Abraham's Justification (Romans 4)

College Baptist Church

March 10, 2002

Purpose: To show that God justification for Abraham was on the same basis as it is for us- God's righteousness by faith through grace according to His almighty power.

Text

Romans 4:1-5, 9-12, 18-25. What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather, discovered in this matter? ² If, in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about- but not before God. ³ What does the Scripture say? "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness." ⁴ Now when a man works, his wages are not credited to him as a gift, but as an obligation. ⁵ However, to the man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness.

⁹ 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. ¹⁰ Under what circumstances was it credited? Was it after he was circumcised, or before? It was not after, but before! ¹¹ 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. ¹² 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.

¹⁸ Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, "So shall your offspring be." ¹⁹ Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead- since he was about a hundred years old- and that Sarah's womb was also dead. ²⁰ Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, ²¹ being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. ²² This is why "it was credited to him as righteousness." ²³ The words "it was credited to him" were written not for him alone, ²⁴ but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness- for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. ²⁵ He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.

Introduction

Kent Hughes relates the story of a mislead preacher's understanding of salvation- a preacher who had abandoned the truth of the gospel. "It seems that a frog one day fell into a pail of milk, and though he tried every conceivable way to jump out, he always failed. The sides were too high, and because he was floating in the milk he could not get enough leverage for the needed leap. So he did the only thing he could do. He paddled and paddled and paddled some more. And oila!- his paddling had churned a pad of butter from which he was able to launch himself to freedom. The preacher's message was: 'Just keep paddling, keep on working, keep on doing your best, and you will make it.'"

That's the way it is for modern man, isn't it? We humans tend to want to be self-sufficient. We want to think we have a hand in our salvation. But Romans 3:22-24 gives us a different story: ²²This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, ²³for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, ²⁴and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.

U2 band leader, Bono, recently said, "The most powerful idea that's entered the world in the last few thousand years- the idea of grace- is the reason I would like to be a Christian. Though, as I said to [U2 guitarist] The Edge one day, I sometimes feel more like a fan, rather than actually in the band. I can't live up to it. But the reason I would like to is the idea of grace. It's really powerful." (Quoted in an interview with Anthony DeCurtis, February 20, 2001; )

Yes, Bono, grace is really powerful. Grace is unmerited favor, getting what we do not deserve. We receive God's righteousness provided through the shed blood of Jesus when we place our faith in Him. It is grace. Nothing we can do for it in our own efforts to deserve it- it's received through faith.

Transition

Salvation is a broad term that includes all that God does for the believer in Christ (Wiersbe, Expository Outlines). Justification is the declaration describing our standing with God through faith in what Christ did for us.

Paul is teaching us that God has always accepted man on the same basis- through faith. Today, to be accepted by God, it is through faith. He forgives our unrighteousness, our sin, when we place our faith in Christ.

In chapter 4, Paul demonstrates that God is wonderfully consistent. He reassures the his Jewish audience that even Abraham was justified on the same basis. Paul uses Abraham's example to reinforce three great truths about justification that we need also need as foundational Christian theology.

Justification is by faith, not works 4:1-8

The conventional thinking of the Jews in the time of Jesus and Paul was that justification- one's right standing with God- was established by works. For them, Abraham was the prime example of a person justified by works. Kent Hughes reveals the Jews misled understanding of Abraham's standing before God: "The Mishnah's third division Kiddushin (4.14) makes a specious interpretation of Genesis 26:5, wrongly concluding: 'and we find that Abraham our father had performed the whole law before it was given, for it is written, Because that Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge, my commandments, my statues, and my laws.' The earlier Book of Jubilees (circa b.c. 100) similarly says, 'For Abraham was perfect in all his deeds with the Lord, and well-pleasing in righteousness all the days of his life.' So perfect was Abraham thought to be that another book, The Prayer of Manasses, concluded that Abraham never had need of repentance: 'Thou, therefore, O Lord, that art the God of the righteous, hast not appointed repentance unto the righteous, unto Abraham....' What claims! 1) Abraham performed the whole Law before it was written, 2) he was perfect in all his deeds, and 3) he had no need of repentance. Conclusion: Abraham was justified by his works and therefore is an example to follow. Case closed!"

But let's not get on a post-modern, post-Christian hobby horse thinking we are any different. The average man on the streets today thinks that salvation is obtained just like that ad from the financial company a while back. "We get our salvation the old-fashioned way. We earn it!"

4:1-5. What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather, discovered in this matter? ² If, in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about- but not before God. ³ What does the Scripture say? "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness." ⁴ Now when a man works, his wages are not credited to him as a gift, but as an obligation. ⁵ However, to the man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness.

Paul makes a case that justification by faith was as true for Abraham as it is for everyone. He quotes two of the most trusted Jewish sources: Moses and David.

