Faith & Righteousness
Pastor Zach Pummill • March 21, 2021
Sermon Overview
ROMANS 1:16–17
Doubt and despair are realities in the life of faith. So how does a righteousness by faith speak to us in these moments of struggle? What does Paul mean when he says "the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith?"
Sermon Transcript
Good morning. My name is Zach, I'm one of the pastors here, and if you're a guest with us we are really glad to have you today and we hope that you feel very welcome being a part of our church family this morning. Last week we started a new sermon series we've titled, "By Faith." And in this series we're looking at a very particular phrase and that phrase is "the righteous shall live by faith." The righteous shall live by faith. That phrase shows up four different times in the Bible, in four different books, to address four different situations in which the people of God find themselves.
And in each situation the people of God are struggling with His promises, they're struggling with engaging in the world around them, they're struggling with who and what they are in Jesus Christ, and yet to them the message remains the same, the righteous shall live by faith.
Faith is a struggle and the struggle is real. The series is for believers and unbelievers, for doubters and the devoted, for skeptics and strugglers, for cynics and explorers. If that's you, then welcome to Rockwall Pres, you're welcome here because you are in good company. There's a place for you with all of your doubts, all of your concerns, your frustrations, your struggles. Why? Because there's a place for you in the heart of God.
God does not fear your doubts, God does not fear your struggles or your skepticism. When your faith feels small and weak, He does not look at you and think, "My goodness, how pathetic you are." When your faith feels small and weak, He doesn't pull away from you because your struggles make you unworthy of His attention. No, it's quite the opposite. You find yourself in that position with all of those struggles, not because God is distant, but because God has actually drawn near. He's come close to you and He is at work. But it doesn't always feel that way does it? It doesn't always feel that way at all.
And my goal this morning is that you would feel the freedom to be okay embracing those doubts and struggles of faith. And I don't want them to be something that you fear, but something that you learned to treat as precious. Because that struggle leads to something profound and beautiful and life changing. And the Bible tells a story in which it's when we feel the powerlessness of doubt and despair that that is how we experience the power of God. And so if that's you this morning the message to you remains the same, the righteous shall live by faith.
And last week we saw the first time this phrase shows up in the Bible spoken to a struggling prophet named Habakkuk. He's frustrated and wrestling with God because of everything he sees around him, and he's wondering, "God, where are you? Where are your promises? Will you not intervene?" And he's wrestling and struggling because when he looks around at the world around him he sees two things. The first is he sees his nation, his people, living in rebellion against God, and leaving behind what he says is right and true and good and they are completely uninterested in life on God's terms. But he also sees his enemies, he sees a powerful empire, the Babylonians surround them and they are powerless and helpless to do anything about it. And it's in that vexation that he cries out to God, "God, why do you stand idly by? Why are you so content to do nothing? Do you see what I see? Do you share in my frustration? Don't you care?"
And God responds to Habakkuk and He does so in an extraordinary fashion. He says, "Habakkuk, I am doing something, something so good, and something so marvelous that you wouldn't even believe me if I told you, but know this, the righteous shall live by faith." What's God mean when He tells that to Habakkuk?
He's saying, "Habakkuk, when you look around at everything that you see know this to be true, that your life, your existence is not about your standing with anything or anyone around you, your life is about your standing with me. Trust me. The righteous shall live by faith.”
And Paul picks up this phrase and uses it in our passage this morning in Romans, but now the stakes are bigger. Because it's not just a nation that's in rebellion, Paul's talking about a rebellious world, and it's not just some earthly empire, but the world is now surrounded by the enemy of Satan, sin, and death. And he brings the same questions to the table: where is God in all this? What has God done?
And that thing that God told Habakkuk that Habakkuk wouldn't even believe even if He told him, well, Paul wants you to know exactly what that is and how even though the stakes are bigger, again, the answer is the same, the righteous shall live by faith.
So to see what Paul wants us to see this morning we have to actually unpack that phrase a little bit because it includes a word that we need to understand, it's the word 'righteousness.' And hearing that you might start feeling a little sleepy and want to check out because it's one of those words that we think only theologians use those big types of words and words like that don't really have much impact or application to my day-to-day life. But that's not true. Because even though you may not be aware of it, I actually think you have a great understanding of righteousness already. The concept of righteousness is in fact a day-to-day reality, it's very real to us, and we actually find it in virtually every arena of life in some form or fashion.
