WEBVTT 00:00:04.639 --> 00:00:10.720 But um kicking off in this series in Romans, um this is this is a big book, right? 00:00:10.880 --> 00:00:17.120 We have uh one of the largest letters uh really in the New Testament is the book of Romans. 00:00:17.199 --> 00:00:19.440 And it and it can be this complex thing. 00:00:19.600 --> 00:00:32.399 If we try to just go at it and we take it piece by piece and we don't look at it through the whole lens of the letter that Paul was intending to write, there's parts of it that get really complex and difficult to navigate. 00:00:32.719 --> 00:00:37.679 This letter, though, it is foundational to the church. 00:00:38.079 --> 00:00:40.240 This is an imperative letter. 00:00:40.399 --> 00:00:46.960 This is something that's going to create uh really a catalyst of our understanding of the gospel even to today. 00:00:47.039 --> 00:00:52.719 It transforms and understands the way that we understand our relationship with God. 00:00:53.119 --> 00:00:59.439 Uh, one of my favorite uh guys from church history is a guy named Martin Luther. 00:00:59.520 --> 00:01:04.560 And you've probably heard me talk about him before, but he loved the letter of Romans. 00:01:04.719 --> 00:01:12.400 In fact, in his uh introduction to his commentary, he refers to Romans as purest gospel. 00:01:13.280 --> 00:01:20.480 And what Romans was for Luther was this change, this drastic conversion, even out of his own words. 00:01:20.560 --> 00:01:24.079 This is a man who uh gave himself to be a monk. 00:01:24.239 --> 00:01:28.719 He uh was of the Augustinian order, he was very devout and faithful. 00:01:28.799 --> 00:01:48.879 In fact, there's stories after stories about how uh the priests inside of the cloister would not want him to come to them anymore to confess any more sin because he would spend hours just laboring over all these sins of his heart and mind and things that he'd done, and he would they would say, Martin, this is a this isn't even anything to ask for forgiveness over. 00:01:49.040 --> 00:01:50.879 This is this is ridiculous. 00:01:51.200 --> 00:01:54.719 But Martin Luther had this tension in his life, right? 00:01:54.879 --> 00:02:03.680 So he had this devotion to God, uh greater devotion than any of us in this room have given to God in our physical being. 00:02:04.640 --> 00:02:05.840 But he hated God. 00:02:06.079 --> 00:02:07.680 These are his own words. 00:02:08.560 --> 00:02:10.560 He hated God because of this. 00:02:10.879 --> 00:02:21.520 He understood how holy God was and how holy God called him to be, and he knew he could never live up to that. 00:02:21.759 --> 00:02:35.120 What kind of judge, what kind of creator, what kind of being would have such high standards of righteousness and holiness and then inflict them upon me of which I could never, ever live up to. 00:02:35.360 --> 00:02:37.680 It's just a damning reality for Luther. 00:02:37.840 --> 00:02:40.080 That's how he saw his relationship with God. 00:02:40.800 --> 00:02:42.960 But it wasn't until he read Romans. 00:02:43.199 --> 00:02:51.280 In fact, Romans 1:17 was the very last scripture in our passage this morning that he himself says he was converted. 00:02:51.439 --> 00:02:53.680 The gates of paradise were opened to him. 00:02:53.759 --> 00:02:54.400 This is what he says. 00:02:54.479 --> 00:02:56.080 He was reading it in his home. 00:02:56.240 --> 00:03:12.479 And uh, as if you visit there, you can see the corner of his house where it's all broken off, and it's got a little sign there and it says, This is where Martin Luther was actually converted, reading Romans 1:17, that the righteous shall live by faith. 00:03:13.039 --> 00:03:16.000 He said he was converted, everything changed. 00:03:16.159 --> 00:03:24.000 No longer did he hate God, but he loved God, and the gospel started to just go forth, and that that was a catalyst moment for him. 00:03:24.080 --> 00:03:30.080 And so when we look at Romans, what we're really looking at in this entire letter is the gospel. 00:03:30.800 --> 00:03:45.360 And it's the gospel said so succinctly in the first opening verses, but then unpacked over the next several, several chapters of what the gospel means for us as believers today. 00:03:45.599 --> 00:03:54.000 And so if we look at the opening, that one, one through seven, what we're gonna see is this God is the gospel. 00:03:54.159 --> 00:04:02.400 As he opens up this letter to the Romans, this is what we're going to see and identify from the very beginning: that God is the gospel. 00:04:03.199 --> 00:04:12.400 That word, that phrase, when he says that he has been set apart for the gospel of God, as he introduces himself. 00:04:12.639 --> 00:04:27.199 That word God alone is probably the most important word of this entire letter because it is about God and it is about our understanding of God that dictates the way of which we're allowed or able to have relationship with him. 00:04:27.439 --> 00:04:38.879 You see, our relationship with God is contingent upon his character, who he is, and how he chooses sovereignly to relate with us. 00:04:39.120 --> 00:04:42.800 And so we have to realize one thing: it's not our gospel. 00:04:43.759 --> 00:04:51.279 We don't have the ability to fabricate it, we don't have the authority to twist it, manipulate it, change it, alter it. 00:04:51.600 --> 00:04:53.600 We don't have that freedom and privilege. 00:04:53.680 --> 00:04:59.759 But a lot of us in the church and throughout church history have assumed that we've had that freedom. 00:05:00.240 --> 00:05:06.879 That we get to dictate what truth is or what the gospel is or how we even have relationship with God. 00:05:07.040 --> 00:05:09.839 We are able to set the standards for such things. 