Romans 1:17 The Just Shall Live By Faith

In life, we all must choose which hills we are prepared to die on, those convictions for which no amount of personal sacrifice could be too high. Sometimes this means standing alone when others fall away.

It is like the familiar image from 1989 in China, of the lone man standing in front of the tank during the Tiananmen Square protests, blocking its advance and standing for what he believed was true.

As Christians, we each have a number of "tanks" to stand before; a number of hills to die on, even if it means standing alone. The most important of these is the message of the gospel itself, the good news of God, that there is forgiveness of sins and eternal life for all who place their faith in him. Here in the gospel, we find holy ground from which we can never retreat, never compromise, never change, and never adapt.

In the early fifteen hundreds, in Northern and Central Europe, God began to stir the hearts of many men and women for a recovery of the gospel. We call this the Reformation era.

For centuries, Roman Catholicism had become the increasingly dominant and controlling visible representation of Christianity, yet the name and message of Christ were increasingly obscured. But the reformers discovered the true gospel underneath the dead tradition of Catholicism; they staked the gospel flag in the ground and led an advance for the truth.

When Martin Luther was asked to recant his writings, he was prepared to die on that hill. He said, "I am bound by the scriptures I have quoted. My conscience is captive to the word of God. I cannot and will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. Here I stand. I can do no other. God help me."

When William Tyndale, who translated the scriptures from the original languages into English for mass distribution, was killed for this, he only prayed, "Lord, open the King of England's eyes." In Oxford, during the English Reformation, Hugh Latimer said to his friend Nicholas Ridley as the flames licked at their feet, "Be of good comfort, master Ridley, and play the man. We shall this day light such a candle by God's grace in England as I trust shall never be put out." John Huss, a pre-Reformation era reformer, said, "I would not for a chapel full of gold recede from the truth." So you see, friends, there are hills that we must die on, and for the gospel, we must do such.

We ought to be spurred on for Christ by the boldness and great cloud of witnesses who have gone before us as stalwart defenders of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Now, as any military commander ought to know, the best place to discover our defensive priorities is where the enemy is focusing his attacks. So it is in the Christian faith, because within the gospel message, there is a linchpin, a focal point where the enemy works tirelessly to obfuscate in the church. When this hinge pin is removed, the gospel itself crumbles, and people are led into darkness. I am speaking about the doctrine of justification by faith alone.

This glorious doctrine is at the heart of the gospel and ought to be considered our frontline. Church historians call it the "material principle" of the Reformation, the essential substance of what the Reformation was all about. The doctrine of justification by faith alone directly answers the great question of the Reformation: How can a person be made right with God? or how can the guilty be pardoned in the sight of a holy God? This was the question of Job in ages past. In Job 25:4, we read, "How then can a man be just with God? Or how can he be clean who is born of a woman?"

The reformers, most of whom were at first Roman Catholic priests, theologians, or monks, saw that in Catholic dogma, over time, the church had begun to teach that the way a person could be right with God was a Christ plus salvation, not a Christ alone; a faith plus salvation, not a faith alone salvation. They introduced works, preaching another gospel, which is no gospel at all. The great rediscovery, which we individually must make this morning, is that in the gospel, through faith alone in Christ, God's righteousness is credited to the guilty. We are declared righteous and without sin by God, given all that is Christ's apart from human works.

Martin Luther's Discovery

Having said that by way of introduction, I want to continue with a concise retelling of the story of Martin Luther, a key figure of the Reformation.

Martin Luther was a German monk, ordained priest, and professor of Bible in Wittenberg, Germany, in the early fifteen hundreds. As one author put it, Luther seemed to face a monumental life crisis every five years or so from 1505 onwards. This led to the critical Reformation moment when he posted the infamous ninety-five theses to the Wittenberg All Saints Church in Germany on 31 October 1517.

