ROMANS 3:21-26 THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD REVEALED2015 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Romans 3:21-26 The Righteousness Of God Revealed

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2015.

Well, this evening we're here in Romans chapter 3. Now, last week we covered the whole chapter and, you know, looked at kind of an overview of what Paul was saying as he was concluding one argument about our wickedness and our need of a Savior, and then introducing the next point that he's going to make, and that is really the beginning of the gospel as he talks about how God brings his righteousness to us.

And so today we're going to review some of that and just really focus on a few things here in Romans chapter 3 verses 21 through 26. And so let's start by reading that portion. Romans chapter 3 verse 21 says, But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ.

Verse 1.

Here in Romans chapter 3...

We have an incredible passage which gives us great insights into the gospel message. And there's great truths that are found here that really we need to grasp hold of and never let go. And what I'd like to do this evening is focus on four key words in this passage to talk about the righteousness of God being revealed.

And with these four key words in this passage, of course, there's four points that go along with that. And so the first point, as we look at verses 21 through 23, is that you have full access to God. Paul is making the point, he's establishing the truth that you and I, as believers in Jesus, have complete access to God, full access, unhindered access to God, and

because of this righteousness that he has brought. And so the word to focus on in these few verses here is the word righteousness. In verse 21, again, it says, but now the righteousness of God, apart from the law, is revealed, being witnessed by the law and the prophets.

And so Paul says, but now, he's now transitioning. He's concluded the previous argument that the wrath of God is being revealed, that we are deserving of judgment. And now he says, now that we recognize we're all guilty, we all deserve judgment. Now he says, here's the solution.

The righteousness of God apart from the law. Now as he talks about the righteousness of God, he's not talking about an attribute of God as like, you know, God is righteous. He's talking about righteousness from God for us. That is righteousness that is given to us by God. He's talking about the means by which we may be considered righteous by God.

There is a means for God to consider you righteous that's apart from the law. And this is really good news because, well, you could never be considered righteous by the law because, of course, you and I, we do not keep the law perfectly. And so if the only way to be considered righteous was according to the law, we have no hope then of being righteous.

But now, Paul says, there's a new revelation. It's righteousness apart from the law. This word righteousness, it could be defined, of course, in a variety of ways. One dictionary defines it as conformity with the claims of higher authority.

conforming to the claims or the standard of a higher authority. And so I'm going to define righteousness this way. I'll get back to that. Righteousness this way. It's measuring up to God's standard. Measuring up to God's standard. That's what righteousness is really all about.

And here Paul says the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed. That is, there's a way to measure up to God's standard apart from the law. Now, what is God's standard? Well, of course, God's standard is absolute perfection. That's the standard. The standard is Jesus. Sinless, perfect, absolutely clean, no failures whatsoever.

And if that's God's standard, then how can you measure up? And that's what Paul's pointing out in verse 23. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. We can't measure up because we've all fallen short. So the righteousness by keeping the law perfectly isn't going to work because we fall short. Can you keep the law perfectly? Of course you cannot. Even if you could, let's say hypothetically today you make the most awesome New Year's resolution ever.

and you start keeping the law perfectly from here on out, well, that wouldn't account for your past. So even if you could keep it perfectly from here on out, you still wouldn't be righteous because you haven't always been righteous. And so the righteousness, according to the law, measuring up to God's standard, it's not attainable. And that's why it's such good news that there's another way to measure up to God's standard.

There's another way to receive or achieve the righteousness of God. And that is righteousness through faith. Righteousness through faith. Notice verse 22. He says, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus, or through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. And so he says, this righteousness comes through faith.

And it's to all and it's on all who believe. And so faith and believing are key, are essential for this righteousness. This righteousness is not through works. You can measure up to God's standard, but not by works, not by ritual, not by religion. When you believe God, when you believe in Jesus Christ...

God counts it to you as righteousness. And so you believe and God says, now you measure up to my standard. Now Paul is going to develop this thought further in Romans chapter 4. And so we'll see that in the coming weeks as well as he gives the example of Abraham as well as David. It's God's accounting us righteous by our faith in Jesus Christ.

