"The Promise" Romans 4:1-15

Introduction:

This morning we are going to systematically work through the fifth question that Paul addresses, “Does the gospel agree with the teachings of the Old Testament. The answer to this question would be very important for the Jewish readers. We are going to see a complete harmony between the gospel in the New Testament and in the Old. Justification has always been by faith.

As we progress through this letter to the Romans, we are going to continue to come to deep theological truths, and they can be very difficult for us to grasp. My prayer is that I would be able to explain these truths clearly and simply. If you have any confusion i’m always willing to talk with you after the service or make an appointment and we can talk. I also encourage you to stick with it and muse over these things on your own personal time with God.

Recap:

Last week we discussed that God’s righteousness demands the sinner’s death, while His love desires the sinner’s restoration. Both are satisfied in Jesus Christ.

Faith was another topic we discussed. Faith is not a leap in the dark. We see evidence in the infallible word of God that we can trust Him who created all things. Faith in Jesus Christ is not illogical or unreasonable.

There are three major themes Paul builds around his teaching of salvation: These themes not only are solved but also give us even more.

Justification: solving man’s guilt before a righteous Judge, and receiving Christ’s righteousness.

Redemption: solving man’s slavery to sin, the world, and the devil. Allowing us to be slaves to righteousness (As we will discuss in a later chapter is truly a wonderful thing).

Propitiation: solving the righteous and just wrath of God towards us transgressors because Jesus became our propitiation taking all of that wrath. Not only taking that wrath from us, but He also gives us an inheritance being brought into the family of God. Wrath averted and mercy shown.

Vv 1-3) Abraham Justified through Faith

Paul is backing his point by referring to two of the greatest figures in Israel’s history: Abraham and David. God made covenants with both of these men. One lived centuries before the law, and the other lived many years after.

Abraham was justified before he was circumcised, while David afterwards.

[1] This verse is continuing the thought begun in verse 31 of chapter 3.

Paul asks the question, “Does the idea of justification through faith, apart from the works of the law, make what God did in the OT irrelevant?”

He begins to answer that question in this part of chapter 4. Paul begins with Abraham, who was the most esteemed man among the Jew even more so then Moses.

[2] If anyone was justified by works, then they would have reason for boasting.

He could pat himself on the back for earning the righteous standing before God. Nevertheless such boasting is nothing before God; because, no one will ever be able to boast before God.

Ephesians 2:8–9 ESV

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

The very pretense of boasting is stripped away, because it is evident that no one can really be justified by works.

Some may argue, “What about James’ epistle that states Abraham was justified by works?”

James 2:21 ESV

Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar?

Abraham was justified by faith:

Genesis 15:6 ESV

And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.

This is where he believed God’s promise concerning a numberless posterity.

It was thirty or more years later that he was justified (vindicated) by works when he started to offer Isaac as a burnt offering to God (Genesis 22). The act of obedience proved the reality of his faith. It was an outward demonstration that he had been truly justified by faith.

Faith justifies the person, but his works will justify his faith. A person who is saved, works, not for salvation but out of salvation. “I have been saved, therefore I will spend my life serving the Lord.”

The works we preform are not because I want to be saved, the works we preform are because I have been saved.

[3] “For what does the Scripture say?” This statement can save you a lot of trouble and hardship.

Are you struggling with something this morning? Are you have marital problems? Problems at work? Addiction? Lacking passion for Christ?

What does the Scriptures say about that? Be encouraged to seek out the help you need in the bible first. The truth you need (not always what you desire) will be found in the Word of God.

Paul makes it clear: Abraham’s righteousness did not come from preforming good works, but from belief in God.

God revealed Himself to Abraham and promised that he would have numberless defendants. Abraham believed in the Lord, and God put righteousness in his account. Works had nothing to do with it.

The Jewish teachers of Paul’s time believed that Abraham was justified by his works, by keeping the law. They saw Abraham preforming the works of the law before it was actually given. And because of that they thought Abraham was perfect in all his deeds with the Lord.

They argued that Abraham kept the law perfectly before it was given, either by intuition or anticipation.

