Introduction & Overview of Romans 1-3

This morning to the Book of Romans. I want to begin with just doing an overview of the book and I guess if it's helpful and you haven't already noticed it, a page or so into your booklets there is a schedule just with the dates for when we're meeting as well as You know, the time, of course, you know, it's Wednesdays from 10 to 11. But then on the right side of the little graph there, you will see there's a reading guide, which is not much reading. It's really usually just a few verses. And I would just encourage you to, if you have just a moment in your week or maybe the morning before you come, you could read that. 

So for next week, we're just going to look at Romans 1, 1 through 7. So if you were able to take, you know, 30 seconds or a minute or whatever it would be to read that. I think it would benefit your coming here, it might help you have a little idea of what's in the text before we actually start to explore it together. And you may even be able to, since it is such a small section of scripture each week that we're going to cover, you may, and I don't want anybody to feel a burden, there's probably a lot of things going on in your life and I know what it's like when I'm a part of a study or a group and you already have a lot going on and then you know you're asked to read you know 500 pages which is not what I'm doing here at all so I'm trying to avoid that so I'm trying to ask just a little but you may benefit to well you certainly would if you have time to not even just read it but you have even 10 minutes maybe read it and you meditate on it just for a second and try to see what Paul is doing because I through this study of the first three chapters of Romans, what we're going to try to do by God's grace is, if you will, get into the mind of Paul. 

The Apostle Paul was a very logical thinker, and so sometimes he's so logical and so sophisticated in the way he puts his arguments out that can almost be hard, but at the same time, if you start to make the connections of what he's saying, there is a real flow to it. And so we'll see that in Romans 1, 1 through 3. So with that being said, if you turn to sort of the first page there of the actual content of our study page, it says 2 at the bottom, but week 1 at the top, week 1 introduction and overview of Romans 1, 1 through 3. What I want us to do is I want us to see something of where we're going today. So we're going to zoom out from Romans 1, 1 through 3, and we're just going to try to get an overview of what is happening in the first three chapters of Romans. And hopefully that will help us then as we start to zoom in a little bit in future studies to catch the flow. So we're going to zoom out, kind of get the bird's eye view, and then we'll get more into the particulars in future weeks. 

So, why study the Book of Romans? Well, here's your first blank there. Why study the Book of Romans? If you have a pen or pencil, we have some blanks we'll fill out just to kind of help us as we go through the study. So, why study the Book of Romans? Well, first, A there, because it's God's Word. So you study the Book of Romans because it's God's Word, right? All scripture is God-breathed, 2 Timothy 3, 16. And so here we're seeing that this is God's Word, so we should study it because it's God's Word. But B, because it's about the blank, it's about the Gospel. The Book of Romans in a very direct manner is about the gospel. Now you could say that in some measure about any book of the Bible, but there's nothing wrong with acknowledging that certain books have an emphasis, and the emphasis of this book is really the gospel.

And then C here, at the heart of this letter, is the doctrine of blank. Does anyone want to guess? No pressure? Any guess what it's part of? Grace for sure, and I heard somebody else say the specific word that I had in mind. Justification. Justification, yeah. So certainly grace is very much in view, because of course that is tied closely to justification.

But yeah, at the heart of it is the doctrine of justification. How, well we'll get that maybe now here in a moment. So explain, is anyone so bold here this morning as to want to give an attempt to explain what this term, justification, put it in your own words. Just a few words. Yeah, justified. So the word declared righteous, God declares us righteous. It's a legal term, right? Yeah, God declares us righteous. And so that's why that word declared is really important, which Beckbeck just brought up, is that it's a legal term.

So justification does not mean that you, in and of yourself, are righteous. Justification means you're declared righteous. And that is a difference, because if you know yourself at all, you would say, well, I don't know that I am righteous. In fact, I'm sure that I'm not righteous. I'm sure that I fall short of God's glory. I'm sure that I'm a sinner. And so This is a declaration not of what you are in and of yourself, what you are in Christ. In Christ, you are righteous in the sight of God. You are declared to be righteous in the sight of God. That's the doctrine of justification. God declares us righteous. So that would be my simple forward definition. God declares us righteous. That's justification.

