December 22, 2025 • 15 mins
What if the Law wasn’t a ladder to climb but a mirror that reveals the truth we’d rather avoid? Romans 3 confronts our illusions of “good enough” and then opens a door no human could build. We walk through Paul’s tight logic—why everyone is under sin, why the Law removes excuses rather than earns credit, and how God remains just while declaring sinners righteous through Jesus.
We unpack the tension people still feel today: if grace saves, do rules matter? Paul says faith doesn’t trash the Law; it finally fulfills it. Once we trust Christ, the standard of holiness moves from an impossible demand to a transforming desire. We explore how justification by faith humbles our pride, dismantles religious elitism, and invites both insiders and outsiders into the same grace. Along the way, we tackle common objections—Does more sin mean more grace? Is God unfair?—and show how Paul’s answers cut through the noise with clarity and courage.
You’ll hear why “but now” is the hinge of hope, how Jesus’ sacrifice satisfies justice without sacrificing mercy, and what it looks like to cling to Christ like a drowning person grabs a life preserver. This is not a call to try harder; it’s a call to trust deeper, then walk forward with joy. Join us as we move from exposure to rescue, from boasting to gratitude, and from fear to a faith that actually changes how we live. If this helped you see Romans 3 with fresh eyes, subscribe, share with a friend who needs hope, and leave a quick review to help more people find the conversation.
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The More We Dig. The More We Find.
Scripture quotations taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation (NLT).
Copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation.
Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
Welcome to the Bible Breakdown Podcast.
Every day, we take one chapterof the Bible, dig deeper, and
discover that the more we dig,the more we find.
You can find out more at theBibleBreakdown.com.
Now let's grow in God's Wordtogether.
Hello, everybody.
Welcome back to the BibleBreakdown Podcast with your
host, Pastor Brandon.
Today, Romans chapter 3.
(00:22):
If I'd give this one a title, itwould be The Law is Perfect.
Gee, thanks.
If I didn't realize how bad aperson I was, now I do.
So thank you so much.
We're going to look at thereason why God gave the law, the
Old Testament first five booksof Moses, why that's important,
and why it also stinks at thesame time.
But as always, if you like whatwe're doing here, make sure you
(00:43):
like, share, and subscribe thevideo.
Make sure you hit that subscribebutton, just knock it in the
face.
And also, if you're listening tothis on the podcast, you are my
favorites.
I love you so much.
Make sure you are sharing thisas well.
You are posting it on the socialmedias, all the things.
Leave us a five-star review.
Go to Facebook, to the Facebookgroup, Bible Breakdown
Discussion.
And I would love to know whatyou were getting out of this.
(01:04):
I have this picture in my mind.
So while we're messing aroundwith this new style, I have this
picture in my mind of you and Isitting across the coffee table,
sharing a cup of coffee, andjust gushing about God's word
together.
And that's what I love to do isI just see myself as a fellow
traveler with you and as a tourguide through God's word.
God has written this to revealhimself to us.
(01:29):
And so why wouldn't we want toread his word?
And it's a lot of times becausewe feel like we don't understand
it.
And so that's why one passage ata time, we're digging into God's
Word.
And the more we dig, the more wefind.
And this is one of those.
And I'm going to ask you thisquestion.
I don't, I don't know if you'veever done this before, but um,
my wife is brilliant.
Okay.
If you know my wife, you knowthat she is very intelligent,
(01:51):
especially when it comes tothings like math.
Like she's really good at it.
And I cannot tell you how manytimes I have gone up to her and
I have said, Hey, babe, can youhelp me with this math issue?
Like trying to figure outsomething, whatever it is.
And she will say, Sure, but Itell you what, let me tell you
how to do it.
And she doesn't do this as muchanymore, but she used to would
tell me especially, let me showyou how to do it so that you can
(02:14):
do it yourself next time.
And I would say, No, no, don'tdo that.
I'm not great at math.
Just just tell me.
She's like, no, let me show you.
And so then she would show methis complex method of figuring
out this math problem.
And I would say, Thank you somuch.
