So we're going to be reading Romans 3 verse 21.
But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law.
Although the law and the prophets bear witness to it,
the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.
For there's no distinction.
For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God
and are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ,
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 has passed over former sins.
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.
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.
For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.
Or is God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the un...
Sorry.
For is God the God of the Jews only?
Is he not the God of the Gentiles also?
Yes.
Of the Gentiles also.
Since God is one, who will justify the...
Sorry.
Since God is one, who will justify the circumcised by faith
and the uncircumcised through faith?
Do we then overthrow the law by this faith?
By no means.
On the contrary, we uphold the law.
Okay.
So today, my topic, our title is Overcome by Glory
and also for Glory from Romans 3, 21 to 31.
Before I start, I just like to...
I mean, for some people here may not know what the term righteousness means
because this passage talks about righteousness a lot.
So in the simple form, righteousness is being straight, not crooked in God's eyes.
And so we can only be either righteous or non-righteous.
There's no more scales in terms of either we are black or white in that.
Either we are crooked or we are straight in God's eyes.
While holiness or godliness are different, we can be more holy or more godly
as we grow in the knowledge of God.
Okay.
Let's pray first before we start.
Father God, we are so thankful that in Christ alone,
that we have our hope based on the meaning of our life.
May you help us to appreciate this as we come to your word this morning.
We pray and give thanks in Jesus' name.
Amen.
So in my father's old house, there was a large old mirror hanging on one of the walls.
So in this, I only have this picture that's taken 46 years ago.
The mirror is at the back of all the people.
They are all my siblings.
Okay.
I'm from the right, the second front.
That was me.
But the point is that in that mirror, there were a few lines of text written in,
inscribed in the mirror in a very beautiful ancient Chinese choreography.
No one in the house seemed to pay any attention to the writing of the mirror.
It's actually just part of the furniture.
But it somehow attracted me.
What was the writing about?
Because it was an ancient character, it's not easy to interpret and see what that was.
And I asked my older siblings, and nobody seemed to understand what it was either.
It took me many years.
And gradually, I found out that it was written by Mancius.
Mancius is a follower of Confucius.
He's a philosopher, he's written many things.
And this is part of his writing.
So what it meant was something like this in English.
He said, first free yourself of wrongdoings and evil thoughts.
Then bring order to your family, after which govern your people well, and the land is yours.
So obviously it is written to rulers, people want to be leaders, to say that you need to be free yourself from evil first, before you can rule other people.
So this is written about 2300 years ago.
Mancius could see that for a person to rule others, he must first refine his characters.
He understood that no one could rule others simply by using force.
We can, like Russia can occupy Ukraine by using force, but it won't be, not a real rule is that people will be forced into submission.
So he just said that, he knew that for that to be meaningful, for one, like a parent to be able to help the children to grow,
you just can't use, simply by using force.
And the person himself needs to have good characters to start with.
So he urged people to try hard to do that.
But then, like the inscription on the old mirror, this advice has mostly been ignored by people.
Even, I mean, even some people may try to refine their characters, but they would find that impossible to free themselves from wrongdoings and evil thoughts.
In the Old Testament, in the book of Jeremiah, in chapter 13, verse 23, it says,
Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots?
Then also you can do good who are accustomed to do evil.
So, this word does not say that dark skin or spotty skins are evil.
It's saying that evil is just part of our nature.
We are born with it.
We can't change it.
That is what the Old Testament conclusion would be.
And what is evil?
So, we have to go back to chapter 1 of Romans.
We read about the manifestation of evil.
We can summarize it.
First, we replace the worship of our creator with worship of creatures.
So, there are many idols, any other things that we worship rather than the real creator.
And then we replace godly passions with ungodly passions.
So, having passion is God-given capability, but we use it for things that are not pleasing to God.
And replacing godly attitudes with ungodly attitudes.
And so, there's all the hatreds and angers and wars and fights in the world.
So, these manifestations are the result of us doing what we think is right to do in our own eyes.
Evil is suppressing the truth that is revealed by God and replacing it with our own ideas.
And evil is seeking our own glory.
And in Romans 3.10, it says,
None is righteous.
No, not one.
Because, well, we can say that we are more righteous to other people in some way.
But in God's eyes, we are either righteous or unrighteous.
And no one can say, I am righteous before God in God's eyes.
Even without the Bible telling us, like man's shoes,
we can see the effect of evil in the world.
Throughout history, there were leaders who tried to reduce evil in the world.
However, such ways tend to create other evils.
