If you have been around the last couple of weeks you will know we are in a preaching series on the

book of
Romans. If you’re here this morning and are new to church, new to faith or exploring faith let me just give
you some context and some background. The book of Romans is a letter written by the Apostle Paul to the
church in Rome. Paul who authored this letter was a Jewish man who before coming to know Jesus, hated
Christians. So much so that he even had a hand in murdering them. But the God who transforms hearts
and lives totally transformed Paul’s heart and Paul’s life. Paul had an encounter with the resurrected Christ
who already ascended back to heaven through a vision as he was travelling on the road to Damascus. Paul
turned from a man who was filled with hate for Christ and Christians into a man obsessed with Jesus, a
man madly in love with Jesus who became the most influential missionary of all time. Paul wrote a pretty
big portion of the New Testament and his letter to the church in Rome captures the essence of the Good
news of the Gospel which Paul himself was totally transformed by. Christianity had already reached Rome
and Paul is writing to a church, a diverse group of Greeks and Jews, rich and poor, men and women,
educated, uneducated and people who were slaves. They were ordinary people with ordinary lives, with
jobs families who would have been under threat of persecution from the local authorities for gathering
together to hear the contents of this letter but, like us this morning, they were hungry for the truth. Like us
they were hungry to know more about God. They turned up to find out more about what God is like? More
about his character and how he feels towards them. More about what God calls them to do in order to
please him. They gathered together to be the first hearers of this letter that we are exploring together this
morning.
Pray

Have you ever been in a situation you could not get out of? A situation in which you felt totally stuck?
Maybe you were litrally stuck like in a hole or something but maybe it was situation where if something or
someone didn’t come to your rescue you were done for.

OZ car.

Well up until this point in his letter Paul, has been describing the situation the whole of humanity is stuck
in? A situation in which there is simply no way out. The bible reveal that we are created beings. That God
created us in his image. That he formed us, breathed life into us and created us to live in relationship with
him worshipping him. But the bible also reveals that humanity choose to rebel against God and go its own
way. Exchanged worshipping God for the worshipping of what he created, turning what he created into
idol. Because of humanities rebellion and rejection of God, sin entered the human heart and every human
since has lived life with a fallen human nature. Every person since that fall has in their nature this natural
inclination to rebel against the God who created us. We were all born with this natural inclination to do
things that we know we shouldn’t and not do things that we know we should. We all have this natural
inclination to sin. Our fallen human nature is the result of sin. And there is not one of us here this morning
who hasn’t sinned. There is not one of us who has led a perfect life and never messed up.

We don’t like to think of ourselves in that way. Often when we consider the bibles claim that we are sin the
very next thing we do is compare ourselves with someone who has sinned more. Someone who is a deeper
hole. Often the go to is Hitler! ‘Yes, I might not be perfect but it’s not like I’m as bad a Hitler. I haven’t
killed anyone etc.’ We can all feel relatively good when we compare ourselves against people like Hitler.
But the bible doesn’t say we’ve fallen short of that standard. It says that I’ve fallen short of the glory of
God. Fallen short of his holiness and righteousness revealed in the person of Jesus Christ. The bible says
Jesus never sinned. He lived the perfect life. Compared to him we all fall a million miles short. Jesus is the
standard.
Simon in his message last week touched on how that is at the root of why the world is in the mess it is
today. How sin is the primary cause for the brokenness in the world. That the poverty, wars, abuse,
injustices, discrimination are symptoms of this of this disease. And the apostle Paul in this letter has been
working hard in the opening chapter to articulate how desperate the situation is. He has been
communicating how humanity is stuck in a situation we can’t get out of. Stuck in this valley. Men and
women from every race and from every nation regardless of education, or social standing are all in the
same situation.

The key text from last week was Romans 3:23

“All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.”

I know for me if someone was to say I was a sinner I’d get very defensive and try and justify myself in some
way. Bring to mind the good that I have done. How many charities ive a standing order for etc. But Paul
knowing how we were work, knowing how we can attempt in our pride really, to self-justify, makes it clear
that we are unable to get ourselves out of the valley by climbing out ourselves through good behaviour or
good deeds.
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Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the
law we become conscious of our sin.

