Today's text tells you and me about the courtroom that we will be in one day. That's right, one day you will be standing before the Judge, and you will be accused of selfishness, not always making God and church that important, being a disobedient kid, failing as a parent, being an unloving spouse, having dirty thoughts, neglecting the poor, cheating your boss at work, hating other people who have different races and backgrounds than you do, and many more things. All of these charges against you are true. So how are you going to plead? Not guilty? Then I'm going to get out of the way, because "the book" is going to be thrown at you hard! Or will you plead guilty and hope for mercy? I would advise the guilty plea, but that means you can't open your mouth with one word in your defense! Are you ready to do that?

We often humbly say that we are. Most people will admit they are not perfect. But when we hear how low the accusations of God's law cut us down, how completely awful the law reveals we have been, our natural instinct is to open our mouths and begin defending ourselves. "OK, I'm not perfect, but I'm not that bad! I have done a lot of good, too!" But you know what? That doesn't matter. Because God requires us to be perfect. If you haven't been a perfect spouse or parent, you are just as guilty as someone convicted for abuse. If you have ever held a grudge against anyone, you are just as guilty as a terrorist. God says we have to be perfect.

He tells us in our text that "no one will be declared righteous in God's sight by observing the law." Yeah, we can't work our way to heaven. Not by being good. Instead, "through the law we become conscious of sin." Looking into the law is like looking into a mirror that shows all of our imperfections. All it does is bring bad news. "All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God." Two men were once trying to escape an erupting volcano. As the fiery molten rock gushed out of the crater, they fled in the only direction possible. Finally they came to a 30-feet-wide stream of hot smoking lava right across their path. Their only hope was to cross that barrier. One of the men was very old. His son was young and healthy. With a running start, each tried to leap to safety. The older man only went a few feet before falling into the bubbling mass. His son, who was stronger, jumped much farther. And though he almost made it, he still missed the mark. It didn't matter that he had jumped farther at all, for he also perished in the burning lava. Sin is falling short of a standard, the glory of God. It doesn't matter how short we fall, or how close we come, we all fall short!

Yet, even though our mouths are silenced by this chilling fact, we all try to justify ourselves with our own actions. To give you a preview of the good news that is coming, it is only through Jesus that we cross that smoking lava. It is only through Christ's finished work that we meet God's standards. It is an insult to God to try to add anything to Christ's finished work! What if a boy was swimming in a lake one day, and began yelling for help. Another young man on shore ran to the water and swam out to rescue the first fellow. In the process of saving the life of the boy who was drowning, the young man lost his life. The two families, who had been observing all of this, were overwhelmed by the unexpected turn of events. The father of the youth who had been saved approached the father of the dead young man to offer his sympathy. "I really can't express how much I appreciate what your boy did, and how sorry I am the he lost his life. But I just happen to have $1.83 on me, and want to offer this to you as an indication of my feelings." Do we sometimes try bringing our $1.83 to God, thinking it will help "pay" for what He has done for us? Better leave it in your pockets!

Back to the courtroom now. Plead guilty! I can't stress that enough. Plead guilty and then keep your mouth shut! That doesn't leave any room for boasting or pride at all. It doesn't matter how many hours you donated to your local community services and your church. God's righteousness will never be ours by our works. Is that frustrating? Ask Martin Luther! He really struggled with the concept of the "Righteousness of God." He began to hate it because it meant that God was perfect and he was not and that God was going to punish him. He began to hate God because of the torment of his conscience. Ever feel that way? The problem at Luther's time was that the solution to all of this was "locked up." People didn't have access to Bibles, and if they did, most of them couldn't read it in Latin. So the truth of how this righteousness becomes ours was locked up. Out of grace, God gave Martin Luther the key…

The key that God has given ALL of us happens to be right in the next verse: "But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe." You are in that courtroom, waiting for your awful sentence, cringing, and all of a sudden, the Judge smiles at you and says, "Even though your record is terrible, I am going to give you a perfect record. I am going to give you righteousness as a gift. I can do that, because my Son Jesus lived in your place a while back and He did all those things I wanted you to do perfectly. He was the perfect child, the perfect friend, and the perfect helper in need. He showed mercy to the poor in every opportunity, kept his thoughts clean, and harbored no ill will toward anyone. He showed you how it's done. And I am giving you credit for his accomplishment!"