Because those leaders themselves were crooked and self-centered.
If they are not straight, they cannot help to make other things straight.
So, for example, communism was devised to reduce the disproportional distribution of wealth and power in a society.
But the application of communism by self-centered leaders caused millions of death and suffering.
And it still failed to create an equitable society.
And I think even the war now is happening is a remnant of communism in the way how people assess things,
value life, or this is part of the result that we're still living through.
I think about whether we can simply decide to become a different person.
Can we actually change our ways?
One smooth thing to think about our habits.
We used to think that people can change their habits quite easily.
But increasingly, as we read the psychologist's report, or their thinking nowadays,
they are suspecting that people have different capacities to change their habits.
For example, I used to think that people who consistently turn up late for meetings did not try hard enough.
As I read these reports, I realized that I have never tried to be on time.
This is just part of me, to be on time.
It's not trying.
But then I realized that people who are consistently late,
maybe are the ones who actually try very hard, but just couldn't do it.
And that explains quite a lot of things.
And this realization helps me to sympathize with those who are habitually late.
It's not that they lack of trying, but it's just very hard to change a habit.
And if you can't even change such a simple habit,
what hope do we have to change our nature?
Now, you might think that if it's so difficult to change our habits,
does it then let people off the hook in terms of do people have bad habits?
Or should parents let untidy children to remain untidy?
Or a short-tempered child to remain short-tempered?
I'm not saying that, but what I'm saying is that a tidy child does not need to work hard to be tidy,
because tidiness is in the child's makeup.
But an untidy child needs a lot of help to be tidy,
because tidiness is not part of it's makeup.
And the understanding of this helps us to approach our children, other people, and help them.
But then why should a person want to change?
There's another thing that we need to consider.
Because it's so difficult to change our habit, it makes a lot of effort.
Then why would we change in any case?
So why would a habitually late person want to be on time?
And why would an untidy person want to be tidy?
So we are usually forced to change our habit because of the fear of punishment,
or because of shame.
But such change may not last,
and we tend to relapse into our default habit or behavior when there's no threat to us.
So I hope that you can agree that we cannot simply decide to be a different person if we want to.
There's still one more question I need to deal with before we come to our Roman passage.
The question would be, if we cannot simply decide to be a different person,
why does God still find fault with us?
Are we responsible for our unrighteousness or sinfulness?
So if I say I'm not responsible for my evil character,
then who is responsible?
Can I say the devil makes me do it?
James 1, 14-15 says,
James is one of the books in the New Testament.
But each person is tempted when he is low,
and entices by his own desire,
then desire when he has conceived,
gives birth to sin,
and sin when it is fully grown,
brings forth death.
The devil can tempt me only because of
because of me having this desire to be my own God,
to satisfy my own desire.
I choose to disregard and disobey God.
So even if I blame the devil,
I'm still responsible for responding to the devil's temptation.
Now can we blame God for creating us like this?
God gives us a consciousness of self.
So with this consciousness of self,
we can choose to enjoy relationships or other things.
At the same time, we can also choose to destroy relationships
and abuse other things.
Baming God for creating us with a consciousness of self
would be like blaming our parents
for giving birth to us
when we are going through a tough time,
or like blaming God for giving us good appetites
when we are overweight.
In chapter 17 of Exodus,
the Israelites did exactly that.
They were thirsty.
They were in the wilderness.
They couldn't find water.
God brought them up to Moses from Egypt.
So they blamed God and Moses for taking them out of Egypt.
And they could not take their anger out on God.
So they therefore wanted to stone Moses to death.
God told Moses to bring his staff,
there's the stake that's on his hand,
which represents authority and judgment to Mount Horeb.
God said,
Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb,
and you shall strike the rock,
and water shall come out of it,
and the people will drink.
Though it was totally unjust for the people to blame God for taking,
rescuing them,
rescuing them out of Egypt,
God took the blame.
God was standing before Moses when he struck the rock.
Because God took the blame,
there was living water throwing out of the rock for the people to drink.
Can a leopard change his sports?
Can a person do good who are accustomed to do evil?
So the answer to Jeremiah's question comes in our reading this morning,
from Romans 3, 21 to 31.
And the answer is yes.
So in verse 21, it says that,
But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law.
When we try hard to follow the law by our own effort,
we will find it impossible as our own nature goes against the law.
When we think we can obey the law better than other people,
our achievement becomes a means of boasting.
When we think we are not as good as others,
our failure becomes a means of jealousy and resentment.