00:05:10.000 --> 00:05:19.600 We've believed that lie, we've operated that lie, and we have condemned thousands upon thousands of souls through such heresy. 00:05:21.040 --> 00:05:24.879 You see, the gospel is God's. 00:05:27.360 --> 00:05:40.079 As we look down in the introduction of the letter, we'll see that Paul says, a slave, a servant, he says, of Christ Jesus, he's a slave of Christ, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God. 00:05:40.240 --> 00:05:44.639 And Paul makes it really clear to us in these opening remarks what that gospel is. 00:05:44.800 --> 00:05:48.480 We kind of have this creed opening to the letter. 00:05:48.560 --> 00:05:59.759 So if we look at church history, something that's so vitally important to the church is ancient creeds and confessions that have always been confessed throughout church history. 00:05:59.920 --> 00:06:03.199 Without those, uh, we would have no anchor to go back to. 00:06:03.279 --> 00:06:05.680 We'd have anything that roots us in our faith. 00:06:05.759 --> 00:06:11.120 And so we constantly would see these changes in church belief and confession. 00:06:11.199 --> 00:06:19.439 And we have that now even with creeds and confessions, because unfortunately, we have this um arrogance about us, right? 00:06:19.600 --> 00:06:28.000 Often in that the church, and when we see and we look back at church history, we tend to have an arrogant posture as if we know better than they did, right? 00:06:28.319 --> 00:06:32.399 And that's that's such a that's such a pride thing, that's such an arrogance thing. 00:06:32.560 --> 00:06:44.480 We have to look back to the church uh throughout history to understand what it has always confessed, because because when we look at where purest doctrine is, we're gonna see it at Jesus. 00:06:44.639 --> 00:06:49.680 And the closer to Jesus we can get, uh the more faithful to pure doctrine we're gonna be. 00:06:49.839 --> 00:06:53.839 The farther away from Jesus we get, uh, the crazier things get, right? 00:06:54.000 --> 00:07:00.480 Now you can write a book uh about uh some heretical thing and get a two million dollar tour with Oprah. 00:07:00.720 --> 00:07:05.040 Back then, you wrote a heretical work, it was chained to your leg and you were burned out of stake. 00:07:05.120 --> 00:07:10.000 There was different consequences in the content of what we wrote. 00:07:11.759 --> 00:07:16.560 But see, Paul says this is God's gospel. 00:07:17.519 --> 00:07:25.600 And he's using this creedal opening, this formal statement of beliefs about Jesus and about what he accomplished for us in this opening letter. 00:07:25.680 --> 00:07:36.319 He gives us this precise and succinct gospel presentation that he then labors throughout the rest of the letter to unpack. 00:07:36.560 --> 00:07:40.560 I I love this quote from uh a Scottish theologian, James Denny. 00:07:40.800 --> 00:07:49.439 He says, as there is only one gospel, so there can, or as there is only one God, so there can only be one gospel. 00:07:50.160 --> 00:07:54.399 As there is only one God, so there can be only one gospel. 00:07:54.480 --> 00:07:57.439 And it's the gospel of God, not of man. 00:07:58.000 --> 00:08:06.480 And so as Paul works to lay this out, he starts with this that it was promised beforehand through the prophets in the Holy Scriptures. 00:08:06.639 --> 00:08:08.879 You see, this is something that isn't new. 00:08:09.120 --> 00:08:13.839 As Paul's writing to the Romans, he's saying that this isn't something that was just created. 00:08:13.920 --> 00:08:25.120 This isn't something that was just brought onto the scene of human history, this is something that has been prophesied about uh throughout the ages of time that was going to come to pass. 00:08:25.279 --> 00:08:30.720 In fact, we see the very first proclamation of the gospel from God Himself. 00:08:31.199 --> 00:08:37.600 This shows the ownership that God has in the gospel, of it being his own plan of redemption. 00:08:37.759 --> 00:08:44.639 When we look all the way back to Genesis chapter 3, we see something that theologians call the proto-evangelion. 00:08:44.720 --> 00:08:47.679 This is the first proclamation of the gospel. 00:08:47.919 --> 00:08:53.759 As man has uh disobeyed God and they've ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. 00:08:53.919 --> 00:08:57.200 God comes in and he starts cursing man and cursing woman. 00:08:57.279 --> 00:09:07.440 He curses man that he has to work by the sweat of his brow, curses woman in pain and childbirth, but but also he curses the serpent that deceived them. 00:09:07.919 --> 00:09:13.039 And he says to the serpent that this there's gonna be a seed that comes from this woman, singular seed. 00:09:13.120 --> 00:09:16.320 There's gonna be a child that comes from this woman. 00:09:16.559 --> 00:09:20.720 You will bruise his heel, but he will crush your head. 00:09:21.360 --> 00:09:22.799 That's the gospel. 00:09:23.440 --> 00:09:30.960 That's the promise that Adam failed in his ability to protect, provide, and pastor Eve. 00:09:31.039 --> 00:09:32.480 So we needed a second Adam. 00:09:32.639 --> 00:09:34.320 We needed a true head crusher. 00:09:34.399 --> 00:09:36.879 If we look at the sin of Adam, where did he sin? 00:09:37.039 --> 00:09:39.759 He failed to cut off the head of the snake. 