The Righteousness of God
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Today I want to look at what some have called the core passage for the entire Bible. This is a passage that I am sure that most if not all of you are very familiar with. Many of my youth have one of the verses in this passage memorized even. This passage is Romans 3:21-26.
As you are turning there I want to tell you a brief story that was told to me by one of my professors. This professor lives in Louisville Kentucky not to far from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary where he teaches. This seminary, which is the one I attend, was the first Southern Baptist Seminary which is why there is nothing else added onto it’s name. Because of this long history of the seminary there are tons of churches around the city that are Southern Baptist. One evening he was helping one of his neighbors move some stuff in her house. As he was helping her with this they began a conversation and she knew where he worked. She was up there in age and started to describe her dad to my professor. The final part that she left him with was that her dad was a “hope so baptist”, be good and hope it’s enough. It was this moment that the professor knew that he had to share with her the true good news of the gospel. He began with the core verse in our passage this morning, Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”. He told her that there was no hope of being good enough because we are all sinners. Her response was that she had never heard that before in her life.
If there is people there that have never heard this truth then you can be sure that there are people here that have never heard it. Maybe today you have never heard this essential truth. Whether you have heard this a thousand times or are hearing it for the first time I ask you to have open ears to it and to hear it anew, maybe in a way that you never have before. Hear it, let it permeate into you, and be prepared to share this truth so that there can be nobody that you have met not know this truth.
Let’s begin this morning now with the reading of Romans 3.21-26
But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
This section begins with the words “but now”, Paul uses this phrase fifteen times in his letters. It is used in a few different ways but this way shows a salvation contrast. Before this section we see what was in Adam but now we see what is in Christ.
What Paul describes us now having in Christ has been revealed to us through the Law and the Prophets but has now been manifested or in other words revealed apart from the law and prophets. More than that it is attainable for us! It is the righteousness of God!
The problem with attaining this righteousness is one that we all have, we are all sinners. That is where these fun words redemption and propitiation come in, we will get to these later.
Paul is painting us a beautiful picture of our salvation through this passage. From the Old Testament to the present we see God’s workings in our lives. More than just that, we even see how salvation was achieved for those who came before Jesus.
So often we come into the frame of mind that salvation is an elementary part of the faith and that we have moved past that. We want the weightier matters. Now this desire for the weightier matters of the Bible is good, we should strive for steak over milk! Where things are wrong though is that salvation is an elementary thing on its surface so that all can understand it but it is something that we never grow out of and it is also the weightiest matter that we can look at. When we explore the intricate facets of our salvation we are strengthened in our faith and we grow ever more amazed that God would ever forgive us. Many people ask the question how can God justly punish sin, but the real question is how could he ever forgive it? This is the beauty of salvation and this is the question that we will seek to answer today.
We are going to answer this through the righteousness of God. The righteousness of God is his perfect moral character. It relates closely with many other things that describe God but on it’s own is how he lives up to perfection, the perfection that we could never live up to.
Today we are going to look at this righteousness of God. We will see it’s manifestation in the new age, it’s availability to all, and how it is displayed in Christ sacrifice. Let’s pray then begin to look at the righteousness of God.
It is Manifested in the New Age
It is Manifested in the New Age
But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction:
Now in the new age, the age of the Spirit, God’s righteousness is manifested or revealed apart from the Law. The law is referring to the Old Testament. The Old Testament bore witness to it though. We see in places like...
Righteous are you, O Lord,
when I complain to you;
yet I would plead my case before you.
Why does the way of the wicked prosper?
Why do all who are treacherous thrive?
“The Rock, his work is perfect,
for all his ways are justice.
A God of faithfulness and without iniquity,
just and upright is he.
As your name, O God,
so your praise reaches to the ends of the earth.
Your right hand is filled with righteousness.
Your righteousness, O God,
reaches the high heavens.
You who have done great things,
O God, who is like you?
Clouds and thick darkness are all around him;
righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne.
Full of splendor and majesty is his work,
and his righteousness endures forever.
But the Lord of hosts is exalted in justice,
and the Holy God shows himself holy in righteousness.
For the moth will eat them up like a garment,
and the worm will eat them like wool,
but my righteousness will be forever,
and my salvation to all generations.”
This is just scratching the surface of the testimony that the Old Testament bears towards the righteousness of God. As you read you will see that it is everywhere. In the places it is not talking about this righteousness it is displaying it. What a grand reality we see, but now we have something different, something better. That is we have something other than the Old Testament.
