The Unchanging Truth

Guest (Male): Welcome to the unchanging truth, the verse by verse Bible teaching ministry of Dr. Jared Gilcher, lead pastor of Christ Community Bible Church in Arlington, Texas. Through the living and active word of God, the unchanging truth exists to encourage your soul, transform your life, and help you trust and treasure Christ as redeemer, savior, and king. Now, opening the scriptures and proclaiming the truth that never changes, here is Dr. Jared Gilcher.

Dr. Jerod Gilcher: And I remember my last sermon on Romans, I called Christ the mercy seat of God. The mercy seat of God, remember that? Cuz that's exactly what he was. And you remember the mercy seat was the place of atonement in the temple, in the holy of holies. And you also remember that the mercy seat was the lid, the cover of the ark of the covenant in which was contained the two tablets of the law. And furthermore, you also know that residing, dwelling above the ark of the covenant was the visible, literal presence of God himself in the fullness of his glory and the splendor of his majesty.

And into that room, the high priest was allowed to enter once a year with a sacrifice to make atonement for the sins of the people. And with heart pounding and hands trembling, he would take the sacrificial victim, the lamb, the bull, the goat, grab it by the head, take a knife, cut its throat, where we then thrash around in its own blood until it died. And then the high priest would take some of that blood on his hands, splash it on the mercy seat, and there make atonement. And my point is, on the cross, Jesus Christ was the human incarnation of that, of that moment.

He was the mercy seat of God, the living, breathing, bleeding mercy seat of God. And the reason why I say that is because Paul himself said that in Romans 3:25. When he called Christ the the which is the Greek translation of the word mercy seat. Because at the cross, just like the holy of holies, atonement was made and wrath was appeased and sinners were redeemed and sins were forgiven, which means the cross was the real holy of holies, wasn't it? That's why I ended my last sermon by saying with all that we have seen so far in Romans chapter 3 about the cross, we still have not yet penetrated into the deepest meaning of the cross.

Not yet. There is still deeper yet to go because in verses 25 and 26 of Romans 3, Paul reveals, get this, the the very heart of God and the deepest meaning of the cross. And what we find is that the cross has less to do with us and everything to do with God. If you've got your notes there, you can see that the title of my sermon is called the scandal of glory. The scandal of glory, how the righteous God vindicates his glory. That's the title. Because that's exactly, beloved, what the cross was for, not just the redemption of sinners, not only the comfort of our lives, not only our forgiveness, nor even as a way to get sinners to heaven, although the cross does do that.

Rather, the final end goal of the cross, listen carefully, was to vindicate the righteousness of God, to uphold his worth, to repair the infinite damage done to the glory of God which had been so wickedly profaned by the sin and evil of man of man. You see, before the cross could be for us, it had to be for God. And it was for God. The cross was for God for us too. us too. God so loved the world that he gave his only son. But God also so loved his own glory that he gave his only son.

That's Paul's point in the text. A paragraph by the way that many feel is the most important paragraph ever written in history, and I totally agree. And the reason why is because it shows the very heart of God himself and the deepest meaning of the cross. And we should care about that. We should care about that because our salvation, you understand, our salvation is not the end game of the universe. The forgiveness of our personal sins is not the ultimate meaning of existence. It's not the ultimate point of the plan. Rather, you know that we are part of a larger cosmic drama unfolding in the universe.

You and I have been swept up into the sovereign plan of salvation that has less to do with us, although it includes us. And it has everything to do with God. That's what Romans 3 is about. That's what the entire Bible is about. The supremacy of God in salvation through the son. Let me ask you a question. The greatest gift of the cross is what? What is the greatest gift of the cross? What happened at the death of Christ that makes it truly magnificent? Because I'll just tell you it wasn't merely our personal salvation as an end in itself, but rather rather it was the glory of God at the cost of his son's life, which means the greatest gift of the cross is God himself.

So, here we go. This morning, I want you to see three facts, three cosmic facts that explain the deepest meaning of the cross, three cosmic facts that explain the deepest meaning of the cross. And then we'll see 10 implications of this at the end. And so, here we go. Here we go. And actually, I want to begin with a problem, opposing of a problem. And it is a massive problem. You can see it in your notes. I call it a cosmic dilemma. Do you see that? A cosmic dilemma. And that's what it is because the problem is the problem is God is soft on sin.

