Free But Costly

Introduction

Someone approached me. One of my former students who are friends approached me and said, “What's up with the funeral attire?”

And I said, ”well, isn't that the theme of the conference? I am crucified with Christ.”

This is, this is sort of like my funeral, so I have come. I'm the only one dressed appropriately for the occasion. I have been crucified with Christ and hopefully in word and indeed we can demonstrate that this truly is a funeral, that we are, we are dead with Christ. We're buried with Christ. But the good news is that we also raised with Christ and what God has done for Christ. Amen. God will absolutely necessarily do to those who are in Christ. If I have been buried, I will be raised. And that is the Christian hope.

Romans: The Center point of the New Testament

So today, I will be preaching from the book of Romans.

Now I don't have a timer with me. Is there going to be a timer on the, on the wall so that I can stay within time? Romans chapter chapter three. If you have your Bibles, you can open it. The passage I'm going to read is probably the center point of the new Testament.

Romans chapter three, verse 21 to 31.

“21 But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— 22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. 26 It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

27 Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith. 28 For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. 29 Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, 30 since God is one—who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. 31 Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law.”

Amen. So what is the nature of the problem that Paul is attempting to solve here? What does he set out to resolve? And he actually sets up this argument in chapter one of Romans. He says, he writes it, a Roman church, a church that he has not started. And he's writing to them and he's saying, I am eager to preach the gospel to you. And then after coming to you, I will preach the gospel in Spain. So I'm eager. And then the question is, why are you so eager? He says, for it is for, I am not ashamed of the gospel. So that's probably a figure of speech called a litotes, which he states negatively, what he wants to emphasize positively, what he's really saying. Is I boast in the gospel. I glory in the gospel.

I take pride in the gospel. Why, Paul, do you boast so heavily in the gospel? He continues to say for it is the power of God unto salvation for all who believe to the Jew first and to the Greek. How is it the power of God? He says, for in it, in the gospel, the righteousness of God has been revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, the righteous shall live by faith.

God's Wrath Against Sin

Well, why is the righteousness of God revealed in such a salvific way to all who believe and then starts his great exposition, he says, for the wrath of God has been revealed from heaven upon all unrighteousness and ungodliness of men. And then for the next chapter, the chapter after that, and then the chapter after that, he talks about the wrath of God.

Now, I encourage you and I'd like to say I dare you to go to Martin Lloyd Jones Exposition of Romans and read through the first four books, the four volumes of his exposition. You will have. Goosebumps going down your neck at the judgment of God against all unrighteousness. We cannot appreciate the gospel and what God has done for us in the cross of Jesus Christ unless we fully appreciate the wrath of God that not will be revealed but is currently being revealed against all unrighteousness and ungodliness of men.

When is it revealed? Now and in finality on the day of the Lord. Well, how does God now reveal his or administer his wrath? Well, in the book of Romans, it's very clear. God allows us to have our own desires. You want to, you want to go sin? Go ahead. You want to go and have evil intentions, go ahead. And three times the Bible says, and God gave them up. Verse 24 and verse 26, and God gave them up. And verse 28, and God gave them up. And with every giving up of God, you can see there's this deeper, deeper descent into hell.

God gave them up to their lusts. And then for this reason, God gave them up to dishonorable passions and then, and since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. Then they were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossip, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful. Inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, and ruthless. Though they know the righteous decree of God, and they know that those who practice such things deserve to die. They not only do them, but give approval to those who practice them.

What else can explain the state of our society? It's the giving up of God. God gave them up to debased mind, to foolishness, to utter foolishness, to deceit, to be self deceived. And in Thessalonians, we see brother mentioned today, when the Antichrist comes, the Bible says, And God will give them a spirit of delusion so that they will believe all lies. Why? Because they hated the truth. There's a hatred of God that is that follows the wrath of God and God allows us to descend deep into hell. That is the wrath of God currently being revealed. And Paul sees this and Paul says, this is why I boast in the gospel of Jesus Christ because it is the power of God.