00:09:40.320 --> 00:09:41.759 Men, let that be a lesson to you. 00:09:41.840 --> 00:09:48.480 As we're called to be pastors, protectors, providers, we have to cut off the head of the snake that tries to come into our home. 00:09:48.639 --> 00:09:58.159 As sin tries to come in, as the enemy tries to come in, we have to be the first ones to say no, to go at war against that which tempts us away from the heart of God. 00:09:58.320 --> 00:10:01.919 That's what Adam failed to do, but Christ wouldn't. 00:10:02.320 --> 00:10:07.919 Christ would be the second Adam, the true and better Adam, the head crusher that was promised to us. 00:10:09.679 --> 00:10:17.279 Some theologians and historians present more than 400 prophecies in the Old Testament about Christ. 00:10:17.519 --> 00:10:21.279 More than 400 of them, and Christ fulfilled them. 00:10:21.759 --> 00:10:38.799 These prophecies, uh, Paul goes on to say, were concerning his son, who was descended from David according to the flesh, of the lineage of David, David from the flesh, his humanity and literal natural birth, even though it was through supernatural virgin birth. 00:10:39.039 --> 00:10:41.360 So this is where we get this kind of creedal response. 00:10:41.440 --> 00:10:45.279 Paul's getting ready to go out, and he's saying this was promised beforehand through the scriptures. 00:10:45.519 --> 00:10:50.559 All of this was concerning his son, Jesus, who was born of the lineage of David, right? 00:10:50.639 --> 00:10:56.480 He's walking us through, and he says, He was declared to be the Son of God in power. 00:10:57.120 --> 00:10:59.360 Now, this isn't a making, right? 00:10:59.440 --> 00:11:03.919 When Christ was resurrected from the dead, he didn't become Christ. 00:11:04.080 --> 00:11:10.159 Uh, declared to be the Son of God in power is an actualization, a realization of who he was. 00:11:10.320 --> 00:11:15.840 This was a definitive statement that Christ was who he claimed to be. 00:11:17.200 --> 00:11:26.639 So he was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the spirit of holiness that's through the Holy Spirit by his resurrection from the dead. 00:11:26.960 --> 00:11:32.879 So, so this resurrection that Paul talks about, that Paul bases his whole ministry upon. 00:11:33.039 --> 00:11:38.559 Paul says that if Christ Jesus did not raise from the dead, then what are we doing here? 00:11:39.039 --> 00:11:41.120 We're to be most pitied above all people. 00:11:41.440 --> 00:11:49.679 If Jesus is still dead in a tomb somewhere, if you can go and visit his ossuary, then what in the world are we doing here? 00:11:49.919 --> 00:12:03.759 And so he he banks all of his ministry, all of his sacrifices, even the future martyrdom of his own body, on the fact that Jesus got up out of the tomb, was resurrected from the dead. 00:12:04.480 --> 00:12:10.000 This is the full evidence of Christ is who Christ said he would be. 00:12:10.080 --> 00:12:12.480 And this is where Paul leans into that. 00:12:12.639 --> 00:12:18.879 That he is, this is, he says, this definitive statement, this is Jesus Christ our Lord. 00:12:19.120 --> 00:12:23.919 Jesus, Son of Man, Christ, Son of God, Lord, King over all creation. 00:12:25.679 --> 00:12:36.000 Verse 5, he then says, okay, so because Christ came, he was he was prophesied, he was foretold that he was coming, he was born, he came, he resurrected from the dead. 00:12:36.159 --> 00:12:39.039 Now Paul says, What did that accomplish for us? 00:12:39.200 --> 00:12:51.360 In verse 5, he says, Through whom, speaking of Jesus, we've received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations. 00:12:51.759 --> 00:12:58.240 Paul says this that the purpose of Christ's coming is for the obedience of faith. 00:12:59.279 --> 00:13:00.399 Obedience of faith. 00:13:00.480 --> 00:13:03.919 Now those things seem contradictory to one another, don't they? 00:13:04.559 --> 00:13:12.159 Obedience doesn't seem very faith-filled, and oftentimes we think of faith as not needing or requiring obedience. 00:13:12.639 --> 00:13:16.960 If we just have enough faith, then it doesn't really matter how we act or behave, right? 00:13:17.120 --> 00:13:22.000 Or if we just do enough good, we really don't need that much faith. 00:13:22.559 --> 00:13:26.559 But Paul says, no, it's the obedience of faith. 00:13:26.720 --> 00:13:31.039 Our obedience is to be demonstrated in a life of faith. 00:13:31.360 --> 00:13:36.559 Because faith transforms the heart to actually desire such obedience. 00:13:36.799 --> 00:13:38.960 You see, that's the difference that we have to understand. 00:13:39.120 --> 00:13:45.360 The law demands not simply outward obedience, but done so with inward joy. 00:13:46.240 --> 00:13:56.320 You see, many of us, and we'll get to this later in this in the sermon, but but we obey not out of joy, but out of coercion, out of fear. 00:13:57.279 --> 00:13:59.120 We don't want to go to hell, right? 00:13:59.679 --> 00:14:03.440 Nobody would really raise their hand and say, I want to go to hell. 00:14:04.320 --> 00:14:05.759 Maybe some of you would. 00:14:05.840 --> 00:14:07.200 Um we'll talk afterward. 00:14:07.360 --> 00:14:08.480 I'll be in the lobby. 00:14:08.639 --> 00:14:13.600 But um, many of us would not just raise their hand and say, I want to go to hell, right? 00:14:13.759 --> 00:14:14.639 And so what do we do? 00:14:14.799 --> 00:14:27.039 There's a measure where our obedience is actually out of fear, it's actually out of coercion, it's actually trying to avoid the judgment and wrath of God if we believe hell is real in the first place. 00:14:27.919 --> 00:14:36.559 But what God demands is not obedience so that we actually miss penalty or we miss judgment. 00:14:36.879 --> 00:14:39.919 God demands obedience out of joy. 00:14:40.799 --> 00:14:45.360 Because it's not about just the things we do, it's about the reasons we do them. 00:14:45.600 --> 00:14:48.320 You see, that Jesus always raised the bar on sin. 00:14:48.399 --> 00:14:53.840 A lot of us, when we look at Jesus and our relationship with him, we typically think that he's gonna lower the bar, right? 