2014년 3월 2일 주일 영어예배 설교
로마서 1:17

(Romans 1:17)

The Reformation is a very historic event because the truths of the Christianity were declared once again and restored publically, breaking the darkness of the middle Ages of the Roman Catholicism. There were several mottos in the midst of the movement of Reformation. One of the mottos was “The righteous shall live by faith.” which is one of the Book of Romans verses. Today, among the mottos that the reformers clamored, we are going to be appreciating the meaning of ‘Sola Fide’ (only faith).
The righteousness of God is revealed in the gospel, which refers to the way to be justified. In verse 17, “For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith”. To appreciate this marvelous and great verse, first we need to know the general concept of the righteousness which most people used to or have known. People used to think that humans can be justified by doing some rules, good, or by disciplines; people have believed that they can get the justification by keep the laws, in fact many people including Jews do so even today. Regardless of human being’s thinking from the defective and sinful mind like that, the Bible says this “For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight” (Romans 3:20). Not only this obviously direct verse but also the overall teaching of the Bible points to this realistic fact, men’s total inability.
It means there is no one who can be justified before God through keeping the laws or doing something. So then what is the law? What is the role of the law? The Bible makes it clear “since through the law comes knowledge of sin.” (Romans 3:20). The law makes sins to be sins. “Now the law came in to increase the trespass.” (Romans 5:20). That is to say, people didn’t know sins as the sins before the law came in and designated the sin as sin. But after the law came to this world as the standard, sins have been revealed as the sins. The same deeds or things can be guilty or not according to the fact that there is the law which calls it illegal or not. Like this, if there is no the law of God, humans cannot recognize sins as the sins. Before the law says that not to serve God is a sin, it is not a sin. But from the moment when the law says that for human beings it is the worst sin, that not to serve and believe in God, it becomes a sin. From the view point of the righteousness of God, there are countless sins. Things we must do or must not do. There is no one who can meet the requirements of the law to be righteous. This is the declaration of the Bible. “As it is written: None is righteous, no, not one” (Romans 3:10). So through the law, we can recognize that we are all sinners and that we can’t be righteous by our deeds of the law. The law tells us the sins which we weren’t aware of before. So the Bible calls the law the guardian. In Galatians 3:24 “So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith.” In other words, the law is a teacher who teaches us what are sins. And the law puts all men under the tremendous requirements of it to be righteous. And the only thing that men can find is themselves under the terrible curse of the law due to the great lack of qualification for being righteous, and helpless, hopeless themselves just waiting for death that is the unavoidable result of the very human sins for all mankind. The under the curse of the law, in fact all men spiritually died. Now, the only way for human beings to be live is to be justified before the living God. And the law serves as a guardian who guide human beings to the one. To whom? Yes, Jesus Christ, our living hope, our unique hope. Jesus Christ who solved out all our sins, met all the requirements of the law for us.
We are all sinners. No one can be justified through the deed of the law. What is the result of the sin? “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). The death came into this world as a result of the sins. Nobody can escape the death. Then how can human beings be righteous? How can human beings be justified or how human beings overcome the death? The death that the Bible says is not the one which is just one-off biological death, but the one which is eternal suffering in the hell as the punishment. But there is one righteousness. In verse 17 “For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith” Here, ‘it’ means ‘the gospel’ and the Bible says ‘the righteousness of God’ is in the gospel. The one righteousness has appeared in the gospel in front of the humans who were at the mercy of the death. This righteousness has opened the way, has revealed the truth, and has given the life to be saved from the sins or the death for human being as a righteous man. Jesus has declared that “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6). This is the faith namely to believe. Believe who? Our Lord Jesus Christ. Only by faith. It is to believe the blood of Jesus Christ at the Cross of the Calvary, the effect of the blood for all our sins. It is to believe the Atonement of Jesus Christ. It is to believe the promise of Jesus Christ. It is to believe that all my sins including the sins of the past and the future were wiped away through the Jesus’ blood for the atonement. That is the righteousness suggested by God for sinners in the gospel. There is only one thing to be saved or to be righteous. That is to believe our Lord Jesus Christ. That is to rely on Jesus’ merits and perfection. That is to believe crucified and resurrected Jesus Christ. Then, we can be considered as the perfect righteous before God owing to Jesus. This is the gospel of Christianity. Human beings can be righteous only by faith in Jesus Christ. The Bible says that even this faith is the gift from God. In Ephesians 2:8 “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God” So Justification is only by faith. So that is the grace. Our good deeds can’t affect this justification. Our sinful deeds can’t affect this justification also. Before this amazing grace, the only unique thing that human can do is to praise God, and just shedding tears of gratitude laying face down on the ground before Him. By faith, to believe Jesus Christ is the righteousness of God suggested in the gospel for sinners. We must grasp this righteousness.
There have been different gospels in history. They always think that they have to do something additionally in men’s side to be righteous for salvation anyhow. Good cause, good deeds, and at least good mind. No! There is no hope at all in human inside. There is no least thing to know and do good in us before the prefect God. Every merits and cause from us is useless to be righteous before God. Even the things so-called holy such as to live single in a monastery making the sign of the cross at everything or to crawl on their knees upstairs with a intention of tasting the passion of Christ or to pray several hours a day, those things themselves can be valuable in some sense, yes those things are not wrong, those things may be helpful for keeping religious mind or discipline, but those things have nothing to do with the justification at all. If someone or some group insist that some deeds are needed at least to be righteous, they are ‘the very different gospel’ which Paul said in Galatians. These kind of insistences are not just the improper or wrong gospel but not the gospel at all. To be justified before God is totally God’s grace due to Jesus merits. The one and only thing needed to be justified is the faith in Jesus Christ, the crucified and resurrected Jesus. That’s all, there is nothing we can do more, and there is nothing we have to do more, that’s all. This rule has not been changed.

Everyone, Christian people do good and try to keep the laws, but they are the natural outcomes as the result of justification, not the motive, cause, or contribution to the justification. The Bible indicates that even thousands of years ago, human beings could be recognized to be righteous only by faith before God. All the godly kings and prophets of God in the Old Testament did the same. Only Jesus, only faith. That is our unique hope. Never worry about your salvation. Run to the Cross of the Calvary every day, every moment and just look at our Lord Jesus Christ regardless of your hundreds and thousands of failures and fallings in your life. Every day, every time look at Jesus Christ and believe him. That’s all. That is the righteousness of God in the gospel. Now we live by faith, all the believers in history lived by faith. Nowadays, all the chosen people of God all over the world are thoroughly grasping this truth.
I really want you to enjoy this amazing grace and grasp the Cross of Jesus Christ only to be recognized as the righteous before God.