You have now confirmed for methat I'm an idiot.
Can you just give me the rightanswer?
It just what was intended to begood only confirmed that I'm
(02:37):
never I'm never gonna be good atmath.
All right, that is not my gift.
Well, that is exactly what'sgoing on in Romans chapter 3.
The apostle Paul is writing thisletter out ahead of him going to
the city of Rome.
He wanted to visit the city ofRome.
We're gonna see in chapter 16,he got a lot of friends that are
already in Rome and he'sshouting out everybody, what's
(02:57):
up, what's up, what's up?
He's talking to him, it's gonnabe great.
But before that, he is sharingwith them this is the gospel,
this is the good news.
The theme of Romans is that thegreatness of God, the beautiful
thing about God and all creationis that the creator came for all
of us.
And so he has to start off withit being bad news before he can
(03:18):
get to the beautiful thing,which is the creator came for
all of us.
So in chapter one, he says, Hey,you know what?
God did something great, wedon't need to be ashamed of it.
But at the same time, what we doneed to be ashamed of is that at
some point all of us turned fromGod by doing all these horrible
things.
Chapter two, yesterday, wassaying that those who don't have
(03:38):
the law have no excuse.
Those that do have the law haveno excuse.
All of us are found needing God.
And so what he's gonna do todayis in chapter three, he's gonna
say, God's faithful and that hegave us the law, but we're gonna
see what he gave us the law todo, and then he's gonna talk
about the beauty of Christ.
So let's dive into this.
So if you have your NLT Biblewith me, you got your coffee cup
(04:00):
ready, let's dive into God'sword together and let's read
this and we see.
Um, just I just let's just getinto it.
It's gonna be great.
Chapter three.
Then what's the advantage ofbeing a Jew?
Is there any value in theceremony of circumcision?
To which all guys are like, uh,yeah, let's talk about that for
a minute.
Verse 2 yes, there are greatbenefits.
(04:22):
First of all, the Jew isentrusted with the whole
revelation of God.
Other words, the five books ofMoses, the Torah, the law of
God, where God made a covenantwith mankind.
Chapter three, or verse three.
True, some of them wereunfaithful, but just because
they were unfaithful does notmean that God will be
unfaithful.
Of course not.
Even if everyone is a liar, Godis true.
(04:44):
As the scriptures say about him,you will be proved right in what
you say, and you will win yourcase in court.
But some say, our sinfulnessserves as a good purpose, for it
helps people see how righteousGod is.
Isn't it unfair then for him topunish us?
This is merely a human point ofview.
And the answer is stop being anidiot.
(05:06):
Of course not.
Like, imagine that for a moment.
Imagine you have kids and youset up rules in your house, and
one of your kids comes up andsays, You know what, mom, you
know what, dad?
I'm gonna break every one ofthose rules just to prove how
good those rules are.
Do you want to be punished now?
Or so they're like, that's theyou know, Paul's being nice and
(05:27):
he's saying, You're an idiot,let's move on.
If God were not entirely fair,how would he be qualified to
judge the world?
But somebody else might stillargue, how can God condemn me as
a sinner if my dishonestyhighlights his the truthfulness
and bring him more glory?
And some people even slander usby claiming that we say the more
(05:48):
we sin, the better it is.
Those who say such thingsdeserve to be condemned.
Or Paul's being really nice, buthe's saying, those people can
they they deserve to be beat up.
They're idiots.
Because what Paul was doing ishe was going around the Gentile
world and he was saying, Look,you don't have to be a Jew to be
(06:09):
a Christian.
You need to follow theprinciples of the Old Testament.
You need to follow that becausethose things help you become
right with God and know God, butyou're ultimately saved by
grace, not by works.
So you don't have to becircumcised in the flesh because
you get circumcised of theheart.
You don't have to go to thosefeasts, you worship God in other
ways.
And so a lot of the Jewishpeople are coming behind him and
(06:31):
going, he's just saying, sin allyou want.
And he's saying, Can someoneslap that dude for me?
That is not what I'm saying atall.
This is what he's saying.
Verse 9.
