Fifth, The Gospel Reveals the Righteousness of God
It is written, "in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith." According to Strong's concordance, the word translated righteousness in Romans 1:17 is the Greek word, "dikaiosuné" which means justice. It comes from the root word, "díkē, "a judicial verdict" – properly, judicial approval (the verdict of approval); in the NT, it indicates the approval of God ("divine approval"). refers to what is deemed right by the Lord (after His examination), i.e. what is approved in His eyes. In the old testament, the Hebrew word for righteousness is "tsedeq", and according to strong's concordance, it means that what is right, just, normal; rightness or justness of weights and measures. It's important to know one thing about God. Being the One who examines people and determine whether they are guilty or innocent, righteous or unrighteous, just or unjust, blame or blameless, God Himself ought to be perfectly righteous, free of guilty, just; otherwise, how can He judge or examine others? Indeed, God is righteous, there is no injustice in Him. The bible says, "Psalm 11, 7 says "For the Lord is righteous, He loves righteousness; His countenance beholds the upright." As the passage says "The Lord is righteous, and He loves righteousness" meaning He loves that which has His nature. Therefore, The Lord beholds the upright, the righteous, the just. However, as far unrighteousness or injustice, God will naturally hate.
Sin is unrighteousness (1 John 4, 3), disobedience to God's law, therefore it cannot be tolerated by a righteous God. The bible declares, "God is a just judge, And God is angry with the wicked every day." Psalm 7, 11. Moreover, Psalm 19, 9 says "The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever; The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether." God is righteous or just, therefore He judges everyone fairly, justly, or righteously, with Him there is no partiality; meaning, He does not show favoritism to one over another, neither deprives one of justice to grant to another (Proverbs 18, 5). God's judgements are righteous altogether. To put things in perspective, Let's look a story. In Daniel 5 the bible talks about a king called Belshazzar that when submitted to God's examination was found wanting, disapproved, guilty because he misused the holy utensils from God's temple in his pagan and carnal feast. The bible says "Belshazzar the king made a great feast for a thousand of his lords, and drank wine in the presence of the thousand. While he tasted the wine, Belshazzar gave the command to bring the gold and silver vessels which his father Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the temple which had been in Jerusalem, that the king and his lords, his wives, and his concubines might drink from them. Then they brought the gold vessels that had been taken from the temple of the house of God which had been in Jerusalem; and the king and his lords, his wives, and his concubines drank from them. They drank wine, and praised the gods of gold and silver, bronze and iron, wood and stone." Daniel 5:1-4.
This king sinned against God and was found guilty after God's examination. The bible says "In the same hour the fingers of a man’s hand appeared and wrote opposite the lampstand on the plaster of the wall of the king’s palace; and the king saw the part of the hand that wrote." Daniel 5:5. The king was troubled to know what the hand had written, thus brought all the magicians, astrologers, Chaldeans, and etc., but none could read the had writing. Then, Daniel was called and he told the king, "And this is the inscription that was written: MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN. This is the interpretation of each word. MENE: God has numbered your kingdom, and finished it; TEKEL: You have been weighed in the balances, and found wanting; PERES: Your kingdom has been divided, and given to the Medes and Persians.” Daniel 5:25-28. The king was weighed in the balances, and found wanting, guilty, far from pleasing God. The question is, like God did with that king, if God was to weigh all our actions based on His standards, who would be innocent? Who can say, He never sinned or never did wrong in this life? Not only we will be judged according to our actions but Jesus says "But I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.” Matthew 12:36-37. Moreover, the bible also says that God sees our hearts; thus. besides our words and actions, God also takes into account the motivations of our hearts, the reason behind our actions.
We can certainly do the right thing with wrong motivations. Think of the people that help those in need to be praised by friends or to receive tax deductions, or even the person that prays to be seen and recognized by people. They did good things indeed but with wrong motivates, and it counts as wrong. God sees it all, even our hearts. Therefore, "[…] there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account." Hebrews 4:13. Again, having in mind that God sees our actions, our words, and the intentions of our hearts, if we are to be judged, examined by God according to His standards, would we be innocent or guilty? The honest answer is guilty. No one, not a single human being on this planet would be found innocent or blameless if examined according to God's standards. "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God," Romans 3:23. As it is written: “There is none righteous, no, not one; There is none who understands; There is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside; They have together become unprofitable; There is none who does good, no, not one.” “Their throat is an open tomb; With their tongues they have practiced deceit”; “The poison of asps is under their lips”; “Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.” “Their feet are swift to shed blood; Destruction and misery are in their ways; And the way of peace they have not known.” “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” Romans 3:10-18. If all have sinned, the wages of sin is death, and God does not overlook sin, therefore, all deserve to die indeed. Death is the fate of all human being who do not recognize his sins. Every person that does not recognize his state is already dead.
Perhaps you might say, "I am a good person I do good things." Yes, it might be true, but it does not mean you have done enough goods to outweigh your bads when God weighs you in the balance. If you want to be right before God through your own actions, then you must obey everything God said and not fail in a single one. This is the condition to be justified by your actions. James 2:10 says "For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all." You can see that no one can be good or just by God's standard if they rely on their "good actions" because of their nature they will inevitably do something wrong. Thus, it's written, "Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin." Romans 3:20. No one can be justified by the law or through the keeping of all the commandments because the law. No one. If such is the fate of all human beings who then can be just before God? The answer is, “Blessed are they whose sins are forgiven, whose wrongs are pardoned. Blessed is the person whom the Lord does not consider guilty." Romans 4:7-8. The bible is saying that we can only be considered righteous if we are forgiven by God. If one is pardon by God of his wrongdoings then he can be considered righteous. However, forgiveness of sins is only possible on the basis of the sacrifice Jesus made. The bible says, "For He [God] made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." II Corinthians 5:21. In another words, only those whose sins have been paid by Jesus sacrifice can be forgiven, made righteous or be found guilty free.
Because God is a righteous judge, He must not overlook sin but give to each their rightful wage: death (Romans 6:23). But if God gives to each according to their deeds, we have already seen that no one will be exempted, all have sinned. Therefore, in order to save sinners and yet punish sin, Jesus offered Himself as a sacrifice: with the sacrifice of His blood, we received forgiveness of sin (Colossians 1:14) and with the sacrifice of His life by dying on the cross, we received His life: eternal and righteous. Therefore, we can be be forgiven and righteous through the sacrifice of Jesus. The full text of Romans 6:23 says "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." It was an exchange, Jesus took our death so we could be forgiven and take His life. Just it's more than what the old testament offered through the sacrifice of lambs, people only received forgiveness of sin but never a new life. Hebrews 10:1-2 says "For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with these same sacrifices, which they offer continually year by year, make those who approach perfect. For then would they not have ceased to be offered? For the worshipers, once purified, would have had no more consciousness of sins." But, Jesus is the perfect Lamb. John the Baptist said, " [..] “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!" John 1:29. Paul said, "For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time," I Timothy 2:5-6.
Jesus with His death on the cross and the sacrifice of His blood, paid for the sins of all humanity, He became the ransom for all. Like John the apostle said, "And He [Jesus] Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world." I John 2:2. Thus, the gospel reveals the righteousness of God because the gospel shows how God punished all unrighteousness with the death and sacrifice of His Son to satisfy the righteous requirement of His law. So, that those who believe in His Son are made righteous. "There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who[a] do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit." Romans 8:1-4. If God so did with His Son in order to forgive sinners, you can be assured that anyone who does not have the Son will be severely punished on that day.