00:14:54.000 --> 00:15:04.240 All I have to do is say this prayer, or all I have to do is believe in Jesus, and then I've escaped the penalty of hell, and I get to just kind of live whatever one, because isn't God loving and isn't God gracious? 00:15:04.320 --> 00:15:06.399 Like, aren't those two things true? 00:15:07.120 --> 00:15:10.240 But see, Jesus never actually lowered the bar on our sin. 00:15:10.480 --> 00:15:12.320 Jesus, throughout his ministry, raised the bar. 00:15:12.480 --> 00:15:19.519 When it was questioned to him about what does adultery look like, he said, Look, I'm not saying just when you sleep with another person, that's adultery. 00:15:19.679 --> 00:15:24.080 I'm saying when in your heart you even desire to do it, you've already sinned. 00:15:24.799 --> 00:15:30.639 You see, that's the difference between outward obedience and inward joy to that obedience. 00:15:31.120 --> 00:15:35.440 You've heard it said that if you murder someone, right, then there's this penalty that follows it. 00:15:35.519 --> 00:15:38.879 But I tell you, if you just hate your brother, you've already murdered him in your heart. 00:15:39.679 --> 00:15:44.639 Christ doesn't just deal with our outward actions, but we constantly do that in the church. 00:15:44.960 --> 00:15:54.240 We constantly deal with the outward behavior of ourselves and others rather than asking a better question is why did you even want to do it in the first place? 00:15:55.919 --> 00:15:58.799 Why are where would where did that desire come from? 00:15:59.039 --> 00:16:00.639 Where did that longing come from? 00:16:00.799 --> 00:16:03.600 Where did that where did that come from? 00:16:05.519 --> 00:16:11.519 You see, obedience without joyful desire is dead religion. 00:16:13.279 --> 00:16:18.240 Obedience without faith has no power to save us. 00:16:20.000 --> 00:16:25.759 Paul comes in in verse 8 and kind of greets those in Rome all the way through 15. 00:16:25.840 --> 00:16:34.879 And so, to give us some historical context of what's happening in Rome, one of his things that we have to understand Paul at this point had not got to visit these people. 00:16:35.039 --> 00:16:41.279 This isn't a physical plant that Paul actually established himself or started himself. 00:16:41.600 --> 00:16:50.080 Now, the the throughout the New Testament, there's all kinds of churches that Paul helped establish and appoint leaders and disciple and train and go on to the next thing. 00:16:50.159 --> 00:16:51.360 But Rome was not one of those things. 00:16:51.440 --> 00:16:55.039 But Paul was called to be the apostle to the Gentiles. 00:16:55.200 --> 00:16:59.279 And so Rome was full of Gentile people, these Greeks. 00:16:59.519 --> 00:17:03.759 But also there was Romans there, uh there was Jews there as well. 00:17:03.919 --> 00:17:06.640 And so what happened is there was this dispersion. 00:17:06.720 --> 00:17:15.200 There's this uh the Jews in Rome had to be removed under Emperor Claudius, that they came back over a period of time later. 00:17:15.359 --> 00:17:23.119 And so these Christians who were Jewish Christians and these other Christians who were Greek Christians started to build one church together. 00:17:23.279 --> 00:17:28.240 And there was all this confusion about well, how do we obtain righteousness? 00:17:28.400 --> 00:17:30.720 What is the right way of which we should live? 00:17:30.880 --> 00:17:34.240 How does one go about serving Christ? 00:17:34.640 --> 00:17:43.519 And so Paul had heard about these things, and his heart to be a pastor was causing him to write to them to encourage them. 00:17:43.599 --> 00:17:51.759 So when we look at summary verses 8 through 15, we see that Paul demonstrates a pastor's heart to encourage and be encouraged. 00:17:52.400 --> 00:18:01.440 He wants to write to them and to encourage them in their faith, to be able to sharpen them from a distance theologically or and to train them in the gospel. 00:18:01.519 --> 00:18:05.759 But then he says this very key statement that he wants to be encouraged as well. 00:18:05.920 --> 00:18:13.759 Verse 12, that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith, both yours and mine. 00:18:14.319 --> 00:18:18.160 You see, Paul saw himself as a Christian above all else. 00:18:18.480 --> 00:18:25.519 Not just this apostle that that needed to come in and fix everything right, but he saw himself above all else as a Christian. 00:18:25.680 --> 00:18:26.960 He needed to be encouraged. 00:18:27.039 --> 00:18:33.599 He was one who wanted to celebrate and have joy over the faith that he had heard about in Rome. 00:18:33.759 --> 00:18:38.960 He wanted to experience it firsthand and be a key player in it. 00:18:39.279 --> 00:18:42.960 And what he saw is that they were missing the gospel. 00:18:44.079 --> 00:18:47.759 The church in Rome was missing the gospel, both the Greeks and the Jews. 00:18:47.920 --> 00:18:49.920 They were getting it wrong. 00:18:50.240 --> 00:18:53.200 And so he says to them, I I long, I've heard about your faith. 00:18:53.359 --> 00:19:02.559 I've wanted to come and visit with you many times, but but let me tell you this from a distance, before I get there, I'm eager to preach the gospel. 00:19:03.519 --> 00:19:07.839 I'm either I'm eager to preach the gospel to you who are in Roman. 00:19:08.000 --> 00:19:14.000 This is what's key for us is that Paul doesn't ever see the gospel as something we go beyond. 00:19:15.039 --> 00:19:19.039 You see, he talks about that he he's he's encouraged by their faith. 00:19:19.200 --> 00:19:20.319 He's heard of their faith. 