Sermon Tone Analysis

Enniscorthy Christian Fellowship – 30th March 2008

How Can We Be Right With God? Romans 3:21-31

A. We can we be right with God!

It’s amazing the lengths that people go to, to try to make themselves right with God.

A Canadian Press photo shows how a man from Havana, Cuba was trying to appease God’s wrath.

The man is lying on his back on a dirt road.

Attached to his ankle is a chain several feet long.

The other end of the chain is wrapped around a rock.

The caption explains that the bearded man is inch by inch pulling the rock on a pilgrimage to a sanctuary dedicated to St. Lazarus.

We have to admire this man’s devotion, and the commitment of millions of people who are in their own way trying to make themselves right with God through religion, good works, sacrifice.

1) There is no-one right with God

And yet, the sad thing is, the Bible says that this is useless because no matter how much we try we cannot make ourselves right with God.

In Paul’s letter to the Romans, we’ve seen that in of ourselves, none of us stand right before God.

Whether we are self-centred pleasure-seekers, self-righteous finger-pointers, or sincere religious devotees – “There is no-one righteous, not even one.”

Romans 3:9

2) We cannot make ourselves right with God

And we could never change our standing before God!

No matter how hard we try or how well we live, we cannot make ourselves right with God.

“No-one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law.”

Romans 3:20

3) There is a Righteousness from God

If that was the end of Paul’s message, we would all be lost and without hope.

But the gospel is good news for sinners.

Romans 1:16: “The gospel... is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes.”

God can save the Jew and the Gentile, the worst criminal and the most respectable pillar of society, the best here and the worst here.

God loves us so much that he wants to forgive each one of us and bring us all into his family.

And the amazing message of our passage this morning is that God has done everything needed to make us right in his sight!

Being right with God is not about the law but about God’s grace.

It is not about what we can do for God, but about what Jesus has done for us.

It is not about our works but about our faith!

Read Romans 3:21-31

B. How Can we be right with God?

Paul starts with the words, “But now” v21 because it is the start of a new section in his letter.

But he’s also making a deeper statement.

What he is going to talk about is available today.

Paul knows that he lives in a new day – the day of God’s grace when “a righteousness from God... has been made known.”

Now there is hope for us, because God has revealed his plan to make sinners right with himself.

This was not a completely new thing, as if God had changed direction or changed his mind – “the Law and the Prophets testify” to this.

But the gospel reveals how God can make sinners right with himself.

Paul says that we can be right with God by grace alone, in Christ alone, through faith alone!

1) Declared Right by God - by Grace Alone

First of all, God does this by declaring us right by grace!

i) Justification

Those who have trusted in Jesus “are justified freely by his grace.”

v24 Justification is a legal term.

It’s a legal declaration, from the law courts.

After hearing the evidence, the judge would either declares the guilty to be condemned, or he declares the innocent to be righteous.

The judge doesn’t make the accused guilty or innocent, but he does declare them to be one or the other.

These are the two verdicts that will be heard when “When God will judge men’s secrets through Jesus Christ” Romans 2:16.

However we don’t need to wait until that day, because God has already revealed what his judgement on our lives will be – He says “There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Romans 3:22-23 Whether we see ourselves as the worst of sinners, or close to perfect, the fact is that we’re not perfect.

No matter how good we are, we have all sinned, we always keep on falling short of God’s character, his splendour, his standard.

We know what judgement we deserve.

But Paul says that God “justifies the wicked.”

Romans 4:5 .

He does this by his grace.

This means that God anticipates his final judgement and declares us to be righteous in his sight now!

He doesn’t just forgive us our past sins – this would leave us afraid of falling in the future.

He doesn’t even give us a full pardon, wiping the slate clean.

He goes further.

God gives his final judgement on our standing before God now and declares us to be righteous – as righteous as Jesus!

ii) By Grace Alone

And this is all “by his grace.”

It is “apart from law.”

It is not gained through keeping the 10 commandments or the other laws of God.

The saving initiative from beginning to end belongs to God.

God in his love gives to us what we could not deserve, what we could not earn or pay for.

It is a free gift.

Ephesians 2:8: “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God.”

Max Lucado writes in “In the Grip of Grace” “In my first church, we had more then our fair share of southern ladies who loved to cook.

I fit in well because I was a single guy who loved to eat...

I counted on these potluck dinners for my survival.

While others were planning what to cook, I was studying my kitchen shelves to see what I could offer.

The result was pitiful: one of my better offerings was a unopened bag of crisps, another time I took a half-empty jar of peanuts.

Wasn’t much, but no-one ever complained.

Those ladies would take my jar of peanuts and set is on the long table with the rest of the food and hand me a plate.

“Go ahead.

Fill your plate.”

And I would!

Mashed potatoes and gravy.

Roast beef.

Fried chicken.

I came like a pauper and ate like a king!”

This is like what Paul says happens to us.

We come as a sinner (with nothing to bring to God to make us right with him) and are declared to be a saint (with the righteousness of Jesus!)

All by God’s grace!

2) Paid for by the cross of Jesus Christ - In Christ Alone

But that sounds unfair!

I’m sure every parent has heard, “That’s not Fair!!” Every child wants their parents to be fair – to get what they deserve, to get the same as their brothers or sisters.

When we were young and cutting up the last bit of cake, we always said - “You cut, I’ll choose.”

One person cut the cake – but the other person then could choose which bit to get – this would ensure that the cutter cut fairly, cause if he didn’t he would lose out!!

We would also expect God to be fair.

And yet, the gospel sounds unfair.

How can God justify the wicked.

How can God declare that we who are so obviously unrighteous to be righteous in his sight?

How can God forgive me without compromising his righteousness or condoning our unrighteousness?

The answer of course, is the cross of Jesus.

Because “Christ died for the ungodly” Romans 5:6.

Paul describes 3 things that the cross did here:

i) Bought our Freedom

Paul says that we are justified “through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus” v24 .