INCONCEIVABLE GRACE

Romans 3:21-31

By David Woodbury

Christ Took Our Punishment

21 But now God has shown us a way to be made right with him without keeping the requirements of the law, as was promised in the writings of Moses and the prophets long ago. 22 We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are.

23 For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.24 Yet God freely and graciously declares that we are righteous. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins.25 For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood. This sacrifice shows that God was being fair when he held back and did not punish those who sinned in times past, 26 for he was looking ahead and including them in what he would do in this present time. God did this to demonstrate his righteousness, for he himself is fair and just, and he declares sinners to be right in his sight when they believe in Jesus.

27 Can we boast, then, that we have done anything to be accepted by God? No, because our acquittal is not based on obeying the law. It is based on faith. 28 So we are made right with God through faith and not by obeying the law.

29 After all, is God the God of the Jews only? Isn’t he also the God of the Gentiles? Of course he is. 30 There is only one God, and he makes people right with himself only by faith, whether they are Jews or Gentiles]31 Well then, if we emphasize faith, does this mean that we can forget about the law? Of course not! In fact, only when we have faith do we truly fulfill the law. (Romans 3:21-31  - NLT)

In the New Living Translation Paul writes: People are made right with God when they believe 
(v 25) When it comes to being justified by grace, faith is the hinge pin. God declares sinners to be right in his sight when they believe in Jesus. (V 28) In the 11^th chapter of Hebrews, the writer lists those Old Testament heroes who had been righteous in the sight of God simply because of their implicit faith. When we unconditionally believe the promises of God in his word we act in accordance to that belief, even at times when circumstances seem contrary. Hebrews 11 speaks of a faith that accepts and believes the truth about God and the redemptive work of his Son, Jesus Christ.  And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him. (Hebrew 11:6 - NLT)

We need to get away from the concept that suggests that our initial faith in God needs to be unwavering and rock-solid. It could be that some can develop such an unshakable faith. However, for many of us who would become citizens in the kingdom of God, faith is something that at times is not as resolute as we would like.  We can look for all sorts of evidence of the reality of a spiritual part of our being but in the final analysis, it comes down to a personal resolution to the question.

The Bible seems to support the idea that our initial faith may not be rock-solid, that indeed it may be small and insecure yet quite acceptable to God. In the 9^th chapter of Mark is the story of the man who brought his epileptic son to Jesus and Jesus questions him about his faith. The man replies I do believe! Help me to believe more!  The disciples themselves struggled with their faith: 20 “You don’t have enough faith,” Jesus told them. “I tell you the truth, if you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it would move. Nothing would be impossible.” A good litmus test for our faith is to ask yourself, am I willing to stake my life on this belief? If you can respond with a positive yes! Your faith has found a good starting point.

Often it is our struggle with faith or the absence of it that becomes a significant barrier in our spiritual journey. The reality is that we cannot satisfy all the questions that arise in our minds in a few minutes or a few years for that matter. Faith will always be a work in progress and perhaps that is the way it is meant to be. At this point in our spiritual journey, the first step is all that matters. It’s OK to put aside those other questions that crowd our minds for a later point in the journey. God’s requirement of us is basically a faith similar to that of a child with a parent, simple and trusting.

No  religion can exist without faith. Religion comes about when humanity became aware there was a power greater than themselves and it ceases when humanity abandons any belief in a power greater than them. Additionally, humanity has to come to the realisation that God not only exists and he also cares about his creation, including people. To simply believe that God exists but is detached from humanity robs God of his true character of love.

Within these 10 verses of Scripture in Romans 3, is the real secret to life. When we truly understand what Paul is trying to convey here, many other truths of the Bible begin to fall into place. He is quite pointed in his words. It is possible for a person to be made right with him without keeping the requirements of the law. However, we cannot interpret this statement as some sort of licence to totally ignore God’s law. It remains as the yardstick for human behaviour. It is when we come to know and understand God’s law that we realise our own shortcoming and the fact that we can never perfectly keep that law.

There is a fundamental question being posed here; how can we attain a right relationship with God? The Jewish answer was; by meticulously keeping the whole law of God. However, the reality was and is that no human being is capable of keeping every commandment of the law. As we have discovered the law simply shows us how sinful we are. From Moses on, the Bible foreshadowed a better way through which we can attain a right relationship with God.

God’s grace is generous: God freely and graciously declares that we are righteous (v 24). God’s response demonstrates his heart of love so richly demonstrated in the life and ministry of Jesus. It is not the act of one who is grudgingly forced to give ground but rather one whose heart goes out in love for sinful humanity. However, this gracious gift of grace is only available when we truly come to the place of personally believing that it was for me that Jesus died. Our response and acceptance of God’s gift of salvation by his grace is a conscious and cerebral decision we must make for ourselves. No family or church affiliation can action this for us; it is an intentional decision we must initiate for ourselves.

