Propitiation By His Blood? David Bercot, Romans Series Part 10

Well, good morning to everyone, and, uh, again, uh, want to welcome all of the visitors today. We are in Romans, uh, still. We're going to finish up chapter 3 today. We're going to be looking at the very last 10 verses of Romans chapter 3.

And you may be thinking, "Oh boy, more theology." Um, to be honest, it's not my favorite subject to be preaching on. Um, there is a need for theology. We do need to understand that. I'd rather be giving a sermon about Christian living or the spiritual life. I'd rather be going, to be honest, through the book of Matthew than the book of Romans. I mean, Matthew, uh, talks a lot about how to live. There's just a little bit of theology in Jesus's teaching.

But Romans is nearly all theology. I say, unfortunately, it's there for a reason. I mean, we have to, you know, God gave this this book for a reason. Just, unfortunately, if you don't like theology or if you're getting tired of hearing it, that's the only reason I added the word unfortunately. Now, when we get to the end of Romans, the last four or five chapters, then we start getting into Christian issues. But Paul is struggling with a problem that was awfully huge in his time. And so there's a reason why he keeps going over, um, a lot of the same points. Ideas have consequences.

Not just, you know, theological ones. Practical consequences. It does affect our everyday living. And then how we live is going to affect our eternal destiny. Now, as I was saying, he talks about it because it had a lot of enormous practical implications. This wasn't just something, okay, let's get this right on paper, folks. It's like the Jewish Christians were saying, "You Gentiles have got to live by the law.

You've got to submit to circumcision. You've got to start eating just certain kinds of meats. You need to be keeping these different festivals. You should be going to the temple and offering up sacrifices if you've done this and and that."

And this wasn't just theory. I mean, Paul goes into this because it was a practical issue. This was affecting their their lives. And we can rejoice. You may be thinking, "Okay, great, that's history. I'm glad, you know, we're not having to think about that today." But the reason we're not having to think about it is because of Paul writing this letter and his other letters. I mean, he kept hammering this point. He spent his whole life hammering it. And he finally was successful. So no one is pushing you to, "Hey, did I see pork at your house last night or was that beef?" You know, what? I mean, we're not having to worry about that.

Now, if you're Seventh-day Adventist, say, I mean, people keep wanting to try to bring the law back, which is just insane, in my opinion. But, you know, Paul won that battle. So we can rejoice that no one is pushing us on it today.

But then came the reinterpretation of Romans, which also has enormous consequences. In fact, I would say the reinterpretation has greater consequences than what Paul was dealing with. I mean, he was dealing with everyday issues. The reinterpretation, and I'm talking about what Augustine, Luther, and Calvin brought in, the reinterpretation was, "Oh, Paul's not talking about Jews and Gentiles here. He's not talking about the law. He's talking about Christ's law. He's talking about Jesus's commandments. And don't think you've got to live by these commandments, uh, to affect your salvation." It's good. It's good to do that. Yeah, Jesus, you know, appreciates that. But don't think that's going to affect your your salvation.

And that has enormous consequences. The Judaizers were adding to Jesus's teachings. They were saying, "Yes, you live by Jesus's teachings, but you also need to be living by the commandments of Moses." The reinterpreters, Luther and them, have taken away from Jesus's commandments. Not only have they taken away the law, but they've taken away, "You don't have to live by his commandments."

And why this theology has so much importance, I've had this experience. If I've had it once, I've had it at least 12, 15, 20 times. Where I've had a conversation with somebody over one of Christ's teachings or over a New Testament teaching. Okay, this could be about non-resistance, about swearing, about divorce and remarriage, about taking your brother to court, about the head covering.

I mean, there's a whole list of them. I've gone through this scenario bunches of times. You show somebody the scriptures, and if they're open-minded, "Yeah, okay, yeah, yeah, I see your point. Yeah, yeah, okay. But we're not saved by works." And that ends it.

I mean, I've had that so many times. It's like, "So why is it in the Bible? If, yeah, if in the end, well, yeah, yeah, we should do that. But, you know, we're not saved by works, so let's not worry about it."

