We are excited to continue sermon series on the book of Romans. Scott Galloway shares the sermon with us, asking the question from Romans Chapter 2 & 3, can I earn my place in Heaven?
Michael Mabbot shares communion thoughts and worship is lead by the Galloway family.
Message Summary
Can I earn my place in heaven?
Whilst there is only one God, we often try to put other things in front of God. Whether that is money or relationships or a career. But we often put ourselves first – we like to decide for ourselves what is good or what is bad, not what God has decided is good or bad. This is the root of sin – we do the bad stuff and don’t do the good stuff.
If we judge situations, we also judge other people. As a result, we open ourselves up to hypocrisy for we do not behave that way ourselves. We may be blind to these sins or attempt to justify ourselves.
We are also not big fans of totally submitting to God because we do not trust or understand him. God is 100% truth and pours out love and compaction. This is where Romans two starts, by giving a context to the law.
Let us talk about the capital L Law. When God lead the Israelites out of Egypt he provided them with laws. These laws covered both the legal framework for soon to be formed the state of Israel and the spiritual laws covering topics such as worship and how to be in right relationship with God. This includes laws such as Circumcision and animal sacrifice.
There is a special provision in the law – if you keep the law perfectly then you shall receive eternal life. If you break a signal law then you may as well have broken all the laws as you receive eternal damnation. We are familiar with this as you don’t get off lightly for murder just because you didn’t drink underage. There are 613 laws and ten commandments that you have to keep all of your life. The likelihood of you breaking a law is rather high.
We as a society can be obsessed with the idea of right and wrong and that good people go to heaven and bad people go to hell, but that isn’t totally the case. The group of Jews known as the Pharisees tried to uphold the law as written, but fell into the trap of legalism and performing the rituals for the sake of it rather than out of the goodness of their heart. The Pharisees became hypocritical and felt spiritually superior – but they had missed an important point. The Law helps us to identify our sin, yes, but it also allows us to identify the Messiah, Jesus. Despite all our, and the Pharisees, efforts only Jesus fulfilled the law.
Jesus should not have died on the cross. He had earned eternal life. But he took on our sin and took the punishment for all of it. And that is a great miracle. During his life, whilst he embodied the law, he did not condemn but forgave for that was God’s ultimate plan. We are called to do the same.
So do we earn our place in heaven – well yes, but actually no. Our actions have condemned us, but we have been saved by the grace of God and Jesuses sacrifice.
Reflection On The Message
We all have a god complex.
All of us can be tempted to elevate ourselves to the god in our own life. Because we fail to trust our God. We are built for relationship with our creator God.
When we fail to trust our God and elevate ourselves or other things to the status of god in our lives. But this can never lead to the fulfilment that comes from having this need in our lives met.
When we elevate ourselves to the status of god in our own lives, we convince ourselves we are right and ignore the wrong things we do that are hurting us.
We extend this when passing judgement on others with unrighteous hypocrisy.
When we try to assume the role of god in our lives, we reject the love of God in our lives. We reject the patience God has towards us and condemn ourselves according to His righteous judgment.
In the Old Testament Gods, people were given the Law and the 10 Commandments, and a promise that in living life in accordance with the law a person could live a life that was good enough to justify their place in Heaven. But the truth was that nobody could, and animal sacrifices were needed to atone for sin.
In today’s modern culture we often hear people talk about good and bad people. We probably all aim to live as good people. But we do not meet the standard of righteousness required by even the 10 basic commandments of the Old Testament. It is technically possible to be good enough under the Law but no person ever achieved it. With the exception of Jesus Christ.
In the new Testament, the teachings of Jesus took the expectations of righteousness required to earn a place in Heaven even further in association our thoughts towards the Law and commandments with the same weight as actually performing these acts.
We are all sinful, we have all turned away, we have all fallen short, none of us can honestly claim to be good people. If we are truly honest none of us can support our claim to be good people. None of us can earn our place in Heaven by our own strength.
The Law does not really provide us with a real way to gain Heaven by our own acts but it does give us a way of seeing our need for a saviour.
That saviour is Jesus Christ who lived a life as a man in accordance with the law to show that it could be done but then went to the Cross to die for our sin to meet the need for a sacrifice to pay the penalty of our Sin.
We can’t earn our place in Heaven.
But God so loved the world. He sent his son to die so we may live. Only through faith in Jesus Christ and the salvation he offers, given by Grace, can we make it to Heaven. Through a relationship with him and obedience to his commands.
We can’t earn Heaven!
It is entirely Grace!
But we should strive to live a life worthy off it!
Scriptures Shared In This Message
The following scriptures were shared in this message:
- Romans 2:1-29
- Romans 3:1-31
- Isaiah 52:5
- Ezekiel 36:20-22
- Leviticus 18:1-5
- Deuteronomy 32:35
- John 8:15
- John 3:16-18