There is a sense in which this doctrine of justification by grace through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, is so uncomplicated that its simplicity all too often blinds people to the great treasure it enshrines. There is a consciousness in humanity that believes; that to be put into a right relationship with God will necessitate great complexity and struggle.

The reality is that in the end, it comes down to a simple act of faith in the redemptive death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is true that after this simple act of faith the authentic Christian will embark on a life-long journey that will entail examination, self-realisation, struggle and sacrifice, as they strive to know the heart and mind of God and incorporate his way into their lifestyle.

Some within the Jewish faith held the view that life was like a profit and loss account, that somehow, if a person acquired enough positive points then God would somehow be in their debt and he owed them salvation. Paul makes the point that all persons were sinners and no amount of judicious bookkeeping would ever make them right with God.

Consequently, he returns again this reality; that in the sight of God, all people are, without exception, sinners, and as such fall short of God’s glorious standard. Here is the solitary starting point for a right relationship with God. Until we have owned our sin, there can be no possibility or hope of being put right with God. Until we have accepted in the very depths of our being, the fact we are sinners and unashamedly acknowledged that fact on a very personal basis, there can be no prospect of entering into a right relationship with God. No matter how simplistic this justification by grace is, it can never be enacted without a confrontation with our own sinfulness.

The Bible clearly and explicitly maintains that the only way to a right relationship and standing with God is through the sacrificial death and liberating resurrection of Jesus Christ. There is no alternative.

Paul goes on to use two words that need to be understood in this process: grace and justification:

Grace is one of the most significant concepts in Scripture. Grace can be defined as “God’s free actions—based on Jesus’ death and motivated by love—to redeem all who believe and to make them righteous” (Expository Dictionary of Bible Words, Zondervan, 1985, p. 319).

God’s grace makes our salvation possible. Grace is God’s voluntary and loving favour given to those he saves. Grace comes as an act of sheer kindness, generosity and goodness on the part of God. There is nothing in human beings that warrants it. He showers his grace on us in spite of our sin and failures. It is not just pardon and forgiveness, it is something more.

The law has to do with fear; we endeavour to try and keep the law because we are afraid of the just punishment that it will incur. The reality of life is that humanity cannot enjoy a full life when dominated by fear.  Fear is never a good motivator. However, in God’s new world, saturated with his grace, love is the motivator. From this point on we strive to be good, not because we fear punishment but as a response to love and grace. Our desire to live good lives springs, not from fear, but a response to love and grace. We know now that sin is not so much breaking God's law as it is breaking God's heart, and, therefore, it is doubly terrible. (Barclay)

Justified by grace - put in a right standing and relationship with God through his unearned and undeserved favour

Justification is a legal term meaning “declared innocent” It is a legal declaration that a person is acquitted and absolved. It is by justification that a person is righteous and acceptable to God. The death of Christ was the payment of our debt of sin so that we might be forgiven based on what Christ has accomplished for sinners on the cross, God now views those who believe in Christ from an eternal perspective. That is, he sees them not as they are, but as they will be in Christ. He sees them as he sees Christ: perfect, holy, and without sin.

We can’t earn salvation, nor do we deserve it. No religious, intellectual, or moral effort can gain it, because it comes only from God’s mercy and love. Without God’s grace, no person can be saved. To receive it, we must acknowledge that we cannot save our self, that only God can save us, and that our only way to receive this loving favour is by faith in Christ.

The other side of this free gift of God’s grace is that not only does it bring salvation, but it also assigns to those who are saved, special tasks in God’s service, spiritual gifts. The Christian life is never a solo flight. Along our pilgrimage we will meet many others; some will be seekers, looking to start their journey, some will be those with whom we share fellowship within the church. Grace is imperative in all these relationships.

Grace is God himself, his loving energy at work within his church and within our souls. (Evelyn Underhill - 1875–1941). Through his grace, God releases in our lives the energy of the Holy Spirit.

The reality of the church throughout the centuries is that it has survived, not because of its brilliant theologians or its gifted preachers, but simply because ordinary men and women exercised and faithfully utilised the gifts God had given them. If the church depended on theologians and charismatic preachers for its existence it would have died out, for as those who have had contact with such people will know, brilliant as they are, most of them are idealists who are unsuited to the nuts and bolts issues that keep the church functioning.

God’s grace cannot be stored as in a reservoir. It is an active and dynamic characteristic, which, like a river, needs to flow.

When God imparts his grace into our lives we need to not only experience and use it for our journey, we must also become channels of God’s grace, receiving his grace, living by his grace and ministering his grace to others.