August 10, 2025 - The Anatomy of Justification
Notes
Transcript
(Thank LUCAS)
So as you know - we’ve been making our way through the book of Romans…
And along the way - we’ve seen the apostle Paul focusing his attention on MANKIND (WHO mankind is - Jew AND Gentile - all fallen short)
AND - we’ve seen Paul then begin highlighting HOW MANKIND - comes into a right relationship with God...
...in other words - Justification (salvation)
If you remember from 2 weeks ago, we broke into chapter 4 of Romans, and:
We saw Paul take the model of righteousness for the Jewish Nation (Abraham), and show them that Abraham, EVEN Abraham was justified by faith, and not works.
We saw that a works salvation system attacks the sufficiency of God's grace:
That's God's grace isn't sufficient to make someone justified, and so works finishes the equation.
This was the Jewish mindset.
This is not biblical.
And we saw that faith is counted as righteousness to those who believe:
That God justifies
That God justifies the ungodly.
The soul that finds justification is the soul that sees itself as hopeless without God
Abraham COULD NOT be justified by works, therefore no one could be
Abraham WAS justified BY FAITH, therefore ALL men CAN BE justified by faith, and MUST be justified BY FAITH...
In this chapter 4 of Romans we'll see that Justification is:
by faith, not works
by grace, not law
by divine power, not human effort
And last week we saw Paul make the point that justification comes by faith, and not works.
Paul took the Jewish people to - ABRAHAM - and then he took them to David… And so today - we pick up there!
6 just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works:
7 “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered;
8 blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.”
9 Is this blessing then only for the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised? For we say that faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness.
10 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.
11 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,
12 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.
Paul HERE today - wanting to EXPAND his argument - regarding Justification by faith ALONE - to now pointing to DAVID!
Back to v6
6 just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works: 7 “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; 8 blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.”
What did David speak of?
What is Paul pointing to?
a BLESSING!
And based on this passage that deals with a BLESSING....what IS that blessing?
Justification!
TODAY - we’re going to look at - the Anatomy of Justification
NOW - at this point we should have an idea as to HOW the JEWISH NATION VIEWED Justification
HOW they were to get right with God.
And we should KNOW that a HUGE part of that in the Jewish culture - WAS - - circumcision.
John MacArthur had done some digging into how important Circumcision was in the Jewish Culture..
And this is what he found...
“The fierce fanaticism with which the Jews insisted upon the rite of circumcision, is vividly brought out in the book of Jubilees*, this is what it says. This law of circumcision is for all generations forever and there is no circumcision of the time and no passing over one day out of the eight days for it is an eternal ordinance, ordained and written on the heavenly tables. And everyone that is born, the flesh of whose foreskin is not circumcised on the eighth day belongs not to the children of the covenant which the Lord made with Abraham. For he belongs to the children of destruction. Nor is there moreover any sign on him that he is the Lord's but he is destined to be destroyed and slain from the earth and to be rooted out of the earth for he has broken the covenant of the Lord our God. So absolute is circumcision as a mark of God's favor that if an Israelite has practiced idolatry, his circumcision must first be removed before he can go down to Gehenna.”
**Book of Jubilees:
To give you an idea: it's an ancient Jewish religious work, which is actually considered canonical by the Ethiopian Orthodox Church
What this is saying is, Physical circumcision is so much a guarantee to get you to heaven, that even if you lived a wicked life, even boasting in that life, with circumcision, you would go to heaven.
And so Paul would have known that the first century Jews were so caught up in this idea of circumcision, that it's going to take quite a bit to get them to understand what he's saying.
And so - to the Jewish Nation - Circumcision was SOOO important - that in their minds -
ONLY Jewish people could EVER receive God’s blessing!
And so Paul - today - is gonna spend time reorienting minds about HOW WE GET TO GOD!
What does Paul say?
9 Is this blessing then only for the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised? For we say that faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness.
10 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.
