The Way Home (Part 1): Righteousness Through Faithfulness

Are you wondering what is next in this crazy mixed-up world? Are you wondering what to do, where to turn, how to feel, and how to respond? Are you willing to change if needed but you don’t know what to keep in your life and what to cast off? Well, I have good news for you today. God already has the answer for you, and I hope we can discover that answer together in the summer worship series entitled “The Way Home” based on The Letter of Paul to the Romans.

The first sermon of the series, “Righteousness Through Faithfulness,” is based on Romans 1:16-17; 3:22b-31. A video and an audio podcast of the worship service and sermon are available.

I have chosen this topic because whether it seems like it or not, we all assume we are on a journey to the same good place. Because of this common destination we have in mind, we tend to give in to our competitive natures along the way, making comparisons of our methods and progress with the methods and progress of others. When at our worse, we draw distinctions that make us feel better about ourselves by making us feel worse about others. Now, my primary concern is over wrongful comparisons we make within our spiritual life, but other aspects of life comparisons also apply and even overlap.

Unfortunately, when we are in times of rapid change and uncertainty, as we are now, we see the failure of this misguided system of comparison. We can’t rely on comparing ourselves to others because we are all in unknown territory. No one knows what to do next because we have never been here before and none of us have ever been to where we hope to go. Therefore, we need a reliable standard of comparison so that we know if we are truly on the right path that leads us home.

You may remember an old computer game called “The Oregon Trail.” It was used as a tool to teach school children about the realities of 19th-century pioneer life. The game came out in the mid-1970s, but I never got to play it because the school I attended only had two computers when I graduated in 1986, and apparently no one could use them. So, from what I have read, the player in the game assumes the role of a wagon leader guiding his party of settlers over the dangerous trail from Missouri to Oregon in 1848.

As you can imagine, the object of the game is to anticipate your needs in advance and make good choices, so that you arrive successfully at the previously unseen destination that will become your long-awaited new home. Obviously, not everyone will make good choices and not everyone will make it home successfully.

We are not in a game here. This is real life, and we are all on a journey today, hopefully to a new home that we have only heard about but never seen. We have been told and shown the way, but each decision, at each turn in the road, is ours.

We have difficult choices to make and there are many voices that are speaking loudly to us, vying for our attention. Many are intentional in being truthful and many others are intentional in being deceptive. Whether intentional or unidentical, these voices can easily lead us astray, because they are not the voices of the one who will guide us home. God has provided a simple standard for us to follow because he knows the way, he is the way, and he wants us to arrive safely and successfully at home. Let’s listen to that one voice, that one guide, that one way from the one who wants us to arrive safely and successfully at our new home with Him.

We see in the passage, Romans 1:16-17; 3:22b-31, the power to save us comes only through accepting the righteous and faithful gift of Jesus Christ who died on a cross so that we might live forever.

Everywhere we turn today, we are being told to think, and to say, and to do a lot of things, by people who want us to accept their views as our standard. Some of them are deceptive and some of them are sincere and heartfelt, but it does not matter. There is but one voice for us to follow and that only one voice can lead us home. The power to save us comes only through the righteous and faithful gift of Jesus Christ and our faithful response and resulting righteous life as his follower.

In our journey of faith, that we hope will lead us to our heavenly home, we tend to discount the power of the gospel and overcompensate with inadequate reliance on comparing our works to those of others. We tend to listen to the voice of other people who know no more than we do how to get to this home we desire. We need to put aside all comparisons, both favorable and unfavorable, and embrace the righteous faith of Jesus Christ as our only hope for salvation.

The trouble in the text is that Christians in Rome are divided in their understanding of how to merge the old practices of Jewish Christians with the new practices of the non-Jewish Christians. The Jewish Christians probably asked, “Why do the non-Jewish Christians eat “unclean” food?” and the non-Jewish Christians probably complained, “the Jewish Christians are relying on their works and not Jesus for their salvation.”

In our world today, there are many Christian voices calling for change, and we must make difficult choices about which practices we will keep, and which practices we will discard.

We desperately need to hold on to those Christian practices that are of value. However, we are going to find that some of the things we have held onto are not helpful, are not of value, and are not truly core tenants of our faith. It is not comfortable to admit mistakes and initiate needed changes, and that is why we are so uncomfortable with our world today.

The text tells us that to help unite the Roman Christians, God revealed himself as the standard of righteousness and faithfulness for all people to follow by faith.

It is by faith alone that we can be saved and our model of faithfulness to follow is God the Son, Jesus Christ, himself. God sent the faithful Jesus to die on the shameful cross as the atoning sacrifice for sinful humanity, who by faithfully receiving this gift of grace, can become righteous and through that righteousness can become faithful through obedience.

So, The Apostle Paul points the confused and fragmented Roman Christians to Jesus as the only standard to follow. If they all look to and follow the same example found in Jesus Christ, then righteousness, unity, and faithfulness would be the natural result.

God’s same grace is available for us today. In our confusing and rapidly changing world, the choices that lead us to our heavenly home are simplified by our embracing the righteous faith of Jesus Christ as your only hope for salvation. That is our only hope for Christian unity it this time of uncertainty and confusing comparisons.

Is your life too complicated and complex? Do you have a hard time making sense of all the comparisons you are seeing? God in his grace has a simple solution, the good life that we seek is the life of righteousness through faith in Jesus Christ.

If you want to be right, then go with Jesus. Any other path you choose will lead to confusion, destruction, discouragement, heartache, and damnation. It is only through Jesus Christ that we can have salvation.

Man pushing a wagon stuck in the mud.
First National's Spirit of Nebraska's Wilderness and Pioneer Courage Park.
Source: TripAdvisor.com

So, drop everything from your life that does not fit with Jesus. Like the pioneers on the Oregon Trail, our wagons are sinking deep in the mud and mire of confusion caused by improper comparisons. It is now time to cast off things that hinder our progress toward our home with God through Jesus Christ.