Romans 3:21-27

Romans 3:21-27

The message from the February 19, 2023 gathering of Tapestry Church.

Autogenerated Transcript of the Message

Audio file 

Random Message – 2 19 2023 – Clancy.mp3 

Transcript 

00:00:01 Clancy 

Can everyone hear me? 

00:00:05 Clancy 

So my name is Clancy Kramer. 

00:00:08 Clancy 

For those who don’t know me, for those who do know me, just to reminder my name is Clancy. 

00:00:13 Clancy 

OK, Eric. 

00:00:14 

I can. 

00:00:16 Clancy 

So that video that we watched the video that we watched earlier. 

00:00:23 Clancy 

They’re both just so incredible. 

00:00:25 Clancy 

Like I you don’t need to really listen to me at all today. 

00:00:28 Clancy 

If you just heard anything from those two videos, it’s absolutely incredible. 

00:00:36 Clancy 

As Robert pointed out, this is my third time, not my 4th time, so hopefully I can bring the expectations down a little bit. 

00:00:44 Clancy 

I don’t know what I’m doing. 

00:00:46 Clancy 

Preaching sermons is really weird, so I want to first of all, just thank you for letting me practice and go through this, you know? 

00:00:58 Clancy 

It’s meaningful to me in preparation for all of this. 

00:01:03 Clancy 

It’s been just both a blast and a really huge challenge. 

00:01:08 Clancy 

So I just want. 

00:01:10 Clancy 

Thank you for letting me do this also. 

00:01:15 Clancy 

It’s weird. 

00:01:16 Clancy 

I hope all of you get a chance to preach at some time. 

00:01:19 Clancy 

For me, it’s been like, how do I figure out how to say everything I know about Jesus in 15 minutes? 

00:01:25 Clancy 

Like, that’s been my struggle, which is, I mean when you when you hear it said aloud, it’s really. 

00:01:30 Clancy 

Funny, but like, that’s what I’ve been trying to do and I can’t do it. 

00:01:34 Clancy 

So there it is. 

00:01:37 Clancy 

But I mean, today I just want to be an encouragement to you. 

00:01:41 Clancy 

So that’s that’s all I want to be able to do. 

00:01:47 Clancy 

To the scripture. 

00:01:51 Clancy 

So we’re going to be in Romans chapter 3 verses 21 for those of you that were at Inter varsity, you’re going to hear. 

00:01:58 Clancy 

The same thing twice. 

00:02:01 Clancy 

So if you have Bibles. 

00:02:03 Clancy 

Go to it. 

00:02:04 Clancy 

If not, read it. 

00:02:04 Clancy 

On the screen. 

00:02:06 Clancy 

Or just listen. 

00:02:10 Clancy 

But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to. 

00:02:18 Clancy 

It the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe, for there is no distinction. 

00:02:25 Clancy 

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift. 

00:02:31 Clancy 

Through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. 

00:02:39 Clancy 

This was to show God’s righteousness. 

00:02:45 Clancy 

Because in his divine forbearance he passed over former sins. 

00:02:49 Clancy 

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. 

00:02:58 Clancy 

Then what becomes of our boasting? 

00:03:00 Clancy 

It is excluded by what kind of law? 

00:03:03 Clancy 

By the law of works? 

00:03:04 Clancy 

But the law of faith. 

00:03:12 Clancy 

So I was praying through this yesterday and trying to figure out how to talk about what I want to talk about and the difficulty I was having is what I feel like I have to mention is unpopular and I don’t want. 

00:03:29 Clancy 

To talk about it. 

00:03:30 Clancy 

I would frankly just rather avoid it and what I want to talk about is sin. 

00:03:39 Clancy 

Sin is complex. 

00:03:41 Clancy 

You know people speaking up here have used it in a way of talking about other people and how they’re wrong. 

00:03:47 Clancy 

And if you, you know, are involved in the club that I talk about, then you’re OK, but everyone else is bad. 

00:03:54 Clancy 

And that’s not OK and I don’t want to talk about sin in a way that. 

00:03:59 Clancy 

Leaves you feeling shame for the things that you can’t overcome or any of that. 

