What's the Difference? #2: Sin, Faith, & Exchange

I. Introduction
A. This series was prompted by the fact that through Gainesville Theatre, and Gainesville Community Choir, and LIFE Homeschool support group, ministries of this church, a number of us have had the privilege of developing friendships with people in our community who are Roman Catholic (RC) or Eastern Orthodox (EO). And this has raised questions about how what we believe is different than what these churches believe. And so beginning today we’re addressing this in the adult/HS SS class.
B. In spite of the fact that we have significant disagreements, I am very eager not to disrespect our RC or EO friends, or unfairly represent what they believe. Nor to recognize that there is much we can learn from them.
1. And I certainly don't want to pretend that we're just smarter than they are. There are minds far better than mine on every side of this debate.
C. In the last few weeks I’ve been laying some foundation for the things we’ll be talking about.
1. Two weeks ago I preached on a problem that has plagued the church of the Lord Jesus for its entire history, the problem of OT patterns which were supposed to be superceded by Christ being reintroduced into the NT Christian church.
2. Then last week we looked at what the NT teaches us about how to react to other churches and groups who consider themselves Christian. We saw that sometimes divisions are over superficial issues and unity needs to be sought (1Cor.3:3-11). However, we also saw that the scriptures tell us that some groups that consider themselves Christian are actually preaching a different Jesus, not the Bible’s Jesus, and that even when they believe that Jesus is the messiah and the Son of God, and that He was born of a virgin, lived a perfect life, died on the cross and was raised from the dead, that they are still proclaiming a different Jesus if they teach that being saved wasn’t just a matter of what Jesus had done, but was dependent on what they had to do (2Cor.11:2-4, 13–15; Gal.1:8-9).
3. If you’re interested in these things, I suggest you go back and read or listen to those sermons.
D. I’m no expert in Roman Catholicism or Eastern Orthodoxy. I’m learning more and more about these systems of thought but there’s still a lot I don’t know.
1. The two are far from identical to each other. And it’s not easy to grasp three different ways of looking at things.
2. But my goal today is not to give a lecture on comparative theology, but to preach the gospel and, in particular, to preach what I believe is the heart of the gospel, but which is contrary to the teaching of both the RC&EO churches.
E. Introduction to Romans
1. Since Paul had never visited the church in Rome, this epistle was not written as a response to a certain situation like most of his epistles.
2. And so Paul uses this epistle to go into more depth about things which he merely refers to in other epistles.
3. In particular, chapters 1-8 of Paul’s Epistle to the Romans are a systematic explanation of the gospel, the greatest explanation of the gospel ever.
F. Read Romans 3:9-28
II. Sin (the good news must start with the bad news)
A. And, according to the Bible, the bad news is very bad.
B. Man is dead in sin and under the wrath of God.
C. Sin is more than a sickness. In sickness there's a weakness to be sure. There's a lack of health and vitality. But when a person is sick, there is still hope. There is still something to work with.
D. We don't just need God to extend a hand to help us up. We need God to raise us from the dead. We need God to do a miracle.
E. The problem began on the day Adam and Eve sinned, and according to God’s word, died in sin. “On that day you will surely die.” (Gen.2:17)
F. Ephesians 2:1–6 follows this theme: “You were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him...”
G. Rom. 3:10-18, which we just read, is perhaps the most devastating pronouncement about sin found in the Bible. Listen to vv. 11-12 & 18: “There is no one ...who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one . . . There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
H. Someone might ask about Jeremiah 17:9 “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?”
1. The Hebrew word there doesn’t really mean sick. The English “desperately sick” are a translation of one Hebrew word: A-NUS. Only in Jeremiah 17 is it translated “sick.” The other six times it’s used in the Hebrew OT it is translated “incurable,” all referring to a wound that is so bad it can’t be healed.
2. So the idea is: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and incurable/unfixable/irreparable.”
I. It makes sense that many would look for ways to soften the Bible’s view of sin. It IS very hard.
1. If man is going to have to be good enough to be saved by a holy God it’s helpful if we can find a way to give him a head start.
J. But we can’t grasp the glory of the gospel until we grasp the depth and ugliness of sin. The fact is that salvation is not just difficult, it's impossible. Jesus says that in Matthew 19:23-26.
K. In Scripture, man is portrayed as a slave: mastered, dominated, and controlled by sin.
1. Gen. 6:5 says that "every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually."
2. Rom. 6:16 says four times that man, in and of himself, is a "slave to sin." (Cf. Col. 2:13)
3. Gal. 3:22 says that "the whole world is a prisoner of sin."
4. Rom. 8:7: "The sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so."
III. Salvation
A. Repeatedly the NT, and Romans especially, says that we are saved or justified by faith.
B. What is meant when the Bible says we are saved by faith?
C. It is not because faith is such a virtuous thing that God rewards those who have it. (If that were the case, maybe salvation should be by love, since in 1Cor.13:13 Paul tells us that love is even better than faith.)
