26) The Reckoning of Faith - Not By Signs
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Pastoral Reminder: Head Heart Hands
16 All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness, 17 so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
As we go slowly through Romans it is good to keep the overall layout in our minds.
Theme of the Letter after his greeting
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. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, just as it is written: The righteous will live by faith.
In his development of what the gospel is he starts with the fallenness of mankind summed up in 1:18
18 For God’s wrath is revealed from heaven against all godlessness and unrighteousness of people who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth,
He speak on this until it becomes clear the something outside of man himself must come to save the lost. God’s righteousness is revealed and given to men.
21 But now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been revealed, attested by the Law and the Prophets. 22 The righteousness of God is through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe, since there is no distinction. 23 For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; 24 they are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. 25 God presented him as the mercy seat by his blood, through faith, to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his restraint God passed over the sins previously committed. 26 God presented him to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so that he would be just and justify the one who has faith in Jesus.
God’s righteousness, which is required for justification, is not by works but by faith. This righteousness is required for justification so how does man receive it.
5 But to the one who does not work, but believes on him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited for righteousness.
Chapter 4 could be titled the reckoning of faith. Ten times in this chapter Paul uses a specific Greek word logizomai. To be credited or reckoned. The reckoning comes at the end of a tally or count of something. It is the final result after you add up all of the debts and credits and then the balance is presented. But there is another part of this accounting that takes into account external actions that can affect the account.
For example a debt can be reckoned or added to a person’s account. Our sin was reckoned to Christ’s account and cancelled from our own.
Also positive things of value can be reckoned to a person’s account. Gain an inheritance. Or biblically, God’s Righteousness is reckoned to our account from the outside.
This is the point Paul is making here in this chapter. This word is translated as counted, reckoned, and credited. Only three places out of this chapter is this word used and two of them are quotes of “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteous.”
Paul wants his readers to be assured that the promised blessings of God in regards to salvation are reckoned to a person’s account based on belief and faith in the one who saves the ungodly and nothing else.
To do this Paul is using the example of Abraham as an argument to the church in Rome.
The final goal of chapter 4 is that his readers would come to believe the truth about how people are rescued, justified, and saved. He wants them to agree with the final verses of this chapter.
23 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.
He uses Abraham’s life as pointed out in the scriptures to show that righteousness is not reckoned or credited to Abraham do to his works.
1 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. 4 Now to the one who works, pay is not credited as a gift, but as something owed. 5 But to the one who does not work, but believes on him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited for righteousness. 6 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.
We already talked about that the Jews believed that Abraham was chosen because of his own character and righteousness. But we looked at how this is not true of Abraham or any person to receive righteousness.
After not by works, he turns to another false idea they had towards Abraham. That justification is based on a sign.
Is the Sign Required
Is the Sign Required
9 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. 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. 12 And he became the father of the circumcised, who are not only circumcised but who also follow in the footsteps of the faith our father Abraham had while he was still uncircumcised.
The blessing he speaks of in the previous verse is the blessing to have ones sins forgiven and to never be credited to their account. All of the sin that a person commits is absolved from their account and credited to another. But the Jews taught that the sign of the covenant between Abraham was necessary for justification before God and to receive this blessing.
At least 7 books in the new testament address the sign of the covenant, circumcision. This was quite an issue that kept arising in the early church. A group commonly called the Judaizers taught and held to the idea that faith could not be enough for salvation.
They would require that any Gentile believer would have to follow the law, specifically being circumcised. The was a great controversy early on.
It would be one of the topics that Paul would take on his first trip to Jerusalem.
1 Then after fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along also. 2 I went up according to a revelation and presented to them the gospel I preach among the Gentiles, but privately to those recognized as leaders. I wanted to be sure I was not running, and had not been running, in vain. 3 But not even Titus, who was with me, was compelled to be circumcised, even though he was a Greek.
It seem to have been concluded, but in Acts we read of a second trip that Paul from Antioch about 300 miles from Jerusalem. This was such an issue that Paul and others would go to Jerusalem to here from the church on the mater.
1 Some men came down from Judea and began to teach the brothers, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom prescribed by Moses, you cannot be saved.”
They gathered and listened to arguments about the issue. pronouncement was
5 But some of the believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees stood up and said, “It is necessary to circumcise them and to command them to keep the law of Moses.”
