Charles Swindoll explains it this way: After a day of dirty yard work, a hot shower and a bar of soap renders one clean.
It’s tempting to say, “It’s just as if I’d never been dirty.” But that wouldn’t have adequately conveyed the power and the value of the water and soap.
Better to look in the mirror and say, “I was filthy, but now I’m clean.”
In The Chosen series, Mary Magdalene, says to Nicodemus who asks her what changed her, she says “I was one way, and now I am completely different. And the thing that happened in between was (Jesus).”
Mary didn’t know Him. She didn’t know where He came from, where He was going, nor what He was doing.
She didn’t know what happened to her. There was no way for her to explain what happened to her. All she knew was that after she met him her life changed —dramatically!
She was filthy, but now she was clean!
Paul wrote to the church at Ephesus:
“There is one body and one Spirit, just as there is one hope to which God has called you. There is one Lord (who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit), one faith (including justifying faith, saving faith, and sanctifying faith which happens to be the outline of the book of Romans), one baptism (by immersion, pouring, and/or sprinkling).”
— Paul 4: 4-6
In each case, there is one and there are three!
And now we’re reading one book — Romans — looking at one chapter — three, focusing on one verse — 25: “God offered (Jesus), so that by his blood he should become the means by which people’s sins are forgiven through their faith in him. God did this in order to demonstrate that he is righteous.”
The penalty for sin is death, but Jesus paid our penalty. In Romans 1: 8, we are justified, i.e., pronounced not guilty. In Romans 9: 11, our penalty is paid by the blood of Jesus and we are saved. And in Romans 12: 16, we are sanctified, we grow into our newfound freedom from sin and death!
In 1517, the Rev. Father Martin Luther wrote his 95 Theses and turned the religious world upside-down by focusing on a single world in Romans 3.28… “alone!” We are justified and saved and sanctified by faith — “alone!”
In the Latin, it’s “sola fida” (faith alone), “sola gratia” (grace alone), and “sola scriptura (Scripture alone) — one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one book!
Then in 1783, John Wesley read Martin Luther’s commentary on Romans and said: “I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for salvation.” And now there is only one question still to be answered, “Have you trusted Christ, Christ alone for your salvation?”
Charles “Buddy” Whatley is a retired United Methodist pastor serving Dawson Street Methodist Church in Thomasville, Ga. With wife, Mary Ella, they are missionaries to the Navajo Reservation.
