The Great Divide

In fact, man will spend his lifetime trying to come to terms with that message that whispers to his soul. How do I deal with guilt that I know is there? What do I do about my sin that I feel and sense? And what of this sense of coming judgment?

Why do I go through life feeling a sense of emptiness even though I fill my life with more and more things? How can I be right with God? All of the false religions of the world feed into our inclination to think that we need to impress God through our own efforts in order for Him to like us. Here's the question you need to ponder. What do you contribute to your salvation? What part do you play and what part does God play? You're going to learn God's answer to that question today.

You're listening to Wisdom for the Heart with Stephen Davey and Stephen's continuing through his series entitled Sola Fide with this lesson he's calling The Great Divide. Open your Bible to Romans 3 as you settle in for this important message. I want to draw your attention today to one of the most well-known biblical verses in all of Christianity, Romans 3.23, which says, For all have sinned, finish it with me and fall short of the glory of God. Not only is this verse well-known within the church of our Lord, the apostle Paul has clearly provided the inspired declaration, the inspired evidence that the truth of this verse is buried within the heart of all of mankind. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God is intuitively known by all of humanity.

In fact man will spend his lifetime trying to come to terms with that message that whispers to his soul. How do I deal with guilt that I know is there? What do I do about my sin that I feel and sense? What of this sense of coming judgment?

Why do I go through life feeling a sense of emptiness even though I fill my life with more and more things? What can I do to bring peace to my mind when I think of the afterlife? How do I make sure that I end up in an eternally good place rather than an eternally bad place?

How can I be right with God? Religions throughout all time and all around the world are nothing more than man's organized efforts to answer those questions and to deal with those issues. The Greeks even before the time of Paul had developed the mystery religions which involved initiation into spiritual oneness with a God they believed suffered and rose again.

Sound familiar? A person who desired to be related to this God had to go through a period of initiation rights known as identification rights with this God. When the identification rights were completed the initiate was in the language of the mystery is a quote twice born one. We would call it born again. In one particular mystery religion the initiate after his identification rights were completed was actually given a goblet of milk to drink signifying in their minds that he or she was a newborn babe.

Where did they get that from? In one graphic mystery ceremony a person came in direct contact with bloodshed, a ceremony called terebolium. In this mystery identification right the initiate was lowered into a deep pit and across the mouth of the pit beams were laid in a lattice type arrangement. Then on top of the beams a bull was laid who'd had its throat cut and the blood would gush down through the beams to that initiate in the pit who would be literally bathed with the blood of that dying animal. This was what they considered salvation.

When the ceremony was over and the initiate was brought up out of the pit covered in blood he was referred to as quote one reborn for all eternity. The world is looking for some sort of answer and in its pursuit of answer it comes close doesn't it? You can see kernels of truth therein but it is exercising great faith stopping short of the truth.

The truth of Jesus Christ and it is futile. Their religious attempts as futile as the mouse I read about a little while ago a man had purchased a little white mouse to use as food for his pet snake. He dropped the mouse into the glass cage where the snake was sleeping on a bed of sawdust. The tiny mouse had a serious problem and so he needed to do something in a moment that sleeping serpent could awaken and swallow him for dinner.

So what did he do? He instinctively began to dig with his paws flinging sawdust back to the corner until he had completely covered the snake with sawdust chips. With that the mouse apparently thought he had found the safety.

The only safety for that little mouse was the owner took pity on him and took him out of that glass cage before that serpent awakened. Ladies and gentlemen religion is like piling wood chips upon sleeping judgment. I have seen people attempting to cover their guilt by going through baptismal water. I have talked to those who have offered penance and some sort of self sacrifice and self denial. I have seen pictures of people piercing their body and even in other countries every year having themselves nailed to wooden crosses believing that that would bestow upon them some sort of grace. I've seen people washing in polluted water believing that the water of that river was sacred and it could wash away their sin. I have heard them humming the tantras.

