What does Paul mean by stating that he is unashamed of the Gospel? Ps Clinton provides us with a clear insight into what Paul meant and highlights the truth that the Gospel not only reconciles us to God but transforms our lives.
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didn't it good to be in the house of the Lord this morning a special thank you to our praise team this morning thank you for being obedient to the spirit and thank you for just leading us with honor we appreciate the the time the diligence that you put into God's work all of you and thank you to to everybody who serves in in whatever capacity whether you and Asha whether you there was only one flag there today. I almost wrote pause I break hard but as appreciative because I did see the one flag that was there we take these things for granted sometimes we just know and expect things to be there they just suddenly appear often we don't see all the work that goes on behind the scenes so just thank you to everybody this morning thank you for your for your heart what we do we do unto God amen and not for man so when we saying thank you it's not it's not coming from a man's point of view it's coming from a God's point of view everything we give we give back to the Father it's his breath in our lungs so even standing here this morning it's always an honor to stand here with a knot in the stomach it's always an honor to stand here feeling the weight of God's word amen we don't do this in our own strength lest we walk in pride let's pray father I come to you this morning I thank you lord for your presence in this place lord may we never take your presence for granted holy spirit I pray that even as I go into your word even I share what has been prepared father holy spirit I pray that you would lead me that you would anoint these lips of clay this morning that you would use me for your glory all of you none of me father speak as you would have us here I pray oh Lord that you prepare our hearts for your word this morning Lord that we would not be thinking of ah this message is so good for so and so father but may we take this message for ourselves may Lord we just do an audit on our own hearts and our own lives father we can stand with no with no one before before you in judgment day so this morning we just pray oh Lord that we stay in that mindset of this is for me thank you Jesus Lord just prepare our hearts now for your word we pray in the mighty name of Jesus and rebirth in the agreement says amen and amen and amen so this morning family as as grinville said we are in the book of Romans pasta bev um graciously started the book of Romans for us and took us through a little bit of chapter one last week we are still in chapter one this week again and more specifically will be in verses 16 to 17 but you can turn there to chapter one and will be looking at a couple of verses as we go along amen so just to give you a little bit of background where Romans is concerned of course the author being the apostle Paul as we know his Hebrew name saw his Greek name Paul after his conversion and the audience the the audience that is writing the letter to is the church in Rome Rome being the capital of the Roman Empire and he's written is written it from the city of Corinth as we can see on the screen there so Paul sitting in Corinth writing to the church at Rome in about the time eighty fifty six to eighty fifty seven the theme of the book of Romans the revelation of gods judging and saving righteousness in the gospel of Jesus Christ so we'll keep that in mind and we'll come back to that little later as well so just a little bit of a background with regards to the book of Romans so it is thought that the early Roman church was actually a Jewish Christian church it was thought that this church actually began after Jews returned from Jerusalem after Pentecost okay so in Acts two ten it says that there was visitors from Rome in Jerusalem both Jews and proselytes those who've converted to Judaism so these Jews that experienced Pentecost then went back to Rome and started the church over some time we had Gentiles also coming into the Roman church so we had a church now of Jews and Gentiles so in eighty forty nine Emperor Claudius now issued a decree and expels Jews from Rome okay so we have all these Jews mass exodus from Rome leaving the church they primarily made up of Gentiles Gentile Christians so over some time after the demise of Emperor Claudius we get the Jews slowly coming back into Rome coming back into the church now the Jewish Romans were very law abiding in terms of the Torah okay they were law observing versus the Gentile Christians who lived practically free from the Mosaic law now you can imagine that within the church these two factions we had the the the more the Gentile faction was now operating quite freely for a couple of years five years or so and now you come these sanctimonious the law observing Jewish Christians who come back into the church can you imagine the friction and the tension that now starts okay so the purpose of poor writing the letter to the Romans number one is to share great truths of the Gospel of grace to believers okay that's point number one but it's also an introduction introduction of Paul to the church he hasn't been to the church in Rome yet they haven't met him face to face so part of it is to introduce himself and then the other part is for supporting the vision of his mission okay and Paul like I said he's sitting in current at this point in time he wants to get to Rome because he wants to extend his ministry to the western