A RIGHTEOUS GOD

Not too long ago, the nation was shocked by the news that the Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Boorda, had committed suicide. For some time, news stories had been circulating concerning Admiral Boorda’s service record and his awards and decorations. Apparently, among his many decorations and awards, were two medals bearing "V" devices. The "V" device is a small bronze letter "V" that is centered on a ribbon or medal to denote that it was awarded for Valor. It is not enough that one has participated in combat operations, as had Admiral Boorda. The award must state the circumstances under which the "V" device is given and valorous conduct is required for this specification.

Someone, in a routine review of the records, noted that there was no such specification in the admiral’s service record. When the story broke, there was a great deal of confusion generated and a commission was appointed to review the record and determine whether Boorda was wearing an unauthorized award. To wear an unauthorized decoration is a offense that warrants court-martial.

Before the commission could complete its findings, Admiral Boorda took a hand gun and with one well-placed round ended his life. The commission later reported the "V" devices were not authorized.

For Boorda, the guilt from misrepresenting his service record, in an otherwise exemplary career, and its attendant shame, were too much to bear. He found no answer, and rather than live with the consequences of dishonor, he chose to die. His situation is not unique, however. There is not a one of us here tonight who could stand a detailed federal investigation into our lives. How frightening, then, the thought of that Great Day of Judgment when we shall give an account of the things done in the body, whether good or evil. In that day when the all knowing, all seeing God of heaven opens the books, we shall give an account for all that we have done, even for the idle words that we have uttered. With our guilt and shame, who can stand in that day?

That is the question that is addressed in our text for tonight. But before looking at our text, let us consider the larger context. In chapter one, Paul summarizes his concern for the church at Rome and speaks of the Gospel which is the power of God unto salvation. His introductory remarks lead up to the theme verse for the book of Romans, chapter one, verse seventeen- the text identified by both Luther and Calvin as the critical text. Then, in a series of indictments, Paul accuses the whole human race of sin and guilt. He deals with depraved pagans (1:18-32), guilty moralizers, whether Jews or Gentiles (2:1-16), and self-confident, arrogant Jews (2:17-3:8). Finally in Romans 3:9-20, he concludes by accusing the whole human race.

With the whole world guilty before God, Paul now turns to the issue of "rightwising." How can those who are guilty and polluted by sin ever stand before a righteous God? Well this is the right place to answer that question. As Calvin puts it, "There is, perhaps, no passage in the whole Scripture which illustrates in a more striking manner the efficacy of his righteousness; for it shows that God’s mercy is the efficient cause, that Christ with his blood is the meritorious cause, the formal or instrumental cause is faith in the word, and that, moreover, the final cause is the glory of the divine justice and goodness."

We begin by considering how the word "justify" is properly understood. It is correctly interpreted when it receives its forensic or legal sense, as in verse 20. There the NIV translates the underlying Greek word as "will be declared righteous." This is a forensic usage, for the word "justify" was used in first-century courtrooms to return a verdict of not guilty, to declare the accused innocent and right with the law. This word is the exact opposite of "condemn." To justify is not "to make righteous," but "to declare righteous." Paul’s concern, then, is how can those who are in themselves sinners stand before the judgment bar of a righteous God. How can they receive a judgment so that not only are their sins forgiven, but they are truly put right with God, declared legally just before his holy scrutiny?

One way Paul addresses this question is to establish the proper grounds for a judgment of righteousness. He speaks of a "righteousness from God, apart from the law" in verse 21, and again in verse 22. In verse 28, he asserts that "a man is justified apart from observing the law." Whatever else is at work here, it appears beyond any reasonable doubt that Paul rules out personal merit or achievement of any sort. It was a common doctrine among the Jews of that day that good works, "done in obedience to the law" were "the meritorious ground on which God accepted them." But the concluding verse of the previous section, verse 20, is emphatically opposed to this idea- "no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law."

Instead, Paul appeals to another ground for right standing before God, and that ground is the cross of Jesus Christ. There are three expressions used in close proximity that explain the ground of justification. First, Paul says sinners are justified "through the redemption that came by Jesus Christ" (3:24b). Just as the word "justify" came from the courtroom, even so the word "redemption" came from the marketplace. It was a word used to refer to the purchase of a slave. The root means "ransom by payment of a price." This is a word used, in the Old Testament, for redeeming and setting free slaves; it is also used to describe the deliverance of God’s people out of Egypt and later out of Babylon. The point is abundantly clear- when we were unable to redeem ourselves, Jesus Christ offered himself as the ransom, the purchase price that buys us back from our bondage to guilt and sin. As he said in Mark’s gospel, the Son of Man came "to give his life a ransom for many" (Mk. 10:45).

Second, Paul refers to the fact that God presented Jesus "a sacrifice of atonement through faith in his blood" (3:25). This expression is translated in the King James Version as "propitiation." Just as "justification" was a legal term, and "redemption" was a business term, "propititation" is a term from the religious world. In the Old Testament, "propitiation" was used in many contexts where the Lord was angry with his people for their sin. In classical Greek it was always used to refer to appeasement of an angry deity. The pagan gods were "bad tempered, subject to moods and fits, and capricious." However, unlike the fickle and unrighteous deities of the Greek or Roman pantheon, the Lord God has kindled a holy, righteous wrath against sin, (Rom. 1:18). The need for propitiation demonstrates the bankruptcy of the idea of human merit. How can any of us, laden with the guilt and pollution of sin, do anything to remove the just wrath of a righteous God? According to Paul, the answer is otherwise. As John Stott explains it, "God’s own great love propitiated his own holy wrath through the gift of his own dear Son, who took our place, bore our sin and died our death. Thus God himself gave himself to save us from himself."