00:19:20.400 --> 00:19:23.359 In his prayers, he thanks God for the faith which they have. 00:19:23.519 --> 00:19:31.680 They've received the gospel enough to identify themselves as Christians, to gather together as God's people, to establish a church. 00:19:31.839 --> 00:19:36.240 But Paul's saying, I'm eager to come to you to preach the gospel. 00:19:36.400 --> 00:19:47.440 Us as Christians, we think so often that the gospel is some starting line that we go beyond into deeper or more uh uh secret things of faith. 00:19:47.519 --> 00:19:52.559 But but Paul shows us very clearly here, we don't get to go beyond the gospel. 00:19:53.119 --> 00:19:59.039 Because I would argue that every time we've sought to go beyond the gospel, we've gotten away from it completely. 00:20:01.519 --> 00:20:07.119 And what we have to constantly do is fight to come back to that anchor. 00:20:08.559 --> 00:20:19.519 And here we go in verses 16 through 17, the closing of his opening statement in his letter to the Romans, we see that the gospel reveals the righteousness of God. 00:20:20.799 --> 00:20:24.720 The gospel reveals the righteousness of God. 00:20:25.039 --> 00:20:28.240 Why does Paul transition this way in the letter? 00:20:28.559 --> 00:20:36.160 Right there at the top of verse uh uh 16, he says, For I am not ashamed of the gospel. 00:20:37.039 --> 00:20:42.319 Why is he making that argument or that statement so early in the letter? 00:20:42.640 --> 00:21:00.480 Because he knows who he's writing to has such uh equity in their works, of how they live their life, of the works that they do, of the of the of from the from the Jewish Christians of the Torah of which they obey, from the Greek Christians, from the way that they've now lived their lives and the wisdom that they have. 00:21:00.559 --> 00:21:11.839 And Paul's gonna explain to them very clearly it is not about your works, it's not about your wisdom, it's not about anything that you have, it's about the gospel alone. 00:21:12.480 --> 00:21:16.079 I'm not ashamed of the gospel, Paul says. 00:21:16.240 --> 00:21:17.359 Why is he not ashamed? 00:21:17.519 --> 00:21:23.519 Because it alone is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. 00:21:25.200 --> 00:21:34.880 The gospel is what the church in Rome needed most, and he longs to preach the gospel to them because only in the gospel is true salvation. 00:21:35.839 --> 00:21:42.400 You see, you and I, we can only be saved through perfect righteousness. 00:21:42.799 --> 00:21:44.480 That's what God demands. 00:21:44.799 --> 00:21:50.640 God demands utterly perfect righteousness to be in relationship with Him. 00:21:50.880 --> 00:21:53.440 That's the only way that we can be saved. 00:21:53.599 --> 00:21:57.759 Without perfect righteousness, we are hopelessly damned. 00:21:59.359 --> 00:22:01.839 That's what Paul gives them hope in. 00:22:02.640 --> 00:22:03.680 It is the gospel. 00:22:03.839 --> 00:22:13.119 Verse 17 for in it, speaking of the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, the righteous shall live by faith. 00:22:13.200 --> 00:22:15.839 So how is righteousness attributed to us? 00:22:16.640 --> 00:22:23.200 Not by our efforts, not by our works, not by our obedience, but by faith. 00:22:23.599 --> 00:22:24.799 Faith alone. 00:22:26.079 --> 00:22:29.440 Paul is not ashamed of the gospel. 00:22:32.160 --> 00:22:33.839 Because he understands its power. 00:22:34.000 --> 00:22:36.880 He understands its necessity for the church in Rome. 00:22:37.839 --> 00:22:41.279 He says this to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 00:22:41.680 --> 00:22:45.839 Think about the way that Paul is engaging with this Roman church. 00:22:46.160 --> 00:22:49.680 The Jewish people believed wholeheartedly that they were the chosen people of God. 00:22:49.839 --> 00:22:52.079 They were the ones who received the law, right? 00:22:52.160 --> 00:22:54.720 And we're even going to see this in the next coming chapters. 00:22:54.880 --> 00:22:56.880 They were the ones who the promises of God were given. 00:22:57.039 --> 00:23:04.400 They were whom the law was revealed to, and they're the ones that are working as hard as they possibly can to uphold every single bit of it. 00:23:04.559 --> 00:23:06.880 So they would think that they don't need the gospel. 00:23:07.279 --> 00:23:08.960 They're not the ones that are in need of this thing. 00:23:09.039 --> 00:23:10.559 The Gentiles need something else. 00:23:10.799 --> 00:23:12.640 We are the chosen people of God. 00:23:12.720 --> 00:23:14.000 We have his promises. 00:23:14.160 --> 00:23:16.960 But Paul says, You want to know who the gospel is primarily for? 00:23:17.200 --> 00:23:18.160 To you first. 00:23:19.519 --> 00:23:27.519 You who think that you're the chosen, the promise, you need the gospel first, and then to the Greek. 00:23:27.759 --> 00:23:33.039 Because Paul's helping us see that there's one gospel for all humanity. 00:23:33.440 --> 00:23:46.319 Ephesians 4, 5 through 6, Paul writes to the church at Ephesus: there's one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in you all. 00:23:46.480 --> 00:23:47.680 There is no other. 00:23:49.680 --> 00:24:13.680 In all of our experience with religion and all of our attempts to try and create and fabricate other ways to God throughout the scriptures, if we're going to have any belief that this word of God is truth and authoritative in the way that we live our lives, then we cannot come out on the other side of that with this multiple pluralist way of getting to God. 00:24:13.759 --> 00:24:25.519 Because from Genesis to Revelation, we see a clear understanding that there is one God, one faith, one baptism, one way through Jesus Christ his Son. 00:24:26.559 --> 00:24:28.799 Paul's not ashamed of the gospel. 