The Righteousness of God Revealed

The Summit of Our Salvation

Allen Snapp

Grace Community Church

March 17, 2024

The Righteousness of God Revealed

⁸ First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed in all the world. ⁹ For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I mention you ¹⁰ always in my prayers, asking that somehow by God's will I may now at last succeed in coming to you. ¹¹ For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you— ¹² that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith, both yours and mine. ¹³ I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that I have often intended to come to you (but thus far have been prevented), in order that I may reap some harvest among you as well as among the rest of the Gentiles. ¹⁴ I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. ¹⁵ So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.

¹⁶ 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. ¹⁷ For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith,^] as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”Rom. 1:8-17

In 2017 Alex Honnold made the first ever free solo climb of the 2900ft Freerider side of El Capitan. 2900 ft sheer rock face without any ropes, any safety gear, any net to catch him if he fell. Life or death was at stake with every handhold or foothold. I couldn’t do it. I’m not made that way. Indeed, most people couldn’t as scans showed that Honnold’s amygdala isn’t like most people amygdala: it barely activates when faced with intensely frightening, life-threatening situations.

But what if there were a climb that no human who ever lived could climb. Instead of 2900 feet it was sheer rock face extending thousands of miles into the air. And imagine if (stay with me now) God said, the only way to eternal life is to climb that rock face and make it to the top?

There is such a climb – it’s called God’s righteousness. In verse 17 it says the righteousness of God is revealed. The climb to God’s righteousness is so steep, so high, so far beyond our abilities, that the best and the most righteous among us can’t get past base camp one. Most of us may be righteous enough to make it 50 or 100 feet. A few very dedicated people – the Alex Honnold’s of righteous living - may make it 3000 or 4000 feet, but a hundred times that wouldn’t come near to the pinnacle of God’s righteous standard. And anything less than that – even one handhold less will fall short of God’s righteous standard and cause us to perish.

This analogy helps explain why German monk Martin Luther grew to hate God. He knew that God required him to live a perfectly righteous life but he also knew that he couldn’t come close. God required him to do what he could not do, leaving him to fail and to fall.

We’ll come back to Martin Luther and his hatred of God in a few minutes.

Paul continues his letter by encouraging the believers in Rome. Their faith in Christ is known through the Roman Empire. And he wants them to know he is praying for them and longs to visit them.

⁹ For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I mention you ¹⁰ always in my prayers, asking that somehow by God's will I may now at last succeed in coming to you. ¹¹ For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you— ¹² that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith, both yours and mine. 

1. Paul cared for and prayed for THE church!

Paul wasn’t a professional minister; he was a true shepherd of God’s people. He had never been to the church in Rome. He knew a few people from Rome – Priscilla and Aquila for instance - but for the most part he didn’t know them yet he carried them on his heart in prayer and cared about how they were doing in their walk with the Lord.

God gave Paul a really big heart. I find my capacity to care for and pray for other churches and even other believers is fairly limited. When I hear about a church going through a challenging time or someone I care about – whether they attend Grace or not – is in a crisis, it will weigh on my heart and I find myself praying for them frequently…until the crisis passes. Or at least the things steady out. Paul’s not praying for the church in Rome because they’re close friends OR in a crisis, he just cares about God’s people.

We may not have Paul’s capacity to care and pray, but every believer should have a love for the church because the church is God’s beloved people. One of the evidences of grace in our life is that we love our brothers and sisters in Christ.

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 1 John 4:7

Paul longs to see them in order to build them up in their faith and be built up by them. That mutual blessing might be imparted. He sees their relationship in Christ as a two-way street. God knits us into a local church so we can both build up and be built up. Be a blessing and receive a blessing. Love and be loved. Pray for and be prayed for.

This challenges us to examine ourselves to see if our relationships – especially with brothers and sisters in Christ – a two-way street or a one way street. Some people are one-way givers. Others are one-way receivers. One-way givers give and give, but they find it hard to receive. They find it hard to share when they need prayer. They don’t open up when they’re hurting. That might seem noble but in the end it’s selfish because we rob others of being let into our lives. Of having the opportunity to care for us and pray for us.

