Dale Partridge - Romans 3_20-22： The Heart-Shattering Grace of the Gospel

00:00:00.000 In this episode of Real Christianity,

00:00:01.420 I hit on what many theologians believe

00:00:03.080 to be the most important verse in the entire Bible.

00:00:06.220 In fact, it's so important

00:00:07.280 that I'm gonna preach this episode

00:00:09.000 standing behind the pulpit

00:00:10.140 instead of delivering it from my desk.

00:00:12.740 My hope is that you don't simply listen to this episode,

00:00:15.820 but that you share it with many of your friends and family.

00:00:18.040 All that and more coming up right now.

00:00:30.000 welcome to real christianity my name is dale partridge today's episode is titled romans 3 20

00:00:42.640 through 22 the heart-shattering grace of the gospel now as you know this show is an audio

00:00:47.680 and video ministry of relearn.org and if you're watching the video recording of this episode

00:00:52.320 please be sure to subscribe or follow for more biblical content if you're listening from apple

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00:01:19.920 Before I get to preaching, I wanted to tell you about two things. The first is our sponsor for

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00:02:34.780 donate. All right, guys, let's go ahead and get started and dive into this episode.

00:02:38.480 All right, guys, I'm excited to talk to you about Romans chapter 3, verses 20 through 22.

00:02:49.660 I'm also excited to be delivering this message standing up.

00:02:53.360 You guys know that I've been regular listeners to the podcast, and I'm often sitting down here,

00:02:57.780 so you get a chance to see a little bit of what this looks like on Sunday for me preaching a sermon.

00:03:04.560 Let me open up with a quote.

00:03:05.840 It says, I am convinced today that after all these many years of Bible study, that these verses are

00:03:12.300 the most important in the entire Bible. That was Dr. Donald Barnhouse commentary on Romans chapter

00:03:20.540 three, verses 21 through 23. And like flying over Arizona, if you guys have ever done this,

00:03:29.500 it's pretty easy if you're not careful that you might just pass over the golden beauty of the

00:03:34.580 Grand Canyon. It's right there. If you don't look out the window in time, you can absolutely miss

00:03:42.140 it. And just like Romans, you can be walking through the landscape of this book and it's

00:03:48.400 something that you don't want to miss. If you don't look down at the appropriate time, which

00:03:52.600 is right now, you're going to miss the beauty of this passage of scripture and how important it is

00:03:59.000 to the grand theological narrative of the gospel.

00:04:02.840 Before we arrive at our text,

00:04:04.460 I wanna just offer you a quick review of where we've been,

00:04:07.760 especially if you've just jumped in here.

00:04:10.120 This will give you some context.

00:04:11.300 For the past several months,

00:04:12.600 we've been working through Paul's multi-chapter

00:04:15.680 coordinated argument in a presentation

00:04:19.360 of God's impartiality of his wrath toward all men.

00:04:24.120 And from chapter one, verses 18,

00:04:28.040 all the way through 3.20, Paul really is stripping away any redemptive hope that someone might have

00:04:36.400 in religious works or spiritual practices or activity that would bring them justification

00:04:42.360 before God and really appease the righteous requirement of the law. So essentially, Paul

00:04:50.260 is demonstrating the utter unrighteousness of all men. And this is important for us to grasp.

00:04:56.020 He's talking about both Jew and Gentile are equally condemned by the law before God. 0.94

00:05:02.420 And really, Paul's moving in an effort to drive people to a need for an alien righteousness 0.91

00:05:08.240 to find justification, right?

00:05:10.200 We know that the word justification means to be found right or to be restored to right

00:05:14.760 relationship with God.

00:05:16.040 And that is Paul's hope.

00:05:17.460 He's really driving and cornering them down through chapter 1, verse 18 through 320.

00:05:22.160 he's really pushing them into a corner so that they have nowhere to go except look up to Christ

00:05:27.380 as the means for their righteousness, their alien righteousness that's given to them through faith. 0.75

00:05:34.780 And so this idea of the Jews being equally wicked as the Gentiles or equally condemned before the

00:05:44.340 law was hard for them to swallow because they placed their redemptive hope in three things.

00:05:49.380 Number one is who they were. They were the seed of Abraham. The second thing is what they had.

