Epistles of Paul 71

God has a plan of salvation, which is the theme of Romans, for all mankind. But today, the world doesn't get it. To the world, it is a mystery. The goal for all mankind is for us all, ultimately, to become sons and daughters of God, living forever happily and joyfully under the rule of His kingdom, in the words of His government. That government of God will have a top government body of rulers, hopefully you and I, which will never compromise with God's eternal law of love, law of His character, of His personality, of what we use. And we need to become like Him. And those that will be with Him, that will be selected to rule with Him, He needs to have the assurance that will never be corrupt, that in other words, will never sin for any self-aggrandizement or power. Those rulers, hopefully you and I, will obviously have been chosen, selected and qualified to be in that position of God's government. As I said, they'll never compromise with God's supreme value system, a system of outgoing service and outgoing love for others.

Also, those rulers under Christ today, that's you and I, are being thoroughly tested and trained for that position. Only those that will not compromise will have that or will make to that top echelon of God's government. So this is a most critical part of God's work today and equally important as preaching the Gospel as a witness to the world. God's people have to be prepared for that role. So Paul, in his letter, in this letter to the Romans, outlines some key points of God's plan. And as a matter of revision, in Romans 1 verse 16, he says, and I read again, for I'm not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ. Paul was not ashamed of this knowledge, of this good news, that it was through what Christ has done that this whole plan of God can be executed. And then in Romans 2 verse 4, Romans 2 verse 4, he says, O do you despise the riches of God's goodness, forbearance, and long suffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads us to repentance? So God's goodness leads us to repentance.

This is very important for us to understand because of God's mercy, we then need to retribute to show that gratitude through repentance and change. In verse 11 of chapter 2, then he says, there is no partiality with God. God is accessible to all people, Jew and Gentile. He does not discriminate. All mankind will have an opportunity to be in his family. But we need to admit that all mankind has sinned, both Jews and Gentiles. So we all have sinned either knowing God's law or unknowingly. In other words, not knowing God's law, but all have sinned. And so we all need to be made right with God. In other words, justified. Or in other words, the relationship between us and God needs to be healed. And in addition to that, we then need to continue living without breaking that relationship again. In other words, we need to be faithful till the end. And so the point about justification, it actually is in two different stages. First, there's an initial justification. An initial justification through God's grace and forgiveness. That is what God through Christ has done for us.

And the second stage is an ongoing, repentant commitment to a new way of life after the initial justification. In other words, we must live in faith, walk in absolute trust. Trust of God and what He has done for us to continue in that state of justification. We need to continue to obey God, prove that we will not get corrupt again.

So the key to understand how we're justified, that is the first stage, is very important. We need to understand what is the key that brings you and I into a right relationship with God. How? Well, in Romans 5, verse 8 through 10, Romans 5, 8 through 10, we read, But God demonstrates His own love towards us, In a while we are still sinners Christ died for us. Much more than having now been justified by His blood, we are made right with God by His blood. That is what I'm calling it, that first stage, how we initially justified. We shall be saved from wrath through Him, for if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God. In other words, that relationship was healed, we reconciled to God through the death of His Son.

So we were reconciled through the death of Jesus Christ. In other words, from that broken relationship with God. It is very important for us to understand that God is the one that took that first step to heal that relationship by Him and Christ deciding that He had to give His Son and His Son had to trust the Father and come down to earth as a human being and die for us without sin.

So in Romans 3 verse 20, we read in Romans 3 verse 20, we read that by the deeds of the law, no flesh will be justified. In verse 24, it reads, being justified freely by His grace. In verse 28, we read, therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law.

We are made right. Our relationship is rebuilt with God, gratis freely by the goodness, by the gracious act that God has done, which is through the buying us back through what Christ did us by dying for us. Therefore, any act of obedience does not pay for the penalty of sin, which is death. It's like I often say obeying a traffic sign does not pay for previous infractions.

Now, for granted, God will give us that justification on a condition that we trust that what is done is good enough for us and that we have truly repented. And as we know, those are the two preconditions, faith and repentance. Those are the two preconditions of baptism, which baptism is when we make that vow, that promise that we will from Yah onwards live and be a converted person. So we have to be truly repented so that sins may be blotted out as we read in Acts 3.19.

And in Acts 2.38, we can see that those are the conditions on repentance, on the baptism. We got to repent. So Jesus Christ is our Savior. We then are baptized and receive God's Holy Spirit. But a condition is we got to believe and trust in Christ and what Christ has done and what God has done through Christ. And we got to commit to repent. In other words, why would God forgive you for breaking the Sabbath as an example if you still keep on breaking the Sabbath?