That's what you need to measure up to God's standard. Remember, there is a group of people who came up to Jesus and said, what must we do to do the works of the kingdom of God? And Jesus says, here's the work of the kingdom of God. Believe in the one that he has sent. Now, this is so important because it's so easy for us to get caught back up into trying to present ourselves approved to God by our works, right?

Trying to, we fall into religion, we fall into these rituals, we fall into these things, and we begin to trust in them to measure up to God's standard. But you need to know that righteousness is not attained that way. It never will be. It's only attained by faith in Jesus Christ. Now this righteousness from God solves a problem. It solves our problem,

of separation from God. And that's why I made the point, you have full access to God. Because God measures you up to perfection, you measure up to the standard by believing in Jesus, it resolves this issue of us being separated from God because of sin. The separation, of course, that began in the Garden of Eden and continues today because of our sinful nature. But there's a reconciliation between

because of God's righteousness being accredited to us. Another dictionary defined righteousness as union with God in character. It brings unity to us in God, because he accounts us as righteous. And so it solves our problem of separation from God.

And this is not a righteousness that is given to a select few, you know, the elite of the disciples or anything like that. Notice he says again in verse 22, he says, So every believer measures up to God's standard of righteousness. Righteousness.

measures up to God's standard of perfection because they believe in Jesus. Every believer, none has an advantage over the other. And notice what he says in verse 23, for all have sinned. So this righteousness is given to all and it's on all. He says there's no difference because all have sinned. There's no one that has an advantage that others don't have.

Sometimes this is hard to get through our heads. It's easy to fall into these ideas like, you know, this person must have more access to God than me or perhaps others. But he says there is no difference. All have sinned, whether they were Jew or Gentile, whether a person is moral or a criminal, whether a person is religious or not religious or raised in church or not raised in church.

Nobody has an advantage that others don't have. You perhaps could look at my life and say, well, Jerry, you haven't done drugs or, you know, got into drinking or partying or that kind of thing. So you must have an advantage. You must have better access to God because, you know, I didn't have that. But that's not the reality. Now, I could look at you and say, man, I didn't have a radical testimony of God delivering me from drugs and alcohol. So you probably have better access to God because God did an amazing radical work in your life. It doesn't...

It doesn't work that way. We all measure up because we all fall short. So we all start from the same position. And then by believing in Jesus, he accounts righteousness to our account. And we measure up then to perfection because God credits righteousness to our account. And so we all come to God the same way.

We all come by faith, no matter what our background is, no matter what our history is, no matter what our gifts are or specialties are. We all come to God the same way, and we all have the same access to God. We all have full access to God. And yet there's this tendency to try to approach God on the basis of what we do, on the basis of our works, on the basis of our goodness.

And that's where this picture comes in. You have full access to God. Now, if you try to use the law to approach God, then I would suggest to you, that's like trying to escape through the exit sign. I tried and I took a picture of it. I couldn't fit. I couldn't get through the exit sign. But obviously that's ridiculous, right? We know that's not what the exit sign is for. You don't jump through the exit sign. What does the exit sign do?

It tells you where the exit is. It tells you how to escape. It's not the means of escape. Now, with that in mind, look back at Romans chapter 3, verse 20. It says, The Jews of Paul's day were trying to use the law to present themselves righteous before God.

And Paul says, you're using it wrong. That's trying to jump through the exit sign. The purpose of the law, by the law, is the knowledge of sin. The law is the sign that says, you can't keep the law. You will fail every time in trying to keep the law. You cannot be righteous by means of the law. The law is meant to reveal the problem of sin.

And then, so he says in verse 21, but now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the law and the prophets. So just as the exit sign is not the means of escape, but it tells you where you can escape, in the same way the law is not the means of righteousness, but it tells you where you can find righteousness. The law and the prophets are

Tell us of the righteousness of God that will be revealed in the Messiah, in the Savior, which of course we know now to be Jesus Christ. In Isaiah chapter 53, Isaiah prophesies about the Messiah that would come and how he would bear our iniquities. And by his stripes, we are healed. It's a righteousness that comes not from keeping the law, but it's revealed in the law and in the prophets.

