"How To Be Right With God"
Part 1
Considering the Parable of the River*
Prolog to Romans Series
By Dave Redick
Hwy 20 Church of Christ, Sweet Home, OR
"May I ask you a vital question? As you listened to this story of the brothers, which describes your efforts to be right with God? Have you, like the fourth son, recognized your helplessness to make the journey home yourself? Have you allowed the older brother to carry you home to your Heavenly Father or are you like one of the other three sons?"
Introduction
The following story comes from Max Lucado's book, IN THE GRIP OF GRACE. It is called, "The Parable of the River."
"Once there were five sons who lived in a mountain castle with their father. The eldest was an obedient son, but his four younger brothers were rebellious. Their father had warned them of the river, but they had not listened. He had begged them to stay clear of the bank lest they be swept downstream, but the river’s lure was too strong.
"Each day the four rebellious brothers ventured closer and closer until one son dared to reach in and feel the waters. "Hold my hand so I won’t fall in," he said, and his brothers did. But when he touched the water, the current yanked him and the other three into the rapids and rolled them down the river."
[Author's note: Max continues to tell how the four brothers were swept down the river, away from their father's home and into a strange and harsh land where savages lived. At first they tried to return to their father's home by walking and climbing, but it proved impossible. In an effort to keep the memory of their father alive until such time as he might come after them, they met around a campfire nightly and told stories of home. Finally one of the brothers left the campfire meetings, built a hut in the valley of the savages and determined to forget his father. Soon a second brother deserted the camp and took up a vantage point near his brothers hut to keep track of his misdoing. He became his brother's judge. Then the third brother left the fire, going to the river and embarking on a project to stack rocks in the river so as to build a highway back home by his own efforts. The remaining brother continued to wait by the fire. At last their elder brother showed up, sent by their father, to bring them home. The hut-building brother refused to go with him, insisting he didn't remember his father. The judging brother insisted he couldn't go because he had to stay and record the misdeeds of the hut-building brother. The rock stacker refused to go, insisting he had to make up for his sin against his father by building his own road home. At last only the youngest brother was willing to allow his elder brother to take him home. ---- My message continues below. See special note at end of this page. D.R.]
It's a great story, isn't it?
Some of you who know the Scriptures well may already sense the meaning, but let's go back over it anyway.
All four brothers who had been swept down the river had the same need. A distance they could not cover separated them from their father.
All four brothers heard the same invitation. Each had an opportunity to be carried home by the elder brother, yet each response was different. The first said no, choosing to forget his father and make a life of his own. The second said no, preferring to keep track of the misdoing of his brother rather than admit his own. The third said no, determining to earn his father's forgiveness by his hard work. The fourth said yes, choosing his father's grace.
May I ask you a vital question? As you listened to this story of the brothers, which describes your efforts to be right with God? Have you, like the fourth son, recognized your helplessness to make the journey home yourself? Have you allowed the older brother to carry you home to your Heavenly Father or are you like one of the other three sons?
In the coming weeks, Lord willing, I would like to guide you through a study of the first seven chapters of the book of Romans. The reason I've chosen Romans is that it tells us how to be right with God. Interestingly, as we go through the seven chapters, we'll see four very different attempts at being right with God, only one of which can lead a person back to a right relationship with the Heavenly Father.
If I may ask you once again to recall the Parable of the River…
In Romans we'll see those who could be represented as the hut building brother - people who choose to turn their backs on their Heavenly Father and believe He doesn't exist. After describing them in Romans chapter one as those who "suppress the truth" of God's existence, Paul says of them, "Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man." These are those people of the world who refuse to worship or acknowledge their Creator. In Paul's day it was the majority of the Gentile world. It probably won't be hard for most of us to understand why they don't make it back home.
We'll also see those described in Romans who could be represented by the judging brother - those religious people who can only feel good about their own relationship with their Heavenly Father by pointing their fingers at the faults of others. To them in Romans, Paul says, "Do you suppose this, O man, when you pass judgment upon those who practice such things and do the same yourself, that you will escape the judgment of God?" These people do not make it back to their Heavenly Father either. It is easy to spot such characteristics in others. It may be more difficult for us to spot these tendencies in ourselves.
We'll see those who trust in their own efforts and accomplishments as a way back to God in Romans as well. These people who, like the rock stacking brother, believe that being right with God can be reduced to the simple credo of "just work really hard and God is bound to receive you back." Don't get me wrong. The Bible admonishes us to do good works and to be serious about our faith. The problem is (and this is what I hope we will see) it is impossible to stack enough rocks to build a road back to God. Paul describes such hard working people (with whom many of us will probably identify) as those who "rely upon the Law, and boast in God, and know His will and approve the things that are essential, being instructed out of the Law, and are confident that [they] are a guide to the blind, a light to those in darkness, a corrector of the foolish, a teacher of the immature, having in the Law the embodiment of knowledge and of the truth… ." While this sounds like just the kind of people God is looking for, Paul in Romans calls them "transgressors" and "law breakers." Why such condemning words toward people who try so hard? It is because they, too, have broken the law. As James, the brother of the Lord, put it in James 2:10, "Whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all." It is as though the rock stacker, standing waist deep in the river with bloody hands, having stacked for weeks, suddenly makes one slip, causing himself and all of his rocks are washed back down the river, all the way to the place where he started!
We'll see in Romans that each of these three responses to the need to be right with God turns out to be a dismal failure. Paul's words in Romans, after describing these three kinds of people, are these: "There is none righteous, not even one; there is none who understands, there is none who seeks for God; all have turned aside, together they have become useless; there is none who does good, there is not even one."
One of the things I believe some of us here this morning are going to find startling in Romans is that the rock stacker (as hard as he may work) and the judging brother (as good as he may think he is) are no better off than the God denying hut builder who has turned his back on his father. If these words upset you, or you find them surprising, I suggest very strongly that you make every effort to be here each Sunday morning in order to take in all of this study. It could spell the difference between heaven and hell for you. If you have to miss a session, be sure to get the audio tape.
So how does one get to heaven? How can a person be right with God? The fourth brother in the parable illustrated it for us. In Romans 3:21-24 it reads this way: "But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested… even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ…being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus…." When we are finished with this series, I hope you understand these four verses better than you ever have before. I hope to see every person here who has not done so climb up on the back of that older Brother whom the Father has sent, and allow Him to carry you back to God.
You'll get the most from this study if you apply yourself, so I encourage you to do so. A very good way would be to read the first seven chapters of Romans once each day during the coming week, along with the pertinent portions of the outline. That way, when I refer to a passage, you'll be familiar with what I'm talking about.
Also, during the evening message at 6 PM tonight, I will be adding some things to what I have said this morning that should compliment our study of Romans. Be here if it's at all possible.
Until then, I'll leave you with the words of Paul, the author of Romans, in 16:24: "[May] the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen."
*Max Lucado has written an excellent parable in his book, IN THE GRIP OF GRACE, called "The Parable of the River." I read the entire story to our congregation as a prolog to this series of messages. Due to copyright limitations, I have reproduced only excerpts from the book here, though the entirety of the reading made up 2/3rds of the message. I encouraged our members to purchase the book. I recommend it to you as an excellent source for considering the doctrine of grace. [Back]
