Twice in the Book of Romans, once in Romans 3:22,23, and once in Romans 10:12,13, God uses the phrase, “There is no difference.”

First it is used in con-nection with the guilt of man. Religious Jews, as well as godless Gentiles; cultured moralist, as well as degraded savages, are proved guilty before God.

In the first three chapters, their privileges and responsibilities are fully discussed, and their arguments are carefully considered. Then comes the awful verdict:

“THERE IS NO DIFFERENCE: FOR ALL HAVE SINNED AND COME SHORT OF THE GLORY OF GOD.”

Must we not all bow our heads in shame and admit that the indictment is true? Must we not acknowledge that our condemnation is just? There may, indeed, be differences as to the nature or the degree of our sins, but in this there is no difference: that we all have sinned. And a just and holy God must condemn sin.

It is refreshing, however, to find the phrase used a second time in connection with salvation. Again religious Jews as well as godless Gentiles are included, but this time, how gracious the declaration!

“FOR THERE IS NO DIFFERENCE…FOR THE SAME LORD OVER ALL IS RICH UNTO ALL THAT CALL UPON HIM. FOR WHOSOEVER SHALL CALL UPON THE NAME OF THE LORD SHALL BE SAVED!”

In the matter of sin, God cannot be partial. He cannot be lenient with certain classes or groups whose advantages have been greater. All have sinned, and all must stand condemned.

But neither does He show partiality in the matter of salvation. The rich or cultured or religious are not preferred before others. The illiterate or immoral are not excluded. The Law condemns all, but Christ died to save all, that we might be “justified freely by His grace.”

Friend, are you saved? Are you right with God? You can never hope to be accepted if you approach Him in your own merits, but if you come in the merits of Him who bore your sins, you cannot be turned away. “FOR THE SAME LORD OVER ALL IS RICH UNTO ALL THAT CALL UPON HIM, FOR WHOSOEVER SHALL CALL UPON THE NAME OF THE LORD SHALL BE SAVED.”

There are four passages in the New Testament where adjectives are used to describe “the Word of God” and where we are informed of our responsibility toward it as such.

For example, in James 1:21 it is called the “engrafted” or “implanted” Word, and as such we are advised to “receive” it “with meekness” since it is “able to save [our] souls.” The Word of God, indeed, does have a way of getting down underneath, of getting “under our skins,” so to speak. It is not merely sown, it is planted into men’s hearts and often makes them miserable as it convicts them of sin and of their need of salvation through Christ. When it does this, says the Apostle: “receive” it “with meekness” for it is “able to save your souls.”

Then, in Titus 1:9, it is called “the faithful Word,” and as such we are urged to “hold it fast.” “God is not a man, that He should lie, neither the son of man, that He should repent.” We can safely count on His Word and act upon it.

Next, in Philippians 2:16 the Bible is called “the Word of life,” and as such we are to “hold it forth.” The Word of God alone has power to regenerate and give spiritual life. St. Peter says that believers are “born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the Word of God, which liveth and abideth forever” (I Pet. 1:23). Thus we should “hold it forth” to lost men as their only hope of eternal life.

Finally, in II Tim. 2:15 it is called “the Word of truth,” and as such we are told to “rightly divide it.” If we fail to rightly divide it, we can change the truth into error, for God has not always dealt the same with mankind. Abel had to bring an animal sacrifice for salvation (Heb. 11:4). The children of Israel were told to “keep” the law “indeed” to find acceptance with God (Ex. 19:5,6). But later Paul declared by divine inspiration: “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5).

“Whatsoever He saith unto you, do it” (John 2:5).

When, at Cana’s wedding feast, the mother of Jesus had seen that the wine had run out, she had at first approached Him for help, but had received a reply which all the theologians of the centuries have not been able to soften: “Woman, what have I to do with thee? Mine hour is not yet come” (John 2:4).

She must learn the painful lesson that as Son of God He must deny the claims of any who would boast a closer relationship to Him on grounds of physical birth.

Mary must not think of Him as “My son”. She must, like every one else, learn to know Him as Her Lord and Saviour.

Humble, believing Mary could take the lesson well, however. Before this, when He had spoken in similar fashion she had “kept all these sayings in her heart”. Now she goes to the servants and says: “Whatsoever He saith unto you, do it”.

Mary would do the same today. If she could speak she would direct her worshippers to the Lord Jesus Christ, and say: “Whatsoever He saith unto you, do it”.

Strangely, the vast majority seem to think of His words only as the words which He spoke while on earth. They have forgotten or have never known that our Lord Jesus spoke again from heaven by revelation to the Apostle Paul and that in his epistles we have the words of the Lord Jesus to us today (See Galatians 1:11,12; 2:7-9).

