ROMANS 4: 1-8
RIGHTEOUSNESS IS APART FROM WORKS
In the preceding paragraph (3:21-31) Paul has been proclaiming a righteousness from God, and therefore valid before God, because it does not in any way depend on human merit. He stated that the Law and the Prophets, or Holy Scripture, had already borne witness to this righteousness (3:21). Paul will now develop the point by Old Testament precedent and example. He does so through the use of the patriarch Abraham, pointing to him as an illustration of how one becomes righteous. The Jews regarded Abraham as the great founder of the race and the pattern of all that a man should be.
Abraham was righteous before God. But what was the grounds of Abraham's righteousness, faith, or works? The answer of Jewish tradition was works, but Scripture says Abraham's righteousness was by faith. Paul proves that the doctrine of justification by faith is as old as the Jewish nation itself (CIT).
I. Belief in God Justifies, 1-3.
II. Righteousness For the Ungodly, 4-5.
III. Forgiveness Not Works, 6-8.
The Jews were proud to be called children of Abraham. So starting in verse 1 Paul uses Abraham as an example of someone saved by faith. "What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh has found?"
What then shall we say? Paul is fond of this rhetorical question which anticipates an objection and proposes an inference (4:1, 6:1, 7:7, 8:31, 9:14,30). This question connects the preceding reasoning of how justification is obtained with the illustration of Abraham.
Abraham, the founder of the Nation of Israel, was the man to whom God first spoke the promises. He was the man who in a unique way had been chosen by God and who had heard and obeyed Him. God had called Abraham to leave home, friends, kindred, and livelihood. Hebrews 11:8 says that Abraham did not argue, did not hesitate, but followed God's Word not knowing where it would lead him. It was Abraham's faith in believing God, which his works or actions substantiated, that resulted in God justifying him. Abraham was not saved by his works, but by His faith in God which cause him to follow God.
What made Abraham different from other people? Why was Abraham chosen by God to be the ancestor of God's special people? Paul is going to show that what Abraham found (or discovered, heur kenai) is "justification by faith."
Verse 2 discusses the nature or manner of Abraham's justification before God. "For if Abraham was justified by (out of) works, he has something to boast about, but not before God."
How did Abraham obtain acceptance with God? The Rabbis insisted that it was because of his works that Abraham was chosen. They developed the doctrine of salvation by human merit. So Paul attacks the very fortress of the doctrine's strength, which is the story of Abraham, who according to the Jews had earned his way into God's good pleasure. The Rabbis even had a doctrine that Abraham had an excess of credits because of his works and these were passed on to the Jews (Lk. 3:8).
If this was so, that Abraham earned His way to God, then he can boast in his good deeds as his means of justification. And when we look at Abraham's works compared to the works of other men (Gen. 24:5) it might appear that "he has something to boast about" (yet his very works were done by the power of God). He might justify himself before other men when works are compared, but "before" God's perfect standard he can make no such boast, for he too falls short of the glory of God. Since he can not be justified by his works before God he has nothing to boast about.
The human race owes a debt to God it can't pay. Every person owes to God 100 percent conformity by His laws. God has standards. He requires that we live up to them. These standards flow out of His nature. God isn't being arbitrary; He is being Himself and He is holy. If God lowered His standards, He would cease to be God.
To be "righteous" means to live up to God's standards. It means to be as good as God (Mt 5:48). Unfortunately, in God's eyes, no one is righteous. You cannot live up to His standards. You can't even live up to your own standards. You owe a debt of perfect righteousness to God, but it's a debt that you can't pay.
Verse 3 calls us to look to Scripture instead of religious tradition. "For what (does) the Scripture say? ‘But Abraham believed God and it was reckoned (accounted) to him as (into) righteousness.'"
Do you think you are saved by works? Paul says to take a closer look at the Scriptures and see what they say. Then he quotes Genesis 15:6. According to this Scripture not one word about justifications by works is spoken. The only thing that was accounted to Abraham on the positive side of the ledger, on the righteousness side, was his believing God.
Paul is not simply taking Genesis 15:6, in preference to other texts in Genesis which might have pointed the other direction. Abraham's good works, his obedience to the divine commandments, were the fruit of his unfolding faith in God. Had Abraham not first believed the promises of God he would never have conducted his life from then on in the light of what he knew as God's will. No, when God gave Abraham a promise he simply believed and acted on God's Word. To God therefore belongs all the glory, for there is no room for human boasting whatever.
The word reckon is µ , here to account, to impute (its primary meaning is to reason). It means to number among the things belonging to this person or chargeable to him. As righteousness is literally "into righteousness," indicating that his faith moved him into the righteousness of Christ (Jn. 8:56). As sin has been accounted to us (Ps. 32:2; 2 Cor. 6:19; 2 Tim. 4:16) righteousness by faith is now accounted or imputed to us. This is where the idea of imputed righteousness comes from.
When you received Jesus, God not only subtracted your sins from your account, He also added in Christ's righteousness. You received "God's righteousness through faith in Jesus Christ" (Romans 3:22). Not because you were good, religious, obedient, or moral, but because Jesus paid it all for you on the cross.
