Monday, February 13, 2006

Hi Josè!

Sorry it has been so long since I last wrote. I am a terrible letter writer. At any rate, you have been in my thoughts and prayers anyway.

I would like to come down and visit you again. I will plan to come on Monday morning, February 27th. I think two weeks is sufficient for you get this.

I trust you are continuing to grow in your faith and in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus. I have been preaching through the book of Romans of recent. As I was thinking of what you might benefit from reading, I thought you might enjoy one of my sermons.

The Righteousness Which is By Faith

Romans 1:11-17

January 1, 2006

11I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong—12that is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith. 13I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that I planned many times to come to you (but have been prevented from doing so until now) in order that I might have a harvest among you, just as I have had among the other Gentiles.

14I am obligated both to Greeks and non-Greeks, both to the wise and the foolish. 15That is why I am so eager to preach the gospel also to you who are at Rome.

16I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. 17For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”

Why do we make New Year’s Resolutions?

F     Because we regret certain decisions that we have made over the previous year. (We are well aware that we are not living as we ought.)

F     Because we want to improve. (We want to do better.)

F     Because we want to be right with God

F     Because it is the thing to do

F     In the hope that I MIGHT do them THIS time

F     Because it is a new year (and I have a fresh start)

Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance defines Righteousness as “The condition acceptable to God.” – “integrity, virtue, purity of life, rightness, correctness of thinking feeling, and acting”

Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary defines it as “acting in accord with divine or moral law: free from guilt or sin; morally right or justifiable”

We need righteousness, both before God and in our own hearts. We need it before God because He is holy and without holiness or righteousness no one will ever see God, except as judge. We need it in our own hearts because without it we live in ever growing regret and a constant struggle with guilt. Without righteousness we have a hard time believing that we are loved or cared for.

This point us to our need for the gospel, both before God and, once again, in our own hearts. Before God, the gospel speaks to the miracle that we, being the sinners that we are, can be right before a holy and righteous God. It speaks of the miracle of His love for us who are selfish and self-serving. The gospel enables sinners to be righteous in God’s sight and therefore acceptable to him and welcomed into His Presence.

In our own hearts the gospel speaks to our freedom from both the penalty and the power of sin. It speaks of the fact that despite our constant failings and shortcomings, we are clean. We are forgiven. We are loved by God, not because WE are good, but because HE is!

In the gospel, a righteousness which is from God is revealed. This righteousness is the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. He both shows us what it is and gives it to us. He sets the standard for us and offers it to us free of charge. He lived a perfect, righteous life and gives the benefits of that life to us, paid in full.

Jesus is righteous in and of Himself, because of who He is, but he also was righteous in His perfect obedience while in His incarnation.

We see that this righteousness is righteousness that is by faith. It is not something we achieve in and of ourselves. We have a natural desire for righteousness, both before God and in our own hearts. And yet we are unable to be righteous in either arena, especially as we grow in our understanding of the righteousness God requires of us, namely perfect holiness, perfect righteousness.

Martin Luther discovered that the more he tried to be righteous, to live up to God’s standards, the more sinful he felt. – WHY? Because the harder he tried to BE righteous in and of himself, the more he realized his inability to change his heart, his motives.

Pleasing God involves more than merely DOING the right things. God is concerned with our heart attitudes.

So what is the righteousness God desires? It is the righteousness of Jesus Christ freely given, apart from any need to work for it on our part. We must merely believe. We must believe that He is Lord and that His death on the cross was in payment for all of our sin. We must believe that God raised Him from the dead and that He is coming back some day to take us home to Himself. We must believe that God accepts us as righteous, not because of any goodness in ourselves, neither actual or foreseen. He accepts as righteous those who receive, as a gift of His grace, the righteousness of Jesus Christ, humbly receiving it by faith.

“Unless God were willing to give this righteousness to us and actually does give it, the mere existence of a perfect righteousness would not be good news at all.” James Boice

God did not set His standard of righteousness for us “so that we might strive toward it and inevitably fail miserably, as Luther did.” Boice rather He did it so that we would rest on Him alone for it.

So, what is saving faith? Faith is the channel by which sinners receive Christ’s righteousness.” Faith is believing God, taking Him at His Word. Faith is a response. We do not initiate a relationship with God, we respond, in faith, to His offer of a right relationship with Him. Saving faith is different from mere intellectual consent. It is not merely acknowledging that Jesus did indeed die on the cross. It more than mere intellectual assent to the truths of the gospel.

Saving faith consists of knowledge, a heart response, and a commitment.

In Phil. 3 Paul shows how before He understood the gospel, he saw his standing with God in terms of something like a lifelong ledger sheet or balance in which assets needed to surpass liabilities.

He came to see that what he had been counting on as assets or righteousness was really nothing more than rubbish

Philippians 3:7-8 – But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.

His righteous deeds were actually harmful because they had been keeping him from Jesus, where alone true righteousness could be found. (Mark 2:17 – Jesus said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”)

So what is “the righteous life?”

It is a belief that we now CAN be righteous despite our inability to be righteous in and of ourselves. We are no longer slaves to the sin that dominated us (Romans 6:6-7 6For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin—7because anyone who has died has been freed from sin.)

It is important to understand the life of faith. Obedience, for the Christian is based on trust and love rather than fear and striving. We do not fear being rejected because of inadequate obedience. We do not fear failure because we are confident in God’s unconditional love for us. We can strive to obey, knowing that even our impure and inadequate attempts are precious in the sight of our God because of His great love for us.

“The righteousness that the gospel offers to us is like a spiritual suit of armor. It covers us (c.f. Eph. 6:10-18). In fact, when we are surrounded by God’s righteousness, our first discovery is that the armor is far too big for us. We do not come anywhere near measuring up to the grace that God has given to us. The Christian life begins when we receive the gift and goes on as we grow into the armor that God designed for us. God calls us righteous when we clearly don’t deserve the title. He also calls us saints, holy and clean, long before we exhibit those characteristics. In grateful response, let us allow God to develop those qualities in us. Each day we should ask, ‘How am I fitting into what God has designed for me?’” Life Application Bible Commentary

So, why do/should we make New Year’s resolutions? Because we want to be right with God; because we regret certain decisions over the previous year. We are well aware that we are not living as we ought; because we want to improve. We want to do better; because it is the thing to do; in the hope that I MIGHT do them THIS time; because it is a new year (and I have a fresh start). We do not make them in the hope that MAYBE this year, I can be worthy of God’s love; in the hopes that MAYBE this year I can stand before God in my own self-worth. NO! we make them from a sincere desire to honor Him, to love Him, to please Him, because we are so deeply indebted to His grace; and because we are secure in that grace and love.

“Nothing in my hand I bring,

Simply to Thy cross I cling;

Naked, come to Thee for dress;

Helpless, look to Thee for grace;

Foul, I to the fountain fly;

Wash me, Savior, or I die.

Rock of Ages, cleft for me,

Let me hide myself in Thee.” – Augustus Toplady

A promise to remember: God counts as righteous all who put their faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ as their only hope of heaven.

A challenge to consider: “How am I fitting into what God has designed for me?”

Well, I hope that you were able to follow all of this. I do not write out my sermons, so I had to reconstruct this from my outline.

I look forward to seeing you, the Lord willing, on the 27th.

In Christ,

Pastor Steve