A righteousness from God

Romans 3:21-26

We come this morning to what John Stott refers to as the heart of the book of Romans, what Martin Luther wrote in the margin of his Bible as being the chief point, and the very central place of the Epistle, and of the whole Bible. These seven verses have been called by other commentators the most important paragraph ever written. Preachers have spent months preaching from these verses, we will take a relatively quick move through, focusing on verses 21-24 this morning and 25-26 next week.

It will be helpful for you if you open your Bible and follow with me through this passage. It will also be helpful for you if you take some notes. This is a heavy concentration of theology and I will try to make it more understandable, but you will have to work with me to make it so.

Other than his introductory comments, Paul has spent his time thus far talking about the wrath of God and making his case for why we are all deserving of God’s wrath. He comes then to this most amazing pronouncement:
But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify.

A righteousness from God. If you are at all like me, there are some words we read that we do not fully understand. We read them and have a general sense of what they mean, but miss the full understanding. I think righteousness is one of those. So we will begin this morning looking at what righteousness means.

The word righteousness comes from a root word that means straightness. It refers to a state  that conforms to an authoritative standard. How do you know that a wall you are building is straight? You take a piece of string and stretch it tight from one end of the wall to the other and that is the standard by which you measure the straightness of the wall. If the wall deviates from the line that is stretched, the wall is not in a right relationship with the line.

How do you know that your watch has the right time? You can ask somebody who will tell you but how do you know that person has the right time? You can call a radio station and they will tell you what the time is. In the US, there is a telephone number you can call and they will say, At the tone, the time will be 12:32 and 10 seconds. But how do you know they have the right time? The standard by which we measure time here on planet earth is Universal time and is determined by observations from 75 observatories around the world who measure the point of midnight when it is determined that the earth has made one complete rotation and is about to begin another rotation.

If you want to have the right time, be in a right relationship with time, you have to make sure your watch is set to Universal time, the authoritative standard.

Righteousness is a moral concept and the authoritative standard by which we measure our righteousness is God’s character. Righteousness is holy and upright living in accordance with God’s standard. As we learn about God’s character, we have an increasing ability to know what righteousness is.

How do we know if we are living a righteous life? A wall has a piece of string stretched tight. Time has 75 observatories making a measurement. What do we use to measure ourselves to see if we are living a righteous life?

Israel had the Law God gave to Moses. This was the authoritative standard God gave so Israel could know if it was living righteously. If Israel had been able to obey all of God’s law, it would have been a righteous nation of righteous people.

To obey God’s law fully and completely, in the spirit as well as the letter of the law, is a valid path toward righteousness. Paul wrote in 2:13
it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous.

But to walk on this path means there cannot be one misstep. There cannot be one accidental fall. There can be no stumbling. There can be no deviation from obedience. It is a path but a path without grace. This is a severe path where there is no opportunity for forgiveness. There is no chance to fall, get up and keep on going. You have to perfectly obey the law to make the journey to righteousness on this path. And this, as we have learned from Paul’s preceding discussion of the wrath of God, is impossible.

Read through the Old Testament and you can see the problem. Israel was given promise after promise. Israel was given blessing after blessing. Israel was given miracle after miracle. Israel was given prophet after prophet and nothing that was done enabled Israel to live a righteous life.

The path of obedience to the Law was a path doomed to fail. Those who set out on it in search of righteousness never reached it. And so Romans 3:21 comes as magnificent news.

But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known,

It is like hikers trying to climb to the peak of a mountain. There is only one known path to the summit and hiker after hiker has tried to make it and failed. Year after year hikers have come with new equipment and new ideas but the path has beaten them back time after time.

And then one year news goes out that electrifies the hiking community. A new path has been discovered that leads to the summit! There is another way and it works!

We have a longing to be in a right relationship with God and now it has been made possible by God himself to be in a right relationship with him. The path of obedience that has beaten down person after person through the centuries is no longer the only path. Now God has reached down and made known a righteousness he offers to us. a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known

How did this work? Did God start out with an idea and then discover it did not work? Did he say, “Let’s try the Law and see how they do?” When it became clear this would not work, did God then gather some angels to do some creative brainstorming and try to come up with another plan? Did God stay up nights trying to figure out how else it could be done?

Paul wrote:
But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify.

