Author: Geoff Murray

Sermon: Sunday, 23rd February, 2025
Speaker: Geoff Murray
Scripture: Romans 8:28-30

‘And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.’   (Romans 8:28)

How can we have confidence that God really is working all things for our good? God is the author of salvation therefore we know where we’re headed and what the end result will be.

R C Sproul : The foundation for the comfort and certainty of future joy is God’s plan of redemption.

1. God Initiates our Salvation

We have grounds to believe God is working all things together for our eternal good ‘…For those God foreknew.’ How do we understand that? Is it simply a knowing of the future? Is it simply a knowing who will believe in Jesus and then predestining on that basis?

Well, I don’t think that for two reasons:

1. It wouldn’t make sense of the fact that everything in Romans 8:29-30 is God’s doing; ‘he foreknew, he predestined, he called, he justified, he glorified.’ If there was a sense with foreknowledge that God saw ahead of time that so and so was going to believe, this passage wouldn’t be so dominated with God’s actions. It wouldn’t make sense of the calling either. If foreknowledge is God looking into the future and seeing who would believe in him, the calling wouldn’t be necessary and would be redundant if they were going to do all the believing themselves anyway.

2. There is a way of foreknowing being used in the Bible which speaks about God’s active choosing of people. One such example is Amos 3:2 ‘You only have I chosen of all the families of the earth;’ Does God not know all about the nations? Of course he does. There is another knowing at play here. And it is a choosing, a calling out from among the world those who will be his.

As is the case of Jeremiah 1:5 ‘Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart;’ Before the foundation of the world, before you existed, God chose you to be his. Predestined – not only foreknown but this led to us being predestined.

Predestination is that, if you’re a Christian, before the foundation of the world God so authored and ordered your life in such a way to lead you to faith in Jesus and to be made like Jesus. For all those in Christ, God’s plan for you is to be conformed into the image of his Son, to be made like his Son. We are made in God’s image, sin distorts that image and in Christ we are being remade into his image, renewed after the likeness of our creator.

What is God’s will for my life you might ask? God’s primary will for your life Christian is that you live like and look like Jesus. And so what is God’s will for my life especially in suffering? It’s that you would be like Jesus.This means that the every moment, every millisecond of your life, the good, the bad, the ugly isn’t a matter of indifference, it isn’t a matter of non-importance, it isn’t coincidence, it isn’t happenstance, it is God pushing you and directing you to the end for which you were saved to be made like Jesus. So God is not only choosing you before the foundation of the world but is so authoring your story to lead you to put your faith in Jesus and be so made like him!

Then we have this peculiar language ‘… that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.’

What Paul means is that Jesus is eternally the Son of God and through faith in him we are adopted into his family and we have the immense privilege of being sons and daughters of God and as we are brought in through faith in the Son of God. That as we’re adopted and brought in, Jesus then has countless brothers and sisters.

This concept of firstborn is very common in the Bible where among brothers you’d have the firstborn which wasn’t always necessarily how we’d use it as a literal firstborn but rather meaning supreme, above all, greatest. And as we are brought into the family of God, welcomed in through Jesus and Jesus alone, of course Jesus is supreme among us, of course he is most worthy among us! It is only through him that any of us are children of God and therefore what is left except worship and praise?

Then there are those who are ‘called’. Known as that effectual call of God whereby he convinced us of our sin, our need of Christ and enabled us to embrace Christ by faith. That moment we believed on Jesus there was a stirring of our souls, a drawing to himself was that moment we were called unto him to believe on him. We didn’t just wake up one day and decide, ‘Do you know what? I think I’ll be a Christian.” No, we were drawn to him to believe in him.

‘No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them…’ (John 6:44)

We didn’t wise up and put our trust in Jesus, we didn’t drum up faith within ourselves, no we were drawn, we were called by the Father, it was him who called us!

Those whom he called he also ‘justified’. Justified is one we hear often, but what does it mean?Well, it’s a statement God makes of us, it’s a position we stand in whereby we are declared righteous in his sight as if we hadn’t sinned at all and in fact as if we had kept the law entirely. When we put our faith in Jesus our sins and the record attached to it are cancelled out and the righteousness which belongs to Jesus is given to our account.

It is to say, having been called and thus enabled to put our faith in Jesus we are then justified, we are declared righteous in God’s sight as if we had kept the law perfectly. You and I whose faith is in Jesus stand before God today justified, declared righteous through faith in Jesus and our union with him.

Friends, who got the ball rolling in the story of your salvation? God! How does this apply to our live? It results in humility.

‘For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast.’   (Ephesians 2:8-9)

2. God Completes our Salvation

Now there is much we don’t know about our glorified bodies and life when Jesus comes again, but if we just stick to what is in our passage, we read in verse that we will be ‘… conformed to the image of his son.’ So we can focus on one aspect – being made like Jesus.

‘Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, e shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.’   (1 John 3:2)

Here it is spoken of in the past tense as if it has already happened. We see it in Isaiah 9 and the promise of the wonderful counsellor; ‘…the people walking in darkness have seen a great light.’ it was ultimately a future event but it was spoken of in the past because its coming about was so certain.

We have promises like the one in 1 John 3, we have the promise of Philippians 1:6 which assure us of our destination, we will be like Christ, he who began a good work in us is going to see it through right to the very end.

What is that end? To be like Christ. To be made like him. To love God completely, wholly and perfectly as we always ought to have. To spend eternity serving him gladly. No sin to trip us up, no temptations to lead us astray, no selfishness or pride, no greed or malice, no lust or anger, we will love him as we always have wanted to, as we always ought to, as we often fail to do now.

We will be like Jesus and it will be glorious! Jesus said, ‘If you’ve seen me, you’ve seen the Father.’   (John 14:9) In other words, he is the perfect representation of what God is like to the world. Friends, in glory we will be like Jesus, in glory we will perfectly represent the Father’s beauty and goodness.