God is soft on sin. He is a compromiser, or so it seems. What I mean is the way God dealt with sin for most of history, the way he overlooked sin in the world or seemed to, gave the impression that sin was small, that offending his holiness wasn't really that important, that the breaking of his law and the violation of his standard wasn't really that big of a deal. Think about it. Outside of the land of Israel for most of history, which is about a piece of real estate roughly the size of New Jersey, nobody knew that God was holy.

Nobody knew that God was righteous. Nobody knew that God was angry over sin. For all the nations knew the God of Israel was just like their God, capricious, whimsical, unjust, not very serious about sin and and certainly not a God whose glory whose splendor is so majestic that it deserves an infinite punishment. Nobody knew this. God just let the sinners of the world be sinners. And he let his glory be trampled. And nobody knew that God is lofty, exalted, matchless, and supreme. And that 's a problem. That's a problem. That's a dilemma because here's the thing.

If sin is small, then God is small. If sin against God isn't that big of a deal, then God himself isn't that big of a deal. Do you see? Because you would agree, would you not, that sin belittles the glory of God? Romans 3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. The very least that means is that because of sin, we fail to glorify God the way that we should. And and you see, follow me now. If God seems to condone the infinite dishonor heaped upon him by the sin of man, then it seems that God agrees.

He seems to agree with man that his glory is trivial, that the disgrace of his name and the trading of his glory doesn't really matter at the end. And if sin doesn't matter, then God doesn't matter. Just think about it. Adam and Eve. Really? A pair of leather pants makes up for what they did? God just forgives them and accepts them after leaking sin into the world? Or the sacrificial system, really? Lambs and bulls and goats, that repairs the infinite damage done to the glory of God? Or King David? Really? Adultery, betrayal, deception, and murder.

And he says I'm sorry. And it's all okay. Just like that. Adultery, murder just passed over. No jail time, no execution, no going to hell. He wasn't even fired from being the king. It looks flippant. Like sin isn't serious. Like it's not a big deal. And if it's not a big deal, then God is not a big deal. Do you follow here? We have not sufficiently grappled with Psalm 103 verse 10. He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. I mean, we love that verse and we should and we should, but it means but it means from Adam until the cross, God just passed over billions and billions and billions of his people's sins like they were no big deal.

A cop who never arrests criminals clearly shows that the law he is hired to protect is of little worth. Right? The judge who never condemns the guilty shows that justice and society as a whole is not worth it to protect it. Life is not precious, clearly. How many of these men who are called to uphold the law shrug their shoulders, wink at sin, turn a blind eye? They show how little worth the law is they are called to protect. But the king, the king who brings the wicked into the public square, puts their head in a guillotine, calls the city to watch and gives the order for their execution.

That is a king who cares about righteousness. That is a king who cares about holiness, that justice will be done and the guilty will be punished. And the point is, stay with me, for most of history, the way God dealt with sin or didn't deal with sin seemed to call his righteousness into question. Age upon age, generation after generation, God seemed to treat sin like it was no big deal. Here it is until the cross, until the murder of his son, until the public execution of the God man Jesus Christ, then the righteous God set the record straight, didn't he?

That that much. Sin matters that much. My glory matters that much. That is what it took to repair my righteous reputation. I've said it lots of times that the deepest dilemma in the universe is how do hell deserving sinners get reconciled to God as the treasure of their soul. Right? And that's true, but there is a dilemma still deeper than that. And the dilemma is is how can God find sinners not guilty without dropping the charges? Or to use the words of verse 26, how can God be both just and the one who justifies the guilty?

And what's the answer? Say it out loud. What's the answer? It is the cross. That is the answer. I mean, it's incredible. Don't you think that that God ordained a dilemma that only the death of his son could resolve? That God predestined a problem that only the murder of his son could repair? Not just our redemption, not just our salvation, which is massive, but God's vindication and reputation. And that is the burden of Romans chapter three. And I want you to feel that burden. This should matter to us. This should mean everything to us. Cuz we care, don't we?

We we not always in a bad way, but we care what people think about us. It matters to us that that our reputation be upheld, that we not be maligned, that we not be misrepresented, that we not be slandered. We care about how we're perceived. And and to a certain level, that's fine and that's good and we totally should, but it should matter infinitely more to us that God be worshipped and adored, that people see him for the treasure that he is, that he be rightly represented because that is the deepest meaning of the cross.

