Imagine spending your whole life trying to measure up. Accumulating righteousness by the inch, good deeds by the yard, and hoping you've done enough to earn a spot in heaven.
Now, picture God throwing away the tape measure. Today on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindahl uses a simple measuring tape to shatter our performance-based view of salvation. Whether you've got one foot of righteousness or four feet of religious works, the shocking truth is, God's grace doesn't measure your performance in inches and yards. Chuck titled today's message, Unwrapping the Gift of Grace. Through God's eyes, through his lenses, if you will, as he looks at humanity, he evaluates that all.
Or Sinful. None deserve or can ever earn their way into the holy. Absolutely pristine, pure presence of God. Verse 21.
Now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been displayed. Rendered here manifested, the righteousness of God has been displayed, being witnessed by the law and the prophets. Even the righteousness of God. Through faith. Notice three things about this.
It has nothing to do with the law, this righteousness. It says it's apart from the law. Second, it is not new. It was. witnessed It was declared, it was written by the law and the prophets.
They knew of this righteousness, and it is all a part of God's redemptive plan that began all the way back at Adam. It's nothing new. Third, it's not from within ourselves. It is based on our faith in Jesus Christ. As a matter of fact, when we turn to ourselves, verse 23 tells it all.
All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Have you ever worked hard enough to be as righteous as God is? You can't. Ever sacrificed enough to really earn your way into heaven like the sacrifice of Jesus? You can't.
You talk to any religion and ask the crucial question: how much is enough? They can never answer the question. Why? Because works never get you there. You never know when you've done enough.
So we have a transfer of righteousness. Look at how he puts it. It's so clear in verse 24. Being justified as a gift. The Greek has just one word, it's the term for freely.
Being justified Freely. Without one thing that we had in ourselves. then it's by his grace. Look across the page at chapter 4. Verse 4.
This is as clear as it can be. Romans 4, 4.
Now to the one. who works That refers to your employment. That word talks about your job to the one who works. His wage is not credited as a favor. But it's what is due.
Now that's true, isn't it? Look at the next verse. But There's another one of those great butts. But to the one who does not work. but believes in him.
who justifies the ungodly Why his faith is credited as righteousness. That is so good, I want to shout. Let me tell you why. Here I am, lost. Absolutely sinful, depraved.
Nothing in myself to please God. Nothing. And Christ comes in my place. Christ dies to pay the penalty of sin. on my behalf.
And as I believe in Jesus Christ and his death for me, where he paid the complete price. Payment for sins. I am now. In Christ. And I am seen as righteous as God's own Son is righteous.
Is that good or what? I couldn't have a relationship more. connected. or secure. Than that.
Now, back to the verse. Through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, verse 25. Whom That's Referring back to Christ Jesus. whom God publicly displayed As a satisfaction in his blood through faith. What does that mean?
All right, now listen carefully. Listen carefully. When Adam sinned, Exactly as God told him, Adam died. He instantly died spiritually. He began to die physically.
In fact, the Lord said: the soul that sins will surely die. In order for sin to be taken care of, there must be death.
So, when it comes to the sins of the whole world, which we have inherited from Adam. How can we possibly pay that kind of payment? We can't because sinful sacrifices don't work in God's eyes. It takes a sinless sacrifice. That's why the Lamb of God is the sinless.
Lamb of God in the scriptures. And the sinless Lamb of God was sacrificed. And the sacrifice of his death satisfied the demands of the Father on sin. How great is that?
So by blood, death, by Jesus' death on the cross, His blood washes away our sins and satisfies the Father.
So, two things happen in this display of love. First of all, it satisfies the Father's demand on sin. That sin must be paid for with death, so Jesus' death satisfies the Father. And second, it silences the scandal against God. In the Old Testament, God Was seen as one who suspended judgment and his holiness was called into question.
In fact, that's why it reads like it does. This was to demonstrate his righteousness, because in the forbearance of God, he passed over the sins previously committed. And some said in those days, he doesn't care. God must not be holy. And therefore, in the cross, God publicly displayed his judgment on all sin, past, present, and future.
thus clearing his name in the minds of those. Who said he was not holy and was not just.
