The Righteousness of God, Part 1

“I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes ...”

We are continuing our exploration of the theme of Paul’s letter to the Romans. Verses 16-17. The book of Romans is the most important theological work in all of history and this is the foundation for the entire book - so you can understand why it’s so important for us to ‘get this’. The last couple of weeks, we focused on v. 16. Last week, if you remember, we spent our time examining v. 16, “I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.”

How does the gospel save BELIEVERS? The Gospel of Jesus Christ has a power to take lost, dead sinners, to open their eyes to their need, make their hearts alive and to help them see the treasure of Jesus Christ and His finished work and gives them the faith to believe in Him and trust: “His finished work was for me!” The Gospel has the power to make converts to Jesus Christ. But, what we focused on last week was that Paul isn’t talking about the Gospel’s power to make converts - not here in

- He’s talking about the power of the Gospel to save saints - to save Christians.

The Gospel saves believers. Believers need to be saved. In v. 15 Paul says, “I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.” The Gospel needs to be preached not just to unbelievers - but to Christians too. The Gospel is NOT like pre-school that you understand and move on from to more ‘grown up’ things.

What’s going to save us today and tomorrow and the day after that and every other day … is the Gospel. God saved you, by the Good News - Gospel of Jesus Christ, when you put your trust in Him. But He is also saving you now, today, as He shapes you more and more into the image of Jesus Christ .... and He is going to bring you safely into heaven - when He saves you on your death bed, or when Jesus Christ comes back in glory, whichever comes first.

..... come back to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.

These aren’t three different salvations .... this is God’s one saving act in the life of every believer. Like the criminal on the cross next to Jesus - you are saved at the very moment you put your trust in Him .... you are not going to lose that salvation - - not ever. Not if you are truly saved. But like links of a great, golden, unbreakable chain - God’s saving work, will save you from the penalty of your sin, and it will keep on working in you - saving you, gradually through life, from the power of sin and then, when He takes you home - He will save you from the very presence of sin.

What is going to keep you going today - when you are tempted? The Gospel - I don’t need to be bitter - I don’t need to grab onto illicit sexual activity - I don’t need those drugs … God is saving me - -

Article, “Why the Gospel is Good News for Believers … Now”, Jared Compton paints an accurate picture: “The gospel tells you that in spite of what your Devil-charged flesh says, you don’t have to give an inch to that paper giant of lust when he taunts and pushes against you. Or, to change metaphors, the gospel unclothes the temptress, leaving a wrinkled, warty, cynical, bitter old witch in her place. The gospel topples the idol of lust by reminding you that that way to joy is a blind alley, a cul-de-sac of disappointment. Nothing truly joyful will be found there—only a cruel slave master who desperately wants his property back. And the gospel reminds you that Jesus died so that you don’t have to be fooled by lust anymore. It cost Jesus his life to make this possible.”

But how does this Gospel save believers? That’s where verse 17 comes in. Verse 17 answers that question:

“For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, ‘The righteous shall live by faith.’”

We are going to focus on v. 17, this morning. Remind you that this verse changed Martin Luther’s life … when he understood these words, he became a Christian. So, in a sense, you can truly say that it was the understanding of this verse that sparked the Protestant Reformation, which in turn changed the world. You need to understand this verse - and it’s all about the RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD.

1 THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD: WHY DOES IT MATTER?

To help you understand why this righteousness of God is so important to your life, day after day after day … let me give you a couple of glimpses into Luther’s life.

1510 – Luther was a young, 27 year old German monk and was sent by the leader of his order, to Rome, on a special mission. This was a young man who had done everything he could possibly do to find the Bible’s answer to the question, ‘What must I do to be saved?’ He thought he would find the answer in Rome. So excited when he got within eyesight of the city, exclaimed, “Hail, Holy Rome!”

He climbed the stairs of Scala sancta - supposedly the stairs that led up to the judgement hall of Pontius Pilate … imported all the way from Jerusalem. Reputedly the very stairs Jesus himself had climbed during his trial – on his way to die.

Luther climbed the stairs on his knees - on each stair, recited the Lord’s prayer and kissed the stair. On each stair, the words of these verses,

- - rang in his ears. Got to the top of the staircase picked himself up and said, ‘Who knows whether it is so?’ In other words, “Who knows if God will hear me?”

Because for all of his efforts, this monk of the Order of Saint Augustine, had no assurance of his own salvation. That was a strange thing, since most of his fellow monks thought he was on the fast track to sainthood - - - no monk like him.

But these words in troubled him. “The righteousness of God”.

Maybe you hear the words as good news. Luther most definitely did not.

