"For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last just as it was written, 'The just shall live by faith" (Romans 1:17). 

If you were to ask a man in Rwanda, "What is your greatest need?" He would say, "End the war! Finish all this bloodshed, all this killing." 

If you were to ask someone from Somalia, "What is your greatest need?" He would say, "Food! Our children are starving, our people are dying." 

If you were to ask one of the millions in Britain who are out of work, "What is your greatest need?" What would be the answer? "I want the dignity of being able to go out and earn my crust." 

If you were to ask someone in a hospital bed with some terminal illness the same question, well obviously he is going to say, "I want my health back." 

THE GREATEST NEED! 

You can understand all those answers.  But they are all dictated by circumstances.  But there is a need that overrides all these.  It supersedes all man's dilemmas whether he is in Rwanda, Somalia, or Britain. 

The greatest need of man always has been and always will be - to be acceptable to God.  God is the common factor in everyone's life, whatever our country or circumstances.

All men and women are made by God and for God.  All men and women must answer to God.  When the war in Rwanda is over and they have stopped that madness, then the people in Rwanda will still need the Lord Jesus Christ because they are still sinners under the judgment and wrath of God. 

When every belly in Somalia is full and there is no more need for food, they will still need the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.  When there is no unemployment anywhere, men will still need Jesus - that is the common factor. 

The problem for us is that God is holy and God is righteous.  There is no sin, no fault, and no blemish in God.  God will not tolerate sin, and you and I are sinners.  Man, as he is, is unacceptable to God.  He does not satisfy God's demands.  He cannot meet God's standards.  In many churches I am sure there are many people who think they can meet God's demands.  But the fact is that all man's righteousness is like a pile of filthy rags in the sight of God (Isaiah 64:6). 

Let me illustrate it like this.  Imagine a man cleaning his car.  Not the outside but the inside.  He is cleaning the engine.  He has this dirty, filthy rag and he is mopping the oil off the sump and the camshaft, and this rag is getting filthier and filthier.  And then his wife calls him because his little daughter in the house has been sick.  So he comes in with this filthy, grimy rag and he has to mop the sick up with this rag.  Can you imagine the state of this rag? 

FILTHY RAG!

Then he comes into the lounge and he puts the rag on the coffee table! You know what his wife will say, don't you? "Get that filthy rag out of my house! I don't want that filthy rag in my house!" That is what God says when you bring your righteousness to him; "Get that filthy rag out of my house." If you can feel revolted at the thought of this rag with its oil and sick, which is how God sees your righteousness.  It is not how God sees your sin, but how God sees your goodness.  That goodness you would boast of and delight in.  And the terrible fact is stated in Romans 3:10, where Paul says, "there is none righteous, no, not one" - not in this entire world.  Now that being the fact, man's greatest need is to be capable of meeting God's standard and being acceptable to Him. 

GOD SHOUTS!

According to our text, God's good news reveals to us the very righteousness that we so desperately need.  For in the gospel righteousness from God is revealed.  It is revealed.  The gospel is not man's idea of what religion ought to be - the result of centuries of man's search for God.  The gospel is an announcement from heaven.  "Here is the answer," says God, "to your lack of righteousness, to your sin and depravity, and waywardness." God is shouting from heaven, "Here is the answer." 

The United Nations, church councils, and all the social endeavors of man could not provide it.  But God announces it.  Now righteousness, here, is not describing something about God like his holiness or purity.  It really means a righteousness, which comes from God, that God gives us.  It is not saying God's righteousness.  Look at it and admire it.  It is saying, "Here is the righteousness that God gives us." 

FREE GIFT! 

This is why the gospel is good news.  The gospel does not tell us what we must achieve.  But it tells us what has been achieved for us and what we must receive now as a gift from God.

If you were to tell the people in Wales that the only way to guarantee heaven was to get to California.  Many could not afford it.  It would be beyond their abilities.  But the gospel does not tell us about what we must achieve.  It tells us what God gives us as a free gift offered to all. 

Remember God designs the gospel.  God works it out.  Its purpose is to satisfy the demands of God.  And its achievement is our salvation.  But, and here is the key point, our salvation could not be achieved if God's demands were not satisfied.

GOD'S DEMANDS!

So what are God's demands? God demands from you a righteousness as good as His own.  God has not one standard and then a second standard.  There is only one standard with God.  He demands from you and me righteousness like His.

Would you say that is unreasonable? NO, it is not unreasonable because God made man sinless, in His own image.  God wants us to be as He made us.  That is not unreasonable.  But it is impossible.  Can you follow the logic of that? It is not unreasonable, but it is impossible.  It is impossible because our sin makes it impossible. 

So where does that leave us? It leaves us with no ability or capacity to save ourselves.  It leaves us needing someone to save us.  Whoever this Savior is to save us, he will have to provide for us a righteousness as good as God's. 

