Sermon Tone Analysis

Romans 3:25b-31.

"The Cross of the Christ"

Safe Haven Community Church.

Sunday September 18th, 2022.

Romans 3:25b-31.

25 (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.

26 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.

27 Then what becomes of our boasting?

It is excluded.

By what kind of law?

By a law of works?

No, but by the law of faith.

28 For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.

29 Or is God the God of Jews only?

Is he not the God of Gentiles also?

Yes, of Gentiles also, 30 since God is one-who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith.

31 Do we then overthrow the law by this faith?

By no means!

On the contrary, we uphold the law.

(ESV)

In the summer of 1865, Hudson Taylor became tremendously burdened for the land of China.

His biographer reports that he also became greatly troubled about the church he was attending in Brighton, England.

As he looked around the congregation he saw pew upon pew of prosperous bearded merchants, shopkeepers, visitors; demure wives in bonnets and crinolines, scrubbed children trained to hide their impatience; the atmosphere of smug piety sickened him.

He seized his hat and left.

"Unable to bear the sight of a congregation of a thousand or more Christian people rejoicing in their own security, while millions were perishing for lack of knowledge, I wandered out on the sands alone, in great spiritual agony."

And there on the beach he prayed for "twenty-four willing skillful laborers."

Out of that prayer eventually came the China Inland Mission.

Due to that ministry and others like it, there are reportedly twenty-five million to perhaps fifty million believers in China today, despite its officially atheistic government.

God could use someone like Hudson Taylor because his attention was not focused on his own interests but on God's.

(John Stott.

Our Guilty Silence.

Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1969, p. 24)

If there is anything that defines modern life, it is self-centeredness.

It's one dominated by self-ism, manifested in self-centeredness, selfishness, self-gratification, and self-fulfillment.

People tend to be absorbed in their own feelings, their own desires, their own possessions, and their own welfare.

Sadly, self-ism has found its way into Christianity.

It you listen to the overwhelming public call in Christian circles, it's a call to come to Jesus who will make everything better.

They say: "Come to Jesus to have everything you could possibly desire".

The shocking thing about this message, is that it's the same one Satan used to tempt Jesus.

If we would just compromise a little, we can have the whole world.

But the call that we heard about last week, embedded in the Gospel, is first one of self-denial, to take up our Cross and follow Him.

Salvation is first and foremost a way of glorifying God.

The fact that it saves people from hell and gives them eternal life, marvelous and wonderful as that is, is secondary to the glory of God.

The cross of Jesus Christ has the most dramatic effect on humanity in providing the way of redemption.

But Jesus' death on the cross was primarily to glorify God.

He glorified God during His earthly ministry, enabling Him to say to His heavenly Father, "I glorified Thee on earth, having accomplished the work which Thou hast given Me to do" (John 17:4).

There will, of course, be bliss beyond description in heaven, but even that bliss will itself be an eternal testimony to the grace and glory of God.

The theme of the book of Romans, and the heart of the gospel message, is the doctrine of justification by faith alone in response to God's grace.

It is a doctrine that has been lost and found again and again throughout the history of the church.

It has suffered from understatement, from overstatement, and, perhaps most often, simply from neglect.

It was the central message of the early church and the central message of the Protestant Reformation, under the godly leadership of men such as Martin Luther and John Calvin.

It is still today the central message of every church and believer that is faithful to God's Word.

Only when believers understand and proclaim justification by faith can we truly present the gospel of Jesus Christ.

One of the most significant passages that teaches that truth is the present text (Rom.

3:25b-31).

At first reading this passage seems terribly intricate, complicated, and baffling.

But its basic truth is simple, while also being the most profound truth in all of Scripture: Justification for sinful people is made possible by God's grace through the death of His Son Jesus Christ on the cross, and it is appropriated by people when they place their trust in Him as Lord and Savior.

Justification is indeed God's answer to the most important of all human questions: How can a man or a woman become right with God?

We are not right with God in ourselves.

We are under God's wrath.

Justification is vital, because we must become right with God or perish eternally (Boice, J. M. (1991-).

Romans: Justification by Faith (Vol. 1, p. 380).

Baker Book House.).

In Romans 3:25b-31, Paul directs our thought specifically to four ways in which the cross of Jesus Christ glorifies God-by 1) Revealing God's righteousness (Romans 3:25b-26), by 2) Exalting God's grace (Romans 3:27-28), by 3) Revealing God's universality (Romans 3:29-30), and by 4) Confirming God's law (Romans 3:31).

The Cross of the Christ Glorifies God because:

1) The Cross Reveals God's Righteousness (Romans 3:25b-26)

Romans 3:25b-26.

25 (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.

26 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.

(ESV)

Righteousness, justification, and their verb and adjective forms are from the same Greek root.

As those two English words indicate, the basic meaning relates to what is right and just.

Apart from the Holy Spirit enabling us to understand God's actions here, there is great confusion on this point.

Unbelievers frequently point to what they consider capricious, unjust, and even brutal acts on God's part.

"If your God is so holy and just," they ask, "why does He let His own people suffer so much and let wicked people, including the enemies and persecutors of His people, get by with terrible sins?

And why does He let innocent people suffer because of the wickedness of others?"

Anticipating such questions, the Holy Spirit led Paul to declare that, through the cross, God not only allowed but planned before the foundation of the world what would be the most unjust act that people could commit-the putting to death of His own sinless Son.

But through that heinous act on people's part, God not only manifested His divine righteousness by offering His own Son but also used that act of divine grace to show/demonstrate His divine righteousness.

Through that incomparable sacrifice, God provided punishment for sin sufficient to forgive and blot out every sin that would ever be committed by His people-including the supreme sin of crucifying His own Son, for which every unregenerate person shares the guilt (Heb.

6:6).

God would not be righteous, if He neglected to show Himself to be righteous: it is essential to His being the righteous, the loving and merciful God, that He should show that He is righteous (Cranfield, C. E. B. (2004).

A critical and exegetical commentary on the Epistle to the Romans (p.

213).

T&T Clark International.).

That greatest of all acts of God's grace was further demonstrated by His divine forbearance, as He had passed over former sins/the sins previously committed.

God is not unaware of nor does He condone even the smallest sin.

His forbearance is therefore not a sign of injustice but of His patient and loving grace.

"The Lord is not slow about His promise," Peter assures us, "but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance" (2 Pet.

3:9).

God's justice and grace are on a perfect and infinitely grander scale than human wisdom can perceive or comprehend.

Because of His justice, no sin will ever go unpunished; yet because of His grace, no sin is beyond forgiveness.

Therefore, every sin will be paid for by the sinner themselves in the form of eternal death and punishment in hell or it will be paid for them because they have placed their faith in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on their behalf.

The only basis upon which sins may be forgiven is the propitiatory sacrifice of Jesus Christ, and it was upon this basis that God forgave sins even in the OT era, even before the historical event of the atonement had occurred.

It was absolutely certain that the cross would occur (Acts 2:23); thus God freely dispensed its benefits before the fact.

An analogy is a person who knows his paycheck is going to be deposited tomorrow, so he writes checks on it today, knowing the funds will be there when the checks reach the bank.

The problem was not God's ability to forgive pre-cross sins as such, but the appearance this gave as to God's violating his own righteousness or justice in doing so.

But, says Paul, any doubts concerning the integrity of God's justice that were thus raised are completely dispelled by the actual event of the cross, which was a public event presented before the whole world (Cottrell, J. (1996).

Romans (Vol. 1, Ro 3:25).

College Press Pub.

Co.).

Please turn to Acts 17