Romans 3:21-32
Big Idea: Jesus Saves!
1) The when of the gospel: Salvation in God’s perfect timing. (21)
2) The what of the gospel: Justification for all who believe. (22-24a)
“Justification is an instantaneous legal act of God in which He (1) thinks of our sins as forgiven and Christ’s righteousness as belonging to us, and (2) declares us to be righteous in His sight.”
Justification is when God makes my record just-as-if-I’d-never-sinned.
3) The how of the gospel: Redemption through Jesus Christ alone. (24b-25a)
“Surely he has borne our grief and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who consider that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people? And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth. Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors.”
- Isaiah 53:4-12
4) The why of the gospel: Demonstration of God’s righteous character. (25b-26)
5) The now what of the gospel: Transformation for the glory of God. (27-31)
3 “now what” gospel questions:
1. Have you been humbled by the gospel? (27)
2. Have you been saved by the gospel? (28-30)
3. Have you been changed by the gospel? (31)