Sermon | Romans 10:1–4 | 2026 April 12

Title: Sermon | Romans 10:1–4 | 2026 April 12

Scripture: Romans 10:1–4 (ESV, reference only)

Date: 2026 April 12

Speaker: Rev. John Chen

Translated & edited by: Joseph Wang (Yufan)

Theme Statement: By continuing to understand the truth of justification by faith, we put away our own pride and diligently devote ourselves to obeying the law.

Question Statement: How do we distinguish between God’s righteousness and man’s righteousness?

Transition: We distinguish them through the following aspects.

Keyword: How.

Introduction: After an interval of five months, today we continue our exposition of the book of Romans.

1. Be clear about what man’s righteousness is.

Paul makes his attitude known to his readers: he truly desires that the Israelites would be saved. Paul has no discrimination against the Israelites, and he does not belittle them. On the contrary, he is full of love toward them.

However, Paul points out that the Israelites pursue God according to their own zeal. They simply pursue obedience to the law, and they take their obedience to the law as their own righteousness. Let us look at the representatives among Israel, the Pharisees, to see how they pursued God according to their own zeal.

What the Pharisees mainly practiced was the ceremonial law, such as ceremonial cleanliness and the like, rather than the moral law. They took these outward ceremonies as marks of their superiority over others. This can be seen from the conflicts between the Pharisees and the Lord Jesus. In fact, the Pharisees basically lived a life that emphasized the ceremonial law while neglecting the moral law.

From the Lord Jesus’ teaching concerning the Pharisees in Matthew 23:1–7, we may even say that the Pharisees defined a holy life merely as obedience to the ceremonial law. Yet their hearts were full of pride. Their problem lay in self-exaltation.

This is greatly different from our definition. Our definition of a holy life is that in every sphere of life we are to obey the moral law represented by the Ten Commandments.

The Israelites did not worship God according to true knowledge. They did not know God’s righteousness, and they sought to establish their own righteousness. In essence, this is simply refusing to submit to God’s righteousness.

The Israelites took their observance of the ceremonial law as the mark of their salvation. In the final analysis, this was a rejection of everything that the Lord Jesus accomplished; it was resistance against God; it was a desire to establish their own righteousness. Behind this behavior there still remained self-centeredness. They thought that they themselves could achieve something, and they believed they were more righteous than others. All of this violates the essence of justification by faith.

To speak objectively, if the Israelites or the Pharisees had removed the pride in their hearts and had only personally practiced the ceremonial law, the problem might not have been so serious. But the Israelites established their own righteousness. By means of these outward actions, they wanted to obtain a justified standing before God. This is the root of their problem.

Does this behavior of being justified by works among the Israelites appear in our lives as well? Yes, it does. Whenever we take our own achievements, work, stable income, health, or marriage as the source of our satisfaction, then we are taking something outside of Jesus as our righteousness. The behavior of wanting to establish our own righteousness and refusing to submit to God’s righteousness is manifested in every one of us. When we are not truly trusting in Christ, and when we take something other than Christ as the source of our satisfaction, then we are all establishing our own righteousness and refusing to submit to God’s righteousness. We want to listen to ourselves rather than to God.

Just like the Israelites, Christians also can establish their own righteousness outside of Christ and fail to seek the righteousness that God grants to us in Christ. Why do people resist the righteousness that God has given in Christ? Because God’s righteousness is a complete denial of man’s works. We sinners cannot accept such a total denial of ourselves. We want to preserve a little of our own “status” and “dignity.”

2. Understand what God’s righteousness is.

In man’s salvation, there is nothing at all that can save us, including the holy conduct that we ourselves produce. This is one point that brothers and sisters who pursue a holy life must pay special attention to.

Again, because we have gained a further understanding of God’s word, without realizing it we may develop proud and self-righteous hearts. This is the very place where we Christians who pursue a holy life must be especially warned. Otherwise, we will return again to the condition mentioned in The Most Excellent Way (1): able to understand all kinds of knowledge, yet without love.

Man will generate many other ways of being justified: taking exclusive psalm singing as righteousness, taking exclusive classical hymn singing as righteousness, taking greater knowledge of God’s word as righteousness, taking belief in the Westminster Confession as righteousness, taking being Reformed as righteousness, taking being Presbyterian as righteousness, taking obedience to the Ten Commandments as righteousness, taking following a certain pastor as righteousness, taking a certain diploma or educational degree as righteousness, and so on.

And this is precisely why Reformed churches in China have a bad reputation. We have already fallen into the trap of sectarianism. This is the corruption in the human heart. We like to use what we possess to belittle others; we like to exalt our own understanding while despising others. This is a very dangerous tendency. When pride has produced a poisonous root within us, once we are infected with this sinful disease, the downfall of both the church and the individual becomes unavoidable. For this is exactly where Satan gains an advantage over us.

God’s righteousness means that in the matter of justification, only God’s righteousness has efficacy; only the blood that the Lord Jesus Himself shed for us has efficacy. The cross of the Lord Jesus is the only source of our salvation.

Only in Christ can we obtain redemption. Jesus Christ is the only foundation of our salvation. This means that before God we have nothing at all. We are sinners who must rely on Him completely. When we make such a confession, we begin to understand God’s righteousness.

Christ is the fulfiller of the law, and the only way of salvation is to trust in the name of Christ. Of course, this does not mean that we do not need progress or growth. But while we are learning, progressing, and growing, we must be on guard lest the leaven of the Pharisees work itself out within us, and thus bring loss to the name of God.

As we are increasingly exalted by God, we must all the more return to the foundation of justification by faith, so that our proud hearts may be humbled, and so that we may better submit to the Holy Spirit, love Christ, and love God.

3. Trust in the Lord Jesus as righteousness.

Trusting in the Lord Jesus is the only reason for our salvation. At this point, we must constantly turn back again, because as our spiritual life deepens, we may forget this point, and then we fall.

And the apostle Paul’s love for the Israelites proves precisely that Paul was not proud, but that he remained steadfast within justification by faith, and therefore he was able to maintain love toward those Israelites who persecuted him. Put another way, the doctrine of justification by faith is the source of our humility. Paul taught in this way, and he also acted in this way.

To trust in Christ means that we are continually thinking about love for God and hope in the kingdom of heaven. This is a complete knowledge of Christ. In Christ, we are to know the Triune God more fully and long for heaven more deeply.

A person who truly relies on Christ is one who sincerely knows that Christ is our only hope. Such people do not place their hope in anything outside of Christ. They find satisfaction in Christ, and they find peace in Christ.

Those who trust in Christ deeply acknowledge before God their own nothingness. They know that their salvation is entirely of God’s grace. Therefore, they lay down everything they pursue and rely solely on God’s provision and providence. They place their whole life entirely into God’s hands and leave Him to deal with them as He wills.

Then, in this longing and in this love for God, we diligently devote ourselves to obeying God’s law. Obedience to the law and looking to God in trustful surrender are two sides of one reality. When we say that we want to look to God and entrust ourselves to Him, yet are unwilling to obey His law, this shows that in essence we still want to hold on to our own lives and be the master of our own lives. Or, to put it from another angle, how do we know whether a Christian has truly believed in God’s righteousness? We look to see whether he is willing to obey God’s law actively.

If, in being a Christian, there is not such a process of completely laying oneself down, this shows that we still need to continue to be refined, to continue learning God’s law, and to understand God’s will more deeply.

Conclusion: May God help us to keep on understanding the truth of justification by faith.

Discussion Questions:

1. What kinds of man’s righteousness are present in ourselves?

2. How do we come to understand God’s righteousness?

3. In practical life, how do we rely on God’s righteousness?