So what is righteousness? Well, how do you think of it? Maybe you think of concepts like morality and perfection, or right actions or doing the right thing, and those things are certainly a part of it, but they don't get to the heart of what righteousness actually is. Because righteousness is actually, it's a relational term. And in its basic definition, righteousness is the quality of one's standing in relationship to another. It’s the quality of one's standing in relationship to another. And so if someone is righteous then they have a right standing in the side of another. They are approved and they are accepted.
So here's a simple illustration: the reason you're not in jail right now is because you have a right standing, a righteousness, before the laws of our government. At least I think so, it is tax season. But you are not in jail right now because in the eyes of the law you haven't done anything wrong, you haven't done anything to be put in jail. You are approved and affirmed, you are righteous in the sight of the law. And with that righteousness comes what? The freedom to live life, the freedom to have a job, the freedom to come and go as you please, the freedom to go on vacation, to come and go and live life with other people and enjoy it and live it to the fullest in all of its ways that you possibly can.
But that's a simple illustration, but righteousness goes much, much deeper than that. And there's an illustration I like to use to kind of express how our pursuit of righteousness is something that happens at almost a subconscious level that we aren't even aware of it, which is part of what makes us so aware of what it actually is even though we may not be able to define it.
So the most popular entertainer for children's birthday parties in the Washington DC Metro area is a performer that goes by the name, The Great Zucchini. And The Great Zucchini charges $600 an hour, two hour minimum, he's paid in advance, he's booked six months ahead, and he is wildly popular. And there was a reporter that wanted to do an article on The Great Zucchini to try and understand this phenomenon that he had become in the DC Metro area. And he heard about him because this reporter had a friend that had already hired The Great Zucchini for three separate birthday parties. Unloaded a small fortune for The Great Zucchini, and now they were planning on hiring him for their fourth birthday party.
And so the reporter interviewed their friend for the story and they just asked the question, they said, "I'm trying to understand, why do you spend so much money on this guy? What's going on?" And his friend said this, "The whole thing is snowballed into levels of craziness and it's just embarrassing to be a part of. I know it's an insane indulgent thing to do, you could just have a party where all the kids played, will spin the tail on the donkey or musical chairs or something, but that's just not done in this part of DC. If you did that, you'd be talked about."
Did you hear it? "That's just not down in this part of DC, if you did that then you would be talked about." So who's the party really for? It's not for the child, it's for the parent. Why? What are they after? It's righteousness. Righteousness according to their peers. They want acceptance and approval in the eyes of their community, and they know that to have it, they have to throw the right kind of party in order to be accepted and have right standing in the eyes of their peers in their community, and if they don't throw the right kind of party, then what? They face rejection and they know it. And yet I hardly think that that person would define what is going on in their heart as a pursuit of righteousness.
Righteousness is deeper than actions. It speaks to that part of us that searches for approval and wants to feel accepted and approved of, the part of us that wants to feel like we're okay, the part of us that wants to have right standing with the world around us. Righteousness pokes at that part of us that's insecure, always wondering if you've done enough, if you've done the right thing, if you look good enough to the world, if you are enough. Why? Because righteousness isn't something that you can declare for yourself, righteousness is something that comes from the outside and is declared over you. That's why self-righteousness is not a compliment. Righteousness comes from the outside and is declared over you.
And throughout life, in all sorts of ways you're asked to measure up. To live according to the righteousness of the world around you and all of the expectations that it entails. You're told this is how you will feel okay in the sight of others, this is how you will be accepted and approved of.
So what's righteousness according to your job? What's expected of you in order to be accepted and gain approval?