So, yeah, this affects how we live. And it's another reason why this is here in the scriptures. Now, this book, not the book of Romans, this book nearly cost me my eternal life. I was, I thought I'd remember seeing it in, Daniel was helping me reorganize the upstairs of my office. And I thought I remember seeing this book. I went up, "Could that really be the one?" And, yeah, it was there. And then I'm looking at it, got my name, my address. It's like, it's the exact same one.

I came across this, wow, I was 26 years old, nearly 50 years ago. I had gone down to nearby university to register there to start college. And afterwards, I had just left JW's. I was very eager to read to find out what's out there. And there was a bookstore there, a used bookstore by the college. We were in a small town that didn't have any bookstores. So I went in there. I was, yeah, went through the religious section just to see what was there. And I came across this book. I say it was used. I think this was actually new that I bought it. The title appealed to me, "How to Be a Christian Without Being Religious."

Because I was thinking, "Okay, leaving Jehovah's Witnesses, yeah, I'm tired of organized religion and, oh wow, you can be a Christian without maybe going to church and all of that stuff." It's why I picked it up. Well, I read it and didn't have anything to do with that. But I was just at the point in life where it really, really influenced me. I bought it hook, line, and sinker. Now, I have no gripe with the author. He's just repeating Luther's theology. He's put it in a very clever, appealing way.

And the bottom line being, you know, the point he makes, and I still remember this so well, to get to heaven, if you're going to do it by works, then you've got to be perfect. You know, if you have one little flaw, then you're not going to get to heaven. So that's off the slate. And so it doesn't matter if you're the most godly saint on earth or you're the worst sinner on earth, get drunk every Saturday or every day, whatever it is and all that, it don't matter. So works, either you're perfect or you're not. If you're not perfect, then works don't have anything to do with it. So we're saved by faith alone.

And so, yeah, no need to worry. I mean, he doesn't say no need to worry. The implication is, yeah, so why would you worry about your work? God's only pleased if you're perfect. So if you're not perfect, yeah, you're out of the league. So now it's just a matter of salvation by grace alone. Well, hey, I like that. Yeah, this is neat. And he pretends to be going through Romans. And so, you know, I'm thinking, okay, I'm hearing the Bible now for, you know, I'd never heard this interpretation of Romans, but okay, wow, wow, yeah, yeah, I've been in darkness. Wow, this is wonderful.

And so for the next nine years, yeah, I almost just gave up on Christianity entirely. Because again, okay, I believe in Christ. I've got my faith. I've got heaven, you know, I've got my tickets, so I'm safe. When I did get spiritually active, again, it was like, hey, I'm not going to make any great sacrifices because, hey, works don't matter, you know, and that. It wasn't until I was starting to read the early Christian writings that, oh, I got this jolt, you know, it's like, boy, if this is true, if this is what Christianity was in the beginning, I am in sad shape. I better change my life quickly. Now, thankfully, I'm glad Deborah never read this book.

When I got it and read it, she was still at JW. And I'm, thank God, if we'd both read it, I don't know, because she pulled us through those years when I was about through with it all. So, yeah, theology matters. This was all, yes, supposedly an explanation of Romans. And, yeah, the bottom line will lead you where you're not going to have a life of discipleship, not most people, not a serious one.

Okay, so now let's get into Romans 3:21-22. We'll be going fairly fast today because most of this is repetition of what we've already seen. But now the righteousness of God, apart from the law, is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets. Even the righteousness of God, and if you have your Bible sent, we're going to be looking at 10 different verses. You might want to have them open. We'll put them up here, but if you want to follow along, I'll encourage you to do that. Even the righteousness of God, that is by faith in Jesus Christ, to all and upon all those who believe, for there is no difference.

Now, Paul had earlier said that no one would be justified by the works of the law. Okay, if we can't be justified by the Mosaic law, how can we be justified? Well, he says it's through faith in Jesus. Again, we've seen this for several weeks. He goes over this point just again to get this through the heads of those Christians, the Jewish Christians who couldn't get this in their head. Look, the law has fulfilled its purpose. We are saved through faith in Jesus Christ. We are not under the law.

And we're going to be hearing this a lot in Romans. The reason Romans is the longest of Paul's letters is not because he covers so many different topics in Romans. If you go to First Corinthians, there's a lot more different subjects in First Corinthians.

