The knowledge – 4
Reading: Romans 3:9 – 4:12
Text: as reading
Place ……………………………………….. Date
Victoria Baptist Church – 02/10/2011
On your tables:
Talk about some examples of miscarriage of justice or obvious unfairness.
Why do you think we get so concerned / upset / angry about miscarriages of justice?
An example
On 16 December 1895, Adolf Beck was stepping out the door of 135 Victoria Street, London when a woman blocked his way. She accused him of having tricked her out of two watches and several rings. Beck brushed her aside and crossed the road. When the woman followed, he complained to a policeman that he was being followed by a prostitute who had accosted him. The woman strongly demanded his arrest, accusing him of having swindled her three weeks earlier.
The police were delighted. They had received numerous reports that a grey-haired middle aged man had been conning women in London out of watches, jewellery and money. So at last they had got their man.
These women were asked to view a lineup that included Beck, along with ten or fifteen men who had been selected randomly from the street. Because he was the only one with grey hair and moustache, he was quickly identified by the women as the man who had taken their money and jewellery.
It was alleged that Beck, who had operated under a wide variety of different names was the thief but he consistently protested his innocence.
When he had been in prison for 6 years a similar crime happened and an imspector decided to link the two. With Adolf Beck in prison it could not have been him to did the crime.
What Emerged was a case of mistaken identity – <ppt picture> Adolf Beck on the top, the real criminal at the bottom.
I’m telling you about this because it was this case that caused the creation of our court of appeal where miscarriages of justice can be investigated.
Why all this about justice? Because at the heart of the Christian gospel is one word “justification” and that has to do with justice. We all have an innate sense that when some wrong deed is done there should be some recompense. Justice should both be done and be seen to be done.
Now when you came to Christ what happened to your sin? (forgiven) … so under what terms was that forgiveness granted? In Romans 3 Paul takes us through the legal case against us
Q: How do you boil a frog? A: you boil it slowly
- it becomes acclimatised to the heat and doesn’t notice it’s being cooked!
- (I’ve never tried it although …)
That’s what has happened to mankind!
- he is being slowly boiled in sin
- if we don’t have an outside influence alerting us to what is going on we become accustomed to it
- and in the end we hardly notice it
Now what happens when God gets to work in my life?
… when the Holy Spirit takes up residence
He re-sensitises me to sin!
- to its horror and its magnitude
- to the effect it has in my relationship with God
How does he do this?
by alerting me to God’s law
letting me see my life up against God’s requirements
Suppose I was to run an action replay of your life over the past week <ppt – screens>
- Suppose, alongside each scene in the drama, God displayed his own scenario
- … of what could (and perhaps ought) to have happened.
(mind experiment – ppt)
- any difference between the two?
Paul takes this into the court room and sets out the consequences of sin as he might argue a legal case.
1. the charge is read out v9
- 9 We have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under sin.
Sin is universal
We’re ‘all’ under it and there are no exceptions
- The Jews thought they could get away with it because they were Jews
- the gentiles thought they could get away with it because if you were good enough God would accept you anyway
But we’re all alike!
And what Paul observes in his day is just the same today
- some Christians think they can get away with sin because they’ve got their salvation and think that God has a duty to forgive them.
- Many not-yet-Christians feel that if there’s a God at all he’s got to a reasonable kind of chap who would never reject someone like me because I’m really no that bad!
sin is ugly
We don’t like using the word ‘sin’. In most people it conjures up ideas of serious crime, murder etc.
- But the Bible uses it much more widely to include jealousy, gossiping – anything and everything that falls short of his standard.
I don’t think God unleashes the full horror of our sin on us when we become Christians because I don’t think we could stand it
- but because he is gracious and compassionate towards us I believe he reveals our wrong-doing more gradually so we can come to terms with it and discover full forgiveness
sin is inescapable
we are ‘under sin’ – indicating that mankind is under the domination and the power of sin.
