Expound: Romans 3-4 - Part B

Friend, listen to my advice. Don't stand before God apart from Jesus Christ. You will have no rebuttal, nothing to say at all.

You want to make sure he is your advocate, your lawyer, your defense attorney. So many people think they can stand before God on their own. The truth is we can't, but we don't have to. And today on Connect with Skip Heitzig, Skip shares about how Jesus advocates for you before God the Father. Before we begin, we want to let you know about a resource that will encourage you even more in your faith. Trials, temptation, and the tongue. Those are the mega themes of three booklets from Lenya Heitzig that we're making available this month at connectwithskip.com.

Here's Lenya with more on this bundle. In Don't Tempt Me, I hand you the keys to unlock the thoughts, circumstances, and fears that can cause you to give into temptation. And in Speak No Evil, I encourage you to avoid setting fires with your words, and instead use them to bring showers of blessing. Lenya Heitzig's booklets, Don't Tempt Me, Speak No Evil, and Happy Trials provides help, hope, and encouragement in dealing with life's challenges. This bundle of three booklets are yours for a gift of $20 or more to help keep this Bible teaching ministry on the air. Get yours when you give today by calling 800-922-1888, or give online securely at connectwithskip.com slash offer.

That's connectwithskip.com slash offer. Okay, we'll be in Romans chapter three as Skip Heitzig begins the study. He wants to prove once and for all that all groups are guilty before God, before he gets to the grace of God, before he pulls out the diamond, he wants you to see how bad that black velvet really is. So he pulls out several verses out of the book of Psalms and Isaiah, quote after quote after quote, a 14-count indictment, and then he rests his case.

These indictments can be divided into three categories, what a person is, what a person says, and what a person does. So he's making his concluding argument to say the whole world is guilty before God. Verse 10, as it is written, here comes the prosecutor, as it is written, there is none righteous, no not one. There is none who understands. There is none who seeks after God. They have all gone out of the way. They have altogether become unprofitable.

There is none who does good, no not one. Their throat is an open tomb. With their tongues they have practiced deceit. The poison of asps is under their lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in their ways. And the way of peace they have not known.

There is no fear of God before their eyes. It's not a pretty picture, but this is an x-ray of my heart. Oh, you say, this again is not an x-ray of your heart. Oh yes, it is. And yours. Oh, you look beautiful on the outside. Don't get me wrong. But this is the true you, man.

This is the real photograph, the x-ray of the human heart. And notice some repeated words, two in particular. Look at the word none. Verse 10, none righteous. Verse 10, none righteous. Verse 11, none who understands. None who seek after God.

And then the other word is all. Verse 9, the Jews and Greeks that they are all under sin. Verse 12, they have all gone out of the way. Verse 19, we didn't read that yet. Let's read it now. Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may be guilty before God. Okay, so we have a good picture here.

Here's this point. How many people are righteous? None. How many people are sinners?

All. That's his basic point in all of these scriptures piled up in this 14-count indictment. Now we know, again, verse 19. Let's read verse 19 and 20. We know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore, by the deeds of the law, no flesh will be justified. One of the most important texts in scripture. By the deeds of the law shall no flesh, no person be made right before God, be justified in his sight. For by the law is the knowledge of sin.

In verse 19, it's like Paul is saying at the end of his case, he rests his case and he says, now, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, where does this leave the defendant? And the answer is speechless. Can't say a word. I mean, it's such an open and shut case.

There's no word of defense. I remember one time when I was a teenager, an unsaved teenager, a curious, naughty, unsaved teenager, that I had done some things and I was in pretty deep trouble. That included the involvement of law enforcement and a court hearing. And I remember standing in front of my father, who found out everything that had gone on knew the full scoop. And he sort of read me the right, but very peacefully just said, you've done this and done this and done this and done that. He looked straight at me. I couldn't say a single word.

I couldn't say, yeah, bud, because it was perfectly accurate and I had absolutely no defense. Now I am just waiting for the sentence to come down. I'm just waiting for the gavel or the whip or something. You know, sometimes people have said to me, you know, when I see God, I have a thing or two that I have to say to him. I have a bone to pick with the almighty. And they'll maybe mention a thing or two that they have considered unjust and they want to bring up at the judgment bar of God.

I always cringe when people say, I've got a thing or two I'm going to I've got a thing or two I'm going to tell God. Friend, listen to my advice. Don't stand before God apart from Jesus Christ. You will have no rebuttal, nothing to say at all. You want to make sure he is your advocate, your lawyer, your defense attorney.

John called him that. We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And it helps when your attorney is the best in town and happens to be related to the judge. Therefore, by the deeds of the law, no flesh will be justified in his sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. The law reveals our needy condition. Okay, so Paul has taken all of humanity, Jew and Gentile, into the interrogation room and stripped them naked. Now he takes them into the throne room and clothes them in the righteousness and grace of God. But now, I've been waiting for that for three chapters, but now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the law and the prophets. This is one of the most pivotal verses in the book.

