I'm moving through some of the themes and I will not be able to cover all of them. I'm starting from the beginning. Particularly focusing on Romans 1, 16 to 17. What we have discussed thus far, we're going to go into some detail a little bit here. And the first phrase is that of the righteousness of God. Perhaps you know that in the history of the church, Romans has been a very significant factor of bringing back the gospel to a church that have been trusted over by do's and don'ts by tradition, etc. In particular, the reformation was sparked by a renewed study of Romans on the part of Martin Luther. But if you want to become more specific, it was a renewed study of the phrase righteousness of God. And if you want to be even more specific, a correct understanding of the genitive of God sparked the reformation. So if you insist that grammar is not important, church history will teach you something differently. Because the righteousness of God was the question. The way Luther had been taught to understand that phrase is the righteous demands of God. The righteous expectations of God commensurate with the righteous character of God. That is why you have a Augustinian monk reflecting in his cell and pacing around the central circuit in the monastery saying the simple question, how can I get a merciful God? A man who is willing and desirous to do what is right before God and who understands this phrase, the righteousness of God as the righteous character of God, the righteous demand and expectation of God. Rather than as he slowly came to see in his studies of the psalms, of Galatians and then particularly of Romans, that there is only one way to interpret the phrase, the righteousness of God properly and that is that there is righteousness coming from God. Outside of the human being, reaching to man, that is commensurate with the character of God, but it is more than that. And is perhaps Otto Schlutter who has gone even beyond the reformational understanding and particularly Martin Luther's understanding of what righteousness coming from God really conveys. It is a book translated into English called The Righteousness of God. It is actually a commentary on Romans that has recently been translated out of Schlutter's commentary on Romans and I would recommend that to you in which he states that it really goes beyond the righteous act of God. It is the righteous way of salvation, the righteous way of bringing people back unto himself, reconciling that people unto himself. So the righteousness of God as a phrase is not only a forensic phrase, not only a legal term of declaring somebody justified that the righteousness of God is displayed in this way, that although I am an accused murderer, I am pardoned on the basis of the substitutionary atonement of Christ, but rather that God is entering into a relationship with me, that he wants to set the relationship right, so that righteousness does not only have a legal dimension but also a relational dimension. And he Schlutter does great justice, I think, to the analysis of these various words that when the verb is used, that we are being made righteous or likewise verbs to that effect, that there may be only a legal connotation there, but when the noun is used, righteousness of God, there is a relational dimension. So that the provision in Christ is part of the righteousness of God, but really when you look at all of Romans, you see that the righteousness of God, the godliness of God and his godly actions on behalf of men are revealed that it speaks about the true character of the human condition. It speaks about the provision of Christ in justifying a undeserving sinner. It speaks about a new life in Christ. It speaks about the fruit of the spirit growing out all in a dependent relationship with God. And so the righteousness of God implies and communicates those aspects in the various contexts in Romans. Now there are Old Testament references that we could draw attention to particularly Isaiah 46 and 51, 54 and 56 in which we see that the righteousness revealed the righteousness of God revealed begins with an exposure of the human condition. So it is very significant here in Romans 117 that it speaks about that gospel being revealed, that gospel being spoken to you rather than that gospel arising from some human endeavor. It also makes it very clear that it is not only God's word but God's work that is expressed here in the righteousness of God being revealed. So when we hear that the righteousness of God is being revealed, we see that a righteous God is making provision for a reconciled relationship with him. It's this all-embracing movement, it's really a vector, it's an activity of inclusion that includes the element of sacrifice that includes the element of justification that does not stop there. And that in light, despite the fact of the unrighteousness of man, so it is this fatherly care poured over the utter and neediness and exposure of his children that is implied and communicated with righteousness of God. So the very contrary of what Luther originally thought, righteousness of God to communicate, yes please. In terms of the righteousness of God revealed, yes, it is his presence, it is his desire that the now reconciled people live in communion with him because that is the original design of man. But certainly it has very clear elements of one's and for all. The atonement of Christ is a one's and for all deed, but it has eternal effect, eternal validity for those who embrace that deed of God on their lives. There is a finality and a uniqueness to deeds of God, but there is a continuing effect and outgrowth of that. That's why Paul says, don't only begin to live by faith but continue to live by faith and will come to that understanding of what faith means. But also see that if you understand righteousness of God this way, you cannot say that there is human merit. If you understand this total activity of revelation and of deed of God on behalf of man, that all embraces activity, how can you turn around and say, I merit God's favor. I merit God's mercy. I merit God's grace. It is absolutely undeserved. It is something that arises from the heart of God and that is not conditioned or initiated or triggered by anything that I do. My state is utter helplessness and the image of a newborn baby is perfectly good and adequate, not adequate, but perfectly good to illustrate that. There is an utter dependency on the provision of that young child, young person has no clue of what the dangers of life are, no clue of what the needs are simply has needs. And the exposure and the vulnerability to the one helping, the father or the mother or whoever is 100%. That is the counterpart to the righteousness of God. There is not a 1% loophole to self-contribution. So while Luther understood the righteousness of God to be the righteous demands of God on my life, to live an acceptable life