ELDER: Pastor Ben had begun preaching through the Gospel of John prior to these past Lenten and Easter Sundays. So we are picking up where he left off, reading from
John 3:13-21 [NLTse]
13 No one has ever gone to Heaven and returned. But the Son of Man has come down from Heaven. 14 And as Moses lifted up the bronze snake on a pole in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 so that everyone who believes in Him will have eternal life.
16 “For God loved the world so much that He gave His one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. 17 God sent His Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through Him.
18 “There is no judgment against anyone who believes in Him. But anyone who does not believe in Him has already been judged for not believing in God’s one and only Son. 19 And the judgment is based on this fact: God’s Light came into the world, but people loved the Darkness more than the Light, for their actions were evil. 20 All who do evil hate the Light and refuse to go near it for fear their sins will be exposed. 21 But those who do what is right come to the Light so others can see that they are doing what God wants.”
As many of you know, my mother and her sisters own a summer house on a little island off the coast of Maine. There’s an interesting mixture of cultures up in that part of the world with those who live in absolute poverty living right alongside the mega-rich. My family and I ride the public ferry to get back and forth between the mainland and the island, wheel-barrowing our luggage and groceries the mile-or-so between the public dock and our house (because there are no cars allowed on the island), but our neighbors have several boats of their own, and a butler and a boat captain who coordinate all of their travels and belongings for them. It’s an interesting place to have grown up vacationing and to be now taking my family vacationing there, as well!
Several years ago I was in a little town called Somesville to buy a book at a local bookseller. The person ahead of me had a nice little pile of books in their hands, and when they got to the register they told the clerk to charge it to their mother’s (or perhaps it was their grandmother’s) account, I forget which. (That’s a pretty common practice you can see happening in all manner of long-standing stores and shops up there.) I remember thinking, “Wouldn’t that be nice to just be able to live off of another person’s wealth.” (Of course, practically speaking, I realize that’s exactly what I’m doing when I go up there, too. After all, it’s not my house where I’m staying, but is my mom’s and her sister’s.)
But the memory got me thinking that in a grander, more ultimate, way that’s how every Christian person lives: We live off of another person’s wealth: Because the entire debt of our sins has been charged to Christ’s account; and His unimaginable riches in righteousness have been credited to ours!
Let’s look at this together. Would you turn to Romans 3:23… 23 For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. 24 Yet God, with undeserved kindness, declares that we are righteous. He did this through Christ Jesus when He freed us from the penalty for our sins. 25 For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed His life, shedding His blood.”
Notice there the double-switch that happens when we put our trust in Jesus Christ: First, we’re freed from the just and right penalty we deserve because of our sins on account of Jesus Christ’s sacrifice on the cross; and then, second, when we believe, we’re made right with God, and are declared righteous, “Not guilty!” by Him.
This is called Justification By Faith. It is the instantaneous, legal act of God whereby, in response to our faith, God (1) declares our sins as having been forgiven – once and for all time – and (2) declares Christ’s righteousness as belonging to us, declaring us to be righteous in His sight on account of our faith.
This is the good news of the gospel. Would you turn to Romans 3:28 with me? It says it this way, “28 We are made right with God through faith and not by obeying the law.”
Some of you may be wondering about all the good things we do and that all those Christians around the world do: “Doesn’t it matter that I’m a good person and that I’m trying so hard to be a good person?” Of course it matters! But it doesn’t make us right with God.
The Lord Jesus’ half-brother, James (who ended up leading the church in Jerusalem after the apostles all went out preaching and setting up churches), wrote about this same thing. Let’s turn to his letter – James – 2:14… He writes, “14 What good is it, dear brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but don’t show it by your actions? Can that kind of faith save anyone? 15 Suppose you see a brother or sister who has no food or clothing, 16 and you say, “Good-bye and have a good day; stay warm and eat well”—but then you don’t give that person any food or clothing. What good does that do?
“17 So you see, faith by itself isn’t enough. Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless.
“18 Now someone may argue, “Some people have faith; others have good deeds.” But I say, “How can you show me your faith if you don’t have good deeds? I will show you my faith by my good deeds.”
“19 You say you have faith, for you believe that there is one God. Good for you! Even the demons believe this, and they tremble in terror. 20 How foolish! Can’t you see that faith without good deeds is useless?
“… 26 Just as the body is dead without breath, so also faith is dead without good works.”
So, you see, the good things we do and our acts of kindness and forgiving others are important, but they are important because they show those around us that we are Christians – men and women, boys and girls of faith. In addition, our good works are important because they show God’s character to those around us, as well – that is, people come to know that God is loving, that He is joyful, that He is peaceful, that He is patient, kind, good, faithful, 23 gentle, and self-controlled because they see those characteristics in us, His people of faith.
But none of these wonderful things we say or do make us right with God. Galatians 2:16 puts it this way, “16 We know that a person is made right with God by faith in Jesus Christ, not by obeying the law. And we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we might be made right with God because of our faith in Christ, not because we have obeyed the law. For no one will ever be made right with God by obeying the law.”
I’ve quoted a variety of Scripture, but perhaps, even so, you refuse to believe this is justification by faith thing is true, because if it is then anybody could just believe and then be forgiven, even the most horrible of people! Right? And, of course, yes, that is true; that is the gospel: Anyone can be forgiven – even you – anyone can be forgiven and be made right with God if they actively trust in what God the Father has told us through the Holy Spirit that Jesus Christ has done. Otherwise, if our good deeds and kind words and forgiving and gracious ways – if all these things saved us and made us to be righteous, then we could all brag about it, couldn’t we? and say we’d all earned our salvation. And then we could point everyone around us to ourselves and say, “Look at me! Look at me! Be like me! Be like me!” But that’s not God’s way.
God’s way no one gets to take credit. Would you turn with me to Ephesians 2:8-9… “8 God saved you by His grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. 9 Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.” You see, because our salvation is something that only God has done, and God alone, now we must point everyone to Him, saying, “Look at God! Look at what He’s done! Look what He does! He’s done it for me! He’ll do it for you!” As Philippians 3:9 says, “I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law; rather, I become righteous through faith in Christ. For God’s way of making us right with Himself depends on faith.”
What all this justification by faith stuff practically means is that anybody can be made right with God. And that being made right with God is not based upon whether we’re a good person or not, and it doesn’t matter whether we feel like we’re right with God or not. It is a work that God does all by Himself, when we trust Him and live trusting Him. Anyone can be made right with God by trusting what God has done for us in Jesus Christ, and then doing the good works God then leads us to do.
[Ask someone:] Who can be made right with God? [The correct answer: “Anyone.”]
[Ask someone else:] And how is a person made right with God? [The correct answer is: “By trusting what God has done for us in Jesus Christ.”]
[Ask someone else:] And what else is important to make sure that our faith is real and alive? [The correct answer is: “By doing the good works God leads us to do once we’ve believed.”]
[Ask someone else:] Do those good things make us right with God? [The correct answer is: “No, we are made right with God according to our faith and trust in Christ.”]
Maybe you’ve decided that God could never love you… Not if He really knew who you were and all you’d done. You’ve tried being good, you’ve tried being good but you can’t! At least not good enough.
Well, believe the good news of justification by faith! Believe the good news of the gospel: According to your trust in Jesus Christ God declares you “not guilty” of sin, and instead declares you righteous and right with Him!
Believe that. Trust that. Live that! And live!