Our Word from the Lord for today has to do with Righteousness. A righteousness that indicates your standing before God, that indicates that you have fulfilled those necessary criteria to be in a relationship with God. He does not accept any thing less than perfection. You must meet his requirement for righteousness or there will be, there can be no relationship. Our text tells us what must happen so that a relationship with God can exist. There are two possible ways. There are two tracks, two methods that can be employed to ensure a right relationship with God. Paul discusses this in our text this morning.
He tells us that there are two kinds of righteousness. And that is to say that there are two possible ways to come to God. Now, that might sound strange at first, that might go against our Lutheran, doctrinal preclusions. But that is what the text says. There are two ways to achieve this righteousness. There are two ways by which we might fulfill the necessary requirements to be in a relationship with God. There are two methods that one might follow.
Now lets be clear, to say that two ways or methods or tracks or options for entering a relationship with God, for receiving salvation is only to say that those things are there. It doesn’t quite mean that there are two options for us. There is one option available to you and me, only one option that will work for us, that will ensure that we wind up in that right relationship with God. The other option is there but it just won’t work for you and me. It would be sort of like a young man who wanted to apply for a college scholarship and wound up applying to American Association for University Women. The Scholarship is there. It is an option. But it is not an option for him.
That same sort of arrangement exists for us, for people; for men and women and children who want to have a relationship with God. There are two options available, but for us only one of those option will work.
Basically, Paul tells us that there are two kinds of righteousness. There is a righteousness according to the law and there is a righteousness according to faith. That is to say, for those who desire to be in a relationship with God, God has very specific requirements that one must fulfill. There are two options. The first is that you obey his law, you obey the ten commandments perfectly from the start of your life and your very existence through to all eternity. You must obey these commandment without every breaking one of them. No other gods, no dishonoring The Lord’s Name, Remembering the Sabbath Day, Honoring father and mother, never harming or injuring another person, complete sexual purity, never stealing, never gossiping or slandering, never coveting. Do this completely and perfectly and you can have a perfect and loving relationship with God.
Now that is the first criteria, the first method, the first kind of righteousness. There is a second option. But that is the first, complete and perfect obedience to the Lord’s Commandments. It is as Paul says and as he quotes from Leviticus, “The person who does the commandments shall live by them.”
But here’s the problem: we don’t do the commandments. We don’t honor God. We don’t honor his name. We skip church, we skip our daily prayers and devotions. We disrespect our parents and other authorities. We hurt our neighbor, we lust, we steal. We are gossips and slanderers. We covet. And so this option, this kind of righteousness, the method for living in a right relationship with God, while it would work in theory will just simply not work for us.
We require that second option. The second kind of righteousness, that second method for a right relationship with God.
“But hold on just a minute,” we say. “Not so fast.” Maybe there’s a middle way. There’s the law, perfect and total obedience to God’s commandments but maybe there’s a middle way. Maybe there’s a third option. One that combines the best of both. One is black the other is white. Perhaps there is room for gray. And this third, middle of the road, humanly devised method for righteousness is the one that most people choose. We like it. It appeals to us and makes us feel good because we get to set the standard for what passes for righteousness. We get to tell God whether or not he should accept us and receive us into a relationship with him.
It usually goes something like this:
“God loves everyone and so he wouldn’t condemn anyone.”
Or “God wants me to be happy so he wouldn’t make rules that get in the way of my happiness.”
Or “God forgives sinners so it doesn’t matter what I do, God is going to forgive me anyway.”
And then there’s this ever popular method. “God just says you’ve gotta have faith. I believe. I have a strong faith. I’m even a confirmed Lutheran.”
We come up with these excuses. We tell God why he has to accept us and then we expect him to agree.
Friends. There are not three kinds of righteousness. There are two. We don’t get to define the parameters for either one of those methods. We don’t get to draw up the criteria and then tell God how to enforce them. God is God. He sets the rules. He creates the standards. When we start to play God, when we believe that we get to define what it means to be in a relationship with God, then God defaults us back to this first option where we have to completely and totally and perfectly obey His Law. His Commandments. The result is inevitably our destruction, our doom, forever in hell.
But there is that second way. There is that second option that God has made available and by which people can enjoy a right relationship with him.
That way is faith. Here the Word of the Lord from our text:
But the righteousness based on faith says, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’” (that is, to bring Christ down) 7 “or ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). 8 But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); 9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. 11 For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” 12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. 13 For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
Because of that first method, that first kind of righteousness, that first set of criteria for being in a relationship with God, we all stand condemned to death. So God in his great mercy created a new way. He sent his only Son to fulfill that old standard, to obey the commandments and thus earn a relationship with the Father through his perfect obedience. And then he engineered a trade. An exchange. He earned a relationship with God and he gives that merit and that worthiness to us. And he takes away from us our failure to obey that law. In other words, he takes away from us our death and our doom and our destruction.
And then, in return and to complete the trade, he gives to us his righteousness. He gives to us a right and restored relationship with the Father. All that is left for us is to believe. To confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in our heart that God raised him from the dead and through this; that is to say, through faith, we receive that righteousness. We receive that relationship with God. We receive that salvation and we are not put to shame.
This gift is yours. God places it before you today. I am here to preach and proclaim that Word so that you can receive it, believe it, and be saved. As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news.” So hear this word and believe this word. Because “faith comes by hearing and hearing through the Word of Christ.”
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