Justified by Faith

Paul, in his epistle to the Romans, addresses a number of encouraging news about the Kingdom of God. And one of them is, highlights specific steps in the plan of salvation. It is very interesting. If you look at the book of Romans, it addresses things like faith, repentance, baptism. In other words, it's like the basic doctrines. So you could actually say that the book of Romans covers some of the basic doctrines and maturing into perfection. So it is a very interesting book for you to read.

One of the good news that is emphasized and highlighted in the book of Romans is that we will receive eternal life. And a part of that process of eternal life is that we are justified by faith. And that obviously is subject to us then repenting, being baptized, and living God's way.

Today, brethren, I want to talk about justification. It's not that there is a problem. Sometimes people say, why do I give a certain sermon or message? Is there a problem? No. It's part of educating and studying God's word, and that is the intent. So we want to look at this principle of being justified by faith.

Now, it is particularly difficult to understand from two different angles. One is some people take it to an extreme and say, well, therefore I don't have to obey God's law. And that's wrong, because that's not what Paul is addressing. On the other side, other people take to the other side of the equation and it says, well, we need to have more faith. And yes, we do need to have more faith, but we need to understand that you and I are not justified by your faith or by my faith.

You see, sometimes you get people who say, well, I don't have enough faith, therefore I'll never make it. Brethren, it's not your faith, nor is it my faith that justifies us. Yes, we do need to believe, as I'll go through, and we need to understand that.

But we need to understand that it is a growth process from faith to faith. So let's look at Romans, and we're going to start in chapter 1, and I would encourage you to, as a follow-up to this, to actually study the first few chapters of Romans at home as a follow-up to the sermon. By the way, we're going to start reading today in Romans chapter 1, verse 16. And then we read, Paul says to the Romans, I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. I'm not ashamed of the good news of Christ.

And so some people say, well, isn't it the good news of the kingdom of God? Oh, yes, it is. But Christ is the leader that the Father has delegated the responsibility to be the king of kings in the kingdom of God ruling on earth.

And so I'm not ashamed of the good news of Christ. Now, what are the good news of Christ? Is that He is a leader, He died for us, so that you and I can inherit the kingdom of God. So that's good news. And then He says, for it is the power of God to salvation. This good news that Christ died for us and that Christ is going to be our king and He is going to be our leader, and He is going to make sure that we are going to be going in the correct path, is, as it says, yeah, the power of God to salvation.

Because this is the plan of salvation that we need to understand for everyone that believes. So yes, you and I need to believe. And belief, in a sense, is a part of faith. It's belief. Another thing about belief is trust. Think about it. If you believe in somebody that He says something that He's going to do it, that you believe that He's speaking the truth, you're going to trust Him or her.

So those words are closely related. Faith, belief and trust. So let's go on reading. Now, at the end of verse 16, for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. So this principle is applicable, let's put it in modern terminology, to Christians and non-Christians. It's to all mankind. And then reading in verse 17, for in it, the righteousness of God. Now, here is an important statement, the righteousness of God. It's not the righteousness, and put your name in there. Let me put mine. It's not righteousness of George. And put your name. It's the righteousness of God. Verse is important for us to understand, and I'm going to go into that also today.

The righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith. You see, it's like a step ladder. You go from one step to another, and you're building up faith and trust. But the righteousness of God is believed through this faith that comes from God. And we then have to reply, return that same belief. That same being, that same degree of trustworthiness, faithfulness. So it says, from faith to faith, as it is written, the just shall live by faith.

The just shall live by faith. And therefore, we are made just by faith. We are justified by faith. Again, it's not your faith, it's not my faith. So we'll come to that in a moment, a bit more detail. I am going to, for making it a practical, more understandable to you and I, I am going to use the word trust. Now, I know that faith is more than trust. I'm not questioning that. But trust brings a lot of the principles of faith to a better clarity in your mind and in my mind.

But faith is more. But trust helps us to understand a little bit better. In other words, you and I have faith in God because we can trust Him. Right? We can trust God, right? God doesn't lie, His promises are true, and therefore, you and I can trust God. Therefore, you and I can have faith, can have faith, have trust in God because He's trustworthy. Or in other words, He's faithful.