The longer I’m a Christian, the more I long for the new creation for more than just what God is going to do out there, though that will be glorious, but for what God is going to do in here as in a flicker I will be changed, in a flicker you will be changed. We will be made like Jesus and it will be glorious.

But we hear all that and for many of you here, I know it can be for me sometimes, it feels a million miles away and it can be hard to see how my life now can get to my life in glory. For now, we live in the tension spoken of of present suffering and future hope throughout this section of Romans 8, for the believer it is felt most keenly when it comes to being made like Jesus.

You and I walk in the days of the now and the not yet. We are declared righteous in Christ though the reality of our lives is often a mixed bag of the good Christ is working in us and the remnant of our sinful nature. We are sanctified, made holy but we’re also progressively being made holy. So much of our lives is marked by living up to the reality of our new identity all the while experiencing the tension that we don’t presently live up to it.

Do you find yourself despondent as you have a pattern of sin you’re all too aware of that won’t seem to budge?
Do you find yourself dismayed that after 30 years as a Christian, 40 years as a Christian you have still so long to go in your path of becoming more like Jesus?
Do you find yourself discouraged by what is often your knee-jerk reaction to things? Prone to flare up in anger? Prone to gossip? Prone to pride?

And you look at your life and you’re hanging onto these promises of future glory by the skin of your teeth wondering if you’ll get there.

Friends, your eternal future is a certainty that if you’re following after Jesus in repentance and faith no matter how ineffective you find your repenting, no matter how small your faith why? Because the certainty of your salvation is not found in you. The certainty of your salvation is found in God and in God alone.

As you look to to verses 29 and 30 who is the only actor? Is it you? Is it your perseverance and Godliness? Is it your faithfulness? NO! It is all to do with God. God foreknew, God predestined, God called, God justified, God glorified.

Your salvation is secure because your salvation is not based upon you and anything you ultimately bring to the table. It is based entirely upon God. And God never changes that includes his commitment to his promises, that includes his faithfulness to his people. That includes his commitment to you if you are his.

If your salvation is dependent upon you it is a very precarious position to be in. You are forced into the ‘He loves me, he loves me not’ pattern and you can never truly experience the rest God offers and provides. But as it is, your salvation is certain and sure if you are in Christ, why? Because it is God who is from beginning to end the author of your salvation.

It is secure, not simply because God is the author of salvation but, because of what is known as the golden chain. These are all like links in a chain and that chain is not broken. God foreknowing necessitates his predestining, necessitates his calling, necessitates his justifying, necessitates his glorifying.

There are not some Christians who have been foreknown but not predestined, there are not some Christians who have been called but not justified.

R Kent Hughes : All who begin will finish.

I don’t know about you, I often find myself starting things I don’t finish. Books, to-do lists, the text I meant to send 2 days ago. But God, God never starts something he never sees through.

Therefore as you stand in the place of having been foreknown, predestined, called, and justified, there is no doubt that you will also one day be glorified. And so as you wrestle with your own shortcomings, as you struggle to even imagine being perfected into the likeness of Christ, as you can’t see it currently, the invitation is to behold that reality by faith.

And to think of the context of this passage: present suffering, future glory that’s why we can count it all joy when we face trials of various kinds. Why? Because every grief you experience, every tear you cry, every unexpected and unwanted illness, every difficult relationship is producing something glorious, namely Christ in you.

You are tried and tempted in this life and you suffer why? Is this one big practical joke from a sick and twisted God? No friends, far from it. It is the fire he uses to refine you to purify you, to make you like Christ.

So as you suffer, as you grieve, as you mourn not only can you can sing with confidence and with hope as you look to the certainty of your eternal future, you can also look to your future hope in great joy and anticipation because you know where that future includes! You will be like Christ.

Friends, press on with confidence and hope though weighed down by your sin and your suffering, look to Christ and know that he is speaking hope to you even now. God is using your painful experiences now to shape and mould you into the likeness of Christ. And know this, what God starts he finishes. He isn’t giving up on you, he who began a good work in you will see it through to completion on the day of Christ. And on that day, we will be changed for we will be like him.

With tears in your eyes, with grief in your heart you can sing and live joyfully and triumphantly today, holding fast to the hope that we have for he who promised is faithful, he will surely do it.

Sermon: Sunday, 19th January, 2025
Speaker: Geoff Murray
Scripture: Romans 8:5-7

1. True freedom isn’t what you think

Now before we explore this point, we need to first understand what Paul means here by the ‘flesh’ because he uses it a lot here and if you’re unfamiliar with the Bible, you’ve probably never used flesh other than flesh which covers our human skeleton. Reading it that way would make no sense.

‘… those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires.’ (Romans 8:5)

So, what does Paul mean here? I think it’s something like what he is meaning in Galatians 5 where he speaks of the works of the flesh of being sinful acts and sinful ways which are in opposition to God’s ways. And I think we see that in how the way of the Spirit, the Holy Spirit is being contrasted with the works of the flesh. I don’t think it’s reading too much into it to read flesh as ‘sinful nature, sinful ways, sinful desires.’ It is essentially living to please yourself.

And Paul when he speaks about life in ‘the flesh’, in other words, life following your own sinful patterns and behaviours, he speaks about it in the following terms:

‘Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so.’   (Romans 8:5-7)

It’s fair to say Paul doesn’t speak in glowing terms about all of this; so let’s break these three things down.

a) Living in the flesh doesn’t set us free but enslaves us
I think when we commonly think of freedom, it’s exactly what we think of: doing what I want to do when I want to do it, how I want to do it. But does that make you truly free? Is freedom possible just by doing everything and anything you want to do?

Well actually, it’s very limiting to simply live the way you want to live, you’re limited to your desires.

