Message of The Cross: Justification (Romans 3:21-31, Luke 18:9-14)

Francis Blight, 17th October 2021
Part of the The Message of the Cross series, preached at a Fordham Sunday Service service

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3:21 But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify.
3:22 This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference,
3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
3:24 and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
3:25 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--

3:26 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.
3:27 Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. On what principle? On that of observing the law? No, but on that of faith.
3:28 For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law.
3:29 Is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles too? Yes, of Gentiles too,
3:30 since there is only one God, who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith.

3:31 Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the law.
18:9 To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable:
18:10 "Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.

18:11 The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: 'God, I thank you that I am not like other men--robbers, evildoers, adulterers--or even like this tax collector.
18:12 I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.'
18:13 "But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, 'God, have mercy on me, a sinner.'
18:14 "I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."