Chico Alliance Church
June 10, 2001
Pastor David Welch
“Imitating the Faith of Abraham”
Romans 4:1-25
The theme of Romans is the “righteousness of God.” God will restore righteousness throughout His creation.
• Righteousness of God – His very nature
• Righteousness by God – an absolute universal standard of existence prescribed and expected by Him for all mankind.
• Righteousness from God – a gift imputed to every one who believes.
• Righteousness for God – an increasing obedience by those who desire to please Him
I. Receive the gift of God’s righteousness by faith 1-5
A. God proves every man needs His righteousness 1-3
B. God explains and illustrates His way to righteousness 3:21-4:25
1. God’s way to righteousness explained 3:21-31
2. God’s way to righteousness illustrated by Abraham 4:1-25
What about Abraham?
How was Abraham Justified?
a) Abraham was justified by faith 1-8
What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, has found? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. 4:1-2
Paul explores Abraham’s experience regarding justification. What did Abraham discover while during his life in the flesh?
Supposition
If Abraham were considered righteous (justified) because of the works of his life it wouldn’t be in God’s courtroom. “No flesh would be justified in his sight by works.” We can only justify ourselves and one another in our own sight. Works might impress men and give occasion for Abraham to be proud of his works but not before the righteousness judge of all the earth -- not in God’s court.
Reality
The reality is that God justified Abraham on the basis of belief in Him not good works.
For what does the Scripture say? "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness." 4:3
A couple important words here…
“Believed” = general word to trust, believe, exercise faith. Point-in-time verb action
“Credited” = impute, put to one’s account, ascribe, esteem, count, number, reckon, deposit. Point-in-time passive verb. Used eleven times just in chapter four alone.
On the basis of Abraham’s faith God’s promise, God honored such humble trust and dependence on Him by reckoning, depositing or imputing His very own righteousness into Abraham’s spiritual account. God did this not in response to some work in Abraham’s life but in response to his expressed trust in God’s promise to bless him.
Principle of faith vs work
Now to the one who works, his wage is not credited as a favor, but as what is due. But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness 4:4-5
The one who works rightfully insists on compensation or a wage as an obligation for services rendered. The laborer is worthy of his hire is a Biblical teaching. Think of an employer handing you your paycheck at the end of a long hard workweek proudly exclaiming, “Here is a gift for you!” Some of us think that God somehow owes us something and that when he blesses us it is compensation for our wonderful work for him. Until we view every blessing as an undeserved privilege and gift we will never understand the life of grace and faith. God will NEVER be in obligation to the creature!
Faith is the only basis God deposits righteousness in our account truly as a gift and blessing apart from any service or work rendered to Him. It has to be that way, because in the divine scheme of things any attempt by us to appease God always comes up short because our offense or debt is so gigantic. God grants a righteousness credit to the ones trusting in Him who promises to deposit righteousness in our account as a free gift.
Paul pens a most captivating principle in this verse. God responds to those who trust the one who alone justifies the ungodly. The Jewish readers could envision God justifying Abraham, Moses, perhaps even David but the “ungodly.” The word Paul used referred to one who actively practices the opposite of what the fear of the Lord demands, one characterized by immoral and wicked behavior. This seems out of place. Such an action in itself seems to be unrighteous and violate the very principle of justice. If God did not credit righteousness to the believer as a free gift, there would be NO hope of salvation for any of us since, in relation to the absolute standard of God, we are ALL wicked and ungodly. Faith involves recognition of our total inability to demonstrate adequate good works to please God and the graciousness of God to forgive and fill our account with the perfect righteousness of Jesus. Those who want to relate to God on a merit system must accept the wage scale that has already been established by Him. The wages of sin is death. The gift of God is eternal life.
If you insist on working for God’s favor you will be paid according to the current wage – death. If you humbly admit your total inadequacy and by faith appeal to His mercy you will receive the necessary righteousness as a gift of His love and grace. Such trust in the grace of God results in the blessing of imputed righteousness and un-imputed sin.