00:04:04 Clancy 

But the only way I can talk about what I believe Paul is describing in this passage is to mention sin, because everything is in comparison to the. 

00:04:16 Clancy 

Uh, and one of the difficulties in talking about sin is that I don’t fully understand it. 

00:04:23 Clancy 

I can’t comprehend all the different ways that it exists in the world or in my heart or in my neighbors heart or in this congregation or in this nation, or in the other nation, you know, down the street. 

00:04:38 Clancy 

And but I think. 

00:04:41 Clancy 

For those of us who have said, you know what, Jesus, I want to do, I want to follow you. 

00:04:46 Clancy 

I want to pursue you and with my life, we have to say that sin is an issue that needs to be dealt with and that we can’t do it. 

00:04:59 Clancy 

And Paul in describing. 

00:05:05 Clancy 

Oh, thank you. 

00:05:06 Clancy 

Paul, in describing to the Romans. 

00:05:10 Clancy 

Describes it this way that there is no distinction. 

00:05:14 Clancy 

He’s writing to both Jews and Gentiles, and in that church at that time the church was probably started with Christian Jews that were kicked out of Rome for like 15 years, and then came back. 

00:05:30 Clancy 

And Paul’s writing to them at this point. So. 

00:05:36 Clancy 

You know the Christian Jews leaving, you know, the Gentiles actually taking leadership of the church and then the the Christian Jews coming back this letter, you know, when I was first save, I would I would read it and I would think about it as this like, great pillar of systematic theology. 

00:05:55 Clancy 

And there would be like a sentence or two and. 

00:05:57 Clancy 

People would argue about it and. 

00:06:00 Clancy 

You know struggling through this text the last couple of weeks, it’s been a good reminder to me that Paul was writing to them because he loved the people who went to the church in Rome and he wanted them to understand the grace of God. 

00:06:15 Clancy 

So what I’m talking about today is not just one thing, it’s an entire. 

00:06:20 Clancy 

A letter that will help understand what Paul is trying to say so. 

00:06:30 Clancy 

So there is no distinction he’s describing between Jews and Gentiles. 

00:06:36 Clancy 

There is no distinction between you. 

00:06:38 Clancy 

It’s all kind of the level playing field. 

00:06:41 Clancy 

And he also says for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and. 

00:06:50 Clancy 

For me this is kind of a confession I am. 

00:06:55 Clancy 

Able to see. 

00:06:57 Clancy 

The sin in others before I’m able to see the sin in myself. 

00:07:00 Clancy 

Even on the walk over here, you know I passed by this neighbors yard every time I pass by that neighbors yard, I see the new sign that makes me, you know. 

00:07:10 Clancy 

To judge them and think well, I’m not going to vote for that person because that’s in, you know, in your yard. 

00:07:15 Clancy 

And I know what you believe. 

00:07:17 Clancy 

I’ve never met this. 

00:07:19 Clancy 

And I have contempt in my heart against them because of what’s in their yard and then later, just to put more fuel on the fire, I see someone else who really kind of did me and my family wrong, and I still have unforgiveness in my heart towards them and. 

00:07:38 Clancy 

What I believe Paul is describing is that. 

00:07:43 Clancy 

They and myself are in the same boat. 

00:07:48 Clancy 

We’re on the same playing ground. 

00:07:50 Clancy 

If what God says is true here, it’s also true for them too. 

00:07:55 Clancy 

And I have no leg up. 

00:07:57 Clancy 

I’m not, you know, better than they are. 

00:08:00 Clancy 

And it’s really difficult for me to say that because I’m I get angry, you know, and I get self-righteous and I see that person. 

00:08:08 Clancy 

And I say you don’t understand how you’re wrong, you know, and that’s not helpful and nor is that, you know. 

00:08:16 Clancy 

Is that is that you know? 

00:08:18 Clancy 

Yeah, nor is that helpful. 

00:08:21 Clancy 

But I find that it’s easier for me to see that in others than it is to see it myself. 

00:08:29 Clancy 

So one of the things I want to say today. 

00:08:35 Clancy 

Is there is no US versus them? 

00:08:40 Clancy 

There are. 

00:08:42 Clancy 

People in your life. 

