Thank you to Mark R for this week’s MWB
“But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.”
Romans 3:21-22 NIV
Two of the most important words in the Bible come at the beginning of the verse we are looking at today: “But now…”
These words introduce us to the Good News of the Gospel. To fully take in how good the Good News of the Gospel is, we need to understand the bad news, which the Apostle Paul has been explaining from the first chapter of Romans.
He summarises the bad news in these words in Romans 3:10-12:
“As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.””
Romans 3:10-12 NIV
That’s how we come into the world, and that is our default position before God. That’s the bad news.
Until we take that truth in, we’ll never understand why the Gospel is such Good News.
The Gospel is Good News because something has happened which could never do for ourselves. “But now…”
In our hopeless position, God has come to our rescue. The Son of God, Jesus Christ has come into the world. The Gospel isn’t some dreamed up idea; it is an historical event…the turning point of all history. It is a fact. It is Truth.
And the truth is that “whilst we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:)
In our hopeless state, unable to do anything about our sin, Christ laid down His life for us on the cross. The Bible shows us He took upon Himself our unrighteousness, our sin…and gave us the gift of His own righteousness, His own perfect life, something we will look at in more detail next week.
And all of this is from God: “But now…the righteousness of God has been made known…” There is the cross on the hill 2000 years ago. There is the righteousness of God in full view.
And in our sinful state all we have to do is simply receive this gift of righteousness by faith: “This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.”
Have we had a “But now” moment? Have we seen the wonder of the Good News, that in our hopeless and helpless position God Himself has made a way, THE way, for us to be clothed in His righteousness?
It is simply received with the open hands of faith in Jesus, in His finished work for us on the cross.