I have heard of them praying to the spirits and looking to the stars. Those activities are no more effective in washing away sin as the man or woman who stood in the pit and let the blood of a bull wash over them. They are no more effective in covering over our sin and guilt and judgment than that little mouse covering the snake with chips of sawdust. Paul has delivered the final and full verdict of mankind and he has said in verse 22 that we looked at briefly that salvation or hope comes through faith in Jesus Christ. Justification that is the legal declaration of righteous standing before a holy God has nothing to do with whatever we can do. It has everything to do with what Jesus Christ has already done whatever you might have done whether it is the water of baptism or the membership of some church or some moral deed or some philanthropy or whatever you put it all in a category and those are all wonderful things but they are things that you do. Justification has nothing to do with what you do or what Christ has done. The truth is ladies and gentlemen until you understand the gravity of Romans 3 23 you might think that there is something you can do. You do not understand the absolute necessity of sola fidei faith in Christ alone. So let's look at this verse shall we?

Let's take it slowly enough and then quickly enough to finish this morning the study of this verse. Paul begins this classic text with a universal verdict first of all. A universal verdict you ought to circle that first word or that first phrase for all. There's the word all that is comprehensive. This is all inclusive. This word is all embracing it is all encompassing all leaves nobody out.

It doesn't leave anybody behind. No one can say well Paul here is only talking to the Romans. Paul is only talking to the Italians of the first century not the Americans of the 21st century. No he says all. This is a reference to all of humanity of all time up to this very moment today and it will include all who live beyond the day. All means everyone.

And what is it in which we are all included? He moves from that universal all encompassing verdict to this irrevocable condition. He says for all have sinned.

Now the key word for now in our study is the word have. It is the word that we would often skip and going to what we would think would be the most important word but this is a critical verb. The verb in the original text in its tense refers to something that actually happened a long time ago and there are residual effects on all of mankind for all of time. You need to understand that Paul is referring here not so much to our sinful actions as he is to our sinful nature. When he says all have sin. This is a reference by the way to the sin of Adam. Adam the representative of the human race had corrupted the fountain head of the water of the human race by his sin and now the water is polluted and no matter how far you get away from Adam's original sin you still drink from polluted water. He will explain that by the way in chapter five why don't you turn over there and look at verse 12.

It may be a while before we get there again. He explains this he says Therefore just as through one man he's talking about Adam through one man sin entered into the world and death through sin and so death spread to all men because all sin. So Paul is thinking of the entire human race as having sinned in their representative what theologians call federal headship others refer to as seminal headship I think there's truth in both.

We in Adam sinned and that's good news because then we in Christ are righteous but all of humanity in their representative that is Adam sinned and we have proof do we not that we are partakers of Adam's nature because we all by nature do what we all by nature sin. I mentioned a few weeks ago those little birds that we thought were in a nest in the rafters of our home or perhaps just outside our bathroom window in the eaves or the gutters. My wife was outside a few days ago working in the yard and she was around that side of the house and she saw high up on the house that flap on the vent open and a bird fly out. She watched for a while and sure enough that same bird came back again with something in her mouth and opened up that vent as it fluttered and went inside. That vent went from the outside wall and it ended in our bathroom ceiling which made a lot of sense now to the noises that we had heard because we could hear a slam and then chirping and then a slam and all quiet. Well the slam was that vent door opening up and the chirping would signal the fact that little birds knew that mommy was there and they would all chirp. You could hear them.

I heard them this morning. I got dressed to the sounds of birds. It was irritating actually but at any rate in a few days little mother bird is going to push those little birds out that vent and they're going to instinctively flap their wings and fly. There's no driver's ed for little birds.

No 12 months with a permit before you can fly on your own. They're just going to instinctively begin to flap their wings and they're going to fly away. Praise God and we're going to seal that vent shut or do something significant so it won't happen again. Well just as a bird flies by virtue of its nature so we sin by virtue of our nature. Just as a bird by its instinct soars in the air so we by our instinct grovel in sin. Just as a bird learns without ever having learned so we sin without ever having had one lesson.

We do it by nature. Would you notice as well back in Chapter 3 verse 23 that Paul is not referring to the amount of our sins. He isn't saying here for all have sinned a lot and there's a reason for that. If he had said for all have sinned a lot somebody in this auditorium could say well that's certainly not me because I don't sin a lot. I sin a little. In fact I know others who really do sin a lot and they may even be sitting near me but this sermon is for them but that's not me.

