June 26 2011    Reading:  Romans 1 and 3

Theme: The gospel in Romans

These studies in Romans are not so much a commentary, as an attempt to follow through

Paul’s words in 2 Timothy 3.14 and 15. He writes to Timothy ‘But as for you, continue

in what you have learned and have become convinced of........... the holy Scriptures,

which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.’ The sermons

in this series both recognise the deep convictions of the gospel, and rather than being

comprehensive try to expound those central verses in Romans which ‘make us wise for salvation

through faith in Christ Jesus.’

A turning point. Perhaps you remember the famous story about Martin Luther from the Reformation. How after a long time of wrestling, struggling with deep issues he had with the Church, the Bible, and Christian faith, finally Martin Luther took the, for the time, very dangerous step of going public with these troubling questions. One evening he went down to the great cathedral, the Castle Church in the market place in Wittenberg, and nailed his 95 questions to the door. Many have seen this as plain and simply the turning point when the Reformation began - with one man, a piece of parchment, a hammer, some nails, and a church door.

Actually, the real Reformation had begun much earlier, not with a hammer or nails,

or a Church door, but in Martin Luther’s heart. When he discovered what the letter to the Romans was really saying......

Years later, sitting at the dinner table with his students he would sometimes speak of what happened, what that discovery was. When asked he would tell those having dinner with him that in the winter of 1515 he was given a little study in the tower of the Black Cloister in Wittenberg. This monastery belonged to Augustinian monks....

here Martin Luther was given a proper study, with a fireplace, which made the room warm enough to use through the winter. So there he was, studying Romans 1:17, the verse we read this morning........... the gospel reveals how God puts people right with

himself: when suddenly, he tells us, it was as if the page was filled with light...... after the hours of close study, he was suddenly given to understand what he was reading........ and it changed his life, and the life of his Church too.

The letter to the Romans...........written by the apostle Paul

This morning, along with much of the Church throughout the world we begin looking at this, one of the great letters of the New Testament, the letter of Paul to the Romans. As you will know, the living Jesus had met Paul on the road to Damascus, and in that meeting Paul was converted. Paul then became the greatest missionary of the Early Church, and the deepest thinking Christian too. He founded Christian congregations, in Ephesus, Philippi, Corinth and many other cities and towns..... but he had never been to Rome. In Rome there was already a sizeable Christian congregation - in the congregation at Rome there was a whole cross section - those from the upper levels of society, wealthy men with property, those who had inherited wealth from their parents, there officials in the city council or from the civil service, there were tradesmen like Paul himself, carpenters, joiners, shopkeepers, leather workers, metal workers; and also slaves...... this was the striking thing about congregations of the early Christian Church they crossed all social barriers, and spanned right across all the levels of society. Some time around the year 60 AD Paul wanted to visit the Church in Rome, and so he sent the letter we now know as Romans, to the Church at Rome to explain what he preached. Paul says simply in the opening verses of the letter: 16. I have complete confidence in the gospel; it is God's power to save all who believe. This letter is among the most powerful documents in the New Testament scriptures.....

And every time the letter to the Romans is understood, truly understood, it turns things upside down, its power is felt. We have heard how, when Martin Luther set about studying Romans closely he discovered the great power of its message........ 400 hundred years later, in 1917 and 1918 a Swiss pastor by the name of Karl Barth began studying the letter to the Romans in his study in the parish of Safenwil in Switzerland. What he was given to discover turned the ideas of the Church upside down once again, in the 20th. century.

There is power here, in this letter, power that lies like an underground cable running through the letter. And Paul sums up what God has done, God’s power in the six or seven verses found in Romans chapter 3. Once again, he repeats what he said at the beginning of the letter...... now God's way of putting people right with himself

has been revealed.

What do these words in chapter 3 of Romans mean ?

now God's way of putting people right with himself

has been revealed.

Well, to understand we have to look at what Paul has said in chapters 1 and 2.......

In these chapters, the letter to the Romans makes an assessment of the whole world and its condition. What is the assessment of the way the world is in the letter to the Romans ? That everything is fine, and things can only get better ? That with enough hard work, the world could be a better place..... ? Is that the message of Romans ? Well, no ! It is this that the world is adrift from God, drifting further and further away from God. That evil and wickedness and sin dominate the lives of human beings.

