Bit of an opening. Spielberg's Catch Me If You Can.
! Very fun movie.
Over 20 years old now, interestingly.
! Main character in this movie, Frank Abagnale Jr.
! He's played by Leo DiCaprio.
He begins a life of crime and deception,
in part, to fix his parents' broken marriage
and regain his father's lost honor.
He idolized his father,
and his father was on this descent,
and his, again, in part,
his purpose for his life of crime,
stealing money, was to restore his father's honor.
And while giving an acceptance speech,
while accepting a prestigious award from his Rotary Club,
Frank Abagnale Jr.'s father, Frank Abagnale Sr.,
tells a story, and the story goes something like this.
He gets up, and he goes,
two mice fell into a barrel of cream,
and the first one struggled and quickly gave up and drowned.
But the second one struggled and swam and struggled and swam
and turned that cream into butter and then climbed out.
And then he says to this audience of his peers,
I am that second mouse.
And that, interestingly,
that line, that image,
follows Frank Jr. all the way through the story.
So, he tries to give his father money after he steals a fortune,
and his father,
you know,
who is now, you know,
descending into poverty,
he says to his son,
which mouse am I?
And then his son kind of transforms back into that lowly 14-year-old boy,
and he says,
well, you're the second mouse.
He goes,
what do I need your money for?
It's a very interesting story,
an interesting analogy,
because I think what it does is it highlights something that,
in a movie, of course,
it's really exaggerated,
but it's something that is found in all of us,
that we have a hard time accepting help or receiving charity.
It's difficult for us.
So, maybe you're not as proud as Frank Sr. from the film,
but I would venture a guess that almost everybody here has a difficult,
maybe I'll put it this way,
would rather give charity than accept it.
Maybe receiving charity would give you a feeling of discomfort.
It would maybe even offend you.
We can feel that such help or charity is actually an affront to our dignity.
And for some here, like I've mentioned,
the shame or offense of receiving charity means we will never really accept it.
Our text today will touch on this very issue.
Romans chapter 1, verses 16 and 17.
And make it clear that such a mindset is actually
not just a weird character quirk,
but something that will inhibit us
from receiving saving faith from God himself.
So as we open Romans chapter 1, verses 16 to 17,
we're going to take our time through it.
And we're focusing on these two verses
because Romans 16 and 17 are really like the thesis statement
of the entire book of Romans.
So we're going to take some time and really understand it.
But as we open to Romans chapter 1, 16 and 17,
we'll look at God's power,
we'll look at God's righteousness,
and then how to properly respond to both.
And I hope and pray that in doing so,
we can better understand our deep need to feel dignified,
which I think is a real need that we have,
and how the gospel of God helps us in ways
that are both uncomfortable but deeply needed.
So, if you're following along in the scripture journals,
page 8, verse 16, point 1, God's power.
And I'll read it for us.
For I am not ashamed of the gospel,
for it is a power of God for salvation
to everyone who believes to the Jew first
and also to the Greek.
The gospel is God's power to save sinners.
It's displayed in Christ for all people
to the Jew first and to the Greek.
And the Jew first and the Greek,
it's a very interesting thing to explore.
We're not going to explore it today.
It'll come up throughout our time in Romans.
But I'll just have a quick side note
that Paul is,
he'll constantly refer to the Jews
and their priority in proclaiming the gospel
primarily for two reasons.
Number one, because this is the combination
of the promises made to the Jewish people
in the Old Testament,
but also because Jesus himself was a Jew.
That's all I'm going to say.
If you have any questions,
you can talk to me about it afterwards.
I don't want to get too sidetracked,
but I wanted to bring your attention to that.
Again, we'll discuss this in weeks to come.
Nevertheless, it is God's power,
the gospel is God's power,
to save sinners displayed in Christ for all people.
It says a lot about God,
his willingness to exercise his power to save.
He did not have to.
Instead, God saves out of an act of love.
And we'll see in this next point
that it is actually an expression of his very character,
of his righteousness.
But for us,
I think it is,
it reveals a great amount
about who we are as human beings.
And very specifically,
that we are sinful
and wicked and corrupt.
It tells us that
we are not actually inherently good,
but there's something,
again,
bent or corrupted
about us.
Put it in
very stark terms,
we are spiritual failures.
Why?
Because we are unable
to use religion
or spirituality
to achieve
our salvation.
