think of a thing, a problem in life,
in a subject at school that you've been stuck on
and you find it hard to understand
and no matter how hard you try, you can't get it.
So for example, it's maybe a concept in math or science.
And so it's so hard, eventually you just drop the subject
and you vow that in life you'll never have anything to do with that subject.
So throughout the last few weeks,
we've been looking at some of the bigger issues
that Luther and others were facing in the Reformation.
So today we'll look at Martin Luther, the man,
and we'll look at one of the issues
that he's been wrestling with in the Bible
and how today's passage, Romans chapter 3, verses 21 to 26,
help him to understand this problem.
So we'll try something a little bit different today.
So I'll ask the AV team to keep putting the Romans passage on the screen.
So while I preach, we'll work through the passage together.
So one of the other things I've been reminded of
in the last couple of weeks is
I went to Heartbeat a couple of weeks ago
and one thing that Steve reminded me
is to look at the Bible slowly.
So Romans 3 is a passage that a lot of us will know very well.
So one thing that we need to do is actually slow down,
look carefully and to make sure God is speaking to us.
So I'm going to ask God to help us to do that.
Let's pray.
Dear God, we thank you for your word.
We thank you that it is so precious.
We are sorry at times.
We assume that we know it
and we assume that what we have learned before will feed us.
So pray that even for myself as I'm preaching right now,
that we will look slowly at your word,
that we will understand it and look intensely
so that you will speak to us,
so that you will change us for your sake.
I pray this in Jesus' name.
Amen.
So today the topic we have is faith alone.
So faith alone is actually like a shortened cash cry
for a bigger concept that we need to explore.
So the idea that we are trying to explore is
how we can be justified by faith alone.
So to understand these ideas well,
we need to go back to the story of Luther.
Because one of the concepts that Luther wrestled with
is the righteousness of God,
which is a word that's repeated many times
in the book of Romans and in this passage.
So in particular, he struggled with chapter 1,
verses 17 to 18.
So I'll read those verses to you.
Verse 17 in Romans 1 says,
The righteous shall live by faith.
And verse 18 says,
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven
against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men,
who suppress the truth in unrighteousness.
Luther said he hated Romans 1, verse 17
before he figured out what God's righteousness meant.
So that's what he wrote about this passage.
I had been captivated with an extraordinarily ardour
for the understanding of Paul in the epistle to the Romans.
But a single word in chapter 1, verse 17,
in which the righteousness of God is revealed,
stood in my way.
For I hated that word righteousness of God,
which I had been taught to understand
is the righteousness with which God
punishes the unrighteous sinner.
So that's what the church has taught him
about 500 years ago,
that God is the righteous judge
and we are the unrighteous sinner.
So he hated that word
because he knows how unrighteous he is.
In fact, this word weighed on him so heavily.
So before he depended fully on Jesus' salvation,
it affected many aspects of his life.
So there's another quote about what he tried to do
in light of his unrighteousness.
So that's how he saw Jesus,
a terrible judge, sitting up high.
So this problem that Luther had
isn't just his problem.
It's actually everyone's problem.
So one of the big questions we need to ask is,
how can a righteous God
pardon an unrighteous person?
So before we tackle this passage,
I'd actually like to fast forward
to the time that Luther understood
the concept of God's righteousness
and read his reaction to what he read.
So another quote,
A night and day I pondered
until I saw the connection
between the justice of God
and the statement that
the just shall live by his faith.
Then I grabbed that the justice of God
is that righteousness by which
through grace and sheer mercy,
God justifies us through faith.
Thereupon I felt myself to be reborn
and have gone through open doors
into paradise.
So we can actually see
Luther's excitement
when he finally understood
what it means
for the righteous God
to justify him.
And I hope by the end of this message
that you will feel
the same excitement that Luther felt
when he first understood the passage.
So to figure out
what this passage means,
I'll get the AB team
to pop verse 21 on the screen
of Romans chapter 3.
So if you have a Bible,
please turn to that as well.
So in verses 21 to 22,
we notice a few different aspects
of righteousness.
So righteousness is manifested
apart from the law,
but the law and the prophets
bear witness to it.
