One of the most confounding terms in the Bible is the term "righteousness." Righteousness is praised in the Scripture while unrighteousness is condemned. From God's holy law-especially the Ten Commandments-we learn what it means to be rigtheous.To be righteous is to fear, love, and trust in God above all things. To be righteous is to hallow God's name, delight in His Word, honor your parents, not commit murder, theft or adultery, speak truthfully, and live a life free from covetousness. That is what righteousness is and the Law of God demands that you conform your life to that righteousness if you are to have life with God.

The old evil foe is well aware of your fallen state and your inability to achieve such righteousness. So what does he do? He presses upon you the need to pursue righteousness, promising you that if you do so you will both please God and your own conscience. Then, when you fail in this endeavor-as the Scriptures testify that you will- Satan, who is called the Accuser rushes to accuse you before God and to stir up your conscience with guilt. Satan's goal is to entrap you in despair and incite you to rebellion because you have been caught in the vice grip of the Law. Such is the sinner's experience with righteousness. No wonder righteousness is the most confounding term in the Bible!

How are we to understand this term "righteousness"? We turn again to another in our series of Lenten paradoxes. Luther expresses the paradox this way: "He is not righteous who works much, but he who believes much in Christ." The Apostle Paul puts the paradox this way: "...a man is not found righteous by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be found righteous by faith in Christ and not by the works of the Law; for by the works of the Law no flesh shall be found righteous." So, here is the paradox: Everything you know about righteousness comes from the Law, yet by this same Law you will not be found righteous. Instead by the Law you will be found guilty of unrighteousness.

You see, the Law both describes and commands righteousness, but it is powerless to produce it. Recall the words of Romans 3, "Now we know that whatever the Law says, its says to those who are under the Law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore, by the deeds of the Law (that is, by deeds aiming at righteousness) no flesh will be justified (that is, found righteous) in His sight, for by the Law is the knowledge of sin." In other words, God gives the Law to describe righteousness, not so that you can attain righteousness, but rather so that you can be diagnosed as unrighteous. By the Law comes the knowledge that you are a sinner.

When Luther engaged in his Hedidelberg debate, he set out to expose as false a notion that had become quite common in the Medieval church, namely, that one must work at becoming righteous if one wished to be saved. According to the false teaching of the Roman Catholic Church, God would help those who made an attempt to be righteous. Salvation became a cooperative effort between God and man. To those who were willing to make the effort, God would complete what was lacking.

Now this heresy is not limited to Medeival times. Paul confronted it among the Galatians who were being led astray by the so-called Juadizers who taught that Jesus plus obedience to the Law equaled salvation. Even the Apostle Peter got temporarily swept away by this false teaching. Paul had To confront him face to face and call him back to the truth of the Gospel.

This old heresy is still with us today. We see it rear its ugly head when the Law is allowed to predominate over the Gospel. We see it when we are told that a Christian must act or behave in certain ways in order to attain righteousness before God. We see it when the goal of Gospel preaching is not faith in the forgiveness of sins but in obedience to the Law. In his letter to the Galatians, Paul warns all those who pursue this path: "You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified (that is, found rigtheous) by the Law; you have fallen from grace."

How does this happen in the church, whether it be the church in Galatia, the church at the time of the Reformation, or the church today? This false belief arises in the human heart and mind, in every age, and in every person. Luther called it the opinio legis, that is, the opinion shaped by the Law. It is the inborn opinion of old nature, the old Adam, that there is something we can do that will obligate God to save us. This opinio legis fails to see the Scriptural paradox that the Law that describes righteousness and commands righteousness is utterly incapable of producing righteousness.

God's intention in giving us the Law is not to provide a means by which we may pursue and attain righteousness, but rather a means to expose and condemn unrighteousness in us and continually drive us sinners to the holy cross, there to be found righteous through faith in Jesus Christ. At the cross you will find true and complete righteousness, because there Christ accomplished the work of providing you with His own righteousness, in exchange for bearing your own unrighteousness. Your unrighteousness is not covered by your own works in pursuit of righteousness. Rather, your unrighteousness is covered by the blood of Christ, on account of which God justifies you-that is, declares you to be righteous in Christ. This righteous becomes your own as you believe the Gospel, as you trust in that great exchange which God has worked between Christ and yourself. The paradox remains intact: The Law describes and commands righteousness, but it does not produce it! Christ produces it by His holy life and His bitter passion and death in atonement for your sins. So tonight you are called not to do much which produces no righteousness, but to believe much for through that faith in the Son of God you receive the gift of righteousness. Amen.

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