God never lies, put it another way, God is truth, right? If you never lie, He's truth. Whatever He says, that's what it is. God is truth. Let's just look at a few scriptures there. Deuteronomy 32 verse 4. It says, He's the rock, His work is perfect, for all His ways are justice, a God of truth, and without injustice. Righteousness and upright is He, a God of truth. Some versions translate that, a God of faithfulness. Depends which version of the Bible you have, you will see some versions translate that, a God of faithfulness, a God of truth. He can be trusted. He never breaks a promise. I'm sure we all hold on to that. God is faithful. That's why you and I can have faith on Him. That's why you and I can trust Him. Because if He says, yes, yes, it is yes. And if He says, no, no, it is no. And you know, the Bible says, you and I need to be men of our word. If we say yes, it's yes. And if we say no, it's no. If you say, I'm going to do this, then do it. That's what we try and teach our children, isn't it? We need to be faithful like God is faithful. Look at Joshua 21, verse 45. Joshua 21, verse 45. It says, Not a word failed of any good thing which the Lord has spoken to the house of Israel. All came to pass.

So, God fulfilled all His promises. You and I can trust Him. You and I can have faith on Him because He's trustworthy.

Look at Isaiah chapter 25, verse 1. Isaiah chapter 25, verse 1.

Isaiah 25, verse 1.

O Lord, You are my God. I will exalt You. I will praise Your name. For You have done wonderful things. Your counsels of all are faithfulness and truth.

In other words, God's promises are sure. We don't have to doubt. Now, I'm sure you all agree with that.

And you all know that faithfulness is part of one of the attributes of the fruit of God's Holy Spirit. You remember Galatians chapter 5, verse 22 and 23. He is talking about the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, You can see faithfulness is next to such attributes as long suffering, kindness, goodness, and faithfulness. So you and I need to put faithfulness because God is faithful, and that's why we can trust in Him.

As I mentioned a little bit earlier, Christ in the sermon on the Mount said, Let you yes be yes, and you'll know be no. We need to be men and women of our word. You can find that in Matthew chapter 5, verse 37. So, with that in mind, let's go back to Romans chapter 1. And let's look at verse 18, which is how Paul continues now. He says, This is how we've seen that faithfulness is very tied to truth. God is a God of truth. We speak to truth. We can trust and so truth is very related to faithfulness. But God's wrath is revealed to those that are suppressing the truth because they're not faithful, because they're unrighteous.

They are ungodly. So, yeah, we can see that not holding to the truth and not being faithful to our word is not good at all, as he says. And he says the wrath of God is revealed. In other words, there will be a judgment. There will be a judgment. And now continues. Because why do men suppress the truth?

Why do men twist the truth? Brethren, today, today, this is happening all over the place. You read scriptures like Isaiah 5, where he says they call right wrong and they call wrong right and things like that. They're suppressing the truth. You're listening to the news. I don't have to mention specifics. You know, men, people, are suppressing the truth. Why do they do that? It says because what they may be known of God is manifesting them for God has shown it to them. For since the beginning, since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse.

In other words, these people know better. Now, there is a very interesting book by a man that used to be a person that did not believe in God called Anthony Flew, and he wrote a book called There is a God. I strongly recommend you to read this book because it's very fascinating that this man that was an agnostic, did not believe in God towards his death, he acknowledged he was wrong.

And he gives the reasons why there is a God. Very interesting. Very interesting. There is one point that he still can't understand, and he says, well, I don't understand. As you read the book, you'll see it. He says, I can't understand why God allows suffering. At least he's honest. And he kind of implies, God, you haven't felt suffering. And therefore, you don't know what suffering is. You now know that our Creator, under the Father, who delegated him the responsibility to create us, in other words, Jesus our Messiah, he created us. And under the Father's instruction, he allows free moral agency for us to learn certain lessons, and he understands what is suffering because he had to die the most painful death.

So his statement that he says, well, God exists, has to exist, but I can't understand why God allows suffering. Well, he hasn't understood who Christ is and what he had to go through. So that's a whole different issue. But the point is, they know, and they know that they know there is a God, but they suppress the truth. Why? And some of these people that believe in evolution and others will actually admit it, because if we admit there is a God, then I could not do what I want to do.

You see, it's convenient to them to say there is no God, so that they can live out their wicked passions. And that's why it says here, in verse 18, the wrath of God is revealed against these people, against all ungodless and righteousness, and they suppress the truth. Why? To allow to justify themselves, they can do wrong. And look at verse 21, because although they knew God, they did not glorify Him, God as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts and their foolish hearts were darkened.