Righteousness is given by God,
is obtained through faith
in Christ Jesus
for all who believe.
So let's look at each part
of this sentence.
The first part is that righteousness
is manifested apart from the law.
What this means is that
we cannot become righteous
by doing good things.
The law means the moral standard,
revealed by God
in the Ten Commandments,
summarized by the Ten Commandments.
So we can actually see
why our works can't make us righteous
in Romans chapter 3, verse 20.
So just before verse 21,
therefore no one will be declared
righteous in God's sight
by the works of the law.
Rather through the law,
we become conscious of sin.
So just to understand
why the law will make us
conscious of sin,
I'll give you an example
that will be close
to some people's heart,
which is at this time of year,
we can think about the tax season
for those that are working.
For those that are studying,
it's still,
we've got a few years ahead of you.
So if you think about
the tax season,
and you think about
what we try to do with tax,
is that a lot of people
try to minimize
the amount of tax we will pay.
So you see ads
from an accounting firm,
you probably see
the accountant
that was very excited
when they got
a maximum deduction.
So that's what we feel sometimes.
So we try to push
against the law
and try to get
everything that we can.
But if we realize
that God actually
has appointed governments
to rule this land,
even if they don't do it
perfectly,
they still give us
roads to drive on
and social security
and HECS
and uni
and all those things.
So we should actually
be glad to pay tax
so that the government
can do their job.
But our hearts
try to go against
what the government
has said in the law
and try to get
as much as we can.
So that's sort of
similar to what we do
when we look at God's law.
So the law
sets up the boundary
in terms of
what we can do,
but our sinful hearts
tend to try to push
against the boundary.
So if the law says
you have to drive at 60,
you'll drive at 59 and a half
or something like that.
So that's how we look
at God's law.
We try to disobey
as much as we can
within the limits.
So the law
sometimes actually reveals
how sinful our hearts are.
The second part
of the sentence
is that the law
and prophet
bear witness
to this righteousness.
I'll explain this concept
by a conversation
that I had at church
and I was very happy
to have that conversation.
There was a lady
that is seeking
to understand Jesus
and she is still
so we can pray for her.
She has been doing
some Bible studies
and she's so interested
in the Bible
she has started to read it
from the beginning.
And she asked me,
like,
I've read from Genesis
to Leviticus so far
and she thought that
the God that is revealed
in the Old Testament
is very different
from what she has heard
in the Bible study.
So she asked me,
what does it mean?
How does it work?
And I actually thought
that was an awesome opportunity
to bring up this passage
because it says
the law and prophet
testify about God's righteousness.
And in fact,
today we will look at
the different aspects
in the Old Testament
that Jesus has fulfilled.
And the Old Testament
actually points to Jesus
and we'll actually see
how that happens
in the next few verses.
And the last bit
of the phrase says
that the righteousness
is obtained
through faith
in Jesus Christ
for all who believes.
So if you look at
that phrase,
through faith
in Jesus Christ
for all who believes,
one of the first questions
you might ask is,
isn't Paul being a bit
redundant and repetitive?
He tells us to believe
in Jesus Christ
and then for all
who believes.
So why does he say that?
Actually,
that phrase,
faith in Jesus Christ
can be translated
as faith of Jesus Christ.
And that might actually
make better sense
of this passage.
Because the thing
that we need to believe
is the faithfulness
of Jesus Christ.
How he is completely
obedient to God
and how he is
completely obedient to death.
So we will actually work out
how Christ's faithfulness
affect us.
So that's the second question
we need to ask.
How does Jesus'
faithful obedience
to death
make us right with God?
So Paul,
in the book of Romans,
to help us understand
this concept,
he paints sort of
three mental pictures
for us.
So we will look
at verse 24.
The first word
that God,
that Paul uses
is justified.
We can see this word
in verse 24.
So when we think
of the word justified,
Paul is trying to get us
to think of
a law court
with God
as a presiding judge
giving the verdict.
So,
unfortunately,
for Luther at the time,
this concept
of justification
is sort of a bit
clouded
by the Latin Bible
that he is reading
and what he has been taught.