Well then, should we concludethat the Jews are better than
others?
No, not at all.
For we have already shown thatall people, whether Jew or
Gentile, are under the power ofsin.
(06:53):
In other words, all of us havefell short of the glory of God.
And he says it like this he'squoting from an Old Testament
book of the Bible.
I believe it's Isaiah, nope,excuse me, it's Psalms, and he
says this no one is righteous,not even one.
No one is truly wise, no one isseeking God.
All have turned away, all havebecome useless.
(07:16):
No one does good, not a singleone.
Their talk is foul, like thestench of an open grave.
That's disgusting.
Their tongues are filled withlies.
Snake venom drips from theirlips, good heavens.
Their mouth is full of cursingand bitterness, they rush to
commit murder, destruction andmisery are always following
them.
They don't know where to findpeace.
(07:38):
They have no fear of God at all.
Obviously, the law applies tothose to whom it was given.
For its purpose is to keeppeople from having excuses and
to show the entire world howguilty they are before God.
For no one can ever be maderight with God by doing what the
law commands.
The law simply shows us howsinful we are.
(08:00):
So there you go.
The reason why the law was thereis to show us the perfect holy
standard of God.
So chapter one of Romans says weall turned our back on God and
went our own way, and we fellinto this depth of sin.
Chapter two says, not only do wefall in the depth of sin, but
it's not just Jews, it's notjust Gentiles, it's everybody.
(08:24):
Everybody is an equalopportunity offender by God's
law.
So what he's saying so far isthen God sent the righteous law,
the first five books of Moses.
He sent the law to then show uswhere we had fallen from, the
righteous holy standard of God.
So we're down here, down at thebottom, if you're listening to
this, and then God puts the themarker way up at top and goes,
(08:47):
This is what holiness lookslike.
The problem is, is we look fromthe bottom up at the holiness
and we go, That's a long way upthere.
As a matter of fact, that's animpossible standard.
And the answer is that's true.
It's impossible.
Turns out we need a savior.
Enter Jesus.
Verse 21.
But now God has shown us a wayto be made right with Him
(09:11):
without keeping the requirementsof the law, as was promised in
the written writings of Mosesand the prophets long ago.
We are made right with God byplacing our faith in Jesus
Christ.
And this is the truth true foreveryone who believes, no matter
who we are.
For everyone has sinned.
We all fall short of God'sglorious standard.
(09:32):
Yet God, with undeservedkindness, declares that we are
righteous.
He did this through Christ Jesuswhen he freed us from the
penalty of our sins.
For God presented Jesus as asacrifice for sin.
People are made right with Godwhen they believe about Jesus
sacrifice, sacrificing his life,shedding his blood, and this
(09:54):
sacrifice shows that God wasbeing fair when he held back and
did not punish those who sinnedin times past.
For he was looking ahead andincluding them in what he would
do in this present time.
God did this to demonstrate hisrighteousness, for he himself is
fair and just, and he declaressinners to be right in his sight
(10:16):
when they believe, that is, toput their trust wholly and
completely in Jesus.
Can we boast then that we havedone anything to be accepted by
God?
No.
Because our acquittal is notbased on being perfect, obeying
the law, it is based on faith.
So we are made right with Godthrough faith, not by our
(10:38):
ability to perfectly obey thelaw.
Verse 29.
After all, is God the God of theJew only?
Isn't he also the God of theGentiles?
Of course he is.
There is only one God, and hemakes people right with himself
only by faith, whether they areJews or Gentiles.
Well then, if we emphasizefaith, does this mean that we
(11:00):
can forget about the law?
Of course not.
In fact, only when we have faithdo we truly fulfill the law.
So quickly, Paul is saying, wedon't get saved by being
perfect.
We don't receive forgiveness bybeing perfect.
We don't, we don't, we don't.
So then let's just throw the lawout.
Absolutely not.
It's the law that helps usunderstand what God's holy
(11:22):
standard is.
So then once we are free fromour sin, we're able to walk
toward that holy standard, notso that we can be received, but
because we already have been.
He's talking about some deepstuff here.