D there, it teaches us about our blank and the only way of blank. It teaches us about our sin. So the Book of Romans teaches about our sin, but it also teaches us about the only way of blank salvation. So it deals with us as we really are as sinners, but then it tells us the only way of escape, the only way of salvation. So these are some reasons that studying the Book of Romans is profitable.

But two here on our list. Who wrote the book of Romans? Anybody know who wrote the book of Romans? Paul, right? So Paul wrote the book of Romans. Now, why does it matter that he, that is Paul as a human author, of course, the divine author is the Holy Spirit working through Paul, but why does it matter that he wrote the book of Romans? Well, we have a few reasons here.

A, he had been a Pharisee. Pharisees believed you were saved by your... anybody know? Works, right? So the Pharisees believed you were saved by your works. Now that's important because B, Romans very clearly teaches that you are saved by God's grace. Exactly. So a great verse for this that helps expound this point is Romans 11 verses 5 and 6. These are really helpful verses as we think about God's grace. Romans 11, five and six. So to at the present time, there is a remnant chosen by grace. And this verse, verse six is very helpful of Romans 11, 11, six. But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works. Otherwise grace would no longer be grace. So Paul makes the argument there, especially verse six of Romans 11, that If you mix works in with grace as a way of salvation, it's no longer grace. There is no such thing in the Apostle Paul's mind and in true biblical teaching, the Bible, of salvation by grace plus works. Because Paul right there says, if you think there's grace plus works, guess what? It can't be anymore. Grace. Because grace, by definition, is apart from works. So grace is salvation apart from any of our works, anything we do, period. There's no work that a man can do to save himself. That is God's grace. God does the saving. And as soon as one tries to say, but our works have to contribute in some capacity, Paul says it's not grace anymore. Grace has now been obliterated. You've now made it Christianity like any other man-made religion. 

Every other religion, of course, is a religion of works. Every other religion. There's not a single religion that's like Christianity. Every other religion tells you try your best and hopefully you can make it. Or maybe, more optimistically, try your best and you will make it. Christianity says try your best and you're going to perish for eternity. You need Jesus. You need the grace of God. You can't do it. Your best is not good. You need Christ. It's God's grace. He does the saving. It's all of grace from first to last. 

So if anyone, see here, if anyone could be saved by their works, it was blank. Who do you think? Paul, right? Paul, the one who wrote this book. If there was anyone who could save by the works, it's Paul. This book demonstrates the total blank of man, inability of man, to save himself. So that blank there is inability. Demonstrates the total inability of man to save himself, and it highlights our desperate need to look outside of ourselves to Jesus. 

So what Paul is going to do in this letter, especially in these first three chapters, is he's going to show the inability of man to save himself so that it would force man to look outside of himself to Christ. Right? Because until man realizes he can't do it, he's going to keep looking in himself trying to find a way that he can do it. And Paul is going to show that man can't do it so that he would encourage man to look to the one who has done it, the Lord Jesus Christ. 

So what is, here number four on page two, what is one of the main reasons Romans is so full of important theology? Well, here's one of the reasons. Kind of funny, but it's true. Because Paul blank them yet. Post-Paul hadn't blanked them yet, hadn't visited them yet. He had not visited them. So he had never been there. He had never actually been to Rome yet.

And so this is sort of what we might call an introductory letter. Here, my name is Paul. Here are some really important things for you to believe and think about. Because he's not been there yet, as he had been to many of the other places, if you look at the book of Ephesians, or you look at the book of Corinthians, he's been to these places. He's been to Philippi, and because he's been to these different locations, he doesn't feel as much of a burden to stress all of his particular theological viewpoints, because he would have known, well, I preached this when I was in Corinth, so I already know they've heard this from me before.

