Put A Sock In It

Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.
Romans 3:19

There are a lot of mouths in the world. Paul the apostle speaks of every mouth being stopped that would try to justify itself by its owner’s ability to defend against the accusation of being unjust.

All people want to be accepted in their culture, to be respected and some to be looked up to as an example of goodness and moral virtue. One’s outlook on their personal life is always based upon the accepted norms of their society, and their relative goodness when compared with others possessing the same values. This was how people of the 1st century saw things, and not much has changed in the 21st century. We are taught throughout our lives that goodness gets us acceptance, and that acceptance produces peace.

Romans chapter 3 when properly understood quickly dispels this notion of peace and acceptance. Verse 20 says, “Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.” In other words our adherence to a set of principles, no matter how high the standards are set won’t make us accepted by God. The principles themselves prove in fact that we are unrighteous. The Jewish law could only do one thing. That thing was to show people that no matter how hard they tried to measure up, they were always at least and inch short, more often a mile. Trying to adhere to the law would be like a paper airplane trying to match the speed of an F-16 fighter jet, it’s not going to happen.

That’s why He provides another way for us to keep up. “Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 3:24) God justifies us apart from the law, apart from all of our efforts at self-righteousness. Justification is a free gift to those who believe. Make no mistake about it, God can’t not allow us to be accepted into His kingdom without us being just as holy and perfect as His Son, “whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed.” (Romans 3:25) The sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross made it possible for those who would believe in Him to be released from the penalty of sin and be looked on by God as being as perfect and sinless as Jesus.

Romans 11:32 says it this way, “For God has committed them all to disobedience, that He might have mercy on all.”

Thank God that we were condemned in our flesh, and declared to be disobedient, so that we would be in a position to receive God’s mercy. This mercy was made possible only through the substitutionary death of Jesus on our behalf.

If you are trying to please God through your goodness, or attempting to make up for past wrongs by some sort of penitence or self-sacrifice you will never be satisfied with your efforts. Close your mouth. Put a sock in it! There will always be more to pay for. As the song says, “ It wouldn’t be enough to buy one splinter of the tree Jesus died on, and I couldn’t pay the price for one single drop of blood that was shed for my salvation.”

Let’s stop pleasing and start trusting in the grace and mercy of God. Then we can do the true work that God in Ephesians 2:10, has ordained for us to do.