The Model of Righteousness

Introduction

“You have just won a three-day Hawaiian holiday, all expenses paid. Just call this number and claim your prize.”

Ha! You've heard that story, haven’t you? It sounds wonderful, something you’ve always dreamed of. Your hands are shaking with excitement and anticipation as you dial the number. “Yes, it’s true. All you have to do is come and listen to our two-hour time-share presentation, and then, of course, you will need to pay your own transportation costs to and from the islands. The gift only includes accommodations and meals in Hawaii.” Your heart sinks because you know there’s no way you can scrape together that much money.

There’s always a catch , isn't there? We keep biting on these supposed giveaways, only to find out that they’re too good to be true, and that the old saying is right: “There ain't no free lunch.”

Is there a catch to what God says about His free gift of eternal salvation?

There is a common thread that ties all religions of the world into one bundle, except one. They all teach that man can become acceptable to God by being good enough, that is, by doing more good works than bad ones. Only one religion says that this is a wasted effort because a sinner is already condemned even if he sinned only once (as Adam), and no amount of good works can undo his sinfulness (Jas 2:10). Only biblical Christianity teaches that sinful man can become perfectly acceptable, in fact perfectly justified, before a holy God by faith, without works.

Romans 4 serves as clear proof that the principle of justification by faith apart from works of any kind was in fact the principle operative in the Old Testament. It was not some new doctrine Paul brought onto the scene, but God’s consistent plan of redemption.

Before we dive into the passage, let’s make sure we understand the terms.

KEYNOTE

In this passage, Paul presented two key figures from the Old Testament as a model of righteousness, and how sinners are justified by faith.

KEYNOTE

Five Simple Points

Righteousness is credited to faith, now works (4:1-5)

From Jesus’ interaction with the Jews it was plain just how revered Abraham was in the nation of Israel. On one occasion, the Jews were about to give Jesus the “Abraham-is-our-father” defense when he cut them off in mid-whine, saying, for all practical purposes, “Prove it: act like Abraham and you can call him your father” (see John 8:39). On another occasion, the Jews suggested to Jesus that he was making himself out to be greater than the greatest person in Israel, Abraham. “Who do you think you are?” they asked Jesus, implying that no one is greater than “our father Abraham” (John 8:53).

Acknowledging Abraham’s rightful place in Israel’s Hall of Faith, Jesus himself pictured the patriarch as the one who received a poor beggar in paradise when he died (Luke 16:22) and who rebuked the rich man who cried out from hell for mercy (Luke 16:25). All persons considered, Abraham’s experience with God would be the perfect illustration for Paul to use with the believers in Rome. The Jewish believers would be obligated to yield to Abraham’s precedent-setting example because he was the father of their previous faith. And the Gentile believers would have no reason not to yield to his authority. Though not physical descendants of Abraham, they clearly would be aware of his role in the development of the Jewish-Christian faith that Paul was writing about.

Think of Abraham’s situation at the time of his interaction with God in Genesis 15. As far as we know, his experience with God had been minimal. He had somehow been called (led) from his home and pagan background in Ur (or was Abraham a worshiper of the one true God in Mesopotamia, like the monotheistic Melchizedek, king of Salem, whom he was soon to encounter in Canaan?), and several years later ended up in Canaan where he received promises from God about future blessings.

After a less-than-noble sojourn in Egypt, Abraham and his wife and household returned to Canaan, where he rescued his nephew Lot from marauding kings. But even then he demonstrated a level of integrity that foreshadowed the nature of his heart—he refused to profit illegitimately from his victory over the kings (Gen. 14:21–24). After this, the Lord spoke to him and confirmed the promise of multitudinous descendants—as many as the stars in the sky—and Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.

Thomas à Kempis, the fifteenth-century German writer, could have been thinking of Abraham when he wrote, “What is required of you is faith and a sincere life, not loftiness of intellect or deep knowledge of the mysteries of God.” Abraham was doubtless intelligent, but just how deep could his knowledge of the mysteries of God have been at the time he placed his faith in his word? He believed God on the basis of what he knew of God at that point. As Andrew Murray learned, “Faith expects from God what is beyond all expectation.”

