The Law of Grace

Romans 319. Now we know that whatsoever the law saith, it saith unto them who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped and that the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.

But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested being witnessed by the law even the righteousness which is of God, pardon me, the righteousness of God which is by faith in Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe, for there is no difference. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through the faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remissions of sins that are passed through the forbearance of God. To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness, that he might be just and the justifier of them which he believeth in Jesus.

Where is the boasting then? It is excluded. By the law of works? Nay, by the law of faith. Therefore we conclude that man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.

If, pardon me, is he the God of the Jews only? Is he not of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also. Seen it is one God which shall justify the circumcision by faith and the uncircumcision through faith. Do we then make void the law of God through faith? God forbid, yea, we establish the law.

Father, we thank you for your word and we ask that as we look at this and sometimes it's almost like reading through some court document and all of its little legalities and trying to unwind it and what does it say and we ask Lord that as we look at it you would make it ever so simple to us, so clear Lord, the things that Paul has been building up to through these first three chapters. That you administer its truth to us for we ask it in Jesus name, amen. Well here is Paul as in previous studies that we have been through, been talking and studying and teaching us about the law.

It's something there that he has made many a statement so far that there is no way that anybody under the law, we've looked at entire studies on how that no attempts to even fulfill the law will ever be successful. It can't happen. You see the law is a standard, it is an absolutely flawless perfect standard.

One sense to me as I almost think of the law it's like living next door to Superman, in a sense you might say, in the sense and then trying because he lives next door we are going to somehow another try to be to be like him and there as you would you know might think well that'd be wonderful to have him around but yet at the same time as soon as he was around all of a sudden now I've got to be like him, I've got to live up to that standard. Now I've got the most difficult of all chores. I mean here we've got somebody that they never seems to sleep, he just lives for truth and justice and and the American way.

Whatever he wants he can do it flawlessly. The guy is never gonna steal, he doesn't need to. You just take a hunk of coal and crush it, you got a diamond, you need a you know some money you just go down pick up a you know some Spanish gold out of the bottom of the sea or something and there's really no needs so much ever with your life.

Anything you want you get freely. You know in the morning when you and I wake up and we go to the refrigerator by the time we've got the refrigerator he's already flown to some South Sea Island back with mangoes and papaya and and it's got it all sitting there and he lives perfectly, he lives flawlessly. No sweat, no struggle, no effort and he's somebody there that he protects the world and the young and the old and everybody in between.

He never gets upset on the freeway because of course he never drives, he flies. Now that I think about that but anyway so that's no problem at all. But then when you look at this person then you realize essentially by living next door to him he now has become the standard and you must be able to do everything that he does or you're unacceptable.

You have to be able to achieve it all and to be able to achieve it all flawlessly and consistently for whatever is expected of Superman is also expected of you and if you can't do it you can't enter into the kingdom of heaven and now all of a sudden you're not only just simply jealous of Superman you kind of hate him in one sense because you know you cannot do it. Now I suppose the most foolish thing that a person would ever attempt to do would be there to say well I've still got to give it the old college try. I've still got to you know you know give it an effort, I've still got to at least try to imitate him as best as I possibly can and then even by the effort of doing it maybe I don't achieve it but I am better than most and I'm sincere and I try hard.

But at the same time when we stop and realize though that the difficulty is is that it's impossible you see because Superman number one doesn't exist but number two if he did he's of an entirely different nature isn't he? He flies as easily as we walk you know he crushes coal as easily as we crush a grape. He sees through walls as simply as we see without walls. He is of a different nature.

He is of a different being in a sense and I suppose when I even think about it I suppose it's probably easier to try to be like Superman than it even is to fulfill the law. Because when you look at the law and the standards of the law it was never ever given by the way as far as the law given it was never given with the thought of it being duplicated. The thought was never ever given for man to try to imitate the law or to ever attempt to fulfill the law.

The reality of the law and the reason for which it was given is it simply to reveal the reality of human error. The reality that we have fallen. As Paul says the law is a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ.

The law as soon as it is stood is it just is presented. The very reality of that law being presented and just looking at it ought to melt the human heart as much as trying to be Superman in a sense. Is trying to achieve when I would look at the things that the law demands and realize how foolish it is for human nature to try to do it to try to fulfill the law.

