October 12, 2011
Bad News/Good News
Romans 3:1-31
I.) The Religious Advantage: 3:1-8
II.) The Disadvantage 3:9-20
III.) The gift of Grace 3:21-31
(Hans Christian Anderson's famous fairy tale, "The Emperor's New Clothes" has always been a favorite one, for people, because of its humor and because of the clear expression of human nature that it reveals. The gist of the story is that a certain Emperor was very fond of his appearance and of stylish clothing. It was common knowledge to everybody in the kingdom-----so when 3 con men breezed into town, pretending to be wise and clever philosophers-----they saw the perfect opportunity to cash in on some loot for themselves.
They offered to weave the Emperor, a rare and costly garment, that would be beyond his wildest imaginings------and he was more than receptive! He especially liked their promise that the garment would be invisible to everyone but those who were wise and pure in heart. The delighted emperor commissioned his new clothes, even though it was a huge expense. He allowed the con men to set up their empty looms in one of the finest rooms in the palace. Day after day, they sat there and pretended to be weaving-----while all the time, all they were doing was availing themselves of the Emperor's generous hospitality.
It wasn't long before the Emperor's curiosity got the best of him and he sent his chief minister in to see how things were going. The official could not see a thing on the looms, but he didn't want to be accused of being foolish and impure in his heart------so he went back to the emperor and gave a glowing report about the beauty of the cloth. It wasn't long before the weavers asked for some more money, even though the clothes went finished. This made the Emperor impatient to see his new clothes----- so he sent his 2nd minister in to check on them-----he was embarrassed to tell him that he couldn't see anything, so he gave an even more enthusiastic report!
And the fake weavers continued their fake weaving--------when the Emperor couldn't stand it anymore-he went to see his new clothes for himself-------He couldn't see anything either-------but he pretended like he could and proclaimed the clothing excellent and beautiful--so his people wouldn't think he was stupid! He even gave the weavers medals, to thank them for their incredible work and their dedication to pleasing him.
The emperor scheduled a grand parade and invited all the kingdom to come, so that he could show off his new clothes. As the emperor paraded before his people, "au natural", the whole town joined each other in praising his beautiful new clothes-----nobody wanted to be accused of being unwise or impure in their hearts. The absurd parade lasted only long enough for there to be a moment of quietness, and for a child's clear little voice to be heard saying, "The Emperor has no clothes!" All at once, everybody knew the truth, including the Emperor. One innocent, honest remark by a small child, who didn't know enough to keep his mouth shut, stripped away the hypocritical pretense of the entire kingdom.)
The story of the Emperor's new clothes is a great story, because it illustrates a common tendency that we all have, which is, that many, many times, we don't say a say word, while a lie is being promoted, by everybody around us, because we don't want to be thought of as fools. We're too proud!
That's what was happening with the religious Jews, of Paul's day. Just like the Emperor, they imagined themselves to be clothed with a righteousness that was actually non-existent. They were blinded by a misleading, prideful, religious, self-confidence. So, Paul, like the little boy, in the story, stripped away all the layers of delusion, that made them feel comfortable about their eternal security. They believed that they were extraordinary, because they possessed the Word of God. They saw themselves as guides to the blind, correctors of the foolish and teachers of the immature. But Paul undressed them and proved that neither God's Word nor circumcision, is a guarantee for life on earth, or for life in eternity.
And just like he undressed his fellow Jews, he undresses us too----he strips away our false confidence in "knowing God's Word", in "our doing our good works", in "our church affiliations" and in our "baptismal methods and experiences." For all mankind, Jew and Gentile, true righteousness has always has been and always will be, a matter of the heart.
We know that the central theme of Paul's letter to the Romans is the Gospel------but before we can embrace it-----we have to be stripped down to our very souls and recognise that we are nothing but sinners in need of a Savior.
To prove that the rule applies to everyone, Paul systematically turned from one person to the next, peeling off whatever mask they might be wearing-----in Chap.1 it was the "willfully ignorant"------he stripped the upright, intellectual Gentile of his disguise to reveal him for what he was, a fool, who professed to be wise, but who worshiped the creation instead of the Creator and exchanged God's natural law of order, for the unnatural.
In Chap. 2 it was the "self-righteous"-----he cut the armor of the self-satisfied crusader in- two-----to reveal that that person, is a self-righteous, judgmental, moralist, who thinks that they're above judgment, because of their rituals and traditions and good works------they're people who cover themselves with religion, but who don't have a clue, what loving God, really means.
