In John 6: 44-45 Jesus said "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; that whoever believes may in Him have eternal life." "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life." "For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through Him."

1. PLEASE READ ROMANS 3: 19-21.

Works can’t save us! In Vs. 19 Paul sets forth the purpose of the law where it says that the law is for those under the law so that people might know that they are morally accountable to God. This seems to be directed primarily to Paul’s Jewish readers from whom he had received most criticism.

Therefore, Paul says in Vs. 20a, no one can be declared righteous in God’s sight by observing the law, (because no one can keep the law). The law can uncover sin but it cannot overcome it. Only God has the power to free one from the power of sin. Rather, Paul declares in 3:20b, that it is through the Law that we are made aware of our sins and thus that awareness will drive us to trust ourselves in faith upon the mercy and grace of Christ.

Paul now declares in Vs. 21 that a righteousness from God which is apart from the law has been made known (this is in Jesus Christ) to which the Law and the Prophets Testified in the O.T.. True redemption starts from God’s purposes to rescue man from the destruction of sin, death and eternal judgment through the atoning blood of Jesus Christ. There have been thousands of alternative redemption plans offered to the human race, but none satisfies God’s standards except through Christ’s recovery solution. Only when people learn to proclaim redemption through Christ’s righteousness, will they learn to be fully satisfied.

The supreme problem of life is, "How can a man get into a right relationship with God?" "How can a man feel at peace, at ease, at home with God?" "How can a man escape the feeling of estrangement, and fear in the presence of God?"

A man can attain a right relationship with God by keeping meticulously all that the law lays down. If he fulfills all the works of the law, he will be right with God. But to say that is simply to say that there is no possibility of any man ever attaining to that right relationship with God. No man ever can keep or ever will keep every commandment of the law. Simply because man is an imperfect creature he can never render a perfect obedience. No man can ever render perfect service to the infinite perfection of God.

What then is the use of the law? The use of the law is that it makes a man aware of sin. It is only when a man knows what he ought to do that he can realize that he is not doing it. It is only when a man knows the law and tries to satisfy it that he realizes he can never satisfy it. The law is designed to show a man his own weakness and his own sinfulness. Is a man then shut out from God? Far from it, because the way to God is not the way of law, but the way of grace. It is not the way of works, it is the way of faith.

Having exposed the sinfulness of men in Romans 1:18 to 3:20, Paul now turned in Vs. 21 to declare the grace of God. As the former passage depicted man’s bondage to sin, so the latter proclaimed his deliverance from sin. Thus at this point Paul returned to the theme of his letter that he had introduced in Romans 1:16-17. No finer presentation of the gospel of God’s grace is to be found anywhere in the N.T. than in Romans 3:21 and following.

2. PLEASE READ ROMANS 3: 22-

In Vs. 22 Paul knew and declared that this righteousness from God comes not by keeping the law but through faith in Jesus Christ. He wrote in Eph. 2: 8-9 "For by grace are you saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast." In Hebrews 11: 1-6 he wrote "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the men of old gained approval. By faith Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained the testimony that he was righteous, God testifying about his gifts, and through faith, though he is dead, he still speaks."

"By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death; and he was not found because God took him up; for he obtained the witness that before his being taken up he was pleasing to God. And without faith it is impossible to please Him for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him."

Then Paul, in Vs. 23, makes the universal declaration of the need of the whole human race when he says "for all have sinned and therefore all people come short of the glory of God." Then in Vs. 24 Paul declares that our great hope is that we are justified freely by God’s grace through redemption that is possible by Jesus Christ. Paul taught that redemption comes through the pardon of God.

One day a convicted murder heard that a man had come to visit him the night before he was to be executed. When the prisoner saw the man in a black cape carrying a Bible he shouted at the jailer, "I do not want to see any preachers. Religion never helped me before and it certainly will not do me any good now!" The visitor looked deeply into the prisoner’s eyes, turned and walked silently out of the room.

The next day as they were about to place the noose around the prisoner’s neck the sheriff said, "Do you have any last requests?" The prisoner said, "I stayed up all night wondering who that visitor was? Please, tell me who he was." The sheriff paused and said, "That was the governor of the State who came to give you a pardon! Today you are not going to die just because of your crime, but because you refused to accept the pardon." Anyone who goes to hell does so because they refused to accept the pardon that is offered them freely through the redemption that works through the righteousness of Christ. Let’s ask the Lord to help us extend that pardon to as many people as possible so they will not have to pay for their sins’ penalty in hell and in self-destructive behavior.

Isaiah 55: 6-7 promises, "Seek the Lord while He may be found; call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return to the Lord and He will have compassion on him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon." And the Scripture says in Romans 10:11-13, "Whoever believes in Him will not be disappointed." "For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call upon Him; for "Whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved."

