I Did It My Way!

Romans 9:30-33 speaks about two ways of salvation: by human works or by the work of Jesus Christ, or we could say my way or God’s way. But the Bible teaches there is only one true way to salvation: God’s way. That is why we must pay careful attention to the gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and not be confused about this one thing that is needful. The most important thing in life is not more money or more space in one’s house, or more power or fame. It is eternal salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.

What every son of Adam needs is righteousness because all sons of Adam are sinners and therefore unrighteous in the sight of God. All people know God through creation and conscience. In addition, the Jews know God through their sacred scriptures of the Old Testament. Christians now know God through creation, conscience, and both the Old and New Testaments. Therefore, all people of the world are without excuse. They stand before God condemned. They need righteousness, yet they do not have it. They all stand naked before God, unable to save themselves by any works of their own. The wrath of God is being revealed against their ungodliness and unrighteousness.

In Romans 9:6-29, Paul argued that man’s salvation depended on God’s sovereign election; in Romans 9:30-10:21, Paul argues that man’s salvation depends also upon human responsibility. Paul is not contradicting himself. God’s sovereignty and human responsibility both are true. No one can be saved without God electing him to salvation from all eternity. Yet people are not saved because they reject God’s gospel wherein a righteousness of God is revealed.

No one can be saved by traveling on the broad way. The Lord himself declared that the broad way leads to eternal destruction. In Christianity, the “I-did-it-my-way” boasting does not work. The saved are saved by God. They all must travel on the narrow way of the lordship of Jesus Christ.

We are naked, as Adam and Eve were when they sinned, and we need righteousness to cover our nakedness. We cannot provide this needed righteousness for ourselves; it has to come from God. “Righteousness” appears four times in verses 30-31. All other religions speak of self-salvation through self-righteousness, through man’s works. Only true Christianity as revealed in the holy Scriptures speaks of the righteousness of God which is offered to sinners as a gift to be received by faith in Christ alone. The object of saving faith has to be Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Messiah, the Lamb of God, the Savior of the world who was sacrificed for the sins of the world.

Do you believe in Jesus, the sinless Son of God? Every one of us must answer this question before we face death, which we may face even today or tomorrow. Or are you trying to be saved your way by self-works? American individualism does not work before God in the matter of our eternal salvation. We must have faith, not in idols, but in Jesus Christ alone, risen from the dead. We are saved, not in our way, but in God’s way, which is the way of Christ, the way of faith, the way of grace, the way of the Scripture.

My Way: The Way of Works

“My way” (the way of works) will not save anyone. “My way” leads to everlasting destruction. Jesus Christ alone is the way, the truth, and the life. He is the only way to eternal life. No one will be saved on the last day who refuses to believe in and obey Jesus, the Savior and Judge of the world.

“My way” does not work because we are conceived in sin, born sinners, and practice sin every day of our lives, as we read in Romans 1-3. All our deeds are sinful. How then can we make ourselves righteous in the sight of a holy God? A sinner is dead in trespasses and sins. He implicitly worships and obeys the devil. A sinner is the object of God’s wrath and exchanges God’s truth for a lie. He knowingly suppresses the truth of God by engaging in every form of idolatry and immorality. We are told that God gives sinners over to their own shameful lusts.

God gives sinners over to a depraved mind to do what they ought not to do. In other words, their minds go bad by divine judgment. Therefore they reject the truth and follow evil. They are self-seeking, not God-seeking, and under a powerful delusion so that they believe Satan’s lies and delight in wickedness. God’s wrath will be poured out upon them in due time. Paul writes, “Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Cor. 6:9-10).

A classic example of a wicked person is King Manasseh, the most wicked king of Judah (see 2 Chronicles 33). How could such a wicked person be declared righteous before God? Self-righteousness and self-certification would not work before God.

The Jews were determined to be righteous before God. It was their lives’ total concern to be righteous. They knew they were the chosen people of God and possessed the oracles of God. Yet in their arrogance, they failed to understand what the Scriptures taught them concerning this righteousness of God.

They knew about man’s need for righteousness. But they chose their own way of obtaining it. We are told in this text that they pursued righteousness by their meticulous law-keeping. They were zealously striving to attain it.