Jeremiah 13, 23 in the Old Testament already hindered that
there needs to be another way for people to become acceptable to God.
The righteousness of God in this verse means that
it means the righteousness that comes from God
and the righteousness that is required by God.
And God has provided this other way.
So in verse 22, it says,
The righteousness of God is through faith in Jesus,
Christ for all who believe.
Jesus gave himself up to take the blame for our sinfulness.
We can become acceptable to God through Jesus and in Jesus.
When the statement into the Bible study was asking,
Why is that phrase,
it said,
Through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.
Can't the sentence be shortened to
true faith in Jesus Christ?
Why?
For all who believe.
There is redundancy in the sentence.
It could be this emphasis in terms of
its true belief,
true faith in Christ.
In this verse,
I like the King James Version better.
It says,
By faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe.
I think the King James Version translation is more helpful here.
I make righteous,
not because of my faith as such,
even though I do believe,
but it's because of the faith which Jesus Christ has,
the faith of Jesus,
and which has been given to me.
I can't even have that strong faith that the Lord Jesus has
in trusting God to do all that God would.
But Jesus did,
and that was being given to me as I believed in Him.
Verse 23,
For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
Everyone needs to come to the cross
to be able to be free from themselves and their sinfulness.
And how does this happen?
And why does the change happen?
Just like,
why do a person change the habit?
So,
God initiated the move to change us.
So,
in Jesus Christ,
God took the blame
and suffered for the consequence of sin.
In Jesus,
God also held us to see His glory,
and that is important in seeing God's glory
that affects our change.
In our society,
in our life,
what do we see as glory?
So,
some people will think that display of military power,
or in a wedding,
we have a cavalcade with a hundred expensive cars,
a beautiful building
plated with gold,
or Superman defeating the bad guys.
these are only
worldly glories.
The glory of God is far more than this.
We can see the glory of God
in the face of Jesus Christ.
It is a glory of grace,
a glory of truth,
a glory of purity,
a glory of kindness,
a glory of love.
So,
when we are shown such a glory,
we realize that we have not lived up to such a glory
that God created us to be.
And that's why we have fallen short of that glory
as God's people,
God's creatures,
and God's men and women.
When we see the Lord Jesus Christ,
we realize how much we have fallen short of that.
And when we face such a person as Jesus Christ,
what can we do but to bow before Him,
to repent of our sin,
and to worship Him?
In verse 24 and 25,
He says,
We are justified by His grace as a gift
through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,
whom God put forward as a propitiation by His blood
to be received by faith.
So, in the bulletin,
there is a helpful writing about these terms
justification, redemption,
and righteousness.
I can also think that we are justified.
Why is that?
Justified as a gift,
redemption,
justification and redemption.
So, I'm thinking,
when we are justified by God,
we are justified by God as a judge,
the judge of all the earth.
When we are redeemed by God,
we are redeemed by God as the king and the father.
So, justified means that I was crooked before,
now I'm made straight in God's eyes.
Redemption means that I wasn't God's people before,
now I'm God's person.
I'm not God's child before,
I'm now God's child,
a son of God.
So, this initiative is taken by God,
and we see that this change has to come from God.
He put forward Christ Jesus as a propitiation.
And what is propitiation?
There's a word that we hardly use nowadays.
So, propitiation is related to wrath and relationship.
Propitiation is required to reverse wrath
and to restore relationship.
Romans 1, 18 tells us that the wrath of God
is revealed from heaven
against all ungodliness and unrighteousness.
The rest of Romans 1 then tells us
how the ungodliness and unrighteousness
manifest themselves in this world.
So, God actually requires this propitiation
for his wrath to be resolved
and restore the relationship.
So, is God being petty-minded
in requiring propitiation
to mend our relationship with him?
So, in our relationship with people,
we might be petty-minded
if we require propitiation
for an offender to reconcile with us.
If somebody offend me
and I said,
you need to buy me a chocolate
so that I would be friends with you again,
that's the requirement.
But,
such requirement
would be seen as petty-minded.
Why is that so?
Because,
in a conflict between two persons,
usually there's wrong in both sides.
I can't just say that you are the party of wrong.
I can't say I've got no wrong in that.
And that's why,
usually,
we cannot say that it requires propitiation.
But,
in our relationship with God,
it's different
because God has done
no wrong towards us.
It's not only that,
he has done all the good things,
given us all the good things for us,
and yet,
we repay him
with contempt.
That's more.
We do not only repay good with evil to God,
but we also rebel against our creator God.
We have committed treason of the highest order
when we choose to worship idols in terms of God,
and ignoring him.
