S1Ep8 - Righteousness — A Robe You Didn't Earn

Righteousness isn’t about being “good enough” — it’s about being covered by Christ. This episode unpacks how His perfect record is credited to us, a gift we receive by faith, strong enough to stand even when life feels bitter but finished in Him.

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Chapters

• 0:01 Welcome And Today’s Big Word
• 0:25 Rethinking Righteousness: Received Not Achieved
• 1:10 Scripture’s Verdict On Our Best Efforts
• 1:52 Faith In Christ As God’s Righteousness
• 2:44 Luther’s Breakthrough And Alien Righteousness
• 3:22 Covered Like A Robe: Credited Righteousness
• 3:52 The Thief On The Cross Illustration
• 5:10 Luther’s Bold Confidence And Baptism
• 6:16 Justification: Grace Alone Through Faith Alone
• 7:24 Daily Life: Accusation, Assurance, And Jesus
• 9:14 Perfectionism Cancels The Gospel
• 10:56 From Gift To Fruit: Living It Out
• 11:42 Takeaways, Next Topic, And Closing

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:01

You're listening to Coffee Break Theology, a King of Kings podcast.

SPEAKER_02: 0:12

Welcome back to Coffee Break Theology, where deep truths fit into your short breaks right between your morning devotion and your second cup of Java.

SPEAKER_01: 0:23

Nice. That's Greg. I'm Marcus. Today we're talking about a big word that's all over the Bible, but it's often misunderstood. That word is righteousness.

SPEAKER_02: 0:32

That's right. So scriptures talk about righteousness as essential, but it's not always what we think. It's not about being a good person, it's about being made right with God.

SPEAKER_01: 0:45

Right. And here's the best part. And in Lutheran theology, righteousness is received. It's not achieved.

SPEAKER_02: 0:51

Yeah. And so I think this will help, especially when people read about like he was a man of righteousness. And we think, I find myself thinking a lot of times, I'm like, oh gosh, like I can't do that. Right. And I'm not like that. But our theology says this is not about what you've achieved, it's about what you've received. And so uh so we're reminded Paul wrote this in Romans 3:10. No one is righteous. No, not one.

SPEAKER_01: 1:19

That right there, that hits hard. Right. And it's it's because we often think righteousness is about moral behavior. Being kind, being honest, being upright, doing the right things. But the Bible says, even in our best efforts, our best efforts, the best that I can do, that's not enough. Isaiah 64 says call it calls our righteousness acts filthy rags. So the best that we can do, the best that we have to offer, dirty rags. Right. Completely worthless. You might as well burn them. You might as well throw them away. Yeah. But if if we can't earn it, so how do we get it then? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 1:51

So that's where the gospel breaks in, right? Paul says says in Romans 3, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ is for all who believe.

SPEAKER_01: 2:01

Nice. So this was Martin Luther's big breakthrough. Yeah. In his is in his life. He used to hear the phrase the righteousness of God and cower and fall in fear, thinking it meant there's a standard up there that I have to meet, and I'm not able to do that.

unknown: 2:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 2:15

And that's where where he read in Romans 1, the righteous will live by faith. And he realized that that this is something that's given, because again, faith is given to us. And so it's a gift that we have and that then we hold on to. And so so it's given to us. It's not demanded. And and that that was a huge breakthrough for him.

SPEAKER_01: 2:36

Yeah. For him in that moment, Luther said he felt as if I had been reborn and had entered paradise itself through open gates. Yeah. And was open to him where he thought it was closed off.

SPEAKER_02: 2:45

Yeah. And we we get to see that this reawakening um has has really impacted impacted his life, which has impacted all our lives, um, as Luther uh has has opened up the gospel in new ways through the through the work of the the Lord. And and so so Luther called this what is called as alien righteousness, which meant this, that it's not our nature, right? This is actually Christ's righteousness that is credited to us, it's given to us.

