Why Do I Need to Be Saved?
00:00:00.000 | On this podcast, we frequently return to fundamental realities, the essential truths, the things
00:00:10.560 | most precious to us.
00:00:12.960 | Things like the glory of God and the cross of Jesus Christ.
00:00:16.240 | If you get these fundamentals right, everything else eventually falls into place.
00:00:21.280 | Get these fundamentals wrong, and nothing will fall exactly into place.
00:00:25.140 | Something will always be off.
00:00:28.320 | In light of this, some of the most essential questions include these.
00:00:33.240 | Why in the first place do I need to be saved?
00:00:36.260 | Saved from whom?
00:00:37.780 | Saved from what?
00:00:38.780 | What is my problem?
00:00:40.140 | And how do God, and specifically Christ himself, address my problem?
00:00:44.240 | To explain, I love this following sermon excerpt from a 2009 message delivered at a campus
00:00:49.340 | crusade event in Minneapolis.
00:00:50.980 | There Pastor John expounded Romans chapter 3, verses 23 to 26, a text in which the Apostle
00:00:56.760 | Paul says this, "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified
00:01:02.800 | by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward
00:01:09.560 | as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.
00:01:15.660 | This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over
00:01:20.840 | former sins.
00:01:22.600 | It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just, and the justifier
00:01:31.120 | of the one who has faith in Jesus."
00:01:34.920 | A glorious text of essential, must-know truth.
00:01:38.880 | Here's Pastor John to explain it.
00:01:41.280 | Verse 25, "Whom," referring to Christ, "God put forward as a propitiation," that means
00:01:50.400 | a sacrifice that removes wrath.
00:01:55.480 | So the wrath of God is absorbed by Christ when he dies in our place.
00:02:05.520 | So propitiation is the removal of the wrath of God off of us, though we deserve it.
00:02:14.120 | "Whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood," so his death, "to be received
00:02:21.480 | by faith."
00:02:22.480 | That's how you receive a gift.
00:02:24.920 | Faith is a receiving, it's not a doing.
00:02:28.480 | This was to show God's righteousness.
00:02:31.720 | Oh, really?
00:02:35.680 | Really?
00:02:37.400 | This putting Christ forward is to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance,
00:02:47.120 | patience, he has passed over former sins.
00:02:53.200 | It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just, and the justifier
00:03:04.520 | of the one who has faith in Jesus.
00:03:06.480 | I don't think there's a more important paragraph in the Bible than that right there.
00:03:10.000 | I mean, there may be some competing.
00:03:13.560 | That's just about as close to the center as you can get.
00:03:17.400 | Take it apart for just a few minutes with me.
00:03:20.440 | God put Christ forward as a propitiation by his blood.
00:03:25.560 | Romans 8, 3, "What the law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did, sending
00:03:32.880 | his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin he condemned sin in the flesh."
00:03:42.280 | Whose sin?
00:03:43.280 | Tell me.
00:03:44.280 | Mine.
00:03:45.280 | Whose flesh?
00:03:46.280 | Christ's.
00:03:47.280 | You got it.
00:03:50.080 | That's an amazing statement.
00:03:53.000 | Condemnation happened at the cross.
00:03:55.840 | Whose?
00:03:56.840 | Mine.
00:03:57.840 | In whose flesh?
00:03:59.560 | Not mine.
00:04:02.040 | This is propitiation.
00:04:05.000 | Propitiation is the drawing away of condemnation from me.
00:04:08.760 | How can this be?
00:04:09.760 | How can it go there?
00:04:10.760 | It belongs here.
00:04:13.640 | Or Galatians 3, 13, "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse
00:04:23.800 | for us."
00:04:25.560 | Whose curse?
00:04:26.560 | God's curse.
00:04:27.560 | He's the one that backs up the law.
00:04:30.040 | The law is his word.
00:04:31.400 | If there's a curse in the law on me, it's coming from God.
00:04:35.240 | And Jesus becomes my curse.
00:04:38.320 | So all that to say yes to propitiation.
00:04:42.440 | Don't translate it some other way.
00:04:44.560 | Don't use expiation, which simply means removal of guilt.
00:04:49.120 | Don't translate it merely living sacrifice or sacrificial offering.
00:04:54.280 | It's the removal of God Almighty's just, holy condemnation and wrath, which belongs to me.
00:05:04.720 | Why did he need to do it that way?
00:05:07.080 | Why did Christ need to die in order to placate God's wrath?
00:05:15.720 | Verse 25 in the middle, "This was to show God's righteousness."
00:05:23.280 | So Christ died.
00:05:25.160 | God put him forward to die.
00:05:28.040 | This was to show God's righteousness.
00:05:31.920 | Why did he need to show his righteousness?
00:05:34.120 | That's a pretty high price for a demonstration of righteousness.
00:05:38.240 | Why did he need to show his righteousness?
00:05:45.480 | End of verse 25, "Because in his divine forbearance he passed over former sins."
00:05:53.880 | Well, why does passing over sin make it necessary to demonstrate righteousness?
00:06:05.000 | Now we're ready to see verse 23 in the nature of sin.
00:06:09.840 | "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."
00:06:14.840 | I don't know if you've ever felt like I want you to feel
00:06:19.680 | the connection between sin and the glory of God.
00:06:24.360 | "All have sinned and fall short."
00:06:26.440 | What is "fall short"?
00:06:27.520 | It's an old-fashioned translation.
00:06:30.240 | The literal meaning is "they lack."
00:06:34.560 | They're without.
