19-03-13 Podcast script
[Prepare]
Spend a few minutes admitting all the mistakes you have made and faults you have exhibited in the last few days.
[Bible passage]
Romans 3:9–31
What does all this mean? Does it mean that we Jews are better off than the Gentiles? No, it doesn’t! Jews, as well as Gentiles, are ruled by sin, just as I have said. The Scriptures tell us,
“No one is acceptable to God!Not one of them understandsor even searches for God.They have all turned awayand are worthless.There isn’t one personwho does right.Their words are likean open pit,and their tongues are goodonly for telling lies.Each word is as deadlyas the fangs of a snake,and they say nothingbut bitter curses.These people quicklybecome violent.Wherever they go,they leave ruinand destruction.They don’t know howto live in peace.They don’t even fear God.”
We know that everything in the Law was written for those who are under its power. The Law says these things to stop anyone from making excuses and to let God show that the whole world is guilty. God doesn’t accept people simply because they obey the Law. No, indeed! All the Law does is to point out our sin.
Now we see how God does make us acceptable to him. The Law and the Prophets tell how we become acceptable, and it isn’t by obeying the Law of Moses. God treats everyone alike. He accepts people only because they have faith in Jesus Christ. All of us have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory. But God treats us much better than we deserve, and because of Christ Jesus, he freely accepts us and sets us free from our sins.God sent Christ to be our sacrifice. Christ offered his life’s blood, so that by faith in him we could come to God. And God did this to show that in the past he was right to be patient and forgive sinners. This also shows that God is right when he accepts people who have faith in Jesus.
What is left for us to brag about? Not a thing! Is it because we obeyed some law? No! It is because of faith.We see that people are acceptable to God because they have faith, and not because they obey the Law.Does God belong only to the Jews? Isn’t he also the God of the Gentiles? Yes, he is!There is only one God, and he accepts Gentiles as well as Jews, simply because of their faith.Do we destroy the Law by our faith? Not at all! We make it even more powerful.
[Main point]
Verses 9–20 contain very sobering truth indeed. To fully grasp the wonder of salvation in Jesus, we must first agree that we are utterly worthless and wicked: enslaved by sin. This is unfashionable talk even for most Christians but, to judge by Paul’s graphic and horrible language, it is a mistake to soften the tone into the idea that we are just not very nice people. The images are taken from the Psalms and range through vipers, blood, ruin and misery to present a graphic picture of human depravity.
What joy, then, to read of the essence of our faith in verses 21–26! At first, verse 21 seems to be in complete contradiction to yesterday’s reading. Surely, we said, a righteous person is one who keeps the law. Yet here we have a righteousness from God, apart from law. How can it be so?
The only answer to this (and every one of life’s vital questions) has to be through faith in Jesus Christ. God sacrificed his Son, who was willing to die for us. Because Jesus paid the terrible debt we owed to God, we are able to stand before the Lord himself, through our personal faith in Jesus.
[Respond]
Ask God to show you more today about what it means to have faith in Christ.