One-way receivers regularly share their needs and problems but rarely ask others how they’re doing. That also is being selfish – we see our own problems as so big we don’t consider (or care) how those around us are doing. Mutual blessing means we don’t see the church simply as a place where we should be loved, but also as a place where we should love as well. Mutual, two way street: loving God’s people and allowing them to love us as well.

2. Paul’s eager commitment to preach the gospel

¹⁴ I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. ¹⁵ So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.

How could Paul be indebted (under obligation) to the church in Rome when he’s never been there? There are two ways we can be indebted: if someone lends you a hundred dollars you are indebted to pay it back. Or if someone gives you a hundred dollars to pass on to someone else, you are indebted to pass it on. God had shared the gospel with Paul and said, you are obligated now to pass this gospel on to others – Jews, Greeks, believers, non-believers, all.

Jesus said freely you have received, freely you are to give. We are obligated to share the gospel even as someone, somewhere, at some time, shared with us.

Then we come to these two monumental verses which summarize the entire letter and gives us a clear view of one of the high peaks in the Bible: ¹⁶ 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. ¹⁷ For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith,^] as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”

We might wonder why Paul would even have to say he isn’t ashamed of the gospel but chances are he declares he’s not ashamed because at points he has been tempted to be ashamed of the gospel. After all, it has caused him to be rejected and persecuted by many of his own Jewish brothers. He has plummeted from the heights of privilege and prestige he once enjoyed and finds himself slandered, attacked, and imprisoned everywhere he goes.

We know that being ashamed of Jesus is a real thing because Jesus himself warns us not to be ashamed of him or he will be ashamed of us when he returns in glory with the host of heavenly angels by his side. Paul may have at times been tempted to be ashamed of the gospel, but he’s not because it is the power of God to save everyone – everyone! – who believes. Jew and Gentile – no one on earth is beyond its saving power if they will believe.

Verse 17 is the verse that opened Martin Luther’s eyes and turned his hatred of God into love for God. This is what he wrote about it:

“I labored diligently and anxiously as to how to understand Paul’s word … the expression ‘the righteousness of God’ blocked the way, because I took it to mean that righteousness whereby God is righteous and deals righteously in punishing the unrighteous. Although an impeccable monk, I stood before God as a sinner … therefore I did not love a righteous and angry God, but rather hated and murmured against him … “Then I grasped that the righteousness of God is that righteousness by which through grace and sheer mercy God justifies us by faith. Thereupon I felt myself to be reborn and to have gone through open doors into paradise … I broke through. And as I had formerly hated the expression ‘the righteousness of God,’ I now began to regard it as my dearest and most comforting word.”

God’s righteousness is the highest and sheerest mountain there ever has been. No one ever born could climb its heights and be righteous enough, do enough right, without hypocrisy or one slip-up to reach the summit. Not even close.

Except one Person did. One Person free soloed the infinitely high mountain of God’s righteousness. Jesus climbed the righteousness of God perfectly, without a single slip up, and reached the summit and then he gave himself on the cross to die and pay for our sins as if every one of our sins was his sin. As if every slip up of ours was his. He paid the full price we owed, falling from the heights of perfect righteousness and falling to the depths of humiliation, shame, suffering, and death in our place. God did this so that everyone who believes in Jesus will receive Jesus’ righteousness – the righteousness that comes by faith – as a gift.

God places us on top of the infinitely high mountain of His righteousness as a gift. Free solo in the gospel means Jesus climbed it solo and gives it to us freely.

Won’t you place all your faith and trust in Jesus today? If you’re not a Christian, come to Jesus today, don’t delay. You can’t climb God’s standards yourself: all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. But trust in Jesus and in place of your sin receive Christ’s righteousness – the righteousness of God -as a free gift.

And for believers, let’s remember we aren’t working our way into God’s good graces. We never could. We are the undeserving recipients of God’s good grace through our faith in Christ Jesus. We don’t stand before God in our righteousness, our merit. We stand before God in Christ’s righteousness. His merit of a righteous life perfectly obeying and pleasing His Father, given us as a robe of righteousness.

As we sing again the new song we learned, let the words sink in deeply and rejoice in the gospel that saves you. If you aren’t a Christian, reach out to God in faith and I’ll close our time by praying for anyone who is coming to Him in faith for the first time.

All Sufficient Merit