THE MEANS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS Romans 3v21 - 4v25.
Having seen the peril and the helplessness of the human situation, we now come to a glorious exposition of God's way of salvation for all mankind. This is in sharp contrast to the previous portion, but necessarily based upon it, and can be summarised in two parts:
1) Justification by God's grace - the Divine side - accomplished by Jesus Christ, and announced by God the Father Romans 3 v 21 - 31
2) Justification by faith - the human side - appropriated by us through the work of the Holy Spirit Romans 4 v1 - 25
Simply by God's gift of grace, and our humble acceptance of it, we can be saved, and all the horror of past, present and future completely dealt with as we shall see. In this section we have statements like "justified freely by His grace," "the redemption that is in Christ Jesus," "a man is justified by faith," "this blessedness," "heir of the world," "delivered for our offences and raised for our justification." These statements give us the flavour of what God's salvation is all about.
Today we will commence our focus on the section Romans 3 v 21 - 31 and highlight the tremendous change from the previous section to the present one in the words "BUT NOW."
Paul introduces God's salvation with these words of great significance. By this he is saying that God's salvation is here and with us now. He quite often uses this ploy in his writings to show the tremendous relief between human sin and degradation and God's wonderful salvation. In Ephesians chapter 2 he does exactly the same thing "and you has he made alive who were dead in trespasses and in sins, wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the Prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience; among also we all had our manner of life, once, in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature children of wrath, even as others. BUT GOD who is rich in mercy." He does the same in his letter to Titus "for we ourselves also were once foolish, disobedient, deceived, slaves to diverse lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another; BUT AFTER THAT THE KINDNESS AND LOVE OF GOD OUR SAVIOUR TOWARDS MAN APPEARED."
What we are looking at here is DIVINE INTERVENTION in the human condition. God has intervened in grace, he has instituted a period of grace towards men, what the Bible calls a "dispensation of grace" which just means that the predominant thing God is doing today is showing grace and favour to all mankind, and that is what Paul is introducing here. All of that is in these wonderful words BUT NOW.
With the coming of Jesus Christ into the world, God introduced a time period of grace, which even the world recognises since history has been divided by the terms b.c. and a.d. "When the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son." Galatians 4 v 4. God waited 1300 years between giving the law and sending His Son into the world. During this time period the best of men proved they could never by their own efforts meet God's standard so God sent His Son, who alone could meet His requirements and bring salvation to the world.
BUT NOW .....the day of grace has arrived, heaven's gates have been thrown open, God is speaking forgiveness, redemption, mercy, grace. This period of Divine grace towards the world is now the longest period in terms of years of all the ages of time in God's dealing with men. This is so because in the words of the apostle Peter "He is longsuffering toward us not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance." 2Peter 2 v 9. Again in that marvellous chapter detailing the sufferings of Christ, it was predicted this would happen "when thou shalt make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall PROLONG DAYS and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand." Isaiah 53 v 10
In summary:-
"The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and all unrighteousness of men -BUT NOW.
"The whole world guilty before God - BUT NOW.
"By the deeds of law shall no flesh be justified in His sight - BUT NOW.
Hopelessly ungodly and unrighteous, religious hypocrisy exposed for what it really is, the world facing a fearful future, unable to help ourselves, totally silenced before the presence of an awesome God BUT NOW God's righteousness is revealed, both as to the extent to which He has gone to being it to us, and the way in which we all can receive it.
Tomorrow d.v. The righteousness of God revealed.
"There is a way for man to rise, to that sublime abode,
An offering and a sacrifice, a Holy Spirit's energies,
An advocate with God!"
by Thomas Binney.
We are living in the day of GRACE, God's throne is a throne of GRACE.
"Now is the accepted time, NOW is the day of salvation!"
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