Reading: Romans chapter 4
Last week we looked at the word ‘Justification’:
• Which we noted was a legal term that describes a persons standing.
• Ill: Court of law - to be ‘Justified’ is to be declared innocent.
I emphasised last week that in a human court of law:
• Someone who is found guilty, can never be found not guilty.
• Ill: Always have a record.
• Even though the law may be satisfied.
• A record of your guilt is recorded and kept.
Now the great thing about justification is this:
• God has done something that a human court of law could never do;
• Declare a guilty person innocent.
• “Just as though you had never sinned”.
• Human court may keep a record, but not heaven!!!
We noted how that was done that:
• “By grace” Chapter 3 verse 24.
• “By faith” Chapter 5 verse 1.
• “By blood” Chapter 5 verse 9.
In this chapter Paul continues this idea of justification:
• And he teaches that justification by faith is not new to salvation.
• In fact it was God’s plan right from the beginning.
• And he uses the example of Abraham;
• To illustrate 3 great truths about justification.
• Chapter 4 divides up into three sections,
• In this first section Paul will contrast faith and works.
(2). Justification: Is by faith, not works (1-8)
“1Abraham was, humanly speaking, the founder of our Jewish nation. What were his experiences concerning this question of being saved by faith? 2Was it because of his good deeds that God accepted him? If so, he would have had something to boast about. But from God’s point of view Abraham had no basis at all for pride. 3For the Scriptures tell us, “Abraham believed God, so God declared him to be righteous.”
4When people work, their wages are not a gift. Workers earn what they receive. 5But people are declared righteous because of their faith, not because of their work.
6King David spoke of this, describing the happiness of an undeserving sinner who is declared to be righteous:
7 “Oh, what joy for those whose disobedience is forgiven,
whose sins are put out of sight.
8 Yes, what joy for those
whose sin is no longer counted against them by the Lord.”
A contrast between faith and works.
• Salvation by faith is not a new idea.
• Paul argues that it was God’s plan right from the beginning.
ill:
• What Pele & George Best are to football;
• What Van Gogh is to painting,
• What Shakespear is to english litriture,
• So Abraham was to the Jews and much more.
• He is often called “Father Abraham”.
• For he was the founder of the Jewish race.
• Abraham is also called in the Bible the ‘Friend of God’.
No Jew ever questioned that;
• It was considered such a basic fact that Abraham’s was accepted by God,
• That Jews referred to heaven as Abraham’s bosom.
Knowing this:
• Paul points to Abraham and asks the question:
• How did Abraham enjoy such friendship with God?
• How was he justified?
• Was it by works?
Answer is no!
• Abraham never boasted before God,
• Because like the rest of us he had fallen short (Rom chapter 3 verse 23)
Ill:
• Twice he lied about Sarah being his wife (Genesis chapter 12 & 20)
• Which put himself, his wife and others in big trouble, hardly a perfect record.
Question: So how was Abraham justified?
Answer:
• Verse 3 is a quote from Genesis chapter 15 verse 6 and gives us the answer:
• “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness”.
God made Abraham a promise and he believed it:
• The Hebrew word translated believed means “to say amen.”
• God gave a promise, and Abraham responded with “Amen!”
• Abraham was saved:
• By faith in God’s word, not by works.
Notice the key word:
• Again and again in his argument Paul uses the same word;
• Actually in Greek it is the same word (used eleven times) in this chapter:
• Translated in English in three different ways:
• “Reckoned”; “Imputed”, as well as “Counted.”
Ill:
• The word he uses is a banking term;
• Which means “to put to one’s account.”
Ill:
• When a person works, he or she earns a salary,
• And this money is put to his or her account.
• They do not have to beg or bow and scrape before their employer,
• Thanking him for allowing them to work day by day,
• They do not express hollow words like; “They do not deserve their money”.
• In fact the very opposite is true:
• You have earned your pay-check, and have a legitimate right to it.
