INTRODUCTION: Two different world-views: The world’s and God’s
1 Corinthians 2:6-13 (MSG)
6-10 We have plenty of wisdom to pass on to you … but it’s not popular wisdom, the fashionable wisdom of high-priced experts…God’s wisdom is something mysterious that goes deep into the interior of His purposes. You don’t find it lying around on the surface. It’s not the latest message, but more like the oldest—what God determined as the way to bring out His best in us, long before we ever arrived on the scene. The experts of our day haven’t a clue about what this eternal plan is. If they had, they wouldn’t have killed the Master of the God-designed life on a cross. That’s why we have this Scripture text:
No one’s ever seen or heard anything like this,
Never so much as imagined anything quite like it—
What God has arranged for those who love Him.
But you’ve seen and heard it because God by His Spirit has brought it all out into the open before you.
10-13 The Spirit, not content to flit around on the surface, dives into the depths of God, and brings out what God planned all along…We don’t have to rely on the world’s guesses and opinions. We didn’t learn this by reading books or going to school; we learned it from God, who taught us person-to-person through Jesus, and we’re passing it on to you…
EXAMPLE: What the world claims are the greatest threats to humanity and what God claims is the greatest threat to humanity.
1 Preventing an A.I. Related catastrophe
2 Catastrophic Pandemics
3 Nuclear War
4 Super-Power War
5 Climate Change
Romans 3:10-23 (NLT)
10 As the Scriptures say, “No one is righteous - not even one…12 All have turned away;
all have become useless…19 …the entire world is guilty before God. 20 For no one can ever be made right (justified) with God by doing what the law commands…21 But now God has shown us a way to be made right with Him…22 We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are. 23 For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard…(and the wages of sin is death! - Romans 6:23)
The greatest and most pressing problem facing humanity from God’s perspective is
Christ-followers need to have a clear understanding of and answer to the greatest question: Q: How can we be made
Q22: What is
?
It is the cure, the antidote, and the remedy to the great problem of sin!
Romans 5:1 (ESV) - Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ…
Romans 5:9 (ESV) - 9 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.
Romans 10:10 (NIV) - For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.
Galatians 5:4 (NIV) - You who are trying to be justified by the law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace.
Titus 3:4-7 (NIV) - 4 But when the kindness and love of God our Saviour appeared, 5 He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of His mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, 6 whom He poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Saviour, 7 so that, having been justified by His grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.
Q: Isn’t justification just another way of saying
BOLD STATEMENT: ‘If you only know and appreciate forgiveness, you only know
Justification is what makes you
So, what is righteousness?
Righteousness is your ‘validating performance
ILLUSTRATION: applying to be a surgeon at a hospital
Salvation is a two-sided coin: On the one side is
1 John 1:9 (NIV) 9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
Forgiveness is a ’negative’… ‘you may
On the other side is
2 Corinthians 5:22 (NLT) - For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.
Justification is a ‘positive’… ’you may
ILLUSTRATION Two families at a lake
Why much of our worship and world impact is anemic and feeble:
We’ve never truly
Failed to understand the wonder of
THE BENEFITS OF JUSTIFICATION:
Romans 5:1 (ESV) - Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ…
Titus 3:5-7 (NIV) - 5 He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of His mercy. He saved us … 7 so that, having been justified by His grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.
CONCLUSION:
Q: What difference should justification make in my life?
ILLUSTRATION A broken-down Rolls Royce
Q: Should we keep on sinning, knowing we are justified?
ROMANS 6:1-2 (MSG) - 1-3 So what do we do? Keep on sinning so God can keep on forgiving? I should hope not! If we’ve left the country where sin is sovereign, how can we still live in our old house there? Or didn’t you realize we packed up and left there for good?
Q22: WHAT IS JUSTIFICATION?
A: Justification is the act of being made right with God through faith in Jesus Christ. It means that despite our sinful nature, God declares us righteous because of Christ’s sacrifice, not because of anything we have done. This is the antidote to the catastrophic disease of sin that separates us from God, and it’s a gift of grace that opens the door to a relationship with Him and eternal life.