before God, in fact when you read this phrase in the total context of the argument of Romans, there is not 1% room for merit. Of anything that God would do in leaning towards me, in showing his favor and grace towards me. So he demonstrates his righteousness utterly unmerited without any contribution. And so the term synergism that you may have heard in terms of finding favor with God that I contribute something, that I bring something to the table, that I bring something to the equation that I can throw in my $5 into the deal. It fails to see and accept the righteousness of God that is revealed also in chapters 1 to 3. You need to read all of Romans to understand what the righteousness of God is. It does include the purity and the godliness, the purity and the clarity of God but it is this wonderful act. And so the righteousness of God is clearly the righteousness expressed and provided by there is a clear activity from God to the righteousness that is being expressed. And I think we need to look at all of Romans from this particular perspective that God reaches out. And you see in this context then you can understand election, that is a difficult theme for some of you and certainly has been a challenge for me to understand why God would elect, why God would be so sovereign in his deeds. If you recognize that your condition is as dependent as a newly born baby and that you can bring nothing to the equation except your need, then you can recognize that what God does is his good pleasure. When God expresses grace to you or anybody, it is his great deed, great choice, a great act of election. It is not your merit. And so when we think about the connection between the expression of the righteousness of God and election, we need to understand this unmerited state. And what God does, I do not deserve. There is a difficult part to this but there is also a highly freeing part to that because when I receive the gospel, when the gospel reaches my heart, when this truth of unmerited favor from God reaches my thought and my being, it drives me to an understanding of gratitude and thankfulness. I can boast as Paul says in my accomplishment, I can only boast in God's accomplishment. It frees you up to an un-sincere acknowledgement of God's goodness. Sometimes it sounds a little pious. You say, well, it is just God's greatness. But you hear nearly at the undertone, I did a pretty good job, but I want to say it is really just God's greatness. When you see the unmerited favor of God deeply, you can say sincerely, praise God, it is his great deed that I stand here tonight before you. I do not take any credit for. If I were without God's hand, I would be in the pits as sure as I stand here. And so that we can grow, that we can move is God's wonderful grace. Now, some people misuse that into cheap grace and say, therefore, let me sit back in my rocking chair and do nothing. The grace of God that is so expressed, that cost God so much, compelts me to grow, even to pray that I would have grateful eyes and the grateful heart towards all that God has provided. So there is a response of gratitude. And really, Romans 12 to 15 could be described as a response of gratitude to God's provision by God's help. So there is a side to righteousness by righteousness of God that relates to the election and the sovereignty of God. Another important point here, connected with the righteousness of God and with the justification that is brought in is that of sonship that we are reinstated as children of God. That God brings us into a filial relationship with him. And obviously, I'm not saying we are like Jesus sons and daughters of God, but we are considered and called sons and daughters of God in the household of God. We are taken into the family and Scotty Smith here is teaching a wonderful course on sonship and the sonship material that drives that home into the particulars of life. My wife is currently taking that and is greatly appreciating that particular ramification of being justified before God, being brought into the household of God and being brought into our right relationship with God on the base of his deeds. But also with the ramification that we are sons and daughters and not orphans. It's a very deep truth that brings us into a healthy place of existence and perspective. So when we meditate on the ramifications of the righteousness of God displayed towards us that brings us into a right relationship with him, we are strengthened to understand our life, not in separation from God, but in dependency to God. And then we can understand the process of sanctification, the process of living in Godliness in chapter 12 following as a growth in that which God has begun rather than in anything else. And this leads us directly to the question of what is faith. I think a lot has been said and done concerning the understanding of faith, but please take my word. You cannot define faith if you do not understand what righteousness of God means. You cannot define faith if you do not understand what salvation really means. If you miss Romans 1 to 3, if you miss Romans 5, you will define faith as your 5 cents that you bring to the equation of the table. God has provided his part, I'll provide faith, but what is faith? We see clearly in Romans and partially in Galatians but clearly in Romans that there is an antithesis between works and faith. There is a contrast. You can either live by works or you can live by faith and you need to understand what it means to live by works before you understand what living by faith cannot mean. Living by works is that form of existence by means of the law or not to seek to exist and conduct your life self-generated to please God. Brief summary of Gentile and Jewish existence without Christ. By faith therefore cannot mean that you bring no effort to the equation but some inner disposition to at least say I believe. Because that's still according to Paul living by works. Paul says that there is no boasting in faith and that means you've got to locate you have to understand faith as something different from anything that you can generate yourself. The living by faith is a new order. Now Romans 3, 22, has one definition of faith and we'll look at this and by the way it includes a reference to the righteousness from God or the righteousness of God then we have just discussed. Romans 3, 22 defines faith this way. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. Now some people have said through the faith of Jesus I don't think that's tenable in this particular passage it's not that Christ brings faith to this equation it is faith of the individual and of the group of believers. So this righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. Now what is this faith in Jesus Christ? It must be maintained in contra-distinction to works and it must be understood that there is a great object of faith. See here there is the origin of self and here is the object of the provider of salvation. Obviously Paul speaks about faith as something that is located inside of you or inside the community of believers. Here you focus on the origin of self here you focus on the object of faith. Faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. I believe it was Koritan boom who was once was praised by some bypasser and here she said you know Koritan boom I'm just so impressed by your faith and her response was little faith in a great God and I'd like to push that a little further. Great God provision for great God so that you don't even mention as much as faith but you focus your disposition is look at what God has done look what he has provided look how he has reached down into my life. That's described as faith but it's all focused on the object rather than on the production of some disposition that I would be able to boast about and say you know what I have great faith. I have believed what Jesus has said I have embraced what he has done etc etc etc. Paul is very clear if you can boast in something you're still not in the area of faith. So it's very much conditioned and focused on the object that is brought to you. I believe the final answer to what is faith is not so much found in Romans as it is in Ephesians and obviously you can have a long discussion about the Ephesian passage as well but I still want to give it to you and according to my father's basic principle firmly presented is half proven. I want to tell you what I believe faith to being in Ephesians 2 8 it says summarizing what we have just thought about in the gospel to the Romans for it is by grace you have been saved through faith. So grace it is the deed the unmerited deed on your behalf the righteousness of God communicated through faith and this is not from yourself it is the gift of God and obviously some people debate here whether this gift of God speaks about grace or faith or both and I would say both. So that in the end God provides you with the ability to believe so that faith is a gift of God part of God's reconciliation deed part of his righteousness is the provision of regenerating your heart and making you able to look at him to acknowledge him. To enjoy and appropriate the gifts that he has provided for you and that would be defined as faith yes. The question is is a person able to reject the gift when I get asked very difficult questions I normally say what do you guys think to buy some time. This video thing we can quite do that is it possible to reject the gift of God we do know that scripture speaks about suppressing or hindering the spirit of God we see that our ability as human beings is that of denying and rejecting that which God is doing I would not go as far as to say we can really reject faith. But we certainly have the ability of keeping God's call and God's prodding at bay and some people have the testimony of running away from God for five years for 10 years and God is coming back so that's kind of an experiential description of that. So I would say yes and no yes in part no in general God is accomplishing his work including that of providing faith but we certainly have the ability of hindering and suppressing. You know what the question is are there some who have rejected the gift or are there all of those people who have never heard the gospel. What would you conclude how would you finish that sentence a chance yes okay the whole question of chance it's unfortunate our time is up so we have to close. I would love to answer your question but unfortunately we just can't do that at one point when I was very young in my lectures I had prepared lectures and I ran out of lectures before the time was out and I still had five minutes and fortunately I had the ingenious idea of saying you know we have just concluded a major theme it wouldn't really be worth starting anything new at this point I'll dismiss you earlier so that's what we would need to say here. The basic gospel truth that is so hard Romans 1 to 3 particularly but the total of Romans I would say is this. Without God's intervention he does not owe us anything he is under no obligation to save one human being. Therefore let me finish this therefore what he does even in this sense is utterly unmerited on our part. Now humankind and human perspective certainly says that cannot be fair that cannot be true God has created me so he owes me to save me out of this condition he sees in what mess I'm in etc etc etc but the gospel truth is as a child of Adam in my existence of collaborating with the fall of Adam willingly I have no claim. That's why the little gospel story in John 316 the description is that all those who believe shall not perish that's the starting point everybody deserves to perish that's the harsh gospel and when you talk with people that is part of the harshness of the gospel that we say how can a loving God think such a way how can you approach such a way. But you know we need to come back to the image of the potter we need to say who am I to tell God how he is to conduct his business with us so I have not an answer for your question I'm quite aware that I'm not answering your question but I'm saying our approach as mankind based on the gospel is that God does not owe us anything. If he chooses to be gracious to you if he inclines his heart grace towards you you don't deserve it that's the point of Romans 9 and we must add we trust that he is righteous even in that it eludes me I can't make sense I would rather say God will save everybody everybody felt everybody will be saved and there's a passage in Romans 11 which you didn't press me to but it could be read this way that all get saved but it's impossible you cannot come up with a universal salvation scheme it's not possible in the gospel there is such a thing as those who do not come into the covenant of God so that's the hard point that we need to leave but one thing we must retain and I'm not going to close before my time is up I've got according to this watch I have one minute I don't believe in this clock here we cannot boast before any human being that we have a favored place we cannot boast before any human and many people also in reform circles have boasted about being among the elect people and all of that stuff God's mercy is what we can boast in but that's about all so we have to be very careful that we don't say look at me I've got faith where are you that's Mrs the gospel vote all together so I'm not answering your question I'm aware it's yes it's your responsibility yes I think that's perfectly understandable but I think you see as the righteousness of God is revealed you cannot have that kind of an understanding of faith and Ephesians 2.10 for me or 2.8 to 10 seals that understanding that faith is of a different nature as any act of work so thank you very much that was strong tobacco as we would say you are dismissed on time