Faith Results In Our Being Justified

Transcript

GR 1420
02/21/10
Faith Results in Our Being Justified
Romans 4:1-12
Gil Rugh

We are in Romans in your Bibles, Romans 4. Back up to Acts 15. In the early church and the days of the Apostle Paul's ministry here, a disagreement arose between two groups, one who was saying that salvation is by grace alone through faith alone. The other group of Jews was saying that salvation is by grace through faith but you also must be circumcised and keep the Law. You'll note verse 1. “And some men came down from Judea and began teaching the brethren, ‘unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses you cannot be saved.’” You'll note these men did not come down and deny that Jesus was the Messiah. It's not what they said against Christ that was the issue, but they said that faith in Christ alone was not enough. But unless you are also circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved. When Paul and Barnabas had great dissension and debate with them, they determined that Paul and Barnabas and some others should go up to Jerusalem to meet with the apostles who were centered in Jerusalem to get a resolution to this. And you see how some of this basic doctrine had to be sorted out in the early church. Many of these believers came from a Jewish background in thinking, it is great Christ has come but that wouldn't be enough. I have to still follow the requirements of the Law.

Acts 15:5: “But certain ones of the sect of the Pharisees who had believed stood up saying, ‘it is necessary to circumcise them and to direct them to observe the Law of Moses.’” And this conflict is an ongoing debate, it's resolved at the Jerusalem Council, but it doesn't go away. And this group that we come to know as the Judaizers who cause great difficulty following up on Paul's ministry and bringing confusion taught that it's important, it's necessary to believe in Jesus Christ but that alone won't save you. You must also be circumcised and keep the Law, you must also in addition to believing in Christ do these necessary works. The conclusion at this conference was “and He made no distinction between us and them, cleansing their hearts by faith” (verse 9). Verse 11: “But we believe that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus in the same way as they also are.”

Come over to Galatians 1. In verse 4 Paul refers to the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ “gave Himself for our sins that He might deliver us out of the present evil age.” He immediately launches in to a biting rebuke. Verses 6-8: “I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ for a different gospel; which is really not another, only there are some who are disturbing you, and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, let him be accursed.” Anathema: condemned to hell. Repeats it in verse 9, he is to be accursed. What is the subject? Same issue. And if you're familiar with the book of Galatians, these Jews were coming along and saying that believing in Christ is important, it's necessary, it's essential truth. It's just not enough. You must also be circumcised and keep the Law.
Now come back to Romans 4. These are the same kinds of issues that Paul has to deal with in the church at Rome. Strong Jewish influence was bringing this kind of teaching into the church that believing in Christ is necessary. And this become confusing because you'll understand the Apostle Paul was opposed by the pagan Roman world. He was opposed by the Jews and Judaism. But here is a group of Jews who have professed faith in Christ as their Messiah. They said we are together on the basic issue. Now the only thing is they say that's not enough, you also have to be circumcised and keep the Law. Paul is used of the Spirit to bring his harshest condemnation against these people, as we just read in Galatians. And yet they are most like him. These are the people who, if you had said to these Jews, do you know that Jesus is the Messiah of Israel, would have said yes. Do you know that He died to be the sacrifice for our sins? Yes. Do you think it is necessary to believe in Him? Absolutely. We're together. They would add, now you do know that you will have to be circumcised to be saved. You say, we don't have to agree on every detail. That's not the way God approaches it.

I was at a restaurant earlier this week with a couple of men and we were talking about theological things and I assume I was a little louder. And there was an elderly couple sitting in the booth across from us. And they were there for quite a while and I could see the man from where I was sitting and I thought he was in and out of our conversation. When he got up to leave he walked by our table and said that's a very interesting conversation you've been having. And he was a very nice man. I asked him a little bit about himself as he stood there and asked him, do you know where you would go if you were to die tonight? Where would you spend eternity? In heaven. I said, well, why do you think God would let you into heaven? What would you say to God if He asked you why should I let you in? He said I've believed in Jesus Christ. Good, great. And I try to do all the good works I can and to be the best person I can. I said that's the very thing that is going to keep you out of heaven. And that's what happens; we want to bring our works, our efforts. You ask the average Protestant, do you believe in Jesus Christ? Of course. Ask the Roman Catholic, do you believe in Jesus Christ? Absolutely, you have to believe in Him. But you also have to be baptized, partake of the sacraments, lead a good life, whatever we add. Join a church. And you know what we do; we corrupt the gospel and come under a curse.

