Sermon Tone Analysis

*The Gospel Truth*

*Romans 3:21-26           August 26, 2001*

* *

*Scripture Reading: *# 660, Hymnal

 

*Introduction:*

 

It is a sad fact that many people get stuck on hopelessness.

Illus.: the youth of Geneseo, IL, committing suicide.

Illus.: the youth of Harlan, IA, committing suicide.

Illus.: the man who committed suicide at the Forest Glen train stop Thurs.

morning.

Woman who saw it lost control.

She said she couldn't get his face out of her mind.

Why?

 

Do you agree that suicide is a tragedy?

If you stopped reading at 3:20 you might be tempted to commit suicide yourself at the rash of bad news Paul has given us.

But he doesn't end there even though many people end there.

There is profound hope.

Illus.: do you know the difference between optimism and hope?

Young pastor~/older pastor comparison from /The Pastor's Soul #8, Your Ministry's Next Chapter/ by Gary Fenton.

Optimism burns out quickly in the realities of life whereas hope is long-term enough to see us through.

Hope perseveres.

Praise God for Romans 3:21-26, our passage for this morning.

It is here that Paul fully explains the "good news" called the gospel.

Luther called this passage "the chief point, and the very central place of the epistle, and of the whole Bible."

Rarely does the bible bring together in so few verses so many important theological ideas: the righteousness of God, justification, the shift in salvation history, faith, sin redemption, grace, propitiation, forgiveness, and the justice of God.

Here, more than anywhere else in Romans, Paul explains why Christ's coming means "good news" for needy, sinful people.

*Big Question:*

 

/How does the gospel truth apply to us?/

 

*I.

Cycle One*

 

*          A.

Narrative *(v.

21)

 

"But now" marks the shift in Paul's focus from the old era of sin's domination to the new era of salvation.

"But now" God has intervened to provide a way for all who respond in faith, not only for those after the cross but also for those before it who will be transferred from the old era into the new.

As the wrath of God dominated the old era, so the righteousness of God dominates the new as he intercedes to fulfill his promises.

The righteousness of God has now been manifested apart from doing the law (which cannot be achieved).

This salvation-historical shift is denoted by the "but now."

The law must be seen as a temporary administration set up between God and his people to regulate their lives and reveal their sin until the establishment of the promise in Christ.

The Jewish identity markers of circumcision, Sabbath, and food laws are no longer required because the covenant of which they were a part has been made obsolete (Heb.

8:11-13).

11  No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest.

12  For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more."

13  By calling this covenant "new," he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and aging will soon disappear.

(Hebrews 8:11-13 NIVUS)

 

 

However, Paul hastens to balance this discontinuity in salvation history with a reminder of its continuity since the OT as a whole (witnessed to by the law and the prophets) anticipates and predicts this new work of God.

As Paul will soon say in the rest of this chapter of Romans and on into chapter 4, salvation has always been by faith.

Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness.

(Genesis 15:6 NIVUS)

 

 I am bringing my righteousness near, it is not far away; and my salvation will not be delayed.

I will grant salvation to Zion, my splendor to Israel.

(Isaiah 46:13 NIVUS)

 

5  My righteousness draws near speedily, my salvation is on the way, and my arm will bring justice to the nations.

The islands will look to me and wait in hope for my arm.

6  Lift up your eyes to the heavens, look at the earth beneath; the heavens will vanish like smoke, the earth will wear out like a garment and its inhabitants die like flies.

But my salvation will last forever, my righteousness will never fail.

(Isaiah 51:5-6 NIVUS)

 

 For the moth will eat them up like a garment; the worm will devour them like wool.

But my righteousness will last forever, my salvation through all generations."

(Isaiah 51:8 NIVUS)

 

1 ¶ Of David.

A <maskil.> Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered.

2  Blessed is the man whose sin the LORD does not count against him and in whose spirit is no deceit.

(Psalms 32:1-2 NIVUS)

 

 "See, he is puffed up; his desires are not upright— but the righteous will live by his faith—

 (Habakkuk 2:4 NIVUS)

 

"Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.

(Matthew 5:17 NIVUS)

 

 For all the Prophets and the Law prophesied until John.

(Matthew 11:13 NIVUS)

 

 And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

(Matthew 24:14 NIVUS)

 

 "The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John.

Since that time, the good news of the kingdom of God is being preached, and everyone is forcing his way into it.

(Luke 16:16 NIVUS)

 

 Philip found Nathanael and told him, "We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote— Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph."

(John 1:45 NIVUS)

 

 However, I admit that I worship the God of our fathers as a follower of the Way, which they call a sect.

I believe everything that agrees with the Law and that is written in the Prophets,

 (Acts 24:14 NIVUS)

 

 They arranged to meet Paul on a certain day, and came in even larger numbers to the place where he was staying.

From morning till evening he explained and declared to them the kingdom of God and tried to convince them about Jesus from the Law of Moses and from the Prophets.

(Acts 28:23 NIVUS)

 

*          B.

Implication*

 

The gospel has been the consistent direction of salvation history -- we must agree with God's plan.

*          C.

Illustration*

 

*          D.

Application*

 

*II.

Cycle Two*

 

*          A.

Narrative *(vv.

22-23)

 

God's righteousness is available only through faith in Christ, but it is available to anyone who has faith in Christ.

It is available to all because all need it.

All have sinned, keep sinning, and keep falling short (present tense) of God's glory.

God's glory involves conforming to the image of Christ.

29 ¶ For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

30  And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.

(Romans 8:29-30 NIVUS)

 

 who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.

(Philippians 3:21 NIVUS)