Is It Fatih or Works?
A Study in Romans • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Introduction
Introduction
Last week we looked at Chapter 5 of Romans, this week we look at Romans 4 because it is so foundational to who we are, and it answers some basic difficulties that so many believers have with their salvation.
So let’s start out with the text itself.
What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, has found? For if Abraham was set right by works, he has something to boast about—but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” Now to the one who works, the pay is not credited as a gift, but as what is due.
Let’s back-track just a bit because we need to find out about the “what then”. For our review, let’s look at:
Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. By what principle? Of works? No, but by the principle of faith. For we consider a person to be set right apart from Torah observance. Is God the God of the Jewish people only? Is He not also the God of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also. Since God is One, He will set right the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. Do we then nullify the Torah through faithfulness? May it never be! On the contrary, we uphold the Torah.
So, let’s review what we learned previously. Our salvation is appropriated by grace through faith in the redemptive sacrifice of Jesus at the cross. We learned that nothing about that had anything to do with us. Even our faith came from hearing the Word of God. According to John 1, who is the Word of God? Jesus! The Word of God then became flesh and dwelt among us. So then, even the faith that we somehow muster to receive the grace of God comes from Jesus and not by our works. Thus also, any works that we do thereafter are empowered by the grace we receive from God to perform them. So that is the “what then” of this passage. Because of that complete salvation by grace through faith, then what do we say about Abraham- after all, he came before Jesus. Was he saved according to the works of the flesh? No! He wasn’t saved by the law he followed, because that is a work of the flesh, Paul says in verse 28 that we are justified completely apart from the deeds of the law! What are the deeds of the law? Well, anything we do that makes us think that we are somehow going to earn our way into heaven.
Now please indulge me as I take a bit of a theological detour here it may seem like I’ve gotten off at the wrong exit, but if you bear with me a little bit, I promise I’ll get us back on track. Paul is discussing the idea of getting to Heaven, so it’s good to understand some of the doctrine which surrounds the idea of getting saved and getting to go to heaven. While very few pastors like to preach on this kind of stuff, it seems to me that it is particularly important that we have this stuff down – especially when it comes to the doctrines having to do with heaven, hell and our eternal soul. Here’s the passage of scripture that I would like us to look at:
when they also are afraid of heights
and of dangers on the road,
when the almond tree blossoms,
the grasshopper drags itself along,
and the caper berry fails to excite—
for a man is going to his eternal home,
and mourners go about in the street—
before the silver cord is snapped,
or the golden bowl is crushed,
or the jug at the cistern is shattered,
or the wheel at the well is broken.
Then the dust returns to the ground
it came from,
and the spirit returns to God
who gave it.
This passage of scripture describes in some detail the point of death. What I especially want to look at is the very last part. “Then the dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.” To whom did God give His spirit? If your answer is “to every living human being” then you would be correct. Gold star for you. How did Adam receive life?
Then Adonai Elohim formed the man out of the dust from the ground and He breathed into his nostrils a breath of life—so the man became a living being.
OK,, let’s keep that in mind -God breathed His breath into man to give him life. Now turn with me to Job really quickly.
as long as my breath is still in me,
the Ruach of God in my nostrils,
my lips will speak no injustice,
nor will my tongue mutter deceit.
Far be it from me to say that you are just;
until I die, I will not set aside
my integrity!
And now let’s look at
For thus says the High and Exalted One
who inhabits eternity,
whose Name is Holy:
“I dwell in a high and holy place,
yet also with a contrite and humble spirit,
to revive the spirit of the humble,
and revive the heart of the contrite.
For I will not contend forever,
nor will I always be angry,
for the spirit would grow weak before Me,
the breath of those whom I made.
To what does God equate the breath in men? To His Spirit. So at the point of death, the Spirit of God that gives every human who has ever walked the face of the Earth life, returns to God who gave it according to Ecclesiastes.
This coincidentally happens to be a very good passage of scripture to get the attention of those who practice New Age astral projection? Why? You may ask. Well, let me read you this excerpt from a New Age website:
Despite the many perceptions and uses of the OOBE, one factor in every case is the silver cord. This barely noticeable cord is the spiritual body's attachment to its physical counterpart. No matter where our astral body may go during an OOBE, the cord keeps it connected to the physical body in order to ensure its safe return. Once this cord is severed, it is believed, the physical body dies and the astral body remains on the spiritual plane forever.
And now let us go back to Ecclesiastes and read from that passage once more.
before the silver cord is snapped,
or the golden bowl is crushed,
or the jug at the cistern is shattered,
or the wheel at the well is broken.
Then the dust returns to the ground
it came from,
and the spirit returns to God
who gave it.
