15 Feb 2023
The book of Romans has been noted as complementary to the book of Galatians; both address the true gospel; both focus on sin, justification by faith; and both also refer to the example of Abraham in the Old Testament to bring home the meaning of the true gospel.
In the first several chapters of Romans, Paul made clear the problem of sin, the odious offence of sin against God and the failure of man to be reconciled to God based on their own effort – whether it be religion, or failure to acknowledge God as God.
In Romans 1 to 3, the central point that comes through is that we are all damned; we deny the powers of God in creation; we refuse to recognise God as God, and we abandon any sense of gratitude and dependence on Him. We care nothing for the glory of God, and we corrupt our own thoughts, and our hearts become ‘darkened’. We all stand deservedly under God’s curse and wrath.
The nature of our problem is our offensiveness before God; the root problem is our rebellion against Him – it is the universal problem of idolatry – we are at the center of the universe – we are our own gods. We do not accept our self-identity in being God’s creature – but instead we find it in any other person, institution, value system or anything else – so that God cannot be heard and cannot be acknowledged as our Creator and Judge.
Unless we understand our real plight before God as explained by Paul in the first 3 chapters of Romans, we will not appreciate the reason why Christ has to come to be our Saviour and why we need to preach “Christ crucified” in the true gospel. There is no other way back to God and to be reconciled to Him.
God is the judge and He is the most offended party. The cross is not just the demonstration of God’s love; it is the demonstration also of God’s justice. The demands of God’s holiness are met in the sacrifice of His own Son. His justice is satisfied in Jesus’ propitiatory sacrifice so that all may see that sin deserves the punishment that He Himself has imposed, and the punishment has been meted out. This vindicates God so that He Himself is seen to be just as well as the one who justifies the ungodly. God simultaneously preserves His justice while justifying the ungodly – this is the heart of the gospel and it is accomplished by “Christ crucified” – He became our substitute, dying on our behalf, took on judgement and the wrath of God for us – the great exchange took place at the cross – our sin is imputed to Him and His righteousness is imputed to us who believe -we become ‘clothed’ with His righteousness.
We must know that it hurts the Father to lose His Son, but He does it because He loves us. And the Son demonstrates His love for us by listening to and conforming to His Father’s own wonderful plan so that the plan of the triune God is worked out in love. In the cross, wrath and mercy met; holiness and peace kiss each other.