Romans 4:1-12

Once upon a time, there was a poor farmer who had been saving his money for years in order to buy an ox to pull his plow. When he thought he had enough money saved, he traveled a great distance to the nearest town to shop for an ox. He soon discovered that the paper money he saved had been replaced by a new currency and the date for exchange from the old to the new had come and gone.

The poor farmer was illiterate, so he asked a neighbor to write a letter to the president of their country, explaining his dire situation and pleading for exemption. The president was touched by the letter and wrote back to the farmer: “The law must followed, because the deadline for exchanging bills has already passed. The government can no longer change your bills for the new ones. Even the president is not exempt from this rule. However, because I believe that you really worked hard to save this money, I am changing your money for new money from my own personal funds so that you will be able to buy your ox.”

Every person’s good works are as worthless as that poor farmer’s outdated money because good works do not get us into heaven.

Main idea: Five marks of a true believer.

1. A true believer doesn’t boast to God about great accomplishments.

Romans 4:1–2 ESV

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.

Hey God, did you see that? Wasn’t it awesome that I paid for somebody’s coffee in the drive thru? Did you see that time I was nice to a person that nobody wants to be nice to? How about that large tip I left our server last weekend? Did you get that one? What about today when we were driving to the mall, I didn’t yell anybody else on the road? I even donated blood this month.

God, I think I’ve been a great Christian recently. I hope you have noticed.

We should see what a person is doing for God long before we hear what somebody is doing for God. The “good works” Christian could be doing lots of good stuff that an unbeliever is also doing. Even the person that we have given an elevated Christian status does not have the right to boast before God.

For the Jews, Abraham had an elevated status. He was talked about like he never did anything wrong. To show that Abraham needed to be justified through faith in Jesus, let’s go back to Genesis 11:27-30

Genesis 11:27–32 ESV

Now these are the generations of Terah. Terah fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran fathered Lot. Haran died in the presence of his father Terah in the land of his kindred, in Ur of the Chaldeans. And Abram and Nahor took wives. The name of Abram’s wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor’s wife, Milcah, the daughter of Haran the father of Milcah and Iscah. Now Sarai was barren; she had no child. Terah took Abram his son and Lot the son of Haran, his grandson, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram’s wife, and they went forth together from Ur of the Chaldeans to go into the land of Canaan, but when they came to Haran, they settled there. The days of Terah were 205 years, and Terah died in Haran.

Joshua 24:2 ESV

And Joshua said to all the people, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Long ago, your fathers lived beyond the Euphrates, Terah, the father of Abraham and of Nahor; and they served other gods.

Abram was an idol-worship pagan that serving false gods. The Lord chose him to be his own without any explanation.

Genesis 12:1–4 ESV

Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.

Genesis 12:10 ESV

Now there was a famine in the land. So Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine was severe in the land.

If we kept reading, we would see that he told Sarai to lie about being his wife. Abram kept doing the wrong thing. There was no reason for him to boast to anybody.

Genesis 15:6 ESV

And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.

Abram, I’m going to give this land to your offspring. They will become a great nation.

Genesis 16:1–4 ESV

Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. She had a female Egyptian servant whose name was Hagar. And Sarai said to Abram, “Behold now, the Lord has prevented me from bearing children. Go in to my servant; it may be that I shall obtain children by her.” And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai. So, after Abram had lived ten years in the land of Canaan, Sarai, Abram’s wife, took Hagar the Egyptian, her servant, and gave her to Abram her husband as a wife. And he went in to Hagar, and she conceived. And when she saw that she had conceived, she looked with contempt on her mistress.

Hebrews 11:17–19 ESV

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.

There was nothing in Abram’s life worth boasting about. God did all of it. God chose him. God called him out of idolatry. God forgave him over and over. God justified him. God blessed him. God never took back his promise.

A true believer doesn’t boast about great accomplishments.

2. A true believer doesn’t claim that God owes him anything.

Romans 4:3–5 ESV

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,

3. A true believer counts his justification (salvation) as an undeserved blessing.

Romans 4:6–8 ESV

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.”

4. A true believer has external evidence.

Romans 4:9–11 ESV

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,

Genesis 17:10 ESV

This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your offspring after you: Every male among you shall be circumcised.

Circumcision was the evidence of a decision that had already been made.

5. A true believer sets an example for others.

Romans 4:11–12 ESV

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.

The purpose of the evidence was twofold. First, so that others would believe and have themselves counted as righteousness also. Second, there would be somebody to follow. Nobody automatically knows how to walk with Jesus well. We have to be taught. We do somebody else did. Somebody was your standard of spiritual excellency. You are somebody’s standard of spiritual excellency. There is at least one person in this world that wants to walk with Jesus the same way you do.

Are you confident the standard that you setting is the best standard that you could provide?