Old story of frog that jumped in a bucket of milk. Instead of just giving up the frog began to swim and swim and swim. The frog swam so much that the milk turned to butter and the frog hopped out of the bucket.
Great story about working so had that you eventually get to where you want to go. Many treat their relationship with God this way.
We work and try and strive and hope that we will eventually gain solid footing under ourselves.
This is the way that all other faiths in the world attempt to become right with God. They work and achieve to be made right. A Muslim will never know for sure that he will die and enter paradise other than to die the death of a martyr.
They are constantly trying to balance the scales more good than bad.
Old adage that most people get money the old fashion way, ‘they earn it’.
I read that the very wealthy get money the real old fashion way, ‘they inherit it’.
In God’s economy of righteousness we can never earn it but can only inherit it through the righteousness of Jesus Christ by faith.
Going to take a deeper look at the issue of Justification by Faith:
Theological explanation in chapter 3:21-31.
Chapter 4 Paul gives us a practical example out of the OT.
Two individuals who were important in Jewish life: Abraham & David
The Jews needed to understand the truth about grace.
IT HAS ALWAYS BEEN ABOUT GRACE!
JOHN NEWTON lived a very troubled life: Had a very godly mother but a wicked father who was often off to sea and then came home to live a wicked life. Newton’s mother prayed for him and committed him to the Lord but John himself became a sailor on a slave ship and became involved in that terrible lifestyle. Newton was given a book written in the 1400’s by Thomas A’kempis who at age 20 entered a monastery for 71 years. It was called AN IMITATION OF CHRIST
While on the top deck during a ferocious storm he was swept overboard. He cried out to God and another huge wave washed him back upon deck. His life was never the same. Newton eventually wrote: ‘Amazing Grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me…I once was lost but now am found, was blind but now I see’ Newton understood God’s SAVING GRACE
Paul has attempted in the first 3 chapters of Romans to make us all understand that we are all in the same category and in need of Salvation. WRETCHES
We may be a good wretch or a bad wretch but we all fall short of God’s standard and need to be saved through Jesus Christ.
Romans 3:23 All have sinned and continually fall short of the glory of God.
The history of Nursery rhymes is pretty scary to me: Jack and Jill went up and hill to fetch a pail of water(water runs downhill?) Jack fell down and broke his crown(head?) and Jill came tumbling after(don’t climb hills?),
Rock a bye baby in the tree top, when the wind blows the cradle will rock, when the bow breaks the cradle will fall and down will come baby, cradle and all(falling babies?) Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the kings horses and all the kings men could not put Humpty together again.
Charles Swindoll says this little nursery rhyme was originally written about people,; broken people; who fell off the wall and found themselves smashed. And all the King’s horses and all the King’s men could not put them back together again. But God can.
Through Adam we had a great fall and all of man’s efforts are unable to solve our dilemma.
We all SINNED IN ADAM Romans 5:12 – Therefore just as through one man sin entered the world and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned. His sin impacted all who descended from him.
The sin nature became the norm in all of us.
We all SIN PERSONALLY: Romans 7:19-23 For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. Often even when we don’t want to sin we sin. Paul says that we are to ‘take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ’. All day long we have to challenge every thought and gain victory over it through God’s power in our lives. Otherwise sin will begin to dominate ours thoughts and behaviors.
If you pay only the minimum payment it can take someone an average of 20 years to pay off the balance of just one credit card debt. God can pay off your debt of sin in a moment based upon Christ’s finished work on the cross.
None of us can work our way into God’s good standing.
No amount of good works could do it or my mom would be in.
When my Mom’s mother was sick, three of her five girls took turns sitting with her at the hospital. My mom took one turn and the youngest sister another and then in the nighttime Aunt Johnny took hers. After a few nights of doing this Johnny came to the hospital and sat in the same room she always had. The lights were always kept off so as to not disturb their mother’s sleep. Johnny sat with her all night. When the nurse came in the morning Johnny discovered that her mother had been moved earlier to another room and that she had sat up all night comforting a woman she did not know. The woman shared how grateful she was.
Many will discover someday that even their best deeds were misled and off the mark.
Ronnie Lott: Played for the 49ers and was injured during one of the years they were striving to win another Super Bowl. His injury would mean that he would miss a total of 8 weeks. In order to save the 5 weeks left in the season Lott chose a second option. His injury was to one of his fingers so he had the end part of that finger removed so that it would not take so long to get back to playing.
Extreme means for the sake of the team….giving…serving….doing but for earthly pursuits.
