It is difficult to express to you my desire that you know Christ. I want Christ to take hold of your heart as He has taken hold of mine. Our practice of worship, love and detachment lead to that deepening hold of Christ on our lives. Those central disciplinees of the faith are fueled by the Holy Spirit's use of scripture. We have come to the great letter to the Romans. Today, we begin to explore one of the central passages in Romans. Please turn with me to Romans 3:20-26. I want first to read it and then reflect on its powerful message.

Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin. But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished - he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.

I wonder how much Paul expected the Roman Christians to get the first time someone read this passage to them. They did not have it in writing. It was not even in book form. They did not bind books in those days. The reader read from a scorll. When he had finished one section, he rolled up that section of the scroll and unfurled the next. It was most difficult if someone wanted him to go and reread a previous section.

I have planned four sermons on these seven verses. Meet me halfway. Reread this central passage many times. Talk to each other about what you read and what you hear in these sermons. Don't be put off by the difficulties. Let yourself be challenged. They are not beyond you; they just need patience. So, be prayerful, thoughtful, diligent. Be renewed in your mind by the thoughts of God. Be awed at the mystery of God's love in Jesus Christ. Romans is God's feast for the Church. The table is laid. The invitation is in your hand. Come, now is the time to learn. Come, now is the time to worship. Come, now is the time to give your heart to the mystery of God.

The Human Predicament
If you were here two weeks ago, you know why this passage is important. Human nature has become ensnared by the force called sin. It does harm to human life. It contradicts our good intentions. It can mushroom into demonic, global proportions. We all have first hand experience of it in large and small ways. This dominion by sin is just as true of religious people as it is true of irreligious people, and no one can shake off this power just by trying. This brought Paul to say in verses nine that (we) are all under sin, and then to express his ultimate conclusion in Romans 3:19.

Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. Not only can we not shake off the power of sin, but God also holds us responsible for it. This defines our human dilemma.

Inasmuch as humanity is answerable to God for repeated and willful sin, how can we have grounds for hope on the day of God's wrath, when He judges us impartially according to our actual deeds? Does God demonstrate to us clearly now that He will treat us with mercy then? All right thinking about humanity starts with that question. The renewal of our minds and the transformation of our character begin with that question and with God's answer to that question.

The Righteousness of God
The Christian Faith claims to give us God's answer. In a brief but powerful sequence of statements the Apostle Paul summarized the answer in Romans 3:20-26. These seven verses are densely packed. Today, let's get their central message. We begin with verse 21 and our first challenge.

But now (now that Christ has come) a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known. When we say that God is righteous, we mean that He is right all the time, and he expects us to be right all the time. But we are wrong quite often. That way of looking at it defines the situation between God and man for most people. But what if we got only part of the truth? What if God not only demands us to be right, but also He makes right what has gone wrong with us? Which view dominates your emotional landscape? Let's try to broaden that landscape.

First, it does catch your eye in verse 21, when the apostle says the righteousness from God has been revealed apart from law. We put righteousness and law together. Paul is trying to drive them apart, trying to teach us that God's righteousness means more than His demand that we be right. He does the same thing back in Romans 1:16-17.

I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes. Why is that? Why is the gospel God's power for salvation? Verse 17 explains. For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed.

The gospel does not power salvation, because it tells us that God demands us to be right all the time. We already knew that. That's our problem, because we know we are not right all the time. But what if verse 17 means the gospel is God's power for salvation, because it reveals what God has done to make things right? That has possibilities that really make the gospel good news.

I came across a use of the word righteous that points in the same direction. Some years ago, when we were in Israel, we visited the Yad Vashem memorial to Jewish victims of the Holocaust. As part of that complex is an area dedicated to righteous gentiles. Why would Jews call gentiles righteous?

They did so to honor those gentiles who risked their lives and sometimes gave their lives to rescue Jews from the death camps of Nazi Germany. In other words to be righteous mean to act so as to put right a terrible wrong. That captures perfectly the meaning of God's righteousness in Romans.

He not only demands that we be right; He also acts to make right what has gone wrong in the human family. That is the idea I hope you will allow to percolate down into your consciousness and reshape the way you read Romans and the way you think about the righteousness of God.

Now, of course, we have to ask how God set about to make right what had gone terribly wrong in the human family. That brings us to verse 24 and another difficult idea.

Redemption
All who believe in Jesus Christ, says verse 24, are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. The difficult word there is redemption. Think for a moment about your speech habits. Can you think of any uses of this idea outside a religious context? I thought of two.

