 The title of our sermon this morning, a revelation of righteousness, our text, Romans chapter one, in particular, verse 17. And this morning, we return once again to our verse by verse study of Paul's epistle to the Romans. And we come now to the end of Paul's opening prologue, wherein Paul turns our attention to the great theme of his letter, verses 16 and 17. That theme is the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. As we've seen, Paul is a man on a mission. And he is a man under obligation. Paul is singularly focused on a faithful stewardship of the ministry given to him by the Lord Jesus Christ as a called apostle. And as such, Paul is now ready to preach the gospel to those who are in Rome also. The reason that he is given for this fervent desire to preach the gospel is found in verse 16. Paul says, I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ because it is through the gospel, through the preaching of the gospel that those born in sin are made a new creation in Christ. It's through the preaching of the gospel that the spirit of God works repentance and faith in the heart of the sinner. It's through the preaching of God, through the preaching of the gospel that hell deserving rebels are reconciled to God. The reason that Paul is unashamed, the reason for his confidence in the gospel, the reason for his boldness with which Paul preaches the gospel is because it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek, for everyone who is believing. The reason then given for why the gospel is the power of God to salvation is found in verse 17. And this is the statement that will occupy our attention this morning. For in it, for in the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith as it is written, the just shall live by faith. Why is it that the gospel saves sinners? Why is the gospel, the power of God to salvation for everyone who is believing? Because in it, the righteousness of God is revealed. Someone with a more simple understanding of these things might have answered differently than Paul. They might have said, well, because God loves us. Is that true? Amen, it's true. Amen. They might have said because God of what Jesus Christ has done for us on the cross. And that's true because what, because God promises to forgive us of our sins. And in the gospel, that's true. With respect to the gospel, those things are true. But the apostle Paul drills down a little deeper than that, doesn't he? The apostle Paul drills down with his answer to tell us how the gospel is the power of God to salvation. How is it that the gospel leads to salvation? What is it about the gospel that makes the gospel the means of God's power to save a sinner? That we stand condemned, you and I, apart from the Lord Jesus Christ. We stand under a verdict of death and hell that is due our sin. And knowledge alone is powerless to save sinners. Knowledge alone is powerless to save the law of God, powerless to redeem us from the curse. Acknowledgement of your sin will do nothing more than condemn you of your sin. Asking for forgiveness is insufficient. Man is powerless to find peace with God on his own. Saying some silly superstitious little prayer and meaning it won't get you there. Going through some heartless, ritualistic, religious motions won't do it. I cannot cause my soul to live, right? You cannot cause your soul to live. And yet the gospel is the power of God to salvation. Why? Why? Because in it, the righteousness of God is revealed. Faced with the reality of death, faced with the judgment seat of Christ, this is the answer that you and I must understand. This is the information we need for transformation of our heart and mind. This is not written, brothers and sisters, to ivory tower theologians. This is written to a little group of believers in Rome. Not unlike this little group of believers we have meeting here today. And listen, this is written to those who are lost who need the gospel to save. If you're here this morning, you've never turned from your sin to trust in Christ alone. This is written to you this morning. The gospel is the power of God to salvation. Why? Because in it, the righteousness of God is revealed. We need to lay hold of this text. And we need to meditate on this text and cherish this text and treasure this text. This is what it's all about, brothers and sisters, right? It all begins, it all begins with revelation. The gospel is a revelation of the righteousness of God. The word for revelation is in Greek here, it's apocalypto, apocalypto. That which was concealed is now revealed. It refers to that which is disclosed, that which is made known to the public, brought to light. Let me give you an example of what is meant through the use of this word apocalypto. If we think about the nature of God himself, God himself is transcendent. He is transcendent. There's a sense in which even God himself is hidden from view. One of the most common descriptions of God in the Bible is that God is holy. God is holy, holy, holy. The word holy meaning separate. Entirely separate, entirely other. So much higher than his creation that God could be considered to be out of reach. You thought I was altogether like you, God said. I'm not, and I'll set that in order. God is transcendent, God is holy. The Bible says that clouds and darkness surround him. And part of what is communicated in that concept of God's holiness is our unholiness, right? We are that which is common, that which is unclean, separated from that which is holy. Isaiah chapter 64, verse six, the prophet says, we are all like an unclean thing. All our righteous deeds are like a filthy rag. There in verse seven, he says of God that you have hidden your face from us and have consumed us because of our iniquities. Like God told Moses, you cannot see my face for man shall not see me and live. God dwells in unapproachable light. And