But when he comes to write the Book of Romans, he's not visited them, so he feels this desire, this need, to unpack some of his important theology because he knows they may not have heard it, at least not from him, ever before. So he wants to make sure that they understand what he believes. So that's one of the reasons it's full of so much important theology.

Now to whom was the Book of Romans written? It's written to the blanks in Rome. It's written to the churches in Rome. So it's written to the churches in Rome, to the saints in Rome. You can see that, for example, in Romans chapter one, verse seven, to all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints. So it's written to the saints or the churches in Rome.

These churches were filled with two important people groups, blank and blank. Anybody know the main people groups of the book of Romans? Jews and Gentiles, right? So it's full of Jews and Gentiles, the church are full of Jews and Gentiles, and that will come up throughout the book.

So now let's do a bit of an overview of Romans 1 through 3. I will give you some quick, just off-the-cuff explanations of what we're going to see. Romans 1, 16 through 17, Paul is going to set forth his thesis statement. He's going to tell you, So he's going to set forth that thesis statement, that the righteous people are those who trust in Christ alone for their salvation. That is the righteous person. They're not righteous in themselves. They're declared righteous because they trust in the righteous one, the Lord Jesus Christ. That's his point in Romans 1, 16 and 17.

But then he's going to prove from Romans 1, 18 to Romans 3, 20 that everyone is a sinner. every single human being is a sinner. And he's going to prove that first by addressing the Gentiles in verses 18 through 32 of chapter 1. Then he'll do it by addressing the Jews in chapter 2 verse 1 to chapter 3 verse chapter three, verse eight, and then he's gonna address everybody in verses nine through 20 of chapter three. So what he does is he says, the righteous one is the one who looks to Christ alone for salvation. And then he says, that is, you need this righteousness. He then tries to prove that you really need this because he wants everyone to know that they're not righteous. So he says, You need to be righteous, and you're not righteous, and the only way to be righteous is to look to Christ. That's his basic argument. You need to be righteous, you're not righteous, the only way to be righteous is to look to Christ. That's essentially the flow of Romans 1 through 3 in a nutshell.

But looking more specifically at our text, looking at it a bit more slowly now, Romans chapter 1 verses 1 through 4 states the gospel is concerned about blank blank. Well, let's look at verses 1 through 4 real quickly of chapter 1. Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures concerning his son, who was ascended from David according to the flesh. Let's just stop there. This tells us that the gospel is concerned about blank blank, verse three, concerning his son. The gospel is concerned about his son. That's what goes with those blanks, his son, because that's exactly what the text says. The gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures concerning his son, or about his son.

This teaches you that the gospel is not first and foremost about us. Isn't that interesting? It is about Jesus Christ and what he has done for us. The gospel is first a blank, not a blank. The gospel is first a fact, not a feeling. The gospel is first a fact, not a feeling. It's a proclamation of real facts, real events that have taken place in history before it is ever a feeling that you experience or something of that sort. It is first and foremost a fact that is true and real outside of us. So, for example, if we look at 1 Corinthians 15, it helps to make the same point that it is a fact first and not a feeling. 

1 Corinthians 15 verses 1-5. The Apostle Paul writes this, Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand. and by which you are being saved if you hold fast to the word I preached to you unless you believed in vain. And then this, for I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received. that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the Twelve. 

So we see here in these verses from 1 Corinthians 15, one through five, I ask this question here, according to this passage, what sorts of things did Paul believe were of first importance to the gospel? So verse three of Romans 15, what things did Paul say were of first importance? Well, he says that Christ died for our sins, specifically for our sins, that Christ died for our sins. This is a fact, not an experience. 

