The Righteousness of God
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The Righteousness of God
Well, Good morning, HBC family. My name is Roland Laitano, and if I haven't had a chance/privilege to meet you. Maybe you're new to the church. You're new, and you've seen me behind that microphone with a guitar. I'm the worship director here at the church. Um, and I have the joy usually in leading in song. And this, I have the privilege of bringing do the Word of God, and I'm going to get right to it. I have a question for you to start this morning. What determines right and wrong? Is it always that easy? Just ask this guy. Let me set the scene for you. The date is July 23rd, 2018. It's the fourth inning of Sunday's game between the Chicago Cubs and the Saint Louis Cardinals. The Cubs first base coach picks up a foul ball and tosses it to a smiling youngster in the stands, wearing a Cubs hat endearingly too large for him. But the kid bobbles the baseball and drops it. Now what people saw next shocked the world. Video clips all over social media showed a man who was sitting behind the boy scoop up the ball the boy dropped and give it to a woman next to him. Outrage, anger, calls for justice. Tweets and social media posts began a moral barrage aimed at this evil man who would dare steal a baseball from a little boy. There could be no doubt...this is live. We all saw it. And again, I remind you, this is happening live. The Cubs front office quickly dispatched a staffer mid-game down to the seats, and gave the little boy a new ball signed by Javy Baez, the Cubs shortstop. The little boy smiled under the brim of his boat sized hat and held two baseballs, and what the cubs discovered from people nearby was that the evil man in question wound up with four foul balls during the game, but gave three to children, including one to the little boy who had appeared to be swindled. He also gave one to his wife, the woman next to him, as it was their anniversary. Julian Green of the Cubs said in a statement. Unfortunately, a video that was quickly posted and unverified has made a national villain out of an innocent man.
So I ask you again what determines right and wrong? And is it always easy to make that distinction? If you're joining us today for the first time, we're in the middle of a sermon series on the attributes of God. Attributes are qualities or features. They're capacities or descriptions of God himself. They tell us what God is like. It's important that we remind ourselves of two things for this sermon, and really, for all the sermons that have come and all the sermons that will come after. First, these divine attributes are just ways of describing a person. God is a person. He's not a thing. He's not a concept. He's not a power. He is a person. When we use these attributes to describe God, we're describing a person, a divine person, God himself. When we celebrate birthdays with my family. We will often go around the dinner table and ask everyone, hey, what are the three things you enjoy or you like or you appreciate most about the birthday person, right? And what follows is everything from seriousness to ridiculousness, right? But the descriptions that are used, the attributes that are used to describe that person, usually tell something endearing about them. This is what this person is like and this is what we like about them. And that's what we're doing in this series. Second, these aren't man-made words for God. They are God made words for God. We live in a time when people are really concerned about their identity and their self-expression, and they want to be known and described in specific ways. Well guess what? God is a person too, and he wants to be known and described in certain ways. He is concerned about his identity. He's revealed himself because he's so concerned about his identity. And in the Bible, we know his name, his self-expression, his purposes.
So in this series, we're simply taking God at His Word by using the words he uses to describe himself. So far, we've looked at the eternality of God, the love of God, the holiness of God, the wisdom of God, and the goodness of God. But this morning we're looking at the attribute of the righteousness of God. Pray with me. Father, give us eyes to see, ears to hear and joyful hearts to obey and submit. Help me, O Lord, and help us glorify you as we receive your Word. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.
