One of my models in ministry is John Stott. At age 82, he was recently interviewed by Christianity Today on the question, 'what is the single most important issue facing the Church today?' Rev. Stott said that it is pluralism. Living with people from other religions, Christians are also forced to tame the message of the cross and keep its meaning to themselves.

The late Leslie Newbigin, who spent over 40 years in India as a missionary only to return to his native country (UK) and found it to be a mission field, cautioned the deep influence of pluralism on young people's thinking these days:

Today, if I am not mistaken, our great danger is a total skepticism about any possibility of knowing the truth. I find among young people, and I think I understand and sympathize with them, a profound skepticism about any claim to the truth. Our danger is of a new irrationalism and nihilism. It is the despair that doubts there is anything worth believing and preserving. And even Christians are encouraged to think of their faith as only one among a number of options available for personal choice. (Newbigin, A Word in Season, 1994:72).

Many Christian leaders today have a superficial understanding of the meaning of the cross than ever before. The likes of Martin Luther, John Calvin, John Wesley, Jonathan Edwards, and Charles Finney are hard to find these days. Remember, these leaders not only preached the gospel with passion in their own generation, but they also made sincere efforts in trying to grasp the full meaning of what the cross achieved.

We may sing "On a hill far away stood the old rugged cross, the emblem of suffering and shame …" but do we really understand and experience the power of the cross each day? Can we communicate the truth of the cross well?

Tell me. If you had the chance to sit down with someone who has given very little attention to the Christian faith for all his life, but now for some reason decided to give you one hour of his undivided attention, how would you explain to him the precise meaning of Jesus' death? How would you persuade this man that he as no other option but to put his complete trust in what Jesus Christ has done on the cross?

How would you remove any doubt from this that 'there is anything worth believing and preserving' and that this message of the cross is not 'one among a number of options available for personal choice' but the choice for everyone? Can you fill that hour with passion, logic, and deep conviction that stems also from your personal experience of the gospel?

I say, Go to Romans 3
If you have only one hour, I say, 'Do not waste your time beating around the bush, but go straight to the source.' Go to Romans 3 and you will discover a gem, especially from verse 21 to 26. Sometimes a boxer in the ring is introduced as 'the best boxer in the world, pound for pound.' I would introduce this text as 'the best commentary on the meaning of the Cross in all of the Bible, word for word.'

In Romans 1:18, Paul had declared that the wrath of God has been revealed. He used the expression 'God gave them over' three times to show that living under the wrath of God is to be abandoned by God.

Paul concludes the first section of his argument, that 'All have turned away … there is no one who does good, not even one' (3:12). Whether Jews or Gentiles, we all live under the wrath of God. Our culture, our education, our civilization cannot redeem us to a level of decency. We claim to be enlightened, but the truth is that our mind is incapable of approving what is good from evil (the word Paul used was a 'depraved' mind in 1:28). This is the reality of a life that has rejected God. Without God, people are now full of wickedness. So we look around today. The world is weary of terrorists. But we cannot escape the indictment that we are part of the unequal and unfair world in which terrorists and the likes of others want to express their grievances. We look at our personal lives. We spend money in a selfish way. We use resources in a selfish way. We clean our own house but could not care less about the streets outside. Without God at the center, decisions we make, tastes we prefer have become selfish and arbitrary, without principles and integrity. Who can rescue us from the evil we are in?

Paul begins the new section with an emphatic 'BUT':

But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made know, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe (3:21-22).

As much as the human nature is corrupt and is therefore hopeless, God has done something about it. He has given us a provision in Jesus Christ, a righteousness from God! And this is apart from law, which means that it is not something we can try to attain by living right according to the OT law (or for that matter according to any human law). So in Romans 3:21, Paul balances that with the expression, 'now the righteousness of God has been revealed.' And now he explains the meaning of the righteousness of God using several images.

1. The Courtroom Image: We are 'justified freely by his grace'
Christian faith, in Paul's simple terms, is about being justified or being made right with God. That is what the gospel is all about. It is different from what the popular religion teaches (remember the last week's message?). The message of the popular religion is about how to live this life with comfort and security. The message of the cross is about how to be made right with God. The main question is

• Not 'how well can I live this life away from diseases and misfortunes?'
• But 'how can I live this life right according to God's will in my life?'

Paul interprets the meaning of the cross as God making us right with him. We are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. The term 'justified' is a courtroom expression. Either we are justified and declared not guilty or we are guilty and must await sentencing.

Those who try to tone down the message of Christianity say,

• Can God be so angry with our sins and demand justice? Isn't God loving and forgiving? Can He not overlook our faults? Is he merciless?
• Sure we make mistakes. But are we really that guilty? Can our sins be so great as to make God so angry?

The Christian answer to the above questions is, 'yes,' and 'yes.' Yes, God is profoundly offended with our sin. Yes, we are really guilty, deserving nothing but death. The wage of sin is death.

But the Christian answer goes one step further. But God in his unmerited favor ('by his grace') punished Jesus on our behalf when he was hung on the cross and declared us 'not guilty' based on what Jesus has done. So we are freely justified by his grace.