Paul was, in a special sense, the ambassador of the rejected Lord. To him was committed “the gospel of the grace of God” (Acts 20:24) and the mystery of God’s “eternal purpose” (Eph. 3:1-11). In bringing his first Epistle to Timothy to a close, he wrote: “If any man teach otherwise [than he had been teaching] and consent not to wholesome words, EVEN THE WORDS OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST…he is proud, knowing nothing…from such withdraw thyself” (1 Tim. 6:3-5). Likewise, to the unruly Corinthians he wrote: “…If I come again, I will not spare: SINCE YE SEEK A PROOF OF CHRIST SPEAKING IN ME…” (2 Cor. 13:2,3).

Mary’s advice today would be to believe the gospel that Paul preached, “…how that CHRIST DIED FOR OUR SINS according to the Scriptures…was buried, and…rose again the third day…” (1 Cor.15:3,4).

Paul’s Epistle to the Romans, Chapters One and Two, present a dark picture of the human race, but acknowledge the facts they record and you have taken the first step to salvation. By nature we shrink from facing up to our sins, but we are better off if we do.

If a man has early indications of cancer, and his physician keeps the truth from him, the patient will die of cancer. A good and wise physician will say: “You have cancer and we should do something about it without delay.”

Thus God, in His Word, tells us very frankly about our sinful condition, but only to save us from it.

This is where most philosophies and the Bible clash head-on. Most philosophies close their eyes to man’s sinful nature. They presume that man is good by nature when overwhelming evidence bears witness that he is sinful by nature. Thus human philosophies offer no salvation from sin and its just penalty. Only “the gospel of the grace of God” does that.

The Bible says of the whole human race: “All have sinned” (Rom.3:23), and to each individual: “Thou art inexcusable” (Rom.2:1). But the same Bible says: “Christ died for our sins” (ICor.15:3), and “We have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, accord-ing to the riches of His grace” (Eph.1:7).

Trust in Christ for salvation and you have accepted God’s great message to the world. Then, as you consider that great Book, and especially the Epistle to the Romans, you will say with Fawcett:

“It shows to man his wand’ring ways
And where his feet have trod;
But brings to view the matchless grace
Of a forgiving God.”

God had barely given the Law to Moses when He ordered that it be put in a coffin. That’s right — a coffin. The reason for this is that the Mosaic covenant clearly stipulated:

“Now therefore, IF YE WILL OBEY MY VOICE INDEED, and keep My covenant, THEN ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto Me above all people, for all the earth is Mine” (Ex. 19:5).

Israel, of course, did not obey God’s voice indeed, but broke the Law before Moses even got down from Sinai. It was because of this that God, in grace, commanded: “And they shall make an ark…” (Ex. 25:10). This word “ark” is rendered “coffin” in the last verse of Genesis and that is its simple meaning. But why did God order a coffin as the very first article of furniture for the tabernacle? The answer is: To put the Law in. Read it for yourself:

“And thou shalt put into the COFFIN the testimony [the Law] which I shall give thee… and thou shalt put the MERCY SEAT above upon the coffin…” (Vers. 16,21).

If God had not put the covenant of the Law in a coffin and met His people from a “mercy seat” none of them ever would have been saved.

This Old Testament type has a lesson for us today, for if God dealt with us according to our works none of us would ever be saved, but “Christ died for our sins,” meeting for us the just demands of a broken Law, so that we might be saved by grace through faith in His redemptive work.

Col. 2:14 says concerning this “handwriting of decrees, that was against us,” that our Lord, in death, “took it out of the way, nailing it to His cross,” and Rom. 7:6 explains:

“But now we are DELIVERED FROM THE LAW, that being DEAD wherein we were held; THAT WE SHOULD SERVE IN NEWNESS OF SPIRIT, and not in the oldness of the letter.”

Thus believers in Christ are saved “by grace… through faith… not of works” but “unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them” (Eph. 2:8-10).

St. Paul opens his Epistle to the Romans by declaring that he has been “separated unto the gospel [good news] of God” (1:1). This agrees with Galatians 1:15,16, where he says:

“It pleased God, who separated me, from my mother’s womb, and called me by His grace, to reveal His Son in me…”

The last book of the Bible tells of the coming “revelation of Jesus Christ” in glory, to judge the world and reign on earth, but here in Galatians we have “the revelation of Jesus Christ” in Paul, the chief of sinners, saved by grace. The salvation of Paul, the one-time leader of the world’s rebellion against Christ, indicated God’s willingness, yes His desire, to save sinners. Thus it was appropriate that God should choose him as the apostle of His grace, making the good news known “to all nations for the obedience of faith.”

Let us not suppose, however, that Paul’s gospel concerned only himself or God’s grace to him. Apart from Christ’s payment for sin at Calvary God could not justly have saved Paul — or any of us. Thus the Apostle goes on, in Romans 1, to explain that this good news which God has sent him to proclaim is “concerning His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord” (1:3).