So Paul is continuing his assault on Jewish thought.
And NOW - he’s attacking circumcision.
And this is what Paul is saying… When it comes to the Anatomy of Justification...
SLIDE: The Width of Justification: As Wide as Man’s Ability to Believe
The Width of Justification
The Width of Justification
NOW - the Jewish Nation - would have disagreed with this point.
They would have said - NO - it’s NOT as wide as man’s ability to believe!
It’s LIMITED to those who are - CIRCUMCISED!
It’s as WIDE as the Jewish Nation!
THEY based it on - THE LAW… on Circumcision.
Paul is showing them - NO- it’s based on - FAITH!!
It wasn’t Abraham’s circumcision that was counted as righteousness - it was HIS FAITH!
And Paul proves this by what he says in v10...
10 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.
Paul CLARIFIES here - Circumcision had NO PART in Abraham being counted RIGHTEOUS before God.
BECAUSE - as we’ve seen - the Righteousness (Goodness) we need in order to get to God - is NOT OUR righteousness...
It’s GOD’s Righteousness!
8 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
9 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—
We need to see it here...!!
This verse here - v9 - tells us what comes from the LAW...
What kind of righteousness comes from the LAW?
Righteousness of OUR OWN...
Self-righteousness!
“...not having a righteousness OF MY OWN - that comes - from the law”
See when WE AS FALLEN MEN and WOMEN - think that we need to DO GOOD THINGS - in order to get to God - Heaven...
What we’re really BELIEVING - is that we need to BUILD UP a RESUME of Goodness.
And THAT’s called - Self-Righteousness
Self-Goodness....
And we as HUMANS - we believe that there IS SOME LEVEL of goodness in each of us...
12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”
Paul says - NO ONE DOES GOOD....
But he also says...
18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.
And remember - Paul was a - JEW
Paul says - NO - we need a RIGHTEOUSNESS OUTSIDE of ourselves!
And BECAUSE Salvation (Justification) is based on FAITH - -
Justification is as WIDE as man’s ability to believe!
And Paul will say this later on...
12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him.
As WIDE as man’s ability to believe...
THEREFORE -
God’s arm of salvation is not too short TO SAVE your lost coworker - who REBELS against God...
Who SLANDERS you
Who HATES God...today...
There is NO ONE- who is TOO FAR GONE… for God to save!
TRUST THAT!
Embrace that - and BELIEVE that enough to keep praying for your family member...coworker...friend....neighbor
AS WIDE as man’s ability to believe - is the Width of Justification.
But that’s not all we see in our text today....
back to v9
9 Is this blessing then only for the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised? For we say that faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness.
What we need to see HERE is the connection between faith and righteousness...
If MY RIGHTEOUSNESS is not what’s needed to be justified!..
If MY good deeds don’t COUNT for anything...
YET - Faith is COUNTED AS - righteousness...
Then who’s righteousness is APPLIED to my account = upon my FAITH in Jesus?
It’s CHRIST’S righteousness - that gets APPLIED to me when I believe!
Back to phil 3
8 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
9 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—
It’s the righteousness of Christ that we receive - UPON faith...in HIM...
AND SO....
SLIDE: The Purity of Justification: As Pure as Christ’s Righteousness
The Purity of Justification
The Purity of Justification
Agree or not - but it’s getting harder and harder these days to actually TRUST the nutrition labels on the foods that we eat...
Even the WATER we drink nowadays - has chemicals in it - to help companies make more money...
Companies today are allowed to HIDE their ingredients behind BROAD TERMS - like...
Natural flavors
Protein BLEND
It seems the best approach today - is to only buy things that have been 3rd party tested...
Meaning - an independent party comes in and tests the product to make sure WHAT IS SAID is in the ingredients - IS IN the ingredients. (Nutrabio*)
OK - so let’s take this same approach - and apply it to Jesus.
QUESTION - How PURE is the righteousness of Jesus?
WELL - First - let’s look at ourselves first...
