Righteousness of God Revealed 1

Today we're jumping into probably, as several people I've read over the week, the very center and focus of the Bible. Chapter 3, verse 21 through 26. We're only going to go through 23 today. We could spend weeks on what these verses are all about. Paul has set up a courtroom environment whereby every human being's defense against God judging him has been eliminated.

And so now, like the verse says, every voice has been Everybody's quiet. You're all out of excuses. You have nothing to say. And the judge says, well, is there a defense? There's no defense. So it's a really cool time. Imagine that. All humanity being judged, and they haven't got a, yeah, but. Yeah, but. There's none of that. That's all over.

So as we learned, We learned the first work of Paul, all the way back to chapter 1, verse 18 to 3.20, was to bring the whole world under the judgment of God that they were guilty and they were helpless. And that's what Paul accomplished. His argument, if you spend any time looking at it, is impeccable. You can't. There's no back door. There's no, I'm going to change my plea. There's none of that. The whole world is guilty.

Now, the second task, which is a tremendous one, is to reveal God's coming out in righteousness at the cross to us. Two, three of the commentators that I read said, if ever verses need to be memorized, it is Romans 321-326. diligently read, pondered on, and committed to memory. We should know these verses and understand what they say, because this is the very center of God's work right here. When he says, God is great, this is God's great statement of justification by faith.

You know, we talked a little bit last week about Why did God stop every mouth? Was it so that they could sit there and listen to what the punishment was going to be? No, it was because once they stopped talking, then He had a forum where He could show His grace. He could demonstrate to them a methodology of justification by faith, grace. That's why He wanted them to be quiet, so He could tell them.

So we're going to see today in verse 23 that all have sinned, all, and fallen short of the glory of God. So verse 21 says, But now, apart from the law, and most of your Bibles say the law, the word the is not there, so it's not the Mosaic law, it's just law as a principle. The righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed to by the law and the prophets.

But now is an incredible statement. And I don't think, I'm not sure that they could have said, the translators could have said it any other way, but to state this case. But now means, Paul is going through a contrast, where he's saying, this is totally over. And now we're starting with something totally new that has none of this in it. There's law and all that system is over, and now we're under grace. And it's like you yell this out, but now.

So, the beginning and explanation of something heavenly, something different from all sinners, who are guilty and helpless in Romans 1.18 through 3.20. God has stopped one plan and completely stopped it. And he began a whole new entire plan, the grace faith method. So the key word here, words are apart from law. Now the best definition and simplest definition that I know of law goes like this.

If you obey me, I will bless you. If you don't obey me, I will curse you. Haven't we raised our kids that way? Weren't you raised that way? Doesn't the public law system, moral law function that way? If you go 35 miles an hour in a 35 mile an hour zone, you'll be rewarded by not getting a ticket. If you go 45, you're going to get a consequence, a ticket. It's a law system.

God's new principle eliminates law in relationship to Him entirely. It's been entirely eliminated. I know that's hard for us to grasp as human beings who have, you know, from Adam on, well, what can I do to please you, Lord? And what can I stop doing to please you, Lord? And, oh yeah, I need to do this and that. No. Grace. Faith.

So, does God allow any law principle here when it comes to His righteousness being revealed? As the Greek puts it, apart from law, and thus sets forth most strongly, the altogether separateness of this divine righteousness from any law performance or work of man whatsoever. The great and most common error in setting forth God's righteousness here is to allow at least a little bit of law to sneak in there somewhere, because I need to be told what to do. Don't we often go to God and say, just tell me what to do and I'll do it. So he says little things like, well, why don't you be holy as I'm holy? Well, something other than that. But why don't you be righteous like I am righteous? Oh, it's got to be something other than that. So it is a common error within Christian circles to have a little bit of loss stuck in there somewhere. We just don't feel comfortable living under grace. finding out about grace. We just are not comfortable with it because it doesn't fit with Adam.