The Supreme Court of Heaven can find no reason to condemn you. God has declared you righteous in Jesus. Your condemnation is canceled. Your penalty is paid. Your justification is guaranteed. Your faith "is credited for righteousness." If God didn't justify the ungodly, we'd all be hopelessly condemned. Thank God for Jesus!
II. RIGHTEOUSNESS FOR THE UNGODLY, 4 & 5.
Paul now emphasizes the logic of Scripture's argument in verses 4 & 5. He begins contrasting works with grace in verse 4. to "Now to the one who works his wage is not reckoned (accounted) as grace but as what is due."
Paul desires to prove that faith is gratuitous and that all passages which speak of gratuitous acceptance (e.g. 4:6-8) support the doctrine of justification by faith. He begins with an illustration of the workman who gets what was due him. Wages have nothing to do with grace but with what is due, just compensation. Work and wages go together just as grace and gift do.
Paul is combating the basic thought of the Jew, which was that a man must earn God's favor. Yet a wage is not favor but a legal obligation. If a sinner earned salvation by good works God would be indebted to him and obligated to give it to him and man would not need to thank God nor glorify Him for it.
The basic thought of Christianity is that all a man can do is to take God at His Word and stake everything in faith that His promises are true. While WITNESSING FOR CHRIST on the streets of a city in California, evangelist H. A. Ironside and his associates were often interrupted by questions from the crowd. It was common, for instance, to have an unbeliever respond to their presentation of the gospel by saying, "There are hundreds of religions in this country, and the followers of each sect think they're right. How can poor plain people like us find out what really is the truth?" Ironside and his friends would answer something like this: "Did I hear you say there are hundreds of religions? That's strange; I've heard of only two. True, I find many shades of difference in the opinions of those comprising the two great schools. But after all, there are but two. The one covers all who expect salvation by doing; the other, all who have been saved by something done."
This doctrine of self-merit is the common denominator of all false religions. However religions may differ in a thousand categories, they all have this one feature in common: that we save ourselves by doing good, by keeping commandments, by observing rituals, by doing things - the work that supposedly commends us to God.
Expressed another way, we might say that the one religion teaches salvation by human works. The other proclaims salvation provided for us by God through the finished work of His Son Jesus Christ on the Cross. It is received by faith. For the Bible assures us that "there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved" (Acts 4:12).
Which religion is the right one? The Bible makes it clear. It's "not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us" (Titus 3:5). "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved" (Acts 16:31). That's the true religion! We are saved by God's mercy, not by our merit - by Christ's dying, not by our doing.
Grace through faith goes so far beyond justice or works to justify even the ungodly. Verse 5; "But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned as righteousness."
Only the one who does not try to gain approval by works but who gains approval by his faith will be justified and have righteousness accounted to him. Paul's argument was that Abraham entered into a right relationship with God, not because he did all kinds of legal works, but because he cast himself just as he was on God's promise.
Now the faith which justifies is not mere mental assent, it is an act of trust. The believer casts himself upon God for his justification and believes God will take him just as he is - ungodly. Those that believe God, and appropriate their justification by faith, acknowledge their ungodliness and unworthiness of God's favor.
The story is told of a teacher named PESTALOZZI who lived in a Swiss village. He was highly esteemed by his peers and deeply loved by the children, whose lives were molded by the strength of his character. After he died, a statue of him was erected in the town. When the sculpture was unveiled, everyone was amazed to see how much it resembled the old master. The teacher was shown. But those who knew him best felt the sculptor had missed the dominant desire of the teacher - to have his students look up to the challenging heights of learning, and to God - not to him. So the statue was changed, and a second unveiling revealed the child peering toward heaven rather than looking at the teacher.
The Jews look to Abraham as one who merited his own salvation, but if they would take a closer look at him through Holy Scriptures they would see him telling them not to look at him, but to his God who saved him by His grace.
I read about an INSTANT CAKE MIX that was a big flop. The instructions said all you had to do was add water and bake. The company couldn't understand why it didn't sell- until their research discovered that the buying public felt uneasy about a mix that required only water. People thought it was too easy. So the company altered the formula and changed the directions to call for adding an egg to the mix in addition to the water. The idea worked, and sales jumped dramatically.
That story reminds me of how some people react to the plan of salvation. To some it sounds too easy and simple to be true, even though the Bible says, "By grace you have been saved through faith, . . . it is the gift of God, not of works" (Ephesians 2:8-9). They feel that there is some thing more they must do, something they must add to God's "recipe" for salvation. They think they must perform good works to gain God's favor and earn eternal life. But the Bible is clear - we are saved "not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy" (Titus 3:5). We are saved by God's mercy, not by our merit. We are saved by Christ's dying, not by our doing.
Unlike the cake-mix manufacturer, God has not changed His "formula" to make salvation more marketable. The gospel we proclaim must be free of works, even though it may sound too easy. [Richard De Haan. Our Daily Bread]
Salvation is a gift of God, Not something earned or won;
He freely gives eternal life To all who trust His Son. -Sper
Friend, you too can have forgiveness for your sins and peace with God. The Bible says, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved" (Acts 16:31). That's the best proposition I've ever heard! Salvation is not something we achieve but something we receive.