And so,
it is only right that we should live under the wrath of God
until an appropriate propitiation has been put forward.
And we do not have any resource
to put forward this propitiation.
God did this for us.
The blood of Jesus propitiated
for our offense towards him.
And this action of God
is consistent with God's nature.
He's both merciful and just.
The consequence of rebellion against God is death.
Partly because God is the source of life,
partly that is because of the consequence
that God has warned Adam and Eve
that the day you disobey me,
that you will taste death.
But then,
God is the source of life.
When we distance ourselves from God,
that's the natural consequence anyway.
God does not actually need to do anything
active to show his wrath.
If he does nothing at all
to bring us back to him,
then our destination is death.
And we,
I mean,
like the world,
we will fight.
We will be at war
with one another
and destroy ourselves.
So,
there is a consequence anyway.
But in God's mercy,
he forbore our rebellion in the past
as he waited for the appointed time
to reveal how he can forgive sinners
and not compromise his own holiness.
The proposition by the blood of Jesus
is the way he can call us back to him
without destroying us.
So,
verse 26 tells us
why Jesus is the only way
for God to reconcile with us.
There's no other way
for God to be just
and at the same time
forgive our rebellion and treason.
So,
for people who say that
all the ways
will bring us back to God,
that's totally nonsense.
if you know
how badly we have offended God
and rebel against God,
there's no other way
except through the proposition
of the blood of Jesus.
So,
God initiated the proposition.
God has held us to see
that through the sacrificial work
of Jesus Christ,
we can be justified.
When we are justified by God
in Jesus Christ,
it means that
God cancels our sins
and bestows us
the righteousness of Jesus.
God justifies everyone
the same way,
whether you are
a religious person
or an irreligious person.
Religions cannot make us
acceptable to God
because even if we can
somehow fulfill
the demands of religious laws,
we will become proud.
Proud.
Pride is a hallmark
of self-centeredness.
Pride seeks glory for self.
And we like boasting
because we want to
justify our existence.
Do you know that
when you don't need to boast
to justify your existence,
you can feel so free.
You don't need to
let people know
how good you are,
how successful you are.
This is all that we think about
day to day
when we interact with people.
And if you know that
you don't need to boast anymore
because God has accepted you,
you are wearable in His sight.
That's freedom.
You don't need to justify yourself.
God has justified you.
So,
is there any use
for the Old Testament laws then?
Yes,
they are there
to keep our mouth sharp
as in verse 19,
the same chapter.
It said,
now we know that
whatever the law says,
it speaks to those
who are under the law
so that every mouth
will be stopped.
Actually,
it stops us from
boasting
because we know
that we can't attend
anything that the law requires.
and so,
at least it would do that.
But also,
the Old Testament law
tells us
what pleases God
and how we should
live a life
that is pleasing to Him.
So,
we don't throw away
the law
now that we
have been accepted by God.
Instead,
we uphold it
because we know
that there's
what pleases Him.
Not only that,
we also know
that through
this law,
through following
the law,
we are given
the life to live,
a life that is
glorious,
honorable,
and eternal.
Okay.
So,
this is why
we are justified
for.
We are not just
being accepted
and then became
justified and righteous
and then our life
seems to just end there.
But no,
no,
that is
only the beginning
and there's a lot more
to come
once we are
right with God.
and we
have to understand
that there's
not the end of it,
there's only the beginning.
So,
in Romans 2,
7,
it tells us,
to those
who by patience
in well-doing
seek for glory
and honor
and mortality,
he will give
eternal life.
in a way,
it implies that
none of us
seek this thing
and then we need
to understand
what they mean,
how we should
live our life.
have a look again
in my
old family
photograph
with my siblings.
So,
there was,
I was 14 years
old then.
None of us
in the picture
knew
Jesus.
We,
we did,
we worship
idols,
we did
hope to have
a good life
in some way.
Have some
job when we
get older
or have family
and
that's about it
and we all knew
that we would die
one day
because
as we worship
idols,
we worship
all sorts of God,
we also
burn incense
and supplies
to our ancestors
so that they
don't suffer
in hell.
So,
that is the hope
that we have
basically
you just
live their life
and die
and hope that
somebody
from your
descendants
would keep
supplying
things for you
while you're
in hell
so that you
don't suffer
so much.
I'm not sure.
So,
that's what
made me
quite unsatisfied
with life.
What sort of
life that is?
Why should we
live for?
In particular
because we were
quite poor.