00:24:46.559 --> 00:24:56.319 For in it, speaking of the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, the righteous shall live by faith. 00:24:56.480 --> 00:24:59.920 You see, this was Luther's conversion from this verse. 00:25:00.640 --> 00:25:04.960 And he was battling this culture of obedience. 00:25:05.200 --> 00:25:17.279 He was battling this reality where the Catholic Church had come in and created these indulgences to be able to purchase righteousness or right standing with God. 00:25:17.519 --> 00:25:29.359 You see, to give some historical context to Luther and why this verse meant so much to him was that the Catholic Church had put on their people these burdens that no one could truly carry. 00:25:29.680 --> 00:25:37.119 You had to work your way to get out of hell, to get out of purgatory, and be in paradise with God forever. 00:25:37.359 --> 00:25:41.200 And so you had to, uh they made it to where you could go and visit relics. 00:25:41.359 --> 00:25:51.839 You could go on these long pilgrimages to see Mary's breast milk or to touch John the Baptist's beard or to be able to get uh pants from Joseph. 00:25:52.160 --> 00:25:55.359 All these different relics that were fabricated and made up. 00:25:55.519 --> 00:26:00.480 They would prop up and build churches around them, and you'd have to make these pilgrimages to go and touch them. 00:26:00.640 --> 00:26:08.319 You have to pay to touch them, first off, uh, and then be able to actually uh uh have part of your sins forgiven you. 00:26:08.480 --> 00:26:11.839 But then the Catholic Church found themselves in quite the predicament. 00:26:12.240 --> 00:26:13.680 They wanted to build St. 00:26:13.839 --> 00:26:16.400 Peter's Basilica and they ran out of money. 00:26:16.640 --> 00:26:17.680 So what did they do? 00:26:17.839 --> 00:26:19.200 They made up a heresy. 00:26:19.359 --> 00:26:22.079 When you have when you're short on cash, that's the first thing you do. 00:26:22.319 --> 00:26:23.519 Make up a heresy. 00:26:23.759 --> 00:26:34.400 Uh and what they did is they said, if you give an X amount of money to us, we will write a certificate that says you and your loved ones are released from purgatory. 00:26:34.960 --> 00:26:36.079 That's how they built St. 00:26:36.160 --> 00:26:37.599 Peter's Basilica. 00:26:38.079 --> 00:26:51.200 Through exploiting people's fears, the grief over their loved ones, that if you just pay us enough money, we'll write a certificate, they'll be free, you'll be good to go. 00:26:52.160 --> 00:26:55.200 This is what Luther raged against. 00:26:55.920 --> 00:27:08.960 But this is also the burden that he found himself under because he did not know any other way until he read 117 that the righteous shall live by faith, not by works. 00:27:09.359 --> 00:27:16.640 You see, God's righteousness is revealed not by works done from coercion or fear, but through faith in the gospel. 00:27:17.039 --> 00:27:19.279 This is the great exchange of imputation. 00:27:19.440 --> 00:27:24.960 You see, you and I, we can never meet God's standards of righteousness in our obedience. 00:27:25.279 --> 00:27:30.960 You and I know even the good things that we do at times are not done from good motives. 00:27:31.279 --> 00:27:46.319 You and I know that when we lay our head down at night, the things that we thought, the things that we wanted to say but held back, the things that we wanted to do but didn't, maybe on the outside we were of good works, but we know our hearts and minds and the stillness of the night. 00:27:46.480 --> 00:27:47.119 We know. 00:27:48.240 --> 00:27:52.000 We can't live up to the righteousness of which God calls us to. 00:27:52.079 --> 00:28:22.079 But this is what we have to understand about the gospel: this great exchange that happened on the cross, where Christ, who lived in perfect righteousness and obedience to the Father in every aspect of his life, both in outward obedience and inward joy, gives to us his righteousness, accounted to us, credited to us, so that we might be right standing with God the Father, and he takes on himself all of our sin. 00:28:23.200 --> 00:28:25.279 This is the great exchange of the gospel. 00:28:25.599 --> 00:28:38.319 This is what we put our hope in, that Christ is sufficient, that Christ is efficient, and that he gives to us every ounce of righteousness of which he obtained in his perfect life of obedience. 00:28:38.480 --> 00:28:40.640 Without that, we have no hope. 00:28:41.440 --> 00:28:50.960 Without that, we have nothing but sorrow, agony, grief, and a burden that we cannot lift ourselves from out under. 00:28:53.200 --> 00:28:59.200 So the main idea of this introductory letter is really a call of the reformation. 00:28:59.440 --> 00:29:02.480 Sola fide, faith alone. 00:29:04.079 --> 00:29:07.200 The reformation established these five solas. 00:29:07.440 --> 00:29:13.119 This was this kind of anthem of the reformation that helped them understand what they were fighting for. 00:29:13.440 --> 00:29:17.599 And one of the things that they were fighting for is sola fide, faith alone. 00:29:17.759 --> 00:29:22.559 It is by faith and faith alone that we are saved through the gospel. 00:29:23.039 --> 00:29:38.079 It's not about how good we are, it's not about what we do, it's not about what we obey or don't obey, it's not about anything of the conduct of our life because there's nothing that we can do that will merit for us God's love, his favor, his blessing. 