In the first few verses of this
lesson, verses 13, 14, and 15, the Apostle Paul is telling the
believers at Rome that he was very, very enthusiastic, desirous
to come to them, to be with them, to help them. He wanted them
to know that he'd planned many times to be there. Look at verse
13. Now, I would not have you ignorant,
brethren, that oftentimes I purposed, I planned to come unto you, but
was let hitherto. That word let means that he was
stopped, he was hindered. And of course, what Paul's talking
about is the providential hindrance of God. Paul made plans to go
to Rome, but God had other plans. And God's plans always override our plans, because He
knows what's best. And it says that I might have
some fruit among you also, even as among other Gentiles. Now
we see there the specific reason why Paul wanted them to know
that he had planned and desired to come to them, but he'd been
providentially hindered. Back then, there were so many
prejudices of the unbelieving Jews against the Gentiles. And,
you know, even some weaker true believers among the Jews had
to be taught through miraculous means that in Christ, in salvation
by God's grace, there is no difference between the Jew and the Gentile.
You remember Peter, when God gave him that vision about the
blanket coming down with the food on it, and the food was
forbidden under the old covenant law. And Peter said, I haven't
eaten anything unclean. And God said, don't you call
unclean what I've cleansed. And that was the preparation
for Peter to go preach to a Gentile, a Roman centurion named Cornelius. He said, Cornelius of the Italian
man. So Peter had to be convinced.
And you remember when Paul had to withstand Peter to the face
in Galatia because Peter was eating with Gentiles and some
of the Jewish brethren from James in Jerusalem came down and Peter
was embarrassed and he got up and changed tables, indicating
by his action that there is some difference. something better
about being a Jew than a Gentile and Paul withstood him to the
face and what Paul was telling Peter says, now Peter you may
not realize it but you're bringing the very foundation of salvation
into question by doing that. And so Paul is letting these
Romans know that the reason I haven't been there to visit you is not
because of any Jewish prejudices. And look at verse 14, he says,
I'm debtor both to the Greeks, that's a way of referring to
Gentiles in that time. And he says, and to the barbarians,
both to the wise and to the unwise. What he's showing here is that
whatever ethnicity you are or whatever intellectual level you're
on, that doesn't matter. He said, I owe a lot to all of
you. And what he means there is a
debt of love. In other words, Paul hadn't gained much from
preaching to Gentiles. He'd learned much. He'd grown
much. And especially the joy of seeing
God save sinners, no matter who they are. And that's the way
we ought to feel about everybody. I mean, we pray for the salvation
of all sorts of people, all types. And so when God saves them, you
see, that makes no difference. God saves a Gentile man or a
Gentile woman, that man or woman is our brother or sister in Christ.
And whether it's a Jewish man or woman, that person is our
brother or sister in Christ. And so he says in verse 15, so
as much as is in me is, that is with my very, the very inner
heart, I'm ready, I'm ready, willing, and able to preach the
gospel to you that are at Rome also. So understand that Paul
is saying that to them to assure them that no Jewish prejudices
were keeping him from coming to Rome. And that was a, we don't
understand how much of a big deal that was back then. And
I'll tell you what, if you'll keep this in mind, you'll understand.