Wherever he went, Paul preached the gospel first in the synagogues. But Israel, meaning the Jews as a class, rejected this gospel about the righteousness of God. So we read, “Then Paul and Barnabas answered them boldly: ‘We had to speak the word of God to you first. Since you reject it and do not consider yourselves worthy of eternal life, we now turn to the Gentiles'” (Acts 13:46). About Thessalonica we read, “But the Jews were jealous, so they rounded up some bad characters from the marketplace, formed a mob and started a riot in the city” (Acts 17:5). This is similar to what happened in Corinth: “When Silas and Timothy came from Macedonia, Paul devoted himself exclusively to preaching, testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ. But when the Jews opposed Paul and became abusive, he shook out his clothes in protest and said to them, ‘Your blood be on your own heads! I am clear of my responsibility. From now on I will go to the Gentiles'” (Acts 18:5-6).

Jesus described a self-righteous Pharisee: “To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable: ‘Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: “God, I thank you that I am not like other men-robbers, evildoers, adulterers-or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get”‘” (Luke 18:9-12). Paul describes his own work-righteousness: “I myself have reasons for such confidence [in the flesh]. If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee, as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless” (Phil. 3:4-6).

Relying on the law means relying on the law of works. To the Jews Paul writes, “Now you . . . you call yourself a Jew; . . . you rely on the law and brag about your relationship to God” (Rom. 2:17). The Jews were insiders, but the Gentiles were outsiders. Gentiles were considered to be dogs, aliens, unclean, without God and without hope. Earlier Paul said of the Gentiles:

Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them. (Rom. 1:28-32)

Elsewhere he says of Gentiles:

They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more. (Eph. 4:18-19)

The Gentiles were steeped in their own immorality, but not the Jews. The Jews were God’s chosen people, people of the Book. They kept the law of God and were righteous. They were pursuing “a law of righteousness,” relying on the righteousness of their own lawkeeping. They were like the rich young ruler: “A certain ruler asked [Jesus], ‘Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ ‘Why do you call me good?’ Jesus answered. ‘No one is good-except God alone. You know the commandments: “Do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother.”‘ ‘All these I have kept since I was a boy,’ he said” (Luke 18:18-21). This man was telling Jesus that he had kept the law; what else did he have to do? He declared he was righteous through lawkeeping, yet he did not have eternal life. (PGM) Though he was young, rich, and powerful, and though he claimed to have legalistic righteousness, this man was miserable. Yet he refused to believe in Christ and be saved.

The Jews were self-satisfied. They were like those who were invited for a great feast: “But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said, ‘I have just bought a field, and I must go and see it. Please excuse me.’ “Another said, ‘I have just bought five yoke of oxen, and I’m on my way to try them out. Please excuse me.’ “Still another said, ‘I just got married, so I can’t come'” (Luke 14:18-20). Self-satisfied people have no need for a Savior.

These people totally misunderstood the purpose of the law. Paul makes clear throughout this epistle what the purpose of the law is: “Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin” (Rom. 3:20); “The law was added so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more” (Rom. 5:20); “Once I was alive apart from law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died. I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death. For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, deceived me, and through the commandment put me to death” (Rom. 7:9-11). He also spoke of it to the Galatians, “We who are Jews by birth and not ‘Gentile sinners’ know that a man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified . . . . I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!” (Gal. 2:15-16, 21). The law cannot impart life. It can only kill us.

What then was purpose of the law? Paul explains, “The law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith” (Gal. 3:24). He also says, “All who rely on observing the law are under a curse, for it is written: ‘Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law'” (Gal. 3:10). This is true not only for Jews but also for every so-called Christian who glories in his own righteousness. They are under a curse and outside of Christ. Paul writes, “Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes” (Rom. 10:4). The law is designed to lead us to Christ. It tells us, “Believe in Jesus Christ and you will be saved.”

The Jews were ignorant of the righteousness of God, the righteousness he freely gives and imputes to all unrighteous believers. God himself must justify the ungodly (Rom. 4:5). But they wanted to establish their own righteousness (Rom. 10:2-3). Moreover, they arrogantly refused to submit and embrace and live by the God-given righteousness of Christ. So they rejected Christ and his righteousness. They pursued righteousness in the wrong way, as Paul himself as a Pharisee had done, not by faith but by works.

This was a deadly misunderstanding. So the Jews, who pursued righteousness all their lives, failed to attain it (Rom. 9:31). They failed to attain justification based on imputed righteousness of Christ. Therefore, the subjects of the kingdom were thrown out from the banquet hall.