Isn’t that interesting – the silver cord? What does the preacher in Ecclesiastes say? “before the silver cord is loosed”. OK, so verse six is talking about death- that’s what happens when the silver cord is loosed, but look at verse 7. It says that dust returns to dust- what is he talking about?
Going back to Genesis
Then Adonai Elohim formed the man out of the dust from the ground and He breathed into his nostrils a breath of life—so the man became a living being.
While we know that once the body dies- remember we are made up of more than just a body.
Now may the God of shalom Himself make you completely holy; and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept complete, blameless at the coming of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah.
We are not just a one dimensional creature. We were created in the image of God.
Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness! Let them rule over the fish of the sea, over the flying creatures of the sky, over the livestock, over the whole earth, and over every crawling creature that crawls on the land.” God created humankind in His image, in the image of God He created him, male and female He created them.
The fact that we are body, soul and spirit according to scripture is a very wonderful representation of how we are created in the image of God. We know God the Father, we know God the Holy Spirit, and we know God who gave up His glory and became a man like us! But many will say, you are worshipping three Gods! Let me ask you a question. When you looked at yourself in the mirror this morning, how many of you did you see? Are you not made up of body, soul and spirit according to scripture?
But pastor, doesn’t the scripture specifically say that God is one? Yes in fact, it does. Right here:
“Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.
But to really understand the Bible it is important to go back to the original language. As you guys know, I love to do word studies. So let me tell you what I discovered.
The Hebrew word for one is:
אֶחָד
echad
The word echad is used a couple of other places in the OT, let me show you where:
This is why a man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his wife; and they become one flesh.
“They shall become echad”
You married people, look over at your spouse. The bible says that you are one. You look really good don’t you? You are echad- just like God is echad! Not convinced?
Then Adonai came down to see the city and the tower that the sons of man had built. Adonai said, “Look, the people are one and all of them have the same language. So this is what they have begun to do. Now, nothing they plan to do will be impossible.
See that word there? “one” What do you think the Hebrew word is? Yep- echad. So echad does not always mean one in the sense we think of it as English speakers. In fact, it can be translated as together, unified, united, altogether. In context- Deuteronomy 6:4- Isn’t it a curious thing for God to say I am one? If He were trying to say I the only one, wouldn’t He just say that? But understanding that we were created in the image of God, and that the scripture is clear on the fact that we are indeed three in one- body, soul and spirit, but still echad- doesn’t it stand to reason that this is an attribute we share with God?
So then the question that remains is this: When your body dies, do you cease to exist? Well consider the words of Christ:
And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Instead, fear the One who is able to destroy both soul and body in Gehenna.
It is pretty clear that our soul has to go somewhere when the body is destroyed.
But the whole idea behind evangelism is to save what? Bodies?
But we are not among the timid ones on the path to destruction, but among the faithful ones on the path to the preservation of the soul.
Right! Saving souls! And what are we saving the soul from? We are saving it from going with the body- to eternal death. The other choice we read about back in Ecclesiastes is that it can go with the spirit- back to God who gave it. This is the premise of the salvation that we are talking about here. Where does our eternal soul end up and why? More specifically, where did Abraham end up, because he was born before the coming of Christ? THIS is key to us, and I’ll explain why later.
So here, Paul is going big- all out. He’s bringing in the big guns He is saying- the most revered and most faithful of all Jews – Abraham – the man of the covenant with God was not righteous because he observed the Torah, rather because He believed God, and “it was credited to him as righteousness.”
Here’s the next part – if you believe that you are saved by your works, then that is the basis upon which God will judge you, and you will be found short. Because we are not able, in ourselves, to even come close to performing the works that will cause us to become righteous. In fact, if we rely on works, God will take those as payment, but since we can never pay off our debt there is only one destination to which our soul can go.
Jesus, on the other hand when He died on the cross, said “It is finished”.
The Greek word is:
Τελέω
(tel eh oh)
It means, complete, end, make happen, to pay completely.
What was the purpose of Jesus going to the cross? To pay for our sins. So with that in mind, what is the most logical translation of the word Τελέω? How about “paid in full”?
There is something though that we as Christians attempt to do on a regular basis. We try to add additional steps to our salvation. “Well, Jesus’ sacrifice was good, but what if we added…” This is the problem that Paul was addressing in his letter to the Romans. He was saying in effect, “even Abraham had to be justified by grace through faith and not by works.”
Next Paul brings out another superstar of the faith- David!
But to the one who does not work, but trusts in Him who justifies the ungodly, his trust is credited as righteousness— 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 are forgiven and whose sins are covered.