It is a change in focus. Remember I said that Romans can be divided into four sections. The wrath of God, the grace of God, the plan of God, the will of God. Chapter one, two, and three to verse 20 is all about the wrath of God. Beginning in chapter three, verse 21, all the way to chapter eight, verse 39 brings us to the second section, the grace of God. That's the pivot. But now, now what Paul is doing is returning to his theme.

I just want you to see that theme. Since this is a Bible study, let's study the Bible. Go back to chapter one, verse 17, verse 16. I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, yet it's the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first, and also for the Greek. For in it, that is in the gospel, in the good news, the message about Christ, in it, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith as it is written, the just shall live by faith.

That's the theme, the righteousness of God. But in verse 18, the very next verse, he plunges us into darkness until chapter 19, until chapter three, verse 21. It gets really, really dark. He pulls out the black velvet.

It's like, yep, raunchy, yep, gnarly, yep, guilty, yep, speechless, right? But now the window is open. Now the light comes flooding through. Now the day opens up. And he says, but now, chapter three, verse 21, the righteousness of God, back to that theme, apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the law and the prophets.

In the language of Narnia, the long dark winter is over, and Aslan is on the move. But now, now the righteousness of God is revealed. And it's witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God, which is through faith in Jesus Christ to all and on all who believe.

For there is no difference. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth to be the propitiation by His blood, through faith to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance, God has passed over the sins that were previously committed. Donald Gray Barnhouse, one of the greatest teachers and expositors of the last century, drew a heart by these verses in his Bible and said that these were, in his opinion, the most important verses in all of Scripture. Leon Morris, a theologian that I've read and am familiar with said, he believes these are the most important verses in literature. It is an incredible section of Scripture. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

Now look in verse 24 and 25. There are three key words I want to explain. You need to know them. Some of you do know them. If you've been raised in the church, you know them by heart, and this is just a refresher course. Some of you need to be introduced to these words. They're good Bible words.

You can take a modern translation and get rid of them and translate them in a different way, but I suggest you don't do that, but you learn these words. One is in verse 24, justified or justification. Paul will use that a lot. The second word is also in verse 24, redemption. So number one, justification. Number two, redemption. Number three, verse 25, is propitiation. Let's go back to the first word, justified or justification. Paul uses the word 30 times, 30 times in the New Testament, 15, 15, half of those in the book of Romans alone. It is a legal term.

It is a forensic term. Justified means to make a proclamation or a declaration. It means that God is willing to look at your sinful life and my sinful life and make a declaration that you are perfect and righteous. If you believe in Jesus, God will declare, you are right before me.

You are right before me. And not only make the declaration and the proclamation, hence a legal forensic term, but then to treat you based upon that proclamation and declaration. It treats you like you've never sinned. So it has often been explained, to be justified is where God treats you just if I'd never sinned. Justified never sinned. Just as if I had never sinned.

You are justified. That's the first term. The second term is redemption. And that's a term from the slave market. Slaves were set free when somebody paid a price. So the word redemption means to grant someone freedom by paying a price. Intrinsic in the word redemption is the thought of value.

Somebody goes to the slave market and the guy with the money, the potential owner, says, I'm going to set that guy free. I'm going to pay the price because I see value in him. And I'm going to put money down and secure his freedom because of the value that I see in that life.

So keep that in mind when it comes to your salvation. God sees value in you. You are worth the price that he paid. Now, that's staggering, right?

That's astonishing. Because we know the price he paid. His own son sacrificed for us. But to God, you're worth it. You're the treasure in the field.

You're worth it. He sees value. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. It doesn't say for God so loathed the world that he sent his son to beat you up. No, he so loved you because he sees value in you. And the idea of redemption also comes in the book of Ruth.

We saw that whole Kinsman Redeemer played out in Boaz. The third word is the most difficult word. It's the least understood word, and it's the least used word by modern translations. It is the word propitiation. Now, it's a difficult word to understand. It's a difficult word to translate. It has an idea of a peace of mind. It has an idea it has an idea of appeasement. It is sometimes translated a number of different ways in modern translations, including appeasement, including atonement or atoning sacrificed. It is a word that is used about four times in the New Testament.

But get this. The word, the Greek word is helosterion. I don't expect you to remember that or even write that down.

Forget that. Helosterion. Now, here's what's interesting about the word. If you were a Greek reader and you were reading the Old Testament, you would have to read a translation known as the Septuagint. You wouldn't be reading the Hebrew Masoretic text.

You'd be reading the Septuagint version because that's the language of the Hebrews translated into Greek. In the Septuagint version, the Greek translation of the Old Testament, the word mercies, the word helosterion, propitiation, appears 20 times. And it is used for a piece of furniture in the tabernacle called the mercy seat. The mercy seat was the lid on top of the box that was the ark of the covenant.

It was gold. It had cherubim on top and it covered the ark of the covenant. Inside the ark of the covenant, remember there were three items.