When Paul speaks of the law he is refereeing to the commands given by God in the Old testament,
specially the first 5 books known as the Torah. Obedience to these laws was the obligation of God’s people.
But Paul makes it clear that the law of God isn’t there as some sort of ladder. A ladder which we climb in
order to get closer to God and get right with him. A ladder we can climb to get out of the valley. The valley
is too deep, God’s Holiness to high. Paul says the law of God is there in order for us to be aware of see our
sin. To become conscious of it. To become aware of the valley we are in. To drive us to Christ.

‘All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.’

So that’s the bad news Paul is making clear in in his letter up until point. But just like many plays or movies
at the point where it seems all hope all hope is lost there comes an intervention. Someone arrives maybe
flying through a window on a motor bike, or someone comes up with a genius idea or there is a piece of
evidence at the trial that brings a justice. Or someone turns up with a tow truck to get you out of a snake
infested desert. At the point of things looking at their bleakest something new happens which changes
everything.

And this is mood Paul creates with this letter. He tells the story or humanity, the bad news of the
predicament we have put ourselves in by rebellion against God, and then he says two words in which lead
us into the most technical part of the letter. He says two words which begin to turn the whole narrative.
Two words that indicate the story isn’t over. Two words that lead him into revealing the way out of the
valley. Two words which begin to direct his listeners and readers attention to where their hope is. To the
way out of the situation

‘But now…..’

The text which follows these two words, the passage we are going to unpack this morning has been
described as the ‘chief and central place of the whole bible’ and ‘the most important paragraph ever
written.’ It is a paragraph which reveals how and fallen humanity can get right with a Holy God.
In today’s culture we can wonder if getting right with God is really on people’s agenda. In years past it
seemed that people were more concerned with judgment. Do people care anymore? The reality is people
don’t care about an underlying health condition until they start to experience the symptoms. People can
live totally unaware of cancer for some time. Andrew Ollerton tells the story in his book about how once
he got a knock on the door while on a conference call. He went to the door and it was pest control
company called mouse arrest. He said he was so annoyed by the interruption that he practically slammed
the door in the guys face. They responded by pushing a little business card through the door. Then a few
months later he was lying on his bed he I hear some scratching in his loft space. He then began to search
for the business card. What was once a rude interruption. Became vital information. I lived the first 25
years of my blissfully unaware of the effect of sin. The bible in the book of Hebrews alludes to the fact that
we can even enjoy the pleasure of sin for a season. I lived without god in the centre. With other things in
His place. And it took the experience of those symptoms to start think about a cure.

And a guy came into the place I was working and began to reveal the But now part of the gospel to me……

Paul in what NT Wright calls perhaps the most technical part of the bible begins to unpack how God saves
us from the valley

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But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the
Prophets testify. 22 This righteousness is given through faith in[h] Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no
difference between Jew and Gentile, 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and all are
justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. 25 God presented Christ as a
sacrifice of atonement,[i] through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to
demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand
unpunished— 26 he did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one
who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.

After revealing the situation of humanity, revealing how all were standing guilty in the dock. In the
dilemma of not being able to get out of the valley through some ladder of good works. Paul begins to
reveal how God himself overcame a dilemma he himself faced.

The dilemma God faced was that he created the world and humankind. Then those he created and loved
became full of wickedness and turned away from him. God then raised up Abraham and the nation of
Israel who were to set things right in the world. He made a covenant with them and promised to bless
them. They were meant to undo the problem caused by humanities sin. Meant to bring the world back to
God. Pull the world out of the valley. His covenant plan was to save the world through this nation. But then
they, who were meant to be part of the solution, became part of the problem.

So God’s dilemma was that he wanted to bring about Justice against those who were doing evil in the
world through violence and oppression, while being faithful to his promises he made to Israel, who were
now down in the valley with the rest of humanity doing some of violence and oppressing.

What we see in these verses is how God overcame that dilemma. We come to see his faithfulness in
operation. Not by scrapping the covenant plan and looking to save the world through some other route,
but through the arrival of one faithful Israelite who offer God perfect obedience. Obedience which Israel
should have offered but didn’t. Jesus, Paul reveals is the faithful representative of Israel.
Jesus the Messiah represents his people. And Paul reveals that in Him God brings together his covenant
Justice and his covenant faithfulness. And in order to get his readers or the listeners of this letter to
understand what God has done to get them out of the valley he uses three metaphors. Three metaphors
which would have give them a deeper understanding of his salvation, of his rescue. So, let’s briefly unpack
these metaphors to get a better understanding of God and what he does through Jesus in order to save
humanity.