we see that transcendence. We see that holiness, that separation all over the Bible, don't we? The people of Israel can't go near to the mountain where God is. Anyone who touches that mountain dies. Do you see? The smoke and fire, the flashes of lightning, the voice of God, thundering off the top of that mountain in the Israelites, terribly, even Moses, terribly afraid, right? Let us not hear the voice of God any longer. You speak to us, Moses, and we don't wanna die. The necessity, the necessity of that separation, that distinction between God's holiness and our unholiness, baked, if you will, into the construction of the tabernacle itself, baked into the very construction of the temple itself, outer courts separated from inner courts, a holy place separated from a most holy place. Everything consecrated with blood regarded as holy upon penalty of death. Remember the stories, don't you? Not Av and Avihu as they brought profane fire to God, killed for careless worship. Uzzam, killed for reaching out his hand to steady the ark. And that's why it's an evil and perverse generation that asks for a sign. Why? Because they do not regard God as holy and they profane his name, his holiness, that separation in demanding from him a sign. God says, by those who draw near to me, I must be regarded as holy. But then what does our holy and transcendent God then do? What does he do? He draws near to us. God is transcendent, but God is imminent, not imminent, as soon or immediate. God is near, near. He condescends, he condescends in mercy and grace to reveal himself to us, wicked, undeserving, hellbound sinners. God condescends to reveal, to reveal himself to us. Now Paul is gonna deal with that in verse 19. Look at verse 19. What may be known of God is manifest in them. Why? Because God has shown it to them. God has made it clear. He's made it clear. For since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead so that they are without excuse. God reveals himself to us. You see? This is a gracious revelation of the living God who is holy. Verse 21, because although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts and their foolish hearts were darkened. Why? Why? Because men are sinful fools. Professing to be wise, they put in the place of God's revelation of himself evolution. Random forces in the place of infinite wisdom and power. What a bunch of idiots we are. We carve out God's of our own making, a God who will do things the way that we want them done. In other words, we attempt to domesticate God. And if he won't act the way that we want him to act, then we'll just create a God that'll act exactly the way that we want him to act, right? We'll make one who will and then we'll invent a salvation of our own devising. What a pack of idolatrous fools we are. Whatever we know of God, whatever we understand of him is a gracious gift of revelation. It is a mercy of Almighty God. He doesn't have to reveal himself, does he? He's not compelled under any order above or outside himself to reveal himself to sinful man. God chooses according to the good pleasure of his own word to reveal himself to us. It is a gracious and merciful revelation. Whether the general revelation is on display in the magnificence of creation, this universe of numberless wonders that shouts the wonder and amazement of God or whether of special revelation is given to us by the very word of the living God. Without revelation, brothers and sisters, there is no Christianity. Without revelation, there is no salvation. Without special revelation from God in the person and work of his own son, our Lord Jesus Christ, there is no salvation. We are hopeless. So Paul says, when Paul says, I am not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ, it's because the gospel is a revelation of the living God to sinful man. And apart from that revelation, we can't be saved. Do you see how, do you see the wonder of that condescension? God who is entirely other, shrouded in darkness. Holy, holy, holy stoopes to reveal himself to sinful, undeserving and rejecting intolerable wicked men. It's amazing, absolutely amazing. It's a disclosure, that revelation. And it's an announcement of something otherwise hidden from view, making something plain and clear. The transcendent, holy, righteous God condescends. That God draws near to us in that way is an unspeakable act of his mercy. It's an unspeakable gift of his grace. Nothing within us would warrant such an act, right? Nothing within us. It must be entirely, entirely according to the good pleasure of his own will and to the eternal praise of the glory of his grace. God is gracious. It all begins, it all begins with a gracious determination of God to apocalypto to reveal. Well, according to Paul in Romans chapter one, verse 17, what then is the content of that revelation? What's the content of that revelation? Grace upon grace, right? Mercy upon mercy, love upon love. What is the content of that revelation? According to Paul, what is it that God has revealed in the gospel? It is the righteousness of God. Now again, you could answer that question a number of ways and people do, right? What is it that God reveals in the gospel? His love for us, that's true. What is it that God reveals in the gospel? He reveals mercy and that's true. He reveals forgiveness of sins, justification, right standing with God. All of that is true. But how does Paul determine to answer that question here in verse 17? That revelation of God's grace and mercy to us is a revelation of the righteousness of God. It is that which we need. Righteousness, that righteousness is a predominant theme throughout the Bible. We're gonna visit this word, revisit this word over and over again. It's particularly a major theme in this letter to the church at Rome. We're gonna see it frequently. And as soon as we mention that word, as soon as you think in your