Now, I'm not saying it doesn't have extremely powerful experiential results in our lives. That's not what I'm suggesting. But what I'm saying is that it is first and foremost a fact that he died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures. And then he adds a couple of other facts that he was buried, that the man died and was really put in a in a you know a tomb if you will he was buried that he was raised so that's another fact died buried raised on the third day and then verse five even adds that there were witnesses to his resurrection and mentions that he appeared to Cephas then to the twelve and it'll go on to mention that he was even appeared to others. 

But the point is, Paul is laying forth facts in 1 Corinthians 15 through 5 especially. These are the things that God really did, and that he died for our sins, not for any sins of his own. But this fact does have, must have, a response we must respond to these facts. These facts must be embraced by you to be a Christian, right? The fact that Christ died and was buried and rose from the dead doesn't... you must believe in Him. You must receive these things as truth in order to be saved. 

So you see that actually again in 1 Corinthians 15. Paul says, I preach to you, he says, now I would remind you, verse 1 of 1 Corinthians 15, now I would remind you brothers of the gospel I preached to you which you received. You see they had to receive it as this is the truth. This really happened. Christ really wrote, died, rose, and ascended up into heaven. And he says in verse 3, "'For I delivered to you, as of first importance, what I also received.'" So he says, you receive these things, and he says, I receive these things, and so we must receive this gospel, we must receive this good news. 

Well, moving on here in our study, Paul states that he was eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome. Romans chapter 1 verse 15 he says that I was eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome. So what sorts of things do you think this means Paul planned to proclaim to those in Rome? So he says I'm eager to preach the gospel to you and my question is what do you think he had in mind when he said I was eager? What sorts of doctrines, what sort of truths did he plan to proclaim to them do you think? That's what he just said, that Christ died. Exactly, right? He was going to preach to them the gospel, the facts of the gospel. He wanted to preach to them that Christ died. He wanted to preach to them that they were sinners and they needed his death to atone for their sins. He wanted to preach to them that they needed to be declared righteous in the sight of God. He wanted to preach to them the resurrection. He wanted to preach to them the truths of the gospel. 

While I know that was an obvious question, in some ways it's painfully obvious, but the point is this is the sort of thing that you need to have preached to you, and I need to have preached to me, we need to have preached to us, is this gospel. So, you know, whether it's me preaching or Hunter or somebody else, this is what, or wherever you attend worship, we need this gospel. If your preacher doesn't preach this gospel, you need to go somewhere where he does, because this is the only way of salvation. Paul is preaching this, and this is what the Bible is all about, and this is what Paul was eager. I love that he was eager to do it. He wasn't just like, I guess I'll go preach. He was eager to do what he wanted to do. 

So anyways, where do you think, and I've already given you the answer, but where do you think the thesis of the book of Romans is located? That's right. Yep, don't get confused. It's not Greeks 9153 9 through 10. Yeah, a lot of people fall for that one. 

So in your own words, what does the following quote mean? This is a quote here. I want us to think about it for a moment. the gospel is the power of God unto salvation is meaningless apart from sin, condemnation, misery, and death. What do you think that quote is getting at? 

I think that you aren't going to look to Christ for your salvation if you do not see you're a sinner. Exactly. Not broken, as the world now says. It's a broken world. You've got to see that you are mm-hmm exactly exactly everything Elizabeth said so you you put that however you you know however you want or you don't have to say write that things down it's I'm just if it's helpful yeah yeah yeah absolutely with salvation. Yeah. Yeah. Yep. Yep. You have to receive it. Amen. That's very good. Absolutely. That's great. 

Yeah, we definitely don't want to trust in anything, whether it's our knowledge, even our good doctrine, right? Not to minimize good doctrine, but we can't trust in anything that we come up with as our own way of salvation. We have to trust in Christ and Christ alone. We tend to want people to have our experiences anyway, a lot of times, because that's meaningful to us. But Paul really realized that he had really been Yeah, yeah be converted first, right? 

