Our sermon text for this morning, taken from Romans 3, verse 21 and following, helps us to understand how the last verse of what we just sang would be true. The God of Israel I will praise and all His glory show. The righteous He will high exalt and bring the wicked low. Remarkable confidence sung by the psalmist in the covenant community in that psalm. Remarkable confidence we expressed in singing it. And Romans 3, verses 21 and following help us to understand how it is that we can have such confidence. I've heard it said before that the first sermon somebody preaches oftentimes becomes the reflection on the whole of their ministry. And while I don't pretend that such an observation is necessarily true, I certainly would be very thankful if it were true that the truths of this text did become the dominating voice that God proclaimed through His servant for many, many years to come because it is nothing other than the good news of Jesus Christ. Before we read together Romans 3, 21 and following, let us ask the Lord to bless His Word for us. Our God and Father, we do thank You for Your Word and we do thank You for the truths revealed in it, both Your law and Gospel. And we pray that as we read it, our hearts might be pierced with its truth, that our ears would be opened to hear it, that our eyes would see the glory that You have revealed in Christ and in Christ for us by faith. Help us, dear Father, to hear these words and believe this morning. In the name of Jesus we ask. Amen. Romans chapter 3, beginning with verse 1. Hear the Word of God. But now, Paul writes, but now a righteousness from God apart from law has been made known to which the law and the prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented Him as a sacrifice of atonement through the faith in His blood. He did this to demonstrate His justice because in His forbearance He had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished. He did it to demonstrate His justice and at the present time so also to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus. So was the reading of God's Word. The Word of God before us this morning is much like some of us heard last evening set within the context last Lord's Day evening. It is set within the context of a courtroom. Words and ideas present in these first chapters of Romans are law and justice, guilt and judgment. And much like that very popular TV show, which I've never seen, much like Law and Order, all the drama is present that a courtroom will bring and we might even find it to be entertaining if we didn't find ourselves to be those on trial. chapter 1, verse 18, through chapter 3, verse 20. In these words, Paul unfolds for us the scene that happens in the courtroom of heaven. And this afternoon, if you can find the time, I would encourage you to take a look at what unfolds there, to take a look at those first chapters of Romans and get a sense for the fear. That inevitably will be ours when standing before the Holy God and Judge of Heaven. Not long ago, I visited with a dear friend whose body was very disabled by a stroke. And it seemed she may have been on death's door and was filled with fear. Terrified. Facing many questions about what it will be like to stand before God. She was facing many of the questions that most of us have no doubt thought of before. Those questions become quite popular through evangelism explosion. The first one being, if you died tonight, do you know for sure that you will be with God in heaven? And the second one, if you asked, or rather, if God asked you, why should I let you into heaven, what would you say? If God asked you, why should I let you into heaven, what would you say? These were the questions my friend was asking as death was knocking on her door. what will you look to your own righteousness? Will you look to your own obedience? Will you point to what you have done? Or will you look to another? If any questions in life are relevant, surely these questions are relevant. We deal with so many questions in life. We deal with investments. We deal with what courses and school we should take. We deal with what we hope to be when we grow up. But nothing is more relevant than these questions because nothing is more eminent for us as humans living in the world of curse than death. Each one of us can relate to the significance of the question, Why should God let you into heaven? Paul presses this question for us in the first chapters of Romans. And as we come to chapter 3, verse 21, we hear him introduce a contrast and a most significant transition with the words, but now a righteousness from God apart from law has been made known. If we would have a more wooden translation, it would say, But now, apart from law, those are the words Paul presses on us here, But now, apart from law, something has been made known. And so we should begin in understanding these words by understanding what he means by this idea of law. And it's relevant to the questions posed earlier, Because if you would, or if I would, or if anyone would look to our own righteousness while standing before God, if we would point to what we have done, we necessarily find ourselves resting in the law. Resting in what we have accomplished through the law. And the reason is because when we look to our own righteousness, we necessarily need to look to the law. Because righteousness is adherence to the law. If somebody says that you're a righteous person, that means that you have lived with strict adherence to the law. and the vast majority of people as I've asked dozens and dozens and dozens of neighbors the question of what would you say if God asked you why He should let you into heaven the vast majority of people nine out of ten will point to their own righteousness in one way or another. And