The elders and the apostles gathered and after discussion came to a contrary determination.
11 On the contrary, we believe that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus in the same way they are.”
And it would seem that the issue has been settled again. The elders and apostle have concluded that the sign of the covenant is not required for salvation. About this time Paul would write to the Church in Galatia
15 For both circumcision and uncircumcision mean nothing; what matters instead is a new creation.
The council in Jerusalem which included James, Peter, John, Paul, Barnabas, and the elders had come to what looks to be the final decision and determination. But when we look at the timeline of Paul’s life, it is likely that Romans is written 7 years later or so. If the the truth has been concluded. If men have written of these decisions, words of men that were carried on by the holy spirit then why is Paul having to address this again? Why does he ask the question and direct them back to faith.
9 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.
The blessing that is received, is received in the context of a life lived. A life that is not lived in a vacuum. It is a life that is is surrounded by thoughts, traditions, ideas, and experiences. Every person that comes to believe in the one who saves will find it difficult to give up parts of how they view the world. How we view the world, how we perceive what is going on shapes our interpretation of what we see and hear.
When we hear that we are to love the Lord with all of our mind … we have to realize that our minds can love other things.
We are warned to about trusting our heart.
9 The heart is more deceitful than anything else, and incurable—who can understand it?
We warned about trusting ourselves.
26 The one who trusts in himself is a fool, but one who walks in wisdom will be safe.
The problem is that we think we are on the right path.
12 There is a way that seems right to a person, but its end is the way to death.
When we hear warnings not to trust our own understanding.
5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own understanding; 6 in all your ways know him, and he will make your paths straight.
A life of a believer is one that has his understanding cross examined with truth.
17 The first to state his case seems right until another comes and cross-examines him.
Have you ever had an argument that you were so sure of. You have thought it thorough, it has been prepared and vetted in your mind. You speak first and it all falls apart as the other person responds. Or have you ever found your augment lose all of its steam before you even get the end. But there are some beliefs that are so ingrained in the mind that it is difficult to let go of them.
There are other beliefs that are so reinforced by the world around us that we feel that we are crazy to think otherwise. When the entire world is shouting one thing and when we behave and act in line with the world, it is celebrated. Applauded. Lifted up. The world likes to see people act like the world.
32 Although they know God’s just sentence—that those who practice such things deserve to die—they not only do them, but even applaud others who practice them.
They will applaud the sins of others and the church is not excluded. The people themselves instead of transforming their mind will create teachers that reinforce their own way of looking at the world.
3 For the time will come when people will not tolerate sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, will multiply teachers for themselves because they have an itch to hear what they want to hear. 4 They will turn away from hearing the truth and will turn aside to myths.
But they will not look like they are false. They are in full disguise.
13 For such people are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. 14 And no wonder! For Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. 15 So it is no great surprise if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will be according to their works.
Paul would warn the church and by extension all churches to be on guard against the attack from within.
29 I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. 30 Men will rise up even from your own number and distort the truth to lure the disciples into following them.
There are those in the church that keep constant pressure on the church to turn from Christ alone and faith alone for salvation. Paul is having to bring forth the only response to false teachers, the truth of God’s word.
He turns his argument to the timing of circumcision.
Timing of the Sign
Timing of the Sign
9 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.
You claim that circumcision is required for salvation. God’s word says that.
6 Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.
But if Abraham was reckoned righteous before God because of his faith. But you know the scriptures, you know that this is accounting the time when God promises to make his descendants more numerous than the stars. This was before Ishmael is born where he is 86 years old. But the sign came when he was 99 years old as recorded in Genesis 17:24.
Before you argue, he says lets look at the facts. Abraham has been credited with righteousness well before the sign had been given.
Explain the time line.
Purpose of the Timing
Purpose of the Timing
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. 12 And he became the father of the circumcised, who are not only circumcised but who also follow in the footsteps of the faith our father Abraham had while he was still uncircumcised.
The sign was to be a seal of what was already accomplished. That he had already received righteousness. The idea of a seal is a make or indication. Like a letter that is stamped with a signet ring. The seal bears the mark of the one who wrote it.
Mechanics seem to be really good at this. My father in law would engrave his name on all of his tool as symbol of who owned them. I worked with a welder that would spray paint all of his tools purple. Why what was the purpose?