part of Rome and even further to Spain okay so part of part of what he wants to do is preach this gospel to to the guys at at Rome and hopefully have unity in the church have unity in the church so they're accepting of his gospel because he wants to use Rome as a base as a base to further evangelize he also communicates to them however that he needs to be before he gets to Rome go back down to Jerusalem to deliver a collection for the poor church at Jerusalem so the structure that we observe in the book of Romans and if you're going through it check it out in this particular manner we can be separated into two portions chapters one to 11 where you have the theological truths of the doctrine where God justifies the guilty condemned sermon sinners by grace alone through fights through faith in Christ alone thanks Grenville for that introduction this morning had spoken and maybe I was prophesying this morning when I said to a spoken word and I said text but I see Grenville came up to blessed for that Grenville so chapters one to 11 like we said the theological truths of the doctrine then chapters 12 to 16 we've got the practical out working in the lives of the individual believers as well as in the life of the church so in your Bibles if we're looking at Romans from chapter 1 like I said we'll be going from verses 1 all the way to 17 part of what Pastor Bev read and worked through last week I'm not going to read all of it but I will refer to it as we are going along so verses 1 to 7 you have Paul's salutation Paul's greeting which is basically delivering the substance of the gospel concerning God's son then so that's a 1 to 7 then if we turn the page there to 8 to 5 to 15 verses 8 to 15 we see Paul thanking the church at Rome thanking them for their service to God we also see him then expressing his eagerness to visit them at the church and eagerness to preach to come and preach the gospel to them as well how many of us can agree that it's not only the unsaved and the unbelievers who need to hear the gospel just because you were in church and just because I'm in church doesn't mean we've arrived we need to be under the word amen we need to be under the word of man so that's verses 8 to verses 15 and then verses 16 to 17 which is our verses that we're going to be looking at today is the overall theme statement of Romans in verses 16 to 17 so this talks about the gospel of the righteousness of God okay this theme is further amplified and summarized in Romans 3 verses 21 to 31 so when you are at home and you're going over this again and you're looking at verses 1 16 to 17 go also and compare it to Romans 3 verses 21 to 31 like I said way it's amplified so this morning our reading like I said is verses 16 to 17 and I've chosen two translations to look at the Nuking James version which is a very literal translation meaning translated from the original manuscript literally word for word and then a fairly dynamic translation being the NIV which means the translation coming through more thought for thought instead of word for word so verses 16 reading from the new king james version for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes for the Jew first and also for the Greek for in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith as it is written the just shall live by faith the new international version reads as follows for I am not ashamed of the gospel because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes first to the Jew then to the Gentile for in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed a righteousness that is by faith from the first to the lost just as it is written the righteous will live by faith God bless to us the reading of this word amen and you will remember last week that Pastor Bevan started with a case study and the case study title was the four-piece puzzle of Christ's identity the four-piece puzzle of Christ's identity so why would we want to be talking about this puzzle of Christ's identity there's there's two particular questions that I had in mind here so number one why is it crucial that we get the identity of Christ correct why is it crucial that we get the identity of Christ correct and then number two what actually shapes the identity of Christ now when I look at the judicial system that we have right there there is or there are cases of mistaken identity and it is said that the leading cause of wrongful convictions is mistaken identity especially when an eyewitness has it in their mind that oh no I'm sure it was Brother Dee I'm sure I'm sure but it wasn't but my mind is now I'm sure it was pick him out wrongfully convicted now we need to sort of draw a parallel here and now I was looking at the judicial system I was talking about mistaken identity and I was talking about conviction which talks to okay the punishment that comes then is wrongfully administered to somebody who's innocent right but another word for conviction can also be your belief system all right so if we are confused and getting the identity of Christ wrong this can affect our belief system this can affect what we believe we believe that Jesus Christ is our firm foundation we believe that Jesus Christ is our chief cornerstone so when there is an attack as to who Jesus is and we start buying into I wonder I wonder this is an attack on the very word of God we either believe it all or we believe nothing there is no little bits and pieces that we can take out amen this is the inspired word of God so Pastor Babes spoke last week about the triune creator slash covenant lord and he also told us about a conversation