The Gift of Righteousness

Introduction:

Good evening everyone, you can follow along in the YouVersion Bible app. The title of today’s message is The Gift of Righteousness.

We will be reading out of the CSB tonight if you don’t have your phone or don’t have a Bible with you the passages will be on the screen. But if you do, I would like to encourage you to turn with me to chapter 4 of Romans.

In chapter 4 Paul is continuing to outline what true faith and fellowship with God is. He has explained that all humanity is without excuse and that all have gone astray. Now he is outlining the greatest gift of all time, true righteousness.

We will be reading out of the CSB tonight turn with me to chapter 4 of Romans.

We are actually going to read the last verse of the chapter first but don’t worry we will go back to the beginning as we dive into the text. Please stand in the honor of reading God’s Word with me.

Romans 4:25 CSB

25 He was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.

Romans 2

Here is the central truth tonight: God grants the gift of His righteousness to all who place their faith in Jesus as Lord.

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Pray.

Pray.

1. The gift of righteousness is for those who believe God.

Romans 4:1–8 CSB

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 declares the ungodly to be righteous, his faith is credited for righteousness. 6 Just as 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.

To believe something is to accept the word or evidence of it. But not only that in the case of Abraham he held a “firm conviction as to the goodness, efficacy, and ability of God” to do what God said he would do!

Romans

Abraham places all his soul into the things God told him. What did God tell Abraham?

Genesis 15:1 CSB

1 After these events, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield; your reward will be very great.

Genesis 15:1-

Genesis 15:1–6 CSB

1 After these events, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield; your reward will be very great. 2 But Abram said, “Lord God, what can you give me, since I am childless and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” 3 Abram continued, “Look, you have given me no offspring, so a slave born in my house will be my heir.” 4 Now the word of the Lord came to him: “This one will not be your heir; instead, one who comes from your own body will be your heir.” 5 He took him outside and said, “Look at the sky and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” Then he said to him, “Your offspring will be that numerous.” 6 Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.

What should have been impossible for Abraham and Sarah to accomplish, God promises it will take place and the Word of God tells us Abraham believed. The Lord and it was counted unto him as righteousness! How amazing!

John 3:16 CSB

16 For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.

Which is absolutely nonsensical. Abraham didn’t do anything to earn this right. In fact, God called him out of Ur and he merely responded. God promises him to be a great nation and Abraham believes God.

Remember the fact that Abraham and Sarah took the promise God gave them before into their own hands and the really messed things up. The child that was born to them was not the promised Child. So God tells him that, there will be another come from Sarah! Wow! Yet, it doesn’t say Abraham questioned it. No, instead, it states he believed God. Even though it would require a miracle for it take place.

It is the same reality for us today. God promises the impossible. That if we believe in Jesus Christ that we will have life eternal when we are in total debt and sentenced to death.

John 3:16 CSB

16 For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.

What powerful truth we get to rest on knowing that believing (having a firm conviction as to the goodness, efficacy, and ability of Jesus) to save us provides the gift of righteousness to us.

Not only do we see that the gift of righteousness is for those that believe God,

2. The gift of righteousness is received through faith in God.

Romans 4:9–22 CSB

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. 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. 14 If those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made empty and the promise nullified, 15 because the law produces wrath. And where there is no law, there is no transgression. 16 This is why the promise is by faith, so that it may be according to grace, to guarantee it to all the descendants—not only to those who are of the law but also to those who are of Abraham’s faith. He is the father of us all. 17 As it is written: I have made you the father of many nations. He is our father in God’s sight, in whom Abraham believed—the God who gives life to the dead and calls things into existence that do not exist. 18 He believed, hoping against hope, so that he became the father of many nations according to what had been spoken: So will your descendants be. 19 He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body to be already dead (since he was about a hundred years old) and also the deadness of Sarah’s womb. 20 He did not waver in unbelief at God’s promise but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, 21 because he was fully convinced that what God had promised, he was also able to do. 22 Therefore, it was credited to him for righteousness.

Romans 4:

Faith is the second part of saving belief. In fact, faith in the biblical sense is “throughout the Scriptures faith is the trustful human response to God’s self-revelation via His words and His actions.” Expanding even further on this reality, faith can be understood as belief and trust in and loyalty to God with a firm belief in something for which there is no proof.

belief and trust in and loyalty to God

Throughout the Scriptures faith is the trustful human response to God’s self-revelation via His words and His actions.

Inc Merriam-Webster, Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary. (Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster, Inc., 2003).

(belief and trust in and loyalty to God, and firm belief in something for which there is no proof)

Inc Merriam-Webster, Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary. (Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster, Inc., 2003).

Abraham had no evidence that God would grant him decedents that were like the stars in the sky. How could a man, who had not one legitimate child, believe that God would do such a miracle through their lives? He didn’t have any physical proof. He had to trust God to keep His Word. Abraham became the father of faith, the one who’s lineage paved the way for Jesus Christ and through the power of Jesus Christ has adopted many nations to himself and attached themselves to the faith of Abraham. Yes, Abraham’s physical blood line is the Jews, yet we the gentiles have been grafted into the fold to become children of God as well.

When we say we have faith, we are saying that we believe it is possible for whatever we are placing our faith in to take place. When a scientist rejects God but chooses to accept macro evolution they are saying they have more faith in the improvable belief of kinds of animals change to other kinds of animals than in the God who created the universe.

In this video I’m about to show you, the guy is standing 3,871 feet in the air on a glass bridge.

Watch this Video

His faith in the bridge to hold him was solid at first but everything changed when he thought the glass was breaking.

Sometimes when we are faced with difficulty our faith can be hurt or damaged. Abraham could have allowed his old age to give him reason to doubt but he didn’t doubt. He believed and had faith.

Don’t allow anything to cause you to doubt the goodness, faithfulness, and trustworthiness of God or the Bible.

We have seen the gift of righteousness is for those that believe God and is received through faith in God, now we see that

3. The gift of righteousness is produced through the work of Jesus.

Fill

Romans 4:23–25 CSB

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.

None of our work will give us a credit of righteousness with God. It is only through the perfect work of Jesus Christ that we are able to receive the gift of righteousness. We have seen this truth throughout Romans thus far. All of the credit for salvation belongs to Christ alone. Grace is the free gift that allows us to receive the gift of righteousness. It is a glorious truth that has infinite hope.

Just like Abraham’s faith provided him the gift of God’s righteousness, when we place our belief and faith in Jesus Christ we receive that infinite gift of God as well. We must believe in the death and resurrection of Jesus.

If we place all of our burdens in Jesus and rest in this truth that Jesus died and paid it all on the cross, we will be saved and will experience the peace and hope only God provides.

Wrap it up:

Invitation:

Three Responses:

Believer, have you allowed your trust in what Christ has done or what the Bible says to drift from your heart? Have you fallen pray to the deceit of Satan? Repent of your unbelief and ask God to bring your heart back into the warmth of his embrace.

Unrepentant ones, maybe tonight you heard these words and realized you have never tasted the sweetness of God’s righteousness in your life. Maybe, you have been overwhelmed with trying to be good enough that you missed the truth that God only asks you to believe and trust him. Will you make tonight the night you say, “God I believe and have total faith in you to forgive me of all my sins, be my Lord and savior.”

Prayer: