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A Message to the Sinner

A Summary Of Romans 1-3

by Bryan Gibson

February 7, 2010

You may not think you’re a sinner, but you are. Like everyone else (3:9, 23), you have sinned. “But I’m not as bad as...”—don’t even go there, because you’re in the same boat with them (3:9). And don’t try to make any excuses for your sins, because there are none (1:20). Maybe you weren’t taught as much as others were; maybe you grew up in some bad circumstances—it doesn’t change the fact that you are a sinner and accountable to God.

Because you have sinned, you are guilty before God (3:19), and you deserve to die (1:32). In your present condition, you will receive indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish (2:8-9). Think as long and as hard as you wish and you cannot even imagine a fate worse than that.

But here’s the good news, and you do need some. God loves you very much, and so He doesn’t want to punish you. He’s always had a plan to save you (1:1-4; 3:21), and that plan is revealed in the gospel (1:17). You’re guilty, but He can justify you (3:24, 26); you’re in bondage to sin, but He can redeem or deliver you (3:24). And what He would love to ultimately give you is eternal life (2:7, 10).

But here’s the problem. God is righteous, and so He cannot just overlook, or pass over your sins. He can’t just give you a free pass. To maintain His righteousness or justice, He must punish sin (1:32; 3:25-26).

And He did punish sin—through His Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus died in your place; He took what was coming to you. God’s wrath against you was appeased when Jesus offered Himself. That’s what the Bible means when it says that Jesus was “set forth as a propitiation” (3:25). It is His death, then, that makes possible your salvation, your justification, your redemption (3:24-26).

Jesus died for everyone, but that doesn’t mean that everyone will be saved—it doesn’t even necessarily mean that YOU will be saved. It is only those who have faith in Jesus who will be saved (1:16; 3:22, 26)—those who express this faith by obeying His commandments and seeking His forgiveness when they don’t (2:5-10).

You can keep doing what you’re doing, but just understand that in so doing “you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God” (2:5). Why choose guilt when you can be innocent? Why choose bondage when you can be free? Why choose turmoil when you can have peace? Why choose shame when you can have honor? Why choose eternal death when you can have eternal life?