Because in it, how does it affect salvation? It brings righteousness. Why is this important? Because God has revealed his wrath from heaven. God allows people to descend deep into hell by their own choosing. And we can see the principles of judgment here.

The Principle of Judgment

God's judgment will be according to truth. God's judgment will render to each according to their works.

There is no respecter of persons with God. It will be according to the gospel of Christ. This is all in Romans. Hidden things will be found out. This is what I tell my Christian brothers and sisters. If we live a hidden life of sin, guaranteed it will be found out. You cannot hide your sin long enough. You cannot live in the shadows because Paul clearly says, If you would judge yourself, you would not be judged.

But when you stop judging yourself, the Bible says you're chastened by the Lord so that you will not be condemned with the world. So there's a judgment that's coming. There's coming. There's a wrath of God that's coming. And the Bible is calling us to, to submit ourselves to this, to this overpowering eyes of God, be examined by God and to come as we are full of sin and says, Lord, Lord, here I am.

I come with all that I have hidden things will be found out. God will bring every hidden motive, every word, everything done in secret as evidence against us. And then he goes to speak about the Jews and against the Gentiles. And he says, Oh, the Gentiles, they don't have the law. Well, their conscious bears witness to them demonstrating that innately they have the law and they know what they do is wrong.

No one is without excuse before God. And the sixth principle of judgment is the certainty of judgment. The certainty of judgment is certainly coming. So that's why when we come to verse 21 of chapter three, it says, but. Now, my two favorite words in the book of Romans, which are equal to my favorite two words in the book of Ephesians, but God, if it wasn't for these two words, but now, if it wasn't, but these two words, but now, but God, then surely we would have descended into hell.

Surely we would have received that which was due to us. But now this is not just a logical connection. Paul is not saying here's my argument, but now this is my other argument. No, there's a temporal connection. There's something that happened in historical time and place.

The Contrast between Two Eras of History

There is a contrast placed by God between two eras of history, the present evil age and the age to come in the death, burial, resurrection and ascension of Christ.

God has separated the times into the present evil age and the age to come. This is why Paul says God has given up Christ to save us in Galatians from the present evil age. God has introduced a chasm in history. And then this is why when you read Romans chapter one, verse four, it says, well, verse three, it says he's writing about the gospel and about the son is as concerning his son, Jesus Christ, who was descended from David, according to the flesh and was declared to be the son of God and power, according to the spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead Jesus Christ, our Lord, what he's saying here, he's not talking about the, Flesh of Christ and the spirit of Christ.

What he's saying flesh and spirit mark a contrast between the old and the new era of redemptive history. The old era is characterized by the first Adam. The second. Era is characterized by the mediation of Jesus Christ, the last Adam who brings blessing and resurrection and righteousness and he was resurrected. The Bible says he was appointed or declared or placed by God to be the son of God and power by his resurrection from amongst the dead plural. You see, the resurrection of the dead was supposed to be the eschatological endpoint of all history. That was the end of time that happens on day. One of eternity, the last day of, of planet earth.

We see this in Daniel chapter 12, verse three, but here Jesus has risen from the dead, right in the middle of history. So what God is saying, God is saying that that that that new age has come in Christ. And so God inaugurated through Christ the new age, the resurrection from the dead by Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ rose in the middle of history, and he inaugurated the era of grace, righteousness, and the kingdom of God. The two eras are not just different quantitatively. We don't just get a little bit better, a little bit holier, a little bit more righteous. They're qualitatively on opposite ends of the spectrum.

The Bible says those who are in Christ are a new creation, a new creation. And Paul says in second Corinthians, if, there was glory in the ministry of condemnation talking about the old covenant, how much more the ministry of righteousness must far exceed in glory. It's qualitatively different. Something happened. Something happened with the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It wasn't just a historical event. There was a change in a time period. The new age has come. The age of eternal life has come and it has, and it has been injected into the present evil age. So now we live in a time of the present evil age and yet experience.