Romans, oh, it's the same point over and over and over. Now, when you get towards the end, then he branches out a little bit. But it's not because he's a poor writer, it's because, like I say, he's trying to get this point across. Get it through their thick skulls. We are saved by faith in Jesus Christ. You don't go back to the law. That is over with. And like I say, it's the longest of his letters, so it is over and over. And that's why we're not going to spend a lot of time on things we just discussed last week.

The same verse again, but now the righteousness of God, apart from the law, is manifest, being witnessed by the law and the prophets. Okay, so how is it this righteousness witnessed by the law and the prophets? Okay, Paul is saying this has been planned all along for the law and the prophets had foretold the coming of salvation through Christ. So it's not like, oh, God changed his mind. He changed how he was going to do things. The church, Evangelical Church, I was part of, I don't know if it was their official doctrine, but the statement you heard all the time was, when Jesus came, he offered the kingdom to the Jews for them to accept him as the Messiah, to enter in the kingdom, and they rejected him.

Okay, so God then went to plan B. Okay, I'm going to go to the Gentiles. We're going to change everything. It's just going to be by grace. And I'm not even doing anything with commandments anymore. That's all over with. Like, God changed his mind. It's like, no, he didn't change his mind. This was his plan from day one that the law would not be the final way, the way to reach God. It served a temporary purpose. It served a very good purpose. It prepared people for Christ. And he always had intended for the Gentiles to come in. It was never going to be just the Jews.

It's why Jesus told the Jews, you search the scriptures, and these are they which testify of me. He's all throughout the Old Testament. They just, they didn't see it. Okay, Paul says, upon all those who believe, for there is no difference. And again, he's repeating that same theme over and over that we saw way back in chapter two. There is no difference between Jews and Gentiles. Both Jews and Gentiles are saved in the same manner through faith in Christ. Now, what he says in this book is the no difference is there's no difference between you and the ungodly neighbor who lives next door. I don't know who lives next door, but, you know, we'll pretend there's an ungodly neighbor next door.

There's no difference. You're saved because you believe in Christ, but you're a sinner just like him. There's no difference between a Christian and a pagan. We're all the same. Man, that is not what Paul has. Does Paul ever talk about that? It's always Jews and Gentiles. He never says any such thing. But, you know, you're reading along and he talks like, I know what Paul meant in Romans and it's an appealing doctrine. And yeah, I just fell for it, hook, line, and sinker.

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. This is the four spiritual laws that the little tract that's been very useful in making converts. This is one of the four spiritual laws. And that's a legitimate use of it. I mean, it is. We've all sinned. It doesn't matter if you grew up in a godly home.

God cares whether you live an ungodly life or not, even if you're not baptized. But it's not going to get you to heaven. I mean, you know, growing up Anabaptist, growing up in a godly Evangelical home, whatever, that is not enough. Again, it's not that God doesn't appreciate people obeying his commandments, but we all fall short. We all need the grace of Jesus Christ.

The emphasis here is on the word all. Now, Paul is talking in his setting when he's writing this, all have fallen short. He's not saying, oh, you and your non-Christians over here. He's talking about Jews and Gentiles. Now, the Gentiles, they would have had no trouble accepting that, not in that day. Now, today, the Gentile people who aren't Jewish, yeah, most of them think, hey, I live a good life. Yeah, I'm going to get to heaven when I die because I'm a pretty good person, you know.

And Paul would rule that out, but that's not what he's talking about when he says all have sinned. Yeah, the Gentiles in the church would have said, yeah, I mean, we were worshiping idols. We were committing all kinds of sins and all of that. But the Jews would have said, hey, hey, we're different. I mean, we, you know, we've been living by the law. We don't live like the Gentile sinners. But Paul is saying, no, you Jews are in no better situation that you've fallen short as well. You need Jesus Christ. Now, the ones there in the church, I think, would have understood that, but he's also talking to the unbelieving Jewish nation out there who did not think they needed Christ.

Now, Paul isn't even, this wouldn't have even been on his radar because it would have been so obvious. All includes Mary. And Paul says all have sinned. He doesn't make any exception at all.

