Romans 4:15-16

For if those who live by law are heirs, faith has no value and the promise is worthless, because law brings wrath. And where there is no law there is no transgression. Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham's offspring--not only to those who are of the law but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all.

V15 — Law brings wrath; there is no transgression where there is no law. Paul again says that the law cannot save us; it can only condemn us. Our hope cannot be in our obedience to the law, because no one has obeyed the law in its entirety, with the exception of the God-Man, Jesus Christ. The law demonstrates that man has violated God’s standards, and it brings wrath. And it’s very interesting to see how a person’s attitude changes when that reality of the law is brought to light. When the law is on someone’s side, they like to speak about the rule of law and appeal to it. But when the judgment goes against them, it’s funny how insignificant the rule of law is to them. They’ll deny its importance. People will give lip service to God’s standards, but apart from grace, nobody likes the law. Apart from grace, all people know that the law condemns; it brings wrath. Before we are saved, the law is our enemy. Afterwards, it is the Living and Active Word of God.

Why does Paul say that “there is no sin where there is no law”? Remember, he’s dealing with Jews who appeal to the law as their justification. He’s reminding them the law’s purpose was never to justify. The purpose was to reveal sin more clearly. Where there is law, there is law-breaking. The law, apart from grace, actually exaggerates that tendency in mankind’s fallen sinful nature to go against God. So what about where there is no law? There was no law prior to Moses and the Exodus. Were the people before that time still sinners? Of course. Romans 5:12-14 helps us see what Paul is saying. And we’ll study it in detail when we get there. It has to do with the imputation of Adam’s sin to our account. Paul’s point is that, while all kinds of sinful attitudes and actions might have gone unnoticed, because there was no specific commandment that was violated, as we saw in Romans 1, the folks without the law still knew what was right. Paul says that the Gentiles who do not have the law are a law unto themselves. Sin was dormant sin before the law was given, and there may have been some vague uneasiness about it; but then the law came, and every vague or questionable act was a specific violation of an explicit commandment.

V16 — The promise is by faith, so that it may be by grace for all who are Abraham’s children. Paul was always addressing hypothetical questions. He knew his audience. He knew what their objections would be. And in v16-17 he answers an objection that is not revealed in the text, but it was certainly there. Paul’s Jewish Christian audience would have asked, “Why is justification by faith alone if God wants us to live a life filled with righteousness and obedience to His law?” Paul gives 3 more answers to this great question, in addition to the many times he’s answered it already in Romans. People just didn’t get it. How could it be? What was God’s purpose? Why, Paul? Why is justification by faith?

First, justification is by faith, because the law brings wrath. The law can’t justify. Second, justification is by faith, because faith corresponds to grace, while works correspond to compensation. Third, justification is by faith, because faith opens the door to the Gentiles. The first 2 reasons have been discussed earlier. Regarding faith corresponding to grace, grace is the guarantee; the only way that our eternal future can be guaranteed is if it rests on God’s grace. Grace is the free and undeserved work of God to bring His people to glory. Grace is the mighty, omnipotent purpose of God to make sure we get our inheritance. But this third one is pretty neat. In order for God to be faithful to His promise to Abraham, justification (and salvation) had to be by grace through faith. God promised Abraham that he would be the father of many nations. Now if Abraham is going to be the father of many nations, then the way of that salvation can’t be the Mosaic law, because only Israel keeps the Mosaic law. Only Israel has circumcision as the command of Moses. Only Israel has the ceremonial code, the dietary laws, and the various other laws. So if God is going to give the nations to Abraham as his spiritual inheritance, then it’s got to be through some other means that the Mosaic law; and Paul says, “It’s by faith.” The pagan Mark Twain said, “Heaven goes by favor; if it went by merit, your dog would go in, and you would go out.” Justification is by faith, because it accentuates divine grace. We’re saved by God’s favor, by His mercy, by His gift. We can’t earn or merit or deserve that.

Romans 4:13-14

It was not through law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of the world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith. For if those who live by law are heirs, faith has no value and the promise is worthless.

