Christ: Our Righteousness

Text for the morning

2 Cor. 3

Note that the text for this morning is really all over the board.

Recall:

(Six Points of Christ and the Law)

The Law is prophecy (or Christotelic)

The Law is wisdom

The Law is history

The Law is Not our means of righteousness

The Law does not impute power to keep it

The Holy Spirit empowers us to be people who love God and neighbor — thus fulfilling the law

Introduction

The argument of this morning that the law is not our means of righteousness is in so many ways such an obvious fact of the Bible that I think it is a wonder that anyone ever forgets it. The problem of course is that so many people (myself included) are wired to think like legalists.

It is a rare thing to see unmerited favor modeled in our society. We are steeped in culture which is constantly driving people to seek affirmation on the basis of looks, performance, and so forth — so, it is not a surprise to see people struggling with the unmerited favor which our Lord has given to us.

I’ve made the statement that our righteousness or legal right-standing with God is not achieved through the Law. I’ve stated that this is a biblically obvious point. So, what I will try to do in the next ten minutes is outline the biblical case for that statement. After doing so, what I will do is pivot to a different set of questions which are: (a) So what? (b) How do we interact with the law mentally as Christians?

Biblical Case

Negative Case

(No one since the fall has been righteous on the basis of works other than Christ)

Rom. 3:23, 9-18

Eccles 7:20

Heb. 4:15, 2 Co. 5:21, 1 Pet. 2:22 (quoting Isaiah 53:9), 1 John 3:5

[NOTE] This is not an argument for how one is made right with God, but rather a statement about how one is not made right with God.

Positive Case

Christ-based Righteousness Expected in the OT

The Lord is Our Righteousness (OT Expectation)

Jer. 23:5-6, 33:16 (The Lord is Our Righteousness)

Deut. 30:5-6, Jer. 31:31-34 (Circumcised by God)

Is. 42:6, 49:8 (the servant of God is given as a covenant for the people) —> Is. 53:11

Legalism doesn’t fit in the story of how God saves Israel in the first place

Ex. 19:4 (Carried you on wings like eagles)

Deut. 1:31 (Carried you like a father with his son)

Ex. 14:13-14 (The LORD will fight for you, and you have only to be silent) | Think of how weird it would be if chapter 15 was a song about meriting salvation by walking through the sea.

The OT Saints Were Declared Righteous By Other Means

Enoch - Gen. 5:21

Noah - Gen. 6:9 (Noah is righteous; walked with God)

Abraham - Gen. 15:6

PRODUCES A PECULIAR SET OF ARGUMENTS

Hab. 2:4 (The righteous shall live by their faith)

PICKED UP BY PAUL IN THE NT

Most thoroughly argued by Paul in Romans and Galatians

Rom. 3:21-22 (The righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets attest to it — the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe)

Rom. 1:16-17 (gospel is power for salvation to all who believe; people who believe in Jesus are considered righteous)

A COUPLE OF LANGUAGE NOTES - “believe” is a faith - based verb (pisteo and pistis) | “justify” is a righteous-based verb (dikao and dikaos)

1 Co. 1:30 (he became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification)

2 Cor. 5:21(he became sin who knew no sin)

Phil. 3:9 (not a righteousness that is my own that comes from law...)

Rom. 10:3-4 (Jews miss this point | Christ is the telos of the Law)

Galatians takes on this argument by asking: is the equation of salvation Jesus plus circumcision equals righteousness? Paul argues no; in Gal. 5:12 he says that he wishes that people who did make that argument would emasculate themselves.

Gal. 3:3 (have you begun in the Spirit to be perfected by the flesh?) | Answered by v. 24 —> The law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith.

Paul’s Metaphors for Salvation

The VEIL

2 Co. 3

Moses was shone the glory of God, but he interacted with the people through a veil

The law offers veil-results

Tabernacle presence of God | Great, but reserved for the Holy of Holies once a year

WHEN YOU GET MARRIED, YOU DON’T WANT THE VEIL TO STAY ON

People who have a law-based relationship with God are not engaging with the fullness of what God has to offer.

Is the law God’s revealed word? Yes

Is the law inspired? Yes

Does the law offer fruit for life which lawlessness can’t offer? Yes

Does the law give you the full relationship with God that is available to you? No.

Adoption

Eph. 1:5, Rom. 8:15-17, Gal. 4:4-5

Consider the forcefulness of Paul’s decision to use adoption-based language for believers in Christ.

There is no person who is accidentally adopted. You are chosen in Christ.

Your chosenness is not on the basis of worthiness, but of the lavish grace of God.

Summary

The OT Pointed forward to a moment where God’s people would be called “righteous” on the basis of His work, through faith.

The NT takes great pains to emphasize that such is the reality in Christ.

Hence, your righteousness and right standing with God is NOT on the basis of works or following the LAW, but on the basis of faith in Christ.

So what?

Not understanding this basic fact can get you killed

(1) Some people might refrain from coming to Christ because they feel like they must clean themselves up before coming to Christ.

Not only is this incorrect (Christ will clean you up), it is also blasphemous. The underlying assertion being made is that you, by your own power, can conjure a right-standing with God thus nullifying any need for Jesus in the first place.

(2) Some people might get destroyed by this as Christians because they forget that at the moment of belief in Jesus they were justified and made right with God through Christ.

How Then Should We Interact With The Law?

We have been working to provide columns of thought for what the Law is versus isn’t . We have already pointed out that the Law is

(a) Prophetic

(b) Wisdom

(c) History

If we were to sum all of these things up, we would note that the Law has the stated goals of loving God and loving neighbor | They were created as the letter-embodiment of what God loves.

Yet, it is not by these things that we merit favor with God. Instead, our favor with God comes through the personal work of Jesus.

Analogy of Marriage and Vows

By analogy, one could think of our relationship to Christ and the law through the lens of marriage and vows.

Are vows good things? Yes

How might one know whether or not they are living as an honorable spouse? The Vows

Do the vows go out the window when you are married? No

Do you get married in order to carry out vows? No

Why do you get married then? You get married because you are in love with a person. The vows insulate the marriage but they don’t constitute it.

Or another way to say this is that the vows are made for the marriage and not marriage for the vows. (Sound familiar? Mark 2:27)

2 Peter and Pressing On in Godliness

Our desire needs to be similar. Why do we become people who love the law? Because we love the God of the law.

(1) It is the word of God (2) It embodies the heart of God (3) Being attentive to the law helps us become people who reflect the glory and love of Christ

This last week, one of the places that God led me was 2 Peter 1:3-11 | I won’t prolong the message past this point, but I was thinking about how Peter sets forth a road map for maturity in the Christian life. Do you want to grow in maturity? Do you want to be a strong man or woman of God? Think on how Peter talks about that this week.

Look at verses 5-8 and how Peter tells believers to “make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, knowledge, self-control, steadfastness, godliness, brotherly affection, and love. As you reflect on that this week, I would encourage you to try to answer for yourself: How is that sort of thing implemented? I expect that at the end of that quest you will find deeper love for the savior, and you will find yourself shining the glory of God in a special way.

(Maybe say) Everything that Peter sets forth is aimed at maturity as an extension of one’s walk with Christ.