“The Righteousness of God”
Isaiah 61:8-11
Romans 1:16-17,
Last week I really enjoyed our dialogue during
the sermon. It was a good reminder that
the preaching of the Word is to be a dialogue and not just a monologue, not
just a dialogue with each other, but most importantly a dialogue with God. I also enjoyed the reaction from some of you
after the worship service and during the week.
The topic of being born again sure set off a reaction with some of you,
but it was meant to set off a reaction.
The question I asked you at the beginning of the sermon was an
intentional question, “Are you a born again Christian?” It was meant to get a reaction. It was meant to stir something in you. The very fact that it did stir up something in
you means that I am doing what I am called to do. I hope that this stirring will be the holy
nudge that causes you to continue to have a conversation with each other and me
about it. And so today, on this
Reformation Sunday, I want to delve more deeply into the theological concept of
being born from above in order to gain an even clearer insight into this
theological truth.
As evident from last week, the words “born
again” are loaded words. Unfortunately,
these two words have been hijacked by the media, certain special interest
groups, and some denominations to the point that they have come to be
understood in a very different way that how they should be. My problem with these two words are not that
they loaded words, they are supposed to be loaded words, they are meant to be
loaded words, my problem is that their theological meaning has been so
distorted in this contemporary religious culture that they have lost their true
theological intent. This is exactly why
Nicodemus got tripped up in his conversation with Jesus.
Nicodemus heard Jesus say the words “gennethe anothen” (Greek words,
written in English), to be born from above, and he immediately thought of the
natural process of being born again.
These words were loaded words for him, words that he was unable to pick
up on them because his theological world-view did not allow him to understand
what Jesus was talking about. Nicodemus
theological world-view said, “No, it is not possible to be born from above
because I am the one who determines my own righteousness before God. I am the one who makes myself
right before God and gains salvation through my adherence to the law, so
therefore Jesus must be talking about being born again from my mother, and that
is just not possible.” But Jesus meant
no such thing. Jesus meant exactly what
he said. “No one can see the
If you think that Nicodemus’
world-view has long since disappeared, I promise you it has not. Let’s move ahead some 1500 years to the year
1517 in a small town in
One night, as he sat at his wooden desk in his
study, under the light of a candle, he again read Paul’s letter to the
Romans. But this time something
different happened when he read these words, the very same words we read as our
scripture reading:
“For the righteousness of God is revealed through
faith for faith; as it is written, ‘The one who is righteous will live by
faith.’”
When
Luther read Paul’s words from Romans 1:16 and 17, that the righteousness of God
is revealed through faith for faith and that the righteous live by faith, the
weight and fear of not knowing whether he was righteous before God and
therefore saved lifted from his shoulders. For Luther, this was a life changing
revelation. For Luther, this was his
moment of spiritual rebirth, for he realized that he had indeed been born from
above. He realized for the first time
that the righteousness of God meant two different things and that he had only
been taught the second one, that God’s righteousness is the means by which God
judges sinners.
But what Luther discovered was that God’s
righteousness was more than just an function of God’s
work; it was an attribute of God’s self, a quality of God that is given through
grace to sinners that makes them righteous before God. What Luther discovered in reading Romans was
that our righteousness, our being made right before God, is none other than the
righteousness of God’s self given to us.
And it was this radical new perspective that changed everything for
Martin Luther. He was no longer a man
consumed by doubt or his work to make himself right before God, or even his own
fear of not being saved. Through the
power of the Holy Spirit he had been set free.
For Luther, no one can make himself or herself right before God, no
matter how good or faithful or repentant one is. The one who makes us right before God is not
ourselves; it is God, the righteousness of God revealed in Jesus Christ.
Let’s move ahead another 500 years
to today. For many people, the idea that
one has to be born from above, or born again, in order to be made righteous
before God and saved is a shocking theological concept. It is shocking because we want to be the ones
in control of our own salvific destiny. We want our salvation to be based on what we
do, not on what God does. But Paul
reminds us that the question of salvation is not about what, or even when, but
about who. It is God who saves people
because God is righteous, and this righteousness has been revealed through the
redemption that has been given through the sacrifice of Christ Jesus.
For Paul, and for Jesus, being born from above is rooted in
the character and heart of God’s self, in the righteousness of God. Not
one person, not a single human being, is able to, nor even has the ability to
come to Christ unless God draws
them. Before a person is able to see and
believe, before that person is even able to come to Christ, his or her heart
must be changed. He or she must be born
again, must be born from above, must be born of the
Spirit. Martin Luther came to realize
that night in his candlelit study, that regeneration, being born from above,
being born again, precedes faith. We do
not believe and have faith so we can be born again, we are born again so that
we can believe and have faith. It is the
righteousness of God given to us that gives us the ability to have faith in
Jesus Christ. Only when God regenerates
us through the power of the Holy Spirit and makes us alive together with Christ
are we then able to make a choice about Him.
It is only then that we believe.
It is only then that we have a faith that saves.
And what is this saving faith? It is a faith that trusts completely in the
righteousness of God, a faith that trusts completely that we have been made
right before God, a faith by which we acknowledge, receive, and respond to what
God has already done for us through the death and resurrection of Jesus
Christ. The righteousness of God is not a threat to our freedom, it is the source
of our freedom, it is the good news of the gospel for
which we are not ashamed, the power of God for salvation to everyone who
believes. The righteousness of God is
God’s gift of grace that is none other than a spiritual rebirth, a spiritual
rebirth that changes our faith from a noun to a verb, from something we have to
acquire to gain God’s favor, to the way in which we live in the assurance and
knowledge and promise that we are already in God’s favor.
The question I asked you last week
may still be lingering in your mind, and you may now wonder, “How then do I
know that I have been born from above?”
The answer is simple. I invite
you to turn to page 921 in your pew Bible to Romans 10:9-13.
9 because if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in
your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For
one believes with the heart and so is justified, and
one confesses with the mouth and so is saved. 11 The scripture says, "No
one who believes in him will be put to shame." 12 For there is no
distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all and is generous
to all who call on him. 13 For, "Everyone who calls on the name of the
Lord shall be saved."
It is through this spiritual
rebirth in being born from above that changes our way of life and re-orients it
and centers it on God, that transforms us from not only just hearers of the
Word on Sundays, but to doers of the Word everyday, a spiritual rebirth that
calls us to service in the church and in the world, that calls us to think
about our priorities in life, that calls us to reflect upon what we value most,
that calls us to give abundantly, that gives us the courage and the hope to
face each new daily challenge, that even stirs us up from time to time to
wrestle with God’s word, and that even gives us the ability to confess Jesus is
Lord.
My friends,
rejoice in the assurance and the knowledge and promise that you too have been
given a spiritual rebirth, that you too have been born from above, set free to
live a life in the gift of grace that is the righteousness of God. Amen.