The Law and the Prophets testify to this righteousness from God that has been made known. What are the Law and the Prophets? Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. That is the Law. And the Prophets? Isaiah. Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos and on to Malachi.

What Paul is saying is that the Old Testament testifies to this righteousness from God and what that means is that it was God’s intention from the beginning to offer his righteousness apart from the law. If the Law itself testifies to this righteousness, then that means Jesus was not an afterthought but part of God’s plan from the beginning.

This is clear when you consider the sacrificial system in the Old Testament. From the beginning, God instructed his people to offer sacrifices. There were sacrifices to make people or things holy, sacrifices to cover over sins and sacrifices to satisfy the divine anger of God for sin.

Why did God institute a system of sacrifices at the very beginning if he thought there was a chance the people to whom he revealed himself were capable of obeying the law in all its perfection? From the beginning God knew that the path of obedience to the law was not going to lead to righteousness but instituted it so that he could prepare his people for the righteousness that was going to come apart from the law.

The sacrificial system in the Old Testament provided an understanding, a way of thinking about the problem, but it did not solve it. Because of continual disobedience, sacrifice after sacrifice had to be offered. There were three festivals each year when Israel would make the journey to Jerusalem to offer sacrifices. In addition, there were sacrifices to be made when a baby was born or when someone needed to be made clean or some other special circumstance.

There was never any expectation that they would ever reach the point when sacrifices would not need to be made. Sacrifices did not lead to righteousness. Sin needed to be continually covered. God’s anger toward sin needed to be continually appeased.

The Law was given as a path to righteousness with God but that was only ever possible in theory. Sacrifices were instituted to compensate for disobedience but those were not effective. But the Law God gave to Moses and the sacrificial system within the Law set a way of understanding so that we could comprehend when God, in his timing, sent his son to be the perfect sacrifice, the once and for all time sacrifice that opened up a new path to righteousness.

From the beginning of time, God knew what would have to be done to rescue his people and from the beginning of time God knew the sacrifice that would have to be made in order for his people to be redeemed. The Law served and serves a function, teaching us about righteousness but it was never intended to be the means by which redemption would be accomplished.

If God offers us a righteousness that comes from him, how do we receive it?
But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify.  22 This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.

What does it mean to have faith in Jesus Christ?

When I step onto an airplane that weighs as much as 120 cars and expect that it will take me across the Atlantic to North Africa, I put my trust in the engineers that designed the plane, the mechanics that repaired the plane, the pilots who are trained to fly the plane and the air traffic controllers who will guide the plane as it takes off and lands. I have faith that the 747 will take me safely to Rabat. I have faith, I put my trust in those involved in the plane getting safely to Rabat.

When I have faith in Jesus Christ, I put my trust in him that by following him, he will lead me safely to my heavenly destination. I put my trust in him that what he said is true and that there is a heavenly destination. I put my trust in him that he will never leave me in this life and that he is preparing a place for me in heaven.

The path to righteousness that God offers is made available to us by putting our trust in Jesus and living for him.

This is not a selective offer. It is not limited to the first 100 customers. It is not an offer good only until the product runs out. It is not limited to the elite, the wealthy, the well-connected. It is not limited to those with the right passports. It is not limited to those who have the right skin color.
This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.

God’s offer is available to all who believe. Every person who believes that Jesus is the son of God and has come to save us can be saved. No one is excluded from this offer.

My father has said to me many times that Christians are exclusive because they say that salvation is possible only through Jesus Christ. This is very frustrating and there are many in the world who are critical of Christianity because of this. If Christians do not want to be exclusive, they say, why don’t they agree that Buddha and Mohammed and any other guru who comes along, as well as Jesus, are all ways to reach heaven?

This would be true if Christianity was a matter of a council of men and women getting together and making a decision about what was true for Christianity and what was not true. But the truths expressed in Christianity are not a function of what we believe, they are a function of what God has done.

It is like complaining that only a rocket will take you to the moon. That’s terrible! Why be so exclusive? Why can’t we get to the moon in a hot air balloon? Why not a catapult? Or a bicycle?

There is no exclusivity in Christianity, all are welcome but it is necessary to put your trust in the one God provided to us. This is not an ice cream shop with 30 flavors. This is not a rack of clothes with many colors and designs. You can’t pick your savior. God has given us our savior.

This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference,

No one is excluded from this offer because there is no difference.