We all live ‘under the sky’ – there is no escaping it – same idea here.
E.g. I went to a hot air balloon festival at Goodwood House. It is a wonderful location and an ideal opportunity for dramatic photography, especially if there is a deep blue sky as there was the day we went.
I chose to take some shots of one particular balloon with an odd shape and lots of primary colours
- I watched as it was filled with hot air
- heard the deep-throated roar of the burners as it went up
- but at 50 feet it stopped – why?
- it was tethered to three large cars
- it was tied to the ground, confined, unable to take to the sky.
That balloon is like mankind in relation to God
- our sin ties us to the ground
- his life can never take off in the way God made it to!
Outside of Christ we are all under sin
sin is inescapable
tables
What other words might you use to describe sin’s influence?
the evidence is presented (v10-18)
What evidence – from the OT – the whole of the OT
and Paul looked around at the society where he lived and came to some conclusions
a. our lives are in the wrong v10
- 10 There is no-one righteous, not even one;
this depravity of sin is universal
a. our minds are warped. v11
- 11 … no-one who understands
one of the effects of sin is not only to put us on the wrong side of God’s law, but to warp our wisdom.
Romans 1:21 (Paul talking about people who rejected God’s law lived depraved lives:) –
- “Although they knew God they neither glorified God no gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts darkened”
E.g. Pastor Sergei – when communism was reigning in Ukraine he said you could see the truth of this idea. Communist thinking just took crazy decisions.
In fact anything crazy and he’d say “Communisti!, Communisti!”
a. our spirit is diverted v11
- 11 … no-one who seeks God
man doesn’t want to find God
wants to go his own way
And so he goes on
piling up picture after picture
tables
Identifying sin isn’t always that easy – some examples:
Are higher tuition fees a sin? (and if so who is committing it?)
If I exceed 70 mph on a motorway, have I sinned in God’s eyes?
(what if I’m a foreigner who didn’t know?)
the verdict (v19)
- 19. Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God.
law: –
is only applied to those who are under its jurisdiction
- British law doesn’t apply in Turkey
- Chinese Law doesn’t apply in the UK
- So what is God’s jurisdiction? – the world!
so “every mouth silenced”
It’s a graphic picture of the whole world standing before the bench with God in his role as presiding judge.
- 20 Therefore no-one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin.
we tend to jump to the conclusion that just being good – avoiding sin will do the trick
- but what about my shadow side?
- what about those things I’m ashamed of in the past?
Suppose I could keep God’s law from now on.
- no sin – every temptation resisted
- would that make me right in God’s eyes?
no! – because there’s plenty in my past that will still leave me in the category of a law-breaker.
This points up one of the fundamental principles of the Christian life:
All that God’s law does for me (moral, ethical and spiritual standards as revealed in the Bible)
- all it does is make me more aware (if I ever needed to be) that I’m a sinner.
What it didn’t do was help us to keep it!
- Knowing the speed limit doesn’t, of itself, prevent me from exceeding it
the law is powerless – it just lets me know when I’m in the wrong
We are guilty
BUT …
Here comes the other side of the coin
I thank God for these two words – “But now”! (v21)
- If this blackest of black pictures of the gravity of my sin was the end of the story what hope is there for me?
- I may as well go out and make an end of it all!
But now!
- not ‘but some time in the future
- not ‘but if I’m religious enough
- not ‘but if I clean up my act first
But NOW!
the way out (v21-23)
- 21 But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify.
Righteousness! – isn’t that what we want?!
- OK it’s an old English word but it means ‘right-ness’
- being ‘not guilty’.
Some Questions and answers …
a. Where does it come from? – from God
you do something for someone (help them with college work or fix their car)
- then you have a problem with yours
- what do you do?
- ‘call in the favour’
- we feel we’re owed something because of what we did
We sometimes think that God ‘owes’ us something
- that we can call in our favours with him
- ‘well Lord, I’ve been really pleasant to live with this week
- ‘well Lord, I read my Bible and prayed every day this week’
- ‘well Lord I’ve tried to be good
- I’m going to call in my favours with You, Lord,
surely I must be righteous
NO way!
