WEBVTT 00:00:19.039 --> 00:00:27.039 Today reading is Romans three, chapter not chapter three, verse twenty-seven to thirty-one. 00:00:32.320 --> 00:00:35.280 Then what becomes of our boasting? 00:00:35.600 --> 00:00:36.960 It is excluded. 00:00:37.280 --> 00:00:39.200 By what kind of law? 00:00:39.520 --> 00:00:41.679 By a love of works? 00:00:41.920 --> 00:00:42.240 No. 00:00:42.719 --> 00:00:44.799 But by the love of faith. 00:00:45.119 --> 00:00:50.799 For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. 00:00:51.039 --> 00:00:53.439 Or is God the God of shoes only? 00:00:53.920 --> 00:00:56.560 Is he not the God of Gentiles also? 00:00:57.039 --> 00:00:59.200 Yes, of Gentiles also. 00:00:59.759 --> 00:01:08.640 Since God is one, who will justify their circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith? 00:01:09.519 --> 00:01:12.719 Do when they overthrow the law by this faith? 00:01:12.959 --> 00:01:14.000 By no means. 00:01:14.159 --> 00:01:17.760 On the contrary, we uphold the law. 00:01:18.400 --> 00:01:20.560 And those way God's words. 00:01:20.879 --> 00:01:21.280 Welcome to you. 00:01:21.439 --> 00:01:23.760 If you joined us while we were singing, my name is Mark. 00:01:23.840 --> 00:01:26.319 I'm the uh lead pastor here at City. 00:01:26.480 --> 00:01:40.159 You're very welcome with us as we uh come back uh to the cinema after uh a couple of weeks away at the hotel and uh and then on our uh uh weekend retreat. 00:01:40.400 --> 00:01:43.439 If you were on our weekend away, I hope you recovered. 00:01:43.599 --> 00:01:50.159 I feel like as I get older, it takes me longer to uh uh to get back on track after a weekend away. 00:01:50.400 --> 00:01:52.079 Um yeah. 00:01:52.319 --> 00:01:56.159 Um might just have to be a day away uh next year. 00:01:56.400 --> 00:02:07.280 Um but it was uh it was such a joy to be away with uh about 105 uh of you and down in Wicklow and the snow didn't uh didn't keep us away. 00:02:07.519 --> 00:02:10.080 Um please do have uh Romans open in front of you. 00:02:10.159 --> 00:02:14.960 In fact, in a minute I might get the clicker to go back to the reading because it was just it's just all there on one slide. 00:02:15.120 --> 00:02:17.919 Thank you, Marielle, for uh for reading for us. 00:02:18.159 --> 00:02:37.199 Um I don't know if you maybe ask your friends you what what do they think of uh of religious people or religion, but I think that one of the reasons why uh people are turned off uh by religion is by the way that religious people live. 00:02:37.919 --> 00:02:55.439 The expectation I think is that if you are religious, uh that you will lead a good life, a better life, uh, that you will be a person who is more kind, more compassionate, more loving, more joy-filled than uh than those around them. 00:02:55.520 --> 00:02:59.280 And yet, sadly, that's often isn't the case. 00:02:59.439 --> 00:03:05.120 Uh religious people, I don't know if you've met any kind of uh joyless uh religious people. 00:03:05.199 --> 00:03:07.599 Um they're out there, as so I'm told. 00:03:07.759 --> 00:03:10.639 Uh religious people can be proud, can't they? 00:03:10.879 --> 00:03:14.319 Uh they can be morally superior, can't they? 00:03:14.639 --> 00:03:28.800 Uh, religious people can be exclusive in their uh communities and excluding of others uh that they deem to be not worth being in uh the community of faith. 00:03:29.039 --> 00:03:34.560 Perhaps worst of all is uh religious people uh can be moral hypocrites, can't they? 00:03:34.639 --> 00:03:38.000 They can say one thing and they can do another. 00:03:39.840 --> 00:03:57.199 Unfortunately, Christianity isn't uh immune to this uh because our human nature is always to try and earn our way back to God by our moral betterment. 00:03:58.080 --> 00:04:03.439 Our nature is always to see ourselves as superior to others. 00:04:03.840 --> 00:04:07.280 You know, you do this all the time, even in your workplace, in your friendship group. 00:04:07.360 --> 00:04:16.639 You know where you kind of stand, you're able to grade yourself on a kind of hierarchy, a kind of an unspoken uh uh lead table. 00:04:16.879 --> 00:04:19.920 You know where you come, and we always do that. 00:04:20.879 --> 00:04:34.399 And human nature is always to cover over what's really going on in our hearts with external moral virtue. 00:04:34.720 --> 00:04:35.680 Do you find that? 00:04:35.920 --> 00:04:36.800 Do you ever do that? 00:04:36.959 --> 00:04:37.920 I do that. 00:04:38.959 --> 00:04:50.879 That as long as I do the certain tick box thing that's that that everybody expects of a Christian or certainly of a pastor, then actually it doesn't really matter what my heart's like. 00:04:52.240 --> 00:04:59.040 We do the external things when actually internal change needs to happen. 00:04:59.199 --> 00:05:00.480 We we all do that. 00:05:00.639 --> 00:05:03.439 There's something in human nature that wants us to do that. 00:05:05.839 --> 00:05:34.879 However, the message of Christianity, when rightly understood, when applied to our hearts by the Spirit of God, when embedded and rooted deep into our souls, the message of Christianity, the good news of Jesus, will begin to destroy those natural tendencies. 