The word world in the New Testament that's used, God so loved the
world. Christ is the propitiation for
our sins and not for ours only, but the whole world. That's not
talking about every individual son or daughter of Adam ever
born in history of mankind. It can't be. But it's an emphasis
that God has a people all over this world out of every tribe,
kindred, tongue, and nation that he gave to Christ before the
foundation of the world, justified based on Christ's righteousness
imputed, redeemed by his blood, and called out by his spirit. God has people out of every tribe,
kindred, tongue, and nation all over this world. That's what
it's talking about. You'll keep that in mind. You see, the unbelieving
Jews who professed to be Christians wanted to conceal, or a better
word might be, they wanted to keep the gospel. to themselves
and what they would say. You see it in Galatians, you
see Acts chapter 15 is a great example of this when those who
were claimed to be Christians but they said, well now these
Gentiles you're bringing into the church, you've got to have
them circumcised. They've got to do this, they've got to do
that. And Paul and James and Peter stood their ground and
said not so. So understand that. Well now
we come to verses 16 and 17. And here's how I want to preface
that. Somebody were to ask me, let's
say somebody who was not a Christian, somebody who had never read the
Bible, or who hadn't read it much, if they came to me and
they asked me, where would you start in the Bible, in reading
the Bible, in order to understand its message? I would tell them,
I say, well, start in the book of Romans, and I would say, write
down these questions, and in your studying, in your reading,
don't read fast. This is not to be an easy read. I would say, make it your goal
to find out the answer to these questions as they appear in this
one phrase, the righteousness of God revealed. And the questions
will be like this, who is Jesus Christ? Who is He? Well, Paul's already answered
that. He's God in human flesh. He's Emmanuel, God with us. And
then the second question would be, why did He come to this earth? And in essence, why did He have
to be God and man in one person? Well, that question's been answered
too because If he hadn't come, we wouldn't be saved. We're sinners
who deserve nothing but death and hell, even the best of us. You believe that? People all the time, they'll
say, oh yeah, we're all sin, we've all come short of the glory
of God. But now, you wouldn't say so-and-so's lost. Some world-accepted,
as they say, saint, would they be lost? Well, what does the
Bible say? We've all sinned. So why did
he come? The third question, what did
he accomplish in his coming? What did he accomplish? Not what
did he try to do, but failed, but what did he accomplish? And why did he accomplish it?
And then where is he now? He's risen, he's seated at the
right hand of God. And I would tell him this, I
would say, when you come to verses 16 and 17, listen to it, for
I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. Paul said, I'm not
ashamed. When Paul is talking to these
Gentile believers, he's saying, you're being Gentiles or Greeks
or Romans or whatever, has nothing to do, I'm not ashamed of the
gospel. This is good news, that's what gospel means. And it's the
good news of Christ, Messiah. The Savior. And it is the power
of God. That word power is the Greek
word denimous or dunamis, however you pronounce it, whichever tradition
you go with. And we get our Greek word dynamite
from it. This is a powerful message now. It's the dynamite of God unto
salvation. Now this is talking about the
gospel in the hands and the power of God. The power of the Holy
Spirit. That's the effectual calling
of the Holy Spirit. There are many people who hear
the gospel. Well, we can say today there's
a lot of people in church but they don't hear the gospel. But
there's some who hear the gospel and don't come to believe it.
But what is the gospel? What is the good news? Well,
it's the power of God unto salvation. And it's, how do you know if
it's been the power of God unto salvation to me or to you or
to anybody? Well, that's to everyone that
believeth. Do you believe it? Do you believe the gospel? I'm
not just talking about religion now. I'm not just talking about
some notion of a Jesus. I was, What was I watching the other
night? Something where they flashed
up one of those pictures of Jesus, as they call it. Well, that's
not Jesus. That has nothing to do with the gospel of Christ,
which is the power of God unto salvation. That's just some human
image. And it says here, to the Jew
first and also to the Greeks. Now what he's talking about,
the Jew first, is because God brought Christ into the world,
in the flesh, through the Jews, and they had the gospel. They
rejected it as a majority, but some believed it. And then it
was through the Jews that the gospel shot out to the world.
So he's talking about first in time. Not first in preeminence. There's only one person that
has the preeminence in the gospel, and that's Christ. Nobody else
has the preeminence. There's no hierarchy here. At
all. And I often put it to you this
way. The thief on the cross was just as saved, just as righteous
as the Apostle Paul. And I've heard people, you know,
preachers love their stories and impresses people, you know,
they say, well, you reckon we'll see so-and-so in heaven? One
guy was talking about some preacher and he said, well, I don't think
we will because he'll be so closer to God and we'll be so far away.
That's junk, folks. That's not the gospel. That's
human pride and self-righteousness. I'm no more saved than any of
you are. And if we're saved, we're saved
by the grace of God and it has nothing to do with our merits
or our works. It's totally the merit and work
of Christ. This idea of rewards in heaven,
that you're earning your rewards, is totally against the gospel.