The first one dates me. When I was a boy, I remember my parents paying for gasoline and then being given a certain number of green stamps, which they took home and diligently glued into a little book. When you filled up a book or several books with green stamps, you took them to a certain place, and there you redeemed those otherwise worthless pieces of green paper for something of value.

The other use of the word redeem is much more commonly used. When someone makes a serious mistake, we say, "Let's give him a chance to redeem himself." We mean that the person should have another chance to get right what he got wrong the first time.

Neither of these meanings captures the biblical meaning of redemption. Let me change one word in verse 24, and the true meaning of redemption will begin to shine. And are justified freely by his grace through the ransom that came by Christ Jesus. We understand ransoms all too well.

When hostages are taken and certain demands are made for their release, we call those demands a ransom. If the demands are met, if the ransom is paid, and all goes well, the hostages are set free. That's the meaning of redemption in the Bible. Every time you read the word redemption in the Bible, think liberation.

Can you begin to see better the shape of Paul's thought? God acts to put right what has gone terribly wrong in the human family. He puts matters right by liberating us from sin and its consequences. But how does He do that? Verse 25 tells us. God presented him (Jesus) as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. God accomplished our liberation from sin and its consequences by the death of Jesus Christ on the cross.

That is the gospel. That is the power of the gospel. Well, that is nearly all the gospel. Verse 22 completes the picture of the gospel of which Paul was not and we need not be ashamed.

Faith
This righteousness from God, this act of God that puts right what has gone wrong in the human family, comes through faith in Jesus Christ. God cherishes faith in human beings. He loves it when we build our lives on faith in His purposes and action. That enables us to participate in God's action to put things right.

Now, can you see what the apostle is driving at in this powerful passage? God acts to put right what has gone terribly wrong in the human family. He puts matters right by liberating us from sin and its consequences. That liberation is made possible by the death of Christ and, on the human side, by our faith in Jesus. That is the gospel. That is what we believe. That is where we stand.

And it makes a difference. This past week, Pastor Karl Nockengost and Bill Parsons, our Church Administrator, and I spent several days in Minneapolis at a conference, designed to help us minister here more effectively.

Among the speakers was Dr. George Gallup, Jr. of Gallup Poll fame. His father, Dr. George Gallup, began the Gallup Poll in 1935. His son continued it to the present. He was particularly pleased with the accuracy of the poll in last week's mid-term electons. The Gallup Poll did something unusual by going to four states and doing in-depth polling there: South Dakota, Colorado, Missouri and Arkansas.

What pleased him mightily was that the Gallup poll predicted the senate race outcomes accurately in all four states. As you know, South Dakota was extremely close. It testifies to the sophistication of their polling methods.

What we learned was that Dr. Gallup is a warm, Christian man, and he views on purpose of his polling organization to give Christians a way of making their voice heard in national life. The Gallup organization has done extensive polling on religious topics of many kinds. Theirs was the only organization from the U.S. that did an extensive poll in the Arab world right after September 11.

One of his conclusions about the impact of the Church in this country almost took my breath away. He says there are 350,000 churches in this country. Based on results of their religious polls, he drew this conclusion about our nation, "The state of the union depends on the spiritual state of the union." Then he said that communities of faith are what hold the American democracy together. It was a stunning statement.

He elaborated somewhat by saying that people of faith tend to volunteer more, to be more generous with their money, to be more ethical in their dealings with people, and to work harder to maintain the integrity of marriage and family.

When I heard that, I knew I had to tell you. I wanted you to know that our faith makes a difference in this world. Our purpose here is not political. We seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. But as we seek that higher priority, it leaves its calling card in the Republic. The power of God for salvation leaves blessing in the secular order on its way to the New Jerusalem.

The Pastoral Center of Gravity
We approached this passage with a decisive question in mind. Inasmuch as humanity is answerable to God for repeated and willful sin, how can any of us have grounds for hope on the day of God's wrath, when He judges us impartially according to our actual deeds? Does God demonstrate to us clearly now that He will treat us with mercy then>

The gospel says, He does. The death of Jesus Christ demonstrates to us clearly now that He will treat us with mercy then. The death of Jesus Christ makes it possible for God to absolve us of guilt for our sin. That is what we believe. We have started the journey that will someday liberate us and all creation from the power of sin that has snared and marred human life.

So, I say to all of us, as we face the terrifying possibilities of our new world order: Be not afraid. Be not afraid of sin. Be not afraid of judgment. Open your arms to Christ. He is our Liberator.