3. PLEASE READ ROMANS 3: 25-26.

In Romans 25a Paul wrote that God presented Christ as a sacrifice for our salvation and our atonement or propitiation. Paul wrote in 1 Cor. 1:18 "For the word of the cross is to those who are perishing foolishness, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God." Paul wrote of Christ’s death as showing that God is both just, and the justifier, of him that believeth in Jesus. This was Paul’s answer to his critics who claimed that it was unjust for a just God to accept ungodly people as though they were righteous. The death of Christ thus reveals both the justice and mercy of God. The cross takes sin seriously. God had in the past shown forbearance toward sin and sinners, but He dealt with sin at the cross. Christ took upon Himself the sins of the world. He died in our place so we might not have to die. He bore the wrath that is directed toward sin.

We know from experience that forgiving a person is costly to the one who forgives. This person pays a price by absorbing the hurt and pain of the one who has sinned against him or her. God in Christ absorbed all the hurt and pain of all the sinners of all times.

Sometimes when a fire gets out of control, firefighters will use a firebreak to stop the flames from advancing. A strip of land is burned off ahead of the fire under controlled conditions. Then when the flames of the wild fire reach that area, there is nothing left to burn and the fire goes out. In a spiritual sense, Jesus provided a firebreak for us. The judgment of God has already fallen here; therefore, in Him we are safe. The death of Christ was presented as a sacrificial act. It was intended to provide deliverance for sinful men.

4. PLEASE READ ROMANS 3: 27-28.

In light of the fact that Christ suffered for us; where is human boasting? It is out of place. It is excluded! Jesus said in Matt. 7: 21-23 "Not everyone who says to Me, "Lord, Lord", will enter

The kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My father who is in heaven." ‘Many will say to me on that day, "Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?" "And then I will declare to them, "I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness." Religious actions, church attendance, or membership is no substitute for this faith in Jesus, as God desires.

Faith comes by HEARING. The preaching of the Gospel is God’s soul-saving ordinance. It has pleased God by the ‘foolishness of preaching" to save them that believe. In every age God raises up men who faithfully proclaim His Word and, as he departs, another arrives. Elijah ascends to Glory, but his mantel falls upon Elisha. Paul does not die until Timothy is in the field. Last month in Texas stadium, Billy Graham preached to 79,000 in the stadium and an estimated 5,000 outside the stadium. Franklin Graham shared in the service and more and more is serving as Billy Graham’s successor.

This true Apostolic succession is continued ever more, for when we know not where to find ministers, we may rest assured that in nooks and corners the Lord is preparing men for His work. Somewhere he has a pastor for Immanuel. "I, if I be life up, said Christ, "will draw all men unto me." Men are drawn to hear when Christ is preached. We now declare that the Law was given by Moses;—but Grace and Truth came by Jesus Christ.

We are not saved by assurance—we do not even live by assurance. Faith is the shell that holds the kernel of the inner spiritual life. Assurance follows faith---after you believed. To believe in Christ will save you from hell. To be assured of your salvation will give you Heaven on earth. Paul says "His Spirit also bears witness with our spirit that we are born of God."

What implication does justification by faith have for us at the point of our attitude toward God and ourselves? Needless today, it should make a difference. Those who imagine that they have attained a right standing with God by keeping the law tend to be proud. But when God’s grace is rightly understood, pride becomes an early casualty. Paul said, ‘It is excluded." It is not that the religious legalist boasts and the child of God’s grace does not. Both boast. But whereas the legalist boasts in him self, the Christian boasts in the Lord. Paul admonished the Corinthians in 1 Cor 1:31, "Let him who boasts, boast of the Lord." (Literally "in the Lord.")

5. PLEASE READ ROMANS 3: 29-30.

Paul declared that God was not the God of the Jews only but the God of Gentiles as well. Salvation is available for all people. No one is too good not to need salvation. No one is so bad they cannot be saved. He wrote in Romans 10:9-10 "That if thou shalt confess with they mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation."

Now, don’t tell me we shall have no faith in Heaven---nonsense! "Now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three. But the greater of these is charity." We shall find faith to be our sweet companion there. Shall I not believe God when I get to Heaven? Shall I give up trusting my God when I get there?" No. I shall trust Him for my resurrection body! I shall trust Him for the millennial splendor! I shall Trust Him for the gathering of the elect! Trust Him for an eternity of bliss! Trust Him my safe standing where He has brought me. And so, happy faith, imperishable faith, shall live and reign when sense and sight are gone past recall. The Lord grant you to hear the Word, to believe in it and afterwards to be sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise.

Since we know that salvation is for all and God has extended the invitation, "Whosoever will, let him come," we must be obedient to the Great Commission that says, in Matt. 28: 19-20, "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." God determined before the foundation of the world to accept those who would obey Him through faith to the exclusion of those who would feign to obey Him for any other reason. Job said, "Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him."