And yet people believe that because that's by nature what we like
to hear. So it's to the Jew first, then
also to the Greek or the Gentile. And then it says, why the gospel
is the power of God unto salvation. Here's why, verse 17. For therein
is the righteousness of God revealed. Now what is the righteousness
of God? I would tell a person, if they're wanting to read the
Bible and seek its message, I'd say give your whole life to finding
out what this one phrase means. The righteousness of God. Somebody
said, well, wouldn't you go in there looking for Christ? Christ
is the righteousness of God. Did you know that? And plus this, look over Romans
chapter 10. I'm going to come to this verse
in the message today too. The righteousness of God. Look
at verse one of Romans chapter 10. Paul writes, Brethren, my heart's
desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be
saved. Now, why do you pray for somebody
to be saved? Because they're lost. Isn't that
right? He says, I bear them record.
They have a zeal of God. They're religious, but not according
to knowledge. They're missing some knowledge.
Well, what knowledge are they missing? Verse 3. For they, being
ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish
their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto
the righteousness of God. Now, somebody says, well, Christ
is the righteousness. Well, how is he the righteousness
of God? Look at verse 4. For Christ is
the end of the law. Now, that word end is an interesting
word. It means he's the finishing of
the law. He's the fulfillment of the law. He's the completion
of the law. He's the perfection of the law. It's very closely related to
the same word that Christ spoke on the cross in John 19 and verse
30 when he said, it is finished. He finished the law. And he's
the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believe in.
Now go back to Romans 1, 16 and 17. Now that word righteousness,
when you see the word right, righteous, or righteousness,
that word in the Greek and also back in the Hebrew, as you look
at it, it could just as well be translated just, justness,
and justice. Sometimes it is. Whenever you
read in the Old Testament about a just person, that's a righteous
person. And most people don't really
understand righteousness. Most people look at righteousness
as people trying to be the best they can be. Here's a person
who's trying to be a good father, a good husband, a good worker,
a woman who's trying to be a good mother, a good friend, charitable,
And they would say, well, that's a righteous person. But you see,
righteousness technically in the Bible is not any kind of
a morality or moral quality of character. What righteousness is, it is
the standard of the law by which all morality is to be measured. You say, well, I'm going to try
to be moral. Well, if you're going to reach righteousness,
how moral do you have to be? You understand that? And to give
you a clue on that, you can, I may have that in the lesson
here, but Act 1731, what is the standard by which God is going
to judge all people and all works? Well, Act 1731 says this. After he says, God has commanded
all men everywhere to repent, He says, because God has appointed
a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by
that man whom he has ordained in that he has given assurance
unto all men in that he has raised him from the dead. Now obviously
that's talking about Christ, isn't it? And his resurrected
glory. Why did Christ, why was he raised
from the dead? Because he made an end of sin,
he's the end of the law, he satisfied the justice of God for his people. Christ measured up. You and me,
we don't measure up in our works now. That's why by deeds of law
shall no flesh be justified, be declared righteous in God's
sight. You understand that? So how moral
do I have to be? Does my morality make me righteous? And the answer is no. Now if
you look back at Romans 117, I'm gonna begin dealing with
this next week. But in Romans 118, all the way
over to Romans 320, that section of the book of Romans, Romans
118, all the way over to Romans 3.20. Don't get scared, I'm not
gonna try to cover all that next week. I'm almost divided up. But here's what he does. He's
showing us why we, as fallen, sinful human beings, need the
righteousness of God. That's what he's doing from 1.18
all the way to 3.20. And look at 118, he says, for the wrath
of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness
of man. And look at the key. Who what? Who go out and get drunk? No. Is that a sin? Yeah, it's a sin. Who do all these bad things that
get you put in jail? No, that's not what he says.
Is that a sin? Yes. Is it a sin against God? Yes.
Is it a sin against man? Yes. But what does he say there?
Who what? Who hold the truth in unrighteousness. Now you know what that means?
It means they literally, they suppress the truth. I don't want
to hear that anymore. Don't talk to me, don't tell
me anymore. I don't want to hear your God. And the main truth
they suppress is the gospel of Christ wherein the righteousness
of God is revealed because by nature men hate the light. It
exposes us for what we are. And then over in Romans 3.20
he draws the conclusion. By deeds of law shall no flesh
be justified in God's sight. That's why we need the righteousness
of God. The righteousness of man won't do. First of all, men
have no righteousness in and of themselves. Secondly, men
cannot work righteousness by their best efforts to obey God.