- that would be right-ness that is earned
- that would be right-ness that comes from me and my goodness
This righteousness comes from God
it is his to give or keep
a. How is it radically different? – apart from the law
i.e. totally separate from it
of a different order
a. How do we discover it? – made known
no longer hidden
God has made it known
‘revealed’ it
- That word used of unveiling of a statue
To be a consistent Christian I can’t hide what God has done in me
There is an in-built desire to communicate it to others.
- Romans 10:9 That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
This has nothing to do with character – don’t have to be an extrovert!
a. How can I be confident it’s right? – consistent with the law
- 21 … to which the Law and the Prophets testify.
The OT writers and the prophets witness to his
God’s righteousness is available
God’s law in the OT not written off!
Jesus “I have not come to nullify the law but to fulfil it”!
a. How do I get hold of it? – comes via Christ (v22)
- Rom 3:22 This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference (between people of one race, type or another)
a. Who else can receive it? – available to everyone (v22-23)
The grace – generosity of God is available to people who have sinned
after all, they are the ones who need it!
well who are the sinners in the world?
You are! – and so am I!
- 22 … There is no difference, 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
for all have sinned (in the past) and fall (now, today) short of the glory of God, –
fallen short – work used by archers – the arrow is so woefully inadequate it doesn’t even reach the target, let alone hit it!
That’s how we are by our own efforts to make ourselves right before God.
BUT (old song)
- He breaks the power of cancelled sin
- He sets the prisoner free
- His blood can make the foulest clean
- His blood avails for me.
Finish with a story
I want you to imagine that I’m a magistrate (put on robe)
Suppose my son Chris comes to our home, takes the key to our car (for which he is not insured) and drives it away.
The next thing I hear is that it has been wrecked
I am furious! – this is category 1 relationship breakdown
The next week I go to court to sit on the bench as a magistrate and who comes into the court in front of me but my son – charged with dangerous driving (I know that couldn’t happen in reality – but just run with it for now)
What do you think would be the emotional and legal tension going on in my head at that moment (talk about it)
Here is my dilemma
- Justice demands that that I hand down a sentence
- Love demands that I seek a reconciliation
What should I do?
Here’s the Romans 3 solution
I pronounce him guilty – because he is! – otherwise there would be a miscarriage of justice!
I hand down the maximum fine of £5,000
And then I do something else – I get up from the bench, take off my gown, and go to the clerk of the court and pay the £5,000 myself and as I do so I realise that in all the world, I’ve only got about £5,000.
I pay everything I possess to release the son I love from the obligation of his wrong-doing
That’s justification! <ppt – just as if I’d never sinned>
God has pronounced us guilty (he has to – otherwise its a miscarriage of justice)
God has handed down the sentence – eternal separation from him
Then he has taken off his gown and come to earth as Jesus Christ to pay our debt
So now we are not guilty before Him!
We are justified!
Pray >>>
I want to talk to everyone who is silent about the fact that you’re a Christian.
As best you can you’ve invited him into your life probably privately in your home
or silently at a meeting like this – or on Alpha
but you’ve never had the courage to tell anyone
this morning I’m going to give you the opportunity to make it public
Jesus said “he who acknowledges me before men, I will acknowledge before my Father”
It could be that you have Christian husband or wife – and you’re proud of them for it
that’s great! – but you’ve never come out with it and said publicly that you have, at some time, privately, accepted Christ.
I’m giving you the chance to do that
It won’t make you a Christian – that’s already been done
I’m not going to ask you to make a speech
I’m not going to ask you to join a church
I’m just asking you to show that you’re not ashamed of the gospel
I’m asking you to come and stand at the front of the church while we sing our last song.
but it will send out a clear message to everyone – and especially to the Lord himself – that you’re not ashamed of him
