The Redemption That Came by Christ Jesus

Romans 3:21-25

When I was preparing the sermon today, I think about a question. What’s the message I should preach if I only have 30 minutes? It’s the “the redemption that came by Christ Jesus”. For around 2000 years, many people studied the Bible and wrote many books about the Bible, we have to admit, to some degree, that we are confused by these books. Imagine we will go back to Jesus and Apostles’ time, and let us read from the books of Jesus’ disciples what the salvation is!

First let’s look at the 4 gospel books. Matthew 1:1, “Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham”. This is a book for Jewish Christians. Matthew quoted many verses from Old Testament proving Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of the Scriptures. “The son of Abraham” -- “through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed” (Genesis 22:18). “The son of David” -- God promises David, “your house and your kingdom shall endure before me forever” (2 Samuel 7:16). So they have this hope that God will send them the promised son, through him not only they will be saved, but also all nations on earth will be blessed. His kingdom will endure forever. Matthew was testifying Jesus is the One.

Also in Mark1:1, “the beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ”. The subject is “the gospel about Jesus Christ”. In Luke 1:3-4, “since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, it seemed good also to me to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught”. In John, apostle begins from “the Word” in the beginning and “the Word became flesh”, and in John 21, “but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name”. After then, many people read their testimonies and believed Jesus Christ, even some of them were trying to prove the Bible is not true. You can go to other books in NT one by one, all of them are testifying about “Jesus Christ”. It’s easier for us to say Jesus is Christ today, but at that time, what makes them believe Jesus is Christ?

Apostle Paul wrote more than half of the letters in NT. How does he write about the Gospel? In 1:17, there is the theme of the book of Romans -- “in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed”. In the whole book of Romans, he is talking about “a righteousness of God”. What is this righteousness of God? In today’s text (Romans 3:21-25), it says “a righteousness  of God” has been made known.

Actually before this righteousness of God, Paul talks about the reality of sin. Romans 3:9 “What then? Are we any better?  Not at all. We have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under sin.” For all people, they knew God from the created world and their conscience, but they rejected the living God but made idols themselves and worshiped them in their heart, and were driven to sexual impurity, and all wicked deeds. They always have guilt in them. For the Jews at that time, Paul writes, they judge others as if they are the judge, but they are stubborn without repentance. They boast the law, the word of God and the circumcision, but they are breaking the law and blaspheming God’s name because of their deeds. So if we apply those to us today, the same sin of the gentiles and Jews actually are in us. The wicked deeds of people today are obvious; for people who go to church or call themselves Christians, they judge others and boast about their baptism and conformation, but live the same life as non-believers. Paul let us realize the reality that all mankind are under the power of sin. If we look at ourselves and think about it, how can we go to God and stand in front of his judgment?

After this, Paul began to write about the “the righteousness of God”, let’s read 3:22-24.

22 This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. 25 God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished—

“Are justified freely by his grace”: Paul is using an illustration of court here. All sinned, however, God, the Judge who can judge us according to our sins, justifies us and calls us righteous. He washed away all our transgressions and made us clean. As it is said in Isaiah 1, “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.” How can this be?

“Through Redemption that came by Christ Jesus”:  Galatians 3:13 “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us”. He paid the price of our sins with his life, his blood.  “God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement”, in KJV, it is translated as “a propitiation”. In Old Testament, Leviticus, there is the sacrifice of sins. The flawless animals are offered to take away the sins of Israel. We often commit sin and forget it. But the Israelites are trained according to the law from God. The sin should be paid. This is justice. Here, Paul says, Jesus is the lamb of sacrifice, who takes away the sin of the world.

“This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe” This unimaginable and costly salvation, that sets everyone free from sin, is given to all who believe freely. It’s only by faith. When you know this work of God, when this grace and love comes to your heart, when you accept this salvation, you are justified by faith.

However, the righteousness of God doesn’t stop here. All human are under power of sin and death after Adam, however, because of Jesus Christ, all who believe him, are transferred to a new kingdom where “grace reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord”. Since they are in this new kingdom, they are not under the power of sin, so as Paul says, we should not offer our body to sin again because it leads to death, but we should “by the Spirit put to death the misdeeds of the body” and we will live. Not only this, in Romans 8:22-23, there will be a time all will be saved. Romans 8:29-30, “those he justified, he also gloried”. These are the blessings of God to these who are called by his love.

In the sermon today, we mainly studied the salvation by Jesus Christ, and talked about the life after justification very briefly. We hope we can study this truth more and we can live in this truth.