Scripture referenced 20 passages
The passage this message was preached from, in full, with every other passage it reached for.
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Isaiah 6 Isaiah sees the Lord on his throne and says 'woe is me for I am ruined because I am a man of unclean lips'
1 In the year that king Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up; and his train filled the temple.
2 Above him stood the seraphim. Each one had six wings. With two he covered his face. With two he covered his feet. With two he flew.
3 One called to another, and said, “Holy, holy, holy, is Yahweh of Armies! The whole earth is full of his glory!”
4 The foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke.
5 Then I said, “Woe is me! For I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell among a people of unclean lips: for my eyes have seen the King, Yahweh of Armies!”
6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar.
7 He touched my mouth with it, and said, “Behold, this has touched your lips; and your iniquity is taken away, and your sin forgiven.”
8 I heard the Lord’s voice, saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here I am. Send me!”
9 He said, “Go, and tell this people, ‘You hear indeed, but don’t understand; and you see indeed, but don’t perceive.’
10 Make the heart of this people fat. Make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and turn again, and be healed.”
11 Then I said, “Lord, how long?” He answered, “Until cities are waste without inhabitant, and houses without man, and the land becomes utterly waste,
12 And Yahweh has removed men far away, and the forsaken places are many within the land.
13 If there is a tenth left in it, that also will in turn be consumed: as a terebinth, and as an oak, whose stock remains when they are felled; so the holy seed is its stock.”
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Romans 1:21
did not glorify God or give Him thanks and their foolish heart was darkened
21 Because, knowing God, they didn’t glorify him as God, neither gave thanks, but became vain in their reasoning, and their senseless heart was darkened.
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Romans 3:24-26
being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, God both just and justifier
24 being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus;
25 whom God sent to be an atoning sacrifice, through faith in his blood, for a demonstration of his righteousness through the passing over of prior sins, in God’s forbearance;
26 to demonstrate his righteousness at this present time; that he might himself be just, and the justifier of him who has faith in Jesus.
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Psalm 7:11
God is a righteous judge and a God who has indignation every day
11 God is a righteous judge, yes, a God who has indignation every day.
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Revelation 16:5
the angel declaring God righteous because He judged
5 I heard the angel of the waters saying, “You are righteous, who are and who were, O Holy One, because you have judged these things.
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John 3:36
he who does not obey the Son shall not see life but the wrath of God abides in him
36 One who believes in the Son has eternal life, but one who disobeys the Son won’t see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.”
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Isaiah 53:4-6
He was pierced for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities, the Lord caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him
4 Surely he has borne our sickness, and carried our suffering; yet we considered him plagued, struck by God, and afflicted.
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought our peace was on him; and by his wounds we are healed.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray. Everyone has turned to his own way; and Yahweh has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
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Romans 5:8
while we were sinners, Christ died for us
8 But God commends his own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
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Romans 3:27-29
boasting is excluded, a man is justified by faith apart from works of the law, God of Jews and Gentiles alike
27 Where then is the boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? Of works? No, but by a law of faith.
28 We maintain therefore that a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law.
29 Or is God the God of Jews only? Isn’t he the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also,
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Ephesians 2:8-10
saved by grace through faith, not of works so no one may boast, created in Christ Jesus for good works
8 for by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God,
9 not of works, that no one would boast.
10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared before that we would walk in them.
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Romans 3:31
do we nullify the law through faith, may it never be, we establish the law
31 Do we then nullify the law through faith? May it never be! No, we establish the law.
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1 Peter 2:24
He bore our sins on the cross that we might die to sin and live to righteousness
24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live to righteousness; by whose stripes you were healed.
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Romans 4:1-5
Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness, not by works
1 What then will we say that Abraham, our forefather, has found according to the flesh?
2 For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not toward God.
3 For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.”
4 Now to him who works, the reward is not counted as grace, but as something owed.
5 But to him who doesn’t work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness.
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Romans 4:8
blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will not take into account, quoting David
8 Blessed is the man whom the Lord will by no means charge with sin.”
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Romans 4:9-12
faith credited to Abraham as righteousness while uncircumcised, circumcision a sign and seal of faith
9 Is this blessing then pronounced on the circumcised, or on the uncircumcised also? For we say that faith was accounted to Abraham for righteousness.
10 How then was it counted? When he was in circumcision, or in uncircumcision? Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision.
11 He received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while he was in uncircumcision, that he might be the father of all those who believe, though they might be in uncircumcision, that righteousness might also be accounted to them.
12 He is the father of circumcision to those who not only are of the circumcision, but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham, which he had in uncircumcision.
