This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “By Way of Reminder” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, September 1, 1996.

So, here we go, Romans chapter 1, and we begin at verse 8. First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, because your faith is being proclaimed throughout the whole world. For God, whom I serve in my spirit in the preaching of the gospel of his Son, is my witness as to how unceasingly I make mention of you, always in my prayers making requests, if perhaps now at last, by the will of God, I may succeed in coming to you.

For I long to see you in order that I may impart some spiritual gift to you, that you may be established. That is, that I may be encouraged together with you while among you, each of us by the other’s faith, both yours and mine. I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that often I have planned to come to you and have been prevented thus far, in order that I might obtain some fruit among you also, even as among the rest of the Gentiles. I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. Thus, for my part, I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome. For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, as it is written: “The righteous person shall live by faith.” Then turning to chapter 3, beginning in verse 21, “But now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets. Even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, for all who believe, for there is no distinction, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed. For the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”

Where then is boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? Of works? No, but by the law of faith. For we maintain that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law. For is God the God of Jews only? Is He not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, if indeed God is one. For He will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. Do we then nullify the law through faith? May it never be. On the contrary, we establish the law. Surely there is for us this abiding testimony that we live in the not yet. O God, we thank You for the already of our eternal redemption and the wonderful, marvelous blessings that appear to us according to Your revelation in Jesus Christ.

But we struggle, Lord, do we not, even in our not yet condition and situation? It is in light of that, Lord, that we realize contentions arise, difficulties come, struggles, and even battles within congregations. And we plead with You for the peace of Your kingdom among Your people and within congregations dear to us. To this end, Lord, tonight we pray for the congregation in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, that this church would have Your peace in full, and that there would be some means for reconciliation within it, so that the reputation of this church is not harmed, nor the reputation of Your servant, John Petterson, who labors there. We pray, our Lord, in faith, asking that You would bring good resolution to the problems that have arisen. And here, Lord, we ask for ourselves that if there is contention or strife, we would see it quieted even by the ministry of Your Spirit in our midst. We ask this, O God, that You may be glorified in us, even as You are pleased to be glorified by us. We ask this truly through Christ, the One who is our peace. Amen. We have been speaking lately on this theme by way of reminders. These messages we have been reminding ourselves about the orientation of this purpose and the ministry of this church.

In this, we have been taking our cue from the Reformation and its recovery of the biblical gospel of salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, and particularly the way in which that gospel comes to expression as the Apostle Paul declares it to the Church and teaches that Church the significance of Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection.

We have therefore commented upon the crucial issue in the Reformational recovery of the Gospel, namely, the finality of what God has done in Christ. The finality of what God has done in Christ. You see, it is that finality that stands over against the medieval church’s conviction that there is nothing final in what Jesus Christ has done, and therefore it must be repeated day by day, mass by mass. We have also observed that this finality underscores a corollary sufficiency to Christ’s work for sinners. Finality and sufficiency go together.

But given the Reformation its due, we trust as not blinded us to the weaknesses in the Reformers themselves, or in the traditions that have issued from the Reformers. Yet noting these weaknesses has also produced blessing for us. For the weaknesses in the Reformers and in our Reformational traditions become the opportunity for our re-evaluation, our re-appropriation, our re-examination, our revitalization, and deepening in the original. Let us take a weakness that appeared early on in the Lutheran branch of the Reformation, but also in time made deep inroads into the Calvinist tradition.

You see, despite the root commitment in the Reformation to the finality and sufficiency of Christ’s work, there was still a tendency, rising within Lutheranism and then eventually in Calvinism, to equate justification with the deliverance from a personal, inner religious crisis. That was the meaning of justification—a deliverance from a personal inner religious crisis. An all-important personal inner religious crisis, if you will. This crisis was described as an interior assault by God’s law, which led to an equally interior relief through a realization of the forgiveness of sins found in the gospel.

Now, in what I have just said, there is much truth, and there is power, and there is much that is helpful. But there is also danger, and you must be aware of that danger. In this approach, if it is allowed to stand by itself, it appears to begin with the individual and his circumstance. It begins with the person and with his predicament. It even begins with the internal workings of his religious experience. You can see, then, that such an approach to the matter of justification, if it is allowed to stand by itself, easily moves into a rather raw subjectivity, a blatant subjectivity, one that focuses, on the one hand, upon the emotional state of the individual, and on the other hand, upon the intellectual understanding by that individual of the crisis he is experiencing.

Now, at its best, and as all of this is wonderfully refined by the best of Reformed and even Lutheran thought, this approach recommends to us what we call, in a Latin term, the ordo salutis, or the order of salvation. The order of salvation. Here is the order of salvation, or the ordo salutis, approach to the question of salvation of sinners. Now, the order of salvation, or the ordo salutis approach, is quite essential. Do not misunderstand me here.