Certainly there's good things like working hard and doing your job, of course those are things that are expected, but there's a whole host of things that perhaps are unwritten rules. Maybe it's meeting the borderline ethical demands of a difficult boss. Or maybe it's the unspoken expectation that everything else in life comes second to the company. It's the business first, family second, work-life balance doesn't exist here. Righteousness in the eyes of the company is overtime and overworked. Or maybe it's the expectation to participate in the gossip of your colleagues and to share in their contempt for other coworkers. Maybe it's engaging in a level of excess because it's work hard and play hard and that's just how we do business here. Whatever it may be, you know that if you don't do those things, what? Well, maybe you're not a part of the team, maybe you're not on board, maybe you're not a good fit here.
So what's righteousness according to your family? What's required in order to have right standing in the eyes of your family members? That can happen in so many different ways. Maybe it's knowing that you have to walk on eggshells around a certain family member. Everybody knows that everyone in the family has to revolve around that one person and making sure that they are happy. Why? Because this is how we make sure everything goes okay, this is how we keep the peace, because if they're not happy then everybody's miserable. So as long as we do what's expected, play by the rules and keep the status quo, then you have right standing with everyone in your family. But if you don't, then everyone gets angry and upset with you, because why? Well, you’re viewed as the problem and you get the silent treatment, maybe grudges and unforgiveness abound, and in the end, it's not about real relationship. It's just a negotiation for how everyone is going to share in this peace treaty. It's sharing in the expectations of righteousness and how we can all get along.
Or maybe it's chasing the approval of a parent that you can never satisfy. They're critical in your success, they're crushing in your mistakes. You've chased that approval that will never come all your life, and you just want to hear the words, "I'm proud of you, you've done a great job, you're awesome, I love you." There's so many of us that have never heard those words from the people we long to hear them from most.
Or maybe you feel the concerns of righteousness after conversations with friends. It's paralyzing because you're always analyzing and second guessing if what you said might've been taken the wrong way. Or maybe you have that sense of claustrophobia or that gnawing in your gut that comes whenever you just have the thought that maybe somebody might be upset with you. Or maybe it's someone in your life that the expectation is that in order to be friends with them, they have to be the center of attention. Everything has to revolve around them if you want a relationship.
Righteousness is a reality for us all. It's fundamental to what it means to be human because at the core of our humanity is a desire to be accepted and approved of, to be at peace and have right standing with others and the world that we live in. It's okay to admit that and you need to admit that because that is what we were originally created for. And everywhere in our lives and the things that matter most, righteousness is reality. You're surrounded by all sorts of expectations and requirements and do's and don'ts for how you can gain approval, how you can be accepted, how you can have that right standing that you desire, and all of those things communicate if you want to feel okay in here and be at peace, then this is how it looks and this is what's required, and this is how you will be righteous.
So where are you prone to look for righteousness? It's an important question. Maybe it's the approval of your boss, coworkers. Maybe it's in your performance, your ability to produce, your ability to achieve. Maybe it's in the ability to always be there for others to help no matter how much it costs you, or the right friends, or always avoiding conflict, or in a lifestyle. What do you look to to make you feel approved and like you are okay? What do you want to tell you, "You are righteous?"
It's an important question because what Paul says in Romans and throughout the New Testament, he says that wherever it is that you look for righteousness, whatever it is that you look to to make you feel okay, you will not find life there. No matter where it is, you will not find life there. You won't find what you're looking for because it's a dead end. You're trying to fill an ocean with a garden hose, you're never going to get there. And he says it's for two reasons.
The first, is because all of that, the pursuit of righteousness in those things, all of that depends on your own ability. If you seek approval and acceptance through those avenues, all of that depends on your ability to accomplish it - to always say the right things, to stay in your lane, to meet expectations, to always fit in, to work hard enough, to produce enough, to keep others happy, that list goes on into eternity, and yet the truth is it goes on forever and what you find is that no matter what you give it, in the end it doesn't give you the peace that you desire. Our desire for righteousness far exceeds our ability to obtain it.
And the second reason is that even though those things may for a time and a season may provide a sense of acceptance and validation, in the end, they will leave you. If it's your job, you can't work forever. If it's you're intellect, one of these days you're just not going to remember things the way you used to. If it's in performance, you can't operate like you're 25 for the rest of your life. If it's pleasing others, you don't have the resources to not fall short and to fail. And Paul wants us to think this all the way through, to think this all the way through to its logical conclusion, because he says that whatever form of righteousness it is that you look to, whatever it is that you look to to make you feel okay, it better be able to deal with death. Because in death there's no one left to please. In death, there's no one left to offer you their approval. In death, there's no one there for whom you can perform. There's nothing left for you to accomplish because it robs you of all ability to do anything for yourself. Paul would always have that before us to always remind us that death in the end leaves us with no one and nothing.