The righteousness of God is now revealed and made available to us through Jesus. Without this manifestation we would not have what the rest of this passage talks about, we would not have the ready availability of this righteousness and we would not have the display of it.
This righteousness went from something that we could read about in the Old Testament to something that was right in front of the authors of the New Testament. It went to something that we could have a personal relationship with.
What does it mean that the righteousness of God was manifest in Jesus? It says in Colossians 2:9 “For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily,” and about this Billy Graham wrote this:
This manifestation of God is by far the most complete revelation God ever gave to the world. If you want to know what God is like, then take a long look at Jesus Christ. In Him were displayed not only the perfections that had been exhibited in the creation—such as wisdom, power, and majesty—but also such divine perfections as justice, mercy, grace, and love.
This is a simple thing, but it is a beautiful thing. It lays the foundation for our salvation. The Old Testament tells us about the righteousness of God and it also tells us about the coming of the Messiah, who we know as Jesus. It is through this Messiah that we get the fullest revelation of God. To see our great God we need look no further than Jesus Christ.
Jesus came to make a way for salvation. This salvation is available to all. This salvation is us receiving the righteousness of God. Let’s look now at how this salvation is available to all.
It is Available to All
It is Available to All
the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,
The righteousness of God is available to all through faith in Jesus. This is the core of our salvation, faith. It says in Hebrews 11:1 “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Our faith in Jesus for salvation is assurance in our salvation and a conviction that Christ is who he says he is even though we cannot see him.
It was this passage that convicted the reformer Martin Luther to confront the Roman Catholic church about their beliefs regarding salvation. This eventually led to the protestant reformation which we as baptist were born out of. Throughout history there have been few that have denied faith as necessary for salvation but there have been many that have denied is as all you need. The core of that reformation was this simple truth, salvation is by faith alone. There is nothing that goes with faith for salvation, there are lots of things that it leads to, but it is by faith alone that we are saved!
We need this salvation because of that core verse there in the middle, the one we all know so well. Romans 3.23 say it with me: “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”. Notice in this verse the tense of the words in the passage. Have sinned, is past tense. Fall short, is present tense. There is a continuation aspect to this verse, we were sinners then and we are still now falling short of Gods glory.
The biggest problem I see in the world right now is this; the people of the world do not see that they are sinners and the people of the church have forgotten that they are sinners. We are quick to call out the wrongs of others but we are far to slow at recognizing our own wrongs. I wish I was speaking broadly here but I see it right here in our town.
We are all sinners, every last one of us. And we all fall short of the glory of God.
Now I am not the movie savant that Terrell is but I have to say that growing up and still today I love watching the Indiana Jones movies. I have been Indiana Jones for many Halloweens and even dressed up to go watch the latest one in theaters. There is something about the adventure and the treasure that I enjoy. In the movie the Temple of Doom, which is filled with all sorts of paganism, Indiana says one of his most famous lines “fortune and glory”. As I thought about that line I realized that is exactly how the world works, if you want worldly glory it is in some way related to fortune. In the world fortune equals glory. That is not how God’s glory works. God’s glory is his moral perfection, that is what we must attain to get that glory. We fall short of perfect every single day and thus we fall short of his glory. This goes back to the simple fact that we are sinners.
Though we fall short we know that God’s righteousness is made available to us through faith in Jesus Christ. This is to anyone who would believe. There is no distinction for anyone in any of this!
When we put our faith in Jesus as our Lord and savior then then we get the righteousness of Christ imputed or placed upon us. Then in his eyes we are perfect and we no longer fall short of his glory. To gain worldly glory there are many things that you can do, but to gain this heavenly glory there is only one way and that is through faith in Jesus Christ.
before you put your faith in Jesus you are described as being a slave to this sin. It says in John 8.34
Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.
Anyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. We are all sinners so that means that at one point we were all slaves to sin. For some of us though there has been a change. For those who have put their faith in Jesus it says later in Romans 6.22
But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.
Through faith in Christ we are set free from and forgiven for our sins! That is where the word redemption comes in, redemption relates to being freed from a captive condition. We were held captive to our sin but God has set us free. We are still sinners but the difference is that we have been forgiven. Without forgiveness we are deserving of God’s wrath.
All of this is what we call justification. Verse 24 says that we are justified by his grace as a gift. This is being declared just. Meaning pretty much the same thing as being declared righteous. We can now be in right standing before God. It is just as if I’d never sinned. This is a gift given to us by God because of his grace, because of his unmerited favor.
