“What Is a Christian? Part 52, Finale`” by Romans
Tonight, we will be concluding our year-long Series, "What Is A Christian?" I have attempted, in these Installments, to answer this question from many directions, and on many different levels as we reviewed and examined what the Word of God has to say about what it is to be a Christian. Rather than review the highights of past Installments, or focus on some of the more important facets I brought out, I am going to go in a completely different direction.
Tonight, I am going to emphasize how it is that being a Christian is even possible. I hope you are able to watch this Facebook reel. It really sets the tone for what I want to share with you, tonight. Kindly click on this link: https://www.facebook.com/reel/976361927228876
In case this reel cannot be watched, read what Pastor Alistair Begg said, "Think of the thief on the cross. First, I can't wait to find that fellow one day to ask him: 'You've never been in a Bible study and never got baptized. And yet you made it, you made it, how did you make it? That's what the angel must have said.
You know, like, 'What are you doing here?'
'Well, I don't know.'
'What do you mean you don't know? Excuse me, let me get my supervisor.' He goes and gets the supervisor. He says,
'We just have a few questions for you. First of all, are you clear on the doctrine of justification by faith?'
The guy says, ' I've never heard of it in my life.'
'And what about ~ let's just go to the doctrine of scripture immediately?'
The guy is just staring. And eventually, and in frustration, he says, 'On what basis are you here?'
And he said, 'The man on the middle cross said I can come.'
Now that is the only answer. That is the only answer. And if I don't preach the gospel to myself all day, and every day, then I will find myself beginning to trust myself, and trust my experience, which is part of my fallenness as a man. Without preaching the cross to ourselves all day, and every day, we will very, very quickly revert to faith plus works as the ground of our salvation." End of Facebook reel.
We are not saved by works. The Apostle Paul wrote, "Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast” (Ephesians 2:5-9).
Albert Barnes' only provided a cross-reference and his comments on Romans 3:20 which reads, “Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.” He commented on that verse, “By works; or by such deeds as the Law requires. The word “Law” has, in the Scriptures, a great variety of significations. Its strict and proper meaning is, a rule of conduct prescribed by superior authority.
The course of reasoning in these chapters shows the sense in which the apostle uses it here. He intends evidently to apply it to those rules or laws by which the Jews and Gentiles pretended to frame their lives; and to affirm that people could be justified by no conformity to those laws.
He had shown {in} Romans 1 that “the pagan, the entire Gentile world,” had violated the laws of nature; the rules of virtue made known to them by reason, tradition, and conscience. He had shown the same {in} Romans 2–3 in respect to the Jews. They had equally failed in rendering obedience to their Law. The conclusion was, that in all this they had failed, and that therefore they could not be justified by that Law.
That the apostle did not intend to speak of external works only is apparent; for he all along charges them with a lack of conformity of the heart no less than with a lack of conformity of the life; see Romans 1:26, 1:29-31; 2:28-29. The conclusion is therefore a general one, that by no law, made known either by reason, conscience, tradition, or revelation, could man be justified; that there was no form of obedience which could be rendered, that would justify people in the sight of a holy God.”
In his first epistle to the Church at Corinth, he reminded them of how he preached the Gospel to them. Paul wrote, “For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified” (1 Corinthians 2:2).
Alexander MacLaren writes, in part, of this, “For it is perfectly possible to know the things that are said about Him, and not to know Him about whom these things are said. But the mistake into which the present generation is far more likely to fall than that of substituting theology for Christ, is the converse one-that of substituting an undefined Christ for the Christ of the Gospels and the Epistles, the Incarnate Son of God, who died for our salvation.
And that is a more disastrous mistake than the other, for you can know nothing about Him and He can be nothing to you, except as you grasp the Apostolic explanation of the bare facts-seeing in Him the Word who became flesh, the Son who died that we might receive the adoption of sons.”
The death of Jesus Christ was not an unplanned twist of fate that subjected Jesus to a rigged and illegal trial that resulted in His execution. Jesus said, “Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself...” (John 10:17-18a).
