21But
now, a righteousness of God apart from law has been revealed, being witnessed
by the Law and the Prophets, 22even a righteousness of God through
faith of Jesus Christ into all the ones believing, for [there] is no
difference, 23for all sin(ned) and are falling short of the glory of
God, 24ones being justified freely by His grace through the
redemption which [is] in Christ Jesus, 25Whom God presented as a
propitiatory [sacrifice] through faith in His blood, into a display of His
righteousness because of the passing over of sins committed before, 26in
the tolerance of God toward the display of His righteousness in the present
age, into [that] He might be just and One justifying him out of faith of Jesus.
The six verses before us today ought to have always been
printed in gold. I like the practice of printing Jesus’ words in red, but these
six verses ought to be printed in gold.
I have been just sort of coasting for several days, just hovering
over these verses, completely awed by their amazing truth and reluctant to step
away from them. One has to remove his shoes just to read them.
This is it.
These six verses contain the most important truths any
human being could ever comprehend. If we get nothing else right in this life,
if we get these six verses, we got it all – we got all that really ever mattered.
In these six verses our very souls hang by a thread between heaven and hell,
between the freedom and the peace our hearts long for and the endless heartache
and slavery life constantly doles out. For anyone who would admit they are
hopelessly broken, who would admit that life doesn’t work and that they see no
real hope – if only they would read and understand these six simple verses.
Righteousness. It is a word that has somehow fallen into a
connotation used to mock at the idea of people trying to be “religious” or “better
than everyone else.” However, the word simply speaks of being “right.” Can we
all agree that is the problem in our very souls? Something isn’t right. Our
lives aren’t right. I’m not right. The world isn’t right. And I see no way to
fix it. I need to fix it. It needs to be fixed. I’m weary of living in all the
horrors of its brokenness.
I fear too many people live their entire lives in the
delusion that somehow they can (or will) fix it or perhaps denying it even
needs to be fixed. Other people see it and eventually choose suicide as the
only way out of all this misery. Others drown it in alcohol or tranquilizers or
drugs or whatever.
But all of that is unnecessary. For anyone who is ready to
admit it’s true and to acknowledge I myself simply have no hope, these six
verses hold the golden key – the only
golden key – that will unlock for us the place of hope and peace.
Read them again. My translation above is deliberately
literal so it is awkward in English but you can read it in basically any translation
and all its beautiful, soul-liberating truth is there to ponder.
I find myself at a loss for words. You just need to read it
for yourself.
But I will try to point out some things. Oceans of ink have
been written on these verses. There are a few places where one can debate over
the grammatical structure or even a few word meanings. Studying it in Greek, I’m
struck by how differently ancient people thought – which will all explain why
translations do contain some variations. However, the truth of what is being
said explodes in any language. Consider the words themselves that we find here:
“justified,” “freely,” “by His grace,” “the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,”
“a propitiatory sacrifice,” “faith in His blood,” “justifying them that are of
the faith of Jesus.”
“Justified” here means to be declared “right.” While any
sense of “law” or rules condemns us, God here offers to declare us “right” – which
then leads to actually making us (and
our lives) right, but he’ll take that up in chapter 6. Though you and I have
failed, the God who rules the very universe offers to declare us “right.”
He does it “freely.” He’d better. We have nothing to offer
Him but our brokenness. We can’t even promise to do “better.” Whatever He might
do to fix us, He’ll have to do it freely or we will still die in our sins.
It is “by His grace.” The hope for us comes directly from
the heart of God. He offers us grace because He is gracious. Us broken,
hopeless sinners stand under the gaze of God, only to look up and see kindness
in His eyes!
It is “by the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” Redemption.
It was a word describing a person purchased out of slavery and set free. This
begins to explain how all of this is even possible. Someone paid a price. Someone
wants to set me free! And that person is none other than Jesus.
And what was that price? Jesus Himself became a “propitiatory
sacrifice” for me. Once again, this is an old word, but throughout human
history every culture has been keenly aware of their soul failure and of the
need to somehow “propitiate” the gods, to somehow divert their anger toward our
sins. Jesus Himself is that “propitiation” for us. I can’t do it. I’m the one
who’s failed. Even if I could offer myself, I’d be offering God a piece of
rotten meat, a diseased, lame, blind offering. Jesus is the Lamb of God who
takes away the sin of the world, who solves our problem, who cures our disease,
who opens the way back to the heart of God and that place of peace.
And what does God ask of us? Faith. Faith in His blood. Faith
in Jesus. Believing in Jesus. He’s offering all of this. Will you accept it? To
say, “Yes,” is to look into the eyes of God and say, “I do believe. I believe
all of this. I need Jesus. I need to be fixed. I want Him to fix me” – and He
will.
This is it. The only truth that really matters in the end.
I’m reminded of the old hymn:
My
soul in sad exile was out on life’s sea,
So
burdened with sin and distressed,
‘Til
I heard a sweet voice,
Saying,
‘Make Me your choice,’
And
I entered the Haven of Rest.
Letters of gold.
