The Newsboys have a song entitled Real Good Thing and the chorus goes like this; “when we don't get what we deserve it's a real good thing when we get what we don't deserve it's a real good thing. In our scripture today Paul addresses this very idea of how it is a good thing when we don’t get what we deserve and it’s a good thing when we get what we don’t deserve.
Before we get too far into this mornings text, I want to back up to verse 10 this morning but I’m going to read it from a combination of translations.
"No one is good — not even one. 11 No one has real understanding; no one is seeking God. 12 All have turned away from God; all have gone wrong. No one does good, not even one." 13 "Their talk is foul, like the stench from an open grave. Their speech is filled with lies." "The poison of a deadly snake drips from their lips." 14 "Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness." 15 "They are quick to commit murder. 16 Wherever they go, destruction and misery follow them. 17 They do not know what true peace is." 18 "They have no fear of God to restrain them."
9 This makes it clear, doesn't it, that whatever is written in these Scriptures is not what God says about others, but to us, (to the Jews) to whom these Scriptures were addressed, and given too in the first place! And it's clear enough, isn't it, that we're sinners, every one of us, in the same sinking boat with everybody else? 20 Our involvement with God's revelation doesn't put us right with God. What it does is force us to face our complicity in sin.
Pastor Paul has laid out plainly that we are all guilty under the law and that the law, God’s word points that out. In fact Paul goes on to say that God’s word, His revelation doesn’t make us right with God, that is not it’s purpose but to force us to face our complicity in sin, it forces us to realize that we are sinners. That is our starting point period, end of sentence. We are sinners. Everyone look here at me, see me, I’m a sinner, look to your left, that person is a sinner, look to your right, that person is a sinner, look in the mirror, that person is a sinner. There is not a person among us this morning who is not a sinner. As sinners we fall under God’s wrath, we deserve His anger and we deserve whatever punishment God deems fitting for those who sin, which is death and eternal separation from God in Hell the place He first prepared for Satan and those angels that followed him many years ago. That’s what we deserve.
However, as the Newsboys have paraphrased It’s a real good thing when we don’t get what we deserve and a real good thing when we get what we don’t deserve. But Pastor Paul’s suggestion that this is how God operates is contrary to our sense of “justice” of what is right and what is wrong. We are at least satisfied when people get their “just desserts”, when the bad guy is punished, when the good girl gets the reward. But what is also important to note is that when Paul talks about being right or righteousness and the grace that Jesus gives us as well as the forgiveness it doesn’t mean that we won’t have to pay the piper here on earth.
To this day many people are infuriated that some would suggest that Ted Bundy, the convicted, confessed and executed serial killer would be in heaven because he has accepted the forgiveness that Jesus Christ offers to all who accept it and follow Him. In his final interview Dr. James Dobson asked Ted Bundy; “Do you deserve the punishment the state has inflicted upon you?” To which he replied, “That’s a very good question. I don’t want to die; I won’t kid you. I deserve, certainly, the most extreme punishment society has. And I think society deserves to be protected from me and from others like me. That’s for sure.” Even King David, a man after God’s own heart had to suffer in this life because of his sin. Yet he and Ted Bundy did not get what they deserved and that is a real good thing for them and for us.
If David didn’t get what he deserved after he had an affair with a married woman, after he had her husband murdered to cover it up…If Ted Bundy doesn’t get what he deserved for brutally murdering 35 or more young women…then there is hope for all of us and we should all rejoice in the fact that God doesn’t give us what we deserve if we turn to Jesus, if we believe in Him and have faith in Him. In verse 23 this is probably one of Paul’s more famous declarations that, “all have sinned; all fall short of God’s glorious standards.”
You notice how Pastor Paul adds that we fall short of God’s glorious standards. Often times we look at the world and those around us and we see evil, we see evil deeds and we say, “aha they deserve to be punished. They are doing evil, they are doing what isn’t right.” But Paul reminds us that ultimately having sinned means that we have not lived up to God’s glorious standards. Sometimes that is a foreign concept to us. We live in a world where we get credit for effort, for showing our work were 40% wrong is still passing. In College I took abnormal psych, I should have dropped the class when I heard how he was going to grade the class with a true bell curve. Those of you unfamiliar with a true bell curve I will explain it to you. Your grade depended upon the rest of the class. If you scored highest you got an A if scored lowest you got an F. To help ensure that not everyone scored the same the tests were all essay and not only did you need to know Psychological theories you needed to know who came up with them and when. I got an F in the class because I fell short of everyone else. Now you can argue whether that was fair or not, but those where the rules in that class, I knew the rules and I chose to stick it out and I failed.
With God it is the same way. We know the rules, and before you say well not everyone has the Bible Paul addresses that in chapter 1 verses 19 & 20 “For the truth about God is known to them instinctively. God has put this knowledge in their hearts. 20 From the time the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky and all that God made. They can clearly see his invisible qualities — his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse whatsoever for not knowing God.”
So according to the scriptures, to God’s very own word we all deserve death and damnation, we don’t live up to His standards and if you don’t then that is what we deserve. But praise be to God we don’t get that, in fact what it is even more wonderful is that not only do we not get what we do deserve, death and damnation, we get what we don’t deserve, being adopted as God’s children, and spending eternity with Him in the place that Jesus Himself is preparing for us. The same Jesus who is God’s Son, who is God in the flesh, who came to earth and took the punishment in our place so that all who believe in Him have faith in Jesus are declared righteous in God’s sight.
I like the way Eugene Peterson translates verse 24 in chapter 3 as Paul describes that we cannot be righteous but that, “God did it for us. Out of sheer generosity he put us in right standing with himself. A pure gift. He got us out of the mess we're in and restored us to where he always wanted us to be. And he did it by means of Jesus Christ.” In verse 22 Paul says that, “We are made right in God's sight when we trust in Jesus Christ to take away our sins. And we all can be saved in this same way, no matter who we are or what we have done.” And I want you to hear what Paul says again because it is important, “And we all can be saved in this same way, no matter who we are or what we have done.” There is nothing that we can do to separate us from God’s love, there is nothing that we can do that He will not forgive us for if we turn to Him. That is the caveat, we must turn to Jesus, we must confess our sins to Him, we must ask for His forgiveness, we must believe that Jesus is who He said He is and if we do that He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and grant us right standing with God and eternal life with Him.
If you have never accepted Jesus as your savior, sought His forgiveness then I encourage you to do so this morning so that you won’t get what you do deserve and so you can get what you don’t deserve.
Evangelistic and straightforward. Like it.
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