GOD’S RIGHTEOUSNESS IS OURS
November 5, 2006 - REFORMATION - Romans 3:19-28
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Dear Christian Friends and Fellow Saints in the Lord, Fellow Redeemed who are Saved by the Righteousness of God:
Today we are going to go back to the basics, the basics of our Christian faith. We realize that sometimes in our lives things are difficult and complicated. You and I can easily stray from the basics of living our life. Still, we know in the back of our mind how important the basics are. We begin in school and learn the basics, the letters. With letters we make words and then sentences, paragraphs and stories. It all starts with the basics. Sometimes in life we get so wrapped up in the complexities and nuances of living, and we forget to step back and remember the basics. When this happens it can spread into religion, maybe our own faith. The basics--the Reformation rallying cry for believers was, "By faith alone, by Scripture alone, and by grace alone."
Today, we are going to look at "By faith alone," one of the very basics of the eternal salvation that is ours as a gift of God. It was the basics that the Lord Jesus himself proclaimed when he was on earth. In the Gospel of John we have these words of Jesus: "I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned, he has crossed over from death to life" (John 5:24). Jesus tells us the basics, isn’t it? Faith comes by hearing. So we hear God’s word, and faith is planted in our hearts. Faith grows by hearing, and we believe. We walk in that Christian faith. Jesus says we even cross over from death to life. That is the basics. Faith comes by hearing and is a gift of God. We have eternal life. Paul adds today that God’s righteousness is ours, which is something we know and believe from early on. It was something that Martin Luther struggled with in his life.
GOD’S RIGHTEOUSNESS IS OURS:
I. Not by the law, II. but by faith.
I. NOT BY THE LAW
The words of our text began by describing for us the law and its purpose. Paul wanted to make the point that no one is saved by the law. In verse 19: "Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God." Sin silences men. We think back to the very first sin. Adam and Eve sin. God comes, and they try to hide themselves. They were scared to talk to God. Sin silenced them. Even when God asked them where they were, they said they were hiding. Sin silenced their perfect understanding of God’s word. God’s law now made them accountable to God. Sin still does that today.
God’s perfect law points out sin, and not the Savior. Verse 20: "Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law." You have to remember that during the time of Jesus there were the scribes and Pharisees. What did they teach? They said, "Do this and do that, and you can be saved." The fact is that they started with the Ten Commandments and added books and even more books of laws that the people were to follow. It was important for this simple message that no one is saved by observing the law. Paul writes, "Through the law we become conscious of sin." Back to the basics, law shows us our sin. The law showed Adam and Eve their sin. The law shows every sinner every sin and still does so to this very day. That is the point that Paul makes--the basics. The law reveals sin. Because of that he says, "No one is declared righteous in his sight." He says there is no escape. In verse 23: "Therefore there is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." Paul wants to make it very clear that it there were not only a few that sinned, not some, not many, but all have sinned and fall short of God’s glory. All people on this earth are unrighteous. Paul certainly included himself when he wrote in Timothy that he was the worst of sinners. All fall short and all are unrighteous.
The last verse of our text says: "A man is justified faith apart from observing the law." The basics--the law cannot save. The law shows us our sin. By observing the law we cannot work our way into heaven. That is the great problem that the world faces today. First of all, admitting that there is sin and that the law holds us accountable is something people do not want to hear. Our sinful nature does not want to hear that, but God says, "You are a sinner." The Bible tells us that we all fall short of the glory of God. There is no difference among any of us. Inside of the church or outside of the church, believers and unbelievers, are in the same boat. All have sinned and fall short of God’s glory.
What else happens today? We know that in today’s society some try to explain away sin calling it a sickness or disease. Worst of all in our day and age, people think that if they try hard enough and live a good enough life, that will be good enough for God. God would not be upset with those who try hard enough. Maybe sometimes we may feel like that. After all, all of us feel good when we do something good. So sometimes we fall into that trap ourselves and say, "I’m not so bad, not like those who are in prison." But what does Scripture say? In the letter of James: "Whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it" (James 2:10). It is not only what we do against God’s law that would condemn us. One wrong thing makes us guilty of breaking all the Ten Commandments. In God’s eyes sin is sin is sin, no big ones, no little ones. James also says: "The good that we do not do is also a sin." So we sin against God by doing things that are wrong. We sin against God by not doing things that are right.