that disturbed him where somebody who had been in the church for quite some time was overseas now they were having this discussion and we are saying like no man this triune god this Trinity no Christ is actually not really a part of the Trinity so he was coming up this is somebody who's been in the church for very many years so how do we start getting the identity of our foundation wrong how do we how do these cracks start developing so if we are going to be questioning and and pos to be mentioned this last week son of God is a title of God it doesn't imply created being it does not imply created being and when we try to force the narrative of but Christ is a created being we try to force the narrative of yeah is a is a vessel God could have also used another created being quote God could have also used that created being and that created being we taking away the deity of who Christ is Christ he's God he is part of the Trinity he is a part of the God head when we try to attack that we try in essence to say no God is not really the way Christ is not really the way he is a way it is so important that we get the identity of Christ right it's these little things that we start to wonder about that starts to shake our convictions there is nothing else but the word of God anybody else's opinion is only opinion it has to come back to the word of God amen that was point number one so we're looking at the puzzle of Christ identity what shapes the identity of Christ so shaping the identity of Christ point number one was the triune creator slash covenant lord there is no dispute about that point number two of what shapes the identity of Christ there is a requirement of covenant obedience there is a requirement of covenant obedience so at the heart of God's complex relationship with humanity there is the concept of covenant obedience where the first Adam failed the need for the last Adam's arrival and obedience became necessary it became crucial the requirement of covenant covenant obedience is actually what shapes the storyline of scripture that prepares us to receive this identity who Christ actually is from God's command to the first Adam and we see him failing through disobedience and God's righteous judgment of the first Adam we see that there is a requirement for humanity to live in covenant with God to live in obedience with God obedience only becomes obedience who when it's tested obedience only becomes obedience until it is tested this is the reason why we had the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the garden of Eden it was there for a purpose and the first Adam failed where this is concerned so now we needed or had a need for the last Adam to come about so where the first Adam failed the last Adam would need to succeed to redeem a fallen humanity so this covenant framework actually establishes the life and the work the person of Jesus Christ amen this is the reason why Christ came is because of this covenant so the last Adam's obedience is not all that was required a sacrifice was required as well because of the failure of the first Adam but not only just the obedience not only just the sacrifice but that which which allows the righteousness of the sacrifice to be imputed to us this is what it means where it says that we must be regenerated we must be born again for this obedience Christ shows us the perfect example of obedience amen so let's get back to our text this morning and if we look in our Bibles like I said we starting at verse 16 and into verse 17 but in last in the scripture just before that in verse 15 Paul actually expresses his eagerness to go to Rome to preach the gospel now you might look at that and think okay I'm happy that you're happy you want to go to Rome very eager any one of us could be very eager to go to very many places to preach the gospel of God I know sometimes if we say to somebody here today we're going to go on an outreach to Westbury people will be like is it safe is it safe I hear there's lots of shootings going on there but just yesterday this and just yesterday that no we are called to preach the gospel but in very safe comfortable places now Paul is saying in verse 15 I'm eager to preach the gospel to you who are also in Rome what Rome was Paul going to now some context and some things from from John Carson here he says Rome was the home of Caesar Nero the madman who was determined to exterminate Christianity madman this guy was taking Christians and clothing them in in in lamb skin and that type of thing and feeding them to wolves thousands of Christians he was dipping Christians in hot wax and lighting them as as a pose of light can you imagine this is where Paul wanted to go to this is where Paul was eager to go and preach the gospel Rome was the entertainment capital of the world with law and how long could you go models that's where they were at person describes Rome as the hotbed of homosexuality he says out of 15 of the emperors 14 of them were practicing homosexuals he says that he was rife antisocial behavior children of disobedience a parents disobedient kids you know you can take everything away but this disobedient kids hectic that will taste your patience and any day so he says this was rife in in Rome antisocial behavior children of disobedience deviant law and order tax evasion everything and anything that you could think of that was happening it would be happening more in Rome they were absolutely morally corrupt so when we look at this we think is poor crazy why would Paul want to go to this place that seems like it's an absolute turmoil it's it's a