In this episode, we venture into the depths of Paul’s writings, reflecting on his spiritual journey from a devout Pharisee to an ardent follower of Christ. Discover how Paul’s acknowledgement of his own imperfections and the realization of Christ’s sacrifice led to a radical redefinition of righteousness—one that is imputed rather than earned. This transformative narrative challenges listeners to shed self-driven righteousness and embrace the grace offered through faith.
So as we complete this little passage, big passage really, in the book of Romans chapter 1, verses 16 and 17, here we just remind ourselves, here it says, “…for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek, for in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith.” Now, again, I know you’ve heard me say this many times, but it needs repeating because our minds simply revolt against the very idea. Paul is saying that he’s not ashamed of the gospel, and that implies, I think, that he previously was ashamed. Well, it’s a contradiction, of course, a psychological contradiction, because Paul was a very proud Pharisee. He, in Ephesians, rather in Philippians, he tells us that as touching the law, blameless. And so this is Paul, who was a very avid and particular Pharisee, who kept these 613 laws that the Pharisees had developed in tradition beyond the Ten Commandments and beyond the ceremonial law, and he kept those laws perfectly. I mean, can you imagine anyone in any particular one day keeping 613 laws? But this was Paul, the very assiduous Pharisee who was a perfectionist to the core. And yet there was something wrong. And we mustn’t forget this idea that there was something wrong. Because Paul says, and you know I’ve talked about this previously, but I must emphasize it. He says in chapter 7 of Romans 4, We know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. Now he’s talking to the audience, to his listeners, to his readers rather, as a Christian. And he’s stating that he’s sold under sin. For what I am doing I do not understand, for what I will do that I do not practice, but what I hate I do. Now, there are those who believe that this is Paul describing himself before his conversion. But as we get into Romans, I will show you that that is simply not the case. It cannot be. Paul is describing the life of a Christian who gives adherence to the law. And when that law faces us in all its purity and beauty and all its internal quality, then it faces us with our own brokenness. You remember Jesus revealed the law in that pure and beautiful way when he said, You have heard it said that you shall not kill, but whosoever hates his brother is a murderer, and so on. So he goes from the outward to the inward state of the human being, And when doing that, he finds that he’s utterly broken down, the sinner is. But Paul didn’t realize that, you see, didn’t know that fully only by intimation. He didn’t realize that fully until he was confronted with Jesus Christ and came to learn about Christ. Previously, he was a proud and confident and elite Pharisee. Yet, there still was something wrong, even though he hadn’t yet found Christ. Because Jesus said to him, you recall I said this a week or two ago, when Jesus appeared to him on the road to Damascus, I am Jesus, whom you persecute. It is hard for you to kick against the pricks. What that is saying is that it is difficult, it was difficult for Paul to resist certain convictions. What was he resisting? Well, even though he was a perfect law keeper, a keeper of the law perfectly on the outside, there was still something wrong in his spirit. He sensed it. He couldn’t figure it out. Perhaps it was loneliness. Perhaps it was anger. Perhaps it was fear, maybe depression. While he was carting those Christians off to prison, you remember, there’s this young Pharisee, and in one case at least, standing by watching one of them being murdered, something was off in his spirit. And so, you see, we are dealing with human nature when God talks about these things. When Paul reveals that the gospel reveals the righteousness of God, Paul was not ashamed of it because he had found another way to righteousness, not the way of the law, not the way of assiduous, devoted, careful compliance with every rule and regulation. but by an outward look to someone else, to the Savior of the world, to the Messiah, who he realized now had been crucified and executed on behalf of Paul’s and every human being’s broken humanity, so that we have already been judged in Jesus Christ, and we now stand by faith in him, as if we were living in his resurrection and as if there were no sin upon us. We know that we’re sinners still. Don’t fool yourself. But we are counted as if we were not sinners. That comes later, as we shall see in the book of Romans. We are counted as if we were not. It is imputed to us, charged to our account as if we were righteous. That is, Christ’s righteous