D. The NT repeatedly says that salvation is not a reward for obedience to God’s law.
E. The reason faith is the key not because faith is so virtuous but because faith is the act of coming to the savior, receiving Christ.
F. And when we receive Christ, we receive all that Christ has for us.
G. E.g. in marriage, when a poor woman marries a rich man, her debt becomes his, and his riches become hers. And so it is, that when by faith a person becomes a part of the bride of Christ, that person gains access to all that is Christ’s and Christ takes upon Himself all of that person’s debts. Christ’s righteousness counts for us. Our sin counts as Christ’s.
1. He is the sin bearer, just like the OT sacrifices, when the priest would lay his hands upon the sacrificial lamb, symbolically transferring the sins of the people onto the animal, and then slaying the animal, symbolizing the punishment for all that sin.
2. Our sin was transferred to Jesus and His death on the cross was a divine punishment of Christ as our substitute.“He was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities.” (Isaiah 53:5)
3. And we enjoy the inheritance He earned as a result of His perfect service. We are counted as righteous on His account. As Rom. 4:5 says, "But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned as righteousness."
4. Some call this exchange idea a legal fiction. They say it would be unjust for God to acquit the guilty. But how is this different from calling the innocent (Jesus) guilty when He died on the cross for the sins of mankind?
H. We do agree that salvation is by works, but we believe that our salvation depends only on the works of Christ, not our own works.
I. You can understand why Paul goes on to say, “Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded.” (Rom.3:27) All these churches say that salvation is by grace. But we believe the Bible teaches that salvation is by grace alone.
J. So, we are not saved by becoming godly and virtuous, we are saved by the perfect godliness and virtue of Jesus. And faith is the thing which links us up with Jesus, as it says in Rom.3:22: “the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.”
K. That’s why salvation is a free gift of God’s grace, not because God graciously helps us to become godly enough to be saved, but because He bestows upon us His undeserved favor.
1. We “are justified by his grace as a gift” (Rom.3:24) and “the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23).
IV. Look also at 2Corinthians 5:20–21 “Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
A. This is the gracious exchange of the gospel: He made Him who was sinless to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. God treated the sinless One as if He were sinful in order that He could treat the sinful as if they were sinless. God counted the righteous One as unrighteous in order that He might count the unrighteous as righteous.
B. And it is only those who by faith are IN HIM that can be counted as having the righteousness of Christ.
V. Application
A. Our church’s core values express how central this belief is to who we are. Listen to the very first paragraph:
1. “At its core, the Christian religion is a story - a love story. It is a story of the God of the universe sending His son Jesus to redeem for Himself a bride: namely His people - His Church. It is the story of the coming of this One to lay down His life for her, taking her place on the cross—the innocent for the guilty, the righteous for the unrighteous—in order that He might take the stain of her sin and the penalty for her guilt upon Himself, thereby clothing her in the pure white robe of His righteousness. This story is called the gospel (which means good news). It is the heart of the Christian faith as revealed in the Scriptures. Everything else flows out from it.”
B. One of the things which flows out of the gospel is godliness and good works. We are not against these things, of course. These are things which God does indeed work in us by His grace and through His Spirit. And anyone who has true faith will also manifest the good fruit of that faith in the way he lives his life. But we don’t think these are the basis of our salvation.
C. To some, this may seem like theological nit-picking. But upon this seemingly small theological point the church stands or falls, and each one of us stands or falls. He became sin for us (on the cross) so that we might become His righteousness. He took the blame for our sin so we get the reward for His righteousness. To believe anything else is to believe that salvation is from man, and leaves room for men to boast:
a. "By His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, so that, just as it is written, ’Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord.’" (1Cor.1:30-31)
2. What an amazing exchange our Lord has worked for us! He has taken our sin and given us His righteousness. It does seem too good to be true. I can understand why some are hesitant to believe that such a free gift could be given by such a holy God. I wouldn’t believe it myself except God’s word says it so clearly. And believing it I have to say, “Were the whole realm of nature mine, that were a present far too small. Love so amazing, so divine, demands my heart, my soul, my all.” (Isaac Watts)
D. To sum up, I’d like to use the words of Jack Miller, who used to say: “Cheer up! You're a worse sinner than you ever dared imagine, and you're more loved than you ever dared hope.”
1. This is what I think we have to say to our RC/EO friends: “Cheer up! We're all worse sinners than you think, but the salvation Christ gives is more wonderful than you ever dared hope for.”