heart and mind, you hear that word righteousness, you may as well envision underneath your feet a great chasm opening it up, opening up beneath you, between God who is righteous and we who are unrighteous. Might as well be a great chasm between us. God's own character is the standard of righteousness. We don't determine what's right and wrong. You or I, we don't determine that. God is the standard of what is righteous. God's nature, God's character is the standard of righteousness so that when we come to chapter three, there is none else who are righteous. No, not one. All have turned to side, Paul says. They have together become unprofitable. There's none who does good. No, not one. God alone is righteous. So the righteousness of God, then when we think of that term, that clause, that phrase, the righteousness of God becomes a really serious problem for you and I, doesn't it? You're sitting here this morning listening to me, boys, girls, young man, young woman, old man, old woman, hear me. Your problem is that God is righteous and you are unrighteous. That is your dilemma. You are unrighteous. Look at the very next verse, the very next verse. The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men and women and boys and girls. You hear me? And boys and girls who suppress the truth of God in unrighteousness. So how is it then that the righteousness of God can be revealed to us in the gospel as good news? How is that good news to you and I? This was the very passage, this was the very thought, the very question that plagued the heart and mind of Martin Luther at the time of the Reformation. How is this good news? The righteousness of God is revealed to me and the Bible says that it's revealed in the gospel and the good news. How in the world is that good news to me? Martin Luther had a guttural sense of that chasm that was opened beneath his feet, hell gaping to receive him and the righteousness of God revealed in the gospel is good news. Luther said, I greatly long to understand that's an understatement. I greatly longed to understand Paul's epistle to the Romans and nothing stood in the way but that one expression, the righteousness of God because I took it to mean that righteousness whereby God is righteous and deals righteously in punishing the unrighteous. My situation was that although an impeccable monk, I stood before God as a sinner troubled in conscience and had no confidence that my merit would assuage him. Therefore I did not love a righteous and angry God but rather hated and murmured against him. Yet I clung to the dear Paul and had a great yearning to know what he meant. Well, what does Paul mean? What does Paul mean? What does he mean by the righteousness of God? We have to grapple with that this morning just like Luther did 500 years ago. You have to grapple with that in your own heart and mind just as Luther did 500 years ago and you need to understand in your heart and mind the answer to that question in the same way that Luther did 500 years ago, we need to understand this doctrine. You see, the word of in the English translates the genitive case in the Greek grammar for those of you considering Greek for those of you not follow along with me now hang in there. The genitive case generally communicates possession or source. We're gonna do this in two ways. We're gonna do it from the grammar. We're gonna do it from the context. Grammar and context, okay? The genitive case generally communicates possession or source. Now listen, if we look at this more as Luther did at the start, we might see this as a genitive of possession. In other words, the righteousness of God then refers to that righteousness which God possesses as an attribute of his own nature. The righteousness that God possesses as an attribute of his own character. Now that is certainly to be expected, is it not? God is in fact righteous. And we see that word used this way throughout the letter. Chapter three, you can see there, verse five. But if our unrighteousness, that which distinguishes us as fallen human beings, as depraved human beings, if our unrighteousness, that which is with respect to our character, our nature, if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, that righteousness, which is a possession of God's in accord with his own character, his own nature, what shall we say? Is God unjust to inflict wrath? Absolutely, certainly not, may it never be. God is righteous. And he is going to judge the world in righteousness inflicting his righteous wrath on the unrighteous. Now if we consider it a genitive of possession that God possesses this attribute of his character, then that's what we come up with. God is righteous, we are unrighteous and God will inflict wrath on the unrighteous. Is that good news? No. No, that's not good news. Is that true of God? Yes, yes, is that good news? No, painfully, woefully, no. Well maybe then, maybe it's a subjective genitive. Maybe it's a subjective genitive. And the righteousness of God is then referring to the way in which God deals righteously or acts righteously, how he acts in righteousness. Look at chapter two, verse five. If it's a subjective genitive, then this would be true of God, chapter two, verse five. But in accordance with your hardness and your impenitent heart, you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who acting righteously, verse six, will render to each one according to his deeds, eternal life to those who by patient continuance and doing good seek for glory, honor and immortality, but to those who are self seeking and do not obey the truth, that is with respect to all us humans, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish on every soul of man who does evil of the Jew first and also of the Greek. Is that true of God? Yes it is, that's the word of God. Is this good news? No, it is righteous of God to act in righteousness by