“God’s Righteousness Illustrated in Abraham” - Pt 1
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INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION
John Stott: “Paul has both expounded his gospel of God’s righteousness, that is, of justification by faith (3:21–26), and defended it against its critics (3:27–31). In doing so, he has also insisted that it is attested by Old Testament Scripture (1:2; 3:21, 31). So the next step in his argument is to supply an Old Testament precedent and example. He chooses Abraham, Israel’s most illustrious patriarch, supplemented by David, Israel’s most illustrious king. Similarly, when Matthew introduced his gospel with Jesus’ genealogy, he named him ‘the son of David, the son of Abraham’ (Matthew 1:1).”
OUR PASSAGE this morning PRESUPPOSES a familiarity with the story of Abraham, beginning with the call of God in (Genesis 12:1) through his death in (Genesis 25:8) at the age of 175!
The story of Abraham has FOUR EPISODES:
FIRST, God called Abram (at the age of 75) to leave his home and his people in Ur, and promised to show him land, give him prosperity, and through him bless all peoples on the earth (Gen 12:1ff).
SECONDLY, God showed him and promised him the land of Canaan, along with a further promise of offspring “…like the dust of the earth” (Gen 13:14-18), and later like the stars of the sky (Gen 5:5), culminating in the Abrahamic Covenant (Gen 15:1ff). It was in BELIEVING this later promise (when he was in his early to mid-eighties) that God, “…credited it to him as righteousness” (15:6)!
THIRDLY, when Abram was about a hundred years old and Sarah was ninety (Gen 17:1, 17), God confirmed His promise of a son, changed his name to “Abraham” (‘Father is Exalted’ to ‘Father of a Multitude’), and gave him circumcision as the sign of his covenant (Gen 17:10).
FOURTHLY, God tested Abraham by asking him to sacrifice Isaac, the son of promise, and, when he showed his willingness to obey, re-confirmed his covenant (Gen 22:1ff)!
Those four episodes correspond to the four EXAMPLES given in (Hebrews 11) where Abraham took action “by faith!”
8 By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed and set out for a place that he was going to receive as an inheritance. He went out, even though he did not know where he was going.
9 By faith he stayed as a foreigner in the land of promise, living in tents as did Isaac and Jacob, coheirs of the same promise.
11 By faith even Sarah herself, when she was unable to have children, received power to conceive offspring, even though she was past the age, since she considered that the one who had promised was faithful.
17 By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac. He received the promises and yet he was offering his one and only son,
18 the one to whom it had been said, Your offspring will be traced through Isaac.
19 He considered God to be able even to raise someone from the dead; therefore, he received him back, figuratively speaking.
THIS MORNING we will consider the FIRST of FOUR ASSERTIONS which Paul makes about Abraham’s justification:
I. Abraham was NOT Justified by WORKS! - (4:1-8)
II. Abraham was NOT Justified by CIRCUMCISION! - (4:9-12)
III. Abraham was NOT Justified by the LAW! - (4:13-17a)
IV. Abraham WAS Justified by FAITH! - (4:17b-22)
CONCLUSION: Abraham’s Faith and Ours! - (4:23-25)
(READ TEXT - Romans 4:1-8 - PRAY)
I. Abraham was NOT Justified by WORKS! - (4:1-8)
I. Abraham was NOT Justified by WORKS! - (4:1-8)
1. Paul begins with a QUESTION - (v.1)
1. Paul begins with a QUESTION - (v.1)
1 What then will we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, has found?
2. He then provides the WRONG ANSWER - (v.2)
2. He then provides the WRONG ANSWER - (v.2)
Paul’s answer is presented as an antithesis (an idea that the exact opposite of the correct view)!
2 If Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about—but not before God.
3. Paul asks a SECOND QUESTION - (v.3a)
3. Paul asks a SECOND QUESTION - (v.3a)
3 For what does the Scripture say ?…
This QUESTION in (v.3a) is simple, yet profoundly powerful!
“…the Scripture” definite article, singular form—like our English, ‘the Bible’, indicates that Paul recognizes not just a library of books, but a unified body of inspired writings!
Second, his quasi-personification of Scripture as being able to speak, to “…say” (singular, indicative mood, present tense, active voice) indicates that Paul draws no distinction between what Scripture says and what God says through it!
Third, Paul uses present tense instead of perfect tense - ‘what was written’! The Scriptures, the Bible is the Living Word of the Living God! It is not what God said Abraham some 4,000 years ago, but it is what God is saying TODAY!
