Phil: Well, you know, my thoughts have, as we indicated last week, gone to the book of Romans. And last week, we talked about salvation part one, which was kind of a, I don’t know what Alan will do with that title, but we’ll see. But anyway, salvation is more than most people think of.
Most people, as I say, think of simply the forgiveness of sins and thereby, we get to go to heaven. But there is so much more to it. And that’s absolutely part one, because if my sins are not gone, then I’m in trouble.
But anyway, Paul, as we, just to give a brief review, Paul wrote to the Roman believers. He hadn’t been there yet, he had hoped to go and wanted to. He just had this burden, no doubt he was in prison at the time, had this burden to write to them. And one of the things that the Lord laid on his heart, and I’m glad he did, was to lay out the gospel that he preached in very clear terms, just reasoning it out, going through all the aspects of it, in such a wonderful, clear way.
And he writes to those that are called to belong to Jesus Christ, called to be his holy people. So it’s not a ticket to live as we please, is it? It’s calling us out of something into something else.
And so, you know, we talked about how he spoke of man’s condition in general as being in rebellion. He knows something about God, knows enough about God to be responsible. And yet he takes what he knows about God, and literally there’s something in him that rebels against and resists it, wants to go his own way. And the result of that is the wrath of God rests upon this planet.
You know, we’ve talked many times about how something was set in motion at the cross that is absolutely gonna happen. God set a plan in motion, there’s nothing anybody can do to change that, not the devil, not any person, it’s going to happen. And, you know, oftentimes, and I think we rightly emphasize that that has to do with what He did regarding us. That we were there, we participated, and there was something set in motion that absolutely determines our destiny and carries us through until that. And that’s absolutely true.
But I wonder how many times you’ve thought about it from this standpoint, when God judged Jesus, it was not just for my sin, it was for the sin of the world. We have said this before in the past, but he died as a representative of this corrupted creation. When God poured out his wrath upon his Son, he was pouring it out upon his creation. And we are living in the interim between that, that historical event that absolutely determines the destiny of this world, and the fulfillment of it.
You wanna know what the destiny of this world is, and everything it stands for? I don’t care, the good, the bad, the ugly, everything in this world is literally, you wanna know what its destiny is, you look at the cross. And you know that it lives, it exists under the wrath of God.
And, of course, Paul, you know, went on to describe the condition because a lot of Jews, the situation, because a lot of Jews regarded themselves as different from everybody else. The gentile world was in darkness, they had the prophets, they had the law, we’re good. And Paul made the point over and over again that that’s not what it’s based on. It doesn’t matter, God has fixed it to where everybody is under not just sin, but the power of sin.
And that’s why he said at the beginning, the gospel that he preached was the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes. It’s not just religious doctrine, not just some formulaic thing that we think about and we just sort of believe it. I need power, how many of you need power? Yeah, I need something that is way beyond me. I need God to do something for me that’s impossible for me to do. And that’s the gospel that he preached.
And you know, we went over, we’ve alluded to the fact that God is absolutely a just God, He has to punish sin. You can’t ignore sin if you have a law that says the sinner must die, that law has gotta be fulfilled or He’s not being just, it was fulfilled. But His Son stepped in, willingly as our representative. And like they did in the Old Testament, those who come to Him, we put our hands on the head of the sacrifice and say, basically, that’s me.
You know, we sang the song this morning, I should have been crucified. He got what I deserved. But oh, he’s willingly stepped in to fulfill the Father’s plan, to open a door of hope for a hopeless people. Thank God this morning that we have all the ground that we need. It’s not just a hope so that, oh, I hope God fulfills what He’s... Oh, man, you wanna see what’s destiny is about, you can look at history. History determines our destiny, folks, if we can believe it. God wants us to come to understand that in a deeper way, and understand how that works out.
So anyway, of course, Paul dealt also with the question of how we enter into this. How do we come to a place where our sins are gone? Do we somehow work for it? And, of course, he spends chapter four talking about Abraham and how he came into a relationship where God said, You are righteous in my eyes.