What you need is a righteousness that remains even in death, because the reality of death is that it passes a verdict over us all that we are condemned. So the question becomes, if we can't even maintain righteousness with the world around us, then how could we possibly think that we can have a righteousness before God? If we can't be at peace with the world around us, then how could we have peace before a holy God? If we can't have the approval of the world around us, then how could we possibly have the approval of a God who requires perfection?
It's through Paul that God is telling you the same message that Habakkuk needed to hear, that your life, your existence is not based on your standing with anyone or anything around you, your life is based on your standing before God alone. And by faith you have access to a righteousness that you could never earn, you have access to a righteousness you could never lose, you have access to a righteousness that will never leave you, even in death. Here we are moving towards Easter in two weeks and that is exactly what the resurrection of Jesus Christ tells you, that He came into this world for you. Not to just wipe some slate clean and offer basic forgiveness, He came to offer you a brand new existence, to make you and give you a righteousness that is certain and concrete. Because in the resurrection, what the world rejected, God declares righteous. God declares it as righteous and good and valuable and beautiful and exactly what He wants and desires. And therefore it was impossible for death to keep its grip on Him because a greater verdict from the Father was passed over Him, that He is righteous.
And by faith, the gospel tells you what's true of Jesus is true of you. His standing, His affirmation, His approval before God the Father is absolutely, 100% yours, no matter what you've done, no matter where you've come from. He views you and loves you with the same eyes and the same heart as He loves His Son. It's why the good news of the gospel isn't that you are simply forgiven, you are a son and daughter of God. Do you know how okay you are? You are at peace. And Paul says that is the most life-changing reality at work within you, that is exactly who you are. You are righteous before the Father in Jesus Christ and you share an unending, death-defeating approval and acceptance in Him.
The problem is it doesn't always feel that way, does it?
Paul says that that's what's most true of us, and yet we don't always feel that what is most true of us as even true at all. The righteousness and acceptance that we have in Christ may feel distant, and so we what? We look for it in other things. So how do we come to know the righteousness that we have in Christ? Is it just some ethereal fact, just some theological conversation, or is it something that you can really feel? Is it something that can bury itself in your heart and give you a sense of okay and solidness and inner peace that you long to know?
Well, if I could speak for Paul I think he would say, "Oh yeah, you most certainly can." Because he doesn't want that to simply be a distant fact, he wants it to be a concrete reality, and he tells us you can know it. How? He says that the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith. The righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith. What he's saying is that he's saying that coming to know this righteousness that you have in Jesus is rooted in a process of faith from beginning to end, where you become more and more aware of who and what you are in Jesus through this process of faith. Where your faith in Christ deepens and it grows and who you are in Him becomes real to you.
But we have to recognize the fact that since this process is by faith, it also includes doubt and despair and wrestling, because to move from one mountaintop of faith to the other means you have to cross the valley that lies in between. And I said at the beginning that I don't want you to fear your moments of doubt and your struggles as though there's something wrong with you. Why? Because it means that God has come near to you, because in order for your faith in Him to grow and blossom and to tread on heights of faith, it also requires that we let go of our trust in ourselves, we let go of our trust in our ability, and we let go of our trust in those around us to provide us what we're looking for. And that process of faith is hard, it's not easy, and it is okay to admit that. The valley is difficult because it provides doubt and wrestling and it's hard. Because it makes us feel untethered, it makes us feel lost, like we can barely put one foot in front of the other and feel what? We feel what we hate to feel, we feel vulnerable.
And so why would God choose to lead us in this way? That's the real question. Why would God lead us in this process of faith that involves doubt and vulnerability? Because why doesn't God just slam confidence and assurance into our hearts the second we believe and never allow us to waver? Why doesn't the verse read, "The righteous shall live by certainty"? I wish it did. And why?
