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: As you all probably know, dealing with sin in the days of the Old Testament was a brutal and bloody business, wasn't it? And it was designed to be that way. There was blood, guts, entrails, animals ripped and torn apart, carcasses of sacrificial animals smoldering on the altar. The entire sacrificial system was designed by God to be an absolute blood bath. And you think about as an offering for sin as a Jew, you would bring a lamb or a bull or a goat as an offering, spotless and perfect, and you would bring it to the priest.

And then he would take the sacrificial system by the head, grab a knife, he would cut the throat of the animal, where it would then thrash around in its own blood until its final breath. And then after hacking the animal into pieces, dismembering it, disemboweling it, he would then take that chopped up victim, put it on the altar where it would be consumed in flames, which was a picture of hell, by the way. The very penalty that the sinner deserved. And it was nasty, it was disgusting. There'd be cauterized flesh and burning animal sacrifices, gallons of blood.

It was messy and revolting and and stomach churning and the point is gruesome and gory though it was, all of that was designed to be a picture. A picture and a preview and a pointer to the one great final sacrifice to come that once for all would deal with sin, namely Jesus Christ, the real lamb of God. And that moment, that transaction, that atonement moment is exactly Paul's point in Romans 3:21 through 26. The gruesome and glorious sacrificial death of Christ in the place of sinners. And do you know the difference between the gospel accounts of the cross and Romans chapter 3?

Do you know the difference between those? The Gospels show us that Christ died, and when he died, but Romans chapter 3 goes behind the scenes and shows us what it means that he died. And what he accomplished when he died. Cuz put yourself there at the cross on that day. The crowds have gathered in, clouds have covered the sky, darkness covers the land. You're standing before three men, each of whom who are crucified, two thieves and Christ in the middle. Each were bloodied and suffering. Each were in agony and excruciating torment. Each were bearing the consequences for sin and it all looked the same from a human point of view, didn't it?

But it wasn't the same. It wasn't the same because two were bearing the consequences for their own sin, but one just one was bearing the weight of the wrath of God for all of those whom God had chosen. And you see that moment of the cross, terrible and beautiful and bloody and wonderful where they wrath and mercy of God met together. That is exactly what Paul unfolds in Romans chapter 3. Remember last week I called Christ the mercy seat of God. The mercy seat of God because that's exactly what it was. And you remember what the mercy seat is.

It was the place of atonement in the temple, in the holy of holies. And what the mercy seat was, it was literally the lid, it was the cover of the ark of the covenant in which was contained the the tablets of the law. And at least for a while, for a time, the literal visible presence of God was in that room over and above the ark and into that room once a year, a high priest was allowed to enter to make atonement for the sins of the people. And my point is Jesus Christ was the human incarnation of that.

He was the mercy seat, the living, breathing, bleeding mercy seat of God in human form. He was the presence of God. He was the place of atonement. He was the priest and the lamb and the mercy seat all combined into one. And so here again we encounter what many people feel is the most important paragraph in history, and I agree. I agree with it and the reason why is because the deepest meaning of the cross is here. How the atonement actually works is here. How a Jew crucified on a hunk of lumber 2,000 years ago changes anything about the state of our souls is here.

Which means what we encounter in the text is nothing less than the glory of Christ himself. So let's go, shall we? Let's go into the theological holy of holies to see the mercy seat of God. This morning I want you to see four. Your notes say five, but I did you a favor and reduced by one point four weighty essentials of justification. Four weighty essentials of justification. That is being counted in counted righteous in Christ that we must believe and proclaim in the message of the gospel. That was long. I'll say it again. Four weighty essentials of justification that we must believe and proclaim in the message of the gospel.

That's where we're going. Let's review numbers one through three. The first weighty essential is this, number one, the witness of justification. The witness of justification. Because here's the thing about justification that you have to remember at this point in Romans is that from chapter 3 verse 21 all the way to the end of chapter 4 this is the topic on the table, justification. And you remember what justification is. It matters, it's massive, it's an absolute deal breaker. It is where a sinner is counted righteous in Christ. Do you remember? Where we are declared righteous by faith in Christ alone.

Where apart from any works or merit, the perfect righteousness of Christ is transferred to our account. So now the father sees us with the very righteousness of his son. That's justification and the reason it matters and the reason it means everything is that we were guilty, weren't we? We were blind and dead and damned and helpless and vile and condemned. That that's the whole point of chapter 1:18 through chapter 3 verse 20, the sin of man and the wrath of God. And in the cosmic court of the king as it were, we were judicially and officially and cosmically condemned.