That just doesn't make sense. In other words, we have to have fruits of repentance. And the key to understand the second stage of reconciliation, of being justified, is that we have to have an ongoing commitment to stay truly repentant and keep walking in faith. In other words, we have to be living really as converted brethren, brothers and sisters in the faith till the end. That is our part with obviously God's help. What is God's help? God's help, as we know, the helper is the Holy Spirit.

And that is the work of sanctification of God's Holy Spirit and with Christ as our living High Priest. In other words, we need to be converted. We need to be living a converted life. And it's not easy, but that's what we have to do. As we read in John 14 verse 17, Jesus Christ is in us. 14 verse 17 says, the spirit truth whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees Him or knows Him that God's Holy Spirit, but you know that God's Holy Spirit dwells with you and will be in you. So God's essence, God's Spirit is in us. And then we read in verse 23, still of John 14, it says, and Jesus also said to him, if anyone loves me, you'll keep my word.

And my father will love him and we, that is the Father and Christ, we will come to him and make our home with him. How? Through God's Holy Spirit. You see, Jesus Christ is in us and obviously the Father is in us, so we can be like Christ. God's Spirit is what helps us to obey. If you look at 1 Peter chapter 1 verse 2. 1 Peter chapter 1 verse 2. 1 Peter chapter 1 verse 2.

After the introductory chapter, it says, of the brethren that he's writing to, it says, select, or beg a pardon, elect, it was chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father. God has a plan and in his plan he required a few to be elected first, to be selected first, to be trained. As I mentioned earlier, we are being trained to be in that government of God.

Select according to foreknowledge of God the Father in the sanctification of the Spirit. We are selected to be in the sanctification of God the Holy Spirit. For what? For what reason? For obedience. For obedience. God's Holy Spirit is that power of God, is that strength from God that works with your mind and my mind with your conscience and my conscience.

So that breaks your conscience and breaks my conscience to say, don't think that, don't say that. And in other words, it breaks us to be gentle and kind and to be loving and whatever we say to be according to God's nature, character of love and concern. And that is for obedience. God's Holy Spirit is helping you and I by reminding us to obey.

Even in little things. And that is the sanctification of the Spirit. That is the setting apart that is happening in us through God's Holy Spirit. And as we continue reading in verse 2 of 1 Peter chapter 1 and sprinkling sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. After we baptized, yes, we washed with the blood of Christ. But after we baptized and we're walking in our daily lives, in our weaknesses, we may still sin. In John 6, if you say you don't have sin, yes, we're walking the light. But if you say you have no sin, you're a liar. And so then at that moment, we need a living high priest, Christ, to sprinkle that blood on us.

And that's what you read carefully, a little deeper into Leviticus 16. You see that the role of the high priest to sprinkle the blood seven times. That means completely. So the sanctification of the Spirit is for obedience. And then we still need the sprinkling of the blood. After baptism, and that means after the initial justification and our commitment as baptism, we have to live a new way of life.

So putting all this as an introduction to today's message, and I'm sorry it's taking a little bit longer than maybe one would think, but it is important to understand this clearly. The differentiator to be in the kingdom of God, understand this, the differentiator to be in the kingdom of God is not, is not if we are physical Jews and is not if we are physically circumcised. Look at Romans chapter 2 verse 27. Romans chapter 2 verse 27. And we'll not, the physically unseconcized, if he fulfills the law, judge you, in other words, Gentiles, Abinish Jews, which are circumcised, even if your written code and circumcision are a transverser of the law.

You see, these Jews were transgressing the law. They had a code, they had a circumcision, but they've been even judged by the Gentiles because they were not fulfilling a commitment. And this, in a sense, this was to the Jews of that time rather revolutionary. And that, in a sense, is why the Jews could not accept Paul. They could not accept the stitching. Let's continue reading, then, in verse 28 and 29 of Romans chapter 2.

For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly. You know, just because he's circumcised or is of that descent is not a true Jew. Why?

And let's read on. Nor is circumcision that which is outward in flesh. You see, physical circumcision is not the differentiator to being the kingdom of God. Verse 29. But he is a Jew who is one inwardly. You see, so it's a change of the heart. It's a conversion. And circumcision is that of the heart in the spirit, not in the letter. Whose praise is not from man, but from God.