Now there's a declaration of faith in the middle of all of this, verse 26. The demonstration, I say, of his righteousness at the present time, so that he would be just. In that he took care of the sin issue in his son and the justifier of one who has faith in Jesus. In other words, in order for you and me to benefit from this offer of eternal life, we must act in faith. and accept it.
I can hand you the gift all day, but if you don't take it by faith, it does you no good. It's yours to take. as if I were giving you a gift. And when you take the gift... Grace happens.
You, the unworthy and undeserving one, are now declared righteous. in God's eyes. That's grace. D. Martin Lloyd-Jones has left us 13 volumes on the letter to the Romans.
It is not bedside reading, let me assure you. But on occasion, he puts his finger on a particular truth and just articulates it like you'll read it nowhere else. Listen to what he says on grace. There is no more wonderful word than grace. It means unmerited favor or kindness shown to one who is utterly undeserving.
It is not merely a free gift. but a free gift to those who deserve the exact. Opposite. And it is given to us while we are without hope and without God. in the world.
I love that. Not only is it a free gift, it is a free gift to those who deserve just the opposite. We deserve in ourselves the opposite. and the Lord God in grace gives us. His His righteousness.
Three questions emerge in the text and in the mind of any thinking person. Uh Verse 27, where then is boasting? I illustrated earlier what it would be like if we had heaven full of people that were full of themselves. Walking around with their thumbs under their suspenders, talking about how they had earned their way here or they had gained this favor with God. No, he says boasting is excluded.
You see, when you take this gift of eternal life by faith, you give all the credit and glory to the one who gets the credit, and that's God Himself. You didn't earn your way in. You came in by the grace of God. Years ago, as I was finishing my years in the Marine Corps, I mustered out at Treasure Island, which is an area near the Golden Gate Bridge, just off the coast of San Francisco. I'll never forget our ship sailing under the Golden Gate Bridge, and we, men who had been away about 16, 17 months in Southeast Asia, were now coming to the States to be discharged.
And my mind was filled with the memory of my time on the island. I had spent my months there on a Quonset hut. that each one of the Marine Corps quonset huts had 50 men in them. and it had been my joy to lead about seven of them to Christ. It doesn't sound very impressive, but seven out of fifty Marines is a revival, folks.
It's a revival. And by the grace of God, I had the privilege of building into the lives of some of them. Back then, we called it discipleship. Today we call it mentoring. One of them was an outstanding trumpet player who today is the master trumpeter of the San Francisco Symphony, a marvelous musician who played in the Marine Corps band, as I did over there.
And he said to me, when you get to the States, I want you to look up my folks.
Now I knew that his folks were going to a liberal church because I knew from his background, as he told me of his religious life, I knew that he had never heard the truth of the gospel.
So I said, I'd love to meet them. He said, I want you to tell them what you've been telling me. And I said, well, I'll see if the door opens. He said, you open it. You tell them what you've done.
I said, wait, okay, let me see how it unfolds.
So Sunday comes, and they invite me to their church. and just lovely people. Liberals are all lovely people. And we were just, we had just a great time together, and we're driving to church. They said, We really want to show you something at our church.
And I said, Great, I won't name the denomination. It's immaterial right now. The point is, the gospel had probably never been preached there. And you walk in and there's a lobby full of beautiful paintings. And I mean Uh Magnificent, large paintings, all of them framed, original oils.
And here was a picture of Mahatma Gandhi. And Martin Luther King Jr. And uh Abraham Lincoln. George Washington. Jesus Of Nazareth.
It's nice. He's there too. And three or four other. I mean, the whole...
So it was kind of a concave As you walk into the worship area, but right here, all these pictures. What caught my eye was the The bronze lettering at the bottom of all the pictures. You know what he said? It's red. You are all the children of God.
Dot, dot, dot. Don't forget the dot dot dot, okay? Don't forget the ellipses. Because it's what wasn't there. that revealed What was missing?
It's a half verse out of Galatians.
So, my friends, newfound friends, are standing there saying, We just love to. Look at these pictures and And just think of ourselves as a part of. The children of God. Yeah. And literally, they saw themselves as someday maybe attaining a frame.