Simple faith resulted in righteousness being credited to Abraham. Nearly two millennia after Abraham, Paul tells the Romans that righteousness comes the same way for them and for all who hear the gospel—including us, who read his letter nearly four millennia after Abraham. God is indeed the same “yesterday and today and forever”

Using the metaphor of wages, Paul says that since wages are earned by a person working for profit, they cannot be a “gift” (literally, “according to grace”). If this were the case, God would merely be a shop owner under obligation to fulfill his contract with us, his workers.

And God is not obliged to anyone, but He loves everyone, and has provided a way for all sinners to receive a gift: righteousness credited to faith.

Righteousness is atoning and forgiving the sin of the wicked (4:6-8).

If Abraham, the father of Israel, sets the precedent for this early in the Book of Genesis, David, the king of Israel, later confirms it in the psalms. Note Paul’s words in verse 5: “God who justifies the wicked.” We do not normally think of the wicked when we first think of David, Israel’s shepherd-king. But do not miss Paul’s point: for the first two chapters of Romans he discusses the wicked in detail, and now is going to give us an example of a wicked person who was justified by faith. But David? David who defeated Goliath, who honored a demonized king Saul, who kept his promises to Jonathan, who danced and worshiped before the Lord, who wrote Israel’s greatest hymns?

Yes, David needed redemption too. Paul’s quote in verses 7-8 is from Psalm 32, likely David’s response to a forgiving God.

When Nathan the prophet came to David and exposed David’s sin and duplicity, David said, “I have sinned against the Lord.” As soon as David agreed with God by faith, Nathan said, “The Lord has taken away your sin” (2 Sam. 12:13). Whether it was his sins with Bathsheba and Uriah that he refers to in Psalm 32 or some other sin, David confirms the prophet’s pattern in his own words: “I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the Lord’—and you forgave the guilt of my sin” (Ps. 32:5). Then follow in his psalm the words quoted by Paul on the blessedness of receiving righteousness apart from works.

Righteousness is credited to all who believe. (4:9-12)

Paul’s first question: Was Abraham justified by works or faith? The second question: Was justification available only for the circumcised, or is it available to the uncircumcised?

The Rabbis taught that one must submit to circumcision first, and thus achieve justification. But Paul’s answer was brief and blunt: Abraham was justified not after, but before circumcision.

In fact, the time between Genesis 15, when Abraham believed and it was credited to him as righteousness, and Genesis 17, when Abraham was circumcised, was at least 14 years. Yet, though the two events were separated by those years, they were not unrelated. Circumcision was a “seal of the righteousness” that was credited to Abraham. Likewise, it is the seal and sign of justification: a sign to identify Abraham and his descendants as God’s covenant people, set apart by God for God; and a seal to authenticate them as God’s justified people.

In antiquity a seal was often a mark of ownership, as when a man sealed property to show that it was his. But it was also a means of attestation, and it seems that this is the way we should take it here. God gave the sign of circumcision and by doing so set his seal on the righteousness imputed to the patriarch. This righteousness was of faith. Phil. 3:9 reads, “be found in him, not having a righteousness of (our) own from the law, but one that is through faith in Christ—the righteousness from God based on faith.”

It is important to see that the whole point of circumcision is its relation to righteousness and to faith, that faith which Abraham had while he was still uncircumcised. This is the point Paul is concerned to emphasize. Circumcision had nothing to do with Abraham’s acceptance by God. Gal. 5:6 “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision accomplishes anything; what matters is faith working through love.”

It was while he was still uncircumcised that God accepted him.

It is the same with baptism today. First, we are saved by God by grace, through faith. Then we are baptized as a sign or seal of our salvation.

Righteousness is the way of grace. (4:13-17)

God has always saved people by the way of grace, as the case of Abraham shows.