The power and the righteousness of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the now and the not yet. That's what, that's what we call it. The now and the not yet. So maybe you find yourself condemned. Maybe you feel condemned. Our brother Poirier read this morning about the, the works of the flesh. Maybe you identify with one of them, two of them, three of them, four of them, maybe five of them, maybe all of them. Maybe you see yourself here in Romans one, Romans two, Romans three.

Well, there's good news, but now this is the essence of the Christian position. This is how faith answers the accusations of the law, accusations of a conscience and every accusation that will depress us and condemn us.

The Nature of Faith

But now faith is a kind of protest.

It is putting your heel on the, on the head of the snake and the snake is still wiggling. But as long as you keep it firmly pressed, this is faith. This is the act of faith. You keep your hand firmly placed and says, and you say, yeah, I'm a sinner, but now Jesus Christ, but now the righteousness of God has been revealed.

The Bible says it is apart from law. As you can see here, a righteousness from God has been manifested apart from the law. Do we overthrow the law? No. We uphold the law. But it's, it's apart from the law, meaning that it's apart from the system of the law. It is a righteousness that comes from God. And, and we don't, we don't overthrow what we uphold it in the very last word, words of the chapter. We uphold the law because it says here that the law and the prophets bear witness to it. So the law and the prophets bear witness to the justification of faith that would come through the resurrection of the son by faith. That's how Abraham was justified. And that's how all of God's people were justified by faith.

So everything, this is the way I see it. Everything in the Old Testament is a foreshadow of the ultimate reality, which is found in Jesus Christ. To me, David and Goliath is not a story of a little boy. It's not a story of a little boy and his trust in God and the five stones. To me, this is a picture of Jesus Christ, the ultimate David, defeating the ultimate Goliath.

How do I find myself? Where am I in the story? I'm the Saul and the Jonathan in the story. I'm the one who was cowering in the corner and in the victory of David, Saul was victorious. In the victory of David, his older brother Eliab who called his heart stupid was victorious. And when they came back from battle, they saying, David slain 10,000, Saul slayed 1000. Why did Saul slain 1000? It's because David slain the Goliath and the 10,000. We have victory because there was one, the ultimate David who won this victory for us. So this righteousness was always talked about in the Old Testament. It testifies that there's coming a time that on, on day one and day two, God will condemn us, but on day three, he will revive us a righteousness apart from faith. And what is the righteousness of God? And that's a great question. So there's been huge discussion. Is it a covenant faithfulness of God? It is. Is it the justice of God? Is it an activity of God? Certainly we see in the old Testament that the righteousness of God is synonymous with God's salvific activity.

And one of my darkest moments in life. There's something that we're experiencing right now as a family, and I've been praying, praying, praying, and I said, Lord, you know, there's moments in life where you say, Lord, it's not enough just to know by faith. It's very hard to accept things practically when your child is sick, for example. And I pray, Lord, I need like that testimony of the spirit inside. Sometimes, you know, you need, you need the testimony of the spirit that you carry on inside that you are a child of God. And I say, Lord, give me this testimony, all I want to know. I don't know what happens and I'm okay with whatever happens. All I want to know is that, you know, what's happening in our family right now. All I want to know is that, you know, that you personally are aware of my situation. And the next morning, one of my brothers, one of my brothers in Christ sends me out of nowhere. Never did this in my entire life. Sends me a a text message.

And he, and Isaiah 41, 10, do not fear for I'm with you. Do not be dismayed, for I am your God, I will strengthen you, I will help you, and I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. So the righteousness of God is that is in the activity of God. But the question is, how does God save? How does God save us? God saves us by giving us the righteousness of Christ. This is how he saves us from his own wrath. So the righteousness of God, yes, it is an attribute of God. It's the righteousness that belongs to God. It's the righteousness that is performed by God as an activity. And it is also a righteousness that comes from God, that God bestows on us as a gift, the righteousness of Jesus Christ as a gift, freely given through the redemption in His blood, we accept it and appropriate it by faith. It is the gift of God, the righteousness of God. The wrath of God has been revealed. Ah, but now the wrath of God has been revealed. Ah, but now the righteousness of God has been revealed and made manifest apart from the law. Although the prophets and law testify of it, the righteousness of God by faith to in Christ Jesus to all who believe.