00:05:57.400 They had the moral law of God that was given to them by Moses from God on Mount Sinai. And number

00:06:03.620 three was how they were marked. They were marked with the covenant sign of circumcision. So these

00:06:08.540 three elements, they placed a lot of redemptive hope in these three things. That was their identity.

00:06:14.940 But verse after verse in Romans chapter one, chapter two, chapter three, Paul strips away

00:06:19.580 the hope that these outward administrations of the covenant would bring about some sort

00:06:27.600 of a justification.

00:06:29.280 And it's why Paul writes in verse 20, no man will be justified before God by works of the

00:06:35.680 law. 0.91

00:06:36.040 And so again, this is an absolutely staggering statement for the Jews to recognize their 0.85

00:06:42.740 equality with the Gentiles and that religious works don't bring justification, that circumcision 0.50

00:06:49.520 didn't bring justification, that having God's law and following it or attempting to follow it, 0.70

00:06:54.720 and even being the seed of Abraham wasn't actually going to bring them justification before

00:07:00.300 Jesus Christ. And so what they needed to really understand is they needed a way

00:07:06.700 to get right with the Lord. And this is where Paul is leading them to think. And at the core,

00:07:12.440 I think their problem was their misunderstanding of the law. They underestimated the condemning

00:07:20.700 power of the law, and they overestimated their ability to keep the law. And that's the fundamental

00:07:26.600 flaw. James 2.10 says, for whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of

00:07:34.380 all of it. Now, in the last episode, I summed up really this entire narrative that Paul is giving

00:07:40.820 about the impartiality of God, His wrath toward all men, that all have sinned, that are all

00:07:47.780 unrighteous. There's not one that's good. This whole section, I summed it up with one statement

00:07:54.760 that says, a low view of the law always leads to legalism. Now just stay with me for a second.

00:08:01.760 A low view of the law always leads to legalism. Namely, when people feel like they can meet the

00:08:08.140 law's moral demands when they have a lowly view of the law they will actually try to keep it

00:08:14.700 when they believe that they can meet the righteous requirement of the law because they view it as so

00:08:18.780 low and so attainable they'll actually try to keep the law um they'll work they'll toil the labor

00:08:26.700 they'll strive to accomplish and meet the requirements of the law and it's because they 0.99

00:08:33.020 have a low view of the law this is the heart of a pharisee and this is exactly what the pharisees 0.98

00:08:37.500 had. They had a low view of the law. But that's exactly the perspective that Paul is trying to 0.89

00:08:43.420 eliminate here. He's trying to give them a high view of the law. He doesn't want you to deceive

00:08:48.940 yourself with a low view of the law. He wants you to understand that you are incapable of keeping

00:08:55.820 the law. He wants you to have this view of the law that's absolutely massive, a law that's so great

00:09:03.260 and so big that no man can accomplish the requirement of the law, a law that's so large

00:09:08.920 and so heavy that no man can lift it. This is really what he's trying to do. And again, this

00:09:14.360 is at the center of Jesus's ministry as well, right? Jesus is a law magnifier. He is constantly

00:09:20.040 saying things like, you've heard that it was said, do not commit adultery. But I say to you

00:09:25.800 that even if a man lusts for a woman in his heart, he's already committed adultery with her in his

00:09:30.680 heart or you've heard that it was said do not murder but i say that if you hate a person you've

00:09:36.280 already committed a murder in your heart so he's showing that the the law isn't just about following

00:09:42.280 with the actions but it's actually also following with your thoughts it's actually obedience to the

00:09:48.360 law not just with your body but also with your mind and this drove the disciples to really ask

00:09:53.160 the question like who can who can keep the law thin and that's exactly what jesus was doing he

00:09:58.600 to say high view of the law makes you realize, oh, I can't keep this. I'm going to be found

00:10:06.160 unrighteous. I'm going to be guilty of all of it. That's exactly what Paul's doing. It's the same

00:10:11.460 thing that Jesus did, is he's trying to magnify the law to show your utter hopelessness of

00:10:17.060 achieving justification through works of the law to drive you towards grace, which is the only means

00:10:23.960 of attaining justification through faith in Christ. And so ultimately Christ and Paul want

00:10:32.520 them to see the degree and the fullness of their sinfulness. He wants to push people away from any

00:10:38.820 hope of justification by works. And that is the heart of today's passage. Romans 3, 21 through

00:10:46.920 20, let's read through 22. It's, but now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart

00:10:57.480 from the law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it. The righteousness of God

00:11:02.240 through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe, for there is no distinction. Now, in the previous

00:11:08.580 verse, he wrote this just to give you a little bit of context here. He wrote, by works of the law,

00:11:14.400 no flesh will be justified in his sight. Namely, justification by works is a dead end

00:11:22.320 to be found righteous with God. It leaves people asking the question, or at least it should

00:11:27.500 leave you and I asking the question, if I can't work my way into God's favor, how can I be right

00:11:33.880 with God? That is the absolute necessity of mankind is to answer that question. If I can't

00:11:41.020 By works, make myself find favor with God or become a restore to God.

00:11:47.800 How do I do it?

00:11:50.040 And Paul begins to answer this question by saying something pretty shocking.

00:11:53.320 He says, but now the righteousness of God, that righteousness that we need, has been

00:11:59.980 manifested apart from the law.

00:12:02.620 Okay, this is important.

00:12:04.880 Why does this matter to you?

00:12:06.920 Why does this matter to anybody?

00:12:08.260 why do we need to absolutely pay attention to this phrase here? And I'll tell you, because

00:12:14.360 you and I have no righteousness of our own. We have no righteousness of our own. And this is,

00:12:23.140 again, the central issue, problem that faces humanity. There's no more vital need on earth

00:12:30.340 than this need. In fact, the need is even expressed in the oldest book of the Bible.

00:12:37.480 if you turn to Job 9, verse 2, Job asks the same question. He says, but how can a man be righteous

00:12:45.820 before God? It's already in the scriptures, it's the first thing that's coming out going,

00:12:51.700 how can I be found righteous? If you turn to the Psalms, Psalm 143, verse 2, it says,

00:12:58.120 enter not into judgment with your servant, for no one living is righteous before you.

00:13:04.280 Psalm 130 verse 3 says,

00:13:07.640 If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?

00:13:12.700 1 Corinthians 6 verse 9 says,

00:13:15.500 Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?

00:13:21.240 So the need for righteousness before God is an absolute necessity for humanity.

00:13:29.140 And so this is why we should be paying attention right now.

00:13:31.940 if the righteousness of God is found apart from the law,

00:13:36.620 it's apart from works,

00:13:37.820 we can't find favor from doing things,

00:13:40.660 we need to figure out what do we do

00:13:43.820 so that we can be found right with God?

00:13:46.720 How can we be restored to God?

00:13:48.680 Us as sinners who have broken the law

00:13:50.860 and we have a God who is absolutely just

00:13:53.580 that cannot overlook our sin because he would be unjust,

00:13:58.100 but he needs to actually punish our sin

00:14:00.560 and we need to be found righteous. And so what's going on here? How do we overcome this? How does

00:14:07.200 God overcome this reality? So let's just zoom out for a minute. And I just want to remind you of

00:14:12.600 the greater context so that you can grasp the gravity of this passage of scripture.

00:14:17.060 Paul has just demonstrated, again, a universal case for unrighteousness, that all have sinned

00:14:24.520 and essentially fallen short of the glory of God, that none is righteous, not even one.

00:14:29.820 And so in a very real way, we need something that we do not have and that we cannot attain

00:14:38.440 or that we cannot produce.

00:14:40.740 We need something that we do not have and that we cannot produce.

00:14:44.960 That is a hopeless situation.

00:14:47.760 I don't know if you've ever struggled with some serious illness.

00:14:51.960 I have, and I've sat in bed for weeks and weeks and weeks.

00:14:55.900 and you are in a situation

00:14:59.080 where you need something that you do not have

00:15:02.460 and you cannot produce,

00:15:04.300 you need wellness, you need health.

00:15:08.180 And what does it force you to do in those situations?

00:15:13.220 When you need to produce something

00:15:14.660 that you do not have and cannot produce,

00:15:16.680 it forces you to look up.

00:15:19.380 It forces you to go,

00:15:20.700 oh Lord, I need your help

00:15:23.900 because there is something that I need

00:15:26.460 and that I cannot produce and I do not have.

00:15:29.480 Lord, you are the giver of all good things, please heal me.

00:15:33.440 That is essentially what happens in those scenarios.

00:15:36.620 It forces you to do exactly what Paul wants you to do here.

00:15:40.620 He wants you to see that the solution for our malady,

00:15:44.220 for our problem is not in us, but somewhere else.

