Jonathan is currently a Master of Divinity student at Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary and wants to become an ordained pastor upon graduation. Till then, this blog is in honor of his Dad, the real Pastor Romig. Please do not preach this sermon, but feel free to quote it using proper attribution (aff link).As you can see the judge was not a fair judge. Both the defendant and the accuser lost their $10,000. So often we too approach God the same way. We try and buy eternity and his approval.
We approach God with $10,000 of charitable giving. We approach God with 10,000 hours of volunteering. We approach God with 10,000 days spent treating our family nicely. We approach God with 10,000 good deeds. We approach God with 10,000 prayers. We approach God with 10,000 moments of us not doing anything wrong. But where do any of these 10,000s get us? Does God care about any of this?
Scripture tells us God is not like this unfair judge. He is perfectly fair and understands everything about us. He even understands our motives when we don’t. So what does God really care about? What is important to God?
Simply put—God cares about righteousness. God requires our righteousness. Nothing less than this will please him. But what is righteousness? And how do we get it? If it’s that important God must have told us about it somewhere. And he did in his word the Bible. Let’s turn to and read Philippians 3:1-11.
So we know God requires righteousness. But can’t I live without it if I’m just a good person? Is righteousness that necessary?
Righteousness is the difference between life and death (Philippians 3:1-3).
What exactly is righteousness? Righteousness is being justified before God. And we can only be justified before God if he takes our sin from us and places it on Jesus and takes Jesus' perfect holiness and places it on us. This is what it means to be justified and therefore righteous. As my dad explained to me righteousness is “being in good standing with God.” We can only receive this through Jesus.
The concept of righteousness began with the law in the Old Testament. The law was God’s set of rules the people had to follow to be right with God. Both in the OT and NT righteousness is based on fulfilling the law. God acts as both lawgiver and judge and he does so perfectly.
Psalm 7:11 says, “God is a righteous judge, and a God who feels indignation every day.” God recognizes both good and evil and will not allow evil to go unpunished. Evil is committed by anyone who does not follow God’s commandments. Unfortunately, we all do evil to varying degrees. Therefore, none of us are capable of meriting righteousness. If we don’t have righteousness we don’t have right standing before God. God protects those who are innocent before him and he condemns those who are not.
Unrighteousness is like a criminal being guilty before a judge. The criminal will get the punishment he deserves. Unrighteousness is like owing a large amount of money you are unable to pay back. The borrower is indebted forever. Unrighteousness is like being covered in mud and walking into a white mansion that has beautiful white rugs and white carpets. Unrighteousness is a stain. Unrighteousness is unacceptable before God.
Paul begins this passage by recognizing the importance of righteousness (3:1). He tells them to rejoice in the Lord for what they are about to learn. What he is writing about righteousness will “safeguard” or protect the Philippians. He then goes on to compare and contrast two points of view on how to get righteousness.
At that time period the Judaizers were trying to infiltrate the church at Philippi. They were trying to convince the Christians that they needed to be circumcised and to obey the requirements of the law to be righteous. They were more concerned with deeds than with the heart. But the heart is where righteousness begins.
Paul calls the Judaizers, dogs, evildoers, and mutilators! (3:2) Instead of saying what they are doing is right he compares them to pagan worshipers. In 1st Kings we read about the prophet Elijah confronting the priests of Baal. 1 Kings 18:28 says, “So they cried aloud, and cut themselves, as was their custom, with knives and lances, until the blood gushed out on them”(NKJV). It was a slap in the Judaizers face to be called mutilating pagans. But that’s how serious the path of righteousness is. The good works path leads to death and the righteous path leads to life.
Paul says the believers who don’t obey all the regulations are the true “circumcised”(3:3). They “worship God in the Spirit” and “rejoice in Christ Jesus.” Their path leads to righteousness. Righteousness is the difference between life and death.
So we can see that righteousness in important. And we can see that righteousness is being innocent before God. But how can we be in this good standing before God? How can we be righteousness? Can we earn it?
Righteousness is impossible to achieve on our own (Philippians 3:3-6).