JUSTIFICATION: Right standing before God. Ask a Rabbi: Is it possible to be justified by works, through your own righteousness? They would point to Abraham as an example. A person who in his time was the most righteous (Noah)
Paul would disagree and today will prove that through this passage.
Abraham: lived before the Law David: lived under the Law
Both were saved by the same means: Justification by Faith
Abraham is embraced by three religious faiths: Jews, Christians, and Muslims
Paul could clinch any argument by proving it through Abraham’s life
David: Jew’s greatest warrior and King
In our national history: Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson…If you can prove anything from their words or speeches then you can go a long way to prove your point in any argument about what American is supposed to be.
Same Congress that wrote and ratified the Constitution at the end of the 1700’s also drew up a treaty in the Northwest US Territory.
In that treaty it was stressed that they wanted Public Schools to be formed for the purpose of FUTHERING THE CHRISTIAN FAITH. Today many would say such a thing is Unconstitutional while the very congress that wrote the Constitution would disagree.
Paul would say that YOU CAN LEARN A LOT BY A PROPER HISTORY LESSON
REASONS WHY WORKS WON’T WORK
(1) What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh has found?(discovered/eureka) (2) For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God.
(3) For what does Scripture say? ‘Abraham believed God and it was reckoned to Him as Righteousness.’
(4) Now to the one who works, his wage is not reckoned as a favor, but as to what is due. (5) But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned as righteousness.
(6) Just as David also speaks of the blessing upon the man to whom God reckons righteousness apart from works; (7) blessed are those whose lawless deeds have been forgiven, and whose sins have been covered. (8) Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will not take into account
WORKS PROMOTE SELF GLORY: (1) What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh has found?
(2) For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God.
Walk into heaven and strut up to God’s throne: ‘All those others needed Your Son to die for them but not me, I got in on my own’.
Sounds blasphemous but that is just what many are planning to do when they get to heaven…some in this very room possibly
Rejected the church…rejected Jesus’ death on the cross…still plan on being there… good person who never did anything horribly bad in their own eyes.. Feel they deserve to be there!
Abraham would be the first to disagree that getting into heaven is possible apart from the finished work of Jesus Christ.
Works promote self-worship instead of proper worship: something to boast about
Deceptive human nature: want to promote ourselves – Mexico knees
Feel better about ourselves when we go to church, read our Bible, pray, witness?
To some extent we should since doing right things but the flesh is waiting to jump into even our obedience.
The flesh will always try to move the glory and praise from God to ourselves.
I looked at a website this week called carbonfootprint.com. It is one of those global warming sites that help you to determine how much energy and resources you are using. It asked about my house, my car, my eating habits, my entertainment choices.
It then calculated how bad a human being I was just in relation to earth’s resources. That was not encouraging to know and I kind of wished I would not have researched that but a more INCONVENTIENT TRUTH about me is my SIN FOOTPRINT.
WORKS CONTRADICT SCRIPTURE (3) For what does Scripture say?
(Question should end any debate for the Jew or for us.
So many disagreements Christians have could end when we ask that question and accept the answer we find.
‘Abraham believed God and it was reckoned to Him as Righteousness.’
Quote out of the Old Testament (Genesis 15:6) Even OT states that Abraham did not work his way but simply took God at His revealed will and trusted by faith. The word is LOGIZIMAI. It was an accounting term that means that you can trust that a certain amount is in your account and are able to spend it. You can RECKON it to be true and act upon it. If we trust in Christ for our forgiveness then we can RECKON on the fact that we stand before God sinless.
Genesis 15: Abraham is coming to God and saying I am old, my wife is old and we are beyond having a child. Here is Eleazar, let him be my descendent. Wavering faith…trying to help God out…God shows Abraham the sky, the stars (no city lights) that is the number your descendent will be…RECKON ON IT. Look at your impossible circumstances, your struggling faith:
Look at God and His Word and BELIEVE. God saw Abraham’s faith and put righteousness to his account: Credited it to his account in advance of full payment being made when Christ would come to die.
2 Cor 5:21 He who knew no sin became sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. Credited to my account
Account of sins against me cleaned out. Replaced with the resources provided by the finished work of Christ.
This may not surprise us since we are accustomed to hearing the message of Christ’s death paying for our sins but it was SHOCKING TO A JEW. They were taught a works righteousness through keeping the Law and being circumcised.