Where They'll be there. That churned around in me. You know, evangelicals can ruin great art. quicker than anybody and And so I'm Thinking during the service as I listen to this guy say nothing beautifully. And when he finishes, And when he's when he finishes, I I'm walking out heart sick because it was almost packed, and nobody heard of Jesus Christ's death.
Nobody heard of the plan of salvation. Nobody heard the gospel. And we stopped again at the pictures, and I said, by the way, Mr.
So-and-so, I said, You see this ellipses here? He said. Oh yeah, I said, you know what the rest of the verse says? He says. D D Do you know?
And I said, I do. The rest of the verse says, You are all the children of God. by faith which is in Christ Jesus. Have you ever placed your faith In Christ Jesus. And he said, Would you like to go to lunch?
And that was kind of the end of it. He didn't want to go there. You know why? Cause the cross is offensive. to your pride.
If you're working to get there, And you're one of these numbered. One of these admired great souls and his Nothing wrong with being admired and nothing wrong with the works they've done. It just won't get them to heaven. But if you're working on that And someone has the audacity to say, you know what it takes? It takes humbling yourself like a child.
Admitting you're just as lost as you can be, and you trust Jesus. To be a child of God. It's insulting to my pride. That's good for us. That's where faith comes in.
Nearer I cannot be in the person of his Son, I am as near as he. I need grace. I don't need another building block. Because I can't step long enough, high enough, far enough. to get Good enough.
Will you let that sink in? It's based on grace. Not works. There's no place for boasting. In fact, God is impartial.
Verse 29. Is God the God of the Jews only? Is He not also the God of the Gentiles? Yes, Gentiles also. It doesn't matter what your color is, doesn't matter what your background is, doesn't matter what your gender is, doesn't matter what your age is, doesn't matter what your religion is, doesn't matter, doesn't matter.
What matters is that you see yourself as a lost sinner. And you take the gift. And when you do, he gets the credit.
Well, then, verse 31, does that mean we just tear the Old Testament out of our Bibles and get rid of the lawyer? No, no, no, no, God forbid. It doesn't nullify the law. On the contrary, it establishes the law. What's the law's role?
It tells me I'm a sinner. The law has that long bony finger. bumping up against my sternum. Telling me. You can't keep this law.
You can't keep this standard. You aren't able even to keep the Ten Commandments to say nothing of living a life of purity like. God expects of his son. While the law brings me to the place of absolute awareness that I'm lost. And when it does that.
It has done its job. How great is that?
You see, the main emphasis of salvation is that it is a gift. Not a wage, not a reward, it is a gift. And second, the major subject of salvation is God the Father. God the Son. God the Holy Spirit.
God's plan of salvation. Jesus implemented the plan, and the Spirit of God empowered the plan so that it's complete. No questions asked, no help needed. You just take it by faith. Listen to a story you may have heard, but maybe haven't heard recently.
John Newton was raised in a Christian home. In which he was taught many great verses of the Bible, but his mother died when he was only six. and he was sent to live with a relative. who mocked Christianity. One day, at an early age, Newton left home and joined the British Navy.
As an apprenticed seaman, He was wild in those years and he became exceedingly immoral. He acquired a reputation in the Navy of being able to swear for two hours without repeating himself. Eventually, Newton deserted. The Navy off the coast of Africa. Why Africa?
Well, in his memoirs, he wrote that he went to Africa for one reason only. that he might sin to the full. In Africa, he fell in with a Portuguese slave trader. in whose home he was cruelly treated. The man often went away on slaving expeditions, and when he was gone, the power in the home passed to the trader's African wife.
the chief woman of the harem. the woman who hated all. white men. She took out her hatred on John Newton. He tells us that for months he was forced to grovel in the dirt.
Eating his food from the ground like a dog, and being beaten unmercifully if he touched his food with his hands. For a time he was actually placed in chains. At last, thin and emaciated, Newton escaped through the jungle and reached the sea and there attracted a British merchant ship making its way up the coast. to England. The captain of the ship took Newton on board, thinking he had ivory to sell.
When he learned the young man knew something about navigation, He placed him in charge of the ship and made him a ship's mate. Even then, Newton fell into trouble. One day, When the captain was ashore, Newton broke out the ship's supply of rum and got the entire crew drunk. He was so drunk himself that when the captain returned, he struck him in the head, and Newton fell overboard and would have drowned. If one of the sailors had not grabbed him and hauled him back on the deck in the nick of time.