This is really a radical statement. There is no difference. Look around you this morning, do you see any differences? What does our bulletin say about who we are? Look on the back.

RPF International Church: A Multi-national, Multi-denominational Fellowship of Christian Believers

We are on average 25 nations represented here on Sunday morning. We have perhaps 40 denominations represented. We are every skin color on the planet. We are rich and poor. We are male and female. We are children and adults.

We are constantly aware of differences and yet Paul wrote There is no difference. In what way are we the same?
This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference,  23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

It does not matter who we are or what we have done. We are all in the same condition and all have the same need for rescue. We are conditioned to be aware of differences. We are people full of prejudices and biases because of our awareness of differences.

We see differences in moral behavior. There are good people and bad people. There are nice people and nasty people. There are people who do good things and people who do bad things. But Paul says there is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

Bishop Handley Moule is quoted in John Stott’s commentary on Romans:
The harlot, the liar, the murderer are short of [God’s glory]; but so are you. Perhaps they stand at the bottom of a mine, and you on the crest of an Alp; but you are as little able to touch the stars as they.

Christianity is the great equalizer. It is often on my mind when I interact with people that one day we will be standing together in heaven. It will not matter if I have been a university professor or the illiterate sweeper of the streets. It will not matter if I was the town drunk or a Nobel Laureate. It will not matter if I was a respected member of the community or someone people barely noticed. The recipients of God’s salvation will all be standing together in heaven and I wonder what I will regret about the way I treated people here on earth who will then be my companions in heaven, made equal by the righteousness offered to us by God.

Christianity is the great equalizer and helps us to minimize the differences that separate us here on earth.

But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify.  22 This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference,  23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,  24 and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.

Paul introduced a righteousness from God and now he ties it in to the idea of justification. What is justification?

Justification has a legal aspect to it and is the process by which one is shown to be just, right or reasonable. In word processing, when you type a document, one of the options you have is to justify the text. To justify the text is to bring it into some kind of order. You can left justify so that the text lines up on the left margin evenly. You can right justify the text so it lines up evenly on the right margin. You can center justify so that the center of each line is in the middle of the page and you can fully justify the text so that the words are spaced out with each line starting on the left side of the paper and ending on the right side of the paper.

If you were to justify the wall I talked about in the beginning of the sermon, you would see where the wall you have been building does not align with the string that has been stretched. Where the wall deviates from the standard, it is moved until it is in line with the string and then it is justified.

If you were to justify your watch, you would change the time to match Universal time.

So justification as Paul uses the term is the process by which we are made righteous. God’s character is the absolute standard by which we are measured and justification is the process by which we are brought into a right relationship with God.

What is critical to understand is that when Paul talks about justification, he is not referring to sanctification. What does this mean? Paul wrote that we are justified freely by his grace.

In terms of the wall, if the wall were to be justified by grace, the architect viewing the wall would see the wall move into alignment with the string that is stretched out even though the wall never actually moved. In this state, the architect viewing the wall declares that the wall is in alignment even though the wall in actuality still deviates from the line.

We are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus and this means that when God views those who have put their trust in Christ, he sees not our actual alignment with his holy character, but he sees the alignment of the holy character of Jesus with himself.

Sanctification is a whole other process by which we actually, over time, move toward the absolute standard of God’s character. In terms of the wall, sanctification is the process, often painful, when part of the wall is knocked down and rebuilt so it lines up with the string that is stretched. We will never attain perfect alignment with the standard, but as we grow in our relationship with God through Christ, we move toward that perfect alignment.

The point Paul makes here is that even though we deviate from the wall, we are brought into alignment in God’s eyes because he sees us through the work of Jesus on the cross. We are justified.

This is the core of the gospel. This is why Martin Luther considered it to be the very center of the whole Bible. From the beginning, it was God’s plan to send Jesus to die for us on the cross so that we could be made righteous in his eyes. This is done for us without any work or effort on our part. We cannot brag about our salvation. We have no basis on which we can feel superior to any other person on the planet. We are all in the same position, desperately in need of salvation and grateful that God has offered it to us without price.

Hold on to what God has given you. Grow in your appreciation for what he has done for you. Receive the gift of awe for the love you have experienced in the salvation that has been freely offered to you. And if you have never put your trust in Christ, then do that this morning.