metropolis of the world it's the oral roads lead to Rome it's seen as as very progressive but also very morally corrupt like I say so we've seen many utterances as to why Paul should have avoided Rome but his utterance in the next verse is completely different he says and this is remember the word for we can see here on our dynamic translation that the word for can also the word be the word be cause okay so he says here I'm very eager to go and preach the gospel to those who are in Rome why because I'm not ashamed of the gospel I am not ashamed of the gospel now Burns and I may have this thing with each other where we constantly checking how we are communicating we must not communicate negatively so even when she says don't forget to them I'm like ah remember to so we turned the negative into the positive now this is what Paul is doing here he says for I am not ashamed of the gospel sort of a negative twist on things Paul couldn't you have used something a little better but also could be translated of I'm not ashamed I am confident of the gospel I'm not ashamed of the gospel I am confident of the gospel now Causon gives a couple of reasons as to why Paul could and would be confident in the gospel so if you look at point number one the gospel is prophetic and this is reasons these are reasons why we can be confident in this gospel too so if we look at Romans one verses one to two it says Paul a servant of Christ Jesus called to be an apostle set apart for the gospel of God which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy scriptures through his prophets so it's prophetic the gospel is not something new it's not some new fad some new fashion in fact the gospel was declared all the way back in Genesis by the Lord himself remember after man had fallen the Lord says to Satan himself there will be enmity there will be war between you between you and the seed of the woman okay he says there will be war between you and the seed of the woman the seed one talking to Jesus Christ he says you shall bruise his heel and he or but he will crush your head and that's the gospel right there that's the gospel right there we saw how the singular seed of woman the virgin born Jesus Christ went to the crust was badly bruised but we also see how we absolutely crushed Satan how we absolutely crushed death the gospel is not new it's been told all the way back from the days of the garden of Eden that's point number one point number two the gospel is provable if we go to Romans 1 verses 4 and it says and was declared to be the son of God in power according to the spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead Jesus Christ our Lord 1 Corinthians 15 verses 5 to 6 Paul writes Jesus appeared to the 12 apostles and more than 500 brothers at the same time so he was seen by many after he was put to death now history shows us that Christianity was a major contributor to the fall of the Roman Empire the body of Jesus would have actually put him into Christianity right if they could give the body of Jesus it would have shut the mouths of the Christians but up until this day they do not have the body of Jesus Christ the gospel is provable yes the gospel is also personal if we look at Romans 1 verses 5 it says through whom not through what it says through whom we have received grace and apostleship so Paul's gospel was a personal experience family how personal is our experience with the Christ have we experienced Christ on our own personal level or are we talking about somebody else's experience Timothy 1 verses 12 Paul writes I'm not ashamed for I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that he is able to God until that day what has been entrusted to me Jesus did a mighty mighty mighty work in Paul Jesus wants to do the same work in you and I we cannot ride on somebody else's experience it's a personal relationship that we go after the personal relationship the gospel is powerful the gospel is powerful Romans 1 to 16 it says for I'm not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power it is the power of God for salvation now power in Greek is dunamis it speaks to a force literally or figuratively the word dynamite comes from this Greek word dunamis it's specifically talking to a miraculous work a miraculous power right all three members of the godhead are involved in this divine power like we spoke of before god the father number one is sovereign in salvation we see the son who is the basis of salvation and we see the spirit entering the belief at the moment salvation comes so our salvation is never apart from the triune god if anyone could speak to a life transformed it was the apostle Paul and we all remember his his journey on the road to Damascus we we we read about his powerful transformation through the power of the gospel I've told before a story of Paul washer we all know Paul washer and he tells the story of going a man going to an interview in his suit crisp white shirt and on the way to the interview has a flat tire gets out of the car rolls up his sleeve jacks up the car takes off the tire and the tire that he wants to put onto the car road into the road he then runs into the road to collect the tag and gets run over by this huge logging truck anyway because he's poor washer he just brushes it off puts his tire on and goes to work and when he gets there and says to his to his boss sorry i'm late but i'm here now and says oh what happened oh no i got run over by this logging truck and that's not it and the boss looks at him it's like that can't be true well you look like quite fine there's no marks in you there's