Romans part IV
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Today Paul is going to answer the question
How were people in the Old Testament saved and what does that say about me today?
Taking everything we have been talking about into account, that Gentiles are accountable to themselves and without excuse, that the Jews under the Law of moses were accountable and without excuse, that all of us regardless of background, race, gender, all of us are held accountable for sin and all of us fall short of God’s standard of glory and holiness. Taking into effect that all of us are united in sin but greater still that we can be united under grace. Though our sins were counted against us, Jesus has taken our place, paying the penalty of our sin, and by grace through faith we have new life with Christ for all eternity. If all those things are true, where do we go from here? A long time ago as part of the protestant reformation, the reformers used five statements of belief that they called “Solas” to describe some core doctrines necessary to us as believers. The five “solas” are this: Grace Alone, Faith Alone, Christ Alone, Scripture Alone, To the Glory of God Alone. To summarize: we are saved by grace alone and not by works done by us. We are saved by grace alone through faith alone. There is no other means of salvation other than belief. Belief in who? Christ alone. Jesus is the only way for forgiveness. His life death and resurrection make the way for us to be reconciled to God. We know these things according to Scripture alone. God’s Word, the Bible is the ultimate source of truth. It is without error or contradiction. Finally, all things are done for the glory of God alone. He is the only one worthy of praise and worship. The life we now live we live to honor God in everything we do. Grace alone. Faith Alone. Christ Alone. Scripture Alone. To the Glory of God Alone.
If I could summarize the first three chapters of Romans I would describe it as Grace alone. Paul really drives home the point that salvation is only because of the free gift of grace offered to us. We could never earn it. We could never deserve it. Yet, it is offered to us freely. A gift of grace.
This fourth chapter I would describe as Faith Alone.
What is faith?
Hebrews describes it as
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
Paul is going to take all the way back to Abraham and really focus in on the idea of faith: what it is, why it is important. And next week will be Christ alone and why Jesus is the only one who brings salvation.
What then shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.” Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness,
Why does Paul use the Old Testament history when teaching the Roman church? Why not talk about Jupiter or Artemis? Why not mention the Trojan war and Romulus and Remus? Paul’s use of Abraham points to the historical accuracy of the Old Testament. Paul was teaching these Gentile believers that not only is the Old Testament reliable for wisdom and teaching. It is also reliable as a historical account.
Abraham was called by God to leave his country. Leave everything he knew behind and go west into a land that God would give him. Abraham and his wife went and they sojourned in a foreign land. Abraham was an older man and after he had spent time in the land of Canaan God promised Abraham in Genesis 15 that He would make Abraham into a great nation. That He (despite being old) would have a child.
After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, “Do not fear, Abram, I am a shield to you; Your reward shall be very great.” Abram said, “O Lord God, what will You give me, since I am childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” And Abram said, “Since You have given no offspring to me, one born in my house is my heir.” Then behold, the word of the Lord came to him, saying, “This man will not be your heir; but one who will come forth from your own body, he shall be your heir.” And He took him outside and said, “Now look toward the heavens, and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” And He said to him, “So shall your descendants be.” Then he believed in the Lord; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness. And He said to him, “I am the Lord who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to possess it.” He said, “O Lord God, how may I know that I will possess it?” So He said to him, “Bring Me a three year old heifer, and a three year old female goat, and a three year old ram, and a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” Then he brought all these to Him and cut them in two, and laid each half opposite the other; but he did not cut the birds. The birds of prey came down upon the carcasses, and Abram drove them away. Now when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and behold, terror and great darkness fell upon him. God said to Abram, “Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, where they will be enslaved and oppressed four hundred years. “But I will also judge the nation whom they will serve, and afterward they will come out with many possessions. “As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you will be buried at a good old age. “Then in the fourth generation they will return here, for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet complete.” It came about when the sun had set, that it was very dark, and behold, there appeared a smoking oven and a flaming torch which passed between these pieces. On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your descendants I have given this land, From the river of Egypt as far as the great river, the river Euphrates: the Kenite and the Kenizzite and the Kadmonite and the Hittite and the Perizzite and the Rephaim and the Amorite and the Canaanite and the Girgashite and the Jebusite.”