00:05:35.120 --> 00:05:48.560 It will begin to break down that pridefulness, that exclusivity, and that um moral superficiality. 00:05:49.759 --> 00:05:51.199 Let me tell you why. 00:05:52.000 --> 00:05:55.920 Two weeks ago, when we were in the hotel, Paul finally got to some good news. 00:05:56.079 --> 00:05:59.519 We spent about a month uh really leaning into the bad news. 00:05:59.600 --> 00:06:01.600 And if you weren't here, let me recap. 00:06:01.680 --> 00:06:20.720 Uh the bad news is that Paul had already established in excruciating detail uh that every human being, as a look around, that's everyone in this room and everyone across time and space, uh, whether religious or irreligious, are born and live in hostility to God. 00:06:21.040 --> 00:06:29.360 That we harm one another, we harm ourselves, and we do not want to live under God's good rule. 00:06:29.680 --> 00:06:41.439 And as a result, we are all rightly deserving of God's wrath, that is, his settled anger and opposition to that, what the Bible calls sin. 00:06:42.399 --> 00:06:59.199 However, and this is what we uh looked at a couple of weeks ago, God, in his great mercy and wisdom, has made a way through the death of his son Jesus, where the wrath of God was diverted from us onto him. 00:07:00.879 --> 00:07:18.879 He has made a way because of Jesus' death in our place for our sin, that we might be declared innocent, that he was regarded as guilty upon that cross, that we might be declared innocent in his sight, because Jesus has taken the punishment. 00:07:19.120 --> 00:07:29.120 And here's the crucial thing: how does that declaration of innocence, that's what justification means? 00:07:30.000 --> 00:07:39.120 How does that declaration that we are seen as righteous in God's sight because of Jesus, how does that come to us? 00:07:39.279 --> 00:07:42.000 How do we lay hold of that? 00:07:42.720 --> 00:07:48.639 But we don't do it by our moral goodness, we don't do it by earning it. 00:07:49.279 --> 00:07:51.120 Paul says it's a gift. 00:07:51.360 --> 00:08:01.600 It's a gift that we access by faith, that we trust in Jesus' death simply and exclusively. 00:08:02.000 --> 00:08:07.120 And a result, and as a result, God regards us as righteous. 00:08:07.279 --> 00:08:18.879 No good works, no religious merit, justification being made right with God is achieved by faith in Jesus alone. 00:08:21.439 --> 00:08:23.519 By faith in Jesus alone. 00:08:24.639 --> 00:08:27.600 That brings us up to the end of verse 26. 00:08:27.680 --> 00:08:32.639 And so Paul concludes this little chapter with these, just these few short verses. 00:08:32.799 --> 00:08:42.720 And in a sense, Paul here gives short-form answers to three questions that he'll expand on throughout the book. 00:08:42.879 --> 00:08:47.519 Uh, and essentially those questions are all kind of, well, so what? 00:08:48.240 --> 00:08:58.879 If the explanation of the gospel is the what, here's what God has done, God has justified you by faith in Jesus alone, then the very end of the chapter is, well, so what, Paul? 00:08:58.960 --> 00:08:59.919 Why does any of that matter? 00:09:00.080 --> 00:09:02.159 How does any of that change my life? 00:09:02.399 --> 00:09:05.600 What's the point in justification by faith alone? 00:09:05.759 --> 00:09:10.000 What's the point in just trusting Jesus in order to have my sin forgiven? 00:09:10.240 --> 00:09:13.759 What effect does that have on my life? 00:09:13.919 --> 00:09:15.600 Why does any of that matter? 00:09:15.759 --> 00:09:18.639 It's the so what at the end of the chapter. 00:09:18.879 --> 00:09:26.480 And Paul concludes in these few short verses by giving you three short so what's. 00:09:26.879 --> 00:09:36.480 They are that justification by faith alone destroys your pride, unites you to others, and makes you truly virtuous. 00:09:36.799 --> 00:09:45.039 Destroys your pride, unites you to others, and makes you truly, at the heart level, on the inside, virtuous. 00:09:46.000 --> 00:09:47.440 Let's look at those in detail. 00:09:47.600 --> 00:09:50.879 Don't go to sleep neither, just because I've given you all three points at the start. 00:09:51.120 --> 00:09:51.679 All right? 00:09:52.000 --> 00:09:55.120 I've told sometimes I don't tell you where I'm gonna go. 00:09:55.279 --> 00:09:58.960 I've been kind to you and I've told you, but you have to stay awake for them all, okay? 00:09:59.200 --> 00:10:04.080 First is justification by faith alone destroys our pride. 00:10:04.559 --> 00:10:09.039 And I might actually also say that it destroys our anxiety, as I hope you'll see in a minute. 00:10:09.279 --> 00:10:10.879 But it destroys our pride. 00:10:11.120 --> 00:10:13.360 Paul begins with this question in verse 27. 00:10:13.440 --> 00:10:14.080 You can see it up there. 00:10:14.240 --> 00:10:16.480 What then becomes of our boasting? 00:10:17.279 --> 00:10:18.720 It is excluded. 00:10:18.960 --> 00:10:20.960 Boasting here is pride. 00:10:21.919 --> 00:10:25.279 You know what it is to boast in something. 