Intro
We have been examining Abrham’s faith as a model for the kind of faith God is looking for in you and me. Abraham’s faith was a saving faith. After describing his faith, Paul says in Romans 4:22: “And therefore ‘it was accounted to him for righteousness.’” Paul has grounded his teaching on the revelation in Genesis 15:6. The teaching is logical, but it is not just rational; it is an explanation of divine revelation in Scripture. Paul told Timothy, “Preach the word.” i (2 Tim. 4:2 KJV). Paul practiced his own counsel. In Romans 4, he is preaching and teaching the word of God.
Paul has used Abraham’s experience to teach us (1) the way of salvation (vv. 1-15), (2) the kind of faith that leads to salvation (vv. 16-22), and (3) and the object of that faith (vv. 23-25). Romans 4:1-15 focuses on the way of salvation. It is not by works; it is by faith.ii It is not by religious rituals. In those verses, Paul is teaching justification by faith alone.
NATURE OF OUR FAITH
But what kind of faith did Abraham have? What kind of faith is acceptable before God? What kind of faith does Paul have in mind as he gives this teaching? That is explained in verses 16-22. It is a faith that engages the will. Intellect and emotion are involved in coming to our decisions. But it is possible to intellectually agree with truth yet not believe in the heart. God raised Jesus from the dead. We must believe that in the depth of our being. Romans 10:9 says we must confess Christ with our mouth that Jesus is Lord, and we must believe in our heart “that God has raised Him from the dead.” The next verse says, “For with the heart one believes unto righteousness.”iii
We must believe in the heart and not just in the head. When the belief is in the heart, the will is affected. The person makes a commitment to the Lord, and that commitment drives the direction of the person’s life from that moment forward. Saving faith is a committed faith. It is manifested in the lifestyle. As the Apostle James put it: “Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works” (James 2:18). Mental assent to doctrines and truth is not enough. Authentic faith responds to God in the heart. As a decision of the will, the person turns from the sinful pursuit of pleasure to the pursuit of God.
There is a growth process in our pursuit of God and his will. That process is usually referred to as sanctification. But from the start, saving faith includes repentance from dead works to sincere faith in God—a faith that produces the fruit of obedience.iv Abraham’s faith was such that when God told him to leave Ur, he obeyed. Hebrews 11:8 says, “By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going” (emphasis mine).v When God told him to offer up Isaac, he obeyed (Gen. 22). Authentic faith behaves in that way.
Biblical faith is not just a superficial, emotional response. John 6 opens with a very exciting event: the feeding of the five thousand. Not only was there the excitement of a large crowd, but there was the miracle of the multiplying of loaves and fish. The crowd was responding to Jesus a very positive way. John 6:14 reports, “Then those men, when they had seen the sign that Jesus did, said, ‘This is truly the Prophet who is to come into the world.’” In our modern times, we would have had them fill out a decision card and would have reported thousands of salvations. But was their faith saving faith? Further down in the chapter (vv. 35-66) when Jesus went deeper in his teaching, many those excited people turned away from the Lord. John 6:66 says, “From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more.” The defection was so widespread that Jesus turned to the twelve and asked them if they were going away as well (John 6:67). Very few of those who initially responded so enthusiastically turned out to be true followers of Christ.vi
I am reiterating this issue of saving faith because in today’s church culture, many “decisions for Christ” are very superficial and may not result in eternal salvation. In Matthew 7:21-23 Jesus warned: “Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. 22 Many will say to Me in that day [Judgment Day], 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?' 23 And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!'” Biblical faith produces obedience, not lawlessness.vii
William Booth confronted these issues in his day. He said, “I consider that the chief dangers which will confront the twentieth century will be:
Religion without the Holy Spirit
Christianity without Christ
Forgiveness without regeneration
Morality without God
Heaven without Hell.”viii
That seems to be where many modern churches are at today.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer warned against substituting “cheap grace” for the “costly” biblical grace that Jesus taught.ix He wrote: “Cheap grace is grace we bestow on ourselves. Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.”x
We must sound the alarm! The “easy believism” so popular today is attracting great crowds.xi If your goal is to simply get a lot of people in your church, offer them a Christianity of cheap grace that guarantees eternal life without costly discipleship. But know this: Those who use that method for their own aggrandizement are pied pipers leading others down the broad path toward destruction (Matt. 7:13-14).xii This was not Jesus’s method. It was not Paul’s method. And God forbid that it be our method. Make sure the faith you are proclaiming is the same kind of faith Abraham had.