And thirdly, men don't want righteousness God's way. They hold the truth
in unrighteousness. And you will hold the truth in
unrighteousness, and I will hold the truth in unrighteousness
until God the Holy Spirit brings us by the power of God unto salvation
in conviction to see that I have no hope but the righteousness
of God. What is the righteousness of
God? My friend, it's the righteousness of the God-man. It's the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's the merit, the quality,
the value, the worthiness of His obedience unto death. for the sins of his people. Christ
stood as the surety of his people, having our sins charged to him,
imputed to him. And he came as our substitute
and took into union with himself a sinless humanity, God in human
flesh, so that he could pay the penalty of God's justice, which
is death. He died. He obeyed unto death. And in his death is the justice
of God fully satisfied. And that's the righteousness
of God, which is imputed, which God has imputed, charged, accounted
to all his people. That's what it is. That's the
good news. You don't have, God is righteous.
God is just and we're not. And if God ever gives us what
we deserve or what we earn, it would be eternal damnation and
death. Isn't that right? Even the best of us now. You
can't exclude anybody. Paul, over in Romans 3, 9, he
says, the Scriptures concluded all under sin. Jew and Gentile,
are we any better than they? Here's the religious Jew who
has the law of Moses. Here's the Gentile who's never
heard of the Ten Commandments or the Law of Moses, but they
do have religion, they do have laws, and they try to keep them,
and they put people in jail just like the Jews did. They bring
them to court. But is the religious Jew who
had the Law of Moses, is he any better in himself? or by his
works than the Gentile who's never heard the law? And the
answer's no. We are all equally in need of
this righteousness of God revealed in the gospel. And to be ignorant of that, is
to be lost, because to be ignorant of that righteousness of God,
which is, somebody said, well, we don't preach the righteousness
of God, we preach Christ. My friend, if you preach Christ
according to the Bible, you're preaching the righteousness of
God. You can't preach Christ without preaching the righteousness
of God. His righteousness, charged, accounted, imputed to me. And
I have no other. You go around preaching righteousness
within us, you're denying the righteousness of God. That's how important this is.
But look here, Romans 117. He says, for therein, in that
gospel, now here's what that tells me now. If I'm preaching,
and you're listening, and I'm preaching the gospel, which is
the power of God unto salvation, you ought to be hearing something
about the righteousness of God. Is that what this says? It's
the righteousness of God revealed. Somebody said, well, we say it,
but we say it in other words. Well, you better be sure of that. The righteousness of God is the
redemptive work of Christ in his obedience unto death to satisfy
the justice of God for the sins of his people and to bring forth
righteousness, which enables God to be just, to justify. In this one phrase, we see every
attribute of God's nature glorified and honored. How he can be both
a righteous judge, as well as a merciful, loving, gracious
father. This is what it's all about.
Now, if I'm telling somebody to read through this book of
Romans, find that out, then what I tell them to do is now go back,
start at Matthew in the New Testament, start at Genesis in the Old Testament,
and read the whole thing in that light. Because that's what it's
all about. even the creation of the world.