Now, later on, the church got this idea of Mary never sinned and that, yeah, she lived her whole life without sin. I mean, they'll add, you know, through God's grace, but yeah, she never sinned. Both Catholics, Orthodox, they both teach this.

Origin writes, why do we think that the mother of the Lord was immune from scandal when the apostles were stumbled? If she did not suffer stumbling at the Lord's passion, that means his crucifixion, then Jesus did not die for her sins. For all have sinned and lack God's glory, but are justified by his grace and redeemed, then Mary too was stumbled at that time. Now, the reason we quote the early Christians, it's not like, oh, because Origin says that that means anything.

It's showing that, yeah, this teaching goes way back. People, he would have written this about 140 years after the apostle John had died. Yeah, this concept of Mary being sinless, he's only saying that some thought that she had not been stumbled by Jesus being put to death. He's, I don't think anyone in his day would have been claiming that she was sinless, but he's saying, you know, even then that they were all stumbled, it said, by what had happened. No one had expected that would be the end result. But yeah, it's an interesting witness. This was a later corruption, this idea that Mary lived a sinless life. That was just a freebie. That's, like I say, Paul wouldn't, no one would have been saying that in his days, so he wasn't even thinking of that.

Being freely justified by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Now, Paul is talking about our initial salvation. Yeah, in this book, there's no distinction. It's, oh, if you got saved by grace, then that's it. Works play no other role. Like, oh, it's all over once you get saved.

Yeah, Paul is telling us, early Christians understood this. Yeah, there's initial salvation when we get saved, but then once we are saved, we have to live obediently. Jesus said, you know, you become a branch on the vine, then you have to bear fruit. It's not all over when you get saved, okay? Again, so much of this is repetition because Paul goes through the same points. Initial salvation is entirely through God's grace.

All he requires of us is faith and repentance. And of course, you know, that we have, we know his teachings. We, you know, we're giving our life to serve him, but that's where faith comes in. All right, we do not have to have any works coming into baptism. Now, again, if you grew up in a godly home, you should be living a godly life. You should have that. But if you came straight from the streets and had the most wicked life, you can still be baptized if you have faith and repentance.

All throughout Acts, you see like the Philippian jailer, man, he gets baptized in the middle of the night. That morning, he was probably offering sacrifices to an idol. You know, he may have been beating a bunch of prisoners that afternoon, okay? But that night, he hears the message of Christ and gets saved. I mean, it's totally faith and grace there, you know, and repentance.

So, yeah, that part is correct, but that's not the end of our Christian walk. But that's why the Gentiles could be saved without ever keeping a law, without having any prior works. But the Jews, Paul is saying, you're saved in the same manner. Yes, you had prior works. That is good, but that didn't save you. Whether it's the works of the law or just godly works in general, you need the blood of Jesus Christ. We're saved through grace. Cyprian writes, it is not necessary to pay a price either in the way of bribery or of labor, as if man's elevation, dignity, or power would be begotten in him through elaborate effort. Rather, it is a gratuitous gift from God, and it is accessible to all.

So we should rejoice in this, that, okay, wow, God is so generous that he gives us a justified status, means he views us as righteous, being freely justified by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. We're going to talk a little bit about that word redemption. What is redemption? I'm going to go again to Origin because this is interesting.

Another reason why the early Christians, it's not just that they were so close to the apostles, it's that they spoke New Testament Greek. That was their language. And so I really like it when they explain a word in their writings. And I noticed so often the things they're saying, now these are people who actually spoke it, quite different than the stuff you read today in a book. You know, it'll say, now this word means such and such. And the early Christians don't say anything like that. I was reading a book just this week.

I was trying to get his take on Romans, and I don't remember the scripture, but he's going through. Now, this is the aorist tense, the subjunctive move, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And therefore it means, you know, such and such. I noticed none of the early Christians, I mean, none of them ever go into that kind of stuff.

And so often they're getting a totally different meaning from the Greek than what our scholars are saying. I don't pretend to be a Greek scholar. But anyway, Origin says the term redemption refers to that which is given to enemies for those who they're keeping in captivity. This was a fairly common thing back then that there were robbers, there were barbarians from other countries, there were pirates on the seas. Yeah, if you traveled, you were risking a fairly good chance that you were going to get captured, and they would hold you for ransom. And so he's saying redemption is basically what we call ransom. It's the price that you pay to these enemies so that they'll restore your freedom.

