The Righteousness of God, Part 2

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

How fitting that we are HERE, this morning. Not only here to worship the sovereign God, our Savior, when there is so much panic in the world. But, also, that out of all the places in Scripture we could be … that we are here, in . This is a passage of GOOD NEWS … and oh, how we need good news, at this time in history.

We are dealing with the theme of the letter to the Romans, which is found in our text, this morning. We have lingered over these verses - this is our fourth and last week

If you want a two sentence summary of the book of Romans, here it is. Verses 16-17 of chapter 1 - condense the whole letter into a bite-sized memorable nugget. “I am not ashamed of the gospel ...”. This letter is all about Good News.

As you know by now, the word ‘gospel’ literally means ‘Good News’ … and Paul is saying that the message of Jesus Christ that God set him apart from birth to preach … the “Gospel of His Son”, as verse 9 puts it … this Gospel is worthy of trusting and proclaiming without shame to everyone who will listen .... because it is, as v. 16 puts it, “The POWER OF GOD for salvation to Everyone who believes.”

Don’t miss what a BOLD and RADICAL thing this is for Paul to say as he sits and writes/ dictates this letter.

It is 25 years after Jesus ascended into heaven. Jesus, who ministers for 3 years in the backwaters of the Eastern borderlands of the Roman Empire. He never visits Rome. He never meets Caesar. He is executed under Rome’s power and authority, rejected by most of His own people, before He rises from the grave and leaves earth after a few short weeks. When Jesus ascends to heaven, he leaves behind, not many more than a hundred followers.

And here is Paul, saying, The Good News about THIS Christ, is God’s POWER for salvation to EVERYONE who BELIEVES?!”

If you read that statement to any average Roman citizen in Paul’s world - they would spew out their coffee in laughter.

ROME is the Power … Caesar is LORD - He is the one who executes the might of Rome to keep the peace of the vast and mighty empire - - Caesar is the one who saves his citizens … from foreign enemies.

As for Jesus Christ?! Who is he?! By this time, he has little groups of followers - churches - scattered in various cities. Sure, the Christian faith is spreading … but POWER?! That’s laughable.

“I am not ashamed of the Gospel ...”

And now we look back from our historical perch and see how, within 300 years … this ragtag bunch of Christian believers, mocked, persecuted, fed to the lions in the Colosseum, hung on crosses and set alight as flaming garden torches … these nobodies, with no power … have so turned the world upside down with THIS POWERFUL GOSPEL .... that Christianity becomes the official faith of the Roman Empire under the Emperor Constantine.

“I am not ashamed of the Gospel, because it is the POWER of God for salvation ...”.

Isn’t that so relevant to us this morning? Our media is dominated by questions of power:

The power of a spreading virus; the power of human governments, scrambling to stop the virus and save their people.

… And here we are - gathered in this building to worship Jesus Christ. And the world scoffs and says: “.... That’s RIDICULOUS!”

“I am not ashamed of the Gospel ...”

I hope you realize that there is nothing more important in your life than this.

The point we have been stressing in our time in verses 16-17 is that these verses are not primarily about how the Gospel is the power that makes converts to Christianity. It is that - make no mistake. But it’s MORE than that.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the power of God that Saves BELIEVERS. It is good news for Christians too. The Gospel is the message that saves believers in Jesus Christ from the penalty of sin, the power of sin (throughout life’s journey) and, in the end .... it is the power to save believers from the wrath of a holy God on judgment day, safely ushering us into His glorious presence for all eternity. So, the Gospel is God's power - -

… to bring dead sinners to life, to carry them safely through this life and take them safely to eternal joy.

NOTHING in this universe is bigger than that: than your ETERNAL JOY.

If you think you have bigger issues in your life than this … you aren’t seeing clearly.

If you think the Corona virus is bigger than this, or if you think that government abusing power to take away your freedoms and tell you when you can gather and with how many people .... if you think that anything is bigger than this … let me encourage you:

Turn off the TV, click away from social media, stay out of the TP aisle at Costco, and think for a moment:

CRISES in History … Remember when we were in the year 1999 - the year 2000 was coming - the predictions that there was going to be widespread chaos - NBC made a movie about what could come - the banks were going to lose our money,government records - lost, the power grids were going to go off line and we were going to be plunged into a post-apocalyptic world.

In Paul’s day - Caesar was all-powerful cast a shadow of terror wherever he looked. Do you even remember who the Caesar was? Not fair, because I told you a few weeks ago. It was Nero. And Nero raged in his day, but now, he’s a curiosity from ancient history.

Oh that doesn’t mean that we take lightly the concerns of our day … doesn’t mean that we’re careless and throw caution to the wind. But what it does mean is that ...

… What seems all-important, what is all-consuming right now, will one day shrink to its rightful place, in the light of eternity.