Psalm 11:7, Psalm 129:4 and Psalm 145:17 all describe God this way. They all say the Lord is righteous. And what does that mean? What is the Bible trying to say when it calls God righteous? Well, we get a hint inside the word itself. The first five letters of the word righteous spell the word right. So righteous, righteousness has to do with what's right. But not everything that's right is righteous. Knowing that two plus two is four makes you right in math, but it doesn't make you righteous. So righteousness...when God is described as being righteous, this is a moral attribute. This is an ethical claim the Bible is making about God. God is righteous. He is moral. He is ethical. Theologian Wayne Grudem gives this helpful definition. God's righteousness means that God acts according with what is right and is himself the standard of what is right. Theologian John Frame gives another helpful definition when he says, the main idea of divine righteousness is that God acts according to a perfect internal standard of right and wrong. All his actions are within the limits, if we can use that term reverently, of that standard. So the righteousness is the structure of God's goodness. I love that word picture, but God's righteousness is the structure of God's goodness. You see how good God is by witnessing his righteous acts. So what this means is that when the Bible talks about God being righteous, it's saying two basic things.
First, the Bible makes the clear claim that God is right and is the standard of what is right. Moses describes God this way in Deuteronomy chapter 32. He says the Rock, his work is perfect for all his ways are justice, a God of faithfulness and without iniquity just and upright is he. God himself speaking to Isaiah says in Isaiah 45. I, the Lord, speak the truth. I declare what is right. There is no other God besides me, a righteous God and a Savior. There is none besides me. Only in the Lord it shall be said of me are righteousness and strength. So the Bible presents this clear, emphatic claim that God is right. He is righteous. There is no wrong in him. There is no moral ethical deficiency in God as who he is himself, but he also is the standard of what is right, and his actions speak of his righteousness. Psalm 89:14 says, righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne. This is beautiful imagery of a king on his throne. And what do kings do on thrones? They exercise their rule. They exercise their will from their throne. They command from their throne. They send ideas and influences into their subjects. And so this picture of God sitting on his throne, of which the foundation of his throne is righteousness. Jesus has actually spoken of this same language himself in Jeremiah 23. He has prophesied this way. 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. The New Testament picks this up in 1 John 2:1, where John says, my little children, I am writing these things to you, so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with God the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. So God is righteous and is the standard of what is right and righteous. That's the first thing that's being communicated. The second thing that's being communicated is that God's actions accomplish righteousness. What he does is just. When God works, when God wills, when God does that action, that work is righteous. It is just. It brings about justice. Now you're hearing me use the word righteousness and justice. The reason for that is in English justice and righteousness are two different words, but they have similar meaning. In the original language, there is one concept of righteousness/justice. And there's a number of words that are used that get translated righteousness/justice. So you may read a passage in Scripture, and that same Hebrew word in one section is translated righteousness. That same Hebrew word in another section is translated justice. These are the basic family of ideas. Justice and righteousness are basically twin attributes of God. They're not exactly the same thing, but together they help communicate this clear truth that God is morally perfect and shows his moral perfection in everything he does. There is no questioning of God's actions because God's actions are perfectly pure, morally excellent. When God acts, you witness ethical perfection on display. There is no deficiency. There is no evil. There is no less than. There is no derivation of what should be good. When God acts, that's what good is. Psalm 9:7-8 says, but the Lord sits enthroned forever. He has established his throne for justice, and he judges the world with righteousness. Daniel 4:37, now I Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the King of heaven, for all his works are right and his ways are just. We get two glorious visions in Revelation 15. One says, and they sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the lamb, saying, great and amazing are your deeds, O Lord God the Almighty. Just and true are your ways. In Revelation 19:11, then I saw heaven open, and behold, a white horse, the one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges.
What's the Bible trying to communicate to us about who God is and about the quality of his actions in history? When God works in history, when God involves himself in the affairs of man, when God creates boundaries for human behaviors, decisions, and desires, when God writes laws to regulate human behaviors, decisions, and desires, when God brings judgment on humanity for breaking his laws that create those boundaries for behaviors, decisions, and desires...God is showing his moral perfection. He is showing us not just that he is righteous, but what righteousness is. What does that mean for you and me? Well, when God answers prayer, he is righteous. When God delays or denies prayer, he is righteous. When God protects us from evil and harm, he is righteous. When God allows us to experience evil and harm, he is righteous. When God forgives a sinner and brings him to heaven, he is righteous. When God condemns a sinner and sends him to hell, he is righteous. The Bible's clear and categorical message about God is that he is righteous all the time, perfectly morally true and just in himself and in his actions. God is righteous.