And so trying to use the word of God like a rule book in order to present ourselves as righteous before God is the wrong way to use it. They were so caught up in trying to keep all the minute details of the law, they missed the point of the law. By the law is the knowledge of sin. It's a sign that tells you there's a problem.

It's a sign that tells you you fall short and you need a savior so that then you look to Jesus Christ and there the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed so that you measure up to God's perfect standard and you have full access to God. God considers you perfectly righteous. And because of that, I would encourage you take advantage of this access that you have to God.

Draw near to God. Enter in to his presence. Walk with him. Don't stand afar off, but draw near. You have full access to God because you have this righteousness that's apart from the law. Well, going on into verse 24, we have the second point, and that is that you have been declared not guilty.

Here we're looking at the word justified. Verse 24 says, The word justified is a term or it's a word that comes from the legal system, the court system.

The word justified, I'm going to define it this way. It means to be declared not guilty as well as to be declared righteous. When you are justified, God declares you are not guilty. Now, Paul has spent chapters 1, 2, and the first half of 3 building the case to let us know you are guilty. You are guilty.

Every one of us is. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. And so you and I are guilty, but being justified means that God declares you not guilty. You are guilty, but God says not guilty. Now, normally that would not be just. That would be unjust. If a criminal is found not guilty, they're happy, right?

They commit a crime. They go to trial. The verdict comes in. They're declared not guilty. The criminal's happy because they got away with the crime. That's not justice, right? We would agree. We would recognize. You commit the crime, but then you're pronounced not guilty. That's not justice. Now, here we are guilty, and God says, not guilty. But God is still just. And Paul's going to explain that in the next few verses. So we'll get there. But in the meantime...

Paul's point is, you have been declared not guilty. Even though you are guilty, God has declared you not guilty by believing in Jesus. Not only has he declared you not guilty, but he declares you righteous. That's what we've just been talking about. Now, you are not righteous. You are not perfect. But God declares you to be righteous. Even though you aren't righteous, he says, you're righteous. You're righteous.

because by believing in Jesus, he credits righteousness to your account. The commentator William MacDonald says, he not only acquits you from guilt, but clothes you in his own righteousness, and thus makes you absolutely fit for heaven. That's what he does. He acquits you. He declares you not guilty. He clothes you in his righteousness and says, you're perfectly fit for heaven.

So you're guilty, but he says you're not guilty. You're not righteous, but he says you're righteous. What do you have to do to get God to make these declarations? What do you have to give him? Is there some kind of bribe? Is there some kind of, you know, really good deed that you have to do? Some huge sacrifice to convince God to declare you not guilty when you're guilty? That's how it would work in our court systems, right? What is it that you have to do? Notice what he says here in verse 24.

He says, being justified freely. It's not going to cost you anything to be justified. For God to declare you not guilty and declare you righteous. Now, it did cost something, but God paid that price himself. And so the cost for you, it's free. You're justified freely by his grace. I'm sure you've seen the acronym for grace, right? God's riches free.

at Christ's expense, where God gives to you goodness that you don't deserve and could never earn, where God gives to you blessing and forgiveness that you're unworthy of. We all are unworthy of it. And so this justification, God declaring us not guilty, God declaring us righteous, it comes without cost to us. God paid the price for

so that he offers it to us by his goodness, and he doesn't require us to earn it or deserve it. It's by his grace. It's by his grace. Now again, these are basic elements to the gospel message, but they're so important for us, and the reason why we're taking our time working our way through these this evening is because as believers, it's so easy to slip back and

into old mindsets. And we begin to try to approach God based on what we do and trying to earn justification, trying to make up for our failures, trying to make up for our sinfulness, trying to, well, I know I'm guilty, so let me try to pay God back for that guilt. And God justifies us freely. And it's not freemium.