Paul has focused on faith in Romans 4. He will balance that with more attention to grace in Romans 5. Romans 5 begins, “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand. . . .” It is God’s grace that enables us to live pleasing to the Lord. God himself is ultimately the source of every good thing in our lives. Faith is merely the instrument by which we access God’s goodness. The pen of a poet is only the instrument of that’s poet’s genius. When we read an inspiring poem, we know the source of that masterpiece was not the pen but the poet. Ephesians 2:10 says: “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”xiii Are there any good works in your life? Those good works were planned by God before you were ever born. If God had not worked in you both to will and do his good pleasure, you would not be doing any of those works (Phil. 2:13).
In 1 Corinthians 4:7, Paul asks three rhetorical questions that puts all this in perspective: “For who makes you differ from another? And what do you have that you did not receive? Now if you did indeed receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?” There is no room for personal boasting in this great salvation.xiv
Grace and faith are so interrelated that they share the same results. We just read in Romans 5:1 that we are justified by faith, but Ephesians 2:5 says we are saved by grace. Faith is the means of access. Grace is the unmerited favor of God that opens the storehouse of God’s goodness to us. And ultimately God himself is the source of all good things (Rom. 11:36; James 1:17). Therefore, all the glory must go to him.
We see this relationship between faith and grace in Ephesians 2:8-9: “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast.” “By grace . . .through faith” is a good way to say it. It is all God’s gift to us. There is significant debate as to what “that” (touto) refers to in verse 8b. Some say it refers to faith as antecedent; others say it refers to grace. But, as Wallace points out, it more likely refers to “the concept of a grace-by-faith salvation as antecedent.” Touto is neuter “while chariti [grace] and pisteos [faith] are feminine.”xv
Our text today is found in Romans 4:23-25: “Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him, 24 but also for us. It shall be imputed to us who believe in Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, 25 who was delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification.”xvi
What has been implied throughout the chapter is now made explicit.xvii Abraham’s justification before God is a model for us. We are saved in the same way he was with the same kind of faith he had. God is no respecter of persons.xviii The same offer of salvation that was made to Abraham is available to all who will receive it (John 3:16). “The principle of justification by faith cannot apply to one man only; if true at all, it must be universally true.”xix “What was true of Abraham is true of every man who has ever been, or ever will be, reconciled to God. This is God’s only way of justifying man, this is God’s way of reconciling men unto Himself. There is no other.”xx Faith in Christ is the only way of salvation. And that way of salvation is offered to you just as surely as it was offered to Abraham or to anybody else.xxi
CONTENT OF OUR FAITH
In verses 24-25, Paul provides a concise statement of the content of our faith. Righteousness “shall be imputed to us who believe”xxii (1) “in Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead,” (2) “who was delivered up because of our offenses,” (3) “and was raised because of our justification.”
Our faith is in the Father “who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead.” This is the same God Abraham believed in. He is the God “who gives life to the dead” (v. 17). We must place our trust in the right God.
Faith in Allah does not bring salvation for that god did not raise Jesus from the dead. According to the Qur’an, Jesus was not “delivered up for our offenses.” Qur’an 4:157 says:
And because of their saying: We slew the Messiah Jesus son of Mary, Allah’s messenger—They slew him not nor crucified, but it appeared so unto them; and lo! Those who disagree concerning it are in doubt thereof; they have no knowledge thereof save the pursuit of conjecture; they slew him not for certain.”xxiii
This denial of the crucifixion of Christ disqualifies the Islamic faith as saving faith. While the Qur’an gives lip service to Jesus as a prophet, it denies the essential truths of the gospel as stated by Paul in our text. I use Isam as one example of the many false religions that claim to offer salvation but fail the test of gospel content. No one is declared righteous by God who does not believe in God as he is described in Romans 4:23-25.
We have talked a lot about the continuity of Abraham’s faith and our faith. We are trusting the same God that Abraham put his faith in. We are justified by faith the same way Abraham was justified. The promise that Abraham trusted looked forward to Christ.xxiv In John 8:56 Jesus said that Abraham “rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad.” The content of Abraham’s faith included Christ. But he saw it with much less clarity than we have now that Messiah has come and brought redemption. Paul has used Abraham’s experience to teach us justification by faith. But he closes out the chapter making sure we as Christians understand the basic content of our faith. It is much better defined than what Abraham knew.xxv
The phrase “who was delivered up [paredothe] because of our offenses” (v. 25) is suggestive of Isaiah 53:12: “dia tas hamartias auton paredothe [was delivered because of their iniquities].” Christ’s death on the cross was a substitutionary death that atoned for our sins.