If we are ‘in the flesh’ as Paul says, we can only respond as the ‘flesh’ desires. ‘The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so.’ (Romans 8:7)

Those in the flesh can only set their minds upon what the flesh desires. Indeed, those who live according to the flesh are incapable of doing anything but. Those who live according to the flesh have no option, no alternative but to want what they want and often times do what they want to do.

This deep-level heart change John was speaking of last week, this inner transformation of the will and the desires cannot happen if you are ‘in the flesh’. Why? Because you might try to fight it by sheer gritted teeth and hard work, yet you will be constantly frustrated because you will still want that thing that you are denying yourself of. And so you may try to change but have no power to change your desire for it.

You might do the self-talk thing and say to yourself, ‘But this thing I want is wrong, don’t do it, it’s wrong.’ Yet we cannot be convinced not to do something just by telling ourselves it is wrong. The heart wants what the heart wants.

You might even stifle it. Perhaps you are bitter towards someone. You may be able to stifle it by not exploding at them and giving them a piece of your mind and so it appears there are no problems. Yet, what is going on in your heart at that moment? Are you a spring of cheer and goodwill towards that person? No, you hate them and that bitterness is poisoning your heart. You are happy when something doesn’t go their way and you resent when things are going well for them.

You see, there’s a social code, there are things which you can’t say or can’t do that you’d like to do. Maybe it’s telling your boss to take a hike. Perhaps it’s a family tradition that you cannot be bothered with but everyone else loves. There are ways in which we can hide and conceal, but at the deepest internal places, you can only do what your heart wants.

The reality of life ‘in the flesh’ is you cannot change. You are stuck in the same old patterns. Rules of any kind, whether man-made or whether from God have no power to change your heart, have no power to change your desires, have no power to give you a new direction and a new purpose in life.

Because the heart wants what the heart wants, those ‘in the flesh’ are unable to change allegiances to God, they are unable to follow Jesus in faith and obedience and they are unable to change at that deep heart level.

Let’s talk about anger. You know you shouldn’t be so angry, you know you’re getting way too wound up about things that don’t really matter, you know it’s affecting those around you. You know the way you’re responding isn’t helpful but harmful. You know you need to change. Yet does simply the knowledge you need to change make you change? Does the knowledge that your anger is wrong make you change? There needs to be a change of heart.

There are times we’re faced with the conflict of knowing what is the right thing to do and what we want to do. And often times our hearts give in to what our hearts want. And even if we do swallow our pride and do the right thing over the thing we really want to do, it is begrudging. Like a child saying, ‘Fine! I’ll tidy my room.’ The room is tidy, but the heart is bitter. So, even if we can change outwardly, that deeper change is hard to come by.

b) Living by the flesh sets us at loggerheads with God

‘The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so.’ (Romans 8:7) You may say, ‘Hostile to God? No way! I’m not really that fussed about him? How can I be hostile?’

But putting things in their context. If God is creator of the universe which he is, if we as his creation owe him love, worship and obedience which we do, yet if we do not and cannot do that, what is that except rebellion against him? What is that except hostility towards one in authority over you? How does that hostility show?

The flesh doesn’t submit: it’s a willing choice. even the word submit perhaps make your toes curl, submit means to be under and as a society, that is an unpalatable thought. Submitting to anything or anyone is contrary to our understanding of freedom.

Those walking in line with the flesh don’t submit to God’s law; neither the letter or the spirit.

• The letter of the law – if we’ve broken one of God’s laws we’ve broken them all (James 2:10), so all of us have been unable to submit to God’s law. The typical thing would be to look to the Ten Commandments and reel them off and see how we have loved people and things more than God, how we haven’t honoured our parents like we should, how we have envied our neighbour and wanted what they had that wasn’t ours.

• The spirit of the law – Jesus summarises God’s law, not in terms of the letter but in terms of the Spirit, love God with all you are and love your neighbour as yourself. You have neither loved God with all your heart nor have you loved your neighbour as yourself. Going back to the Ten Commandments you may think, ‘Murder, that’s easy!’ But Jesus said, ‘If you are angry with a brother you have murdered him in your heart.’

And so, because the one living “in the flesh” living simply to please themselves can’t change outside of what they want, they therefore won’t and can’t submit to God which puts them at loggerheads with God and brings us to our final point.

c) Living ‘in the flesh’ is short-sighted

‘The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace.’   (Romans 8:6)

Of course, it’s not implied that if you follow through with your sinful deed, boom that’s you on the spot. But what is saying is that if you continue on living in the flesh, it heads in a certain trajectory. If you head down the path of sin, it only goes in one direction and that is the path of death. (See Proverbs 1:1-5)

Of course due to the first human, Adam, we all due to sin head to a physical death. Even Christians. Yet, there is another death in view. A spiritual and eternal death. Earlier in Romans 6, we saw ‘the wages of sin is death’. The end result is not just a physical death, not just a descent into nothingness, but actually an eternity in hell separated from God forever.

And because of what we looked at before, namely, that those in the flesh can only do what they want to do, sinners are sleepwalking into a lost eternity and they couldn’t care less. Little by little as they are simultaneously charmed and disenfranchised with the world around them and themselves, they become desensitised to their need for God, they become more and more numb to eternal things.

Until eventually in a moment, they’ll know exactly what’s up. Either when Jesus comes again or they die and go to hell. It’ll hit them like a ton of bricks. And they will be separated from God forever.

And so living ‘in the flesh’ is incredibly short-sighted because when you simply live to please yourself, you aren’t thinking of the unintended consequences of what is to come, choosing to live in the moment.

And so given all of this, freedom isn’t what you think it is, it isn’t simply doing what you want to do and in fact that is no freedom at all but slavery to self which separates you from God and leads you to to an eternity apart from him.