That is not the worst part, is it? Sin infects us and affects each and every one of us. Sin isn’t just something that we do wrong, is it? Sin isn’t just something we might say against our fellow man. God reminds us that we sin against him in our actions, our words and also our thoughts. That is where everything begins--inside of us. Inside of us we have the human heart that we were born with that is darkened with sin and that is evil. That is where sin begins. Jesus says in the Gospel of Mark: "For from within, out of men’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly" (Mark 7:21,22). You almost have to take a deep breath to get through this whole list. Jesus states this because the Pharisees were saying, "Look at all the good things we do and all the prayers we say." Jesus reminded them it was not the outside he was concerned about but the inside where evil dwelt. But that was just a beginning.
The law cannot save us. God’s righteousness does not come to us by the law. God’s righteousness reveals to us that he is a righteous judge. That was the struggle of Martin Luther. He began his life, went to school, studied, and became a lawyer. It didn’t last very long, because he realized his sins bothered him. So he studied to become a monk. Still his sins bothered him. He tried to do everything that the church said. He went without eating; he beat himself; he crawled up the steps of St. Peter’s in Rome. Still his sins bothered him. Luther only saw God as the righteous judge who saw him as an unrighteous person filled with sin. No matter how he tried, Luther could not find any satisfaction in trying to save himself by doing deeds of the law. God has opened our eyes to realize the same thing. Solely by God’s law we all stand condemned before God. What does Scripture tell us? In Isaiah: "All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away" (Isaiah 64:6). Do you catch the meaning there? God says that even those things that we think are so good (righteous acts) are like filthy rags. On this side of heaven, you and I have sin which clings to us. Our sins cling to our very thoughts, words and actions. This is the total depravity of mankind inherited from our first parents Adam and Eve. Sin continues in our lives by our own willful disobedience against God.
Yet, in spite of our wretched condition and our contemptible actions, wicked words and evil thoughts,
GOD’S RIGHTEOUSNESS IS OURS: I. not by the law, II. but by faith.
II. BUT BY FAITH
Now, we look at the sweet message of the Gospel. The law reminds us that we cannot save ourselves or buy our way into heaven or earn it. God gives eternity to us, doesn’t he? We are saved by grace through faith in Christ. Verse 21: "But now a righteousness from God, apart from the Law and the Prophets testify." It was not a new message that Paul was preaching here. It really wasn’t a new message that Jesus came to proclaim that the kingdom of God was near; repent. The gospel message was a message that was talked about in the Law and the Prophets. These were the Scriptures the early believers had--the Psalms, the Prophets, and the first five books of the Bible. They also pointed to the Savior. These books of God also reminded the believers that they were sinful, but there was a Savior who was to come who would forgive their sins. Even though some thought that the gospel was a new and different message, it really wasn’t. This happened during the time of Luther too. God’s word had been hidden so long that when Luther preached from the Bible, people came and listened. His sermons would be 35 or 40 minutes long. The people still filled the churches.
Paul goes on: "This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe." The people who were saved weren’t just the Jewish nation anymore. They were the Jews and Gentiles alike. "To all who believe." It made no difference whether they were physical descendants of Abraham or not. Now the believers who were believers in Christ were considered the children of Abraham. They received God’s righteousness through faith in Christ Jesus. He describes how this works with these new believers. Some had a hard time understanding that God’s righteousness was theirs. He says there is no difference. We fall short; we sin. He says: "All are justified freely by his grace through redemption that came by Christ Jesus." Believers are given the free gift of God’s grace. They are saved by the redemption of Christ. Scripture defines "redemption" in the next verse: "God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood." Christ Jesus sacrificed himself, and his blood paid for the sins of the world. Now, through faith by God’s grace, these people were believers. By faith through God’s grace Paul was a believer. Paul rejoiced because by faith -- which God gave to him -- God’s righteousness became his.