How could these words in make such a difference to one man and eventually to the rest of the world? Because L eventually found in these words the heart of the Christian Gospel, that he had so massively misunderstood. These words represented the one thing all of us most need.

What was Luther’s problem? He wanted to be acceptable to God and sure of heaven.

When you joined a monastery, you went in as a novice – you had a superior to supervise you.

As a monk Luther devoted himself to a rigorous kind of austerity. He set out to be the perfect monk. He fasted for days and indulged in severe forms of self-flagellation. He went beyond the rules of the monastery in matters of self-denial. His prayer vigils were longer than anyone else’s. Everybody got blankets given to them – Luther refused his and almost froze to death. He punished his body so severely that he later commented it was in the monk’s cell that he did permanent damage to his digestive system. He wrote about his experience:

I was a good monk, and I kept the rule of my order so strictly that I may say that if ever a monk got to heaven by his monkery it was I. All my brothers in the monastery who knew me will bear me out. If I had kept on any longer, I should have killed myself with vigils, prayers, reading, and other work. [Roland Bainton, Here I Stand (NAL, 1978).]

The most bizarre of Luther’s practices involved his habit of daily confession. Confession was a requirement for the monks, but not daily. The requirement was that all one’s sins be confessed. Luther couldn’t go a day without sinning, so he felt the need to go to the confessional every day, looking for absolution.

Confession was a regular part of the monastic life. The other brothers came regularly to their confessors. They would say things like this:

“Father, I have sinned. Last night I stayed up after ‘lights out’ and read my Bible with a candle.” Or, “Yesterday at lunchtime I coveted Brother Philip’s potato salad.” (I mean, really … How much trouble can a monk get into in a monastery?) The Father Confessor would hear the confession, grant priestly absolution, and assign a small penance to be performed. ‘Go and say 5 ‘Hail Mary’s’’. And That was it. The whole transaction took a few short minutes.

Not with Brother Luther. He was driving his Father Confessor crazy. Luther was not satisfied with a brief confession of a few noticeable sins. He wanted to make sure that no sin in his life was left unconfessed. He entered the confessional and stayed for hours every day. On one occasion Luther spent six hours confessing the sins he had committed in the last day!

The superiors of the monastery began to wonder about Luther. At first they wondered if he was just trying to get out of his chores … Everybody has a brother or sister like that - - time to do the dishes everyone …. And, like clockwork – your brother has to go to the bathroom.

And in the monastery – they thought maybe brother Martin would rather spend his waking hours in the confessional to studying and performing his other tasks. They came to realize that wasn’t the case. Then they started to worry the maybe he was mentally unbalanced. Imagine being his superior and sitting in the confessional booth for Hour after hour, listening to someone confess every conceivable sin from the past day – knowing that he’s going to come back tomorrow and do the same thing.

His mentor, Staupitz, finally grew angry and scolded Luther:

“Look here,” he said, “if you expect Christ to forgive you, come in with something to forgive—go commit adultery, kill your mother, blaspheme – do SOMETHING - - but quit bringing me all these peccadilloes.… Man, God is not angry with you. You are angry with God. Don’t you know that God commands you to hope?” [Roland Bainton, Here I Stand (NAL, 1978).]

The man was radically abnormal. His guilt complex seems ridiculous to us. He was so morbid in his guilt, so disturbed in his emotions that he could no longer function as a normal human being. He could not even function as a normal monk. Oh, but “THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD HAS BEEN MANIFESTED.”

And Luther recognized that we are NOT righteous as humans.

Some of you are thinking, right now: “I still don’t see what this has to do with me. What do the psychological struggles of a medieval monk have to do with my life in 21st century Abbotsford?!” It has everything to do with you ...

Many of you know, inflicting pain on oneself is alive and well in our society today … mostly among younger people. Psychology Today journal found that 17 percent of young people intentionally harm themselves - cutting, burning. Not trying to take their own lives, but just to harm themselves.

The problem isn’t different from Luther’s problem:

“I feel so unworthy … such a burden is weighing my shoulders down .... I can’t bear this pressure … I need a release … I need some kind of assurance of being loved by the One who matters ....” Acceptance - - - Significance - - - I need to know that my life is right. Is there anyone out there who will hear my cries for help? Is there anyone out there who will help me and love me?!

And you know how it is - young people, some of you know someone in that position … some of you maybe have done it to yourself. With all of the pressures and insecurities and confusion of life in this world - You’re crying out for help and grace. You have a brother in the young Martin Luther.

Problem: Luther had been taught all of his life growing up and still believed it in the monastery - that the way to GET acceptance with God is to do what God does - or do it the best you can.