But there is no righteousness as good as God's righteousness.  So the only possible way we can be saved, the only possible way we can be acceptable to God, is if we have God's righteousness. 

But we say that is impossible! No, the gospel makes it possible and that is its glory.  The gospel makes it possible for you no matter who you are or what you are, no matter what your past life has been for you.  We need to have a righteousness - not just as good as God's righteousness - but to have God's righteousness.  That is what the gospel offers us.  Nothing less.  God provides the very righteousness that He demands from you.  And you say, "I cannot do it." God says, "Don't worry.  I have done it."

GET TO JESUS!

So how do we get this righteousness? Well, we get it from Jesus.  Everywhere in the gospel you eventually come back to Jesus.  The sooner you get to Him the better.  Jesus Christ is God.  Never apologize for that, and never backtrack on the exclusiveness and the uniqueness of the Lord Jesus Christ.  He is not just a prophet like Mohammed. 

Jesus is God become man - the Son of God co-equal with the Father - in glory and majesty, and in holiness and righteousness.  And He came into this world to satisfy the demands of God on your behalf.  He came to satisfy those reasonable but impossible demands for you.

We are told in the Bible that Jesus was made under the law and He rendered a perfect obedience to the law of God.  There is an amazing statement that Jesus made on the night before Calvary.  He said, "The prince of this world comes against me but he has got nothing in me" (John 14:30).  Praise God, Jesus was sinless. 

The devil has plenty in you.  He could write a book about you or me but he had nothing in Jesus.  There was not one blemish.  There was nothing in His character or life that the devil could pick on and say, "This Jesus is a sinner." Jesus was the spotless, sinless, holy Lamb of God.  And because He had no sin, God was able to lay on Jesus the sin of us all.  He took our guilt and He took our punishment on the cross of Calvary. 

There are only two places in all of existence where God deals with sin.  One is hell and the other is Calvary.  Will you have your sin dealt with at the cross of Calvary where there is forgiveness or in hell where forever that sin will receive the judgment and the wrath, and the anger of a holy God? The Lord justly demanded that your sin should be punished.  But Jesus bore our guilt and He bore our punishment.  He paid it all.  Not one penny left has to be paid.  There is nothing further the law can demand. 

Jesus satisfied it all on the cross of Calvary.  And because of this, God cancels our debts.  He has to cancel them because they have been paid.  God then imputes to us or credits to us the very righteousness of Christ.

THE BIG LIST!

Let me draw a picture.  There is big list in heaven with your name on the top of it.  It is a big bill and every time you sin that sin is added to that bill.  (Anger, pride, jealousy, adultery, theft, covetousness...) The list is enormous by now.  The only difference between a 70-year-old sinner and a 17-year-old sinner is you have more sin for which to answer.  Imagine 70 years of sin! 

But God, in the grace of the gospel, wipes the slate clean.  He says there is nothing to be paid because all that sin was placed on Jesus on Calvary.  So the bill is still there, and your name is on it, but it is empty. 

However, God does not leave it empty.  He adds to that bill the righteousness of Jesus.  So instead of anger and sin, and envy and bitterness, and lies, He puts on it now the righteousness of Jesus.  (Purity, love, patience, kindness...) He credits to you the very beauty of the Lord Jesus Christ.

It's lovely clothed in beauty not my own.  It is the beauty of Jesus that covers us like a robe of righteousness, like a garment of salvation.  For in the gospel, righteousness from God - God's righteousness - is revealed to us. 

BY FAITH!

The righteousness that comes from God is by faith.  Our text says by faith from first to last.  Let me make this very clear.  Faith does not save us.  It is the righteousness of Christ, which saves us.  But that righteousness comes to us by faith.  Faith is the vehicle by which we receive it.

I wonder...  how many people are in hell that spent 20 years in church? You say, "God, I have done this and I was good to my neighbor, and I looked after her when she was ill..." Praise God for that.  But it will not save you.  You keep bringing your pile of filthy rags into the presence of God and saying, "God, aren't these wonderful!"

Faith is the exact opposite of that.  Faith rests on the righteousness of Christ.  It has seen its own righteousness as a load of rubbish.  Faith sees nothing except Jesus.  But what a sight Jesus is.  Jesus bearing my sin and guilt; Jesus facing the wrath of God instead of me.  Faith delights in Jesus.  Faith loves Jesus.  Faith trusts Jesus.

TWO HEAPS!

There was a Scottish preacher, David Dickson, in the last century who said, "I have taken all my bad deeds and I have put them in a heap, and I have taken all my good deeds and put them in another heap, and I fled from them both to Jesus." That is what faith is.  Amen.

When we come like that, God gives us the righteousness of Jesus.  And when you are clothed in that, you are acceptable.  Do you see the wonder of this? You can go to the vilest man in the world, the most terrible drug-pusher, the worst murderer, and you can say, "There is salvation in Christ for you because it does not depend on what you are or what you have done, but you can receive the righteousness of Christ by faith."