V13 — Those who receive the righteousness of Christ by faith will inherit the world. What an amazing thing to consider! The covenant promise of God was not for Abraham alone; it wasn’t for his physical descendants alone; it wasn’t only for folks before the time of Christ; it was for all who received the righteousness of Christ by faith; the covenant promise of God is for all believers, all who have faith in God’s promise. And what’s the promise? They will inherit the world. That’s not what God said to Abraham in Genesis. How does Paul make “All nations of the world will be blessed” into “heir of the world”? Perhaps Paul extrapolates this statement as further evidence that we can’t earn it. You don’t earn an inheritance; you’re born into it (or in this case, re-born into it). It’s a gift. Nothing you did brought you into the position of inheriting the world. What could anyone do to become heir of the world? Rather, believers are justified, considered righteous, and adopted as children of God and are therefore co-heirs with Christ of all creation!

V14 — If righteousness comes by law, then faith has no value and the promise is worthless. In v13-14, Paul points out to the Jewish Christians who thought Abraham was righteous by his own works of obedience that the justification Abraham received came some 400 years before Moses announced God’s divinely revealed law from Mt. Sinai. So, long before Moses gave God’s summary of His moral code to the people of God, God had declared Abraham to be just, which makes it very clear that obedience to God’s law is not the conduit or channel through which Abraham was declared accepted by God. Faith is.

Paul says that God displays His love by imputing Christ’s righteousness to us through faith, rather than by the law. Some people might say that the exclusive truth of Christianity, that Christ is the only way, makes God out to be selfish with His love. They might say, “Since the Christian God saves only those who have faith in Christ, His saving love is conditional!” They want to think that God loves everybody so much that He will save all people without condition. They don’t realize that God’s righteousness requires justice. They also don't realize that God provides the condition that He requires: faith. God doesn’t owe sinners anything, except eternal damnation. Paul takes this claim that God is selfish with His saving love if righteousness is by faith and refutes it with 2 statements: (1) faith would have no value; (2) the promise would be worthless.

1. How would faith have no value? If righteousness comes by obedience to the law, then whoever is a good person will be called righteous. Then salvation is by a person’s goodness or obedience, so God saves only those who obey Him. Because they obey Him, He saves them. In other words, they save themselves; they earn their salvation; they condition God’s love by their obedience. Thus faith has no place in the equation of salvation. Furthermore, as we have seen, the law can’t bring righteousness; it only brings wrath.
   
2. How would the promise be worthless? Remember Paul just spent 63 verses (about 2 whole chapters) explaining that all men are sinful and no one is righteous. So if righteousness comes by obedience to the law, and no one has obeyed the law, then no one inherits the world. Thus the promise would be worthless. It’d be like promising ten billion dollars to me if I win the next NASCAR race. Impossible.
   

Paul is saying that if salvation is based on a person’s goodness or obedience, then people save themselves, and God just waits, hoping they will obey, so He can pronounce His blessing on them. This is not the way it works. God doesn’t just anxiously await our decisions to see whether or not we will be obedient. He loved us first. He knew those who are His before creation; they hear His voice when He calls, because He opens their ears; and He justifies them through the channel of faith, not by their obedience.

Romans 4:9-12

Is this blessedness only for the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised? We have been saying that Abraham's faith was credited to him as righteousness. Under what circumstances was it credited? Was it after he was circumcised, or before? It was not after, but before! And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. So then, he is the father of all who believe but have not been circumcised, in order that righteousness might be credited to them. And he is also the father of the circumcised who not only are circumcised but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised.

V9-10 — The blessing of God for all kinds of men. Paul again is dealing with those folks coming from Jewish heritage that thought things were different regarding God’s favor toward Jews and Gentiles. He returns to the point he made in chapter 2, that salvation, that justification, that the imputation of Christ’s righteousness, that the non-imputation of one’s sins to their account, all of these glorious truths, are for the uncircumcised as well as the circumcised, for the Gentile and the Jew. And Paul proves this again from the Old Testament. He asks his audience a question: When was Abraham justified: before or after his circumcision? Since Abraham was justified some 14 years (29 years by Jewish counting) before he was circumcised, it was not his circumcision that accounted for his righteousness. Abraham was declared righteous while he was a Gentile! Paul’s point is to emphasize that justification is for all who believe, for all who have faith. Nothing that we do, whether ceremonial or moral, contributes to that justification, because the ground or basis of that justification is not something in us, and it’s not something that we do, and it’s not even our faith; it’s grounded in what Christ did. And therefore, circumcision or other outward rituals contribute nothing to that justification. Salvation is based on nothing in the person. There’s nothing in a person that conditioned God to save them. Our faith did not cause God to save us. We have faith, because He saved us! We need to know that assuring truth of His justification by grace through faith. It’s absolutely essential for assurance of salvation.

V11-12 — Circumcision as a sign of faith. There are many churches that teach that a person must be baptized with water in order to be saved. Paul’s words here negate that assertion. Acts 15:1-2 “Some men came down from Judea to Antioch and were teaching the brothers: ‘Unless you are circumcised, according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved.’ This brought Paul and Barnabas into sharp dispute and debate with them.” First, note that the Jews had learned that to refuse circumcision was to reject the covenant community and refuse the promises that God had made. Genesis 17:14 “Any uncircumcised male, who has not been circumcised in the flesh, will be cut off from his people; he has broken My covenant.” In other words, “he who refuses to be cut is cut off.” Now here in Romans, Paul is saying circumcision doesn’t matter for salvation. Elsewhere Paul recommends Gentile converts to Christianity not to be circumcised, and that those who would force them to be circumcised are, in fact, themselves rejecting the covenant. And the Jewish Christians and Jewish hearers of Paul’s words as he first says them were likely scratching their heads in confusion, disbelief, or flat out anger with his apparent contradiction of the Scriptures. Can you hear them saying, “Hold on Paul! You’re saying, ‘In the Old Testament, to refuse the sign of circumcision is to refuse God and His promises. In the New Testament, to demand that Gentiles be circumcised is to refuse God and His covenant promises. How does that mesh?”

Paul says that circumcision is a sign and a seal. It is an outward sign of an inward reality. It’s a seal, which doesn’t bring about the inward reality, but confirms it. As a sign, circumcision was to remind Abraham of God’s love for him, and as a seal, circumcision was to confirm to Abraham that God had credited him as a righteous man based not on his deeds. That was important, as Abraham continued sinning after he was declared righteous. Is the same true for us regarding baptism? What is the connection between baptism and circumcision? This is a very deep theological topic that to this day causes division and disunity, and we’re not going to break the surface of it here, but I am curious to know what you think. If baptism is the same as circumcision, then why not baptize infants, just as covenant children were circumcised? Is baptism part of the “obedience of faith” that Paul desires to bring about in his ministry? When is a person saved? Most of us would say, “The moment we believe in Jesus Christ as Savior.” Others might say, “The moment we confess Christ as Savior.” Would any of you say, “The moment we rise from the waters of baptism”?

An act like baptism, or any other act of obedience to God, does not give us right standing with God. But the acts of obedience are signs and seals that our faith is real and that Christ is our perfect righteousness. When our lives begin conforming to the revealed will of God, this is a sign of faith. Our lifestyles even become signs and seals that our faith is real and that we have the righteousness of God revealed in Christ.

Justification by faith—getting right with God, being acquitted in His court, having our sins forgiven, having the righteousness of Christ imputed to us and our sins imputed to Him, (not becoming righteous, but being counted as righteous while we are still sinners), and all this by faith alone—that is what the first 7 or 8 chapters of Romans are mostly about. For Paul, it was the heart of the gospel message. The book of Romans is the most systematic and extensive of Paul’s efforts to put his message in writing. And it is all structured around the great truth of justification by faith.

So we see from Romans 4, so far, that Paul returns to the Old Testament to make four key points regarding justification by faith. First, it excludes boasting before God in our right standing with Him. The eliminated boasting should enhance our joy, as there is nothing we must contribute. Remember, “Blessed is the man…” What joy it is that our sins are not credited to our account on God’s ledger! Second, it includes the righteousness of Christ, imputed to us apart from works, regardless of what we do. Again, what a joyfully amazing thing to consider that we have the righteousness of Christ credited to our account! Third, Paul makes clear that works or acts of obedience, like circumcision or baptism, have their proper and essential place in the believer’s life as signs and seals, but not as the grounds of justification. First is justification, then sanctification. Fourth and finally, the truth of justification by faith opens the way to all people groups to be included in the covenant family, which was thought to be only for Jews. And this family of believers, having Abraham as their father (Galatians 3:7), will one day inherit the Kingdom!

Romans 4:4-8

Now when a man works, his wages are not credited to him as a gift, but as an obligation. However, to the man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness. David says the same thing when he speaks of the blessedness of the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works: 'Blessed are they whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will never count against him' [Psalm 32:1-2].

