Romans Series Message #42

Really Forgiven & Truly Free
Romans 4:7a

I have been amazed at the thousands of people who were taken in by the frauds of Bernie Madoff and Allen Stanford and ended up losing their life savings.

But I find it almost amusing that those who are interviewed almost without exception make reference to these two men’s greed without ever considering their own.

I mean, the reason why many handed all their money over to them and especially to Stanford was because of the promise of returns that were out of this world—that were just too good to be true and they, because of the blindness of their own greed, got suckered.

And that is why authorities warn people to check out offers, products, and services that just seem too good to be true before pulling out their wallets.

Well sometimes, we see truths in the Bible that seem too good to be true and when we read them—we wonder if they really can deliver what they are promising and are really saying what we think they are saying—because again—they just seem too good to be true.

And, in many of these cases, God provides us with confirming witnesses not to confirm His testimony as being true but to confirm in our minds and hearts that what we think He said, is indeed what He did say and meant to say.

One of those places is found in our text this morning—Romans 4:6-8.

Previously, Paul has told us in Romans 3:28-4:5 that a person is justified before God—that is declared righteous—not by his good works—but rather through simple faith in Christ Jesus as his or her Lord and Savior.

Now, the question that arises in this teaching is—does this mean that God is promising to forgive all my sins—past, present & future—when He says that He will justify the person who comes to Him through Christ?

And if this is what it means—am I right in thinking that I am totally forgiven and free of my all of my sins—past, present & even future—right now as I live my life on this earth?

And furthermore, if this is what it means then am I also right in thinking that what God is saying is that when I die and step into His glorious presence that He will find nothing in me that offends Him and demands that He judge me and condemn me to hell?

And if all of this is true and I am understanding the passage correctly—is it possible that I have been completely and totally forgiven and separated from the very worst and heinous sin that I have ever or will ever commit against the Lord?

And finally, if I am understanding all of what Paul is teaching us correctly then I should no longer be living my life as one who is overwhelmed by guilt and feelings of unworthiness and with a sense that God is mad at me and wants nothing to do with me.

Rather, I should be living my life, in Christ, as one who has been gloriously forgiven and whose guilt has been washed away and who can live and should live life graciously free and secure in the promise of God to have totally forgiven me of all my sins.

Thus, are we correct in thinking that all this is what God is saying through Paul in the first part of Romans 4?

Yes—we are correct in our understanding but just to confirm that we are understanding all of this correctly God provides us with the personal and experiential testimony of David whose testimony was recorded as inspired Scripture in Psalm 32.

And the interesting and really very powerful thing about God using David’s testimony is that David was a man whom, after he was declared righteous by God, committed the unbelievably heinous sins of adultery and murder.

And God does this for a very important reason—and that reason is that most Christians have no problem understanding, believing, and accepting the fact of God’s forgiveness for their sins committed before salvation.

There problem is with the great and awful sins they commit after they have been justified.

I mean, certainly I understand how God can forgive me for my past as an unbeliever when I knew no better but isn’t it a different story when I sin and sin greatly as one who has come to know the Savior?

Well—let’s find out.

Again, you must understand where David had been before his testimony was taken and recorded for us as sacred Scripture.

He had, as a believer, succumbed to the power of sexual lust, so as to, as a married man, have sexual intercourse with another man’s wife. And then when he discovered she was pregnant by him, he in his effort to cover up his sin had her husband killed. Then, without so much as batting an eye, David married her, making it look as though he was this benevolent king who took in a poor soldier’s widow.

That is where he was at. And, upon being confronted with his terrible sin, he runs to God with it and confesses it to God.

We see this in Psalm 51.

But, the answer he receives to his confession of sin is found in Psalm 32:1-5.

And it is verses 1-2 that Paul uses as his eye-witness testimony in Romans 4:6-8 to help us to understand just what kind of a justification and salvation we have as believers in Christ and to what extent He has forgiven us.

And what we should see as we work through David’s testimony in Romans 4 is that:

When God justifies the sinner who comes to Him through faith in Christ Jesus alone He separates from that believing sinner all of his sins regardless of how bad they are, how many they are, or at what point in life they were committed and forgives him of them all.

And as a result of this truth—all believers should live their lives as people who are genuinely blessed and happy.

In other words, we should live our lives as people who have been set free from all of our sins and thus the guilt and shame of our sins, so as to live our lives as graciously free, secure, happy, and loved human beings.

That is what David means when he says, “Blessed are those”.

So, if you are a Christian—that is you have been justified by God—as a result of faith in Christ Jesus alone to save you from your sins—you should be living as a graciously free, freely forgiven, completely secure, totally accepted by God, and thus, unconditionally loved human being.

And here’s why.

If you have come to Christ for salvation, then all your lawless deeds have been separated from you so that there is no connection between you and your sin any longer. (7a)

Lawless deeds are those actions we commit, which violate God’s Law as primarily seen in His Law.

