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Dec 10, 2023

Glory in the Glory Restored

Glory in the Glory Restored

Passage: Romans 3:19-26

Speaker: Patrick Lafferty

Series: 2023 Advent: Glory Days

Keywords: sin, god, righteousness, grace, law, blood, glory, justified, short

In light of the vocabulary of Scripture, one might be forgiven for reducing humanity’s plight to its corruption in sin. But only when one pauses to see the transgression that sin is against the larger backdrop of the “weight of glory”–what is of God and bestowed to humanity–can we at last both understand and more importantly feel the weight of sin. Advent is an announcement that what is of highest priority to the Lord is the salvation that restores humanity to God, and the glory to humanity. The good news of Jesus it we have had our glory restored–and in that we are meant most to glory.

Readings & ScripTure

PRE SERVICE TEXT: Jeremiah 9:23-24
23 Thus says the LORD: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man
boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, 24 but let him who boasts boast in this,
that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love

PREPARATION: Isaiah 42:6-8
LEADER: “I am the LORD; I have called you in righteousness; I will take you by the hand and keep you;
ALL: I will give you as a covenant for the people, a light for the nations, to open the eyes that are blind,
LEADER: to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness.
ALL: I am the LORD; that is my name; my glory I give to no other. . . .

OT READING: Jeremiah 9:23-25
LEADER: 23 Thus says the LORD: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the
mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, 24 but let him who boasts
boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast
love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD.”

CENTRAL TEXT: Romans 3:19-26
Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. 20 For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.

Rom. 3:21 But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— 22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

BENEDICTION: Romans 16:25-27; 1 John 5:21
LEADER: Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the preaching
of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages but
has now been disclosed and through the prophetic writings has been made known to all nations,
according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith— to the only
wise God be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ!. . . .Little children, keep yourselves from
idols.

POST SERVICE: Romans 16:25-26
25 Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the preaching
of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for
long ages 26 but has now been disclosed and through the prophetic writings has been
made known to all nations,

RELATED SCRIPTURES:

  • Jeremiah 9:23-24
  • John 12:43
  • 1 John 5:21 

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

  1. Name someone from your youth who was larger than life to you? What about them led you to think of them as such?
  2.  Refresh your memory: what is the literal sense of the word scripture translates as “glory”--and what is the figurative sense? Group project: name several things people rest in as their glory? (What did Uncle Rico rest his in? Why is that both humorous and poignant?)
  3. From the sermon, why could one argue our problem is less about sin and more so about glory–where we rest it and how we seek it?
  4. When you understand glory as a quality of God’s being, but also a quality of humanity’s createdness from which our dignity and purpose derive, how does that affect your sense of what sin is?
  5. What from the passage do we learn God has done in and through Jesus to restore our glory by faith in Him?
  6. Letting your hair down here if you’re willing: ever caught yourself (or been caught) making something too much your significance (your glory)? Care to share? How’d you work (or working) through that? 

ILLUSTRATIONS:  

 

 

QUOTES

  • There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilization—these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit—immortal horrors or everlasting splendours.C.S. Lewis. “The Weight of Glory”
  • The New Testament has lots to say about self- denial, but not about self-denial as an end in itself. We are told to deny ourselves and to take up our crosses in order that we may follow Christ; and nearly every description of what we shall ultimately find if we do so contains an appeal to desire. . . .it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased. C.S. Lewis. “The Weight of Glory”
  • Do you believe in the one true God as revealed in the Bible, who exists eternally in three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and who has created you in his image, with inherent dignity, purpose and worth? (newly adopted) Membership Vow #1
  • Every life is an impossible tangle of mistakes. Flailing confusedly, craving more love, more safety, less loneliness isn’t just human; it’s the signature move of every human alive. Heather Havrilesky
  • behind most spectacularly tragic flameouts is someone who expects way too much of himself — expects to heal his mother’s pain at being abandoned by her husband; expects to entertain and delight every person he encounters who wants Chandler Bing and nothing less; expects to remain a young, lithe, lovable Friend forever — but these impossibly high expectations are the reason forgiveness is so crucial to survival. His honesty in the face of his enormous pain should remind us that all human lives are formed from a tangle of mistakes. We will all mess up, today and tomorrow, but forgiveness shapes us into something less punitive and more sublime, a person who offers love instead of demanding it, a person who seeks peace instead of vengeance.​​ Heather Havrilesky
  • The harlot, the liar, the murderer, are short of it; but so are you. Perhaps they stand at the bottom of a mine, and on the crest of an Alp;  but you are as little to touch the stars as they. Handley Moule
  • Grace is indeed needed to turn a man into a saint; and he who doubts it does not know what a saint or a man is. Blaise Pascal, Pensées  (HT: Douglas Moo)

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