So, perhaps you’re here as someone who isn’t a believer in Jesus yet. Can I just get you to consider for a moment that you’re not as free as you think you are. You’re at loggerheads with God, you’re living an incredibly short-sighted life because if you continue in this path it is an eternity apart from God in hell which awaits. As we’ll get to see in a moment that actually the true path to freedom is found in Jesus. May I encourage you to consider, to think that you aren’t as free as you think you are and that the only path to freedom is through Jesus Christ.

Or perhaps you’re on the fence. You’re a Christian but you’re just considering throwing in the towel, friend, please don’t. This is where it leads. It leads not to freedom but to slavery, it leads not to life but to death, it leads not to peace with God but enmity with God now and forever. Don’t go back to your old way, but press on in repentance, faith and obedience.

2. True freedom is better than you think it is

So true freedom is not what you think it is just doing your own thing and pleasing yourself, what is true freedom then? And how is it better? On the face of it, it seems equally as limited. The flesh can only set its mind on the flesh the Spirit can only set its mind on what the Holy Spirit wants. Except that’s not what it’s saying.

Before Jesus intervenes, we’re in a situation where we only please ourselves and cannot please God, we therefore cannot change at the deepest internal levels even if we can modify our behaviours. Yet when Jesus, by his Spirit, intervenes he opens up a new way to us. We’re still subject to death because of sin. (See verse 10) Sin is still a feature, it’s still a part of our life but because the entrance of the Holy Spirit into the picture and into our lives we can change with his help. It means we are directed in a new way.

But how is this freedom? If we’re still subject to something or someone, how can we be free? Well, under the Spirit of God, he is at work in us making us the people we were originally intended to be to live the lives we were meant to live. The Spirit sets us free to be who God intends us to be. Furthermore, the Spirit sets us free from the cycle of self and enables us to move towards God and others.

I said this last week in Leven but the common misconception about Christianity is that it’s a list of rules and therefore people say, ‘Ah, you’re a christian, does that mean you can’t do that? Does that mean you have to do this?’ It’s as if we’re somehow brainwashed or held against our will. The reality is when you put your faith in the Lord Jesus, are indwelt by the Spirit you are given new desires, desires to please him and honour him. (See John 14:16, 15:26, 16:14)

So all of a sudden, we have a new desire, a desire to honour God, a desire to live for him and that isn’t a coincidence. Whereas in the ‘flesh’ we have no power to change, actually in the Spirit we are freed from the same destructive patterns which repeat themselves because we have a new way opened up to us.

And it isn’t marked by the same level of frustration and wheel-spinning-but-going-nowhere because there is a new power living in us whose very role is to lead us on in worship, in faith and obedience. And when I say a new power, I mean the same power that raised Jesus is living in you right now as a believer. (See verse 11)

This isn’t about anything impressive about the you or me, this is all the Spirit’s doing. We, once unable to change ourselves, now in God’s kindness have a desire to change and a power to change and his name is the Holy Spirit.

The mark of a true believer that their life takes on this new direction and this new purpose which is Godward. If you are filled with the Spirit of God and belong to God, your following after him it’ll be imperfect, it’ll be messy, it’ll be coloured by sin but yet it will be marked with a desire to know and love and honour God.

And so that is one of the ways in which true freedom is better than you think. Life in the flesh it’s very black and white. The law simply says to those in the flesh, ‘This is what I require and you fall short, death is your end.’ Whereas life in the Spirit says, ‘This is what I require, and though you fall short, Jesus’ righteousness is what covers you and by His Spirit you are given new life.’

Christian, do you feel a bit discouraged as you come today? You want to change but you see so many areas of your life which is contrary to God’s way and what he calls you to. And you perhaps reason there isn’t sufficient change in your life. Can you really be a Christian if you still struggle with areas of pride or anger? Can you really be a Christian if you let out these swear words?

I think if there is a genuine fight and battle, a genuine desire to honour God you’re on the right track. Do you see, if we flip back to ‘life in the flesh’ the flesh doesn’t want to honour God, but those who are in the Spirit want to honour God.

Most likely there are 101 things you see that need to be sorted out and they probably do, but the fact you see that as a problem and aren’t sleepwalking into sinful patterns is crucial. Of course, feelings aren’t the be all and end all, sometimes we are unmoved by sin, sometimes we are unmoved by God. But feelings can be a strong indicator. People in the flesh don’t want to honour God only those who are in the Spirit.

And so if you feel down and out today, if you wonder if you could be a Christian because of the mess, the junk and the sin still in your life, yet that troubles you and grieves you, and you are seeking with his help to change, stop and think, ‘If I weren’t a Christian, none of this would bother me.’ The Spirit of God gives you new desire to honour and obey him, repent and ask for forgiveness for your shortcomings, but know that if your life is marked by a tender conscience which wants to honour the Holy Spirit and is grieved when you don’t – that is a healthy sign. As the text says in verse 10: ‘… though your body is dead because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness.’

That is to us life and peace. (See verse 6) In the midst of our ongoing battle with sin, in the midst of our failings and imperfections that for those of us who have the Spirit of God, we are children of God, that is settled. We have new life, not to the degree of spirituality in us but to the degree to which God is life and light.

A new start, a new life that was not and is not our own doing. The life belongs to God it’s not down to our genius or our spirituality, he has given it to us. And as a result we can know peace. Our relationship with God isn’t based upon our performance.

Our relationship with God through faith in Jesus is settled and it’s final because it rests in what God has already done for us. Do you want to talk about freedom? What is more freeing than that? That God doesn’t love you more because of the good things you do and he doesn’t love you less because of the bad things you have done but in Jesus his love for you is settled.