You guys know what freemium is? Here's the idea. You download an app from the App Store. It's free. Or you sign up for some kind of service, and it's free. But if you pay to add on a feature, you pay to add on more additional services to that, then, well, that's not free. It's freemium. So you get the basic service free, and then you pay for premium service.

And so they combine those two, free and premium, and now it's freemium. And so you can't pass that level on Angry Birds. And so you pay for the additional help. You can't pass that level or you need to build up your village in Clash of Clans. And so you buy those gems or whatever it is, the elixir or whatever. You get the point, right? Sometimes we approach salvation as if it's freemium. You first say the sinner's prayer, that's free.

But then after that, you got to start paying for services. You got to start adding on. You got to start paying for your failures. You got to start trying to make up for how you fall short. We fall into this idea of trying to pay God back or trying to approach God on the basis of how good we do. But we are justified freely by his grace. It means God declares you not guilty and God declares that you are righteous. You don't have to

Be perfect. You don't have to pretend like you're perfect. You don't have to try to earn justification. God gives it to you freely by his grace. John Corson puts it this way. If you're trying to relate to the Father on the basis of your own goodness or devotion, your consistency or your Bible study, your do's and don'ts, you will never be justified. If you try to relate to God on

on the basis of how well you're doing in the things that you think you're supposed to do, or even the things that God has told you you're supposed to do, if you're relating to God on the basis of how well you're doing in that, you won't be justified. Whatever system we come up with, we're not going to measure up. We're not going to keep it perfectly. It's not the means of righteousness. It's not the means of relationship with God. We're still guilty of

no matter what we do, of breaking God's law. And so justification solves our problem of being guilty. We have broken God's law. We will continue to break God's law. We're guilty. There's no escaping that. Except by God's grace, he declares us not guilty. He declares us righteous. And so as a believer in Jesus Christ, God holds nothing against you.

Let that sink in. God holds nothing against you. Not guilty. And we can reason in ourselves and we can fight against us and say, oh, but you don't know the things I've done. You don't know how bad I've been. You don't know. I did terrible things and other people suffered and it brought all kinds of tragedy. Not guilty. You believe in Jesus Christ.

And he declares you not guilty. God will consider you perfectly righteous. He clothes you in his righteousness. So no matter how much you fall short, he counts you as righteous. He relates to you as if you're perfect and flawless and righteous. Again, that's why going back to the first point, you have full access to God because he's declared that you are not guilty. So draw near to God.

Enter in, walk with him, serve him, serve others, represent him, because God has declared you not guilty. Well, also here in verse 24, we find the third point, and that is that your freedom has been purchased. This is looking at the word redemption here in verse 24. Again, verse 24 says, "...being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus."

This word redemption, Paul uses, is an important word because it speaks to us about how these amazing things have been accomplished. How is it that you can have full access to God? How is it that you have been declared not guilty? What means did God use? Well, he used redemption that is in Christ Jesus. I'll define redemption as freedom purchased by payment of ransom.

It's freedom that was purchased by payment of ransom. Now, here it says in verse 24, you're justified freely. To you, there is no cost given to you by God's grace. But it did cost something. There was a purchase that was made. There was a payment that was made.

David Guzik says this about redemption. He says, So you get the scene. There's a war. There's a battle between two armies. You are taken captive by the enemy. And the enemy holds you captive and says, okay, you want this guy back? Here's what it'll cost you. Here's the payment that you must make.

And maybe it's negotiating a release of other prisoners on the other side. And now there's this trade. But there's this ransom. There's this cost that is paid. That's the original use of the word. It also began to be used in regards to purchasing slaves out of their slavery. Right?