It tells us that
our wickedness
is far worse
than we would have
ever imagined,
for it requires
the highest sacrifice
to atone for such evil,
namely,
the Son of God
dying on our behalf
on the cross.
And what it truly tells us
is that
all our pride
in being completely put together,
ultimately dignified,
is nothing more
than deluded self-righteousness
and self-indulgence.
And it's a heavy thing to say,
and I would prefer
to sugarcoat it
in some ways,
but
I think the fact
that God
is going to save
speaks,
of course,
to who God is,
but also to
the calamity
that is
the human experience.
And this
is where the shame
and offense
come in
because
our dignity
is offended.
The prideful heart
responds to the gospel,
not with a,
yes,
I'm a spiritual failure,
yes,
I need your help.
It responds,
I'm that first,
or I'm that second mouse.
who are you
to tell me
what I need,
that I am bad,
or that I am weak,
or that I am a failure,
or that my way
of salvation
is a false way,
or that true salvation
isn't about my happiness.
Who are you,
God,
to tell me
what I need?
And it sounds
potentially silly
to put it that way,
but this is
the nature
of a deluded mind
that is
self-righteous
and self-indulgent.
In addition to that,
it says that
we cannot lean
on our own pedigree
or achievements
to give us
preferential treatment
for salvation
because salvation
is for everyone.
So you see,
again,
going back to
Catch Me If You Can,
Frank Sr.,
he is so dignified,
what made him
so dignified
was his admittance
to this inner circle
of the New Rochelle
Rotary Club.
But if the inner circle
is open to everyone,
it no longer is
a special place.
Feeling special
is always in relation
to the status
of others,
and the Gospel
is making it
very clear
that because it is
offered to everyone,
everyone is
in the same position.
There is no
special person.
The Gospel
then insults
our desire
to be set apart
from the peasants.
It tells us
that we are a peasant.
And that is
precisely what is
so, again,
offensive about the Gospel
because it undermines
this delusional
self-righteousness
and self-importance.
It tells us
that we are not
special at all
for we all
need saving.
And yet,
and this is the
beautiful part,
and this is why
the Gospel
on one hand
is such a
beautiful picture
of God's grace
and love,
but it seems
almost comical
because although
it says that we
are not special
at all,
on one hand,
we are actually
so special
that God
has chosen
to save us.
So what does
the Gospel
do that can
both reveal
our self-delusion
and rescue us
from it?
And this brings us
to our second point,
God's righteousness
that is revealed.
Look with me
at verse 17.
For in it,
that is the Gospel,
the righteousness
of God
is revealed
from faith
for faith,
as it is written,
the righteous
shall live
by faith.
This one verse
is both crucial
to the rest
of the letter
and historically
very difficult
to interpret,
but the big questions
are what does
Paul mean
when he speaks
about the righteousness
of God?
What does he mean
when he says
from faith to faith
that the righteous
shall live by faith?
It's a really,
it's a really good question,
it's an important question,
and it's a question
that we need to answer.
Again,
because this is the thesis
of the entire book,
but also,
out of all of Paul's writing,
so he has written,
in the New Testament,
there's a number
of books written by Paul.
There are letters
written to specific churches,
but then there's
general letters
written to the
to people,
but they're called
the general epistles.
In all of Paul's writings
outside of Romans,
he talks about righteousness
something like 69 times.
In Romans alone,
he speaks of righteousness
77 times, okay?
So it's important for us
to get a good handle
as best as we can
so that we can read Romans
with some clarity.
So let's walk through this verse,
verse 17,
and attempt to answer
these questions.
So,
what is the righteousness
of God?
And I'll just say,
I'm indebted to
the late John Stott
for providing these
three possible options
or understandings
of what this righteousness
could be.
The first,
that the righteousness
of God describes
God's quality and character.
It is who he is.
God is himself righteous.
He hates wickedness.
He hates sin.
He hates evil.
He hates death.
He hates decay.
Conversely,
he loves what we would call
the fruits of the Spirit.
Love and joy and peace
and patience and kindness
and goodness and faithfulness,
gentleness and self-control.
He hates evil.
He loves good.
This is what God is all about.
He himself is righteous.
And a part of that righteousness
is that God judges justly
wickedness.
And that justice,
that just judgment
is an expression
of his character.
Therefore,
at the cross of Christ,
God's just judgment
and perfect righteousness
are supremely revealed.
