No Law Against Getting it Right

One of the most beautiful phrases to touch my heart this past while has been this: “But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law” (Romans 3:21).

Why is this so important?

Because there is absolute certainty that every human being will one day stand before the righteousness of God our Creator. There are only two options for what that will be like.

Option one: “Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin” (Romans 3:19-20).

What will that look like in the end? Sinners standing absolutely guilty before absolute righteousness. In one word: condemned.

Option two: “But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe” (Romans 3:21-22).

What will that look like in the end? Sons of God standing absolutely safe and secure before the glorious righteousness of their joyful and loving Father. In one word: glorified!

If all the world had was the righteousness of God manifested under the law, we would all remain condemned in our sin. However, into such a hopeless and dark picture, “the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law”. We can now relate to the righteousness of God without the condemnation of the law proving our guilt, promoting our shame, and securing our fear.

Not only that, but we do not come out from under the law to continue living in the ugliness of sin. We have “the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe”. In other words, sinners can now feel what it is like to be righteous. We can replace the guilt, shame, and fear, that accompanies our sin, with the best feeling in the world: being righteous!

Growing up with a driving need to find my worth by being good has brought me to feel intensely how the law proves me guilty of sin. This is one of the blessings of the apostle Paul’s testimony, that he was as good as good could be, but came to realize he was the “foremost” of sinners because he imagined his own righteousness could satisfy the righteousness of God (see I Timothy 1:12-17).

However, when Paul discovered that there is the righteousness of God manifested “apart from the law”, and that it was received “through faith”, and it was for “all who believe”, he not only realized that he was the foremost of sinners, but “whatever gain” he thought he had through all his law-abiding efforts, he “counted as loss for the sake of Christ”, counting “everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord” (Philippians 3:7-8).

God’s gift to me this past week has been to affirm, and assure, and remind me, that my standing in the righteousness of God is “apart from the law”, meaning, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death” (Romans 8:1-2).

While I have long understood these precious truths from God’s book with my mind (at least in a primary school kind of way), it has taken longer for me to experience the rest that comes by knowing these things in my soul. God has patiently, and lovingly, and relentlessly, forced me to see the failings of all my efforts to be good, so that I could know something better: what it feels like to be righteous in his goodness.

I suspect that I’m not the only one who needs this calming, comforting, restfulness of soul that comes from seeing, and knowing, and experiencing, the righteousness of God apart from the law. Come to this “righteousness of God” that is “through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe” (Romans 3:22).

© 2015 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.)