ADDRESSES ON ROMANS
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"According to my gospel," wrote Paul. every self- righteous man will have to face the judgment bar of God. According to the Gospel of the crucified and risen Lord. whom Paul loved and exalted, will God judge all men. What we do with Jesus now determines what He will do with us for all eternify.He died for us, that we need not "come into judgment" (John 5:24). But he leaves the choice to us. Will you, my unsaved friend. not let Him be your Saviour? For the Christian, sin has been judged at the cross. If you accept Him now, you shall not come into judgment. But if you reject Him as your Saviour, you must one day meet Him as your Judge! You can not escape the eternal Son of God! THE PROUD JEW-GUILTY! 2:17-3:8 Let us remember that we are still in the court scene, where man is being tried according to the holy standard of God. Righteousness is required, but guilty man has none of his own. Of all classes of all time who boasted in their own self- righteousness, possibly the Pharisaical Jew of Paul's day would head the list; and yet in Romans 2: 17-3:8 he, too, is stripped of every vestige of the cloak of self-righteousness. And who was so well fitted as Paul to arraign the ritualistic Jew! Until he met the Son of God. he gloried in all the things the Jew gloried in. He himself had been a proud Pharisee, a member of the Sanhedrin. To the Philippian Church he wrote, saying: "If any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more: circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law. a Pharisee; concerning zeal. persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law. blameless" (Phil. 3:4-6). But Paul's privileges only increased his condemnation. After he met the risen Lord. he could say also, "But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ" (Phil. 3: 7). Paul knew whereof - he spoke when, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, he [Page 35
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