00:15:48.520 And so he's drawing our attention

00:15:50.400 away from finding righteousness within ourselves

00:15:53.500 and pushing our eyes towards Christ.

00:15:56.720 And so in verse 21, Paul says that the righteousness

00:16:00.220 that we so badly need has been manifested

00:16:04.060 and it's been made visible.

00:16:05.640 That's what the word manifested means.

00:16:07.120 It's made visible, it's been revealed

00:16:09.640 is another way to put it.

00:16:11.200 And to keep with my illness illustration,

00:16:14.260 the cure for your terminal cancer has been manifested.

00:16:20.480 Just think about this for a second.

00:16:22.840 If you were dying gravely ill and there was, you were hopeless and someone came to you

00:16:31.600 and had like in their hand said, here is the cure for your malady.

00:16:39.700 This is, it's been manifested.

00:16:41.240 It's right here.

00:16:42.360 You can see it.

00:16:44.280 What would you do?

00:16:45.840 You would get up and run at that.

00:16:47.680 I mean, you would absolutely go, give me that.

00:16:51.020 that's exactly what the drama that's behind this passage of scripture is that it's been manifested.

00:16:58.140 The solution that you need, the healing for your soul, the righteousness that you need so desperately

00:17:03.480 has been manifested. And it's been manifested apart from the law. And that is kind of a shocker.

00:17:12.720 This is, I would say, a staggering statement, especially for the Jews. And to double down, 1.00

00:17:19.680 Paul says, this is how it's always been. He says, the law and the prophets bear witness to it.

00:17:29.840 Now hold the phone, okay, just for a second, right? If you're a Jew and you hear that the

00:17:35.280 righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law and the prophets and the law

00:17:40.040 bear witness to it, the question that a Jew would be asking is saying, 0.62

00:17:45.560 our scriptures teach righteousness apart from the law? Like our scriptures, the Jewish scriptures

00:17:53.020 teach righteousness apart from the law? Where? That's exactly what a Jewish audience would be 0.96

00:18:00.260 saying. Because if you think about the pharisaical way of living, that you need to continue up this 1.00

00:18:07.800 obedience to the law so that you can maintain your righteousness and be right before God.

00:18:13.480 This is a shocking statement if you can understand the contextual reality of which it is written.

00:18:18.640 But when you ask that question, where?

00:18:21.220 Where is it said that righteousness is apart from the law?

00:18:26.440 Or where is it demonstrated?

00:18:28.520 We turn to Genesis 15, 5 through 6.

00:18:32.380 And it says, and he took him outside and said, talking about Abraham,

00:18:37.220 now look toward the heavens and count the stars if you are able to count them.

00:18:42.100 And he said to him, so shall your descendants be. Then Abraham believed in the Lord,

00:18:48.760 and he credited it to him as righteousness. I'm going to read that again. He credited it to him

00:18:55.380 as righteousness. It's right there in the account of the beloved patriarch Abraham,

00:19:04.560 which every Jew admired, that Abraham was made righteous by believing in God, by trusting

00:19:14.040 in God. And you should be asking the questions, how did the Pharisees miss this?

00:19:19.200 How did the legalists miss this? How did the moralists miss this? William Farley

00:19:24.620 brings a powerful insight to those questions when he says, quote, the default condition of our flesh

00:19:32.700 is earn it. We enter the world in love with legalism. We are convinced that we can merit

00:19:41.000 God's favor. We love moralism and we resist grace, end quote. And so what does this teach us?

00:19:49.580 What does this teach? It teaches us that justification by faith alone is not a

00:19:54.120 Reformation doctrine. Justification by faith alone is not even an early church doctrine.

00:20:00.200 Justification by faith alone is a Genesis doctrine.

00:20:04.780 It's a Genesis doctrine.

00:20:05.880 It's the only way that God has ever saved.

00:20:09.180 It's the only way that God has ever made a person righteous.

00:20:13.600 And while this doctrine may have been hidden by God's sovereignty

00:20:15.880 and buried by man's sin,

00:20:19.760 it has now been fully manifested in Jesus Christ.

00:20:22.440 And this is what Paul's getting at.