SPEAKER_01: 3:18

Right. And scripture it says this about that that righteousness. We wear it like a robe. It's placed on us, we wear it. We're we're covered, we're clean, now we're accepted because of what Jesus did and earned for us. One of my favorite expressions of the truth is is uh a sermon by Alistair Begg. I don't know, I don't think he's a Lutheran, but um, he's talking about the thief on the cross. Yeah. And during the crucifixion, that guy asked Jesus to remember him in his kingdom. And Jesus replied to him was, Today you will be with me in paradise. And so Alistair Begg goes on to say, he says, Once a thief dies, and he's taking liberties here, it's not in the Bible. But he says, Once he dies, he goes and he appears at the pearly gates and he's greeted by an angel at the gates. And the angel asked him, What are he doing there? You know, why are you here? You know, he basically responds, I don't know. He probably doesn't even know where he is. The supervisor angel comes out and he starts asking him theological questions, like surely you can explain the doctrine of election. The guy's just confused, he has no idea what he's talking about. What about baptism? Huh? I don't, I don't, I've heard of that. How about something easy? Explain the Trinity to me. And he says, I can't do that. And he says, What's your eschatological stance? And of course, he blank stares, just no, no idea what's going on. And so the angel is just caught stammering. He's like, Well, tell me, I do you know how do you what finally he just blurts out. He's like, What are you doing here? Why are you here? And and the thief on the on the cross says, The man on the middle cross said I could come. Wow. And that's it. That that's the that's a beautiful portrayal of we can't add up to anything, we don't earn anything, we can't merit anything. That what we know, our knowledge, our faith is given to us, like you've been saying. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 5:00

I love Luther said it this way, and and I and and his he was bold, and I I think this is such a great way. He talked about someone asked him and said one time, like, why will you get to go to heaven? Right? Um, why will God accept you? And and that was a good question because remember that in Luther's day, and even to this day, the Roman Catholic Church had said that he he was a heretic. And so they've condemned him to hell. Right. And so, so the question was like, why do you think you're going to heaven when the church on earth says you're going to hell? Right. And he said, I'm going to go to heaven because I'm going to take my baptismal certificate, I'm going to shove it into the nose of the Father, and I'm going to walk right past him in. That's how bold he was. Because he trusted in that righteousness that came through his calling as a baptized child of God. And that's where I think he got the ability to write in the small catechism for us that Jesus has redeemed us and that I am his and live under him in his kingdom and serve him with everlasting righteousness. And so it's changed who he is.

SPEAKER_01: 6:17

Right. And not to earn righteousness. Right. But to live in it because it's already ours. Christ has already won that for us.

SPEAKER_02: 6:24

Yeah, and and further reading in in an article, Article 4 of the Augsburg Confession, he writes this Luther says, We're justified freely for Christ's sake through faith. So that when we believe that we are received into favor through his merit, not ours.

SPEAKER_01: 6:44

And that's why we say, I'm going to use some Latin here. A couple weeks ago, you said no, don't do that, but I'm smart enough to do this. You are. The phrase is sola gratia, sola fide, sola christus, sola scriptura, solideia gloria. What that means is we are saved by grace alone. Yes. Through faith alone, in Christ alone, as revealed in scripture alone, to the glory of God alone. So there's there's a lot of attributes that are that are thrown to only God, not to us. That's not for us. We're saved by gift, and that is all.

SPEAKER_02: 7:18

Yeah. Yeah, I love the solas of of Lutheranism and the solos of Christianity. So so let's ask this question like hearing about all this righteousness, right? And so what does this mean for our daily life?

SPEAKER_01: 7:32

Yeah, it means we don't have to fear that we don't measure up. I mean, we are we know that and we don't. That's the truth. But if you're in Christ, you already measure up because of what he did. It's not because of what we do.