And here's the thing, the the filthy rags of righteous deeds were never going to cut it. Good works as an attempt to earn salvation do not have the levers, they do not have the buying power to redeem our soul or to appease the wrath of God. In fact, sin is so destructive in its nature that even the best good deeds that a sinner does are acts of rebellion and worthy of hell. That's how serious sin is. We were internally corrupt and defiled by sin and legally condemned and guilty for sin. And that's a problem because God is a problem.

He is righteous, we are not. Yet God made a way, didn't he? To find sinners not guilty without dropping the charges. In his love, God made a way as if before a court of law for sinners to be legally counted as righteous, namely by faith in the righteous one, Jesus Christ himself. You see, when we put our faith in Christ, we didn't just alter our beliefs, we didn't just change our theology, we didn't merely affirm the facts of history, although we did do that. Now, listen carefully. At the exact same moment that we trusted in Christ and got our sins forgiven and and got reconciled to God, in that moment a legal, judicial, official declaration by God was made that we were not only not guilty but even counted as righteous.

Because in that moment the perfect, faultless, flawless, righteous obedience of the son was transferred to our bankrupt spiritual bank account and now the father sees us with the very righteousness of his son. That's justification. God made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf that we might become the righteousness of God in him. And Paul's point in verse 21, this is all review by the way, Paul's point in verse 21 is that justification is nothing new. It says ancient as the law and the prophets because it's in the law and the prophets.

Look what he says, but now, but now the righteousness of God, the righteousness of God has been manifested being witnessed by the law and the prophets. And there's that phrase, the righteousness of God. That is major, that is massive, that is the preeminent theme of the entire letter to the Romans. And what we have to remember and understand is that is that that's not just an attribute of God, that is the saving activity of God. It is the way God saves sinners, namely by giving his own righteousness in and through his son. And Paul's point is the apostles didn't make this up.

This wasn't a Paul flavored spin or addition to the gospel. No, this is the gospel. And where they got it from was the law and the prophets because even there God made a way to save sinners and count them as righteous apart from the works of the law which could only lead to condemnation. The question of course is how? How do we get the righteousness of God transferred to our account? Because if the righteousness of God is what we need to be saved and it is, and if the corrupt works of men are not enough to save our soul and they're not, then how do we get the righteousness of God?

And that's number two. The second weighty essential, the means of justification. The means of justification, still review. Cuz I've said it before, righteous is not just what God is, it is what God gives to the believing sinner. It's how he clears the guilty. He bestows, credits, imputes, transfers his very righteousness to the believing sinner in and through his son. Verse 21 again, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been manifested. Verse 22 he clarifies, even notice the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for those who believe. It's for all those who believe.

And there's that phrase again, the righteousness of God. And you could and should even literally render that the righteousness from God. The righteousness which comes from God, meaning it's a gift. Meaning the righteous God made a way to righteously righteously the unrighteous. To declare them righteous and adopt them as sons. And how do you get it? How do you get the righteousness of God by which we are acquitted and adopted and accepted as as heirs of the kingdom? And there is but one way, beloved. Nothing in my hands I bring. Simply to thy cross I cling.

Naked come to thee for dress, helpless look to thee for grace. In other words, it is by faith in Christ and by faith alone. Verse 22 we are saved by the righteousness from God. Here it is through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe. And there it is. Faith is the means. Faith in Christ is how we get the righteousness of Christ credited to us. And that is massive. Faith, you understand, is massive. Because whatever faith is in its essence makes it the opposite of works. If faith is anything, if faith is anything at all, faith is despair.

A despair in your worthless works to save you and where you cast yourself upon Christ alone for his redemptive achievements, that is faith. And when we put our faith in Christ, listen carefully, all of the riches of redemption he bought with his blood became ours in full, including his very own righteousness by which we are acquitted and vindicated in the cosmic courtroom of God. Which is why Paul says at the end of verse 22, the righteousness from God is what does he say? It's for all those who believe. It's for those who believe. I love grammar and I want you to love grammar and that's called a preposition.

And it is magical, it is beautiful for those who believe. Meaning it is a gift. It is given, it is it is granted to all those who who yield by faith and place their trust in the righteous one. And this matters to every single person on the planet in history. This solves the dilemma. How do hell deserving sinners get reconciled to God as the treasure of their souls? This is the answer. Which brings us to the third weighty essential, still review. Number three, the need for justification. The need for justification. And all I need to do is read the verse, verse 23.

