Me Righteous??

1 You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly exhibited as crucified! 2 The only thing I want to learn from you is this: Did you receive the Spirit by doing the works of the law or by believing what you heard? 3 Are you so foolish? Having started with the Spirit, are you now ending with the flesh? 

We continue this morning with the third thing the Advocate came to prove the world wrong about.  Righteousness!  

So I will begin, as I often do, with the Greek and Hebrew meaning of righteous.  You will be surprised to know that the root meaning is “justice.”  To do what is right, correct, fair.  It was meant as a legal term not a theological term.  However its use in scripture became understood as right conduct in accord with God’s will.  The righteous, then, are those who show faithfulness and loyalty to God.

Here we have the age old confusion between needing to earn God’s love and acceptance by our works.  The things we do to look, or be, perfect -- God like.  

Or standing before God in faith that God is a God of unconditional acceptance of our weaknesses and flaws.  That is,  faith alone is enough! God’s love is not something that we earn.  God’s love is free for the receiving.

There is a huge diffidence between trying to be perfect — trying to live up to God’s image.  And being loving and kind and humble, before God in faith.  As Jesus came to model for us! 

Martin Luther, the father of the Reformation, spent most of his young life struggling with the concept of being perfectly good and correct.  He thought!  No, actually he totally believed that righteousness grew out of working hard to earn God's approval. And doing so by being as perfect as any human can.  To be above any possible reproach!   

Luther lived in constant fear of God’s wrath. He was convinced that it was only through constant vigilance that he would earn God’s love and approval.  He had been well indoctrinated by the Roman Catholic traditions of his day! 

The quandary he lived with was:  “Who could live by faith, but only those who were already righteous?  Because it says so clearly, in Romans 1:17,  the righteous shall live by faith.”  

Luther’s struggle is not unlike most people’s.  And he worked tirelessly at being good enough for God.  For years Luther believed that righteousness came first.  That faith grew out of being perfect.   Luther was convinced he did not have faith, and so could not “live by faith.”  Because he was not righteous.  

When actually it was his faith alone that made him right/acceptable before God.. 

His major epiphany, that helped him to become free of his self-made-prison, came one lonely moment when he realized that it is the righteousness of God through which he could receive faith. 

17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed through faith for faith; as it is written, "The one who is righteous will live by faith.”(Romans 1) 

Faith is the conduit through which God works in him/us to be right.  The Spirit of God is the source of a growing faith.  It is faith that makes us right with God!

1 You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly exhibited as crucified! 2 The only thing I want to learn from you is this: Did you receive the Spirit by doing the works of the law or by believing what you heard? 3 Are you so foolish? Having started with the Spirit, are you now ending with the flesh? 4 Did you experience so much for nothing?—if it really was for nothing. 5 Well then, does God supply you with the Spirit and work miracles among you by your doing the works of the law, or by your believing what you heard? 6 Just as Abraham "believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness," 7 so, you see, those who believe are the descendants of Abraham. 8 And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, declared the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, "All the Gentiles shall be blessed in you." 9 For this reason, those who believe are blessed with Abraham who believed. 10 For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who does not observe and obey all the things written in the book of the law." 11 Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law; for "The one who is righteous will live by faith." 12 But the law does not rest on faith; on the contrary, "Whoever does the works of the law will live by them.(Gal. 3)