Two takeaways from this first section. God himself is the perfect and pure standard of righteousness. He and he alone can declare what is right. Therefore, God is the ultimate moral authority. Over the past six months, we have all been witness to our government's attempt at the use of division of powers. Right? President writes an executive order. District court judges get involved. Supreme court gets involved. The legislative branch gets involved. Everyone wants to have a say on what is right and what is wrong. Everyone wants to determine how things should or shouldn't be. God doesn't work that way. There is no division of powers in heaven. There is no constitution. There's no governmental system. There's no rule book. There's no external authority that God looks to and references to determine what is right. God does not consult think tanks or focus groups or take polls to determine what is moral and immoral. He hasn't deputized or democratized his authority to determine what is right. God is righteous, and therefore he is the ultimate moral authority. And so what this means is that the standard for our moral authority is not an idea or a principle, but a person, an infinite person, God himself. God himself is our standard for righteousness. We cannot know righteousness outside of knowing God. This has tremendous practical applications. I mean, just go back to 2020, right? Five years ago, it seems like ages, but it's just around the corner. This just happened since 2020. Did you notice a slight uptick in protests? People marching and gathering and calls for justice. Have you noticed that on social media? How people have really worked up about this is right...that's wrong. We need to do this because this person is being wronged. We need this, right. Because...have you all noticed that or is it me, right? Everything from the MeToo movement to calls for racial equality, to outrage over conflicts in the Middle East, to calls for justice on victims of Jeffrey Epstein. You see it play out every day on the television and on social media. What does this mean? This means that our society is a society that's crying out for justice. Desperately desiring to do what's right but hopelessly lost if God is not the center of that picture. Can we truly know what is right without not knowing God? Can we truly know what is right without knowing God? Now the concern, of course, is that's not going to stop us from attempting to define what is right and what is wrong. And this is part of the chaos around our lives nowadays. God has been abandoned. And so he's being replaced with self autonomy as the arbiter of...this is what's right...this is what's wrong. But for us as believers, God Himself is the perfect and pure standard of righteousness. He and He alone can declare what is right.
Some questions for you to ponder in this first section. What do you call righteous? What do you call good? What or who do you look to to determine what is right and what is wrong? Do you look to tradition?...maybe family values?...maybe your upbringing? Do you look to human experience? Do you look to consensus? If we all get together and agree. Oh, that's right then that's right. No. If we all get together and say, oh, that's wrong, that's wrong. Do you notice the amount of outrage? If a higher number of people are really upset about something, that must mean that determines right or wrong. What do you look to determine what is right and what is wrong? First take away.
Second take away...because God is righteous His actions are unquestionably good and his commands are the pathway to righteousness. Psalm 119 describes the joy of a believer living under God's precious law. Blessed are those whose way is blameless. Who walk in the law of the Lord. Blessed are those who keep his testimonies, who seek him with their whole heart, who also do no wrong but walk in his ways. Do you see that contrast of there is this pathway of life called wrong, and there is this pathway of life called right, and that's defined by God's laws and his commands? He continues. And he says, you have commanded your precepts to be kept diligently. Oh, that my ways may be steadfast in keeping your statutes. Then I shall not be put to shame. Having my eyes fixed on all your commandments, I will praise you with an upright heart when I learn your righteous rules. So if you've ever asked the question what is right, what is just, what is good? The Bible's answer is show me something God has done. Show me something God has said. Show me something God has commanded. That is right. That is good. That is just. Every plan God has, every promise God's made, every purpose he will fulfill is righteous. God stands above all human scrutiny, all human judgment, and all human analysis and observation. In his actions and in his commandments rather than confuse or cloud or stain the ethical and moral pureness of his goodness and righteousness, or bring into question his goodness or righteousness, his law shows us what righteousness is. So what that means for you and I...is that we, believers, we ought to show extreme care when we