The Greater Righteousness by Faith

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. God is one. Amen

The epistle today is from the 10th chapter of the book of Romans. This reading of ten lines from the New Testament contains five quotations from the Old Testament. Clearly, the Old Testament foundations are important here, but we also wish to build on those foundations and see the New Testament vision set out in this epistle. So, let’s seek to understand both the Old Testament foundations and the New Testament vision. Then we can reflect on how this important epistle might change our lives today and draw us closer to Christ and His Church.

In the opening verse of this epistle, Paul indicates that it his “heart’s desire and prayer to God for [the Jews] that they may be saved.” St Augustine reflects, and I quote: “Here Paul begins to speak of his hope for the Jews, [to make sure] the Gentiles … [do not] become condescending toward them [that is, regard them as inferior to Christians].” Paul continues: “For just as the pride of the Jews had to be countered because they gloried in their works, so also with the Gentiles, [they must not] become proud at having been preferred over the Jews,” concluded Paul. So Paul is reminding both Jews and Christians in his own day and us exactly what Peter learned from the faith of the Roman centurion Cornelius as noted in the book of Acts, chapter 10, and I quote: “I now truly understand that God does not show favouritism in dealing with people, but in every nation the person who fears him and does what is right is welcomed before him.”

In Romans 10, verse 4, Paul states that “Christ is the end of the law.” Then in verses 5 and 6, Paul makes a distinction between “the righteousness that is by the law” and “the righteousness that is by faith.” St John Chrysostom reflects that precisely because “Christ is the end of the law” Christ brings us; and I quote: “a fuller accomplishment of the law through faith. So that if you believe in [Christ], you have fulfilled the law and much more; for you have received a greater righteousness,” concluded St John. That “greater righteousness” was set out by Paul in Ephesians, chapter 4, verse 24 in which he urges us, and I quote, “to put off your old nature … and put on the new nature, created in God’s image—in righteousness and holiness that comes from truth,” concluded Paul.

We do not achieve this “greater righteousness” by our own hopes or efforts. As Paul wrote in Romans, chapter 8, verses 10 and 11, and I quote: “If Christ is in you … the Spirit is your life because of [your] righteousness,” concluded Paul. St John Chrysostom insists that Paul does not say “the Spirit lives,” but rather that “the Spirit is life, to point out that the Spirit has power to grant life [to each of us] and to others.” The Spirit with a capital “S” in these passages from the New Testament and the early Church Fathers is the Holy Spirit. The doctrine of the Holy Trinity had not yet been fully defined, but the Holy Spirit had come at Pentecost to the apostles, to thousands of others, and now to us. The Holy Spirit guides us to draw closer to God’s plan for our lives, even if we are often unaware of that plan. We each retain free will in the choices we make, but the Holy Spirit can help us make the right choices.

In Romans 10, verse 8, there is a quotation from Deuteronomy, chapter 30, verse 14: “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart.” The theologian Origen, in the third century reflected: “Here we have to bear in mind the important distinction between what is possible in theory and what is realised in practice…. Christ, who is the Word of God, is potentially near us and near everyone, but this is only realized in practice when I confess with my mouth that Christ is Lord and when I believe in my heart that God has raised Him from the dead,” concluded Origen. Over the centuries, “confessing Christ is Lord” has been done at baptism in the Creed, within the Divine Liturgy and in our personal prayers. As Augustine wrote, and I quote: “The Creed builds up in you what you ought to believe and confess in order to be saved.” We can all rejoice that we have in the past and will continue in the future to confess Christ is Lord.

That’s important: Our faith in Christ and our understanding of the Creed and of the Holy Trinity grow in us throughout our lives. Father Eugen Pentiuc begins his beautiful book, The Old Testament in Eastern Orthodox Tradition, with the words of Tertullian, a theologian in the second century from Carthage in modern-day Tunisia. I quote: “[In the Bible] the Church unites in one volume … the Law and the Prophets [of the Old Testament] … with the writings of the evangelists and apostles [in the New Testament], from which [the Church] drinks in her faith.” That phrase “drinks in her faith” suggests strongly that faith has grown within the Church and can grow within each of us as we experience the unity of the Old and New Testaments.

For me, the words in the second century of St Polycarp are both, encouraging and challenging. He wrote, and I quote: “He who raised Christ up from the dead will raise us up also if we do his will and walk in his commandments and love what he loved, keeping ourselves from all unrighteousness, covetousness [that is, being greedy], love of money, evil-speaking [or] false witness … or blow for blow, or cursing for cursing, but being mindful of what the Lord [Jesus Christ] said in his teaching,” concluded Polycarp. That is a worthy goal and a real possibility, as we are each drawn closer to “the greater righteousness” that comes through faith in Christ.

And so, we ascribe as is justly due all might, majesty, dominion, power and praise to God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, always now and ever and unto the ages of ages.              Father Emmanuel Kahn