The context of Romans 4:25 makes it clear that God the Father “delivered him up because of our offenses.” This happened “by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God” (Acts 2:23). Jesus is “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Rev. 13:8 KJV). Jesus’s vicarious death was no afterthought on the part of God. It was planned before the world was ever created.
Men are responsible for the choices they made. Judas handed Jesus over to the Jews. The Jews handed him over to the Romans. The gentile Romans handed him over to crucifixion. People were involved. But they would have had no power to do what they did if God the Father had not willed it.xxvi And God willed it because of his love for you and me (John 3:16).xxvii As Lloyd-Jones points out, “It is regrettable that the Revised Standard Version translates it, ‘was put to death.’”xxviii The wording in our text says more than Christ was put to death. It says God delivered him up to death. Both Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection were accomplished by God the Father for our salvation. Romans 8:32 emphasizes this fact as well: “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up [paredoke] for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?”xxix
Romans 4:23-25 makes the application of Paul’s teaching personal for you and me. In that passage he uses the word “our” three times.xxx
Verse 25a tells us Christ was “who was delivered up because of our [hemon] offenses” (emphasis mine). Salvation comes to the individual who makes this personal in regard to his own sinfulness. When the Holy Spirit is leading a person to Christ, he applies this truth in the heart of the individual. He convicts that individual of his personal sinfulness and in that way leads him to repentance [John 16:8-11]. Understanding the necessity of this, we cooperate with the Holy Spirit using biblical truth so that the person sees the exceedingly sinfulness of his sin.xxxi Sin cost Christ his life on the cross, and beyond that, his forensic rejection by the Father.xxxii To pass over this lightly can result in false conversions. We must include this truth in our evangelistic efforts.
Verse 25b asserts an equally important tenant of our faith: “and was raised because of our [hemon] justification.”
The primary exegetical difficulty in verse 25 is the Greek word dia. The word occurs twice and is translated “because of” both times in the NKJV. The two pillars of faith are stated in parallel form as follows: “who was delivered up because of (dia) our offenses, and was raised because of (dia) our justification. The preposition dia with the accusative is normally translated with a retrospective meaning (because of) and this makes perfect sense in the first line. However, dia can also have a prospective meaning (for the sake of), and this makes more sense in the second line. Because of the parallelism, commentators like Godet strain the interpretation to give dia the same meaning in both lines. Moo correctly concludes: “But since maintaining the same meaning for this preposition in both lines requires questionable additions or interpretations of one line or the other, it is probably best to give the word a retrospective meaning in the first line and prospective meaning in the second: ‘he has handed over because of our trespasses [e.g., because we are sinners], and was raised for the sake of our justification [e. g., in order to secure our justification]’” (emphasis Moo’s).xxxiii
Without Christ’s resurrection, we would have no assurance that his sacrifice fulfilled the requirements for our salvation (1 Cor. 15:17). His resurrection confirmed the Father’s acceptance of his death as an atonement for sin. As Schreiner puts it: “. . . Jesus’s resurrection authenticates and confirms that our justification has been secured (Harris, NIDNTT 3:1184).”xxxiv
On the day of atonement, the blood of the sacrificial goat was carried into the Holy of Holies by the high priest as a representative of the people. After the blood was sprinkled on the mercy seat, the priest would return alive evidencing God’s acceptance of the sacrifice (Lev. 16). And so it is that our great high priest, Jesus, arose the third day having secured our redemption by his own blood (Heb. 9). He has ascended into the heavenlies and sits at the right hand of the father making intercession for us. His resurrection and ascension guarantee our eternal salvation. Hebrews 7:25: “Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them” (KJV). Jesus is not only the sacrifice that bought our salvation but he is the high priest who lives to guarantee it.
Theologically, Christ’s crucifixion and his resurrection are viewed as one redemptive act. Neither is meaningful without the other. “The two parts of the formula are obviously two sides of the same theological assertion. Paul of course does not intend his readers to distinguish between Jesus’ death and his resurrection as effecting quite separate results. The distinction here is purely rhetorical.”xxxv The resurrection is the Father’s announcement that Jesus is Lord.
Paul also used the first-person possessive plural “our” in verse 24: “It shall be imputed to us who believe in Him who raised up Jesus our [hemon] Lord from the dead” (emphasis mine).xxxvi This great salvation is for those who personally submit to Christ as Lord. It is absurd to claim Jesus as one’s Savior but not Lord. Salvation is for those who personally recognize him as Lord. Paul reminded Christians at Corinth: “You are not your own; 20 you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies” (1 Cor. 6:19-20 NIV).
