“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.” (Romans 3:21-26)
There has been a trend in some American churches in recent years. There tends to be less talk about sin and righteousness these days. And many people tend not to want to hear so much about sin anymore. And because of this much contemporary preaching and teaching (and a huge number of best selling books) center on making people feel good about themselves or finding life principles by which to live. In fact, you can grow a large church in America these days on this kind of message. And while I’m not against feeling good or beneficial life principles, per se, these things are not the remedy for our problems because they do not and cannot save us. To focus primarily on these things is like getting a manicure, pedicure, and hair cut, when what is really need is a heart transplant!
Romans chapters 1-3 point out that our great need is not more self-esteem or self-actualization or self-help. In fact, Romans 1-3 show that the self is the problem — that is, the fallen self which is captive to sin and in rebellion to God. Because of sin, the self cannot and will not yield fully to God’s leadership. Sin is the revolt of the self against God. Sin dethrones God as king and replaces him with self. And thus sin ultimately is a a kind of self-deification. And you just can’t pretty that up to God.
It is crucial that we go to the source of what truly ails us. We need to soberly receive scripture’s assessment of our great problem — sin and the lack of righteousness before God it creates within us. This is our great problem. This is my great problem before God. And it is your great problem before God. We need not blame our behavior on our genes (“But I was born that way”), or our parents (“They did this to me”), or our education (or lack thereof), or our culture. The problem is in us. I am the problem and you are the problem. But there is a remedy! Our remedy is to flee from God’s just judgment of our sin to the One who has born the penalty of our sin on the cross — namely Jesus Christ. Not one of us has any merit to fall back on nor any excuses to make before God because the problem is us. No one is exempt. None are right before him.
But the glorious good news is this: “God has a way to make people right, and it has nothing to do with the law. He has now shown us that new way, which the law and the prophets told us about.God makes people right through their faith in Jesus Christ. He does this for all who believe in Christ. Everyone is the same. All have sinned and are not good enough to share God’s divine greatness. They are made right with God by his grace. This is a free gift. They are made right with God by being made free from sin through Jesus Christ. God gave Jesus as a way to forgive people’s sins through their faith in him. God can forgive them because the blood sacrifice of Jesus pays for their sins. God gave Jesus to show that he always does what is right and fair. He was right in the past when he was patient and did not punish people for their sins. And in our own time he still does what is right. God worked all this out in a way that allows him to judge people fairly and still make right any person who has faith in Jesus.” (Romans 3:21-26 GNV)
upword 
Reblogged this on Faith.