"But Now..."

At the church where I serve we have been spending our time together in a sermon series entitled "Mosaic: the gospel and race". During this series, we are examining the issue of racism from the prism of the claims of Christ and the message of the gospel. During this series, our hope and our prayer as a church is to demonstrate that the claims of Christ and the message of the gospel provides the best explanation as to why racism exists and the best solution to the problem of racism.

This week, I would like for us to look at a section of a letter that is recorded in the New Testament of the Bible called the book of Romans. The book of Romans was written by the Apostle Paul to early followers of Jesus who lived in Rome to prove one timeless and true point. And that timeless and true point was that God is right. In the first two and a half chapters, Paul provided the reality that the fact that God is right is revealed by man’s problem.

And in Romans 3:9-20, the Apostle Paul hammered his point by revealing the reality that the letters that make up the Bible were given to prove that all humanity has a huge problem with God. The message and teachings of the letters of the Bible remove any possible excuse or defense that any human being may have when it comes to our selfish rebellion and sin. The letters that make up the Bible reveals that we are all guilty of having a huge problem with God that is insurmountable. And the letters that make up the Bible also provide the evidence that proves that all humanity is responsible and answerable to God when it comes to receiving God’s right and just response to selfish rebellion and sin.

After revealing that all humanity has a huge problem with God that is insurmountable and that we are accountable for, we see two small words that provide huge hope for all of humanity. And those two small words are found in Romans 3:21: But now. In other words, all humanity throughout history has a huge problem with God; a problem that human effort and religion has been unable to solve throughout history. But now: But now something has happened. Something has happened that provides hope; something has happened that provides the opportunity for rescue. Let’s look together at what happened, beginning in Romans 3:21:

But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets,

Paul begins this section of his letter to the church at Rome by explaining that something happened apart from the Law. And what happened was that the righteousness of God has been manifested. Now a simple and accurate definition of this 50 cent word righteousness is that righteousness is the quality or state of being right. Paul’s point here is that the fact that God is right has been manifested. In other words, it has become public knowledge that God is right.

Paul then explained that the fact that God is right became known apart from the Law. When Paul refers to the Law here, he is referring to first five letters in our Bibles today. Paul’s point here is that it is not keeping a set of rules that makes us right with God. The fact that God is right is not connected to our performance for God by keeping the commands of the Law. There is nothing that we can do for God that makes us right with God.

The law can never declare us as being not guilty of having a problem with God. Instead the Law is what condemns us as having a problem with God. The fact that God is right is independent of our performance when it comes to what we do with the Law. However, Paul explains that the Law and the Prophets, or the Old Testament, repeatedly point us to that fact that God is right; a fact that has now become known. Paul then reveals how the fact that God is right has been made known in verse 22:

even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

Here we see Paul explain that the fact that God is right has now been made known through faith in Jesus Christ. The timeless reality is that God is right. God always has been right; God always will be right. And the extent that we are right when it comes to our relationship with God is directly related to the extent that our heads, hearts, and hands line up with what God believes is right, because God is right. And this reality has been made known to all humanity through the message of the gospel.

The gospel is the message that that while all of humanity was created for a relationship with God and one another, all of humanity selfishly chose to reject that relationship, instead choosing to love our selves over God and others. And it is out of our selfishness that we do things that hurt God and those around us, which the Bible calls sin. And it is that selfish rebellion and sin that makes us guilty of having a huge problem with God that is insurmountable.

The message of the gospel reveals that God responded to our problem of selfish rebellion and sin by sending His Son Jesus, God in a bod, who entered into humanity and allowed Himself to be treated as though He lived our selfish and sinful lives so God the Father could treat us as though we lived Jesus perfect life. And it is the message of the gospel that provides the opportunity for all humanity to receive the forgiveness of sin and enter into the relationship with God that they were created for by believing, trusting and following Jesus as Lord and Leader.

In addition, the message of the gospel that provides the means by which God rightly rescues from rebellion through faith in Jesus is available to all who believe. All who place their confident trust in the claims of Christ and the message of the gospel will be rescued, because there is no distinction. Regardless of social, economic, or racial status, it is by faith that we are rescued by God from our rebellion because as Paul states in verses 23 there is no distinction; all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

When Paul uses the word sin, he is referring to our acts of commission and omission that are committed against God and others that flow from our selfish rebellion against God and the word of God. The word fall short here is an interesting word. This word literally means to experience a deficiency or be lacking in something that is desirable. What all humanity lacks is the ability to be in right relationship with God as a result of our own effort or performance. No person has the perfection that God requires. And intuitively we know this to be the case; we even have a phrase for this reality, don’t we; “well nobody’s perfect”.  That is 100% accurate and Biblical.

No one has the perfection that is required and no one is able to achieve that perfection; our selfishness, rebellion and sin is universal and insurmountable in nature and scope. And because of that reality, we all need to be rescued.

Tomorrow we will see Paul reveal for us exactly how God rightly rescues from rebellion through faith in Jesus...