Now this is what Paul is dealing with in Romans, the most foundational, essential facts. How can a person be right before God, be acceptable before God. That's the issue. Paul picked up on this theme in Romans 3:21, how we can be counted as righteous in the courtroom of God so that He declares us righteous, absolved of guilt. That's what Paul is discussing. He has laid out in Romans 3:22, he's talking about the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe. Righteousness found through faith in Christ and it's for everyone, this will be for Jews and Gentiles alike who believe. Verse 24: “Being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus.” And verse 26, “…that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.” The necessity for God to maintain His righteous character while He at the same time conveys His righteousness to us without sacrificing His own righteous character.

Down in verses 28-29, “For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law. Or is God the God of Jews only? Is He not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also.” Verse 30: “since indeed God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith is one.” That's the point. And really we have one seamless discussion from chapter 3 verse 27 through chapter 4 verse 25. Salvation is by faith alone. And for those of us in the evangelical circle, Bible-believing Christians this has become so foundational that it's like Theology 101. This is the beginning of the beginning. And yet this is the issue and the issue we must be clear on and maintain our clarity. The drift is always out and people today want to find reasons of agreement. Just like Paul could have with the Judaizers, do they believe that Jesus is the Messiah? Do they believe He died on the cross? Do they believe you have to have faith in Him? Yes. What's the problem? They also believe you have to be circumcised. They are anathema, they are not preaching a variation of my gospel; it's a totally different gospel, a totally different message. We must be clear.

How is Paul going to make this clear to the Jews? Circumcision is not necessary for salvation. It's not a matter of belief in Jesus the Jewish Messiah, place your faith in Him and be circumcised. So you come to chapter 4:1 “What shall we say that Abraham our forefather according to the flesh has found?” Let's talk about Abraham, great starting point for the Jews. I mean, Father Abraham, our forefather, he's the father of the Jews. God selected him out and said that it would be him and his physical descendants that he would give special blessings to. There is not greater man in Israel's history than Abraham. In fact the Jews held Abraham in such high esteem, you know what they taught about Abraham? Abraham was saved by his works because he perfectly kept the Law before the Law was ever given. The Law was given 430 years, according to Galatians 3, after the covenant with Abraham was established. Well the Jews thought Abraham was such a righteous, good man; he perfectly kept the Law before God ever gave it. Talk about getting your theology confused. Paul is going to demonstrate that Abraham is the very clearest example that you are saved by faith alone apart from your works.

So he starts it out, what shall we say about Abraham? And Genesis 12-25 is all about Abraham, such a very important man. God established His covenant with Abraham; the Abrahamic Covenant is the foundational agreement. The other covenants that God will establish come out of the Abrahamic Covenant. So he is a very crucial person in Israel's history. So he is our physical forefather, Paul talking about himself as a Jew, and other Jews since this is a particular issue for the Jews. But its application is very clear to the non-Jew.

What did he find? “For if Abraham was justified by works he has something to boast about, but not before God.” (4:2). I mean, if Abraham was justified by works he could boast about himself, his accomplishments. But really that would be a problem because you can't boast before God, and the Jews would acknowledge that. That would be totally unacceptable. He established this up in verse 27 of chapter 3, “where then is boasting? It is excluded.” And when we looked at that verse we looked at a number of passages where God has worked in such a way that there is no room for boasting. The prophet Jeremiah said, let him who boasts boast in this, that he knows Me. So I can boast about my works, Abraham could boast about his works, pride in himself but he couldn't come and boast before God about his accomplishments.