So let's review and we'll finishup our time together.
Chapter one, everyone turnedtheir back on God.
Everyone fell into this depth ofsin.
(11:44):
Chapter two, doesn't matter whoyou are, Jew or Gentile, all
have fallen short of theglorious holy standard of God.
Chapter three.
Then God sent his law to show ushow far we had fallen, not to
shame us, but to show us whatperfection looks like.
So that we would look up andrealize we needed a savior.
(12:05):
Then came Jesus.
Jesus who became that perfectsacrifice for us, so that by
putting our hope in him,allowing his perfect sacrifice
to wash away our sin, we couldthen be made right with God
through our open, opendeclaration of faith in Christ
Jesus.
That doesn't mean we throw awaythe law, it just means now the
(12:28):
law becomes the way we live outour faith with God, not so that
we can have faith in God.
So what do we do with this?
I think the main thing that wedo is we realize that we need a
savior.
We need Jesus.
Jesus didn't come to make usfeel better, He came to bring
dead things to life.
Salvation is not deciding,salvation is declaring and
(12:52):
giving our lives completely overto Him.
It's the idea of get with me themental picture of someone who is
drowning in the ocean.
They're drowning in the oceanand someone throws out a life
preserver to them.
Well, they can just believe thatthat life preserver is there, or
they can cling to it witheverything that they have.
Jesus isn't interested in justyou just believing that he
(13:14):
exists, or even that he's God.
But what are you gonna do withthat belief?
What we do is is we cling to himwith all of our heart, say, I
need salvation.
We declare him openly and allowhim to wash away all of our sin.
And if you've allowed Christ todo that, God has become the
righteous, holy standard foryou.
(13:35):
And so now you get to run afterhim, you get to live in his
kingdom, you get to pursueholiness, not so that you'll be
received by him, but because youalready have been.
And that's the glorious goodnews that the most beautiful
thing in all the creation isthat the creator came for us.
Let's pray together.
Father, thank you so much foryour goodness.
(13:57):
Thank you for sending your sonto die on the cross for us, to
be that righteous, holy standardthat we couldn't attain to.
All of us listening to this atsome point in our life have
sinned.
We want to admit it, God, we'vesinned many times.
But you, God, did the thing thatwe couldn't do.
You were the perfect sacrifice.
You washed away our sin.
You made a way for us to be maderight with you so that we could
(14:20):
live in your presence.
And we celebrate that today.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.
Amen.
One of the beautiful things everis that in all of creation, the
Creator came for us.
And his word says this in Romanschapter 1, verse 16.
It says, For I am not ashamed ofthe good news about Christ.
Why?
Say it with me.
It is the power of God at work,saving everyone who believes.
(14:43):
I hope you have a good timereflecting on this and
reflecting about God's goodness.
And I will see you tomorrow forRomans chapter 4.
Welcome to the Bible Breakdown Podcast.
Every day, we take one chapterof the Bible, dig deeper, and
discover that the more we dig,the more we find.
You can find out more at theBibleBreakdown.com.
Now let's grow in God's Wordtogether.
Hello, everybody.
Welcome back to the BibleBreakdown Podcast with your
host, Pastor Brandon.
Today, Romans chapter 3.
(00:22):
If I'd give this one a title, itwould be The Law is Perfect.
Gee, thanks.
If I didn't realize how bad aperson I was, now I do.
So thank you so much.
We're going to look at thereason why God gave the law, the
Old Testament first five booksof Moses, why that's important,
and why it also stinks at thesame time.
But as always, if you like whatwe're doing here, make sure you
(00:43):
like, share, and subscribe thevideo.
Make sure you hit that subscribebutton, just knock it in the
face.
And also, if you're listening tothis on the podcast, you are my
favorites.
I love you so much.
Make sure you are sharing thisas well.
You are posting it on the socialmedias, all the things.
Leave us a five-star review.
Go to Facebook, to the Facebookgroup, Bible Breakdown
Discussion.
And I would love to know whatyou were getting out of this.
(01:04):
I have this picture in my mind.
