There’s a trend on the internet where someone would say “I was today years old when I noticed this.” They often show something that we always think is meant to do one thing, but is actually intended for something else.
Here’s an example: The bottom drawer of an oven. I always thought it was a place to store pans. You may already know this, but I was surprised to learn that it’s actually designed to be a food warmer.
Here’s another. Have you ever noticed the little arrow next to the gas pump icon on your fuel gauge? That arrow points to which side of your car you access your gas tank. Have you ever pulled up to get gas in a car you’re not used to, only to find the gas tank was on the other side? This arrow that we may have never noticed helps us know where to go when getting gas.
There are things like this where, once we understand them better, can make a difference in how we interact with them. That principle applies to more than gas tank arrows and oven drawers. It can be true of spiritual things as well.
We may think we understand some things, but sometimes when we look deeper, it can change everything for us. We’re going to look at righteousness today, and when we really understand where it comes from, that can change everything about how we act, and what we think about how we act.
Knowing where our righteousness comes from.
We’ll look today at Romans 3:21-26. This is part of our Summer in Rome series on the book of Romans. Last week we looked at the wrath of God in Romans 1, and how sin leads to disorder in our lives. Paul builds on this disorder to point out our need for the gospel. And now we jump ahead a little and get a better understanding of righteousness.
God offers a righteous that doesn’t involve keeping the law perfectly
But now God has shown us a way to be made right with him without keeping the requirements of the law as was promised in the writings of Moses and the prophets long ago.
Romans 3:21 NLT
Up to this point in his letter to the Roman church Paul built a case that salvation by keeping the law doesn’t work. Under the law, one’s standing with God depended on people’s actions.
The problem is, when you have 613 laws to follow on top of the ten commandments, that’s a bit much. It becomes impossible to stay on top of it all. You think you have to dot your i’s and cross your t’s and really hope that you’re doing enough to be good with God.
But Paul says here that there’s righteousness that doesn’t come from our actions. He introduces this idea that there’s something better than keeping up with rituals and sacrifices.
We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are.
Romans 3:22 NLT
This section begins a part of Romans where Paul says there’s a better way. There’s a superior way of getting right with God, or righteousness: It’s placing our faith in Jesus.
Paul said made right. In other translations it’s made righteous. This is not something we can do. Rather, God does it for us. This eliminates the hubris of those of us who want to be the achievers, proud of the fact that we’re doing it on our own. Paul says essentially it’s not what we did, but what we were made.
Sin is the reason our righteousness won’t cut it.
For everyone has sinned. We all fall short of God’s glorious standard.
Romans 3:24 NLT
Our righteousness isn’t enough because we fall short. To do it ourselves, we must be perfect, and Paul reminds us that we’re not. Everyone has sinned.
Think of it like the discus throw, a track and field event. You have to throw this weighted disc, and the person who throws it furthest within the rules wins. Imagine you’re trying out for the event, and you have to reach a certain distance to make the team. The current world record is about 244 feet. Imagine that to qualify for the team, you have to make it 10,000 feet.
We’ll all fall short of that mark. We can’t make it. No one can. That’s what it’s like trying to make the mark, to meet the standard, using our own righteousness. We’ll all fall short.
In a way, it’s like this text is telling us we’re all losers. If we’re trying to throw a certain distance to qualify and we’re falling short, we’re losers. When we rely on our own goodness, it’s just never enough.
Grace is God giving us righteousness through Jesus.
Yet God, in his grace, freely makes us right in his sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins.
Romans 3:24 NLT
He did this through Jesus when he freed us from the penalty of our sin. Paul says it’s the grace of God that puts us in a good standing with God. Not something we do, but God’s grace.
God says “you can’t get there on your own, but I’ll make a way for you.” He made the way through the work Jesus did on the cross. He made that way, where even though we can’t get the spiritual discus far enough to meet the standard, Jesus threw it for us and succeeded.
The sacrifice of Jesus was enough.
For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood. This sacrifice shows that God was being fair when he held back and did not punish those who sinned in times past.
Romans 1:25 NLT
Because Jesus was without sin, he was the perfect sacrifice. In the past, people had to make multiple sacrifices, because those sacrifices weren’t enough to keep up with our sin.
Jesus’s sacrifice was enough to pay for the sin of the world. If our sin is a debt, it’s like we’re trying to pay off our million dollar debt with pennies and nickels. Jesus’s sacrifice was a lump sum to cover it all, for all of us.
For he was looking ahead and including them in what he would do in this present time. God did this to demonstrate his righteousness for he himself is fair and just, and makes sinners right in his sight when they believe in Jesus.
Romans 6:26 NLT
When it’s about legalistic righteousness, the only fair thing is for God to punish all sin. Paul writes that God was being fair in spite of that because he looked ahead to what Jesus would do. God held back and showed mercy because he knew what he would do in the future.
Some other translations use the term justified. It means that God treats us as though we never sinned. All of this was done to demonstrate God’s righteousness and gift of grace.