• It is reimbursment for your time and labour.
Ill: Now imagine:
• If you worked a full week at work,
• And at the end of the week your money was given to someone else!
• You would cause a stink;
• “That’s not fair, it’s my money, I earnt it, it’s mine!”
Paul says in this section that is exactly what God did:
• Abraham and each true believer did not work for their salvation;
• They simply trusted God’s Word.
• It was Jesus Christ who did the work on the Cross,
• And His righteousness was put on Abraham’s account.
The theological jargon is “Righteousness imputed”:
• Christ’s righteousness put to our account.
• And this gives us a right standing before God.
Notice verse 5:
“However, to the man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness”.
• The Jews believed that God justified religious people on the basis of their works;
• Yet Paul teaches the opposite.
(a).
• It is the wicked, the un-godly who can be justified,
• Not the religious people.
(b).
• It is not works but faith.
In verses 6 through 8, Paul used David as a witness,
Contrast:
• Abraham lived centuries before the law,
• David lived centuries after the law.
• Abraham was justified before he was circumcised.
• David was saved after he was circuncised.
• Paul quotes from one of King David’s psalms of confession
• After his terrible sin with Bathsheba (Ps. 32:1-2).
“David says the same thing when he speaks of the blessedness of the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works:
7 “Blessed are they
whose transgressions are forgiven,
whose sins are covered.
8 Blessed is the man
whose sin the Lord will never count against him.”
David made two amazing statements:
• (1). God forgives sins and imputes righteousness apart from works,
• (2) God does not impute our sins.
• In other words, once we are justified,
• Our record contains Christ’s perfect righteousness and can never again contain our sins.
Ill: Corrie Ten Boom:
• Who suffered in a concentration camp and where her sister died.
• She returned to Germany and brought this great message of hope:
“When we confess our sins”, I said “God casts them into the deepest ocean, gone forever. And even though I cannot find a Scripture for it, I believe God then places a sign out there that says; NO FISHING ALLOWED”.
(2). Justification is by grace, not Law (9-17).
9Now then, is this blessing only for the Jews, or is it for Gentiles, too? Well, what about Abraham? We have been saying he was declared righteous by God because of his faith. 10But how did his faith help him? Was he declared righteous only after he had been circumcised, or was it before he was circumcised? The answer is that God accepted him first, and then he was circumcised later!
11The circumcision ceremony was a sign that Abraham already had faith and that God had already accepted him and declared him to be righteous—even before he was circumcised. So Abraham is the spiritual father of those who have faith but have not been circumcised. They are made right with God by faith. 12And Abraham is also the spiritual father of those who have been circumcised, but only if they have the same kind of faith Abraham had before he was circumcised.
13It is clear, then, that God’s promise to give the whole earth to Abraham and his descendants was not based on obedience to God’s law, but on the new relationship with God that comes by faith. 14So if you claim that God’s promise is for those who obey God’s law and think they are “good enough” in God’s sight, then you are saying that faith is useless. And in that case, the promise is also meaningless. 15But the law brings punishment on those who try to obey it. (The only way to avoid breaking the law is to have no law to break!)
16So that’s why faith is the key! God’s promise is given to us as a free gift. And we are certain to receive it, whether or not we follow Jewish customs, if we have faith like Abraham’s. For Abraham is the father of all who believe. 17That is what the Scriptures mean when God told him, “I have made you the father of many nations.” This happened because Abraham believed in the God who brings the dead back to life and who brings into existence what didn’t exist before.
• Another question that would arise in the mind of a Jew would be;
• “If salvation is by faith, then what about the Law?”
The Jews gloried in two things;
• Circumcision and the Law.
• If a Jew was to become righteous before God,
• He would have to be circumcised and obey the Law.
• Abraham was circumcised!
Pauls answers
• That question by saying “Yes he was”.
• But not until more than 14 years after the events of his call (Genesis 15).
• We know from Genesis chapter 17 verses 23-27 that;
• Abraham was 99 years old when he was circumcised.
