1 Timothy 3: 5 Having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. The Sin and righteousness of man is that form of godliness, the great counterfeit that the serpent led humanity to. With nothing more than a hollow promise of being like God, man beginning at the fall has tried to perfect a form of godliness and to no avail have found the truth denoted in Romans that there is none righteous no not one and all have sinned coming short of the glory of God. The only answer to our attempts of being godly is God Himself in the flesh, there is no avoiding this truth as we discuss the teaching of sin and righteousness within Romans. The first issue addressed in this epistle is this truth, that man cannot reconcile something that is eternally broken by the eternal offense of Sin. Morality cannot reconcile, Religion cannot reconcile. And no law or ethnicity can reconcile this broken relationship with God. Christ is the only answer, the only spiritual man, the only righteous man, and the only way for us to reconcile with God. He is our intercessor, our mediator, our high priest, and our Savior according to Hebrews. Christ bridges the gap of Morality, Religion, and our eternal existence and relationship with God. He is the pure expression of all these things and within Him was the very righteousness of God. Our form of godliness, or Satan’s championed replica is the very reason why we all are in need of a Godly Savior that has the divine authority to declare all righteous through Him. Just as we in our form of godliness are imputed sin, we are in need of a greater imputation of righteousness. Christ is that imputation and the person by which all can be saved, redeemed, renewed, made alive, justified, sanctified, and ultimately glorified with God. Our life is hid in Christ this is definitively true for the whole history and future of man, and we are desperately hopeless without this truth. With this truth in mind, I would like to go deeper into what the teaching of sin and righteousness really says through the book of Romans and the whole counsel of the Word. There really is two distinctions to be made which are the righteousness defined by God and the righteousness of man. Within these two distinctions we can define sin and see the reality that even the righteousness of man is sin before God as it lacks the divine good that only God’s spirit and Christ life can accomplish.  Stay in the loop and see how God’s word defines righteousness next week!