Righteousness
The theme of righteousness runs throughout the book of Romans for it is Paul’s chief message of hope for all who believe. The problem originates here… for God is holy and righteous and cannot tolerate anything less. Herein lies the predicament for humanity, for Adam chose for all peoples to reject God and be in a position of unrighteousness before him, incurring his wrath on all humanity. Yeah, this is the reality for every single person to ever breath, for God will not stand to be rejected. The beauty of God’s grace lies in the reality of this righteousness… this disparity between humanity’s utter depravity of righteousness and God’s ultimate holiness. This chasm is what makes the reality of Christ’s work so valuable and what makes the gravity of his gift truly worthy of all praise. He came and took on the consequence of humanity’s unrighteousness, suffering the penalty for all sin upon the cross and taking it with him in death. The chasm that was once there was destroyed as Christ’s righteousness is now imparted to us as God sees in his perfect and holy life a justification on our behalf from the wrath that we deserved. This is the amazing beauty of the gospel, that his righteousness became ours when we had absolutely no hope to be saved from God’s wrath. The offense of the gospel is that humanity is forced to realize its absolute lack of righteousness as all have rejected God through Adam… to have to own this truth of our wickedness burns to the core of a proud race. But how much more beautiful this makes the righteousness that is God’s gift to those who would by humility of faith receive complete restoration with God the Father. Upon this righteousness those who believe are restored into right relationship with God as his children, as heirs of the kingdom of God through Christ. Yeah, the righteousness of Christ that was undeservedly given brings those who believe into a perfect state of adoption as God’s children, meriting all the inheritance that Christ receives from God. What a beautiful reality, that those who had no hope in themselves would be given such a priceless gift from God. Those who believe are given freedom and hope in a world devoid, a world that walks in the deception that its treasures bring life and freedom and peace when all it knows is unrighteousness and death.
For the Roman church this broke their hearts apart as the two different races within the church saw different things. The Jews in the congregation would be shocked at the offense of the gospel… that they were deemed unrighteous when they had deceived themselves to think that they were not under the wrath of God. Their need for a savior to bring them righteousness they could not earn themselves was something that pierced them to the core of their hearts… their pride. The Gentiles on the other hand would be well aware of their wickedness and would realize their desperate need for God’s mercy to bring them righteousness. Their unrighteousness was astoundingly clear… the difficult thing for them to believe is how in the world God could choose to show them mercy, for they were assured that they were most unworthy of such a gift. Both would be under the deception that there surely was something that they must do to merit God’s favor. They both thought that they had to earn their right standing with God in some way… for it just didn’t seem possible that such a righteousness that was required by God could come without a cost. This is what would make the reality of this gift of righteousness so clear to them… for it did come at a cost… a cost to God himself as Christ bore the wrath of God on their behalf… suffering for their unrighteousness and earning for them justification with the Father.
In the church today this is the reality of who God is still… our circumstances are no different than that of the Romans. The world around us is deceived to think that the things that we need to make us happy exist and can be attained. We have chosen idols less than God to find life in… and in doing so we have unfortunately rejected the righteousness God has given us in Christ. We have been given restoration with the Father through Christ’s work of justification… and this alone is life for us. Righteousness has been given us, life with God has been restored as we are declared his children.
Righteousness
For the Roman church this broke their hearts apart as the two different races within the church saw different things. The Jews in the congregation would be shocked at the offense of the gospel… that they were deemed unrighteous when they had deceived themselves to think that they were not under the wrath of God. Their need for a savior to bring them righteousness they could not earn themselves was something that pierced them to the core of their hearts… their pride. The Gentiles on the other hand would be well aware of their wickedness and would realize their desperate need for God’s mercy to bring them righteousness. Their unrighteousness was astoundingly clear… the difficult thing for them to believe is how in the world God could choose to show them mercy, for they were assured that they were most unworthy of such a gift. Both would be under the deception that there surely was something that they must do to merit God’s favor. They both thought that they had to earn their right standing with God in some way… for it just didn’t seem possible that such a righteousness that was required by God could come without a cost. This is what would make the reality of this gift of righteousness so clear to them… for it did come at a cost… a cost to God himself as Christ bore the wrath of God on their behalf… suffering for their unrighteousness and earning for them justification with the Father.