How PURE is our righteousness?
MEANING - is our righteousness TAINTED with selfish motives?
Jesus WARNED us of this very thing!
Remember - when we looked at Matt 5:16 and compared it to Matt 6:1?
16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.
Let mankind - SEE your righteousness - good deeds
1 “Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.
Well = this tells me that we have a tendency of DOING GOOD things - not to glorify God - but to get glory ourselves!
And we can taint anything right?
We’ll get stage 4 cancer - end up getting past it...surviving - and then describing that as -
I BEAT CANCER!
Maybe we’ll do REALLY well on a test - and we’ll describe that as -
I ACED the TEST!!
Maybe we’ll write a song - even a Christian song - and we’ll explain that process as...
YEAH - I WROTE THE ENTIRE SONG IN LIKE 20 MINUTES… IT JUST CAME TO ME!
We will take ANYTHING - and seek glory for ourselves!
But what about Christ!??
He said -
19 So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise.
And if Jesus ONLY did what the Father does...
AND we also know THIS about the Father....
11 In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, 12 so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory.
God works all things - to the praise of His OWN glory...
THEREFORE - Jesus ONLY GLORIFIED the Father!
NOW - Jesus is obviously UNIQUE - in that He Himself - is God...
And YET - even so - He teaches us - to GLORIFY GOD in what we do - - AND - in how we FEEL...!
In our MOTIVES!!
How PURE were Jesus’ motives?
In ALL He did - He GLORIFIED God!!
31 So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
And so obviously a call that Christ Himself lived out.
And an example for us...
But I think there’s something to be said about the fact that we are - THOUGH REDEEEMED - still sinners in this world.
13 Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”
See - Jesus KNOWS that we suck - He came BECAUSE we do!
And BECAUSE He KNOWS that we’re sinners - He wants hearts that ADMIT that!
That’s why REPENTANCE honors God!
So when we DO MESS UP - we HONOR Him when we admit it...
and confess it!
WE - in and of ourselves - ARE NOT pure...
Paul says that his OUTER FLESH is at constant WAR with his - INNER MAN - redeemed.
21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand.
22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being,
23 but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.
And so - EVEN PAUL....
Even Paul - struggled with sin...
Struggled with idols in his life...
Struggled with lust
Struggled with anger
And PROBABLY AT TIMES - anger towards God!
Paul was OFTEN experiencing PAIN - because he was obeying God.
We as humans - are NOT PURE...!
Which ONLY ELEVATES - the AMAZING LOVE of God...
And HIS salvation...for us....
HIS righteousness - FOR US....
WHICH IS - SO RIGHTEOUS - - it couldn’t be - any - MORE good!
The HIGHEST PURITY of - Good.
SO HOW DOES that truth - IMPACT us today?
**When you find yourself - in a VALLEY - in the darkest of times...
And all you can do is - scratch your head....
“God - I’m NOT who you want me to be”
“God - I’m NOT pursuing you above ALL THINGS....”
“God - I don’t FEEL LIKE - Your glory is MY JOY right now”
When you’re in THAT place!...
And ALL YOU CAN SEE if your FAILURE!!
God is saying - Get your EYES OFF of - YOU!
YES - YOU DO SUCK -
But I DON”T!!!
Look at ME!
Eyes ON ME!!
No - you’re NOT PURE...
But I AM!!
Eyes on ME!
I HAVE YOU!!
I have you.
In those times - can we sing with the Sons of Sunday...
“I looked up - I looked up - From the bottom and I saw You… it was all You!
PRAYER
But there’s more in the text!
So far we’ve seen the Width of Justification....
We’ve seen the Purity of Justification...
AND now back to our text...
9 Is this blessing then only for the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised? For we say that faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness.
10 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.
11 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,
12 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.
Paul here is highlighting WHEN justification took place in Abraham’s life...
And Paul uses circumcision to do it...