Before we move on notice two things:

1st, who accounted Abraham as righteous. God did. There is no account that tells us what other men thought. Because their opinions are not of chief importance… The opinion of God is what truly matters. The opinion of God matters most.

“ Moses does not, indeed, tells us what men thought of him, but how he was accounted before the tribunal of God.” -Calvin

2nd, righteousness is so much more than the absence of evil or guilt. It is a positive good, meaning God doesn’t just declare us innocent, but righteous.

Vv 4-5) Grace and Works

Now we come to one of the coolest statements in the Bible concerning the contrast between works and faith.

Think of it this way: When a man works for a living and gets his paycheck at the end of the week, he is entitled to His wages. He earned them. He does not bow and scrape before his employer, thanking him for such a display of kindness and protesting that he doesn’t deserve the money. Not at all! He puts the money in his pocket and goes home with the feeling that he has only been reimbursed for his time and labor. Yet, that is not the way it is in the matter of justification.

The idea of grace stands opposite to the principle of works. Grace has to do with receiving the freely given gift of God.

Works has to do with earning merit before God.

You see a system of works puts God in debt to us, making God owe us His favor because of our good behavior.

It’s wrong because because God does not owe us anything at all.

[5] The shocking truth is that the justified man is the one who does not work. We are not talking about laziness here. The person who renounces any possibility of earning his salvation. Disavowing any personal merit or goodness. He acknowledges that all his best labors could never fulfill God’s righteous demands.

This is one of the reasons I believe a true born agin disciple of Christ cannot lose their salvation. Because, salvation has absolutely nothing to do with us. “You can’t lose your salvation, but you can fake it.”- Pastor Mark

What Paul is laying down here is that the person puts their faith and trust in the Lord and through that there is justification. Paul is simply taking God at His word.

There is no need to plea to God that we tried our best, or lived by the golden rule, or that we are better then all these other people.

Listen it isn’t as if God is happy with our ungodly condition. We are not justified because of our ungodliness, but despite our ungodliness.

No we come as ungodly, guilty sinners who throw themselves on the mercy of God.

And as a result our faith is accounted to us for righteousness. Because our believing instead of working , God puts righteousness into our account.

This through the merits of the risen Savior, God clothes us with righteousness and thus makes us fit for heaven. God accepts us on the basis that He sees Christ in us.

To summarize, justification is for the ungodly- not for good people. It is a matter of grace- not debt. And it is recieved by faith- not by works.

Vv 6-8) David Justified Through Faith

Paul now turns to David to prove his thesis. King David knew what it was like to be a guilty sinner. He understood the seriousness of sin and how good it is to be forgiven.

He knew “the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works.” If David was judged on works alone, he would stand guilty before the righteous God.

[7] Nevertheless he knew by experience that blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven.

No sinner, try though he might, can possibly carry his own sins away and come back cleansed of guilt. No amount of money, no science, no inventive skill, no armies of millions, nor any earthly power can remove even the smallest of sins. Every sin and its guilt clings to the sinner as close as their own flesh, clinging for all eternity, unless God carries them away.

Paul is quoting Psalm 32

Psalm 32:1–2 ESV

Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit.

Not once does King David said anything about works; forgiveness is a matter of God’s grace, not of man’s effort.

David agrees with Abraham regarding the idea of an imputed righteousness, a goodness that is given, not earned.

There are certain sects of Christian religious institutions that oppose the imputation of Christ’s righteousness. They try and teach that salvation is work based, or that you can pay for your love ones to go to heaven… Paul in this chapter uses imputes 10 times in this chapter saying otherwise.

Vv 9-12) Circumcision!!!

[9] The idea may still lurk in some Jewish minds that the chosen people had an “in” with God’s justification, that only those who were circumcised could be justified.

The fact that Paul is using Abraham as an example really suggest that it was only the Jews who struggled with grasping this concept.

What is really important here is that we are counted righteous by God because of faith, not a ritual. Because of that the doors are opened to uncircumcised Gentiles by faith.

[10] In this verse Paul’s focus is on historical facts that most of us would never have noticed.

Genesis 15:6 ESV

And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.