Because they were in a similar position. They were bound. They were caught up in that slavery, unable to free themselves because they would never earn enough to purchase their freedom. But someone could come in and purchase them to buy them out of the debt that they owed to that master. And this is the picture that this word redemption gives for you and I, that you and I have been redeemed in this way, that we were prisoners of war.

that we were slaves to a cruel master, and God has purchased us. He's paid the ransom to set us free. And how did he pay this? He says the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. You might remember what Peter said in 1 Peter 1, verse 18 and 19. He says, "...knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things like silver or gold."

but with the precious blood of Christ as a lamb without blemish and without spot. The redemption that we have in Christ Jesus was not with silver or gold, not with anything corruptible, but it was with his own blood that Jesus paid the price and purchased our freedom. He purchased our freedom. Now, just as a slave...

In those days, many times it was slavery as a result of indebtedness. You owed the master and so you became the servant. You became the slave to pay back that debt. I think it's interesting to think about it in those terms because in the model prayer, Jesus said, forgive us our debts as we forgive those who trespass against us. The idea of sin is related to the idea of a debt. It's a debt that we owe.

We were in bondage to this master. We were in bondage to our sin. And the sacrifice of Jesus upon the cross, his blood being shed because he is God, it has infinite value. And so it paid off our debt completely. It's valuable enough to pay off all debts. And so redemption solves our problem of bondage, slavery to sin, to death, and to the devil.

You've been redeemed as a believer in Jesus. You've been purchased. Your freedom has been paid for. Prior to this, we were in bondage to sin. And you and I all know sin is a cruel master. Because sin, well, first of all, it's very enticing. It looks good from the outside. So you get involved. But as you get involved, it holds you in its grip. And things get worse.

And worse and worse. And even when you realize it and you're like, well, this isn't so fun anymore. This isn't so good. Then you find you can't even get out of that sin. You're stuck. You're in bondage to it. In Romans chapter 6, Paul's going to be talking about us being enslaved to sin. We're slaves of sin prior to Christ. And as slaves, we're unable to deliver ourselves. Sin destroys our life, but we're bound in it.

And we keep on doing the things that destroy us. And often we know that they destroy us and we don't want to do them anymore, but we keep on doing them. We're bound in it. We're caught up in it. We're unable to deliver ourselves. And so we keep bringing this destruction because of sin. We keep bringing death because of sin. And not only that, but we were under the sway of the devil. 1 John 5, verse 19 talks about that. The whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one.

The devil has great power to deceive us outside of Christ. And we're in bondage to that. We're enslaved to that by deception. But you've been redeemed. Your freedom has been purchased. The ransom has been paid. It's the redemption that is found in Christ Jesus, where he sets you free from the law of sin and death, where he sets you free from the deception of the enemy. Your freedom has been purchased.

And so I would encourage you, like Paul encouraged the Galatians in Galatians 5, verse 1. He says, Why do you think Paul gives this warning to not be entangled again? Don't be enslaved again.

And again, this is why I keep saying these things are so essential for us and we need them to be established in our hearts that we don't go back to slavery. And there's a tendency for us to go back to legalism, to go back to works, to go back to trying to approach God on the basis of what we do, on the basis of what we've accomplished. Or of course, we keep ourselves away from God because of what we have done.

It's a works-based relationship. And he says, don't do that. Don't go back entangled to the yoke of bondage. Don't go back into the sin that once bound you because it will bind you again. It's a cruel master. Don't go back. You've been set free.

Don't be enslaved again. Don't sit there as a slave when you've been set free. I mean, picture this, okay? Picture yourself as a slave. You're sitting there in chains. Maybe you're not even sitting there. You know, you're on the, what's it called? The chain gang, whatever. You know, the whole line of slaves, right? You're all chained together in slavery. And here comes Christ. He purchases your freedom.

And you say, no thanks. I'm just going to keep on hanging out with my fellow slaves. I'm going to sit here in bondage. No, no, the chains are gone. Yeah, I kind of liked him though. He clapped him back on. I'm going to stay here in bondage. I'm going to stay here in slavery. No, Paul says, stand fast in the liberty by which Christ has made us free. Don't go back to that. You've been redeemed. You don't have to sit there as a slave any longer. You don't have to be held captive in that way.