1 GIFT OF THE RIGHTEOUS GOD

VERSE 16 - says that the Gospel is God’s power to save believers. Verse 17 tells us HOW that Gospel power works:

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

So, the Gospel power is all about/ displayed in, the righteousness of God. Last week, I told you that it was when Martin Luther came to understand the righteousness of God in this very verse: , that the window shutters were opened, the light shone into his mind and he came to saving faith in Jesus Christ’s finished work. is where the Protestant Reformation began and went on to change the world.

“The righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith ...”.

The Righteousness of God had been anything BUT good news for Luther until he understood. He already knew what ‘RIGHTEOUSNESS’ is - means that God is righteous, pure, just, holy.

The Bible makes it clear that we are not. , “We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.”

And that leaves us humans in a very, very bad place.

Luther recognized that we are NOT righteous as humans.

An episode from Luther’s life that has caused some people to think he was insane - was the celebration of his first mass. Luther had already set himself apart as a budding theologian – there was something special about him. He was ordained as a priest.

After being ordained as a priest – then you are authorized to lead the mass. Now, the celebration of your first mass following ordination is a big deal - your public debut.

By this time, Old Hans Luther, Martin’s father - had almost made his peace with his son’s decision to give up a lucrative career in law in favor of the monastic life. He was feeling some pride—“My son, the priest.” The scheduled celebration was seen as a time for family pride and his relatives joined the public to observe Luther’s celebration.

Luther began the ceremony with great poise, exuding a priestly bearing of confidence and self-control. When he came to the Prayer of Consecration—that moment in the mass when Luther would exercise his priestly authority for the first time to evoke the power of God to bring about what Catholics still believe is the great miracle of transubstantiation (the changing of the elements of bread and wine to the real body and blood of Christ). In a very real sense – you are creating God - —when that moment came, Luther stopped.

He froze at the altar. He seemed transfixed. His eyes were glassy, and beads of perspiration formed on his forehead. A nervous hush filled the congregation as they silently urged the young priest on. Hans Luther was growing uncomfortable, feeling a wave of parental embarrassment sweep over him. His son’s lower lip began to quiver. He was trying to speak the words of the mass, but no words came forth from his mouth. He went limp and returned to the table where his father and the family guests were seated. He had failed. He ruined the mass and disgraced himself and his father. Hans was furious. He had just made a generous contribution to the monastery and now felt humiliated in the very place he came to witness his son’s honor. He lashed out at Martin and questioned whether his son was fit to be a priest.

What happened at the altar? Luther offers his own explanation at the paralysis that struck when he was to say the words, “We offer unto thee, the living, the true, the eternal God.” He says:

At these words I was utterly stupefied and terror-stricken. I thought to myself, “With what tongue shall I address such majesty, seeing that all men ought to tremble in the presence of even an earthly prince? Who am I, that I should lift up mine eyes or raise my hands to the divine Majesty? The angels surround him. At his nod the earth trembles. And shall I, a miserable little pygmy, say ‘I want this, I ask for that’? For I am dust and ashes and full of sin and I am speaking to the living, eternal and the true God. [Roland Bainton, Here I Stand (NAL, 1978).]

People think Luther was insane. He wasn’t. He saw the God of - - “Holy, Holy, Holy”. Hear this, 21st century Canada - God IS Not your buddy, not your genie.

But Luther didn’t have the whole story. Eventually, as he studied Romans, he understood the context of the righteousness of God in v. 17. He realized: this righteousness is not just God’s character, it’s not just His demand of us … it is also gift. It has to be gift, otherwise, Paul couldn’t say, in v. 16, that it is God’s POWER for salvation to everyone who believes.” That’s when the Gates swung open and Luther said he walked through them into Paradise.

I trust you get that now. But that doesn’t end the questions. Another question you need to answer is this: “Is this a righteousness that God credits to me, or is it a righteousness that God infuses into me, like a blood transfusion?”

Is Paul saying here, in , God’s righteousness revealed in the Gospel, is the gift of righteousness -that He INFUSES righteousness INTO you, makes you clean on the inside, so that you can start over with a clean whiteboard, and now live properly?

OR, is he saying that the gift is a righteousness that you don’t have in you, but that He credits to your account - - as if it really was your righteousness?

This is no trivial theological mind game here. How you answer this question - the side on which you come down has MASSIVE implications for your assurance of salvation and your Joy.

Roman Catholic Church came down on the side of INFUSED righteousness

Luther and the rest of the Reformers came down on the second side: IMPUTED righteousness. This is the righteousness of Jesus Christ credited to your account by faith … so that in a real sense, when we come to Jesus, we are ‘Simil Iustus et Peccator’ - Latin phrase - at the same time righteous AND sinner.