Blessed is the man whose sin Adonai will never count against him.”
He goes on to show that David understood this whole idea that sins are covered and forgiven, and are not imputed by God. And he would know because God calls him a man after God’s own heart- yet he was a man guilty of lust, adultery and murder!
Is this blessing then only on the circumcised, or also on the uncircumcised? For we say, “trust was credited to Abraham as righteousness.”
In what state then was it credited? While circumcised, or uncircumcised? Not while circumcised, but while uncircumcised! And he received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness of the trust he had while he was uncircumcised, so he might be the father of all who are trusting while uncircumcised—that righteousness might be credited to them as well. Also he is the father of the circumcised, to those not only circumcised but also walking in the footsteps of the trust of our father Abraham before his circumcision.
Now he goes back to Abraham. For what purpose? To show that God had imputed righteousness to him even before he was circumcised – and again, it was because of faith – not works – in this case symbolized by circumcision.
So then, based off of this, many argue that it is pretty clear what Paul thinks about works as opposed to faith. But let us ask this question: Doesn’t James tell us that faith without works is dead?
What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone says he has faith, but does not have works? Can such faith save him? If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in shalom, keep warm and well fed,” but you do not give them what the body needs, what good is that? So also faith, if it does not have works, is dead by itself.
So who are we to believe, James or Paul? Are they even in disagreement? I think the key here is in understanding exactly what works each is talking about.
First of all, Paul is talking about the works of the law that lead to salvation. James is talking about the works of obedience that prove salvation:
Paul is indeed saying that Abraham was saved because of faith - while still uncircumcised, and James doesn’t dispute that part, but look at what he says about Abraham:
Wasn’t Abraham our father proved righteous by works when he offered up Isaac his son on the altar? You see that faith worked together with his works, and by the works his faith was made complete. The Scripture was fulfilled that says, “And Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness”—and he was called God’s friend. You see that a man is proved righteous by works and not by faith alone.
He is in perfect Agreement with Paul. Faith is what credited to Abraham righteousness, but it was obedience- observance to the law of God that demonstrated that righteousness. So then, we can say that it is not your works that will save you, rather it is your works that will demonstrate that you have been saved. We can thus deduce, by context, the justification that that Paul speaks of is a justification before God. The one James speaks of, is a justification before men.
Remember when we talked about grace? Remember that we said grace was not only given unto salvation, but also for the purpose of empowering us to live righteous lives? This is that principle in action yet again.
For the promise to Abraham or to his seed—to become heir of the world—was not through law, but through the righteousness based on trust. For if those who are of the Torah are heirs, trust has become empty and the promise is made ineffective. For the Torah brings about wrath; but where there is no law, neither is there a violation.
For this reason it depends on trust, so that the promise according to grace might be guaranteed to all the offspring—not only to those of the Torah but also to those of the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all (as it is written, “I have made you a father of many nations”). He is our father in the sight of God in whom he trusted, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence that which does not exist. In hope beyond hope, he trusted that he would become the father of many nations according to what was spoken—“So shall your descendants be.” And without becoming weak in faith, he considered his own body—as good as dead, since he was already a hundred years old—and the deadness of Sarah’s womb. Yet he did not waver in unbelief concerning the promise of God. Rather, he was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God. He was fully convinced that what God has promised, He also is able to do. That is why “it was credited to him as righteousness.”
Now not only for his sake was it written that it was credited to him, but for our sake as well. It is credited to us as those who trust in Him who raised Yeshua our Lord from the dead. He was handed over for our transgressions and raised up for the sake of setting us right.
Conclusion
Conclusion
Some of you may be thinking “Pastor, but I know all this. I know I am saved by grace through faith, what are you telling me?” Do you really know that? Perhaps you do, but what about the little things? Let us not get caught up in works. Remember, we were created for one purpose and one purpose alone. That is to be the object of God’s love. Jesus had supper with a pair of women and their families. Mary and Martha each received Jesus’ visit in very different ways – one by being busy and serving, the other by sitting at the feet of Jesus.
What many of us have fallen under, and are not willing to say in so many words, is the false assumption that Jesus made a down-payment for our sins, and that we are paying off the rest in installments. We believe somehow that by our works, we make ourselves more acceptable to God. But the problem with that thinking is that, as we have already seen – Jesus declared our debt paid in full so to say that we have anything to add to that is an insult to the sacrifice He made for us.
If however, we understand that our works are an outward reflection of the work of sanctification that God is doing in our lives, then we have the freedom to make the choice to simply sit at the feet of Jesus. There will always be work to do – and there is nothing wrong with getting that done. Our service to God is important, but it is not the most important.
Let us pray