When you stop and you think of the things that the law says there when the Lord takes Moses out and he writes there with the very finger you know south there giving the law to man and as he speaks the word I am the Lord your God I brought you out of Egypt out of the house of bondage and here as he begins to tell him here is the standards of the law you know he says you'll have no other gods before me period there's no other gods in existence there's none that around you won't make a graven image under yourself he says I'm a jealous God he looks there and he says I want your love and I want all of your love I don't want to see myself having to fight with anybody else I'm the Lord your God and I'm a jealous God should you not take the name of the Lord your God in vain and the Lord says and

I'll deal with those that do take it in vain in other words any time that somebody would it means to take his name in vain is to render his name weak or valueless that there is something there is all the power of heaven and earth is in that name and it's got to be attributed to him constantly and when any time that any time in my life that I have no power and the hope of power when there is God around I've taken his name in vain in sense I'm to realize there is a God that is so powerful I'm there says remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy and he says six days you'll you'll labor in the seventh day you'll rest and he says not in that day you won't work and your your sons won't work your daughters won't work your men servants won't work your maidservants won't work your ox your donkey

your stranger visiting you won't work it'll be a day of rest to sit before me and is how you know we're to live and then of course he goes on to honor your father and your mother and he says you know that you'll not kill you'll not commit adultery you'll not steal there that go around talking about your friends and your neighbors and bearing false witness and you'll not covet you know your neighbor's house or your neighbor's wife or your neighbors you know menservant or maidservant or oxen or donkey or John Deere riding lawnmower you know or whatever else somebody you won't you look there and everything anybody else has in the world that's fine you will never take it to yourself you will never find yourself going down I wish I had that I want that why can't I in immediately when we

realize but wait a minute my nature does all of these you know how many times do we it's hard to drive down the road without seeing you know it all of a sudden some Ferrari or some other word you can't pronounce or Lamborghini or something goes by you know and you Wow you know is that cool or what I wish I had one of those of course not till after I had the other nine cars I've already coveted before I saw that one today but somehow another on how easily we can look or we see somebody's house or somebody's you know menservant or maidservant or somebody's equipment somebody's you know stuff they got that they have around the house there that is wonderful that helps them achieve and get the work done and how easily we look and I want one of those you can't pick up a newspaper without

coveting almost there's ads for you know everything in the world you know in one section after another after another and when we realize this is fundamental human nature and and now to sit there and say I'm not going to do any of this I'm not gonna do it and but you see that it's too late the law is simply a standard of what God created man to be in the first place what man would naturally do if he was living in his supernatural state of being in fellowship with God that walking in his spirit walking in the fullness of God's nature and of his character there's the absolute genuine freedom when you look at Jesus and you see his life as Paul even refers to him as the second man he revealed to us so much of the nature and the character that had been you know lost in Adam in his behavior in

his love and his character in his heart Jesus you never find him there you know I've been I got a guy got to get out and go pray tomorrow early I got to get right with God man I was I coveted after you know man's and then you know donkey today you know something there Jesus never had that problem because his nature his character was was completely you know full it was rich it had never fallen it had no shadow of turning in it was the same yesterday today forever was pure it was high it was absolutely glorious it was unscathed with human weakness and frailty sin had never touched it and thus these things for him to do them they were just merely things that he just did they just reflected who he was but for a man that has fallen that has failed in all of them now to say I'm going to do them

it's preposterous it's absolutely you know ridiculous and then once somebody after they've already fallen to still say well I'm still gonna give it my best shot I'm going to try hard well it's too late because it's something there Paul says in Romans 310 for as many as are under the works of the law are under the curse for cursed it is everyone that continueth not and all that is written in the law both to do them in other words as soon as I have broken one it's too late now it is simply that you know it ought to be that we just look at it's a schoolmaster to bring me to Christ as I look at the law I find myself there I cannot do it the law just as something that as we look at it it's just a constant reminder essentially from whence we have fallen it's a constant reminder that Lord if I

was right with you if I was if I was in that fellowship that relationship that dimension with you that you created in me I would be doing those not by effort but by nature you see Superman doesn't fly by effort he flew by nature I know he's a comic strip but it's all I could think of it late in the afternoon there all right you know but the but it's something what it was just his nature to do these things he did it was not hard for him again the supposedly you know crushed the coal into a diamond it was his nature it was just what was there as a as a part of him you see in the course in the comic strip he came from another world he came from Krypton everybody in Krypton did that everybody in Krypton could crush or kill you call everybody on Krypton could fly it was just the nature of the

