Tag: Jesus Christ

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Can I Trust that God Accepts Me? (Study of Romans, Part 3: Romans 3:21–5:21)

Note: How do we find joy, hope, and peace in our lives? The Apostle Paul’s letter to the Romans is all about that. He teaches that we do it by having more faith, hope, and love. In the 3rd part of this study, we consider, can I trust and believe that God accepts me? This is the 3rd of an 8 part study of Paul’s letter to the Roman Christians. You can read part 1 here and part 2 here.

Key Thought: We can grow in joy, peace, and hope by learning to see and trust that God accepts us.

Introduction to the Virtue of Faith
What will govern how we feel? How we see. How we perceive reality is how we will feel. If we perceive that we will have opportunities and successes, then we will feel hope. If we perceive that we will have no opportunities or successes, then we will not feel hope. If we see people as basically against us, it will be harder to feel love for them. If we see people as made to connect with us, then we will find it easier to love them.

When it comes to people, there is an element of faith in our relationship. I can’t literally “see,” for example, the love my wife has for me. However, in her greetings, her actions, and her talks with me, I can “see” it, in a manner of speaking, with my eyes.

With God, the element of faith is greater. We can’t see Him face to face. We can’t see with our eyes that He is present with us. We may not see that He loves us.

So, how do we find a way to “see” Him? We develop faith. Faith is the virtue or excellence of the soul that enables us to see God. It is what we read in Hebrews, Moses “persevered because he saw him who is invisible” (Heb. 11:27).

Faith sees God and trusts that He is who He says He is, will act in accordance with who He is, and will do what He says He will do. Faith is what enables us to receive the righteousness from God that we could not have on our own. “For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: ‘The righteous will live by faith’” (Rom. 1:17).

Now, Paul was writing to the Roman Christians. He believed they already had this righteousness from God. They did not need to receive it. But they needed to learn to see it better and more clearly. That’s one of the big reasons he wrote this letter. It was not enough for them to simply believe once and be done with it. Faith is a virtue or character trait that needed to be developed. They needed to learn to see God more and more clearly. That was how they were going to return to joy, peace, and hope in their lives lives. So, it is for us as well.

In particular, Paul describes two things that we to “see” by faith that will enable us to experience joy, peace, and hope: justification and sanctification. We will consider justification in this post and sanctification in the next one.

Part 1 – Justification (Romans 3:21–5:21)
The Meaning of “to Justify”
Paul uses a word that is slightly difficult to translate to explain what God has done for us. It is a little bit of work to understand this word, but once you do, the wonder of what God has done in Jesus really opens up.

Paul writes, “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom. 5:1). “All have sinned . . . but are justified freely by His grace” (Rom. 3:23 and 24). What does he mean by “being justified”?

“To justify” means “to declare righteous.” When you justify someone, you declare that they have done what is right. You don’t make them just or righteous. You say that they are. That is justification. The opposite of “to justify” is “to condemn.” So, if there is no condemnation, then there is justification (see Rom. 8:1).

One way to help someone understand this is to ask, can you justify God? To some people that seems strange. But, if “to justify” means “to declare righteous,” then you can certainly declare God to be righteous. Not only that, you should justify Him! That’s what the Bible says. Luke 7:29 tells us that the tax collectors and sinners justified God. How? They said He was right in saying they should repent. The Pharisees did not justify God. They said God was wrong when He told them to repent. Indeed, we can almost say that to be justified by God you must first justify God, but that’s just something to think about.

How God Justifies Us
Once we grasp the meaning of the word, we have a problem. How can God justify us? We are wicked and sinful. For God to say that we are righteous would seem to be a lie. Paul calls God the God who justifies the ungodly (Rom. 4:5). How can that be? It would seem like we should be condemned, not justified. It would seem that God is lying. How can He justify ungodly people? That is, how can He say that wicked, murderous, adulterous, immoral people are righteous?

God can justify us because God does not declare us righteous in ourselves. He declares us righteous because of what Jesus has done in His life and death and resurrection. Note well, “we are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 3:24). We are justified as a gift, but it is a gift because Jesus has paid.

Paul is aware of this tension. He indicates that there was a question of how God could be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus (Rom. 3:26). How can God do it? He sent Jesus as an atoning sacrifice. He took the wrath that the law demanded so that we would not have to experience it. Jesus was a true substitute.

How do we get what Jesus did for us applied to our account? We accept it as a gift by faith. We see the gift and say that we want it. “This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe” (Rom. 3:22).