Verse 26 talks about the work of God and his justice that is almost beyond our human comprehension. "He did this to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus." Here is God, the righteous judge, sitting on his throne; and he looks at humankind. God looked at Adam and Eve who destroyed the world with their sins. We destroy the world with our sins. Yet, God is a righteous judge who has all the power in the world to condemn us, but says his justice is forgiveness. No charges. No penalty. No sentence. No punishment. That is God who is being just, and God’s righteousness is ours by grace through faith.
So Paul says, "Where is boasting? It is excluded." Can anyone boast? No, it is excluded. Not by the law, but by faith. Believers believe because God has put faith in their hearts. Believers believe because of the work of the Holy Spirit has caused that word of God which was planted in the hearts of people everywhere to grow and become faith. He says, "We maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law." Back to the basics.
We are saved by grace through faith in Christ Jesus which we find in Scripture alone. By faith alone, grace alone, Scripture alone. We can’t boast. Believing is not a decision. We don’t decide to go and find Christ or take him as our Savior. This decision and choosing is contrary to our sinful nature. We are born into this world as enemies of God. God has to change us and he does. He finds us; and through the power of his word and the Sacraments--the washing of the water and the word, God saves us by his grace. We can be thankful. If it was our decision, then we would boast. We would say, "I believe because I tried harder. I believe because I chose Jesus and you didn’t." See the danger there?
Remember the words of Paul in Ephesians: "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God--not by works, so that no one can boast" (Ephesians 2:8,9).
God’s righteousness is ours not by the law, not by works, but by faith. We can’t boast. We do come before God and realize his grace. We don’t deserve to be saved. But God who is just takes his justice and his righteousness and covers up all of our sins. Our heavenly Father forgives our sins with the blood of his Son, Jesus Christ. In the book of Titus: "But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy" (Titus 3:4,5). We could spend a lifetime studying God’s grace, love and mercy and spend every Sunday hearing about it and still only begin to understand a little bit. For we know in this life the opposite is true. We do something wrong, there is a penalty to pay. God says if we do something wrong, he pays the penalty and takes care of the punishment. Instead of punishment, he rewards us with forgiveness not because of what we have done, but what Christ has done.
Again we come back to the basics--the blood of Christ purifies us from all sin. This is known as a blood theology. Some people don’t like to hear that. It doesn’t set well with them, but that is what Scripture says. We celebrate it today in the Lord’s Supper. Jesus says, "This is my body. This is my blood poured out for you for the forgiveness of your sins." We don’t want to change God’s Word. Rather, we believe God’s word by grace. 1 John says: "But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin" (1 John 1:7). Right at the end, it says not a few sins, not some sins, but his blood purifies us from all sin. The sins that we know and confess, the sins that are obvious and the sins that we may not even recognize, the Lord forgives. Jesus’ blood covers up all that darkness--our wicked words, our evil thoughts, and the actions which are not pleasing to God. God’s righteousness is ours. That is the basics. It is important to hear this gospel message. The complexities of life and in the complexities of some church bodies, many get wrapped in other things--endless discussions about things that don’t matter much about eternity.
We need to remind ourselves of the basics, not just of this life, but the basics of eternal life. God’s righteousness is ours, not by our goodness, not by our actions or works, not because we try to buy our way into heaven, not because we can act good enough, not because we can pray ourselves into heaven; but purely and simply by faith. God’s righteousness and his forgiveness are ours by faith which comes to us as his gift, by grace through God’s word. Even though it might sound like a new message for some and even though it sounded like a new message during the time of Luther, even though it sounded like a new message during the time of Paul, even though it sounded like a new message during the time of Jesus, it wasn’t! It is the same message, simply the Law and Gospel. The Law shows our sin. The Gospel shows us our Savior. We are saved by grace.
The Psalm writer says: "But from everlasting to everlasting the LORD’s love is with those who fear him, and his righteousness with their children’s children" (Psalm 103:17). God’s righteousness is ours today. As we stand firm in the faith, God’s righteousness is to be with our children and our children’s children. We are saved by God’s grace. We are saved by faith which is ours through the words of eternal life written in Holy Scriptures. Amen. Pastor Timm O. Meyer
Sunday radio broadcast @ 9:05am on KQNK 106.7FM or 1530AM + www.kqnk.com
Reformation / End Time 1 readings: JEREMIAH 18:1-11; REVELATION 14:6,7; MARK 13:5-11