no you know there's nothing there's nothing different about you how could you have been run over by a truck and some of us in the kingdom are like this we've had we say we've had an encounter with Jesus but where is the change where's the transformation can we really say we've had an encounter with the king of kings this power that transformed poor of life he was a persecutor of Christians he was a persecutor of Christians he he changed from this soul was persecuting to Paul who was preaching the gospel and yet the the the the world outside cannot see Jesus on us the world outside cannot see Jesus on us what are we saying what are we saying family we've heard also the amazing testimonies right here at rebirth right here at rebirth we've heard people stand here and speak about who they were and who they are now in Christ Jesus hey I do not care how good you think you are there is no way that you can be transformed to that place where we were as rigid beings to where Christ can take us cannot be done in our own strength that is the power of the gospel that is the power of the gospel the gospel is preachable in Romans 1 16 also 16b it says that the gospel is preachable to everyone who believes everyone who believes now Paul says in verse 14 I am a debtor to every man why because his experienced something through the gospel he is in debt to man because of this grace this love this mercy this forgiveness so what he's given back is because of what he's experienced come on what he's experienced now if you go to Romans 13 verse 8 this is the same Paul right he says oh no man anything no wait a minute he was just saying now I am a debtor to every man how is this a due personality what's going on here I'm a debtor to every man I'm under obligation to every man remember in 13 verses 8 it says oh to no man anything except to love each other isn't that what the gospel starts burning on the inside of us we become a debtor to man to show love if you do not have love for for your fellow man do you have the gospel on the inside of you Psalm 119 verses 46 says I will speak of your testimonies before kings and shall not be put to shame I will speak of your testimonies before kings from the high to the low how often are we intimidated by speaking the gospel in the places that we go to how often are we intimidated by speaking the gospel by the people that we encounter yeah who are we to say that God doesn't want to reach out to the CEO when you are speaking then you can feel that tugging on your heart tell him about me hey lord no this man has got it made come on what are you saying okay is there anybody that we can say has it made without Jesus then we are looking at man through the eyes of man and not at man through the eyes of Jesus because we have a bank account does not mean that we are spiritually wealthy we can have a bank account all the world in the world and be spiritually spiritually decrepit Mark 8 verses 38 says for whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation of him will the son of man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his father with the holy angels now Paul says I'm not ashamed of the gospel but he says this not from a place of just airy-fairy Paul has been shamed by the gospel he's not ashamed of the gospel but he has been through things because of the gospel he's been through things second Corinthians 11 verses 23 to 26 these are some of the things that Paul has been through he says I've worked much harder I've been in prison I've been flogged severely I've been exposed to death again and again five times I received from the Jews 40 lashes minus one three times I was beaten with rods once I was piloted with stones three times I was shiptrick I spent a day and night in the open sea I've been constantly on the moon I've been in danger from me from rivers I've been in danger from bandits I've been in danger from my fellow Jews I've been in danger from the Gentiles I've been in danger in the city I've been in danger in the country I've been in danger at sea I've been in danger from our believers how much more this is the man who says hey I'm excited to preach the gospel I'm confident to preach the gospel I've been shamed for the gospel and here I am because I know there's power in the gospel there's power in the gospel when we are being squeezed in life what is coming out what is coming out when we are being squeezed in this life there's a whole list of things that Paul has been through I wonder if some of us can even say we've been through even a little bit of those things what is what is coming out we often hear no it's okay we understand that person give them a break from being a Christian they go into a hard time when you are squeezed does Jesus still come out when we are being put through trials and tribulations is this what comes out it's not what goes in that defiles us it's what comes out that defiles us if we go to verse 16 and we're going through the scripture he says for I'm not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power that dunamis of God for salvation this word salvation in the Old Testament in the Hebrew it's it's called yasho yasho primary referring to physical deliverance in James 5 verses 15 it says in the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick and the Lord will raise him up so often sickness bodily sickness and all of that was related to sin okay in the New Testament the Greek term sozo means to save also so teria means salvation but this is primarily referring to spiritual deliverance current the first Corinthians 1 18 says for