00:29:38.319 --> 00:29:50.640 All of that is contingent upon two things: his own free choosing of you to be one of his children, and Christ's perfect accomplishment of every standard that heaven set. 00:29:51.519 --> 00:29:52.640 That's it. 00:29:53.039 --> 00:29:56.079 We can't add anything to that. 00:29:56.640 --> 00:29:58.559 But we try to do this all the time. 00:29:58.720 --> 00:30:09.920 The church constantly gets caught up in this reality or of this false uh notion that our works somehow save us or produce more righteousness in us. 00:30:10.000 --> 00:30:19.680 And we have to fight for, as the church, faith alone, because when we try to add anything to the gospel, we completely eradicate it of all of its power. 00:30:19.759 --> 00:30:32.640 Because when we put uh being baptized to the gospel, when we put how you dress or what music you listen to to the gospel, when we put how much you go to church or or these other things as contingents to the gospel, then you know what we do? 00:30:32.799 --> 00:30:36.400 We are simply saying Christ is insufficient. 00:30:37.759 --> 00:30:43.759 What damning, condemning heresy that is. 00:30:44.160 --> 00:30:51.839 That Christ somehow needs you and I to make up for the difference of what he couldn't accomplish in his own self. 00:30:53.200 --> 00:30:54.799 You see, it's faith alone. 00:30:54.960 --> 00:31:00.960 There's not anything else that we can do in our lives that adds to the finished work of Christ. 00:31:01.039 --> 00:31:05.839 And when we try to do that as the church, I'm not saying that there's not a demand for obedience. 00:31:06.000 --> 00:31:09.680 I'm not saying that there's not a demand to for conformity to the image of Christ. 00:31:09.920 --> 00:31:10.960 I'm saying that's there. 00:31:11.039 --> 00:31:15.039 But I'm saying it's with joy, it's with a changed heart, it's with faith first. 00:31:15.119 --> 00:31:20.480 And you don't do those things to earn God's love or earn his favor or earn his blessing. 00:31:20.640 --> 00:31:22.960 You do them because you already have. 00:31:24.000 --> 00:31:26.160 And so it's a different heart posture. 00:31:26.319 --> 00:31:28.559 I don't work and toil to escape hell. 00:31:28.720 --> 00:31:34.240 I work and toil in joy because God uh snatched me out of it. 00:31:37.039 --> 00:31:43.359 And when we try to add works to our salvation, we empty the gospel. 00:31:43.680 --> 00:31:44.880 We empty the gospel of all. 00:31:45.599 --> 00:31:56.960 Paul fought this in Galatians, the reformers fought this in the 1500s against the Catholic Church, and there's times and areas, even in today's church culture, that we have to fight it now. 00:31:59.680 --> 00:32:06.799 Solophide, faith alone is stated to be the article by which the church stands or falls. 00:32:07.759 --> 00:32:11.519 This one point of theology. 00:32:12.880 --> 00:32:15.119 Are we saved by how good we are? 00:32:16.079 --> 00:32:18.799 Or are we saved by faith and faith alone? 00:32:18.960 --> 00:32:23.279 You see, a lot of us we believe that we're actually saved through our works. 00:32:23.599 --> 00:32:27.279 This is a part of the the false notion that we have in our understanding. 00:32:27.440 --> 00:32:34.559 If we look at our story and the way that we engage with God and in a relationship with Him, we believe that we are saved by our works. 00:32:34.640 --> 00:32:36.319 And this is a this is a constant theme. 00:32:36.400 --> 00:32:40.640 If you talk to people, right, you'll hear language of like, oh, they're a good person. 00:32:40.799 --> 00:32:41.920 They're good enough. 00:32:42.079 --> 00:32:43.440 Uh uh Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. 00:32:43.920 --> 00:32:48.960 And like what you're saying is like they don't rob banks or or do bad things like that. 00:32:49.039 --> 00:32:50.319 They're good people, right? 00:32:50.480 --> 00:32:56.000 Um, and what we're saying is a person saved by their works. 00:32:56.559 --> 00:33:13.599 And this is in the in the unbelieving world, as we we seek to have relationship with people who aren't trying to understand their relationship with God, there's gonna be this notion or this reality that one, God is so loving and so good that he would not do that to somebody. 00:33:13.759 --> 00:33:19.359 And then on the backside of that, but this person is good enough to make it. 00:33:19.920 --> 00:33:21.839 And what is that good enough? 00:33:22.000 --> 00:33:23.359 Where is that bar? 00:33:24.400 --> 00:33:27.200 You and I cannot discover that because it doesn't exist. 00:33:27.279 --> 00:33:33.759 It's perfect, it's so the bar is so high that you and I could never even begin to get close to touching it. 00:33:33.839 --> 00:33:36.880 And and but we do this constantly of, oh, they're good enough. 00:33:36.960 --> 00:33:38.640 Well, what does that mean? 00:33:39.039 --> 00:33:40.559 Where is the measuring stick? 00:33:40.720 --> 00:33:47.680 You know, for some religions, if we look at certain areas of Islam, they're accounted the work if they just thought about doing it. 00:33:47.759 --> 00:33:54.240 So, like, I thought about taking my neighbors some groceries, didn't do it, but thought about it, so it was accounted to me as if I did. 00:33:54.960 --> 00:33:57.119 Literally, some Islamic people believe that. 00:33:57.279 --> 00:33:58.160 Wonderful, cool. 00:33:58.319 --> 00:34:07.359 Uh, some believe that you have to go to such radical memes at the expense of other people's lives, or else you're not counted worthy to enter paradise. 00:34:07.680 --> 00:34:08.800 Where's the bar? 00:34:09.039 --> 00:34:10.960 What bar are you gonna choose? 00:34:12.159 --> 00:34:18.480 You see, we don't know the bar, and the world is searching for that bar throughout every other religion. 00:34:18.559 --> 00:34:24.960 It doesn't matter how you search the earth, every other religion is formed on this one principle. 00:34:25.519 --> 00:34:28.320 Do enough good, get salvation. 