What does the scripture say? Let's go back to the Old Testament scriptures, the Jewish scriptures, all of the way back to Genesis 15. What does it say? Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness. (15:6). There is a problem. Go back to Genesis 15. God calls Abraham in Genesis 12 and He gave him promises that his descendants are going to be prosperous and given the land of Canaan and be a great nation and all of that. The problem is when you get to Genesis 15 Abraham is getting along in years and so is Sarah. They have no children. How can I father a great nation when I don't even have a child? So God appears to Abram, as he is known at this point still. Verses 1-2: “After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision saying ‘Do not fear, Abram, I am a shield to you. Your reward will be very great.’” Abram says, Lord, what are you going to give me? I am childless. Eliezer my servant will inherit what I have. No, God says to him in verse 4, “…one who will come forth from your own body, he shall be your heir.” Verse 5: “And He took him outside and said, ‘now look toward the heavens and count the stars, if you are able to count them.’ And He said to him, ‘so shall your descendants be.’” Here is Abram trying to count the stars, that's how many descendants you are having. You know what he did? He believed what God said. That's all that happened. Verse 6: “Then he believed in the Lord and He reckoned it to him as righteousness.” That's our verse back in Romans. God spoke, Abraham believed what God said and God credited it to Abraham as righteousness.

All of Romans 4 is about that verse, Genesis 15:6. It is quoted or referred to in every paragraph through the rest of chapter 4. That's what we find out. Abraham believed God, God credited it to Him as righteousness. Believe, credit, righteousness. It becomes the force.

Now Abraham is not the first person in the Old Testament to believe. Turn over to Hebrews 11:3, “By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible.” How do we know God created the world the way He said He did in Genesis 1 and elaborates in Genesis 2? It is because we believe the word of God. But note in verse 4, “by faith Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain...” Abel is quite a bit before Abraham. Verse 5, “by faith Enoch was taken up…” Enoch is before Abraham, too. Verse 7: “by faith Noah ...” Noah is before Abraham, too. Then verse 8, “by faith Abraham…” So there were people who believed God before Abraham, but Genesis 15:6, that's the first use of the word “believe” in the Old Testament. And it connects believe with righteousness. So here you have the first clear statement of God crediting righteousness to a person as a result of his faith. So this becomes the key passage. I'm not saying this is the first person who was saved by faith, but this is the first such clear, open statement that we can clearly build upon.

Abraham believed God, Romans 4:3, it was credited to him as righteousness. Key word here that is going to keep reappearing: “credited.” Sometimes it is translated “imputed,” or “reckoned.” This Greek word translated in those various ways is used in 11 different verses. Here, it will be used in every verse from verse 3 through verse 11 except verse 7. Then it will be used in verses 22, 23, and 24. So 11 times he is going to stress credited, reckoned, accounted to, and imputed to. So this becomes key emphasis: faith, belief, credited, imputed and righteousness. It is the point of how you have righteousness credited to your account, by faith. What does faith do? It results in righteousness being credited to your account. The conception is something is reckoned to a person that is not inherent to him. Something that is inherent to him which doesn't inherently belong to him. It is credited to him from the outside.

All right, Abraham believed God; it was credited to him as righteousness. Every Jew would have said, amen, that's our Father Abraham. Now verse 4: “Now to the one who works his wage is not credited as a favor but what is due.” If Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness, that's different than saying Abraham worked and he was credited what was owed him. That's something due him, owed him, that's not something done as a favor. That would rule out the grace that he has talked about in verses 21-31 of chapter 3. I mean, many of you work a job, you work all week and you get a paycheck. Or you work and get it every two weeks or once a month, or however you are paid. That's not a favor to give you a paycheck, that's not grace. That's something you worked for. Probably have some kind of contract or agreement that you'll work for so much an hour or you are salaried or whatever. You are paid by what you sell. But there is some kind of agreement that when you fulfill it you receive what you are owed. Well if you work you get a wage. But with Abraham he believed and that was credited to him as righteousness.