Now, is there anybody here who can do something and cause God to say that about you? No, there was something that God instituted right there that absolutely sets the pattern and tells us what He is looking for. All we have to do is look at Abraham, and we see a man who heard God speak to him, who believed not simply the words, but the person behind the words, to the point that whenever God spoke, he believed what He said.
When God told him to do something, he did it. When every circumstance that could possibly rise up to say no, it can’t happen, he believed it anyway. There was a persistence in saying, I don’t care, God has spoken. I don’t care what rises up to say it’s impossible, I know it’s gonna be true because God said it. That’s exactly what he’s looking for from me.
How many of you run into impossibilities in your own life, and the devil just jumps all over you and say, look, you know, I know it’s a great thing, but not you. Oh my God, God wants to bring us to a place of such confidence that we can move ahead and enjoy what He has given.
And, you know, we talked last week also about the fact that coming into faith is not just some superficial thing. Abraham had to face some facts about himself. The impossibility of him fulfilling the role of being the father of many nations. His wife’s womb was dead. She was what, 90 years old when the son was born? And he was 100 years old, that was history. There was no human way that that could be fulfilled. And yet, he believed God and it was.
Folks, you and I have to come to terms with the reality of what we are. It says in the scripture, he faced the fact that his body was dead and his wife’s womb was dead and all that. And folks, when we come to faith, we have to face the facts. God has to show us the truth about ourselves, to the point where we realize that we are sinners, we are guilty, we are deserving of death, that we have no power to save ourselves, and we need a savior.
And oh boy, when we surrender to that truth and say, okay, I’m done, I surrender, I’m in your hands. You’re the potter, I’m the clay. How many songs did we sing this morning that just expressed all of these simple truths? My life is in your hands, and you’re gonna have to take care of something I have no power to deal with.
And thank God, thank God the guilt of my sins was taken away simply, not because I earned it, not because I could possibly deserve it, but because I put my faith in what God said He did at that cross. And it’s not something I’m waiting for him to somehow work out. I look back and there it is, it’s the cross. He knew about me and all of the depth of my need that I’m still discovering. I’m still finding out why He had to save me, and why it’s impossible for me to do anything about it. But at every point, I look back and I realize there’s a God who knew about me, who did something for me long before I discovered America.
And here I am in such need, and He doesn’t look to me and say, okay, here’s what’s wrong with you, fix it. He says, look to me, look at the cross. Look at what I did. I did something there that absolutely, you can bank your eternal destiny on, on what I did for you at the cross. That’s what we’re called to, folks. Thank God!
When God can bring us to the point of faith and surrender and repentance, all these things that we know about, God, I mean, then we’re in a position where, you know, salvation part one is taken care of, because God has taken care of the guilt of our sins, the things that separated us from a holy God. And now we have the freedom to have a relationship with a holy God. That’s incredible!
Think again of the picture that God painted so many times of Isaiah seeing the glory of God, the purity of God, and realizing in a moment of time, the truth about himself. And yet he found a God that did something about that, didn’t he? There was a coal that was taken off of the altar and it touched the very thing that he was conscious of. Oh, everything I say is wrong because I’m wrong. And the Lord touched his lips with a sacrificial coal of a sacrificial altar and took care of that.
My God, I need that same God. We need that same God. But thank God, He’s available. That’s what the good news is about. That’s what caused Paul to get up in the morning, caused Paul to write all of these things in spite of languishing in prison. That wasn’t what his life was about, he saw that was beyond all of this. And that’s what God wants us to see.
And so salvation part two is, I mean, chapters 5 through 8 in particular delve into that. And I have wrestled with, how in the world do you deal with all of this? Because there’s so much, so many aspects of truth that are all important. And Paul is step by step going through this. And I think I’m just gonna start and I don’t know how far we’ll get, but I’m not gonna worry about it. Lord, that’s up to you. You take my thoughts and guide them, because I don’t know what to do with it.