condemning you and I as unrighteous, do you see? That's not good news, it's terrifying news, terrifying news. This was the understanding of this text throughout the Middle Ages for a thousand years. This is how people were taught to understand and interpret this text, Romans chapter one, verse 17. Luther saw a disconnect in that. A basic disconnect in his understanding of the text. The righteousness of God is something that is revealed in the good news, in the gospel. How is it that this is good news? What is the connection between the righteousness of God and good news? What is the connection between the righteousness of God and this statement of Paul that the righteous man shall live by his faith when we are under a sentence of death? Luther said, listen, night and day I pondered until I saw the connection between the righteousness of God and the statement that the righteous man shall live by his faith. And then I grasped that the righteousness of God is that righteousness by which through grace and sheer mercy God justifies the sinner through faith. There upon, you can imagine, right? The revelation, the majesty, the glory of that pouring, flooding into Luther's heart and mind as he grasped the reality of what this text is teaching. There upon, Luther says, I felt myself to be reborn, to have gone through open gates into paradise. The whole of scripture, check out a new meaning, right? Have you ever had that happen before where the Lord just discloses some glorious truth to you from his word and now you just see the Bible differently everywhere you look, you know? Whereas before the righteousness of God had filled me with hate, now it became to me inexpressibly sweet in greater love. This passage of Paul became to me a gate to heaven. Luther came to see the righteousness of God here, not as a genitive of possession, not as a subjective genitive, but as a genitive of source. It is a righteousness that comes from God and is given as a free gift of his grace to believing sinners. All three understandings of the righteousness of God are true, aren't they? We see that in the Bible. All three understandings are revealed in the gospel as well, aren't they? The righteousness of God in condemning the unrighteous. The righteousness of God, which is a very nature of his character and being and the righteousness of God that is a free gift of his grace to the salvation of sinners. One of those, one of those is inexpressibly sweet good news. One of those is given as a free gift of his grace to the one who comes to see himself as unrighteous in the sight of God and deserving of his wrath. The righteousness of God wasn't an impossible standard that we were expected to attain to in our own strength by gritting it out in our own effort to earn a right standing with God. The righteousness of God was that gift of God's own righteousness. The righteousness that Jesus Christ himself had earned a righteousness given to us freely by God's grace in Christ immediately and fully when we place our faith and trust in him. How do we know that of those three ways of conceiving of this clause, how do we know that we're considering the right way to interpret this text? How do we know? Well, we know also, not just from grammar, we know from context. Context, you've heard that phrase, context is king. Context, first, notice with me the immediate context, the immediate context. Look at verse 17. I love what this says about the gospel. What Paul has just explained about the righteousness of God that is revealed in the good news in verse 17 is just as it is written. The just shall live by faith. What Paul has revealed is just as it has been written, the just shall live by his faith. In the first half of the verse, notice, in the first half of the verse, righteousness is that which comes from God, a genitive of source. In the second half of the verse, righteousness is that which marks the one who believes. You see, the righteous one, same root, shall live by his faith. Did you get that? Between those two clauses, the transfer, there's a transfer of righteousness there. What is the good news? Why is the gospel, the power of God to salvation? Because in it, the righteousness which belongs to God, his own righteousness is that righteousness which is the possession or the mark of the one who lives by his faith. You see, the righteousness of God is that righteousness by which the one who believes is himself counted to be righteous. Paul is quoting their Habakkuk, chapter two, verse four. Behold the proud, his soul is not upright in him, but the just, the righteous one shall live by his faith. We also see this very understanding taught throughout the whole letter, throughout the whole New Testament. So we see in context that what we have is the right understanding of verse 17. Anywhere that Paul is establishing justification by faith alone, we see this teaching. Look at Romans chapter three and look at verse 19. Romans chapter three, verse 19. Anywhere that Paul establishes justification through faith, he is discussing this truth of an imputed or accredited, a given righteousness. Romans chapter three, verse 19. Paul says, now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that's everyone, that every mouth may be stopped. Just put your hand over your mouth. And all the world may become guilty before God. No work of the law could bring any merit with God. The law can only expose guilt. And this is true of every single person. We are in bondage to sin, totally depraved, such that we have nothing to say. Our natural tendency is to try to make a case. You bring law, there's this defense that rises up in our flesh. We wanna defend ourselves and our own self-righteousness. We have no case to make. Just put your hand over your mouth, you're guilty. You're guilty. Therefore, verse 20, by the deeds of the law, no flesh will be justified or declared righteous