God made this promise to Abraham. We see God make a covenant with him. In those days you would take an animal and cut it in half and the two parties would walk through together as a symbol of the promise being made. But God doesn’t wait for Abraham to walk through. Abraham falls asleep and God walks through making the covenant with Himself. This promise God made to Abraham was not dependent on Abraham’s faithfulness in keeping it but in God’s faithfulness. Later on in chapter 17 God would require Abraham and all his descendants to be circumcised as a physical representation of the promise that had already been made. And so Paul is making the point here in Romans, Abraham is the father of our faith yes, but he did nothing to earn that title. Abraham was not justified because he was a good person. If Abraham earned his salvation it wouldn’t be a free gift of grace. It would be what was due him. Abraham didn’t earn the promise made to him that night by God but he recieved the promise through faith. He believed and it was accredited to him as righteousness.
And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness,
The work was being done by God, Abraham needed only to believe God was true.
just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works: “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.” Is this blessing then only for the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised? For we say that faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness. How then was it counted to him? Was it before or after he had been circumcised? It was not after, but before he was circumcised. He received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. The purpose was to make him the father of all who believe without being circumcised, so that righteousness would be counted to them as well, and to make him the father of the circumcised who are not merely circumcised but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised.
If the blessing of the Gospel is not earned through religious festivals, works of the law, traditions, who is it available to?
Abraham was seen as righteous before he was ever given a work of the law to do. Before he ever had a tradition to pass on. Before there was ever a festival to be celebrated. Abraham existed before the law yet was seen by God as righteous. Why? Because righteousness cannot be earned. It is a free gift from God to those who have faith. And so why circumcision? Think of it like baptism. Why do people get baptized after they give their life to Christ?
Circumcision, like baptism, was an outward expression of what was true on the inside. Abraham being made righteous before circumcision opens the door for all people. Abraham isn’t just the father of people born of his blood line. He has become father to the nations because of the saving grace of God through faith. Deliverance always precedes the work.
Even with the giving of the law, salvation came first.
And God spoke all these words, saying, “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. “You shall have no other gods before me.
God delivered then He called His people to be obedient.
For the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith. For 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 there is no transgression. That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring—not only to the adherent of the law but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all, as it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations”—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.
If Abraham had earned his faith the promise of God would be null. It would mean nothing. What need is there for a savior is salvation could be achieved by human effort. Salvation must be through faith so that God’s promise is not void and so that those who were of Abraham by law and those who are of Abraham by faith might be brought together in grace. So for everyone, those in the Old Testament and those in the New. We look to Christ, the promised one of God, the messiah, to be our salvation. We know by name the one who those in the Old Testament knew by promise, but for all people we look to Christ for salvation. From Genesis to Revelation, the story of Scripture focuses on the Jesus as being the fulfillment of the promise. It’s why we read about Israel and their history. God had chosen to make Himself known through Abraham’s line so that one day Jesus would come and carry out the work God had promised all those years ago.
In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, “So shall your offspring be.” He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead (since he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah’s womb. No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. That is why his faith was “counted to him as righteousness.” But the words “it was counted to him” were not written for his sake alone, but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord,
Abraham took God at His word. He had reason to doubt. He had reason to question. But He trusted God because God was faithful to Abraham. God was true in what He said. Abraham had faith that God would keep His promises. He looked forward to the one who would fulfill the covenant God made with him that night in Canaan. Jesus has come. He has died on the cross for our sins. He rose again on the third day. The work is done. Jesus has said so Himself. As He hung there on the cross Jesus said, “It is finished.” Once and for all. Salvation has been payed for all people for all time. Those who had faith and believed before. Those who will come after. Jesus’ death payed the penalty of sin once and for all and we need only to receive that gift of grace by faith.
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.
So to answer the question: How were people in the Old Testament saved?
They looked forward in faith to the promise God had made. They didn’t see clearly what would happen. They only knew in part what we know fully. Yet, they believed in faith.
By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God. By faith Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who had promised. Therefore from one man, and him as good as dead, were born descendants as many as the stars of heaven and as many as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore. These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city. By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom it was said, “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back.
I want to summarize something Paul says later on in Galatians that goes along with this passage.
God made a covenant to Abraham and his offspring that one would come, that person being Jesus, and that person would bless all nations. The law was given 430 years later but that doesn’t change God’s promise to Abraham. The law served as a guardian and guide to Israel but served only to reveal Israel's need for a savior. We were dead in our sin under the law but Christ has come so that we might be saved by faith. Now by grace through faith we can be made sons and daughters of God because of what Christ has done. And if we are Christ’s then we are part of Abraham’s family, heirs according to the promise.
Read “Illustrations of Faith” by Spurgeon