Kryptonese people I guess you know or something but it's just how they all were and but but a human being you know our nature our character here is he finally brings things down he tells us in verse 23 for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God you see the glory of God was the nature of man when God created a man he created somebody in his image somebody that revealed the glory of God by nature by behavior God said let's make man after our own image in that word image it's a wonderful word admit essentially means image by derivation in other words God created man that man was to be a derived image of God not an imitated image I could have a little image here maybe of a little Buddha you know or something there and I could sit it up here and everybody say who's that he says

Buddha and it could be an image of Buddha though Buddha is long gone and long dust but here could be a little image but man was a derived image man was a he was by his nature he was here by creation he was in the glory of God by derivation and what that means essentially is that man derived his nature from God's presence the same way that you have tells us in in the Amplified Bible I like the way it reads there in the Amplified it says 2nd Corinthians 318 says all we with an unveiled face continuing to behold we reflect like mirrors the glory of the Lord and are changed from glory to glory is by the Spirit of the Lord Paul there tells us the Christian life is one there that we were created to be looking at God with an unveiled face an open face and as we looked at him we reflected like

mirrors his glory when God created man we were in his image we reflected like mirrors anybody could look at man they could look at Adam and they could know what God was like the same way that when you get up in the morning and you look in the mirror you don't see you you you see an image of you you see a reflection of you but it requires your presence for the mirror to reflect you if you don't come into the bathroom and look in the mirror and smile and then it starts cracking or whatever else it does but you walk in the mirror and there it requires your presence and then the nature of the mirror takes upon the nature of the one that it beholds and God created man in such a way as we were to behold his glory live in his presence derive all that we were from him and in that if God wanted

you know with man to crush it you know cold into a diamond he could have done it without question to me could walk on water he could do whatever he wanted because God would live his life through man however he chose and the wonderful thing is is that but the moment that man takes his eyes off God and he falls away from that now to go out and to attempt on his own effort to try to live the life that he would live if he was deriving that love that life that glory that power that majesty and he's no longer deriving it the nature is changed he now has a fallen nature not a spiritual nature not a glorious nature not a spirit empowered nature a fallen nature and now with that fallen nature just will try to be Superman you just as well try to be because the nature is gone you cannot do it but

here man though in the beginning he was to be in the glory of God and this is where we're going to be getting to and another couple of chapters when we get into five Romans five and six and seven and eight it's all about wanting to see his return to that dimension of glory and how to do it by the power of his Holy Spirit but here he's got to bring us through the first three chapters the place that I realize you know I'm falling in and of myself I can do nothing you know as somebody once said not the labors of my hands can fulfill thy laws demands when somebody realized there is nothing that I can do in my own nature or nothing in the labor of my hands can I fulfill the laws demands and thus it's something that I've got to realize as Paul says there that by that as he says in verse 20

therefore by the deeds of the law should no flesh be justified in his sight by for by the law is the knowledge of sin the law is just something that says no you don't try to fulfill it it is simply there to tell me I've sinned it's simply there that when I attempt to do something the law says didn't do it did you something's wrong in it and we swell then I've got to try harder no you don't you know the longer you try and the harder you try just the greater the failure is and so he but now the righteousness of God without the laws manifested being witnessed by the law and the prophets he's going to be introducing here how we're going to enter into the real righteousness of God and how that he does these things for us having nothing to do with our own energy our own effort our own nature

and for the righteousness for verse 22 even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Christ Jesus Christ and do all and upon all them that believe for there is no difference he says there is a righteousness that God will now give to a man who has this fallen nature is weak he's unable to do it he merely all the only credential he has now is to say I agree and now he's going to be in the introduce the fact he says now that you know this now that you know there is the knowledge of sin and there is the awareness in the law is brought this about to you he says I want to tell you something there is a righteousness that God can go now give to this man who has done so wrong and has failed so much that's going to come by faith in Jesus Christ to all the belief and there's no difference on

who they are anybody anywhere anytime anyhow who has this fallen nature who now something happens where he begins to believe in the work of Jesus Christ the righteousness is given to him and there's no difference in anybody who they are in a sense he'll get you right and now he didn't introduces their inverse after he says that all of sin and come short of the glory of God will come back to that but he says now the work here of how it's done how do I get right he says first of all it's very simple being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through the faith in his blood to declare his righteousness for the remission of sin that are passed through the forfeiture the forbearance of God to declare I say at