One account says that the harpoon saved him and he was brought back. Not sure of that, but it could have happened. Near the end of the voyage, as they were approaching Scotland, the ship ran into bad weather and was blown off course. Water poured in and she began to sink. The young profligate was sent down to the hole to pump water.
The storm lasted for days. Newton was terrified. Sure, the ship would sink and he would drown. But there in the hold of the ship, as he pumped water. desperately attempting to save his life.
The God of grace. whom he had tried to forget, but who had never forgotten him, Brought to his mind Bible verses he had learned in his home as a child. Newton was convicted of his sins. And of God's righteousness. The way of salvation opened to him there in the hold of the ship, and he was born again and transformed.
Later, when the storm had passed, he was again in England and he began to study theology. Eventually became a distinguished evangelist. preaching even before the queen. Newton became a poet. as well as a preacher writing some of the best-known hymns.
and his best one Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch. like me. I once was lost, but now I'm found. It was blind. But now I see.
I love that hymn mainly because it calls us a wretch. And that's a compliment. We're worse than wretches. In ourselves, we're no better than the profligate. drunken in the hold of that ship.
We're no better than the worst person you know. But by God's grace. He declares us righteous in his Son. who paid the penalty for our sin in full. leaving us.
with the gift to accept. By faith. I cannot. make it clearer than that. It's yours to believe.
Bow your head with me, please. Let's close our eyes. If there's never been a time in your life when you trusted the Lord Jesus Christ as your own Savior, my friend. There's no time to waste. Do so now.
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved. There is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. He paid the ransom. for you. And he waits for you to take the gift.
Bye Faith. Do that now. Do it right now. Right this moment. Father, thank you for the gift of eternal life.
Thank you for Jesus. Thank you for his life, his death. His resurrection. And today, his prayer for us. from one day to the next.
Thank you, Father, for your love for us. How great it is. And you proved it in that while we were still sinning. Your son died for us. We accept that.
We believe in him. and we trust him for eternal life. In the name of Jesus. We pray with great praise. And everyone said, Amen.
It's so exciting to realize that at this very moment, So many people are making a choice to follow Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord. You're listening to Insight for Living. Our Bible teacher Chuck Swindahl titled today's study in Romans chapter 3. Unwrapping the gift of grace. You know, the Apostle Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, wrote nearly half the books in the New Testament.
but many believe that Romans was his finest contribution because it describes God's character and the gospel of Jesus Christ with depth and clarity. This is an essential book for believers to understand. Both seasoned Christ followers and new Christians. To help you in this process, Insight for Living offers an interactive spiral-bound Bible study. It's in our popular Searching the Scriptures format.
And because of the scope of Paul's letter, our Bible study comes in two workbooks. You'll find all the details for purchasing Volume 1 at insight.org/slash offer. or call us at eight hundred seven seven two eighty eight eighty eight. I also want to draw your attention to a brand new hardback book from Chuck. It's called looking in all the right directions.
Drawing from Paul's wise counsel to his protégé Timothy, This book features the final five sermons Chuck delivered to the congregation that he shepherded for more than 25 years. From his heart, Chuck spoke about mentoring, enduring hardship, and using your God-given gifts. you will love the biblical wisdom that's captured in this book. and it would make a thoughtful gift for your pastor. It's called looking in all the right directions.
And you can purchase a copy by calling us at 800-772-8888 or go to insight.org/slash offer. Insight for Living is made possible not through the sale of books and Bible study resources, but by the generous gifts from grateful friends just like you. And during the back-to-school months, when support sometimes declines, it's especially helpful to receive your gift. To send a donation in the mail, write to us at InsightForLiving. Post Office Box 5000.
Frisco, Texas, 75034. I'm Bill Meyer, inviting you to listen when Chuck Swindahl presents a message titled: Righteousness is a Five-Letter Word. Friday on Insight for Living. The preceding message, Unwrapping the Gift of Grace, was copyrighted in 2006, 2010, and 2025, and the sound recording was copyrighted in 2025 by Charles R. Swindall, Incorporated.
All rights are reserved worldwide. duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited.
