Romans 3:30-31

Romans 3:30-31

 since God is one—who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:14

Hi, this is Dr. Bill Branks, author of Love the Word. Let me read today's text for you, Romans 3, verses 30-31. Since God is one who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means. On the contrary, we uphold the law. At the end of the Civil War, Colonel Joshua Anderson was ordered to ride to a large prison camp in southern Ohio. He was responsible for determining the fate of each prisoner. The men were being held for crimes including desertion, robbery, looting, immoral behavior, and refusal to fight. They were lawbreakers and they knew it. Many of these men had been there for over a year. As the Union armies gained more control of the South, Confederate soldiers grew desperate. When caught, they were mistreated and poorly fed. They slept in the rain in tattered clothes, wondering what would happen to them. When rumors of surrender reached the prison camp, the men knew the war was over, and the guilty worried about their punishment. Would they be fined, jailed, or executed? The day came when Colonel Anderson rode his buckskin color Morgan horse through the gates of the prison camp. High on his steed, he was moved by the men. Soldiers from wealthy families and officers presumed they would receive preferential treatment, while the criminals, dirt poor farmers, and all the enlisted men, young and old, white and black, had little to offer for their freedom. Many of them tried to straighten their clothes, wipe their faces, and even use their dirty fingers in a pathetic attempt to comb their hair. They thought that doing everything possible to look better might influence their fate. As the colonel slowly made his way through the camp, his gaze fell on hopeless faces. They crowded around his horse, their dirty hands raised in clumsy greetings and pleas for mercy. Anderson wept. After a moment, with clarity and authority, he gave his orders. Allow these men to bathe and shave. Give them proper clothes and ample rations. Open the gates. I declare today that they are all forgiven and free. Mercy knows no limits. Scripture repeatedly affirms that salvation is offered to all who have faith in Christ, regardless of who they are, what they have become, what they have done, or what they have not done. Like the prisoners who hoped that something they had done, or who they were back home, might influence their salvation from bondage, Anderson extended unmerited mercy to those he pardoned. The colonel saw only beaten-down souls caught up in a war that brought men to their worst. God understands our circumstances infinitely more. He knows we are willful sinners, regardless of any status we think we might have. Every person on earth is the same at the foot of the cross, with dirty hands raised in pleas for mercy. The law that requires perfect righteousness has been upheld not by man but by Christ Himself. We can uphold law because Christ bears its weight. We do not overthrow or circumvent the law. He keeps it for us. When Christ offers you forgiveness, you do not need to clean yourself up, try to impress him, or earn his favor. Simply and humbly go before him with your dirty, tattered soul, and ask for forgiveness and mercy. He promises he will do both and say, I declare today that you are forgiven and free. Meditate on these truths. Therefore, since we have been declared righteous by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 5 1 and 1 John 1 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.