Dear Christian friends:

Are you a good man? Are you a good woman? If I ask you that question you will perhaps answer me, "Yes, I am a good person, I obey the laws of the U.S.A. and of the State of California and of Los Angeles County. I also obey God's laws in the Ten Commandments." When a person answers like that he is talking about the goodness of the law. He is talking about a righteousness of man.

In our text St. Paul talks about another goodness or righteousness, a goodness and righteousness which is much better and really precious. He is talking about God's goodness, God's righteousness which He offers to men. The goodness we really need more than anything else in the world.

God's righteousness was made through Jesus Christ.

It is not man's righteousness. St. Paul confessed, "I do not have my own righteousness." (Philippians 3:9) He had his own righteousness as everyone has, but he did not trust in his own righteousness to stand before the judgment seat of God. Paul knew that his own righteousness or goodness was not good enough. And we better know that, too. Our own righteousness based on the Law is not perfect. But the Law demands perfection. God said to Abraham, "Walk before Me and be thou perfect." (Genesis 17:1) Therefore we cannot hope to stand before God in our own righteousness, our own good deeds, no matter how good and respectable we may seem to be when compared with other men. The Bible says, "We are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags." (Isaiah 64:6) If you are an honest person, you will agree with that. But many proud people in the world do not agree. They refuse to confess that they are sinners and that they daily sin much. Today many people do not even accept God's Law as their judge. They no longer accept the Ten Commandments. They make their own rules and laws. Everyone does his own thing, and you see the terrible results: broken homes; children without parents or with only one parent; couples living together and not married; teenagers having babies - one-half of all babies born now are from unwed mothers; more and more homosexuals etc. Most people have put aside the Ten Commandments. They have their own righteousness and their own righteousness stinks before God.

God should really punish us with our own righteousness, whether it be the righteousness of the law or the righteousness without the law. The Bible says, "Cursed is everyone that continues not in all the things which are written in the book of the law," (Galatians 3:10) "The wages of sin is death," (Romans 6:23) That means both physical and spiritual death.

But God is also a merciful God. That is the Good News! He is perfect and holy and must punish sin and sinners and His law must be kept but He is also gracious and merciful. That is why He sent His only Son, Jesus, to make another righteousness for man. Jesus became a true man so that He could take our place under the Law and keep the Law for us. "When the right time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law to redeem them that were under the Law, that we might become His adopted children." (Galatians 4:4-5) Jesus also suffered God's curse which we all had earned by our Law-breaking.

The Bible says, "Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: because it is written, Cursed is everyone that hangs on a tree." (Galatians 3:13) Through His perfect life and by His death on the cross Jesus earned a new righteousness for all men. Here in our text Paul is talking about that righteousness. He calls it, the righteousness which is of faith." (v. 6)

This new righteousness we cannot earn. It is the free gift of God. Jesus has already earned it for all men. It is foolish for men to try_and earn it by their own good works. In our text Paul says it is as foolish as if you tried to go up to heaven to bring Christ down or if you tried to go down to hell to bring Christ up. (vv. 6-7) Can you go up to heaven to bring Christ down here on earth? No! Neither can you in any way earn this new righteousness. If you try to earn it by crying or sorrow or suffering or in any way, you lose it! It is a free gift of God. All man can earn is death. He cannot earn this righteousness of Christ, which brings eternal life. The Bible says, "The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." (Romans 6:23)

Well, should we not try to keep the Ten Commandments anyway? Yes, we Christians should try to keep them, but not to earn our way into heaven. We keep the Ten Commandments, or rather we try to keep then, because we know they are good for us and we can please God and show our thanks to Him for Jesus and His righteousness.

So we should not try to earn righteousness, but accept it by faith as a free gift from God's mercy. In our text Paul writes, "don't try to earn it, but listen to God's message:" "God's message is near you, on your lips and in your heart - that is, the message of faith that we preach. If you declare with your lips, ‘Jesus is Lord,' and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For we believe in our hearts and are right with God; we declare with our lips and are saved." (vv. 8-10) Jesus' righteousness, which gives us eternal life, we accept only by faith.

God gives us this faith when we listen to His message. (v. 8) The message is in the Bible and in Baptism and in the Lord's Supper. It is the beautiful message of God's love in Jesus, God's love for sinners. Hear that message often. It is the message I preach!

So, remember: don't trust in your own righteousness, man's righteousness, but trust in God's free gift, the righteousness of God in Jesus, which gives eternal life. Whoever believes in Jesus will not be disappointed on the Judgment Day. (v. 11 and 13) But those who trust in their own righteousness will be disappointed, very, very disappointed!

Amen.