All through Paul’s epistles he proclaims salvation by grace, on the basis of Christ’s finished work of redemption:

“Being justified freely by His grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 3:24).

“Who was delivered for our offences and raised again for our justification. Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (4:25; 5:1).

“Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound, that… grace might reign through righteousness, unto eternal life, by Jesus Christ our Lord” (5:20, 21).

So the message of salvation by grace is essentially good news about Christ and what He has wrought to purchase our redemption.

Every true Christian knows by experience that the Holy Spirit does not, upon saving us, take possession of us and thenceforth supernaturally cause us to live lives pleasing to God. Rather, as with salvation, so with the Christian life, He operates in the believer “by grace through faith”.

Powerful assistance to overcome sin is freely provided by grace, but this help must be appropriated by faith in each individual case. There is no blanket provision for continuous victory throughout our whole life. We must look to Him in faith for the help we need in each separate battle.

Thus the Scripture teaching with regard to victory over sin is not that it is not possible for the believer to sin, but rather that in any given case it is possible for him not to sin. Thus too, the question in times of temptation is generally whether we truly desire to overcome, for deliverance is freely provided by grace if we will but appropriate it by faith.

But just how is deliverance provided? The answer is: BY THE HOLY SPIRIT. No longer need the believer remain enslaved to sin; for the Holy Spirit within, who imparted spiritual life to begin with, will also impart strength to overcome temptation. When tried and unable even to pray as we ought, “the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities” and “maketh intercession for us” (Rom. 8:26). When weak and ill, we may be “strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man” (Eph.3:16). Indeed, the Spirit even strengthens God’s people physically to overcome sin, for we read:

“But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken [strengthen] your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you” (Rom. 8:11).

And the following verse goes on to say:

“Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh” (Rom.8:12)

The thought is that, since believers have the Holy Spirit to help them overcome sin, they are debtors — and not to the flesh, but to God, to live pleasing to Him.

Many years ago the writer’s father, then a city missionary, received a telephone call from a prominent liberal clergyman.

“Peter,” said the clergyman, “I’ve got a young man here in the outer office who seems to be in great distress. He says he feels he’s so great a sinner that he’s overstepped the line and God won’t forgive him. Now you’ve had a lot of experience with such people. What shall I tell him?” The clergyman didn’t even know how to help a troubled soul.

“Don’t tell him a thing; I’ll be right over ,” said dad, and he left immediately to deal with the young man himself. Dad knew very well what was the matter with this young lad. The Holy Spirit had convicted him of his sin (John 16:8). The lad had come to see himself as he really was — as God saw him, and sees any unsaved person, no matter how religious.

No person ever comes to see his need of a Savior until he has first come to see himself as a condemned sinner before God. And it is only when we come to see ourselves as we are in the sight of a holy God that there is hope of salvation.

The self-righteous do not see their need of a Savior. What would He save them from? What have they done that is so wrong? This is the way their reasoning goes. It is only when we begin to appreciate the holiness and righteousness of God that it dawns upon us that our condition is hopeless without a Savior.

Strange, is it not, that so many people have pictures hanging on their walls of our Lord crowned with thorns or hanging on a cross, yet do not really know Him as a Savior, their own Savior.

But when we have been convicted of our sin and our hopeless condition before God, we are ready to take in the words spoken by Paul to the trembling jailor at Philippi:

“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:31).

In charging Timothy to “preach the Word,” the Apostle does not mean, as some have supposed, that the pastor should draw his sermon material equally from all parts of the Bible. True, “all Scripture” is given so that the “man of God” may be fully equipped for his ministry. But in this same letter the Apostle Paul indicates that the Scriptures must be “rightly divided” (2 Tim. 2:15) and that his own God-given message is the Word of God in particular for the present dispensation of grace (See 2 Tim. 1:7-14; 2:7-9). Thus the Apostle declares by inspiration that believers are established by “my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ according to the revelation of the mystery” (Rom. 16:25).

How often the Apostle insists that his message is the Word of God! To the Thessalonian believers he writes with joy:

“For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the Word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the Word of God…” (1 Thes. 2:13).

Thus the Apostle writes to Timothy, in this his last letter:

“Hold fast the form of sound words which thou hast heard of me…” (2 Tim. 1:13).

“And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men…” (2:2).

“Remember that Jesus Christ, of the seed of David, was raised from the dead according to my gospel” (2:8).

The charge to “preach the Word,” therefore, refers to “all Scripture” in general, but to Paul’s God-given message in particular. This is obvious, for it is in urging Timothy to faithfully carry on in his place that the Apostle charges him to “preach the Word.”