But the righteousness which speaks, which is of God, speaks in a way dramatically opposed to man's law. Because what's the deal that's going to happen here? We're now going to talk about God's righteousness and man has nothing to do with that. So let's talk about righteousness. I really like the subject of righteousness because if you have to define it, Vine says, well, it's the character or quality of being right or just. You mean to tell me that God is right every time? All the time? Never fails? That He's always just? All the time? Every time? He's never made a mistake? Never? It used to be called right-wiseness. I really kind of like that term, but on the computer you get a red underline saying this is a misspelled something. But it really does show the meaning.

For us to get a grasp on what God's righteousness really is, it has to do with Him and who He is and what he's all about. He's perfect. He's righteous. He's right all the time. The context of which is that the righteousness of God means essentially the same as his faithfulness, as his truthfulness, that which is consisted with his own nature and with his promises. The cool thing about God's righteousness is that he wants to reveal it. to man. He wants to show man, I'm righteous. In other words, I have, even though I'm the one that gave you the law, that's not really who I am. I'm really a loving God and a God who loves to bless. That's what I'm really all about. And I can show you that by revealing my righteousness to you. So, how did he do that? How did he reveal his righteousness to mankind?

It was the death of Christ. It demonstrates that quality of holiness in which we must find expression in his condemnation of sin. If he did not condemn sin to the core, he wouldn't be righteous, because sin is different than him. You see that? It's not part of who he is. So sin goes against totally God's righteousness. So he demonstrates his righteousness. He doesn't need to go out and demonstrate all the sins. He just says, here I am righteous. Anything that's not of me isn't righteous.

It's sin. You know what the definition of sin is? Missing the mark. Well, what's the mark? God's righteousness. That's the mark. So this righteousness is unattainable by obedience to any law or any merit on man's part. He can't do it. Or any other condition than that of faith in Christ. The man who trusts in Christ becomes the righteousness of God in him. And I'll expand on that as we go.

2 Corinthians 5.21. He becomes in Christ all that God requires man to be. All that he could ever be in himself is in Christ. Even the Lord Jesus said in a few places, of whatever is right or just in itself, whatever conforms to the revealed will of God is righteousness. It's from Matthew and from John. Whatever has been appointed by God to be acknowledged and obeyed by man, Matthew, two quotes in Matthew, And I would say God's righteousness is the sum total of his requirements for man. Now, that seems a little bit of a high standard to be maintained or arrived at.

But 2 Peter 1.1 says the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Oh, the Lord Jesus Christ is God, and he has the same righteousness as the Father. It's a righteousness dealing of God with sin, with sinners on the ground of the death of Christ. The death of Christ is not plan B. It was always in place. And it always had to do with the righteousness of who God is. But for most parts, he uses it in the form of gracious gifts of God to men, whereby All who believe in the Lord Jesus are brought into right relationship with God.

Again, Romans 117 tells us that in the gospel, the good news, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith for it is written, but the righteous man shall live by faith. Then in 1.18 it says, For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth and unrighteousness. 18 is a really interesting verse because it tells you and me, human beings, if I want to be righteous, I have to be godly.

I have to be righteous. I have to be like Him. And there's nothing I can do of my own effort to arrive at that standard. Somehow that standard is going to have to be supplied to me. Somehow God is going to have to work a program where His righteousness is available, where I can partake of it.

And so what we have here is that the The death of the Lord Jesus Christ demonstrates how serious God is about righteousness. In 117, the unfolding of the word which Paul in chapter 1 declares to be the very heart of the gospel. The reason is the power of God unto salvation. Oh, namely, therein is God's righteousness on the faith principle revealed to any having faith.

Doesn't this say that to be with God A man must be godly and righteous himself. Isn't that what it says? It doesn't mean I can be good in myself. It doesn't mean I obeyed all the rules that God gave me. It means I got to be like Him. I have to be, otherwise I'm not going to be with Him. And after all, He did create man to spend eternity with Him and to appreciate who He was. That's why He did it. So in Hebrews 7, 18 and 19, the writer of Hebrews says, there is a disannoying of a foregoing commandment by him who gave it because of its weakness and unprofitableness. For the law made nothing perfect and bringing in thereupon a better hope Christ's work through which we draw near to God.