the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing but to those who are being saved it is the power of God do we sit under the word of God sometimes do we say that no that's foolishness no no no no that's not for me no are we recognizing the power in the scripture are we recognizing the power of God but we could ask the question saved saved from what saved for what okay we save from sin yes we are saved from hell yes but more importantly we are saved from God's wrath we are saved from God's righteous judgment and hey this this is going to get good because I know when we at this point and we say saying from God's righteousness say from God's wrath and we have that picture of God we listen as God the righteous and God's they with the stick we have that in our mind but wait for it we are saved from God's wrath and we are saved for God's glory we are saved for God's glory it's not all about us it's not all about us father this is my life every part of me is to give you glory lots of benefits from it but it's for his glory we are always seeking the blessing without the God now the closest English word to salvation is salvage and not safe salvage and not safe too many of us want a free ticket to safe in heaven but we don't want to be part of this recycling regeneration process that God is interested in our lives we just want that free ticket ah give me the ticket and no no no don't tell me anything else about growing in the Lord what did you say I must say a prayer and that's going to get me to heaven I want that ticket yes please person states that saved occurs in three tenses in the new testament there's the there's the tense we have been saved there's the tense we are being saved and there's the tense we will be saved so what is he talking about we have been saved store as talks to justification talks to freedom from the penalty of sin so we have been saved we have been justified we have been freed from the penalty of sin we are being saved speaks to sanctification after you have been justified that's not the end of the church that's not the end of it we are being saved there's a process that is happening this frees us from the power of sin so we freed from a penalty of sin in being by justified we are being freed from the power of sin as we continue on this road of justification the things I used to do I don't do them anymore I have no appetite for those things anymore do you think that this is because of your own power no this is the Holy Spirit working on the inside of you and me come on this is the road of sanctification we will be saved speaks to glorification this is the end process where we are totally free from the presence of sin in glory with the father this is what we look forward to amen hey lord we cannot wait to be glorified with you but is yet work to be done here there is yet work to be done here we are happy here and we are happy there amen then as we continue reading in verse 16 so it said for I'm not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone everyone everyone hey everyone is all inclusive right yes and believe they said it then ah there is an exclusion to everyone who believes so everyone is all inclusive it's universal but there's also an exclusive there's a stipulation that you must believe the inclusion comes about believing the exclusion is if you're not believing it's not about coming from the wrong family it's not about coming from the wrong background it's not about how you look it's not about what you did it's not about being a murderer it's not about being a rapist it's not being about being a homosexual it's not about because god there's nothing that we can do to make ourselves right yeah for god he requires that we believe if we believe god can work with us if we believe god can work with us in the nelson's foundation bible when i looked us up when i went to go look for believe it referred me to the definition of faith it says faith means taking god at his word and trusting in what he has said but that doesn't mean that trust is perfect the father of faith himself father Abraham shows that his faith wasn't always perfect each mile is evidence of that right so what exactly are we trusting in and like i said this is why it's so important that we get the identity of christ right we get out theology right we are trusting in that firm foundation christ jesus and what he has done and what that means for you and i that is what we are trusting in family now verse 16 continued says to to everyone who believes to the jew first and also to the gentile now this can be seen as chronological as the jews were first chosen by god to be blessed by the covenant and then the gentiles afterwards it can also be seen as descriptive of the way paul evangelized in new places first to the jews and then to the gentiles x13 verses 46 illustrates this it says then paul and abonabus answered them boldly we had to speak the word of god to you first since you rejected and do not consider yourselves worthy of eternal life we now turn to the gentiles so as we see that word everyone can also be inclusive of all nations the jews and the gentiles hey and i've got to be i've got a run i've got a run i've got a run bear with me your family there there's so much depth to this this next part i need you to get this next part so righteousness of god in verses 17 and myself and bernie's had a quick discussion about this righteousness thing last night and yes as i said just now you know we see righteousness as what we have to do what we have to do what we have to do righteousness at his foundation is to be correct righteousness is