in his sight for by the law is the knowledge of sin. Paul's concern here in Romans chapter three is how sinners are justified in the sight of God. How are sinners justified? They're not justified by the deeds of the law. No flesh will be justified in his sight by the deeds of the law, because by the law is the knowledge of sin. How then are they declared to be just? How are they found to be righteous? How can a sinful man be right with a holy God? How is it possible? Paul is using here legal terminology and thinking in terms of a legal declaration. We're standing before the bar, if you will, of God's justice. We're standing in the courtroom of God, so to speak, as Paul is saying this. And the law is saying that no one will be justified by keeping the law or doing anything under the law. We are guilty for having broken his law. The law can only condemn us by showing our sin against God and showing us our sin, right? So how is it then that sinners are justified? Verse 21, but now, praise God, the righteousness of God, same phrase, you see, the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed. You see the connection there with chapter one, verse 17, don't you? It's the same phrase fleshed out. What is Paul doing throughout this letter to this church at Rome? Paul is expositing the gospel. The gospel is his theme, Paul sets about to explain it. What is he doing here? He's explaining the gospel, in particular, his statement in Romans chapter one, verse 17, right? The righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed. It's being revealed in the gospel, the good news, being witnessed by the law and the prophets. In other words, this isn't just merely this recent revelation, right? It didn't just now come. The gospel was preached to Abraham, doesn't Paul say in Galatians, right? The gospel was preached to those who wandered around in the wilderness, but because they did not mix the preaching of the gospel with faith, their corpses lie in the wilderness. It did not profit them, right? The gospel was preached to them as it was to us. That's Paul's contention. So it was revealed then, revealed in blazing Technicolor splendor now at the coming of Jesus Christ, right, in even more glory, but it's not that it's just all of a sudden it was before completely hidden and they had no idea and now all of a sudden it's revealed. No, this has been revealed. It's being witnessed by the law and the prophets. Verse 22, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ to all and on all who believe. That is such a beautiful, beautiful, clear, wonderful statement of justification by faith alone in Christ alone. It is the righteousness of God. What is the, what is the righteousness of God that is revealed in the good news? It is the righteousness of God that is a gift given through faith in Jesus Christ to all and upon all who believe, who put their faith and trust in him. Can't get any clearer, can it? There is no difference. It is a gift. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. He doesn't give it to one person because they work really hard into another person because of their background or their heritage or to another person, right? Has nothing to do with us. It is a free gift of God's grace. We need it. In this, he made him who knew no sin to be sin for us. How does he do that? By crediting our sin to him, imputing our sin to him so that we might become the righteousness of God in him. How does he do that? By crediting, counting his perfect righteousness to me, to you. This is the doctrine of imputation. By an imputed or a gifted righteousness, we are declared or counted to be righteous. We are justified in his sight. Luther would call it an alien righteousness. A righteousness is not my own. In no way, shape or form, it's not a righteousness that I am in any way producing or imparting or earning or it's not anything to do with me. It is entirely a foreign alien righteousness. It's a righteousness that is counted to us, freely given to us, imputed to us, not our own. That's what we need. Verse 24, being justified freely by his grace alone, it's a free gift of God's grace, this righteousness. Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation, as a satisfaction, by his blood through faith to demonstrate his own righteousness because in his forbearance, God had passed over the sins that were previously committed to demonstrate at the present time, his righteousness, a genitive of possession, his own nature, his own character, he is righteous so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. I look forward to unpacking that. Justification, a right standing with God is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone for his, not mine, righteousness. All that to say is that God will not compromise, will not negotiate his perfect character, his perfect nature, his perfect righteousness, his perfect justice, or his perfect standard in justifying ungodly sinners. We're made righteous through the righteousness of another, one who has earned every bit of it. Where is boasting then verse 27? Where is boasting? Are you seriously, seriously gonna boast? It's excluded by what law of works? No, but by the law of faith. Therefore, we conclude that a man is justified. He's declared righteous by faith apart from deeds of the law. In other words, justification by faith alone. Do you see? Justification by faith alone. Look at Romans chapter four. Next chapter, Romans chapter four, verse five. Verse five, but to him who does not work but believes on him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness. It is so clear. It's so clear. Not only is it in the grammar of chapter one, verse 17, it's in the context of the whole New Testament, particularly all over the context of this letter to this church in Rome. His faith is accounted for righteousness. Just as David also describes