Watch as Len Finn unpacks Romans 3:21-31 and shows us the abounding grace of the Gospel.
Fallen Short
C is not a passing grade when following God’s law. Neither is a B+ or even a A-. Passing means measuring up to the glory of God. Being as perfect as God is perfect. All fall short of this requirement. All are the same in their fallenness, but all are also the same in their mode of rescue.
But Romans 3:21-31 makes it clear that the righteousness of God – who God is in His perfect goodness and justice, has now been made perfectly clear apart from the law. The promise of eternal life for you on the basis of your absolute, perfect obedience to God’s will is no longer a requirement.
Redemption
In Christ, God has declared us legally righteous. He has acquitted us and found us innocent. And it is all by His grace as a gift.
Redemption is technically the price you pay to free a slave. Our innocent verdict was bought for us through the redemption found in Christ. The object of your faith is not just Christ – it is His pouring out of His blood for you. All you need to do is accept this.
As much as all of this is good news for you, it’s not finally about you. It’s about the righteousness of God being made crystal clear. It is about Him, not you.
What the Heart Loves
Getting the Gospel is never finally a matter of the head – it’s about your heart. There was a famous saying in the reformation – “What the heart loves, the will desires, and the mind justifies.” Not getting the Gospel is a matter of the heart not wanting it.
The Gospel is complete, final, done, totally free, totally God.
Gospel Confidence
How much faith is saving faith? Worrying about how much faith you might or might not have is not coming out of the Gospel. Fear is not a fruit of the Gospel. Gospel-confidence is trusting that God has you even when you don’t think you have Him. It is trusting that God loves the people you love more than you do.
His Sovereign Will
God justifies you and me for only one reason – because that is what He wants to do. God’s grace is simply God’s sovereign will, unmoved, unconstrained, unswayed, unaffected by anything else in the universe – including you. Your justification is isolated from anything you might do – it’s God’s grace and will without cause, or any good reason or bad reason from you. Demands and requirements or not of the Gospel – they are part of the law.
Don’t put your focus on your own faith – put your focus on Christ crucified. If you want to see God’s will for yourself and for His world, than look to the cross. Christ stayed the rightful wrath of God upon us. Christ not only paid the price for our sins, He also bore the wrath of God for them.
Outraged
God is not indifferent to sin. Nobody wants a God who isn’t outraged by the evil in the world – by all the hurt His beloved creation suffers. That is not a good god. But nobody wants to believe that He might be outraged by us, that we might be part of that evil.
Just and the Justifier
How can God be both just and the justifier of the unjust through innocent blood? That is just who God is. The scriptures have always told us who God is. He is the God who is perfectly holy and just, and by no means clears the guilty. But He is also the God of enduring, unending, steadfast love for His people. He is perfect in His righteousness and His love. God chose to pour out His wrath on Himself instead of the guilty, because we are His beloved children. The cross shows us that nothing will ever stand in the way of God’s love.