The Gospel according to the Roman Church was exactly the same as the Gospel according to most people today:

“Yes, I know I need God’s grace … but what I need is just enough of that grace to help me to get myself right … to do the best I can. As I do the best I can and that’s mixed with a little grace from God … and if I do that through my life, I’ll grow and grow spiritually. And at the end of my life, I may just be acceptable to God.”

That is the dominant religion of the Western World. The problem with that religion is that it can never, really, bring ANY assurance … for the simple reason that you can never, never know that you have done enough for God to accept you.”

I want you to have assurance. We’ve just said farewell to our brother, Marc. I was visiting with someone else, just the other day, who doesn’t have long to live. Moments like this have a way of bringing clarity .... If your confidence lies in your ability to DO ENOUGH … and you lie on your deathbed, about to enter into eternity … then when the doctor says, “I’m sorry, there’s nothing more we can do, except make you comfortable” …. When you feel your body getting weaker and weaker – and the next step is eternity … can you ever be sure that you’ve DONE ENOUGH?!

If your confidence lies in a deconstructed faith, where you’ve stripped everything down to what you feel comfortable with - to a God who will accept you as you are, because He is loving … how can you be sure that you’ve stripped down your faith to a bedrock that is true?

When I hear people declaring that they have cast aside the trappings of historical Christianity – and are content to live in uncertainty – they just rest in the love of God. Want to put my Columbo trenchcoat on and do some detective work: “If you are so uncomfortable with truth statements about God – how can you be certain of God’s love? How do you know that His character is LOVE?”

“I am not ashamed of the gospel, in it the righteousness of God IS REVEALED from faith for faith.” If you are going to have any assurance, on that death bed … you need to know that God has REVEALED what Himself … and You need to understand what this ‘RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD’ is.

Want to spend the rest of our time, getting to the bottom of what Paul means by that phrase. It’s a matter of life and death.

2 THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD: WHAT IS IT?

There are a couple of options of what the Righteousness of God COULD mean. First thing Paul could mean by the phrase is the Righteousness that belongs to God.

A - THE GOD WHO IS RIGHTEOUS

When Luther came to , he HATED this verse - because when he read the phrase, ‘righteousness of God’, he understood it as the righteousness that belongs to God - “God is righteous”. That’s true. The Bible says so, over and over,

, “For the LORD is righteous; He loves righteous deeds; the upright shall behold His face.”

, “Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne; steadfast love and faithfulness go before You.”

In fact, so pure that he cannot even look on sin ... , “You who are of purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong …”.

But if this is the righteousness of God that Paul is talking about in v. 17 - if the righteousness of God (that is) revealed in the Gospel is nothing more than the revealing of WHO GOD IS - that He is Upright and Perfectly JUST and HOLY - and that people who are just like Him will see His face .... then that is not good news for me. It is HORRIBLE news … and it’s the same for you.

I can’t get there on my own. I can’t be holy. I know myself. Isaiah says, “All of our righteousness is as filthy rags ...”. That’s - Don’t miss that - not my sin … but my righteousness … when I’m at my very best, all I have to offer is as foul as filthy rags.

There are so many who say, “Ahh … but that’s the OT God.” They make a distinction between the OT God and the NT God.

“The OT God is angry, demands you obey His law and He torches people just for worshiping him wrong.” But the NT God is manifest in Jesus - He’s loving, and kind. It’s like parenting - The OT God is like parents raising their children:

“Don’t do that. No you can’t have dessert if you don’t eat your vegetables. What do you mean, you want me to buy you a new toy? Do you think money grows on trees?”

And the NT God is like grandparents: “Sure, let’s go to the store and find you a treat.” “Here, have some more candy - - just don’t tell your mom and dad when you get home.”

The problem with that view of God is that there is only 1 God and He doesn’t change. In fact, Luther realized that the NT actually makes it MORE impossible to meet God’s righteous standards. In the OT – God reveals His righteousness in the 10 Commandments. But then, Jesus comes along, with the fuller revelation of God … This is God in human flesh after all. And where the OT says, “Do not commit adultery”, Jesus preaches the Sermon on the Mount and says, ‘No – If you even LOOK at a woman lustfully, you’ve already committed adultery with her in your heart.” The OT says, “Do not murder”. Jesus says, “Not only do not murder, but LOVE YOUR ENEMIES.”

And we all rightly say, “I can’t do that!”

So when Luther came to , he sees the righteousness of God here and said,

“I saw it and wished that God had not made the gospel known, because this fuller revelation of the righteousness of God seemed to make me utterly hopeless and helpless. And I did not know what to do with myself. The righteousness of God blocked the way.”