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. And that verse solves the riddle, doesn't it? Why do all people need the saving righteousness of God in the gospel? Why is this relevant? Why does this matter to the Jew in Jerusalem? And the Greek in Greece and the Roman in Rome and even the distant pagan nations who never even heard one word of the word of God, why does this matter to all? Very simply because all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, which at the very least means we were created to see and savor and enjoy God's glory for the treasure that it is and sin is doing the opposite of that.

Although we knew God, Romans 1:21, we did not glorify him as God or give thanks, did we? But we became futile in our speculations and our foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, we became fools. And we exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures. Verse 25, we exchanged the truth of God for a lie. And we worshipped and served the creature rather than the creator who is blessed forever. Sin is outrageous. Not because it makes us sad or because it ruins our lives, because it takes the holy, majestic, sovereign, uncreated, self-existent God of Trinitarian glory and exchanges him for something that's not God and loves it and worships it and tries to be satisfied in it as if it were God.

And that is a crime that can't be repaired with the corrupted works of men. The filthy rags of righteous deeds is never going to work. Which means if sinners were ever going to be saved and counted as righteous, it was going to have to be a gift by grace and by grace alone. Review is over. Number four. Number four. The fourth weighty essential of justification, the variables of justification. The variables of justification. What I mean is Paul is going to explain how justification actually works. And my apologies to the math majors and the number nerds, I just want you to know I hate math.

There, I've said it. I absolutely despise it. Sorry, not sorry. And it's not like I don't get why it's important. I totally do. It's just something happens, some sort of, you know, got clubbed in the head and and I just like I can't, you know, dropped as a kid. I I can't I can't get my head around math. Um and yet that doesn't mean I hate all math because there is a kind of math that is my favorite subject on the planet and it is the mathematics of redemption. The calculus of the cross, the the algebra of the atonement.

What I mean is like a math equation, salvation has variables. Is that the right word for the little components in a in a math equation? It has it has variables. In other words, this thing plus this thing equals this thing. At the very least one of the things I do appreciate about math is that the numbers don't lie. It's real. It's concrete. It is undeniable. None of it is theoretical. Except for story problems which drive me crazy. But that's the thing about salvation and that's the thing about justification, church, is that the numbers don't lie.

This isn't theoretical. The math adds up. And and that's really helpful when it comes to the doctrine of justification because you remember that justification is law court language, right? It it's Bible legalese. Right? It's it's this it it describes this this uh well and I should say that that it just can kind of feel abstract and impersonal and technical and and cold. It was a legal declaration in in the spirit realm that we were not personally there to witness or hear. And and really justification kind of can kind of feel like a just take my word for it kind of doctrine.

Just believe that it's true and believe that it's real. Okay, I'm going to believe that I'm credited as righteous and that's how God sees me, which feels crazy. How can God pretend that we are righteous when we are clearly not? And furthermore, how does the perfect record of another, namely Christ, get transferred to our account and we be counted as righteous? It's just pretend. It's monopoly money. The Catholic Church called this a legal fiction. Not pretend, not theoretical, not a fiction. Listen carefully. Justification is only weird when we divorce justification from the actual historical transaction of the cross.

Do you see? If we forget the wrath bearing sacrifice of Christ that made justification even possible, it's going to feel like pretend. It's going to feel theoretical, but it's not. It's not pretend, it's not theoretical, it's not fiction. The math adds up. And in the salvation equation of justification, there are two variables that make it work, two variables that make it work. And you can see them, see if you can see them in verses 24 and 25. Paul says, being justified as a gift by his grace. There's the number on the other side of the equal sign.

There's the equals. Justified as a gift by his grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus. Hint, variable number one. Whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation, variable number two. Through faith in his blood for the display of his righteousness because of the passing by of sins previously committed. And I hope you see the math or the very least the logic. Verse 23 is why all people need justification because they have sinned and fallen short of his glory. Verse 24 is the solution for guilty sinners who have sinned and fallen short of his glory.

And you can see there verse 24, the solution is what? It's justification. Being justified as a gift by his grace. That is the solution, one of the solutions for sin, justification. And notice very carefully how much grace there is in every single word.

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 ccbiblechurch.com.

You'll find ministry services and additional teachings there as well. Just click on the resources tab to get started. That's ccbiblechurch.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.