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Righteousness in
Christ
Grace to you and
peace from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
People are always trying to tell
themselves that they’re okay, that they are basically good. As long as they are
surrounded by other people who are doing worse things than they are, they can
feel pretty good about themselves. So then, how are you doing? How righteous
are you before God? Are you doing enough—are you righteous enough—to earn your
place in the eternal Kingdom
of God? We don't want to
be like the Pharisees. The Pharisees were hypocrites, right? So long as we
please God and are sincere, we should be fine. So long as we avoid becoming
narrow-minded like “church people”—like people who think they have everything
figured out—we should be safe, right?
We like to pick on the Pharisees
and call them names. And why not? They deserve it, don’t they? After all, they
were a constant thorn our Lord’s side during His earthly ministry. They were
His enemies. But if being righteous comes down to doing those things that make
God smile, then we are in big trouble. The Pharisees were far more righteous
than you or I will ever be. Many of them were not even that self-absorbed or
hypocritical. And Jesus tells us that no one will get into heaven unless he is
more righteous than even the most praiseworthy Pharisee. The Pharisees were
great at being righteous. They kept the law better than anyone. But not even
one of them was righteous enough.
You need to be completely
righteous. You need to be sinless before God—sinless in thought, word, and
deed, in what you do and what you leave undone. You must love God with all of
your being; you must love your neighbor as yourself. And that is an
insurmountable problem. Jesus says that those who have had a hateful thought,
even if they haven’t acted on it, are guilty of murder. Someone who has an
impure thought is as guilty of adultery as someone who is having a tawdry
affair. And if you think neither of those apply to you, think about this: During
this pandemic, do you love your neighbor by wearing a mask? Or do you love your
neighbor by refusing to wear a mask? And which is better way? The righteousness
of the sinner is the kind where we believe we are only guilty of those things
our neighbors catch us doing. The righteousness of the sinner is the kind where
we make our own rules, and those rules change all the time. That isn’t any kind
of righteousness at all. We have no righteousness of our own.
This means that we must get our
righteousness from somewhere else. The only place where this perfect
righteousness can be found is in Jesus. He is the only One who is righteous
enough. Therefore, if we want a place in the eternal Kingdom of God,
we need His righteousness to get us through the door. And, sure enough, Jesus
gives you His perfect righteousness. Of course, that righteousness much better
than that of any Pharisee. It is the righteousness of the One who has paid the
price for all our Unrighteousness with His own blood. You received that righteousness
in the bloody waters of Holy Baptism, where all your sin was washed away and
the perfect white robe of our Lord’s righteousness was placed upon you. This
righteousness is more than you could ever imagine. How much righteousness does
it take to get into heaven? It takes all of Christ’s righteousness. And His
righteousness is sufficient for you, for me, and for everyone. In the name of
the Father and of the Son (†) and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
The
peace of God which passes all understanding will keep your hearts and minds in
Christ Jesus always. Amen.
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