But the question really you have to raise when, all right, now the relationship is there, the barrier is gone. Sins are gone, I’m forgiven, now what? Because it’s pretty obvious that we can come into that relationship with God, and yet here we are still living in this broken world. What’s that about? What’s God’s purpose? How do we navigate that? What does salvation mean, in terms of our having to live here? Does God give us, as some people actually think, does God give us a license to sin by just blotting out our sins, or is He calling us to be his holy people?
Well, I don’t have any power to do that. You remember what the problem was, when He said all have sinned? That’s one, so we all have a rap sheet that’s enough to enough to send us to the judgment and wrath. We all have the rap sheet, we have sin, but it goes on and says, we fall short, we continue to fall short. There’s nothing we can do but fall short.
And all you have to do is see a glimpse of glory, as different ones did in the scriptures. And we know, whoa, I’m not like that. And yet, here we are. And does God have a plan for dealing with that? And if so, what is his plan?
Okay, so chapter 5, let’s just kind of look at some of these things. And I don’t know how long we’ll hang on particular scriptures, but I’m just gonna start. Therefore, all right, in view of salvation part one, and the fact that it’s based upon coming to a place of confidence and faith in him, surrender, facing facts, all of that.
“Therefore, since we have been justified by faith,” thank God for the past tense there, thank God. If you’ve come to that place of surrendering your life and putting all of your hope in what He did at the cross, there is something that is in place right now. I have a clean, erased rap sheet. What an amazing, amazing thing. How could such a thing be? We have been justified, declared righteous. There is nothing that God can charge me with, because it’s all been paid for and taken care of. His wrath has already been poured out upon my sin, thank God. We’ve been justified through faith, again, that’s the ticket to get into this place. We have peace with God, all right?
There is a relationship where you look down in the passage and you find out we were his enemies. Well, now we’ve come into a state of peace. There is a surrender. We’ve changed sides, folks. If you’re still a part of this world system and this is where your heart is, you haven’t entered in. God calls us to a separation from the heart, the purpose of this world. We live here, but we’re not of this world, we’re of citizens of a heavenly kingdom. And that’s what our eyes need to be focused upon, it and His purposes.
And God has made every provision. You know, we just sang the song this morning that says He’ll give you everything. He’s not talking about Cadillacs and mansions. He’s talking about everything we need for the fulfillment of His purpose that He has declared. He set the ball rolling at the cross and the resurrection, but boy, it’s got everything you and I need. Anybody need anything this morning? That’s what the Lord wants us to get, because we all need him this morning, starting with me. Thank God, the peace with God, that’s the foundation. Now I’m in a relationship with Him, now what?
All right, and, of course, it’s through our Lord Jesus Christ. Now it says, “Through whom we have,” once again the past tense, “We have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand.” Now, I’m quite sure, I haven’t looked this up, but I’m quite sure that have gained access is that wonderful Greek perfect tense. It looks to something that has happened in the past, but it’s not just an event that’s come and gone. This is something that has happened in the past, but there is an ongoing result.
See, everyone here has at some point in the past, walked through the doors of the church. Is that right? You have come. Well, I’m also saying not only you came through the doors, but you’re still here. That’s the perfect tense, you’ve got both senses, all captured in that one Greek tense. We have gained access, that means we have it. Thank God, access by faith again, into something, into this grace in which we now stand.
I’ve had that phrase come to my mind time and time again, but I just pray that God will help us to see something. You know, all the world is under the wrath of God. That’s how God sees people who are in rebellion against him. But now, He’s talking about a different place. He’s talking about a place that he calls grace.
Imagine if you were in a place of danger and you knew that judgment was gonna fall and there was no way to escape it. And then all of a sudden, you found out that there was a place and it was a place of safety, it was a place where that threat was gone. And now, how do I get in there? How in the world can I leave this terrible place that I find myself? How can I get into that place of safety?
