THE GIFT OF RIGHTEOUSNESS #4

In his letter to the Roman Christians Paul explained that there is no one in the whole world who can stand in the presence of God and be declared 'not guilty' on the basis of their own performance.

• No one, he says, lives up to the knowledge of God available and evident to all in the wonders of God's creation.
• No one, he says, who has the written word of God has lived according to its standards.

God's law, he says, makes it clear that both those who have this law and those who don't, are all silenced by this law in the presence of God, the just Judge. All are answerable. All are accountable. For all have rejected God's self-revelation in creation, and those who have his written revelation have rejected it or failed to obey it.

No one, Paul says, will be declared righteous in God's sight by keeping the law. If fact, he says, the law was never intended to be a means of justification or vindication. Rather, the law is the very thing that exposes us as sinners. It identifies not our goodness, but our sinfulness.

Our inability to keep God's law, and the law's intention to expose our wretchedness rather than identify our goodness, highlights our need for a 'righteousness' ' a 'not guilty declaration' ' that has nothing to do with our keeping the law.

And that is Paul's point: now, in the Gospel, 'a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known'.

Scriptures: Romans 1:18-3:21