So, therefore,
the righteousness of God,
his very character,
is fully displayed
in his acts of salvation
and judgment
in the gospel
God is committed
to his own righteous nature,
which is to say that
he cannot deny himself.
So, the gospel is
God's character
on full display
and he cannot not
be righteous.
Option one.
Second option
is that God's righteousness
describes his activity.
So, if the first option
is his character,
the second option
is his activity.
It is what he does.
God has made promises
in the scriptures.
He has made covenantal promises
throughout history
that he keeps
beyond
all hope.
He will keep his promises
because he is all-powerful
and, therefore,
his activity
in fulfilling them
cannot be undone
or thwarted.
The Lord acts righteously
when he fulfills
his promises,
overthrowing evil,
saving his people.
It's what God does.
That is option two.
Now, the final
and third option
describes the status
that God confers
upon those he saves.
If the first
is who God is,
the second
is his activity,
the third
is what he achieves.
In this final view,
God gives us
his righteousness.
It is a status
that is alien to us
but is who God is
and how does he do it?
By laying on Christ
our sin,
our brokenness,
our wickedness,
which deserves
his just judgment
and instead
of rightly punishing us,
Jesus takes on
our punishment
in our place
and pays our penalty.
But not just that,
okay,
because it's great
to not be in
the red anymore
but when you're at zero,
I mean,
that's,
I mean,
at least you're not
in the red
but what we have here
is that
then he gives us
his righteous status
so that we are
in the black
in an infinite
type of way.
Because of this status
given to us
as an act of love
and grace
and received by us
through faith
and we're going to
touch on that faith bit
in the third point,
we have a certain hope
that we can stand
before a righteous God
not just be unmade
and this is from
the scriptures
that nobody can
stand before God
and live
but that we can
in Christ
stand before God
being in his presence
and that we can
enjoy his presence
and fellowship forever.
The scripture talks
about being clothed
in the righteousness
of Christ
or given the status
of Christ's righteousness
something that we need
and strive after
but we constantly
fail to achieve.
It is an alien status
given to us.
So,
as a recap,
okay,
this is like heavy,
thick theological things
we can talk about it
after if you need
a bit more clarification
but as a recap,
the righteousness of God
that Paul has in mind
could describe
either his divine character,
his divine activity,
or his divine achievements.
Okay?
So,
which is it?
I'll make the case
today and throughout Romans
that the great weight
is given to the third option.
That God,
in his perfect justice
and perfect mercy,
he atones for our sins
and wickedness
by laying them
onto Christ
and giving,
and Christ giving us
his righteous status.
Okay?
Some theologians
call it the great exchange.
Our sin for his righteousness.
2 Corinthians 5
says it this way,
he who had no sin
became our sin
so that we could be
the righteousness of God.
This is primarily
what the apostle
will lay out
in this letter.
However,
okay,
however,
to ignore God's
divine character
and activity
I think is the key insight
to help us understand
what the righteousness
of God
that is being revealed
in the gospel
is all about.
So I think,
and I'm going to put forward
to you today,
that although the third option
has,
I would say,
the most weight
in terms of Paul's letter
in Romans,
all three aspects
of this righteousness,
God's character,
activity,
his achievement,
should not be pitted
against one another.
They are complementary.
I'll put it this way,
how could God be faithful
to his righteous promises
if he was not
himself righteous?
How could those promises
be fulfilled
that he has made
so that we could enjoy
his presence forever
if we did not share
that righteousness?
There's a lot of interplay
happening here,
okay?
God's activity
is an aspect
of who he is
and what he does
in his activity
is to give us
his righteousness
so that we could
be redeemed,
counted as worthy
to be in his presence.
So in a big way,
we can't really have
one without the other.
However,
for Paul,
he is emphasizing
the third option
above the other two
in his letter.
So the predominant view
presented in Romans
is that the righteousness
of God
as revealed in the gospel
is this incredible
achievement of God
through Christ.
He is taking sinful,
spoiled,
corrupted humans,
he is paying the penalty
for their sin,
not overlooking
their transgressions,
not overlooking
our transgressions,
our sins,
but what he is doing
is he is paying
the penalty
through Christ.
No more red ink.
And then giving us
the very status
of being the son
so that it's not just
we have no liabilities,
but that we are himself,
we are ourselves,
in God's view,
as righteous
as Christ himself.
