Episode Transcript
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SPEAKER_00 (00:01):
You're listening to
Coffee Break Theology, a King of
Kings podcast.
SPEAKER_02 (00:12):
Welcome back to
Coffee Break Theology, where
deep truths fit into your shortbreaks right between your
morning devotion and your secondcup of Java.
SPEAKER_01 (00:23):
Nice.
That's Greg.
I'm Marcus.
Today we're talking about a bigword that's all over the Bible,
but it's often misunderstood.
That word is righteousness.
SPEAKER_02 (00:32):
That's right.
So scriptures talk aboutrighteousness as essential, but
it's not always what we think.
It's not about being a goodperson, it's about being made
right with God.
SPEAKER_01 (00:45):
Right.
And here's the best part.
And in Lutheran theology,righteousness is received.
It's not achieved.
SPEAKER_02 (00:51):
Yeah.
And so I think this will help,especially when people read
about like he was a man ofrighteousness.
And we think, I find myselfthinking a lot of times, I'm
like, oh gosh, like I can't dothat.
Right.
And I'm not like that.
But our theology says this isnot about what you've achieved,
it's about what you've received.
And so uh so we're reminded Paulwrote this in Romans 3:10.
(01:15):
No one is righteous.
No, not one.
SPEAKER_01 (01:19):
That right there,
that hits hard.
Right.
And it's it's because we oftenthink righteousness is about
moral behavior.
Being kind, being honest, beingupright, doing the right things.
But the Bible says, even in ourbest efforts, our best efforts,
the best that I can do, that'snot enough.
Isaiah 64 says call it calls ourrighteousness acts filthy rags.
(01:40):
So the best that we can do, thebest that we have to offer,
dirty rags.
Right.
Completely worthless.
You might as well burn them.
You might as well throw themaway.
Yeah.
But if if we can't earn it, sohow do we get it then?
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (01:51):
So that's where the
gospel breaks in, right?
Paul says says in Romans 3, therighteousness of God through
faith in Jesus Christ is for allwho believe.
SPEAKER_01 (02:01):
Nice.
So this was Martin Luther's bigbreakthrough.
Yeah.
In his is in his life.
He used to hear the phrase therighteousness of God and cower
and fall in fear, thinking itmeant there's a standard up
there that I have to meet, andI'm not able to do that.
unknown (02:15):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (02:15):
And that's where
where he read in Romans 1, the
righteous will live by faith.
And he realized that that thisis something that's given,
because again, faith is given tous.
And so it's a gift that we haveand that then we hold on to.
And so so it's given to us.
It's not demanded.
And and that that was a hugebreakthrough for him.
SPEAKER_01 (02:36):
Yeah.
For him in that moment, Luthersaid he felt as if I had been
reborn and had entered paradiseitself through open gates.
Yeah.
And was open to him where hethought it was closed off.
SPEAKER_02 (02:45):
Yeah.
And we we get to see that thisreawakening um has has really
impacted impacted his life,which has impacted all our
lives, um, as Luther uh has hasopened up the gospel in new ways
through the through the work ofthe the Lord.
And and so so Luther called thiswhat is called as alien
(03:06):
righteousness, which meant this,that it's not our nature, right?
This is actually Christ'srighteousness that is credited
to us, it's given to us.
SPEAKER_01 (03:18):
Right.
And scripture it says this aboutthat that righteousness.
We wear it like a robe.
It's placed on us, we wear it.
We're we're covered, we'reclean, now we're accepted
because of what Jesus did andearned for us.
One of my favorite expressionsof the truth is is uh a sermon
by Alistair Begg.
I don't know, I don't think he'sa Lutheran, but um, he's talking
(03:40):
about the thief on the cross.
Yeah.
And during the crucifixion, thatguy 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 tosay, he says, Once a thief dies,
and he's taking liberties here,it's not in the Bible.
But he says, Once he dies, hegoes and he appears at the
pearly gates and he's greeted byan angel at the gates.
(04:01):
And the angel asked him, Whatare he doing there?
You know, why are you here?
You know, he basically responds,I don't know.
He probably doesn't even knowwhere he is.
The supervisor angel comes outand he starts asking him
theological questions, likesurely you can explain the
doctrine of election.
The guy's just confused, he hasno idea what he's talking about.
What about baptism?
Huh?
I don't, I don't, I've heard ofthat.
How about something easy?
Explain the Trinity to me.
(04:22):
And he says, I can't do that.
And he says, What's youreschatological stance?
And of course, he blank stares,just no, no idea what's going
on.
And so the angel is just caughtstammering.
He's like, Well, tell me, I doyou know how do you what finally
he just blurts out.
He's like, What are you doinghere?
Why are you here?
And and the thief on the on thecross says, The man on the
(04:45):
middle cross said I could come.
Wow.
And that's it.
That that's the that's abeautiful portrayal of we can't
add up to anything, we don'tearn anything, we can't merit
anything.
That what we know, ourknowledge, our faith is given to
us, like you've been saying.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (05:00):
I love Luther said
it this way, and and I and and
his he was bold, and I I thinkthis is such a great way.
He talked about someone askedhim 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 questionbecause remember that in
(05:22):
Luther's day, and even to thisday, the Roman Catholic Church
had said that he he was aheretic.
And so they've condemned him tohell.
Right.
And so, so the question waslike, why do you think you're
going to heaven when the churchon earth says you're going to
hell?
Right.