the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes or gifts righteousness apart from works. Blessed are those who lawless deeds are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord shall not impute sin. It's not a righteousness that we can earn. It's not a righteousness that we can produce. It is a righteousness that is freely given to us, imputed to us through faith. It's a righteousness that is ours. It is my righteousness through faith. It is my possession, if you will, it is given to me, counted to me through faith. What a gift, what a blessing. I deserve hell for my sin. I deserve torment eternally. So the fact that I can stand here and say that I possess a righteousness. Listen, if that isn't your most cherished treasured gift, the thing above all things that you've been given, that you most treasure, that you don't understand the gospel. The Lord Jesus Christ, my righteousness. How does the gospel do this? Well, the Lord Jesus Christ has satisfied the demands of the law on our behalf. He was born of a woman, born under the law to redeem those who were under the law that we might receive the adoption as sons. He rendered perfect obedience to the law in every respect. His active obedience, his passive obedience. Through the imputation of our sin, he took our guilt, our shame, shame upon himself. He dealt with the penalty that was leveled against us and he bore our punishment. That's why it's called penal substitutionary atonement. If you don't understand, those ivory tower theological eggheads who are too big for their own riches would like to undermine penal substitutionary atonement. You undermine penal substitutionary atonement. You undermine the entire fabric, the foundation of the gospel. It is a penal substitutionary atonement where Jesus Christ stands in our place. He takes the punishment that I deserve and he credits to me his perfect righteousness through his perfect obedience. Active and passive, that nothing of the law's demands remain. It is all satisfied. I love Calvin's illustration of imputed righteousness and I return to it often. I'm gonna do that again here. Listen to this from Calvin. As Jacob, remember the story of Jacob and Esau, right? As Jacob himself did not of himself deserve the right of the firstborn, concealed in his brother's clothing, wearing his brother's coat, which gave an agreeable odor, he ingratiated himself with his father so that to his own benefit, he received the blessing while impersonating another. We in like manner hide under the precious purity of our firstborn brother, Jesus Christ. So that we may be attested righteous in his sight. Praise God. This is indeed the truth for an order that we may appear before God's face into salvation. We must smell sweetly with his odor. Our vices must be covered and buried by his perfection. In other words, we are clothed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ, our elder brother. Adam and Eve clothed with the skin of the sacrificial animal is a picture of this. Rather than standing before God in the fig leaves of our own righteousness, we are clothed in the clean, white, stainless, sinless robes of Christ's righteousness. That blessed estate is through faith alone. If I belong to Adam through my birth under the law, then I share Adam's guilt. I share Adam's death, Adam's verdict, Adam's sentence. But if by faith I belong to, I am united to in union with Christ, then I share his righteousness and his death for sinners. Look at Romans chapter five. Next page over, looking at context, right? Romans chapter five, look there at verse 12. Therefore, just as through one man, sin entered the world and death through sin, thus death spread to all men because all sinned. For until the law, sin was in the world, but sin was not imputed when there is no law. We're gonna get there. Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is a type of him, Jesus Christ, who was to come. Listen, but the free gift is not like that offense, for if by the one man's offense many died, much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abounds to many. The gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned, for the judgment which came from one offense resulted in condemnation, but the free gift, in words, it's nothing you can earn. It is a free gift which came from many offenses resulted in justification. We are justified by a free gift of an alien righteousness and that through faith. Verse 17, for if by the one man's offense, death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the one Jesus Christ. That gift reigning even now. Those of us here, listen, brothers and sisters, you are trophies of this grace. You are in Jesus Christ, reconciled to God through faith in Jesus Christ. You are an example of how this gift reigns even now in righteousness. Therefore, verse 18, as through one man's offense, judgment came to all men resulting in condemnation. Even so, through one man's righteous act, the free gift came to all men resulting in justification of life. For as by one man's disobedience, many were made sinners, so also by one man's obedience, many will be made righteous, declared righteous, justified. You see? Richard Sibbs, Puritan pastor said, often think with thyself, what am I? A poor, sinful creature. But I have a righteousness in Jesus Christ that answers all. I am weak in myself, but Christ is strong, and I am strong in him. I am foolish in myself, but I am wise in him. What I lack in myself, I have in him. He is mine. His righteousness is mine, which is the righteousness of the God man. Being clothed with this, I stand safe against conscience, safe against hell, safe against wrath and whatever. Though I have daily experience of my sins, yet there is more righteousness in Christ who is mine, and who is the chief of 10,000, then there is sin in me. Praise God. Martin Luther would later write to a young