There was Aaron's rod that butted. There was a pot of manna. And there was the law, the 10 commandments, that Israel had broken.

So as long as those tablets were around, it was a reminder that Israel had broken God's law over and over and they did from the very beginning. So God said, I'll only meet with you one place on the helosterion, the mercy seat. The only time I will have fellowship with you is when you sprinkle blood atop that mercy seat.

And when you do, I will meet with you there. So Jesus Christ is God's meeting place. Mercy seat. God has mercy on us. His blood covers our brokenness. It's a very, very powerful term.

That's why I say learn these words. Yes, you can get other translations, but propitiation is a rich term. Helosterion. Mercy seat. The Bible says there is one God and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. So you want to meet with God, you've got to go to his mercy seat. And his mercy seat is Jesus, the propitiation by his blood. To demonstrate at present time his righteousness, that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. Next question. Where is boasting then? Okay, if justification and redemption and propitiation are all accomplished in Jesus, where do you come off bragging about anything at all?

Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? Of works?

No. But by the law or literally the principle of faith. Therefore, we conclude that a man is justified, declared righteous, and treated that way. Proclaimed right before God.

Apart from the deeds of the law. Or is he the God of the Jews only? He is not the God of the Gentiles?

Yes, of the Gentiles also. Since there is one God who will justify the circumcised by faith and uncircumcised through faith, do we then make void the law through faith? Certainly not. Perish the thought.

No way, Jose, however you want to translate it. On the contrary, we establish the law. Now, understand Paul's thinking.

Let me refresh. Go back to verse 21 and notice what he says. But now the righteousness of God apart from the law, the law of Moses, is revealed.

Here's the phrase I want you to see now. Being witnessed by the law and the prophets. Now if you're a Jewish listener and you just hear the rabbi say, you know, God makes people right through faith. And that's a principle that goes all the way back to the Torah. It goes all the way back to the law and the prophets. Your immediate question is, oh, really? Forgive me, Paul, but I didn't read that. Help me understand that.

Where exactly is that? So Paul brings two witnesses into the courtroom. One is Abraham, who was justified by faith before the law, and one is David, King David. So the two great persons from the Old Testament that every Jewish person looks up to, Father Abraham, or as my tour guides in Israel like to call him, Grandpa, bring in Grandpa as the first witness, bring in David. So we get on the witness stand Abraham in chapter 4, verse 1. What then shall we say that Abraham our father has found according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast of, but not before God. For what does the scripture say?

Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. Now to him who works, the wages are encountered as grace, but as debt. If you have an employer, you put in so many hours per week, and he gives you a paycheck, you want to go, oh, you're so kind to give me that paycheck. Thank you. What caused you to be so overwhelmingly sweet? Nothing. You earned it.

You deserve it. That was the contract. So to him who works, the wages are encountered as grace, but as debt. But to him who does not work, but believes on him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted to him, ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness. What is Paul referring to? Paul is referring to an incident in Abraham's life, when one evening God took him stargazing. Abraham, come outside. Let's look at the stars together. Abraham was 86 at the time. So it was one of those dry, warm Middle Eastern skies where he looked up and he saw the panoply of stars spread out like diamonds on velvet. And he looked up. He said, Abraham, you see all those stars?

Yep. That's what your family's going to be like, man. You're going to have a whole bunch of kids. Offspring. Now, when that happened, Abraham didn't go, oh, no. Come on. That's so ridiculous. I'm 86. Hello.

That's a little bit impossible. He said, amen. That's the Hebrew. He believed God. He said, amen.

He said, right on. Amen. That's good, God. Amen.

I agree with that. Amen. And so God said, that's all I need.

You believe that. You said amen to it. I'm going to count what you just did in your heart and said with your lips as being right before me. God accounted that to Abraham as righteousness. That concludes Skip Heitzig's message from the series Expound Romans. Now here's Skip to tell you about how you can keep encouraging messages like this coming your way as you help connect others to God's word. God long ago planned his son coming to earth to die on a cross for our sins.

He planned to bring you into his family. That's incredible news. And we want to share with more friends all around the world. And you can be a part of that work. Through your gift today, you not only keep these teachings on the air, but you'll help connect so many people to the love of God and the riches of his word. Here's how you can give a gift right now. You can give online at connectwithskip.com slash donate. That's connectwithskip.com slash donate. Or call 800-922-1888.

800-922-1888. Thank you. Tomorrow, Skip Heitzig shares how you can face your trials and troubles with hope and confidence. Next time you are feeling overwhelmed, go outside and look up. Okay, we live in the city. There's somewhat light pollution here. Not as bad as where I'm from, but it's still out there.

It's still out there. But then take a drive somewhere. Go to the mountains and look up. Park the car. Lay out on the hood. Look up at the sky and realize your God did that. Make a connection, make a connection at the foot of the cross. Cast all burdens on his word. Make a connection, a connection. Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never changing truth in ever changing times.