So the next part of the verse is that all of this was witnessed to by the law and the prophets. This was not a surprise. It wasn't revealed totally, but it wasn't a surprise. Witness to having witness or testimony born to it is being attested to By the law, what do you think the law was doing in the Old Testament? It was attesting to the fact that God's righteousness is what God is really after. You know, when he gave the law to the Jewish people, what he really said to them was, look, you're my chosen people. It would be like God standing up here and saying, OK, all you on this side, you're my chosen people. You're not. Sorry. But as my chosen people, here's how you need to live. And I'm going to give you 600 plus, this is how you need to live things. So if you begin to realize what he's saying, what are you going to do? You're going to move over here.

Because these people got saved by faith alone, not by doing. See that? So God has to do everything, otherwise nothing gets done. For it's God's great statement of justification by faith. The only way is to believe Him. And then the words, has been manifested, Coney Barrett lucidly phrases, not by law, But by another way, God's righteousness is brought to light through the cross of Christ. God has always dealt righteously, although his way was not yet plain in the Old Testament. He pardoned many from sin, and he did it seemingly not having the consequence paid for. the judgment of sin to an unsaved world, but he was counting on and relying on what Christ, the work Christ would do. Because it says, he spared not his own son.

There was revealed indeed righteousness to the utmost. I hope we can get it straight in our minds that the death of Christ that God had to do it that way, that Christ had to be the victim. He had to be the one, he had to be God, and he had to be man. He had to be both of those things, and nobody else could have done what he accomplished. So it says, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe, for there is no distinction.

So question, does a believer need a personal standing before God in order to be righteous? This question is kind of a quick question, a trick question, because I'm really what I'm asking. Personal standing. Do you need to have a personal standing before God in order to be righteous? Should we have a test of hands? No. The saints who are said to be righteousness of God in Christ, of course, self-righteousness simply shrivels from a verse like this.

All is in Christ, we are in Christ, one with Him. It isn't my righteousness, it is. I cannot stand before God in personal standing. I don't have any in myself. C.I. Schofield said on this note that the righteousness of the believer is Christ himself who fully met in our stead and on behalf every demand of the law. every demand. So our entire standing is in Christ and it couldn't be any place else.

Why? Because God accepts God. Do you understand that? The Father accepts the work of the Son. Who is the Son? He's God. He's totally righteous in himself. So Now maybe this will open up a little bit as we go on. So what is the righteousness of God in action? God himself acting in righteousness towards Christ and raising him from the dead and seating him as a man in the place of absolute honor and glory. Do you know that if God didn't raise Christ from the dead he wouldn't have been acting righteously? You know why? Because the two of them made this contract. And the contract was, if you become a man and die for the sins of the world, I will raise you up. So wouldn't you love to enter into an agreement like that with somebody who had the righteousness of God?

It's done. So God acted righteously by raising Christ from the dead. And also he acts righteously in giving those who believe in Christ the same acceptance before God as Christ now has. In as much as he actually bore their sins, putting them away by his blood and also became identified with the sinner. Christ was made sin, the thing sin, not your sins, the thing sin for us. And our old man was thus crucified with him. So I think it's important for us to understand that a lot of people like to use this word imputed.

If I'm going to, like God is going to impute his righteousness to Donna, this is not what God has done. He hasn't imputed his righteousness to anybody. What he did was he took Donna and put her in Christ and says she has his righteousness in him. No imputation. It's a oneness thing rather than a dualistic thing. Do you see that?

That's a really important point to understand, that our righteousness before God is because of our position in Christ. It's not because He imputed anything to us, because He didn't. He takes us when we believe in the person and work of His Son, and He puts us in Him. And once we're there, everything that's true of Christ, It's true of you in terms of righteousness, in standing, in access, position.