In 1505, as a new law student leaving his university one day, Luther was caught in a storm, perhaps even more violent than the one we experienced on Thursday past. A lightning bolt struck the ground just feet in front of Luther, and he cried out as a devout Catholic, "Saint Anne, help me! I will become a monk."

Luther survived that day and, true to his word, entered the monastery. But as a monk, Luther could never find the peace with God he so desperately wanted. All the Catholic dogma before him, in his studies as a scholar and in his vocation as a priest, brought him no relief. In his own words, he said, "I did not love, yes I hated, the righteous God who punishes sinners, and secretly, if not in blasphemy, certainly murmuring greatly, I was angry with God." Luther was restless in his soul.

He was known to confess his sins before the priest in such depth, sometimes for up to three hours, that the priest would become exasperated with him. Luther found himself mortified at the thought of dying with some unconfessed sin and perishing forever in hell. He was haunted by the fact that he knew he was a worm and a sinner before a most holy and righteous God. As R. C. Sproul wrote, "He knew the severe penalty for breaking the law of God, and he knew that his soul was exposed to the potential torment of everlasting damnation." But the Roman church had no good news for Luther.

Skip forward to 1515: as a professor of Bible, Luther began lecturing through the book of Romans. Here was another lightning bolt crisis moment for Luther, which would change his life forever. Luther found himself before these words in Romans 1:17: "For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, but the righteous man shall live by faith."

As Luther poured over his Greek New Testament and the letter to the Romans, he realised that his whole understanding, and indeed that of the Catholic church, had been horribly wrong as to this righteousness of God. To Luther, the righteousness of God had been something to be actively sought and attained by man, rather than something passively received. Luther had been terrified of the righteousness of God, because it made God unapproachable to someone who knew his own sin. But by the Spirit of God, he came to see that the Apostle Paul was talking about a righteousness available to sinners for their justification and right standing, and it comes through faith alone.

In Luther's own words, he wrote of Romans 1:17: "The righteousness of God must not be understood as that righteousness by which he, that is, God, is righteous in himself, but as that righteousness by which we are made righteous. And this happens through faith in the gospel." He goes on to say, that the doors of paradise, as it were, opened up and swung open and he walked through, now realising that all the sinner required to know they are forgiven and rightly standing before God was that God had so freely provided, through faith in Christ alone, that righteousness, and it comes apart from human works. He saw that in the gospel, God provides an alien righteousness, one from outside of us, credited to the sinner. The righteousness of God is a righteousness which justifies, that is, it declares the sinner as in right standing with God.

The classic Reformation saying of Luther's, therefore, was in the Latin, "simul iustus et peccator," which means "at the same time, righteous and a sinner." This saying, friends, captures the truth of the doctrine of justification by faith: that at the same time, we are both counted righteous in Christ and a sinner.

Romans Context

Let us move to the text of Romans for our remaining time. A little context will be helpful. The first seventeen verses of Paul's letter to the Romans are an introduction to the letter as a whole. Paul first identifies himself to the church at Rome as one set apart for the proclamation of the gospel (Romans 1:1), a gospel long promised in the scriptures, now fulfilled by the arrival of Jesus Christ. Paul sees his whole life as focused on bringing about the obedience of all peoples everywhere to this gospel. He considers himself as under obligation to preach the message to all people (Romans 1:14). He longs to eventually arrive in Rome and to minister the gospel among the Christians there (Romans 1:15).

Paul then says in Romans 1:16 that he is not ashamed of the gospel message. Meaning as an understatement; he is amazed by the gospel and proud to be its ambassador. He goes on in concise form in verses 16 and 17 to state why he is not ashamed of the gospel, and so introduces the central concern of the first eleven chapters of Romans.

