Dr Greg Bahnsen - Paul's View of the Gospel: Justified by Faith - Romans 3:1-21-30 (Part 2)

This recording has been released into the public domain by the Bonson Institute, where we aim to bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. So Paul sets before us in Romans the third chapter, the hope that we have because God has set forth now a righteousness that's apart from the law. That's how verse 21 begins in our text. But now, apart from the law, a righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets. You see, Consider nothing other than your effort and the justice of God. There is no hope for you. But Paul introduces this. But now this is a turning point in the epistle. Paul has set forth the righteousness of God. He has shown the wrath of God because of that righteousness being revealed from heaven. He's shown that all mankind is under God's wrath because of its sinfulness. Gentiles because they suppress the truth and unrighteousness. Jews because they've been given the oracles of God and are hypocrites and will not live up to that great favor. All mankind comes under the judgment of God. And so if your righteousness is that which is geared to the law, you're lost. But now another kind of righteousness has been manifested. What a glorious verse. But now, apart from the law, God has manifested a righteousness being witnessed by the law and the prophets. And what is this righteousness that God has shown apart from the law, apart from our efforts, apart from our obedience? It tells us in the next verse, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ unto all them that believe God has in these final days sent forth his own Son as his righteousness. And God, through His Son, has proclaimed good news that sinners can stand right before God, not through their own efforts, not through their own attainment or accomplishment, but by simply trusting the righteousness manifest in Jesus Christ. This is God's provision of the righteousness that he requires. We said as we began this morning, God will not change his mind. God demands perfect righteousness. He won't violate his own justice. And so how can he possibly justify sinners? Well, of course, if you know anything about logic syllogistically, the only possibility is, if we can't provide it, is that God Himself would have to do so. And there we see the love of God in a way which is really beyond human words, that God is so just he will not violate his own character, and yet he is so loving that he will make provision that his justice will not go unsatisfied. Here's God's own provision of the righteousness that he requires. A righteousness apart from the law, apart from all of our effort, all of our effort. A righteousness that has nothing to do with any merit in you or in me. A righteousness that does not come because you have in maybe even a small way, lived up to what God wants. You see, God is demonstrating a righteousness which is not just you do a little bit and Jesus will do all the rest. God is setting forth a righteousness that has nothing to do with you or your effort at all. It's a righteousness we cannot adduce. It's a righteousness we can't bring forth. We have no hope of showing it. Some of you who have been in school, you get into trouble with your grades. You know what it's like to go to the teacher and hope for some mercy. And that mercy comes in the form of a kind of works righteousness we can call it. You're not going to end up doing all that the course required. You're doing very poorly when it comes to that. But the teacher will give you what we call extra credit. So if you go out and you do a little bit of work, then the teacher will not give you a good grade, but at least he or she will not fail you. So now you can come through with a C minus, okay? Or a D, but at least you won't have to fail and go back and take that course again if you want to get your degree or graduate from high school or whatever it may be. Now, I'm not saying that's inappropriate, so don't get me wrong, but that would be entirely inappropriate if you think that's the way God operates. It'd be entirely inappropriate if you think what has happened is you're failing the course. You can't make the mark, you can't live up to that high demand of the teacher. And so you've gone and you said, God, would you give me extra credit? Could you let me do just a little bit and then I'll be satisfied just to be a doorman in heaven. I don't want any special favors. I know I don't deserve anything great, but please just take my little bit and let me get by. And there's good news and there's bad news. And the bad news is God said, forget it. I will not accept anything less than all perfect righteousness. And so I can't give you extra credit. I can't let you do a little bit to get by. But there is good news too. I will show you a righteousness which is apart from anything that you can do that will satisfy my justice completely, so that I will no longer even account you to have fallen short. I will no longer look upon you as a failure. I will no longer see you as polluted. I will see you as pure. I will no longer see you as guilty. I will see you as innocent. I will no longer see you as someone who should be banished from my presence, but rather someone that I welcome into my very own family. Have any idea how wonderful then this is? Paul says, but now a righteousness apart from the law has been made manifest. God has shown us a righteousness, even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ unto all them that believe. Obviously we see the grace of God here. That's what verse 24 tells us, being justified freely by his grace. Ji Packer is right. He says in knowing God that many people don't understand the notion of grace. Today we talk about it. Our churches are full of discussions of grace, but