Jesus' willing participation in the Father's Plan of Salvation is one that had been established long before Jesus was born. In fact, it was already a done deal long before Adam was created. In Revelation 13:8, we read of Jesus referred to as “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.”
Of this, Albert Barnes writes, “The meaning here is, not that he was actually put to death “from the foundation of the world,” but that the intention to give him for a sacrifice was formed then, and that it was so certain that it might be spoken of as actually then occurring. The purpose was so certain, it was so constantly represented by bloody sacrifices from the earliest ages, all typifying the future Saviour, that it might be said that he was “slain from the foundation of the world.”
After the Fall, and while Adam, Eve, and the serpent were still all in the Garden of Eden, God said to the serpent, “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel” (Genesis 3:15). The coming of a human being to vanquish Satan, and reconcile fallen man is here made known to Adam and Eve and the serpent.
And the fact that this man would die a sacrificial death was prophetically pictured, again before Adam and Eve were driven out of the Garden of Eden, when God clothed them. Perhaps you read over this: Adam and Eve suddenly realized they were naked and clothed themselves with fig leaves. That covering did not alleviate their guilt or their shame. When God came to fellowship with them, they still hid in the bushes, fig leaves and all.
So we read that God clothed them in Genesis 3:21 we read, “Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them.” Notice that God did not cover their nakedness with bigger leaves, or clothing made of cotton or wool, or polyester for that matter. He made coats of skins to clothe them. That means that an innocent animal had to shed its blood and die in order to cover their nakedness and shame.
The Sermon Bible says of this, “The whole mystery of justification is wrapped up in the details of this story. I. We have the fact as in a parable that man is utterly impotent to bring to pass any satisfying righteousness of his own. He can see his shame, but he cannot effectually cover or conceal it.
The garments of our own righteousness are fig-leaves all, and we shall prove them such. Let God once call to us, and we shall find how little all these devices of our own can do for us. We shall stand shivering, naked and ashamed, before Him.
II. While we thus learn that man cannot clothe himself, we learn also that God undertakes to clothe him. As elsewhere He has said in word, "I am the Lord that healeth thee," so here He says in act, "I am the Lord that clotheth thee." He can yet devise a way by which His banished shall return to Him.
We note in this Scripture that the clothing which God found for Adam could only have been obtained at the cost of a life, and that the life of one unguilty, of one who had no share or part in the sin which made the providing of it needful. We have here the first institution of sacrifice; God Himself is the institutor. It is a type and shadow, a prelude and prophecy of the crowning sacrifice on Calvary.”
The Old Covenant established a Sacrificial System in which an untold number of unguilty animals were slain by the shedding of their blood because of the sins of the people, foreshadowing, once again, Christ laying down His life, and shedding His own blood to pay our sin debt.
We read in Hebrews of the failure of the machinery of the Old Covenant to reconcile us to God, the need for a New Covenant, and for Christ submitting to the Will of God resulting in our sanctification: “For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins. Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me; …
Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second. By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” (Hebrews 10:4-5, and 9-10).
Matthew Henry writes of this, “As the legal sacrifices did not of themselves take away sin, so it was impossible they should. There was an essential defect in them. 1. They were not of the same nature with us who sinned. 2. They were not of sufficient value to make satisfaction for the affronts offered to the justice and government of God. They were not of the same nature that offended, and so could not be suitable.
Much less were they of the same nature that was offended; and nothing less than the nature that was offended could make the sacrifice a full satisfaction for the offence. 3. The beasts offered up under the law could not consent to put themselves in the sinner's room and place. The atoning sacrifice must be one capable of consenting, and must voluntarily substitute himself in the sinner's stead: Christ did so.”
Jesus' atoning sacrifice to pay for our sins, that was both consenting and voluntary, and which satisfied all of God's requirements that Justice be served, was clearly and undeniably written about centuries before Jesus was born. We find this prophecy in the pages of the Book of Isaiah:
He wrote, “Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:4-6).
Alexander MacLaren writes, “The note struck lightly in the close of the preceding paragraph becomes dominant here. One notes the accumulation of expressions for suffering, crowded into these verses-griefs, sorrows, wounded, bruised, smitten, chastisement, stripes.