00:10:25.440 --> 00:10:32.240 It is uh where you get a sense of confidence from, it's where you uh have your value in. 00:10:34.240 --> 00:10:44.639 It is what helps us to understand our place and value and identity in the world, and it helps us to face the day. 00:10:44.799 --> 00:10:45.840 Let me illustrate that. 00:10:46.080 --> 00:10:54.879 Paul, in another letter, in the letter to the Philippians, he talks about the things that he boasted in in Philippians chapter 3. 00:10:55.039 --> 00:11:01.120 You see, Paul, before becoming a Christian, was a uh was not just a Jewish man, he was a Pharisee. 00:11:01.200 --> 00:11:06.159 He was part of the um the super holy, the religious elite. 00:11:07.200 --> 00:11:27.519 And he gives this uh this list of his achievements, that he came from the right family, that he has the right educational background, that he is the uh the the uh the right moral standing, that he did the right sacrifices at the right time in order that his sin might be covered. 00:11:27.759 --> 00:11:29.600 He did everything right. 00:11:29.759 --> 00:11:38.000 And he's saying that before I became a Christian, I looked at all of these stuff, and that is what gave me confidence to face the day. 00:11:38.159 --> 00:11:40.480 That's what gave me confidence before holy God. 00:11:40.639 --> 00:11:49.279 I thought, because I'd come from the right family, because I'd done the right things, and because I had I was more morally virtuous than everybody else, that that was my boast. 00:11:49.440 --> 00:11:54.399 That was my confidence, that was what I was building my life upon. 00:11:57.120 --> 00:11:59.679 That is what he was boasting in. 00:12:00.159 --> 00:12:12.000 And Paul knows, because he's writing to a church where there's a mixture of Christians and Jews, he knows that his Jewish hearers are thinking the same sort of way. 00:12:12.159 --> 00:12:21.360 That they have, they think they had reason for confidence, reason to boast before God because they were part of God's chosen people. 00:12:22.720 --> 00:12:25.840 That they did the right moral and religious things. 00:12:26.240 --> 00:12:32.080 And that was leading them to a kind of superiority, kind of pride. 00:12:33.360 --> 00:12:41.200 But what Paul is saying here is that when you understand that God saved you, and when he saved you, he didn't need your help. 00:12:41.519 --> 00:12:42.320 Do you know that? 00:12:42.559 --> 00:12:46.159 When God saved you, he didn't need your help. 00:12:47.519 --> 00:12:55.679 He did it without any help from you, regardless of your moral goodness or uprightness. 00:12:56.799 --> 00:13:16.000 That God the Son lived a perfect life, the life that you could not live, that God the Father poured out his wrath upon that Son in order that he might look upon you with love, and that God the Spirit unites you to Jesus by faith, that he did all of that, and none of it was done to you? 00:13:16.960 --> 00:13:22.960 How then can you boast in your religious upbringing? 00:13:23.200 --> 00:13:27.440 How can you boast in the things that you do or who you are? 00:13:28.399 --> 00:13:34.000 How can you say, well, yes, God did all of that, but doesn't he know that I'm quite an important person? 00:13:35.360 --> 00:13:40.159 Doesn't he understand that I have master's degrees? 00:13:40.480 --> 00:13:47.120 Doesn't he understand that in my field, in my career, I'm well respected? 00:13:49.759 --> 00:13:51.279 What becomes of our boasting? 00:13:51.600 --> 00:13:54.240 Paul says it is excluded. 00:13:54.559 --> 00:13:56.480 What becomes of our pride? 00:13:57.039 --> 00:13:58.879 It is destroyed. 00:13:59.840 --> 00:14:00.799 By what? 00:14:02.639 --> 00:14:07.360 He says, by the law of faith, not by the law of works. 00:14:07.600 --> 00:14:09.279 Now, what does that mean? 00:14:10.000 --> 00:14:16.320 Here I think Paul is using the word law to refer to the whole Old Testament. 00:14:16.480 --> 00:14:19.679 Sometimes the Old Testament is summarized uh that way. 00:14:20.720 --> 00:14:36.320 And in essence, what he is saying here is if the Old Testament was, in essence, a ladder by which you climbed your way up to God, then you would have grounds for boasting. 00:14:36.399 --> 00:14:44.639 You'd be able to say at the end, but look, look how far I climbed, look how far I got to you, God. 00:14:44.720 --> 00:14:46.960 Does that not worth something? 00:14:47.200 --> 00:14:48.879 You'd have a grounds to boast. 00:14:48.960 --> 00:14:51.200 And this is what some people think that the Old Testament is about. 00:14:51.360 --> 00:14:57.039 Some people think that the Old Testament is about you're saved by works and by moral goodness. 00:14:57.200 --> 00:15:02.639 And in the New Testament, God kind of takes a chill pill and kind of relaxes a little bit and says, ah, well, just trust. 00:15:03.440 --> 00:15:04.320 That's wrong. 00:15:04.720 --> 00:15:07.200 Say that again, that's wrong. 00:15:09.200 --> 00:15:09.759 Amen. 00:15:10.879 --> 00:15:12.159 Yeah, that's wrong. 00:15:12.320 --> 00:15:14.080 If you're taking notes, two words. 