Of course, our big enemy was Satan, who was holding us for ransom.

Now, just in case someone would think, oh, okay, so we've been ransomed, Jesus has paid the price, nothing is required of me. This is what Peter says. If you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one's work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear.

So part of the message is let's rejoice that we've been freely justified, we've been given salvation. The other half of his message is conduct yourselves here in fear. The battle is not over, it's he who endures to the end who shall be saved. And so we should be spending our time here in fear. I don't mean just, uh oh, am I going to lose my salvation? Is this going to happen? He's not saying that. Reverential fear. Take God seriously when he gives us a commandment. Take our discipleship seriously. Knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things like silver or gold. That would be like some pirate kidnapped you and someone paid silver or gold.

That's not how it worked. From your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. So don't talk about the blood of Christ if you're not going to live here in fear. If you're not going to really treat his blood as if it was something precious by obeying his commandments to the best that you're able to do as a fallen human. Yeah, if you're going to just trample on his commandments, you don't really treat his blood as if it was that precious. You're saying, oh yeah, it's a common thing. Yeah.

And people will, you know, go on and on, sing about his blood and how wonderful it is. And then, like I say, just totally ignore what he taught. Okay, the meaning of grace, you all have heard this many times. Most Christians today have been told that grace, the Greek word is charis, means unmerited favor. I was taught that as a JW, taught it again as an Evangelical, and yeah, heard that forever. They've been told if we have to do something, then it's not grace.

But that wasn't the meaning at all. The early Christians understood that grace, the basic meaning how it was used every day was favor. Okay, you're in somebody's favor. That means, you know, you're in their grace. It can also mean a gift. That same word can be used to mean a gift. It can be conditioned on something or it could be not conditioned on something. I could give you a gift because I want to show my appreciation. Now, it's still a gift. If I put conditions on it, it's still a gift. It doesn't change it into wages.

And they understood that salvation is a conditional gift. We don't have to earn it, but if we're going to just show that we don't treat, we don't appreciate the sacrifice Christ made to us, then yeah, then he can take the gift away. God's not in debt to us. It's a gift at the beginning. And if we're going to show we don't appreciate the gift, he can take it away. Paul himself shows that grace can come with numerous conditions.

For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, saying that we don't have to do anything because it's grace. No, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age. So grace can have conditions put upon it. Okay, back to Romans. Whom God has purposed to be our mercy seat through faith in his blood, that's Christ's blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of past sins through the forbearance of God. Okay, that's a mouthful. We're going to break that verse down into little sections, okay?

Now, they understood Paul. Paul here is not talking about our final salvation. He's talking about, well, both are involved. There's the initial salvation, the gift that we receive when we repent. They also understood there's a final salvation. God, it's still a gift that God gives ultimately to those who have persevered in the faith. They've demonstrated with their life. I really love you, Jesus. I don't just sing songs saying how much I love you. I show it by the way I live. Jesus said, if you love me, you will keep my commandments.

All right, Paul says whom God has purposed to be our mercy seat. Why does he say has purposed? Okay, Paul is pointing out that the entire merciful arrangement for our salvation has been purposed or for ordained. I just mentioned that.

When God had foretold that he would make a new covenant with the people, this is way back in Jeremiah. This is centuries before Jesus ever came. He told the people then, I will forgive their iniquity and their sin. I will remember no more. Okay, so God had already, this was all planned out. This was, he was going to come and bring salvation as a gift that our former sins would be blotted out. And concerning this Gentiles, he said, my house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations. This is way back in Isaiah. Again, before the captivity, before the restoration, but long before Jesus. God had already planned. My house is going to be a house of prayer for all the nations.

It's not going to be just for the Jews.

All right, next I want to focus on that word, our mercy seat. Now, if you're looking in your Bible, your Bible doesn't say that. It says purpose to be our propitiation.

So why do I put in their mercy seat? Well, it's because when I was reading the early Christians, I realized this is how they're all understanding it. No, nobody's understanding propitiation here.

