“The righteous shall live by his faith” (Habakkuk 2.4)
As the dawning sun lifts the faces of sunflowers that have been drooping sadly in the night, so the gospel of God’s free grace lifts us up with joy when at once its light shines in our hearts. After darkness, light became the rallying cry of the Protestant Reformation when God made the light of the gospel shine brightly in the church again. The church had smothered its warming light under a nighttime of dreary religion. Then God raised up Martin Luther and other heralds to joyously proclaim: God’s grace alone by faith alone in Christ alone! It was a new day!
Sadly, Luther’s experience had been that of many. Luther’s religious works had never gained him peace with God. All his dutiful attempts to serve God had produced no warmth of love for him, no blessed assurance of eternal life, but only growing murmuring and resentment. “I myself was more than once driven to the very abyss of despair,” he wrote. “I wished I had never been created. Love God? I hated Him.”
The upsetting thorn in Luther’s flesh had been the righteousness of God. For Paul, the righteousness of God is the very heart and good news of the gospel (Romans 1.16-17), but Luther found the whole idea dumbfounding and inconceivable. How could the righteousness of God have anything to do with the “good news of the gospel” that Paul joyfully proclaimed? The righteousness of God, Luther believed, only damned a sinner like him to hell.
Then God granted divine illumination of historic proportions. Finally, the glory of Paul’s words dawned in the darkness of Luther’s heart. He saw the connection between Paul’s words and the prophet Habakkuk’s proclamation: “The righteous shall live by his faith.” All at once Luther saw that the righteousness God requires of sinners is one He also gives as a gift to sinners who simply believe in the saving blood and righteousness of Jesus, our Substitute! It was a watershed moment in understanding the gospel! Reflecting on it, Luther said: “I felt myself to be reborn and to have gone through open doors into paradise.”
Being justified by faith alone in Jesus, we have “peace with God” (Romans 5.1). Our consciences can accuse no longer because God’s justice has amazingly decided in favor of the sinner rather than against him! “Memory looks back upon past sins with deep sorrow for the sin but yet with no dread of any penalty to come; for Christ has paid the debt of His people to the last jot and tittle and unless God can be so unjust as to demand double payment for one debt, no soul for whom Jesus died as a substitute can ever be cast into hell…If God be just, I, a sinner, alone and without a substitute, must be punished; but Jesus stands in my stead and is punished for me; and now, if God be just, I, a sinner, standing in Christ, can never be punished” (Charles Spurgeon).
God’s free grace in Jesus, once believed, lifts our drooping hearts up with joy! My hope lies not in believing that I am not a sinner but rather that I am a sinner for whom Christ died. My confidence is not that I am holy, but rather being unholy, Jesus is my righteousness. My faith rests not on what I am or shall be or feel, but on what Christ is and has done for me. In love, the Father gave His Son --my Substitute-- what I deserve so that by faith in Him alone, I might receive what He deserves. Jesus, the Righteous One, lived, died, and was raised for me. To God alone be the glory!
Bill Massey, Interim Senior Pastor