There’s nothing more enslaving than feeling the need to prove yourself because you’re always on edge, always watching out and hoping that nobody notices when you mess up, hoping that your good is good enough. Yet in the gospel, we aren’t looking over our shoulder wondering if God is going to cut us off at any moment, we rest in the reality of God’s settled love for us in Jesus Christ.

Do you think of God as one who, is gracious to save you and rescue you but once you’re in you need to prove yourself? A kind of ‘Over to you now’ situation? It couldn’t be further from the truth, it is from beginning to end: grace.

I love how Paul describes the totality of salvation in Ephesians 1 as ‘every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places’.

• He chose us before the foundation of the world
• He predestined us for adoption into his family
• We have redemption through the blood of Jesus
• He revealed his will to us
• Chief among the gifts is the Holy Spirit who is a deposit guaranteeing our coming redemption and rescue when Jesus comes again.

All of it is grace. From beginning to end. This is why we are secure in his love, this is why we are freed up to serve him because its ultimately his doing.

Of course we have to exert ourselves, that comes up in verse 13 unmistakably and in so many other places but it is in the wider context of God’s power and grace at work leading us home.

To tee us up for verse 13 which will be covered next week, this is what empowers our obedience, this is what empowers our lives as Christians: the glorious freedom of the gospel. Our identity, the love lavished on us, the Fatherhood of God, the presence of the Holy Spirit isn’t ours because of how we measure up or because we’ve earned it, it’s ours because of his grace.

As you go out in service to him, you needn’t fear that God is leaving you to get on with it, go out sure that the Holy Spirit will empower you, he will strengthen you, he will enable you to live obedient lives and where you fail his grace is waiting for you to scoop you up and to set you back on your feet again. So you needn’t give up, or feel helpless, in fact you have all the reason more to keep going and to press on.

Friends true freedom is not what you think, it’s not found in doing what you want to do. True freedom is better than you think because the Spirit of God enables new life and eternal hope, he enables great change in your life and though at times you fail he walks with you.

Sermon: Sunday, 13th October, 2024
Speaker: Geoff Murray
Scripture: Romans 3:27-30

1. No room for boasting

Given all that we’ve been studying in previous weeks, we see that we’re all sinful – whether we are overtly immoral, whether we are respectable or whether we are religious – every single one of us is sinful and separated from God. So there’s no room for boasting because everyone is in the same boat.

It’s not as if one group is in pole position, first place; there isn’t one type of person who is more favourable in that sense. We cannot boast that, ‘Okay, we were all saved but there was a part of me which kind of earned it or a part of me that was more lovable or saveable.’ No, there is no room for boasting because everyone in the same predicament and none were more favourable to get out.

As we saw last week, in Romans 3:22, righteousness from God has been given through faith to all who believe. Righteousness that is given. Not earned, given through faith. And we read in verse 24 that we are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. In other words, before God’s judgement seat we are declared righteous, just, good, not for any good in us, not because of anything we’ve done, but as a gift, freely given by his grace, in other words given in a lavish display of undeserved kindness.

Undeserved how? Because not only did we do nothing to earn it, we actually did everything to disqualify ourselves from it. It isn’t like we are neutral and pushed our way up but didn’t quite manage and God said, ‘Okay in you come.’ It was that we were in the red, we disqualified and discredited ourselves because of our sin and God forgave us when we trusted in his son Jesus. And now, though we were sinners we are declared righteous in God’s judgement through faith in Jesus Christ.

So back to Paul’s question. Where is boasting? Well, he answers. It is excluded. There’s no room for boasting. Boasting is excluded because we never deserved salvation due to being sinners. No, people are justified, declared righteous in God’s sight, because of faith, not because of works of the law. And then Paul stops to say, ‘… or is God the God of Jews only? No, he is the God of the Gentiles too!’

And it might seem strange to go there, why would he ask that question? Well, because there was a bit of a superiority complex among Jews. They were the chosen people of God, the only chosen people of God, Gentiles, non-Jews, for a time were excluded. It was the Jews who received the 10 commandments, it was the Jews who had God’s presence in their midst for much of their history. In many cases there’s a bit of a chip on the shoulder of Jews. But Paul blows that right out of the water, ‘Is he the God of the Jews only?’ No, Paul says, he is also the God of the Gentiles who justifies both Jew and Gentile, both circumcised and uncircumcised by faith.

The ground is level at the cross. At the cross we are told two things; we are all sinners and, for those who trust in Jesus’ sacrifice for us on the cross, we are all alike made righteous. Before these realities there is no room for spiritual pride, there is no room for looking down on others in the faith. There is no room for self-righteousness. If there is spiritual pride and arrogance Christ will pop that particular bubble.
He may pop that bubble in one of two ways or in both ways.
a. He will show you your sin
b. The Christian you may be looking down upon will shine brightly and show you God’s work in them.

Friends, God can and will use those we may think less of to show us that our righteousness is not in being as pious as we are, or being as biblically literate as we are or so on, God will use others we may, in our sin, think less of to show us we aren’t as great as we think we are.

Are you tempted to spiritual pride? Friends, let it go, leave it be. In the gospel, we cannot and must not look down on our brothers and sisters in faith. So where then is boasting? Paul answers emphatically. It is excluded.

Leave your pride behind, look to the cross and be humbled, know that you stand today because God saved you, God is at work in you and though we work at it and press on to follow Jesus, what does HE who began the good work, what will he do? HE will continue it through to completion on the day of Christ. It’s all of Him so that even your striving, even your serving, even your doing is empowered by him.

2. No room for the law?

‘Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the law.’ (Romans 3:31)

Paul continues to discuss the role of God’s law in the life of a Christian. He opens up with this in later in this epistle; ‘What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning, so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?’ (Romans 6:1-2)

But this is an age-old question which has haunted the church. Wherever there is this emphasis on justification by faith not by our works, that some ask, ‘Well, why bother obeying if we’re justified anyway.’ They of course won’t put it so crassly as that but nonetheless, that is the attitude. Careless living because Jesus paid for our sin.

