Christ's Precious PromiseTHE BOOK OF ROMANS MADE CLEAR-7

"Three Chapters and Six Sermons"

by Desmond Ford

Dr. Ford summarizes what he said in the last GNUmagazine about thefirst three chapters of Romans.

These three chapters are the most important in all literatureand life. They address humanity's greatest problem-

and give the solution in the crossof Christ!

·NI inety pmen' of whatwe read or hear onlyonce we forget within

two or three days.So, I'm going to take the time

to review last night's presentation[Friday, November 9, 1993]. Thereare some here that weren't here lastnight, and those that were may havealready forgotten 90 percent!

Human ProblemsTo be human is to have problems.We have all sorts of problems. Wehave information problems. Jesusonce said to people at a religiousgathering, "You are in errorbecause you do not know the

Scriptures or the power of God"(Matthew 22:29 NIV and Mark12:24). We make mistakes becausewe don't know the Bible. We sin, wemiss the mark, because we don'thave a knowledge of God.

We have a guilt problem.Relationships matter to us tremen-dously. If you feel at home withGod and yourself and your neigh-bor, you live in a heaven on earth.If you don't feel at home with Godin your own heart and with yourneighbor, you live in a hell onearth. The choice is ours.

Whether we admit it or not, wehave a problem with death. We'reall afraid of death. We're not like

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animals that are perfectly com-posed about death. It doesn't meana thing to them. But the sting ofdeath is sin.

God has given us the answer tothese problems in Holy Writ. Godhas told us the way we should live.The main issue in life is makingchoices, because everything we domatters and everything we don't domatters. The things you don't doand the things you don't know candestroy you. So God has given us abook to tell us how to live and howto die.

And most of all, it solves the

problem of acceptance.I hear the words of love,I gaze upon the blood,I see the mighty sacrifice,And I have peace with God.There is no other way. Atonement

(at-one-ment) between God andhumanity has always, in all religions,involved sacrifice. The difference withthe Christian religion is that God pro-vides the sacrifice:

For Christ's love compels us,because we are convinced thatone died for all, and therefore alldied ....

All this is from God, who rec-onciled us to himself throughChrist and gave us the ministry ofreconciliation: that God was rec-onciling the world to himself inChrist, not counting men's sinsagainst them. And he has commit-ted to us the message of reconcili-ation. We are therefore Christ'sambassadors, as though God weremaking his appeal through us.We implore you on Christ'sbehalf: Be reconciled to God.God made him who had no sin tobe sin for us, so that in him wemight become the righteousnessof God. (2 Corinthians 5:14, 18-21)

In HimThat little expression, "in him" (or "inChrist"), is found 165 times in theNew Testament. By faith, we are "inhim." As soon as we lay our hands on .the head of the Lamb of God, all thathe did, all that he was, is put to ouraccount.

God no longer sees in you andme the vileness of the sinner but thelikeness of his Son in whom webelieve. That's what it is to be inChrist, "in him." The New Testamentsays: "I [We] have been crucified withChrist" (Galatians 2:20). "You [We]have been raised with Christ"(Colossians 3:1). "Ye [We] are com-plete in him" (Colossians 2:10 KJV).and "God raised us up with Christ andseated us with him in heavenly realmswith Christ Jesus" (Ephesians 2:6NIV). All of this in the merciful reck-oning of God.

Five times the New Testamenttalks about Christ "in us." This is also

an important phrase, but differentfrom "in him."

The difference between the two isthe difference between our faith-com-pleteness "in him," and our personalincompleteness despite Christ "in us."The difference is between the fin-ished work of God "in him," and thework only begun "in us," in the forgiv-en sinner. It's the difference betweenperfection and imperfection, betweenjustification and sanctification.

Righteousness by FaithWe noticed last night that Paul talksabout, "The just by faith shall live."(That's the way Romans 1:17 probablyis best translated and is so in theRSV.) Remember, 'Just" is the sameword as "righteous."

In some denominations, "right-eousness by faith" has traditionallybeen understood to include twothings.!. Being declared righteousUustification) and 2. Being maderighteous (sanctification)-our statusor standing with God by faith inChrist and our condition before God.(By condition we mean the HolySpirit in the life, the doing of goodworks, and the developing of charac-ter. )

That, of course, is not the "right-eousness by faith" of the New Testa-ment. Never, never, never.

In Paul's discussion on accep-tance and in his discussion on justifi-cation, "righteousness" and "faith,"'Just" and "faith," are linked together13 times in 13 verses. They are neverso linked in his discussion on sanctifi-cation. It is so important to under-stand that sanctification, or beingmade righteous, is the fruit of thegospel. It's not the gospel. It's theresult of the gospel.

The gospel is the good newsabout the death and resurrection ofChrist. Through faith in Christ, hisperfect righteousness is imputed tous, and God accepts us. Now.Sanctification-or working in cooper-ation with the Holy Spirit-is the fruitof the gospel.

Distinct but Not SeparateAt Calvary, when from our Lord's sidethere came blood and water, it's sig-nificant that the streams were distinct

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though not separate. You're a skilledtheologian if you know how to keepcertain things distinct that must neverbe separate.

The Members of the Trinity aredistinct; they are not separate. MostChristians are not Trinitarian; theyare tritheists. They have three sepa-rate gods. That's not the doctrine ofthe Trinity. The biblical doctrine ofthe Trinity is that where one Memberof the Godhead is, the Others alwaysare present, though one is in the van-guard. The Father didn't suffer physi-cally on the cross, but he was in theSon. "God was in Christ, reconcilingthe world unto himself' (2 Corinthians5:19 KJV). Through the eternal Spirit,Christ offered himself. The wholeTrinity was there.

