Faith Alone

‘For in the Gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith.. “The Righteous will live by faith”’ Romans 1:17.

As some of you may be aware I ride a motorcycle. I’ve ridden bikes for a bit over 12 years now. The motorcycle I ride now I purchased exactly 10 years ago today. And it was an experience I won’t forget in a hurry, for various reasons but particularly the test ride I had.

Up until that point I only had a provisional riders license, which is a controlled license meaning you can only ride a bike up to 250cc. But come the 6th of April 1998, I had a full license and could ride any sized bike my heart desired. Unfortunately, my wallet didn’t quite have the same level of commitment as my heart, but a compromise was reached and I decided on my 850cc twin cylinder bike, which is still a fair lump of bike though, let me assure you.

Now after my research I discovered the best price for this bike was in fact from a dealer that was in Elizabeth St in the city, near central railway station. Which was all fine to get there off the train, but it meant my first ride, the test ride of this bike, was in the congested streets of weekday traffic at central railway. It was some experience, and in when I managed to get the bike back to the dealer without knocking over every bike in the store in the process, my eyes were about the size of 50c pieces and I needed a quiet little sit down.

Afterwards, I relayed my experience to a friend from work who also rode, and was something of a mentor in the process and he said to me, ‘Andrew, there are two types of people in this world when it comes to motorcycling:
Those who ride a bike and say that scared the daylights out of me, and I never-ever want to do it again!
And Those who ride a bike and say that scared the daylights out of me, and I love it!

Well what has that got to do with anything? Glad you asked, thank you. Well motorcycles in this regard are just like the ‘Righteousness of God’.. No really stay with me here!!

By the end of the talk today we’ll be able to see that there are only two types of people in the world when it comes to the ‘Righteousness of God’, much the same as motorcycles:
Those who it scares the daylights out of and say I never want to having anything to do with it again.
And those who it scares the daylights out of and say, ‘and I love it!’

There are only two types of people, but the encouraging news is, it is possible to be one type and then change to the other. And that is what Martin Luther, an Augustinian Monk in the Roman Catholic Church in the 16th Century in Germany, discovered from his reading of the Bible and in particular the book of Romans. Luther was one who had nothing but fear and trepidation when it came to the ‘Righteousness of God’, but then discovered the great treasure and Joy that is found in the ‘Righteousness of God’ that has been revealed in Jesus Christ.

As you may be aware this week is the second of four sermons in a series about some of the central truths of the Christian faith, that were rediscovered by a group of Christians called the reformers.

The reformers, and Martin Luther in particular, had set out to find some answers to the big questions of life, like ‘what is God like?’. And not just those kind of abstract questions about God, but the more difficult question, the personal question, the dangerous question, the question that changes everything, the question the reformers asked is ‘What is God like toward me?’.

How will I find God when I meet him at my life’s end. What will my creator be like to me, Will he be angry with how I have used my life? Will he be my judge? Will he just be disinterested and pay me no regard at all?

The reformers found themselves within a Roman Catholic church of the middle ages, that offered them no genuine hope in the response to the question of ‘What is God like towards me?’.

The Official catholic teaching of the day offered only a general sense of hope, that because of Christ death, and God’s grace working in us, if you did right you could be right with God. In Luther’s world, the Roman Catholic churches answer to question ‘How can I be sure of what God is like towards me?’ was in simple terms, ’just try harder!’. You need to do right, to be right!

But in total contrast, the answer the reformers were to find in the Bible, was to rock the foundation of the Church they belonged to, and it even tore at the fabric of the societies they lived in. In fact this question and the answers they found changed the face of society across the entirety of Europe, and would go on to shape the nature of societies throughout the later developed world, including the USA and even Australia.

The answer to the question, ‘What is God like towards me?’ would come in the theological declaration that a person could be right with God, that a person need no longer fear God, and this based on five great truths of the Christian faith found in the Bible.

The five statements called solas, which is latin for alones were, grace alone, faith alone, Christ alone, Bible alone and To the Glory of God alone. The summary of the reformation teaching we are looking at over this series is the theological statement:
‘Justification is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. Which is the heart of the Gospel message we learn from the Bible Alone.’