To repair the infinite damage done to the glory of God. So, here we go. Cosmic fact number one, cosmic fact number one, the intention of Christ's death. The intention of Christ's death, that was all introduction. You're welcome. Starting in verse 21. But now but now Paul says, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been manifested being witnessed by the law and the prophets. And there's that phrase. Look at the text. There's that phrase, the righteousness of God. Do you see that? That is the most important phrase in the entire letter to the Romans because what that is is the solution for sin.

That's what sinners need to be reconciled to God, the righteousness of God because you remember the problem. God is righteous and we are not. In the cosmic court of the king, we were all born legally, officially, judicially, and cosmically condemned. And you know that the filthy rags of righteous deeds were never going to cut it. Right? Good deeds are the sin soaked good deeds of a sinner, they don't have the leverage, they don't have the buying power to to appease the wrath of God or redeem our soul. Right? And yet in his love, God made a way to find sinners not guilty without dropping the charges.

God made a way where his very righteousness could be transferred to our account, cancel our guilt, and we be counted righteous and reconciled to God. That is the doctrine of justification. Does that sound familiar? That is what sinners need. And yet the question is how does it work? How do we how do we get the righteousness of God? Verse 22. Even the righteousness of God, here it is, through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe. There it is. The righteous God made a way to righteously righteously the unrighteous to declare them righteous and adopt them as sons.

And you can see it there. Faith is the means. Faith in Christ is how we get the righteousness of God credited to us, which is massive. Faith is massive. In fact, it is so massive, I'm going to preach an entire message next week on what faith is because when we put our faith in Christ, all the riches of redemption bought with his blood, including his very righteousness, became ours in full. Which is why Paul says at the end of verse 22, the righteousness from God is noticed for all those who believed. Do you see that?

It's for those who believe, which means it is a gift. It is given. It is imputed. It is credited. It is transferred to our account. And now the father sees us with the very righteousness of his son. Which means no more guilt and no more wrath counted righteous, reconciled to God. That's astonishing. But it sounds crazy, right? It sounds crazy. We've wrestled with this a number of times. How how can God pretend that we are righteous when the opposite is true? Right? And furthermore, how does the perfect obedience of another, namely Christ, get transferred to our account?

It's just pretend. It's just monopoly money. We're just we're just making this up. It seems kind of weird. And I said this before. Justification is only weird if we divorce it from the actual historical transaction of the cross. Right? In other words, if we forget the wrath bearing sacrifice of Christ that made justification even possible, it's going to feel like pretend, but it's not pretend. It's not a legal fiction. This is real. Look at verses 24 and 25. And this is the most important text on the cross in the whole Bible. He says we are justified as a gift by his grace.

Notice through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, whom God publicly displayed as a propitiation. There's that word mercy seat through faith in his blood. And that was a lot, but I hope you saw I hope you saw redemption and propitiation because those two things made justification even possible. Redemption is a ransom price. Propitiation satisfies the wrath of God. We were bought with a price that satisfied the wrath of God. And when we put our faith in Christ, the wrath and guilt for sin was gone and we received the righteousness of Christ. In other words, redemption plus propitiation equals our justification.

Do you see? And that's why it's real. That's why it's real. I said it before. Justification wasn't some legal loophole or or clever way to cheat the system. This wasn't some kind of divine tax fraud where God pretended and played along and pretended like the debt was paid. No, our debt was paid. The wrath was appeased. And and and here we are fully reconciled to God. Romans 5:1 having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Tell me one thing. Tell me one thing in the universe that matters more than peace with God.

Can you name one? If you're in Christ, name one sin, name one sin that God still holds against you. Name one. If you're in Christ, name one sin, name one to which you are still enslaved. There isn't one. If you're in Christ, name one person, believer or unbeliever who doesn't need to hear about the savior who paid the debt to set sinners free. Do you see? And this is the savior to whom we belong.

Guest (Male): Thanks for joining us for the unchanging truth, the verse by verse Bible teaching ministry of Dr. Jared Gilcher and Christ Community Bible Church in Arlington, Texas. At Christ Community Bible Church, we exist to prize, portray, and proclaim the supremacy of Christ as we trust in his word and wait for his return. We hope today's teaching has encouraged your soul and helped you trust and treasure Christ as your redeemer, savior, and king. If you're in the DFW area and looking for a church home, join us for worship Sunday mornings at 10:30. To learn more about the mission of the church, meet the pastoral staff or plan a visit, go to cc biblechurch.com.

You'll find ministry services and additional teachings there as well. Just click on the resources tab to get started. That's cc biblechurch.com. Join us again next time as we open the scriptures together and proclaim the truth that never changes. This has been the unchanging truth.