All of that's true. It wasn't because it was sort of given from God to you. No, He took you and put you in Himself so that you're now His righteousness. That's a cool thing. You can't ever lose it. Christ now raised and glorified is himself the righteousness of the believer.

It is not that he acted righteously while on the earth and that it was reckoned to us. In other words, you know, a lot of people will say, well, he lived a great life and he's reckoning the greatness of that life to us. That is, we repeat, the history of vicarious law keeping. That's not what we're talking about.

He was indeed the spotless lamb of God, but he had no connection with sinners until he died. He was separate from sinners. He said, except a grain of wheat fall on the ground and die, it abides alone. But if it dies, it brings forth much fruit. It's the risen Christ who is our righteousness. Christianity really began at the resurrection. The church didn't start until Pentecost, but Christianity was in place when Christ was raised from the dead because that's the new creation. The new life is there. The work of the cross made Christianity possible, but true Christianity is all on the resurrection side of the cross. You know, when Mary Magdalene went to the tomb, what did she find? Nothing. Angel said to her, he's not here. He's risen. He's not here. He's risen.

So what does one have to be to be declared righteous? to be or become righteous before God, to have or obtain a standing that will bear God's scrutiny, is a fond dream of every earnest Christian, isn't it? Talk to him. But however you state it, and by whomsoever stated, the idea of our obtaining a standing before God falls short, and the vitality of Paul's gospel And I tell you, Paul's gospel of our being made the righteousness of God in him.

If I'm working to have a righteousness before God, I am denying that we died, that I died with Christ. I'm denying that fact. I'm denying of obtaining a standing in Christ. I am denying The fact that I have now a new federal head, and I'm denying the fact that when Christ died, so did I. When He was buried, so was I. And when He was resurrected, so was I. So were you.

So negatively stated, we could say, and Paul says this in Acts 13, everyone that believes in Him, is justified from all things. Romans 5.9, justified in his blood. On the positive side, 4.25, he was raised for our justification that we might receive a new place, a place in Christ Jesus risen. And thus the righteousness of God in him is one with him who is that righteousness. Christ is that righteousness and you have it because you're in him, not separate from him. Okay. Even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe.

What does faith in Christ mean? What does it mean, the expression faith concerning Jesus Christ, literally, faith of Christ? Does it mean faith in the gospel of God concerning Christ, as set forth in the beginning of Romans or other places? Does it mean to trust Christ?

Does it mean to rely on Him to do something for our soul that He hasn't done before? Does it mean we want Him to put forth the power to deliver us or to become one's personal Savior? Is that what we're asking? Or to see one through to the end? Answer no. Our faith is based on a fact that already is completed. It's not based on what God is going to do for me.

I notice carefully with sometimes I've... Donna criticizes me for this, but I do it anyway. I channel surf. And I stop sometimes in a Christian channel just to see what they're saying. And invariably these guys give you the salvation message. But then at the very end, they add to it.

You have to be sorry. You have to confess your sins. And you have to commit to Christ. They don't spend any time talking about, here's what Christ did, and what He did satisfies the Father, and if you believe that, He will put you, the Holy Spirit will place you in Christ and you'll be there for all eternity. Yeah, but isn't confessing my sins important? Yeah, but it isn't one of the requirements. Are you forgiven when you sin today because you're sorry? I love asking that question. No raised hands. How do you think that I'm going to get forgiven faster If I'm sorry for my sins, then the person who's just confessing and they're not really sorry, or they're not even thinking about it. The answer is your sorrow has nothing to do with it.

It's your position in Christ and everything that he did on the cross that matters. That's all that matters. The righteousness of God has required Christ to die to sin, and you did. And your confession is acknowledging that. So the faith of Jesus Christ is not His faith operating in your behalf. It's not you promising God that you're going to do something. It's simply the acceptance for ourselves, the testimony that God is true. It's pretty simple.

You know, we've gone through how Malloy taught a really good class on faith. He taught through Hebrews 11 and defined it. It was really good. And it's all based on God's facts. What he says is so. And I simply accept those facts as being true. That's what faith is. Faith is not trust that God will do something and must be carefully distinguished from it. We would have a clear conception of the gospel. Faith is just acceptance and believing what God says. Even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ.

