28 | Romans | Romans 4:6-8 | Blessed Faith

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”

As we turn to Romans chapter 4 …

… I want these three things for you this morning:

1) I want you to learn the book of Romans.

I do not just want you to hear what I have to say this morning.

I want you to see how the book of Romans says it, so you can take the truth of the message this morning everywhere with you as long as you have the Bible in your hand.

2) I want you to enjoy the God of grace and faith.

The aim of preaching is not only that you would know the truth, but that you would receive it with faith.

And faith is not merely an acknowledgement that the Lord is God or that his gospel is true.

Faith is a hope-filled dependence.

So, I want you to take joy in the truth of God as we find it in Romans.

3) Finally, and more to the point of our passage this morning, I pray that you will see that salvation, our hope of redemption, is by faith alone.

For all the words and behaviors of life in the church …

… the only effective word for salvation, is the word of the gospel.

… the only effective work for salvation, is the work of Jesus Christ—his life, death and resurrection.

It is by faith in this gospel that we, together, discover how to speak and live lives filled with grace and truth.

You see, church, we have this issue.

The Lord is holy.

He is righteous both in his glory and in his judgements.

And, friends, you and I are not.

We are not righteous, either in our words or our deeds.

We have often walked in sin, and have certainly fallen far short of the glory of God.

This presents the essential crisis at the heart of the human condition.

How can person (you or I) live in the face of the righteous judgement of a holy God?

There are no works of righteousness that your or I may do …

… to reconcile ourselves to a holy God.

The answer is found in that quotation from the prophet Habbakuk that Paul quotes in Romans 1:17.

“The righteous will live by faith.”

Our one hope is that the Lord would save by his grace alone.

And the only way to take hold of that grace, that you would be saved, is by faith alone.

Let us turn this morning to Romans 4:6-8, and consider the psalmist, David, as he sings the blessing of salvation by faith alone.

PRAY

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In order to understand our three verses this morning, we need to consider them in context.

Up to this point in Romans, the first three chapters have pressed home the crisis of the gospel that I referred to before I prayed just a moment ago.

Romans 3:10 ESV

None is righteous, no, not one;

and

Romans 3:23 ESV

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

Is there any hope of redemption?

Is there any way for sinners to escape the righteous wrath of a holy judge?

Romans 3:21-4:25 — FAITH ALONE

I would suggest that you put a note in the margin of your Bibles at Romans 3:21.

In this verse through the end of chapter 4, the letter takes a turn from explaining the crisis of judgement for sinners …

… and begins to explain …

Intro: Faith in Him Who Justifies the Ungodly

Romans 3:21-26 — “The righteous God righteously righteouses the unrighteous.” - Naselli

Read Romans 3:22.

Romans 3:27-31 — The righteousness of God is by faith alone for both Jew and Gentile (v28).

Read Romans 3:28-29.

Romans 4 — The example of Abraham demonstrates that justification is by faith alone.

We began in Romans 4 last week.

I recommend that if you were not here last week that you go back to that sermon in the podcast as it serves as a launching pad for our entrance again into Romans.

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Now, tucked here into Romans 4 is the example of David from Psalm 32.

Again, the Whole of this Portion of Romans is about …

Faith in Him Who Justifies the Ungodly

Paul just said this in v5.

What we find in v6-8 isn’t just a further example or explanation.

We find exultation! We find the song of a man (Paul) who clings to precious amazing grace as he recalls the psalm another man (David) as he also clings to precious amazing grace.

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And this is the great joy of studying Romans.

Romans as Systematic Exultation

Some of you may have heard of systematic theologies.

Systematic theologies are those huge books, often over a 1,000 pages that systematically explain all manner of Christian doctrine.

Romans is the closest thing Pauls gives us to a systematic theology in the scriptures.

And yet it isn’t a thousand page scholarly work.

It is a letter to the church.

And it is a letter not merely of explanation of doctrines.

It is a letter of faith-filled worship!

Paul can’t get more than a couple of sentences without saying, “This is amazing! Praise be to God!”

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JUST AS DAVID

Paul is connecting two things: he is connecting his claim in v5-6 to the Psalm he quotes in v7-8—Psalm 32.

v5-6 - faith is counted as righteousness (imputation of Christ’s righteousness) — to whom God counts/credits righteousness

It isn’t that God makes the person righteous or every believer would be immediately and automatically sinless.

It is that he is credited or counted as righteous because of the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ on his behalf.

This reality of faith counted as righteousness is then connected to …

v7-8 - lawless deeds are forgiven & sins are covered = unrighteousness not counted

So, for the one who believes, there are two sides of the glorious coin of justification by faith alone.

