{"id":71,"date":"2011-05-15T17:36:13","date_gmt":"2011-05-15T16:36:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pbthomas.com\/blog\/?p=71"},"modified":"2011-05-15T17:36:13","modified_gmt":"2011-05-15T16:36:13","slug":"how-can-i-get-right-with-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/pbthomas.com\/blog\/?p=71","title":{"rendered":"How can I get “Right with God”?"},"content":{"rendered":"

In Romans 1 Paul says this: 16 I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. 17 For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: \u201cThe righteous will live by faith.\u201d<\/p>\n

What is salvation? What does it mean to be saved? <\/p>\n

I want to explain the gospel message message this morning. And I want to do so by unpacking just a few crucial verses of Romans chapter 3 which lay out what it means to be saved, why we need to be saved, and just how God has saved us. <\/p>\n

God\u2019s plan of salvation<\/p>\n

21 But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. 22 This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. 25 God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. (Romans 3:21-25 NIV)<\/p>\n

For us to understand these verses properly I want to spell out the meaning of a few vitally important words. Righteousness. Sin. Justification. Redemption. Sacrifice of atonement.<\/p>\n

First \u2013 righteousness. The word righteousness, and the related idea being made righteous, occurs a number of times in this short passage.<\/p>\n

Righteousness \u2013 how can we be right with God?<\/p>\n

21 But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. 22 This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. (NIV)
\n21 But now God\u2019s way of putting people right with himself has been revealed. It has nothing to do with law, even though the Law of Moses and the prophets gave their witness to it. 22God puts people right through their faith in Jesus Christ. (Good News Bible) <\/p>\n

Righteousness is a word which carries different shades of meaning in different places. Righteousness is that purity of character only fully expressed in God Himself, in God’s perfect righteousness and justice. By nature we human beings are not righteous \u2013 our lives are spoiled by sin. By nature we are not right with God \u2013 we are separated from God. By themselves human beings can never become righteous. But Paul talks here about a righteousness from God. It is not a righteousness which anybody can earn or deserve. It does not come by obeying the Jewish Law or any other set of rules. It is not something anybody can achieve by human effort. This righteousness before God, a right relationship with God, is God\u2019s gift to all who put their trust in Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n

The reason we are not righteous, and could never become righteous, is what we looked at last week. The problem of sin.<\/p>\n

Humanity\u2019s problem \u2013 sin<\/p>\n

23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. (NIV)
\n23 For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God\u2019s glorious standard. (New Living Translation.)
\nSin makes God angry
\nSin brings God\u2019s judgment
\nSin separates us from God \u2013 spiritual death
\nSin brings physical death <\/p>\n

We thought about the problem of sin last week. There are all kinds of actions and attitudes which we know very well are wrong when we see them in other people, but when WE do them, they\u2019re alright! We can always justify our own actions. We see so clearly faults in other people\u2019s lives which we turn a blind eye to in our own lives.
\nLast week we saw that the Bible has a word for all these wrong things people say and do and even think. All the selfish acts which hurt us and hurt our fellow human beings. The Bible word for these bad things we do is \u201csin.\u201d
\n\u201cSin\u201d is just a little word with \u201cI\u201d in the middle. And whenever a person puts \u201cI\u201d in the middle of their lives, whenever they focus only on themselves and leave God out, that is sin. We all know what sin is. And we all know that every one of us are sinners! We all know we have done and said and thought things which we should not have done!
\nRomans 3:10 As it is written: \u201cThere is no-one righteous, not even one; 11 there is no-one who understands, no-one who seeks God. 12 All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no-one who does good, not even one.\u201d
\n23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
\nIf we are honest with ourselves we all know that is true. We have all sinned. We all fall short of God\u2019s standard, which is perfection. And all our sins have consequenes.<\/p>\n

Sin brings on God\u2019s anger
\nRomans 1:18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness,
\nSin makes God angry
\n21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened
\nThis is the essence of sin \u2013 neither glorifying God nor giving thanks to Him. Running away from God and hiding from Him. Ignoring God and pretending he doesn\u2019t exist. That is sin.
\n24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. … 26 God gave them over to shameful lusts. 28. \u2026.. since they did not think it worth while to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. 29 They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. … they invent ways of doing evil;<\/p>\n

\u201cGod gave them over!\u201d God gave them up. Human beings abandoned God so God abandoned the people He had created. He let them get on with their evil ways.
\nSo sin brings on God\u2019s anger and leads to God\u2019s judgment. Sin deserves to be punished! God is a just and holy God \u2013 and judgment is the inevitable expression of that justice! And sin has other effects as well.<\/p>\n

Sin separates us from God \u2013 spiritual death<\/p>\n

Because God is a holy God whose eyes are too pure to look on sin, human sin separates us from God. That separation is spiritual and it is eternal \u2013 it is forever. Because even the littlest sin cuts us off from God forever. <\/p>\n

Sin also leads to physical death<\/p>\n

God is the source of all life. When sin cuts us off spiritually from God, it also limits our human life. Sin condemns our bodies to die.
\nFrom cover to cover the whole Bible is concerned with this one theme. How can sinful human beings escape the judgement of a Holy God? Because God\u2019s standard is perfection \u2013 and none of us will live up to that standard!
\nActs 17:30 In the past God overlooked .. ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. 31 For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead.”<\/p>\n

