Episode Synopsis:

If Paul is correct that no amount of good works or human merit, no religious pilgrimage, and no performance of church sacraments or ceremonies can render us righteous before God, then what can? Paul’s answer is shockingly simple, yet it ties together all the diverse threads of biblical history, from Genesis to Revelation. Jesus Christ, who is the righteousness from God, is the one in whom Adam’s fallen race can be declared righteous before a holy God. Jesus alone fulfills the demands of God’s law. He underwent the circumcision of God on the cross, and his shed blood redeems all those who trust in him and in his merit alone—renouncing their own righteousness and seeking his.

Paul’s gospel is absolutely counterintuitive. People refuse to think of themselves as sinners who must stand before God clothed only in the filthy rags of their own righteousness. So, for those who think of themselves as innocent before God, or as people who do bad things once in a while but do not really deserve punishment, Paul’s indictment of the human race—that none are righteous and that no one seeks God—sounds unbelievably harsh and unfair. Why not just do enough good to counterbalance the bad? Why not trust in the sorts of cures that most religions offer? Do this, do that, or simply pretend that there is no such thing as evil. And then there are those who recognize the evil that lies deep within them but think of themselves as beyond all possibility of redemption.

Paul will have none of this. In Romans 1:18–3:20, he has described the human condition in the bleakest of terms: None are righteous, not even one. No one does good or seeks the truth about God and themselves. All suppress the truth in unrighteousness and do whatever they think is right in their own eyes. With the human condition laid bare, you might think that our fallen race should despair, since there is no apparent hope or relief from our predicament. You would think.

Paul’s answer is the gospel, in which a righteousness from God is revealed. This is the message he begins to unpack in Romans 3:21 and develops over the next several chapters of his epistle to the Romans. Jesus came to save sinners from the wrath to come and to provide them with a righteousness that can withstand God’s holy scrutiny. There is no better news ever announced to those who know they cannot save themselves.

God has provided a payment for all sin—past, present, and future—through the cross of Jesus Christ. In his life of perfect obedience, Jesus earned the justifying righteousness that becomes ours, which means that we will never have to face an angry God on the day of judgment. And all of this becomes ours through faith in Jesus Christ. Counterintuitive, indeed. But it is the best news you will ever hear—news that we cannot hear too much or too often.

For show notes and other recommended materials located at the Riddleblog as mentioned during the Blessed Hope Podcast, click here: https://www.kimriddlebarger.com/