as we read Scripture, we find that such a claim to make before God is nothing short of prideful and misinformed. You see, it comes out of a misunderstanding of the law and one's ability to keep it. The law does not give us hope. Rather, when we look to the law, what we find is the righteousness that God requires. The law doesn't give things. The law requires. It requires things of us. And then when we see this law and when we contemplate the demands, we then come to see through it our own unrighteousness. And so through the law we find, first of all, that God's righteousness and His requirements are revealed. And as we consider that, we start to see the reality of how we have ourselves come far short. And therefore, we have in that courtroom of heaven the eminent judgment promised for law-breaking. We see that in chapter 1, verse 18. Paul introduces the idea of God's wrath, he says. It is being revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. And then in chapter 2, verse 6, we read that God will give to each person according to what He has done. If we relate to God through the law, God will relate to us through the law and He will give to us according to what we have done. And then a few verses later, chapter 2, verse 9, we find that there will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good. And so your hope before God, if you point to your own righteousness, is that you've done good. Because if you haven't done good, then what God promises for you is tribulation and distress. I often would ask friends of the Muslim faith how they could have confidence before Allah, the strict and righteous judge. And they simply said, my hope is that the scales will fall in my favor. the vast majority of folks think just that way. Whether Jew or Greek or German, Dutch or English or Sudanese, all of humanity, when they approach God through the law, will finally be judged by the law and the righteousness that God requires. For those who have known what we call the special revelation of the law, the Word of God, and the truth revealed in it. For those who have known the Word of God in His Word, they will be judged according to what the law demands. And for those who have lived and died and have never heard about the Bible, who have never heard about the special revelation of God, they too, Paul says, will be judged according to the law of God. Verse 15 of chapter 2, they show, those who have never heard of the Scriptures, they show that the work of the law is written on their hearts while their conscience also bears witness and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them on that day when according to my Gospel God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus. If you have the law of Scripture, if you don't have the law of Scripture, finally you will still be judged by the law of what God has revealed either in His Word or written upon your heart. All men are held accountable to God. Of course, there are some like the rich young ruler who believe that they have kept the whole of God's law. And there are others like the Pharisees who believe themselves to be blameless relative to the law of God. And they say, well, fine, if it's going to be the law that judges me, then I'll keep the law. And they ask questions like, what must I do to be saved just to be sure that every I is dotted and every T crossed? And then, of course, there are many others of men and women today who will readily say that they're sinners. They'll readily confess that they're not blameless, but then hasten to say that, you know, basically, I'm a good person. And maybe that would describe your thoughts this morning. Just two weeks ago, I was talking to a friend and asked him, are you righteous? Are you personally righteous? He said, well, I'm basically a sinner, but I'm also basically good. And God will forgive me what has been wrong and accept my good. Yet notice that no one, no one can escape the precision of God's law and the requirements that God has through it. Chapter 3, verse 11, Paul brings it all together when he says that there is no one righteous, not even one, there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away. They have together become worthless. There is no one who does good. There is no one who does good, not even one. Their throats are open graves. Their tongues practice deceit. The poison of vipers is on their lips. Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood. Ruin and misery mark their ways. And the way of peace they do not know. There is no fear of God before their eyes. And as we read it, we may say, Enough! When we're reading through Romans, we may skip that section. It's hard to see. It's hard to read. It's hard to think about. And the reason is because it's speaking to us. It's speaking about us. There is no one who does good. Verse 19, Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. Therefore, no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law. Rather, through the law, we become conscious of sin. Through the law, we come to know the impeccable righteousness that God requires and therefore, through the law, we come to see just how sinful we are. We see this happening when Jesus came preaching and teaching the Word of God. He came preaching the law of God with such precision and power that even the most self-righteous of men found their pride and idolatry exposed. Isn't that what happened with the rich young ruler who comes to Jesus with all the zeal and self-righteousness that only youth could sustain. And he leaves devastated, unable to fulfill the requirements and righteousness that God required of him. And here's what may be remarkable to us. Paul says that's exactly what the law is intended to do. Through the law comes knowledge of sin. It comes to