You see, so they become fools. Verse 22, professing to be wise, they have these doctorate degrees and all these things, but they fools. That's what the Bible says. And if you look a little bit further, in verse 26, look at verse 26, For this reason, God gave them up to vile passions. You see, God gives them, and gives us, and gives mankind free moral agency. You want to do it? Do it! But remember, there are consequences. There are consequences. You see, God has given us free moral agency. God has given us freedom to choose. Isn't that what you read?

Writing Genesis to Adam, he has two trees, the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Choose! But choose life. Choose the Tree of Life for your own good. You see, and now I'm going to say this in a little jest, God is pro-choice. Because he wants you to choose. But you see, God is pro-life, because he wants you to choose life.

So, as I said, I'm just saying a little bit of jest there in the context of today's society. But the point that I'm saying here is, God has given mankind an opportunity to choose. He wants us to choose life for our own good. But when these leaders, scientists and others, have chosen evil, why? So they give themselves an excuse to do wrong. Then we read here in verse 26, God gave them up. God allowed them to have their vile passions. And they're going to have their consequences thereof. They're going to have those consequences. And then we read a little bit further in verse 27. Likewise, also the man, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned their last. Yeah, because he's talking in verse 26 about the woman, did the same thing as well. And therefore, they have the penalty of the era which was due. The era gets to an interesting point. It's like the very core of truth. The very core of truth gets down to one thing, knowing that the man is a man and the woman is a woman. That's self-evident when our little children are born. You just have to look. That is self-evident. Unfortunately, in this world, the right is wrong. Everything is upside down.

And unfortunately, whatever is decided by the government or by the rules of these courts or whatever it may be, mankind does not repent. Mankind does not repent unless God shakes their mind, their brains.

And because of that, there are punishments ahead. We should have been an example to the world as Israel, and we have sinned.

And we are sinning, and people aren't repenting.

That is sad. Things are going to get worse, and I don't say it with joy. We all sigh and cry for the weakness that's happening.

And we all pray that mankind would repent. But you and I know mankind is not repenting unless they really hurt their heads when they hit it against the wall. You know, people have to hit their foreheads against the wall, and hit it against the wall, and hit it against the wall, till they get to a point where they say, this actually gives me a headache.

But unfortunately, they will have to hit the head against the wall hard. And that wall, you and I know, is the Great Tribulation. Yes, people will repent during Great Tribulation, but in today's society, people are becoming more secular and more disinterested in God. They are suppressing the truth in unrighteousness. And yes, it gets down to the very core of truth.

It is the whole understanding, in a godly way, of, as it says, yes, that they have left the natural use of a man versus a woman in marriage, or vice versa, a woman versus a man in marriage. And they're committing sin. And there's going to be a penalty. You know, when you read in Thessalonians, when he says, because they did not love the truth. This is truth, what a man is and what a woman is. And they do not love that. They do not understand. They suppress it. But let's continue them. And therefore, in verse 28 says, even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not fitting. And that's what's happening to the world today.

The human reasoning has become twisted. There's no such thing anymore as common sense.

Common sense is no more common. And therefore, we gotta understand this is the way the world is going. But look at Romans chapter 2 verse 1 says, therefore, you are inexcusable.

You see, the book of Romans is written to Christians in the area of Rome. And a lot of them were Gentiles. Sure, there was a number of Jews amongst them, too. And it says, let's call it, it's written to Christians. And it says, you Christians are inexcusable. And then it says, oh man, whoever you are who judge, for in whatever you judge, another you condemn yourself.

The moral of the lesson you have to you and I is that we gotta be careful not to condemn.

Because we all sinners, we all have sinned. Which one has never sinned? We all have sinned. We're not better than anybody else. But for the grace of God, you and I are yeah, otherwise you'll be out there as well.

So we have no reason to be self-righteous. And then we're back to the point of God's righteousness versus self-righteousness. Remember, in chapter 1, I read about the righteousness of God in verse 17.

And you know what? You and I are not righteous, but by God's grace and by God's mercy, that has been imputed on us. Oh, what a mean! Being imputed on us!

And in the book of Romans, a little later, in chapter 4, Paul explains that. We'll get to that a little later.

You see, the point here is that we have to be merciful. Now, you know in James 2, verse 17, he says, Judgment is without mercy to who has shown no mercy. Mercy thrives over judgment. You know, also in our model prayer, the world calls it our Father, it says, Forgive our sins as we forgive those that stand against us, or forgive our trespasses as we forgive those that stand against us. We have to be merciful. We have to be forgiving. Which means we've got to be careful when we're critical of one another.