This is a danger faced especially by church-going Christians today. Many people assume they have been Christians all their lives. They have heard the name of Jesus since they were born, they were baptized, and they have attended worship services regularly. For such people, the question is, do you have the righteousness of God? Do you believe, trust, obey, and live for Jesus Christ? You may be inside the church but outside of Christ. Forget about your own righteousness. Trust in Christ alone and let his righteousness cover your nakedness.

Most professing Christians are not Christians. They have no idea what the righteousness of God is. Ignorant, arrogant, and self-reliant, they refuse to submit to God’s righteousness. They are antinomians and libertines, outside of Christ. Princeton professor Charles Hodge warns, “Let no man think doctrinal error is a slight practical evil.” The evil of false doctrine is “a shield over the conscience and a bandage over the eyes.”¹

The Jews were so infatuated with a sense of their own self-righteousness that they could not embrace the righteousness that is of faith. The Jews, like most Christians, took the wrong road, the road of “my way,” the road of “my good works.” And as they did so, they went farther and farther away from God. They became deluded about their salvation. To them Christ will say on the last day, “Depart from me!”

We can never bring our good works to God and expect him to accept them. The Bible calls them filthy rags (Isa. 64:6). Holy God will not be impressed even if we put heaps of them before him. Speaking as a Christian, Paul himself calls his legalistic righteousness loss, dung, and refuse (Phil. 3:7-8).

I warn you against any religion of subjectivism, mysticism, irrationalism, sacramentalism, libertinism, secularism, liberalism, false miracles, the gospel of wealth and health, the gospel of self-indulgence, the gospel of inclusivism and ecumenism. It will not save you. A Pharisee never prays the publican’s prayer.

The Jews pursued the law as though it taught that they really could be justified by lawkeeping. They were rejected because they rejected God’s way of faith.

God’s Way-The Way of Faith

In the Bible, God reveals a way of justification by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, who perfectly fulfilled the law as the sinless God/man. He kept God’s perfect law as our substitute and representative. He who knew no sin became sin for us that in him (i.e., by faith in Jesus Christ alone) we may become the righteousness of God (2 Cor. 5:21). We receive this righteousness of God apart from keeping the law ourselves because as helpless sinners, ungodly enemies of God, we cannot keep it.

We need a righteousness apart from the law, without the works of the law. Paul asks, “Is the law, therefore, opposed to the promises of God? Absolutely not! For if a law had been given that could impart life, then righteousness would certainly have come by the law” (Gal. 3:21). This tells us the intention of the law when God gave it. It was not to impart life; it was designed to kill us. Paul elsewhere says, “When the law came, I died” (Rom. 7:9). The law is meant to kill the arrogant and knock us down that we might look to Christ alone by faith and be saved.

Thank God, there is a righteousness apart from the law! Paul writes, “But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets [the Bible] testify” (Rom. 3:21). All along God’s plan was to save us through Jesus the Messiah. Elsewhere Paul states, “For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law” (Rom. 3:28). There is only one who could observe the law and he did. So Paul says, “David says the same thing when he speaks of the blessedness of the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works” (Rom. 4:6). Paul also declares that we must “be found in [Christ], not having a righteousness of [our] own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ-the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith” (Phil. 3:9).

“A righteousness of God” does not mean a righteousness that God demands us to produce. That was the misunderstanding that tormented Martin Luther until God finally gave him understanding that it is a righteousness God freely gives and which is to be received by faith. In 1505, the twenty-one-year-old Luther abandoned a lucrative law career to join a monastery of Augustinian hermits at Erfurt. He was not interested in academic studies; he wanted to be saved. So he fasted, performed penance, and worked at menial jobs. He confessed for hours until they told him, “Get out! Come to us when you have something real to confess.” He was the best monk. He beat himself and was ready even to die in order to be saved from the wrath of God against him. He was trying to earn his salvation. He was on the road to lawkeeping, and every day going away from Christ. Then his spiritual adviser, the vicar-general John Staupitz counseled him to study the Bible. Oh, what great counsel! I give you the same advice. Study the Bible! Martin Luther read Romans and made the happy discovery of the righteousness of God, which God gives to all who believe in Jesus Christ alone. He believed and he was saved.