So, you see,
the word justified
comes from the Latin word
justificare,
which is like
justificare.
Justy is the righteous
bit,
like justice
or righteousness.
And ficare
is the word
to make.
So if you combine
the two words together,
justification means
to make righteous.
So that's what
the Roman Catholic Church
taught 500 years ago.
And unfortunately,
they still believe
that right now.
So basically,
for someone
to be righteous,
you have to be made
righteous
by the religious works
that you do.
You have to trust in Jesus
and you keep
taking sacraments
and doing all these
religious good works
to become righteous.
But when Luther
looked at the Bible
in Greek,
he realised that
justification
isn't to make righteous,
but rather for God
to declare us righteous
or to count us
as righteous.
So the difference is
if you are made
righteous,
God is trying to,
you have to be changed
to a certain moral standard
before you can be
accepted to God
by God.
But what it means here
is God
as a judge
is declaring
that you are righteous
from the outside.
It's not about
what we have been
doing inside
that matters.
It's about
God's verdict.
That's the thing
that makes us righteous.
So
we have to work out
how can
the question
still stands
so how can
like a righteous God
declare a sinful person
to be justified?
So we have to actually
look at
the second picture
that Paul is
painting here.
The second picture
is actually
a redemption.
But before we do that,
let's think about
an illustration.
justification.
So when you think
of justification,
you can think of
maybe perhaps
someone has committed
a crime.
So what Jesus has done
in justifying us
is that
he steps
into your place
as an innocent man
and actually
goes to jail
for you,
basically.
He pays for the penalty
that we deserve.
The amazing thing
about God
is that
God has not only
taken away
our sins,
God has chose
to put the obedience
of Jesus
onto us.
So the earlier reading
in Psalm,
it talks about
because of our sin,
we actually need
to cry out to God
to forgive.
So God actually
does forgive
and take away
our sins.
But more than that,
God chooses
to put
Jesus' righteousness
onto us.
So we can see
this concept
in Romans chapter 4.
When Abraham
believed in God,
it was credited
to him
as righteousness.
So it's more
than just
forgiving our sins.
God actually
gives us
Jesus' work,
Jesus' good works
onto us.
So I want to
use this
analogy of the courthouse
a bit further
and think about
what it means.
So imagine
I was getting
sentenced
and somehow
I received a letter
in the mail.
It says that
my sentencing date
is on Australia Day.
That would be
pretty weird
to get a sentence
on a public holiday
but that's how
it goes.
And
on that day
Jesus says
I want to
actually take
your penalty.
I will stand
in your place
and appear
in front of the judge
and I will
take your punishment.
And Jesus said
actually I've
double booked myself.
On that day
I was actually
due to be
awarded the
Australian of the Year
Award for
Outstanding Community Service.
How about
you go and
take the award
in my place.
So that's
sort of
what God
does for us
in Jesus.
He has taken
the guilt.
He stood
before the judge
taking away
our guilt.
More than that
God is putting
all of Jesus'
righteous works
onto us.
So when we
appear
before God
God sees
all of Jesus'
good works
instead of
our sinful life.
So that's
the amazing
thing about
justification.
But
we have to
actually look
at the second
picture to
work out
how God
can do that.
So the second
picture that
we can see
is from the
word in
verse 24
redemption.
So redemption
Paul is trying
to get us
to think about
the picture
of a slave
market in
the first
century.
So we don't
have slave
markets nowadays
which is
quite good.
But imagine
2,000 years
ago at the
slave markets.
If you are
a slave back
in the first
century it
means that
you probably
were born
into slavery
or somehow
you incur
some economic
debt and
you have
to be
sold into
slavery.
And you
have no
means of
escaping
slavery.
Like if you
have the
money you
would obviously
buy your
freedom.
The way
that God
redeems
is like
him paying
the price
that is
required to
free a
slave so
that we
can be
free.
Another
way of
thinking of
redemption
is the
idea of
pawnbrokers.
I'm
sure most
of you
wouldn't
have heard
of what a
pawnbroker is
because we
are way
too young.