This sermon is for somebody else. No Paul isn't referring to the amount of our sins he is referring to the nature of our sinfulness. So you can read verse 23 this way for all have the nature of a sinner for all by nature instinctively sin.

And therein lies the offense. Paul moves from the universal verdict through this irrevocable condition to the irrefutable offense for all have what sinned. You can deny it. It doesn't matter all have sinned.

You can excuse it away. It doesn't matter. All have sinned.

You can say that it really isn't that bad. It doesn't matter. God says all have sinned. You can even claim as I read that there isn't even such thing as a sin like the Russian dictionary that was published after the communists came to power in Russia after the entry of the word sin I have read was the definition quote archaic word denoting the transgression of a mythical divine law.

Doesn't even matter if you try to define it away. All have sinned. Because of this irrefutable offense Paul reveals the truth now of an impassable chasm for all have sinned and fall short. Hysterontai to come short of to be utterly lacking in. Hysteronta was used by Greek farmers in the first century for a farmer who missed the season. That is he failed to get the seed into the ground in time to get a crop for all have sinned and have missed the season. We'll never have the fruit of the crop of God's glory. Hysterontai was used in ancient Egypt to refer to those uneducated who couldn't read for all have sinned and are illiterate of the glory of God. Hysterontai was used in the financial world of the Apostle Paul to refer to somebody who is bankrupt. You could translate it for all have sinned and are bankrupt of the glory of God. We say it this way for all have sinned and fall short come short of.

Find this impassable chasm to the glory of God. A man in Detroit Michigan I read about recently did everything he could to meet the standard height for law enforcement officers which was at that particular point in time five feet seven inches. He was five feet five inches. His father was a policeman. He wanted to be a policeman all his life. He'd mastered martial art. He had studied. He'd done everything he could. He wanted to be a policeman but he didn't meet the requirement. So he worked at stretching. He tried pulleys. He even went through the excruciating pain of a sort of a handmade rack and he grew.

He stretched nearly two inches but after he had exhausted all of his efforts he was still five eighths of an inch too short. All of his efforts attracted the attention of the press and the public and enough pressure was put upon the police commissioner that he did what our world will do right. Change the requirement so he could get in. I want you to know that God does not change the rules even when he gets bad press. He doesn't change the standard which is holiness. Not one sin in one life could ever allow that life to abide forever in the presence of a holy God and that standard will never change for he has said he will not allow the guilty to go unpunished and how many in this audience are guilty. Let me see your hands.

It looks unanimous to me. He goes on in this fifth declaration that's found embedded in this one verse that heaven is an unreachable goal. He says for all have sinned and fall short of the what? The glory of God.

Now what exactly was Paul intending to communicate? What does it mean when he says the glory of God? Well the original Greek word for glory translated here is the word doxa from which we get our transliterated word doxology. Now the word many, many centuries ago originally meant to appear or to seem to be and it eventually came to refer to having an opinion about someone. Over time the word came to refer only to that which was a positive opinion about someone. From there developed further to mean praise and honor toward someone of high reputation and by the time of scripture you find the word used specifically in relation to God alone who was the one worthy of all doxa, the one worthy of the highest opinion of man, the one worthy of all honor and glory.

But that's not all. The Greek word doxa transliterates consistently in the Greek Old Testament the word shekinah and that sheds even a greater volume of truth upon this word for shekinah was that word which referred to the glory, the brightness, the brilliance, the splendor of God's presence. When the tabernacle of God was completed in Acts chapter 40 you remember reading perhaps the story of how the shekinah glory came down and settled over it. Later in Israel's history the Ark of the Covenant symbolized the place of God's shekinah, the place of God's glory. God again revealed his shekinah brilliance when Solomon's temple was dedicated in 1 Kings chapter 8. In Matthew chapter 2 I believe that that star is actually a reference to the shekinah which specifically led the magi to the house where the young boy Jesus was.

In John in his gospel he is describing the birth of the word that became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his doxa. We beheld the shekinah glory of the Father full of grace and truth. In Acts chapter 9 we're told that when the Apostle Paul was riding on that Damascus road to persecute believers in Christ that he saw the glory of God, the brightness which we would only believe would indicate the shekinah glory of God and he said referring to the brightness, Lord what do you want me to do? When Stephen was being stoned to death in Acts chapter 7 after preaching his one and only sermon this deacon the text tells us looked into the heavens and he saw the shekinah, the glory of God and Jesus Christ standing.

