Bible Passage: Romans 3:19-28
Pastor: Joel Jenswold
Sermon Date: October 29, 2023

Bulletin October 29, 2023

In the name of, and to the eternal glory of, Jesus,

Embedded in every religion on the planet is the concept of “righteousness.”  Whether or not the religion uses the word “righteousness,” it is there.  By “righteousness” we mean a right standard of conduct or obedience that will get a person into heaven.  Typically, this righteousness is sought by obedience to a prescribed set of rules.  “Do this” and “don’t do that” kind of stuff.

But here we might ask a question.  Who gets to be the judge of your “righteousness”?  There are many people who are righteous in their own eyes.  They scan their lives and declare, “You’ve done it, old boy!  Well done!”  Others strive and work trying to impress others around them.  They want others to be impressed and say, “Boy, that Jim/Jane!  He/she is really a good person!” But so what?  Who cares if you think you see righteousness when you look at your life?  Who really cares if people stand around your casket one day and go on and on about how “good” you were.  What good does that do?  There is only one whose judgment finally matters.

Does God see it?  Does God see righteousness when he looks at Jim, Jane, you, me?  That is what our text is about today.  That is what the Reformation was about those many years ago.  It was about reclaiming and proclaiming to sinners how they can have Righteousness that God Sees.

As we mentioned, when it comes to seeking righteousness, most people will resort to “law.”  And a very convenient set of “laws” is the Ten Commandments.  And so they will set out to be nice, decent people.  There is a concentration on what are thought to be some of the “easier” laws.  “Do not murder.”  “Do not steal.”  People look at themselves.  They think they see righteousness!  “I haven’t murdered anybody or stolen anything (at least nothing big).”  They declare themselves righteous.  Just one problem.

No one will be declared righteous IN HIS SIGHT by works of the law. (v. 20)  God doesn’t see righteousness.  In fact, the law properly used will never cause a person to open their mouth with declarations of their own goodness and virtue.  Quite the opposite.  Whatever the law says is addressed to those who are under the law, so that every mouth will be silenced. (v. 19)  If ever you want to stand before God and gush about how good you are, God’s Law comes along and says, “Zip it!  Put a cork in it!”  If I say, “I’m good,”  God’s Law gags me.  “To hell with your ‘goodness!’  You are to be holy!”  I have nothing more to say.  God’s Law has done its job.  Through the law we become aware of sin. (v. 20)

So what is to be done?  Must we all be damned?  But now… Oh, what blessed words!  But now, completely apart from the law, a righteousness from God has been made known. (v. 21)  There is righteousness!  It is completely disconnected from Law!  It is actually FROM God!  Paul says it is given freely.  It can only be received gift-wise.  God has to make it known, that is, he has to reveal it to us otherwise we would never know about it.  And he’s been talking about it a long time.  Paul says, The Law and the Prophets testify to it. (v. 21)  That means already in the Old Testament, God was talking up righteousness apart from law.  We think of Genesis 15:6,  Abram believed the Lord and it was credited to him as righteousness. 

This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus. (v. 22) God gives this righteousness, not to people who try to keep the law, but to those who trust Jesus.   It is to all who believe. (v. 22)  The emphasis here is on ALL.  This is the one and only way to be righteous in God’s sight.  There is no other way.  It is trust in Jesus or nothing.

Here’s why.  All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. (v. 23)  This has been Paul’s point in the book of Romans up to this point.  He had begun by mentioning those in this world who live against their better knowledge.  They worship silly idols.  They cast off restraint and live like pigs.  Certainly they have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory.  But then Paul tightens the noose.  He addresses the “moralist” who looks at the first group and says, “Disgusting!”  Paul says, “You too fall short of God’s glory!”  Then he turns to the pious Jew and says, “Don’t you condemn all these ‘Gentile sinners.’ You too fall short!”  He wraps up the section by saying, There is no one who is righteous, not even one. (Romans 3:10)  No one!  Not you!  Not me!

But of the very same “all” who have sinned Paul says, …and are justified freely by his grace. (v. 24)  We are justified.  In the Greek, the word “justify” and “righteousness” are formed from the same stem.  We lose that in English.  We could invent a word for what God does to us.  He “righteousifies” us.  He declares us “righteous.”  And this is not just talk.  Back of God’s declaration is a payment.  A payment of blood.  The redemption that is in Christ Jesus. (v. 24) 

Paul says that God put Jesus on public display.  He puts his Son on a cross in full view of everyone.  This cross was high on a hill outside Jerusalem on the busiest week of the year.  There was no attempt to hide what was happening to Jesus.  God wants the world to see this.  He wants us to see it all.  This is what sin looks like.  The horror, the death, the blood.  He wants us to see the blood.  So we can trust in it.  You see, our righteousness comes through faith in his blood. (v. 25) 

Paul says God displays Jesus as the atonement seat (v. 25).  The atonement seat, or mercy seat, was the top of the Ark of the Covenant in the Old Testament.  Every year the high priest would go into the Kodesh HaKodashim, the Holy of Holies, on the Day of Atonement and sprinkle blood on the atonement cover, or mercy seat.  This blood made a “covering,” an “atonement” for sin.  Between God’s eyes and the sinner was this blood-covering.  God couldn’t see the sin.  And if he doesn’t see sin, he sees and declares the sinner “righteous.”  This was “acted out” every Yom Kippur in the Holy of Holies.  It happened for real on Calvary.  Blood was shed to cover sin.  Trusting in that blood as our covering, we have the righteousness God sees!

Friends, this truth is the key that unlocks heaven.  This is the truth the devil hates more than anything and wants to obscure.  This is what Reformation is about.  This is the truth we must continue to hold and defend today.  Martin Luther famously and wonderfully said it this way:  “Lord Jesus, you are my righteousness; I am your sin.  You became what you were not, and made me to be what I am not.”  Righteous in God’s sight, through faith!

Amen.