So What does Paul begin to talk about in Romans 1 18 through 320? What does he begin to talk about? You don't have to give me all the details I mean like very broadly because I mean there's a ton in Romans 1 18 through 320. Yes, the wrath of God, right? So the wrath of God Of course she talks about going alongside of the wrath of God, of course she talks about sin, right? So sin and God's wrath, that's the bulk of what he's discussing from Romans 1, 18 through 3, 20. God's wrath and our sin. 

So why do you think Paul begins to talk about these sorts of things directly after the thesis found in Romans 1, 16 through 17? I guess I go on here in A to sort of put it into a Yeah, so he begins to talk about these sorts of things directly after the thesis found in Romans 1 16 through 17 so that he can show that humanity needs this gospel, right? They need this gospel, they need this righteousness.

So Paul states again in Romans 1 16 and 17, it's his thesis statement, he essentially lays forth the gospel that man needs to be declared righteous in the sight of God and that he can only have this by trusting in Christ. That's the, if we're gonna take it and distill it down. But man doesn't care if man doesn't think he needs that, right? Man's not gonna receive Christ like Elizabeth has just been sharing with us unless he knows he needs it.

So that's Paul's flow of thought here is you need this and I'm gonna make sure you know you need this so that you will, by God's grace, repent and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. What does every sin deserve according to Romans 1.18? It's the wrath of God, exactly. The wrath of God is revealed, right? Romans 118.

So, top of page four, God's wrath might be defined as God's blank reaction to all blank. This is the way that I found it helpful to define it, okay? So hopefully this is helpful. God's wrath might be defined as God's righteous, righteous, that's the first blank, reaction to all unrighteousness. Okay, so you'll hear people say it's his holy indignation against sin and things like that, and that's all true. But I like this simply because it's easier to remember, I think. His righteous reaction to all unrighteousness.

But, you know, you can define it slightly differently if you wish, but that's the way that I've found it helpful. God's righteous reaction to all unrighteousness. God cannot have wrath towards that which is righteous. Does that make sense, right? God can't have wrath towards that which is righteous. It's not possible, he can't, because he's just. If something's righteous, he can't have wrath towards it.

Therefore, what do you need to be in God's sight to avoid receiving his wrath? Righteous, right? Yeah, you need to be righteous, right? You need to be righteous because he can't have wrath towards righteousness. And so if you're righteous, well then thumbs up, way to go. He won't have wrath towards you. And not of course, just righteousness in a general way, but of course we know it needs to be perfect righteousness because he's perfect himself.

So then in Romans 1, 18 through 320, Paul shows that no one is righteous. So this is the problem. You need to be righteous, and you aren't. This is the problem. Paul shows that no one is righteous, no, not one. Therefore, where, if anywhere, can we look in order to be righteous? You know the answer, I'm sure. But where can you look if you're not righteous in yourself, which you're not, and neither am I? Where can we look? in order to be declared righteous.

It's the Lord Jesus Christ. Yes, Jesus Christ alone, right? Any addition you try to add to Christ is a subtraction because Christ is perfect. Christ is perfect righteousness. You try to add to him by your own works, to make yourself thinking you can save yourself, you will take away from it because he is the perfect righteousness you need. I put a couple texts in there from Jeremiah which say the Lord is our righteousness.

So what you and I need is not a human righteousness, but a God-righteousness. Okay, what do you think this means to say that what we need is not a human righteousness, but a God-righteousness? A perfect righteousness, right? Yeah, a perfect righteousness. A righteousness not from ourselves, but from outside of ourselves. A righteousness from God. That's what we need. We need a perfect righteousness. Not some sort of man-made, you know, kind of righteous, but mixed with sin. No, it's got to be perfect. It's got to be a God-righteousness.

What must one do in order to receive the righteousness of God that is necessary for salvation? Exactly, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. If you look over at Romans 3, 21 and 22, which is where this argument is going to head, he says in Romans 3, 21 and 22, but now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law. although the law and the prophets bear witness to it, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe." So through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.