So while we're messing aroundwith this new style, I have this
picture in my mind of you and Isitting across the coffee table,
sharing a cup of coffee, andjust gushing about God's word
together.
And that's what I love to do isI just see myself as a fellow
traveler with you and as a tourguide through God's word.
God has written this to revealhimself to us.
(01:29):
And so why wouldn't we want toread his word?
And it's a lot of times becausewe feel like we don't understand
it.
And so that's why one passage ata time, we're digging into God's
Word.
And the more we dig, the more wefind.
And this is one of those.
And I'm going to ask you thisquestion.
I don't, I don't know if you'veever done this before, but um,
my wife is brilliant.
Okay.
If you know my wife, you knowthat she is very intelligent,
(01:51):
especially when it comes tothings like math.
Like she's really good at it.
And I cannot tell you how manytimes I have gone up to her and
I have said, Hey, babe, can youhelp me with this math issue?
Like trying to figure outsomething, whatever it is.
And she will say, Sure, but Itell you what, let me tell you
how to do it.
And she doesn't do this as muchanymore, but she used to would
tell me especially, let me showyou how to do it so that you can
(02:14):
do it yourself next time.
And I would say, No, no, don'tdo that.
I'm not great at math.
Just just tell me.
She's like, no, let me show you.
And so then she would show methis complex method of figuring
out this math problem.
And I would say, Thank you somuch.
You have now confirmed for methat I'm an idiot.
Can you just give me the rightanswer?
It just what was intended to begood only confirmed that I'm
(02:37):
never I'm never gonna be good atmath.
All right, that is not my gift.
Well, that is exactly what'sgoing on in Romans chapter 3.
The apostle Paul is writing thisletter out ahead of him going to
the city of Rome.
He wanted to visit the city ofRome.
We're gonna see in chapter 16,he got a lot of friends that are
already in Rome and he'sshouting out everybody, what's
(02:57):
up, what's up, what's up?
He's talking to him, it's gonnabe great.
But before that, he is sharingwith them this is the gospel,
this is the good news.
The theme of Romans is that thegreatness of God, the beautiful
thing about God and all creationis that the creator came for all
of us.
And so he has to start off withit being bad news before he can
(03:18):
get to the beautiful thing,which is the creator came for
all of us.
So in chapter one, he says, Hey,you know what?
God did something great, wedon't need to be ashamed of it.
But at the same time, what we doneed to be ashamed of is that at
some point all of us turned fromGod by doing all these horrible
things.
Chapter two, yesterday, wassaying that those who don't have
(03:38):
the law have no excuse.
Those that do have the law haveno excuse.
All of us are found needing God.
And so what he's gonna do todayis in chapter three, he's gonna
say, God's faithful and that hegave us the law, but we're gonna
see what he gave us the law todo, and then he's gonna talk
about the beauty of Christ.
So let's dive into this.
So if you have your NLT Biblewith me, you got your coffee cup
(04:00):
ready, let's dive into God'sword together and let's read
this and we see.
Um, just I just let's just getinto it.
It's gonna be great.
Chapter three.
Then what's the advantage ofbeing a Jew?
Is there any value in theceremony of circumcision?
To which all guys are like, uh,yeah, let's talk about that for
a minute.
Verse 2 yes, there are greatbenefits.
(04:22):
First of all, the Jew isentrusted with the whole
revelation of God.
Other words, the five books ofMoses, the Torah, the law of
God, where God made a covenantwith mankind.
Chapter three, or verse three.
True, some of them wereunfaithful, but just because
they were unfaithful does notmean that God will be
unfaithful.
Of course not.
Even if everyone is a liar, Godis true.
(04:44):
As the scriptures say about him,you will be proved right in what
you say, and you will win yourcase in court.
But some say, our sinfulnessserves as a good purpose, for it
helps people see how righteousGod is.
Isn't it unfair then for him topunish us?
This is merely a human point ofview.
And the answer is stop being anidiot.
(05:06):
Of course not.
Like, imagine that for a moment.
Imagine you have kids and youset up rules in your house, and
one of your kids comes up andsays, You know what, mom, you
know what, dad?