Fourthly, to ask the question is to turn to Scripture for authoritative guidance and implies that, as with Jesus, so with Paul, in every controversy Scripture was acknowledged as the final court of appeal!
4. Paul’s ANSWER - (v.3b)
4. Paul’s ANSWER - (v.3b)
“…Abraham believed” - πιστεύω - used in VERB form twenty-one times in Romans!
The NOUN form, πίστις (cf. v.5) is used forty times in Romans alone!
“…and it was credited to him for righteousness.”
λογίζεται - ‘reckon, calculate, count, imputed’ - used nineteen times in Romans—eleven times in (Romans 4), five times in (vv.3-8)!
5. Paul’s EXPLANATION - (vv.4-5)
5. Paul’s EXPLANATION - (vv.4-5)
Building on the use of that accounting term, there are just two ways money is “credited” to our account, namely as wages (which are earned) or as a gift (which is free and unearned), and the two are necessarily incompatible!
You either EARN IT by working, OR you RECEIVE IT as a gift, you can’t have it BOTH WAYS!
Q: Is “believing” a “work?”
Some say, “Yes!”
28 “What can we do to perform the works of God?” they asked.
29 Jesus replied, “This is the work of God—that you believe in the one he has sent.”
Notice: The QUESTION that was asked in (v.28) is in RESPONSE to Jesus statement in (v.27):
27 Don’t work for the food that perishes but for the food that lasts for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set his seal of approval on him.”
They were told NOT to “work for the food that perishes but for the food that lasts for eternal life…” But notice the rest of the sentence: “...which the Son of Man will GIVE you…”
Even though you are responsible to “believe”, “eternal life” is still “given” to you!
One cannot use this passage to suggest “believing” is a “work” that EARNS anything!
4 Now to the one who works, pay is not credited as a gift, but as something owed.
Believing is NOT a “work” that causes or results in you to being “owed” salvation!
The very next verse CONTRASTS “work” and “believe” (in the form of a NEGATIVE/POSITIVE)
5 But to the one who does not work, but believes on him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited for righteousness.
Beginning back in (3:21), “works” are CONTRASTED with “faith/believing”!
21 But now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been revealed, attested by the Law and the Prophets.
27 Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By one of works? No, on the contrary, by a law of faith.
28 For we conclude that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law.
13 For the promise to Abraham or to his descendants that he would inherit the world was not through the law, but through the righteousness that comes by faith.
One more observation from (John 6):
29 Jesus replied, “This is the work of God—that you believe in the one he has sent.”
Contrasted to the “works of the law” that govern BEHAVIOR, the “work of God” determines what, and in whom we BELIEVE!
AGAIN, I believe it is WRONG to suggest that “faith/believing” is a “work” that EARNS SALVATION!
6. Paul’s EXAMPLE - (vv.6-8)
6. Paul’s EXAMPLE - (vv.6-8)
In (v.3) Paul asked, “What does the Scripture say?” Here he provides SCRIPTURE as an EXAMPLE!
Notice first he addresses the CONTEXT, or perhaps it’s better to think of the RESULTS of David’s words:
6 Likewise, David also speaks of the blessing of the person to whom God credits righteousness apart from works:
HOW AMAZING IS OUR SALVATION! How utterly FANTASTIC is the GOSPEL!
21 He made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
The SCRIPTURE he quotes is the Septuagint/Greek translation of (Psalm 32:1-2a)
1 How joyful is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered!
2 How joyful is a person whom the Lord does not charge with iniquity and in whose spirit is no deceit!
King David uses FOUR Hebrew words to describe his SIN:
1) “transgression” - peshaʿ - ‘DEFIANCE’
2) “sin” - hătāʾāh - ‘DEFECT’ (‘falling short/missing the mark’)
3) “iniquity” - ʿāwōn - ‘DISTORTION’ (‘to bend or twist’)
4) “deceit” - mîyāh - ‘DECEPTION’!
He uses THREE words to describe FORGIVENESS!
1) “forgiven” - nāsāʾ - ‘to lift, to bear, to carry’!
2) “covered” - kā sāh - ‘to cover, to conceal, put out of sight’
3) “does not charge” - chāshav - ‘to regard, does not reckon’
The REASON David speaks of the “…blessing of the person to whom God credits righteousness apart from works” is BECAUSE no matter the NATURE or SEVERITY of your sin—defiance, defect, distortion, or deception, it is ‘lifted, concealed, not reckoned to your account’!