often we have the wrong idea. He says we sometimes define grace as unmerited favor, giving people what they don't deserve. And that's true as far as it goes, but it doesn't go far enough. The reason for that is God's grace is not simply giving us more than we deserve. It's giving us the opposite of what we deserve. If a man comes to my door with shoddy clothing, obviously hungry, and asks for a sandwich of me, and I make him a sandwich and give it to him. I've been gracious, if you understand, by grace, unmerited favor. He didn't deserve that sandwich. I gave it to him out of the goodness of my heart. It was a gift. He didn't have it coming. But you see, we must imagine not just the beggar has appeared at God's door and asked for a meal, but even more, imagine that the man has come in and has killed my children and it's destroyed my property. And then I give him something to eat. That's grace. Not just giving what is not deserved, but giving the very opposite of what is deserved. But now, apart from the law, a righteousness of God has been made manifest, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ unto all them that believe, being justified freely by his grace. How utterly gracious on the part of God to save sinners. Verse 26 tells us, however God accomplished that, and this is the amazing thing God accomplished, giving this gift to sinners without violating his justice. He didn't set forth the righteousness which is contrary to the law. It's apart from the law, but it's not contrary to the law. How do you understand that? God did not say, well, we tried plan A. Since the old dispensational mistake, we tried plan A, I gave the law, they miserably failed. And so now what I'll do is I'll go to plan B and instead of expecting the law to be kept, ought to have a lower standard. How many preachers have presented this, which is utterly heretical. The idea that God changes his mind says, well, then I'll accept faith instead of law. Obedience ought to lower the standard. We'll have a new regime, a new policy. God's character is consistent. He doesn't change his mind. He doesn't need to alter the plan. What Paul tells us is that God satisfied his own justice. He didn't change his mind about justice. He satisfied his own justice. Look at verse 26. For the showing, I say, of his righteousness at this present season, the demonstration, the setting forth of Christ as our righteousness at this time, that he might himself be just and the justifier of him who has faith in Jesus. God is not only gracious, giving to those who have fouled his own house and have actually fought against and rebelled against his holiness, God has given to them life and justification. And he did it without violating his character. He was both gracious and just. How did he do that? How could God accomplish such a thing? But now, apart from the law, a righteousness has been manifested, even the righteousness that comes by faith in Jesus Christ. What God did is he supplied his own son. He provided a substitute. And he said, instead of doing it on your own, trust that my Son did it for you. You didn't live up to the law. You cannot live up to the law. By the law you will be cursed. Instead of trying to then keep the law and gain my favor, then completely give up your own effort and turn rather and trust simply in the accomplishment of my Son. You know, sometimes we find that hard to do. Kind of strange. There's this kind of worked righteousness that's really got its tangles around our heart. So even when we know we don't have a chance apart from Jesus Christ, we still have that little bit in us that says, well, can I just give up and say, okay, I'll trust Jesus. That's it. I mean, maybe I should at least go to church and have a good attendance record. Or maybe I should make sure I have my devotions every day and show God that I really mean this. Well, it's kind of hard to preach this because you should go to church and you should have devotions every day. But you see, if you approach going to church, if you approach having a daily time of reading the Word and prayer, if you approach witnessing our works of mercy or any obedience that you offer to God, and you should offer as much as you can give, but if you approach any of that in the attitude that somehow this will show God that I am worthy, rather than simply saying, my only hope is in Jesus Christ, then you will be lost. That may seem like a very thin edge, but on that thin edge rest heaven and hell, your eternal destiny. Whether you approach God with any sense of merit because you have accomplished even a little bit, you know that extra credit you did for the teacher, or whether you approach God and say, my only hope is Jesus Christ, my hope is built on nothing less than Jesus blood and righteousness. The hymn writer had it correct. And that's the righteousness that we must trust if we would be saved. And if we trust that righteousness, if we give up all effort in justifying ourselves even in the slightest bit, if we know that it's only through faith in Christ, resting in the provision that God himself has made, then the amazing thing is that a just God can justify you. Not a God who gives up on his standards, but a God who says, I will maintain my holy demand for righteousness and be willing to see it in my Son for your sake. So in verse 24 of Romans 3, we come to what is, in a sense, the very theme of the Epistle where Paul says, being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Being justified. Now, there's a word that ought to be precious to every Protestant, because the doctrine of justification is at the heart of the Protestant Reformation. I know we sometimes think of the formal principle or the authority principle of the Reformation. Sola scriptura. We are not bound to anything other than the word