Now if that phrase doesn’t kind of instantly ring true in your head, or you even think, I have no idea what he is talking about, well relax, it’s ok, it can sound a little technical with a lot of definitions to understand, so if you don’t catch all the detail, don’t sweat it, that’s ok, just let the general sense of the things kind of wash over you and sink in.

In Short is means, God saves us by his grace – his gift to us of Jesus who died on the cross. And because of this we can be children of God. We can have a right standing with God, or we can be justified which is the language of the Bible.
And all we can do is accept this gift and add nothing to it – nothing at all!

Over this series we are looking at four of these truths, and today we are thinking about the concept of Faith or Faith Alone as the reformers termed it. Faith alone is our right response to ‘Righteousness of God’ that has been revealed in the gospel message about Jesus Christ.

The dark Specter of the ‘Righteousness of God’
Whatever else the righteousness of God is, it is first and foremost a description of the Character of God. It is a description of the character of God, because it is also a description of all his actions. God is in himself righteous, both right and just in himself, but he is also right and just in all his actions towards us.

Luther rightly understood from reading Romans, that when the Righteous meets the unrighteous, what you get is judgment.
1:18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness,

Luther, understood that a Holy God must be a righteous judge of all that is unrighteous and all that is unholy in his creation.
In Romans 3:10-13 we read where Paul is quoting the Psalms of the Old Testament:
10 As it is written: "There is no one righteous, not even one;
11 there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God.
12 All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one."

And this concerned Luther greatly, because although he was the most conscientious of all monks, but even he knew despite all his devout religious observations, within himself he was not righteous. He knew he had not ‘done enough good’ to wash away the stain of his unrighteous deeds. His unrighteous deeds were his, they were his doing, and his problem before God. Like an albatross around his neck, if you know the poem.

But I’m sure Luther is not alone in this, my own experience and I’m quite certain yours, if you’re being honest, will agree with what we read in Romans 3:23
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
And all people do it knowing that, 1:32 Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.

Both the Bible and experience tell us, we have done and do things, (that are not even pleasing to ourselves), much less God.

Given this the ‘Righteousness of God’ is a fearful prospect isn’t it?
I mean, I don’t even want people to know the things of done, much less have to them all exposed before God and then be called to account absolutely justly and rightly for each of them?

Luther knew that even with a lifetime to prepare for it, He couldn’t possibly be ready to meet the righteousness of God. He knew he could never make himself perfectly right or righteous in order to meet God on right terms.

But as he kept reading Romans he discovered something that would change his life for ever. He Discovered:



The Brilliant Light of the ‘Righteousness of God’
Luther new that God was right and just, Righteous, in his character and in all he dealings with man, and this scared the life out of him. But Luther hadn’t not yet come to comprehend the amazing depths of the ‘Righteousness of God’ in his character and especially in his dealings with mankind.

There are only two types of people when it comes to the ‘Righteousness of God’, those who fear it, and those who love it. And this is because there are only two types of people when it comes to the Cross of Christ. Those who get it, and those who don’t.

Luther, under God’s grace, went from being one who feared the ‘Righteousness of God’ to one whom loved the ‘Righteousness of God’. And this was because God’s Righteousness was of a far higher caliber than Luther had imagined. All of a sudden Luther understood the meaning of the Cross of Christ, that in that action, God was both Just and the Justifier, of all who accepted the gift of forgiveness in Christ. A gift to be accepted by grace alone.
3:21 But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify.
22 This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference,
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
24 and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
25 God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished--
26 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.

God does something, and not just something BUT EVERYTHING, to deal with the problem for us of what will happen when a holy God, meets his unrighteous and wayward creation. A creation that in its natural inclination pays him no regard and does what it pleases.

God in Christ saved us from the penalty of our own sin, by dying on the cross in our place. Our sins, were paid for there. So that God’s righteousness would be far greater than what Luther had imagined. God is no cheap hanging judge just wanting to reek vengeance on guilty people. But God is both Just in his judgment, and the Justifier, because in the person of his Son Jesus Christ, God takes upon himself the penalty that the guilty deserved.