It is quite essential to our correct understanding of how redemption is applied to individual believers. In other words, as biblical Christians, we are rightly concerned to understand our personal experience in relation to effectual calling, justification, adoption, and sanctification. We are called to see the proper relationship among these aspects of salvation, recognizing their correct order and development. However, even here, continuing the argument I have made previously, left to itself, the ordo salutis—the understanding of the order of salvation—presents its own challenges. For it too can become the occasion for an excessive focus on the self, on the ego, or as one critic put it, the thinking I. This refers to the personal pronoun “I.” The thinking I. It can lead to an overemphasis on the internal, personal process of salvation within the individual and mistakenly equate that process with the gospel itself.

There is a danger. Here is the problem. We are deeply trained in the ordo salutis. We carefully rehearse it in our catechisms and confessions, and rightly so. But remember that there is a certain danger if this ordo salutis, or the order of salvation, or the steps in the salvation process, is allowed to stand alone. Such a practice, which in itself is a temptation to the Church of Jesus Christ, tends to shift the Church’s focus back onto itself and its personal experience. This tendency, however, is corrected by a more consistent emphasis on and foundation in historia salutis—the history of salvation. The ordo salutis must be preceded by the historia salutis, or the history of salvation.

The starting point for the Apostle Paul is not the ordo salutis, as important as that is, nor something that has happened to Paul personally, individually, or even within him. That is not the starting point for him. Rather, the starting point for the Apostle Paul is the historia salutis, the history of salvation. That is, the starting point is the great turning point in the ages that has occurred, regardless of what has happened in and to the Apostle Paul.

This turning point in the ages is objective and outside the individual. It took place through the coming of Jesus Christ, especially in His death, resurrection, and ascension. And that is why, you see, Paul emphasizes this point repeatedly.

He does not preach himself. I want you to take that literally. He does not preach himself. He is not even going to preach to you about his inner experience. He is not even going to preach to you about his conversion. That is not the content of his gospel. He does not preach himself. He does not preach his emotions or his feelings. He does not preach to us how he came through his conversion. He does not even preach to us his intellectual understanding of the problem of sin and God’s righteousness.

Paul, as you know, as I am certain that you know, preaches Jesus Christ crucified and risen. If you want the citation, they are clearly listed in Paul’s letters to the Corinthians. 1 Corinthians 1:23, 1 Corinthians 2:2, 2 Corinthians 4:5. Paul preaches Christ. In other words, the apostle is not primarily concerned to tell his audiences, the congregations to which he writes, or the people to whom he preaches, what happened to him or within him. Paul does not focus on the modern testimony. It would seem that the kind of spirituality that produces the modern testimony is foreign to the gospel that Paul proclaims. We are dealing here with something of a completely different spiritual nature and understanding. A different spirituality is involved.

Now, I have said this often. This is not to discourage you from sharing your story, because that can be an encouragement to me, and it certainly can be an encouragement to others. But please, do not confuse your story with the story. Do not make that mistake.

Paul is not primarily concerned to tell us what happened to him or within him, but rather what has happened to and within Jesus Christ. The gospel, therefore, according to the Apostle Paul, is not the conclusion of an internal argument he has resolved. It is not a decision he has made about religious matters. Nor is it a new idea that has come to him. It is not a new religious concept that suddenly makes sense of everything, of himself, or of the world around him. It is not an experience of religious release or resolution, even if that experience involves a clear understanding of his path to salvation or the order of salvation. It is the conclusive and sufficient event of God’s action in Christ.

God has done something. The gospel, the good news, is therefore about what God has done in Christ, to whom we have been joined by grace through faith, so that this very event of Jesus Christ now defines us as it includes us. We are in it. Our lives, our thoughts, and our experiences are lost in Him. Everything becomes a supreme religious exercise. Even your understanding and appropriation of salvation is an exercise in losing yourself in Christ, in order that you might be recreated and reconstituted by His life, by His thought, and by His experience.

Paul says, “I am crucified with Christ.” You see what he is doing? He is defining himself by the experience of Christ, not by his own experience. He also says that he has been raised with Christ. He further claims that those who are savingly united to Jesus Christ are seated with Christ in the heavenly places. They have ascended with Christ. Not only that, they are reigning with Christ, and he tells us they will return with Christ, for they are hidden in Christ, or with Christ in God. In brief, Paul says, “For to me to live is Christ.”

Philippians 1:21. Now, the event character of the gospel. God has done something. God is active. That is why it is news, and good news at that.

The event character of the gospel is revealed in Paul’s programmatic statement in Romans 1:17, where Paul writes, “For in this gospel the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, ‘The righteous man shall live by faith.'”

This statement is to be matched with what you find in Romans 3.21 and 22, as was pointed out to us this morning in morning instruction. But now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been manifested, revealed, being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God, which is by faith in Jesus Christ for all and on all who believe. It is my contention that these statements establish the event character of Paul’s gospel. That gospel is marked by a revelation concerning something that has definitively taken place.

We have moved, historically, from a condition in which something had not taken place, had not occurred, but now it has. Paul, in chapter 3, verse 21, specifically states this case. That is, now that the great day of salvation has come, that great day of salvation has arrived. He specifically delineates this new day, this new situation, here in both of these verses, as the revelation of the righteousness of God.