Genesis 17:24 ESV

Abraham was ninety-nine years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin.

Paul shows that Abraham was justified before he was ever circumcised. Between chapter 15 and 17 there is about a 14 year gap.

Paul bringing it home that righteousness was never based on circumcision, but faith.

[11] We have to be reminded that one of Paul’s adversaries was the circumcision party. A sect of “believers” that went around claiming: to truly be saved one must be circumcised.

Remember there is no real point in arguing with Paul. The dude is insanely smart, educated, and blessed by God.

And points out that Abraham, the father of all those who believe, was declared righteous while he was still uncircumcised!

For the Jewish people of this day, the significance of circumcision was more than social. It was the entry point for life lived under the Law of Moses.

Galatians 5:3 ESV

I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law.

Circumcision like baptism was merely an outward sign in the flesh that they had been justified by faith.

Basically, circumcision was the external token of the covenant between God and the people of Israel.

In addition to being a sign, circumcision was a seal. A sign points to the existence of that which it signifies. A seal authenticates, confirms, certifies, or guarantees the genuineness of that which was signified.

[12] There is real importance on why Abraham received the sign of circumcision here. He was so that he might be the father of those Jews who are not only circumcised but who also follow in his footsteps of in faith, the faith he had while still uncircumcised.

There is a difference between being Abraham’s descendants and Abraham’s children.

John 8:37 ESV

I know that you are offspring of Abraham; yet you seek to kill me because my word finds no place in you.

Then check this out:

John 8:39 ESV

They answered him, “Abraham is our father.” Jesus said to them, “If you were Abraham’s children, you would be doing the works Abraham did,

Paul is insisting that the physical cutting of the flesh is not what counts. Because there needs to be faith in the living God.

Ladies you might be feeling left out. Circumcision isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be. But the principle of circumcision is very applicable for you as well.

The act of cutting away the flesh, is still what a believer is to do every day.

Luke 9:23 ESV

And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.

Matthew 16:24 ESV

Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

Galatians 5:24 ESV

And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

all of these verses leads us to:

Romans 2:29 ESV

But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God.

Deuteronomy 30:6 ESV

And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.

So the topic of circumcision isn’t for the males only but for all believers. It was merely an outward sign of an inward change. Just like baptism, there is no salvation in the ritual, the salvation comes through faith in Jesus Christ. The goal is to get right with God.

Vv 13-15) The Promised Principal of Faith

[13] The argument continues relentlessly on as Paul chases every possible objector, refuting them with logic and Scripture.

Since all God’s dealings with Abraham. Isaac, and Jacob happened before the giving of the Mosaic Law, we can’t say they were based on the law.

Instead, they are based on God’s declaration of Abraham’s righteousness through faith.

Faith is the foundation of God’s blessing. Abraham was a blessed man, for sure, but he would become the “heir of the world” on another principle entirely- simply faith.

[14] We should know by now that the law cannot bring us into the blessings of God’s promises.

This is not because the law is bad, its because we are unable to keep it.

[15] Our inability to keep the law, which leads to our transgression (An act that goes against a law, rule, or a code of conduct; an offense) against God.

The law becomes the vehicle of God’s wrath towards us, especially if we regard it as the principle by which we are justified and relate to God.

Paul’s statement, “Where there is no law there is no transgression” might be confusing to some. Transgression conveys this idea of “overstepping” or to “cross the line.”

Where there is no line, there is no actual transgression.

Example of the speed limit. Because there is a speed limit there is a line that can be crossed.

God gave the law so that sin might be seen as transgression, or to put it another way, so that sin might be seen in all its sinfulness.

God never intended it to be the way of salvation for sinful transgressors.

In the example of the speed limit, the law would be the speedometer.

We have been given an incredible gift through the death and resurrection of Jesus, to be free from our transgression and sin. To live in a genuine relationship with Jesus Christ, to no longer be enslaved to sin, but slaves to righteousness.

And guess what is so good about that?

Nothing pertaining to justification, redemption, or propitiation resides on your shoulders. It is all done through and in Christ.

Numbers 6:24–26 ESV

The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.

[[BEAUTIFUL]]