00:20:24.600 Verse 22, it says,

00:20:25.320 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe, for there is no

00:20:31.540 distinction. Now, one theologian said, and I thought this was really beautifully said, he says

00:20:37.760 that righteousness is that which the Father required, the Son became, the Holy Spirit convinces

00:20:45.980 of, and faith secures. I'm going to just say it one more time because it really shows a Trinitarian

00:20:51.680 reality here, how it works with faith. Righteousness is that which the Father required,

00:20:58.440 the Son became, the Holy Spirit convinces of, and faith secures. And so let's just talk about

00:21:05.240 this doctrine for a moment, the doctrine of justification by faith alone.

00:21:09.860 Justification, again, is the idea. It's the idea of being found righteous or being made right with,

00:21:17.320 faith, being made right with God or reconciled to God or in right relationship or reconciliation.

00:21:24.460 John Calvin once said, justification is the positive crediting of righteousness. It's

00:21:31.200 when you've been given a righteousness, you have been justified. The righteousness is

00:21:38.760 imputed to us in one way, and that's through faith. So we receive righteousness through

00:21:43.980 faith. We receive justification through faith. It's never written in the scriptures that

00:21:49.460 righteousness comes through repentance or that righteousness comes through baptism

00:21:53.840 or that righteousness comes through prayer. These are all good things in and of themselves,

00:21:59.260 but they are not the means which brings justification to a person. And so the question

00:22:08.440 that we have to ask ourselves, and I thought this was a fascinating study on my own journey here,

00:22:12.460 Why faith? Why faith over some other means of bringing about justification? Why not

00:22:19.040 justification by love or justification by decision or justification by action?

00:22:25.980 So first, saving faith is a gift from God. It's a gift from God. It's something we receive.

00:22:33.260 It's not something that we do. Now, we often think that we have faith and that we just need

00:22:39.520 to exercise that faith to believe. That's not how it works. That's not what the Bible teaches.

00:22:44.240 The Bible teaches that we have mathematical probability. We don't have saving faith. We

00:22:50.720 don't have the type of faith that can absolutely relinquish the authority of our lives and lay

00:22:55.960 ourselves at the feet of Christ because we love sin. Our heart is distorted. It's spiritually dead.

00:23:02.540 It's wicked. We have a condition, an illness of sin. Sin is not just an action. It's also a

00:23:08.400 condition. We're spiritually dead. We need a resurrection. So there's all these things that

00:23:12.800 are in the way for us to having saving faith. What we call faith today is you go, oh, you have faith.

00:23:19.160 You just have to, you hop in a car every day and believe that you trust that you have faith in

00:23:24.980 your car to protect you from an accident of death. No, that's not real faith. That's not the type of

00:23:29.180 faith we're talking about here. That's mathematical probability. We have done the math in our brain

00:23:34.580 and we've seen that most people don't die in a car accident and so we will feel comfortable

00:23:40.320 doing those things. This is very different than saving faith. And so faith, when we talk about

00:23:45.280 in scripture, at first it's a gift, right? It's a gift. Saving faith, the ability to have trust

00:23:50.460 in Christ through all circumstances, a faith that perseveres. As we know that Jesus says he's the

00:23:56.340 author and finisher of our faith. He who began a good work in you will finish it. There's this

00:24:00.700 beautiful illustration of Jesus being the source and anchor of our faith. The second thing is that

00:24:07.280 faith is the antithesis of work. Faith is the antithesis of work. What I mean by that is the

00:24:12.760 central character of saving faith is rest. And so just think about that for a second. It's a passive

00:24:20.520 act of reliance upon something other than yourself. That's what faith really is when you

00:24:26.200 think about it. Saving faith is completely absent of human exertion. And this is important because

00:24:33.240 this is a really essential distinction because a faith that is gifted and a faith that is

00:24:40.040 characterized in rest and materializes in rest makes the salvation that it obtains free from

00:24:47.640 man's work, rendering all the glory for that salvation to God. So that's essential. When you

00:24:54.660 look at the mechanics of why faith. And so in other words, faith becomes the perfect means to

00:24:59.280 save man without man's involvement at all. And so it's just a really beautiful picture that we get

00:25:05.740 to see of what faith is and why God chose faith to be the means of justification. But faith alone

00:25:13.160 does not justify, right? Even faith in God alone does not justify. We need faith in Christ alone

00:25:21.440 that justifies. We know 1 Timothy 2.5 says, for there is one God, and there is one mediator

00:25:26.400 between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. And this again is not merely faith in the historical

00:25:32.720 man of Jesus, but faith in Christ, the divine Messiah that justifies. And so it's not just

00:25:40.940 faith in the acknowledgement that you believe that a man named Jesus lived and died on a cross

00:25:47.360 and had some sort of religious activity,

00:25:49.100 that's a very different type of faith

00:25:50.840 than trusting on Christ to give you

00:25:54.160 or to earn the righteous verdict

00:25:55.900 that you cannot earn on judgment day.