Nowadays
we are
out of
money we
just sell
something on
eBay or
something.
But 20
years ago
or maybe
in some
country towns
sorry that
was bad
but I've
actually seen
them in
country towns
so it's
nothing against
Nick or
other people
but it's
actually easy.
If you run
out of money
what you do
is take
something
precious like
a guitar
and you
take it to
the pawn
shop,
pawnbroker
and you
say I
need some
money so
you take
your guitar
to the
pawnbroker and
you get
some money
and you
want to
redeem your
guitar you
have to
make a bit
more money
than what
they gave
you and
give it
back to
them and
take your
guitar back.
So that's
how you
redeem, you
pay a
price to
take something
back.
This same
idea is
actually the
idea in
Exodus.
God
redeems
the people
for himself
by paying
a price.
So these
illustrations help
us to
understand the
idea of
redemption but
we actually
need to
understand we
are incapable
of paying the
redemption price.
So that's
why Paul
brings in a
third mental
picture.
In verse
25 it
talks about
the sacrifice
of atonement
at the start
of verse 25.
So in
other
translations it
can be
translated as
propitiation.
So these
concepts mean
God is
turning away
his
propitiation
means turning
away of
anger.
So the
picture Paul
is trying to
paint here is
a picture of
a temple.
So Jesus'
sacrifice turns
away God's
anger.
So we
have heard
Sam preach
a couple
of weeks
ago about
Christ alone
and he
went through
the passage
in Hebrews
chapter 10.
So Hebrews
chapter 10
is about
Jesus'
sacrifice,
about the
sacrificial
system that's
mentioned in
Leviticus and
how Jesus as
a perfect
sacrifice he
paid for
our sins
once for
all.
So we
put all
these mental
pictures together.
We'll have
enough answers
to work out
the questions
I've been
asking through
the sermon
which is
how can a
righteous God
forgive and
pardon an
unrighteous
person?
And how
does Jesus'
death make
us right
before God?
So the
way that we
can work it
out is to
think about
the three
mental pictures
again.
So think
of the
temple.
Because Jesus
is obedient
to death
and he's
completely
sinless.
He's paid
the price
that is
demanded for
a sinner.
The perfect
righteous
death.
Think of
a slave
market.
Jesus'
death is
actually the
ransom price
that is
required to
free us
from the
bondage of
sin and
the penalty
of sin.
And think
about the
law court.
We can go
free because
Jesus, the
innocent man,
has stood in
front of the
judge so that
we can be
pardoned.
And what's
more, if
you look at
the end,
chapter 3,
verse 26,
it's actually
fair for
God to
pardon us
when Jesus
dies for
us.
Because God
has already
sent Jesus
to die for
us.
So what that
means is that
he's not
being unjust
in forgiving
us.
So a lot of
people will
ask, why
doesn't God
just forgive
us, just
say, if you
have sinned,
just forget
about it.
It's much
better just to
forget about
sin than to
actually have to
punish someone.
The reason is
that God
actually has
to punish
someone.
He has
set the
price for
sin.
Those that
sin deserve
to die.
Therefore,
Jesus needs
to actually
pay the
price for
sin.
So when
God
pardons as a
judge right
now, he's
being completely
fair.
Someone has
actually died
for our sins.
That person is
Jesus.
We have
to ask the
question, why
would God
do something
like this?
It's too
wonderful and
unimaginable.
We see the
answer in
verse 24.
So we go
back to
verse 24.
Verse 24 is
we are justified
freely by
his grace.
So we
looked at
grace alone
last week.
Grace is
God's own
initiative.
It's a gift.
We don't
deserve grace.
Grace is
something that
God does
because he
just wants
to.
So if you
think about
the concept
of grace,
even when we
give gifts,
it's actually
usually due
to a reason.
Yesterday I
went to a
birthday party
for my
daughter's
friend.
And they
give gifts
because it's
someone's
birthday.
The week
after, if you
see them at
school, I'm
sure my
daughter won't
give that
person another
present.
The reason
why we give
is because
something of
that person
is a
birthday or
because they're
your children.
We usually
give gifts
because of
a reason.