this time his righteousness that he might be just and the justifier of him that believe it but here he introduces now all right I've said I'm not Superman I don't reveal your glory your life your love your nature your power argument settled the laws of schoolmaster it shows me I have failed and I have the knowledge of sin because of it but now he says all right now to get right first of all I want to introduce to you they're being justified freely by his grace the work that is going to transform your life from one dimension essentially here now to another and here when you look at this I mean God's plan of redemption is so and it's ingenious you know it's one of the most I mean awesome thoughts I suppose of all the ages without question there's absolutely nothing like it but as he

explains redemption here he uses three sorts of metaphors in the sense the first one he says you're justified freely we're gonna take this person who is sinned and the thing is is that now essentially he's going to be justified it in the word justified is it's an accounting term as you probably know it's a legal term it's not an unfeeling word it's not an emotional word it's not a I like it sort of a word it's a factual word it's a hard and fast legal term it's a counting term and it's one that's essentially there it's a word being justified this is if man is is standing before God which he is and as he's standing before God the word justify it simply means to render righteous or to show and exhibit one to be righteous or to declare or to pronounce one to be just and here's simply there

is a work that Jesus Christ he says can do that can take a person as gross of a sinner as terrible the sinner who simply knows I am a sinner that now that person exhibits a faith in Jesus Christ and they begin to be justified it is a work that occurs to them it happens to them it's not a feeling word it's a factual word this last Sunday night I did a marriage ceremony and there was you know a couple that stood before me and I asked them do you don't you will you won't you now pronounce you we didn't have a lot of time but anyway when we're done and they they yes I do yes I will and they gave their vows and they made those commitments at the end I turned to them and I said with the authority given to me by the Church of our Lord Jesus Christ and by the state of California I now pronounce

you to be husband and wife now I don't care how they feel it's fine if they feel good I prefer that I suppose but at the same time it's done it's a fact it has happened they are married the paperwork has been done the words have been said and now if they don't like it they got real problems and because they've left some facts have occurred it's happened we'll hear the same thing essentially when somebody comes before God through Jesus Christ and stands before him recognizing I am a sinner and that he has offered to justify me it makes no difference as Paul says who they are whether I came as a Jew a Gentile with the law without the law however it was that I heard about him when I came in and I recognized justification was being offered I said I want to get in that line and they said and I

said well I'm in line how does it happen and they say it's through Jesus Christ who died for you on the cross and based upon that you know a work of justification is done now it's something that can only be done essentially and it's interesting back in Proverbs 17 15 it says he that justifieth the wicked is an abomination to the Lord as a matter of fact even the Old Testament God himself in Exodus 23 said I he said I will not justify the wicked but now here in the New Testament this is exactly what he says I'm doing precisely at this point the Lord now in the new covenant and it's exactly it is precisely he looks at somebody over here in judicial term he says you come to me you know you're a failure you confess it and I'll forgive you you will be justified you will be forgiven and it is

something incidentally that he that he planned but Bible tells us before the foundation the world revelation 13 8 says Jesus was a lamb slain before the foundation of the world he had already offered his blood his life for us even before God said let there be light even before man had said even before you know we'd failed for every one of us he looks there and he died as Paul says or John says not for our sins only but for the sins of the whole world and here the wonderful thing is is that once he has done that now when anybody in the world comes and says will you forgive me he does it Charles Spurgeon said about this concept of justification by faith he says the doctrine of justification by faith through the substitutionary sacrifice of Christ is very much to my ministry what bread and

salt are to the table as often as the table is set there are those necessary things this is the very salt of the gospel it is impossible to bring it forward too often it is the soul-saving doctrine it is the foundational doctrine of the gospel of Jesus Christ one time in reference to his own church he is Spurgeon referring to his own church he said may this house be utterly consumed with fire before the day should come when there should be given an uncertain sound about the atonement this is not merely a doctrine of the church it is the doctrine of the church leave this out you have no truth no Savior no church as Luther said of the doctrine of justification by faith that this was the article of standing or fall or of a falling church so we affirm the atonement the substitutionary

