Key Scripture: Romans 5:1-2

Introduction:
Acts 20:24- “To testify to the gospel of the grace of God”. This is the calling of all who are followers of Jesus; that our lives and our understanding would testify of the gospel of grace. (Message Bible: incredibly extravagant generosity of God.)
From The Gospel Primer by Milton Vincent: “There is a problem and we’ve all been there- how to stay in the favor of God once He saves us. I was frustrated with the exhausting task of trying to stay in God’s good favor. I had labored seriously, and fervently to maintain my justified status before God, but I felt frustrated time and again. My sense was that God was frequently angry with me; angry because of my sin- my obvious sin, my secret sin, my sins of attitude, my judgments of myself and others. I would do one or all of three things:

Beat myself up in His presence to sufficiently show Him I was sorry.
Put a little distance between me and Him and my sin, long enough till my guilt diminished, hoping He would warm up to me again.
Commit myself to some good works to show that I was sufficiently repentant.
I even entertained a 4th point; giving up in disgust and saying, “It doesn’t work.”

These things would work for a while, but the quantity of times I failed God would eventually lead me to believe He was just fed up with me. Again and again I would repent and, with a burst of renewed energy, I would throw myself back into serving Him wholeheartedly. I went this way through college and even through seminary and even into my early years in full time ministry. The key was: I clung to my faith but never really could enjoy my faith. God was gracious to teach me many things along the way that continued to move me forward, but rest in Christ eluded me. One day, after having one of those intensely frustrating conversations with God in the car, I came home and opened my bible. I began reading Romans 5 out loud. I began to see something I had never seen before. It read:
Romans 5:1 “therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction, by faith, into this grace in which we stand. And we exult…” (Message Bible)

I. Embrace (preach) the gospel to yourself every day.

Martin Luther: “justification is fragile. Not in itself, but in us. I know how quickly a person can forget the joy of the Gospel. I know in what slippery places even those who seem to have a good footing in the matter…how easily the law and the legalist can rear up and rage all over our conscience. I say the gospel is frail because we are frail.”
Chuck Swindoll: “I am daily reminded of the need to give people permission to be free, absolutely free in Christ. Why? Because so few are. We get bound by legalistic dos and don’ts, immobilized by other’s demands and expectations, dictated to by those who have appointed themselves our judge and jury.”
How many times do you think Vincent read these verses? (Romans 5:1-2) He grew up reading his Bible. He went to seminary. He was a pastor. Here he is where he turned the corner.

1. “ My soul was stirred by the Apostle exulting in and rejoicing in, rather than being worried about his status before God.”
2. Romans 5:2 “We rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.” He (Vincent) began to see that to be justified meant that he was under God’s gracious favor at all times because of what Jesus did. “

“We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand.” Rejoice, God is at peace with you.”

II. The key word here is stand.
A. The gospel has everything to do with our standing before God.

I Cor. 15:1&3 “I remind you brothers of the gospel I preached to you…in which you stand, and by which you are being saved.” – “We must return to our standing in Him, and our enjoyment, our resting, our exalting in the gospel has to do with the constant rehearsing of our standing. This favored standing with God has nothing to do with my performance. But only with the performance of Jesus.”

III. God’s gracious favor

“I embrace the gospel for myself every day by rehearsing certain scriptures again and again, until I’m living in their truth.” (Vincent)
Galatians 2:20- “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God.”
He (Vincent) began to realize that his justification was not something to agitate over, but to exult in--not something to wrestle for, but to rest in.
“I began to see that absolutely 100% of the wrath- the anger, the frustration, the disappointment- that I deserved for my sin was truly spent on Jesus, and there was none of God’s anger left over for me to bear, even when I fail God as a Christian. I came to realize that God now has only love, compassion, and deepest affection for me, and this love is not in any way mixed with anger or wrath or disappointment. God always looks upon me and treats me with gracious favor. I may not see it, but it is real.”
“Everything God does for me is for my ultimate and eternal good. And this is true even when I sin. There is no hint of wrath from God. All His desires are to bring me to a better place for myself in this life. Sin makes me less than what God desires for me, so He will never let me stay in that sin, but is always at work to bring me out of my sin. He doesn’t push me away, but pulls me in because He has something better for me.”

IV. The Question

We do not sufficiently understand the gospel unless we can ask and answer “the question.”
Romans 5:20-21 “but where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more.”
Romans 6:1 “what shall we say then, shall we go on sinning that grace may abound?”
“God showed me that even when I sin, God’s grace abounds to me all the more as He graciously maintains my justified status.” (Vincent)

V. God’s righteousness is my righteousness

“The call to holiness is not something we perform. Rather, it is the lifelong surrender of myself to God’s imputed righteousness, and to keep acting in that righteousness. Imputed- to ascribe (to assign) goodness to a person as coming from another) “He has clothed me with His righteousness.”
Vincent says, “ As I embrace the gospel every day I find that I sin less, that I recover my footing more quickly when I do sin, and that grace flows out of me towards others more naturally.”

VI. The rewards of embracing the gospel everyday

As I embrace the gospel for myself every day:
The more I love others and the more I can relate to them because I know how God handles my weaknesses
I am more able to forgive others because I have learned how to live under God’s forgiveness
I can more readily relate to others in their weakness, relate to others in their sins, relate to others in their self-righteousness, in their pride, in their struggles because I have been honest with my own struggles and I know the cross is the sign of my forgiveness.
I value the church for which Christ died, and the people that He has placed in my life because we are all living under His grace, His favor, and His kindness.
The gospel breaks down racial, social, and economic barriers in our relationships.
Embracing the gospel for myself everyday is the antidote for my self-righteousness, and my unrighteousness.

Romans 3:22- “There is no distinction; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by His grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus…Where then is boasting? It is excluded”

VII. My hero is the gospel (Peter Lewis- The Glory of Christ)
“Jesus preached as no prophet preached, no apostle preached, no preacher ever preached. Isaiah did not preach Isaiah, Paul did not preach Paul, Augustine did not preach Augustine, Luther did not preach Luther, Calvin did not preach Calvin. But Jesus Christ preached Jesus Christ! Paul said, “What we preach is not ourselves.” Jesus could not say that! He is central to His gospel. He is the gospel. It has no power or life without Him. From the very beginning, Christianity has not been a philosophy, not an ethic, not a teaching. Christianity is the good news- the gospel- about Jesus Christ, the son of God, who came to earth, who died, for all the sins of man, who conquered sin and death, who gives eternal life to all man, who conquered sin and death, who gives eternal life to all who call upon His name.”

“My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame (no matter how good I am) but wholly lean on Jesus name.”

Discussion Questions:

Do you feel that God is sometimes angry with you and that you have to struggle to stay in His favor? What do you do when you feel this way?

What is our standing in God (righteousness) based upon? Who maintains our standing?

What is the main way that we embrace the gospel for ourselves everyday? Do you do it?

In what ways is embracing the gospel every day the antidote to our self-righteousness and our unrighteousness? (Rom. 3:22)

How does embracing the gospel break down racial, social, and economic barriers in our relationships with others?