The Hidden Path to Righteousness: Paul’s Message to the Gentiles

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So you recall last time we learned something surprising. Paul, in Romans 9, dealing with the issue of how God saves Israel, and explaining that he does not go at it by law, but by mercy, and by electing people, rather calling people, because all are elected, but then various ones are called throughout history. And so then he concludes, what shall we say then, that Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness of faith. But Israel, pursuing the law of righteousness, has not attained to the law of righteousness. Well, it seems strange, as you recall, I’m just saying this by review now, that Paul introduces the subject of righteousness by faith as his conclusion to the issue of election and calling, when in fact he hasn’t introduced the idea of righteousness by faith in this chapter at all. So what does that mean? Well, it simplifies things beautifully, doesn’t it? It means that when we hear the message of Christ’s righteousness given to us by faith in him, when we hear the message that Christ died for our sins so that all our sins are removed and forgiven, so that we are no longer charged with sin and therefore accounted as righteous in Christ, when we learn all that, there is another way of realizing what has happened. And it is that we, the elect, that is all humanity, but we in particular, who are elect, have been called. We have been called by the message of Christ’s righteousness by faith. So you don’t want to get all scatterbrained and freaking out about the issue of election. If you have heard the message that Jesus is your Savior and that he has died for your sins, and you believed it, then you know you have been called as one of the elect. All, as I say, are elected. This chapter 11 is going to show that. But we are called at different times. And when we are called, when we receive Christ as our righteousness by faith, it is an indication that we are elected. And so you need to rejoice. We all need to rejoice. You know, we’re so burdened down with troubles and sins and possibly addictions and failures and defeats, and our sins and our guilt and our shame and our inadequacy are continually before us. But what is before our eyes more than anything else is Christ our righteousness. that though we are fallen, broken human beings, we are counted as in the righteousness of Jesus. Now Paul says here, what shall we say then, that Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness. Now what about that? Do Gentiles not pursue righteousness? Well, some of them don’t and some of them do, I suppose. Some Gentiles go through tremendous rituals and ceremonies in order to purify themselves, and others do not. There are tribes in the world today that have had hardly any contact with civilization that seem to be quite content to live their lives without any guilt or shame, having a good community in the village. They seem like the noble savage. And yet, They, well, what does it mean? They are not seeking righteousness. Yet there must be some kind of fear in pagans. They have fear of death. They have ways of surrounding that death by ceremonies and beliefs that make it tolerable to contemplate. but that is what we would call a hidden fear. It is not overt, it’s unconscious, and it’s ruling their lives. Paul is saying that Gentiles didn’t pursue righteousness in the way that Jewish people did, by law. Verse 31, but Israel pursuing the law of righteousness. did not attain to the law of righteousness. Why did they not? Because God knew that the humanity that had fallen away from him was now incapable of being righteous. Yet he puts a law before them. Why does he do that? Does he do that to torment us? Does he say, I know you can’t perform this righteousness, but I’m going to put it before you and torment you with it so that you feel bad all the time? Is that what God is doing? No, of course not. God is love. But God is serious in that love because he has to find a way to bring us to him. So he puts the law of righteousness before us. Thou shalt not kill, thou shalt have no other gods before me, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not commit adultery. All of those laws, thou shalt honor the Sabbath. Every law before us, a righteous law, revealing what humanity should look like, knowing full well that we cannot attain it. So what is the law for? It is not to make us righteous, but it is to reveal our inadequacy, to reveal how terribly broken we are. We talk about the noble savage. My goodness, what about the noble savage of the Western world, where people actually think… They can be moral and perfect. Well, I won’t say they can be perfect, but they try to exalt their morality as some quality better than those of other nations. Now look at this. That can only lead to pride, to a delusion about ourselves. And so God puts before us the law that in order to make us aware of how broken we are, aware of how inadequate we are when it comes to the presence of God, for if we should be in the presence of God, we would die. All of this to bring us to a place where we see the rationality, the common sense, the faith shock of Jesus Christ. The world knows nothing about Christ if it knows nothing about the law of God. The world knows nothing about Christ if it does not understand its utter brokenness before the law of God. And so, when Paul revealed to the Gentiles the meaning of Christ, at first they probably were puzzled, because they were not seeking righteousness. Why would God come to the earth and die for human beings? But God’s act of dying for humanity in Christ gradually awakened in the pagans, in the Gentiles, a sense of their guilt. If God had to die to save me, then what does that death mean in regard to my brokenness and sinfulness? My coming to God cannot be an automatic, natural thing. I cannot say to God, Oh, I’ve been waiting for you for years, God, and now finally you’ve found me. Well, here I am. How privileged you are to receive me. No. When we learn the gospel that Jesus died, we are awakened to the meaning of the law. that the law has been smashed in the eyes of all the world, that we rob, we steal, we kill, we commit adultery without any sense of infraction, without any sense of embarrassment. And it is only when the cross of Christ is revealed that we become gradually, bit by bit, a little bit more conscious that we must be pretty broken people for God to have to die in that manner on our behalf. And so, you see, when Paul presents the gospel to the Gentiles, they don’t receive it joyfully in an immediate, automatic way. They have to, say, be puzzled and say, well, why would God do that? Because we are broken down, he would explain to them, because we are sinners, because we have suppressed God, we have dishonored him, we have disobeyed him, we have departed from him. And slowly, the Gentiles become aware. So then, Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, because they didn’t think they were unrighteous, why would they need to pursue righteousness if they thought they were righteous already? but then they were shown a new righteousness, a different righteousness, God’s love and mercy for them in his Savior, Jesus Christ. That drew them. It was not the law that drew them, it was the law that awakened them, but what drew them was the mercy and love of God in Jesus Christ, in the Savior. Now, contrast that with the Jewish people, verse 31. But Israel, pursuing a law of righteousness it attained, has not attained to the law of righteousness. But here’s the catch. They thought they had. Now, I have to say, we’re talking more about the Jewish people after the Babylonian captivity, that is, after the release from the Babylonian captivity, when they returned to Israel and built the temple again and established the law. They realized after their sinfulness, and you remember sinfulness to the extent that they were sacrificing little babies to the gods of Molech and Baal, A terrible, terrible evil. But they had fallen so terribly that God had to bring that judgment of the Babylonian captivity upon them. And that fall was so terrible that after their return to Israel, to Jerusalem, they were determined never to go back into idolatry again. And they didn’t. But they did. How do I mean? They didn’t go back to the traditional idolatry of idols of wood and stone. They went back to the idolatry of the law. They thought that we really now have to obey God absolutely. They formulated laws and rituals to strengthen and shore up the Ten Commandments, and they were determined that they would never go back into idolatry again. But in the process of seeking to establish the law in order not to bring upon themselves the judgment of God again, They worshipped that law in that they found assurance in that law, they found somehow their self-recommendation before God, and they did not look to him for mercy and love in the way that God showed them later through the sacrifice of Christ. And so they were pursuing an obedience that they themselves were comfortable in. And that is where you and I have to escape from their trap. We need to be pagan Gentiles, or realize that we are, in order to understand that Christ is the righteousness that we have not been pursuing. But if you have been pursuing righteousness, Jesus might not make much sense to you until you see what his death really means. Thank you for joining me today. Colin Cook here. You’ve been listening to my program, How It Happens, and we’re working through the book of Romans, chapter 9 particularly, to understand God’s way of saving Israel through bringing them to faith. Thank you. or send your donation by check to FaithQuest, P.O. Box 366, Littleton, Colorado, 80160. See you next time. Thank you so much, and God bless.