You’re familiar with "Before" and "After" comparisons. Watch TV for a few minutes and you’ll surely see a "Before" and "After" comparison in an advertisement for a weight loss product. Here’s what "Meredith" looked like before she began taking…fill in the blank…weight loss product, and here’s Meredith now after six weeks. Hair replacement is another popular venue for "Before" and "After" comparisons. Here’s Jim before seeing Dr. Follicle, and here’s Jim after undergoing the Follicle Replacement Procedure. I don’t know about you, but I tend to be skeptical when I see such things. Does the person in the "After" photo really look like the same person in the "Before" photo?

I actually Googled "Before and After pictures"—googled, there’s a verb for our times—and discovered lots of areas where such comparisons are made…from automobile restorations to tattoo parlors. We’re familiar with such comparisons.

Sometimes, the moment of transformation in a "Before" and "After" scenario takes time—weight loss, for example…legitimate weight loss, that is. Sometimes, the transformation is pretty quick, a change of hair style and color, for example.

Lillie Baltrip’s status changed pretty quickly. Lillie, back in 1988, was a bus driver for the Houston school system. Lillie had a spotless record as a school bus driver—no violations and no accidents. Consequently, she was nominated to receive a safe driver award at the end of the ’88 school year. In a traditional show of support for such award winners, several of Lillie’s colleagues joined her in a bus trip to the ceremony…with Lillie as the driver. On the way to the ceremony—yes, you guessed it—Lillie took a turn too quickly and tipped the bus over. Lillie and 16 of her colleagues missed the ceremony because they were receiving treatment at a nearby hospital for minor injuries suffered in the accident. Lillie never received her award. In an instant, she went from the "Before" of Safe Driver Award winner to the "After" of not-so-safe driver and the target of late night talk show jokes.

In the book of Romans, the apostle Paul paints a "Before" and "After" picture. In the section of Romans leading up to our Scripture reading for today, Paul expounds on a basic theme that "no one is righteous." He paints a pretty bleak picture of unrighteousness in humanity, writing that human beings have "exchanged the truth of God for a lie," and have "worshiped created things rather than the Creator." No one escapes Paul’s discouraging diatribe. Those who don’t acknowledge God at all are without excuse, Paul says, because God is evident in creation. The "God of Wonders" our Praise Team sang about a moment ago is evident before us and those who claim there is no God—and, therefore, are far removed from the righteousness of God—have no excuse, says Paul. But, don’t take smug comfort as one who acknowledges the wonder of God in creation. Even worshipers of the God of creation fall short of God’s righteousness. Paul calls all of humanity "evildoers" and gives examples—a list of wrongdoing, of unrighteousness in which all of us, if we’re honest, identify ourselves at some point. Greed. Envy. Gossip. Arrogant and boastful. Worshipers of God, Paul says, are also without excuse because we know such actions are wrong, yet we continue to do them.

In Romans 3:9-20, the section right before our Scripture reading for today, the editors of the NIV have identified Paul’s theme in that section by the title No One is Righteous. Even in our reading for today, in verse 23, Paul writes, "…all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." Note, he does not say some have sinned, he does not say those atheists have sinned, he says "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." It’s a pretty bleak picture. But, that is the "Before" picture.

The temptation, of course, is to see ourselves in the "Before" picture and think, "You know, I’m not so bad." If the topic is weight loss, "I’m just big boned." If the topic is hair loss, "I just have a high forehead." In response to Paul we want to say, "Look Paul, I’m certainly not perfect…but, I’m not so bad." And, in some ways, Paul might agree. "Yes, you’re sin doesn’t inflict the kind of damage as this sin over here…but, it is still sin. And all sin means we fall short of God’s glory." Bishop Handley Moule, the principal of Cambridge’s Theological College at the end of the 19^th century put it this way: "The harlot, the liar, the murderer, are short of [God’s glory]; but so are you. Perhaps they stand at the bottom of a mine, and you on the crest of an Alp; but you are as little able to touch the stars as they." In the Alpha class, the speaker on video—Nicky Gumbel from Holy Trinity Brompton Church in London—describes the picture as a large ruler running vertically from the ground to the ceiling. At the bottom of the ruler we might put a Hitler; at the top, a Mother Teresa. Somewhere between those two extremes we’d place ourselves. No matter the position on the ruler, it still falls short. There’s Hitler at the bottom of the mine, Mother Teresa, or perhaps Paul himself, at the top of Mt. Everest, and there we are at Green Mountain, or, on a good day, Long’s Peak. And we all are unable to touch the stars.