00:15:14.240 --> 00:15:15.600 That's wrong. 00:15:17.120 --> 00:15:20.879 Because Paul's saying that the Old Testament was never about that. 00:15:21.039 --> 00:15:24.080 The Old Testament was never a law of works. 00:15:24.240 --> 00:15:29.200 That is, that you got right by God by climbing up the moral ladder. 00:15:29.440 --> 00:15:32.240 No, no, it was always a law of faith. 00:15:32.480 --> 00:15:42.559 What he means by that is that the Old Testament always pointed you towards salvation by faith alone. 00:15:43.759 --> 00:15:49.679 And when you understand that, you understand that you cannot boast in your moral goodness. 00:15:50.000 --> 00:16:03.440 So the the Old Testament Israelite were supposed to look at the law, say the Mosaic law, the through the 613 laws of the Old Testament, and in a sense, go, I can't keep that. 00:16:04.080 --> 00:16:05.519 There's no way I can keep it. 00:16:05.600 --> 00:16:07.919 I keep on breaking this law. 00:16:08.320 --> 00:16:15.919 And in a sense, throw himself or herself upon the mercy of God and say, Have mercy on me as sinner. 00:16:16.399 --> 00:16:25.600 To say nothing of the fact that all the way through the Old Testament there are examples that God saves people before telling them what to do. 00:16:27.120 --> 00:16:29.679 We will see more of that next week in chapter four. 00:16:32.240 --> 00:16:36.399 But the good news of Jesus doesn't just destroy pride in the religious person. 00:16:37.360 --> 00:16:41.519 It actually begins to question everything that we put our confidence in. 00:16:41.679 --> 00:16:49.039 You might not be here this morning and describe yourself as a particular particularly religious person, but you have confidence in something. 00:16:49.200 --> 00:16:58.399 It might be your career, it might be your wealth, it might be your intellect, it might be the relationships that you're in, that those things ground you. 00:16:58.559 --> 00:17:02.639 They form the basis of your place in the world. 00:17:07.039 --> 00:17:11.599 And in the end, that's what your confidence is. 00:17:11.759 --> 00:17:17.119 And Paul is saying that even those things are excluded. 00:17:17.680 --> 00:17:23.680 That none of those things that you're trusting in, none of them will justify. 00:17:24.160 --> 00:17:31.839 You can't take any of those things and present them to God and go, but but look at look at this thing that I did. 00:17:32.640 --> 00:17:35.039 None of that matters. 00:17:37.200 --> 00:17:40.160 None of it makes you right in the sight of God. 00:17:40.960 --> 00:17:45.759 Tim Keller, our former pastor in the in New York, uh, said it better than I could. 00:17:45.920 --> 00:18:01.440 He said that having confidence in, say, your wealth, is like a drowning man holding up a fistful of dollars and saying, I'll be all right, I've got the money. 00:18:02.240 --> 00:18:04.720 It's not going to save him in that moment. 00:18:05.599 --> 00:18:11.839 In the same way, those things that we place our confidence in will not save us in the end. 00:18:12.240 --> 00:18:23.279 So Paul looks back at his life in Philippians 3 and his list of achievements, and he reckons them all rubbish, that none of them mattered eternally. 00:18:23.519 --> 00:18:25.440 None of them justified him. 00:18:27.920 --> 00:18:35.920 When you get that you are made right with God, simply by faith in Jesus alone, it begins to destroy your pride. 00:18:37.680 --> 00:18:46.640 It destroys that sense of self-worth that you get from achieving things. 00:18:47.200 --> 00:18:48.880 It makes you more humble. 00:18:51.440 --> 00:18:55.279 It makes you realize that we're not people who take, but people who receive. 00:19:00.079 --> 00:19:01.119 But do you know what else? 00:19:01.200 --> 00:19:08.880 And this is why I said uh what I said at the start of this point, justification by faith alone doesn't just tear down your pride, it tears down your anxiety as well. 00:19:09.200 --> 00:19:10.240 Do you know how? 00:19:10.960 --> 00:19:33.680 Because if your value, if your confidence is based in the things that you're achieving, or the wealth that you have, or the career that you have, or the relationships that you're in, then you'll constantly be looking over your shoulder from that moment when they'll be taken away from you. 00:19:34.079 --> 00:19:36.880 And you'll always be asking yourself, is it enough? 00:19:37.839 --> 00:19:38.960 Have I achieved enough? 00:19:39.119 --> 00:19:40.160 Have I done enough? 00:19:40.400 --> 00:19:45.359 What if somebody comes up behind me and does that thing that I value better than me? 00:19:48.079 --> 00:19:56.960 Justification by faith alone, being made right with God simply by faith in Jesus, doesn't just begin to humble you, it actually begins to free you. 00:19:59.839 --> 00:20:07.440 Frees you from that need to justify your existence. 00:20:10.000 --> 00:20:18.960 It's the difference, and I've said this before, it's the difference between Arthur Abrams and Eric Liddell. 00:20:19.359 --> 00:20:20.880 This is Chariots of Fire. 00:20:21.200 --> 00:20:30.480 And if you haven't watched the movie, you really should, but uh Eric Liddell is uh is a is a sprinter, and he's a he's a Christian. 