At the end of the day if my father in law was missing tools. He would go to the other tool boxes and pull out the one with his mark. He would show it to the other mechanics and claim it as his own as the one who bought it. His mark wasn’t required for him to purchase the tool. He would go to the store would purchase it. Take it home. All of this is already in the past. But when he places is seal on it, it became proof that it was his possession.
The seal of circumcision wasn’t effective in bringing righteousness, it was a sign of what God had already done. There was a day that my father in law decided to mark his tools. On that day he sat down and engraved all of them. Many that he had for many years, even though from that point forward a new tools would carry his mark, it wasn’t required for him to purchase.
God had always planed to save the Gentiles and to set Abraham up as a father of faith. All those that follow in his footstep of believing God are children of Abraham and children of God.
7 You know, then, that those who have faith, these are Abraham’s sons. 8 Now the Scripture saw in advance that God would justify the Gentiles by faith and proclaimed the gospel ahead of time to Abraham, saying, All the nations will be blessed through you. 9 Consequently, those who have faith are blessed with Abraham, who had faith.
God laid out his scripture in advance so that justification would be the same for all men by faith. As the gospel was proclaimed before the sign was ever given. The blessing spoken of here in Romans would come to the Gentiles through faith.
13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, because it is written, Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree. 14 The purpose was that the blessing of Abraham would come to the Gentiles by Christ Jesus, so that we could receive the promised Spirit through faith.
It is thorough Christ that a person becomes Abraham’s seed.
29 And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, heirs according to the promise.
The sign of circumcision was to be a reminder and a proclamation that God gives righteousness to those who believe him. There was nothing like it at the time so it wasn’t to be confused by what it meant. But over time the Jews had come to use the sign as a way of works for salvation.
In scripture God still marks and seals his people.
19 Nevertheless, God’s solid foundation stands firm, bearing this inscription: The Lord knows those who are his, and let everyone who calls on the name of the Lord turn away from wickedness.
It is a divine seal that wait till the day or redemption.
13 In him you also were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and when you believed. 14 The Holy Spirit is the down payment of our inheritance, until the redemption of the possession, to the praise of his glory.
This paralleled in 2 Corinthians
21 Now it is God who strengthens us together with you in Christ, and who has anointed us. 22 He has also put his seal on us and given us the Spirit in our hearts as a down payment.
Conclusion
Conclusion
It is not the person who has the most correct behavior that receives the blessing, nor as we looked at today, it is not the person who has a special sign or privilege that receives the blessing.
There are some professed Christians that believe that you must speak in tongues to be saved. There some that believe that baptism is requirement for salvation. Some believe you must be part of a specific church, religion, on denomination. Many like the sign of good or ethical works as a requirement. Some require belief and devotion to people other than God. Others require you to give a certain amount of money to an organization to show your faith.
Abraham believed and it was credited to him righteousness. All of the things I just listed came thousands of years later in the history of God’s people. When everything is stripped away and the example that Paul gives here in Abraham, it is simply a man who hears God’s words and believes them. That is it. A man and God.
Paul points the Roman church and us back through the old covenant to see that he had already given the gospel, that God saves the ungodly though faith. From Abraham to Jesus people would look forward to the promised seed that would come. To the future work of redemption.
4 Yet he himself bore our sicknesses, and he carried our pains; but we in turn regarded him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted. 5 But he was pierced because of our rebellion, crushed because of our iniquities; punishment for our peace was on him, and we are healed by his wounds. 6 We all went astray like sheep; we all have turned to our own way; and the Lord has punished him for the iniquity of us all.
From Jesus to today we look back at the revealed plan of God. We see our sin on the cross. We have his written words. We have been blessed to live when it can all be seen still putting our trust and hope in the work of the cross.
So when everything is stripped away we find ourselves at the foot of the cross with nothing but our sin, failed self-righteousness, worthless works, with the simple question from Jesus. Do you believe in my promise and my work to save you?
One of our toughest struggles is to work through all of the ideas that we have been taught that are not inline with scripture. We will continue to battle against being swept away by what we are told must be added for salvation. But we must remember that we are saved by grace through faith. For we are credited with God’s righteousness and found justified by our belief.
Let us pray.
Let us pray.
Prayer
Blessing/Benediction
5 Now may the God who gives endurance and encouragement grant you to live in harmony with one another, according to Christ Jesus,
