Series: The Judged
Message: Guilty Go Free
Preacher: Elia King
Reflection: Elia King
Live Wonder: Jessyka Albert
Live Adventure: Jessyka Albert
Live Purpose: Japhet De Oliveira
Editor: Becky De Oliveira

Refresh: Begin with prayer. Ask for the Holy Spirit to open your heart to new understanding and for God’s character to be revealed.

Read: Romans 3:21-31 in The Message (MSG). Note 1–3 insights or questions. 

Reflect: There’s a story written in Matthew’s Gospel about a sermon Jesus once preached that has become pretty famous. We often call it “The Sermon on the Mount,” and Bible scholars all seem to have slightly different opinions about whether it was a single sermon or a collection of teachings. One thing we can all agree on is that Matthew wrote those ideas down because they all had one thing in common—they seemed to be good general guidelines for how to walk in the way of Jesus.

It’s probably fair for us modern-day Jesus followers to assume that the people who actually followed Jesus back then were looking for some insights on how to do it right. How should we behave if we want people to recognize that we are good people? How should we talk? How should we act? How can we be saved?

That last question, by the way, seems to be the one that occupies the thoughts of most people who approach Jesus in the stories we read in Scripture. What must I do to be saved?

So when people heard what Jesus had to say (it’s recorded in Matthew 5:20), it must have been a tough pill to swallow:

“For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”

This must have seemed like bad news, because the scribes and Pharisees were, for lack of better terminology, “professional keepers of the law.” They supposedly understood the ins and outs of how to keep the law better than anyone else. They believed that keeping the law perfectly was the key to unlocking salvation. Some people felt that their standards were so high that they decided to abandon the idea of an afterlife altogether, since keeping the law that perfectly seemed impossible.

I wonder if we don’t hold ourselves to impossible standards sometimes. Could it be that we have decided that following Jesus is just too difficult (or inconvenient or demanding), so we simply settle for the easiest thing that sort of resembles Christianity that we can stomach? Could it be that Jesus was challenging His followers to something more than simply following the rules?

Recalibrate: How can we reconcile what Paul wrote to the church in Romans 3:21-23 with what Jesus tells His followers in Matthew 5:20?

Respond: Pray today for a better understanding of what it means to be righteous.

Research: Read the first few pages of Chapter 8 in John Stott’s The Message of Romans. Notice how he talks about the legal language used in this passage of Romans. What insights do you gain from Stott’s observations?

Remember: “God makes people right with himself through their faith in Jesus Christ. This is true for all who believe in Christ, because all people are the same” (Romans 3:22, NCV).

Elia King is a singer, songwriter, designer, and guitarist who has been leading music in worship settings around the world for more than two decades. He owns Trail Ridge Printing, a screen printing company in Estes Park, CO, and is worship leader at Boulder Adventist Church. Elia graduated with a BA in religion from Andrews University in 2004. He is married to Dena, owner of The Grey House—a mountain boutique—and they have two children, Ellie and Anderson. 

Try to help your child understand the difference between right and wrong. One way you can do this is by taking a hat, pair of glasses, or a utensil and using it in the wrong way. Put the hat upside down on your head and ask if that is the right or the wrong way to wear a hat. Put your glasses on upside down and ask if that is the right or the wrong way to wear your glasses. Use a butter knife or a fork to try and eat soup or cereal and ask if that is the right or the wrong way. Point out that the right way is the way that works best.

Try memorizing the Words to Remember for this week: “God makes people right with himself through their faith in Jesus Christ. This is true for all who believe in Christ, because all people are the same.” Make it into a game. When you ask your parents what the Words to Remember are and they recite them correctly, they get a sticker. If you ask them and they don’t know, but you do, you get a sticker! If they ask you and you know, you get a sticker, but if you don’t know it and they do, they get a sticker! See how many stickers you can earn together today!

One of my favorite games to play on long car trips with the family is “Would You Rather?” It always starts off with simple options, like “Would you rather have vanilla or caramel ice-cream?” However, it soon escalates to “Would you rather sniff and eat one bite of that dead carcass we just drove past or have a bucket of live worms poured over your head?” We constantly try to see who will be the most risky—and we try to make the options equally horrible. No one is allowed to pass.  In the passage today, Paul knows that we have a major choice before us. He brings it all together in Verse 23; the epic summary. He has in mind not the judges of today who decree what is right or wrong, but the Hebrew judges (Luke 18:1-8) who, even though they struggled at times, were meant to be engaged in the people’s lives. They were both advocates and judges. Right and wrong had to do with relationships. This was the model that Jesus wanted us to remember and Paul was trying to bring it home to us. Would you rather have a judge who knows everything about you and yet still finds a way to restore you or a judge who only sees what you tell them and makes a decision based on that? How honest do you want to be with Jesus? How honest do you want to be with yourself?