We really have to be careful when we're critical of one another.

Because mercy triumphs over judgment.

You see, God has given us spice. You read that in Romans, chapter 2, verse 4. He says, Do you despise the riches of God's goodness, of His goodness, forbearance and long-suffering? In other words, God gives us time, space to repent. Not knowing that the goodness of God leads us to repentance. God allows and allows and gives us time. He gets to a point that you and I say, God, when is this going to stop? Do you know what? God is more patient than you and I.

God is more forbearing than you and I.

God is more merciful than you and I. But there will be a judgment. There will be a time when God will say, that is enough. I've given you enough time. But He's giving us time so that we may repent.

Which means we have to change. So, we are justified by faith. We'll go on to that. That does not mean that you can break God's law and God's law has done away. Just the opposite.

We oblige now to obey God's law. Again, I will re-emphasize that a little later. So, you see, God's goodness leads us to righteousness.

See, the point here is that Paul is saying, we all have sinned. We all have done things wrong. But we have to trust God.

We have to trust God. That He's doing the right thing, that He knows what He's doing, and that He will forgive us.

We have to trust God, that His forgiveness is big enough for my sins and all our sins, how bad they may have been.

How bad they may have been. And therefore, please don't say, oh well, I've been so bad that I don't know if God's going to forgive me. Because if you say that, then you're saying that Christ's sacrifice is not good enough for you.

You see, Christ's sacrifice is big enough for the biggest sin.

So, we have to believe that Christ's sacrifice is big enough for you and I. Now, be a part of it. We have to trust that what Christ has done, what God is doing through Christ, is good enough for us.

And so, we are not made righteous by what I've done or what you've done. You see, look at Romans 3, verse 9. Romans 3, verse 9, it says, are we better than the people in the world, for instance? You know, he's now obviously in context, he's talking about Jews and Gentiles. But in our context, there's people in the church and people in the world. It's kind of the same analogy, just putting it into today's way of looking at it. And then in 1st Then he says, there is none righteous, no, not one. There's none who understands, there's none that seeks after God, they all turn their side. You say, oh no, none except me. No. Doesn't say, doesn't give that exception, which includes you and I, a part of none. None. So you and I are inexcusable. That's what we read in chapter 2, verse 1. You are inexcusable because we all are unrighteous. We all have sinned.

So when you see somebody doing something wrong, don't be critical. Don't be critical.

Or, understand, God hates sin, but He loves the sinner, and He wants the sinner to come to repentance. And so, that's why the fruit of God's early spirit includes things like goodness and kindness. Because we all have sinned. There's none righteous, no, not one.

And we read, then, a little bit further in Romans chapter 3, verse 20. Therefore, by the deeds of the law, no flesh shall be justified. You and I are not made just by any deeds of the law. Therefore, the world, society, says, oh, well, therefore, we don't have to obey God's law. Ridiculous! That's not what He's talking about.

You see, justified means you are made right with God. Let me give you a simple example. If you have broken the law, for instance, driving under the influence, you have a penalty. For instance, you're going to go to jail, or whatever it is. Right? How do you pay that penalty? There may be a fine, or whatever it is, there's a law that kind of gets you out of that penalty.

But that's a separate law. But when you break the law, you have a penalty. You are not made right by the law. There is a separate law that then gives you the instructions of how to be right. So, there's God's law, the Ten Commandments, for instance, and also additional laws like clean and clean foods and others, and God's early days, the Sabbaths, they tell you what's right and wrong.

Now, you break those laws. Yeah. Who hasn't lied, for instance? Who hasn't done something wrong in his life? Right. So, we've broken the law. Now, because you don't lie, does that pay the penalty? Because you don't drive under the influence anymore, does that pay the penalty and get you out of jail? No. There is another law that says, well, yeah, it's the penalty. You've got to pay the penalty. What is the wages of sin? The wages of sin is death. So, how do you pay for sin? By dying. Now, once you're dead, you're dead. Goodbye. You see, that's why there is another law of sacrifices that says, well, a sacrifice will pay for that.

Those law of sacrifices pointed to Christ, which is the one that paid our lives back, redeemed us, brought us back to life through His sacrifice. So, it's not our righteousness that makes us right with God. It's Christ that died for us that makes us right with God. That pays our penalty in front of God.

That pays our penalty of sin. And therefore, is the righteousness of God, which is the righteousness of Jesus Christ coming to die for us without sin, that pays for us. You see, and why did Christ do that? Why did Christ give His life for you and I? Of course, because He loves us. But let me ask you a question.