Well, earlier we mentioned that justification is at the heart of the book of Romans. Let us consider the following. Do you believe the doctrine of justification is relevant today? Yes. Who determines relevance? God, exactly. So that's why it's relevant, because God tells you it's relevant.

So a child might not think it matters much to him if his diaper gets changed. Does that mean that it isn't relevant to change his diaper? So, you know, your child or your grandchild, he's just having fun playing on the playground, and you say, well, you know, buddy, we need to change your stinky diaper. And he says, I don't really mind. I'm having fun on the playground. Well, It doesn't matter if he doesn't think it's relevant. You know that it is relevant for him and you are, Lord willing, going to change his diaper. I hope.

So it doesn't matter what he thinks. It is relevant to his life. And of course, what I'm getting at is that's the way we might be with God. Somebody says, I don't really think he's relevant. I have more important things to do. And I would say, no, you actually don't. This is the most relevant thing for you is to make sure you understand the gospel.

Does my standing with God matter? Does having a right relationship with the living and true God matter? The answer is obviously yes. Of course, these things matter. They are the most important things in the whole world. So, what if it doesn't feel relevant to me right now in this moment? Well, I put here, my feelings don't blank determine what matters. Yeah, don't determine the truth. They don't determine what matters.

Again, that not... the first thing that we do so very rarely is make a wonderful excuse. Well, I wouldn't have lost my temper if not that bad. Yup, yup. Yup, we're always wanting to make an excuse to justify ourselves. I was just a child growing up and you know how it is. It's wonderful. It keeps things going. But the thing is, I like to be that way, but you have to realize you're wrong. you have to acknowledge your sin.

I want us to unpack the following quotation. Justification is as relevant as ever, not just in the technical theological debates. We live in a time when people are desperately searching for justification. That's what Twitter food fights are all about. How do I know that I'm righteous? Usually, it is by proving that you're not righteous.

So according to Kevin DeYoung, how do people usually try to convince themselves that they are righteous? What do people normally try to do? Yeah, they compare themselves with other people. They say, you know, I'm not, you know, hopefully there's no Betty Sue's here, are there? Right? I mean, I'm not as bad as Betty Sue, right? I mean, they just try to compare. Well, you know, I haven't done it. I haven't done Y. And frankly, the reality is they have done all those things in their heart, first of all, at some measure. And regardless, it doesn't, you're comparing yourself, we'll see in a moment, to the wrong standard. It doesn't matter how good Betty Sue is or isn't. What matters is Have you lived a perfect life? A completely perfect life? And you know you haven't, right?

So people are trying to convince themselves they're righteous. They're trying to convince themselves that they're good. And they do that by comparing themselves with other people.

I wanted to ask how Paul felt before he was converted. He was so busy convincing himself and trying to be so perfect.

Yeah, I think so. I've heard, so I don't know that this can be proven that I'm aware of. I mean, obviously Guy Waters would be a great person to ask. I know I've heard Sinclair Ferguson, you know, suggest this anyways. I don't know that we can, I don't know, I don't really know where I stand on it, but it is an interesting thought that maybe he was a little bit, I don't don't know if I'm right so I'll just tell you this is a thing I have heard I'm not ready to defend it but that he was perhaps rattled a little bit the Apostle Paul was when he saw Stephen's commitment to being stoned to death because here he was he's the most righteous man in the world in his own eyes right Paul and that this guy preaches this fantastic sermon gets stoned to death and obviously he wasn't He's clearly still committed to killing and hating Christians, because he was, you know, then he goes on to Damascus to try to do the same.

But that perhaps, to your point, that he was, he really thought that he was, I mean, I think you're right, I think he thought he was perfect, I really do, I mean, I think he definitely believed that he was, in some measure, he was saved by how great he was. He didn't have to say he was righteous. Yep, yep. Christ did say, yep. No, I agree. Yeah, must have been.