The Gentiles had no interest in the righteousness of God. They did not pursue it as the Jews did. They knew they were the outcasts and lived immoral lives. Yet when Paul preached the gospel to them, they believed. When the righteousness of God was offered to them as a gift, they accepted it eagerly and were declared righteous on the basis of the imputed righteousness of Christ. So Paul writes that what they did not pursue, strive for, and seek, they obtained. They laid hold of the righteousness of God offered to them in the gospel. The last became first. “When the Gentiles heard [the gospel], they were glad and honored the word of the Lord. And all who were ordained for eternal life believed” (Acts 13:48).

The same thing is happening today. The first will be last and the last will be first. Every time we preach, we are offering a righteousness of God to be received by faith. They heard, believed, and were glad. They honored the word of the Lord and instantly received eternal life. They knew they were ordained by God from eternity to be saved. If you believe the gospel, it is because you are ordained from eternity to be saved.

God opened Lydia’s heart and she and all her household believed. The Philippian jailer, under the conviction of sin, cried out, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” Paul answered, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved, and all your household.” And they believed and were baptized the same night. They became members of God’s church.

Get rid of all your works righteousness. Get rid of that heap of your filthy rags of which you are so proud. It stinks before the almighty God. Turn away from your way and come to God in his way of repentance and faith. He will clothe you with the glorious robe of Christ’s righteousness and you will be justified and saved forever. You will have access to the very presence of God and will come with confidence.

Question 33 in the Westminster Shorter Catechism asks: “What is justification?” The answer is: “Justification is an act of God’s free grace wherein he pardons all our sins and accepts us as righteous in his sight, only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to us and received by faith alone.” If you do not understand this, you are not a Christian.

The whole Old Testament promised a coming Savior, not salvation by lawkeeping. It spoke about a Messiah who was to suffer and die and be raised again, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins would be preached to all nations in his name. In the fullness of time, Christ died for our sins and was raised for our justification. The whole sacrificial system pointed to Christ’s sacrifice on the cross. Christianity is a bloody religion because the wages of sin is death. Someone must die. But who is that someone? God sent the Son of God incarnate, Jesus Christ our Lord, to die for our sins.

The Jews rejected Christ and his atonement. They tried to justify themselves by their own good works but they failed. They did not obtain what they pursued all their life. The first became the last. We see that in the church today. Children who heard the name of Jesus from the day they were born have rejected Christ in sheer arrogance so that they could live dissolute, empty lives.

I pray all of us will get off the way of works and get on God’s way of faith. Follow the way of the publicans and harlots that Jesus said would enter the kingdom of God ahead of the self-righteous Pharisees. Imitate the publican, who prayed, “God, have mercy upon me, a sinner!” What he was saying is this: “I rely on the blood of the sin offerings sprinkled on the mercy seat for the forgiveness of sins of those who broke the law of God. I do not trust in myself but in the Messiah.” Jesus tells us that the publican went home justified. Christ instantly removed his heavy load of guilt, and he went home rejoicing.

In Luke 7 we see Jesus telling the town prostitute, “Your sins are forgiven. Your faith has saved you,” that is, faith in Jesus Christ. “Go in peace.” Simon the Pharisee was also there, yet his sins were not forgiven, he was not justified and he had no peace. This is the tragedy.

The thief on cross said, “Jesus, remember me when you come in your kingdom.” That means he believed in Jesus and his death and resurrection. He believed in his kingdom. He believed Jesus was sinless. He believed Jesus was the Christ. He believed Christ’s death had a saving purpose. He confessed his sins. He believed in Jesus as his Savior and Lord, and Jesus said to him, “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.”

Don’t sing, “I Did It My Way.” Instead, make up a chorus: “I Did It God’s Way.” I believe in Jesus, who has become my righteousness, holiness, and redemption. I believe in Jesus who has become my salvation.

The law of God tells us two things. It tells us to obey it perfectly and we shall be declared righteous and be saved. The only problem is, we are sinners and cannot do it. Only the Son of God, the sinless Messiah, could do this as our representative and substitute. Therefore, the law also instructs us to look to Christ, the Lamb of God. Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes. Look to Christ and be saved, all the ends of the earth.

Friends, it was this faith in the Messiah that saved wicked King Manasseh: “In his distress he sought the favor of the LORD his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers. And when he prayed to him, the LORD was moved by his entreaty and listened to his plea” (2 Chron. 33:12). I have seen people become stiff-necked, arrogant, and contumacious when people try to tell them something. When we see that, we draw the conclusion that such people have not seen God. When we see God, we will fall down, as Manasseh did. And the Bible says that the Lord, the eternal God Almighty, the infinite God was moved by Manasseh’s humility and prayer and helped him out.