00:25:58.400 To rest in Christ, to not work to be right with God,

00:26:01.900 but to rest in the fact that Christ

00:26:03.580 has become your substitute by which he has died

00:26:06.340 and paid for your sins

00:26:07.520 because we know that sin requires death.

00:26:10.440 The wages of sin is death

00:26:11.520 and somebody needs to die for our sin.

00:26:13.460 And to know that Jesus has justified you

00:26:16.480 because your sins have been paid for, and he's not only died for your sins, but he's also lived

00:26:22.200 by obedience through the law, and he has given you his righteousness through faith. This is a

00:26:27.560 different type of saving faith. The understanding, the comprehension of the gospel is absolutely

00:26:32.060 essential. It's faith that trusts in Christ, again, to earn that righteous verdict. It's faith that

00:26:40.220 trust that God has credited your sins to Christ and credited you His righteousness. This is a

00:26:47.060 whole part of the gospel that's so important. And this is essential because we have so many people

00:26:51.080 who have come to the church, but they've never actually came to Christ. And I want to say that

00:26:55.280 again. We have so many people that have come to the church, but have not come to Christ. We have

00:26:58.300 an inflated church where the visible church is actually much bigger than the invisible church

00:27:03.780 or the true church. And they claim Christ, but they actually don't bear fruit. They profess

00:27:10.220 Christ, but they don't possess Christ. And they have a counterfeit faith that really trusts in 0.88

00:27:17.480 themselves to make themselves right with God. And these people exist not because they don't

00:27:23.180 understand Christ or they don't understand the gospel, but because they don't yet understand

00:27:27.500 themselves. Okay, I want you to just sit on that for a second, because it's not that they don't

00:27:33.520 understand Christ, but they don't quite yet understand themselves. Because the first part,

00:27:38.440 remember, the way that the gospel is always preached in scripture is that it's always

00:27:44.020 a mirror to the self. It's the affliction of the law so that you can pour on the ointment of the

00:27:50.740 gospel. And so we essentially have a situation where we first need to see our sad state before

00:27:59.040 the law. We need to see our condemned state, our hopeless state. This is what Paul's done from

00:28:03.960 Romans chapter 118 all the way through verses, or chapter 3 verse 20, is that he's stripped away

00:28:09.500 and given us a very accurate spiritual biography of ourselves, the biblical anthropology that is

00:28:15.700 condemning before the law that we must run to Christ. And so these people aren't in the church

00:28:23.200 and not saved because they don't understand necessarily the sight of Christ, but they

00:28:26.900 actually first need to understand themselves. The door to salvation comes through the comprehension

00:28:34.140 of the laws condemning power on our sin and our drive to Jesus Christ for justification.

00:28:42.320 And so the only people who run to the cure are those who are sick. The only people who don't

00:28:49.560 run to the cure are the people who don't believe they're sick. The law really becomes the catapult

00:28:55.940 to the gospel. Jesus says in Luke 5, 31 through 32, and Jesus answered them,

00:29:02.420 those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call

00:29:08.720 the righteous, but sinners to repentance. And so darkness is what makes a fire so glorious,

00:29:15.360 right? We know this, right? Darkness is what makes a fire so glorious. If you've ever sit

00:29:19.120 at a fire during the middle of the day, you can barely see it. And it's not glorious.

00:29:25.780 Sickness is what makes healing so beautiful. Sinfulness is what makes the gospel such good

00:29:33.440 news. And until you see your own sinfulness before the law, you'll never prize Christ as you should.

00:29:42.420 And the conclusion of it all, and really what this is wrapping up, what Paul's saying here,

00:29:47.380 is that justification by faith alone is the absolute heart of the gospel. It's the absolute

00:29:55.120 centerpiece of the gospel. It's what launched the Reformation. It's the very truth that saved your 0.92

00:30:00.040 soul. It is so core to understanding gospel fluency, to understanding gospel mechanics.

