Monday, August 30, 2010

How Then Can We Be Made Right With God

SO HOW CAN WE BE JUSTIFIED WITH GOD? GOD'S WAY OF MAKING PEOPLE RIGHT

In the midst of man's darkness, God came with Light.

"BUT NOW"

Romans 3:21-25

Charles e. Whisnant, August 29, 2010

22 God makes people right with himself through their faith in Jesus Christ. This is true for all who believe in Christ, because all people are the same: 23 Everyone has sinned and fallen short of God's glorious standard, 24 and all need to be made right with God by his grace, which is a free gift. They need to be made free from sin through Jesus Christ. 25 God sent him to die in our place to take away our sins. We receive forgiveness through faith in the blood of Jesus' death. This showed that God always does what is right and fair, as in the past when he was patient and did not punish people for their sins. NCB


 

 22Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference:  23For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;  24Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:  25Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; KJV

22the righteousness of God(A) through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.(B) For there is no distinction: 23for(C) all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24(D) and are justified(E) by his grace as a gift,(F) through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25whom God(G) put forward as(H) a propitiation(I) by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in(J) his divine forbearance he had passed over(K) former sins. ESV

 

Cross references:

  1. Romans 3:22 : Romans 4:5; 2 Tim 3:15
  2. Romans 3:22 : Romans 10:12; Gal 3:28; Col 3:11
  3. Romans 3:23 : Romans 3:9
  4. Romans 3:24 : Titus 3:7
  5. Romans 3:24 : Romans 4:4, 5, 16; Acts 15:11
  6. Romans 3:24 : Eph 1:7; Col 1:14; Heb 9:15; 1 Cor 1:30
  7. Romans 3:25 : Eph 1:9
  8. Romans 3:25 : 1 John 2:2
  9. Romans 3:25 : Romans 5:9; Eph 2:13
  10. Romans 3:25 : Romans 2:4
  11. Romans 3:25 : Acts 17:30

 


 

Job 9:2 says: 'HOW SHALL A MAN BE JUST WITH GOD?" A quite important question.

  • Job is saying. Because God is the kind of God He is, how can I approach Him. How can I ever be able to approach Him? How could I ever get an appointment with God? He who is so Holy and Powerful?

That's the question; can a man ever be right, justified with a God like that? Is it possible to have a relationship with such a High, Holy God?

  • THE ANSWER IS THIS:     YES.

That is why we have so many religions. Because man seeks to be right with a God he believes to be God. How else can a person escape his sense of meaninglessness? How else can he escape his sense of lostness, a sense of guilt? How else can he eliminate the sense of death and the dread of punishment from a Holy God?

  • Religion suggests to a man how he can be right with God.
    • Doing certain things
    • Human effort
    • Human achievement
    • Works, human activity

BUT THE BIBLE CLEARLY STATES THAT MAN CANNOT DO ANYTHING TO GET IT CORRECT WITH GOD.

Paul has shown this in chapter 1:1 thru 3:19.

  • All people are guilty: 3:9
  • All people will be judged: 1:18
  • All people will be judged by facts:. 2:2-3

The facts are that man cannot keep the Law of God, which was designed to prove that man cannot keep the will of God. So the way to God is not by HUMAN EFFORT. You cannot get there that way.

The Old Testament way to God?

  • Micah 6:6-7-8 Activity of Faith
    • 6Wherewith shall I come before the LORD, and bow myself before the high God? shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old?  7Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?  8He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?

BEFORE ROMANS 3:21 YOU ARE REALLY IN THE DARK AS TO HOW YOU ARE GOING TO GET TO GOD. Verse 21 the daybreaks……

"BUT NOW"

As over against that darkness comes this: "How the darkness has been driven out. We have talked about SIN. Now it is time for the dawn of HOPE. It is time for the LIGHT to BREAK.

  • "But now apart from the Law, the righteousness of God has been manifested. NASV 3:21

But
(de) is a strong adversative (expresses antithesis or direct opposite) marking a dramatic turning point from the "bad news" of man's guilt and condemnation which merits God's wrath to the revelation of the "good news" of God's righteousness now available to undeserving sinful men.

  • The trial is finished. We look for the judge to summon the executioner. But surprise! Grace! Mercy! The Judge informs us that His Son Jesus has already paid our penalty and that He, the Judge, is willing to forgive us and give us the gift of righteousness if we will repent and believe on His Son.

The righteousness of God 1341

  • There is a righteousness, not of man, but of God.

Is manifested 5319

  • It is God who comes to the rescue. He brings deliverance. John 8:12

    12Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.

A righteousness (means being right) that comes from God and a different kind of righteousness. How different?

  1. BECAUSE OF ITS AUTHOR : Isaiah 45:8

    8Drop down, ye heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness: let the earth open, and let them bring forth salvation, and let righteousness spring up together; I the LORD have created it.

  2. BECAUSE OF ITS NATURE. This righteousness fulfilled both the precept and the penalty of the Law. Matthew 5:20

    20For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.

    This righteousness is the kind that had the ability to fulfill the whole Law without a flaw. Jesus Christ fulfilled the righteousness by keeping the whole Law of God


     

  3. BECAUSE OF ITS EVERLSTING RIGHTEOUSNESS.

    Daniel 9:24Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.

    Psalms 119:  142Thy righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and thy law is the truth.

    Hebrews 9:
     12Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.


     

    THAT IS THE KIND OF RIGHTEOUSNESS I WANT TO RECEIVE.

RIGHTEOUSNESS

  • being proper or right in the sense of being fully justified being or in accordance with what God requires) is the quality of being upright.
  • In its simplest sense DIKAIOSUNE conveys the idea of conformity to a standard or norm. In this sense righteousness is the opposite of hamartia (sin), which is defined as missing of the mark set by God. In this sense righteousness is the opposite of hamartia (sin), which is defined as missing of the mark set by God.
  • The sum total of all that God commands, demands, approves, and Himself provides.

Used 60 times in Romans.,
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