come to the Word of God, and we find fault with it. When we come across his law in the Bible and we find a section of Scripture distasteful or disgusting or lacking or deficient or limited. Or maybe we could surmise a way of probably this would have been better. To question God's actions and commandments is to question his character. We understand this, right? This is easy for us to see in everyday life. If you're a college student in the room and your professor commands you, gives you an assignment during Christmas break. You don't like it, so you question their moral character. Anyone in here who has a job, who has a boss, if all of a sudden he calls you into his office and he says, I want a specific breakdown of how you spent your time this week. I want a strict accounting. You don't like that. You don't want to do that. So you question his judgment. Children in the room when your parents, just by virtue of them existing, right? Any command they may set forth in front of you. You question their goodness. So, brothers and sisters, do not question God's character by questioning his commands. The Bible describes them as a delight, as a sweetness, as something beautiful to behold and sweet to experience. Now someone may say, but Ronald, if God is righteous, then why does he allow this to happen or that to happen? If he is righteous, then why is there so much unrighteousness in the world? He's the ultimate moral authority. What he says is right, but there's a lot of wrong. I see a lot of wrong in my every day. My first answer would be, do you really want this sermon to last another two hours? Maybe. My second answer to that question would be this. I don't know. But that's God's problem. It's his problem to reconcile his goodness with the lack of goodness in the world. The Bible comes up and tells me God is righteous and that's all I need to hear. That is something I need to know. That is something I need to feel. That is something I need to rejoice in. That is something I need to submit to and rest in knowing that my God is righteous. I don't need to know. I don't need to have an explanation of what...why things happen that I disagree with. Things happen that hurt me. Things happen that are scary. I don't need that when the Bible sees fit to provide the clarity of an attribute called God's Righteousness. Brothers and sisters, questioning God's character or commands is a recipe for unbelief and rebellion. Just ask Adam and Eve...how did things turn out for them? Not good. Thank you, Vicky. Where and when you can't delight in God's commandments, take this home with you. Follow the example of the man in Mark chapter nine. Where he said, I believe. Help my unbelief. And a sermon series like this becomes so immediately helpful, so practical. It meets us in a day to day. These aren't just fancy schmancy, you know, lofty ideas. We're getting to know the person of God. And so someone may say, Ronald, my current trial, my current condition life is really painful right now. God is righteous. You can trust him. Ronald, my current trial is unbearable. It's too much, I can't. God is all powerful. He will give you strength. Ronald, my current trial is disorienting. I don't know what to do. I don't know where to go. God is all wise. He will guide you. Ronald, my current trial is more than my heart can take. God is love. He will care for you and satisfy the desires of your heart. Ronald, my current trial is going to lead me to death. God is life. He will raise you into glory one day at the appearing of His Son. You need to know, believer, who God is. These attributes are rich and encouraging our faith.
Some questions for you to ponder in this first section, and then we'll move to the second section of God is righteous in the gospel. How well do you know God's law? How well do you know God's law? Now, I'm not asking you how many laws did God write in the Old Testament? There's 600 and change, by the way. That's not what I'm asking you. What I'm asking you is how well do you know them? Have you taken the time to investigate sections of Scripture that make certain moral demands that don't sit well with you? Have you submitted to them and sought to understand how God is good in light of a passage of Scripture that in our limited, sinful mind makes it seem like he's not...He is good. The problem is with us, not with his law. So how well do you know God's law? How much do you love and delight in God's laws. Are you more like the Pharisee who just wants to do what's right to get a spiritual handout from God? Or do you love God's law? Do you love his commandments? Do you seek in them, do you find in them life and fulfillment and joy? Question three, do you ever feel the temptation to want some of God's actions or laws to be different? Do you have that temptation? Do you sometimes see yourself as being a peer to God? Yeah, I would do that different. Yeah. You know, maybe this should have gone this way. Last question. Where do I need to confess the sin of rejecting the goodness of God's law? God is righteous. It's what the Bible says. It's what the Bible presents.