00:20:30.640 --> 00:20:59.920 Uh it's based on a true story, and uh his main rival uh was a guy called Arthur Abrams, and there's a great scene in the movie uh where Arthur Abrams is talking to to Eric Liddell, and Abrams says, Every time that I stand on those starting blocks, I I look up at this corridor four feet wide, and I realize that I have ten seconds to justify my existence. 00:21:02.960 --> 00:21:09.680 And Eric Liddell says, Well, I run because when I run I feel his pleasure. 00:21:11.279 --> 00:21:12.799 Do you see the difference? 00:21:13.839 --> 00:21:25.839 You can either run like Arthur Abrams trying to justify your existence by all of the things that you do, and that will either lead you into pride, I did it, or it will lead you into despair, I can't do it. 00:21:27.599 --> 00:21:33.680 Or you can run like Eric Liddell simply because you feel his pleasure. 00:21:33.920 --> 00:21:40.559 Because Jesus has set you free, because he's justified you by his faith alone, by faith in him alone. 00:21:42.319 --> 00:21:44.640 Justification by faith alone destroys pride. 00:21:44.799 --> 00:21:46.640 Second, it unites us together. 00:21:46.880 --> 00:21:48.240 We're God's great family. 00:21:48.400 --> 00:21:50.880 I love that we are nailing those actions at the minute. 00:21:51.039 --> 00:21:59.759 I don't know whether it was practice at the weekend or way, but it's uh uh I I I think the thing that I love about it most is that we really are a uh a church. 00:22:00.240 --> 00:22:02.319 And a family that we don't take ourselves too seriously. 00:22:02.480 --> 00:22:05.759 That you can be a grown, you can be a grown man and you can be there going. 00:22:09.519 --> 00:22:10.160 Yeah. 00:22:13.279 --> 00:22:15.680 Justification by faith alone unites us together. 00:22:17.119 --> 00:22:22.319 Again, one of the accusations of religious people, or of religion, is that religion divides people. 00:22:24.400 --> 00:22:28.319 Our world thrives on those divisions at the minute, doesn't it? 00:22:28.559 --> 00:22:39.599 Divides on, it thrives on divisions between groups, between the haves and the have nots, the oppressors and the oppressed, the virtuous and the cancelled. 00:22:42.559 --> 00:22:49.039 But because justification is by faith alone, that levels the playing field for all of humanity, doesn't it? 00:22:51.039 --> 00:22:54.880 That nobody is morally better than the other. 00:22:55.359 --> 00:22:58.640 That the ground before the cross is completely flat. 00:23:00.799 --> 00:23:07.279 And because it does that, it begins to break down the barriers between peoples and groups. 00:23:07.519 --> 00:23:10.319 I think that's what Paul's point is in verse 29. 00:23:10.480 --> 00:23:12.079 Have a look at it behind me. 00:23:12.400 --> 00:23:15.279 He asks this question or is God the God of the Jews only? 00:23:15.440 --> 00:23:17.279 Is he not the God of the Gentiles also? 00:23:17.440 --> 00:23:20.240 Yes, of the Gentiles also, since God is one. 00:23:22.079 --> 00:23:22.880 excuse me. 00:23:23.200 --> 00:23:28.079 Who will justify the uncircumcised by faith and the circumcised through faith? 00:23:28.880 --> 00:23:30.480 Here's what he's saying. 00:23:31.039 --> 00:23:43.599 If the Old Testament law was a ladder, and if the Old Testament law was the only way that a person could be saved by God, then God would be the God of the Jews only, because only the Jews had access to the law. 00:23:43.759 --> 00:23:44.240 Do you see? 00:23:44.319 --> 00:23:45.440 It's a very simple point. 00:23:45.680 --> 00:23:49.519 God would be the God of the Jews only because only the Jews had the law. 00:23:50.079 --> 00:23:54.000 But what he is saying is that the law doesn't save you. 00:23:54.480 --> 00:24:00.160 Only salvation by faith alone, in Jesus alone, saves you. 00:24:03.119 --> 00:24:07.119 And there is one God, which means that there is one way of salvation. 00:24:07.279 --> 00:24:11.759 God has not divided himself into two and goes, well, I'll save the Jews this way, and I'll save the Gentiles this way. 00:24:11.839 --> 00:24:12.480 No, no. 00:24:12.640 --> 00:24:17.519 It's one way, devised by God in eternity past. 00:24:18.720 --> 00:24:23.279 Both the religious and the irreligious are justified by faith in Jesus alone. 00:24:25.119 --> 00:24:31.759 And so there is no more ground for the religious person to go, yeah, but I'm better than you because I do. 00:24:32.000 --> 00:24:32.880 Oh no, hold on. 00:24:33.119 --> 00:24:34.400 Doesn't matter what I do. 00:24:36.720 --> 00:24:37.680 Do you see? 00:24:38.640 --> 00:24:41.519 This is how inclusive the gospel is. 00:24:43.519 --> 00:24:45.359 How are you justified? 00:24:46.319 --> 00:24:48.960 Only by faith in Jesus. 00:24:49.519 --> 00:24:51.200 Who can be justified? 00:24:51.519 --> 00:24:52.400 Anyone. 00:24:54.319 --> 00:24:55.279 Do you see? 00:24:59.519 --> 00:25:03.759 For Paul, the major division in the ancient world was between Jew and Gentile. 00:25:04.000 --> 00:25:06.079 That was the great hostility. 