Acts 15: Even the New Testament church struggled with a Gentile being circumcised to become a Christian
Faith has always been about taking God at His Word:
Jeremiah 29:11 is a common wall plaque for many. It is a great verse. I set out to go to seminary in California using this verse as a promise. ‘For I know the plans that I have for you declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for calamity’. The issue many of us raised in America have is that we like to do what they say on American Idol: ‘Make it our own’. We take a verse and apply it to us individually instead of understanding how it was originally meant. It is great to find comfort in a truth about God but it is also great to understand deeper spiritual truths. Jeremiah 29:10 says this, ‘For this is what the Lord says, ‘When 70 years for Babylon are complete, I will attend to you and will confirm my promise concerning you to restore you to this place’. It was a promise to bring the Jews back to the land after 70 years. It was written to a nation of people. It would take two generations to fix what was wrong with Israel at this point in their history. Babylon would conquer and carry away many from Israel: Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. During those 70 years there would be a fiery furnace, a lion’s den and handwriting on the wall. Nehemiah would be born in Babylon, as would Ezra.
And then in Daniel 9 this would be written, ‘In the first year of his reign(Darius of Medes), I Daniel, understood from the books according to the Word of the Lord to Jeremiah the prophet that the number of years for the desolation of Jerusalem would be 70’.(knew it was close so he began fasting and praying and God gave him a timetable for the coming of the Messiah which is 9:24-27).
Faith is about believing God for things that might take beyond your lifetime to occur.
But it is finding your place in the process of all that God is doing.
WORKS ELIMATES GRACE (4) Now to the one who works, his wage is not reckoned as a favor, but as to what is due. (5) But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned as righteousness.
Check from employer when you apply for Job would be gift but if you have worked for one or two weeks that becomes a wage.
Grace is unmerited favor to those who have not earned it. Works eliminates grace. Justifies the ungodly: This phrase would shake the Jew. They never thought of the ungodly of being justified. The only person justified to them was the godly Jew.
Jesus condemned the Pharisees because they were unable to see their own sin: Paul is saying that the only people who are justified by God are those who recognize their sin before Him.
He who believes in Him: Abraham constantly believed in God when God would speak. This phrase should have been on Abraham’s tombstone or the bumper sticker on his camel. Ultimately it was about Abraham believing in God and not necessarily the promise. He believed the promise because it came from God. Many think faith is believing something enough that God will give it to them but faith is believing in what God has already said He will do.
Gen 11-12: Called out of Ur of the Chaldees
Gen 15: Called to trust God in spite of old age and inability to have children
Gen 17-18: Called on to believe that God could give him a child thru Sarah
Gen 22: Told to go and sacrifice the miracle child and to trust that God could work it all out. Exact mountain temple would be built upon (sacrifices)
Abraham left servants put wood on Isaac. Isaac: I see the fire and wood but where is the sacrifice?
The Lord will provide for Himself a sacrifice’ Lit will provide himself. 100+ yr old man and a teenager (could have run). Isaac was willing to give himself but God had a better plan. Grace brought a ram caught in a thicket was provided by God.
WORKS DENY GOD’S RIGHTEOUSNESS
(6) Just as David also speaks of the blessing upon the man to whom God reckons righteousness apart from works;
Suppose some very godly Baptist decided to give me a brand new 2014 Chevy Corvette. Spent tons on it.(50K) I though it was too much to spend so I went to them and said, ‘I hate for you to spend that much so I will pay some myself…here is a quarter’.
Someone sees me driving one day and ask, ‘Where did you get that?’
‘Me and ________ bought it together’ INSULT TO GOD
His righteousness is insulted when we try to offset His grace with out works.
(7) Blessed are those whose lawless deeds have been forgiven, and whose sins have been covered. (8) Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will not take into account
David: Liar, murderer, deceitful, adulterer. This passage comes from the place in the OT where David confesses his sin. This shows what grace does with confessed sin.
Lawless deeds…forgiven…..covered….not take into account.
How fortunate is the person who recognizes their sin and then allows the blood of Jesus Christ to completely cover it. NOT A SIMPLE THING FOR GOD TO DO:
Someone owed me $1000 and I said, ‘That is OK, I will forgive your debt to me’ and just absorbed the loss it would cost me $1000.
It cost God to forgive sin…the death of His own Son. Christ absorbed David’s murder, Peter’s denial, Paul’s persecution of Christians, all your sin and my sin.
IT ALL FELL ON JESUS
You may offend someone and for the rest of their life they hold it against you.
Never treat you the same again or trust you to the same degree.
God completely cleanses our account of sin and replaces it with the faultless record of Christ’s life. It will never be brought up again.