And BASED on his explanation - it seems the Jewish Nation would have made some incorrect assumptions about how this played out!
v10
10 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. 11 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,
Paul is wanting to establish the biblical fact that works of obedience have a proper place in the life of a believer, AND IT'S NOT as a basis of justification.
Paul wants to put works of obedience in their proper place.
SLIDE: The Place of Justification: Justification Proceeds Obedience
The Place of Justification
The Place of Justification
Listen, and if we get this wrong....if we tune out because we just don't want to hear it....
...damnation waits...
Just ask the pharisee and the tax collector.
Ok, so where IS the proper place of works...in the life of a believer?
God is going to tell us - thru Paul.
v11
11 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,
Two words should jump out at us:
Sign and Seal.
(read verse again...)
It says - "the righteousness that he had while he was still UNcircumcised."
So by faith, he received the righteousness of God (still not circumcised)...
He then received circumcision as a SIGN and a SEAL of that righteousness that he already had.
If it was on a timeline, it would look like this...
SLIDE 1 - Timeline
You guys remember when we talked about the trees in the field all getting giant G's carved into their trunks as a sign...
...to say that they belonged to God.
But then that one tree, when you walked up to it to pull some fruit from it, you realized that the fruit was plastic.
And the plastic fruit proved that the sign of the "G" didn't signify something real?
This is circumcision...
It was meant to be a sign...meant to point to something real.
BUT, it didn't always point to something real.
Abraham's circumcision DID point to something real.
It pointed to the righteousness of God which had been imputed to him...
...and the righteousness of God which he had prior to his circumcision, pointed to his faith.
Where there's smoke, there's a _____
fire - we see the smoke, and because we see the smoke, we know that something caused it.
Have you ever been driving somewhere, and you look out in the distance over some trees, and you see smoke?
You then drive over to see if you can see anything, and you realize it wasn't due to a fire, but something else (factory...)
This was circumcision.
A sign that was meant to point to something real.....faith
But it didn't always.
Those who believed that their circumcision ALONE earned them justification before God...
...demonstrated that the sign of their circumcision was meaningless...that it pointed to something that wasn't real.
The smoke that they were giving off wasn't due to a fire...
Like a mirage in the desert...when you get close...it's not real.
And so people who believe that they're going to go to heaven because they've been GOOD enough....they have faith.
But it's dead faith.
It's not faith in Jesus.
They have faith in themselves to get the job done.
But as we've heard from Paul - no man will be justified by works of the law.
And so Paul is is putting works in their place.
BECAUSE they do have a place in the life of a believer.
He's not tossing works out the window.
Abraham did get circumcised.
Paul's not trying to claim that Abraham didn't get circumcised.
Paul agrees that he got circumcised...
What Paul is saying is - that Abraham's circumcision was an act of obedience, not to earn justification, but because he had already BEEN justified on the basis of faith.
Do you remember the book-ends of Romans we talked about early on:
5 through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations,
So yes, Abraham obeyed in getting circumcised...
BUT that obedience was fueled by faith...which he already had.
It's the obedience OF faith that is the sign and seal we read about in verse 11.
Faith exists...and then obedience happens.
And SOOOO, the sign of our justification is - when our lives begin to conform to the will of God, by the transforming power of the Holy Spirit.
This is a sign and seal that our faith is real and...
...that we have obtained the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus alone.
And so we need to understand that God cancels our sin, on the basis of faith alone in Christ alone...
...and then HE breaks the power of that sin in our lives.
This is where so many don't realize they're off the track heading for hell...
They believe that they need to break the power of sin in their life (good works), and THEN God will cancel that sin...and accept them.
Well, biblically speaking...that's backwards and completely wrong.
God cancels our sin, on the basis of our faith alone in Jesus...
...and then on the basis of that justification...
...God breaks the power of sin in our lives (sanctification).
Paul is aiming to get this right in the minds of his readers....including us.
And he's also aiming to get us to understand (and the Jewish Nation) that faith alone opens the door to ALL people.