00:08:44 Clancy 

I’m guessing like mine that you are able to see the sin you’re able to see how they’ve fallen short, how they’ve either been hurtful to themselves or to those around you. 

00:08:55 Clancy 

And I just want to say, because of what Jesus did, there is no US versus them. 

00:09:00 Clancy 

The playing we’re on the same playing field, we’re not playing against them. 

00:09:04 Clancy 

We are all accepting what Jesus did for us. 

00:09:09 Clancy 

And sin is too much for any of us. 

00:09:14 Clancy 

We can’t do this on our own. 

00:09:17 Clancy 

And when we make enemies of our neighbors. 

00:09:22 Clancy 

We’re saying I expect this to do on your own and I expect what you don’t see or what you believe to be, what disqualifies you from the love of God. 

00:09:37 Clancy 

So up, up, up, up, up. 

00:09:45 Clancy 

OK. 

00:09:46 Clancy 

So earlier this month and the state of Ohio, there was a a train wreck, literally. 

00:09:55 Clancy 

Train wreck. 

00:09:57 Clancy 

Have you guys heard of this? 

00:10:00 Clancy 

And uhm, my brother lives like 15 minutes away from here and. 

00:10:08 Clancy 

The people of this community are struggling because, you know, I think the people in charge did what they could after this train was, you know, on fire. 

00:10:20 Clancy 

And there was chemical in it that was hazardous and they had to like, set it on fire, otherwise it would have exploded. 

00:10:28 Clancy 

And they thought everything was OK, but some of the chemicals got in the water table and that water table is making its way throughout the community. 

00:10:37 Clancy 

And it’s now in the Ohio River and that Ohio River the chemicals are making its way towards the city of Cincinnati. 

00:10:45 Clancy 

So water is difficult and I think this is a great image. 

00:10:53 Clancy 

For at least for me to understand that sin is not something that we can win. 

00:10:59 Clancy 

We can’t. 

00:11:00 Clancy 

We can’t overcome it like we just can’t. 

00:11:02 Clancy 

And this is, I think, a great representation of how things can happen, like the world as it is, is too much for us. 

00:11:11 Clancy 

We need each other and we also won’t be able to overcome all of it forever, and I just want to say that it’s. 

00:11:20 Clancy 

That’s OK. 

00:11:21 Clancy 

It doesn’t make it any less brutal or horrifying. 

00:11:24 Clancy 

Or uhm, troublesome. 

00:11:27 Clancy 

But like we we can’t overcome this stuff. 

00:11:42 Clancy 

So Paul continues to say. 

00:11:46 Clancy 

We are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. 

00:11:56 Clancy 

One of the tricky things for me is I’m a performance based person. 

00:12:02 Clancy 

I love to achieve. 

00:12:03 Clancy 

I love to do all the things and. 

00:12:07 Clancy 

The entry point for me and Jesus is not that I can achieve or believe the right things or think the right thoughts or know all the trivia like Brendan Manning said. 

00:12:18 Clancy 

It’s the fact that I admit that I I can’t do it. 

00:12:23 Clancy 

And my wife yesterday texted me. 

00:12:28 Clancy 

Uh, you know how it is. 

00:12:33 Clancy 

And sometimes we can read things like this in Scripture and go. 

00:12:38 Clancy 

Yeah, I got it. 

00:12:39 Clancy 

I’ve heard that before, but we actually don’t internalize what it actually means. 

00:12:46 Clancy 

I just want to say, even though you’ve probably heard it before. 

00:12:50 Clancy 

Potato, potato. 

00:12:52 Clancy 

Is that the entry point that we have for Christianity, for following Jesus is admitting we can’t do it all? 

00:13:01 Clancy 

We can’t be that person that eats us up in the middle of the night. 

00:13:04 Clancy 

We can’t overcome the sin. 

00:13:07 Clancy 

You know that we have in our hearts, so I just want to say it, make sure everyone hears it so you don’t have those thoughts because Jesus wants us to know who he is and what he’s done. 

00:13:42 Clancy 

So when Paul is writing about, there is no distinction for all fallen short of the glory of God. 

00:13:48 Clancy 

God, we are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. 

00:14:00 Clancy 

The equation that we have is to receive this thing by faith. 