Paul writes…

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and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. 25

Paul writes ‘Justified freely by Grace.’ Paul mentions this word, Grace. Grace is something which was as
much of alien concept in the first century as it is in our world today. Justice is getting what you deserve.
You do something wrong you get punished, you receive justice. Mercy is not getting what you deserve. You
do something wrong, you don’t get punished, you get let off the hook, you have been shown mercy. People
back then and today would have been very familiar justice and a bit familiar with mercy. But Paul is writing
about this concept of Grace. Grace is getting what you don’t deserve. You do something wrong and you
don’t just get let off but you get rewarded.

During a British conference on religions experts debated what, if any belief was unique to Christianity. The
debate went on for a while then CS Lewis came in and asked what all the arguing was about and when he
heard said that easy. GRACE. The notion of God’s love as a free gift sets Christianity apart from the
eightfold path on buddasim, the hindu doctrine of Karma the jewish torah and the Muslim code of law.
Every other religion offers a way you can earn god approval. Only Christianity offers salvation as a gift.

Paul begins to tell people about this wonderful gift that costs them nothing but God everything. He starts
to reveal God’s radical grace towards those who walked away from him. And he does it by using three
metaphors to try and show them just how radical his Grace is.

Paul here is first using the metaphor of slave market redemption. When people in the first century heard
the word ‘redemption’ their mind would have gone directly to thinking about the freeing of slaves through
the paying of a ransom. At the time of Paul writing this letter one third of the population would have been
slaves who were used for cheap labour. Some of the first listeners of the words written by Paul were non-
Jewish slaves who knew what it meant to be sold in the market. Paul is revealing how in Jesus God himself
has stepped in to pay our ransom. To pay the price of our freedom. That he came he came to liberate us
from the reign sin has on our lives.

The minds of the gentiles would have gone there. The Jewish listeners minds, when they heard the word
redemption, would have gone to the Exodus story where God through Moses’ leadership and a series of
plagues coming upon Pharaoh and his nation set the Israelites free from slavery to the Egyptians. During
the course of that emancipation the Israelites were called to sacrifice a spotless lamb and to out its blood
on the doorposts in order that the angel of death might Passover and not take their firstborn. Paul is
revealing how Jesus is the Passover over lamb that God has provided. How through the shedding his blood
the people are redeemed. They might have been unfaithful to God but he was faithful to them and
purchased their freedom with his sons blood. Their redemption meant not only were they being set free
from reign that sin had on their lives but that they were being set free to live with dignity and purpose.
The next metaphor Paul uses to unpack the depths of God’s grace is Temple sacrifice.

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God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement,[i] through the shedding of his blood

Under the Jewish sacrificial law system which was ordained by God after he gave the law through moses.
To give people an awareness of sin when people when broke one of the laws, when they sinned they have
to go to the temple to sacrifice an animal to atone for their sin. To pay or to cover for their sin and restore
the relationship with God. It only atoned partially and for a short time. Which is why people had to
continually return every time they messed up. Now what Paul is saying is that it’s not longer they who have
to atone for their sins. That the sacrificial system was only ever a picture of what God was going to do. And
now he is doing it. God has sent the sacrifice to pay for the sins. A onetime sacrifice to pay for all their sins.

The stones on which the commnadments were written.

This grace would have blown their minds. God was paying the price. The Temple was place where God’s
presence was meant to have dwelt on the earth. A priest would have to sacrifice and animal on your behalf
to enter in. Now Christ blood on the cross cover all our sins so we can come into the presence of God.

The last of the three metaphors in this passage is: Law court Justice

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he did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies
those who have faith in Jesus.

