Romans 4:1-25

How many of you as kids loved to take things apart just to hope to see how it worked? Some of you still do, right?

Romans 4 is Paul's dissection of what faith is.

we have already looked at some verses in Romans that point to how impotent faith is in salvation. verses like...

Romans 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, first to the Jew, and also to the Greek.

Romans 3:22 The righteousness of God is through faith in Jesus Christ, to all who believe,

The word believe in the Greek is the same word your for faith. without faith in Jesus there is no power of salvation.

So what is faith? If you asked 3 different people you'd probably get 3 different answers.

fortnightly for us Paul though the guidance of the holy spirit lays out for us what saving faith is.

In Romans 4 we see how we can be assured and confident on our faith. I don't know about you this morning but this is something i have struggled with and sometimes still do.

I would ask myself, what is saving faith found in? Going to church? being baptized? being the best and most obedient Christian I can be? was it reading the bible as often as i could? I drove myself cray trying to understand.

Paul chooses to show us, and his audience at the time what faith is through the person of Abraham. That's because the Jews at the time saw Abraham as the father of their faith, and in some ways we do too. **The song father Abraham**

The Jews were having trouble believing what Paul was preaching about grace and faith because they thought it was new.

So Paul is doing this is to show that Abraham the father of the Jewish faith was Justified by grace through faith, and if he was justified by faith they/we can expect to be justified by Grace though faith as well. (This is how salvation has worked all along. even in the old testament)

So Paul is going to ask 3 questions here to answer a misunderstanding about faith. Jesus did this often. 1. How was Abraham saved? 2. When was Abraham saved? 3. What were the eliminates of Abrahams saving faith?

1. How was Abraham saved?

Romans 4:1-3 What then will we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, has found? 2 If Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about—but not before God. 3 For what does the Scripture say? Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him for righteousness.

So how was Abraham saved? By his “belief” or “faith” in the promise of God, that one day one of his decadence would make salvation available for all nations. That is what credited to him Gods righteousness . Faith in Gods promised suaver of the world.

In the next verse Paul shows us the inner logic of faith...

Romans 4:4 Now to the one who works, pay is not credited as a gift, but as something owed.

When we work for something or earn something we don't we don't feel indebted to the one who is paying us, right? We performed a task and we expect payment for that task. Pule says this is how some of us view God. That we do good thing so He should reworded us with heaven.

Most religions work basted of of this idea. “I obey, therefor I am excepted”

The Problem with this logic is that yes, it might change the way I treat some people, but if I’m doing that so I’ll get the reword, I’m relay doing it for me. Its a self-centered faith. The motivation for that kids of faith is not our of love for God, but out of love for myself.

Paul is going to show us that the Gospel works differently...

Romans 4:5 But to the one who does not work, but believes on him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited for righteousness.

lets look at a few phrases used here.

“Does not work” now this does not mean that we are absolved from doing good woks. we see Jesus doing good thing thought the gospels. so what does this mean? It means we no longer do good works as a way of obtaining salvation. instead you “believe on him who justifies the ungodly” that Jesus has done all the work to give you right standing with God.

“credited” this is the most important word in Romans 4 Its a banking therm us in those days. in the Greek its “Logizomai” meaning to “transfer” we call this “The great estrange” its where everything Jesus did and endured gits transferred to you and everything you've done in rebellion against God gets transferred to Jesus.

This takes place when you stop punting your faith in what you have accomplished, and you put your faith and trust in Jess and what he has accomplished.

here are some of the most popular answers to the question of why God should let someone into heaven:

A. I tried my best to be a good christian. (works based salvation)

B. I believe in God and try to do his will. (works based salvation with a splash of faith)

C. I believe in God with all of my heart. (salvation by faith as a work. this is someone who says God loves them because of their faith in him)

none of these are a truest-transfer. They are still putting the focus on some part of themselves for salvation.

the only right answer to the question of why God should let you into heave is “because of what Jesus has done”

**Billy Graham quot slide** here is a guy that a lot of us would say is the bench mark of a believer, and he says he’s not resting and hoping in that, but in the work of Jesus.

hes putting his trust in what vases 6 says “But to the one who does not work, but believes on him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited for righteousness.”

So Paul turns his attention to David in the next verses...

Romans 4:6-7 Likewise, David also speaks of the blessing of the person to whom God credits righteousness apart from works: 7 Blessed are those whose lawless acts are forgiven and whose sins are covered. 8 Blessed is the person the Lord will never charge with sin

So not only does Paul use David here because his a big deal among the Jews like Abraham, but because David was the poster child of the forgiven sinner in the old testament.

how was Abraham saved? through placing his “faith” “trust” in the work of God.