I'm gonna break every one ofthose rules just to prove how
good those rules are.
Do you want to be punished now?
Or so they're like, that's theyou know, Paul's being nice and
(05:27):
he's saying, You're an idiot,let's move on.
If God were not entirely fair,how would he be qualified to
judge the world?
But somebody else might stillargue, how can God condemn me as
a sinner if my dishonestyhighlights his the truthfulness
and bring him more glory?
And some people even slander usby claiming that we say the more
(05:48):
we sin, the better it is.
Those who say such thingsdeserve to be condemned.
Or Paul's being really nice, buthe's saying, those people can
they they deserve to be beat up.
They're idiots.
Because what Paul was doing ishe was going around the Gentile
world and he was saying, Look,you don't have to be a Jew to be
(06:09):
a Christian.
You need to follow theprinciples of the Old Testament.
You need to follow that becausethose things help you become
right with God and know God, butyou're ultimately saved by
grace, not by works.
So you don't have to becircumcised in the flesh because
you get circumcised of theheart.
You don't have to go to thosefeasts, you worship God in other
ways.
And so a lot of the Jewishpeople are coming behind him and
(06:31):
going, he's just saying, sin allyou want.
And he's saying, Can someoneslap that dude for me?
That is not what I'm saying atall.
This is what he's saying.
Verse 9.
Well then, should we concludethat the Jews are better than
others?
No, not at all.
For we have already shown thatall people, whether Jew or
Gentile, are under the power ofsin.
(06:53):
In other words, all of us havefell short of the glory of God.
And he says it like this he'squoting from an Old Testament
book of the Bible.
I believe it's Isaiah, nope,excuse me, it's Psalms, and he
says this no one is righteous,not even one.
No one is truly wise, no one isseeking God.
All have turned away, all havebecome useless.
(07:16):
No one does good, not a singleone.
Their talk is foul, like thestench of an open grave.
That's disgusting.
Their tongues are filled withlies.
Snake venom drips from theirlips, good heavens.
Their mouth is full of cursingand bitterness, they rush to
commit murder, destruction andmisery are always following
them.
They don't know where to findpeace.
(07:38):
They have no fear of God at all.
Obviously, the law applies tothose to whom it was given.
For its purpose is to keeppeople from having excuses and
to show the entire world howguilty they are before God.
For no one can ever be maderight with God by doing what the
law commands.
The law simply shows us howsinful we are.
(08:00):
So there you go.
The reason why the law was thereis to show us the perfect holy
standard of God.
So chapter one of Romans says weall turned our back on God and
went our own way, and we fellinto this depth of sin.
Chapter two says, not only do wefall in the depth of sin, but
it's not just Jews, it's notjust Gentiles, it's everybody.
(08:24):
Everybody is an equalopportunity offender by God's
law.
So what he's saying so far isthen God sent the righteous law,
the first five books of Moses.
He sent the law to then show uswhere we had fallen from, the
righteous holy standard of God.
So we're down here, down at thebottom, if you're listening to
this, and then God puts the themarker way up at top and goes,
(08:47):
This is what holiness lookslike.
The problem is, is we look fromthe bottom up at the holiness
and we go, That's a long way upthere.
As a matter of fact, that's animpossible standard.
And the answer is that's true.
It's impossible.
Turns out we need a savior.
Enter Jesus.
Verse 21.
But now God has shown us a wayto be made right with Him
(09:11):
without keeping the requirementsof the law, as was promised in
the written writings of Mosesand the prophets long ago.
We are made right with God byplacing our faith in Jesus
Christ.
And this is the truth true foreveryone who believes, no matter
who we are.
For everyone has sinned.
We all fall short of God'sglorious standard.
(09:32):
Yet God, with undeservedkindness, declares that we are
righteous.
He did this through Christ Jesuswhen he freed us from the
penalty of our sins.
For God presented Jesus as asacrifice for sin.
People are made right with Godwhen they believe about Jesus
sacrifice, sacrificing his life,shedding his blood, and this
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sacrifice shows that God wasbeing fair when he held back and
did not punish those who sinnedin times past.