In these verses, Paul emphasizes that Abraham acted in faith, not law. Paul argues that law and grace are incompatible. Abraham’s example demonstrates that God’s way in the way of Grace. Law cannot be the way to justification.

Paul used an important word in these verses: promise. We can rely on the way of grace because it comes as a promise from God. The word also connects with the Old Testament promise that God made to Abraham: a land and a nation. Though an old man, married to an old woman, Abraham was given a land that would be inhabited by a multitude of heirs, who would not only inhabit the land but be a blessing to other nations. The promise goes of heirs goes beyond the words of the Old Testament. Abraham had heirs that “inherit the world.”

In verse 14-15, Paul advanced his argument that law can in no way be the way to God. People who regard the law as central to their life with God — legalists — treat faith as empty, null and void, that it has no meaning. But how could faith have no meaning if Abraham was justified by faith? That would mean that the covenant between God and Abraham had no standing. As Paul mentioned before, in verses 4-5, a promise, just like faith, points to a gift given freely.

Paul explained that the true function of the law is it brings wrath. The law has its place in the way God brings people salvation, but that place is not the provision of a means whereby people may so prove themselves virtuous that they receive salvation as a merited reward. Rather, law shows up our inadequacies and makes us see our need of a Savior. Paul adds that where there is no law there is no transgression (cf. 5:13). This is beautifully simple and quite compelling. Transgression is the word for overstepping a line, and thus for breaking a clearly defined commandment. If there is no transgression, there is no need of salvation. Law shows us where we stand, but it does not save us.

In verse 16 Paul restates that God’s promise — the promise to Abraham, Jacob and Isaac and the promise made in Jesus Christ — all promises from God, are by faith, and according to grace. Again, God is not obligated to anyone, certainly not sinners, not even people He chose apart from all other nations, who never could keep the law they so idolized. The only guarantee we have of salvation is God’s grace; and this is more than enough. Paul used Scripture, quoted in verse 17, to make his point. He quoted Genesis 17:5. “I have made you the father of many nations.”

There are two things to draw out of this. First, “I have made you.” There was nothing Abraham did to receive this promise. God took the initiative, gave the promise, and made it happen. Second, “the father of many nations.” The promise goes beyond Abraham’s biological lineage and is extended to all who believer.

The second half of verse 17 emphasizes why God’s promise and God’s gift, and why faith in God’s grace are so powerful to save: He is “the one who gives life to the dead, and calls things into existence that do not exist.”

Automatically, we think of two events concerning Abraham. Abraham was old and Sarah’s womb was dead, but God gave life, a son, to them. The other event is the command to sacrifice Isaac, that very son of promise. Hebrews 11 reminds us that when Abraham took his only son up to the mountain, he believed that God would either provide a substitute or bring Isaac to life from the dead. What a God. His promise of grace breathes new life into a dead soul who believes in Jesus.

Righteousness gives us hope that cannot be deterred. (4:18-25)

In verses 18-25, Paul linked Abraham’s faith with hope. This is one of Paul’s favorite words, often linked to faith. For example, Paul wrote in Galatians 5:5, “For we eagerly await through the Spirit, by faith, the hope of righteousness.”

Hope is different from the world’s optimism. The world’s optimism is grounded in what either fate or people will accomplish. But hope is grounded in what God has done in Christ. In light of Calvary, we can have complete confidence that God’s purpose will be worked out ion the end. In fact, we can have such confidence, or rather a conviction, in God that we can “hope against hope.” In others words, when there is nothing from the worldly point of view to give us hope or faith or confidence, we believer.

We were once without God are without hope. Ephesians 2:12 “At that time you were without Christ, excluded from the citizenship of Israel, and foreigners to the covenants of promise, without hope and without God in the world.” But when God gives us grace and declares us righteousness by faith, we have God and are never without hope. Hallelujah!

APPLICATION AND MEANING

KEYNOTE.