Does anyone know what the word propitiation means? It's not even a word we use very often.

It means, yeah, somebody who's angry that, yeah, you try to soften them up so that they're not angry. The thing that the Amish and Mennonites didn't do back there and when they could have and should have.

That term comes in because, well, the term that Paul uses is hilasterion.

And this Greek word is used 30 times in the Old Testament in the Septuagint. Okay, 30 times. It's only used twice in the New Testament, hilasterion. I don't know that it was, it was not an ordinary Greek word. The ordinary Greek person would not have known what this word meant.

In the Septuagint, hilasterion always refers to the mercy seat that served as the cover of the Ark of the Covenant. I'll show you a picture in a minute, but for some reason it's still, if I try to go back, Daniel, it doesn't let me go back. Okay, in the New Testament, that word hilasterion only occurs twice. One is in this subject verse. The other one is Hebrews 9:5, which is talking about the Ark of the Covenant. It says, above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat. Hilasterion, okay? So that's what the word means, okay?

The problem was Latin, because this was not an ordinary Greek word. When they came to translate this in the Latin, there wasn't a word. What do we come up with here? And so they put in propitiation.

The problem I have with propitiation, it brings back this pagan concept of, you know, you've got this angry God up here and man, you better offer sacrifices or something to appease his anger. You know, that's not what we have to do. It's not what Christ was doing. He's our mercy seat. We go to him is where we find mercy.

So naturally, the early Christians understood Paul to be referring to the mercy seat. In fact, the Tyndale translation appropriately translates this passage as whom God has made a seat of mercy through faith in his blood. The King James translation was largely taken from Tyndale. I don't know why they didn't stay with it, why they stuck propitiation. I've got my theory. A lot of the translators were Calvinists who did the King James translation, and that's their view of the atonement is this angry God that, that you know has to be propitiated.

I'll just quote one of the early Christians on this passage. He's discussing this passage in Romans. Theodore it, he says, the mercy seat was a golden covering which lay over the ark, having at either end the figure of a cherub. From there, the mercy of God was manifested to the high priest in his priestly services. Accordingly, the holy apostle teaches that the Lord Christ was the true mercy seat, for the ancient one was just a type of him. So the mercy seat on the ark, that pointed to Jesus Christ. He is our mercy seat. We go to him not because he has to placate this angry father, but because that's where we find mercy through him.

The Father is merciful, but we cannot come to the Father except through Christ. Okay, we're going to look now at the last, the same verse, but the last part of it. Whom God has purposed to be our mercy seat through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of past sins. Remission means forgiveness through the forbearance of God.

Now, at the time of our conversion, when we repent of our sins, we confess our faith in Jesus Christ and we're baptized, we receive remission, Paul says, of our past sins. And that's throughout the New Testament. There are a lot of different verses. This is our initial salvation. But now notice what Paul says there.

He speaks of the remission of our past sins. He specifically, can I go back there? Nope, I didn't. Okay.

All right. Notice that Paul only speaks of our past sins. When we're initially saved, God does not pre-forgive us for our future sins. Now, according to this, he does. Okay, so when you come forward, he's thinking of the altar call, and you confess Christ, then not only all of your past sins are pardoned, all of the future sins you ever commit, they're pardoned right then. They're already forgiven.

I remember when I first started going to the Evangelical church and Deborah and I had the pastor and his wife over for supper. I think I've related this before. And I prayed before the meal, and it was sort of my custom at the end of the prayer after the food. I said, and forgive us our sins as we forgive one another. And anyway, you know, amen. And then during the supper, he said, you know, by the way, as a Christian, you don't need to be saying, asking God to forgive your sins. That was already done at your conversion. So yeah, you don't have to keep doing that.

So, okay, thanks. You know, it's like, well, Jesus said to do it. So I listened, but Jesus said, we are to pray, forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. So I mean, what on earth? This was a fine pastor. I'm not knocking him at all. He's just repeating again the same indoctrination. Jesus told us to pray this way. And so then now preachers are saying, no, you don't have to do that. That's all, that's already been done. But he said to do it. And he said, as we forgive our debtors. And then at the end, he said, if you don't forgive other men, your sins aren't going to be forgiven. So how can it be true they've been pre-forgiven?