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Romans 4:15
the law brings about wrath, where there is no law there is no violation
15 For the law produces wrath, for where there is no law, neither is there disobedience.
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Romans 4:16
it is by faith in accordance with grace so the promise is guaranteed to all descendants
16 For this cause it is of faith, that it may be according to grace, to the end that the promise may be sure to all the offspring, not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all.
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Romans 4:17
God gives life to the dead and calls into being that which does not exist
17 As it is written, “I have made you a father of many nations.” This is in the presence of him whom he believed: God, who gives life to the dead, and calls the things that are not, as though they were.
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Romans 4:19-25
Abraham did not waver, grew strong in faith giving glory to God, credited as righteousness for our sake also
19 Without being weakened in faith, he didn’t consider his own body, already having been worn out, (he being about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah’s womb.
20 Yet, looking to the promise of God, he didn’t waver through unbelief, but grew strong through faith, giving glory to God,
21 and being fully assured that what he had promised, he was also able to perform.
22 Therefore it also was “credited to him for righteousness.”
23 Now it was not written that it was accounted to him for his sake alone,
24 but for our sake also, to whom it will be accounted, who believe in him who raised Jesus, our Lord, from the dead,
25 who was delivered up for our trespasses, and was raised for our justification.
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Romans 6:23
the wages of sin is death
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
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Recap
The message in order, in a few minutes of reading.
This message worked through Romans 3 and 4, tracing the argument that no one can earn a right standing before God, and that the only way to be made right is through faith in what Christ has done. The preacher drew on Isaiah, Martin Luther, Abraham, and a John Piper analogy to show how justification works and what it means for how we live afterward.
What was said
Isaiah chapter six was the starting point. When the prophet, who had spent chapters calling everyone else to repentance, finally saw the Lord on His throne, his response was not confidence in his own record but "woe is me, for I am ruined." That moment sets the problem: standing before a holy God, no amount of law-keeping closes the gap. Sin is at root a failure to believe God, choosing instead to run life on our own terms, just as Adam and Eve did when the serpent asked "did God really say that?"
Because God is righteous, sin cannot simply be overlooked. Pastor used Psalm 7:11 and John 3:36 to show that God's wrath is a real and present reality, not a relic of the Old Testament. The law's role is to make that plain, to show us where we fall short and what is therefore due us. Without that reckoning, the good news has nothing to land on.
The good news is Romans 3:24-26, that God is both just and the justifier. Christ's death satisfied God's justice, because the wrath that was due us fell on His own Son. Isaiah 53 was read here at length, the language of being pierced, crushed, chastened, and scourged, and the point was made plainly: that is what our sin deserved, and He took it in our place.
Martin Luther came up several times as an example of someone who understood the weight of guilt without having defense mechanisms to soften it. He spent years in a monastery, in the confessional, buying indulgences, and still found no peace. When he finally read Romans, what broke open for him was the realization that the righteousness being described was not his own. It was from another. That is the gift: not a reward for effort but a credit, the same word used of Abraham in Genesis, whose faith was credited to him as righteousness long before the law was given through Moses.
John Piper's roller coaster analogy was used to explain how faith and law relate. The law tells you that you must reach the top of the rails, but it was never built to be climbed. Faith is what allows the man with the crane, Jesus, to lift you there. Once you are set in the car, the ride itself carries you back up those same rails under its own power. That is sanctification: not our effort producing righteousness, but the Holy Spirit changing us from the inside out because of the position we have already been given.
Chapter four turns to Abraham as exhibit A. His faith was credited as righteousness before he was circumcised and long before the law existed, which means the law was never the mechanism. Circumcision was a sign of a faith he already had. The same pattern applies to anyone who believes: credited righteousness, membership in Abraham's family, belonging to God's family, not because of what we have done but because of what God promised and performed.
The closing question was simply this: are we going to believe what the culture says, that we are doing fine and God is too loving to judge, or are we going to believe what God says? The preacher pointed to Luther again, a man who could not talk himself out of his own guilt, and who found freedom not in convincing himself he was good enough but in trusting a righteousness that was never his own to begin with. The sermon ended with the lyrics of a Hillsong United song, "Stay and Wait," as a way of naming who Jesus is and what He has done.
Doing a Bible study?
Here is a guide we have prepared for you: the passages in order, questions for the group, and room to write.
- Isaiah saw the Lord on his throne and said 'woe is me, for I am ruined.' What do you think it means that even the prophet calling others to repentance felt completely undone before God's holiness?
- The preacher described Martin Luther as so consumed by his own guilt that people wondered if he was crazy, while most of us have defense mechanisms that help us think 'I'm pretty good.' What defense mechanisms do you find yourself reaching for when guilt shows up?
and 3 more questions in the guide
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