00:25:07.039 --> 00:25:16.640 And yet, through faith in Jesus, those dividing walls, as he talks about in other places, begin to come crumbling down, and he brings them into the same family. 00:25:17.119 --> 00:25:24.400 Because of faith in Jesus, both sides can lay down arms and embrace one another in the spirit of brotherly love. 00:25:25.759 --> 00:25:40.480 It might not be Jew and Gentile for us today, but the truth remains, for you, regardless of your sex or ethnicity, or culture, or class, or education, or background, all are justified freely by the grace of God. 00:25:40.720 --> 00:25:44.000 And all are brought into his united family of believers. 00:25:44.160 --> 00:25:44.880 I mean, look around you. 00:25:44.960 --> 00:25:49.519 I mean, I know it's dark and you can't see the person beside you, but uh, but look around you outside. 00:25:49.759 --> 00:25:58.240 One of the things you might realize as you look around our family is to say, well, I would never naturally hang out with people like this because they're weird. 00:25:58.559 --> 00:26:01.279 Um that's what people say about me. 00:26:02.799 --> 00:26:06.319 But actually, God has brought us into a family together. 00:26:06.640 --> 00:26:09.359 He has united us one to another. 00:26:10.480 --> 00:26:16.319 Do you ever do you ever kind of look at two people fighting? 00:26:16.559 --> 00:26:28.000 Maybe you maybe in your family, possibly in the world, but you ever look at two people fighting and and just kind of think to yourself, oh, do you know what? 00:26:28.319 --> 00:26:31.759 More than anything else, those two people need Jesus. 00:26:32.240 --> 00:26:33.039 Do you ever think that? 00:26:33.119 --> 00:26:34.079 Or is that just me? 00:26:34.400 --> 00:26:37.519 You look at people who are just, they just cannot get on. 00:26:37.599 --> 00:26:39.279 You think that's such a silly thing. 00:26:39.759 --> 00:26:44.079 The thing that they need, most of all, is they need Jesus. 00:26:44.720 --> 00:26:46.960 What do you mean when you say that? 00:26:47.279 --> 00:26:49.519 What do I mean when I say that? 00:26:50.720 --> 00:27:07.440 Well, what we mean is that if they both understand that they're justified not by what they do, but by the grace of God, that they have been forgiven much, that they might forgive, that maybe they might actually lay down arms and embrace one another. 00:27:07.680 --> 00:27:09.279 That's what that means. 00:27:10.000 --> 00:27:14.319 Your justification by faith alone is not some theological ideas. 00:27:16.079 --> 00:27:32.240 I think that justification by faith alone has the potential to stop violence between sworn enemies when both parties realize that they have been forgiven much by the grace of Jesus. 00:27:33.759 --> 00:27:41.359 Justification by faith alone has the power to repair brokenness within families. 00:27:42.640 --> 00:27:44.319 You think of the relationship that you have. 00:27:44.480 --> 00:27:57.440 If you're a Christian here and you think of the estrangement that you have in some of your family relationships, a lot of that would be solved if the other person came to faith in Jesus, wouldn't it? 00:27:58.079 --> 00:28:00.799 That's what justification by faith alone does. 00:28:01.599 --> 00:28:04.400 Because that person would then go, oh, hold on. 00:28:04.799 --> 00:28:09.279 There's more to repent of here, and there's a basis for forgiveness. 00:28:09.680 --> 00:28:23.519 Do you see how justification by faith alone isn't just a kind of a Bible term or a theological idea, but it actually would have a material good in our world and in our lives? 00:28:25.039 --> 00:28:28.319 Justification by faith alone has the power to bring peace. 00:28:28.960 --> 00:28:34.240 Because it says that all have sinned, and all are justified freely as a gift. 00:28:35.599 --> 00:28:43.200 Now, of course, the Jew remained a Jew, the Gentile remained a Gentile in some senses. 00:28:43.680 --> 00:28:46.880 A woman remains a woman, or a man remains a man. 00:28:48.240 --> 00:28:52.799 The pigmentation in your skin does not change when you become a Christian. 00:28:53.519 --> 00:29:12.000 But where those things were primary, primary identity markers for us before we became a Christian, to be held in opposition to others, now those identities are second place. 00:29:14.319 --> 00:29:17.519 Second place to being in Christ. 00:29:18.559 --> 00:29:32.079 We can look past those cultural differences, ethnic differences, sex differences, class and temperament differences. 00:29:33.519 --> 00:29:36.480 Because we realize that we're all actually one in Christ. 00:29:37.680 --> 00:29:42.319 Justification by faith alone unites people together. 00:29:44.319 --> 00:29:47.200 Thirdly and finally, that was a nice little short one, wasn't it? 00:29:47.920 --> 00:29:57.119 Thirdly and finally, justification by faith alone makes us truly virtuous on the inside. 00:29:59.279 --> 00:30:05.200 It's easy, isn't it, to appear morally together. 