Because he just, he just put a condition on them. He also said, forgive and you will be forgiven in Luke. John declares, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So you confess it at the initial salvation, but you got to keep confessing it every day. You walk with God every day. He wants this living relationship with you. And he promises, if we just confess them, if we're truly repentant, he will forgive them based on the blood. But if we're going to say, hey, it's all pre-forgiven, I don't have to confess anything, then they're not going to be forgiven.

I would believe the Bible over the preachers. It's just my word of advice. Okay, Romans 3:26. To declare, I say at this time his righteousness, that he might be righteous and the justifier of the ones who believe in Jesus. Again, God not only forgives sins, but he also justifies. We've talked about this. It means that we pronounce righteous. So you're pronounced righteous even though you're not. God gives this as a gift at our initial salvation, but we are expected, when we get into this later in Romans, to walk faithfully with Christ. Not perfectly, but to the extent we can as fallen humans. Where is boasting then? It is excluded by what law? That of works?

No, but by the law of faith. Okay, where is boasting then? Now, when Paul talks about boasting in Romans, he's nearly always talking about the boasting that the Jews did. It may have been boasting in the law, in circumcision, their separation from the Gentile nations, whatever. The Jews definitely felt they were on a pillar up here above everybody else.

Okay, he says by what law? That of works? No, but by the law of faith. Now, all the early Christians understood the law of works as being the Mosaic law. The same law that Paul has been talking about, the same works he's been talking about. He goes over it again and again and again and again. It's like, okay, do you guys get it? Okay, I'm going to do this another chapter. We're going to keep going over this until you get it. And, and you know, they did get it eventually. But yeah, this is the law of works. If you want to go back and keep all of those meticulous regulations in the law, fine. But if you think there's salvation in there, you're very mistaken.

In Romans 2:17, he said, behold, you are called a Jew and rest in the law and make your boast of God. Okay, so the Jews are boasting in the law, and that's what he's saying. That's excluded. The law of works, he calls it.

What other law is there that concerns Christians? Whether it's the law of Christ, the Sermon on the Mount, does Paul ever talk about the Sermon on the Mount in Romans? Does he ever say, now don't be too worried about keeping these commandments, that's works? He never says any such thing. Again, now this book says that, yeah, he's talking about these commandments. You don't have to keep those commandments.

I've been going through Romans the last year. Every day I've been reading part of it. He never brings that up. He talks about the works of the law. That's man putting words in his mouth. He never even mentions the Sermon on the Mount or Christ's teachings in Romans as something that we do not have to do.

Okay, the same verse again. He says, it is excluded. Now, I found this interesting. Again, somebody who actually spoke New Testament Greek, the word ekkleo, this is John Chrysostom, an extremely good expositor of scripture. He lived in the 300s.

Pretty well taught the same thing as the pre-Nicene Christians. Two Kingdoms, he would have been a little weak on that. Now, he explains, he says, it expresses untimeliness, okay, that you're a little late. The Jews no longer have time for pleading that they will improve their life through the works of the law. For if it had been possible to save themselves through the law, it should have been done before Christ's coming. So when he says excluded, he says, look, it's too late. Now, you've had 1500 years to walk with God through the law. It hasn't worked. So don't bring up the law now. It's too late. He says, just like on Judgment Day, trying to bring up stuff on Judgment Day.

It's going to be too late on Judgment Day. You've got to make your peace with God, obtain your forgiveness here in this life. I mean, Judgment Day, it's excluded. It is too late. The same with the law. It's excluded. Look, that was tried 1500 years. It's, don't bring up the law now. You need Christ. Don't keep putting forth the law.

But now that he who saves by faith has come, the time for those efforts through the law has been taken away from them. And not just the Jews, like I say, now you have Gentiles today who want to go back to the law. To me, it's the craziest thing on earth. Why any Gentile would want to do that? But I'm not just talking about the Seventh-day Adventist. I mean, there's all kinds of little groups out there. They're going back and they're keeping all the Jewish festivals and all this. And it's like, why would you go back to the law? It's just like, it makes no sense. I mean, all that pointed to Christ, now we have Christ.

We have the reality. Okay.