life is attributed to us as if we had lived it. In a life we never lived, and in a death we never died, we base our whole eternity. Now this is why Paul, you see, is not ashamed. He was, in some private little corner of his mind, ashamed previously of his righteousness. Even though he was a proud Pharisee, as I say, there was something off. He was kicking against the bricks. He was aware that this Pharisaical life had not transformed him inwardly. He must have been full of some kind of anger and hate by the way he treated Christians, and he speaks of himself as being an insolent man. There are quite a number of descriptions Paul makes of himself, and that’s one of them. And so we are looking at a man who was outwardly proud of his righteousness, and inwardly, something was not quite right. Now, I want you to think of yourself in this way. You see, how do you know whether you have received the righteousness of Christ? How do you know? You say, well, I’m a converted Christian. Yes. But what are you converted to? Are you converted to your own new heart and you trust in your own emotions and new desires and new attitudes of mind? Is that what makes you a comfortable Christian and assures you that you are trusting in God? Well, I can tell you. God will soon show you that that righteous inner heart of yours will soon collapse, because what we find is that as we go on in our Christian life, there is one layer after another of corruption that God reveals to us, and we become, at times, almost despairing. Oh no, God, I can’t believe I thought that, or I desired that, or I said that, or I did that. And it shocks us that our humanity is capable of such evil. So, you see, if you are trusting in your conversion, And your repentance, and the quality of your repentance, God will soon show you that it’s very insufficient. So what are we trusting in then? We are trusting in Jesus as our substitutionary sacrifice. Substitutionary sacrifice. Not simply did he sacrifice himself for us, but he sacrificed himself for as a substitute for us. This is a core truth of the gospel, but in most Christian circles these days is totally rejected. It seems so irrational that God would die for our sins when we were the sinners and we deserve the death. As irrational as it may be to you, Embrace it, because it is the gospel. Once you accept that Jesus is your righteousness, Father, I thank you so much that you sent Jesus to be the execution for my sins, to go on the cross, to exterminate by proxy, by a judgment that is not mine but his, to exterminate my sinful nature. You see, your sinful nature is still alive. You still live in it. You live in it day by day, and that’s why it bothers you often. But you are counted as if it is no longer charged against you. And so we lift our hearts up to God and we say, Father, there’s trouble today. This and that has happened. And you tell God about it. And it seems to stem that trouble from your fallen human nature. You made a mistake. You blew it. You did something willfully wrong or whatever. And you say, but Father, I thank you that that humanity that I am in is no longer counted as mine. It’s no longer mine, dear Lord, because Jesus was crucified for it. And I praise you that I’m counted as now in his righteousness. Now, you see, this is a righteousness that we could never attain. That’s why it is Jesus’ righteousness. His righteous life is fully committed to God, righteous death, his resurrection. That’s all committed, counted to us. And that is why Paul says a little later, much later, as a matter of fact, in the book, Romans 9, verse 30, What shall we say then? The Gentiles, that is, the non-Jewish people, who did not pursue righteousness, why did they not? Because they had not been given the law as the Jews had, and all the ceremonial laws. The Jewish people did pursue that righteousness. that Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it. They sort of bumped into Jesus. And Jesus revealed himself to them, and they believed. that Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it, but even the righteousness of faith that we receive by faith, the faith that God gives us, but Israel, pursuing the law of righteousness like Paul did, has not attained to the law of righteousness because they did not seek it by faith. And so, you see, the reason Paul is not ashamed is that what he was trying to accomplish has been accomplished by another on his behalf. And that is what leads you and me not to be ashamed. We have a righteousness that is not our own. It’s alien. It was accomplished by Jesus, and it is counted as if it were ours. That’s what you trust in each day, and as you do, you see growth and progress in your Christian life. Thank you. And the benefit of that is you can hear the program anytime you want, anytime that’s convenient to you, and you can listen to lots of archives. So thank you. I’ll see you next time. Cheerio and God bless.