And if you are wondering if God has an issue with you in regard to the breaking of His Law—let’s review the Ten Commandments for just a minute and as we do this—take inventory and see if you are guilty of breaking God’s Law.

And by the way, just to keep all this in perspective, if you have broken only one of these laws just once—you are looking at a penalty of eternity in hell.

And to make it even more interesting—according to James 1:10, “whoever keeps the whole law but stumbles in one point—he has become guilty of all of it.”

So, go with me to Exodus 20:1-17 and let’s see how we make out.
And now—just in case you are thinking that you passed the test—let’s take a look at how God the Son—that’s Jesus is going to use these commandments in judging people.

Go with me to Matthew 5:21-22.

Now lets consider Matthew 5:27-28

I think it is perfectly clear that no one will pass God’s test of righteousness and that everyone is a lawbreaker and continues to be a lawbreaker.

But again, note what Paul quotes David as saying—“Blessed are those whose lawless deeds have been forgiven.”

The word, “forgiven” comes from the Greek word, which means: to send away or to separate completely from.

In other words, “Blessed is the man whose lawless deeds—violations of the law if you will—have been separated from him—so that God sees no connection between the violation of His Law and the man who violated it.”

That is what it means when this word is used. The moment you believed in Christ, God in effect, in justifying you, separated any connection between you and the breaking of His Law, because in imputing to you all of Christ’s righteousness—God imputed to Christ all of your sin.

You see, justification consists not only in the imputation of Christ’s righteousness to our accounts but also to the imputation of all of our sin to Christ’s account so that it is once and for all time separated from us and paid for in Christ Jesus.

Thus, in justification, all of our sin debts become Christ’s as all of His righteousness becomes ours!
Thus, the person who has placed faith in Christ for salvation is forever separated from his or her violations of God’s Law because those violations no longer exist—they have been paid for completely in Christ.

Which is why the Psalmist is able to say in Psalm 103:12, “As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.”

As far as God is concerned, if you are a believer in Christ, your violations of His Law—your sins—have been so separated from you that there is no connection between them and you and never will be.

There simply is no “paper trail” that can connect you with your sins because as Colossians 2:13-14 tells us, the paper containing the list of all your sins was nailed to the cross.

Listen to these verses:

“When you were dead in your in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He [God] made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us, and He has taken it out of the way having nailed it to the cross.”

Now, back in Romans 4:7, the reason why the word, which means “to separate our sins from us”, is translated as “forgive” is because when God separated our sins from us and placed them upon Jesus at the cross and then punished Jesus for them—it was so that He could forgive us of these violations of His law.

Our violations of God’s Law were removed from us and placed upon Jesus and God punished them in Christ on the cross and that is why we who have placed our faith in Christ alone for our salvation have been forgiven of our sins.

They truly are forgiven because they truly have been separated from us and punished in Jesus.

Thus, just as there is no connection between the believer and his sins as far as God is concerned—there is no connection between the believer and the punishment for his sins either.

And unless you understand and believe this truth about your justification and your sins, you will struggle with any kind of real spiritual growth in your Christian life.


And this is why before we get to the believer’s sanctification and spiritual growth in Romans 6-8—we are learning about our justification here in chapters 4-5.

Now, before we close, I want you to understand that this act of separating the believer’s sins from him is an act that Christ accomplished on the believer’s behalf, once and for all, at the cross and it is an act that God applies to the believer, once and for all, the moment he first believes.

The word “forgiven” is in the aorist tense that indicates an action that is accomplished once rather than continually.

In other words, the moment you believed, all of your sins—past, present, and even future—were separated from you and your account—once and for all—so that as far as God is concerned you have been forgiven by Him once and for all.

The other interesting thing about the word is that it is in the indicative mood, which means that this state of having your sins separated from you and thus being forgiven by God is the actual state you are in—in other words—what is indicative of every believer in Christ is that they have been forever separated from their sins and are thus living in a state of forgiveness and acceptance with God.

Finally, it is a passive verb, which means God did it for you—you didn’t do it for yourself.


CONCLUSION

Now I don’t know about you—but this is a truth that I find too good to be true.

I mean—to think that because of what Christ did for me at the Cross, my sins have no connection to me because they have been completely and forever separated from me—is a truth that simply seems to good to be true.

Because if it is true—that means that I will never have to face them or answer for them or be judged for them or be held accountable for them because they have no connection to me whatsoever.

Too good to be true and that is why God used two witnesses to confirm this truth so that we would understand and believe that it is true and more importantly true of us—if we have believed in Christ for our salvation.

It is one thing to understand the positive side of our justification, which is that God has imputed to us all of Christ’s righteousness but unless He imputes to Christ all of our sin, which is the negative aspect of justification—we cannot be saved from our sins.

Because to be saved from our sins—every single one of them—they all had to be removed and separated from us and imputed to the account of the only One Who could pay for them—Jesus Christ our Lord.

So let me ask you—have your sins been separated from you as far as the east is from the west?

If they have—are you living like it?

And if they haven’t—why would you delay in coming to Christ to have Him take them away right now?