2. The Market Place Image: Through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus
Here we need to pay attention to the idea of redemption. If 'justification' is a concept borrowed from the court, then 'redemption' is a word borrowed from a market place (Stott, Romans, 113). For example, a person pays money to buy back what used to be his, as in buying back a watch from a pawnshop. In Leviticus, we have an example of redemption:

If an alien or a temporary resident among you becomes rich and one of your countrymen becomes poor and sells himself to the alien living among you or to a member of the alien's clan, he retains the right of redemption after he has sold himself. One of his relatives may redeem him: An uncle or a cousin or any blood relative in his clan may redeem him. Or if he prospers, he may redeem himself. (Lev. 25:47-49)

Peter said that we have been 'redeemed from the empty way of life … with the precious blood of Jesus (1 Peter 1:18). Jesus also said that he came to give his life 'as a ransom for many' (Mark 10:45). The question we may raise further is, 'If God paid the ransom in the form of Christ's sacrifice to redeem us from the empty way of life, who received the payment?' Was it Satan from whom God paid the ransom and bought us back? Or was it God himself that the payment was made to? This is where we must acknowledge that the analogy of redemption has its limits. It would be absurd to think that God actually paid the price to bring us from being in Satan's captivity.
But the point made by a way of an analogy is well taken. God did something costly to rescue us from the life of sin and empty life. God thought that we are worth the price, no matter how high it is (it cost Jesus!). Understanding this point should continue to make us thankful and humble before God.

I sometimes wonder, 'If one of my children was terminally sick and that by offering my life, I could provide a cure, would I actually make that sacrifice?' Would most parents do that? I know mothers would do more readily than fathers (is it the mother's instinct or the woman power?) When it comes to God as our parent, there is no question what God would do: he did so in the person of Jesus Christ who laid down his own life so that our life would be whole again.

3. The Temple Image: God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement
Paul takes one step further in describing just what is meant by redemption. What does the word 'atonement' mean? We try to make up (atone) for our mistakes or sins by doing something equally costly. When Kobe Bryant's 'mistake' of sleeping with a young hotel clerk in Colorado was revealed a few months ago, he apologized to his wife and out of his deep remorse and love for her, he bought her a five-million dollar diamond ring. It was his way of affirming his love for his wife and also to some extent trying to atone for the 'costly mistake' that he had committed.

Actually, the word 'mistake' is his wife's term. I am sure she was trying to soften the blow. The word 'mistake' is defined in the dictionary as '1) incorrect idea or opinion; thing incorrectly done or thought 2) error of judgment.' We can say that Kobi Bryant, in the late hours of that night in a hotel room in Colorado, made an error of judgment in sleeping with a young girl. That is the gracious meaning extended by his loving wife. That is nice.

As far as God is concerned, however, there is 'no mistake' in our sin. Sin is not a mistake but a crime against God because we have violated the standards God has set for us. God is offended, for example, when we worship creation. God is offended when we reject his rule in our lives. God is offended when we disregard the creation order and engage in unnatural acts. When we sin, God is angry with us and we are under his wrath.

Paul says that God presented Jesus Christ as 'a sacrifice of atonement,' meaning Jesus is God's offering to turn away his own wrath upon us. The theological term for this is 'propitiation.' His holiness demands the propitiation of our sins.

In short, Paul summarizes the meaning of the righteousness of God this way:

"He did it to demonstrated his justice, to be just and the one who justifies." Paul returns to the idea with which he started this passage: the righteousness of God ('righteousness' and 'justice' are the same word in Greek). On the cross, God demonstrated supremely his righteousness, that he does not accept sin or sinners without doing something about the sin. God is righteous because he tolerates no sin. He is holy and righteous. That is the first part of what he means by 'demonstrating his justice.' But there is more: the second part of 'demonstrating his justice' involves 'justifying the sinner.' He makes a new man out of a sinner. God truly demonstrates his righteousness by allowing the sinner to begin again.

For God to accept nothing but holiness is no surprise for us. But for God to make an unholy person into a holy person is an absolute surprise to us. How can it be? Paul says that this is the supreme demonstration of God's righteousness.

But there is one condition: God [only] 'justifies those who have faith in Jesus.' It means we cannot rely on other religion or systems. In India I am told that there are 300 million gods. Jesus is just one of 300 million gods! God does not accept that. In such a setting, faith in Jesus means nothing. What about Jesus as one of three gods, not three million gods? Say, we put trust in our career and our family and Jesus. So we have three gods. Can God justify us, then? Would Jesus count in this case? Obviously, not. Jesus is either the Lord of all or not at all. Just as a song title goes, 'Jesus shall take the highest honor.'

What did God accomplish on the cross? He made us right with God, by redeeming us from the empty way of life, by turning away God's wrath from us, and by giving us a new start through faith in Jesus Christ.

The gospel for everyone
Do you have the confidence to preach and share this good news of Jesus Christ in this pluralistic age? After all, the gospel is for everyone. This good news applies to all, from the most resistant and militant Abu Sayyaf member in the Southern Philippines, to the hundreds of millions of Hindus in India, and to those Catholic friends around us who think that Jesus' death on the cross is not quite enough to earn God's favor.

May the LORD make you a strong witness always.