Without going into all the details the letter to the Romans declares that every person born sins, and is far from God......... Not only the heathen sinners, but also the Jews - the very ones who had received the Law from God. All are sinners, for no one can claim to be perfect in the sight of the holiness and perfect righteousness of God.....

No one, not one, is righteous in the way God requires !

Which is why Romans declares that we are cut off from God...... adrift, because of our sin. And if, because of our sin, we are cut off from God, then we are cut off from life itself, because God is life. So, says Romans, sin brings death.....

The message of Romans at this point is pretty stark, I am sure we will have to agree,

that no one on earth comes up to the righteousness that God longs for, that God demands. So it seems at this point that Romans is really a message of the world’s sin and gloom and disaster. Pretty stark - but actually you’ve got to admit that we only need to pick up the paper, watch TV, look online and you will see that the world is actually in a dreadful state...... we see wars, greed, terrible poverty, corruption, the spoiling of this green and beautiful planet, and rejection of God....... So, the message in Romans about the sin of the world seems pretty accurate.....

and if we know ourselves we will know how deeply sin is set in us......

So - that’s what the key problem is for the New Testament - the gap, the distance, the gulf between God, who is Holy and Just and Righteous, and sinful men and women. And as history unfolds, as the years go by, the sins of the earth don’t get less but more......... There is a famous picture by the artist Paul Klee, called ‘The angel of history’. In this painting an angel stands with his arms raised in horror, in front of him there is a great pile of wreckage. All the angel can see is this growing pile of wreckage in front of him, a great heap of wrongs, and violence and injustices and sin, piling up, day after day, year after year, as he looks on in horror. As history unfolds, as the years go by, you see, the sins of the earth don’t get less but more.........

The central problem of the human race, for us men and women, in the New Testament - is the gap, the distance, the gulf between God, who is Holy and Just and Righteous, and sinful men and women, for, says Romans 3.23 everyone has sinned and is far away from God's saving presence.

so is there a remedy ? Yes, and the words of Romans are astonishing ! Yes, we are in this terrible condition, and we can do nothing about it ! And of course this is on such a scale........ that no one on earth can do anything about it....... Whatever happens must come from the living God... But now, says Romans 3.21 God's way of putting people right with himself has been revealed. God has stepped into the situation, with a way of putting people right with Himself - how ?

Some have thought that God should just let bygones be bygones and gloss over the sinfulness of the earth....... or just issue a general message of forgiveness.........

A few years back, the Russian government discovered that the Yukos oil company had been involved in systematic fraud of the tax authorities. When an investigation was made, it was discovered that the bill had run up to 3.5 million dollars. So, in February 2004 they hauled the head of finance of Yukos , Vasily Shakhnovsky, into court in Moscow, and he was put on trial. He had obviously been in charge of massive tax fraud...... but he was immediately set free, because the government wanted to let the country know that they were not against big business.

But this is not what God’s forgiveness is like. He does not, cannot simply say that the sin of the world, doesn’t matter. That all of us are forgiven, and it doesn’t really matter ? For He is the living God of justice and right, and right doing and righteousness.... who gave the most perfect Law to His people..... For the living Holy, Righteous God to say of the sin of the entire world, that it can all be written off ........ where would be the justice and right in that ?

Yet, says the letter to the Romans, by the free gift of God's grace all are put right with him through Christ Jesus......... How does this astonishing thing happen ? How is this all put in place ? How are we put right with God ? In this way......... God has sent His Son Jesus, who in deep, loving gladness took the responsibility for our sin on Himself. The letter to the Romans says: God shows His love for us in this, says Paul, that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. While we were far away, unthinking, unaware, adrift......... far away, in our hopeless condition, kept far from God by our sin, Jesus died for us. He took the responsibility of our sin on Himself, He stood in our place. God does not simply set aside our sin, as if it weren’t real, as if it hadn’t happened ! He doesn’t stop being Holy and just and right....... but He takes the judgment of sin, our sin, on Himself, our death on Himself. This is what the love of God is like - He puts us right with Himself,

this is God’s love for us, the guilty,

so, at the Cross, their outside the city walls, the love of God for us sinners is shown once and for all ........

In this way, says the letter to the Romans......

God shows that He is just, good, right and holy,

and at the same time He puts right everyone who believes in Jesus.

AMEN.