And this will lead
to our third point,
because,
with any gift,
and friends,
this is a gift,
with any gift,
we need to receive it rightly.
And this leads
to our third point,
how we respond.
And that response
is by faith.
So three times,
three times in two verses,
the Apostle Paul
will speak of belief
or faith.
He'll say in verse 16,
the power of God
for salvation
to everyone
who believes.
And then he'll say
in verse 17,
the righteousness of God
is revealed
from faith for faith.
The righteous
shall live by faith.
faith.
So,
if the gospel
is God's power
to save,
bestowing on us
his righteous standing,
his righteous status,
then the means
by which we receive
this gift
is faith.
We are to believe
in the gospel.
Before we dive
into belief,
let us again consider
not our own ability
to believe,
but first and foremost,
the faithfulness
of God,
the trustworthiness
of God.
So I think
before we consider
a belief in God,
a trust in God,
a faith in God,
we ought to ask
the question,
is God trustworthy?
Is God worthy
of our faith?
Is God faithful
to keep his promises?
And the answer is yes.
He is the one
who keeps his promises.
And we touched on this
in the previous point
where we said
that God's righteousness
is an expression
of his very character.
So therefore,
when we ask the question,
is God faithful?
Is God trustworthy?
We're really asking
the question
that has plagued humanity
from the very beginning,
what we've wrestled with
from the very beginning.
It's a very hot-button question.
Is God who he says he is?
Is he a trustworthy God?
And I would just say
to you now, okay,
you might be feeling
like your faith
is at maybe
a solid eight and a half
out of ten, okay?
You're feeling great
about faith.
Maybe you're
kind of potentially
cratering, right?
You might be
in a tough season
where faith isn't
really there.
I think it's always
an appropriate question
to ask the Lord.
Are you worthy
of my trust?
If you ask
in the question
with the heart
of God,
I believe,
help my unbelief.
There's another way
to ask that question
that isn't good.
It is the way
that the serpent
asks the question
in the opening chapters
of Genesis.
Did God really say that?
Did he really say
you couldn't eat
of the apple?
Is God really trustworthy?
Which isn't so much
a question,
it's more of a statement.
But I'll say to you,
and this is actually,
it's just an aside,
it's not in my notes,
it is an entirely
appropriate question
to ask God
because God
is strong enough
to weather
that kind of question.
So ask that question
prayerfully.
So is God,
is God faithful?
Can we really trust
that God will keep
his promises
to restore
our dignity,
to remake us,
and to redeem us?
And friends,
the answer is yes.
And it is on this basis
that we believe.
That is in part
what Paul is referring to
when he says
from faith for faith
because what he is saying,
and again,
this is why this is
a very difficult section
to interpret,
but it would have
kind of many facets to it,
but this is what Paul
is saying in part,
that upon the faithfulness
of God we base our faith.
From faith for faith.
From the faithfulness
of God,
that is what we,
that's what we build
our faith upon.
But as it is multifaceted,
there's more.
For it would seem that
by saying from faith
for faith,
Paul is also communicating
that the faith
we are to have in Christ
is to increase in quality
and quantity
as we continue on
in the Christian life.
And by the way,
I mean,
I'm not trying to contradict
what I previously said
about having potentially seasons
where faith isn't really there.
You know,
you zoom out,
the line is going like this
in terms of quantity
and quality,
but if you zoom in,
it might be like this,
okay?
But Paul here
is saying
that faith in Christ
ought to,
for the Christian,
increase in quality
and quantity.
It's to permeate our lives.
And we can see this
if we take a moment
to understand this last line,
the righteous
shall live by faith.
So this quotation
is from the Old Testament
from a minor prophet
named Habakkuk.
He was a prophet
during the time
that the Israelites
were exiled
out of the promised land
into Babylon,
which is modern-day Iraq,
more or less.
Without getting lost
in the details
in its original context,
and in connection
with our text today,
it describes
how the righteous
live by faith
and how they can hope
to live through faith.
So the emphasis here
with this quotation
and with our text
is not so much
about proving
one's righteousness
by the way they act,
as if,
I'm righteous,
therefore I have faith,
but on how sinners
become saints
by faith
and how they continue
to grow in their righteousness
and trust in the Lord
through faith.
So from faith to faith
or from faith for faith.
If you remember last week,
we talked about
how the gospel
is not simply
the way into
the Christian religion,
but the very thing
that continues
to animate it.
