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We Need a Little Christmas | Week 3 | Bill Bush · Rewind

Rock Point Church

Pastor Bill Bush · Nov 22, 2021 · 76 min watch · 3 min read

We Need a Little Christmas | Week 3 | Bill Bush

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In this message

Big Idea
Key points
Application

Scripture in this message

Romans 3:21
Romans 3:22
Romans 3:23
Romans 3:24
Romans 8
Romans 7

Big Idea Key points Application

Big Idea

Quoting the message: We need a Savior, not a season, end quote. — salvation is a free gift received by trusting Christ alone, not by trying harder.

In Romans 3:21–31, Paul lays out the heart of the gospel: every person has sinned and falls perpetually short of God's perfect standard, making self-salvation impossible. Yet God, in His grace, freely justifies — fully pardons — all who place their faith in Jesus Christ. This righteousness is apart from the law, available only through Christ's atoning sacrifice, unearned by us but costly to Him. The gospel calls us not to climb the stairs of self-effort but to step onto the elevator of trust, living each day from God's love rather than striving for it.

Key points

1
1The good news of being made right with God is apart from the law — it cannot be earned by doing right.
2
2Salvation is available only through Christ — there is one way to be made right with God, and it is by trusting, not trying.
3
3Every person has sinned and continually falls short of God's standard, making salvation by self-effort impossible.
4
4God freely justifies us — fully pardoning us as if we never sinned — even though we don't deserve it.
5
5Redemption is through a person, not a process; Christ personally paid the price to free us from slavery to sin.
6
6Grace is free to us but was not cheap — Christ's atoning sacrifice satisfied God's perfect justice and holiness.
7
7True faith produces no pride, prejudice, or presumption — we are freed to live from God's love, not for it, and to point people to Jesus rather than away from Him.

Application

Pastor Bill closes with a two-part challenge. First, for anyone who has never trusted Christ: this is your 'but now' moment. Stop climbing the stairs in your own strength, confess that you have sinned and fallen short, and simply step onto the elevator — put your faith in what Jesus did on the cross and in the resurrection. The smallest step of genuine trust is enough. Second, for those who already know Jesus: examine whether you have drifted off the elevator and back onto the stairs. Are you living from God's love or still striving for it? Are you running to God when you fail, or hiding in shame? The war is already won. Live each day from that victory — in community, in the Word, and in honest relationship with the One who already sees you as fully righteous.

Take it into your week

Made by Rewind AI from the sermon transcript. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI

Scripture in this message

From the transcript
“we're gonna be in Romans chapter three. We're gonna start in verse 21. We're not we're skipping over verse one through 20, because like I said, the first three chapters was, hey, you need Christmas because we are all on the naughty list”
Read the whole chapter →
From the transcript
“look at what happens. In verse 21 of chapter three, we change to something else, a different focus. And we're gonna see what does it mean? What is the gospel? What does salvation mean? And the first two words are so powerful of verse 21, but now”
From the transcript
“So let's start in verse 22. Let's read verse 22, and I'll give you the first two statements. Verse 22 says, we are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes no matter who we are”
From the transcript
“Let's look at verse 23. Verse 23 says, for everyone has sinned, we all fall short of God's glorious standard. That's a powerful verse right here in the middle”
From the transcript
“And this is great. It's verse 24. Let's read verse 24 and look at the next the next one. Verse 24 says this, yet God in his grace freely makes us right in his sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty of our sins”
From the transcript
“Then in chapter eight, he goes, but it's because of Holy Spirit. Because the grace of God. I realized that when I embrace that and see myself the way God sees me, I can trust the Holy Spirit, and I can live out this life”
From the transcript
“Paul talks about that. We'll get to it later on, but Romans seven and eight. When he says, why do I do the things I don't wanna do, and I don't do the things I wanna do? What a wreck in mind”
From the transcript
“And then look at verse 25. This kinda lands this whole little part when it says, for God presented Jesus as a sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life shedding his blood”
From the transcript
“In Leviticus 16, when they would have the day of atonement every year, that was like looking forward to what Christ would do, they would actually take a couple they'd take a goat and they'd take a lamb”
From the transcript
“Let's read 26 to 31 and close this up. It says in 26, for he was looking ahead and including them in what he would do in his present time. God did this to demonstrate his righteousness”
From the transcript
“Go read Hebrews 10. They said if you say you wanna believe in Jesus, but you refuse to believe Jesus over and over and over again, Like, you just decide there's a bunch of things that God's word says this is wrong, and you go, I don't care what God's word says”
From the transcript
“My dad said that but now, that captain said, was the greatest but now he ever heard until he read Romans three twenty one. But now Jesus died for you so you can live for and with him”

Made by Rewind AI from the sermon transcript. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI

7-day devotional

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Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5 Day 6 Day 7