Third, Paul relates how God "demonstrates" this fact, now, that he might remain just and at the same time justify sinners "who have faith in Jesus." This demonstration indicates the cross not only to be an accomplishment, but a "public revelation." In the past, God exercised patience and forbearance. Now, he executes justice. In the past, God did not punish sin fully. Now, the full force of his wrath is played out. In the past, God provided temporary coverings for sin. Now, he provides Jesus Christ, an atoning sacrifice that once for all takes away sin by the sacrifice of himself.

The teaching of the Westminster Confession of Faith, 11:1, picks up on these Pauline emphases and we are told that the sinners’ justification occurs "not for any thing wrought in them, or done by them, but for Christ’s sake alone . . . by imputing the obedience and satisfaction of Christ unto them." It goes on to say that they must receive and rest "on him and his righteousness." Furthermore, the confession says that "Christ, by his obedience and death, did fully discharge the debt of all those that are thus justified, and did make a proper, real, and full satisfaction to his Father’s justice in their behalf. Yet, in as much as he was given by the Father for them, and his obedience and satisfaction accepted in their stead . . . their justification is only of free grace" (WCF, 11:3).

With the ground established, we must turn now to the question of the instrument of righteousness. To speak of an "instrument" of righteousness, or, to use Calvin’s language, "the instrumental cause" of justification, is to speak of a medium or a means by which God’s justifying verdict is received. Think of instrument in this sense. When you go to the service station to fill your tank with gasoline, you must first put in the hose in order to pump the gasoline. Your engine will not operate without the gasoline, for that is the one thing necessary. The hose itself adds nothing to the gasoline. If 87 Octane goes in the one end, 87 octane comes out the other. Yet, without that hose, you would have no means of accessing the gasoline that is necessary for your engine to operate.

Faith is the "hose" or instrument by which we receive the benefits of Christ. Our text is filled with assertions such as "righteousness comes through faith" (3:22); God "justifies those who have faith in Jesus" (3:26); "a man is justified by faith" (3:28); and finally in verse 30, "God . . . will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith." Moreover, the next chapter is filled with the example of Abraham, the father of the faithful. "He believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness."

Central to Calvin’s understanding is the idea that in justification, "faith is merely passive, bringing nothing of ours to the recovering of God’s favor, but receiving from Christ that which we lack." This is clearly the teaching of our text. Reformed theologians have traditionally explained faith in terms of three constituent elements: knowledge, assent, and trust. By knowledge, the reformers understood that it is not enough to believe the church, it is necessary "to embrace Jesus Christ, freely offered to us in the gospel" (Shorter Catechism, Q. 31). Faith, then, requires a certain content or factual basis. By assent, the reformers understood a mental acceptance of the truths of the gospel. It is the acknowledgment that the facts of the gospel are true and persuasive. But this is nothing without trust! The third element is that which is most properly the work of the redeemed heart. For it is only when God has replaced the heart of stone with a heart of flesh that a man is able to place his trust, his reliance, his eternal welfare solely upon the work of Christ.

As so concisely expressed in the confession, faith is "receiving and resting on him and his righteousness" (WCF, 11,2). This faith adds nothing to the mix, is not itself a meritorious work, is nothing more than the sinner abandoning all efforts at self-salvation. It is the acknowledgment that "nothing in my hands I bring, simply to thy cross I cling." To be justified by faith is to exchange self-righteousness for a righteousness from God.

Years ago, at the onset of the Cold War, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were put on trial. They were accused of being spies for the Soviet Union and of committing High Treason against the United States. They were charged and convicted of providing secrets that enabled the Soviet Union to construct their first nuclear device and successfully explode it. They were sentenced to death for their crimes.

In his summation, at the end of the long and bitter trial, the attorney for the Rosenbergs blurted out, "Your honor, what my clients ask for is justice." Judge Kaufman, who presided over the trial, answered calmly, "The court has given you what you ask for- justice! What you really want is mercy. But that is something this court has no right to give."

My friends, we have to deal with a God whose justice is infinitely more precise and exacting than that meted out by any human bar of justice. Our God is a righteous God who cannot ignore your sin or mine, but must hold us accountable for the least transgression against his righteous and holy law. And yet our righteous God IS a God of mercy, who DELIGHTS in forgiving our sins and pardoning our iniquities.

The solution to this apparent conundrum is offered in our text. God has not merely forgotten our sins, for that would be impossible and contrary to God’s character. No, he has fully exhausted his justice and his wrath against sin has been poured out in full. But the object of this wrath was none other than our Lord Jesus, who carried the guilt of our sin to Mount Calvary’s tree. There, "he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon him- and by his stripes we were healed." You see, God "has made him who knew no sin, to become sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him."

What are you trusting in, my friend? Or, to be more precise, in whom are you putting your trust? Evangelism begins within the covenant context, and God’s people would do well to make their calling and election sure. Do you know the facts of the Gospel? Do you accept them as true? Have you ceased from trusting in yourself and grasped firmly hold of Jesus Christ? God punished our sins in Christ! He did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just- and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus. Thanks be to our Righteous God, who justifies the sinner with a righteousness from God, without spot or blemish, a righteousness that comes through faith and not by works.