2011 GLCC 15th ANNIVERSARY MESSAGE SERIES 3: THE GOSPEL REVIEWED I. INTRO II. THE GOSPEL III. 7 IMPORTANT TRUTHS OF THE GOSPEL 1) No One Is Declared Righteous Before God by Observing the Law (vv ).

2) There is a Righteousness from God That Is Apart from Law (v. 21). 3) This Righteousness from God Is Received Through Faith in Jesus Christ (v. 22). 4) This Righteousness Is Available to Everyone on the Same Basis, Since All Have Sinned and Fall Short of the Glory of God (vv ).

All Who Put Their Faith in Jesus Christ Are Justified Freely by God’s Grace (v. 24). 5) All Who Put Their Faith in Jesus Christ Are Justified Freely by God’s Grace (v. 24). 6) This Justification Is “Through the Redemption That Came by Christ Jesus” (v. 24).  Charles Hodge: Redemption means “deliverance effected by the payment of a ransom.... That from which we are redeemed is the wrath of God; the price of our redemption is the blood of Christ.”

~ Though justification was totally free to us, it was in fact “purchased” by Christ with His blood. ~ Christ paid the ransom that redeemed us from God’s just and holy wrath.  At this point it will be helpful to distinguish between justification and a mere pardon. ~ A pardon is excusing an offense without exacting a penalty.

~ In God’s plan of justification, justice has been satisfied; the penalty has been fully paid by the Lord Jesus Christ. ~ In a sense, to justify is to declare that the claims of justice have been fully met.  We need to dwell more on the work of Christ as it satisfied the demands of God’s law.

~ It is a concept we need to become acquainted with in our daily lives. ~ When our consciences are smiting us because of our sin, it is important to reflect upon the fact that, though our sins are real and inexcusable, nevertheless God’s justice has already been satisfied through the “satisfaction of Christ,” that the penalty has been fully paid by Him.

7) God Presented Jesus as a Sacrifice of Atonement Through Faith in His Blood (v. 25).  NIV footnote: “sacrifice of atonement” – “as the one who would turn aside his [God’s] wrath, taking away sin.” ~ The atonement, then, assumes the wrath of God against sin, and our consequent liability to His holy and just wrath. ~ The atonement, then, assumes the wrath of God against sin, and our consequent liability to His holy and just wrath.

~ Rom 1:18; Eph 2:3~ Rom 1:18; Eph 2:3 ~ “ wrath of God” – not uncontrolled passion and hatred ~ “wrath of God” – not uncontrolled passion and hatred ~ D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones on the wrath of God: “His settled opposition to all that is evil, arising out of His very nature.... His nature is such that He abhors evil, He hates evil. His holiness of necessity leads to that.”

 Some Bible translations use the word propitiation. ~ Propitiation in the context of salvation means that which appeases the wrath of God against sin.  Two important points about Christ’s propitiation  First, God presented Him, or set Him forth as an atoning sacrifice.

~ When we are acutely conscious of our sin and think that God’s wrath must somehow be hanging over us, we need to remember that God the Father Himself is the One who devised a way whereby His wrath against sin might be fully executed apart from our experiencing the force of that wrath.

 The second point is that this propitiation is appropriated by us as sinners through faith in His blood. ~ The blood of Christ, referring to His death, is to be the object of our faith by which we appropriate His propitiation. ~ Heb 9:14 ~ 1Jn 1:7 ~ Heb 10:10

 Therefore when we are smarting under the conviction of sin, when we realize we’ve failed God one more time, perhaps even in the same sin, we must resort to the cleansing blood of Jesus.  It is not our contrition or sorrow for our sin, it is not our repentance that cleanses us.

~ It is the blood of Christ, shed once for all on Calvary two thousand years ago but appropriated daily or even many times a day, that cleanses our consciences and gives us a renewed sense of peace with God.

IV. PREACH THE GOSPEL TO YOURSELF  This then is the gospel with which we need to become thoroughly familiar and that we need to preach to ourselves every day.  To preach the gospel to yourself, then, means that you continually face up to your own sinfulness and then flee to Jesus through faith in His shed blood and righteous life.

~ It means that you appropriate, again by faith, the fact that Jesus fully satisfied the law of God, that He is your propitiation, and that God’s holy wrath is no longer directed toward you.  To preach the gospel to yourself means that you take at face value the precious words of Rom 4:7-8:“7 Blessed are those whose lawless deeds have been forgiven, and whose sins have been covered. 8 blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will not take into account.”

 It means that you believe on the testimony of God that, “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom 8:1). ~ It means you believe that, “Christ redeemed [you] from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for [you], for it is written: ‘Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree’” (Gal 3:13).

~ It means you believe He forgave you all your sins (Col 2:13) and now “[presents you] holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation” (Col 1:22).  Turning to the Old Testament, to preach the gospel to yourself means that you appropriate by faith the words of Isa 53:6: “We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”

 It means that you dwell upon the promise that God has removed your transgressions from you as far as the east is from the west (Ps 103:12), that He has blotted out your transgressions and remembers your sin no more (Isa 43:25). (See also Isa 38:17 and Mic 7:19 for other assurances of God’s forgiveness.)

 But it means you realize that all these wonderful promises of forgiveness are based upon the atoning death of Jesus Christ. ~ We must be careful that, in preaching the gospel to ourselves, we do not preach a gospel without a cross.

 This is the gospel by which we were saved, and it is the gospel by which we must live every day of our Christian lives. ~ Rom 3:24 – refers to what we might call our point-in-time salvation, the day we trusted in Christ. ~ Rom 5:2 – refers to our day-to-day standing before God as being on the same basis as our justification – that is, on the basis of grace.

 God is the “God of all grace” (1Pet 5:10) and is disposed to deal with us by grace, but not at the expense of His justice. ~ But with justice satisfied, God can now deal with us in grace, both in our salvation and in our day-to-day relationship with Him.