sacrifice of Christ for the sins of men the foundational aspect of what the Church of Jesus Christ is all about the foundational doctrine is that somebody over here who has failed in revealing the glory of God which all have sinned and fallen short of that glory then when they realize that and the law as a schoolmaster brought them to Christ revealed sin and now they come I need forgiveness at that point this wonderful activity of justification happens tonight as we gather you know here maybe you know come in one by one and it makes no difference whether you want to look at this one by one individually or you just take the whole lot of us in one big mass in a sense I suppose before God and some taller and shorter some younger in the Lord some older in the Lord some with many sins some

with few sins only because you're young you know and sort of a thing but but you gather us all together and you sit us there and God just takes all of us and he shoves us over here in a sense to one side and then he puts the atonement of Jesus Christ he puts the justification of Christ and he looks at that that is his guiding influence that is the issue that is the the message of a justification is is all about it's something of an accounting term where anybody in this group whoever we are in this group regardless of where we have been and what we have done how terribly we've done it how rarely we have done it however consistently or flagrantly when there is somebody there that says can I be justified at that point there's no difference in the eyes of God as Paul says whether it's through

the law without the law a Jew a Gentile anybody anywhere anytime anyhow at that point he says yes I can remove you into a whole dimension and the way that it's done you may wonder how could such a thing be and of course it works as Paul goes on here in verse 25 he says unto whom or he says whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are passed through the forbearance of God and simply now he says you want to know how do I justify you how does a thing like that occur that a whole life like that in one act of justice not feeling or emotion or anything else but just absolute judicial eternal fact is stamped you know in heaven and earth in a sense that such a thing could be and the word he uses here it's

done there through the purpose of propitiation through faith in his blood and essentially there the word propitiation is a wonderful word for also we get the word mercy seat but it means a real it's relating to an appeasing or an expiating a placating it means an absolute appeasement of anything that was wrong it's expiating everything that was wrong in other words here is somebody over here in this group they failed they said can I be justified he said yes and you are and we say how and he says it is expiated it is absolute all your sins are totally appeased they are gone they are blotted out there it's it's also uses and the mercy seat the word mercy seat the also for the same word meaning it's a cover and you know in the Old Testament the Holy of Holies in the in the Ark of the

Covenant and on top of the Ark of the Covenant we have of course the mercy seat there and then they would take as you know in the Old Testament the blood of the sacrifice the blood of the Lamb there was now in there figuratively going in it had died for the sins of the people they took its blood they sprinkled it upon the mercy seat and that blood shed because it had now died they were the wages of sin is death they deserve to die but God did a work of justification he says all right man you know there must be a death for a death a life for a life you have sinned you are worthy of death therefore the reason it is expiated the reason it is a piece is because of another life has been placed in the place of your life before me and it died in your place and he says there specifically the one

that died was faith you know set forth expiated through the faith in his blood in Jesus Christ he is the one that he had that his life was so flawless so glorious so acceptable to God that no matter what you and I have done it is immaterial to God you know we have people on death row all the time that I suppose you know they they they they when they killed one person in that they killed one person in that for that they say you will die we believe in capital punishment and it is a life for a life you took a life you do it and however you realize we have the exact same judgment for a mass murder somebody that is maybe killed dozens or hundreds of people you will die too because it's the ultimate price that will be paid and here it is something from God's perspective regardless of what it is

Jesus Christ his death pays it all totally completely you know you may think but I'm a terrible sinner and you ought to we are if you aren't if you don't think that ask your wife she'll she'll help you out with it or something I'm sure just ask anybody around if you think well I don't think I'm so bad that's why we need to be here honey you know or whatever but when we realize we are terrible sinners but to realize sometimes with some people actually take it in another extreme where they say I'm so terrible I am such a terrible sinner that I don't I don't die this is impossible for me to think that Jesus Christ would be sufficient let me tell you first of all as far as the heart and the mind of God is concerned then we're gonna see more of this as we get farther into Romans but Jesus