Now there's been a lot of controversy. Why did Paul say, you know, by faith to all who believe it seems to be very redundant, which it is redundant. You know, a lot of times, see, the problem is that in our language, in the English language, and this is why there's a lot of jokes, you know, how come the O and ought doesn't sound like the O and done, you know, how come, you know, how come the SCH in school doesn't sound like another SCH anywhere else. It's because our language, the English language had an influx of many different languages. We have Latin, we have French, we have German. All right, and so justification. Why is justification and why is righteousness? Why are they two different words? It's the same word in Greek. Una is the same word in in Russian language. Privateness, aia, Pravda. These are all the same. How come in English, they're different. Well, because the justice comes from the Latin and righteousness wrecked comes from. German. How'd you guys know that? It comes from the German, but it's the same. It's the same thing. And same thing with believe and faith.

The Righteousness of God Through Redemption

What Paul is saying is the righteousness of God as a gift comes to all who believe or trust Jesus Christ. It comes through faith to all who have or exercise faith. Why does it come to all who exercise faith? Well, because there's no distinction, Paul says. All have sinned, everyone has sinned, done, act and fall short, continually fall short. It wasn't a fell short. It is a, we continually fall. Do you guys feel like you always fall short? Oh yeah, we always fall short. Have we sinned and continually fall short? Absolutely. Every day of our life, no matter how, what our intentions are, we try hard. And this was the cry of the man in Roman seven. I want to, but I can't, what I don't want to I do. And there's the struggle, just like our brother Poirier said this morning, all have sin and fall short of the glory of God. And this is my topic today is called costly by, but free or free, but costly because of this one verse here, we are justified. By his grace as a gift, it's free, but this gift is through the redemption.

Oh, what a price that was paid. What a price through the redemption. What is redemption? It's, it's a redeemer. It's someone who comes alongside. Someone who's in debt, someone who lost his property and family and wife and kids. And, and especially in the Roman culture, you, you go to the, you go pay the debt to the temple. The temple receives a little bit of a, of a surplus of the, of the, of the payment. And you technically now become the slave of the temple or the god of the temple. So, we're never, like Brother Poirier said, we're never truly free. We're either slaves to sin or we're slaves. to Christ. So Christ bought us with his own blood to the father. And we're slaves or Christ. We are redeemed, but we're justified. So what is the word is justified. This is the first time that Paul uses this word justified in the book of Romans. It is to depict the inner working of salvation. Justification is not God making us righteous. It's very important to understand there's no infusion of righteousness with the word justification.

Sure. There's a Regeneration process there are other aspects of salvation, but specifically when it comes to justification Justification the Catholic position is that there's an infusion of righteousness There's a sort of a transformation that happens with the act of righteousness. That's not what the Bible teaches.

It's not an infusion of righteousness Nor is God treating us as though we were righteous, sort of like a legal fiction. No, it's God acquitting us of all sins that condemn us. So it's not a legal fiction. It's not God saying, I know you're not righteous, but I'm going to pretend like you're righteous.

We're truly righteous in the eyes of God because God acquits us of all guilt. He says, not guilty. So it's not a legal fiction. It's the truth in the eyes of God. It's legal truth. God has acquitted us of all of our sins. And when does it happen? Well, the judgment of God was supposed to happen at the end of time. But this is the beautiful thing about the resurrection of Jesus Christ because God took that end of time, placed it at the resurrection. And so our judgment happens when now, when we come to Jesus Christ by faith and we confess and we repent our sins, we're born again and God justifies us and declares us to be righteous in Christ.

Through faith to all who believe this verdict is eschatological, meaning it doesn't, it's not going to happen at the end. It's already happened at the end. See, this is the interesting thing about Paul. I've never heard this term. I think I coined it. So if you ever hear it again, you can tell me you've, or maybe someone else says it.