friend of his who was struggling with guilt, struggling with failure in his battle with sin. These truths, having taken firm root in Luther's heart and mind, Luther wrote this. Remember, this is, put this in the context. This is the same one who would go hours upon hours, day after day after day, confessing his sin to a priest and finding no real forgiveness, because he acknowledged I am a hopeless destitute sinner. That's what Luther says. When the devil throws our sins up to us and declares what we deserve is death and hell, we ought to speak of us. I admit that I deserve death and hell, what of it? Does this mean that I shall be sentenced to eternal damnation by no means? For I know one who suffered and made satisfaction on my behalf. His name is Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and where he is there shall I be also. Praise God. All right, that righteousness before God himself is a righteousness that comes apart from the law, comes through faith. What is it that the gospel of Jesus Christ is intended by God to do? Is the gospel simply good news because it forgives me of my sin? You know, it's certainly good news because I have forgiveness, right? But forgiveness of sins is not sufficient. Is the gospel good news because it rescues me from hell? Yes, that's good news. I don't want to go to hell when I die. What about communion with the God who made me, who has loved me and has cared for me and provided for me, shown me such grace and mercy? What about my union with, communion with, fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ who bought me? What about that? My savior. The gospel is great news because it deals fully and finally with your life-threatening problem. The gospel is the power of God to salvation because it makes you righteous before God, because it makes you acceptable before Him who is holy and just. It enables you to stand in the holy of holies before the throne of grace by the righteousness of another. Through the gospel, God can be both just and the one who justifies the ungodly. If you do not have this righteousness, if you do not have the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ through faith, then you are damned. You are lost. You are hopeless. You are destitute. First Corinthians, chapter six, verse nine, do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Such a clear statement. Do not be deceived neither fornicators nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners. This is a representative, not an exhaustive list. None of them will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you, right? Amazing. You were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the spirit of our God. That is great news, right? How are we to respond to that great news? How are we to respond? We respond in faith, faith. That's great news, right? How are we to respond? We're to respond in faith. We're to embrace that, which God has revealed to us in the gospel. The gospel is the way in which we are made able to stand before God and God does this for us freely and completely. You are to claim it for yourself without money and without price. In Romans chapter one, verse 17, Paul says that in the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith. Well, what is faith? What is faith? The Bible describes it as the gift of God. Ephesians chapter two, verse eight and nine. Listen, for by grace you have been saved through faith and that salvation, which is by grace through faith, all of that, including the faith, is a gift of God, not of yourselves. It is a gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. I think a great place to go to define faith is Philippians chapter three. Turn there with me. Philippians chapter three, what is faith? Philippians chapter three, look at verse seven. Listen to Paul's faith by example, listen to verse seven. What things were gained to me? This litany of human achievements that Paul had on his resume. All these things that Paul had once thought were gained to him. They were in his ledger, if you will, as an asset, treasured by him, appreciated by him. What things were gained to me? These I have counted loss for Christ. What does faith do? Faith sees that gift of God's righteousness through faith in Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ's own righteousness sees that as his greatest treasure. Everything else pales into insignificance. I've counted it as loss. I look on it as a common thing. It is rubbish, as Paul will say in my sight. Listen, I have counted loss for Christ, yet indeed I also count all things lost for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish so that I may gain Christ. That faith that is the gift of God, and listen, it's not a faith that you've drummed up in your own head. It's not a faith that you've thought up, worked up, ginned up in your own effort. It is a faith that is gifted by God. And if it's a gift of God, it comes with all the ingredients, all the components that God gives in it. You see, it's made by God. It's authored by God. It's finished by God. It is a gift of God, okay? The faith that God gives is a faith that sees things this way. I count them as rubbish that I may gain Christ. Verse nine, and be found in him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that righteousness which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith so that I may know him, what's the purpose of it? I just wanna be happy in my life. I wanna live a happy life, right? I know that if I put my faith in Jesus Christ, I'm gonna be healthy, wealthy, and why the prosperity gospel, right? You wanna be happy in this life, turn to Jesus Christ. You wanna be rich, turn to Jesus Christ. You wanna get a new red truck. You want your wife to get pregnant. You want your ride, those movies, right? It's absurd. If what you want in this life is to be fulfilled yourself and turn to