Faith and Righteousness: The Heart of the Gospel

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But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. [00:36:14]

Luther himself, despite his intellect and despite his religious zeal, had found himself desperately in need of God, and he had gone to Rome on a spiritual quest. He set himself the challenge of taking four weeks to try and answer for himself the question, how could someone ever know that they had done enough to merit God's grace? [05:30:00]

He discovered for the first time in his life that righteousness, or our right standing with God, is not something that we are called to produce, but rather it is that which God has chosen to provide, that it is not to be earned by our endeavors, but that it is to be received as a gift. [06:50:00]

The gravity of the human condition is to be found, and you may read this for yourselves for homework, in the fact that by nature men and women suppress the truth about God, suppress the truth. In other words, they say to themselves, no, I do not believe this, no, I will not believe this. [13:27:00]

Sin, wrote Luther, has crippled the ability of every person to make their way back to God. Sin has crippled our ability to make our way back to God. It is only as we own up to that, that we will lay hold of the free forgiveness that is offered to us in the gospel. [15:41:00]

This is made clear again and again, verse 22, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ, verse 25, the propitiation by his blood to which will come to be received by faith. He was to show his righteousness at the present time so that he might be the just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. [16:29:00]

The story of the Bible is a story of a God who makes promises to us and then calls us to believe that he keeps his promises. There you have it, Luther, if I can do this, if I can do that, if I can keep this, if I can secure that, and the light goes on, I've got this upside down. [21:34:00]

All have sinned without exception, we've missed the mark, we're short of the target, we've transgressed the rules, we have rebelled, all of us. But this good news is not for a certain group, this good news is for all who believe. All have sinned, the human condition, all who believe are on the receiving end of the promise. [22:28:00]

Justification is not an experience in us, justification is what God has done for us and is the basis of our confidence about what will happen to us, for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. On what basis do you plan on standing there? [25:12:00]

The divine exchange that is at the heart of the gospel, it's what makes it the gospel. It is in theological terminology, substitutionary atonement, that one dies in the place of those who deserve to die, so that those who deserve to die may not die. [27:15:00]

Reconciliation is in and through the death of Christ. That brings us to our final big word and you will see that it is there that God has put forward Jesus as a propitiation by his blood. We are alienated from God on two sides. Do you understand this? [33:28:00]

My job as a preacher is to tell you that God has made promises and to urge you to believe that he keeps the promises he makes to all who have faith in him. [40:12:00]

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