Well as was mentioned earlier, my name is Pastor David Gilbert. I bring you greetings from Grace Presbyterian Church in Douglasville, Georgia in the Northwest Georgia Presbytery, and it is a delight for me to be with you as we think of the Reformation throughout the day. And as we come to the Word of God, friends let’s turn our hearts to the Lord in prayer before we come to His Word.
Our Father in heaven, we bow before You and we marvel at Your goodness on display to us in Christ and the gift You have given in this, Your Word. It is, as we have just heard, the radiance from the hallowed page. And Lord, we pray that as Christ is placarded before us in the preaching of the Gospel, that You, by Your Spirit, would meet with us, that You would make us to see the glorious riches that are found in our beloved Savior, that You would show us Your free grace, and that our hearts would gladly receive all that You have for us. Speak to us, O Lord, for Your servants are listening. And we pray this in Jesus’ name, amen.
Well if you will take your copy of God’s Word and turn with me to Romans chapter 3, and we’re going to be reading together verses 21 through 24. This is on the pew Bible on page 917. Romans chapter 3, beginning in verse 21. The apostle Paul writes:
“But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it – the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.”
Well thus far God’s holy, inspired and inerrant Word. And may He take His truth this morning and seal it to our hearts.
In mountain hiking, there is a practice called peak bagging, and it is where hikers strive to reach several summits, and sometimes on one trip. Two such mountains that fit the bill are Mount Elbert and Massive in Colorado. These are among the ninety-six “14ers,” as they’re called, mountains with summits over 14,000 feet. And these two mountains, Elbert and Massive, they lay on a combined hiking trail of 27 miles. You can find Mount Massive first, and defying it’s name, it’s only the second highest peak – 14,425 feet. And after a descent and a night under the stars, you can ascend Mount Elbert, 14,440 feet, the tallest in the Rockies.
Well as we come to this section of Romans, it’s like peak bagging, walking among multiple mountain summits of the free grace of God in Jesus Christ. Indeed, Paul has just conveyed a marvelous truth, that after he pummeled us with the power of sin and how we are resting underneath its grave penalty and the wrath of God is to come, “But now,” is that glorious announcement. But now God has acted. He has pressed that this righteousness, His own righteousness, is now revealed in Jesus Christ for all who believe. It is a righteousness that is not achieved; it is revealed. It is not our idea; it’s God’s own initiative. And while we are freely and urgently called to put our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, it is not our faith that secures us. It is Christ alone who is the solid rock on which we stand. He is all our righteousness, and that is mountain peak number one in the text.
But on the next summit, we hear more of the free grace of God, of justification and redemption in Christ. And yet before we ascend this second mountain, we descend into the valley. And I want you to see two things with me in our text. We see falling short of God’s glory, and then justified freely by God’s grace.
First, think with me about falling short of God’s glory. At the end of verse 22, Paul was pressing the freeness of salvation in Christ. It is for all who believe. No matter who you are, rich or poor, young or old, slave or free, maybe one from a beastial background like the Samaritan woman – we don’t even know her name – and her utter insignificance, full of immorality, and then there is someone like Nicodemus – a goodie-two-shoes among the religious elite. The Gospel is for all kinds. God’s gift of righteousness in Christ is never restricted to a special class. There are no advertisements here, only for new customers, must have certain assets to qualify. No, Christ is for all.
And it’s that idea that Paul addresses here at the end of verse 22 with the explanation, “for there is no distinction.” Now this point has special application to the Jews with whom Paul has been engaged in the previous section. The Jews saw themselves with distinction. They looked down their noses at those grubby Gentile dogs saying, “We are the children of Abraham. We are a chosen race. Those marked by God with circumcision. And those blessings to the Jews are true. However, Paul had made plain that if a circumcised man doesn’t keep the law, then his circumcision becomes uncircumcision. In other words, law breaking puts everyone on the same playing field. Jews and Gentiles have no distinction before a holy God. Both stand as sinners. Both stand with no hope in self. Both are under the tyranny and power of sin.