Your freedom has been purchased. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 6, verse 20, he says, Your body, your spirit belongs to God because he purchased you. He purchased your freedom. So he says, therefore, glorify God. You and I, we can go back and live in our slavery now.

and continue to be in bondage, but your freedom has been purchased. And because your freedom has been purchased, you and I should live our lives to glorify God. God should be the most important thing in our lives, the most important person in our lives. We should honor him every day.

And spending time with him and drawing near and entering in because that's why he purchased us. And walking with him because that's what he desires, fellowship with him. Glorify God and draw near and walk with him. But then also glorify God and seek to please him and honor him in all that you do. Because he has purchased your freedom. He has set you free with his own precious blood. You've been redeemed by faith in Jesus Christ.

Don't stay in the chains. Leave them behind and live your life to glorify God. Well, finally, verse 25 and 26 gives us point number four, and that is your punishment has been paid. Your punishment has been paid. Verse 25 says, "'Whom God set forth as a propitiation by his blood, "'through faith to demonstrate his righteousness, "'because in his forbearance, "'God had passed over the sins "'that were previously committed.'"

to demonstrate at the present time his righteousness, that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. Here the word we're focusing on is the word propitiation. The word propitiation could be defined this way. It's an appeasing of God's wrath with a sacrifice. An appeasing of God's wrath is the idea of propitiation. Now the way that

the ancient idolatry and paganism would work is they would worship gods because they thought the gods were angry. Let's say, you know, there was some kind of calamity or some kind of difficulty. The crops didn't come in very well. There was a great storm. And so the gods must be angry. And so we better sacrifice to appease them. And so they would offer sacrifices to appease these false gods. That's not exactly what this idea of propitiation is biblically.

But that's the way that they practiced it in idolatry. Maybe you're familiar with a different kind of propitiation. And that is your spouse is angry. And so you try to do something nice to appease them. You know, oh man, I know they're going to be really upset at me over this. Okay, I better bring flowers. I better cook a good dinner because man, he's going to be angry. He's going to be so upset. So I'll try to appease him, offer some kind of sacrifice and say, I'm really messed up, but...

maybe this will make you feel better. You know, that's a different kind of an appeasement that we might be familiar with. But here's real propitiation. The appeasement of God's wrath is not something that we can do. And that's really important to understand. Propitiation is not about us offering some kind of sacrifice to God.

Now, whether that's Old Testament times and offering some kind of animal to God or us doing something really costly. Okay, God, I'm gonna write a really big check and give it to you because I gotta make up for this. I gotta appease your wrath or I'm gonna commit to this. I'm gonna give this much time or I'm gonna be this good or I'm not gonna do that. There's no sacrifice that we can make to appease God's wrath. There's nothing that we can do. The only thing that can satisfy God's wrath is

is a full payment of the penalty. That's the only thing. And so real propitiation is not us offering some kind of sacrifice. It's God offering his son as a sacrifice so that the full payment is given. And that's why Jesus is able to say it is finished or paid in full. It's paid in full. The wrath of God is

is completely satisfied in the work of Jesus on the cross. The related word to this idea of propitiation is atonement. It's the payment that's necessary for sin. Now, there is a reality to the idea of the wrath of God, even though sometimes people don't like to think about that or try to pretend that that's not there. But

We began this back in Romans chapter 1 verse 18, where Paul said, the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness. All ungodliness incurs God's wrath, and that wrath, it must be given out. It must be paid. But Jesus became our substitute to receive the payment of

For that wrath. To receive the payment that we deserve. To receive the wrath that you and I deserve. And so propitiation solves our problem of deserving the wrath of God. Because Jesus received all the wrath that we deserve. In Romans chapter 2 verse 5, Paul talks about treasuring up wrath for the day of wrath. By practicing sin, by continuing in sin, we treasure up wrath.

We store it up. And I gave the idea, the illustration of, you know, having a vault full of coins, you know, representing God's wrath. And every one of them is accounted for. And God will make sure that, well, that wrath is given out. Every last piece for every single sin. We treasure up wrath for ourselves when we continue in sin. But there has been provided a propitiation, an appeasing of God's wrath.

with the sacrifice, with the substitute, with Jesus Christ. And so the wrath that we deserved, Jesus received. In verse 25 again, he says, whom God set forth as a propitiation by his blood through faith to demonstrate his righteousness. Because in his forbearance, God had passed over the sins that were previously committed. Now, this idea of propitiation would not be fair today.