And, of course, it’s through Jesus Christ and what he’s done and our confidence in him. He has opened a door into a place that has a wall around it. It walls off all human virtue, all human effort, anything except the grace of God. He is the door through which we enter. Thank God for the Son of God, for what he was willing to do so that we could enter into a place. We could leave the place where wrath of God reigns, and we could step into a place where grace reigns.
And I feel like my definition of grace has evolved. You know, that traditional “unmerited favor” is a little bit, you know, it doesn’t really go into the depth of it. And when we’re talking about having been under the power of sin, I need something that’s got some power to it, got more power than sin does. And so, grace is God’s power at work, saving sinners. How’s that for a definition? God’s power at work, saving sinners.
And you could add unworthy sinners if you want, but I mean, that’s what I need. I need God at work if anything’s gonna change. He can’t just say, okay, here’s the plan, you do it, and leave it to my resources. It ain’t gonna happen. I need absolutely the intervention of God at every point.
And that’s what He wants, that’s what He’s teaching us, ‘cause we don’t live that way naturally. We run in our own wisdom and our own strength. We blindly live out our lives so much of the time, and we don’t realize what His purpose is, we’re blind to it. And when we face something, we don’t remember we’re in a place of grace.
And grace has so many aspects. It’s not just the strength that He exerts, that He gives us and all of that. It’s His favor. It is His favor, okay? It means instead of regarding me as his enemy, deserving of His wrath and just awaiting that day when that’s gonna happen, now he sees me as His child. He loves me, He’s for me.
How many of you can get up in the morning, and you know in your heart and you believe actively in your heart, God loves me, He’s for me? He knows everything that’s wrong with me, and He loves me anyway. And everything He wants me to do, He’s ready, He’s there with His arms outstretched saying, I’m here. I’m here not to punish you, not to be mad at you, I’m here to help you. I know you need things that you don’t have in yourself, I get that, that’s why it’s called salvation. But I have brought you into a place now, where this is how I see you.
Folk, do we see ourselves that way? Do we really? I mean, we can get this doctrinally to where we could assert the right thing. We could say what we believe, but emotionally, how many times do we get in places where it doesn’t feel like that and we’re not so sure? What did Abraham do in those times, when it was impossible, when all hope was seemingly gone? Did that nullify what God had promised?
See, that’s what God wants you and me to get today. You’re going to find, if you’re not right in that place now, or you haven’t been, you will be. If you’re his child, you’re gonna run into situations where everything about you is gonna cry out and say, this is impossible, there is no hope, I can’t do this, all hope is gone. And the Lord wants us to get as we never have before.
We’re gonna need it in this hour, folks. We’re gonna need a confidence that sees beyond earth’s circumstances, sees beyond our feelings, every circumstance that rises up, every temptation. See, all those things are things that Paul is gonna unfold in these chapters is, how does this work? What now? How do we navigate this life in terms of salvation? What’s God’s plan for this life? Why in the world are we still here? And that’s what the gospel unfolds, but oh, what a place it starts.
These first few verses really are kind of a summary, kind of a broad picture, and then he begins to unfold it as he goes along. But we’ve gained access by faith into this grace in which we do what? Now stand. There’s a couple of wonderful words there.
How about the now one? How many times does it feel like, oh God, I’m falling, I can’t handle this, this is too bad, this is too difficult? And yet he says, now. God is always a God of the now. He does not look to us to depend upon how we feel, because we will feel like Abraham did. There’s no hope, I don’t see any way naturally.
I don’t either, and I’ll tell you, there’s not a day goes by that it doesn’t get more apparent to me. There is nothing I can look to here, not one thing. No goodness, no strength, no virtue, no nothing. But I’ve got a place to look, folks. He doesn’t tell me to look in here, he tells me to look to the Son of God who gave himself for me. Praise God, he set something in motion that involves me. How amazing is that?