And friends, it is this fact that we so often fail to appreciate. You see, like the Jews before us, we often compare ourselves to other people. We look at those around us and we think, “Well I’m better than that person over there. I’m wiser than him. I’m more faithful than her.” But the horizontal plane of human comparison is completely irrelevant. You may have less brazen sin than your neighbor, but God isn’t grading on a human betterment scale. The standard is His perfection. And before His holiness, there is no distinction between people. Thus Paul repeats a point he’s pounded into us from chapter 1 verse 18 all the way through chapter 3 and verse 30. And it’s verse 23, “For all have sinned.” And then we expect Paul to say something like, “All have sinned and violated the law,” or “All have sinned and rebelled against God,” but that’s not what he says. He says something much more interesting. “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” What does that mean?
Well, we start with this verse, “to fall short.” The verb means “to lack, to want, to be deprived of something.” When Jesus speaks to the rich young ruler, he “lacks one thing.” And our lacking refers not to an act but a condition. We didn’t merely jump and then come up short. Have you ever tried box jumping? You know, there are one foot boxes, two foot boxes, and so forth, and the idea is that you stand flat and you leap up on the box. What happens if you miss? I had a friend who attempted something like this once with a picnic table about 36 inches. Well, he didn’t make it, and his shins have never forgiven him! But in theory, if you jump and come up short, well you just try again. You could train, you could strengthen your legs, but that’s not the problem here. Paul isn’t saying, “We had an instance or a moment of coming up short.” No, we are on the hamster wheel cycle of constantly coming up short. The verb stresses continual action. We are regularly falling short, but falling short of what? “Of the glory of God.”
Paul is explaining there is a particular thing from which we are deprived, and it is God’s glory. No doubt Paul is thinking of David’s language in Psalm 8 where David is looking back at creation. God had molded the man from the dust and breathed the breath of life into his nostrils. Man is given this special place, a garden, and there he is God’s vice regent, a king, named the animals, and David puts it in Psalm 8 that man was “crowned with glory and honor.” What glory? Well, both the man and the woman are created, made in the image of God, and they were made to reflect God’s moral purity, His beauty and knowledge and righteousness and holiness. But in what we call “the fall,” man fell short of that glory. And this has had far reaching consequences. Due to the sin of Adam, we are all in a state of falling short, a state of destitution. We are deprived of the glory for which we were created.
Now because this is the good news section, I’ll tell you that with this language there is already a hint and undercurrent of hope because by God’s grace we will be lifted to glory. And Paul has that in view already. He will tell us in Romans 5:2 that we will have “the hope of the glory of God.” Or in Romans 8:21, we will have “the freedom of the glory of the children of God.” What was lost in the fall will be recovered, but only better. We will be conformed into the image of the glorious one, Christ. We will be glorified. That’s where we are headed. But right now, if we are outside of Christ, there is no glory.
You remember in 1 Samuel 4, Israel is decimated by the Philistines, the ark is captured, Eli’s daughter in law gives birth just prior to her death, to a son, and she names him, “Ichabod – no glory.” What a name. “What’s your name, friend?” “No glory Gilbert.” But that’s not just my name. It’s your name, by nature, apart from Jesus Christ. And in the folly of our sin, sin that isn’t merely original in Adam but actual, born sinners and then we sin, and sin, and the glory that glistens no longer captivates us, we rather keep turning and plunging ourselves into the cesspool of corruption. This is the spinning cycle of the power of sin.