And I'm going to give you an analogy, a simple analogy, and please forgive me for the simplicity of the analogy. But imagine there are two leaders, prominent leaders in the States. And I'm just going to give two names, just to give you an analogy to understand. Let's say one leader is, for instance, Biden, and another leader is Donald Trump.

And would you see one saying, you go there and I'm going to give everything up, and I know that once I've given everything up, you will give it back to me. They'll never do that. Why? Because they don't trust one another. Okay, so I'm sorry. So it's a simple analogy, but it's trying to bring, when you have two leaders, one to give up everything on the conditions that later the other one will bring them up, there has to be trust. Does that make sense? Therefore, you have God the Father, He is of the form of God, and you have Jesus Christ, He is of the form of God, they are both eternal, they got us back, and the Father delegated to the Son all this mission of creating sons and daughters of God.

And the Son says, yes, I will empty myself of being in the form of God. You read that in Philippians 2 verse 6. He emptied Himself, and He became a human being. And not only that, He gave His life, and He died. Imagine if the two, that's the Father and Christ, were not one in thought, in mind, in unity, if there was any distrust between the two. Do you think Christ would have given everything up? And then the other one says, aha, now I don't have competition. There's no such thing. They are one! And in other words, they are one in mind, in spirit, in attitude, in purpose, or what they want to achieve.

And therefore, the Son, Jesus Christ, gave up everything, died for us in absolute trust that the Father would resurrect in three days and three nights afterwards. Right? He had no doubts, no questions. And the Father pained Him to see His Son being a sin offering for us, but He had to allow it so that He could use that as the payment for our lives to be redeemed. You see, Christ's faith in the Father was that the Father would resurrect Him. He never doubted that.

And therefore, He gave His life and He gave His blood for us. Sure, it's His blood that pays for ourselves, His life. But He did that because He had trust in the Father that the Father would resurrect Him. In other words, He had faith in the Father. That is the faith of Christ. And you and I are justified by the faith of Christ.

And so, you are not made right with God because you have great faith, or I am not made right with God because I have great faith. I am made right with God because of Christ's trust in the Father to resurrect Him after He was dead. And He really was dead. And the Father resurrected Him. That's why it says only the Father has immortality because Christ gave up His life. He was immortal, but He gave it up for us. That is an act of absolute faith in the Father. And that's what makes you and I right with God.

Why? Because He paid for our sins. He paid for our sins. And that's an important point for us to understand. We are just defied by faith, but by the faith of Jesus Christ. We are made right with God by faith, but by the faith of Jesus Christ. And that's what it says in verse 28. Romans 3.28. Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law. But now that God has done this for you and I, the Father gave His only begotten Son and the Son was willing to give His life for us.

The two with one mind, one purpose with intent are bringing us into the Kingdom of God so that we can inherit the Kingdom of God.

This is an act of absolute trust in one another. Now there is another angle to it. There is another interesting angle to this. If the Father and if Christ did not believe that this act would be good enough to change us, why would they do it? So there is also a little bit of trust that we will repent. You see, it is God's righteousness, not mine, but God's.

So then we read in Romans 3, verse 31, Do we then make void the law through faith? Certainly not. On the contrary, we establish the law. You see, we are talking about God's grace towards us. Now many of us don't really understand what grace is about. Now the Church has put together a booklet about grace. I strongly recommend you to study your Bible using this booklet as a guide. Study the subject of grace using this booklet as a guide. There is an interesting chapter here entitled, What did grace mean in the first century world? It was in the context that Paul was writing what was understood by those people as grace. And basically, it means the following. Or it meant to them the following. That once you have been giving such a big gift, because it is a gift that you and I don't deserve, you, a gift of grace, you then need to show appreciation to that and give something back. In other words, you are now obliged to return. Now this reminds me of the word thank you. And why does it remind me of the word thank you? Because the word thank you in Portuguese, which is my native language, is obrigado, which translated literally means I'm obliged to return the favor to you. Once somebody does something to you, you are obliged, you're obrigado, to return the favor. Now, I know the Portuguese today don't think of obrigado as means I'm obliged to return the favor. They just think it's thank you, because the meaning of the word has kind of been watered down. But this is what you and I need to remember. Brethren, you and I are justified by faith, and that does not do away with the law. That establishes the law, as Paul says in Romans 3, 31, because now you and I are obliged to do our part and keep the law.