Last week’s message talked about the domino effect of our sin and choices, how it impacted our thinking and actions, and ultimately that it made us unworthy.But here, Paul says God’s grace made us worthy.
That’s where this gift of grace is like the arrow on the fuel gauge or the food warmer drawer on an oven. We know they’re there but may not totally grasp what they do. It’s kind of this way in how grace impacts our daily walk with Jesus.
Knowing where our righteousness comes from frees us.
We still have a tendency to think our righteousness contributes to our standing with God. I wouldn’t be surprised if most if not all of us still have at least a hint of thought that our actions make a difference there. We still rely some on our own goodness or think we get more favor with God.
We learn here that there’s a bondage that comes from that. The reality is that what we do can’t save us. The law can’t save us. Isaiah talks about the value of our righteousness.
All of us have become like one who was unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags
Isaiah 64:6 NIV
The very best we can do is like filthy rags. The best we can do will never be enough. We cannot be good enough to get into eternity with God or be reconciled with God.
Only acceptance of the grace of Jesus can do that.
I don’t mean to discount those things that we do as though there’s no value. But when we understand where our righteousness comes from, it changes the nature of those things. We’re freed of the performance aspect. We don’t do them because we have to satisfy God, but we do them now out of the relationship we have with him.
Understanding where our righteousness comes from frees us from our performing act.
When we think we’re doing things to impress God, or trying to make sure he likes us, it’s just performing act. We do because we have to.
When we understand that the righteousness comes from Jesus, it moves us from that pressure to a place of security. I can now live and do because he’s the one that put us in a good standing with God.
It also means that what we do is out of a desire to honor him and follow him with our faith. The way we live out our faith comes from a place of honest relationship and obedience that happens as a result of the standing that God has already given us, not out of a standing we’re trying to earn.
There are times in life we feel we need to just play a part. We fake it til we make it. The problem is that that mentality can bleed into our faith and we start thinking the performance brings us favor with God.
Knowing where our righteousness comes from gives us permission to put the role-playing down, to stop acting out of obligation or out of fear that our actions won’t be enough. It’s what God did that makes us right with him. We don’t have to perform.
Understanding where our righteousness comes from frees us from the pressure to perform.
When we think we have to perform, it puts pressure on us. There’s a compulsion to do right and a worry about if we don’t do right. We think we have to keep going because what happens if we don’t?
The grace of Jesus frees us from that pressure. It removes the worry that where we stand all hangs on our own shoulders.
Back in the day, there was a video game series called Ratchet and Clank. Captain Quark, a character in the series, had imposter syndrome. He pretended to be a superhero and had a facade that he had it all together. People bought into it, but he struggled with the knowledge that he was a phony. He continued the charad out of fear of what people would think if they knew the truth. This pressure to perform led to all sorts of cartoonish foolishness.
The pressure to perform catches up with you. You may think you can handle it, but you weren’t built to. If our good deeds, going to church, Bible reading and everything else come from a pressure to perform, it will catch up to you.
Knowing that our standing with God comes from Jesus can help us relax. We don’t have to carry that weight anymore. We can breathe because we don’t have to keep the wheels turning. The nature of our actions shifts: now we do them naturally out of appreciation for what God has done for us.
When we understand that, isn’t it great to be able to breathe again? Isn’t it great to not be so tense because of the pressure?
Understanding where our righteousness comes from frees us from the fear of not performing well enough.
We’re free from fear. We don’t have to worry about not doing enough. It doesn’t matter if we started too late, or wasted time in our lives. It’s not what we do. It’s what’s already been done for us.
My short time on earth taught me that fear can be a great motivator, but a terrible leader. Fear can propel you to many things and cause you to stay busy. It can motivate you but in the end won’t lead you to anything good. It leads to anxiety, doubt, and worry.
Living by fear in terms of our relationship with God means we won’t trust him, get closer to him or fall deeper in love with him. Instead, we’re worried about what happens when we stop performing.
Great motivator. Terrible leader.
In the end, it leads to an inauthentic fear of God rather than a gracious relationship with him.
You don’t have to worry about if you’ve done enough, read scriptures, prayed, or been to church enough. That’s not on your shoulders any more. Knowing this takes away the fear and allows you to act out of faithfulness and in response to what Jesus has done.
We live in a performance culture where it’s all about what we can do, doing enough, being good enough. That mentality can seep into our faith. Knowing that righteousness comes from Jesus can help us truly worship. It strips away the performance, the pressure, and the fear.
We’re not worried about earning our spot with God. We’re secure in our spot. Pride is out the window. Anxiety is out the window. We approach this from a different place, from thinking I have to do this to I want to do this.
Jesus says he’s doing something bighere, that changes everything about faith, our actions, our worship, and how we talk about him. My hope is that no matter where you are in your journey with him, you can rest in that assurance. God made you righteous, God gave you a spot. It’s not because you earned it, but because he wants to give it to you. You don’t have to worry about it.