Christ his life is sufficient for all the sins of all the world of all time you may think you're a big sinner and I suppose you got you maybe got a nice little pile of sins you could stack up there and say boy look at this but I'll tell you when you put all the sins of the world yours are in there somewhere but it'll be tough to find through all the sins of all the world of all time and Jesus died for all of it he is the propitiation for all of it the sins of the world and here the wonderful thing is that when I realized that is what he came for that is what he does to be a sacrifice for that and it's something there it completely expiates when I'm looking at Christ this is of course is whether the Old Testament they long for in my apartment in Psalm 51 David wrote and you know this he

says for thou desire is not a sacrifice else would I give it thou desire is not you know for burnt offering nuclear is God if I could just get a sacrifice an offering he says but I know there is something greater that must be given Micah struggled with this as well in Micah 6 6 he says wherewith shall I come before the Lord and bow by myself before them the high God shall I come before him with burnt offerings with calves of a year old will it the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams with ten thousands of rivers of oil shall I give my firstborn for my transgression the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul here in Micah seen a he's looking at his sin in a sense he says how you want an animal sacrifice thousands of rams would that do it rivers of oil my firstborn my own body but here

of course in the New Testament were told no none of that would be enough but you're justified freely it says here by his grace God looks serious as you keep your sacrifices you keep your animals you keep your firstborn you keep your own body I gave my son for you I gave him for you and the wonderful thing is is if we realize that one other word that I want us to look at tonight in this text is that the wonderful concept that he has as well in verse 24 he says being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus here this be if I understand justification and that that justification is by the propitiation of his shed blood the last word I want to look at is redemption the word redemption that I now through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus to realize Jesus

Christ he redeemed me he saw me over here in this group he called me he said I love you I'll forgive you we come over there but how and then God reveals the sacrifice of Christ to us for the sins of our life in the result of it is is that the work of redemption happens in the word their redemption it's as you and I probably think of the word redemption to be but it's a releasing affected by a payment of ransom when something is redeemed you now you paid the price and you in effect have ransomed something you know I have by the act of redemption is whenever we redeem something you know it's it's a it's something that is procured by a payment of ransom and it's a word oftentimes used in the Bible and for a slave market that when somebody literally there's somebody that's in slave you know

enslaved in it they go and they pay the price they buy them essentially out of out of the slave market and now they become the possession or the debt to the one and debted to the one that is redeem them and what a Christian is very simply in three words I just want to be able to leave with us tonight is simply there do we know and understand thoroughly the word justification not do I feel saved I don't know how often is a talk to people that their wonder Christians in their fine Christians and yet oftentimes still the the issue of their Christianity of their relationship with God is based on do I feel how I feel today or are my last sinner my last failure rather than realizing this is a judicial act that God does not look at how you know how I feel I'm you know I'm his I belong to him

I've been you know this December I'll be married 35 years that fact has never changed and you know for 35 years any any and every in all days now the feeling of it sometimes can change you know thing for most part the feelings with me have been pretty good I'm with your typical man in a sense you know I've had about 33 wonderful years of marriage in my wife's had about three but the you know something but it's something that how you may feel at any given point you know about it has nothing to do with the fact that it is done and sometimes we feel bad because the very fact is there I belong to Christ and I'm not acting like it I belong to Christ and I'm not living in fellowship I belong to him I have been bought with a price I have been at the slave market he bought me out he redeemed me

I've become his child I've got to be living as one that truly belongs to him and I need to in redemption I remember Chuck you used to haven't you heard him use the illustration years but he used to use in the old story of the gingerbread man I don't know if you've heard that one from him but and at least the way he told the story you know was that you know that gingerbread man this little boy goes and he makes himself a gingerbread man and as he pulls it out of the oven and of course the gingerbread man comes alive and he starts running off he runs away and the little kids chasing his gingerbread man down the street and he says run run fast you can't you'll never catch me I'm the gingerbread man and he outruns him and he loses him and later on the little boys walking down the street and

he goes by the bakery he looks in the bakery and there's a gingerbread man and he says that's my gingerbread man he looks and he realized you know that he's in there and so he goes into the baker and he says the baker hey that's that's my ninja but I made that gingerbread man he's mine and he says well you may have made him but he's been sold to me I own him now you know in a sense I've got him and so if you want him you'll have to pay for him and so the little kid goes home gets all his money and he comes back and he puts it down and he buys a gingerbread man and as he's walking out you know and he goes there he turns to me says you're mine I made you and I bought you I think that's how I used to tell the story I don't know if that's the actual way it goes in the little book but anyway

it but I like that version of it but that's redemption somebody there that I realized he made me I ran away and he bought me justified freely by his blood his propitiation he paid for me and now redemption means I give myself to him and I respond to him and here is Paul goes on you know and he says where is boasting then it's excluded by what law of works me by the law of faith and he says wherefore we conclude that man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law and that he is the God of the Jews on there is he the God of Jews only is he not of the Gentiles yes the Gentiles also here he looks at me says he justified anybody seen that he is one God which shall justify the circumcision by faith and uncircumcision through faith that make any difference who you are if I come and I say

