Description

In this episode, we sit with the hard but honest news of Romans 3: that no amount of self-help, positive thinking, or religious effort can cure the deeper disease of sin. Paul brings both religious insiders and obvious outsiders into the same courtroom before God—and then announces that the only hope we have is the righteousness God freely gives in Jesus Christ. 

In this week’s episode, we explore:

• How modern “positive thinking” and self-improvement promises contrast with Paul’s diagnosis of the human heart in Romans 3
• The series of objections raised by Israel—and how Paul patiently overrules each one from the Law and the Prophets
• Why the Law can expose our sin but can never justify us or make us righteous
• What it means that God is both “just and the justifier” through the cross of Christ
• The images of redemption and propitiation, and what they tell us about the costliness of God’s mercy
• How true saving faith differs from mere obedience, intellectual assent, or vague belief
• Why justification by faith leaves no room for boasting and unites Jew and Gentile on exactly the same ground of grace

By the end of the episode, listeners will have a clearer picture of just how radical Paul’s gospel really is: we contribute nothing but our need, and God supplies everything in Christ. You’ll be invited to move beyond spiritual “band-aids” and self-improvement projects, and instead rest in the One who alone can give a new heart, real righteousness, and the life you cannot earn.

 Series: Romans: Justification by Faith

Start Strong: A New Believer’s Guide to Christianity is available now wherever books are sold.

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