Righteousness Explained This is our third sermon from our series out of the New Testament Book of Romans that we’re calling Living By Faith.

We’ll pick up where we left off; if you were here last week or caught up online, you may remember that we gave ourselves a preview of this passage because we needed to hear the Good News offered in today’s passage.

The last section we studied was important, but hard… because it focused on the problem of sin common to all humanity. That is an important place to start since we need to be aware of just how hopeless we are without faith in God and the righteousness only He can provide. But we didn’t want to end last week with only the problem without hearing, again, the solution. That solution is before us today in this passage. Let’s read the beginning of this together: 21 But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. 22 This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. 25 God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, m through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith.1

We are calling this message Righteousness Explained. We might wonder, “Do we really need an explanation?” The answer is yes; we so routinely get it wrong. Even when we get it right and figured out, we often forget. God’s righteousness is so profound, and counter to how we generally think about things, that we can so easily loose grasp of our understanding.

1 The New International Version. (2011). (Ro 3:21–25). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

Here’s the thing: If we find that living according to the Gospel comes naturally, we are probably not doing it right. We naturally get it wrong. So we rehearse it, we study and rethink and examine our lives through the lens of the Gospel.

When we look carefully at how the Gospel is explained in the passage we just read, we see how our natural thinking might not line up with Gospel thinking. 21 But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known2

The People of God in Paul’s day thought of righteousness primarily in terms of rule keeping, what we find in the law established by Moses and then expanded upon through the ages. That wasn’t merely a problem 2,000 years ago when Paul was preaching the Gospel of Grace through Faith in Jesus… it remains our problem today. We may not like to follow rules, especially strict rules… but we like the idea of having rules, imposing them on ourselves and others, because when we have rules we have control.

But rules, alone, were never God’s plan… in fact the Gospel is precisely that

to which the Law and the Prophets testify. 22 This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God3

Not only is righteousness not bound to Jewish Law, it is not bound to the Jewish People. That required a major shift in thinking. God is calling all people, all races and nationalities, young and old and rich and poor… God is calling people like us to His righteousness, and people not like us. It seems that shift in thinking is required of us today as well.

2 The New International Version. (2011). (Ro 3:21). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan. 3 The New International Version. (2011). (Ro 3:21–23). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

It seems that every cultural force is driving us into smaller and more specialized niches. Market and technological forces make it so that we can easily find people just like us. We can easily find entertainment and news and styles and opinions that match us. Successful marketers know that if they can identify (or even create) a niche they can target, that niche can sustain and grow a business.

It turns out that you can sustain and grow a church like that too. We do realize that Northshore is strange in this way, right? Most small and medium-sized churches in urban and suburban areas are gatherings of very similar people. Similar backgrounds, status, wealth, race, style, politics and such usually characterize churches like ours. It may be different in rural areas where there are fewer choices, but in an urban setting like ours, there are so many choices that people can clump together in their niche.

Just like there are 147 distinct choices of shampoo at Fred Meyer, there are seemingly boundless choices of churches in an urban area like ours… each distinct in substance, as well as style.

I suppose that we can argue whether or not Northshore is sufficiently diverse (in a broad range of areas), but I’m pretty confident that we are more diverse than most other churches of our ilk.

Reflecting from my business and marketing background, I’m pretty confident that we could more easily grow a church if we targeted a niche. There are many examples of successful churches who have developed a sophisticated plan to target a certain type of person to grow their church; it works.

But that business and marketing sense, in this case, does not match my theological sense.

all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.4

God has kicked the doors wide open, so we need our doors to be wide open too. Not only does a church with all manner of people reflect what God has in His mind and heart for His Kingdom… it turns out we need each other.

4 The New International Version. (2011). (Ro 3:23–24). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

I can’t do all that God has for me to do, or understand all that God has for me to understand, with merely more people just like me around. We need diversity of perspectives and skills and experiences to both discern God’s call and do His work.

Paul asks an important, rhetorical question in verse 27: 27 Where, then, is boasting?5

He was talking to religious people, religious people like a lot of us… religious people who had an insufficient grasp on what it truly means to be righteous. It turns out that one of the most obvious symptoms of one who doesn’t truly understand righteousness is precisely that: boasting… boasting about what we have obtained, the rules we keep, and even the rules we enforce.

To help us see, Paul turns to the example of Abraham. Before Moses, and before the twelve tribes of Israel, there was Abraham.

What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, discovered in this matter? 2 If, in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about—but not before God. 3 What does Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” w 6

The point is this. For Abraham it was not keeping the law, since Abraham lived many generations before the law was given. In fact it wasn’t merely a matter of keeping any rules that earned an acceptable, righteous standing before God. What God credited to Abraham as righteousness was God’s response to Abraham’s faith: “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”

5 The New International Version. (2011). (Ro 3:27). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan. 6 The New International Version. (2011). (Ro 4:1–3). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

4 Now to the one who works, wages are not credited as a gift but as an obligation. 5 However, to the one who does not work but trusts God who justifies the ungodly, their faith is credited as righteousness. 6 David says the same thing when he speaks of the blessedness of the one to whom God credits righteousness apart from works:

7 “Blessed are those whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered.

8 Blessed is the one whose sin the Lord will never count against them.” z 7

“Now to the one who works, wages are not credited as a gift but as an obligation.” This is how we naturally think of religion; we think of it as a transaction. We behave a certain way, make sacrifices, do good, avoid evil, and that earns us some sort of righteous standing before God; He is obligated to reward us because we earned it. And, conversely, we might consider ourselves or others disqualified from God’s righteousness because we failed to earn the credit. That seems right and fair, doesn’t it?