Deepest sea….east to west….behind God’s back..never to be taking into account against us again If ½ of one of your sins was held against you by God you could never to into heaven.
PAUL ASKS THREE QUESTIONS
#1 – What about the blessing? (9) Is this blessing then upon the circumcised (Jew), or upon the uncircumcised (non-Jew) also?
A – For we say, “Faith was reckoned to Abraham as righteousness’.
(10) How then was it reckoned? (put to his account)
While he was circumcised or uncircumcised? Not while circumcised but while uncircumcised. LIGHTS ON!!!
Abraham was declared justified before God before he was ever even circumcised!! He lived before the Law was ever given. He could not have been made just through keeping the Law or through the act of circumcision.
By all definitions ABRAHAM WAS A GENTILE when he was made righteous before God. The greatest Jew of all time was a GENTILE. SURPRISE. I put on Facebook this week a fact few knew about Martin Luther King Jr.
He was a Republican and so was his father.
Genesis 15: Abraham was declared righteous while 14 years later in Genesis 17 he was circumcised.
He lived 400 years before the Law was ever given by Moses.
#2 – What about circumcision? (11) and he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while uncircumcised, that he might be the father of all who believe without being circumcised, that the righteousness might be reckoned to them.
It is a SIGN: Something that points to a reality beyond itself:
Circumcision is meant to point to something beyond the physical act itself. Sign of obedience to God in the heart. All that God gave the Jews, circumcision, the feasts, the temple, all had deeper meaning behind themselves.
It is a SEAL: Something that is a permanent reminder.
Verse 11 states that it was a seal of something that was already true beforehand.
Baptism is an act that is commanded by God and we should obey.
Baptism is a sign in the fact that when we come to be baptized we are declaring to others that we are identifying with Jesus.
We are looking to Him for salvation and new life.
It is a seal because every time we begin to doubt our faith and our relationship with God we can look back to our baptism and remember that we put our hope in Him.
It is a seal of authenticity.
(12) and the father of circumcision to those who not only are of the circumcision, but who also follow in the steps of faith of our father Abraham which he had while uncircumcised.
It is not a question of circumcision or uncircumcision but am I demonstrating the same faith that Abraham demonstrated before he was ever circumcised.
That was what justified him before God.
#3: WHAT ABOUT THE LAW? (13) For the promise to Abraham or to his descendents that he would be heir of the world was not through the Law but through the righteousness of Faith. (14) For if those who are of the Law are heirs, faith is made void and the promise if nullified. (15) For the Law brings about wrath, but where there is no law neither is there violation.
Law was never meant to be a mode of salvation. Faith was from the beginning.
‘If you like your plan of salvation you can keep it, PERIOD’.
I don’t want another plan. No other plan works. They all fall short.
If the Law can save you then the promise God made is no good, nullified.
The Law apart from faith can only lead to wrath.
Harry Ironside told one time of a sheep ranch that he visited in Texas. He saw something and he couldn’t figure it out. It looked like a sheep with four front legs, four back legs and two heads. He said to the sheep rancher, “What in the world is this?”
The rancher said, “We had both a little lamb and a mother sheep die. That left a mother without a baby and left the lamb without a mother. We took the little lamb without a mother and put it in the pen of the mother without its baby. The mother didn’t want any part of the baby. She would lower her head and push it away. “We got the idea that if the mother thought that that little lamb was really hers, she would adopt it and make it as her own. She would nurse it and raise it and that would solve the whole problem.
So they took the skin off the little dead lamb and put it around the little orphan lamb. We tied it on. So that is why you see four front feet, four back feet and what looks like two heads.” The rancher went on, “When it was covered we put it in the pen with the mother and she loved it and cared for it. There is nothing horrible about it to her. It is beautiful to her. She accepted it because it is clothed in the garments of her own.”
God’s plan covers us with the righteousness of Jesus Christ.
When God looks at us He sees all the perfections of Jesus. He accepts us in Him.
TEST OF INSANITY in the 1800’s: Placed in a room with a sink and a mop & bucket. Sink is stopped up and the water is turned on. Water begins to overflow unto the floor. An insane person will react by grabbing the mop and feverishly working to clean the water from the floor while it continues to pour over the sides of the sink. Sane person will turn off the water and then begin to clean the floor.
Many today are working feverishly to please and satisfy God while never dealing with the root issue which is our sin nature. They work so hard and yet never acknowledge that sin continues to pour out of their lives from all sides.