Well, that's a mystery I could never explain, and honestly, even if I could it wouldn't make those valleys of doubt and despair any easier to walk through. But I do know this, He leads us in this way because it reveals the type of God that He is. If you take away doubt and despair as a reality of the life of faith, then you would say essentially have to remove most of the Scriptures. You have to remove Abraham, Jacob, Moses, the Pentateuch, Job, David, the Psalms, Jeremiah, Ecclesiastes, the minor prophets, the 12 disciples, and Paul himself, all of them wrestled. We see all of them struggle and wrestle with God in some way about how He operates, about His purposes and His promises. God spoke directly to them and they still struggled.
Faith is a struggle and the struggle is real, but you are not alone in the struggle, because they were not alone in the struggle. It was through them and that struggle that God gave us His word. It was through that, that He revealed Himself to us. It was through those valleys of despair that God moves His story forward. It's how he reveals Himself in their crises of faith to be faithful over and over and over again, and His promises are worth trusting because His promises are true. How else would we be able to have the words, "Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil for you are with me"? I don't want that to be a poem, I want that to be someone's experience. That says you can walk through those valleys and not be afraid because God is with you.
I need it to be reality, you need it to be reality, and what you have is story where God meets His people over and over again in their vulnerability. But what does He meet them with? He meets them with His own vulnerability. He meets them over and over again with His own vulnerability.
Think about that. It's so lost on us sometimes that an all-powerful, holy, incomprehensible God moves towards us in our vulnerability and allows us to wrestle with Him. It's an extraordinary reality that He would allow us to express our doubts, our vexation, that He would allow Himself to be misunderstood or blamed or questioned. That He would allow His name and His goodness to be put on trial, and yet, He patiently listens to the questions that rise from His people: "Where are you? What are you doing? Are you there?" And consistently and constantly and repeatedly, He condescends to listen to the cries of His people that despair of their trust in Him. Time and time again we see a God that makes Himself vulnerable to meet a vulnerable people.
And here's the thing, all sorts of religions present a god that claims to have the same power as our God. That's not the new. All sorts of religions present a god that claims to have the power to create, power over creation, power to save, power over death, but none of them can claim to have His vulnerable. None.
And the fullest expression of God's willingness to make Himself vulnerable for His vulnerable people, to rescue them, is ultimately found in the cross. Where God the Son made Himself vulnerable - allowed Himself to be ridiculed, mocked, falsely charged, falsely tried, scorned, beaten, rejected, crucified, and buried. And the thing is, He could have obliterated all of creation with a single word, yet He opened not His mouth. Why? Because God who made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God. Do you know how okay and at peace you are?
This is the God that comes to you in your vulnerability of doubt and despair, not one that comes to crush you, He comes to comfort you. And you can trust that whatever it is that He has allowed to bring you to that place, it's because He has come near to you. It's not because He's distant, it's so that you, by faith, may know the peace that you have with Him. And that's a difficult journey, and yet we are surrounded by a cloud of witnesses that testify that there is a richness and depth of faith that lies on the other side of that valley of despair. Why? Because you are not alone in the valley of struggle.
And we see that same thing with our struggling prophet Habakkuk. He began his book with this vexation and frustration and struggle, but he ends up with an expression of hope and faith, that's come to know who God is and who He is to God because no longer is he looking at everything around him for assurance, he's come to know the righteousness that he has from God and the very faith that's made it real to him. What's he say?
“Though the fig tree should not blossom,
nor fruit be on the vines,
the produce of the olive fail
and the fields yield no food,
the flock be cut off from the fold
and there be no herd in the stalls,
yet I will rejoice in the Lord;
I will take joy in the God of my salvation.
God, the Lord, is my strength;
he makes my feet like the deer's;
he makes me tread on my high places.”
That's Habakkuk journey of faith, and he still never knew what that thing was that God was doing, but you do. You know this God in this story who makes Himself vulnerable so that you might stand before the Father as approved and affirmed in Jesus Christ, as a true son and a true daughter.
That's righteousness you can't buy, righteousness you can't earn, and righteousness that you can never lose.
And it's righteousness that is 100%, absolutely yours, by faith.
Lets pray.