So he says, so what's the problem of trying to convince yourself you're righteous by doing this, by comparing yourself to other people? Well, it's the wrong standard, right? It's the wrong standard. This is an analogy I've used sometime. I know I'm in a ladies Bible study here, so maybe it's the wrong one to use, but it's the one I've used in the past. We're gonna do, we're gonna try it.

So, maybe you've heard... well, let's just say I told you guys today that I'm a really, really good basketball player. Like, I'm... I'm not... like, I'm very good. I'm actually... you should... let me just tell you how good I am, okay? So, there was a couple of kindergartners out on the playground and I blocked all their shots. And they didn't get a single point. It was 3v1. I annihilated them.

And then what would happen if I said that and then in God's providence LeBron James decided to show up on the same basketball court and then we played a game of one-on-one basketball? I would get more destroyed by him than I would destroy those little kindergartners. LeBron James, right, if you don't know who he is, right, he's known to be the best basketball player alive or, you know, that's what some say. I don't really know. I'm just telling you he's really good at basketball and I'm, compared to him, I'm not.

The reason I say that is what we do with those little four-year-olds, you know, it's like me saying, look, I'm a really righteous person because I'm just comparing... I'm really good at basketball. I'm comparing myself with five-year-olds. I'm not good at basketball. I'm not very... I'm fine, but I'm not very good. I'm definitely not great. I'm comparing myself to little kids. If I compare myself to a higher standard of skill, all of a sudden it's revealed that I'm not very good at basketball, that I'm actually kind of terrible at basketball.

So that's what we do with our righteousness. We say, well, you know, I'm better than, well, stop. No, that's not the standard. The standard is God's holiness. It's his perfection. And so when you look at the right standard, it's revealed to you, of course, on an infinitely greater level than the silly analogy I gave, but that you're not good, that we are not righteous. That is why we need Christ.

I've, let me just say, I've seen a lot of this with stuff I've gotten to do in ministry where, not with anybody in this room, I'm going to say that too, but I've seen this in ministry where, this is more like evangelism I'm thinking of here, like basically talking to people, you know, just that I get to know. You know, there are a lot of this, you know, There's a lot of people out there. They really need Christ. There are a lot of wicked people out there. But there's not a sense of, yeah, but I need Christ. Does that make sense? I'm not saying there aren't a lot of wicked people out there. We can agree on that point. But do you know that there's a lot of wicked people right in here and right in here, right? That I need Christ.

So we need to not just compare ourselves to how much my friend over there needs Jesus. No, I need to know that I need Jesus. So DeYoung goes on to state, we live in a time where guilt is everywhere. You are guilty for not doing enough to solve world problems. You're guilty maybe because of your skin color. You're guilty maybe because you are a man. You're guilty because of the food that you eat. So do you agree with Kevin DeYoung's point here that there is a lot of guilt in the world today? A lot of sins. Yeah, manipulate people. It's very true. Yeah, I think we could say yes, there's a lot of guilt going around today, right? People feel guilty for all sorts of things. And of course, there's a sense in which we are guilty, right? We fall short of the glory of God. But There also can be a lot of false guilt too, so lots of things to wrestle with, but all I want us to come away with at this point is, I think Kevin DeYoung is right, there's a lot of guilt in the world today. And people feel that, and Kevin DeYoung is going to go on to talk about that.

So, we don't have to give any examples. I think the examples are basically endless on the ways people feel guiltless, right? You see a, you know, you'd be like, maybe it's you or your daughters, or on Instagram, they see the picture of some other family, and that family looks perfect, and they realize they're not a perfect family, and why aren't we perfect? Like, you know, Betty Sue's family, right? Whatever, like, I'm giving this kind of an absurd example, But the point is, there's just all sorts of guilt all over the place. And whether it's sort of false guilt, like that ridiculous example, or something more honest, like, I totally, at least, told a white lie earlier. You know, I lied earlier, and I feel guilty about it. That's more, like, concrete and real. It's not a false guilt, it's a real. There should be a sense of, I did that, and it was wrong, right? But the point is, there's guilt all over the place.

