Two weeks ago we looked at God’s righteousness through the lens of Romans 1:16-17. “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, ‘The righteous shall live by faith’” (ESV).
These verses are rich with history, and have literally changed the world. The gospel of Jesus Christ altered the world initially, then again, in the 12th – 15th Centuries – most significantly in 1517 (the beginning of the Reformation) when the written Word of God was applied to the heart of a man through the Holy Spirit.
This is not a new message at all. The New Testament is not a contingency plan for God because the Israelites did not listen to Him in the Old Testament. Two verses stand out as to this truth. The first is Jeremiah 23:6 where we find these words; “The LORD is our righteousness.” The second is Habakkuk 2:4 where we find these words; “The righteous shall live by his faith.”
Or we could squeeze in the famous words of the prophet Zechariah; “Not by might, nor by power, but My Spirit says the LORD.” These verses make clear that salvation is accomplished when God comes to man and not by man working his way to God.
Look back for a moment to the first few words of verse 17. “For in it,” what is the “it” this verse refers to? The gospel! In the gospel is the “righteousness of God” revealed. It is His righteousness, as it His power and as it is His gospel. The bottom line is that the whole of the Christian life is bound up in God – as John Piper has written and preached, “God is the gospel.”
Now peer more deeply into the term that so often blows the human mind to bits – God’s righteousness. Donald Grey Barnhouse reminds us when he writes: “The gospel is the good news from God about the spiritual significance of the historical facts centering in the work of the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. ‘Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures…He was buried…He rose again…according to the Scriptures’ (1 Corinthians 15:3-4).” (Donald Grey Barnhouse, Romans vol. 1, p. 180).
Man, from religions other than Christianity, attempts to work his way to a god by works of his own righteousness. However, this is fruitless and eternally short-sighted. Unfortunately many professed Christians yet think in a similar way; if I can just do enough good, then God will accept me by my righteousness.
This is not what the Bible teaches. Read these words from Titus 3:5; “he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to His own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit.”
We are taught from Ephesians 2:8-9; “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” Answer these questions: how were you saved according to these verses? What was it a result of? So can we boast at all that we were saved by other than God through Jesus Christ?
Romans 4:5 teaches, “And to the one who does not work but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness.” Jesus something very similar in John 6:29; “Jesus answered them, ‘This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent.”
Jesus said this because the people were asking how to work to get to God and His response is that God does the work because a few verses later Jesus tells those listening and us, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day” (John 6:44).
So the pattern here is that it is solely God’s righteousness that makes us right with Him, not some earned worthiness within ourselves. Here in these first few words of Romans 1:17 we see that we have no righteousness that would make us right in the least bit before God, it is all Him!
If our righteousness were a part of the equation, then this verse would read very differently. It would read that in the gospel, our righteousness and God’s righteousness combine together to make us acceptable to God. But it doesn’t.
Romans 1:17 gives us peace of mind that we don’t have to wonder constantly if we’re doing enough on our part to gain God’s grace, mercy or righteousness. It is all on Him. Look at these words from 1 Thessalonians 3:13; “So that He may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all His saints.”
Now on our side is this one over-arching statement we find a little later in Romans 3:23; “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” According to this statement how many humans have sinned? Remember it is not righteousness on our part but solely on God’s part. And if we were to rely upon our works for our entrance into heaven how many good works are we supposed to do and how do we know when we’ve done enough?
So this righteousness of God is very good news for you and me and for humankind. The gospel means that God gives us His righteousness so we can measure up to eternity.