Dive deep into the profound concept of righteousness in this enlightening episode. Explore how God’s righteousness is not merely a distant principle but a dynamic force in action through Christ. Witness how faith unlocks the profound love and deliverance that God offers humanity, transcending mere moral doctrines and reaching into the very fabric of our spiritual existence.
So we saw some of the effects of salvation of the gospel in Romans 1, verse 16. For instance, it’s the power of God. It’s the power of God to save, and it’s the power of God to save everyone. And it’s the power of God to save everyone as they put trust in Christ for the Jew first and also the Greek. But now Paul is going to tell us what the gospel is. And this is what he says, for in it the righteousness of God is revealed. In it the righteousness of God is revealed. Now, Martin Luther, centuries ago, found this verse quite terrifying, because he thought that the righteousness of God was God’s holiness, which is so distinct from our sinful fallen brokenness, And therefore the righteousness of God was like that sword coming out of Christ’s mouth, that big symbolism in Revelation, you remember. And therefore God is going to strike the world with his righteousness. And it wasn’t good news. He couldn’t understand it. Martin Luther couldn’t. But then, as the gospel slowly and clearly unfolded, and do you know, by the way, where Martin Luther first got the gospel? Not in the book of Romans, but in the Psalms, as he was teaching it to his students. It became a revelation to God, to him, about God and what God does. So what is this righteousness? Well, first of all, notice that Paul is not coming along with judgment. Now, he has to tell us the really bad news of judgment in Romans 1, verse 18. He will do after these couple of verses. But he’s so kind and thoughtful and sensitive, he wants to give us a little inkling, a little sprinkling of the good news first. so that we don’t get discouraged by hearing some of the bad news. So, the righteousness of God, as you explore it through Scripture, you will find is very much a description of God’s action, not his state, but his action. What do I mean by that? Because he is constantly delivering people, having mercy upon them, loving them, rescuing them from their brokenness and their sinfulness. This is part of the wonderful character of God. His righteousness is love in action. Listen to this, for example, from Psalm 72. Verse 1, give the king your judgments, O God, and your righteousness to the king’s son. He will judge your people with righteousness. Okay, he judges with righteousness. Does that mean fairness? Yes. Does it mean mercy? Yes. and the poor with justice. The poor have experienced so much injustice in the world. God is going to be just to them and give them food and clothing and housing in the kingdom of God. The mountains will bring peace to the people and the little hills by righteousness. So he brings peace with his righteousness. He will bring justice to the poor of the people. He will save the children of the needy and will break in pieces the oppressor. So God’s righteousness is to bring mercy to those who have had no mercy and to bring justice and judgment to those who have been unfair. So you see then how much action is involved in righteousness. For he will deliver the needy when he cries the poor also and him who has no helper. He will spare the poor and needy and will save the souls of the needy. He will redeem their life from oppression and violence and precious shall be their blood in his sight. So do you see how God is acting to love and to have mercy and to care for the world and to nurture it and protect it and deliver it? When Jesus came to the world, he was expressing God’s righteousness. How did he express it? He went around saving people. He went around healing people, the sick, and delivering them from demons. He went around giving messages of assurance of God’s love. That’s all righteousness, do you see? It’s not simply God sitting on a mountain being all isolated and holy. It is God in action. Righteousness is not coldness. It is warmth. It is heat. It is hot. And it is rescuing. And then you think of those words, that expression of Paul’s, the righteousness of faith. How could he speak about the righteousness of faith? What does that mean? Well, immediately faith is enveloped, rather is embraced by a human being. That human being passionately believes in God. in God’s righteousness, in God’s deliverance, and in God being good and kind to that person who has faith, even though he has no goodness of his own. So, do you see then that righteousness is love in action? And when you think of God’s righteousness then, don’t think of it as cold and distant and far removed from you, Rather say to God, Father, I thank you for your righteousness towards me, because it means God’s action towards you, his love towards you, his delivering of you, his mercy towards you, his comforting of you. And it also means, listen to this, for in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, the just shall live by faith. Now we are going to see that that righteousness is Jesus Christ. That’s what Paul is revealing here. That is a little later in the book. The righteousness of God is not simply a distant, holy, cold principle. It is God’s love in action. And what is God’s love in action but Jesus Christ? We’re not falling in love with a principle. We’re not falling in love with an idea. We’re not trusting our whole soul and eternity to a concept but to a person. Jesus Christ. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed, from faith to faith. Now remember, this faith is given to us by God. We will see that clearly as the book unfolds. It is not something we conjure up. It is not something we try to do. We believe because God gives us, with Jesus, the gift to believe. And it’s from faith, the righteousness, and it moves all the way through our lives to faith right in the end. The just, that is those who have been accounted righteous in Christ, will live by faith. Now look, what Paul is going to show us in the next few chapters is is the broken sinfulness of man, utterly broken down, no righteousness in him at all. But what do you think God responds to? How do you think God responds to that? Well, some would say, well, he’s going to bring justice and judgment and wrath upon the world, and he’s going to knock them out and eliminate them from the earth, those wicked people. But is that the case? What Paul does after revealing all the brokenness of humanity is to reveal his righteousness. Now notice, his righteousness, as I have said, is Jesus Christ, and it is his righteousness, not ours. You see, part of the brokenness of humanity is not simply sinning wickedly, but also trying to be righteous wickedly. Have you ever thought of that? The wickedness of righteousness. What is the wickedness of righteousness? I’ll tell you what it is. It’s believing you are better than anyone else because you keep the law. It is believing that your moral performance is superior to others. It is believing that you can actually be saved by your own goodness. What pomposity! What delusion! Because the fact is, humanity is terribly broken down. And that belief in our own righteousness leads to something very wicked, and it is pride. And pride will exclude everybody who needs you, because you will think you’re better than they are, and they are not worth it. So how do we go about receiving this righteousness? What do we do? We go before our Heavenly Father. We say, O Father, I have always thought I could manage in this world without you. I thought I could produce a history of morality. I thought I could impress the world with my dignity and self-worth. I thought I could even get to heaven automatically, that I was good enough for that. But all of that, Lord God, is pride and pomposity. And Father, above all, it is a complete diminishing of Jesus. Thinking that he has no value to me, not realizing that I need to be saved and rescued because I’m drowning. And so, Father, I come to you and I ask you to give me your righteousness. Now, how does God give you his righteousness? We are going to discover that God counts you as righteous, reckons righteousness to you. He doesn’t slowly trickle it into your heart. He immediately embraces you like a prodigal son returning home. and he puts a new robe on you and a new ring of ownership on your finger and sandals on your feet so that you have the dignity of a prince once more, and then he throws a party. Now that is the way God does things in his love. It shocks us because the righteous ones, like the older brother, think they didn’t get a party like that. And why does God rejoice over sinners returning or his father, his lost son returning when he doesn’t throw a party like that for him? You see, we’ve got it all screwed up. We’ve got it all wrong and upside down. We come to God, therefore, and we say, Father, I kneel at the cross. I see that Jesus’ judgment is mine. I see that he died for my sins. And I recognize that you rose from the dead, Jesus, in order that I will rise from the dead, that I will come into your kingdom, and then after a certain time you’ll bring me back to earth with an entirely new, immortal, incorruptible body. and I will live forever in your presence where there is fullness of joy. This is what is our heritage. Don’t walk around the world fearful, cavilling, with your head down. Don’t lift your head up in pride, but in gratitude, in praise. The answer to the sin issue, according to Paul, is not repentance, is not dedication, is not sincerity. It is the righteousness of God which is love in action when he gives Jesus Christ to you with all his heart. Thank you so much for listening today. Colin Cook here, and you’ve been listening to my broadcast, How It Happens. You can hear this broadcast on the radio at 10 o’clock in the evening, repeated at 4 in the morning on KLTT AM 670 in the Denver and Colorado and surrounding states areas, but you can also hear it any time of the day or night on your smartphone. Simply download a free app, soundcloud.com or podbean.com, and key in how it happens with Colin Cook when you get there. And I would so appreciate it if you could manage a donation. This is listener-supported radio. Only you, the listener, keeps it going. You can send your donation to Faith Quest, P.O. Box 366, Littleton, Colorado, 80160, or you can make your donation online at faithquestradio.com. It would be so much appreciated. Thank you. See you next time. Cheerio and God bless.