When we see that in man, it ought to evoke deep compassion in us. Friends, we look at people mired in sin’s misery and we should groan for their rescue. We should yearn to give them the help that they need. And it isn’t self help. It isn’t merely a twelve step program. It is a divine intervention through the power of the Gospel. The Gospel is the power of God unto salvation. And that’s what Paul is presenting. He is broken hearted as he considers lost souls, and particularly his kinsman, the Jews. They are drowning in darkness, headed to death. And what can rescue them from this destitute state of no glory? It’s only the power of the Gospel. Paul sees both the horror of sin – its affront to God – and the tragedy of sin – we are not what we ought to be. And then Paul pities them. Yes, we are in a brief descent in the valley, but from the valley, Paul sees the summit; he sees the glory. He sees the possibility of recovery in Jesus Christ, but He knows that no work of ours can do it. Only God can. All stand in need. All are in this state of destitution. All must, therefore, must turn to the Lord Jesus Christ.
And as we think about man’s miserable state, friend, I wonder if you consider man and his corruption, if you can resonate with the words of John G. Paton, that missionary to a cannibalistic island in the South Pacific. He looked at man in his misery, seeing the natives there, and he said, “I saw the depths of Satan as outlined in Romans chapter 1. My first impressions of those people, I must confess, drove me to utter dismay. On beholding the natives in their paint and nakedness and misery, my heart was full of horror.” But then he adds, “full of horror and of pity.” Many of us never move past the horror to the pity. We look upon our fellow man and we just recoil with their depravity. We see our world with its corruption of violence and sexual immorality, its love of what ought to bring shame and destruction, and we draw back and we become distant and aloof and hardened because all we can think about is the horrific nature of sin, but we fail to see that they have fallen short of glory. They’re deprived of glory. Glory that can be recovered in the Gospel of Christ. And that Gospel ought to move us to a merciful action. Could we possibly ever stare down hardened cannibals and tell them, as Paton did, “I am your best friend in Jesus Christ. I am here for your good.” Are we longing to see man in his fallen condition and to give them the only thing that can rescue them from the darkness – and it’s the Gospel of Jesus Christ. There is a way out of the dark valley. There is a summit ahead. The glory of the grace of God in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. There is a way to ascend God’s holy hill and to be right with Him, falling short of God’s glory.
But then that leads us, secondly, to see – justified freely by God’s grace. Paul now begins to ascend a peak in verse 24 by continuing the main theme of the section, that in view of man’s sin, God has revealed His righteousness, namely the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ. And just as there is no distinction among people in that we are all sinners, so there is no distinction in God’s free grace, the gift of His grace. That is, His grace doesn’t come to one group and not another. His grace is for all kinds of people, Jew and Gentile alike. But what does His grace do? Paul explains that all, without distinction, all who believe are not just sinners – verse 24 – “they are justified by His grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.”
This verse is like playing Gospel Scrabble. It’s loaded with all kinds of words that we know – justified, gift, grace, redemption, faith, Christ Jesus. Let’s work through the language. We start with “justified.” This is a legal word, and that makes sense, because back in chapter 3 verse 9, Paul states legal charges. We have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin. Before God’s law, an indictment has been issued. All are violators. God has prosecuted the case as Judge, and now every mouth is stopped before His law. “No flesh shall be justified by a work of the law. All are guilty, all are defenseless.” However, for all who believe in Jesus, without distinction, the Judge now issues a different verdict. Instead of condemnation, He pronounces justification.
Now what does that mean? It means that all who rest on Jesus alone, all who turn away from their sinful works to Christ and His perfect life, death, resurrection and reign, all of them are given a gift. And what is the gift? They are cleansed of sin and counted righteous. Paul has been unfolding the righteousness of God, that is, God’s saving action, God’s gift of righteousness before Him. And for everyone who believes in Christ, regardless of background, the legal sentence is now, “Not guilty.” Of course we know by dreaded experience it’s not as if every sinner who receives this gift ceases to sin. The word “justified” doesn’t mean to be made righteous, but to be declared righteous. In a profound sense we are, as Luther famously put it, “sinner and saint.”