Paul goes back to the Old Testament to shows that this is true. Abraham was justified by faith. David was forgiven freely by faith (Romans 4:1–8). Forgiveness is a close synonym to being justified. It’s just a slightly different angle. Anyone who is justified is also forgiven of anything in the past. That’s the way that God has always done it. Adam brought in condemnation, but Jesus brought in justification (Romans 5:12–21). Where sin abounded; grace superabounded (Romans 5:20, see the original Greek).

The Result of Being Justified
And what is the result of all this? We have peace with God. It is a fact that God’s wrath is turned away. This is the foundation of our peace. Our conscience may condemn us, but justification tells us that God loves us, is for us, and forgives us.

By faith, we can have a sense of God’s love that transcends all our circumstances. As Paul put it so powerfully, “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 8:38–39). If we can truly perceive this by exercising the virtue of faith, then it will produce joy, peace, and hope.

I have had this experience innumerable times. I remember one time not too long ago that I was experiencing some real losses in my life. But then I read Romans 5:1, “Therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” I realized that I could have received the wrath of God, but God justified me instead through Jesus Christ. Nothing can separate me from the love of God. This is the most important thing. Everything else is just gravy. That is a foundation for joy, peace, and hope, no matter what happens. The better we can see this through the eyes of faith, the more we will feel joy, peace, and hope. Paul wrote at the end of his letter, “I myself am convinced, my brothers and sisters, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with knowledge and competent to instruct one another. Yet I have written you quite boldly on some points to remind you of them again, because of the grace God gave me . . .” (Romans 15:14-15). Reminding ourselves of these things daily, hourly, and moment by moment will also grow our faith. It will enable us to have a foundation that is completely secure in the instabilities of this life. That’s the virtue of faith.

But that’s not the only thing we need to see by faith. We need to see that God is transforming us into something absolutely glorious. That’s what we will consider in the next section.

Outline to Construct Your Own Teaching on Romans 3:21–5:21

  1. What is the meaning of the word “to justify?” Do a careful study.
  2. Why is it such a problem to say God justifies the ungodly (Rom. 4:5)?
  3. How is it that God is able to declare ungodly people righteous?
  4. How do we get the righteousness of God applied to us?
  5. What is the concrete result of being justified?
  6. How do we experience and perceive better the results of being justified?

Questions for Reflection

  1. Do you understand what it means to be justified by faith and not by works?
  2. Have you been justified by faith in Jesus Christ?
  3. How are you doing at believing in your justification?
  4. What could you do to help you “see” it better?
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The Glory of the High Priest

This week, I have been studying the high priest in Exodus 28. In some ways, it is so simple. The high priest went before God on behalf of the people in the temple of the Lord.

On the other side, the detailed garments and activities call for serious reflection. As the 17th century Dutch theologian Wilhelmus à Brakel said: “The entire priesthood, and particularly the high priest, was a glorious type of the Lord Jesus Christ, as the apostle subsequently shows us in his letter to the Hebrews. Furthermore, each particular matter had its specific meaning.” He found what I have found: “meditation thereon [is] a sweet work.”

The high priest teaches us much about God, the world, humans as God created them, Jesus, and the restored humanity in Christ. All of this is worth reflecting on in detail.

Here let me just point out one of my favorites. On the shoulder straps, the priest would have onyx stones, and on those onyx stones, an engraver would engrave the names of the tribes of Israel. Thus, “[The high priest] is to bear the names on his shoulders as a memorial before the Lord” (Ex. 28:12).

The high priest would not only wear the names of Israel on his shoulders. He would wear them over his heart. On the breastplate, he bore 12 different types of stone that each represented the tribes of Israel. The workers would engrave the names of the 12 tribes of Israel on the stones. In this way, “[w]henever [the high priest] enters the Holy Place, he will bear the names of the sons of Israel over his heart on the breastpiece of decision as a continuing memorial before the Lord” (Ex. 28:29).

What is the significance of this? I think this is especially fulfilled in Christ. He is our great high priest who carries the names of His people on His heart before His Father. We should think of Jesus as the One who has us on His heart and written on His hands: “See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands . . .” (Is. 49:16). As the author of Hebrews writes: “Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them” (Heb. 7:25).

This should afford us tremendous comfort and joy. We have an advocate before the very throne of God who will not fail to pray for us and seek our good, Jesus! A colonial New England Pastor, Samuel Mather, captured this beautifully:

How should faith triumph in this? Is not our High Priest in the Sanctuary? Is He not clothed with garments of righteousness and salvation? And doth He not bear the names of His people upon his shoulders and upon his breasts before the Lord? Thy particular concerns (if thou are a believer) are written upon His heart with the pen of a diamond, in such lasting letters of loving-kindness as shall never be blotted out.