the state of having been being found correct in relation to another right now there's three primary interpretations of righteousness number one that the attribute is a possessive one so god has a divine attribute of righteousness which is true right then and that is the adjective the description of god's personality god's character god's nature then we have the subjective view which is the activity of god which is a verb which means that god is active in making somebody righteous then we have the objective view which is the gift of god and this is a noun now how often do we subscribe to only this god's divine attribute god is standing here as the righteous judge with the stick we are here covering as the sin as i am getting it wrong i'm getting it wrong and god is like get it right get it right come right make yourself right make yourself right you must be without sin we subscribe only to this of we need to make ourselves right for god before we can come to god there is no way that any one of us can make ourselves right for god now there is something else that gift of god and this is where martin looser had a paradigm shift martin looser had a problem with this with this word the righteousness of god because he used to think in terms of possessive until he got revelation through the holy spirit of the righteousness of god is a noun it is a gift it is something which is given to us it is something which is given to us the third approach aligns closely with martin looser's breakthrough this is amazing and i'm going to quote this he says i had indeed been captivated with extraordinary passion for understanding Paul in the episode to the Romans but up till then it was the cold blood and the heart but a single word in chapter seven in chapter one verses 17 in it the righteousness of god is revealed that stood in my way i wrote it that word righteousness of god which according to the use and custom of all the teachers i'd been taught to understand philosophically regarding the formal or active righteousness as they call it with which god is righteous and punishes the out the unrighteous sinner at last by the mercy of god meditating day and night i gave you to the context of the word namely in it the righteousness of the righteousness of god is revealed as it is written he who through faith is righteous shall live i began to understand that the righteousness of god is that by which the righteous lives by a gift of god namely faith and this is the meaning the righteousness of god is revealed by the gospel namely the passive righteousness with which merciful god justifies us by faith lutha had revelation that it's not by any works there's nothing that you can do and this is what the catholic church was saying no no no you must do this you must do that you must pay for this and your sins won't will be god you are saying no no no that's not what the word of god says lutha's revelations of word that the righteousness of god was a gift and the and faith was this sole vehicle to obtain this this righteousness steven wistom further explains lutha's perspective as this and i love this he says the faith or the righteousness relationship is not that god overlooks it but that cries bore it and through a form of marriage relationship the righteousness of the divine groom becomes the earth the believers righteousness identified was passive now what does this mean lutha identifies two types of righteousness passive righteousness and a pause a proper righteousness lutha explains that man must first be made good via passive or alien righteousness if you could put it like that before he can do good man must be made good by this alien righteousness that is given to us before he can do good how often do we like okay no no no don't worry about the passive righteousness that wants to come i'll do the good first lutha is saying no no no no you cannot do that you must be made right just before you can do good okay so Matthew 7 verses 18 says a healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit no can a diseased tree bear good fruit we are a diseased tree without Christ there is nothing that we can do that's going to bear good fruit no matter how good it looks to you and i we are diseased without Christ now the types of righteousness that that that uh Martha and Martha Martin Luther rather spoke about and the person goes on to describe it like this and this is beautiful so the passive or alien or imputed righteousness is we be get justified by faith in Christ and his righteousness covers our unrighteousness so if you get the picture of putting on Christ like putting on a new set of clothes basically okay when God looks at us after we have put on the clothing of Christ he sees Christ he sees Christ he does not see our sin but he sees Christ we become hidden in Christ when this passive righteousness is imputed to us then that's the imputed justification then this proper righteousness that we talking about is from the moment we have been justified God wants to continue transforming us he not only wants to credit us with righteousness but he wants to impart righteousness to us this is the sanctification process that imparted process that we're talking about family we have to have to have to have to get this right this righteousness of God is not God standing here as an authoritarian get your life right it is a gift which has been made available to you and I come up it is a gift that has been made available to you and I which means there is a requirement for you and I to respond in verses 17 from faith to faith and I'm almost done verses 17 from faith