We're in a theological jet lag. So if you fly right now, if it's, let's say it's midnight and you want to fly to Hawaii. But the time you get to Hawaii, what time is it in Hawaii? I don't know the time differences, five hours. So let's say you, you travel back in time to, let's say you go to Japan, right? It's midnight.

You left at midnight, but you get there. It's still daylight. Well, it's your body thinks you're sleeping, but you're walking around in daylight, but your body's thinking you're sleeping. Well, it's the same thing happened. We were born again. You're in this jet lag. The Bible says it's nighttime. But your sons of the day, your sons of light, you're not living in darkness, you're living in delight, you're living, your life is supposed to be feeling like jet lag, like I am, I have eternal life, I've been placed into Christ, well why do I struggle with sin, well that's what jet lag is, your body, your flesh is telling you, you belong here, you belong in this world, you're supposed to be going to the clubs, you're supposed to be getting drunk, you're supposed to be doing all the things, but your spirit is saying, you It's daytime.

It's eternal life. You're a new creation in Christ. You have been placed in Jesus Christ. You are supposed to be in the army of David, cleaning up the mess of the Philistines. But David's won the victory. Goliath's head is cut off already. You've been justified. You've been declared righteous before God. You've been made new. Behold, he says, whoever is in Christ is a new creation. All things have passed. And I love the word that Paul uses. He doesn't say old. He says, archaic things have passed. Ah, I love it. You know, when you have an iPhone 13, like my, my son has an iPhone 13 pro max and he says, dad, I need a new phone.

He didn't get no new phone, buddy. This is still, I get it. It's old, but Hey, if you have a dial phone with that little, you know, that's archaic. That's not old. That's archaic. You know, if you have a 2015, you know, Mazda, it's an old car, but it's not a Ford Model T 28, 1928. That's archaic. It has no use for this world. That dial up phone has absolutely no use for this life. So when Paul says, behold, all the old, the archaic has passed. What is he talking about this world? You have no use of it. Behold, all things have become new. It's not new. I still live in an old world. I still have my flesh. Well, what happened? This is what happened in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

God resurrected Jesus Christ in the middle of history. So he takes the end of time and he rewinds it back, places him right in the middle of history. So you still have the present evil age happening and then you have the new age to come started and they're overlapping, traveling at the same time, same speed and one will end, one will continue. This is why eternal life, you have it now. It's eternal life. You won't get it. You have it. That's why Jesus says, whoever believes in me will never die. What is he talking about? We all die. He says, you'll never die. Because he's operating on a different plank. He's operating on a different time zone than what we're used to.

This is why the Bible says all things work together for good who are called by God according to his purpose. Well, it's not good. Yeah, but it'll work for good. Because we're operating on one time zone. God is not saying, I'm right here. I'm on a different time zone. The old has passed. You have no, you have no need of him.

Paul says, even though my fleshly body is deteriorating day by day. Oh, but my inner man is being renewed. This is why Paul says, I do not even the, the, the, the, the suffering that we experience, he says, does not even compare to the glory that will be revealed in us, through us, to us in us. See, that's the discussion among scholars. I take it to mean all of them. It's not just to us. It'll happen through us and in us and with us. Because there's going to be something glorious that happens when Jesus Christ comes back and we will be transformed into his glorious body. But now, you feel condemnation today? You feel the heaviness of the burden of sin?

Why don't you take by faith the two most blessed words in the Bible. But now the righteousness of God has been revealed apart from the law. All of the prophets and the law pointed forward to it. A righteousness by faith in Jesus Christ. To all who exercise faith because there is no distinction for all have sinned and all fall short of the glory of God and all are justified freely by his great grace.

What free gift, but such a costly gift through redemption in his blood, whom God set forth as a propitiation. Now, what does that mean? Propitiation? What have you ever, can you say propitiation? Do you say propitiation or propitiation? Arthur, how do you say it propitiation? All right. So what does that mean? Propitiation? It's been a lot of discussion. A Dodd in 1931 published an article that said, oh no, it's not propitiation. It's expiation. In other words, God set him up as a sacrifice so that he cancels or takes away sin. Propitiation is the appeasement of wrath.