We are Justified (or put right with God) by grace alone though Faith Alone in Christ alone. Luther talked about salvation in this way, ‘Jesus takes all the filth of my life, that is mine alone, and my doing and he makes it his at the Cross. Then he takes all the riches that he received from his father, because of his obedience, and he makes them mine’. Luther called it the great exchange. God’s gracious gift.

And because of this God can give us the guilty a right standing and relationship with him. God saves the guilty, and brings us from spiritual death to spiritual life in relationship with him. But make no mistake this is not cheap forgiveness, a Holy God cannot be with an un-Holy people, but in Christ and on the cross where he died God was paying a heavy price to secure our freedom from our own sin. He is both Just and the Justifier.

But we still haven’t exactly answered the reformers question yet have we?
‘What is God like towards me?’ Well that’s what we’ll look at now.

The ‘Righteousness of God’ is by Faith from first to last (FAITH ALONE)
The ‘Righteousness of God’ is a description of the character of God, it is also a description of the action of God in his Son, Jesus Christ and of his Cross in particular. But The ‘Righteousness of God’ is also the Gift of God to us.

The answer to the question, ‘What is God like towards me?’, Is this: God is for us. God’s righteousness is revealed to us, and it is more wonderful than we could have ever imagined. God is not just some smug zero tolerance politician, but a just and loving heavenly father. God gives us the gift of salvation.

God’s grace to us, grace just means his gift to us, is his righteous action to save us from our sin, which is his gift to us, a gift we receive ‘by faith’. Or by faith alone, or a righteousness by faith, ‘from first to last’ to use the words of 1:17.

But that is how God has always saved his people, as Romans 4 points out that even Old Testament Patriarch Abraham was saved by faith, not by his works.

So I guess the follow up question is, what is faith?
Well the Bible tells us that faith is a simple and genuine trust in the promise and offer of God. Our Faith is a simple ‘yes’ to the question would you like Jesus to deliver you from the wrong you have done through his death in your place?

Our Faith is a conscious recognition of the truth of our situation before God and an acknowledgement of God’s gracious offer of a right relationship (or righteousness) with him. It is our genuine ‘thank you’ in accepting the gift of forgiveness and salvation he offers. We trust that what he has done will be given to us. In the same breath our ‘yes’ is a ‘yes’ to Christ alone, and at the same time a ‘No’ to our capacity to do anything to fix it ourselves.

But the question this always raises for us, in our desperate search for some dignity in all this, is surely you have to do more than say thank you?
This leads us to little saying Paul uses in the first chapter of Romans in V6 and in the last chapter of Romans in V26. Paul calls it:

The ‘Obedience of Faith’
Paul highlights throughout Romans, that any genuine ‘thank you’ to God, has to include an acknowledgement of guilt in the first place. You can’t accept a plea bargain from the judge, unless you plead guilty first!

So our ‘yes’ to God’s plea bargain, where Christ takes all our punishment for us and wipes our charge sheet clean for all time, has to be a genuine ‘thank you’, where we no longer live as the enemies of God like we once were. We now are saved and have been given a right status with God, and so we now set out to live in a way that is pleasing to God. Paul calls this mindset the ‘obedience of faith’. This is the same thing that James talks about in chapter 2:14 of his letter.

Faith alone is what saves, because Christ has done everything to save us. Now we are saved by faith, we live a life of obedience to God, the ‘obedience of faith’.
Conclusion:
The Bible only gives us two choices when it comes to the issue of ‘What is God like toward me?’.
There are only two ways you can understand the ‘Righteousness of God’, one as a fearful prospect of being shown truly for who you are towards God, and the other starts with a fearful acknowledgement, but it ends in great joy and hope, just like it did for Martin Luther.

There are only two ways you can understand this ‘Righteousness of God’, because there are only two ways you can understand the cross of Christ.

So the question is I guess, what is the cross of Christ to you?
Is it your ‘yes’, or will it be your ‘no’ to God’s gracious offer of forgiveness. A salvation from God that is his gift alone, of Christ alone, that we accept by faith alone. Our faith is a simple yes, to accepting God’s gift.

Today is a very good day to accept that gift, to say yes to the cross of Christ and to live like the apostle Paul who said:
16 I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.
17 For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: "The righteous will live by faith."