And he said, I'm going to go toheaven because I'm going to take
my baptismal certificate, I'mgoing to shove it into the nose
(05:45):
of the Father, and I'm going towalk right past him in.
That's how bold he was.
Because he trusted in thatrighteousness that came through
his calling as a baptized childof God.
And that's where I think he gotthe ability to write in the
small catechism for us thatJesus has redeemed us and that I
(06:06):
am his and live under him in hiskingdom and serve him with
everlasting righteousness.
And so it's changed who he is.
SPEAKER_01 (06:17):
Right.
And not to earn righteousness.
Right.
But to live in it because it'salready ours.
Christ has already won that forus.
SPEAKER_02 (06:24):
Yeah, and and
further reading in in an
article, Article 4 of theAugsburg Confession, he writes
this Luther says, We'rejustified freely for Christ's
sake through faith.
So that when we believe that weare received into favor through
his merit, not ours.
SPEAKER_01 (06:44):
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, solafide, sola christus, sola
scriptura, solideia gloria.
What that means is we are savedby grace alone.
Yes.
Through faith alone, in Christalone, as revealed in scripture
(07:07):
alone, to the glory of Godalone.
So there's there's a lot ofattributes that are that are
thrown to only God, not to us.
That's not for us.
We're saved by gift, and that isall.
SPEAKER_02 (07:18):
Yeah.
Yeah, I love the solas of ofLutheranism and the solos of
Christianity.
So so let's ask this questionlike hearing about all this
righteousness, right?
And so what does this mean forour daily life?
SPEAKER_01 (07:32):
Yeah, it means we
don't have to fear that we don't
measure up.
I mean, we are we know that andwe don't.
That's the truth.
But if you're in Christ, youalready measure up because of
what he did.
It's not because of what we do.
SPEAKER_02 (07:46):
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 thinkGod will love you.
Right.
And and those are all the wordsof Satan.
Um, and so so when he accuses usthat you're not enough or you
(08:10):
failed again, right?
Like I can't believe this.
I don't have to argue back withhim about my behavior.
Right.
Instead, I just look at him andsay, look at Jesus.
Yep.
SPEAKER_01 (08:23):
And what makes the
devil and his attacks so
sinister is that he comes at youfrom all angles.
Oh.
He tries to get us to think thatwe we have to live up to this
holy standard.
Right.
And that's half true.
Like there is a standard outthere, and God requires
perfection.
Yeah.
He does.
But we can't, we just can'tattain it.
Right.
And so the devil will come outand he'll even attack the
outcome of your effort.
(08:43):
Either we do a few thingscorrectly, and then he makes you
think how awesome you are.
Oh, look how look how good youare.
Look how much better you arethan Greg.
Look how much better you arethan whoever it is.
And he he gives you that pride.
He he flames that into into yourheart.
You're better than these otherschmucks around, that's for
sure.
Or on the other hand, you fail,and he makes you think, Well,
you're terrible.
(09:04):
You're not even close to thestandard.
What are you doing?
You're you're awful.
You're definitely not worth thelove of God.
So he he comes at you all thetime.
But when he when he arrives,when the devil arrives to accuse
you, and he will, yeah, ineither case, our winning
argument is Jesus.
You can tell the devil when hecomes to you, yep, you're right.
In your accusation of me, I amnot enough.
(09:26):
But guess what?
This trial is not for me.
Jesus takes my place instead.
And he's attained thatperfection that you say I have
to do.
And he's given me the right.
You can be bold like Luther andshove that baptismal certificate
in the devil's face and say, getaway from me, because this Jesus
has won this for me.
He's given me the invitation toeternal life with him.
(09:47):
And case closed, right?
Good.
That's it.
It's over.
Yeah.
So Philippians 3 9 says, Nothaving a righteousness of my
own, but that which comesthrough faith in Christ.
That's that's where it all lies.
Jesus is the answer, he's thewinning argument, he's how you
rebuttal the the devil.
SPEAKER_02 (10:04):
Yeah.
And I think I think for me, oneof the things that's so
important about thisrighteousness is I when I demand
perfection for myself, Iactually remove Jesus from his
seat of of holiness.
And when I demand per sectionperfection from others, I I
become I want to become God.
(10:25):
And so so that perfection isnever mine to demand upon myself
or upon others.
It is only God's.
And he already knows that wecan't achieve it, and that's why
his son came.
And so when we demandperfection, we actually then
cancel the gospel.
And and and that's an issue, uhthat's something that's so
important for us.
(10:46):
And and the twist really is thatthat we rest in that
righteousness that comes fromGod because the more that the
Spirit actually produces thatrighteousness in us, we really
then see the real fruit and realchanges of not only what we
expect from ourselves, but whatwe 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 demandperfection, that that's a good
way of looking at it.
You're robbing Jesus from them.
Yeah.
And you're doing the devil'swork.
Right.
The devil's like, yeah, keepgoing.
Yeah.
I'm like, ooh, okay, we betterpoint 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.
(11:27):
We have that love, we work outof 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 forthe good, it's a gift for the
guilty, and it's wrapped up inJesus.
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 foryou.
SPEAKER_02 (11:53):
And as you just
talked about, our next topic for
next week, it's an importantone.
Coffee break theology.
We're gonna unpack biblicalparenting.
SPEAKER_01 (12:03):
Until then,
remember, you are covered, you
are clean, you are righteous inChrist.
SPEAKER_02 (12:10):
Amen.
SPEAKER_00 (12:12):
Thanks for listening
to Coffee Break Theology.
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