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An author by the name of Bel Kaufman wrote a book in 1964 titled, "Up The Down Staircase." It's a teacher's story of what its like to teach in a large, metropolitan high school. The principal character in the story is named Sylvia Barrett who repeatedly makes the mistake of going up the staircase intended only for down traffic.
Trying to go up a staircase that is only intended for downward traffic is a mistake that is made by many, maybe not in high schools, but most definitely in our quest for righteousness before God.
A perfect example of someone trying to go up the down staircase is the rich, young man who came to Jesus and asked Him, "Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" He thinks he's got to go up the stairway to heaven by doing what it takes.
Who is this man? Who is this man who thinks that there is a set of steps that must be climbed, rules that must be followed, laws that must be kept, good deeds that must be done, in order to get right with God and have eternal life?
You are. You are the man. And you are the woman. We are the ones who believe that God has given us a stairway to heaven. A 10 step "up stairway" of Commandments, that, if followed, bring us up to God and eternal life.
From way, way back in my Sunday School days, I can still remember singing, "Climb, climb up sunshine mountain, heavenly breezes blow. Climb, climb up sunshine mountain, faces are all aglow…"
The rich young man had been climbing the stairway of the law since his childhood and yet he knew that he still hadn't climbed high enough. So he came to Jesus for advice. "What must I do?"
A. The Question – How To Get Right With God. Who is this man? Martin Luther is this man. Luther was a man possessed by the singular question, "what must I do to be right with God and have eternal life?" No matter how hard Luther tried, he could never be satisfied that he had climbed high enough. And the thought that he might fall short terrified him. "I was more than once driven to the very abyss of despair so that I wished I had never been created," he said. He kept coming back to his confessor, Father John Staupitz, asking over and over and over again, "what must I do?"
It was Jesus who answered Luther. Not a voice in his head or a feeling in his heart, but an inspired Word from an Apostle named Paul. It's the same way that God answers you. "Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscience of sin."
The law of God is not given to us so that we may climb up it into heaven. The law is the gavel of God that shows us our sin and sounds our guilty verdict. "No one will be declared righteous by the law. Through the law we become conscience of sin." Well this turns everything upside down. And suddenly, we realize that what we thought was the up staircase is not the up staircase at all.
We thought we had to climb up the ladder of the law to get to sunshine mountain. "But now a righteousness God, apart from the law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify."
Moses and the Prophets of the Old Testament were saying the same thing as Paul is telling us right here. And if we would had only listened to Moses and Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel and all the others, instead of thinking that it must depend on us and our worthiness and merits, or at least our cooperation, then we would have realized that this is not the way it works at all. We would have known that rather than giving us stairway to climb up to Him, He gives us the gospel and sends His Son down to us.
"But now…" The best news you will ever hear is summed up in those two words. "But now…" things aren't the way they seem. "God's thoughts are not our thoughts and His ways are not our ways." Here we are, trying so hard to get right with God by keeping His law, and as it turns out, God doesn't judge us by the law at all. Your keeping or breaking the 10 Commandments is not what saves you or condemns you.
We are saved or condemned "apart from the law." Your salvation is all wrapped up in the gospel. The gospel is not the word of God that tells you what you must do and must not do. The gospel is the word of God that tells you what God has done and is doing for you right now. The gospel is never, "this do and you will be saved." The gospel is always, "believe this, you have been saved."
"This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe." The great but now" that echoes throughout all creation for all who have ears to hear, is that God has sent His own Son down from heaven to be judged according to the Law. And according to the Law of God, He is perfectly obedient. He has kept the law perfectly. For in Him there is no sin.
But just look at how He was judged by God. The prophet Isaiah said it as clearly as it can be said. "He was smitten by God and afflicted." Who is this man? He is you and He is me. For He is being judged according to the Law for us and in our place. "He was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities… the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all." (Is.53:5-6).
"But now…" Jesus Christ is God's "but now…" To everyone who looks into the Law of God and boasts of his own beauty and righteousness, God says, "but now" all righteousness is to be found only in my beautiful Son. And to the one who looks into the Law of God and curses himself and pleads for mercy – God says, "but now…" all righteousness is to be found only in my crucified Son.
B. Vs. 25 "For God presented Him to be a sacrifice of atonement through faith in His blood."
When Adam and Eve sinned in the garden they were ashamed. God sacrificed animals and covered Adam and Eve's shame and guilt with their skins. That was Christ's skin and His blood that covered their sin and shame.
When Abraham took his son Isaac to the mountaintop to sacrifice him to God, God provided a substitute for Isaac. A ram got its head caught in the thickets and Abraham sacrificed the ram in Isaac's place and that ram was Christ whose head was crowned with those thickets.
When Israel was in Egypt, the angel of death passed over every house marked with the blood of a lamb so that those under the roof so marked did not die but lived and that lamb was Christ and even now, all who stand under His blood marked cross will not die but live.
The only way you ever look good and are righteous in God's sight is when you're covered with the body and blood of Christ. "For God has presented Him to be a sacrifice of atonement through faith in His blood."
A perfect example of what it means to live by faith in His blood is told by Charles Colson of Watergate fame. After serving his time in jail for his part in the Watergate conspiracy, Charles Colson founded an organization called "Prison Fellowship" which reaches into prisons to prisoners with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He tells of the time he visited a prison in Brazil that had been so bad and beyond reforming that the government closed it down. It was reopened by an independent group of Christian laymen shortly thereafter. Colson reports on his visit to the prison a year after the transition. He writes how he "found the inmates smiling and pleasant – especially the murderer who held the keys and opened the gates to let him in." "Where ever I walked," he said, "I saw men at peace." "How could this be and what was the reason for extraordinary change?" He reports that he got his answer when his guide escorted him to the notorious punishment cell once used for torture. "Today," the guide told Colson, "that cell holds just one inmate." As they reached the end of a long concrete corridor and he put the key into the lock, he paused and asked, "Are you sure you want to go in?" "Of course," Colson replied. "I've been in isolation cells all over the world." Slowly he swung open the massive door, and I saw the prisoner in that cell: A crucifix, beautifully carved by the inmates – the prisoner Jesus, hanging on the cross." The guide said softly, "He's doing time for all the rest of us."
Or as Paul says it, "For God has presented Him to be a sacrifice of atonement through faith in His blood." Or as Isaiah says it, "By His stripes you are healed… Upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace."
You want to know how to get right with God? The answer is, there is nothing you can do. Stop trying to go up the down staircase. Don't be waiving your good works and your wonderful intentions or your moral lifestyle before God. You might as well waive filthy rags in His face because every claim of self-righteousness or your own worthiness is a rejection of the One who came down from heaven to be your sin and your righteousness and your worthiness.
You better just remain in your Baptism where Christ's sacrifice of atonement was for you. You better just eat His Supper where Christ's body and blood is given and shed for you.
C. Vs. 27-28 "Then what becomes of our boasting?" Do we boast about what good people we are or how well we live by the Law of God? Certainly not. You want to boast about yourself? Then boast about this. God sent His Son down from heaven for you. And Jesus Christ died for you. And the Son of God took your place on the cross that was reserved for you. Boast about this, "You are justified by His grace as a gift through the redemption that comes by Christ Jesus."