But God is also righteous in the gospel. For all the glorious good that the righteousness of God accomplishes, it creates a massive problem for us. It's been in the background since we started talking, since we started making these statements, reading them from Scripture. God is the ultimate moral authority. He is righteous and just in his ways. What he does is right. Behind that is the idea that as the perfectly pure and righteous person that God is, he doesn't keep those standards to himself. God expects it from other moral creatures. It's God's universe, and he expects his creatures to be a certain way. In other words, God demands obedience to his righteousness. God's righteousness is not just a principle in heaven that we look to, and we point to like a statue and say, that is really cool. It's really shiny. It's really nice. No, that statue comes down and it tells us what to do and what not to do. Who you are and who you are not. We see this all the way back in Genesis chapter one, where the Bible isn't shy about telling us who is in charge. God creates the universe and expects it to stay within the patterns he's ordained. You look at Genesis chapter one and you see God telling, this is going to go here, this is going to go there. This is going to be this. This is going to be that. This is going to end here. This is going to start there. God is just ordaining things. He's telling the world, this is how you ought to be. This basic pattern of creation in Genesis 1 goes something like this. God brings order to chaos. God fills the void with life, and God exercises dominion over his creation. Genesis 1 is basically that. Those are the three main movements of what's happening in Genesis chapter one. Now, when God creates humanity, notice what he's going to expect of Adam and Eve. He's going to expect them to follow that same pattern. Genesis 1:28 says, So God created man in his own image. In the image of God he created him. Male and female He created them and God blessed them. And God said to them, be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it, and have dominion over every living thing. The pattern is there. Subdue the earth that's bringing order to chaos. Be fruitful and multiply...that's filling the void with life. Have dominion...that's exercising authority. So what is God communicating to humanity when he creates humanity? What is he saying to them? He's saying you ought to be like me. Your existence reflects my existence. The types of things I do, you do. In Genesis chapter two, we read even more expectations of God to Adam. He says, the Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, you may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat. For in the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die. So what's absolutely clear about these two texts is that God expects obedience from humanity. This is the default setting of a human being before God. The very first interaction mankind had with God. The very first conversation mankind had with God. When Adam opened his eyes into life and beheld the glorious face of his creator...the first words out of God's mouth were not I love you. Now he does. The first words out of God's mouth to Adam and Eve were not, I have purposes for you. He does. The first words out of God's mouth towards Adam and Eve were not, you're special. They are. The first words out of God's mouth to creatures made in his image is...obey. I am God and I am creating you to function in a certain way. There are patterns of who I am that are now imprinted on you, and my glory is broadcast throughout my creation when you follow those commands. The opposite is also true. When you disobey my commands, you do not bring me glory. You lie about who I am, because I've made you in my image. So because God is righteous and because he made us in his image, God expects humanity to be righteous like he is. He's not subtle about this. He commands it. And if humanity fails in the quest to be perfectly righteous like its Creator, God rightfully judges humanity and declares them the opposite of righteous, which is what?...unrighteous, sinful, wicked. And what does Genesis 3 show was the consequence of this declaration of God...death and banishment. So, in a sense, righteousness in the Bible functions as a kind of heavenly currency. We need it to have access to God. Without righteousness, we cannot come to God. Without righteousness, we could not speak to God. Without righteousness, we could not commune with God. This heavenly currency of righteousness, the human condition is depleted of. We have none since Adam and Eve, God has declared us unrighteous. And this is the problem I was talking about. Listen to how the Apostle Paul describes the consequences of being found unrighteous. 1 Corinthians 6:9 Paul says, or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived, neither sexually immoral, idolaters, adulterers, men who practice homosexuality, thieves, greedy, drunkards, revelers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. How do I inherit the kingdom of God? I need righteousness. Romans 1:18, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. Romans 2:8, for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury. Brothers and sisters, God doesn't just dislike sin. He will judge it in righteousness with wrath and fury. God doesn't just endure sinners, he will judge them. And he is reserving his wrath and fury for them. This is why a sermon like this is helpful coming out of a sermon out of the goodness of God. And this is why we need both sermons. This is why we need to study the attributes of God. So what do we do if this is our condition? If the creator, the perfect, pure moral authority of all that exists, has labeled humanity unrighteous. What do we do? Well, two takeaways.
First, if you're an unbeliever, come to Christ. We've been singing about it all morning. It is done. It is finished. No more debt I owe. Paid in full. All sufficient merit. It's now my own. Friend, if you don't know where you stand with God, let me assure you that God knows where he stands with you. If I can use this language, the Bible is an equal opportunity offender. When it talks about who's a sinner, who's unrighteous. The Bible says none is righteous. Romans 3:10. Not one. Nobody. My sweet grandma who is sweet. The Bible says unrighteous. No one seeks for God. All have turned aside. Together they have become worthless. No one does good. Not even one. God has looked down from heaven, declared everyone to be unrighteous. So what can be done about it? Here's a joy of the righteousness of the gospel of Christ. There's one thing you can do about it. Come to Christ. Romans 10:5 says, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. Saved from what?...the wrath and fury that we were talking about. 2 Corinthians 5:21, for our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, that in him we might become the righteousness of God. Christ has done something. Living a perfect life achieved for him infinite righteousness that he takes to the cross. And when God the Father brings judgment on the cross, he's transferring that righteousness to us. He's purchased righteousness for us. He's not guilty of anything, but he's dying for the guilt of everything. And that righteousness becomes our safe place, our security, our sustenance. When we look upon that act of God judging His Son, pouring his wrath on His Son, and we say, it should have been me. I deserve that death. I place my hope and faith on that man. And I believe that what happened to him on that cross will not happen to me. That's faith. So, friend, confess. Come to Christ. Trust in him. Cry out to him as a Savior. You don't need a special prayer. There's no special offering. There's no special ritual. Repent. Believe. Trust in Christ.
Now for the believer...what do you do? What's your take away? Cling to Christ. Cling to Christ. 1 Corinthians 1:30 says, and because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption. That very God who demands righteousness provides the means for the unrighteous to attain righteousness through the blood of his Son. So, believer, cling to Christ.
Let me close with a hymn. If you know this hymn I've messed around with the lyrics, but this just really encapsulates this idea of clinging to Christ.
Believer, when this life of trials tests your faith, when the questions come and doubts remain for the deepest wounds that time won't heal. Cling to Christ. When you falter in this war with sin. When you fail the fight and sink within. When the shame drowns you in its sea. And you dread the waves of righteous justice. Cling to Christ. When the world calls you to leave your Lord. When it offers all its vain rewards. When that heart of yours, like mine, is so prone to stray. When you're tempted to believe you'll be cast away on the final day. Cling to Christ.
Let's pray together. Oh, Father, your Word says if you would count iniquity, who could stand? But there is forgiveness in you. There is mercy in you, Lord. And we thank you for what you've done in Jesus Christ. Father, we pray that your righteousness be a sweet reminder of how truly good you are. May we delight, O Lord, in your commandments. May we seek to follow them, for in following them we are seeking your design for life, which means there is where true fulfillment, true meaning, and purpose is found...to walk this world in the pathways that our Creator has designed for us. Forgive us of our sins, O Lord. For those of us who know Christ...we continue to sin. We continue to harbor unrighteousness in our hearts. We continue to blaspheme the precious blood of Christ. So we ask you again to have mercy on us. Oh, God help us love your law. Help us love you. Help us love each other. Father, for those who would be here, who do not know your Son...would you do what you have done with every one of us who has confessed Christ. Would you open their eyes to see the glorious things of Christ? Would you breathe spiritual life into them, Lord? Would you lead them into repentance and away from condemnation? Father, we now join our voices. We sing about our great High Priest, who to this day right now is in heaven interceding for us. May you be glorified, Lord, by what we do, by what we say in all things. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.