00:06:36.120 | In what way without?
00:06:38.240 | In chapter 1 of Romans, verse 23, it says,
00:06:40.880 | "We have exchanged the glory of God for the glory of created things."
00:06:45.080 | So we had it.
00:06:46.720 | It was our treasure.
00:06:47.720 | When Adam and Eve were created, it was our treasure.
00:06:51.720 | We loved God.
00:06:52.720 | We cherished God.
00:06:53.720 | We esteemed God.
00:06:54.920 | We respected God.
00:06:56.400 | We were in awe of God and worshipped God and praised God and glorified God.
00:07:01.800 | And then we treated God.
00:07:04.520 | And you've all done it.
00:07:06.880 | You do it every day.
00:07:09.720 | And we embrace other values, other treasures, other desires
00:07:14.600 | that are so much more strong in our hearts than God is.
00:07:19.400 | We've traded them.
00:07:20.920 | And so we lack God's glory.
00:07:24.520 | It's not our treasure.
00:07:25.920 | We've just thrown it away.
00:07:28.360 | And sin is anything you do in that process.
00:07:35.920 | Anything that reflects that God is not your treasure is sin.
00:07:42.280 | So all have sinned and lack, throw away, exchange, demean, belittle, trample
00:07:51.960 | the infinite value of the glory of God.
00:07:56.360 | Now, why does that call the righteousness of God into question
00:08:04.640 | when he passes over such sin?
00:08:09.120 | Because when God, as he does for all of his people, passes over, does not condemn
00:08:18.200 | sinners who have trampled his glory and demean his glory every single day of our lives,
00:08:30.240 | it looks as though he thinks that's no big deal.
00:08:36.160 | To trample the glory of God is no big deal.
00:08:41.120 | Be like a judge sitting at a bench who's got a murderer and a rapist in front of him.
00:08:45.240 | He says, "We'll just let it go.
00:08:47.680 | We'll just pass over the murder and the rape this time.
00:08:51.800 | We'll just pass over it."
00:08:53.360 | And everybody in the courtroom would say, "No way.
00:08:57.200 | You can't do that and sit on that bench and be a just judge and say,
00:09:02.240 | 'You're just going to pass over this thing.'"
00:09:05.680 | And so God knows that he would be unrighteous.
00:09:09.720 | He would be wrong, unjust if he treated his glory as though it were so worthless
00:09:20.160 | as to just pass over the trampling of his glory in his people.
00:09:25.440 | And so he doesn't just pass over it.
00:09:29.800 | He sends his son into the world to demonstrate his righteousness.
00:09:38.320 | You see, what happened at the cross was the loudest statement imaginable.
00:09:46.360 | If you understand Romans 3, 23 to 26, the loudest statement from heaven imaginable,
00:09:53.920 | "I love my glory."
00:09:59.040 | And in that very moment of upholding his glory, God made it possible to save sinners,
00:10:11.360 | just and the justifier of him who has faith in Jesus.
00:10:21.600 | So, John 17, 24, "I want them to see me.
00:10:26.000 | I want them to see me, risen, triumphant, glorious, all satisfying in my glory,
00:10:31.920 | so that my glory will continue to be exalted forever and their joy would be full."
00:10:36.760 | And at the center, the cross, making that possible for sinners.
00:10:42.720 | As God says, "I put my son forward to demonstrate my righteousness."
00:10:53.160 | My righteousness is my unwavering commitment always and everywhere
00:10:59.240 | to uphold the infinite worth of my glory.
00:11:02.320 | And if I am bent on saving sinners who have trampled my glory,
00:11:07.400 | which I most certainly am, I will not do it in any way that calls my love for my glory into question.
00:11:14.680 | I will do the absolutely unthinkable.
00:11:19.520 | I will put my son on the gibbet and he will be tortured and he will bear my wrath to make plain.
00:11:33.600 | I don't sweep God belittling sins under the rug of the universe when I save sinners.
00:11:42.720 | Powerful.
00:11:43.600 | Oh, get this understanding of God, his glory, and the nature of sin,
00:11:48.640 | and the purpose of Christ's work on the cross for us.
00:11:51.600 | These are absolutely essential.
00:11:54.480 | That was John Piper here focused on Romans 3:23-26,
00:11:59.000 | preaching on December 30th, 2009 at a Campus Crusade event in a message titled,
00:12:03.880 | "God's Passion for His Glory."
00:12:05.800 | You can read, watch, or hear the entire message right now at DesiringGod.org.
00:12:10.800 | Thank you for listening.
00:12:11.600 | If you want new episodes of this podcast delivered to you,
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00:12:17.320 | or by subscribing to DGU's YouTube channel to find other episodes in our archive,
00:12:21.520 | or to submit a question to us of your own.
00:12:23.200 | Do that online at DesiringGod.org/AskPastorJohn.
00:12:29.280 | I'm anxious that I don't do enough for God.
00:12:34.480 | This is a statement that arrives every week in our inbox.
00:12:37.800 | We hear it all the time, and we should.
00:12:40.280 | If you read the Bible, even just the New Testament, you'll be met by 1,500 imperatives.
00:12:46.200 | 1,500 things to do or not to.
00:12:49.000 | That's a lot.
00:12:49.600 | It's overwhelming.
00:12:50.800 | So how do we overcome the anxiety that I never do enough for God?
00:12:54.200 | That's the question for Pastor John next time on Friday.
00:12:57.200 | I'm your host, Tony Reike.
00:12:58.400 | We'll see you then.
00:12:59.000 | [BLANK_AUDIO]