Jesus is the Savior of the world; there is no other. No one else can give us victory over sin, law, death, and hell. The law cannot save. It only aggravates and increases our sin and guilt. Paul writes, “The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.” Then he adds, “But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Cor. 15:56-57). Through Christ we have victory over sin, law, death, the devil, the world, and hell.

Why do we have victory? Because Christ alone took our sins upon him. He alone fully and perfectly kept the law. He alone died for our sins. By his death he destroyed our death, and his resurrection proves the efficacy of his atonement. So now we can say, “To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord” (2 Cor. 5:8); “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints” (Ps. 116:15); “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain” (Phil. 1:21); “Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord. . . . they will rest from their labor” (Rev. 14:13).

Come to him, all who are weighed down with sin and guilt and fear of death. Believe in Jesus and you will be saved forever. Jesus himself promises, “I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life” (John 5:24). The rich man in hell could not cross over. We must cross over while we are alive, while the Holy Spirit is speaking to us, while we hear the general call of the gospel. Cross over now! Now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation.

Thanks be to God! May we praise, worship, and serve God, for he has given us victory. Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift of his Son Jesus Christ, our only Lord and only Savior.

Note the words of this hymn:

Not the labors of my hands can fulfill thy law’s demands;

could my zeal no respite know, could my tears forever flow,

all for sin could not atone; thou must save, and thou alone.

Dr. James Boice cites a story, first told by Dr. Donald Barnhouse, about a young girl in the slums of London:

During the [nineteenth] century, in the worst slum district of London, there was a social worker whose name was Henry Moorehouse. One evening as Moorehouse was walking along the street, he saw a little girl come out of a basement store carrying a pitcher of milk. She was taking it home. When she was a few yards from Moorehouse, she suddenly slipped and fell. Her hands relaxed their grip on the pitcher and it dropped on the sidewalk and broke. The milk ran down into the gutter, and the little girl began to cry as if her heart would break. Moorehouse quickly stepped up to see if she was hurt. He helped her to her feet, saying, ‘Don’t cry, little girl.’

But she kept crying, repeating through her tears, ‘My mommy’ll whip me; my mommy’ll whip me.’

Moorehouse said, ‘No, little girl, your mother won’t whip you. I’ll see to that. Look, the pitcher isn’t broken in many pieces.’ As he stooped down beside her, picked up the pieces, and began to work as if he were putting the pitcher back together, the little girl stopped crying. She had hope. She came from a family in which pitchers had been mended before. Maybe this stranger could repair the damage. She watched as Moorehouse fitted several of the pieces together until, working too roughly, he knocked it apart again. Once more she began to cry, and Moorehouse had to repeat, ‘Don’t cry, little girl. I promise you that your mother won’t whip you.’

Again they began the task of restoration, this time getting it all together except for the handle. Moorehouse gave it to the little girl, and she tried to attach it. But, naturally, all she did was knock it down again. This time there was stopping her tears. She would not even look at the broken pieces lying on the sidewalk.

Finally, Moorehouse picked the little girl up in his arms, carried her down the street to a shop that sold crockery, and bought her a new pitcher. Then, still carrying her, he went back to where the girl had bought the milk and had the new pitcher filled. He asked her where she lived. When he was told, he carried her to the house, set her down on the step, and placed the full pitcher of milk in her hands. Then he opened the door for her. As she stepped in, he asked one more question, ‘now, do you think your mother will whip you?’ He was rewarded for his trouble by a bright smile as she said to him, ‘Oh, no, sir, ’cause it’s a lot better pitcher ‘an we had before.'”²

The law cannot save us. It cannot put the Humpty-Dumpty of our lives back together again, nor was it intended to do so. The law was not given to impart life; it reveals our sins and points to Christ the Savior. The law points to the way of faith, specifically faith in Jesus Christ. Paul says, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (2 Cor. 5:17).

Friends, Jesus came to seek and save only sinners, not the self-righteous. He came to seek and find the lost and heal the sick. The publicans and harlots are entering the kingdom of God. They are justified. They did not seek the righteousness of God, but they obtained it. My prayer to you is that we will pray the sinner’s prayer as the publican did and be saved. Then we will go home justified and eventually go home to live with our God forever.

¹ Charles Hodge, Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1989), 332.

² Boice, Romans, Vol. 3: God and History, Romans 9-11 (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1993), 1139.