First he turns to Moses, quoting him in Genesis 15:6- Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness. The incident is recounted shortly after Abraham has rescued his nephew Lot from five wicked kings who have captured him and all his household and goods. Abraham took 318 trained soldiers in pursuit and rescued Lot. This is the time he also paid a tenth of the spoils to Melchizedek, the king of Salem, whom the Bible identifies as "priest of the Most High God" (Genesis 14:18).

Shortly after, God came to Abraham in a vision promising to be his shield and great reward (Genesis 15:1). But Abraham asked God how he could be blessed if he had no heir. God assured him that his descendants would be too numerous to count- as numerous as the stars in the sky. And Abraham took God at His word. Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.

The second person that Paul quotes is the revered King David. ⁷"Blessed are they whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. ⁸Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will never count against him" (Psalm 32:1, 2). Do you know what is so significant about this quote? It is from one of David's psalms after he repented of his murder of Uriah the Hittite and his adultery with Bathsheba. We're talking grace here! Forgiven sins! He had a repentant heart of faith that turned to God. Forgiven. Was it because of David's good works? No. It was in spite of his bad ones!

Throughout this chapter we see the word "credited." Abraham's faith was credited to him as righteousness. In some of our Bibles we will read "imputed," "reckoned," and "counted." In each case it means that something was credited to someone's account. "Justification means righteousness imputed (put to our account) and gives us a right standing before God. Sanctification means righteousness imparted (made a part of our life) and gives us a right standing before men, so they believe we are Christians. Both are a part of salvation, as James 2:14-26 argues. What good is it to say that I have faith in God if my life does not reveal faithfulness to God?" (Wiersbe, Expository Outlines).

Salvation is either a reward for doing good works or it is by grace through faith. It cannot be both. Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness. Justification is by faith, not works.

Justification is by grace, not law 4:9-17

The next question that pops up is if Abraham was saved by faith, what about the law and the covenant? Surely these have an essential role in salvation! Paul responds that justification is by grace, not law.

4:9-12. ⁹ 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. ¹⁰ Under what circumstances was it credited? Was it after he was circumcised, or before? It was not after, but before! ¹¹ 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. ¹² 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.

Circumcision was very important to the Jews. They couldn't really separate it in their minds from being a Jew, from being God's chosen people. It became the end all for them. If you are circumcised you are a Jew. If you are not, you're not.

But circumcision was never meant to be more than the outward sign of an inward spiritual reality. That's why Paul made the point so clearly in 2:28, 29 that what really mattered was circumcision of the heart- an inward change that came for the presence of God the Holy Spirit. Circumcision was meant to be much like baptism is today- it is an outward demonstration of an inward reality.

To show that this was true too for Abraham, Paul points out that Abraham was made right with God through faith before he was ever circumcised.

By the Jews definition, Abraham was still a Gentile when he received God's righteousness through faith! Because of this, he is the father of all who believe, of all who have faith, even if they have not been circumcised.

Justification is by faith, Paul teaches, not the law. It was so with Abraham. We are still declared righteous before God through faith.

Justification is by resurrection power, not human effort 4:18-25

The first section of this chapter contrasts grace and works (1:1-8). The second section compares grace and the law (4:9-17). The third section contrasts life and death (4:18-25).

Notice how Paul introduces the idea in 4:17. ¹⁷As it is written: "I have made you a father of many nations." He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed- the God who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were. In contrasting life and death, Paul will show that God's power is absolutely sufficient to do what He has promised to do in, especially in the light of justification.

4:18-21. ¹⁸ Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, "So shall your offspring be." ¹⁹ Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead- since he was about a hundred years old- and that Sarah's womb was also dead. ²⁰ Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, ²¹ being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. ²² This is why "it was credited to him as righteousness."

God in His infinite wisdom and power made a promise that only He could fulfill. Knowing that, Abraham placed his faith in God. Paul says it had to be God. Abraham was as good as dead! At least, reproductively speaking, he and Sarah were as good as dead. Abraham was ninety-nine years old when he received the promise and Sarah was eighty-nine. Humanly speaking, we're talking an impossibility!

But Abraham had faith in God. What God promises, He is able to do. Though for all practical purposes he was "reproductively dead," Abraham still had faith in God.

There is a parallel here to our spiritual lives. As sinners, we are all spiritually dead. There is nothing we can do in and of ourselves to give ourselves life. Dead is dead. In our standing with God, our unrighteousness condemns us to eternal death- eternal misery, agony, and separation from all good for which we were created and our souls long. "It was when Abraham admitted that he was 'dead' that God's power went to work in his body. It is when the lost sinner confesses that he is spiritually dead and unable to help himself that God can save him" (Wiersbe, Bible Exposition Commentary).

The gospel is the power of God unto salvation (1:16). ²³ The words "it was credited to him" were written not for him alone, ²⁴ but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness- for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. ²⁵ He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification (1:23-25). God's almighty power was fully demonstrated in the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. Yes, He died for our sins. But His death was sufficient because He also rose again. The resurrection is proof that God the Father accepted the sacrifice for our sins.

But the key is in embracing God's provision for us in faith. The righteous will live by faith. It was true for Abraham. It is true for us today.

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