The believer is counted righteous by faith in Christ alone.

And the believer’s sin is forgiven by faith alone.

So, neither is sin forgiven nor righteousness gained by anything but faith.

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Faith is complete dependence upon the righteousness of God revealed in the perfect work of Jesus on our behalf.

Perfect work from beginning to end.

This is what the protestant reformer Martin Luther calls the “great exchange” …

… that two sided coin that is referred to in theology as double imputation is right here in these few verses.

Imputation means to credit to the account of another.

To Im—pute.

Jesus takes the sin of the person of faith upon himself …

… and credits to the believer his perfect righteousness.

On the cross, Jesus became sin, who knew no sin, that in him we might become the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21).

By this, the perfect work of Christ received by faith …

… by this to part work we are justified, we are reconciled to the holy God.

That is, faith is complete dependence from first to last, from faith for faith, in the work of God and not the work of self.

Jesus’ perfect life for us.

Jesus’ sacrificial death for us.

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All of this is glorious doctrine packed into just a few sentences!

But, notice what Paul is doing here.

He isn’t just unpacking technical details of theology.

He already did this with the example of Abraham.

So, what is added by pointing us to Psalm 32?

He isn’t just detailing doctrine, he is also declaring the practical joy of salvation by grace alone through faith alone.

The aim of Christ in salvation is your practically immediate and unchangeably eternal joy.

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Psalm 31 is beautiful and compelling to our souls because it holds out …

THE BURDEN OF SIN & THE BLESSING OF GRACE

This person in the psalm is someone that David says is counted righteous.

“Just as” is Paul seeing faith alone in Psalm 32 (see Piper).

I encourage you to go ahead and turn over to Psalm 32.

Look at v3ff.

Compare the blessing of justification (forgiveness and covering) to the wasting away of silent failure to turn to the Lord in repentance and faith.

This blessing unfolds in two ways

There is a finality, a perfect completeness to justification by faith alone that establishes the irrevocable ground of our salvation …

… and there is a daily practicality … a daily confession of sin that receives assurance of faith.

There is a daily faith that remembers the secure ground of grace upon which we first believed.

When is the man of Psalm 32 blessed?

When his lawless deeds were forgiven and his sins were covered.

This is the once and final work of Jesus on the cross.

But it is also true that the man of Psalm 32 is blessed every time he sings the song.

Every time he remembers that his sin is forgiven he is blessed.

Every time he remembers that his sin—past, present and future—are not counted against him, but have been atoned for by the Lord.

Our sanctification is daily grounded in our justification.

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ILL: This gospel reality is why I went into church planting.

I do not think that we have done enough to ground all that springs from the gospel …

… all the fruit of the gospel

… clearly and concretely in Jesus Christ’s atonement and in the objective and final justification of the believer.

Jeremiah — Sanctification springs from the soil of justification, and from no other ground.

Friday night, right in this room, Pietas Classical Christian School invited Brad Littlejohn to speak on the subject of his new book, Called to Freedom.

In his book he describes the ways that sin causes a person to loose his or her freedom:

forgetfulness, futility, fear

We live in a generation often paralyzed, perhaps, enslaved, by what is often labeled anxiety and depression.

It seems to me that these three words—forgetfulness, futility and fear—are more helpful words for what is often commonly called anxiety and even the cause of much depression.

Forgetfulness

We forget who we are.

Worse yet, we can’t face who we are.

We know that something has gone terribly wrong in the world and in our lives.

But, we make up stories about what happened—what this person did to me or what our circumstances happened to me to make me this way.

It seems too much to bear that the greatest hardship that you and I face is our own personal enslavement to sin and ongoing unbelief.

As the band Project 86 says, “It’s me against me against me.”

Dwight L. Moody The greatest enemy that ever crossed my path was D.L. Moody. Our enemies are within.

But we have another past that we often bury with shame-filled forgetfulness.

For the person who has placed his faith in Christ …

… our sin, with all its guilt and shame

… are forgiven and covered.

So, we are free to remember and confess our sin before the Lord.

We can be honest with our own soul and yet remain thoroughly without shame.

Blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.

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Where faith frees us from forgetfulness and false remembering of our past …

… faith also frees us from

Futility in the present

I have wants. I have desires. I think I’ll just sin a little.

Why not? What’s the point in even trying not to.

I’m powerless anyway.

And so what if I sin. I’m already saved. Does it really matter?

But Jesus has cancelled the power of sin.