“Prone to wander, Lord I feel it … prone to leave the God I love” … can any of you identify? And yet … clothed in the radiant robes of the righteousness of Christ - ‘Simil Iustus et peccator’ … that’s imputation.

Council of Trent was Catholicism's response to the Reformation - a response it has never taken back. It explicity condemned justification by faith alone: "If anyone says, that by faith alone the ungodly are justified in such a way as to mean that nothing else is required to co operate in order to receive the grace of Justification and that it is not necessary for a man to be prepared and disposed by the movement of his own will; let him be anathema (Sess. 6, Canon 9)

.... "If any one says that a man who is born again and justified is bound by faith to believe that he is assuredly in the number of the predestinate ... and that he has the gift of perseverance to the end (unless he has learned this by special revelation); let him be anathema (Sess. 6, Canons 15-16).

The Catholic Church 500 years ago and the Catholic Church today teach the same thing: That human beings are justified – before God by Righteousness that is not IMPUTED but IMPARTED - - that we really become righteous …. Faith is the cooperation between God’s grace and your own efforts – to make you worthy of being saved.

2 WHAT DOES THE BIBLE SAY?

Now, if all we say is that the righteousness of God is a gift that you receive by faith … and if we stop there .... then you wouldn’t get any objection from the Pope and his Roman Catholic Church in Luther’s day - and you won’t get any objection today.

“Of course you need faith to be justified.” But when the Reformers said, “Justification is by faith ALONE” .... that’s where the division comes in.

Council of Trent was Catholicism's response to the Reformation - a response it has never taken back. It explicitly condemned justification by faith alone: "If anyone says, that by faith alone the ungodly are justified in such a way as to mean that nothing else is required to co operate in order to receive the grace of Justification and that it is not necessary for a man to be prepared and disposed by the movement of his own will; let him be anathema (Sess. 6, Canon 9)

.... "If any one says that a man who is born again and justified is bound by faith to believe that he is assuredly in the number of the predestinate ... and that he has the gift of perseverance to the end (unless he has learned this by special revelation); let him be anathema (Sess. 6, Canons 15-16).

The Catholic Church 500 years ago and the Catholic Church today teach the same thing: That human beings are justified – before God by Righteousness that is not IMPUTED but IMPARTED - - that we really become righteous …. Faith is the cooperation between God’s grace and your own efforts – to make you worthy of being saved.

God infuses you with righteousness .... and then you cooperate with His grace by your own efforts - to KEEP yourself in that state of righteousness.

Do you see the difference? Now, it doesn’t matter which side of the argument I prefer, what matters is what God’s word says. So what does it say? What kind of righteousness is Paul talking about?

Well, let’s look at what Paul says. Let’s look at a couple of other places in Romans and get a sense for the rest of this letter, before we come back home to v. 17 of chapter 1.

, “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him graciously give us all things?” Follow the argument here: “IF God has ALREADY given His Son over for us -

, “Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood (that is, made righteous), MUCH MORE SHALL WE BE SAVED by him from the wrath of God.” Again - see the argument here .... We HAVE been made righteous in the past - and that means we MUST be saved from the wrath to come. You can’t say that if God gives you righteousness like a down payment on a house .... and then it’s up to you to keep the mortgage payments up.

, “For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.”

One more verse outside of Romans that we have to look at: , “… in order that I may gain Christ (9) and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith ...”.

Is there any hint here that Christ did everything to ‘get you into the club’ .... and now you better make sure you keep yourself in ? This is a righteousness that I am ‘found in’ … (passive - I didn’t get it for myself) … “not having a righteousness of my own that … comes through faith .... and depends on faith.

Now let’s go back to our text this morning, and v. 17 of chapter 1, “… the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith ...”. KJV, “From faith TO faith ...”; the NIV paraphrases and says, “a righteousness BY faith FROM FIRST TO LAST ...”.

It’s an emphasis - Paul is stressing the point: “This righteousness is ALL faith.” In fact, there’s a progress here. Notice the direction: “… FROM .... TO (or FOR) ...”. God saves you by giving a righteousness by faith at the beginning .... and He keeps you persevering in faith to the end, as Peter says in , “… who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”

And at the very end of the verse, Paul quotes Habakkuk - “The righteous shall live by faith.”

Faith, faith, faith. There is no room in the

Preaching the Word: Romans—Righteousness From Heaven Paul’s Motivation for Ministry ( Romans 1:8-17 )

Park Street Church recently, I made it a point to look for a bronze plaque bearing the inscription, “Joseph S. Olzewski S.K. 2/c U.S.C. Lost February 3, 1943 North Atlantic.” I did this because of a remarkable personal experience that Allan Emery relates in his book A Turtle on a Fencepost. The day after Pearl Harbor, Emery, like thousands of others, enlisted—his choice being the Coast Guard. He was immediately put to work in his hometown, Boston, as a quartermaster, and he was given the Friday night duty of guarding one of the wharfs. On one particular Friday he had wisely decided to get some sleep before duty and was in his bunk resting when one of his new acquaintances, Joseph Olzewski, came by in immaculate dress blues—his hat squared, piping on his snow-white cuffs, his shoes spit-shined. He gave his biggest smile and asked Emery how he looked. Emery replied that he looked great and asked what the big event was. Joe excitedly explained that at the USO the previous night a wealthy girl had invited him to spend the weekend at her apartment on Beacon Hill. She was going to take him to the opera that night and had plenty of records and alcohol. He didn’t have to be back until 0700 Monday morning. He ended the story by saying, “This is going to be the greatest time of my life.” Emery replied that he would be praying for him. His friend walked out but immediately reentered asking, “What did you say?”

“I said I’d be praying for you,” replied Emery.

“Why will you be praying for me when I’m going to have the first great weekend in my life?”

“Because, Joe, Monday morning you’ll be back aboard ship and you will not be the same person you are tonight. Sin leaves its mark.”

Joe swore at Emery and went out into the night.

Emery prayed for Joe as he prepared for guard duty. And he was startled when an unsmiling and agitated Joe suddenly reappeared in the guard post floodlights.

“How can you have a good time when someone’s praying for you?” he said. “You’ve ruined my weekend. I stood up my date, and I’ve been waiting until you came on duty. Now tell me how to find God.”

That night Joseph S. Olzewski heard for the very first time in his life the promises of God—and he believed. The change was immediate. He joined Park Street Church, spent his free time on the Common inviting other servicemen to services, prayed with his buddies at St. Paul’s Cathedral which was always open, and grew in his knowledge of the Scriptures under Dr. Harold Ockenga. Then on February 1, 1943 he volunteered for sea duty on a mine sweeper headed for Iceland, and just a few days out of New York a torpedo found its mark.

Stories like this motivate me! They have a way of clearing the fog away and allowing those things which are truly important to appear. My feelings are something like Snoopy in a Peanuts cartoon. Linus had just thrown a stick for Snoopy to retrieve. His first instinct was to chase the stick. But he paused a few moments and decided against it. “I want people to have more to say about me after I’m gone than ‘He was a nice guy … he chased sticks.’” When I am reminded of the gospel’s power to change lives, I am motivated to stop “chasing sticks” and get back to what is really important.

Another episode from Luther’s life that has caused the psychiatrists’ eyebrows to be raised was the celebration of his first mass. Luther had already set himself apart as a budding theologian – there was something special about him. He was ordained as a priest.

After being ordained as a priest – then you are authorized to lead the mass. Now, the celebration of your first mass following ordination is a big deal - your public debut.

By this time, Old Hans Luther, Martin’s father - had almost made his peace with his son’s decision to give up a lucrative career in law in favor of the monastic life. He was feeling some pride—“My son, the priest.” The scheduled celebration was seen as a time for family pride and his relatives joined the public to observe Luther’s celebration.

Luther began the ceremony with great poise, exuding a priestly bearing of confidence and self-control. When he came to the Prayer of Consecration—that moment in the mass when Luther would exercise his priestly authority for the first time to evoke the power of God to bring about what Catholics still believe is the great miracle of transubstantiation (the changing of the elements of bread and wine to the real body and blood of Christ). In a very real sense – you are creating God - —when that moment came, Luther stopped.

He froze at the altar. He seemed transfixed. His eyes were glassy, and beads of perspiration formed on his forehead. A nervous hush filled the congregation as they silently urged the young priest on. Hans Luther was growing uncomfortable, feeling a wave of parental embarrassment sweep over him. His son’s lower lip began to quiver. He was trying to speak the words of the mass, but no words came forth from his mouth. He went limp and returned to the table where his father and the family guests were seated. He had failed. He ruined the mass and disgraced himself and his father. Hans was furious. He had just made a generous contribution to the monastery and now felt humiliated in the very place he came to witness his son’s honor. He lashed out at Martin and questioned whether his son was fit to be a priest.

What happened at the altar? Luther offers his own explanation at the paralysis that struck when he was to say the words, “We offer unto thee, the living, the true, the eternal God.” He says:

At these words I was utterly stupefied and terror-stricken. I thought to myself, “With what tongue shall I address such majesty, seeing that all men ought to tremble in the presence of even an earthly prince? Who am I, that I should lift up mine eyes or raise my hands to the divine Majesty? The angels surround him. At his nod the earth trembles. And shall I, a miserable little pygmy, say ‘I want this, I ask for that’? For I am dust and ashes and full of sin and I am speaking to the living, eternal and the true God. [Roland Bainton, Here I Stand (NAL, 1978).]