Saved By Faith Alone! Really??? Series

I’ve entitled my message this morning “Saved by Faith Alone! Really???” because shockingly that’s precisely the attitude of most self-described Christians in America today.

An October 2020 survey of self-described Christians in America by Arizona Christian University revealed the 52% of self-described Christians in America accept a “works-oriented” view of how they can be right with God and go to heaven. Yes, more than half of the people who say they are Christians in America believe that being right with God and going to heaven is based on their good works. Only 46% of professing Christians in America believe that being right with God and getting to heaven is a matter of faith, rather than works, or as the survey put it, a matter of confessing their sins and accepting Jesus Christ as their Savior.

This shocking trend appears even among those professing Christians who attend churches whose doctrinal statements, whose official positions on the subject, claim that faith alone in Christ results in salvation. Among professing Pentecostals, 46% said salvation was a matter of good works, among those who attended mainline denomination churches, 44% said the same. And among those attending evangelical churches like our own, a whopping 41% claimed that good works were the way to be right with God!

This is a stunning result when you consider that Jesus Himself, and the entire New Testament deny that our good works are the means to salvation, and repeatedly affirm that heaven, and salvation, are dependent upon faith, and faith alone in Jesus Christ as the one who saves us from our sin.

And this is nowhere more evident than in Paul’s letter to the Romans, widely considered to be the single greatest exposition and explanation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ found in the Bible. The Apostle Paul devotes the Book of Romans especially to this one teaching; that the righteousness of God—that is a right-standing with God that results in heaven and salvation—is not available through good works, or the works of the Law, but is only available through faith in Jesus Christ.

He does so especially beginning in Romans 3 and continues to defend the teaching that a right-standing with God comes exclusively through faith in Jesus Christ through chapter 4. He writes emphatically because he expects religious people, especially, self-righteous Jews, to doubt that this could possibly be so. And his theme for the rest of chapter 3 and four is established in verses 21-23: “But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, 22 even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction; 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

Paul’s point is simply this: You can’t be right with God through good works, because of your sin. You can only be right with God through faith in Jesus.

As we saw last week, in verses 22-26, Paul then explains precisely what Jesus did to obtain our right-standing with God. He offered Himself as the only atoning sacrifice for our sins through His death on the cross. Christ paid the penalty for our sins so we wouldn’t have to. He makes us right, and through faith in what He did, rather than what we can do, we can be right with God.

Beginning in verse 27 he begins to answer the objections of those who doubt this conclusion. He’s an expert at this. He was a self-righteous religious Jew, even a Pharisee Himself, who believed keeping the Law was needed for a right relationship with God at one time. And by this point, Paul has preached this teaching that being right with God is through faith, rather than works, in some of the biggest synagogues in the Middle Est, Asia Minor and now Europe. He has faced repeated questions and hostilities from Jews who have struggled with and even rejected this teaching. And so he is an expert at answering their objections.

The objections He’s going to answer in Romans 3 and 4 that we have time to cover this morning are the following:

1. Now wait a minute. You mean we can’t claim any credit for earning a right relationship with God at all?

2. Don’t we Jews have a privileged relationship with God over the Gentiles? Aren’t we superior to the Gentiles?

3. Aren’t you nullifying the Law of God by saying faith, rather than the works of the Law, are needed to be right with God.

4. What about all the Old Testament saints, like Abraham, Moses and David. Weren’t they made right by keeping the Law?

Paul answers these questions in order beginning in verse 27. The objection is, “Can’t we claim any credit for earning a right relationship for ourselves with God at all?” Paul puts that question this way, “Where then is boasting?” In other words, what about the person who wants to brag about his relationship with God, who wants to say that he deserves a right relationship with God because he keeps the law, or is a good person, or does good works. Paul’s imaginary objector is saying in effect, the clear implications of your Gospel Paul, is that I have nothing at all to do with earning my salvation. That it’s all based on what Jesus has done for me. So you really mean to say I can take no pride whatsoever in gaining a right relationship with God?”