Righteousness is not natural (3:3-5a). The Philippians were “worshiping God in the Spirit and rejoicing in Christ Jesus”(3:3). They were living their lives a specific way and made the choice to place no confidence in their works but in God’s works. But the Judaizers were trying to convince the new converts they had to be fully Jewish and meet the requirements of the law to be saved (circumcision, Sabbath, tithing). They believed their heritage would save them.
Paul recognizes that our heritage is not a deciding factor in God’s eyes (3:4). Paul writes, “If anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I more so.” Paul had the perfect family line according to the Jews (3:5). He was circumcised on the eighth day. He was from the nation of Israel and not a gentile from a foreign country. He was from the tribe of Benjamin, which was the same tribe as King Saul. He was so Jewish he calls himself a “Hebrew of the Hebrews.” But none of this matters because being right before God takes something different. It is not passed down from generation to generation.
Billy Graham is the most famous evangelist the modern world has ever known. He has preached God’s word through radio, television, and to live audiences for a total of more than 3.3 billion people. He has ministered to Presidents, movie stars, and world leaders. In 1993 alone Time magazine reported that more than 2.8 million people had repented and accepted Jesus into their hearts under Billy Graham’s preaching. Billy Graham is arguably one of the most powerful preachers of all time. But his son Franklin Graham was not saved. Franklin grew up going to Sunday School, church, and he even went to a Christian college in Texas called LeTourneau University. Franklin did not believe in Jesus so he drank, got thrown out of school, and rebelled.
One day when he was 22 years old and sitting in a hotel room he realized his need for God. Franklin needed to take his faith as his own before it counted. Neither his father’s evangelism nor his family name made him right before God. Righteousness is not natural. We are not saved because our parents went to church or gave money to the poor.
Righteousness is not earned (3:5b-6). Paul also points out he obeyed the law perfectly. He writes, “As to the law, a Pharisee”(3:5b). The Pharisees were religious leaders who did everything in their power to obey God. They were so serious about pleasing God they set up rules to keep them from coming close to breaking God’s rules. But in this system of works they lost sight of God.
Paul was perfectly obedient to do all the things he was supposed to do. He went so far as to persecute the church because he thought they were teaching false doctrines against the true God Yahweh. He summarizes his achievements, “concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless”(3:6). Paul did everything right by obeying the law and all the traditions. And yet now he admits that none of that got him anywhere.
It’s like going for a three mile run on a treadmill. You run and run and sweat and sweat but you stay in the same place. God does not and will never allow us to earn our own righteousness. We are not perfect in God’s sight no matter how much good we do. Righteousness is neither natural nor earned. Righteousness is impossible to achieve on our own.
Righteousness is having good standing before God. But we can’t receive that righteousness from our parent’s traditions. And we can’t get that righteousness from our own good deeds. So how do we receive righteousness? We mentioned Jesus earlier because he is the only way.
We receive righteousness through faith in Christ (Philippians 3:7-11). Through trusting in Christ we receive good standing before God.
Paul counts all as loss for what he gains in Christ (3:7-8). “But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ”(3:7). Paul restates this again in verse 8, and he does so emphatically. “Yet indeed(!) I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord.” And then again a third time in 3:8b he writes, “For whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ.” Paul repeatedly forsakes everything three times because he is emphatic about Christ. Paul wants to pound it into our heads that we must let go of the world to gain Christ. Paul considers everything as dung, or refuse, or garbage in comparison to Jesus.
Paul receives righteousness through faith in Christ (3:9). Notice that Paul desires to be in Christ, “be found in Him”(3:9a). All who do not lose the world to gain Christ are in Adam. Through Adam sin entered into the world. All who remain in Adam instead of in Christ will die in that sin (Romans 5:12-21). Adam’s religion is one of works and deeds as he tries to fulfill the law but fails. Christ’s religion is also one of fulfilling the law but where Adam failed Jesus succeeds.
If righteousness is received by fulfilling the law and the only one to ever fulfill the law is Christ, then we must have faith in Christ to receive righteousness.