V4-5 — Imputation. What an amazing statement that “God justifies the wicked”! God declares the ungodly to be righteous! How do we respond to understanding that? Do we understand what imputation means? Paul helps us with these verses. It’s an accounting term, like debit and credit. Justification and imputation work together to accomplish salvation. In justification we are declared not guilty though we are guilty, righteous though we are not righteous. And imputation is how God justifies. He imputes Christ’s righteousness to us through faith, so that He can righteously declare us righteous. He “credits” to our “account” the righteousness of Christ. He cancels the immeasurable debt we owe, but not only that. He also gives us His requirement to enter His presence, the priceless righteousness of Christ. What an amazingly gracious gift! Verse 4 explains the way people would expect this transaction to be accomplished. Paul addresses the hypothetical question: “What must we do to take advantage of this transaction?” Paul says, “Nothing, because if you could do something to gain God’s grace, then God would owe you His grace. It would no longer be a gift. And this is contrary to salvation by grace, for grace would not be grace; it would be like a wage, an obligation, paid out as compensation.” God owes us nothing. Since salvation is a gift and not an obligation, we receive it through faith, not by works.

V6-8 — Blessed is the man. Paul again goes to the Old Testament Scriptures to show that David held this position of justification by faith, salvation by grace. David says, “Blessed are they whose sins have been covered and forgiven. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will never count against him.” “Blessed”=deeply secure, not deserving; due to God’s divine benediction, your lawless deeds are covered and forgiven and not imputed. God does not credit your sins to your account. This is an example of non-imputation. Both are essential for salvation. So God imputes Christ’s righteous to the believer’s account, and He does not impute the sins of the believer to the believer’s account. And Paul proves this right here, using only the Old Testament. Paul does not see justification as only the imputation of righteousness or only the forgiveness of sin. It’s both! And the blessedness of both conditions is by faith, apart from works. This doctrine for the mind is designed to produce joy in the heart. Be secure that you are justified!

Notice that David says the blessed man is the man whose works the Lord does not consider. The blessed man is deeply secure that God accepts him not on the basis of what he has done, but on the basis of what Christ has done. David does not stand before God and say, “Lord, I’m trying to be a good person.” David says, “The man who is really blessed is the man whose sins God doesn’t count against him.” Understanding imputation and non-imputation are important, as we will discuss imputation more when we come to Romans 5:12. I’ll make a statement regarding that passage for you to ponder until we get there: “The sin of Adam was imputed to all mankind, as every person was ‘in Adam.’ Adam was our representative, and when he sinned, the entire human race was counted as sinners.” Just as the righteousness of Christ was imputed to me through faith, so the sin of Adam was imputed to me through my humanity; I descended from Adam.

God's Glory in the Skies

I've taken great pleasure in a number of sunrises and sunsets that I've taken in over the past two weeks. I am humbled at the magnificence and subtle differences noticed in them. I am ashamed that I do not notice them more often. I read recently that God does not get bored with the seemingly monotonous task of arousing each day. He loves His creation, and it displays His glory. Each day is splendor to Him and, as for a child, repitition is a good thing - far from boring monotony.

Psalm 19:1-6

The heavens declare the glory of God, and the skies above proclaim His handiwork. Day to day they pour out speech, and night to night they reveal knowledge... Their measuring line goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them He has set a tent for the sun, which comes out like a bridegroom leaving his chamber, and, like a strong man, runs its course with joy. Its rising is from the end of the heavens, and its circuit to the end of them, and there is nothing hidden from its heat.

To fail to notice the masterpieces God works each day is sinful. Do we think the skies appear as they do by chance? Has He not worked each day anew? Is He not faithful like no other? Dare we take a single breath for granted? Dare we think of His works as less than majestic? Will you answer affirmatively the question found in Job 37:18: "Can you join Him in spreading out the skies"? Far be it from me. I praise Him for the splendor of the skies - a common grace to all inhabitants of the earth - and I praise Him for the new heart and transformed mind - a grace to His elect for His glory (Romans 9:10-24). I'll continue with the Psalmist (Psalm 19:7-14):

The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul. The statutes of the LORD are trustworthy, making wise the simple. The precepts of the LORD are right, giving joy to the heart. The commands of the LORD are radiant, giving light to the eyes. The fear of the LORD is pure, enduring forever. The ordinances of the LORD are sure and altogether righteous. They are more precious than gold, than much pure gold; they are sweeter than honey, than honey from the comb. By them is Your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward. Who can discern His errors? Forgive my hidden faults. Keep Your servant also from willful sins; may they not rule over me. Then will I be blameless, innocent of great transgression. May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in Your sight, O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer.

Romans 4:1-3

What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather, discovered in this matter? If, in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about--but not before God. What does the Scripture say? "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness"[Genesis 15:6].