11 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, 12 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.
So in just reading this we can see two camps of people.
Those who are uncircumcised
And those who are circumcised
Now, when we read this carefully, we can see what links these two groups...
At the end of verse 11, what does it say - "The purpose was to make him the father of all who BELIEVE without being circumcised...
That's one group.
Uncircumcised believers - that have faith
Now, next group
back to verse 12:
12 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.
So he link between these 2 sides if you will, is FAITH.
Those who walk in the footsteps of faith...
The same footsteps of faith that Abraham walked in BEFORE he was circumcised.
SLIDE 2 - Faith Based
In this slide you can see that Abraham is the father of all who what - "HAVE FAITH"...
Abraham is NOT the father of the faithless.
God's point in justifying Abraham by faith alone before his being circumcised is to make clear that Abraham is the spiritual father of all who are justified by faith, no matter what people group they are from.
So here is the significance of this.
It was not easy for Judaism to be a missionary religion in Old Testament times.
There were a lot of obstacles
This was mainly a come-see religion, not a stripped down, missionary, go-tell religion that fits a lot of different cultures.
But now Paul is making something crystal clear that was not as clear in the Old Testament.
All the nations - all the ethnic groups - are meant by God to be included in the promises of Abraham.
And the way he is making it clear here is by focusing our attention on the fact that Abraham obtained his covenant relation with God not by means of circumcision or any other Jewish ritual, but by faith - a faith he had before he was circumcised.
Therefore, Paul says (verse 11), Abraham is "the father of all who believe without being circumcised, that righteousness might be credited to them."
So the message of justification by faith alone should be at the heart of all our missionary preaching and teaching.
And all our evangelizing.
Every kind of person is included in the gospel - everybody you know -because faith is the most universally accessible act of the human heart in every people and tribe and tongue and nation.
Faith is not a performance based on education or personality or culture or ritual or strength or riches.
It is what happens when the heart finds itself turning away from all those things and depending entirely on the mercy of God in Christ.
Paul is passionate about justification by faith alone because it is the foundation for the great missionary work of his life.
Conclusion
In sum then, Paul hammers home the reality of justification by faith alone apart from works
SUMMARY
The Anatomy of Justification
The Width of Justification
The Purity of Justification
The Place of Justification
The Width of Justification: As Wide as Man’s Ability to Believe
And fourth, because Paul is passionate about reaching every people group in the world with the gospel and showing that they can be children of Abraham and heirs of the promise by faith in Jesus Christ alone apart from Jewish ritual - or American culture.
The Purity of Justification: As Pure as Christ’s Righteousness
BECAUSE justification comes by FAITH and is BASED on FAITH...
AND because FAITH LINKS us to the RIghteousness of God...
Our RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD - is NOT based on OUR purity...
the purity of MY SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS
It’s based on something SO PURE...
SO PERFECT - it CANNOT be improved upon...
OR TARNISHED!
My standing before God is ROOTED in - perfection not my own.
And so Father’s LOVE FOR ME - is based on God’s LOVE for Jesus!
Which MEANS...
God’s love for me doesn’t increase and decrease based on - ME.
God is working in us - to make us more like Him.… and we fail - all the time - yet HIS LOVE is - STEADY
The Place of Justification: Justification Proceeds Obedience
Justification PROCEEDS obedience.
Listen - OUR obedience can ONLY be based on FAITH!
And so - FAITH (Justification) - HAS to proceed obedience!
*Vacation - Riding waves into shore.
The waves were HUGE - some 5 feet taller than me...
And SO - the ONLY way you were gonna RIDE a wave into shore - was to have faith that you COULD MAKE IT....without dying.
If obedience equaled being CARRIED to shore by a wave...
THAT COULD ONLY HAPPEN - how?
by faith.
Picking up our feet - and letting God’s POWER - carry us.
Justification ALWAYS proceeds obedience.
Reversing that is damning...
TRUSTING it - is life....and life to the full.
Let's Pray....