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Is Jesus God?

This question must seem very strange to modern ears. Sorta like asking, is George Washington God, or is Abraham Lincoln God?

For modern people, the question may seem absurd, but for those who first heard it, it was blasphemy.

When Jesus said to the people of his day, “I and the Father are one,” here was their response: they picked up stones to stone him. Here’s what they said: “We are not stoning you for any good work . . . but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God.”

To the Jews, the first article of their faith was that God is one. If Jesus claimed to be God, then he was, in their mind, attacking this fundamental article.

On the other side, when Jesus’ followers went out into the Roman world and claimed divine status for Jesus, this would have seemed neither strange nor improbable to Roman ears. The Romans believed in many gods, and the distinction between gods and humans was not that great. So, what would be the big deal with adding one more god to the pantheon?

The trouble for the followers of Jesus in the Roman world was that they claimed that there was only one God and that Jesus was that God. “He is the true God and eternal life” (1 Jn. 5:20) and “the Word was God. . . . Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made” (John 1:2–3). Paul wrote: “we wait for the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ . . .” (Tit. 2:13).

The early Christians believed, prayed to, and trusted in Jesus as the one true God.

So, how to explain that Jesus is God and the Father is God? The church had to struggle long to think through this relationship and express it clearly.

One possibility is that the Father and the Son are just different manifestations of the one true God in a similar way to the fact that I am a father, son, friend, and husband. I’m the same person, but I play different roles.

This just did not do justice to the New Testament revelation. For example, Jesus said, “In your own Law it is written that the testimony of two witnesses is true. I am one who testifies for myself; my other witness is the Father, who sent me” (John 8:17–18). No, the Father was one person and Jesus another, yet there was not two gods but one God.

From this, it’s not a far jump to the Christian doctrine of the Trinity. We believe that there is one God in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This is hard to understand, but should it really surprise us that there would be something about God that is way above our understanding of God? It would almost be surprising if this wasn’t the case.

But the key question is, is it true? Is Jesus really God?

Let me suggest three things to consider.

First, everyone believes that Jesus is a great teacher. Even non-Christians throughout history have looked at him as a great moral teacher. Yet he claimed to be God and the Lord of all. Could a good teacher make such a claim? If I said that what my word that you are reading on this blog are the words of me, the one true God, would you continue to read my blog? No, you would think I was crazy or a charlatan. But Jesus is not the sort of person you can write of as a crazy person or charlatan. He is one of the greatest people who ever lived. So, how can you put those things together?

C.S. Lewis, the atheist turned Christian apologist, put it this way: it is a trilemma. He is either a liar, lunatic, or lord. You can’t say he’s just a good teacher because Jesus has shut that door. Those are really the only options. Which one makes the most sense?

Second, He rose from the dead. He said he was God, and he proved it by rising from the dead. I believe that this is not only a belief, it is historical fact. You can read the evidence for this claim here and here, but I’ll just say this. All of his followers believed he rose from the dead, and they staked their lives on it. They gained very little in this life for this belief, and most of them paid for believing this truth with their lives. If they made it up, would all of them have gone to terrible deaths for its truth? To me, that does not seem at all plausible. So, the only conclusion I can come to is that Jesus actually rose from the dead.

Third, all over the world, people from diverse cultures, regions, socioeconomic backgrounds, intellectual levels, and so on have come to Jesus. They have done this without any apparent gain in this world. They have done it often in the face of the greatest persecution. In China, as one example, all of the missionaries were expelled when the communists took over, decades later, Christianity was exploding all over China in the face of often terrible persecution. How did this happen? In my mind, it is only the power of the resurrected Christ that provides an adequate explanation.

Whether you find this convincing or not, I hope that you will consider this crucial question that Jesus asked his own followers while he was on earth: who do you say that I am?

If you are convinced that Jesus is God, let me ask you to consider the significance of this truth.

First, God wants to connect with us. If He became a human, He is not some distant, far off being. He is one who comes, very close. He wants to connect with us and have a relationship with us.

Second, he is accessible. How do you relate to an infinite being? Hard to conceive. But what if He comes down to our level to relate to us? If you’ve seen Jesus, you’ve seen the Father. You know God.

Third, he can sympathize with us. It would seem that God is remote from us and immune to all our problems. But if He became a human, then He has experienced all of our struggles and is able to sympathize with us in our weaknesses. He suffered. He died. He experienced rejection. He can sympathize with us.

He has come close to us and invites us to come close to Him. That is the implication of the glorious truth that Jesus is God.

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