SPEAKER_02: 7:46

It also means that when the devil accuses us, and and by the way, these are those, you know, I I I get this when like when I know I've messed up, like I have this little voice that runs in my head that says, like, and you call yourself a Christian and you really think God will love you. Right. And and those are all the words of Satan. Um, and so so when he accuses us that you're not enough or you failed again, right? Like I can't believe this. I don't have to argue back with him about my behavior. Right. Instead, I just look at him and say, look at Jesus. Yep.

SPEAKER_01: 8:23

And what makes the devil and his attacks so sinister is that he comes at you from all angles. Oh. He tries to get us to think that we we have to live up to this holy standard. Right. And that's half true. Like there is a standard out there, and God requires perfection. Yeah. He does. But we can't, we just can't attain it. Right. And so the devil will come out and he'll even attack the outcome of your effort. Either we do a few things correctly, and then he makes you think how awesome you are. Oh, look how look how good you are. Look how much better you are than Greg. Look how much better you are than whoever it is. And he he gives you that pride. He he flames that into into your heart. You're better than these other schmucks around, that's for sure. Or on the other hand, you fail, and he makes you think, Well, you're terrible. You're not even close to the standard. What are you doing? You're you're awful. You're definitely not worth the love of God. So he he comes at you all the time. But when he when he arrives, when the devil arrives to accuse you, and he will, yeah, in either case, our winning argument is Jesus. You can tell the devil when he comes to you, yep, you're right. In your accusation of me, I am not enough. But guess what? This trial is not for me. Jesus takes my place instead. And he's attained that perfection that you say I have to do. And he's given me the right. You can be bold like Luther and shove that baptismal certificate in the devil's face and say, get away from me, because this Jesus has won this for me. He's given me the invitation to eternal life with him. And case closed, right? Good. That's it. It's over. Yeah. So Philippians 3 9 says, Not having a righteousness of my own, but that which comes through faith in Christ. That's that's where it all lies. Jesus is the answer, he's the winning argument, he's how you rebuttal the the devil.

SPEAKER_02: 10:04

Yeah. And I think I think for me, one of the things that's so important about this righteousness is I when I demand perfection for myself, I actually remove Jesus from his seat of of holiness. And when I demand per section perfection from others, I I become I want to become God. And so so that perfection is never mine to demand upon myself or upon others. It is only God's. And he already knows that we can't achieve it, and that's why his son came. And so when we demand perfection, we actually then cancel the gospel. And and and that's an issue, uh that's something that's so important for us. And and the twist really is that that we rest in that righteousness that comes from God because the more that the Spirit actually produces that righteousness in us, we really then see the real fruit and real changes of not only what we expect from ourselves, but what we expect from others. Yeah, that's beautiful.

SPEAKER_01: 11:06

Yeah. As a father, I I fall into that. I I demand a lot. You know, when you demand perfection, that that's a good way of looking at it. You're robbing Jesus from them. Yeah. And you're doing the devil's work. Right. The devil's like, yeah, keep going. Yeah. I'm like, ooh, okay, we better point back to Christ, right? Amen. Amen. Um, so we're not saved by works, but saved people work. Yeah. Not for love, but from it. We have that love, we work out of it.

SPEAKER_02: 11:29

So today, in your coffee break theology, here's what we want you to take away. Righteousness isn't a reward for the good, it's a gift for the guilty, and it's wrapped up in Jesus.

SPEAKER_01: 11:42

You are robed in Christ's righteousness. Now go live like it's true. Not to earn it, but reflect it. He is the one who earned it for you.

SPEAKER_02: 11:53

And as you just talked about, our next topic for next week, it's an important one. Coffee break theology. We're gonna unpack biblical parenting.

SPEAKER_01: 12:03

Until then, remember, you are covered, you are clean, you are righteous in Christ.

SPEAKER_02: 12:10

Amen.

SPEAKER_00: 12:12

Thanks for listening to Coffee Break Theology. Be sure to tune in next time and remember to check out our other podcast series available on every major podcast listening service.