There is a phrase in Romans 3:21 that changes everything: 'but now.' Two small words that mark a hinge point in history — and potentially in your own story. Paul has spent the first chapters of Romans making an airtight case that no one, by their own effort, has ever fully kept God's standard. The verdict is in before we even get to verse 21. Then those two words arrive and the whole atmosphere shifts. Pastor Bill pointed out that this righteousness from God is 'apart from the law.' That phrase is worth sitting with. It means the path to being made right with God does not run through the checklist of your behavior. It is not found at the top of a staircase you build one good deed at a time. It comes from somewhere — from Someone — entirely outside yourself. That is not a discouraging word. It is actually the most freeing thing Paul could say. If righteousness depended on your performance, you would always wonder if you had done enough. But because it is apart from the law, it cannot be taken from you by a bad week, a bad year, or a bad decade. Your 'but now' moment is available — not when you are ready, but right now, exactly as you are.

For reflection

Where in your life are you still treating your relationship with God as something you earn rather than something you receive?

Pray

Pray for a fresh sense of what it means that God's righteousness is available apart from anything you can do to earn it.

Paul narrows the path in Romans 3:22 in a way that is both exclusive and wide open at the same time. The righteousness of God comes 'through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.' One way — but available to every single person without distinction. Pastor Bill framed it simply: salvation is by trusting, not trying. The stairs of self-effort go up forever, and no one ever reaches the top. But the elevator — trust in what Jesus has already done — is standing right in front of you, doors open. You do not need a certain résumé of goodness to step in. You just need to step in. It is worth noticing that the text says 'to all who believe.' Not 'to all who believe perfectly' or 'to all who believe without doubt.' Faith, even small and trembling faith, placed in the right Person is enough. Jesus is not looking for polished confidence. He is looking for genuine trust. The object of your faith — Jesus Christ, crucified and risen — is what makes the difference, not the size or sophistication of the faith itself. That truth has enormous staying power for the days when your belief feels fragile. You are not resting on the strength of your grip; you are resting on His.

For reflection

What is the difference, in your daily experience, between trusting Jesus and trying to earn God's approval — and which one describes where you are right now?

Pray

Pray for the courage to step off the stairs of self-effort and rest your weight fully on what Jesus has already done.

Romans 3:23 is one of the most quoted verses in the Bible, and sometimes that familiarity lets us slide past it too quickly. 'For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God's glorious standard.' The verb tense matters: Paul is not only saying every person has sinned once. He is describing a condition — a continual falling short that is the default state of human life apart from Christ. Pastor Bill was honest about what this means for self-salvation: it is not just hard, it is impossible. The standard is not a reasonable human bar that most people clear on a good day. It is God's own perfect standard — His 'glorious standard,' as the text says. The gap is too wide to jump, the staircase too long to climb. But here is why verse 23 is actually good news when you read it in context: it places every person on the same footing. There is no spiritual class of people who need Jesus less than you do, and no category of sinner who has wandered too far to be included in that same 'everyone.' The verse does not leave you there — Paul is building to the grace of verses 24 and 25 — but it does insist that grace begins with honesty. Acknowledging where you actually stand is not a defeat. It is the starting line.

For reflection

How does it change the way you see other people — and yourself — to know that 'everyone' in verse 23 really does mean everyone?

Pray

Pray for honest self-awareness about your own need for grace, and for compassion toward others who share that same need.

Two things happen in Romans 3:24 that should stop you in your tracks. First, God 'freely' justifies us. That word 'freely' carries the weight of pure gift — no strings, no installment plan, no 'and here is what you owe.' Second, justification is not just forgiveness in the sense of God overlooking your sin. Pastor Bill explained it as a full pardon — as if you never sinned at all. That is a legal declaration, not just a feeling. God does not look at you and say, 'I'll try to forget about it.' He looks at you and says, 'You are righteous.' And yet verse 24 does not stop there. It says this free justification came 'through Christ Jesus, who has freed us from the penalty of our sins.' The word 'redemption' carries the image of buying someone out of slavery. You were not simply released; someone paid the price. Pastor Bill made the point clearly: redemption is through a person, not a process. There is no system, no spiritual discipline, no religious ritual that redeems. Jesus personally stepped in and personally paid what was owed. Let that sit with you today. The gift is free to you because it was costly to Him. Freely given does not mean cheaply bought.

For reflection

What would it look like, practically, to live today as someone who has already been fully pardoned — not someone still waiting to see if they make the cut?

Pray

Pray for a deeper understanding of what it cost Jesus to make your justification free, and let that shape how you receive His grace today.