He draws on a legal metaphor to people understand justification. We all stand before God guilty. But the
perfect human came and paid the price. Jesus the perfect human offered his life to pay our debt. “on the
cross, God’s standards of justice were therefore satisfied and our sin was atoned for.” Andrew Ollerton

Colossians 2:13-14 13
When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God
made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins,
[d] 14
having cancelled the charge of our legal
indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the
cross. 15

Paul through these three metaphors reveals how it of through faith in Jesus we can be justified. But not
only Justified, we are made righteous. We are clothed in Christ righteousness …… righteousness not
attainable through works. Our righteousness ‘filthy rags’ to a Holy God. Righteousness only attainable
through faith in Christ. (Preach not through works – through Faith)

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Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. Because of what law? The law that requires works? No, because
of the law that requires faith. 28 For we maintain that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of
the law. 29 Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles too? Yes, of Gentiles too, 30 since
there is only one God, who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through that same
faith. 31 Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the law.

There is no boasting and there is no condemnation because it is not about us and what we do. It is all
about him and what he has done. When the devil, who is sometime called the accuser attacks us and
suggest that we are not a Christian or not a good Christian because of what is still in our hearts. Or because
of what you’re still doing even after all these years. Or when you are reminded of something you once did.
When those accusations come, when those sorts of thoughts plague you or even torment you. When you
read the teaching of the bible and become so aware of how we’re not doing too well at following its
teaching. What’s our response? Do we allow those thoughts to take us down? Do thoughts of how far you
fall short make you retreat to your bed or to some sort of vice for a bit of escapism? Do you agree with
those negative thoughts and accusations. Do you start to try and justify yourself, do you start to speak
negatively over yourself condemning yourself?

Or do we lift our head and say those words ‘But Now….’

This is the essence of our position. This is how faith responds to the accusations and everything else that
would come against us and attempt to discourage us, condemn us and depress us. Our faith in what Jesus
has done is a defence, but also a protest against any accusations. If we are people of faith, after listening to
the accusations do we say ‘but now’ this is part of the fight of faith. When we become a Christian and put
faith in Jesus we don’t become immune to spiritual attacks or the accusations of others or even of
ourselves. They still come.
But we need to be ready with these two words - But Now. We live by faith in what God has done, not by
sight in the ways in which we fall short. We are made righteous by faith. Not by being obedient to the law.
This is what faith does. It is this protest, a standing up in spite of everything that might be said against us
and saying nothing can convict me because of my position in Christ. Because of Christ I’m forgiven and
made righteous. It is God’s grace. Not living perfectly, not serving in church, good deeds…. I’M Justified
through FAITH!
“Without a heart transformed by the grace of Christ, we just continue to manage external and internal
darkness.” Matt Chandler.
We don’t work our way to getting right with God through some sort of impressive moral endeavour. God
came to Abraham and his people and the whole world when we were lost in the valley of sin. And he calls
us into new life. Receiving a new identity as a child of God and new purpose.
It’s when we know our position. Justified by faith in Jesus, we can then begin to live by faith. To go on an
adventure of faith. And that is Paul’s next encouragement is to follow in the footsteps of Abraham.
Out of the overflow of a grateful heart that we didn’t get justice, we didn’t just get mercy but we got what
we didn’t deserve, Grace, covered in his righteousness. It’s out of that grateful heart we lay down our lives
as a living sacrifice.
God’s grace frees us to go for it. I’m not sure anyone understood the grace of God more than Paul. Paul
who once persecuted Christian and became the most effective missionary in church history. Paul laid down
his life a s living sacrifice. Not to earn his Salvation but out of grateful heart for Jesus had done for him. And
to take this message of grace to others He was imprisoned, flogged beaten stoned. Lived much of his life in
danger from Jews and gentiles. He knew many cold and sleepless nights hungry and thirsty days but he
just couldn’t keep this message to himself. He lived with a sense of wonder at God’s amazing grace and
that poured out from his life into the lives of others.
Two giants of the faith Abraham and Paul went on an adventure of faith secure in their salvation with
confidence in the faithfulness of God. What adventure is God calling you into?
Justification by faith also makes us adventurous, not cautious not paasive, as a growing faith in God
enables us to take bold steps of faith like Abraham and his family. How can your church take steps of faith
in the coming week, and how can they encourage each other to be bold as they walk with God? Lord Jesus,
we confess that we are a broken people. We confess that we easily justify our sinful and selfish actions and
words.
Forgive us for pretending to be better than we really are. Today we agree that we have fallen short and
desperately need your grace. Thank you that we are not without hope, because you died for us on the
cross, you paid the price for our wrong and you offer us all grace and freedom. You truly are the Saviour of
all. We thank you for the gift of salvation in our lives.