00:30:05.599 --> 00:30:08.000 Some of you are doing it right now. 00:30:09.839 --> 00:30:18.559 It's easy to appear virtuous, but it is difficult to know what true inner virtue looks like. 00:30:19.039 --> 00:30:24.559 It's easy to take on the badges of virtue and to wear them. 00:30:26.240 --> 00:30:44.960 To say that you're allied with certain groups or certain rites, or take on a cause that everybody thinks is cool and heroic and courageous and applauds, or to look moral by abstaining from certain vices. 00:30:47.519 --> 00:30:52.079 What a lot of Christian subculture is like where I grew up in Northern Ireland. 00:30:52.720 --> 00:31:03.279 That as long as you don't take alcohol, as long as you don't smoke, as long as you don't go to the cinema on a Sunday, well, I mean, you guys are stuffed, but right? 00:31:03.759 --> 00:31:21.039 As long as you do these moral things, and nobody sees what's really going on in here, you know, God's far more interested in what's going on in your heart than those external badges. 00:31:24.640 --> 00:31:35.279 That's why justification by faith alone doesn't just kind of clean us up on the outside, it transforms us on the inside. 00:31:37.039 --> 00:31:43.039 We can take on all of these moral badges and still be spiritually dead. 00:31:43.759 --> 00:31:46.880 We can do these things and still be far from God. 00:31:50.000 --> 00:31:52.880 Paul, in this last question, verse 31. 00:31:53.119 --> 00:31:54.799 Do we overthrow the law by this faith? 00:31:54.880 --> 00:31:55.440 By no means. 00:31:55.519 --> 00:31:57.759 On the contrary, we uphold the law. 00:31:58.400 --> 00:32:00.400 Paul was facing an accusation. 00:32:00.640 --> 00:32:11.839 He was facing an accusation from the kind of religious moralist, from the Jewish moralist, because Paul was saying, it doesn't matter what you do, you're saved by faith in Jesus alone. 00:32:12.000 --> 00:32:18.319 And what the Jewish moralist heard was, Paul's telling you to live however you want. 00:32:19.599 --> 00:32:23.119 He's abandoned all that God has said in the past. 00:32:23.359 --> 00:32:25.519 He has nullified the law. 00:32:28.160 --> 00:32:31.759 Christianity must then be just a moral free-for-all. 00:32:32.400 --> 00:32:35.200 And everybody's just going to live however they please. 00:32:35.359 --> 00:32:38.559 That's the accusation that they are leveling at Paul. 00:32:38.640 --> 00:32:40.319 And Paul is saying, no. 00:32:41.039 --> 00:32:46.960 They do not, we do not nullify or overthrow the law as Christians. 00:32:47.200 --> 00:32:50.160 Rather, we uphold it. 00:32:50.640 --> 00:32:54.799 We, another way of saying uphold it here in this concept is we establish it. 00:32:54.960 --> 00:32:56.720 We show it to be right. 00:32:59.200 --> 00:33:00.799 What does that mean? 00:33:01.200 --> 00:33:05.680 What does Paul mean by, on the contrary, we uphold the law. 00:33:06.000 --> 00:33:07.119 Two things. 00:33:08.720 --> 00:33:10.960 First, yeah, we've got sub points. 00:33:11.680 --> 00:33:15.599 First is we affirm what the law is for. 00:33:15.759 --> 00:33:17.359 Come back to me to what I said. 00:33:17.440 --> 00:33:21.680 Remember, the Old Testament law was never about achieving your way up to God. 00:33:21.839 --> 00:33:26.640 It was never a ladder in order to help you climb up to heaven. 00:33:26.880 --> 00:33:29.279 It was a mistake to think that. 00:33:29.839 --> 00:33:33.119 That if I keep the laws, God will accept me. 00:33:34.160 --> 00:33:39.440 We were always supposed to read the Old Testament and realize I cannot keep the law. 00:33:39.680 --> 00:33:44.799 I must cast myself upon the mercy and grace of God and plead forgiveness. 00:33:45.920 --> 00:33:54.960 That in every detail of God's dealing with Israel, it spoke of this grace and then law. 00:33:55.200 --> 00:33:56.319 You think so? 00:33:57.039 --> 00:33:59.599 When did Israel receive the Ten Commandments? 00:33:59.839 --> 00:34:02.319 Okay, we're gonna do a little bit of, I'm gonna give you two options. 00:34:02.400 --> 00:34:07.200 We're gonna do a little bit of audience participation because it's getting late and I need to make sure that you're still awake, okay? 00:34:07.519 --> 00:34:11.840 When did Israel receive the Ten Commandments? 00:34:12.079 --> 00:34:14.480 Before, not a Tuesday, shut up. 00:34:17.360 --> 00:34:24.400 Was it before they were rescued from slavery or after they were rescued from slavery? 00:34:26.000 --> 00:34:28.960 After you're right, well done. 00:34:29.920 --> 00:34:40.639 After it's rescued from slavery, freedom, salvation, and then here's how to live. 00:34:41.440 --> 00:34:44.800 In under my good rule. 00:34:46.000 --> 00:34:47.519 It's salvation. 00:34:47.840 --> 00:34:49.840 And then obedience. 00:34:50.000 --> 00:34:55.280 It's not imagine that it completely flips the story upside down. 00:34:55.519 --> 00:35:03.360 If uh Moses in Exodus chapter three had come down from the burning bush and had gone into Egypt and went, right, guys, we've got a couple of things to do. 00:35:03.679 --> 00:35:05.360 613 of them, in fact. 00:35:05.599 --> 00:35:12.239 Um, and I get like if we if we try our best uh to keep them, some of them are pretty gnarly. 