Distinguish but don't separate.Otherwise, you won't be able to seethe glory of Christ in his finishedwork on the cross. This work was forus, and gives you a perfect standingwith God in a moment. That's justifi-cation. The fruit of justification, ofbeing declared righteous in Christ, isthe coming of the Holy Spirit intoyour life. This is sanctification, whichalways follows justification.

Sanctification only begins beingmade like our Lord Jesus Christ. It'snever complete in this life. There's noperfect Christian, even if he or shehas been a Christian for a hundredyears and trying to be just like theMaster. The nearer we come toChrist, the more we confess ourunlikeness to Christ. Inherent perfec-tion is fully accomplished only by thechange of glorification when Christreturns.

"The heart is deceitful above allthings, and desperately wicked: whocan know it?" Ueremiah 17:9).Thevery best people on earth can onlyoffer litanies of guilt continuously. Atthe same time, because of the gospel,they can shout, "There's no condem-nation to them that are in ChristJesus" (see Romans 8:1).

Gospel Answers Our QuestionsThe Book of Romans answers ourgreat questions. "How are we recon-ciled to God?" "How are we to live?""How are we to live with ourselves?""How are we to live with our neigh-

bors?" Last night, when we looked atthe key to this book (Romans 1:16-17), we noticed that when it spokeabout the gospel, it said:

For I am not ashamed of thegospel: it is the power of God forsalvation to everyone who hasfaith, to the jew first and also tothe Greek. For in it the righteous-ness of God is revealed throughfaith for faith; as it is written, "Hewho through faith is righteousshall live." (Romans 1:16-17 RSV)The expression "righteousness by

faith" is a rubric covering the first fivechapters of Romans. These chapterstalk about what Christ did for us.That is what gives us complete accep-tance with God at the moment offaith.

Faith and the CrossWe mentioned last night that faith isnot something you've got to self-gen-erate. Faith is not something youdevelop. Fai th is God's gift as youlearn that Christ loved you enough todie for you. If Calvary doesn't meltand break the heart, there's nothingelse God can do.

The cross is the sun in the sky forthe Christian. To take the cross fromthe Christian would be like blottingout the sun. Kneeling at the foot ofthe cross, Christians have reached thehighest place they can attain. Thecross is the Sermon on the Mountenacted. It's the Ten Commandmentsdemonstrated. It's 1 Corinthians 13exemplified. The cross is the fruit ofthe Spirit in full blossom.

At Calvary we see the almighty,pure, spotless, infinite One beingmade the off-scouring of the universefor our sakes. When jesus was on thecross, we were all there. You can knowthe day of your death. It was two thou-sand years ago.

"One died for all, and thereforeall died," (2 Corinthians 5:14 NIV).The verse doesn't say, "If one died forall, all needn't die." It says, "All died."We died in him. Therefore, you and Ihave paid the penalty for all our sins,past, present, and future.

justification-the great idea ofRomans-is not just forgiveness forthe past. In fact, it's not even just for-giveness. justification goes one better.

justification says, "I count you asthough you never sinned." To be justi-fied means to be declared righteous. Itdoesn't mean only to be declared for-given. It certainly involves the realityof forgiveness, but God, to assure ushow much he loves us, says, 'Tm goingto treat you as though you'd neverdone anything wrong."

Now we see the meaning of theblood and the water that came-dis-tinct but not separate-from Christ'sside.

Blood and Waterjesus said to Peter, "If I wash thee not,thou hast no part with me" (John 13:8KJV). That represents the blood ofChrist.

As soon as you believe on Christ,your life is washed clean by the blood.That cleansing flood continues tooperate every day of your life. Everymoment, every hour, every day thatyou trust in Christ, God sees you onlyin him. Even if you've bungled thingsa hundred times that morning.

What a wonderful teaching!Because wherever there's consciousguilt, guilt develops into conscioushate, into self-hatred, illness, and acci-dents.

We must keep the water and theblood distinct. It is Christ's blood thatjustified us. The water is the symbol of

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the Holy Spirit who comes into us as aresult of that cleansing. The HolySpirit changes our heart, our mind,our habits-the life! The blood andwater are not separate, yet they are dis-tinct. You only put your confidence inwhat the blood has done for youbecause the work of the water is notyet finished.

Anytime you look within, you'll bediscouraged. Who has faith enough?Who has love enough? Who's a perfecthusband, father, son, wife, mother,daughter? 0 one.

Sanctification is always the fruit ofthe gospel. It's not part of righteous-ness by faith. It's the result of it. The"righteousness of faith" (which,according to Martin Luther, is the arti-cle of a standing or falling church) isjustification by faith.

Righteousness by Faith Is the Gospel'Justification" and "righteousness" arethe same word in the original Greek ofthe New Testament. When peopleread Bibles in other languages, theyfind that out. When you read a varietyof English Bibles, you often find themtranslated variously. What one transla-tion translates as 'justification" anoth-er translation in English will translateas "righteousness."

"Righteousness by faith" is 'justifi-cation by faith." "Righteousness" and'justification" in Romans are not twodifferent things. justification is thesweetest melody ever heard fromhuman lips. This is the one interestthat should swallowup every other.

In essence, that's what we said lastmeeting. Humans have problems.Those problems are about knowingright and wrong, about how we shouldbehave, about acceptance, and aboutdeath. But when we see the cross,those problems are refocused and webegin to understand. We are encour-aged.

We can rejoice in Christ jesusdespite our blemishes and despite ourfailures. Because of the cross God for-gives us every sin. The perfect right-eousness of Christ is imputed to us.God accepts us now, in his Son. Weare ushered and welcomed intoGod's presence and into his heavenlyfamily.

Life is good. .:.