This is precisely the rationale, the natural religious thinking, Paul was coming up against. When we think that our work alone qualifies us (or even disqualifies us) for God awarding us righteousness, then we don’t get it.

These ideas of work and wages and obligation brings to mind a story that Jesus told. It is one of those parables that confuse some… but when we read it seeking to understand righteousness, I think it will teach us a vitally important lesson.

It is found in Matthew chapter 20:

“For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. 2 He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard.

3 “About nine in the morning he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. 4 He told them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’ 5 So they went.

“He went out again about noon and about three in the afternoon and did the same thing. 6 About five in the afternoon he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, ‘Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?’

7 “ ‘Because no one has hired us,’ they answered.

7 The New International Version. (2011). (Ro 4:4–8). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

“He said to them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard.’ 8 “When evening came, the owner of the vineyard

said to his foreman, ‘Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.’

9 “The workers who were hired about five in the afternoon came and each received a denarius. 10 So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. 11 When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. 12 ‘These who were hired last worked only one hour,’ they said, ‘and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.’

13 “But he answered one of them, ‘I am not being unfair to you, friend. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? 14 Take your pay and go. I want to give the one who was hired last the same as I gave you. 15 Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?’

16 “So the last will be first, and the first will be last.” 8

If this is a business-management lesson, this is really confusing. I suppose employers are entitled to do whatever they want in terms of how they compensate employees, if that is the lesson. If this is really about employee/employer relations, then it is pretty easy to take the side of the employees. It doesn’t seem fair. They even point out that not only did the ones first hired work the longest, they dealt with the hardest work… the work done in the heat of the day. It is not fair.

I’m generally pretty concerned with fairness, and when I see that something is unfair it really bugs me. For example, it really bugs me when people take cuts… when someone cuts a line. I know I’m not the only one; people get pretty bent out of shape when someone cuts in traffic (road rage). There is no saving a place in line either; there is only one place to enter a line. I entered at the back of the line and I’ve waited this long; so should you.

These workers were cutting the line. They suffered the lease, laboring the least, and yet they were the first to get paid… awarded the same as everyone else in the line that they cut in front of. It is not fair.

8 The New International Version. (2011). (Mt 20:1–16). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

Of course we ought to be able to see that Jesus in not teaching a business lesson; this isn’t merely about earning a day’s wage at a vineyard. This is about righteousness.

When we read the owner saying: 15 Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?’

We can replace the word money with righteousness and begin to see what Jesus was trying to teach us about God.

We can understand the owner of the vineyard to be the Owner of All Creation: God. And the denarius, the day’s wage, is His righteousness.

The first ones he hired were on the job before sunrise, from the dawning of the day, from the beginning like Father Abraham. Four more times throughout the day the owner of the vineyard invited others to join the enterprise, including those who were only around for the final hour.

Yet they all received full payment.

Knowing the whole story, when could the workers have counted on the full payment? Wasn’t the full payment effectively theirs as soon as the joined the enterprise? We can see that the duration and difficulty of the work had no impact on the payment; everyone received the full payment.

This is how God’s righteousness is; when we join the enterprise and stick with it, regardless of the duration or difficulty of life ahead, we are awarded the full payment of God’s righteousness.

The work, then, is about something other than earning a payment. We are invited to join God in His enterprise… and merely being involved in His enterprise is the reward in itself. We work not in pursuit of His reward of righteousness, but rather we work in response to His award of righteousness.

If that is our true understanding and motivation, then it completely changes our perspective on those who might cut the line. Doesn’t it? It might be unnatural and contrary to our thinking, but we want people to cut the line, don’t we?

The Bible is a remarkable book, not merely because it reveals God to us… but God, through His Word and Spirit, reveals ourselves to us. The way we understand this parable, and the way we react to it, might reveal something important to us about ourselves.

A wise man once said: If we find that living according to the Gospel comes naturally, we are probably not doing it right.

If we think of our good work as earning credits so that God is obligated to reward us… then we probably shouldn’t expect to be delighted when people cut the line.

But of course we do want people to cut the line; we want people to join God’s enterprise with us and be awarded with God’s righteousness no matter how long or hard they labor in His enterprise.

• When we do all the work it takes to gather food and funds so that we can fill the shelves to empty them each Monday night at our Food Bank, we are wanting people to cut the line.

• When we serve kids and families in our nurseries and our kids spaces, we are wanting people to cut the line.

• When we open our doors to neighbors for the Community Market, or for a Halloween Carnival or a Christmas Bazaar, we are wanting people to cut the line.

• When we sacrifice our time and treasure in all the various ways we do, we are wanting people to cut the line.

Hear the end of Romans chapter 4 18 Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” t 19 Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead—since he was about a hundred years old—and that Sarah’s womb was also dead. 20 Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, 21 being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. 22 This is why “it was credited to him as righteousness.” 23 The words “it was credited to him” were written not for him alone, 24 but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness—for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. 25 He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification. 9

Be like Abraham. That is what it says, right? These words were not written for Abraham alone (even though he was at the front of the line), “but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness—for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord.”

We believe in God for His grace and mercy; Jesus is our righteousness.

Can we be like Abraham, not wavering “through unbelief regarding the promise of God”? Can we be like Abraham, being strengthened in faith, “being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised”?

We who have cut the line… maybe years ago… maybe days ago… maybe about to cut the line yet today… is today a day we can be strengthened in faith. Is today a day when we can be persuaded, fully persuaded, that God has power to do what He promises.

Make today your day and believe. Let faith arise and believe.

9 The New International Version. (2011). (Ro 4:18–25). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.