DeYoung goes on to state this. We have this residual kind of quasi-Christian concept of guilt and original sin, and this is so good I think, and yet we no longer have the Christian mechanism for forgiveness of sin. So we absolutely need the doctrine of justification. People don't realize that they are searching for someone in the universe to tell them they're okay. And that's the quest, the human quest, to be justified.

Left to ourselves, We go about that in all the wrong ways. Romans puts us in the right way. So de Young argues that we have some concept of being guilty, yet we have no concept of how to be forgiven of our guilt. We know that we are sinners, but we do not know how to be saved from the punishment our sins deserve. Therefore, the doctrine of justification is extremely relevant because it solves the problem our guilt. We are declared not guilty in Jesus Christ because he has taken our guilt on himself and given to us his righteousness.

The young states, people don't realize that they are searching for someone in the universe to tell them they're okay and that's the quest, the human quest, to be justified. Left to ourselves, we go about this in all the wrong ways. And we don't necessarily need to do this, but I just, I ask the question here at the end, what are some of the wrong ways people search to be told that they are okay?

And I can just maybe say a few things like, you know, people are wanting to get in there, wanting to compare themselves to other people, to convince themselves that they are okay. How do I know I'm okay? because I'm not as bad as Betty Sue, right? How do I know that I'm okay? Because I've done these things and I'm a good person. We're always looking for some affirmation, some reason, and what the scriptures say is they deal with us so honestly, it can be painful, but it's so helpful because they don't deceive us. They say, there's a sense in which you're not okay. There's a sense in which there is something wrong, and that's why you feel that. But then it comes to you and it says, but in Christ you're safe, in Christ you are okay, in Christ you are declared righteous, in Christ you are forgiven, in Christ you do have life, all these great things.

So it speaks to the reality of why do I feel like something's wrong? the answer is because we're sinners. But then what's the solution to this problem? It isn't looking to myself or comparing myself with other people. It's going to Jesus. Jesus is the answer to our biggest problems.

So I give this last little concluding thing here, a simple outline of Romans, and it goes from simple to simpler to simplest. You can look at that on your own, but the last one, the simplest one, I'll just look at that one really quickly with y'all. You can look at the other ones if they're helpful. The simplest one at the bottom of page 6 just shows you in basic format Romans 1 16 through 17 tells us our need. We have a need. We need to be righteous. Romans 1 18 through 320 tells us our inability. So we need this thing and we can't get it. ourselves and then Romans 3 21 through 31 tells us a solution which is faith in the righteous Christ as a redeemer 

Well, let's go ahead and pray Thank you so much for your time next week. We'll We'll look at Romans 1, 1 through 7. And also, thank you again just for being here, and if you are wanting to stay in for the after-school meeting right now, just want to mention that again in case anyone's forgotten. 

So, let me pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for the righteousness of Christ, and that because of His perfect work on our behalf, we who trust in Him have this total cloak of righteousness draped over us such that we have no blemishes in your sight and we can go forth knowing that we don't have to live in fear, we don't have to live in terror of what is to come, because Christ has done it for us. 

He's taken the punishment that we deserved on himself, he's fulfilled for us the righteousness that we need, and so though we have a past which can be dark and even plaguing us at times. Maybe we have future events which we're not sure about what you're going to do or what's going to happen. We can know through it all that Christ is the one who's done it for us. 

Our past doesn't need to rise up and swallow us. The future doesn't need to creep in and destroy us because Christ is our safety. He is our righteousness. He is the one in whom we have all of our sins forgiven and we have total righteousness. all because of what he's done for us. 

And so I pray that this reality would impact how we think, how we treat one another. I pray that we would be gracious people because we've received grace. I pray that we would be serious lovers of Christ because of what he's done for us. I pray that you would help us, O Lord, in Jesus's name. Amen.