V1 — Proof that the gospel is rooted in the Old Testament Scriptures. Paul has repeatedly gone out of his way to establish this fact. (See Romans 1:2 and 3:21 and now 4.) Why? His audience was primarily Jewish Christians, and they had grown up learning the law from rabbis who taught justification by works. Paul just finished teaching justification by faith in chapter 3. When people are set in their ways, it’s hard to get them to accept change. That’s why Paul hammers on the truths he teaches as being rooted in the Old Testament. He first uses the example of Abraham, and then he uses David, perhaps 2 of the 3 greatest heroes of Judaism, to make his point. So Paul asks, “What does Abraham’s situation say about this?”

It’s very important to understand the context, the culture, the audience, and Paul’s purpose when reading chapter 4. Many Jewish Christians, being new in their faith in Christ, and certainly all Jews, would have struggled with justification by faith; they looked at Abraham as being righteous on his own. So Paul strived to take them to the traditional proof texts of the Jewish rabbis in order to show them that his teaching was true. Paul knew that his contemporaries would have appealed to Abraham to prove that salvation was by works, by one’s own righteousness, at least to some degree by one’s own merit. But Paul appeals to Abraham to show that, in fact, the Old Testament Scriptures teach the opposite. Salvation is by grace and received by faith. There is continuity here, as all people ever to be saved are saved by grace through faith, regardless of when or where they lived.

V2-3 — If salvation has anything to do with you, then boasting is possible. The Jews of Paul’s day taught that Abraham was chosen by God because of his righteousness. They taught that since he was the most righteous man of his day, God chose him to be the father of Israel. Furthermore, they also taught that Abraham was without sin, that he did not need to repent, and that he had kept God’s law perfectly throughout his life. Here are examples:

In the prayer of Manasseh, which was written a couple of centuries before the time of Christ, we read: “Therefore, You, O Lord, the God of the righteous have not appointed repentance for the righteous, for Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, who did not sin against you. But you have appointed repentance for me, a sinner.” There’s the suggestion that some people out there that don’t need to repent, that some haven’t sinned other than Christ.

From the book of Jubilees, a Jewish work written before the time of Christ, we read: “Abraham was perfect in his deeds with the Lord and well pleasing in righteousness all the days of his life.” I wonder if the author of that read Genesis 12-17. The Abraham in Genesis 12-17 was a man who fell into sin and displeased the Lord and wounded his own people and had to be restored in his feeble faith. Yet this is what the Jewish rabbis taught.

Even in commenting on Genesis 15:6, which is quoted in Romans 4:3, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited (or imputed, as we’ll see) to him as righteousness,” the rabbis said: “Our father, Abraham, became the heir of this and the world to come simply by the merit of faith. His faith was a work whereby he earned the right to the inheritance of this world and the world to come.”

This is what the Jews thought. And so Paul countered this by suggesting that Abraham, then, would have had a reason to boast before God. But the Jews couldn’t imagine boasting before God! Paul knew that they wouldn’t dare boast before God, so he closed the argument with “but not before God.” That helped make the point that the Jews already knew but did not admit: It’s not in us! If it was in us, then we’d have something about which to boast. The Jews hadn’t taken their beliefs to the logical conclusion. They just accepted what they had been taught without going deeper, without carrying it out. And that is dangerous to do for us today as well. If you say that God is saving you because of something in you, that’s wrong. Do you think God looked out and saw that you were good or saw something good in you that wasn’t in others, and that’s why He saved you? That’s wrong. If that were right, you could boast before Him. Paul makes that clear right here. There is no boasting before God.

To clarify, faith is the means of receiving righteousness. Faith is not righteousness, nor is it the cause of righteousness. Through the channel of faith, by faith, Christ’s righteousness is credited or imputed to us. Here’s a poor analogy: We would not say that the wire in our wall is the cable TV signal, nor would we say that the wire caused or merited or earned or deserved the cable TV signal. The wire is absolutely essential for our television to receive a cable signal. But in and of itself, the wire is not the signal. The wire is the conduit or channel by which we receive the cable TV signal. Faith is not righteousness / justification, nor does it cause or merit righteousness / justification. It’s absolutely essential for righteousness / justification. It’s the conduit or channel through which God accomplishes His justification and His salvation. God justifies us and credits Christ’s righteousness to us through faith. This question still remains: Why do some have faith and not others? Is it something in them? If so, how can they not boast?