00:35:12.320 --> 00:35:16.719 Um there's a whole thing about food, and um you need to stop worrying that. 00:35:16.880 --> 00:35:22.480 Um, but if we try our best, uh maybe God will rescue us. 00:35:23.199 --> 00:35:24.800 What kind of story is that? 00:35:27.519 --> 00:35:29.599 But that's how so many of you live. 00:35:31.679 --> 00:35:36.880 If I try my best, so that maybe God will actually, maybe he'll accept me. 00:35:37.280 --> 00:35:37.599 No. 00:35:38.239 --> 00:35:41.360 Rescue, then obedience. 00:35:42.159 --> 00:36:04.239 And what Paul is saying is that when the Christian who understands justification by faith alone, understands that that's what the Old Testament was always for, then we are the ones who uphold the law, because the law was never about obedience, it was always about grace through faith. 00:36:04.400 --> 00:36:04.880 Do you see? 00:36:05.039 --> 00:36:11.920 So he's saying Christians uphold the law because Christians are the ones who truly understand what the law was for. 00:36:13.039 --> 00:36:14.079 You with me? 00:36:14.719 --> 00:36:15.280 Good. 00:36:15.599 --> 00:36:19.840 Take your silence as uh rapturous and enthusiastic assent. 00:36:20.719 --> 00:36:33.840 The second thing that Paul is saying, and this is important, the second thing that Paul is saying when he says that we uphold the law, we establish the law, is that we as Christians use the law as it was supposed to be used. 00:36:34.079 --> 00:36:36.320 I said earlier that these are short form answers. 00:36:36.480 --> 00:36:42.880 Paul will go on to explain this a lot more uh in uh in Romans kind of six and seven. 00:36:43.119 --> 00:36:47.440 But here's the idea: the law is not a ladder. 00:36:47.679 --> 00:36:50.239 The law was never a ladder. 00:36:51.679 --> 00:36:52.800 Now imagine. 00:36:54.079 --> 00:36:58.880 You take that ladder and you lay it flat on the ground. 00:37:00.880 --> 00:37:02.960 Then you realize what the law was. 00:37:03.440 --> 00:37:05.199 The law was not a ladder. 00:37:05.760 --> 00:37:07.360 The law was a track. 00:37:09.039 --> 00:37:18.079 The law was not a ladder, it was a track on which, by the power of the Spirit, to run your life. 00:37:19.519 --> 00:37:21.519 The Jews thought that the law was a ladder. 00:37:21.760 --> 00:37:24.079 The Christians realized that the law is a track. 00:37:24.400 --> 00:37:28.719 It guides us as to how we might live. 00:37:30.480 --> 00:37:35.599 Jesus summarizes the law as perfect love of God and love of neighbor. 00:37:36.159 --> 00:37:38.719 But then you ask yourself, well, what does that look like? 00:37:39.360 --> 00:37:45.599 The Old Testament is there for our education, it informs us. 00:37:46.719 --> 00:37:56.639 And by the Spirit of Jesus, we are empowered to live in line with the principles contained therein. 00:37:58.639 --> 00:38:04.159 So, in that sense, the law is not on the backs of the Christian trying to fulfill it. 00:38:05.039 --> 00:38:09.840 It's in our hands as a tool to be used to guide us. 00:38:12.000 --> 00:38:14.880 Maybe I can say that kind of slightly more controversially. 00:38:21.440 --> 00:38:24.480 I don't think that you're supposed to keep the Ten Commandments. 00:38:26.480 --> 00:38:27.840 There, how's that? 00:38:29.519 --> 00:38:31.280 Let me explain what I mean. 00:38:33.119 --> 00:38:34.880 I'm about to get fired. 00:38:39.599 --> 00:38:43.360 Thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not murder. 00:38:43.920 --> 00:38:52.239 When you're with somebody uh and uh you're feeling angry towards them, uh where does your mind go? 00:38:52.400 --> 00:39:02.639 Do you think, well, if it weren't for that darn commandment, I'd totally have that guy buried in the Wicklow Mountains? 00:39:04.800 --> 00:39:06.960 I don't think that you do think that. 00:39:07.360 --> 00:39:14.880 I don't think you go, well, if it weren't for commandment number six, this guy's toast. 00:39:16.639 --> 00:39:22.320 No, you think, well, no, I'm a Christian, and Christians are commanded to perfectly love God and love our neighbor. 00:39:22.480 --> 00:39:27.039 Would I be perfectly loving my neighbor if I buried him in a shallow grave? 00:39:27.679 --> 00:39:33.840 Well, there's some weird definitions of love out there right now, but I'm not sure that that would be one of them. 00:39:34.239 --> 00:39:42.800 Do you see that you don't think, well, I would I would have committed adultery if it hadn't been for that law. 00:39:43.039 --> 00:39:45.920 No, you think, no, hold on, I'm committed to my spice. 00:39:46.000 --> 00:39:55.920 I'm supposed she's she or he is part of the that neighbor that I'm supposed to love, and it would be dishonoring to God, who's borne witness to my marriage covenant. 00:39:56.159 --> 00:39:58.480 And so I don't do those things. 00:39:58.639 --> 00:40:18.880 I'm not saying that you should go and live however you like, but what I'm saying is that when you ethically think about how you ought to live, you use the law as a guide rather than something that is sitting on your back of go and going, This is how I have to keep. 00:40:19.039 --> 00:40:21.760 Okay, one, check, two, check. 00:40:22.400 --> 00:40:23.039