So now, this expression, "righteousness of God" takes on a whole new meaning for us! Instead of being something God holds against us, because we didn't have it, this is now something He gives us! I read about a small boy who was consistently late coming home from school. His parents warned him one day that he must be home on time that afternoon, but nevertheless he arrived later than ever. His mother met him at the door and said nothing. At dinner that night, the boy looked at his plate. There was a slice of bread and a glass of water. He looked at his father's full plate and then at his father, but his father remained silent. The boy was crushed. The father waited for the full impact to sink in, then quietly took the boy's plate and placed it in front of himself. He took his own plate of meat and potatoes, put it in front of the boy, and smiled at his son. When that boy grew to be a man, he said, "I learned what God is like by what my father did that night." That is what the righteousness of God now means to us! He took our punishment and gave us what we did not deserve!

"For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus." Jesus Christ, God's own Son, the one who came and fulfilled God's righteousness for us, the one who lived that perfect life in our place, also stepped in front of us when God threw the book at us! That's right, He also took our punishment. He was pronounced "guilty" while we were pronounced "not guilty."

In his little book On Christian Truth, Harry Blamires suggests that we think of the human race aboard a hijacked jet-liner flying through time. "God Himself directed its takeoff from the divine control-tower. The initiator of all evil, the Devil, managed to get a boarding pass. When the plane reached its cruising altitude, the Devil produced his weapons, threatened the pilot, and took control of the aircraft and all its passengers. Thus the plane hopped on fearfully through history from airport to airport until it was caught on the tarmac at Jerusalem, an outpost of the Roman empire, in the reign of Tiberius Caesar, where the Son of God offered himself as sole hostage in exchange for the passengers and crew."

There must be a catch! This is too easy! What do we have to do? Nothing. It's ours through Faith Alone. It's ours when we believe what the Judge told us, "We maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the Law." No room for boasting, is there? Imagine that a man before a judge has been given a choice of paying $100 or serving 90 days in jail. The man doesn't have any money, but does have an invalid wife and 5 hungry children depending on him. He tells such a heartrending story that the courtroom spectators have pity on him and take up a collection to help pay the man's fine. Although it is unlike him, even the judge chips in. They raise $99.95. Even though they are only 5 cents short, the judge declares that the entire $100 must be paid, and orders the bailiff to take the man to jail. He dejectedly walks out of the courtroom, thrusting his hands deep into his pockets…where he finds - a nickel! Elated, he rushes back into the courtroom and slaps it on the bar before the judge, declaring, "I'm free! I'm free!" In his mind, what saved him? The $99.95, or the five cents? If we did anything to merit our salvation, even thinking faith was something we had to do, we would be forever boasting about it in heaven. The fact is that we could do nothing, so Jesus paid it all.

And that is why we remember the Reformation. Because the lock that this Good News had been chained up with had now been opened with this key! God used Martin Luther to reveal this truth that had been hidden for so long. He also enabled a lot more people to read about it themselves when Luther translated it into a language that people could actually read. Thank the Lord, we can all read it today, because it has also been translated into our language. Now we can all read for ourselves that even though we can't obtain God's righteousness by how we live our lives, He gives it to us through his Son Jesus for free! God's Righteousness is Ours!

I usually do not like heaven jokes, but this one communicates something worthwhile. A man dies and goes to Heaven. St. Peter, who meets him at the Pearly Gates, says, "Here's how it works. You need 100 points to make it into heaven. You tell me all the good things you've done, and I give you a certain number of points for each item, depending on how good it was. When you reach 100 points, you get in." "OK," the man says, "I was married to the same woman for 50 years and never cheated on her, even in my heart." "That's wonderful," says St. Peter, "that's worth 3 points!" "3 points?" he says, slightly concerned. "Well, I attended church all my life and supported its ministry with my tithe and service." "Terrific!" says Peter. "That's certainly worth a point!" "One point!?" he moans, now really getting worried. "I started a soup kitchen in my city and worked in a shelter for homeless veterans." "Fantastic, that's good for 2 more points," he says. "2 points!" the man cries. "At this rate the only way I'll get into heaven is by the grace of God!" St. Peter nods and says with a smile, "You've made it! 100 points! Come on in, my son!" Amen.

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