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On Oct. 31, 1517, an obscure German professor of theology named Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the door of Wittenberg’s Castle Church, protesting among other things the selling of indulgences for money by the church. Indulgences, simply put, were a way sins could be ‘paid for’ with — money! Luther’s action led to the Protestant Reformation, which was marked by millions of Christians around the world Monday on its 505th anniversary.
Luther’s life at the time had been in turmoil. In his studies, he had come across Psalm 31:1, “Deliver me in Your righteousness.” The passage confused him; how could God’s righteousness do anything but condemn him to Hell as a deserved punishment for his sins?
As he thought on this, the monk’s mind was repeatedly drawn to Romans 1:17, which says that in the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “The just shall live by faith” (that is a quote from Habakkuk 2:4).
Revelation dawned upon him: the righteousness of God is that righteousness whereby, through God’s grace and sheer mercy, He justifies us by faith. Luther wrote, “Therefore I felt myself to be reborn and to have gone through open doors into paradise…. This passage of Paul became to me a gateway into heaven.”
Many people mistakenly suppose that God will just excuse all sin because He’s a forgiving kind of guy. Wrong. God is love; but He is also a completely righteous judge. And it isn’t fair to let the guilty go. If someone is guilty, the righteousness of God seems to only condemn them.
But here is the good news of the gospel: God HAS righteously dealt with our sin by putting on Jesus the punishment that WE deserve. Our sin is righteously and fairly punished – but it is judged in Jesus, and NOT IN US.
Theologian David Guzik writes, “Because of this, God’s fairness now is our friend instead of our enemy. Because our sin is already settled in Jesus, it wouldn’t be fair for God to hold the same sins against us.”
This is the Good News – God’s righteousness delivers those who put their trust in Him, and not in themselves.
Let’s thank God for all Jesus did for us to make God’s fairness, His righteousness, our friend instead of our enemy. And today my friend, let’s choose to live by this faith and this righteousness – and COME ALIVE!
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