• So Abraham was saved when he was still uncircumcised,
• God’s promise to Abraham was not dependent on some legal code.
Notice:
• Now that would make Abraham the “Father” of the Jews a Gentile
• (i.e. uncircumcised) when he was saved.
• So Abraham is actually the “Father” of all believers,
• All who belong to the household of faith (Rom 2 vs 27-29).
The conclusion is obvious:
• Circumcision had nothing to do with his justification.
• Question: Then why was circumcision given?
• Answer: It was a sign and a seal (Rom. 4:11).
• Circumcision did not add to Abraham’s salvation;
• It merely attested to it.
• As a sign, it was evidence that he belonged to God and believed His promise.
• As a seal, it was a reminder to him that God had given the promise and would keep it.
The key word is here promise:
• It is used three times in verses 13,14 & 16.
• Abraham was justified by believing God’s promise, not by obeying God’s Law;
• For God’s Law through Moses had not yet been given.
• The promise to Abraham was given purely through God’s grace.
• Abraham did not earn it or merit it.
In verse 16 Paul concludes:
• That justification comes by grace, through faith,
• And thus all Jews and Gentiles can be saved!
• Abraham is not only the father of the Jews,
• But of all who follow in the steps of faith (Gal 3).
(3). Justification is by resurrection power not human effort (verses 18-25)
• The first section contrasted faith and works.
• The second section contrasted law and grace.
• This third section contrasts life and death.
18When God promised Abraham that he would become the father of many nations, Abraham believed him. God had also said, “Your descendants will be as numerous as the stars,” even though such a promise seemed utterly impossible! 19And Abraham’s faith did not weaken, even though he knew that he was too old to be a father at the age of one hundred and that Sarah, his wife, had never been able to have children.
20Abraham never wavered in believing God’s promise. In fact, his faith grew stronger, and in this he brought glory to God. 21He was absolutely convinced that God was able to do anything he promised. 22And because of Abraham’s faith, God declared him to be righteous.
23Now this wonderful truth—that God declared him to be righteous—wasn’t just for Abraham’s benefit. 24It was for us, too, assuring us that God will also declare us to be righteous if we believe in God, who brought Jesus our Lord back from the dead. 25He was handed over to die because of our sins, and he was raised from the dead to make us right with God.
A contrast between life and death.
• These verses are an expansion of one phrase found in verse 17:
• “Who gives life to the dead.”
When God made his great promise to Abraham he was 75 years old (Gen 12:2-4)
• He was at this time still physically able to become a father,
• Because he slept with his servant Hagar and produced Ishmael (Gen 16:1-11).
But in this verse:
• Abraham & Sarah are beyond the age of child-bearing
• One was 90 and the other 100 (Gen 17: 15-21).
• Both Abraham and Sarah’s bodies were dead,
• From a reproductive point of view, they were finished.
• Yet despite the physical evidence of their bodies.
• Abraham kept on believing and he kept on trying for a son!
Paul saw the rejuvenation of Abraham’s body:
• As a picture of resurrection from the dead;
• And then he related it to the resurrection of Christ.
The application to salvation is clear:
• God must wait until the sinner is “dead” and unable to help himself;
• Before He can release His saving power.
• As long as the sinner thinks he is strong enough to do anything to please God,
• He cannot be saved by grace.
• It was when Abraham admitted that he was “dead”
• That God’s power went to work in his body.
• It is when the lost sinner confesses that he is spiritually dead and unable to help himself,
• That God can save him.
Someone might say perhaps God did that because Abraham was somebody important
• Ill: V.I.P & Celebes get preferential treatment.
• Verse 24: that is not true, All people (whoever) are saved exactly the same way by faith.
Verse 25: explains the basis for justification:
• The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
• That is something Paul explains in detail in the next chapter.
• Ill: Chapter 5verse 1
• Further proof that justification is a matter of resurrection power not human effort.