of God when it comes to faith and practice. But you see, sola scriptura by itself doesn't save anybody. Sola scriptura is necessary as a foundation. Sola scriptura is necessary as a defense. But sola scriptura will not save your soul. The reason why Protestants were willing to die for their preaching, and many did, is because of what verse 24 tells us in Romans 3, that we are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Now, I don't want you to think, however, that we're just going back to the good old days of the Protestant Reformation and talking about what was important then, this is important now. And it's important for two reasons. First, in the most general sense, the issues of the Protestant Reformation have not been fully resolved even yet. And we have in our day and age, and I need to tell you this to warn you and protect your own souls, we have in our day and age, people who at one time knew the grace of God, at least knew how to teach it, had been taught it, who knew that justification is by grace through faith in Christ, who had nevertheless left the Presbyterian Church and gone back into Roman Catholicism. You will find that if you know the grace of God in your heart of hearts, you will find that inexplicable. How can any explanation be given to that kind of thing? Of course, I do pray with all my might that God will take away the confusion and restore the truth in the lives of these men who have done this, if that truth was ever truly there, genuinely there in their hearts. But if there is a self conscious affirmation of the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church, these men cannot be saved and neither can you. And that's why I have to set this out very plainly for you this morning. Recently, I had a dialogue with one of these men who left the Presbyterian Church, went back into the Roman Catholic Communion. We talked about Sola Scriptura and Mary on the radio. But afterwards we went to dinner with the host of the radio show. And in one sense I wish they would have recorded that because that's where we really got down into the nitty gritty. The assistant to the man who ran the show and the four of us were sitting at this table, looked across the table to me after we had talked for a while. Now, Greg, are you saying then that Jerry is not saved? But what an awkward position to be put in. He's sitting right next to me. I did look to see if he had his hand on his butter knife. All levity aside, my answer was given with sincerity. And I said, I am hoping against hope that Jerry knows better than what he has said at the dinner table tonight. I am hoping that he is confused and that God will bring him back from that confusion to the truth of the gospel. I really believe that that's the only way that he can be saved. And so I thought I had given something of a gracious and polite response. I didn't want to sit there and just say, okay, I can play God. I'll send this man to hell. Yes, she's going to hell. But I did have to be honest and say that the truth of the Gospel can't be altered for the sake of smooth social relations. And you know what happened? This is very interesting. The man about whom I was trying to speak graciously and say, I hope he's just confused. And he really does, in his heart of hearts, trust Christ and not in his own merit, got angry with me, very angry. He turned and he said, what right have you to say I don't believe what I say I believe. I simply said, jerry, I'm hoping that you don't believe these things. And now I will tell you. Since you wanted another answer, I'll say it this way. If you self consciously believe the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church, you will go to hell because there is no hope for you as long as you are trusting in any sense, even one degree, even half of 1%. There is no hope for you if you are trusting in your own merit and righteousness. And that's why it's so important for me to bring this out to you this morning as we preach on this text. You need to be warned about this. You know, the Protestant Reformation was not over political matters and personal matters, although plenty of politics and personalities were involved. The Protestant Reformation was over the truth of God and the Gospel and nothing less. The Roman Catholic Church teaches that justification is the infusion of sanctifying grace in a person. Or, if you will, those of you who have learned the Children's Catechism, if you haven't, you should. Great summary of theology. It's intended for four and five year olds. So I think those of you who are 40 and 50 can kind of get up to that speed. That would be just fine. The Children's Catechism tells us that sanctification is God's making sinners holy in heart and conduct. And that's exactly right. It's a beautiful answer. And sanctification is necessary, but it's a dreadful mistake when sanctification is made to be justification. It's a dreadful mistake when we say God justifies by making sinners holy in heart and conduct. He does not. That's the whole point. We are not holy in heart or conduct. And yet God justifies us not because he makes us good, but because he looks at the righteousness of His Son as our own. Justification is not the infusion of sanctifying grace within my heart. It is God's declaration that I am innocent and more, I am righteous in his sight. The word to justify always in the New Testament always means to declare and constitute as righteous. It does not mean to make a person righteous. It does not have any causative force to it. You know that because it stands over against the verb to condemn. When you stand before the judgment, one is either condemned or one is justified. Now let's ask this. Does to condemn somebody mean to make them sinful? Does the judge say, I condemn you, and in so doing the judge infuses unrighteousness into a person? Of course not. To condemn is to acknowledge the state of that person is unacceptable as a violation of justice and therefore worthy of judgment. And the opposite of that is to justify, to say that a person is found innocent, indeed righteous before the bar of justice. In your Bibles, Turn to Romans 8, verses 33 and 34 that you might appreciate this point. Romans 8:33. Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God who justifies. You see what justification means here? Not having anything laid to your account. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ Jesus that died. You see how justification stands over against condemning. If condemning does not mean to make a person unholy, justification cannot mean to make a person holy. Justification is not causing someone to have sanctifying grace in his heart. The Roman Catholic Church is simply wrong about this. For God to justify the sinner is for God to act as a judge and to declare the sinner righteous. God will also make the sinner righteous, you say. Well then, what difference does it make? Dr. Bonson? You admit what the Roman Catholics do, that those who are going to be saved need to lead new lives. Absolutely. But that isn't what the Roman Catholic Church teaches. It doesn't teach that those who are saved need to lead new lives. It teaches that those who lead new lives will be saved. Don't think I'm just drawing a very minor point in English grammar when I put it to you that way. Because on that point, rest your salvation as a matter of eternal consequences. That you get this right. God does make saved people to be holy, but he does not save them by making them holy, being justified freely by his grace. Paul tells us we are declared to be righteous by God. But you know, Protestants will often say, let's just go through the New Testament and translate this verb to justify as declare righteous. And that's right as far as it goes. But it doesn't go far enough. Because you have to understand, when God declares us to be righteous, God isn't somehow lying. That's going to seem strange because you know that you're not righteous, yet God declares you to be righteous. He justifies you. I say I want you to see the depth of God's love and the provision of his grace that according to the Bible, when God declares you to be righteous, he's not just like covering his eyes and pretending God now sees you in Christ, and in Christ constitutes you righteous. See if we can understand this. It's not as though God, like some earthly judge, leaves the bench and goes home and says, well, he or she didn't deserve that. But I said it anyway. When God leaves the bar of justice, he does not have anything on his conscience about not telling the truth about you. He is just as well as justifier. And the reason why he maintains his justice in declaring you righteous, though you yourself are not, is because in Christ your record has changed. You mustn't think that in Christ God has simply ignored your record. He has changed your record. Amazingly, God now looks upon you as Jesus. He looks upon you as righteous. That's the point here, verse 21. Now, apart from the law, a righteousness of God has been manifested. God has set forth a different righteousness, not your own. Luther called it an alien righteousness, and he had that right. It's alien because it doesn't belong to me. I have not earned it. It's not lined by right. It's the righteousness of Jesus Christ. But here's the point. In Christ, it's not alien to me. It is now mine. Not by accomplishment. Oh, it's a big theological word, but I think maybe you can appreciate it. It's by imputation. God has now imputed to you the righteousness of Jesus Christ by faith. So that in your record, as he opens the folder up and reads what is there? He sees the righteousness of Christ now constituted as your own. So don't have the idea that God opens the record and says, well, they're guilty. But I'll pretend it never was said. That is a minimal and I think a misleading idea of salvation. God sees Christ's righteousness in my place, imputes it to me. Look at Romans 5:19. For as through the one man's disobedience, the many were made sinners, even so, through the obedience of the one shall the many be made righteous. God didn't just close the folder and pretend it wasn't true. He made us righteous and his sight by putting in the place of our foul, imperfect and inconsistent efforts the perfect whole righteousness of his own son. Verse 24 says, not just that we are justified, but we are justified freely. Can you imagine that? It didn't cost you anything. Now, of course What Paul means is that we are justified freely in terms of cost to us. It wasn't free to God. It wasn't free to our dear Savior Jesus Christ, who hung on a cross one day and said, my God, why have you forsaken me? Because God should have forsaken me. Me, Greg. He should have forsaken you and Jesus one day, said God, why did you forsake me? It's very costly. It didn't come freely for Jesus. It didn't come freely for God, but it came freely to me. One thinks Isaiah, the prophet, Isaiah 55, crying out, Ho. All that are thirsty come to the waters by without money and without price. You see, God spreads a banquet for his people. He feeds shabby, horrible, wretched bums like us at his own cost, but not at any cost to us being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. It's no longer through the trusting of our efforts, but simply by resting in Christ, having faith in Christ. And yet, would you notice here that the basis of God's work is not our faith? He calls on us to have faith in Christ, but He doesn't make faith the basis of our justification. Now, this may call for some quick explanation because you've probably heard the expression, which is true and precious to Protestants, that we are justified by faith. But you have to understand, we are not justified on the basis of faith. We are justified by faith. Or if you will, through faith, but not on the basis of faith. It isn't as though we stand before God and we say, okay, here's my faith. And God says, okay, well, then I give you salvation. What a great exchange. You know what? Even your faith wouldn't be worth acceptance on the part of God. Anybody here want to stand up and tell this congregation, I'm not going to say this for myself, but would you like to say this for yourself? That from the day I came to faith in Jesus Christ, I have never wavered in the slightest bit. My trusting him and giving up my own efforts and accounting that he will take care of me so that I can obey him perfectly and never fudging on him. Or point always being faithful, showing fidelity to all men because of my faithfulness toward God. Anyone want to claim that? What is this idea that my faith in Jesus could be the basis of my justification? My faith isn't acceptable either. My faith is necessary, is that conduit through which I'm put in contact with the Savior? Praise God. He gave me the gift of faith, but he didn't save Me on the basis of that, Paul says, being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. The basis of God's justifying work is the redemption that is brought to me in Jesus Christ. What does it mean? To redeem means to buy back. Often in the ancient world, to redeem meant to buy someone out of slavery to buy back their freedom. We don't use that word very often. A number of years ago in this culture we did. We had redemption centers, you know, for these stamps, green stamps and blue stamps and so forth. So he had some idea of how redemption has worked. You go and you buy back. Well, actually, it was kind of a bonus system. It wasn't a buying back system. So it gave us the wrong idea of redemption. Redemption is when someone pays the price to set you free. And Jesus paid the price to set us free. And we're told in verse 25 what that price was. Whom God set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood to show his righteousness because of the passing over of sins done aforetime. How does God demonstrate His righteousness? By paying the price in the blood of Christ. We have not been redeemed by corruptible things like silver and gold, but rather by the precious blood of our Savior, Jesus Christ. That has bothered a lot of people. It has seemed to them that what you have here is a bloodthirsty God who demands death blood. And then if we offer that now in the place of Jesus, that is Jesus blood, God will be bribed and bought off and he'll turn his anger away. That's not the biblical doctrine at all. Look at verse 25. Every word's important. Whom God set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood to show his righteousness. The word propitiation means to turn away wrath. It means to placate or to pacify. Modern theology is very antagonistic to the doctrine of propitiation. And that's why you will find in many of the earlier translations of the New Testament in the 20th century, the word propitiation no longer appears. The word propitiation doesn't appear in liberal efforts to translate the Bible because liberals don't like the idea of a wrathful God that needs to be propitiated. And so they just do away with the word or they try to substitute another word. But then, you know, even evangelicals and J? Gresh and Machen really bemoaned this fact. Even evangelicals have shied away from using the word propitiation. I don't Want you to stop using your Bibles. I trust you all have good translations in your hand, but I wonder when you look in the translation you have this morning, whether verse 25 has the word propitiation in it or whether atoning sacrifice has been substituted. Atoning sacrifice is not bad, but it doesn't say everything that the word propitiation does. Propitiation means that an angry God, the wrath of God, has been turned aside. The reason why evangelicals don't use the word get this is because it's too difficult. That's right. They say people don't know the word propitiation. They'd have to go to the dictionary to look it up. To which Machen said, then let them go to the dictionary to look it up. Why should we give up something that precious? Because it's difficult. See, we have two choices as pastors, as we're proclaiming the word of God. We can either bring our congregations up to the level of what God's word teaches, or we can water down God's word to their level. Which do you think we ought to do? Well, propitiation isn't in your Bible. Maybe you ought to write it in. Do you remember? That's a precious word. God's wrath is placated through the blood of Christ. You have to understand this is not bribery. The wonderful thing this verse shows us is that it's not as though we have an angry God who stands back until blood is offered. And then he says, okay, I like blood and so now I'll be happy with it. That's a pagan concept. And you will find that perversion in many pagan religions. The bribing off of God with an offering, sometimes a blood offering. The reason why God's wrath demands blood. Blood here simply means the death of Christ. Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission. Sin calls for death. And I already told you, God doesn't change his mind. God will enforce his threats. Death must then be executed. Jesus had to die to pay the price of sin. That's why it's through his blood. But notice that the verse says it isn't as though God stood back and he said, okay, when you finally bring me a blood offering, than like some pagan deity, I'll be bought off, I'll be bribed, and I'll be happy with you. The Bible says God set forth the propitiation. The angry God set forth his son to be the price of sin. A just and holy God, and yet the justifier, both just and gracious, so that it Isn't as though God says, when you finally give me the blood I'm looking for. It's rather, he says, I'll provide the depth that is needed so that you will stand right in my sight. The Old Testament background for the word propitiation will be expounded further in our afternoon service. But just real quickly, let me remind you that a person would bring an offering to the priest at the temple. And there before the altar of sacrifice, the person making the sacrifice would lay his hands on the head of the sacrificial victim as a symbol that the sin and guilt that was in the person was being transferred to the victim, to the animal. And then the priest would slay this beast and burn it upon the altar. Because the price of sin is death. And in the Old Testament that was called propitiatory. That was a turning away of the wrath of God. When Jesus told the story of the publican and the Pharisee who both went into the temple to pray, we know that the Pharisee looked up into heaven, reminded God of all the wonderful things he had done that week, all of his brownie points, and also despised this man over here in the corner, thanking God above all that I'm not like that guy over there. Jesus tells us that the publican, who would not even so much as look up because he was so humbled by his sin, simply pray God be propitious to me, a sinner. Propitiation. That Old Testament doctrine means that the wrath of God is turned away, is pacified. The sacrificial victim, Paul tells us, was Jesus himself. The shedding of his blood and the provision of that sacrifice was God's own. Verse 28. Paul then gives us the summary of what he has taught here. We reckon therefore that a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law. Very simply put, faith looks to another. The works of the law. Look to yourself. If we will be justified before God, who himself is just, it will only come if we look away from ourselves. Not like the Pharisee who reminds God of his brownie points. We look away from ourselves to the propitiation that has been provided by God himself in Christ. The implication of this, of course, in verse 27 is where then is the boasting which is out and out excluded, isn't it? It's a very ugly thing when Christians are accused of self. Congratulations. You know, it's possible for us to be like that Pharisee who went into the temple. Well, we're sure glad we're not like others. Christians sometimes talk like that. I hate to tell you. I sometimes talk like that. It's horrible. Where then is boasting? Where is there any room to congratulate ourselves? Faith looks to another. I have nothing, nothing in my hand. I bring simply to thy cross. I cling. I have nothing to offer. I have no reason to set myself above or over against others. There is no boasting. Paul tells us that God is a non discrimination policy with respect to this. Where then is boasting? It's excluded by what manner of law? Of works? No, it's not excluded by works. Works flips to myself. It's rather excluded by the principle or the law of faith. In verse 29 it says, Is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also. If so be that God is one, then he shall justify the circumcision by faith and the uncircumcision through faith. God's one. God doesn't have two different policies. He doesn't show two different sides to his character. He's all the same. He's consistent. He never changes his mind. He doesn't have a double standard. And so if the Gentiles will be saved or if the Jews will be saved, it's going to be in the very same way giving up any principle of law works, looking away from themselves to faith in Jesus Christ, because that's the only way that anybody can be justified. Up in Los Angeles there is a redoing of an old musical that is one of my favorites, the man of La Mancha. You may remember this as the musical and light opera rendition of Cervantes. Don Quixote. Don Quixote was the idealistic Spaniard who went about, as his enemies would remind you, tilting at windmills. The man who didn't seem to have a whole lot of common sense, he didn't live in a down to earth way. And a musical was made about the story of Don Quixote and it does include the story of Dulcinea in it. I don't know how many of you will be familiar with that. I think one of the most beautiful songs in the whole piece is Dulcinea. Dulcinea was a common whore. There's no nice way to put it. She was not just a fallen woman, she was an absolutely polluted woman. And somehow this naive, idealistic head in the clouds guy, Don Quixote, came across her and considered her his lady. And we're talking about chivalry here. Now, an age where it meant something for someone to be called a lady. And Don Quixote wished to serve her as his lady. Toward the end of the musical, when Don Quixote has fallen and about to die, Dulcinea, who has been treated in this way by him, she cannot understand. Do you not see me for what I am? Do you honor me and care for me, despite my spotted record, that I have nothing pure to offer you? And she comes to him as he's dying, and there she is, bowed down. And as he awakens from his coma and sees her there, he says, what? You, my lady, bow down to me. How inappropriate. And we all sit there with tears in our eyes, saying, what's wrong with you, Don Quixote? She doesn't deserve this kind of love. She doesn't deserve this kind of honoring. Because, you see, Don Quixote could only see her as his lady. This recording has been released into the public domain by the Bonson Institute. Duplication sharing and distribution is encouraged. For more information about the life and Ministry of Dr. Greg L. Bonson, visit our website, bonseninstitute.com where we we aim to bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.