law. A man appears before the judge. He had committed a crime for which he was declared guilty. The judge had to pass a just sentence and imposed a fine. The man couldn't pay the fine. The judge came down from his seat and wrote a cheque for the amount of the fine. The man went free. This is a poor illustration of what God has done for us. In his justice he judges us because we are guilty but then in his love he came down in the person of Jesus Christ and paid the penalty for us. In this way he is both just and the one who justifies (Romans 3:26). Will we accept that he's paid for us and trust in him or are we going to face the judgement of God?

Thus God himself gave himself to save us from himself. This is the righteous basis on which the righteous God can 'righteous' (or make right) the unrighteous without compromising his righteousness.

And thirdly (v26), 'he did this to demonstrate his justice…so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus'. The cross of Christ was a demonstration as well as an achievement. As someone has put it:

It not only accomplished the propitiation of God and the redemption of sinners; it also vindicated the justice of God.' (v25b&26a)

THE MEANS OF OUR JUSTIFICATION: FAITH Paul underlines this three times in these verses. Look out v22, v25 & v28

This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe…through faith in his blood…God justifies those who have faith in Jesus.

Justification is by grace alone, in Christ alone, through faith alone.

Justification is the heart of the gospel and unique to Christianity. As one commentator has said:

"No other system, ideology or religion proclaims a free forgiveness and a new life to those who have done nothing to deserve it but a lot to deserve judgement. All other systems teach some form of self salvation through good works…Christianity, by contrast, is not in its essence a religion at all; it's a gospel, the good news that God's grace has turned away his wrath, that God's Son has died our death and borne our judgement, that God has mercy on the undeserving, and that there is nothing left for us to do or even contribute. Faith's only function is to receive what grace offers."

Who this evening needs to accept what grace offers by believing and trusting in Christ? Who needs to put their faith in him tonight? 'We are not justified by observing the law but by faith in Jesus Christ', says Paul in Galatians 2, 'so we too', he goes on, 'have put our faith in Jesus Christ.' In another passage (1 Timothy 1:17) Paul says, 'Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: 'Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am the worst.' Whatever we've done, whatever our attitude has been to Jesus Christ in the past – if we put our faith in him then we can be justified and have peace with God and eternal life. Will you too put your faith in Jesus Christ? in his death on the cross? Why not come to him and be justified?

If you already have put your faith in Christ are you sharing the good news of Christ's death on the cross and resurrection from the dead with others? We cannot monopolize the good news. All around us are men and women who know enough of God's glory and holiness to make their rejection of him inexcusable. They stand condemned under the judgement of God. Their knowledge, their religion and their righteousness cannot save them. Only Christ can. To go back to 3:19: their mouth is closed in guilt; let our mouth be opened in testimony! Who are we going to share Christ with this week? Who are we going to invite to the evening Christianity Explored course beginning on Thursday October 31st? Which of our friends, colleagues, course mates are asking 'what is the meaning of life? what on earth am I here for? what is the purpose of my life? Well why not invite them to part of the 40 Days of Purpose when the question being asked is what on earth am I here for? We should not keep God's answer to ourselves!