But then some will quickly object and say, “Well this whole thing is a legal fiction then.” Well be careful with that argument – for who is it that is justifying sinners? It is God Himself. Are you calling God a liar, an unjust Judge? Are you saying that God is engaged in mere legal speak? No, that isn’t true. In a very remarkable, profound way, we have a legal reality of righteousness as we trust in Christ. Well how can that be because we are talking about sinners? And if they are not made righteous but only declared righteous, how can we have a righteous status? Or to put it differently, how can the dirty be declared clean? How can the unholy be called holy? How can those charged and found wanting before the bar of God’s justice, how can they now be quitted? Well Paul is getting to it, but in short, the answer is – in Christ, by grace alone. God has done something in His Son that changes our status, that removes the believer’s crimes.
Listen to how Paul fleshes this out. He calls this justification a gift. Do you see it in verse 24? “Justified by His grace as a gift” – or more literally, “Justified freely by His grace.” That adverb, “freely,” is a financial term that means exactly what you think it means – without payment. Paul is establishing a metaphor of sorts, putting us in a situation where we need to be bought out of our legal mess. But we can’t buy ourselves out. Isn’t that what the wealthy are often perceived as doing? Buying their way out of trouble. Maybe giving a bribe. It just goes away. You can’t do such a thing with God. There is no partiality with Him. You can’t get out of legal trouble of your unrighteousness before Him because we are all bankrupt. We can’t do anything. No work of the law could possibly change our status. We have no righteousness.
But friends, here is the wonder of the grace of God. We have nothing to offer – no money, no good deeds, no righteous act. But unconstrained by anything in us, choosing merely to bestow His favor, God gives a gift. God gives grace, free grace. And perhaps you’re thinking, “Could grace be anything other than free?” Well no! But Paul is speaking emphatically. This is free, staggering, amazing grace! And the cynic will say, “Ain’t nothing in life free, preacher boy!” And you can say, “Yes, there is. There is free grace in Jesus Christ to all who believe.” The terms “freely” and “by His grace” is the way that Paul is speaking emphatically of the totally unmerited nature of God’s action for our salvation. Here we were, covered in utter filth, and God freely gives us what we don’t deserve. He gives us grace.
You can’t come before God and cling to any credit. You can’t say, “O Lord, I want You to look at my credit score, and I want You to see that I am worthy of this transaction.” You are not in good standing with God. You have no ability to come before the Lord and present anything. Paul spent 64 verses showing us that you have nothing and are destitute before the Lord. But now, but now God is showering free, sovereign grace. Friends, God has acted in a way totally unconstrained and given a gift to sinners. We are justified freely. In Christ, we are declared righteous, in right relationship with our God. No longer under wrath, no longer standing in the dark alley of judgment. We are released; we are free! We’ve been pronounced legally right. It doesn’t make any sense, because all we have is sin. And we shouldn’t be released. How is that possible?
Well, Paul further explains to us in verse 24 that we are justified freely, or as a gift of His grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Free grace comes to us but it costs so much to Jesus. Justification is a gift given but a price is paid. Sure, we didn’t pay it; we couldn’t pay it. We have no money; we have no works. We have no righteous deeds. But a price was paid, and that’s the significance of this big, important Bible word – “redemption.” Redemption. What does it mean? Redemption means liberation through the payment of a price. Liberation through the payment of a price. It’s the language of the slave market. We were in bondage to master sin, and we needed a benefactor to step in and pay the price for our freedom. However, we can’t pay it. There’s nothing anyone else out there can do. No mere man who can step in and pay it. In fact, it gets even worse. Our constant falling short of the glory of God has set us at odds with the holy God. Sin violates His standard. Our indebtedness before God is incomprehensible, so that it is inconceivable of imagining a way for this debt to be paid.
Do you remember how Jesus illustrates this when He is telling the parable of the unforgiving servant in Matthew 18? His point in the parable of course is about forgiveness and unforgiveness, but He speaks of a man who owes a debt to a king of 10,000 talents. That means little to us in our currency. One talent is 20 years of labor. Two hundred thousand years of labor is what the man owes. That is an incomprehensible debt, but it’s just a picture of our debt before an infinitely holy God.