But God,
the way he
gives gifts,
he gives it
to us,
we're totally
undeserving.
So if we
put,
have you
understood this
passage,
let's return to
the topic
sentence,
which is
justification
by faith
alone.
So you
might ask
me, I've
been talking
about the
whole passage,
but I've
never mentioned
the word
faith.
So why
are you
getting me
to think
about slave
markets and
pawnbrokers and
the law
court, and
how come
we have not
talked about
faith?
The reason
why we need
to think
is that
faith needs
an object.
When we
talk about
justification by
faith alone,
it means,
another word for
faith is to
believe, to
rely, to
trust, or to
depend on
something or
someone.
depend.
You can't
say that I
trust, I'm
safe by
depend.
Who are you
depending on?
It means that
we need to be
absolutely clear
on who we
are depending
on.
The reason
why we are
justified is
not based on
how much
faith we
have, but
rather we
need to
realize
completely that
we need to
depend on
Jesus.
So what I
want to do
is to play
a theoretical
exercise,
which the
theoretical
exercise is.
What if we
try to add
to what
Jesus has
done?
What would
happen?
If we add
our religious
good works
to what
Jesus has
done, what
would happen?
So let's
think of the
three mental
pictures that
Paul has
presented in
the book of
Romans.
If we
actually try
to add the
works that
we have done
onto Jesus,
it actually
takes away
from what
God has
done.
Think of
the temple.
what God
requires is
a perfect
sacrifice.
If we
try to
add our
works on
top, we
actually spoil
it because
we are
sinful.
Not that
we can do
it, but
if we try
to do it,
we actually
make the
sacrifice
defiled.
Think of
the slave
market.
God wants
a perfect
ransom to
be paid.
If we
try to
pay the
ransom on
top, we
actually make
it an
imperfect
ransom.
Think of
the law
court.
If God
requires an
innocent
person to
stand before
him, if we
try to
stand along
with Jesus,
I'm a
guilty person.
We can't
add to it.
All these
examples are
theoretical.
We can
never put
ourselves in
Jesus'
place because
he's the
only innocent
one.
He's the
only guiltless
one.
He's the
only perfect
sacrifice that
God will
accept.
This is the
reason why we
need to depend
on Jesus
completely.
The more
that we
realise how
wonderful Jesus'
death is, and
the more that
we realise how
undeserving we
are, the
more that we
realise that we
need to depend
on Jesus
completely.
So what
does it mean
for all of
us?
So if
you've
understood this
passage for
the first
time, just
like Luther
did 500
years ago,
you can
actually see
the excitement
that Luther
had.
And I
will be
excited if
you understood
this passage for
the first time
as well.
So you
can chat
to one
of us
after the
service,
or if
you want
to, you
can fill
in the
communication
card to
tell us
how you've
understood
Jesus'
righteousness
for you,
and we
would love
to hear
about it.
So also
the other
thing that
Sam's
already
mentioned
is the
piece of
paper on
your seat,
which is
the Investigating
Christianity
course.
I would
love for
you to
invite your
friends and
indeed your
enemies to
it, because
everyone needs
to hear the
gospel.
And in
fact, if
you look at
the outline,
the fourth
study is
how to be
right with
God.
And it
will actually
study this
passage.
The reason
why we need
to invite our
friends is
that we are
desperate for
the world to
know Jesus
and encounter
Jesus.
So I
really hope
that you can
pray through
this week
who we can
invite to
this course.
And the
other thing
is if you
missed out on
the training
course I ran
last week on
how to
lead this,
and if you
are keen to
learn how to
use these
set of Bible
studies to
help your
friends understand
Jesus, I'd
love to work
alongside you and
train you in
this, so you
can come along
as well, and
hopefully we can
do this on the
job.
We'll learn to
do this together,
and we'll do
this over the
next five weeks.
And lastly,
even if you've
heard this
passage many,
many times,
I hope that
the truth about
Jesus here will
help you grow
in wonder,
awe, and
trust in Jesus
and worship
Jesus, so that
we can know and
treasure Jesus by
completely relying on
what Jesus has
done on the cross
for us.