00:14:04 Clancy 

We don’t have to necessarily do anything. 

00:14:07 Clancy 

He has made us right with God. 

00:14:09 Clancy 

He has justified us. 

00:14:10 Clancy 

He has. 

00:14:12 Clancy 

Made us be OK, uh, and I think it’s a great thing. 

00:14:17 Clancy 

Uh, and later in the next chapter, Paul writes describing Abraham as a good understanding of what it means to be. 

00:14:33 Clancy 

To have faith, and this is in the message translation and it says This is why the fulfillment of God’s promise depends entirely on trusting God in his way. 

00:14:44 Clancy 

And then simply embracing him and what he does, God’s promise arrives as pure gift. That the only way everyone can be sure to get in on it. 

00:14:56 Clancy 

Those who keep the religious traditions and those who have never heard of them for Abraham, is father of us all. 

00:15:02 Clancy 

He is not our racial father. 

00:15:03 Clancy 

That’s reading the story. 

00:15:04 Clancy 

Backward. He is our faith, Father. We call Abraham father. Not because he got God’s attention by living like a St. but because God made something out of Abraham when he was nobody. 

00:15:28 Clancy 

I I don’t know about you guys, but when it comes to when I think about faith, I always think about I need to believe more. 

00:15:37 Clancy 

I need to, you know, read the Bible more. 

00:15:40 Clancy 

I need to have God more central in my thoughts. 

00:15:45 Clancy 

And I think what Paul is saying is, is actually the opposite. 

00:15:50 Clancy 

It doesn’t mean that it excludes those things. 

00:15:52 Clancy 

It just means that our faith is received as a gift. 

00:15:56 Clancy 

It’s us saying yes, Lord versus us coming up with the bright idea to follow him. 

00:16:05 Clancy 

From my understanding, he’s saying that faith is grace and it is a gift. 

00:16:11 Clancy 

It’s something that we’re able to just agree with and say yes and it’s not something of our own invention. 

00:16:17 Clancy 

It’s something that we’ve been able to come alongside that God has given us and I think that’s just great. 

00:16:24 Clancy 

I really do. 

00:16:28 Clancy 

And from that, because this is a gift that we are given, we have no ownership over God or other people because of what we accomplish. 

00:16:41 Clancy 

Meaning I don’t have possession of God. 

00:16:44 Clancy 

It’s not the Clancy. 

00:16:45 Clancy 

God, I’m saying yes to to him through faith because of the gift that he has given. 

00:16:52 Clancy 

Me through grace. 

00:16:54 Clancy 

That doesn’t mean that I am in a bad place. 

00:16:57 Clancy 

It just means that. 

00:17:00 Clancy 

The gift that he has given me is a wondrous thing, and it doesn’t make me better than my neighbor. 

00:17:06 Clancy 

It doesn’t make me better than you. 

00:17:08 Clancy 

It doesn’t make me better than someone else. 

00:17:11 Clancy 

Everything that I have been given is grace and. 

00:17:17 Clancy 

If you can leave with anything today, it’s just that. 

00:17:21 Clancy 

And it’s a it’s a very simple and it’s a beautiful thing. 

00:17:25 Clancy 

Uh, but. 

00:17:28 Clancy 

The one of the tricky things is I can’t claim credit for that. 

00:17:31 Clancy 

I can’t be more special. 

00:17:33 Clancy 

I can’t be more spectacular. 

00:17:36 Clancy 

I can’t overperform, I just have to say yes. 

00:17:42 Clancy 

And I think. 

00:17:43 Clancy 

One of the reasons that uh, it could be like that is that. 

00:17:51 Clancy 

Paul describes God as wanting to be the just and the justifier, and I think it is in God’s nature to be absolutely perfect and God loves us so much and in order for his perfection to be able to to deal with us, he had to. 

00:18:11 Clancy 

Take on flesh, suffer sacrifice, have his blood cover the sins of us and uh. 

00:18:23 Clancy 

And that is just. 

00:18:24 Clancy 

That’s an awesome thing. 

00:18:26 Clancy 

The fact that he wanted to be both just and the justifier so we wouldn’t have to actually overcome the things that we can’t overcome. 