cut through the surface of self-righteousness in order to expose the corruption and the curse that is within. Therefore, in the courtroom of heaven, No one can be justified through the law or in their own self-righteousness. But there's hope. You see, that is chapter 1, verses 18 through chapter 3, verse 20. That is the state that Paul wants the church of Rome and the church of all ages to understand where they stand without Christ. In verse 21, he says, But now, but now, the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law. Apart from the law, there is hope. Because the righteousness of God is revealed apart from the law. one pastor tried to help his congregation understand the significance of the words but now, when he said that in these words we find a logical, temporal, and eschatological transition of greatest significance. I remember thinking after he said that it must be great if you're using those words. A logical transition because Paul moves from wrath to grace. A temporal transition because Paul moves from what was dominant in the Old Testament to what becomes dominant in the New Testament. He moves from that message of law to that message of the Gospel. And eschatological because those future glorious things that God will do for us and the eschaton, when Jesus returns, are breaking into the presence even now in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. You see, but now the righteousness of God has been revealed apart from the law. Though through the law we come to know the righteousness that God requires, it's through the Gospel that we come to know the righteousness that God fulfills. And that's the second point. We come to know through the gospel the righteousness that God fulfills. Though the word gospel, if you've been following in your text, though the word gospel doesn't appear in these verses. These verses are all about the gospel. The good news of the righteousness of God through faith. Paul announced it first back in Romans chapter 17 when he says that I am not ashamed of the gospel. For it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. The gospel is the power of God. The gospel doesn't look for some power in man. The gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. For in it, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith. As it is written, the righteous shall live by faith. And these glorious truths, these glorious ideas and doctrines that Paul reveals in chapter 1, he returns to again in this major transition of chapter 3 verse 21 when he says, But now a righteousness of God has been manifested, the righteousness of God through faith in Christ. It's very possible that there are a good many here this morning who respond to these words just as I responded to them for the vast majority of my young life. I would read these words and I didn't understand the power. I would hear about how these words were the impetus for reformation back in the 16th century and I didn't understand why. What is it about Romans 1.17 and Romans 3.21 that changed the world? I remember hearing about how Martin Luther and the Spirit working through him brought him to see why these truths change the world. Luther wrote that I hated the word righteousness of God. He hated it because he was taught that righteousness of God referred to that active righteousness of God through which he brings justice to a sinful world. Though I lived as a monk without reproach, maybe much like the Pharisees who believed themselves to be without reproach. I felt that I was a sinner before God with an extremely disturbed conscience. I could not believe that God's judgment was satisfied in my obedience. I was angry with God and said, as if indeed it is not enough that miserable sinners eternally lost through original sin are crushed by the law of the Decalogue as if that wasn't enough without having God add pain to pain by the Gospel and also by the Gospel threaten us with His righteousness and wrath. At last, however, by the mercy of God, I began to understand that the righteousness of God is that by which the righteous lives by a gift of God. And this is the meaning that the righteousness of God is revealed by the gospel. Namely, that righteousness with which the merciful God justifies us by faith. And here, says Luther, I felt that I was altogether born again and had entered paradise through open gates. Doesn't it make you want to read more? This man who wrestled deep within his soul while thinking about the Word of God, about the character of God, about the demands of His law, and about what does the Gospel mean anyway, came to see. He was brought to see by the power of God. He came to understand the Gospel and through it, that the righteousness of God is not a demand, but a gift. In that quote, you may remember that Luther said he was taught something. And that very same teaching we should understand is being carried on today in the Catholic Church. In the Catechism of the Catholic Church, students are taught that the distinction between the old and the new is the distinction between an old law and a new law. The new law, or law of the gospel, the Catechism says, is the perfection of the divine law. The law of the Gospel fulfills the commandments of the old law. The Gospel thus brings Old Testament law to its fullness through imitation of the perfection of the Heavenly Father. And in this way, it teaches what must be done by us. And as you start to think about this teaching, you might come to sense the difficulty that Martin faced when he read the Gospel. It was a more precise statement of what God required of man as exampled by Jesus Christ and proclaimed in the Sermon on the Mount. And he was crushed. And he was crushed along with the Pharisees and the most self-righteous of all