One notes that the cause of all this multiform infliction is given with like emphasis of reiteration-our griefs, our sorrows, and that these afflictions are invested with a still more tragic and mysterious aspect, by being traced to our transgressions, our iniquities. Finally, the deepest word of all is spoken when the whole mystery of the servant’s sufferings is referred to Jehovah’s making the universal iniquity to lie, like a crushing burden, on Him...
The reason for the Servant’s sufferings was ‘our transgressions.’ More is suggested now than sympathetic identification with others’ sorrows. This is an actual bearing of the consequences of sins which He had not committed, and that not merely as an innocent man may be overwhelmed by the flood of evil which has been let loose by others’ sins to sweep over the earth.
The blow that wounds Him is struck directly and solely at Him. He is not entangled in a widespread calamity, but is the only victim. It is pre-supposed that all transgression leads to wounds and bruises; but the transgressions are done by us, and the wounds and bruises fall on Him.
Can the idea of vicarious suffering be more plainly set forth?
The intensity of the Servant’s sufferings is brought home to our hearts by the accumulation of epithets, to which reference has already been made. He was ‘wounded’ as one who is pierced by a sharp sword; ‘bruised’ as one who is stoned to death; beaten and with livid weales on His flesh. A background of unnamed persecutors is dimly seen. The description moves altogether in the region of physical violence, and that violence is more than symbol.”
In His repeated prayer to His Father in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus pleaded, “Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done” (Luke 22:42). But this fate was the Father's Will for Jesus. Isaiah tells us, “Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin” (Isaiah 53:10a).
Isaiah 53:11 continues, “He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.”
Albert Barnes writes, “Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him - In this verse, the prediction respecting the final glory and triumph of the Messiah commences. The design of the whole prophecy is to state, that in consequence of his great sufferings, he would be exalted to the highest honor .
The sense of this verse is, ‘he was subjected to these sufferings, not on account of any sins of his, but because, under the circumstances of the case, his sufferings would be pleasing to Yahweh. He saw they were necessary, and he was willing that he should be subjected to them. He has laid upon him heavy sufferings...
The Lord was ‘pleased’ with his sufferings, not because he has delight in the sufferings of innocence; not because the sufferer was in any sense guilty or ill-deserving; and not because he was at any time displeased or dissatisfied with what the Mediator did, or taught.
But it was because the Messiah had voluntarily submitted himself to those sorrows which were necessary to show the evil of sin; and in view of the great object to be gained, the eternal redemption of his people, he was pleased that he would subject himself to so great sorrows to save them. He was pleased with the end in view, and with all that was necessary in order that the end might be secured.”
We are here because of what Jesus did on Calvary's cross. We are here not because we deserve to be here. Just the opposite!
The Apostle Paul tells us, “For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life” (Romans 5:10).
Matthew Henry writes in vivid and edifying detail, “While we were yet sinners, implying that we were not to be always sinners, there should be a change wrought; for he died to save us, not in our sins, but from our sins; but we were yet sinners when he died for us. (4.) Nay, which is more, we were enemies (Romand 5:10), not only malefactors, but traitors and rebels, in arms against the government; the worst kind of malefactors and of all malefactors the most obnoxious... The carnal mind is not only an enemy to God, but enmity itself, Romans_8:7; Colossians_1:21.
And that for such as these Christ should die is such a mystery, such a paradox, such an unprecedented instance of love, that it may well be our business to eternity to adore and wonder at it. This is a commendation of love indeed. Justly might he who had thus loved us make it one of the laws of his kingdom that we should love our enemies.
II. The precious fruits of his death. 1. Justification and reconciliation are the first and primary fruit of the death of Christ: We are justified by his blood (Romans_5:9), reconciled by his death, Romans_5:10. Sin is pardoned, the sinner accepted as righteous, the quarrel taken up, the enmity slain, an end made of iniquity, and an everlasting righteousness brought in.
This is done, that is, Christ has done all that was requisite on his part to be done in order hereunto, and, immediately upon our believing, we are actually put into a state of justification and reconciliation. Justified by his blood. Our justification is ascribed to the blood of Christ because without blood there is no remission Hebrews_9:22.