Have you confessed Jesus as your Lord?xxxvii Have you surrendered to him in your heart as the one you will follow and obey? This is essential for salvation. The gospel not only offers you a salvation from the judgment of your sin, but God also offers you a Lord who loved you so much that he laid down his life for you.xxxviii This loving Lord is the good Shepherd who can lead your soul into eternal life with the Father. You will never get there on your own. Without him you will wander in circles into your own destruction. But this loving Savior extends his hands to you today and says, “Come to me, and I will give you life evermore. I will save you from your sins and fill you with my goodness.”xxxix Will you receive his invitation to eternal life?
ENDNOTES:
i 2 Tim. 4:2 KJV. All Scripture quotes are from the New King James Version unless indicated otherwise.
ii We must not make the mistake of thinking that biblical faith is a new form of works that merits God’s favor. Authentic faith looks the way it does in a believer’s life because it accesses the grace of God. God’s grace motivates and empowers the perseverance and obedience (Phil. 2:13).
iii Cf. 1 John 3:7.
iv Cf. Acts 26:20; Heb. 6:1
v In addition to the Genesis 12-25 account of Abraham’s faith, four New Testament passages address the subject, each from a somewhat different angle. To understand Abraham’s faith, we must consider the whole counsel of God on the subject. See Rom. 4; Gal. 3:6-18; Heb. 11:8-19; James 2:14-26.
vi Cf. Matt. 13:20-21.
vii In the Great Commission, Jesus commands us to “make disciples” and teach them “to obey everything I have commanded you” (Matt. 28:19-20).
viii Paul Lee Tan, ed., Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations: Signs of the Times, 1979 (Rockville, MD: Assurance Publishers, 1985) s. v. “William Booth Saw It” from Sawdust Trail, 1128.
ix See Luke 14:26-27. Titus 2:11-12 says, “For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, 12 teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age.” There is a cheap counterfeit grace that does not bring salvation.
x Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship, R. H. Fuller, trans., rev. ed. 1937 (New York: Macmillan Publishing, 1963), 47.
xi Billy Graham wrote, “It should not be surprising if people believe easily in a God who makes no demands, but this is not the God of the Bible. Satan has cleverly misled people by whispering that they can believe in Jesus Christ without being changed, but this is the devil’s lie. The Bible teaches that belief in Him changes a person.” Billy Graham, The Reason for My Hope: Salvation (Nashville, TN: W Publishing of Thomas Nelson, 2013) 118. For further discussion of these issues see Richard W. Tow, Authentic Christianity: Studies in 1 John (Bloomington, IN: WestBow Press, 2019), 170-189, 433-435.
xii Cf. Phil. 1:16; 2:3.
xiii The word translated workmanship is poiema from which we get our English word poem.
xiv See Rom. 3:27; 4:2; 1 Cor. 1:28-31; 2 Cor. 10:16; Eph. 2:9; Rev. 5:9.
xv Daniel B. Wallace, Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics, 334. Although Wallace raises the possibility that touto is adverbial (intensifying the verb), that interpretation is not widely accepted.
xvi “Some commentators insist that mellei logizesthai {shall be imputed] must refer to the final judgment. . . . But . . . it is surely more probable that the reference is to justification not as the eschatological hope of Christians but as the fact which they are confidently to assume as the basis of their present life.” Cranfield, Romans 1-8, 250. Cranfield supports this contention effectively. James Dunn insightfully writes, “. . . God’s extending righteousness to his human creation is not a once-for-all-event, whether in the past or in the future. It is God’s acceptance of persons, whether as an initial acceptance, or as a repeated sustaining (God’s saving acts), or as his final acquittal. What makes a person thus acceptable to God is nothing he or she is or does, but simply the kind of faith which Abraham exercised, as described in Gen 15:6.” Dunn, Romans 1-8, 240.
xvii The application of principles from Old Testament passages to New Testament believers is taught in 1 Corinthians 9:9, 10:11 and 1 Timothy 5:18. Of course, sound hermeneutical principles must be applied when doing this, giving due consideration to the whole counsel of God in Scripture.
xviii Acts 10:34; 1 Peter 1:17.
xix C. K. Barrett, A Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans (New Youk: Harper & Row, 1957), 99.
xx Lloyd-Jones, Romans: An Exposition of Chapters 3.20-4.25 Atonement and Justification, 237.
xxi Paul is applying his teaching to those who will be reading the epistle, and he continues to make the application through Romans 5:11, using the first-person plural liberally.