In saving faith then, you don't trust God to do something for you. He has sent His Son who has borne sin for you. He did it already. You don't look to Christ to do something to save you. He has done it at the cross. He did it. You simply receive God's testimony. You rest in God's word regarding Christ and his work for you. You rest in Christ's shed blood. So if I were to say, well, what's the standard for sinners to reach in order to be righteous before God? I can't earn his approval. I can't do anything out of myself.

I've always thought this was great. As you know, I was a realtor for years. As a realtor, the three most important things in real estate is location, location, and location. It is in Christianity too. Where am I located? Am I in Christ? Or am I in Adam, hoping to get into Christ?

No, I'm already there. The deal closed. It's over. I'm there. So saving faith is taking God at His word as something that He's already done. So Paul says, For all have sinned and are falling short of the glory of God. It's kind of interesting here. There's no distinction. The last verse starts out, there's no distinction. It probably ought to go with this verse. Have sin means that all, the entire human race does nothing but sin. We've all already committed sin. In other words, the human race does nothing except commit sin. That's all they do. If you're from Adam, you sin.

It's the word hamartio, hamartiano, to miss the mark, thus fail in obeying the law if I'm a transgressor. Now, coming short is interesting because the tense changes. It's present tense. Right now, come short. The verb is to be left behind in the race, so fail to reach the goal, to fall short at the end of, to lack. It means I never have made it up to the mark that I need to make it up to. All have sinned and are continually falling short.

See that? So it's not a matter of, like last week we talked about the problem with people who don't want to get judged, and as Paul's going through these verses, is that once I sin, how do I fix that? Well, I'm really good from now going forward. Well, what about this one? How do you fix that one? See, the point is that I'm going to come short every day. But you know what?

The righteousness of God, because it is what it is, took care of every sin. Every one of them. He anticipated and knew exactly all of our sins for all of our life. From the first one to the last one. And He took care of them at the cross. So it's not a matter of of somehow not sinning so much, or maybe I arrive at the glory of God every now and then, it's not like that. So let's take a look at the term of God's righteousness again to kind of close up. Let's look at it from three sides. The first side is God's side. The expression God's righteousness.

It must be regarded as an absolute one. It is His attribute of righteousness. It can do nothing else. He must and ever will act in righteousness. We're never going to be able to change God's mind about anything. whether it be towards Christ, towards those in Christ, towards those finally in penitent, whether angels, demons, or men. God is not changeable.

So let's look at it from Christ's side. It is His being received by God into glory as a man, according to God's estimation of His mediatorial work. In other words, He is the mediator between God and man. He's the one that did the work, and he's the one that makes sure, as the mediator, that the benefits of that work are implemented.

From the believer's side, the justified believer's side, the amazing declaration of God concerning us is, him who knew no sin was made to be sin on our behalf. And this is sin, the thing sin. This isn't your sins. It's sin. He was made to be sin on our behalf that we might become the righteousness of God in Christ. Ever think of yourself that way? I am the righteousness of God in Christ. It's almost like, oh, I can never say that. That's too holy. No, it's not. It's real. That's who we are.

So, in closing, we know that those now justified by faith in Christ rejoice in the hope of glory, meaning that state of being glorified together with Christ, which is the high heavenly hope of the Christian. It is in and through Christ alone that sinners ruined in Adam and daily falling short of the glory God, find redemption from sin's guilt, sin and delivered from its power. We have a standing in the Lord Jesus Christ because of God's righteousness can never ever change, no matter what.

So let's close. Father, how I thank you, how we thank you for the fact that you are a righteous God, the fact that you don't ever change, the fact that you have been the same and will stay the same, and all of these wonderful things that you teach us about what you are and what you've done, that we might rest in them by faith, which is glorifying to you. And we thank you, Father. We pray in your Son's precious name. Amen.