Your Bible may have a little number next to the word praise. My Bible has that, and it says, a play on words. Because the word Jew is literally praise. So whose praise, whose true Jewishness is not from man, but from God. So physical circumcision without the spiritual reality of true repentance and conversion in the heart is, as far as we speaking or as relating to eternal salvation, is nothing. And therefore, it brings us to the very question that Paul asks right here at the beginning of chapter 3. And in chapter 3 verse 1, he says, what advantage then as a Jew? Or what prophet of circumcision? What is the advantage of being a physical Jew? What is the advantage of being physically circumcised?

You see, because this is after what Paul had said, that it would appear to be no advantage. But then he says in verse 2, much in every way. Yes, there is an advantage to be a Jew, to be an Israelite, because God is starting to work through physical Israel. And yes, in the future, also, in all tomorrow, you will work first through physical Israel. You see, the promises we've given through Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and through physical Israel. There are things God is working out in his plan through physical Israel. You know, a number of prophecies that are happening in the world are starting through physical Israel. And especially through physical Joseph, that is, if Raymond Manasseh, and Judah. You just have to watch the news.

And then, for one, as you and I understand prophecy and world affairs, at the physical level, God will work out many prophecies. And the world tomorrow, the millennium, will first be implemented through Israel, and then it will spread out to other nations. Indeed, also, there are important responsibilities and jobs that God has assigned to physical Israel and Jews. Now, let's continue reading in verse 2. The next word he says is chiefly. You see, so he says, imagine in every way chiefly.

But chiefly, what does that mean? Mindly. There are many reasons, many in every way, but mindly, because to them we're committed the articles of God. The Jews are the custodian of God's articles. God's articles. It was God's utterances, God's Word. The Jews are the custodian. It was the revelation of God's will to Moses and the prophets.

And God's will to Moses, in other words, the law and the prophets. They are also the knowledge of God's early days. In other words, they have the honor of being the keepers, preserving of these divine saints. And that carries a responsibility. Albeit, many abused these privileges. So chiefly, chiefly, or first of all, that is a responsibility for them, because to them we're committed to articles of God. But it does mean they are either advantageous or had they? Turn with me to Romans chapter 9. Romans chapter 9. And we'll start reading in verse 16. But it does mean they are either advantageous or had they? Turn with me to Romans chapter 9. Romans chapter 9. And we'll start reading in verse 4.

It says, yeah, who are Israelites? To whom pertain the adoption? Which I would say the sonship. The sonship to be sons of God. To whom pertain the glory? To whom pertain the covenants? To whom pertain the giving of the law? To whom pertain the service of God? It was worship.

And the promises. And look at verse 5. Of whom are the fathers? And from whom, according to the flesh, Christ came.

From whom, according to the flesh, Christ came.

Who is, overall, the eternal blessed God. Amen. And so back to Romans chapter 3 verse 2. But chiefly, even more, even more important than those things, they were entrusted the articles of God. They were entrusted of God's special message to mankind. And they have a responsibility to meticulously maintain the Hebrew Scriptures.

God worked with them and through them. And they have accurately maintained the Hebrew Scriptures. The Hebrew calendar has been delegated to that priesthood. We have not been delegated those responsibilities.

So in chapter 3 verse 3, it says, Romans chapter 3 verse 3, For what if some did not believe? What if some rejected the Lamb of God that died on the fourteenth of Nisan, and therefore, for instance, keep the Passover on the fifteenth or are unfaithful? Does it do away with God's faithfulness?

Will their unbelief make the faithfulness of God without effect? Obviously, it's a rhetorical question. Of course not. And that's why it says in verse 4, certainly not. Indeed, let God be true, but every man a liar, as it is written, that you may be justified in your words and may overcome when you are judged. God is just in all his words, and therefore, he destroys silences. Any false doctrine or teaching that man may put out about God in his time, that will happen. God's faithfulness cannot be made null and void by our human unfaithfulness.

Verse 5, But if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unjust? We inflict wrath? I speak as a man. You see, sin is sin.

Even if we have a carnal mind, sin is sin. God has made it possible for us to overcome sin, and he is righteous when he punishes unrighteousness. He is fair when he expects us to repent. That is the way for us to develop godly character, to be in his family, to repentance.

Verse 6, Certainly not.

For then, our God judged the world.

You see, God is just, and he will judge the world righteously through Christ.

And remember, judging is both a process and a final outcome. And so in this judging, there is a time for an opportunity for us to repent, to overcome, and develop godly character.

