Marginal Christianity

A Timely Word from Bonhoeffer                                                                                                                                         or                          ...

21  But now God’s righteousness has been revealed apart from the Law, which is confirmed by the Law and the Prophets. 22  God’s righteousness comes through the faithfulness of Jesus Christ for all who have faith in him. There’s no distinction. 23  All have sinned and fall short of God’s glory, 24  but all are treated as righteous freely by his grace because of a ransom that was paid by Christ Jesus. 25  Through his faithfulness, God displayed Jesus as the place of sacrifice where mercy is found by means of his blood. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness in passing over sins that happened before, 26  during the time of God’s patient tolerance. He also did this to demonstrate that he is righteous in the present time, and to treat the one who has faith in Jesus as righteous. 27  What happens to our bragging? It’s thrown out. With which law? With what we have accomplished under the Law? 28  No, not at all, but through the law of faith...

21  But now God’s righteousness has been revealed apart from the Law, which is confirmed by the Law and the Prophets. 22  God’s righteousness comes through the faithfulness of Jesus Christ for all who have faith in him. There’s no distinction. 23  All have sinned and fall short of God’s glory, 24  but all are treated as righteous freely by his grace because of a ransom that was paid by Christ Jesus. 25  Through his faithfulness, God displayed Jesus as the place of sacrifice where mercy is found by means of his blood. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness in passing over sins that happened before, 26  during the time of God’s patient tolerance. He also did this to demonstrate that he is righteous in the present time, and to treat the one who has faith in Jesus as righteous. 27  What happens to our bragging? It’s thrown out. With which law? With what we have accomplished under the Law? 28  No, not at all, but through the law of faith...

16  For I am not ashamed of the gospel; it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 17  For in it the righteousness of God is revealed through faith for faith; as it is written, “The one who is righteous will live by faith.”   “Righteousness” is one of those big religious words we hear in church a lot.   And usually wrongly used! We been taught to associate the words “righteous” and “righteousness” with morality or moral character, or “uprightness,” to use an older English word. So, by this understanding, the gospel shows God’s moral uprightness, of which we fall far short and, thus, stand in need of his mercy and forgiveness. However, “the righteousness of God” in the Old Testament, where Paul gets it from, means “God’s passion to set all things right.”   It’s what drives God to deliver, redeem, restore, forgive, discipline, heal, and make everything just the way he intends it to be....