The blood is the life, and that must go to make atonement. In all the propitiatory sacrifices, the sprinkling of the blood was of the essence of the sacrifice. It was the blood that made an atonement for the soul, Leviticus_17:11.
Hence results salvation from wrath: Saved from wrath (Romans_5:9), saved by his life, Romans_5:10 When that which hinders our salvation is taken away, the salvation must needs follow. Nay, the argument holds very strongly; if God justified and reconciled us when we were enemies, and put himself to so much charge to do it, much more will he save us when we are justified and reconciled.
He that has done the greater, which is of enemies to make us friends, will certainly the less, which is when we are friends to use us friendly and to be kind to us. And therefore the apostle, once and again, speaks of it with a much more. He that hath digged so deep to lay the foundation will no doubt build upon that foundation. - We shall be saved from wrath, from hell and damnation. It is the wrath of God that is the fire of hell; the wrath to come, so it is called, 1 Thessalonians_1:10.”
More than taking away the sin of the world as the Lamb of God, Paul tells us, “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” (2 Corinthians 5:21).
The Expositor's Bible says of this, “When St. Paul says, "Him that knew no sin God made sin," he must mean that in Christ on His cross, by divine appointment, the extremest opposites met and became one-incarnate righteousness and the sin of the world. The sin is laid by God on the Sinless One; its doom is laid on Him; His death is the execution of the divine sentence upon it.
When He dies, He has put away sin; it no longer stands, as it once stood, between God and the world. On the contrary, God has made peace by this great transaction; He has wrought out reconciliation; and its ministers can go everywhere with this awful appeal: "Receive the reconciliation; Him who knew no sin God hath made sin on our behalf, and there is henceforth no condemnation to them that are in Christ.
In the last words of the passage the Apostle tells us the object of this great interposition of God: "He made Christ to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." Our condemnation is made His; it is accepted, exhausted, annihilated, on His cross;
and when we receive the reconciliation when we humble ourselves to be forgiven and restored at this infinite cost-there is no longer condemnation for us: we are justified by our faith, and have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. This is what is meant by becoming the righteousness of God in Him. It is not, as the very next sentence suggests, all that is included in the Christian salvation, but it is all that the words themselves contain.
"In Him" has all promise in it, as well as the present possession of reconciliation, with which the Christian life begins; but it is this present possession, and not the promise involved in it, which St. Paul describes as the righteousness of God. In Christ, that Christ who died for us, and in Him in virtue of that death which by exhausting condemnation put away sin, we are accepted in God’s sight.”
In one of his first sermons after Pentecost on which the Church was born, Peter boldly declared regarding Jesus Christ, “And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved" (Acts 4:12). Jesus asked the Father, if it were possible, to take the cup from Him. But it was not possible because there is no other god, no other man crucified or not, who could have reconciled us to God.
Because of verses like this, (i.e. “no other Name under Heaven”) that some accuse Christianity of being exclusive by preaching that Jesus is the only way to God. I wholeheartedly reject that accusation for several reasons: 1.) In Luke 2:10, the angel clearly told the shepherds on the night Jesus was born that he had “good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people” including those who accuse Christianity of being exclusive.
2.) Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” (John 14:6). On the night before His crucifixion, that His death would reconcile the world to the Father no matter if that person were born into a family or a nation of Jews, Gentiles, pagans, idol-worshipers, Muslims, Communists, Nazis, skeptics or atheists.
We can only have access to the Father by Jesus Christ, and only through Jesus Christ. When we are called, each of us must choose to turn our backs on our old carnal lives, and, empowered by the Holy Spirit, walk out of our own individual darknesses into God's marvelous light.
Our being a Christian is not based on our works or our obedience to the Laws of God. I could not defend that statement any more powerfully than what Paul wrote to the Churches in Galatia: “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain” (Galatians 2:20-21).
Of this, Matthew Henry writes, “I am crucified with Christ, etc. And here in his own person he gives us an excellent description of the mysterious life of a believer. [1.] He is crucified, and yet he lives; the old man is crucified (Romans_6:6), but the new man is living; he is dead to the world, and dead to the law, and yet alive to God and Christ; sin is mortified, and grace quickened.