Romans 3:25 introduces a word that can feel heavy and theological but is actually deeply personal: 'atonement.' Paul says God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for atonement — a word that, in the background of Leviticus 16, called to mind the mercy seat, the place in the temple where the blood of a sacrifice was offered to cover the sins of the people. Pastor Bill noted that this language would have landed with weight on Jewish ears. God was not improvising. This was the plan all along. The point Pastor Bill pressed was that grace is free to us but was not cheap. There is a cost at the center of the gospel, and it was paid entirely by Jesus. God's perfect justice is real. His holiness is not a background detail that can be quietly set aside. The cross is where justice and mercy actually meet — where God does not simply wink at sin but satisfies the full weight of it, through His own Son, so that you do not have to. This matters not just as theology but as daily reality. On the days when you wonder whether God could really love someone who has done what you have done, this verse answers you. He did not minimize what it would cost. He paid it anyway. The cross is not evidence that your sin did not matter. It is evidence that you mattered more.

For reflection

How does knowing that grace was costly — not cheap — change the way you receive it?

Pray

Pray for a renewed sense of the weight and the wonder of what Jesus absorbed on your behalf at the cross.

By the time Paul reaches Romans 3:27–31, he is drawing out what the gospel means for how we live with ourselves and with each other. And his first move is to eliminate pride. If righteousness is a gift received by faith rather than a trophy earned by effort, then no one has grounds to boast. The playing field is completely level at the foot of the cross. Pastor Bill identified three things that genuine faith does not produce: pride, prejudice, and presumption. That short list is worth turning over slowly. Pride says, 'I earned this.' Prejudice says, 'I deserve this more than you.' Presumption says, 'Grace means my choices don't matter.' The gospel dismantles all three. Because you did not earn it, you cannot hoard it or rank people by their worthiness to receive it. Verses 29–31 make the scope of this explicit: there is one God, one gospel, and it is for everyone — Jew and Gentile alike, which in today's terms means every background, every history, every person you know. The gospel you have received is not a private comfort. It is an open invitation that your life gets to reflect. As Pastor Bill put it, we are freed to live from God's love — and from that place, we point people toward Jesus rather than away from Him.

For reflection

Is there someone in your life you have been, even quietly, treating as less deserving of grace than yourself? What would it look like to lay that down?

Pray

Pray for the humility that comes from knowing you received grace rather than earned it, and for eyes to see the people around you the way Jesus does.

Coming back to the whole passage at the end of the week is not simply a review — it is a chance to see the arc. Romans 3:21–31 moves from the problem to the Person to the practical. Every person falls short. God, in His grace, freely justifies through Jesus Christ. And those who receive that gift are changed in how they see themselves, how they see others, and how they live. Pastor Bill closed with a two-part challenge, and it is worth returning to both sides today. If you have never placed your trust in Christ, the door is still open. The stairs of self-effort will exhaust you and leave you short. The elevator is right here. If you already know Jesus, the question is whether you have quietly drifted back onto the stairs — striving for God's love rather than living from it, hiding in shame when you fail rather than running toward the One who already sees you as fully righteous. The war is won. That is not a slogan; it is the declaration of the risen Christ. Living from that victory looks like openness in community, honesty in prayer, and a willingness to show people — by the way you actually live — that there is a grace they do not have to earn. Let this week's truth move from your head into the ordinary hours of your days.

For reflection

Looking back over this week, which truth from Romans 3:21–31 do you most need to carry forward — and what is one concrete way you will live differently because of it?

Pray

Pray for the courage to stop striving and start living from what is already true about you in Christ — and for one person in your life who needs to hear that the same grace is available to them.

Made by Rewind AI from the sermon transcript. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI

Small-group discussion guide

For leading a group conversation about this message.

Open

Paul calls it 'but now' — a hinge in history where everything changes. This message is about what's on the other side of that hinge and what it means for how we live.

Discussion questions

1
In Romans 3:21, Paul says this righteousness is 'apart from the law.' What do you think he means by that, and why would that have been a striking claim for his original audience?
2
Romans 3:23 says every person 'falls short' — and the verb carries the sense of a continual, ongoing falling short. What does it do to the idea of self-salvation when you sit with that reality?
3
Pastor Bill used the image of stairs versus an elevator — climbing in our own strength versus stepping onto something that carries us. What does that picture open up about the difference between striving for God's love and living from it?
4
Romans 3:25 describes Jesus as the one whose sacrifice satisfied God's perfect justice — grace that was free to us but costly to Him. How does holding both of those truths together shape the way we understand what forgiveness actually is?
5
Pastor Bill noted that genuine faith produces no pride, no prejudice, and no presumption — in Romans 3:27–31, Paul seems to connect the way we are saved to the way we relate to other people. What might that connection look like in everyday life together?
6
Pastor Bill challenged those who already know Jesus to ask whether they have drifted back onto the stairs — running to God when they fail, or hiding in shame. What might it look like, practically, for a community to help one another stay on the elevator?

Pray together

Gratitude for the 'but now' — that God's righteousness is freely given, not earned — and an honest openness to live from that love rather than striving for it

Made by Rewind AI from the sermon transcript. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI

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We Need a Little Christmas

Week 3 · 6 messages

Where these passages are preached

Romans 3 Romans 8 Romans 7 Leviticus 16

Explore related topics

Christ's Atonement Grace and Works Justification by Faith Living in God's Love

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