It's the sacrifice of propitiation was designed to propitiate God. In other words, to make God favorable to us, how are we making God favorable? If God is already favorable by setting up his son and giving up his son, he's already favorable. So that's the discussion. Well, propitiation in 21 out of 27 times in the old Testament is used directly to the Mercy seat, the covering over the, the Ark of the Covenant where the high priest walked in one time a year and sprinkled blood over the hill Asterion, which is the propitiation place. The mercy seat placed blood of the animal so that this, this place of atonement would appease the wrath of God. Well, what Paul is saying that God set him. As the mercy seat, what the, what the Ark of the covenant and the mercy seat served in the Old Testament, Jesus Christ became that mercy seat where he spilled his blood and God sent him forth.

And what's interesting though, is that he said he has publicly, this was to show God's righteousness because in his divine forbearance, he had passed over sins. He put forward as a propitiation to his blood to be received by faith. This was to show the righteousness of God because in his divine forbearance, he had passed over former sins.

Listen to what's happening here. He says that the former sins that he, the Bible says that he passed over. In other words, he sort of did this close his eyes. The former sins are not the sins that we committed up until our conversion. The former sins are the sins of the entire world committed before the cross of Christ.

So what does God do with all that sin? The Bible says he passed over and his divine forbearance. Oh, what about the animals? The animals was just a credit card that God had. He swiped, he swiped, he swiped, he swiped until the payment needs to be paid for that balance. That payment is or happened on the cross of Jesus Christ.

That payment, the final credit card debt came in and it was infinite in value. And only one who's infinite in value can pay the price and Jesus Christ paid the price. So did God punish David and Bathsheba? Was that divine wrath? The Bible says no. He passed over. He left David unpunished. You see, the interesting thing about the Bible is that in the old, in the New Testament, in Revelation, the Bible says that the beast and all those who follow the beast will drink from the God, from the cup of God's wrath, which will be filled with wine. Diluted. What does that mean? Undiluted? Well, I'm up until the fall of Rome. Nobody drank wine, you know, the way this world drinks wine, 14, 15, 16%. Everybody drank wine that diluted you either diluted with water or with snow. If it's, if you want a little chilled, you diluted five parts water to one part wine or 10 parts water to one part wine.

Nobody straight drank what's called neat wine because neat wine is. Undiluted and the Romans said that only the barbarians drug drank wine That was undiluted. And so the, for the first time in all of history, at the very end of time, we see a cup that's being prepared of God's wrath of wine that is undiluted, which means that everything that happened the past, the Canaanites, the everything that happened was just diluted the wrath of God. It was the wine of God, one part wine, 10 parts water. It was just a sign of what's. Going to still come and so David is left unpunished Bathsheba's left unpunished Solomon and all those kings are left unpunished and so God set up Jesus publicly the Bible says as the propitiation or the place of Atonement or derivatively the sacrifice of Atonement or derivatively the Atonement itself He set him up as the one who will appease the wrath of God so that the Bible says so that he will remain just everything was done so that God himself won't be vindicated when he forgave David his sin and left him unpunished.

We can say, well, that's not right. And that wasn't right. But, but, but, but then God says, ah, but here's my son, here's the payment. Here's the payment. I'm vindicated. I'm a righteous judge. And then he goes on to say, so that now God is both righteous or just and the justifier of those who believe. In other words, in excess, God says, I will not acquit the guilty.

In other words, I will not justify, I will not declare the guilty righteous. What happened with us? God declared us righteous and he remains perfectly just. Because all the sin was laid on Jesus and Douglas Moo and even Frank Thielman say, say that that conjunction, that conjunction Chi, it shouldn't be God is just and the justifier, it should be concessive.