to faith basically and and and and goes on to say the righteous shall live by faith faith to faith probably means in right standing with God achieved from faith or by faith from start to finish from beginning to end everything is by faith we need faith to carry on daily the righteous shall live by faith Habakkuk 2 verses 4 says behold he's soul is puffed up it is not upright with him but the righteous shall live by faith we presented once again with those two paths the righteous the unrighteous even if we go to Psalm 1 that we did a while ago talks about that path that we have to choose the part of the righteous the part of the unrighteous Hebrews 2 in closing candies and Hebrews 2 verses 3 to 4 speaks or says how shall we escape if we ignore so great a salvation how shall we escape our view of of God of the righteousness of God needs to change family this in Hebrews 2 verses 3 which says how shall we escape if we ignore so so great a salvation this is the essence of where we find ourselves because our theology where the righteousness of God is concerned is flawed we only are about yes Lord I'm a sinner I must make myself right yes I know you here to punish me I yes I know I know that you are righteous and I'm and I'm a sinner and everything with me is wrong and everything with you is right and your standard is too high and I'm very low there's no way I can do it Lord I don't even know where to start where this is concerned God sent his own son to the cross for us for our son he sent this is the extent of the love that Christ has that God has for us he sent his own son as the gift as the substitution for our son the gift is there the gift is there God is saying I've done it all the righteousness of God stands there as a gift as a noun for us to take we have to get to a place in our lives we realize the work is finished it is done it is done it is done there is nothing that you and I can add to the cross the gift is there for us to take when God is knocking at your door day in and day out and saying my righteousness means it is done it is finished it is a gift that you need to take it is not condemnation to you you have a responsibility to accept the gift that is above all gifts Christ has laid it all on the line he wants to give you justification this morning he wants to impute righteousness to he wants to not say that you are right because of what you have done you are right because of what he has done you need to obey because of what God has done you need to cover your likeness with ease you need to cover your unrighteousness with ease only God can do this family there is nothing that we can add to the gospel of Jesus Christ this morning he's speaking to your heart and he says this morning I have done it all I'm a god of righteousness which means you have a gift to take this is salvation this is salvation the unrighteous being clothed by righteous the unrighteous being hidden in the righteousness of Christ family I trust that this morning this word has ministered to somebody somebody who is trying to do it in their own strength let's just have all eyes closed this morning and if there's anybody here this morning who just wants to repent before our Lord and Savior for for not recognizing that it's all been done that recognizing that God has presented us with a gift that the righteousness of God is something that we can take something that we need to be obedient to if there's somebody here this morning that wants to recommit or wants to commit their lives to the Lord and say father I recognize that you've done it on the cross that there's a gift that I'm an heir to that is you this morning and I'm going to ask you to raise your hand I won't ask you to come to the front we'll pray after that if there's somebody here this morning that wants to pray that prayer slip up your hand and let's pray together father this morning we come to in the precious name of Jesus Christ oh Lord we thank you for your gift of righteousness this morning we thank you Lord that you've made a way thank you father for your grace and your mercy over our lives oh Lord help us to recognize daily that we are on a road of sanctification Lord you've justified us through the blood of Jesus Christ whose overcome son whose overcome death it's a finished work on the cross and we have that we have access to that gift father we repent this morning for doing things in our own strength we repent father for trying to take away from the cross we repent this morning for elevating ourselves who are we oh we submit ourselves to you Lord we surrender this morning and ask our father that you continue the work that you've started in us help us Lord to be faithful as Paul was faithful not to be ashamed of the gospel father to be confident in this gospel Lord help us Lord that when we are squeezed by the precious of life that all that people see is Jesus help us father to do all things through you who strengthens us the author and the finisher of our faiths father we thank you for this word we pray that you plant deep into fertile soil in our hearts bless us as we continue in this week as we continue in you this we are asking the mighty name of Jesus and rebirth says amen amen amen family I trust that you are blessed by God's word this morning as always we we have some refreshments of the church and if there is anybody who would like us to pray with them as well we'll hang around for a few minutes after just to pray with you as well bless you have a wonderful week for going forward and let's keep praying remember Tuesday as well let's turn out in numbers for connect amen oh