So to fall short ladies and gentlemen of the glory of God means that mankind can never have a high opinion of God but it also means that mankind will never live in the presence of the shekinah glory of God. There is in any way anybody will ever reach the glorious brilliant place where Jesus Christ the embodiment of the triune God the visible reflection of God resides. In other words nobody's going to heaven.

Nobody. We are condemned already. Yes there is a comprehensive verdict. There is an irrevocable condition. There is an irrefutable offense. There is an impassable chasm and there is an unreachable goal. But I have one more point. There is an eternal bridge.

The bridge that crosses the great divide. An altar of sacrifice upon which our Lord Jesus died to pay the eternal penalty for all of your sin and more than that you see but to pay the penalty for your sin nature. You see if it was dependent upon you to ask the Lord to forgive you for every specific sin you'd have to spend your entire life confessing sin. Redemption doesn't just mean those specific sins that you embrace you repent of as you turn to Jesus Christ as Savior but it has to do with your nature. We'll learn later in this paragraph how the nature of man is replaced as it were given over to the nature of Christ's righteousness. Our sinfulness is exceeded by Christ's righteousness. Look at verse 24 in this chapter being justified declared righteous as a what? As a gift by his grace. Paul says that God comes to bankrupt humanity that can do nothing for itself and offers this gift by his grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus. Back in verse 22 even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe.

Several years ago I read recently there was a dance instructor who'd been out late on Saturday night. He kind of staggered back to his hotel room in the wee hours of the morning and fell into bed and fast asleep. The next morning he was suddenly jolted awake by the sound of that hotel clock radio alarm clock that had been preset and he was suddenly awakened by the sound of a man preaching. The man who was preaching at the moment the radio came on was asking this question. If in the next few moments you should die and find yourself before God and he should ask you what right do you have to come into my heaven what would you say?

How's that for a truly wake up call? But he was confounded. He was a religious man, went to church, paid his dues but he didn't have an answer. And he then sat on the edge of his bed while this preacher the late Donald Gray Barnhouse went on to explain how he could claim heaven. The only right, the only answer was Jesus Christ alone, sola fide, faith in Christ alone. And that dance instructor got down on his knees and he gave his life to Christ.

That my friends is the transaction of salvation. What would your answer be? By the way that man who was saved went on and actually entered the ministry.

His name was James Kennedy. He pastors today the Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church and he has created this evangelism ministry called evangelism explosion that we even teach here at our church and it's based on those questions that he first heard from Donald Gray Barnhouse. What would your answer be? If you were to die this afternoon and stand before God and God should say to you why should I let you into heaven?

What would you say? For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. The beginning of the gospel is that news.

For all, that means you and you and you and you and you and you and you and you and you and you and you and you and you and me. All have sinned. All fall short of the glory of God. Nobody gets in unless they receive from the Lord that ticket that gives them entrance as it were to the bridge fashioned in the shape of a cross and they walk across that. That is the answer for Jesus Christ himself said I am the way.

No one, not anybody, comes to the Father unless they come by way of me. Millions of people, including people you know, are seeking God's approval through their own efforts, thinking that if they succeed, they can tip the scales of their relationship with God in their favor. Today's lesson was a powerful reminder of the truth from God's word. Nobody earns salvation.

God gives it. And it's not because of how great we are, but because of how great Jesus is. I want to encourage you today to share this lesson with the people who need to hear it. We've posted the link to our Facebook page and to our Twitter feed.

Those are both ways that you can share our daily Bible lesson with your friends. You'll also find it directly if you go to our website, which is wisdomonline.org. Stephen's current series is called Sola Fide, and the message you heard today is entitled The Great Divide. We'll be taking you through the rest of this series over the next four days, and I hope you'll be with us for all of it. If you don't know about our monthly magazine and devotional guide, we'd like to send you a few issues. It's not available as a subscription, but we send it as a gift to our wisdom partners. We'd be delighted to send you the next three issues just for asking. Call 866-48-BIBLE for information and join us tomorrow for more wisdom for the hearts. We'll see you next time.