If God just chose a random person and said, okay, George, you're going to receive the penalty for everybody else's sin. Well, that's not fair. That's not just. But that's not what happened. The father in union with the son, communion together decided, this is how we're going to pay the penalty for sin. And this wasn't like some surprise, right? Revelation talks about the lamb slain before the foundation of the world, right?

From the very beginning, from eternity, God knew what man was going to do and what it would require for that payment of wrath to be satisfied, for that propitiation to take place. And so the Father and the Son together agreed.

Sometimes we get the picture, right, that the father is the angry one and Jesus tries to like calm him down. Like, hey, I'll just go sacrifice myself and then, you know, you can just calm down. Okay, father? That's not the picture. The father loves you and he sent the son. And the son loves you and he willingly chose to receive the wrath that you and I deserve. To be the propitiation, to be the substitute. Is that fair? It's not fair. It's not fair because...

We don't receive the judgment that we deserve. It's not fair. It's grace. It's mercy. But it's what Christ has done for us. Your punishment has been paid. So that, verse 26, to demonstrate at the present time his righteousness, that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. So that the one who trusts in Jesus, the one who has faith in Jesus is declared righteous, but God is still just.

It would be unfair, it would be unjust for us to stand before God guilty and God says, you know, you're guilty, but don't worry about it. I won't tell anybody if you don't. That's not justice. If God did that, he would be unjust. But in Jesus being our propitiation, receiving the full payment, receiving the full penalty, think of it like owing a fine. If you get a speeding ticket and you have to pay the fine,

The court is satisfied when the fine is paid. Now, even if your parents gave you the money to pay that fine, the court's satisfied. It's a similar idea. The payment of Christ on our behalf is credited to our account. Is it fair? It's not fair because we didn't have to pay the price ourselves. It's grace. It's mercy. We don't want fairness because then we get what we deserve. But he paid the price.

And this way, God is still just. And at the same time, he's the justifier. He's the one who declares us not guilty. He's the one who declares us righteous because the payment has been paid. The wrath of God has been appeased because it's been completely poured out upon Jesus Christ instead of us. And so those who have faith in Christ, those who believe in Jesus,

We have this great benefit of full access to God, unhindered. You have complete and total access to God. You can pray to him. You can talk to him. You can walk with him. You can serve him. You can represent him. You can speak on his behalf. You can deliver the gospel. You have full access to God because he credits your account with righteousness. You measure up to his standard. And you've been declared not guilty, even though you're guilty.

He declares you not guilty. And you don't have to bribe him. You don't have to come up with some payment. It's free. It's by his grace. As you believe in Jesus, he declares that you are not guilty. Your freedom has been purchased. You've been set free. You don't have to stay there in chains anymore. You don't have to stay in that miserable condition any longer. You've been set free. So glorify God with your body.

Live to honor God. Live to please God. Glorify Him because He has set you free and your punishment has been paid. And sometimes we punish ourselves. You don't need to punish yourself. You don't need to put yourself on timeout. You don't have to ground yourself. You don't have to spank yourself. You don't have any punishment due to you any longer because Jesus received that punishment. It's been paid.

And so there's no need to fear. You can draw near to God. You can come close to him. You can ask him difficult things. You can ask him for things that you don't deserve. You can ask him for miracles. You can cry out to him because your punishment has been paid. You don't have to stay back out of God's presence. You don't have to be afraid. God loves you. You have full access to him. He declares you not guilty. He's purchased your freedom and he's received your punishment.

This is the gospel. It's all about what God has done for us. And as I prayed earlier, let these things be pillars that are established in your heart forever. That you don't have to waver, that you don't have to go back and forth, that you simply receive by faith what God has done for you. Amen?

We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of His Word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.