Righteous By Faith Alone

I have often pointed to two basic principles in the teaching about spiritual matters and faith in God.

1. The Formal Principle— the only source of my knowledge about all things spiritual is the Bible, God's revealed Word.
2. The Material Principle—the central teaching of the Bible is that Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God who became man and offered His precious life as the complete sacrifice for the sins of all mankind.

Both principles were at risk as Luther began his attempts to reform the medieval European church early in the sixteenth century. Church councils and traditions guarded and taught by the church's bishops and the Roman Pope had distorted God's Word. As a result, the central teaching of the Bible, that a man is declared just and righteous only by God declaring him so for the sake of Jesus Christ, was also distorted. To assist my readers to understand what this means I return again to the Apostle Paul in Romans 10.

But the righteousness based on faith says, "Do not say in your heart, 'Who will ascend into heaven?'" (that is, to bring Christ down) or "'Who will descend into the abyss?'" (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). But what does it say? "The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart" (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the Scripture says, "Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame." - Rom 10:6-11 ESV

Consider righteousness itself. What is it and why does the Apostle use such a complex word? Paul's Greek word dikaiosynay is rooted in the widely used O.T. Hebrew word zedek. So we read in the psalms:

Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous; for the LORD knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish. - Psa 1:5-6 ESV

For you bless the righteous, O LORD; you cover him with favor as with a shield. - Psa 5:12 ESV

The righteous man loves the LORD and walks in His ways. He seeks to know God's will and way for his life and obeys Him. He is righteous. But is he? Is there any man on earth who may correctly claim to be righteous or just (zedek) in God's eyes by virtue of the pious life he lives? No, not one, says King David in his psalms:

The fool says in his heart, "There is no God." They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds, there is none who does good. The LORD looks down from heaven on the children of man, to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one. - Psa 14:1-3 ESV and Psa 53:1-3 ESV

Yet in Jesus' day many Jewish teachers believed they had attained to diakaiosynay, the state of perfection. They even believed they lived above and beyond God's demands. In this they took great pride. Yet of them our Lord Jesus says in his Sermon on the Mount,

For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. - Mat 5:20 ESV

For this reason the Apostle Paul insists that the state of being declared righteous in God's eyes is only possible when you put your faith and trust in Jesus, the same LORD who came down once on Mt. Sinai (Rom. 10:9; Phil. 2:11; 1 John 4:2) to speak to Moses and lead Israel to the promised land. He is the Son of God, very God of very God, who offered his life as the single all-atoning sacrifice for all men's sins. To confirm this the heavenly Father raised him up on the third day. If then you believe in your heart and confess the same with your lips you are saved. In the words of the ancient prophet Joel,

And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those who escape, as the LORD has said, and among the survivors shall be those whom the LORD calls. - Joel 2:32 ESV. (cf. also Hab. 2:4)

This was the challenge of the Reformation. The false teaching of the Jewish scribes and pharisees had crept back into the church. Men were being taught that they could obtain righteousness by purchasing indulgences. Luther was an ordained and certified doctor of the church. He was called to teach God's Word. He was under the command of God and compelled by his conscience. He had no choice but to insist that men are righteous and just before God only by faith!

Sadly, the Roman Catholic church still clings to indulgences and the so-called treasury of merit she believes she controls despite everything that has been taught from God's Word over the course of the past five centuries.