That's what it's all about. But look here, now he says, and
incidentally, you're familiar with the word propitiation. Well,
that's the righteousness of God. What is propitiation? Justice
satisfied, that's what it is. God is propitiated. Some people
say expiated. It doesn't matter. What it means
is God's wrath is turned back by the blood of Christ. He's
satisfied. He's reconciled to his people,
not imputing, not charging their trespasses unto them because
he charged them to Christ. He was made sin. that we might
be made, 2 Corinthians 5, 21, the righteousness of God in him. How can we be made the righteousness
of God? We didn't keep the law. We didn't
satisfy its justice. We're made the righteousness
of God in him. as we stand in Christ, as he
is our representative, as he is our surety, as he is our substitute,
as he is our advocate, as he is our redeemer, our savior,
our mediator. That's how. It's his righteousness
imputed. But he says now, verse 17, therein
is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith. Now what
does that mean? There's a couple of ways that
people interpret that. A lot of commentators say that
means from one degree of faith to another degree of faith. Now,
you've got to be careful there. Now, I don't believe that's what
it's talking about. I'm going to show you why in just a moment. But you've
got to be careful there because when people start talking about
degrees of faith, they most always try to include themselves and
others as being saved when they were unbelievers. Just about
always. Well, I had some faith back then,
but not to the degree I have now. My question would be, well,
what degree of faith is enough? And when you get to talking about
that, you don't have any scripture to turn to, you just have human
opinion and rationalizations, and you get into trouble. That's
where it leads. And that's not scriptural. Now,
admittedly, faith does grow in the Bible. It's like growing
in grace and in knowledge of Christ. And you know, the basic
word, faith, is really knowledge. Did you know that? That's what
it is. In other words, we believe what
we know to be true. But now, what if we personally
know something to be true, but it's not true? Well, then we're in trouble. Go back to Cain. Cain believed. He knew that God would receive
him and bless him based upon the works of his hands. He was
wrong. People look at faith sometimes
like believing enough. Oh, if you believe it hard enough,
it'll come true. Well, my friend, that's not God's
word. That's not Bible. That's Walt
Disney. That's fantasy. And I know about
psychosomosis and psychosomatic illnesses, and I'm not going
to get into all that. I'm talking about salvation. What we know in salvation must
be based upon what God reveals in his word, or it's just not
true. And so what I'm saying this means,
this is in the context of God revealing something. It's the
righteousness of God revealed. Now who reveals it? God does. Now he may use a preacher or
a writing or a book to reveal it to his people, but it's him
doing the revealing here. This is the gospel of God, Paul
said. This is a message from heaven. And so my knowledge of it, that
first faith there, that's the revelation of God. That's what
God has taught me and I know to be true. And then the second
faith, from faith, from the revelation of God by the Spirit, to faith,
that's the gift of faith by which God brings me to receive it and
to believe it and to a saving understanding of it. So it's
from God's Word to our hearts, the mind, the affection, the
will, the conscience. And then he says this, as it
is written, the just or the justified, that's the same word as righteous.
The righteous shall live by faith. Now here's what he's showing
us. Don't miss this. The righteousness of God, which
is Christ crucified and risen again, His righteousness imputed
the merits, the quality, the value, the worthiness of his
obedience unto death as surety and substitute of his people,
evidenced by his resurrection from the dead. That righteousness
of God is not only the ground and foundation of our salvation,
of our justification before God, but it's the source of spiritual
life. We, first of all, it says the
justified. If I've been justified before
God in his court of justice, in Christ, before the foundation
of the world, if God is reconciled to me, you know what's gonna
come from that? Based on Christ's righteousness
imputed? He's gonna give me spiritual life. I'm gonna live. He's gonna
raise me from the dead. I fell an atom. I was born spiritually
dead in trespasses and sins. I didn't have spiritual life. But at some point in time, when
it pleased the Lord, He brought me under the preaching of the
gospel, and He raised me from the dead in the new birth. The
just shall live. Now how are they gonna live?
They're going to live by faith. What does that mean? They're
going to live by looking to Jesus, the author and finisher of their
faith. They're going to live looking to Christ, following
Christ, disciples of Christ. Do you know that's a summation
of the whole Christian life right there? Justified in Christ, based
on his righteousness imputed, living by faith, looking to him. Now find out what that means.
It's God-given faith, for by grace are you saved. This is
what God's grace is all about. For by grace are you saved through
faith. That, in and out of yourselves, is the gift of God. You see,
there's not going to be any who perish for whom Christ died and
was buried in a rose again the third day. They can't perish. Why? Because of the righteousness
of God. Because of Christ. They're justified. Based on His righteousness, God
cannot charge them with sin. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. Who
can condemn us? It's Christ that died. Yea, rather
He's risen again, who is seated at the right hand of the Father,
ever living to make intercession for us. They're going to live.
They're gonna be born again, they're gonna be regenerated,
converted, brought to faith in Christ, and they're gonna live
their lives in faith. That doesn't mean they're not
gonna mess up, that doesn't mean they stop being sinners, that
means they live looking to Christ. Resting in Christ, believing
in Christ, clinging to Christ as the Lord their righteousness.
Okay.