[2.] He lives, and yet not he. This is strange: I live, and yet not I; he lives in the exercise of grace; he has the comforts and the triumphs of grace; and yet that grace is not from himself, but from another. Believers see themselves living in a state of dependence.
[3.] He is crucified with Christ, and yet Christ lives in him; this results from his mystical union with Christ, by means of which he is interested in the death of Christ, so as by virtue of that to die unto sin; and yet interested in the life of Christ, so as by virtue of that to live unto God.
[4.] He lives in the flesh, and yet lives by faith; to outward appearance he lives as other people do, his natural life is supported as others are; yet he has a higher and nobler principle that supports and actuates him, that of faith in Christ, and especially as eyeing the wonders of his love in giving himself for him.
Hence it is that, though he lives in the flesh, yet he does not live after the flesh. Note, Those who have true faith live by that faith; and the great thing which faith fastens upon is Christ's loving us and giving himself for us. The great evidence of Christ's loving us is his giving himself for us; and this is that which we are chiefly concerned to mix faith with, in order to our living to him.
Lastly, The apostle concludes this discourse with acquainting us that by the doctrine of justification by faith in Christ, without the works of the law (which he asserted, and others opposed), he avoided two great difficulties, which the contrary opinion was loaded with: - 1. That he did not frustrate the grace of God, which the doctrine of the justification by the works of the law did; for, as he argues (Rom_11:6), If it be of works, it is no more of grace.
2. That he did not frustrate the death of Christ; whereas, if righteousness come by the law, then it must follow that Christ has died in vain; for, if we look for salvation by the law of Moses, then we render the death of Christ needless: for to what purpose should he be appointed to die, if we might have been saved without it?”
Finally, I offer this last verse, found in Colossians 1:19-20: "For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross."
We are Christians, we are forgiven, reconciled, justified and sanctified all and only because of the shed blood of Jesus Christ. The Preacher's Homiletical adds, “In the marvellous person of Jesus there is combined all the fulness of humanity as well as the fulness of divinity—all the beauty, dignity, and excellency that replenish heaven and earth, and adorn the nature of God and of men.
It is a fulness that stands related to all the interests of the universe, and can supply the moral necessities of all. There is a fulness of wisdom to keep us from error, fulness of grace to preserve from apostasy, fulness of joy to keep us from despair, and fulness of power to protect from all evil. It penetrates and fills the vast universe of intelligent beings, and girds it with a radiant circle of glory and felicity.
It is the good pleasure of the Father that this fulness should reside in the Son.—“For it pleased the Father” (Colossians _1:19). It was the will and purpose of God the Father that Christ, as the Mediator, should, in order to accomplish the great work of reconciliation, be filled with the plenitude of all divine and human excellencies; that He should be the grand, living, unfailing reservoir of blessing to the whole intelligent universe.
The Father is not only in harmony with the reconciling work of the Son, but the whole merciful arrangement was from the first suggested, planned, and appointed by Him. The moving cause and foundation of all saving grace through the Son is the good pleasure of the Father. It is not His good pleasure that any other than Christ should be the Mediator of the universe. We should never seek or acknowledge any other.”
Tonight, we have concluded our Series, “What Is A Christian?” I hope in these 52 Installments, I have given you a better understanding of who you are as a Christ-follower, what God would have you to do and be as we worship and serve Him, and how all of it, from beginning to end, is due to the Life, Death, Resurrection, Ascension, Glorification, Accession to the Throne of God, and Perpetual Priesthood of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.”
If you're interested in reviewing what we have gone over, 46 of the 52 Installments are available at the Forum at https://the4gnetwork.com/. I fully intend to upload the remaining 6 Installments to complete the Series within 24 hours. God Willing, next week we'll be starting a new topic: Perseverance. I invite y'all to join me for that at this same place and time.
This concludes tonight's Discussion for our current Series, and the Series, itself, “What Is A Christian? Part 52, Finale`”
This Discussion was presented “live” on Wednesday, February 12th, 2025.
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