Righteousness does not come through human effort or human works, nor through the evolution of human culture or civilization. It does not come through a new religious idea. It is the gift of God, a gift that God is pleased to give to us through Christ’s death and resurrection, as God’s wrath is satisfied and His mercy is exalted toward sinners. But this gift of God—this righteousness of God as a gift—astounds us, not only because we are utterly unworthy and incapable of achieving it ourselves, but also because of its very nature. Here I want you to pay close attention, for here I intend to provide further content to the idea or reality of the righteousness of God. This may carry us even further, yes, even further, than what our Reformed fathers saw and appreciated. You see, the gift of God’s righteousness is nothing less than the gift of God Himself. It is the gift of God Himself to sinners under wrath. When viewed from a legal and forensic perspective, this gift of Himself becomes clear.

Now, let me explain this more fully. The reward given to the second Adam, Jesus Christ, through His death and resurrection, is nothing less than the full possession of God. That is the goal. The goal is to have God. This has always been the goal, from the foundation of the world. It was what was intended for the first Adam. The full, complete, and satisfying possession of God was the reward that the first Adam forfeited through his disobedience. But now, in and through Christ, this reward—God Himself—has been restored to God’s people. We are made heirs of God. We inherit God. This is what it means to be called sons of God. To be a son is to be an heir. An heir of what? A piece of real estate? A mansion in heaven? A nice corner lot? You are heirs of God.

But to receive God as our inheritance, as our reward, especially now in light of our legal and forensic alienation from God, is to receive in Christ the righteousness of God. There is no greater, no further, no higher righteousness than this. This is why the righteousness of God cannot be overcome. It is a righteousness belonging to the final acquittal before God’s presence. Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, Romans 8. Just as God’s righteous wrath silences all human boasting.

Thus, the gift of Himself as righteousness silences the accusations of envy regarding God’s election. Such a gift must be trusted in, and rested upon. If it is not trusted in and rested upon, it is never enjoyed, and it is not even possessed. For if you do not approach it through trust in it and upon it, you make room for boasting. Then the self begins to exalt itself again.

It is along these lines that Paul’s preaching of justification by God’s sovereign act coalesces with his proclamation of the Spirit, who is a dominant figure in Paul’s preaching, teaching, and instruction. You see, just as the righteousness of God is God’s gift to us, so also the Spirit of God is God’s gift to us, especially seen from the grand and glorious perspective of the fullness of life given to us. For by the Spirit, and in the Spirit, we are made alive. And in having the Spirit, we have life, and we have God Himself. The Spirit is the earnest and down payment of our inheritance.

Paul therefore, contrary to what liberalism—specifically nineteenth-century liberalism—has claimed, is not at war with himself. According to this view, he was simultaneously preaching the remnants of a Jewish legalistic religion in his doctrine of justification, and also the insights of a mystical spiritual religion more characteristic of former worshippers of the Greek mysteries. Instead, Paul proclaims the great act of God, the event of God’s coming in Christ, through which God’s wrath is satisfied and God’s love is upheld. In this event, God gives Himself to His Son as the Son’s inheritance, and through His Son grants to us, as co-heirs, possession of Himself. Even as He gives us His Spirit and nothing less than His righteousness.

The message then for you is that while you await the fulfillment of your faith, God has already acted on your behalf. The message is that the gift has already come; it has already arrived. You are not sitting here this evening merely looking toward the distant horizon, waiting for it to arrive. It has already come. It is already here. It is already present.

One problem is that you may be afraid to believe this. You might tremble at the prospect of what is being declared. You might be afraid to embrace this truth in the proclamation of the gospel, because you fear your own failure over time to maintain your interest in it or your zeal for it, knowing all too well your past habits and the weight of your disappointments—both with yourself and, as you have assessed the situation, with God. But I am here to tell you this evening, as I preach this gospel to you, that such hesitation arises from thoughts and feelings rooted in the self, in the ego.

And this gospel calls upon you to look away from yourself and to look toward the final and sufficient act of God in Christ. The event of the gospel by which God has bestowed upon His Church Himself in His Spirit and in His righteousness, apart from the Church’s works, ideas, feelings, and experiences. Here is the grand gospel, yet even more consistently stated in its finality and sufficiency. And it is yours. Is it not? Because you believe it. Do you not?

Our Father, we would keep before us the finality and sufficiency of Christ, and we would remember, Lord, the objective historical work of our God in sending Christ in His death, resurrection, ascension, present session, and return. We are compelled by this gospel to look away from ourselves, that we might be found in Him, not having a righteousness of our own, which is by works, but a righteousness from God and of God, which is by faith. O Lord, there is nothing for us to do but to trust in this, Your grand, glorious, final, and sufficient act, to rest upon it. He rests upon Jesus Christ as He is the embodiment of it. And this, O God, that we might even now, in keeping with what You have done, enjoy You as our reward through Him, even by Your Spirit and in Your righteousness. Lord, we bless You for so great a gospel. It is the power of God unto salvation.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.