In every
occupation, there are certain words you use that are what we call jargon. Jargon means words or phrases that people
who are within the group use all the time and are familiar with. People outside the group, though, have no
idea what those words or phrases mean.
It’s really easy to start using
jargon. We do it without even realizing
it. Because we use those words or
phrases are so common to us, we forget most people don’t know them. It’s something I had to be really careful of
when I was a lawyer. Sometimes I’d be
talking to someone, and I’d see from the look in their eyes that they had no idea
what I was talking about. I’d realize
that I’d slipped into using jargon, and I’d have to step back and explain
things better to them.
Well, we tend to use jargon in the
church sometimes, too. As we continue
our sermon series called “Who is this God person, anyway” today, we’re going to
answer that question in two ways. God
is holy, and God is righteous.
That’s all well and good. We’d probably all agree that God is holy and
righteous. The thing is that when we
say that, we’re kind of using jargon.
What do those words really mean?
What do we mean when we say that God is holy and righteous?
Let’s start with that word
“holy”. We use it all the time in
church. We sang the hymn “Holy, Holy,
Holy” this morning. But when I say the
word “holy” to you, what comes to mind?
It could be a lot of things. It could be some sort of object, like the
cross. It could be some type of act,
like the act of praying, that we consider a holy act. It could be a religious leader, someone we consider a “holy man”. It could even be some person whom we
consider a really good person that comes to mind when we think of the word
“holy”.
None of that’s wrong, exactly, but
there’s really only one thing that should come to mind when we use the word
“holy”, and that’s God. In fact, “holy”
is in the name of the trinity—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. In our passage from Isaiah, God is referred
to as “the Holy One”. It does not say
the Holy Two or Three. It says the Holy
One. God is the only one who is truly
holy.
So, you say, okay, only God is
holy, but why? What does that word
mean? Well, here’s what it means. It means “entitled to worship.” Worship, in turn, means “honor and reverence
paid to someone sacred.” See now why
God is the only one who is holy? It’s
because God is the only one entitled to worship.
The cross is a wonderful symbol,
but we don’t worship the cross. We
worship the one who died on the cross—Jesus, God the Son. Prayer is a wonderful thing to do, but we
don’t worship prayers, we worship the one to whom we say the prayers—God. It’s fine to admire and respect other
people, but we should never worship people.
We should only worship God.
That’s why only God can truly be considered holy.
So God’s holy, but God is also
righteous. What’s that mean? What comes to your mind when I say the word
“righteous”? It could be a lot of
things. It could be something really
positive, like someone who really tries hard to do what’s right. It could be something negative, like someone
who’s self-righteous and full of themselves and thinks they should be able to
tell everyone what to do. If you grew
up on the music of the sixties and seventies like I did, you might think of the
musical group the Righteous Brothers.
So what does it mean to say that God is righteous?
Here’s what the dictionary says it
means. It means morally right and
virtuous. That certainly fits God. God is always morally right, and God is
always virtuous.
You and I, on the other hand, are
not. That was the point Jesus was
trying to make in our reading from Mark.
A man came up to Jesus and called him “good”. He wanted Jesus to tell him what he could do so he’d be “good”,
too. Jesus tells him he cannot do
it. We cannot become good by what we
do. The only one who is “good”, by that
definition, is God. When we try to
become “good” by doing things, we tend to become like the self-righteous
Pharisee Jesus described in our reading from Luke. God is the only one who is always morally right. God is the only one who is always virtuous. God is the only one who is righteous.
Notice, though, that Jesus does not
leave us without hope. Jesus would
never do that. Jesus goes on to say
that, with human beings, these things may be impossible, but they are not
impossible with God. All things are
possible for God.
That leads us to our reading from
Romans. Paul says no one will be found
to be righteous in God’s sight by observing the law. Paul is saying, in different words, the same thing that Jesus
said—we cannot become “good” or “righteous” by what we do.
Paul goes on, though, to make the
other point Jesus made: that all things
are possible for God. He goes on to
explain just how it is that, even though we cannot be righteous, God can make
us righteous. Listen to what he says:
The righteousness of God has been
made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness is given through faith in
Jesus Christ to all who believe. There
is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of
the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption
that came by Christ Jesus. God
presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his
blood—to be received by faith. He did
this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the
sins committed beforehand unpunished—he did it to demonstrate his justice at
the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have
faith in Jesus.
Do you see what Paul’s
saying there? Paul says that even
though we’re not righteous on our own, righteousness is given to us through our
faith in Jesus Christ. That
righteousness is available to everyone, with no exceptions, because we’re all
equal in God’s eyes. Because God is
righteous, there had to be some sort of punishment for our sins—God’s sense of
morality demands it. Because God is
holy, though, God held off punishing us.
Instead, at the right time, Jesus—God the Son—took the punishment that
should’ve gone to us. When we accept
that Jesus is our Savior, God, in God’s great holiness, takes away our sins and
gives us the kind of righteousness that can only come from God.
I’d say that makes God
worthy of worship. In fact, I think
it’s the most amazing thing I’ve ever heard.
Here we are, the unholy, unrighteous, sinful people that we are. There’s God, the Holy One, the Righteous
One, the One who is without sin. We
deserve to be punished for our sins.
God knows that. Yet, God does
not punish us. Instead, God takes our
punishment for us and declares that we are righteous even when we’re not. What an awesome, amazing, incredible
gift. And all we need to do is just
accept it.
A lot of us are probably
familiar with the words of John 3:16.
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that
whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” That’s a great verse, but the next verse,
John 3:17, is great, too. Listen to
what it says. “For God did not send his
Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”
The Son could’ve been
sent into the world to condemn us. As
Paul says, we’re all sinners. The
condemnation would’ve been no more than what we deserve. God, though, does not give us what we
deserve. Instead, the Son was sent into
the world to save us. God the Son
accepted the punishment for our sins so that instead of staying the unholy,
unrighteous people we are, we can receive God’s righteousness.
We cannot make ourselves
righteous. God can. God will.
All God asks of us in return but that we accept that righteousness by
accepting Jesus Christ as our savior.
Who is this God
person? This God person is the one who
is so holy, so worthy of worship, as to take sinful people like you and me and
make us righteous. We don’t deserve
that. There’s nothing we can do to earn
it. God knows that. That’s why God does not ask us to earn
it. God just gives it to us, as an
amazing, undeserved, incredible gift.
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