Elsewhere: “Love God?! I HATED Him!” And if you are trying to measure up to God’s righteous standards yourself … you cannot help but know exactly how Luther felt.

But that’s not what Paul means by the righteousness of God in . It can’t mean that here. Verse 16 has just told us that this is GOSPEL - GOOD NEWS. This Good news is the POWER OF GOD to save us.

So if righteousness is going to be good news … what does it mean?

B THE GIFT OF GOD’S RIGHTEOUSNESS

Let me tell you what Paul means by ‘Righteousness of God’ here and then I’ll show you how I get there. The Righteousness of God in v. 17 is God’s GIFT TO US of the righteousness He demands FROM US. It is God’s gift TO US, of the righteousness He demands FROM us.

I get to that conclusion from the context of the verse. Not only does the context tell us that this righteousness is Good News … that it is God’s power to save, but the very next verse,

begins a new section that goes all the way to the end of chapter 3.

, “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.”

The point of that whole section is to press home the point that we are all, every one of us, unable to stand before a Holy God on our own. Doesn’t matter how many warm fuzzy feelings you have, no matter how much good you have done, or what kind of ecstatic spiritual experiences you’ve had … it’s not enough.

, ( TURN) “For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.” Now when you see the word ‘justified’ in your English Bible - something you need to know is that ‘righteous’ and ‘justified’ are the same root word in Greek.

So, how can a human being stand before God as righteous? Not by DOING. This is the language of the courtroom. How can a guilty criminal be declared innocent?

And Paul says, “Not based on your record, that’s for sure.”

But he goes on, in the very next verse:

, “But now the righteousness of God has been manifested (that word is very close to the word ‘revealed’ in 1:17), the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it - (22) the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe .... v. 23, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, (24) and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, (25) whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.”

See the parallel with ?! God demands perfect righteousness. We don’t have it in us. But the Good News for us is that He has revealed a righteousness that isn’t earned at all, but has been earned by Jesus Christ and now, because of His finished work - God imputes that righteousness to us so that we are forgiven, acquitted of the charges against us and declared righteous. That’s how the Gospel saves us.

In fact, because of the finished work of Christ, if you are IN Christ - you are JUST AS RIGHTEOUS as Jesus Himself. There is nothing less that will get you in.

When Luther came to understand that this is what Paul meant in , his world was turned upside down.

...... goes on explaining his struggle with his own guilt and fear before the righteousness of God.

“Thus I raged with a fierce and troubled conscience. Nevertheless, I beat importunately upon Paul at [], most ardently desiring to know what St. Paul wanted. At last, by the mercy of God, meditating day and night, I gave heed to the context of the words, namely, “In it the righteousness of God is revealed, as it is written, ‘He who through faith is righteous shall live.’ ” There I began to understand [that] the righteousness of God is … righteousness with which [the] merciful God justifies us by faith.… Here I felt that I was altogether born again and had entered paradise itself through open gates

You can understand, after his struggle, why Luther would feel, when he understood what the RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD revealed in the gospel is … that the gates, once locked and barred … had opened wide and welcomed him into paradise itself. Do you know that experience?

Reminds me of Charles Spurgeon – God used him so mightily in his day to point people powerfully to Jesus Christ … Spurgeon loved God dearly – spent his life in preaching and writing for the sake of the Gospel. And Spurgeon knew what it was to need to preach the gospel to Himself. Battled depression for years – sometimes debilitating. Tells that he would sometimes just sit and weep for hours – for no apparent reason. Can you identify, Christian?

Do you know what you need as a believer? You need the gospel … day after day after day - - you need the Gospel. Spurgeon knew he did.

“I am the subject of depression so fearful … But I always get back again by this – I know that I trust Christ. I have NO reliance but in Him … and if He falls, I shall fall with him. But if He does NOT, I SHALL NOT.”

“I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes ...”

Continuing our examination of the theme of Paul’s letter to the Romans. Verses 16-17. The book of Romans is the most important theological work in all of history and this is the foundation for the entire book - so you can understand why it’s so important for us to ‘get this’. The last couple of weeks, we focused on v. 16. Last week, if you remember, we spent our time examining v. 16, “I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.”

How does the gospel save BELIEVERS? The Gospel of Jesus Christ has a power to take lost, dead sinners, to open their eyes to their need, make their hearts alive and to help them see the treasure of Jesus Christ and His finished work and gives them the faith to believe in Him and trust: “His finished work was for me!” The Gospel has the power to make converts to Jesus Christ. But, what we focused on last week was that Paul isn’t talking about the Gospel’s power to make converts - not here in - He’s talking about the power of the Gospel to save saints - to save Christians.