00:34:29.679 --> 00:34:34.559 Call it Judaism, call it Islam, call it whatever you want to call it. 00:34:34.800 --> 00:34:38.400 Every other religion is do enough good, get salvation. 00:34:38.719 --> 00:34:39.840 But where's the standard? 00:34:40.000 --> 00:34:41.360 Where's the bar in that? 00:34:41.599 --> 00:34:42.639 They don't know. 00:34:42.880 --> 00:34:46.239 All they do is hope they did good enough in the end of their life. 00:34:46.719 --> 00:34:53.679 The gospel and the gospel alone says you can't do it good enough, so Christ will do it for you. 00:34:55.119 --> 00:34:58.000 And that's the foolishness of the gospel. 00:34:58.960 --> 00:35:01.199 That's the stumbling block of the gospel. 00:35:01.280 --> 00:35:02.239 This is what Paul's saying. 00:35:02.400 --> 00:35:04.559 I'm not ashamed of the gospel. 00:35:04.719 --> 00:35:13.360 I'm not ashamed to tell you that there's nothing that you can do that is going to earn God's love for you, favor for you, blessing for you. 00:35:13.519 --> 00:35:16.400 It is only in Christ's finished work. 00:35:16.559 --> 00:35:21.199 The fact that Christ died and resurrected from the dead, that's his opening statement. 00:35:21.360 --> 00:35:30.480 That fact that he has brought us in relationship to God the Father through that power is the only hope we have for salvation. 00:35:31.119 --> 00:35:33.039 Paul's not ashamed of it. 00:35:34.400 --> 00:35:41.119 And so many of us go throughout this whole life that we believe that we're gonna be actually saved by our works. 00:35:41.199 --> 00:35:42.719 And we fall into that pit too. 00:35:42.800 --> 00:35:45.280 Maybe because we're actually ashamed of the gospel. 00:35:46.000 --> 00:35:52.559 Many of us will say, Oh, yeah, he was a good man, he was a good person, or she was a good woman, or whatever we might be. 00:35:52.639 --> 00:36:01.599 And we're what we're really doing is we're passively damning people because we're ashamed of the consequences of preaching the gospel. 00:36:01.920 --> 00:36:04.800 The Bible says, no one's good enough, no, not one. 00:36:07.119 --> 00:36:08.559 That's why we needed Jesus. 00:36:08.719 --> 00:36:13.679 If we look at the whole history of Christ and his coming, why did we need Jesus? 00:36:13.920 --> 00:36:17.199 Because we couldn't accomplish it on our own strength. 00:36:17.360 --> 00:36:19.519 We had no ability to. 00:36:54.079 --> 00:36:56.320 You're trying to bypass Jesus. 00:36:56.559 --> 00:36:59.679 You're trying to go at it around Him. 00:37:00.079 --> 00:37:07.440 And Christ is waiting there with His arms open saying, Stop working for something you cannot obtain. 00:37:08.719 --> 00:37:09.920 Just come to me. 00:37:10.079 --> 00:37:13.360 I've already accomplished it for you, I've already obtained it for you. 00:37:13.519 --> 00:37:16.639 I am the righteousness you are striving for. 00:37:16.880 --> 00:37:17.840 Now rest. 00:37:18.559 --> 00:37:22.000 You see, this is why Christ calls us to come and rest constantly. 00:37:22.159 --> 00:37:27.039 Why is this language of, come unto me, all you are weary and heavy laden, I will give you rest? 00:37:27.360 --> 00:37:30.079 The law causes us to be weary. 00:37:30.400 --> 00:37:36.960 The law is a heavy laden burden upon us that we've tried to fulfill and we've failed and failed and failed. 00:37:37.039 --> 00:37:41.519 And it's when we come to Christ that we come out from underneath such weight and we can rest. 00:37:42.239 --> 00:37:45.920 We can rest because he's worked and accomplished it for us. 00:37:47.599 --> 00:37:52.800 But some of us we believe that we're saved through our righteousness, our righteousness. 00:37:52.880 --> 00:38:00.960 And this is a pitfall of the church where we enter into Christianity, we enter into the church through the gospel, but then we move beyond it. 00:38:01.119 --> 00:38:10.960 And so then we think that the way that we behave or that our obedience actually merits for us or earns for us Christ's or God's blessing and favor. 00:38:11.119 --> 00:38:19.679 This is rampant in certain uh prosperity gospel movements, but the prosperity gospel has shifted to just become mainstream Instagram preaching. 00:38:20.559 --> 00:38:30.800 Where it's if you want God's favor, if you want God's blessing, if you want God to take you to the next level, if you want that breakthrough, if you want that whatever, whatever, whatever, then you have to do this. 00:38:31.199 --> 00:38:34.559 And it's an earning of God and his favor and blessing. 00:38:34.639 --> 00:38:42.960 But what we have the fullness of God's favor, we have the fullness of God's blessing, and we have the fullness of his love in Christ Jesus, in him alone. 00:38:43.679 --> 00:38:52.000 And we twist this where we enter in by means of grace, but then we make it to the finish line by works of our own righteousness. 00:38:52.880 --> 00:38:54.719 Why do we do that to ourselves? 00:38:54.880 --> 00:39:16.960 Why do so many of us enter the kingdom of God as a younger brother, riddled with sin, riddled, stained in our depravity, longing to just be brought into the home, but then two years later into our Christianity, we're elder brothers judging everyone, telling everyone to look at our obedience and our righteousness, telling everybody, look at how I'm living and you're not. 00:39:18.639 --> 00:39:20.800 This is something that plagues the modern church. 00:39:20.960 --> 00:39:24.559 This is something that plagues Christianity in today's culture. 00:39:25.280 --> 00:39:29.440 We believe God, you'll get me there, but then I need to do the rest on my own. 00:39:29.760 --> 00:39:34.000 No, we are not just saved by the gospel, but we are kept by the gospel. 00:39:34.400 --> 00:39:37.360