2. When was Abraham saved?

Romans 4:9-10 Is this blessing only for the circumcised, then? Or is it also for the uncircumcised? For we say, Faith was credited to Abraham for righteousness., 10 In what way, then, was it credited—while he was circumcised, or uncircumcised? It was not while he was circumcised, but uncircumcised.

this is not a lesson on circumcision, but what this is is a representation of God law. So Abraham was declared righteous in Genesis 15:6, circumcision wasn't introduced until Genesis 17.

Romans 4:11 And he received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith, while still uncircumcised. This was to make him the father of all who believe but are not circumcised, so that righteousness may be credited to them also.

so what Paul is saying here is that if Abraham was saved before circumcision (the law) then circumcision (the law) was not what saved him. the law can not save us. it just shows us we need saving.

this is important to the Jews of the time that thought they were saved by keeping the law and its impotent for us today because we think this way too, sometimes.

It wasn't the law that saved him. it wasn't even his obedanc to the law that saved him. It was his faith in God’s promise.

1. How was Abraham saved? By faith in the Christ

2. When was Abraham saved? Before the law was introduced

3. What were the eliminates of Abrahams saving faith?

**Explain the story of Abraham and Sarah**

Romans 4:18 He believed, hoping against hope, so that he became the father of many nations, according to what had been spoken: So will your descendants be.

We all have an object of our faith. Abraham's was Gods promise, and so should ours.

A. The first eliminate is: Faiths object is Gods promise”

Abraham didn't just generally believe in God, he believed is a specific promise…so much so he adjusts his life to this new reality as if the promise had already come true. And because he did this...

Romans 4:21-22 because he was fully convinced that what God had promised, he was also able to do. 22 Therefore, it was credited to him for righteousness.

Because Abraham trusted in Gods promise, he was justified. So faith is believing that God did what He says He has done, and what he says He will do...and adjusting our lives around that truth.

So Paul knowing that we have most likely not received a promise like this, brides the gape for us to understand...

Romans 4:23-25 Now it was credited to him was not written for Abraham alone, 24 but also for us. It will be credited to us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. 25 He was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.

This righteousness, this justification that Abraham received was not just for him. its for you and I too.

Not only can we be justified just like Abraham, we are justified the same way as Abraham. He believed in the coming promise, that God would send a redeemer into the world to pay for sin and restore life, we believe that God has done that. They looked foreword to this, we look back at it. the direction is different but the object (the work of Jesus) is the same. **bring up 3 people**

so we see the object of faith...

B. Faiths focus

Romans 4:19  He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body to be already dead (since he was about a hundred years old) and also the deadness of Sarah’s womb.

Abraham could have focused on a lot of very real problems, but he trusted that God keeps his promises. It wasn't that he wasn't aware of or even ignored his problems, he just trusted that God would make a way in spit of them.

some of us have mutational fund faith. We try to lessen the risk of if God fails to keep his promise by tying to put our faith in other things alongside God.

The christian life is not you and Jesus. its Jesus in you! (The story of Lilly opening the door to school)

Abraham lived as if the promise was done! and so should we. faith is trusting and staking it all on the truth of the Gospel!

“The most miserable people in the world are half committed Christians” JD

last one and we will go...

C. Faiths boast

Romans 4:20-21 He did not waver in unbelief at God’s promise but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, 21 because he was fully convinced that what God had promised, he was also able to do.

A big them with Paul is what you boast in. if you’re saved by works (Paul says) you can boast about what you've accomplished. But if your saved by faith you can boast only in what God has accomplished.

when we get to heaven we will never get to the subject of our greatness.

lets look at one last thing. and it seem odd...

“20 He did not waver in unbelief at God’s promise but was strengthened in his faith”

If you know Abrahams story you know i did waver a lot. he tried to take matters into hes won hands to get a child. So what does Paul mean here?

faith isn't about not falling, it more about who you look to when you fall.

Proverbs 24:16 Though a righteous person falls seven times, he will get up,

My righteousness does not rest on my spiritual balance, but on God ability to keep his promise.

my faith may be weak and even fail sometimes, but the object of my faith (Jesus) is without fail.

And look at

D. faiths result

Romans 4:12-22 because he was fully convinced that what God had promised, he was also able to do. 22 Therefore, it was credited to him for righteousness.