Greg Gilbert's Four Crucial Questions
1. Who made us and to whom are we accountable?
2. What is our problem? Are we in trouble and why?
3. What is God's solution to that problem? How has he acted to save us from it?
4. How do I come to be included in this salvation?
1. We are accountable to God
Romans 1:5 "...through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among the nations."
God created us, the world, and everything in the world so he reserves the right to be worshiped. We are his people. Our lives, in Christ, are to be obedient to him for the sake of his name.
Then Romans 1:21 says, "for although they knew God they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him..." Here, Paul is pointing to the fact that we all have sinned by not honoring or thanking God. We are to glorify and honor him, to live and speak and act and think in a way that acknowledges his great worth and power. We are made by him, and for him. We are dependent on him and therefore accountable to him.
2. The problem: we rebelled against God
Romans 1:18-20,22-23 "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. (God will punish our sin!!) for what can be known about God is plain to them because God has shown it to them. for his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made so they (we) are without excuse......Claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things."
Paul continues to press the point that we have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God through chapter three. We are full of sin and can never be perfect like God's son. We fight sin all day, everyday. But we have no excuse to break Gods law. We are under his judgment. The punishment for sin is death and eternal torment. "They shall suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might." (2 Thessalonians 1:9)
In life we make so many decision but fail to think about how our decisions effect our eternity. We only care about the present or the immediate future. When we stand before God the judge, every mouth will be silenced. No one will mount a defense. Not one excuse will be offered. The whole world- Jew, Gentile, every last one of us will be held accountable to God.
"We are not unfamiliar with falling short or failure. We have all failed. We've failed as fathers, mothers, husbands, wives, children, friends. Those all have grave consequences, so how much more do you think we will have to pay for falling short in front of Almighty God?" - Mike Conroy
This doesn't sound like good news but this bad news paves way for the good news. The bad news is important because telling someone, "I'm coming to save you," is not good news unless they actually believe they need to be saved.
3. The solution to humanity's sin is the sacrificial death and resurrection of Jesus Christ
3:21 "but now (or in spite of your sin) the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law."
There is a way for human beings to be counted righteous before God instead of unrighteous, to be declared innocent instead of guilty, to be justified instead of condemned. It has nothing to do with acting better or living more righteously. It comes "apart from the law." Despite our rebellion against God and in the face of a hopeless situation we can be, "justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus." (3:24) Because of Christ's death and resurrection and because of his life, sinners may be saved from the condemnation our sins deserve.
4. How to be included in this salvation
A sacrifice was needed to cover our sins. We know that the sacrificing of animals in the old testament was not enough to cover our sins because they had to keep performing these sacrifices. (see Hebrews 10:1-3) The sacrificing of animals could only remind us that we were full of sin. They did not bring God pleasure but foreshadowed something better that was to come.
A perfect sacrifice had to be made to pay for our sin once and for all. We needed to be forgiven of all the sin we ever committed and the sin we are to commit in the future. Partial forgiveness won't cut it. Real forgiveness is forever. There was no sacrifice perfect enough to please God so God sent HIS only son, his perfect son to be sacrificed for us. Can you imagine the pain of a father losing his son and watching horrific acts being done to him? This is serious. God sent his son in whom he is well pleased, to die for people who reject him and dishonor his name. God's son died to save people that forget God and go about a life pleasing to themselves rather than God. He knew his son was the only way and had to die in order to save us. What great mercy and grace he has shown for us!
Romans 3:25-26 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
Jesus offered himself for the payment of our filthy sin one time and the work was completed. Jesus' blood was shed to cover all our sin and it is by him that we are saved and can have a relationship with God the father. He is the only way to be delivered from the wrath of God.
Who is this saving work for?
The benefits from the saving work of Christ belong to the ones who repent and trust in him. "Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out."
"For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes." (Romans 1:16)
The salvation God provides comes "through faith in Jesus Christ," and it is "for all who believe." (Romans 3:22)
"To the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly....his faith is counted as righteous." (Romans 4:5)
Scriptures tells us many ways we are to live and follow Christ like we must obey God, deny ourselves, love Christ more than anything, flee from sin ect. ect. But because we are not saved by works there must be something that ties this all together. It is the awesome reality of saving faith. Trusting in the pardon of God, the promises of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit, not ourselves.