For he was looking ahead andincluding them in what he would
do in this present time.
God did this to demonstrate hisrighteousness, for he himself is
fair and just, and he declaressinners to be right in his sight
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when they believe, that is, toput their trust wholly and
completely in Jesus.
Can we boast then that we havedone anything to be accepted by
God?
No.
Because our acquittal is notbased on being perfect, obeying
the law, it is based on faith.
So we are made right with Godthrough faith, not by our
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ability to perfectly obey thelaw.
Verse 29.
After all, is God the God of theJew only?
Isn't he also the God of theGentiles?
Of course he is.
There is only one God, and hemakes people right with himself
only by faith, whether they areJews or Gentiles.
Well then, if we emphasizefaith, does this mean that we
(11:00):
can forget about the law?
Of course not.
In fact, only when we have faithdo we truly fulfill the law.
So quickly, Paul is saying, wedon't get saved by being
perfect.
We don't receive forgiveness bybeing perfect.
We don't, we don't, we don't.
So then let's just throw the lawout.
Absolutely not.
It's the law that helps usunderstand what God's holy
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standard is.
So then once we are free fromour sin, we're able to walk
toward that holy standard, notso that we can be received, but
because we already have been.
He's talking about some deepstuff here.
So let's review and we'll finishup our time together.
Chapter one, everyone turnedtheir back on God.
Everyone fell into this depth ofsin.
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Chapter two, doesn't matter whoyou are, Jew or Gentile, all
have fallen short of theglorious holy standard of God.
Chapter three.
Then God sent his law to show ushow far we had fallen, not to
shame us, but to show us whatperfection looks like.
So that we would look up andrealize we needed a savior.
(12:05):
Then came Jesus.
Jesus who became that perfectsacrifice for us, so that by
putting our hope in him,allowing his perfect sacrifice
to wash away our sin, we couldthen be made right with God
through our open, opendeclaration of faith in Christ
Jesus.
That doesn't mean we throw awaythe law, it just means now the
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law becomes the way we live outour faith with God, not so that
we can have faith in God.
So what do we do with this?
I think the main thing that wedo is we realize that we need a
savior.
We need Jesus.
Jesus didn't come to make usfeel better, He came to bring
dead things to life.
Salvation is not deciding,salvation is declaring and
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giving our lives completely overto Him.
It's the idea of get with me themental picture of someone who is
drowning in the ocean.
They're drowning in the oceanand someone throws out a life
preserver to them.
Well, they can just believe thatthat life preserver is there, or
they can cling to it witheverything that they have.
Jesus isn't interested in justyou just believing that he
(13:14):
exists, or even that he's God.
But what are you gonna do withthat belief?
What we do is is we cling to himwith all of our heart, say, I
need salvation.
We declare him openly and allowhim to wash away all of our sin.
And if you've allowed Christ todo that, God has become the
righteous, holy standard foryou.
(13:35):
And so now you get to run afterhim, you get to live in his
kingdom, you get to pursueholiness, not so that you'll be
received by him, but because youalready have been.
And that's the glorious goodnews that the most beautiful
thing in all the creation isthat the creator came for us.
Let's pray together.
Father, thank you so much foryour goodness.
(13:57):
Thank you for sending your sonto die on the cross for us, to
be that righteous, holy standardthat we couldn't attain to.
All of us listening to this atsome point in our life have
sinned.
We want to admit it, God, we'vesinned many times.
But you, God, did the thing thatwe couldn't do.
You were the perfect sacrifice.
You washed away our sin.
You made a way for us to be maderight with you so that we could
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live in your presence.
And we celebrate that today.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.
Amen.
One of the beautiful things everis that in all of creation, the
Creator came for us.
And his word says this in Romanschapter 1, verse 16.
It says, For I am not ashamed ofthe good news about Christ.
Why?
Say it with me.
It is the power of God at work,saving everyone who believes.
(14:43):
I hope you have a good timereflecting on this and
reflecting about God's goodness.
And I will see you tomorrow forRomans chapter 4.
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