In the first part of his letter to the Romans, Paul paints a bleak picture—a righteous God requires…demands righteousness from His people. Yet, everyone falls short of that requirement.

However, that’s the "Before" picture. "But now," Paul says, there is a righteousness that comes from God. Not dependent upon our ability to scale the highest mountain of good works and touch the stars, this righteousness comes from God Himself. Paul tells us it was God’s plan all along—the Old Testament Law and Prophets testified to it. The atonement offerings made to reconcile the people of the Old Testament to God were pointing the way to the final, once for all offering of Jesus Christ. This righteousness comes from God through faith in Jesus Christ. What we could not do, could not accomplish on our own, God accomplishes for us. Hear Paul’s words again, "This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference," here’s the "Before" picture, "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God," but now here comes the "After" picture, "and [all] are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus." "Before" we were sinners unable to reach the righteousness God requires. But now, we are justified, made righteous, by his grace through Jesus Christ.

Justified by his grace. The Greek word for justified is an interesting word. It is a legal term used in the courts expressing acquittal for a defendant. The opposite of justification is condemnation. Justification means much more than pardon. Pardon carries a negative sense in that the penalty for a wrongful act is removed, but the stain of the wrongful act remains. Gerald Ford pardoned Richard Nixon, but the stain of Watergate remained. Justification, however, carries a positive sense in that not only is there no penalty, but the stain of a wrongful act is removed and righteous status is given. Pardon is the removal of punishment, justification is a declaration that no grounds for inflicting the punishment exists. More than pardoned for our sin, we are justified before God by grace through Jesus Christ. That is the "After" picture! The stain of sin is removed and the righteousness God requires is bestowed upon us.

This is the great truth Luther discovered that ignited a Reformation. Luther despaired of his ability to ever do enough to achieve a righteousness acceptable to God. "O wretched soul that I am," he would cry. Only when he discovered the joyful truth of Paul’s words—that the very righteousness he sought is given to him through faith in Jesus Christ—did his despair turn into joy. And the same joy can be ours today.

Of course, it can be painful to look at our "Before" picture. Again, the picture Paul paints is not a pretty one. But, to fully appreciate the joy of our "After" picture, we need to be reminded of what it was like before. Just this morning I saw a news report about remembering Rosa Parks. As most of you know, Rosa Parks—who ignited the civil rights movement in America by her refusal to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama bus—died last week. The news story this morning showed thousands of people who stood in line to pay tribute to Rosa Parks by filing past her coffin. She was lying in state in the Montgomery church she was a member of for many years—much of that time serving as Superintendent of the Sunday School. I understand later this week she will lie in state at the nation’s capitol. Anyway, the reporter this morning interviewed several of the people who stood in line. They commented on how much they owed Rosa Parks. Several mentioned a concern that young people learn about and remember what Rosa Parks did. Included in the interviews was Rosa Parks’ best friend. This elderly woman spoke to the importance of remembering what the "Before" picture looked like in order to greater appreciate the "After." She said, "Sometimes we have to remember how bad it was so that we can appreciate how far we’ve come."

Whatever your "Before" picture looks like, whatever acts of unrighteousness hinder your approach to God, know without question, through faith in Jesus Christ, that’s not how God sees you. God sees the "After" picture of unrighteousness removed and righteousness bestowed. Wherever you might place yourself on that "Alpha ruler," or wherever you might put yourself from bottom of a mine to the top of Everest, admit that you’re still not able to touch the stars. You cannot achieve on your own the righteousness a righteous God demands. You need Jesus Christ for that. But know without question what Luther discovered that freed him from his despair—through faith in Jesus Christ we are freely justified by God’s grace. We have been "re-formed" from "Before" to "After" by God’s grace given in Jesus Christ.