God is just even while justifying. God remains just even when he justifies or acquits the guilty. He still remains perfectly righteous and just. When he forgives you your sin, because your sin was fully paid for and punished, someone bore some just man bore your sins on justly. And that's the beauty of Isaiah 53, the righteous for the unrighteous. And this is what we believe in penal substitutionary atonement. And, and 2nd Corinthians chapter 5 says this beautifully. He did not impute. Their sins against them. How come God did not count their sins? How come God's not counting your sin against you? Paul says blessed is the man whom God to whom God will not account his sin Blessed is that man?

Why is why is God not counting their sins against them? It's because in the next couple verses says because he who knew no sin Sin became sin for us. What happens? So that you become the righteousness of God. So this is one thing that I want to really, really hit home today is what I really want to hit home. And this going through life, this is what makes or breaks your faith. It's not enough just to be a little bit better. It's not enough just to be a little bit more holier. You have to be absolutely 100 percent righteous before God. The only way you can get that is. Freely by grace through the redemption free to us costly to him freely by grace.

Oh, through the redemption of the blood of his own son. I know I can feel just a little bit. What it feels to look at your son who's suffering. I can, I tasted that. And I, in my darkest moments, I cried out to God and said, Lord God, what did you feel? Now, we always say when, when Jesus was on the cross, My God, that's the question that we ask.

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? I wonder what was the cry of dereliction of the father? What was the father experiencing? We don't have that. We know what Jesus experienced. What did the father experience? Watching his only son. Dying on that cross freely by grace. You take it by grace through the redemption. And his blood, what a price, what freedom at such a price, what beautiful harmony and the cross of Jesus Christ. So today, if you are struggling, if you find yourself convicted, that's good, we should be convicted. If you find yourself condemned. Yes. That's what the judgment of God does. He condemns, he condemns sin every single time he's no respecter of persons.

He has no partiality. He can't be bought. He can't be buddy, buddy with you. If you're living in absolute dead sin and complete rebellion against God, you should feel condemnation and you should feel a sense of heaviness of the hand of God over your life. Faith says, but now I'm not just a little better, but now the righteousness of God has been revealed to all who believe.

In Jesus Christ, whom God set forth as a propitiation for our sins, he who knew no sin became a sin for us. It was to show that God is righteousness, righteous. God's own righteousness was vindicated on the cross. The cross of Christ was the climactic moment of the entire Old Testament since committed beforehand were only, they were truly forgiven, but they were symbolically forgiven because God had a credit card debt that he accumulated that Jesus Christ came to pray, pay. And you know what? The beautiful thing about this whole story is that God was not compelled by anything external to him to do what he did. This was just out of free love, out of just free love for us. There was no compulsion in God had a free love for us. So I'm closing.

Eliminating Boasting Through the Law of Faith

And the question that we have today is where is boasting?

Can we really look each other in the eye and say, I've done a better job than you. I've done a better job than you. Where's the boasting? What can you boast about? I've learned in my life. The only thing that I have is just to cry for mercy, Lord, have mercy on my soul because I need the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

He says, but what, but by what? No most by what principle, by what law, the law of works, no. By the law of faith, by the law of faith and faith is not just a intellectual understanding of facts. You can have that. It's not just an acceptance of the facts. Yeah, I know Jesus rose from the dead. I accept that it's true.

You can have that and still be without faith. Faith is a complete trust in God, total reliance. You know, the Bible says against hope and hope he believed. You need that against hope part in your life. You need to come to that against all hope. You need to feel completely hopeless and helpless for in to believe in hope and that to be something you grasp onto.

So may the Lord just bring us to that place of complete brokenness. That's the whole point of a Christian life is to bring us to a complete place of what brother Andrew will be speaking today, humility and brokenness before the Lord, because that's the depths that Jesus went to. And because he was there, he says, for this reason, God has highly and I like that word, Hooper hyper exalted him, not just not just he exalted him, he hyper exalted him, he highly exalted him above all names.

Has given him the name. What's the name is the name. The Lord has given him the name that the name of Jesus every knee shall bow praise Jesus. Amen