The righteousness of God is available to all who would put their faith in Jesus. We need this because every last one of us are sinners. Those who are not forgiven are slaves to sin and deserving of God’s wrath. Those who have put their faith in Jesus are free from sin and forgiven by God, God has placed his righteousness over them.
The righteousness of God is available to all but not all will accept it. Have you accepted the salvation that Jesus offers? Will you accept it?
This righteousness is manifested in the new age, it is available to all, and now we see its display.
It is Displayed in Christ Sacrifice
It is Displayed in Christ Sacrifice
whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
God’s righteousness is displayed in the sacrifice that Christ made on the cross. God put Christ forward as a propitiation. This is one of my favorite words in the Bible. Propitiation is the satisfying of God’s wrath. Wrath is what we deserve for our sin but God sent Jesus to satisfy it. Think about that, God took the initiative to do what needed to be done to satisfy his own wrath. This should leave us Christians standing in awe of the awesome God that we serve.
Once again we see that the wrath that we deserve is satisfied by Jesus through faith. All of this goes to show the righteousness of God. I hope by now you are beginning to see this pattern as it continues to develop.
Without the wrath being satisfied there would be no salvation. Without God taking the initiative there would be no salvation. A lot of the time people will give man to much credit for salvation, whether they are giving themselves the credit or a preacher the credit. Truly God deserves all of the credit. It says in Ephesians 2:1 “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins” dead people don’t save themselves, it is an act of God.
God in his divine providence not only made Christ the propitiation for everyone that would believe after Jesus, but also before. God in his divine forbearance, patient tolerance, passed over former sins so that all of his righteousness could be shown in Christ. What exactly does this mean? Imagine it this way before Christ people were saved on credit, God knew the money was coming. Now we are saved on debit because the payment has been made. Salvation before Jesus and after him was all based on faith. Read Hebrews 11 and see all who were justified by faith; Able, Abraham, Moses, David, and more! Salvation is by faith and always has been. Sure we could get into the intricacies of it more but we see that Jesus satisfied the wrath for all people, past present and future, that would believe in him. Those who would put their faith in him.
It is in this that the righteousness of God is displayed.It is in this that the righteousness of God is manifested, and it is in this that the righteousness of God is available.
It is in this that God is both just and the justifier. It is easy to see how God can justly punish sin, we are all terrible sinners. Through the wrath appeasing sacrifice of Christ, God can justly forgive sin. This makes him just and right. This also makes him the justifier, the one who can bestow upon us dirty rotten sinners his righteousness.
Conclusion
Conclusion
Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” This is the big problem that we face. We fall short of God’s glory every single day. But God in his righteousness made a way for salvation. It is through faith in Jesus Christ alone. God has appeased the wrath for anyone who would put their faith in Jesus. In the spirit of familiar verses let us quickly look through the book of Romans:
as it is written:
“None is righteous, no, not one;
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
Through Christ alone salvation is possible. If you have not put your faith in Jesus as your Lord and savior then today call upon his name, repent of your sins and put your faith in him. It is through him and him alone that you will be saved.
For those of you who have put your faith in Jesus and accepted the forgiveness he offers, we need to live like it. We need to hunger ever more for righteousness and to pursue our sanctification. And also never forget that you to are a sinner and were once just like those in the world.
I want to finish today with a segment from a sermon by Allister Begg, he illustrates so wonderfully what we all must understand. He says:
Think about the thief on the cross. I can’t wait to find that fellow one day to ask him, “How did that shake out for you? Because you were cussing the guy out with your friend. You’d never been in a Bible study. You’d never got baptized. You didn’t know a thing about church membership. And yet—and yet, you made it! You made it! How did you make it?”
That’s what the angel must have said—you know, like, “What are you doing here?”
“Well, I don’t know.”
“What do you mean, you don’t know?”
“Well, ’cause I don’t know.”
“Well, you know… Excuse me. Let me get my supervisor.”
They go get the supervisor angel: “So, we’ve just a few questions for you. First of all, are you clear on the doctrine of justification by faith?”
The guy says, “I’ve never heard of it in my life.”
“And what about… Let’s just go to the doctrine of Scripture.”
This guy’s just staring.
And eventually, in frustration, he says, “On what basis are you here?”
And he said, “The man on the middle cross said I can come.”
Now, that is the only answer.
Not by my righteousness. I am a sinner. I deserve wrath. But by his righteousness, the righteousness of God who is just and the justifier. There is no other way to salvation!