Paul has many reasons, which I will summarise as given by Martin Lloyd-Jones in his Romans commentary on this chapter. Firstly, Paul is not ashamed because the gospel concerns good news, the best possible news among people. Secondly, because in the gospel, there is a great and comprehensive salvation, a total end-to-end plan of God. Thirdly, Paul is not ashamed of the gospel because it is God's way of salvation; it is not man's doing. Fourthly, because it is a powerful gospel, mighty to save. Fifthly, because it is a gospel for all the world, to the Jew as to the Gentile. Sixth, because it is good news that God has revealed; it is a revelation made fully known in Christ. Seventh, because of the content of its revelation, for in the gospel is the righteousness of God made available to sinners. Finally, Paul is not ashamed because it is by faith alone that this righteousness of God is provided to the believer in Christ.

Romans 1:17

Now let us focus our attention just on verse 17. An important question we need to answer to understand this passage is: what is this righteousness of God that the Apostle Paul speaks of here? It seems there are three main understandings that have emerged, all with elements of truth, but only one which can justifiably explain what the Spirit is saying in this passage.

First, some hold that this "righteousness of God" refers to the attribute of God's righteousness. We refer to God as a righteous God, do we not? In other words, God's righteous character is revealed in the gospel of Christ. This is how some have understood it, and this was how Luther first understood it, before suddenly realising he had it all wrong, because it made Luther stand beneath the righteousness of God and see nothing approachable.

Secondly, some say this righteousness speaks of the saving action of God. God made promises that he would move in human history to bring the promised seed, the Messiah, into the world, and he has done so in Christ. Now, this is true. In this way, God shows himself by his activity as righteous to fulfil his promises. Some commentators say it refers to God's covenant faithfulness. Again, this is true, but I do not think this is what Paul is saying in this passage.

Thirdly, the clear and I believe the correct view, the view of the reformers, is that the righteousness of God revealed in the gospel is a peculiar righteousness: one available to the sinner. It is God's righteousness, packaged up and gifted or imputed to the sinner. In other words, Paul describes the essential feature of the gospel as the bestowing of God's righteousness upon the sinner, a righteousness required to have fellowship with him, but which we cannot produce ourselves. Later on, Paul says in Romans 5:17, "For if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the one, Jesus Christ."

John Stott, in his commentary on Romans, writes, "It is a righteous status which God requires if we are ever to stand before him, which he achieves through the atoning sacrifice of the cross, which he reveals in the gospel, and which he bestows freely on all who trust in Jesus Christ."

Picture with me a courtroom scene. If you have ever been on a jury, you will understand how a courtroom works. A defendant stands in the dock, guilty on numerous charges. The judge, having heard the charges, unexpectedly declares that the defendant is justified, they are no longer condemned. In other words, "I declare you as righteous and therefore no longer under the condemnation of the law," and sets the defendant free.

Friends, this is what happens in the gospel. It is we who are in the dock. Our sins and charges are piled high. God is the judge in this cosmic courtroom; he looks over all your transgressions and then brings down the hammer, and as your head hangs, thinking there is no hope for you, instead of hearing the word "condemned," you hear your name and the word "justified." You hear, "Set him free. I shall cover his debts."

That is the message of the gospel. Paul says later in Romans 3:25-26, "In the forbearance of God, he passed over the sins previously committed, for the demonstration, I say, of his righteousness at the present time, so that he would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus." You see, that God justifies the guilty does not compromise his own justice is because, in that courtroom scene, he points over to his only begotten Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and says, "My Son shall be your willing substitute. He will pay your debts down to the last one. He will earn the righteousness you require before the law, and it will cost you nothing."

I like how Calvin, another reformer, put it: "I take the righteousness of God to mean that which is approved before his tribunal." In other words, God, in Christ, is supplying his own righteousness that we require in his courtroom, what we did not have ourselves, so now we can live before God in right standing. This is the greatest news, the greatest story ever told among people.