And then, in Chap. 3, Paul undressed the super-religious, his fellow Jews. God clearly chose the Hebrew people to receive his Word and to share it with the world--------but just because they have a unique relationship with God doesn't mean that they are exempt from divine judgment--in fact, they deserve a greater portion of it-------Gentiles sin in ignorance-----but Jews have a greater knowledge of what and who they are sinning against-----so Paul leaves them standing, shivering in the cold, as he forces them to see their own nakedness.
I.) The Advantage: 3:1-8
It was a common practice, in Greek rhetoric, to have a Question and Answer dialogue between 2 people, as a teaching method. So, in his letter to the Romans, Paul created an imaginary dialogue between himself and a typical, religious Jew, of his day. He asks the question and then he gives the answer, immediately, so that he can make the point of how far humanity has fallen, before a holy and righteous God.
Paul had taught the truth of the Gospel in synagogues, all over the known world and had undoubtedly encountered every argument and objection that there was. So, in anticipation of the questions, that he knew the Romans would ask, he restated 4 of the most common objections, that he had come up against, and he established, very succinctly, the truth, that nothing but God's grace, can save a person, while at the same time, proving, that there are definitely substantial advantages, in being raised as a Jew and in being raised under the teaching of the church.
1st Question: "If God's covenant with the Jews and (the Gentiles, who entered the same covenant, by choice) doesn't make them righteous----what advantage does the Jew have?"
1st Answer: Paul explained that God's covenant doesn't exempt anybody from judgment; but it does grant them unequaled privilege. The Jews were given the advantage of the Scriptures. With the written word of God, they had more truth, than any other group of people on the earth! They were entrusted with a knowledge of the mind, will and character, of God! They had a greater opportunity to know and obey God, than anyone else! And it is the same thing for Christians today-----The mind and heart of God, is available to us, through His written word. It teaches us that God is the all-powerful Creator and that He completely sustains the universe. It reveals that He is perfect in His holiness, His righteousness, His love and His justice. Through it, we learn that there is a gulf between Him and us-----the God of the Scriptures is majestic and transcendent and glorious and good and totally beyond human comprehension. Having this written word about Him, is an unbelievably huge privilege and is a start, on being able to understand, just a little bit, of who He is! Our natural minds can't comprehend all that God is, no matter how intelligent or intellectual or well-read, we are-----and, mistakenly, we always try and close the gap between God and man-----either by bringing God down or raising man up. (story of Griff as a 4th grade king….)
God's written word, also gives us a description of the nature and purpose of man. This is tied up closely, with God's revelation of Himself---because if we can grasp, just a fraction, of the majesty of God, then we can see ourselves as the lost, corrupt sinners that we really are. Then, we can know and understand the only way that we can be saved! In God's mercy and in His love for us, He gives us the written directions, to be able to have a relationship with Him-----which, in a nutshell, is to love Him with all our hearts, to obey Him with all our strength, and to trust Him with all our souls.What an unbelievable privilege!
Unfortunately, too many Jews have failed to make good use of their God-given advantage and are no better off, than someone who's never known the Law at all-----
And for believers---we may be saved and that privilege is beyond precious to us----but are we squandering the advantage we've been given? Do we put our biblical knowledge to good use? Do we study the scripture, so that we can understand what it says, and so that we can know our Great God, and so that we can obey Him, and serve each other, better?
2nd Question: Does the failure of the Jews to keep their end of the bargain, prevent God from accomplishing His plan, to save the world?
2nd Answer: The answer is obvious! No, Never! The unbelief of the entire Jewish race will never, in any way, prevent God from accomplishing His will. He keeps His promises and will always be faithful, no matter how bad mankind fails Him. To suggest that God will go back on His promises is like saying that God is a liar. Then Paul quotes from Psalm 51:4, which is King David's beautiful prayer of repentance, after his sin of murder and adultery. David recognized that his sin was not just against Bathsheba and Uriah the Hittite; he recognized that it was first and foremost, against Almighty God and that God had every right to judge him and to punish him. Paul used, the great King David's, prayer of repentance, as a way to prove that God will remain faithful and true, no matter how bad individuals may sin--------He never changes-----He is God and He is good and just, all the time, whether people are or not!
3rd Question: Because God has made His moral demands, knowing that humanity would fail, does that make His wrath justified? Doesn't that mean that God had doomed mankind to failure from the beginning?