Christ was not just a good man or a good teacher. He was the fulfillment of all righteousness so that we too can be made righteous. He lived and died perfectly without sin. This gift of right standing before God comes about entirely through faith. To be saved, God calls us to cling to him with everything we have. We are not to put our hope in our heritage or our good deeds. We are to put our entire hope in Jesus Christ and him alone.
In Genesis 12 God comes out of nowhere to tell Abraham to leave the country of Haran and go and dwell in Canaan (Genesis 11:31). God promises Abraham a great country, a great nation, and a great blessing. God called Abraham to forsake his land his territory. Does it remind you of Paul forsaking everything for Christ? What did God reward Abraham with for this faith? Genesis 15:6 says, “And [Abraham] believed in the Lord, and He accounted it to him for righteousness.”
Abraham no longer owed a debt. In fact, he actually received a credit of righteousness. His righteousness bank account was not negative or zero but unlimited (Trillions x Trillions!). Because of his faith God gave him a great country, a great nation, and a great blessing. Abraham became the father of the nation of Israel and from his descendants Jesus Christ the Messiah was born. Jesus Christ the righteous one came about through Abraham’s faith. Our righteousness only comes about through faith in Christ. In this faith we stand before God completely innocent and righteous.
When we receive righteousness by faith we receive God’s blessings (3:11). God’s blessings are far different and far superior than the world’s blessings.
First, we are blessed with knowing Christ. There is nothing better than personally knowing the creator of the universe.
Second, we are blessed with resurrection life from the grave. We do not need to fear death because we have “the power of his resurrection”(3:10).
Third, we are blessed to share in “the fellowship of his sufferings”(3:10). We are blessed with struggles and challenges in this life that make us more like Christ.
Fourth, when we die we are blessed with being like Christ in glory (3:10-11). When we are “conformed to [Christ’s] death” we are not conformed into a pile of bones but into perfection as we fellowship with Christ in heaven until his return.
Righteousness begins now by faith and lasts forever by God’s grace (3:10-11). We receive righteousness through faith in Christ.
Raquel Nelson and her three kids got off at a bus stop across from her apartment last spring. Instead of walking 3/10ths of a mile to the nearest crosswalk she and her kids crossed the street there. A man who had been drinking earlier in the day, had poor eyesight, and was on pain medications ran over and killed Raquel’s four-year-old son AJ in a hit and run. This man served six months in prison before receiving five-years probation.
Raquel didn’t walk to the nearest crosswalk and it cost her the life of her child. To make matters worse—the jury found her guilty of jaywalking and vehicular homicide. Not only had she lost a son but she faced three years in prison without her other two children. She was condemned by the jury and completely at the mercy of the judge. We also stand condemned before our God.
In Adam we all sinned. Instead of living innocently in the garden we rebelled and did evil against God. It has cost the lives of so many people. But we did not accidentally kill our own child. We purposefully killed the judge’s own son Jesus Christ on the cross. And now we too stand before God our judge in need of his mercy.
There is only one thing that can save us. We need God’s gift of righteousness through faith in Christ. We need innocence before a holy and blameless God. The judge sentenced Raquel to a year of probation and 40 hours of community service. The judge had mercy on her. And if you put your all in Christ, God will have mercy on you as well.
This is not easy because we too must count all our works as rubbish to gain Christ. But it is worth it.
If we trust in Christ he takes our punishment and gives us his right standing before God. We need God’s gift of righteousness through faith in Christ.
The judge offered Raquel a new trial and the chance to clear her name. Our judge doesn’t just give those who believe in him a retry he gives us a cleared name. And it’s not just a one-time cleared name. God forgives all our past, present, and future mistakes so we are forever clean. We are so undeserving of this gift but God is gracious. If we get caught up in our heritage or our works, we’ll just fall short.
Raquel had nothing to offer the judge to buy her innocence. But neither do we. Our God does not require it. But he does require we put our hope in Jesus. We need God’s gift of righteousness through faith in Christ.
Image By: IXQUICK
[1] Tan, P. L. (1996). Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations: Signs of the Times. Garland, TX: Bible Communications, Inc.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thank you for commenting on my blog! Hope you'll check out our YouTube channel as well.