Jesus' contemporaries. And yet, Luther came to reject this corruption of the Gospel and came to a reformed understanding of the righteousness of God. Not as a further revelation of God's holiness and righteousness, not as a more perfect revelation of divine law, not as a refined expression of human responsibility, but the righteousness of God as God's gift. As God's gift of Jesus Christ and His righteousness. That is precisely why God the Father sent God the Son to be a gift, A substitute who fulfilled the law and so secured all righteousness necessary for salvation. In Jesus, the righteousness of God has been revealed. In Jesus, the righteousness of God is manifested. And therefore, while loving our neighbors, While loving our neighbors even as ourselves, we should be concerned when Lutheran and evangelical leaders all around us seek to unite with the Catholic Church. The doctrine of the Catholic Church has not changed and therefore neither should that of the Reformed and Protestant belief. We should be concerned. And we should be concerned when others argue that the Reformation is over. And when the Gospel is defined as something other than the righteousness of God given to sinful man through faith in Christ. Now you may wonder, especially some of our high schoolers, why the emphasis, why the enthusiasm of this? After all, you probably haven't heard about such things, but I promise you this. When you go to college, you will. When you go to college, high schoolers, you will hear about these things not just in conversation, merely talking about sports and then moving on to theology. They will be pressed on you. And what will you say? How will you respond? Will the Word of God be at your fingertips, ready to turn to and say, No, this is what God says. These are major issues in the world today. No less significant than the troubles of the Middle East and very much closer to home. We must understand and believe how it is that Jesus fulfilled the law's requirements for obedience in His life. We must understand how Jesus fulfilled the law's demand for punishment in His death. And we must understand how Jesus brought fulfillment to all of God's promises in His resurrection. In other words, we need to understand how through the Gospel we see how Jesus has fulfilled and even became the righteousness of God for us by faith. And we find in verse 25 that even as He satisfied all the demands of God's law, so He satisfied the fullness of God's wrath. It says that Jesus was put forward as a propitiation, as that which removed the wrath of God by His blood, so that when we stand before the throne of heaven and the most holy, righteous, perfect judge of all, we need not fear His wrath. Though the world may drink it to the dregs, Jesus has drank it for us. Therefore, as verse 26 says, God is for us both just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. We see then this morning how through the law we know the righteousness that God requires. We see how through the gospel the righteousness that God fulfills. And third and finally and briefly, we see and through faith we know the righteousness that God gives. That which God requires, He fulfills and gives as a gift through faith. So the gospel is not a fresh call to work, but it is a call to faith. Verses 22, 24, and 26 explain that it is through faith that we are justified and thereby receive the righteousness of God. Unless we think that this is brand new news, we are reminded by Paul that this was the very truth promised beforehand in the prophets. Isaiah 45, 24 says, Only in the Lord it shall be said of me, our righteousness and strength. To Him shall come and be ashamed all who were incensed against Him. Yet in the Lord, all the offspring of Israel shall be justified and shall glory. Isaiah 61, verse 10. I will greatly rejoice in the Lord. My soul shall exult in my God, for He has clothed me with the garments of salvation. He has covered me with the robe of righteousness. As a bridegroom decks himself like a priest and a beautiful headdress, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewel. Jeremiah 23, verse 5. Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will dwell securely. And in this name, He will be called the Lord is our. The Lord is our righteousness. In Christ, these many most glorious promises of forgiveness and righteousness are fulfilled for us as we are justified before the throne of God by faith. In conclusion, Congregation of Christ, we may wonder what we do with these truths. The first is we should wrestle to know them. We should wrestle to understand them and to be able to articulate them. And to that end, if you're interested, I put some copies of Luther's just a one-page summary of Luther's conversion on the back table. The opportunities for us to read and to know are so significant, let us not pass them up. And more fundamentally, however, the text here is a call to believe. It's a call to believe in all the benefits of Christ. One of my favorite quotes of Luther is that He says, if you want to understand the Gospel, before you look to Christ as an example, look first to Him as your gift. When you read or see or hear of Christ saying or doing anything, receive it as your very own, as if you were Christ Himself. And that is good news. That is the good news of the gospel which we are called this morning to hear and believe. Amen. Let us pray. Our Father in heaven, we do thank you for your word. We thank you for Jesus, for his life and his death and his resurrection. And we pray that we would never let these truths fall on deaf ears or take them for granted. But rather, dear Father, May these be that which change our life and lead us into a life of fruitful obedience for your name's sake. We ask these things in the name of Jesus. Amen.