Each of these verses, he packs it with a lot of meaning. Okay. By what law that of works? No, but by the law of faith. Now, why does he call faith a law? Most people say faith is in contrast to law. He calls it the law of faith. Because in the New Covenant, God says, I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. Okay, so he didn't say there's no laws in the New Covenant. He says, I'm going to write my laws on your heart. Because they're not that many. You're not going to need a big scroll to try to keep up with them. There's not that many laws, but there are laws that we have, and they go deeper than the Mosaic law.

That's why Paul closes Romans. It's not, I don't think the last verse is maybe the next to the last verse. He speaks of the mystery. He says that has been made known to all nations or all Gentiles for the obedience of faith. So faith does entail obedience. When you hear faith, don't think that means, oh, there's no obedience necessary. He says it. He sums up at the end of Romans, the obedience of faith.

Therefore, we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the works of the law. Is he the God of the Jews only? Is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also. Seeing it is one God who will justify the circumcision by faith and uncircumcisions through faith. So Paul is summing up this whole chapter here. A person is justified by faith, not through the works of the Mosaic law. As we said, this is one of the primary themes that he goes over so many times.

Now, if Paul's purpose was to show that Christian obedience isn't necessary, that Christian works play no role in our salvation, then at this point you would expect him to say, okay, hey, don't be worrying about Christ's commandments. If you can keep them, yeah, do your best, but don't be looking at them for salvation. He doesn't say that. When he gets to that point, he says, is he the God of the Jews only? Is he not also of the Gentiles? He's talking about the Jews and the Gentiles. He's not talking about pious churchgoers and the people out there and don't think you're any better than those people out there. It's not what he's ever talking about.

It's always the Jews and the Gentiles. God is the God of both of us, he says, circumcision and the uncircumcision. He makes it clear what he's talking about. I mean, you have to just not want to believe scripture to try to turn that into something else. I mean, it's so crystal clear.

This is where Jews and Gentiles meet together. We become one. We don't have a separation between us any longer. Christ brought us together. The last verse, do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid. On the contrary, we establish the law.

It doesn't mean we have to go back and keep the Mosaic law, but faith in Christ doesn't make the law void. For Jesus said, do not think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets. I did not come to destroy, but to fulfill. Now, the regulations in the law that were always intended to be temporary, like circumcision, don't eat unclean meats, these different hygienic things. Yeah, Jesus abolished those. They fulfilled their purpose. Okay, we don't need those any longer, Jesus said. That's out of the way. But the precepts in the law that reflects God's eternal moral nature, when it talks about love, that's talking about his eternal nature. That doesn't ever go away.

And Jesus amplified those precepts. He made them internal as well as external. The law said, don't murder your neighbor. Jesus said, don't even hate your brother. So he amplifies that part of the law. And that's why he doesn't make the law void. He fulfills it. He fills it up. The parts that weren't necessary, that were temporary, he took them away. The parts that are eternal, he actually amplified them. That's the word the early Christians used. He fills them up to everything God wants.

So on the contrary, we establish the law. I'll quote one last time from Chrysostom and we'll close on that. What was the purpose of all of its requirements in the law? Its purpose was to make man righteous. When faith in Christ came, it accomplished this. For when a man becomes a believer, he is immediately justified. So faith established the purpose of the law. God was after bringing us to righteousness. He gives us a righteous standing. He gives us the power to maintain that standing. So that's why faith in Christ doesn't make the law void instead. It fulfills the law because this was the whole point. And it accomplishes that. Okay. Any questions, feedback, objections? Dan.

The quote from John Chrysostom that involves the word ekkleo is evidently a reference to something where the word ekkleo is used. What was that? I missed that somehow. I'm sorry. Excluded. Where he says, it is excluded. He's saying excluded means it's untimely. It's out of, it's too late to plead.

Where's the reference for that?

This is in Romans? Oh, yeah. Yeah. It was that verse, Romans 3:25. He said, 27. Okay. 3:27. It'll say, it is excluded. You see that? Yeah. I was putting the pronunciation, and I didn't want to put two words in brackets, and I decided to go with the pronunciation. I thought, I bet I'm going to lose someone by not putting what word I was highlighting. But thank you for bringing that out. Okay.