III. FORGIVENESS NOT WORKS, 6-8.
Paul's first argument for gratuitous justification was from the case of Abraham. His second argument concerns God's free acceptance of the unworthy and is from the testimony of David. "Just as David also speaks of the blessing upon the man to whom God reckons righteousness apart from works,"
Paul again appeals to Scripture to support his statement. (According to a basic Jewish principle there needs to be two witnesses to the truth). David was plainly someone whose was a sinner. Yet God reckons him as righteous for certainly there could be no righteousness in himself. Yet David has received God's free pardon and is pronounced "not guilty" before heaven's tribunal.
Paul quotes Psalms 32:1-2 as David's written testimony in verse 7. "Blessed are those whose lawless deeds have been forgiven, and whose sins have been covered."
Forgiveness is the grounds on which David was acquitted. David simply acknowledges his guilt and casts himself in faith upon the mercy of God. The point is stressed that forgiveness granted and experienced was not the result of human work but divine grace.
[Three Wonders in Heaven] John Newton said, "WHEN I GET TO HEAVEN I shall see three wonders there. The first wonder will be, to see many people there whom I did not expect to see - the second wonder will be, to miss many people whom I did expect to see; and the third and greatest wonder of all will be to find myself there."
[Martin Luther's struggle with the guilt of sin helped prepare him for the great freedom he found when the truth of justification by faith finally dawned on him. This poem, Sin Has Met Its Match, by Luther expresses it well:
I do not come because my soul is free from sin and
pure and whole and worthy of Thy grace;
I do not speak to Thee because I've ever justly kept
Thy laws and dare to meet Thy face.
I know that sin and guilt combine to reign o'er every
thought of mine and turn from good to ill;
I know that when I try to be upright and just and true
to Thee, I am a sinner still.
I know that often when I strive to keep a spark of love
alive for Thee, the powers within
Leap up in unsubmissive might and oft benumb
my sense of right and pull me back to sin.
I know that though in doing good I spend my life,
I never could atone for all I've done;
But though my sins are black as night, I dare to come
before Thy sight because I trust Thy Son.
In Him alone my trust I place, come boldly to Thy
throne of grace, and there commune with Thee.
Salvation sure, O Lord, is mine, and , all unworthy,
I am Thine, for Jesus died for me.
Hear these liberating words again: "Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered" (Rom. 4:7). How could such freedom be possible? Our sin was no match for God's matchless provision of justification by faith through Jesus Christ His Son. Justification means man's guilt gone, Christ's goodness given.
Are you trying to cover your lawless deeds by your good deeds, or your good life, or by your personal goodness? Or are you depending on the blood of Christ to cover your lawless deeds? Your good deeds will never cover your lawless deeds, only the blood of Christ can. Isaiah 1:18.
Verse 8 continues David's acceptance that forgiveness of sin is by grace. "Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will never take into account."
David pronounced a blessing upon contrite, conscience-stricken sinners; repentant wrongdoers. The word not is made up of two Greek words, ( µ & µ ) a double negative and carries the force of never. To those who have sought forgiveness and found it from God in Jesus Christ, the Lord will never hold their sins against them. The sin remains but it is covered, covered by the blood of Christ.
Both Abraham and David have something in common. Both are recipients of God's unearned favor. Just as Abraham was declared righteous and justified by faith, so was David. In both cases human works do not enter the picture, only God's work of grace does. We do not earn our forgiveness and neither can we earn our salvation.
In CONCLUSION
During JOHN KNOX'S LAST HOURS he woke from a slumber and told his friends that he had just been tempted to believe that he had "merited heaven and eternal blessedness, by the faithful discharge of my ministry. But blessed be God who has enabled me to beat down and quench the fiery dart, by suggesting to me such passages of Scripture as these: "What hast thou that thou didst not receive?" By the grace of God I am what I am! Not I, but the grace of God which was with me."
Yes, we are blessed, not only because God has forgiven our sins and we have a consciousness of having been pardoned. But we have been blessed with "joy unspeakable and full of glory." We can say that God has accepted me as His son, or His daughter. He loves me, just as I am, with out one plea, but that Thy blood was shed for me.
[JUST AS I AM] Just As I Am] Charlotte Elliot came to Caesar Milan and asked how she could become a Christian. The old man replied, "My dear, it is very simple. You have only to come to Jesus." And she said to him, "But I am a very great sinner, will He take me just as I am?" "Yes, He will take you just as you are, and no other way." And then she said, "If He will take me just as I am, then I will come," and she went home to her room, sat down at her desk and wrote the beautiful words of the hymn:
"Just as I am without one plea,
O, Lamb, of God I come, I come."
This is the way that Charlotte Elliot came to Christ, and thousands of others since, in the words of her hymn.
Have you come just as you are, without one plea but that Christ's blood was shed for thee? Come in faith & God will save you just as you are here tonight.