Paul briefly appeals to this principle of grace from a Psalm of David who himself was well acquainted with the devastation of sin and the blessing of forgiveness.
…just as David also speaks of the blessing on the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works: “BLESSED ARE THOSE WHOSE LAWLESS DEEDS HAVE BEEN FORGIVEN, AND WHOSE SINS HAVE BEEN COVERED. "BLESSED IS THE MAN WHOSE SIN THE LORD WILL NOT TAKE INTO ACCOUNT." 4:6-8
Paul presents justification from both sides of the coin. God counts trust in Him as righteousness. God does not take sin into account for the one who trusts His promise. This is blessing. Never take for granted the blessing of forgiveness and divine covering in regard to sin!
Having referred to two Old Testament saints Paul anticipated the assumption that God favored Jews and this blessing perhaps was reserved for “card carrying” Jews.
Was justification just for circumcised Jews?
Is such a blessing reserved only for the Jews?
Is this blessing then on the circumcised, or on the uncircumcised also? For we say, "FAITH WAS CREDITED TO ABRAHAM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS." 4:9
Paul answered the question with a question. If you can determine just when God justified Abraham you can determine whether circumcision or being a Jew had anything to do with his justification.
When was Abraham justified?
b) Abraham was justified before circumcision or the Law 9-16
(1) He was justified before circumcision 9-12
How then was it credited? While he was circumcised, or uncircumcised? Not while circumcised, but while uncircumcised 4:10
Paul explicitly declares that God justified Abraham before he received the Jewish rite or sign of circumcision. Paul quotes from Genesis 15:6
A brief chronology of events is in order here.
• God appears to Abraham and extends a promise with conditions.
• Abraham fails a first test by going down into Egypt.
• Abraham fulfills all the conditions asked by God by separating from Lot (nephew).
• Abraham rescues Lot after he is captured by a coalition of local kings.
• Abraham meets up with Melchizedek and received a blessing and gives Him a tithe.
• God promises the blessing of blood offspring too numerous to count.
• Abraham believed God
“The he believed in the LORD and He reckoned it to him as righteousness.” 15:6
• God declared Abraham righteous and sealed his promise with sacrifice.
• Abraham impatiently tried to hurry the fulfillment in through his own plan.
• God instructed Abraham to institute the symbol or rite of circumcision as an outward sign of God’s inward work. (Nearly 15 years after justification)
"And you shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskin, and it shall be the sign of the covenant between Me and you. Genesis 17:11
• God supernaturally blessed Sarah with the promised son.
Circumcision did not justify Abraham. Circumcision was a seal of the promise already made upon Abraham’s belief. It was an outward physical sign of an inward spiritual reality. Circumcision symbolized what baptism today symbolizes for the genuine believer.
Baptism saves no one. Baptism cannot wash away sin. Baptism cannot justify. Baptism is merely an outward physical symbol that has no power in itself. Baptism only symbolizes salvation or redemption from sin. Baptism only symbolizes our justification by God upon our trust in Jesus.
God ordained this timing to establish Abraham as a living illustration of saving faith for both Jew AND Gentile.
and he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while uncircumcised, so that he might be the father of all who believe without being circumcised, that righteousness might be credited to them, and the father of circumcision to those who not only are of the circumcision, but who also follow in the steps of the faith of our father Abraham which he had while uncircumcised. 4:11-12
Abraham then became a prime example of faith for all people. He is the father of the circumcised believing Jew. He is the father of the uncircumcised believing Gentile. The common ground is faith in the one willing and able to justify the ungodly. Without faith there is no justification. Circumcision does not result in justification any more than baptism results in justification.
Paul went on to make his point of justification by faith by insisting that keeping the Law cannot justify any more than circumcision could justify. The Jews felt that Abraham was justified because he kept the Law. They were convinced that by following his example, they too could still be saved by keeping the Law. Circumcision came 15 years AFTER Abraham’s justification. God justified Abraham 430 years BEFORE the law was ever given.