Remember, why did God create us as human beings with three moral agencies, able to choose and to decide what to do? Couldn't he create us as robots? He could, but he chose not to, because of his high goal for you and I. He wants us to become sons and daughters of God, fully autonomous, fully capable of making godly and wise decisions. And therefore, because of his purpose, because of his high goal for you and I, he could not create us as robots. He had to create us as free moral agents, able to choose. And sooner or later, like any of our children we know as parents, sooner or later, our children are going to do something wrong. And he knew that sooner or later, we would sin, and the wages of sin is death. And so therefore, there was the need in his plan for us to be forgiven and to be given an opportunity to overcome our frailties using the power of his Spirit, so that we could ultimately grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ, as we read in 2 Peter 3 verse 18. Verse 7. And now it's continuing the thought of verse 5. For if the truth of God has increased through my light with glory, why am I also still judged as a sinner? In other words, if because of my sin, God's truth and God's truth, the truth of God, abides, why am I still considered a sinner? Adam Clock's commentary puts it this way, and I quote, If the faithfulness of God in keeping his promise made to our fathers is, through our unfaithfulness, made for more glorious than it otherwise would have been, why should we then be blamed for that which must be redound so much to the honour of God? Or, put it in other words, if sin turns out to be to the glory of God, they, human beings, are not only not to be punished, but we should rather to give ourselves to them sin. That obviously is the mentality of the sword, but that is not the case. That is not the case. You see, that's why he says, he asks that question, verse 7, and that's why then in verse 8 he says, And why not therefore say, let us do evil, that good may come? In other words, he's like saying, well, then maybe we should just sin more?

Paul therefore answers those that advocate salvation by grace alone. He says, and as we are slanderers reported, as some affirm that we say, there were some are saying that we are saying, well, it's salvation by grace alone. That is not correct. And Paul says, their condemnation is just. In other words, their judgment. The word for judgment here is the Greek 2917, krima, which can be translated as condemnation, as a case in court, a court case, and then there's a condemnation. So those people, their condemnation, their judgment in court, in God's court, will be just. He's just. Because that's not what we're saying. That's not what God's grace is all about.

Verse 9, what then? Are we better than they? Are we Jews better than they Gentiles? True. The Jews, certainly, we better off. Why? Because they had God's word to teach them a better way, and they were custodians of God's law. But they broke it. They were sinners. And so it only aggravated their guilt. Gentiles did not know the law by their upbringing. It was by their nature. But they also broke it. And they also are sinners. Therefore, everybody needs to be forgiven upon repentance. And they need to commit to obey in other words, to walk in faith, to become like Jesus Christ.

Verse 10, as it is written, there's none righteous, no, not one. There's none that understands. Now think about it. Imagine a person that is sick, and God gives that person the responsibility of giving them their healing medicine. Spiritually speaking, it's God's law of life. And this person that is sick carries the medicine around. He's very careful not to spill it. He smells it, but doesn't take it. He's no better off than someone that does not have the medicine. Why? Because he hasn't taken it. You see, so therefore, that's why it says there's none righteous, no, not one. Verse 11, there's none that understands. There's none who seeks after God.

Think about that. There's none that seeks God naturally. Yeah, it's a thing for us to be with. I don't know if you've come across people that I may say, I've always been such a good person. Glad I found other people like me, but I have always been such a good person. That is a problem. Why? Because they don't understand themselves. Because it says there is none who understands. There is none who seeks after God.

Yes, they might be humanly very good, but so it is like the tree of knowledge of good and evil. But they're not part of the tree of life, which is the righteousness of God by God's Holy Spirit.

You see, the point that we need to beware is of self-righteousness. Self-righteousness is of a person that says, I have always been a good person, and now I finally found some people that believe like me.

That is a red flag, because it says none seeks after God. Verse 12, they all turn aside. They have together become unprofitable. There is none that does good, no, not one. Their throat is an open tomb, with their tongues they have practiced deceit. The poison of asps is under their lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.

But some people could look at this list and say, I've never done that. So it doesn't apply to me.

But it takes the gift of God to open up their mind for them to really see themselves as they are to overcome self-righteousness.

You see, the point is that says there's none, not one. I want you to briefly look at Psalm 19. Very interesting Psalm. Psalm 19. And we're going to look at verse 12. Psalm 19 verse 12. Who can understand these errors? Clean, cleanse me from secret faults. You know, brethren, even as in the church, often we don't see our own faults. We are blind to them. It's like a blind spot in our character. We can't see as it says our errors. And that's why we need to ask God in His mercy, in His loving kindness, a little bit at a time. But please show us what we need to change those secret faults.