Friends, this is our problem. We owe a debt that we could never repay. But what has God done? He sent His Son, and Jesus came not with silver or gold but with the precious blood that He possesses to shed for our redemption. The ransom price is literally the life of Christ. Jesus said, “The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and to give His life a ransom for many.” Jesus spilt His blood to save us. He paid our debt so that we could be justified freely, not because God ignored the debt; no, He saw the debt, He reckoned with the debt, and He freely gave His Son that Jesus would pay it all for our salvation. And we are partakers of this marvelous grace because Jesus earned our redemption. Oh, the wonder of what God has done. All we have done is shake our fists in the face of God, and we have done it continually, but God gave His son. Jesus willingly laid down His life for the undeserving so that to our account God would give Christ’s perfect record – righteousness.
Brethren, in the words of a hymn, we are “debtors to mercy alone, of covenant mercy we sing. God’s covenant love in His crucified Son.” And that mercy God has freely given. That grace alone has yoked you to a new master. As Paul tells the Corinthians, “You are not your own. You have been bought with a price.” What is the price? It’s the very blood of Jesus Christ, and therefore you must glorify God with your body. He bought you; He gave His Son for you. Is anything therefore too great to do for Him? Are you serving Him? Are you thankful to Him? Are you marveling every day that He doesn’t treat you as your sins deserve, but more than that, He has removed your transgressions from you as far as the east is from the west. It’s astounding, and it’s all free, free grace. It can’t be undone. It can’t be removed. You are now not guilty, and that is God’s verdict. “Grace, grace, God’s grace! Grace that is greater than all our sin!” Do you praise Him? Do you sing to Him? Do you wake up in the morning saying to yourself you are a poor, miserable sinner, but “Oh to grace how great a debtor, daily I’m constrained to be! O Lord, You have showered Your grace upon me. You have taken me to Yourself, and I am liberated in Christ. On Christ the solid Rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand.”
But friend, if you are here this morning and you don’t trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, what does this mean for you? It means right now, you have no redemption price. You remain a slave, condemned before the law of God. And God’s judgment day is coming. “It is appointed unto man once to die and then the judgment.” There is nothing that you can do that you can offer God – not silver or gold, not an act of benevolence, not a life that is trying to turn over a new leaf, because everything in you is tainted with a corruption of sin. You are in a state of no glory. You are destitute and doomed to wrath, if you would just go on this path.
But friend, there is a way to glory. There is a way to rescue. And it’s not from a work you have done in righteousness. You don’t have any. It’s in Christ. I plead with you to come to Christ, to see the corruption of your sin sinking down into the depths of your thoughts, even your dreams are rotten, and see that only God can invade the very depths of your being and your heart and wash you and make you clean and remove all the filthiness of your idolatry. God can take out your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And what does He tell you you need to do to get this? Come to Christ. Free grace in Jesus. Cry to the Savior. Fly to Christ and find rest. Drink of the fountain that cleanses sinners and cleanses them entirely. See that the one who trusts in Jesus shall never be put to shame. “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Oh the marvel of free, sovereign, unrestrained grace. May we bask at the beauty of salvation to these poor, miserable sinners.
Let’s pray together.
O Lord, You have set before us truly a mountaintop of mercy. You have shown us Your free grace in Christ. You have given us a legal standing of righteousness in Your sight, and it’s only for the righteousness of Christ that is credited to our account. We praise You, O Lord, that You have taken us in our filth and You have covered us in the beauty of our Savior. And we thank You, Lord Jesus, that You were willing to go all the way to the cursed tree that we could be ransomed for the glory of God. Father, we pray that by Your Spirit we would offer You praise and that our very lives would be a tribute to Your glory. O Lord, help us to live so as to please You in view of the beauty of Your salvation in Your beloved Son. And it’s in His name that we pray, amen.