(2) He was justified before the Law 13-16
For the promise to Abraham or to his descendants that he would be heir of the world was not through the Law, but through the righteousness of faith. For if those who are of the Law are heirs, faith is made void and the promise is nullified; for the Law brings about wrath, but where there is no law, there also is no violation.
If God hadn’t given the law we wouldn’t adequately realize our moral bankruptcy. God communicated His expectations for relationship with Him through the Law. Violation of that law rightfully incites God’s wrath. Since the Law can only condemn us, God arranged for reconciliation another way.
For this reason it (justification) is by faith, in order that it may be in accordance with grace, so that the promise will be guaranteed to all the descendants, not only to those who are of the Law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all, Romans 4:13-16
Paul already clearly declared that none have, or ever will, keep the law. If justification comes by keeping the law, all of mankind is doomed. The issue is not keeping some law but reconciliation with the lawgiver. You shall love the Lord your God. Therefore, God justifies us on the basis of one’s trust in Him fully in keeping with His grace.
Such a plan makes it possible for both Jew and Gentile to become beneficiaries of the promise. Our only hope for reconciliation with God is to acquire s righteousness from outside of ourselves apart from law and apart from any ceremony because no one can keep the law and no religious ceremony or rite can forgive sin or change the sinful rebellious heart. We desperately need the righteousness of Christ because every heart is deceitful and desperately wicked and contaminates every attempt to live righteously and relate to God. Our only hope is faith in the one willing to justify the ungodly.
What does that faith look like?
What was the nature of Abraham’s belief?
c) Abraham exercised genuine faith 17-22
What are some of the basic elements about Abraham’s faith?
(1) He trusted the God of resurrection and life
(as it is written, "A FATHER OF MANY NATIONS HAVE I MADE YOU") in the presence of Him whom he believed, even God, who gives life to the dead and calls into being that which does not exist. 4:17
Abraham was clear on the object of His faith. It is the object of faith that makes all the difference. It is not faith itself but the object of faith. Everyone believes in something or someone. All of us live by faith. All of us act according to what we believe will bring us the greatest return or payoff.
The point is…
Do we trust the right thing? Do we trust the God who established the path to life? What are you trusting this morning for life? People, things, places, experiences, possessions, fame, fortune?
God appointed Abraham a father of many nations even before Isaac was born.
Perfect tense verb (I have made or appointed you at a point in time and you will continue to be appointed)
Abraham embraced a God able to create life out of nothing in the first place.
He also embraced a God able to restore life when sin’s consequences resulted in death.
Abraham understood that the God who created it could most certainly also fix it.
(2) He trusted God in the face of the improbable and impossible
Abraham’s faith enabled him to rise above any perceived obstacles to maintain his trust in the God of creation and resurrection.
In hope against hope he believed, so that he might become a father of many nations according to that which had been spoken, "SO SHALL YOUR DESCENDANTS BE." Without becoming weak in faith he contemplated his own body, now as good as dead since he was about a hundred years old, and the deadness of Sarah’s womb; 4:18-19
Notice again the foundational faith in one who created out of nothing and who brings life for death. He did not ignore the facts. No offspring in sight. Sarah’s “dead” womb.
His was not a blind faith. It was the strength of his faith in the person and promise of God that enabled Him to face the obvious obstacles and expect the improbable and even impossible.
The reality of the age and condition of their bodies did not deter Abraham from trusting that God would do what He promised. After all, He is the God who brings something out of nothing. He is the God who restores life. (Even though there was no recorded historical evidence). When we fully grasp and direct our life by such a concept in God, there remains no obstacle or promise outside of God’s capability.
Do you see death all around you? Embrace the God of resurrection and life.
Do you see no way around of impossible obstacles? Embrace the God who brings something where there once was NOTHING.
It was such a firm trust in God that empowered Abraham’s life.
(3) He was empowered by God because of his trust.
yet, with respect to the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief but grew strong in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully assured that what God had promised, He was able also to perform. 4:20-21
Paul reasoned from the negative to the positive here.
