Do you remember the advertising slogan, “They got their money the old fashioned way: they earned it!” It was very popular, and very clever. But of course many - if not most - people with the real money in this country didn’t get it by earning it. They got it the real old fashioned way: they inherited it. As a matter of fact, for hundreds of years people who got their money by inheritance looked down on the people who earned it. They were “nouveau riche,” “parvenus,” “upstarts,” “Johnny-come-lately’s.”
Nonetheless, the ads were done very well and appealed very effectively to a strong and quite admirable strain in our culture which admires hard work and believes that is the way to get ahead. Many of us joke about winning the lottery, but few of us really believe it’s a hope you can build your life around. But we have all seen that in this country it’s possible to achieve almost anything - wealth, fame, political power - if we just work for it hard enough. And so we’re taught from a very early age to work hard to succeed, to make our dreams come true. We’re encouraged to be “all that we can be” - and all this we inherited from our Protestant forebears. The roots were actually planted long before, with the Jewish tradition of teaching each son a trade regardless of the family’s resources, and reinforced with the Christian insistence that labor is not only honorable and pleasing to God, but a necessary part of a complete life. But the idea that God rewards hard work with prosperity really began to bear fruit with the Reformation. And that work ethic is the root of America’s extraordinary financial prosperity.
You’ve probably heard this illustration before... the story of the frog who fell into a pail of milk. Since he was floating in the milk, he didn’t have any leverage and couldn’t leap out of the pail no matter how hard he tried. But rather than give up, he did the only thing he could do. He paddled and paddled and paddled to keep afloat. And an amazing thing happened. As he paddled, a pad of butter formed. The frog hopped on the pad and jumped. out of the pail. And of course the moral of the story is that if you work hard, it will pay off. And it’s true! It does! At least most of the time...
The problem comes when you apply this model to Christianity. An awful lot of people really believe that if you do the best you can, God will credit your work as righteousness and let you into heaven. But of course as we all know this thinking totally misses the whole point of the Gospel.
There’s been a lot of talk in recent years to the effect that every person has some sort of spark of divinity which only needs to be fanned into a flame. Friends, that just isn’t so. Being a fallen person in a fallen world means that we have come completely disconnected from the divine. What lives within us is a hunger to get reconnected that can be numbed, misdirected, or temporarily assuaged by other means, but there’s no redemption in it.
We’re taking this passage in reverse order from the way Paul addressed the problem. The passage before ours shows that Adam’s initial slip into disobedience had consequences that has reverberated throughout all creation, and that something correspondingly greater was therefore needed to lift us out of the swamp. Today we’re going to back up and see that no one, no matter how admirable, has ever climbed out of the hole on his own.
Paul uses two Old Testament illustrations to make his point. One, Abraham, is a saint - well, sort of - the other is that well-known sinner, David. Both illustrate the primacy of faith. Abraham’s story illustrates that no one can take credit for their own salvation, and David’s shows that no one is outside God’s reach. “What then are we to say was gained by Abraham, our ancestor according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God.” [Ro 4:1 2]
Now, to the Jews, Abraham was a hero. (Somehow they managed to overlook his lying to Pharaoh, his relationship with Hagar, and his mistreatment of his illegitimate son Ishmael. But I digress.) If anyone could have been saved by works, they would certainly have pointed to Abraham. But even as righteous as Abraham was made out to be, it wasn’t his works that counted. “For what does the scripture say? 'Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.'" [Ro 4:3]
Neither good deeds nor religious rituals earned Abraham the title “friend of God.” Whatever righteousness Abraham had was the consequence of his trust in God. Righteousness was credited to his account because of his faith. It’s like going into a restaurant and having the proprietor wave away your credit card, saying “Your money’s no good here, it’s on the house.” If you ask why, he replies “because you’re on the boss’s son’s list.” If you’re like most of us, that would make you feel a little uncomfortable. “What does he expect in return?” you might wonder. We don’t like being in debt. We don’t like being obligated to someone. Because when we are, it takes away some of our control, some of our independence.
"Now to one who works, wages are not reckoned as a gift but as something due. But to one who without works trusts him who justifies the ungodly, such faith is reckoned as righteousness." [Ro 4:4-5]
Salvation is a gift. It’s what Isaiah announced almost 3,000 years ago: "Ho, every one who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.” [Is 55:1] But some listen to the invitation, shake their heads saying, “It’s too good to be true; what’s the catch?” And walk on by. Still more insist on trying to pay, rendering the gift powerless. Because faith is the key to receiving it.
Reconciliation with God - salvation - isn’t given to us because we earned it, as if God had incurred some obligation to us that he had to meet. If we received what we all deserve, it certainly wouldn’t be salvation. None of us really wants to get what we deserve, although many of us would like to see other people get what they deserve - but that’s another sermon. The point is, we have to ask ourselves a very important question. Do we want a fair trial or a free pardon? God offers both. I’d rather have the pardon.
So the challenge for us is to “trust God who justifies the ungodly.” We have to take him at his word, recognize that all the things we are so proud of, the things that are our passports to earthly success, are about as useful in God’s economy as monopoly money. We have to go through life on his credit card. We must believe that He is who he says he is and will do what he says he will. If we do, our faith is credited as righteousness. Faith is the key. Faith is the only currency that is accepted.
Not even religiosity can take the place of faith. A lot of people trust in religious rites and religious rules. But trusting either of these is an even greater folly than trusting in good works. At least Jesus commended good works, and criticized the Pharisees because they placed the letter of the law above mercy.
The Jews of Paul’s day believed that they had both inherited their righteousness from Abraham and earned it by obeying the law. And the particular law that they pointed to was the mark of circumcision, the mark that showed they belonged to the covenant. Paul’s argument was that Abraham's was accounted righteous fourteen years before he even had any religious rituals to follow... God called him friend even before he was circumcised!
Paul never said the circumcision –the ritual - was unimportant. But it was a gift from God to Abraham to help him believe and remember their covenant, not something that Abraham did to please God. The ritual was observed because it confirmed his faith. Faith is the key, not ritual. Ritual is a support for our faith, not a substtute for it.
"For the promise that he would inherit the world did not come to Abraham or to his descendants through the law but through the righteousness of faith. If it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. For the law brings wrath; but where there is no law, neither is there violation." [Ro 4:13-15]
Another point to remember is that the rules of religion are as inadequate as the rites. Obeying the law wasn’t what got Abraham the promise. The law wasn’t even given until Moses’ day, nearly 500 years later! God promised blessings, land and heirs, because he had a plan in mind, and Abraham was accounted righteous because he believed God and signed on for the voyage. God’s promise does not depend upon the law. The law only points to our need for a savior by pointing out our transgressions.
"For this reason it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his descendants, not only to the adherents of the law but also to those who share the faith of Abraham ... in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist." [Ro 4:16-17]
So what is this faith on which all things depend?
It is believing that God is who he says he is, and will do what he says he will. Abraham believed that God knew what he was talking about when he sent him into Canaan. And so he packed up everything he owned and took off.
It is faith, not works, that brings us into right relationship with God - but faith acts. Faith that works acts on God’s promises, stepping out into the unknown, holding onto God’s hand. And as we walk out in faith, we receive the blessings of God at every turn of the road. Does your faith work?