How much can I get away with and still get into heaven? Absolutely nothing! Sin makes God angry and brings divine judgment. Sin leads to spiritual death and physical death. ALL have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. <\/p>\n

But the good news is that God in His grace is prepared to forgive a person’s sin and declare them not-guilty.. When a person puts their trust in Christ God gives them a gft of rightousness and this makes them righteous too. <\/p>\n

God\u2019s solution – justification<\/p>\n

24 and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. (NIV)
\n24But by the free gift of God\u2019s grace all are put right with him through Christ Jesus, who sets them free. (Good News Bible) <\/p>\n

The English word the New International Version uses for this process of being made righteous is Justification. It simply means \u201cbeing made just\u201d or being made righteous. When we are justified God makes it \u201cjust as if I’d\u201d never sinned. All are sinners. Everybody faces God’s judgment. But those who put their faith in Jesus Christ are declared righteous by God. Their sins are wiped away.<\/p>\n

The Good News Bible translates Romans 3 using different words. It translates righteousness as being in a right relationship with God. And it translates justification as being put right with God. Instead of a person being in the wrong, God treats a person as if they are in the right. Because God takes their sin away they can be in a right relationship with God.
\n 21 But now God’s way of putting people right with himself has been revealed. … 22 God puts people right through their faith in Jesus Christ. God does this to all who believe in Christ \u2026 24 But by the free gift of God’s grace all are put right with him through Christ Jesus, who sets them free. <\/p>\n

So here is the good news! God brings us into a right relationshio with Himself. And He does so by his grace. It is a free gift we can never earn or deserve. GRACE – God’s Riches at Christ’s Expense. That is the \u201credemption which came by Christ Jesus,\u201d the freedom which Jesus has provided for us.<\/p>\n

Justification is more than pardon. Judgment is getting what we deserve for our sins. Pardon means not getting what we deserve. Justification means God treats us as if we had never sinned.<\/p>\n

William Barclay wrote, \u201cTo say that God justifies the ungodly means quite simply that God in his amazing love treats the sinner as if he was a good man. Again, to put it very simply, God loves us, not for anything that we are, but for what he is.\u201d <\/p>\n

The story is told of a man who went abroad for his holidays driving his Rolls Royce. While he was there the car broke down. Understandably miffed, he phoned Rolls Royce who immediately flew one of their mechanics out. The mechanic mended the car and flew home again leaving the man to continue his holiday. But when he got home he was worried just how much that repair was going to cost him, so the man wrote a letter to Rolls Royce to ask how much he owed them. The reply came back promptly. \u201cDear Sir. There is no record anywhere in our files that anything has ever gone wrong with a Rolls-Royce.\u201d <\/p>\n

That is how God sees Christians once they have been put right with him, once they have been justified. As if nothing had ever gone wrong.<\/p>\n

So now let’s unpack this wonderful redemption. Just exactly how does God set us free?<\/p>\n

Through Christ\u2019s death on the cross
\n25 God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. (NIV)
\n25God offered him, so that by his blood he should become the means by which people\u2019s sins are forgiven through their faith in him. (Good News Bible)
\n25 God sent him to die in our place to take away our sins. We receive forgiveness through faith in the blood of Jesus\u2019 death. (New Century Version)
\n25 For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood. (New Living Translation.) <\/p>\n

Our forgiveness comes at a terrible price \u2013 the death of Christ on the cross. It was not just the execution of one criminal among many. The Bible tells us that Jesus’s death had a spiritual and indeed a cosmic significance. Christ’s death was unique because Jesus Christ was unique \u2013 in at least two ways. Jesus was unique because he was more than a man. Jesus was also the Son of God, God Himself born as a human being. And Jesus was also unique because He was completely innocent. He had never done anything wrong. He was without sin. He had never done anything to make God angry. There was nothing in Jesus’s life separating Him from God. He did not deserve any punishment. He had no sin which would cause him to die, spiritually or physically.<\/p>\n

So Jesus was innocent. he did not die because of His own sins \u2013 he had no sin. Jesus’s death was a sacrifice for sin in the same sense as in the Old Testament so many lambs were sacrificed. As John the Baptist said when He first saw Jesus, \u201cBehold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.\u201d
\n 1Peter 3:18 For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. <\/p>\n

Jesus\u2019s death was a sacrifice of atonement. Atonement could be rewritten \u201cat one ment\u201d. Jesus\u2019s death brings us back to God and makes us one with God again. And all we need to do is receive by faith what Christ\u2019s death in our place has bought for us.<\/p>\n

An evangelist had just finished his open air preaching service and was about to leave when a young man approached him and asked, \u201cWhat must I do to be saved?\u201d The evangelist replied. \u201cIt\u2019s too late!\u201d The inquirer was disappointed. \u201cDon\u2019t say that!\u201d But the evangelist insisted, \u201cIt\u2019s too late!\u201d \u201cYou want to know what YOU have to do to be saved. It\u2019s too late. The work of salvation is done, completed, finished! It was finished on the cross. YOU can\u2019t do anything. Except receive as a gift by faith what Christ has already accomplished.\u201d<\/p>\n

So here is God\u2019s plan of salvation. <\/p>\n

7. God\u2019s plan of salvation
\n21 But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. 22 This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. 25 God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. (Romans 3:21-25 NIV)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In Romans 1 Paul says this: 16 I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation…<\/span><\/p>\n

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