3rd Answer: Paul explained that the giving of God's Law, didn't suddenly make humans guilty of wrongdoing. God didn't just arbitrarily paint a target in a different place, from where it had always been and then shoot his arrow and say, "oops, I missed-----let's try that again!" The target has always been present. God's utterly, righteous character is and always has been, the standard! The Law just illuminates and magnifies the target, leaving humankind, with an even less excuse, for missing it. The Lord didn't give the Law to humanity just to justify His wrath------He gave the Law, to establish clear lines, between right and wrong, as a means of grace for us. He wanted to confront us with our sin, so that we would recognize our helpless lostness, would turn away from our sin, would repent of it and then, would seek God alone for our salvation. The giving of the Law, was the first step, in His plan, to redeem us. (our family rules…)
4th Question: "If our sin makes God look good, because it gives Him a chance to show His love and forgiveness, then how can He condemn us? If we've given God a chance to reveal Himself and that's what He wants-----then shouldn't we, in fact, sin more and make Him look even better!"
4th Answer: That is ridiculous thinking!-----but that's the crazy, messed-up, twisted logic, that we reason with sometimes! It fails to take in to account, the destructive nature of sin----of how it destroys everyone and everything that it touches. That kind of logic is no better than saying, "If fires and disasters give rescue workers an opportunity to display their skills and bravery, then why don't we just set more fires and cause more disasters, so that there will be a greater opportunity for them to show their courage, with no regard, for who might get hurt in the process." Ridiculous, right? If everybody lived by that rule----then nobody could be judged and God would be useless as the Judge of the world.
That kind of reasoning is demeaning and disrespectful, to say the least, to God. If He had arranged the world, so that people would and could sin, so that it would glorify Him, then He would have no right to condemn sin and He would have no right to judge us for it.
The truth is-------sin never glorifies God, sin separates us from God. God hates sin! It's in direct opposition to His nature---He would never create someone for a lifestyle of sin and then condemn them for it.
Unfortunately, people, in our world today, honestly believe, that the only difference between good and evil is what you like and what you don't like-------they believe that it's up to us to decide what's good and what's bad in our world-----that's why, even Christians will tolerate and justify in our minds: x-rated shows, on prime-time TV----we say, "there's nothing else on…"; same-sex marriages---we say, "but they need insurance and death benefits…"; unmarried coupes, living like husband and wife----we say "its more cost-effective…"; and abortion---we say "but it's her body, a woman has the right to choose…". But we're wrong, were dead wrong! God's standards are God's standards, and they never change---- whether we choose to acknowledge them or not.
The truth is--our advantage is great in every way! ------we have the written revelation of God and we know what His standard is and we know how helpless we are too meet his standard and we know what we have to do in order to have a relationship with Him. We should thank God every day, for the immeasurable advantage, He has given us, with His written Word.
II.) The Disadvantage: 3:9-20
Paul says that we have the advantage in this world, but he says that when we don't use it, it become a disadvantage.
He introduced another question to his readers-----"Do we have any standing at all then? Is there any way that a human being can please God, apart from faith in the Lord Jesus? He answered himself almost with the same breath------"None at all-----it doesn't matter whether we are Jews or Gentiles, Christians or not-----any situation is hopeless, in our own strength."
(Just suppose a multi-billionaire were to visit our home with a proposition: " I want to give my money to the most needy people in the world and I want to funnel those funds through your personal bank account. As I make the deposits, you write the checks." Now, imagine that 10 years have gone by and no one is better off than they were before. None of the recipients cashed their checks, they just tore them up or stuck them in a drawer somewhere--- and even you failed to make a withdrawal for yourself. Did you have an advantage? Absolutely! You had complete access to the billionaire's wealth! Did you waste your advantage? Yes! You didn't gain anything, because you didn't withdraw any money for yourself----you are no better off than the people, who, mindlessly, tore up their checks!)
Paul seals his argument with the iron-clad authority of scripture. He gathered up a compilation of passages from the Psalms and Isaiah to show that he was not introducing new doctrine. He was just stating what God had already said in His Word. He wanted his readers to clearly see why God gave the Law, so that we could understand how desperately we needed the Gospel and how privileged we are to have it!
Romans 3:10-18 is the most explicit description of the total depravity of mankind in all of the scripture-----Dr. Addison Leitch said, "that if the color of sin were blue, then every aspect, of every human being, would be some shade of blue!" The Russian poet, Turgenev, said it perfectly, when he said, "I don't know what the heart of a bad man looks like, but I do know what the heart of a good man looks like, and its terrible."