Therefore,
faith must be
continually fed
and fostered
because we are quick
to either take pride
in our own righteousness
again
or to be embarrassed
or ashamed
by the gospel,
for we are slow
to remember
that it is the power
of God for salvation
and it's offensive
to us
and our sensibilities.
So therefore,
faith and belief
require action
and commitment.
Few ways
that that faith
can be fed
and faith,
how it's more
of a verb
than it is a noun.
That we participate
in the life
of God's covenant people,
the church.
Again,
I emphasize it
and I might have
emphasized it a bit too much
because a couple people
were saying,
well,
if you don't go to church,
were you saying
if you don't go to church
you're not a Christian?
I would take a step
back from that.
But only to say
that the life
of the Christian
is lived out
in community,
in the church,
in the life of the church.
It will require us
to be disciplined
and grow in our discipline
in spiritual practices,
in prayer
and in scripture reading
and in saying yes
to virtues
and no to vices.
And then it also
means that we grow
in godly wisdom.
We need to feed
our faith
with the gospel,
with a reminder
that God
is at work
in our lives
in a huge display
of power
through the death
and resurrection
of Christ Jesus.
As we believe
and grow
in our belief,
we will see
this power
at work
in our lives
transforming us.
I mentioned
the fruit of the spirit
earlier.
That is a way
that we will see
this transformation
take place.
Again,
saying yes
to the things
of God
a lot more
and saying no
to the things
of the world
or our flesh
or the devil
a lot less
or a lot more
or we will say yes
to it a lot less.
We will begin
to change
and be transformed.
But friends,
this is activated.
This power
is released
as we begin
to put our faith
and trust
in what God
has said
and in his word.
A great line
by a 5th century
Syrian bishop
named Theodorat.
It was quoted
in Timothy Keller's
commentary
on this text.
So I'm indebted
to the late
Timothy Keller
but this quote
by this 5th century
Syrian bishop
describes how faith
releases
this righteous power
of salvation
by likening
the gospel
to a pepper.
I think it's brilliant.
This is what it says.
Quote,
A pepper outwardly
seems to be cold
but the person
who crunches it
between the teeth
experiences
the sensation
of burning fire.
A pepper
and that's
end quote.
A pepper may
or may not be
spicy
but the power
of it is not
released
until it is
consumed.
Which is to say
that you can talk
about the gospel
until the cows
come home
but until you put
your faith
and trust
in what God
has done
that that power
of transformation
will not be at work
in our lives
for the gift
will not be received.
When we believe
in the gospel
and the one true God
to save
we are saying
no to our own
vain efforts
to achieve
our own
version of dignity
and saying yes
to the incredible
work of God
to dignify us
in ways
we could never
imagine.
I'll end with this.
the great irony
of shirking
help to safeguard
our dignity
is that we become
undignified people.
We fail to see
that the God
of all creation
who made us
in his image
does not treat us
as garbage
when we fall
into indignity
but rather
restores our dignity
for Jesus Christ
who is the message
of the gospel
remember we said
last week
that it's not just
good news
but it is a good person
namely Christ
for Christ Jesus
who is the message
of the gospel
who is the power
of God
for salvation
who is the righteousness
of God
he becomes
undignified
by leaving
the ultimate place
of divine dignity
that is heaven
taking on human flesh
dying a very
undignified
indign
way on the cross
for our sins
sins he didn't commit
and wearing wickedness
that was alien
to him
and then giving us
a righteousness
alien to us
we then get to
revel in his
righteousness
as saved sinners
as those who are
united to Christ
that share in his
sonship as children
of God
and this is accepted
by faith
and tell me
what is more dignified
than being a son
of God
okay
and I say son
because
although
definitely the imagery
in the Bible
and the language
uses sons and daughters
of God
but here it is
the place of the
firstborn son
the place of honor
in the ancient world
there is no
higher honor
than that
and that is what
God in Christ
is bestowing on us
as a gift
what is more
dignified than that
Christ has made
a way for the sinner
to become a saint
and then we understand
that all of life
is a gift
and we are not too
proud to take help
and then to give it
without any strings
attached
the sooner we know
friends that
that we are not
that second mouse
but that both mice
die and drown
we would do well
to start as a beginning
so that we would
understand the gospel
of Christ
in a
in a sweet
beautiful way
and receive it
by faith
that is the life
of dignity
that Christ offers
as a woman