“He did not waver in unbelief with respect to the basic promise (maybe struggled with the means (Hagar or Sarah) but not the ends (father of many nations).”
He communicated the positive next.
“But was empowered (dunamis) in His faith (by God)” This is a passive verb.
God strengthened Abraham in response to his trust in spite of trials.
We will never fully experience God’s strengthening until we willingly abandon trust in our own strength and forsake the pursuit of our own goals expectantly surrendering to God’s daily direction for our life. This empowering resulted in Abraham “Giving glory to God”. In opposition of the self-centered pleasure seekers in chapter one who exchanged God’s glory, Abraham points to God and gives glory to God by assuming his proper position as creature and God as Creator. He refused to take the spoils from a staggering victory over the collation of kings lest any one else would be given credit for making him rich. He wanted ALL the glory to go to God. This empowering was based on Abraham “having been fully persuaded (passive verb) that what God promised (perfect tense = promised in the past and still holds to it) He would without a doubt accomplish. This really is the central idea of faith. We must carefully make sure we are clear on what He promises to do.
Often people get mad at God because he did not do something He never promised.
(4) He was justified by faith.
Therefore it was also credited to him as righteousness. 4:22
As a result of his trust in God, God credited righteous to his spiritual account.
How does Abraham’s experience relate to us today?
d) God justifies ALL who trust like Abraham 23-25
Now not for his sake only was it written that it was credited to him, but for our sake also, to whom it will be credited, as those who believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, He who was delivered over because of our transgressions, and was raised because of our justification.4:23-25
God will justify all who embrace the God of resurrection, the same God who raised Jesus from the dead. God offers forgiveness on the basis of Christ’s death to all who trust His promise. God offers justification the basis of Christ’s resurrection to all who trust His promise.
Application
What did Abraham find? Abraham found the righteousness of God through trusting the God of resurrection and life.
Apart from any ceremony or rite like circumcision
Apart from keeping law
What can we expect? God will justify any and all who trust God like Abraham did.
If you have never put your faith or trust in Christ you are operating with an overdrawn account that will eventually need to be paid. You need His forgiveness to pay your debt. You need His justification to credit or impute sufficient righteousness to your account for eternal fellowship with God. No amount of works can please God since our works are all tainted with selfishness and rebellion.
Are you still trying to gain righteousness by works? God does not justify the one trying to earn righteousness. He justifies the one who recognizes he can’t do it and turns to God for mercy. Only dependent, humble trust in the purpose and promises of God can please Him.
Only recognition of our absolute incapacity to earn God’s favor and humble dependence on the grace of God will result in justification. We must have trust in the God who brought everything out of nothing. We must embrace the God who restores the dead to life again. We must put our full weight on the God who does what He says in spite of how impossible it may seem. That is what faith or trust is all about. It is not only required for justification but is the prescribed basis for everything in life.
“The righteous man shall live by faith.” (Rom)
“The righteous man shall live by faith.” (Gal)
“The righteous man shall live by faith.” (Heb)
Paul considered everything loss so that he might be found not having a righteousness of his own but the righteousness that comes through faith in Christ.
“…may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, Philip. 3:9
I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me. Gal 2:20
The whole Bible is the source book on what it means to really trust in God. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. We find faith abandoned, faith forgotten, faith lived, faith demonstrated through every circumstances, faith defined and illustrated, faith demanded and faith rewarded.
Who are what is the object of your faith?
Are you trusting God to energize your life and faith? Jesus is both the author and finisher of faith.
Are you fully persuaded and convinced that the God who brings something out of nothing and brings the dead to life will actually do what He promised?
Are you giving glory to God for His work in your life?
Before we advance into the results of justification so powerfully presented in chapter five I want to spend some time exploring further the Biblical faith that results in not only justification but also leads to a life that continually pleases God.
God left the book of Hebrews to explain and encourage faith. There we find the object of our faith explained. We also find the practice of our faith encouraged.
What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, has found?
Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness
