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The other day, I finally hit on what Paul was talking about in earlier Romans chapters when he said “a new righteousness”.  He was talking about “redeeming” righteousness.  That is, righteousness that redeems your soul, as opposed to righteousness that does not, I suppose?  Well, in Chapter 5 of Romans, Paul finally goes into detail about exactly what he is talking about.

 ¹Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, ²through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.

On the surface, it doesn’t seem too much about righteousness, but it is, as we learned in Romans 1 and 3 - Justification, a New Righteousness and Introduction to Romans 4 - Justification is Righteousness.  But here’s the thing.  Can we use these scriptures to understand righteousness in general?  After all, that is the question at hand, why I have been studying righteousness.  Then, suddenly we come to the New Testament, and the scripture seems to be honing in on something specific.  Well, in my mind, it would seem to be something best understood when with with Old Testament righteousness as a backgdrop; understanding the purpose of the forest by focusing on one of its trees, if you will. 

As we follow the scriptures, and hone in on redeeming righteousness, it begs a question to me: is this righteousness exclusive of the righteousness found in the Old Testament, or inclusive?  That is, is the Old Testament talking about a broader righteousness, most of which Paul excludes in his letter?  Or is it just the very same righteousness, with nothing excluded… simply repackaged?  Well, if I were to rewrite this verse using what I’ll call “Old Testament terms”, perhaps we can discern some amount of the answer:

 ¹Therefore, since we have been made righteous by believing God, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, ²through whom we have gained access through that belief into this mercy in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.

Still all true… and like the Old Testament, it has shades of the heavenly wrapped in the earthly.  Perhaps, being enlightened about who the Messiah turned out to be, Paul just doesn’t like to mince his words. 

Now, I grew up a Christian, but not in a Christian home.  Consequently, I did not start transition from spiritual milk to solid food, so to speak, until I was in college, when more mature Christians started wondering how I could call myself a Christian given some of my worldly habits, which I had acquired in an attempt to fit in (cussing mostly).  I found this very threatening, and insisted that believing in God and believing that Jesus died for my sins was enough to be saved.  I found out years later that these Christian students added me to their prayer list that night, and prayed many nights for me in their dorm, though I wasn’t to actually see any of them again.

These Christians were concerned about my fruit, and rightfully so.  I still believe I was saved then, because my belief in Christ is the same today as that night… but I also know that believers without fruit do not always remain so.  They can fall away.  Their belief does not change, but their gratefulness for Christ’s sacrifice begins to weign… until perhaps they are not grateful for it at all. I do not consider this a loss of salvation per se, because salvation is not something you can “lose” or have taken from you.  However, as we have seen in our righteousness study, it is something you can turn away from… the wicked may turn to goodness and be saved, and the righteous may turn to wickedness and be condemned.  I never turned away, and I now endeaver to live a more godly life today than I was those 20 years ago.

The reason I tell of this is because when the Old Testament talks of righteousness, it says first comes belief in God.  God accounts to you righteousness when you believe Him.  It then says that your obedience to God is your righteousness.  In other words, your actions are your fruit.  Back in the day, I believed, but did not obey.  God account righteousness to me, but I did not let it manifest in my actions (well, I did, but my other behavior covered it up, to the point where other Christians, more obedient and mature than I needed to pray for me).

So now, I come to Romans 5, and I see Paul teaching that redeeming righteousness has much the same rules as righteousness in general: believe (faith) and you receive mercy (grace).  But what then of obedience… is obedience then a requirement for redeeming righteousness (i.e., justification) or a result of receiving it?

 ⁶You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. ⁷Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. ⁸But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Well, this answers part of it.  It confirms that any righteousness to speak of is the result of Christ’s sacrifice, which precedes our righteous… without His actions, there is no justification for our sins… no being made righteousness, no promise to believe, and no righteousness to account to us for believing it.  Go back to Abram again… it was Jesus who was to be born from that promise that God made to Abram, that he would receive a son, and through Christ’s sacrifice that Abram would be the father of many nations, not just that of his own physical descendents.  But Paul will get to that, as he talks about the entry of condemnation into the world through the trespass of Adam, and the giving of the Law of Moses so that mankind’s enduring disobedience could be illustrated, showing the basis for our judgement… hence also the basis, the gift, of our redemption:

 ¹⁵But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many! ¹⁶Again, the gift of God is not like the result of the one man’s sin: The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification. ¹⁷For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.

And with these verses, Paul clears up some of the confusion about righteousness that I had observed in scripture early on this year: that any righteousness possessed by a man is manifested in his obedience to God; righteousness possessed by God always leads to justice… why justice? The answer is justification!  How could God’s mercy be just? Because those receiving that mercy are justified.  And how can they be justified, when it would seem that God was simply letting them off the hook? By providing a substitute to suffer their punishment.  The acts of mercy toward those turning from wickedness was not based on mere belief, but in a redeeming sacrifice through which that belief could be given power.  Belief itself is not enough for justice… but belief combined with a substitional sacrifice is justice.  More than that, it is justifying.  For everyone else, those who do not believe what God tells them, they have no sacrifice, and where then is the justice?  The justice is their own eternal sacrifice… the sacrifice of their of their life for eternity.  And why eternity?  Because it is a blemished life, a life that cannot redeem itself.  Only Christ’s life was without blemish… hence requiring no sacrifice for Himself, but resulting in an ability to redeem all else who accept it… who believe.  And those who believe and are regenerated in Him will show fruit… the obedience of righteousness spoken of in Exodus.

 ¹⁸Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men. ¹⁹For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.

 ²⁰The law was added so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, ²¹so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

This entry was posted on Saturday, October 3rd, 2009 at 7:26 am and is filed under Word Studies, Bible Commentary, Righteousness. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.