Romans 3:10 (Psalm 14:1) "there is none righteous, not even one…" The standard that our righteousness is measured by, is not the goodness, of another very good person----but it's lined up against, the unblemished, perfect character of God. Our goodness is placed on the scale opposite God's goodness and no one-----not even the best among us----has ever been or will ever be-----good enough.
Romans 3:11 (Psalm 14:2) "there is none who understands; there is none who seeks God…"
There is no one, who by nature, wants to seek God. We actually, want to run away from Him and hide------because, in our sinful natures, we're like Adam and Eve were when they sinned in the Garden, we can't stand up, under His perfect gaze. We need the Holy Spirit, working in our hearts, to give us the desire to seek God.
All over the world, in secular universities and religious temples, people are searching for the answer, to the mystery of life (I think of that book, Eat, Pray, Love and how sad it is that Julia Roberts, when she did the movie, became a Buddhist, as a result; and Steve Jobs, the Apple Electronics founder, who just passed away, was a Zen Buddhist, so sad). God says, that there's not even one, who understands---that there's not even one who truly seeks Him. The world is full of religious people, streaming into houses of worship, observing all kinds of rituals and rites--but they're not looking for God. God says that they may be looking for peace or answers to their prayers or for feelings of religious emotion, but God says that no one is truly seeking Him. We have to have the Holy Spirit living inside of us to enable us to truly seek God. (tell about my friend Ann and her experience in Wyoming…thought she was a religious person…until…she could reach up and touch His face…now she is a person who has faith…there's a difference…).
Romans 3:12 (Psalm 14:3) "all have turned aside, together they have become useless, there's no one who does good, not even one…"
The Lord designed us with certain needs that only He can satisfy-----but instead of coming to Him so that he can fulfill our longings, mankind pursues fleeting, temporal and even destructive substitutes. Invariably, even is these substitutes initially fill us up----they quickly disappear and leave us more empty than we were before. And as far as being good-----on the outside, we may think that we're moral and decent people and other people may think it too-------but God knows our innermost thoughts and if He were to broadcast them for the whole world to hear------would we still look moral and decent and good? God says no! Its impossible to hide our souls from God-----and without Him, our souls are not good.
Romans 3:13-14 (Psalm 5:9; 140:3; 10:7) "there throat is an open grave, with their tongues they keep deceiving, the poison of the asp is under their lips, their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness…"
These OT scripture passages give us God's perspective on why there is no one who does good. Our speech is rotten to the core. The sins we engage in, with our words, come from our hearts and then they overflow out of our mouths. When God looks at our sinful speech----He sees an open grave, with a rotting corpse, with a horrible stench, billowing forth-----scripture could not be any more graphic that that!
What are the sins of speech?
Sins of offensive and vulgar language----filthy words that make people feel violated and repulsed; sins of scorn and insult----treating people with disrespect, abuse and cruelty---trying to wound them; sins of hypocrisy and lying; sins of slander and gossip that can destroy reputations; sins of bitterness and cursing God--------cursing is not just profanity and taking God's name in vain------its also elevating ourselves into God's place by verbally condemning another human being. Bitterness is blaming God for the difficult circumstances, that we,
9 times out of 10, have created for ourselves. It is also forgetting God when things are going good and crying out to Him, only, when things are bad, expecting Him, to fix our problems, by meeting our spoiled-rotten demands.
Romans 3:15-17 (Isaiah 59:7-8) "their feet are swift to shed blood, destruction and misery are in their paths and the path of peace, they have not known…"
Human nature has a thin veil that separates a person from being savage or civil and it can turn, from one, to the other, in-a-flat-jack-rabbit-minute. The veil is only as thick as our sincere belief is, that our behavior will have consequences. ( that's why the prisons in this country are full of people------most of them didn't care enough about the consequences of their law-breaking, to keep them from doing it.)
Romans 3:18 (Psalm 36:1) "there is no fear of God before their eyes…" This fear of God can take 2 forms and they are both appropriate in the right context. 1.)Those who oppose the goodness of God, and find themselves trembling in terror, and fear of judgment, because of His great power. 2.) Those who embrace the goodness of God and are so awed by His great power, that it leads them to repentance and a restored relationship with Him. The bottom line is----people as a hole, have lost their fear of Almighty God.
Paul concludes the first major section of his letter with a clarification of the Law and why God gave it. The Lord didn't give the Law with the expectation that people would be able to obey it and keep it perfectly. He knew the outcome from the beginning because he knew, what mankind , way too often, refuses to see------that we are all lost in sin.