Jesus Christ, you can have all of your dreams come true, all of your happy, you're gonna be happy that I may know him. That's the perspective of God-given faith. I count everything else as rubbish, rubbish. But so that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, the fellowship of his sufferings being conformed to his death. If by any means I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. This is a beautiful picture of faith, do you see? Beautiful picture of faith has nothing to do with the law, does it? Except for the fact that the law's demands were fulfilled by the one who gives us this righteousness as a gift. Faith is not our own righteousness. It's not because I'm believing so well and believing so hard that God is pleased with my faith. Faith is a gift of God. It has everything to do with what Christ has already accomplished through the law on our behalf. His righteousness is my righteousness, do you see? Everything else just retreats into insignificance. I decrease, he increases. When scholars began to conceive of this faith and what it entails, it's often that faith is talked about or conceived of as having three basic components. The first is knowledge, noticia. We are to know him. The Paul says that I may know him. The power is a resurrection. The fellowship of his sufferings being conformed to his death. The second is a census or a scent. It's being convinced, convinced that what you know is true and right and good and holy and just. But knowledge and a scent, knowing and believing it to be true is distinguishes you, not a might from demons who have that same knowledge and know that these things are true. Lastly, it's fiducia. It's trust or commitment. It's an entrustment of all you are to all that he is. All that you are, think, do, know, believe, speak to everything that he has said and done. He is the Lord Jesus Christ. And to him, I will entrust the entirety of my life. What does Paul mean by that statement? That his righteousness is revealed from faith to faith. I think it's this, that God's righteousness that is from faith, right? We have God's righteousness as a free gift through faith. So it's the righteousness that comes to me from faith and it's the righteousness that is revealed to our faith. In other words, it is to, for example, for those who are believing. Back in Romans chapter one, he mentions faith four times in these short, several verses here. Not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who is believing, right? Is believing for the Jew first, 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, four times those two verses, faith. God's righteousness revealed from faith to those who are believing, to their faith. It's revealed to the one who sees it, who apprehends it, who sees his own unrighteousness and sees the righteousness of Jesus Christ, sees his greatest need. The one who sees the preciousness of Jesus Christ and the glory manifest in the gospel, sees the grace of God at work in the gospel, sees the gift of God as the righteousness that he needs to stand before God justified, right? The one who sees that is one who is believing. And that is the one to whom this gift of faith is revealed, the righteousness is revealed, from faith to the one who is believing. It is only the one who by faith sees it, rejoices in it and embraces it that has it. Do you see? And that can be you, right here, right now. A wonderful gift of God's grace, Republican in the temple could not bear to even lift his eyes to heaven, cried out, God be merciful to me, the sinner. And it was that day that he went down to his house what justified, declared righteous through the righteousness of another, given, credited, imputed to him through his faith. You can leave here today like that publican. Don't doubt it. Do you see yourself as a sinner? Do you see yourself as unrighteous? Do you not know that your greatest need is the righteousness of God given to you as a free gift of his grace through the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ, credited to you? Will you not embrace that free gift? The just shall live by faith. Luther again, when he grasped that, the justice of God is that righteousness by which through grace and sheer mercy, God justifies the sinner through faith. Thereupon Luther said, I felt myself to be reborn to have gone through open gates into paradise. The whole of scripture took on a new meaning. Whereas before the justice of God had filled me with hate, now it became to me inexpressibly sweet and greater love. The passage, this passage of Paul became to me, Luther said, a gate to heaven. May it be so for you. Love you guys, let's pray. Father in heaven, Lord, we love you. We're grateful to you. Thank you for this tremendous, unspeakably good news. The grace of God, work in the gospel to provide a righteousness that is not our own, a righteousness that was secured through the perfect work, the perfect life of the Lord Jesus Christ through his shed blood, his body given up in death on our behalf, taking the penalty that was rightly due our sins and bearing in his own body on the tree, our sin and shame, and how he satisfies the wrath of God, justice of God, the righteous demands of the law. We praise you and thank you for that absolutely amazing gift. May we cling to him, our righteousness in faith. May we cling to Jesus Christ, the one who is born our sin and shame. May we cling to him through faith. May we have this righteousness as a gift to stand before you justified, declared righteous. May we live now in light of that for his glory, for his everlasting praise and worship. May you be glorified in it. Or may it be to the praise of the glory of your grace. We love you, we thank you. If there are those here, Lord, who do not know you, I pray, Lord, for the sake of the bridegroom that you would add to his bride. We love you, in Jesus' name, amen.