xxii The present active participle pisteusin (believe) with the article indicates continually believe. There obviously cannot be a continuation of anything unless there was a beginning of it. Our initial act of faith when we were born again is important, even essential. However, the New Testament places equal importance on the continuation of faith. In some Evangelical circles, the emphasis is placed so heavily on the initial experience while neglecting the mandate to continue in the faith that some of the congregants live uncommitted lives relying entirely on the one-time-event.
xxiii Muhammad M. Pickthall, The Meaning of the Glorious Qur’an: Text and Explanatory Translation (New York: Muslim World League – Rabita, 1977), 97.
xxiv Romans 4:23-25 provides clarification concerning the promise that Abraham was believing for: That it centered on the coming Messiah and his redemptive work.
xxv This is logically the case since revelation from God is progressive as his plan of redemption unfolds.
xxvi See Matthew 26:53; John 19:11.
xxvii “Never dissociate the Father from the Son in the work of redemption. Jesus did not come into this world to die to make his Father gracious. No, the covenant of grace was made from eternity, and Jesus came to fulfill a stipulation of the covenant through which it behoved him to suffer. The Father’s love is from everlasting. . . .” Charles
Spurgeon, “The Two Pillars of Salvation,” The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit (Pasadena, TX: Pilgrim Publications, 1971, AGES CD-ROM 2.0).
xxviii Lloyd-Jones, Romans: An Exposition of Chapters 3.20-4.25 Atonement and Justification, 241.
xxix Cf. 2 Cor. 5:21.
xxx Spurgeon points this out in his sermon “Two Pillars of Salvation,” The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit (Pasadena, TX: Pilgrim Publications, 1971, AGES CD-ROM 2.0).
xxxi See Rom. 7:13; Gal. 3:24; 1 John 3:4. Satan has made this more challenging in our postmodern culture through concepts of relativism that reject absolute truth as revealed in Scripture. If the commandments of God are not absolute (grounded in his unchanging nature (Mal. 3:6)), then it is questionable as to whether I have sinned at all. And if my behavior is justified, then I am already justified by my own twisted thinking and need no Savior. No one in that state of mind can enter the kingdom of God. God justifies the guilty (Rom. 4:5), and the first step toward that justification is the acknowledgment of guilt (Matt. 9:13). This is one reason Paul uses the first two chapters of Romans declaring the sinfulness of man. We must not sidestep this issue in the name of being nice or making it easy for people to come to the Lord (Luke 9:57-62).
xxxii We are justified by the blood of Christ (Rom. 5:9). Without the voluntary shedding of Christ’s blood on the cross there is not forgiveness of sin (Heb. 9:22) and no possibility of salvation for any human being. This is a non-negotiable truth.
xxxiii Moo, The Epistle to the Romans, 289. Cranfield comes to a similar conclusion. Cranfield, Romans 1-8, 252. Contra Godet, Commentary on Romans, 184-185. Verse 25 “may be a quotation of some primitive confession of faith.” F. F. Bruce, Romans, TNTC, Leon Morris, ed. (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2008), 123. If that is the case, rhetorical consideration may have may have influenced the form more than technical precision. Longenecker notes, “early Christian confessional materials arose within the context of Christian worship and devotion—and devotional expressions, while heartfelt, are often rather imprecise both conceptually and linguistically.” Longenecker suggests major sections in this epistle close with “a confessional statement or doxological passage” with this one concluding the first section. Longenecker, The Epistle to the Romans, 536.
xxxiv Schreiner, Romans, 252. First Corinthians 15:3 provides a similar declaration of the kerygma.
xxxv Dunn, Romans 1-8, 241.
xxxvi Cf. Acts 2:36. Essential to our message is the lordship of Jesus. In 2 Cor. 4:5 Paul said, “For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord . . .” (KJV emphasis mine).
xxxvii “The predominant and most characteristic designation for Jesus is Lord (Kyrios), not only in Paul’s epistles but in Gentile Christianity at large. People came into the fellowship of the church by believing in the resurrection and confessing the Lordship of Christ (Rom. 10:9) . . . They have entered into a new relationship in which they acknowledge the absolute sovereignty and mastery of the exalted Jesus over their lives.” George Eldon Ladd, A Theology of the New Testament, rev. ed. (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1993), 455-456. In his comments, Ladd points out the communal aspect of the lordship of Christ. Since all believers are submitting themselves to Jesus as Lord, they automatically come into relationship with one another under that lordship. The recognized lordship of Christ is a powerful unifier for the believing church. The more everyone submits to his lordship, the more practical unity is enjoyed. “There is . . . one Lord . . .” (Eph. 4:5).
xxxviii Cf. Gal. 2:20.
xxxix Cf. Matt. 1:21; 2 Pet. 1:2-4.
