Believing the Gospel

Introduction

Over the past couple weeks, we have been talking about the perspective of living a Gospel-centered life.

What we’ve seen is that it is easy to minimize sin in our lives

We explain it away, hide it away, and defend ourselves.

But our sin isn’t the only thing that we tend to shrink.

We have to fight on a regular basis to not shrink the cross.

We feel that it can’t possibly be enough to cover our sins and buy our salvation, so we try to compensate.

Even if you are a “good Christian” and would never even think of saying that the cross isn’t enough, the way you live speaks volumes to your understanding of Christ’s atoning work.

Pastor Michael taught us last week how pretending and performing are ways that we try to add to the cross.

We pretend that the things we do,

the convictions we have,

the life we live,

the positions we hold,

all add to our spiritual bank account.

Or, we perform.

We live as if He is not pleased with Christ’s work on the cross and is sitting in heaven thinking, “These monkeys better dance!”

Once we get past the negatives of minimizing the Gospel, we can start maximizing it by using remedies that the Lord has graciously provided.

Strong, vibrant belief in the gospel frees us from ourselves and produces true and lasting spiritual transformation.

Let’s begin by looking at Romans chapter 9 verse 30 continuing into verse 4 of chapter 10.

Exposition

These are the very words of God...

Romans 9:30–10:4 ESV

What shall we say, then? That Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it, that is, a righteousness that is by faith; but that Israel who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness did not succeed in reaching that law. Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works. They have stumbled over the stumbling stone, as it is written, “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense; and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.” Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.

Paul is writing to Roman believers in one of the most theologically rich, doctrinally dense treatments of the topic of Salvation that there is.

The offense to the Old Testament people of God, whether that be native born Jew or proselyte Gentile, was that the law they so staunchly adhered to was amounting to a massive heap of nothing in the eyes of God.

Their performing and pretending was getting them no closer to fellowship with the God they claimed to serve.

Why?

Why were their “righteous” acts not succeeding?

Because there was no faith.

They were good on the works front, but they stumbled over the free gift of salvation through Christ because they were too busy trying to earn their faith.

Paul quotes Psalm 118 while laying out his case for righteousness.

Psalm 118:19–22 ESV

Open to me the gates of righteousness, that I may enter through them and give thanks to the Lord. This is the gate of the Lord; the righteous shall enter through it. I thank you that you have answered me and have become my salvation. The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.

Christ is the very center and foundation of salvation and we stumble over Him, we are offended by Him, because we attempt to fix our spiritual problems by working at it.

Just like the Romans, we are so often ignorant of God’s righteousness, or refuse to submit to it, as we seek to establish our own righteousness.

The root of our problem, then, is that we strive for acceptance, approval, security, and significance in ourselves.

When we pretend, we are making ourselves out to be better than we are.

When we perform, we are trying to please God by what we do.

And, in doing these things, we show our sinful propensity to find our own righteousness and identity apart from Christ.

We stumble anew over the one Who gave us His righteousness while taking on the just punishment for our sin.

We reject the sufficiency of our Savior.

But the Lord, doesn’t leave us here.

If we but remember the Gospel and what it promises, our righteousness and identity are rectified.

When it comes to righteousness, we have to become comfortable with the idea of...

Passive Righteousness

Passive righteousness is just another way to communicate the biblical truth that God has not only forgiven our sin, our debt on the righteousness scale, but also credited to us Jesus positive righteousness.

The term “passive righteousness was coined by Martin Luther. He said...

It is called “passive righteousness” because we do not have to labor for it… it is not righteousness that we work for, but righteousness we receive by faith. This passive righteousness is a mystery that someone who does not know Jesus cannot understand. In fact, Christians do not completely understand it and rarely take advantage of it in their daily lives… When there is any fear or our conscience is bothered, it is a sign that our “passive righteousness is out of sight and Christ is hidden.

The person who wanders away from “passive” righteousness has no other choice but to live by “works” righteousness. If he does not depend on the work of Christ, he must depend on his own work. So we must teach and continually repeat the truth of this “passive” righteousness so that Christians continue to hold to it and never confuse it with “works” righteousness.

- Martin Luther

When I think of passive righteousness, I think of passive income.

This is a big craze in the financial world (a world I will not even claim to have much familiarity with).

But many of you have entire accounts, spreadsheets, and strategies when it comes to maximizing your dollars.

Passive income is money that works for you.

It sits in investments, IRAs, stocks, and other like accounts accruing interest.

Adding to itself like cells going through mitosis until Scrooge McDuck has an ocean of gold coins to swim in.

The great thing about passive income is that you do absolutely nothing.

You become wealthy because you have entrusted your money to the right institutions or accountants.

This is the righteousness of Christ!

And this is where the major, glaring difference between passive income and passive righteousness shows itself.

When it comes to income, most of the time you are living off the money that you are working for.

Passive income is just kind of padding your pockets.

Giving you a little extra fun money or going towards saving for a nicer vacation.

It could not be more opposite when it comes to righteousness!

There is NO way to live off the righteousness that you work to establish for yourself.

This is the point that Paul raises in Romans chapter 3

Romans 3:19–22 ESV

Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. 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.

You do absolutely nothing and it is credited to your account by faith.

As we already sang...

No humble dress

No fervent prayer

No lifted hands

No tearful song

No recitation of the truth

NOT. ONE. THING.

We must embrace the idea of passive righteousness if we are to have any righteousness.

This promise leads into another.

The promise of adoption.

Adoption

Just like our righteousness has nothing to do with us, so our adoption has nothing to do with us.

No one twists God’s arm into accepting them.

It’s not on the basis of any merit system.

He chooses to love His children out of the abundance of pure fatherly love in His being.

What do the Scriptures specifically have to say about this?

Galatians 3...

Galatians 3:29–4:7 ESV

And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise. I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no different from a slave, though he is the owner of everything, but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by his father. In the same way we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world. But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.

Just as we are prone to forget the status of our righteousness, we are inclined to forget our identity.

We talk a LOT about being saved from sin, self, and hell.

But it is honestly a rare thing for us to consider ourselves as part of God’s eternal family.

How often do you think of your status as an adopted child of God?

J.I. Packer says...

If you want to judge how well a person understands Christianity, find out how much he makes of the thought of being God’s child, and having God as his Father. If this is not the thought that prompts and controls his worship and prayers and his whole outlook on life, it means that he does not understand Christianity very well at all.

- J.I. Packer

We may throw around the terminology of being a child of God, but we seldom let the reality of that truth sink in.

We aren’t just slaves and heirs with Christ, benefiting from His sonship.

We are brothers and sisters with Him united under the only begotten Son!

If we are in Christ, we have been welcomed into the family of God as sons and daughters.

The Son has paid the fee.

The Spirit has worked to confirm and bears witness.

And the Father has loving taken us in.

He spreads His wings over us in protection and acceptance.

Romans 8:12–16 ESV

So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,

Conclusion

We never outgrow the gospel.

Once we are saved, the good news of salvation through Christ does not become elementary and unimportant to us.