00:30:08.080 And if this doctrine doesn't activate your affections and fascinate your mind and your

00:30:13.080 heart and your desires and drive you to worship, you're probably missing it. You probably have a

00:30:18.240 high view of self, a low view of the law. You're not understanding what you've been rescued from.

00:30:23.060 And again, I always remind people that if you really believe that you've been rescued from

00:30:28.600 something great, you'll have a higher appreciation for the Savior. If you have a low view of what

00:30:35.700 you've been rescued from, you'll have a low view of the Savior. We have so much legalism and so

00:30:40.080 much bad theology in the American church today that we really need to get back to looking at

00:30:44.480 the mirror of the scriptures to seeing our wretchedness, to seeing how bad we truly are

00:30:50.520 and our deep need for Christ. Because when we have an accurate and authentic view of who we are,

00:30:56.820 we will so appreciate what Christ has done for us. And I know it's easy to forget these things.

00:31:04.940 I know that it's easy to make the gospel clinical.

00:31:09.040 I know that it's easy to make the gospel theological and intellectual.

00:31:14.360 And you kind of get out of this devotional element of it all.

00:31:17.860 And it's easy to not want to exert the mental energy to admire this truth.

00:31:23.440 I have to remind people that Jesus says that the greatest commandment is to love the Lord

00:31:27.000 your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.

00:31:30.140 And the second is like it to love your neighbor as yourself.

00:31:32.940 And so the mental exertion to revel in this beautiful doctrine is absolutely essential

00:31:39.560 for us as Christians because we need to make the gospel personal. We need to remember that

00:31:47.520 the gospel is not just for the lost, it's also for the saved. There's a great Dutch artist. You

00:31:52.780 guys might know him as Rembrandt, and he has a famous painting of the crucifixion. And it's a

00:31:59.700 picture of the painting, there's some soldiers and some people that are lifting up the cross.

00:32:04.780 And your focus of the painting is really Jesus on the cross. That's what your eyes are drawn to

00:32:10.740 pretty quickly. But then you start to notice there's a crowd gathered around. And then after

00:32:15.740 you notice that there's actually a lone figure just sitting into the shadows in the far right

00:32:22.560 corner. You can barely even see them looking down with a kind of a sad countenance. And

00:32:29.380 what you don't know is that that man is Rembrandt himself. He actually painted himself

00:32:35.620 into the painting after realizing that his sins contributed to putting Jesus on that cross.

00:32:44.180 And that's what we need to do. We need to remember to paint ourselves into the picture

00:32:50.620 of the gospel. We need to see ourselves as the gospel paints us, and we need to recognize

00:32:58.220 how great justification by faith alone really is. The gospel, again, is not only a cure for the sick,

00:33:06.660 but also a treasure for the saved. And do you treasure it? Do you treasure the gospel? Do you

00:33:13.180 treasure Christ? Do you treasure the cross? My favorite stanza from Rock of Ages is,

00:33:21.720 nothing in my hand I bring, simply to the cross I cling. Naked, come to thee for dress.

00:33:30.080 Helpless, look to thee for grace. Foul, I to the fountain fly. Wash me, Savior, or I die.

00:33:38.960 well guys i hope that was helpful for you guys uh that are regular listeners here to this podcast

00:33:45.840 and i hope this sermon was helpful for you guys to understand the beauty of justification by faith

00:33:51.220 alone um to understand the radical and beautiful grace that we've been given that we don't deserve

00:33:59.180 in the gospel of jesus christ if you're a regular listener to the podcast uh thank you uh would you

00:34:05.300 guys consider leaving a review. You don't even need to write something. You just need to tap

00:34:09.080 the stars. They really do help the exposure for our show and more people get to hear the gospel

00:34:14.620 as a result. On that note, I'm excited to give you guys the next sermon in this series. I don't know

00:34:21.420 if I'll be sitting down or standing up for that, but please stay tuned and come on the journey with

00:34:26.620 us through the book of Romans. It's been very helpful, not just for me, but for many other

00:34:31.460 people that have been listening along. On that note, my name is Dale Partridge. This is Real

00:34:35.440 Christianity, and we'll see you next time. 0.98

Dale Partridge - December 01, 2022

Romans 3_20-22： The Heart-Shattering Grace of the Gospel

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