The principle point of the Law is that it makes people worse, not better. It was designed to show us our sin, so that we could be humbled, terrified, bruised and broken and then driven, to seek comfort and salvation, in and through the Lord Jesus. ( we should pray that our children get caught the first time) We should thank God for the Law! We should thank God for His relentless, loving confrontation, of the sin, in our lives. We should thank God that He loved us enough, to give us the Law and then He loved us enough to give us the solution to it.
There are many people today-------preachers and teachers, who don't want to talk about the negative side of Christianity----the sin problem----They prefer to focus only on the positive side----God's love---- which sounds wonderful on the surface----but that like going to a doctor who only wants to talk about pleasant things, never about what's really wrong. I don't know about you, but I don't go to my doctor, as sweet as he is, for smiles and pats on the back. I go because I want him to tell me the truth about my health. I want to know if there is something going on and I want to know if it can be treated and I want it to be treated.
God gave us the Law, because He knows, the bad news of our terminal condition, and He knows that once our "emperor's new clothes" of self-deceit are stripped away---- that our sin condition is treatable and that it's 100% curable and it's 100% free. Only when we are conscious of our sin are we willing to receive the solution for it. The Law, will lead us, to the Good News, of the Gospel.
III. ) The Gift of Grace: 3:21-31
(On June 23, 2000, a deaf couple stood before Judge Donald McDonough in a Fairfax, Va court and offered no rebuttal to their landlord's complaint that they were behind on rent. Their recent marriage had unfortunately resulted in the loss of disability benefits, most of which kept a leased roof over their heads. Now they were $250 behind and had no hope of making up the deficit.
Judge McDonough couldn't disagree. The Landlord was due his rent, the couple was indeed guilty of nonpayment, and justice couldn't be set aside. Nevertheless, the judge's compassion would not allow him to drop the gavel. Not just yet. Once the attorney for the plaintiff had closed his case, the judge suddenly left the courtroom. A few minutes later, he returned from his chambers with $250 in cash, handed it to the landlord's attorney and said, "consider it paid." With a transfer of funds for the just to the unjust, the debt was paid and the case was dismissed. The law had been satisfied. The defendants were justified in the eyes of the court.)
In a similar way, when we are saved, there is a transfer of righteousness from God's account to ours. We were guilty and now we're not! He gave us His free gift of grace----
not because we're good, but because He is.
The word "righteousness" is widely misunderstood, these days, inside and outside Christian circles. People tend to associate it only with good works.-----but when we're talking about righteousness from God, it doesn't have anything to do with good works. Righteousness is not what we do, it is what we are in God's eyes. It has to do with the word "worth".
Psychologists tell us that everyone is looking for a sense of worth and that we can't function if we see ourselves as worthless. The good news of the Gospel is, that God has given us the gift of "true worth" and He calls it righteousness. We can't earn it-----we can only reach out and accept it, trusting , by faith, in the Lord Jesus. The Gospel gives us a right standing, with God, at this very moment, and it gives us the hope and the promise and the assurance, of a life with God for all eternity.
We are children of the King and He views us, as worthy, no matter how unworthy we view ourselves. Knowing this and understanding it, helps us to remember to never sell ourselves short, ever again, by choosing lifestyles of sin, that cheapen our value and worth, and bring us heartache and misery, because they separate us, from our heavenly Father. There is no better news, for a searching and aching heart, than this.
God's righteousness is not something that popped into existence the minute that Jesus was born. The righteousness of God was foretold down through the centuries, in the Law (first 5 books of the Bible) and in the writings, of the OT prophets. The saints who lived, before the birth of Jesus, who died looking for Him to come, experienced the wonder of this gift, just like we, who live on these side of the cross, do------- they just came to it, by a different process.
God knew that no human would be able to measure up to the Law's standards---so when he gave the Law to the Jews, He provided them with a sacrificial system, that was designed to teach them, His plan, for the salvation of mankind. The entire sacrificial system, pointed to the day that was coming, when Jesus would be offered, as the ultimate sacrifice, for sin, once and for all. On that side of the cross------Abraham, Moses, David, Isaiah, Jeremiah and countless others, experienced God's gift of righteousness, in their own lives, because they believed God, when He told them, that He would cover their sins someday, with the blood of Jesus.