Keep back verse 13. Keep back from, or beg your pardon, keep back your servant also, from presumptuous sins. What's presumption sense? Self-righteousness. Thinking that I'm greater than what I really am. In the end, death was Satan's mistake. He was not humble. He was not meek. He was not teachable. He was not gentle. We need to ask God to keep us away from presumptuous sins. Let them not have dominion over me, and then I shall be blameless, and I shall be innocent of great transcription. One of our great blind spots is our own pride. Often we can't see it. So we need to seriously look at ourselves and look at these points. So continuing in Revelation, I beg pardon, Romans 3 verse 15. The feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in their ways. Brethren, isn't that what we see in the news today? The feet are swift to shed blood. I mean, I heard in the news, I don't know if some of you heard, just a couple of days ago, a 10-year-old shot dead his grandfather of 82 years old, if I remember correctly, at that age. And also shot, I think, his daughter, you know, was the grandfather's daughter, a 10-year-old child. Brethren, what's happening? What's happening? Verse 17, and the way of peace they have not known. O Yah, they say, well, let's come to a pre-peace agreement in Israel then. And in those areas, they'll never succeed. There is no fear of God before their eyes. None.

Brethren, let me just make a very important point here. A very important point here. There are two basic functions of the law of God. Two basic functions. I covered a bit of that in the study of the Book of Relations. But there are two basic functions of the law of God. The first function is to reflect the mind and character of God and Christ. In other words, to reflect the perfection of God's character. In a sense, that is a very positive function of the law of God.

To reflect the mind and character of God and Christ. Now, when we read in Romans 10 verse 4, that's exactly what it's talking about. Because it says, for Christ is the end of the law. For righteousness. You see, Christ shows us what a perfect, righteous lawkeeper would look like. In other words, he's the end of the law. He teaches us the perfection of God's character. So that is the first basic function of the law of God, to reflect the mind and character of God and Christ.

And that's positive. But there is a second function of the law of God. And that function is to show us our sinfulness and to convict us as worthy of death. In order to convict us that we are guilty of having broken it, and therefore we have fallen short of God's perfection.

That is two important functions of God's law.

Read, therefore now, verse 19.

Now, we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God. Which of these two functions is Paul talking? Yeah! Obviously the second, which is the law shows us our sinfulness and convicts us as worthy of death.

Now, let's look at verse 20. Therefore, by the deeds of the law, no flesh will be justified in his sight. For the law, or by the law, is the knowledge of sin. Quite often when I go through baptism counseling, I give the analogy of a man in jail, and then somebody comes there and he's freed out of jail, gratis, on the condition that he doesn't do it again. And then he walks out of jail, and he's expected now not to do it again. But he was freed out of jail, gratis. Let me give you another example. As far as now related to somebody after baptism, because the freeing out of jail is before baptism in that sense. But let's look at an example of our daily lives as Christians. If you and I, for instance, if we've done something wrong and we've served, for instance, on Tuesday, then maybe I said something that I shouldn't have said. What is the penalty? Death. Now, what can I do today by virtually keeping the law to take that death penalty away? Nothing. Any obedience the next day, let's say today, does not do away with the guilt of the previous Tuesday's law-breaking. So what makes us right with God? What justifies us? Remember at the beginning of this lesson I talked, and I said there's a first stage of justification that we brought into the right relationship with God. How? And I used Romans 5, 8 through 10, saying that we are justified by Christ's blood. That is the initial justification. We are reconciled through the death of Jesus Christ from enmity, from enmity with God. So that's how we justify it. But understand that the purpose, therefore, in this case, in this second basic, what should I say, basic function of God's law, is it to show us what sin is. And that's what it says at the end of verse 20, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.

Now let's read verse 21. But now, the righteousness of God, apart from the law, is revealed, being witnessed by the law and the prophets. The righteousness of God, through what Jesus Christ did, because he trusted in the Father, the total trust of God and Christ is exemplified here. He trusted the Father implicitly, and then he says, in verse 22, Even the righteous of God, through the faith of Christ, to all, on all who believe. For there is no difference. You see, the righteousness of God, because of what the Father has done and what the Christ and Christ have done, because of their mutual trust in each other, they, the Father gave his Son, his Son never sinned, and the Son trusted that the Father would resurrect him. So because of that mutual trust, they did what they did. Christ and the Father did this most enormous sacrifice for us. And so because of that, he says, this is done so that the righteousness of God, through what the Father and Christ have done because they believe in each other, he says, to all and on all who believe, the righteousness of God is imputed on us because we believe. Now we'll talk more about that in chapter four, about righteousness being imputed on us because we believe.