00:18:33 Clancy 

Does that make sense? 

00:18:35 

OK. 

00:18:41 Clancy 

When we’re, at least for me, when I think about this, I think about this as something that happened in history and it happened, and then it’s done. 

00:18:49 Clancy 

And then today it’s like, OK, intellectually understand, it happened, you know, 2000 years ago, but what does it mean for today, you know, and? 

00:18:57 Clancy 

What happened through the cross and through resurrection is not done yet. 

00:19:03 Clancy 

Yes, we are justified, but we’re also being sanctified because of who Jesus is and what he did. 

00:19:09 Clancy 

And in Scripture it talks about how Jesus, even now is interceding for us. 

00:19:17 Clancy 

And there is a passage in Hebrews that I really like. 

00:19:26 Clancy 

And it says consequently he is able to save the uttermost. 

00:19:30 Clancy 

Those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession, intercession for them. 

00:19:37 Clancy 

And God, although we are justified, is still interceding for us. 

00:19:44 Clancy 

Meaning Jesus is praying for us even now, which is just a head trip. 

00:19:49 Clancy 

If you think about that. 

00:19:51 Clancy 

Like it’s bananas, absolutely bananas and. 

00:19:59 Clancy 

One of the things. Uh. 

00:20:04 Clancy 

To go back to faith as a gift. 

00:20:10 Clancy 

In this passage, the word faith is a Greek word described as pistis. 

00:20:16 Clancy 

And Pistis is always a gift from God. 

00:20:19 Clancy 

It never can be produced by us, which is also a head trip and absolutely bananas. 

00:20:26 Clancy 

Meaning, when we have faith, it’s not necessarily just us doing it, it’s a constant gift from God. 

00:20:34 Clancy 

So we’re receiving that while we’re we’re saying yes. 

00:20:38 Clancy 

Uh, the image that I like to think about is if we can imagine Jesus in the other room and hearing Jesus praying for each one of us individually. 

00:20:50 Clancy 

That I can hear him praying my name on behalf of me to his father, like that sort of intimacy of Jesus is absolutely remarkable. 

00:21:01 Clancy 

The fact that God wanted to be both just and justifier, yet he still interceding for us, that the faith, the faithfulness of. 

00:21:10 Clancy 

Of Jesus Christ for us did and stop. 

00:21:13 Clancy 

Then it’s continuing now. 

00:21:22 Clancy 

So if anything. 

00:21:28 Clancy 

Some takeaways for this week is Grace is a gift. 

00:21:33 Clancy 

Faith is a gift. 

00:21:35 Clancy 

Just receive it. 

00:21:37 Clancy 

Take it in. 

00:21:38 Clancy 

Don’t worry about believing more or not believing enough. 

00:21:42 Clancy 

Your sin is always going to be a problem, but it’s been dealt with and Jesus is interceding for you. 

00:21:49 Clancy 

While this happens, he knows what you suffer. 

00:21:52 Clancy 

He’s been through it all and it’s not just potato, potato. 

00:22:00 Clancy 

Uhm, and before I end, does anything? 

00:22:02 Clancy 

Does anyone have any questions? 

00:22:03 Clancy 

Anything I miss that you guys want to talk about anything worth mentioning? 

00:22:16 

And then today isn’t good. 

00:22:20 Clancy 

Ohh yeah, you because you’re in the whole thing. 

00:22:22 Clancy 

Yeah, yeah, yeah. 

00:22:25 Clancy 

That’s sweet. Thank you. 

00:22:27 Clancy 

Anything else? 

00:22:30 Clancy 

All right. 

00:22:31 Clancy 

Well, you guys, uh, join me in the closing prayer. 

00:22:36 Clancy 

I don’t know if. 

00:22:37 Clancy 

You have a slide. 

00:22:42 Clancy

Praise God from whom all blessings flow. 

00:22:50 Clancy

Praise him. 

00:22:52 Clancy

All creatures here be go. 

00:22:58 Clancy

Praise him above ye. 

00:23:02 Clancy

Heavenly Host praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost. 

00:23:19 Clancy

Thank you all for being here today. 

00:23:21 Clancy

Have an absolutely wonderful week.