Paul anticipates this question in verse 31, ‘Do we nullify the law by this faith?’ I’ll not say too much on this because Paul will bring this out in Romans 6-8 further so we’ll get there.

Yet this question always comes back because as religious, as self-righteous as we can be, we can also be pretty good at the lawless side too. Not maybe rampant lawlessness, but overlooking certain sins, flirting with some sins, justifying your sin because it’s not as bad as someone else’s. Just because we are justified by faith alone, not by our works, does not mean we’ve to throw caution to the wind and just ignore all God has commanded. Actually, one of the clearest places in scripture which speaks of this this dynamic is Ephesians. ‘For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.’ (Ephesians 2:8-10)

And perhaps you need to hear that today. You’re way too casual with sin, way too accepting of it, you can sort of have a relaxed attitude with it because, ‘Well it’s okay, I have been forgiven.’ But that’s not the pattern of it at all. We’re saved by God’s grace through faith in Christ, and we’re saved in order to serve Christ. As Paul begins to answer this question more fully in chapter 6 he says actually we are now slaves to righteousness. That as we are saved by faith in Jesus, there is a new direction of travel in life, a Godward direction. We no longer live for self but for God.

‘But with you there is forgiveness, so that we can, with reverence, serve you.’ (Psalm 130:4)

So the call here if you perhaps do use God’s grace as license to live carelessly is to repent, to ask for God’s forgiveness and we will see at the end of our passage, that as we do God is pleased to forgive us our sin, to cover them, to never count those sins against you. So come to him in repentance and faith and trust him.

3. The Example of Abraham

Paul jumps onto the example of Abraham next and we’ll look at that next week but we begin this heading in chapter 4 and verse 1-3.

Paul makes use of one of the most important figures in the Old Testament, Abraham. I suppose in many senses the most important figure. It is he who is the ‘father of many nations’ from his offspring the Lord Jesus came, we who trust in Jesus by faith are called children of Abraham in Galatians 3 because we belong to the same family, the family of faith. We may not be of a national or ethnic lineage like the Jews were but actually, we know that isn’t what is important. The question of whether we’re in the family of Abraham or not has little to do with our ethnicity or religious upbringing, and it has everything to do with faith in Abraham’s offspring, Jesus Christ.

To the Jews, Abraham is revered. The father of the Jewish religion and whilst he did get it wrong, his life is one of trusting God of obedience to him. What about Abraham, what did he discover, Paul asks? ‘… if he was justified because of works he had something to boast about, but not before God, what does the scripture say? Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness.’

So, Paul is saying here, he was not justified by works in fact he had nothing to boast about before God. Rather, Abraham believed God and it was credited as righteousness. Paul quotes the Old Testament Scriptures, Genesis 15, the Torah, to say, even Abraham the Father of the Jewish religion, even Abraham who the Torah spoke of was justified, not by his works but by his faith. If even Abraham in the days of the Fathers, justification was not by works, but by faith. Faith in the promise given to Abraham that he would have offspring through whom the blessing would come to all the nations. It was he who fathered Isaac, who fathered Jacob, who fathered the twelve tribes of Israel and that family tree works all the way down to Jesus the one who would come to save us from our sins and bring the blessing of salvation to all the earth.

4. The Blessing of Following Abraham’s Example

When we follow Abraham’s example and trust in God’s word, his word which we know more about than Abraham did, his word which tells us that when we trust in Jesus’ death in our place to pay for our sins we have our sins, forgiven, covered. We sang in Psalm 32 and have from psalm 32 in our passage these wonderful words. Where is the peak of all human happiness, flourishing and good? It is having our sins forgiven, covered, forgotten by God.

God, the offended party offers forgiveness, offers a pardon, offers never to count your sin against you again.

How do you respond when people wrong you? Give them the cold shoulder? Give them the silent treatment? Keep bringing up their wrongs to them? Friends, God’s offer to you today if you’re not a Christian is to trust that he will count you right in his sight when you trust in Jesus’ death in your place. You may be aware of your wrong and the times you get it wrong, but God’s promise of forgiveness for your sins, of cleansing from the stain of sin, of forgetting all your wrongs to him and welcoming you in, that’s the offer to you today. But God calls you to trust in his promise that he justifies the unrighteous by faith, he calls you to trust that he declares you righteous if you trust in his son’s death in your place on the cross.

Trust in that promise, what a blessed and joyous place to be! What a reality to celebrate! God cancelling your record of wrongs against you promising not to ever bring it up again. Trust in that promise today friends and know the blessedness of Abraham, of David who wrote that psalm, of every Christian alive today. And perhaps you are a Christian but you wonder if, though God says he has forgiven you, he kind of resents it, kind of sees you sin again and sighs and thinks, ‘He’s always doing this.’ or’She’s always going down this path.’

But one of the greatest blessings of being the blessed man of psalm 32 is that God will never count your sin against you. Not now, not in 5 years time, not on your death bed, not even on the day of judgement. If your trust is in Jesus, he will never hold your sin against you, he will never bring up your past, he will never use your past as a weapon to condemn you. Friends, if you’re trusting in Jesus and you have a tender conscience, please know this, God has never, is not, and never will hold your sins against you.

That is surely what we celebrated last Sunday in the Lord’s Supper, Christ crucified for you
That is surely what we sang of last week in the hymn ‘Before the throne’;
Because the sinless Saviour died,
my sinful soul is counted free;
for God the Just is satisfied
to look on Him and pardon me;
to look on Him and pardon me./em>

That is what we rejoice in as believers, that is what we celebrate, that as his people he never holds our sin against us ever again, the price was paid, the punishment endured by our saviour Jesus. And that’s what brings us back full circle to the whole theme of these past few weeks.