In Psalm 32:1-2 , King David wrote hundreds of years, before the cross, "Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered….whose sins the Lord does not count against him." The righteousness of God wasn't a new concept------but the source, of the righteousness from God, was a difficult concept to understand, until we could see it flowing to us, from the cross of Jesus. There is only one way to receive God's righteousness and that is through faith in Jesus. (There are many ways to Jesus, but there is only one way to the Father).
1st, we have to have a relationship with Jesus, personally, by believing in him and by trusting that He is who He says He is.
and 2nd, There is no way to receive God's righteousness, His free gift of salvation, except, just to accept it. I can't say that enough. We just have to accept the free gift, that God wants desperately, to give us! Its that simple. Grace is the gift that God offers us and faith is the hand that accepts and receives the gift. We are justified and declared righteous, freely, by God's grace. We don't deserve it, we can't earn it and it cannot be substituted. This is the heart of the Gospel and it is the basis for our assurance, that we are really and truly saved.
Many Christians struggle with the assurance of their salvation. They are scared, way deep down inside, that God isn't satisfied with them. They know that they've asked God to be their Lord and Savior, but they're sacred that they can still do something that would make themselves lost again. That's not true-------once you are saved you are always saved. In God's eyes you are not a sinner, you are His child, washed clean by the blood of Jesus, never to be snatched out of His hand (as it says in John 10:28). Now we do sin and we do need to confess it and get forgiveness from God----but that's because we aren't perfect yet-------we are being sanctified, and that takes from the time we accept Jesus, till the day we day---but as far as salvation goes----we were saved once and for all from eternal death, though Jesus' sacrifice on the cross---all mankind was--------we just have to reach out and accept the gift.
Paul says that God accomplished "a sacrifice of atonement", through faith, in Jesus' blood. In the original Greek, this can be translated into 2 words-----expiation---that which satisfies justice; and propitiation----that which gains favor or good will.
*Paul tells us that human sin has injured God and that His justice, demands, that we be punished for our sin. That punishment was accomplished, by the death of Jesus, on the cross. With His death, God's justice was satisfied, that is expiation.
*But thank goodness, the reality of the cross went much deeper, than mere expiation. The death of Jesus on the cross, also gained God's favor and His good will, toward us. That is propitiation.
Jesus' death had to happen because God cannot let sin go unpunished. The truth is, that God has patiently, held back his hand of justice, so that the human race can continue to exist, so that everyone can have a chance to know and receive Jesus as their Savior. Humanity doesn't recognize God's long-suffering and patience and they don't show gratitude for God's restraining mercy. The last time, God poured out His wrath and holy justice, on mankind, the whole world except for 8 people and an ark full of animals, was destroyed by a flood. God promised that he would never do that again-------and He hasn't---------but He could not let mankind's sin go unpunished. So, because He loves us, beyond our comprehension, He sent Jesus to the cross. The cross is where the justice of God met the love of God. All the
stored- up punishment that we have deserved, since the flood, was poured out on Jesus, at the cross. And God didn't spare Jesus, one smidgen of the wrath, that mankind deserves. Jesus' cry of abandonment proves the truth of that in Mark 15:34, "My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?" That should have been my cross and my cry--but Jesus took care of it for me.
God laid a willing Jesus, on the altar, of the cross, as sacrifice of atonement, in order to satisfy His own justice, so that He could maintain the integrity, of His own justice, while still being free to extend love and mercy, to undeserving human beings. (Just like the judge did who had to make the deaf people pay their debt, because he had to uphold the law-------but in his mercy, he took it upon himself to pay the debt for them-----which satisfied the law and his mercy.)
That's the amazing good news of the Gospel! God can act freely in love and mercy toward us and give us His righteousness. When we are saved, we are forgiven once and for all of the sin of unbelief and disobedience toward God, but His forgiveness goes further than that-----with our confession of sin, daily and even hourly, He forgives us from the muck and mire of this world that we are exposed to-------when we slip into self-righteousness and pride; when we treat others with sarcasm and criticism; when we indulge in evil speech, verbally or mentally; when we elevate ourselves and put others down; when we ignore the heartbreak or the plight, of another person-----we can go the Lord in confession and repentance, and we will find that His love and mercy are still there and He will accept us, value us and restore us. He is our Father, we are His dearly loved children and He will never change.
God's righteousness means that we are stripped naked in front of Him, our whole heart is exposed and we don't have to fear God or His judgement, because He has taken care of it for us. No one can boast because God has done it for all mankind----He fulfilled the Law's demands and He has forgiven us totally and completely.
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