God's Righteousness Revealed To Faith

Minister:
Date: AM
Text: Romans 1:17
Psalters: 128, 26, 231, 403
  1. The fact.
    1. The setting (16).
      1. Paul declared that he was not ashamed to bring the gospel of God concerning Jesus (1:1,3).
      2. God’s gospel concerning His Son reveals.
    2. What the gospel of God reveals is His righteousness – God’s attribute whereby He, in His willing and working, is in perfect harmony with His own perfect being. His works are perfect and He rewards and punishes in perfect justice.
      1. Luther thought the gospel revealed only this attribute, which blocked his way to salvation.
      2. But Paul meant that the gospel reveals that Jesus made man to be in conformity to God.
  2. How does this righteousness become ours? By the means of faith.
    1. The righteousness of God is revealed “from faith to faith.”
      1. This faith is a gift of God (not earned nor man’s work, Eph. 2:8,9).
      2. Faith is the instrument God uses to give His declaration of righteousness to the conscious believer.
    2. Paul quotes from Habakkuk 2:4 to show that this is the way it has always been.
      1. Habakkuk judged God to be doing it wrong to punish sinful Judah with the more sinful Chaldeans.
      2. Note that Habakkuk contrasts faith (humble accepting of God’s will) with a “lifted up soul” (pride).
    3. To say that one is righteous by faith alone is to say that man’s good works have nothing to do with it.
    4. With Luther let us grasp our justification in Christ by faith.