Friends, the way of faith is the only way and it does a number of key things:
• It leads to our boasting and pride being squashed.
• It leads us to radically God-centred lives
• It leads us to the path of great blessing, of sins forgiven, of conscience cleansed, of restored fellowship with our God.

Sermon: Sunday, 8th September, 2024
Speaker: Geoff Murray
Scripture: Romans 1:8-17

1. The Gospel makes us family

Paul, as he usually does in his letters, gives thanks for the people he’s writing to, he prays for them.

‘First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is being reported all over the world. God, whom I serve in my spirit in preaching the gospel of his Son, is my witness how constantly I remember you in my prayers at all times…’ (Romans 1:8-10)

His love for them is so evident. Not just that he thanks God with such joy for them but that he’s constantly remembering them in prayer. The love that he has that he is frequently and often bringing them before God. Paul as we know had great suffering, he could have been completely consumed with his own worries and cares, but he isn’t, he is praying for the church in Rome often.

His love on that level is remarkable, but it gets even more remarkable in that he doesn’t know these people. He prays that the way at last may be finally opened to him to see them, having planned to come but not managed yet.

So he prays for them regularly and gives thanks for them regularly even though he’s never met them. But he wants to meet them. Why?

‘I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong – that is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith.’ (Romans 1:11-12)

So that, as they meet for the first time, as Paul shares the good news of the gospel, as he shares his life, as he hears first-hand what God is doing in Rome that they may be encouraged.

And it is one of the things which makes the gospel powerful is that it turns strangers into family. Paul, as I said, has never met these people before, yet he speaks to them as ‘brothers’ or ‘brothers and sisters’, he prays for them and gives thanks for them often, he longs to be with them. How can this be so seeing as they have never met?

It’s because all of a sudden when we meet Jesus and have lives transformed, we’re united to him and as we’re united to him, we’re also united to brothers and sisters the world over. We’ve all been adopted into God’s family. We all share the most important thing in common: faith in Jesus Christ.

Those we were once separate from; we are now inextricably bound together with. We may be separated by geography, we may be separated by language, we may be separated by culture, we may be separated by church tradition or background but despite that, we are united together, bound together as family through faith in Jesus Christ.

This that Paul is speaking about, of being mutually encouraged by one another’s faith, that is genuinely the opportunity that is before you, that as you go the church should be so glad to meet you and your presence among them will be an encouragement, and you will be encouraged as you see what God is doing in another part of the world.

When you meet Christians from other parts of the world, you’re able to hit it off immediately because you have the most important one in common, Jesus Christ. So, I don’t know if/when you are going to go on holiday next, but if you are going, look ahead to what church you’ll go to. Bless and be blessed.

2. The Gospel makes us debtors

Paul (in chapter verses 5 and 6) tells us his calling as a believer was as an Apostle to the Gentiles among whom are the church in Rome. And even as he has prayed for them and longs to be with them to minister to them and that has to do with his calling.

‘I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that I planned many times to come to you (but have been prevented from doing so until now) in order that I might have a harvest among you, just as I have had among the other Gentiles. I am a debtor both to Greeks and non-Greeks, both to the wise and the foolish. That is why I am so eager to preach the gospel also to you who are in Rome.’ (Romans 1:13-15)

I suppose there’s two ways you might be in someone’s debt. The first would be that someone gave you money as a loan and you owed them it back and the second would be if someone gave you money to give to someone else. You’d all of a sudden be a debtor to the person you’re due to give the money to.

It’s the second that is in view here. God has given the Apostle Paul this task of going to preach the gospel to the Gentiles and now all of a sudden, he is a debtor to the Gentiles, he is obligated to the Gentiles to go and share the good news with them.

That’s why he’s so eager to go to the church in Rome. That’s why he’s tried multiple times before to get to Rome to go and share the gospel, to have a harvest among them as he has the other Gentiles.

God has given him this calling to go to the Gentiles and he has. He’s been a fruitful evangelist and church planter among Gentiles but he is yet to make it to Rome.

God has given Paul this calling on his life and he goes after it with great enthusiasm, with great prayerfulness, with great intention. He isn’t indifferent whether this is fulfilled or not, he isn’t passive, he’s eager, he’s keen, he is on the front foot as it were.

This gospel message that is powerful, that brings salvation to all has come to Paul, more than that God has revealed it to him that it brings salvation to all, even Gentiles and that has propelled him forward in a cause greater than himself for God’s glory.

And I get that we’re not Apostles like Paul, I get that we don’t have this very specific call to go to a very specific people. But we all as God’s people have the call to make Christ known.

What leads us to do this? It is having received this all-powerful gospel and receiving this great task of becoming debtors to the world as Paul was a debtor to the Gentiles. To receive this high calling much greater than ourselves to be called to go and share this good news we have received.

What do you spend your time living for? What is your greatest pursuit? Having been shown mercy and grace in Jesus Christ, having been given new life, is it not telling others of this mercy you’ve received? Pointing to one greater than yourself to point others to him?

Friends, let it be so, and especially as we approach our third and final point.

3. The Gospel makes us righteous

The gospel is powerful because it brings salvation for all who believe, why is that powerful? Because in the gospel a righteousness is revealed, but what makes that so powerful is by ourselves we don’t have it, as Paul will go on to explain throughout Romans, we need it, we desperately need it, we are, in our natural selves, before Christ intervenes, separated from God because we don’t have it.

‘For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed – a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: ‘The righteous will live by faith.’ (Romans 1:16-17)

For something to be revealed means that there was a time when it wasn’t revealed to us, in other words there was a time where we did not possess righteousness, we did not know righteousness, yet it was given to us.

We tend to think we’re pretty good people by all accounts. Assuming I work hard, keep my nose clean, don’t steal, kill, or have an affair what’s the problem? I’m a good person. Well, there are miles apart from a ‘good’ person and a righteous person.