In orthodox Roman Catholic teaching, their concept of justification is markedly different from what I have just explained, and it is foreign to scripture. Over time, the idea developed that justification is a "making righteous," which stands in stark contrast to the biblical concept of "declaring righteous." In Catholic teaching, when you are baptised into the church as an infant or adult, you are said to enter into a state where, because of the waters of baptism, the grace of God has been infused within. You must then maintain that state of grace, which is in no way immutable, it can be lost, particularly through committing what are called mortal or grievous sins. One can maintain this state of grace, they say, by attending the mass, by taking of the Eucharist, by confessing your sins to a priest, by paying indulgences, by praying to the saints, and by using all the apparatus Catholicism provides.

Catholicism places people on the works treadmill, works to make you righteous. That is why it is a Christ-plus religion; a faith-plus religion. They place you on the treadmill of works to make you righteous and Christ's work is only considered a component of what is required for your final justification.

You can now see why Luther could find no peace, because with this teaching, your salvation is in a state of flux. They can offer you no assurance that you will go to heaven when you die, as they must look at your "performance" and say, "Well, how did he do?", forgetting that it is not based on our performance, but on Christ's performance. We do not represent ourselves when we go to heaven, Christ represents us.

That is why Luther could find no peace. The sinner asks, "How can I possibly know if I have done enough to secure my justification?" So, the simple fact is that whether one is justified or not in Catholicism depends entirely on whether you, of your own volition, cooperate with the grace they say is infused at baptism. That is no gospel. It is a rank heresy, what Rome teaches. This is not the good news of Jesus Christ, without even scratching the surface of the grave errors of Roman Catholicism.

Before we close, let us look at the last phrase in verse 17, which reads, "from faith to faith," or in the NIV, "for in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last." Paul is using a rhetorical device here to emphasise that the transmission of this righteousness of God, this right standing for the sinner, is all of faith. Essential to the gospel Paul preaches is faith from first to last, it is all of faith.

Here is emphasised the primacy of faith as the conduit along which God's justifying righteousness is made available to the sinner. Another has said, "A righteous status which is altogether by faith." Friends, we must not make faith into some kind of work or a new law. We are not saved on the basis of our belief or our faith; we are saved because of the righteousness that has been given us, and it comes to us along the conduit of faith.

We ought to think of faith as something like a causeway carrying a flow of water, or as a piece of spouting on a roof that holds and directs the water. Faith is a little like that; it is what God uses to direct his own righteousness to the sinner. Matthew Henry said, "Faith is all in all, both in the beginning and progress of Christian life. It is not from faith to works, as if faith puts us in a justified state and then works keep us in it, but it is all along from faith to faith. It is faith pressing forward and gaining the victory over unbelief."

Conclusion

Let me offer a word in conclusion. There was a man by the name of David Sandeman, a Scottish missionary to China, who lived from 1826 to 1858. He died at the age of thirty-two. He loved the Lord, he loved the lost, and he loved this gospel, taking it to foreign peoples with limited access to the word of God. But the Lord, in his providence, took David home during a cholera epidemic; he died, as many would say, too young.

His testimony on his deathbed sums up all we have seen by looking at the doctrine of justification. David’s friend asked him about his spiritual state as he watched him die. David responded, "I am head to foot in righteousness." And that is just it! On your deathbed, nothing shall matter more than whether you stand head to foot in righteousness, not your own, but that of Christ.

The promise of God, even here today, is that the righteousness of God that you, the sinner, so desperately need is available because of what Jesus has done for you. You need only receive it. You cannot earn it, nor be worthy of it. He does not ask you to. He says, believe upon my Son, and I shall credit all the righteousness you require for glory to you, free of charge, for I have provided all you need. Only come and drink at the well of eternal life.

Jesus said in John 3:18, "He who believes in him, that is, Jesus, is not judged." Why? Well, he has done all we need, and we could never do ourselves.

Martin Luther discovered by God’s grace the truth of the gospel of justification by faith alone, but you and I must discover it for ourselves. I ask you in closing: Are you standing this morning, and are you sure, head to foot in the righteousness of Christ? If you are not, what is stopping you this morning from calling upon Him and saying, "God, give me what I do not have myself"?