It just
didn't
make sense
and I didn't
think that
that should
be the
way
and that's
what
made me
started to
look
for the
truth.
At that
time,
I mean,
I wasn't
seeking
anything
in no-go.
So,
I wasn't
even having
any concern
with my
family
even though
my parents,
they worked
very hard
for the
family.
My older
siblings
also worked
very hard.
I was
only
thinking
about
myself.
Though
the
saying
of
Mancius
did
sort of
point
to the
fact
that I
might
have
this
wrongdoing,
the evil
thoughts,
but I
didn't
actually
understand.
I didn't
think that
I was a
bad
person
and
I
didn't
think,
even
I was,
I didn't
even know
how to
change
in terms
of what
do I
do.
all
this
changed
when I
see the
glory
of
honor
of
the
Lord
Jesus
Christ.
So at
first I
thought
glory
was just
being
majestic
and
shining
something
like the
sun
until I
saw
Jesus.
So in
the
Gospel
of
John
we are
told
that
and
the
word
became
flesh
and
dwelt
among
us
and
we
have
seen
his
glory
as
the
only
son
from
the
father
full
of
grace
and
truth.
So what
as the
word
said
we should
seek
for
glory
and
honor
and
immortality
what do
they
mean?
And
when we
see
Jesus
then we
know
what
they
mean.
Jesus
is
full
of
glory
we've
seen
his
glory
as
of
the
only
son
from
the
father
full
of
grace
and
truth.
Well
Jesus
did not
have
a
shining
appearance
he
did
not
have
earthly
power
or
wealth
he
didn't
even
have
attractive
faith
as the
Bible
told us.
So where
is
Jesus'
glory?
He was
full of
grace
and
truth.
Grace in
that when
you talk
to him
you will
know that
he is
not there
to belittle
you
but to
show you
compassion
but to
show you
compassion.
Truth in
that when
you talk
to him
you will
know that
he is
not there
to endow
you
but to
set you
free.
There's
only two
things
but there
are a lot
more in
terms of
when we
see
Jesus
Christ
we will
see
glory.
And I
thought
honor was
being
respected
by others
and that's
why I was
as a
teenager
I was
trying to
get more
respect from
my friends
and that's
honor.
but when
I saw
Jesus
then I
knew that
that wasn't
the true
honor.
Jesus
lived out
the honor
of being
a man.
Though he
was not
respected
by man
but he
completed
his mission
of restoring
our honor.
Psalm 8
chapter 5
says
yet you
have made
man a
little lower
than the
heavenly
beings
and crown
him with
glory and
honor.
You know
when God
created us
he
crowned us
with glory
and honor.
We have
lost that.
What is
honor?
Do you
feel honor
to be
a woman
or a man?
Is that
something special?
Is it
something
that
is
exciting?
Do you
feel honor
to be a
husband
or a
wife?
A
father
or
mother?
feel
honor to
be a
teacher
or a
musician?
Feel
honor to
be part
of the
church?
We lost
that sense
of honor
in terms
of God
has created
me,
God has
given me
this.
It's
an honor
to be
God's
creature
in that
way.
We
lost
that.
C.S.
Lewis in
his nine
years story
helped me
in some
way.
in the
Prince
Caspian
story.
After the
battle,
this little
mouse,
Rupichi,
he was
injured
and his
tail was
cut off
as well.
Aslan
healed him
but the
tail was
still
missing.
when Rupichi
appeared
before
Aslan,
he bowed
before him
and then
he realized
that he
didn't have
the tail.
Then he
felt
ashamed.
He said,
I can't
come before
you without
my tail.
Aslan
said,
why?
What's
important
of the
tail?
Rupichi
said,
I'm
created
as a
small
mice.
the tail
means that
this is
part of
me as
being
created
by him,
by Aslan.
That's
why he
felt ashamed
not being
complete
before him.
It just
helped
me to
see that
I'm
created
by God
and I
have a
mission
and I
have
I'm
reflecting
God's
glory
in the
way I
live.
And so
that affects
how I
take my
role in
different
aspects of
life.
When we
have this
sense of
God,
then our
life will
be different.
How we
react,
act with
people,
how we
face the
stress that
we face,
we experience
day to
day,
if we
have this
sense of
honour.
About
immortality,
so I
thought immortality
was being
alive forever,
but I
didn't even
know what
life is
until I
heard Jesus
saying,
I am the
resurrection
and the
life,
whoever
believes in
me,
though he
dies,
yet he
shall
live.
death,
you
word death,
so I
live
Gas