In the Bible, righteousness is ultimately bound up with the fact God is righteous. He does no wrong, he commits no evil, he is perfectly good, just and right in all he does. God is perfect without fault, all that he does is good.

And so when we’re thinking about righteousness, we ultimately have to think about God’s righteousness which is perfect, good and right. That’s why, ‘I’m a good person’ doesn’t cut it because next to God as the ultimate standard of righteousness, we all fall short. That’s great that you don’t murder people, but righteousness? You don’t come even close to it.

The great point which Paul brings out time and again in Romans is actually nobody comes close to it. Because we sin and fall short of God’s standard, that declaration of ‘righteous’ is absent.

The level of righteousness that’s required we simply don’t know a thing about by ourselves, it’s alien to us, God’s righteousness, you might as well be speaking a foreign language. None of us have it, none.

Paul will go onto say, the Jews – the people of God of old who God’s great promises through Abraham, who experienced his great rescue from slavery in Egypt in the Passover and the Red Sea Crossing, who received the 10 commandments, who were led to the promised land – they don’t have the righteousness of God. And the Gentiles, the nations, strangers to grace and to God, they don’t have the righteousness of God.

‘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 )

Every single person lacks the righteousness of God.

In the gospel, this righteousness is revealed in God, but as that is revealed, it’s revealed we don’t have it and that puts us in somewhat of a sticky situation to put it mildly. It puts us at odds with our creator, the Lord and sustainer of the universe, it puts us under his rightful judgement. He is righteous, we are not, that poses big problems for us entering God’s holy presence. That poses big problems for us in being right before him, accepted and loved. It means we are excluded from him, separated, rejected. God can’t bide with unrighteousness, so holy is he that nobody can go into his presence and live.

Until I am righteous, until you are righteous, that does not look to change any time soon. So how do we become righteous if we aren’t righteous?

‘For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed – a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: ‘The righteous will live by faith.’ (Romans 1:17)

And it seems counter to how we tend to work. We tend to think ‘do better’ ‘try harder’ ‘set up a plan in place’ ‘order and structure my life in such a way to make this possible.’

But in God’s kindness, it’s not set up that way. If his righteousness were revealed to us simply in the law, we would be going in circles, chasing our tail in vain, unable to receive the righteousness of God.

Actually, in God’s kindness, he gives us another way, the way of faith. The way of trusting in a righteous one outside of ourselves, the Lord Jesus Christ. The one who came, lived and died, who rose again on this earth and as he did so, he did so as a righteous man. One who lived his life in perfect obedience to God’s law, who did meet the standard we’ve never met.

Jesus came to give his life as a ransom for many. That as he lives, he lives as one righteously before God, yet as he dies, he dies as one in the place of sinners. The profound truth is that on the cross, Jesus stands in our place, though righteous, he becomes as if he were a sinner deserving wrath like you and me, yet through faith in his work for us, we stand in his place. We receive his righteousness, we receive his goodness.

It’s the same with us all. Righteousness doesn’t come when we try hard enough or meet our own yardstick measurement of righteousness. It’s a righteousness we do not have, could not attain by ourselves, yet it is a righteousness granted by faith in what Jesus has done for us.

God hasn’t gone soft or left righteousness behind. That righteousness has been fulfilled, it’s just not us that’s fulfilled it. That righteousness has been fulfilled by someone else, by another in our place, by Jesus Christ the Righteous One. The righteous demands are satisfied in him and as our substitute, he is one who takes our sin from us and gives us his righteousness so we can be declared right by God, not by any righteousness in us but by all the righteousness in him.

And notice, the gospel message brings salvation to all, to the Jew, to the Gentile, in short for all peoples. Just as all peoples lack the righteousness of God, so God offers all peoples the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ.

A word to you here if you’re not a professing believer, first of all I’m so glad you’re here because this is exactly the Bible text that lays all of this out clearly. But second of all, this offer of a righteousness by faith is yours

Whether you would consider yourself ‘religious’ or not, this offer is for you, Whether you would consider yourself a good person or not, this offer is for you
Whatever your nationality, race, gender, or identity, this offer is for you.

Would you take it this morning? The problem is great, all have sinned, none are righteous no not one, but the solution is a righteousness that is by faith in Jesus Christ. Won’t you trust in him and his salvation and receive his righteousness? You don’t have it, nobody on their own has it. Yet, Christ offers it freely when you trust in him. Trust in him this morning and find in him righteousness.

Perhaps you are a Christian and you struggle with assurance that God could possibly still accept you. You trust in Jesus and you try to follow him but keep tripping up the same old ways, “am I really righteous in God’s sight?” the answer is an absolute yes. Absolutely we’re told to press on in our Christian walks and to live godly lives but we are not righteous and never will be righteous in God’s sight because of the things we do, we will only ever have the necesarry righteousness to stand before God with and that is through faith in Jesus Christ alone. You’re not righteous before God today on the basis of what you did because you never were, you are only ever righteous in God’s sight through faith in Jesus Christ. So as you battle your own sin, temptations and experience your own failings, know that your faith in Jesus Christ provides all the righteousness you’ll ever need. Keep pressing on assured of the righteousness that is God’s gift to you by faith in Jesus.

What makes the gospel powerful for all who believe? Well, it drives us to the lowest place as it reveals a righteousness we don’t have and couldn’t ever hope to have in and of ourselves, but then it lifts us to the glorious heights of God providing it for us on the basis of faith in Jesus Christ. Though we deserve, every one of us without exception, to be separated from God forever, cut off, under his judgement, in his Son, he gives us the very best, he gives us the righteousness of God that we lack, the righteousness of Jesus by faith.

Place your faith in him and in him receive the righteousness that is by faith.