Last week we were reminded that all of our righteousness is as filthy rags before God. The only righteousness that counts is the righteousness of Jesus Christ; righteousness that was won for the whole on the cross of Calvary. As you turn to the cross, there you find the righteousness of Christ that covers your sin. This is what it means to be a Christian.

In the the eighteenth of his Heidelberg Theses, Luther states "It is certain that man must utterly despair of his own ability before he is prepared to receive the grace of Christ." Those are hard works for a generation to hear that has been schooled on self-confidence and taught to embrace a "can do" attitude over against any and every challenge that we might confront in life. When it comes to salvation, we can have no confidence in ourselves or in our own ability.

This is the lesson that the Apostle Paul had to learn. Paul enumerates the things that were religious and right about his life as a Jew: Circumcised on the 8th day, of the stock of Israel and the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews, a Pharisee in his observance of the law, zealous in the persecution of the church, and outwardly righteous when it came to the demands of the law. Yet all of this Paul says he counts as rubbish that he might gain Christ. Now Paul was not just talking about the things he gave up at his conversion, things that he let go of in order to become a Christian. Paul was speaking of his life as a Christian- a life that is lived despairing of one's own ability so as to be prepared to receive the grace of Christ Jesus. In the Christian life-in your Christian life "It is certain that man must utterly despair of his own ability before he is prepared to receive the grace of Christ." Yes, this is not just a once in a lifetime issue. It is an every day, every hour, every moment issue!

The apostle Paul, in effect, is saying that the only value in life is to be found in Christ, not having his own righteousness, which is from the Law, but having a righteousness that is his through faith in the Savior. Here Paul is not simply speaking about his conversion experience on highway to Damascus, but about his every day need as a Christian, on the road to heaven.

This is the paradox that we ponder this evening. When the Holy Spirit works faith in your heart, you become a forgiven sinner, a child of the Heavenly Father. You have the righteousness of Christ fully and completely. You can no more be partly Christian than you can be partly pregnant. Either you are or you are not. God doesn't work in fractions. When you have the righteousness of Christ you have it 100%. Nevertheless. On the road to heaven, traveling along the path of righteousness, you still need and continually so, the righteousness of Christ. As is true with every gift of Christ-redemption, forgiveness of sins, the new life, the drowning of the old Adam, the arising of the new man, your victory over the devil-so it is true of the righteousness of Christ: You both have it and yet you still need it daily.

The righteousness of Christ cannot be received where a clinging to human righteousness still exists. And that clinging still occurs in you and in me because of the continuing existence of the sinful nature. If Satan cannot tempt you to do evil, he will tempt you to believe that the good that you do is your own accomplishment so that you put your trust in it and not in Christ. He will whisper into the ear of your soul: "Bravo! Good for you...look at all the righteous things you are doing, ought not that count for something with God?" Then you need to hear again those words from the Apostle: "I count them as rubbish that I may gain Christ." The only safe harbor that we have is in the grace of Jesus Christ.

Thus, it is true, at one and the same time: you are righteous on Christ's account, and you also need the righteousness that comes from daily receiving the grace of Christ. To live in Him and His righteousness is to utterly despair of your own ability to be righteous. To live in Christ and His righteousness to receive His grace which He richly showers upon us through the proclaimed Gospel and the sacraments that He has established.

There are many righteous things that the Scriptures urge upon Christians. But whenever you strive to do righteous things, inevitably they are corrupted by sin. On the other hand, whenever you despair of your ability to do righteous things and instead receive the grace of Jesus Christ through His appointed means, inevitably righteous things come forth. It is not the case that righteousness is as righteousness does, but rather the other way around: righteousness does as righteousness is. Being comes before doing.

Our paradox this evening is true: You have righteousness in Christ and at the same time, you need righteousness from Him. To admit this is to despair of your own ability, and in that despair, that confession of your sins, look to Christ alone for righteousness as He gives and bestows it in the Gospel of His grace. Amen.

The peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus to life everlasting. Amen.