You see, Jews and Gentiles can have their guilt from their son, their boss's son, maybe they don't choose, they or whoever it is, whether they choose or gentile, no difference because of what Christ has done.

But the law of God has done its job and convicted us of being sinners. You see, so this very act of what they've done to us, this act of grace, as we read in Ephesians chapter two, verse eight, in the King James Version, it says, this act by grace we are saved through faith, and that not of ourselves, it is a gift of God. That faith is not of ourselves a gift of God, but we've got to believe that what they've done is sufficient for us. We have to believe that I have to pay nothing, that God has paid it for you and me. You and I can't buy it, we can't earn it. And look at verse 23, for we all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified, being made right with God freely by His grace through the redemption. It was through the buying back that is in Christ.

You and I don't need to pay anything. We can't earn it. It's a gift. Whom God set forth as a propitiation.

In other words, God has set forth as an atoning victim through, as we read here, by His blood, or as it reads in the King James Version, or in the English majority text version, it says, as God set forth as a propitiation through faith in His blood. We have to have faith in what God and Christ have done. And that propitiation, that is that atoning victim that He did through faith in His blood. And so it is from faith to faith. We have to absolutely trust in God. But then it says, yeah, in verse 25, by His blood through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness because of His forbearance, God has passed over the sins that were previously committed, previously committed, the sins that are passed. And so verse 26, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and a justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. When God sees a person with a clean record, is there anything that that person has done? No. It is imputed by God as righteousness because of belief.

It's imputed by God as righteousness because of belief.

Verse 27, therefore, where is our boast? It's excluded by what law? By works? No. But by the law of faith. No one can be proud of His actions. You remember the story of that Pharisee in Luke 18, verse 11 and 12. He says, look at what I've done. Look how great I am. Not like that of the man. But look at me. I've done this and I've done that. I'm such a great person.

You and I can't be proud in any of our actions. We have to have absolute trust in God's mercy. In other words, we have to have absolute faith in God's mercy. We have to have faith on what God has done through His Son. Not my works. Not my works of faith. But faith in what God has done because they trusted each other. Number one, the Father believed that Christ would never sin. And Christ believed that the Father would never forsake Him. That He would be resurrected. There was an absolute mutual trust between the two. And that mutual trust made Him do what they did. And there's also a faith that they believed that this great act would lead us to repentance. But yes, you and I need to believe that what God and Jesus Christ have done for us is sufficient to pay for all our sins, even our worst sins and most terrible sins. And our worst and terrible sins, they've caused and caused so much sorrow, pain and suffering to our brothers and sisters. But when we believe, because we believe that what is done is sufficient for us, then He imputes God's righteousness upon us. Verse 28, therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law. Yes, a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law. We are made right because of our belief. God imputes righteousness upon us. And that's because of His graciousness of what they've done for us. It's not because of what I've done. But understand something important here. In verse 28, it does not say that a man is justified by faith alone.

It does not use the word alone. That word was added by Martin Luther. And you see that often in Protestant theology.

And if that word was there, that would be a direct contradiction to James 2 verse 24. Because James 2, 24, says, for you see then that a man is justified by works and not by faith only. And if you read in the NIV or the NLT or the ESV, it says, and not by faith alone. That's why Martin Luther called the epistle of giants an epistle of straw.

So once you and I have sinned, we repent. Our intent and desire is now to obey. But we know that our obedience does not cover the sins of yesterday or whichever day they go.

Verse 29, what is he the God of the Jews only? Or is he not also the God of the Gentiles? Yes, the Gentiles also. You see, Christ's blood pays for all our sins, Jews and Gentiles, all our sins of everybody. Verse 30, since the at least one God will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised by faith.

So we get back to the first function of God's law. You see, how does faith establish the law?

You see, it says, yes, the Gentiles also, for this one God, will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised by faith. Do we then make the law, make void the law through faith? Certainly not. On the contrary, we establish the law. How is faith capable to establish the law? You see, that's what I mean. Back to that first function of God's law, to reflect the mind and character of God and Christ. Of us living up to God's righteous standards on the days after we sinned.

We can be forgiven of what we did. But now think about it. What if God did not forgive?

What if God did not forgive? Would you be motivated to keep God's law in the future? Because you'd say, I'm going to die anyway. So why try?

But once you know you are forgiven, it gives you more incentive to try to please God. We, therefore, establish the law. That's what it says. Do we then make void the law through faith? No. We establish the law. It gives us renewed hope because it shows us how to please God.