will you redeem me will you forgive me and this is this here is Paul now we're closing here for the night but here for three chapters he's been bringing hopefully all men to the place where he says all have sinned and fallen short of the glory God created us to reveal his glory and we have all failed in that all of us we all have lost that nature we have a fallen nature now and because of that fallen nature within us we cannot do any of the things no matter how hard we try how sincerely we attempted it cannot be done until I realized that Jesus Christ justified me through his propitiation I'm redeemed and now what he's going to be doing here in the next few chapters in chapter 4 we're going to be getting into the whole story of Abraham and of faith absolutely critical to the whole book to

me is the most important chapter personally in the whole book of Romans because the thing is is that the aspect of faith is the whole key to Romans 5 through 8 God is going to tell me how I enter back in and enjoy this new nature in Christ how that because I'm justified through the propitiation of his blood and I'm redeemed and I come and say God how do I give myself to you daily he's going to say by faith and he says and you're going to trust me for the most unbelievable things I'm going to give you a new nature a new character a new spiritual life I'm going to give you a place of being seated in Christ and it's going to take faith but at the but here so far the issue is am I redeemed it have I come and said Lord my life is I presented to you you did justify me some of us may be denied

our problem isn't that we're not justified our problem isn't that we are justified but we aren't acting redeemed we're still running around run run fast you can you never catch me I'm a gingerbread man you made me and you bought me and I'm still like running anyway you know or something instead of saying I want to be redeemed in a sense I'm giving myself afresh to you my problem isn't that he that he hasn't justified me and I'm not forgiven the problem is I am forgiven but I have yet to give the goods over that the purchase but their possession that has been ransomed by his blood and the wonderful thing is tonight maybe some of us as we close you need to give you know that what's been ransomed afresh to him yeah you need to let him come and take you and say I made you and I bought you

with the greatest price in the world now let's go home together and of course to this Paul says where it's boasting there isn't any it's all gone that all of us just merely stand there in his grace and in his love father we asked that you would help us Lord these scriptures sometimes as we read them we can get lost in the middle or the message is so simple to think Lord that tonight you look at us and how you love us and it makes no difference to you no difference at all you look at us tonight and Jesus you died for all of us all of us and Lord I pray there wouldn't be a person here sitting wondering if you died for them they'd realize it very clearly you died for every one of them no matter how much they sin how often whatever it is the Lord they have a nature that has fallen in there

they're gonna be subject to it and and they'll just go on sending and sending they cannot stop it they cannot change it they cannot alter their nature it's fixed it's done and thus as time goes on they'll only send worse and worse and worse until maybe someday they finally understand your grace and may that be tonight Lord may there be those that tonight that said Jesus please justify me Lord you died for me I understand it I see it freely you became the propitiation you who knew no sin became sin for us and you paid my debt in Lord I pray that if there's anyone here tonight that doesn't know for sure that they're a child of God if they can't sit here and know for sure that they are saved Lord I believe we ought to know this as much as that we know for married if we've said words to

another human being and they realize how binding those are how much more to be able to come before God and realize I'm giving my life to Jesus Christ and I need that assurance in Lord I pray that if there's anyone here that if they don't know if they're justified freely I pray right now they could just open their heart and said Jesus come in save me forgive me of my sins in fact even before we close praying if there's any of you that's where you are tonight Jesus I want my sins forgiven I'd like to pray with you before we close would you lift your hand so you say Jesus justify me yes you in the back God bless you down here in the front any others over here over here in the side any others come into my life justify me I did I want that fact and the reality and the power of that to be done

any others just did judicially expiated take it away by your blood Jesus I give myself to you any others before we go on yes over here in the side God bless you I see you just another moment back over here God bless you father I just thank you for your love and your goodness and Lord I just pray that right now that each one of those that had just raised their hand particularly maybe others but Lord that would just say Jesus I believe it and now I realize it's done by your blood shed for me and you have redeemed me you have bought me with the greatest price ever prayed for anything the blood of the Lamb of God himself and thus I give you my life I want to turn over the goods come into my life Jesus and Lord I pray for the rest of us all of us as if we've known these things for 50 years

that we tonight could you say Lord once again I praise you and I thank you and may you continue to take this wonderful book and reveal many to us all father we ask it in Jesus name