We don’t have to live in bondage to sin because our sin has been atoned for.

We have have been freed to the blessed life of righteousness.

The Lord, by the light of his grace has opened the way, he has lighted the path of righteousness.

Yes, before faith, there were no good works that could free us from our bondage to sin nor establish our righteousness before a holy God.

But, by faith Christ’s righteousness has been credited to me.

So, my good works do matter!

Not because they save, but because they are good.

They are actually pleasing to the God who has saved me.

And they are actually a blessing to the one who walks in the counsel of righteousness.

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So faith in Christs’ justifying grace frees us …

… from forgetfulness of the past

… and futility in the present

… but also

Fear of the future

It is natural that we would ask: What if I don’t measure up?

What if I fail?

Will the Lord abandon me?

Is there still grace for the weak of faith?

Or, once we are justified, do we now have to earn salvation from here on out.

ILL: I think of the ending of Saving Private Ryan.

Captain Miller gives his life to save Private Ryan.

As Captain Miller lies dying he says: “Earn this … earn it.”

I remember first hearing these words and it crushed my soul.

What terror!

Who could ever earn the sacrificial death of another man?

What a burden. What dread!

This is not grace. This is not the word of the cross.

Lawless deeds = forgiven.

Sins = covered.

The sacrifice of Jesus is freedom from fear.

Finally and eternally blessed.

The Lord has loved me finally and forever.

There is, therefore, no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

Romans 8:2–4 ESV

For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

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And so, I want to close with …

THE PRACTICAL JOY OF JUSTIFICATION

Sanctification

The term “blessed” signifies a deep security and happiness in God, regardless of our circumstances (See Logos Summary of Piper).

In fact, the term blessed means that the security and happiness of the believer …

… is the overriding and undergirding circumstance in every circumstance.

The state of blessing is grounded not in the wavering work of the believer, but in the perfect work of God.

This is the essence of faith alone.

The believer trusts God’s promise and grounds his joy in the righteousness of God …

… in the past work of Christ to justify

… in his ongoing work of intercession

Hebrews 7:25 ESV

… to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.

… in the present work of the Spirit to sanctify

… in the future work of the Lord to glorify

… when he appears and calls his church to live in his presence forevermore.

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What is needed is to believe once for all …

… and again and again that your lawless deeds are both forgiven and covered.

The result is that once and for all the Lord simply does not count your sin against you!

… and again and again he speaks the enduring truth of justification to our souls

… forgiven … covered … justified

William Cowper — Love Constraining to Obedience To see the law by Christ fulfilled And hear His pardoning voice, Changes a slave into a child, And duty into choice.

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A huge aspect of sanctification is daily reclaiming the blessed state.

It is to till the soil again.

If you find yourself wasting away as the psalmist in unrepentant fear and sin enslaved paralysis …

… you interrupt this unbelief, proclaiming

… “I am a sinner, it’s true! But, I am free by faith alone! On Christ the solid rock I stand!”

Sanctification springs from the soil of justification, and from no other ground.

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I want to give you three passages of scripture for practical remembering.

Scripture for practical joy in justification

And, oh, you who learn both the need for this gospel word and the means by which to preach it to yourself …

… you will become a mighty beacon of strength, a light shining in the darkness for this fellowship of saints

… who will need to hear this gospel word in seasons of heavy hearted groaning.

A collection of verses by which to remember (to preach the gospel to your own soul (from Piper).

2 Corinthians 5:21 ESV

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

test

Philippians 3:8–9 ESV

Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—

test

Chief among them …

Romans 8:1 ESV

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

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APPLY

ILL: Sitting on my back porch as the sun went down in the upper 50s. I was warm, with my jacket sitting loose, enjoying the warmth of the sun. Less than half the sun settled behind the neighbor’s roof across the pond in my back yard and I was immediately chilled. The awesome power of our brilliant sun.

We are desperate for the full heat of the gospel’s shining.

If any part of the gospel becomes eclipsed, we will surely become chilled in our soul.

What is needed is that shining brilliance again. Shine on me!

Bob Dylan — Precious Angel Now there’s spiritual warfare and flesh and blood breaking down Ya either got faith or ya got unbelief and there ain’t no neutral ground The enemy is subtle, how be it we are so deceived When the truth’s in our hearts and we still don’t believe? Shine your light, shine your light on me … Ya know I just couldn’t make it by myself I’m a little too blind to see

test

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APPLY

The gift of the gospel is freedom from death.

But what do we get with freedom from death?

We can finally start living!

We can finally take up true, abundant and free life.

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