Verse 5: “But to the one who does not work but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned as righteousness.” Some of you are familiar with Alva J. McLain who wrote The Greatness of the Kingdom. It's a great little booklet on law and grace. He has a very good little book on Romans I've recommended to you as a good, more overview of the substance of Romans. He says in reference to verse 5, this verse is without doubt the greatest presentation of free grace and righteousness by faith in all the word of God. What a verse it is: “But to the one who does not work but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited to him as righteousness.” See how this word credited keeps coming up? It is accounted to him, imputed to him. Verse 3 is the quote from Genesis 15:6; verse 4, his wage is not credited as a favor; verse 5, his faith is credited as righteousness. Faith by definition excludes works. Works is something earned, faith is not a work. It's a response to what God has done, what God has said. Believing, trusting Him.

“But to the one who does not work but believes in Him who justifies, declares righteous the ungodly.” (verse 5) That word “ungodly,” that's a strong term. Basic meaning of the word is one who refuses to worship. There are those who are stubbornly opposed to God, refuse to honor Him, refuse to give Him glory.

Back in Romans 1:18 which started out showing the sin of man. “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness...” It's a form of the word we are talking about. To say that God justifies the ungodly, in Romans 1:18, the ungodly were under the wrath of God. Now those rebels in rebellion against God, who refuse to bow before Him and acknowledge Him as God as Romans 1 went on to talk about, God will justify. There is a solution to the dilemma that Paul began to unfold in Romans 1:18. Sinners and ungodly people, who are living under the wrath of God. But now we come to the solution to the problem. How can I escape the wrath of God? I'm an ungodly sinner. Well you need to know God justifies the ungodly. How could He do that? Doesn't the Law say there is condemnation on those who justify the ungodly? I mean, that would be unrighteous. We talked about that. That's why back in Romans 3:26 we said this is so important. So that He would be just, righteous, and the justifier, the One who declares righteous those who have faith in Jesus. The provision of Christ as the propitiation is the One who turns away the righteous wrath of God. The Redeemer, the Savior. That's the solution.

So to the one who does not work in Romans 4:5 but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly. Not people who have cleaned up their lives, not the people that are not the ungodly, but the better people. He has already established that there is none righteous, no not one. We talk about the ungodly; you're talking about people apart from the work of redemption that God brings to a heart and life. God justifies the ungodly. What do these ungodly people do? They believe in the One who justifies the ungodly by believing what He has said, what He has done. He provided His Son for me. I mean, does it make sense humanly speaking that the eternal God would have His beloved Son come to this earth and die in my place to pay the penalty for my sin? It doesn't make sense humanly speaking, but it's the provision of a loving, merciful God. So that when I believe in Him He can justify me because His wrath has been propitiated, satisfied, turned away from me. Redemption, the price has been paid to set me free.

“Believes in Him who justifies,” you'll note, does not work but believes in Him. You know this is so important because nothing changes. We constantly want to drift away from the simplicity and purity of the devotion to Christ. So we think if we help people do better, if we improve their economic situation, if we help them clean up their lives, if we get them off drugs or alcohol, if we get them to stop practicing immorality. Then they will what? We begin to deny the gospel by implying that God justifies the not-so-ungodly, God justifies those that are fairly righteous. He justifies the ungodly. That's the tragedy of the church becoming involved in social reformation and movements and moral reformation, moral rearmament. Those things come and go in one form or another. We're not here to clean up society because it can't be cleaned up. It's in such terrible condition, and by society I mean the people of this world, that it took the Son of God's death on the cross and the only solution to their problem is they come to believe in what God has done for them with the giving of His Son so that He might justify them as the ungodly.

His faith is credited as righteousness. There is our word again. When that person believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, you have to put that together. I believe in God. Do you believe in the God who justifies the ungodly, do you understand what that means? He has explained that beginning in Romans 3:21, through the giving of His Son, the sacrifice of His Son. His faith is credited, reckoned, imputed to him as righteousness. The faith isn't righteousness. We may think, I have faith, therefore I have righteousness. Well no, it's the faith in God and what He has done which will result in us being justified, declared righteous.

He's going to support this with David. Now we're not leaving Abraham, but David's being brought in supports the whole concept that he will further elaborate with Abraham in a moment. Verse 6: “just as David also speaks of the blessing upon the man to whom God reckons righteousness apart from works.” There is our phrase again, “righteousness apart from works.” This is what I need, I need God to take my account and credit it with righteousness. Which means I am absolved from guilt, I am found to be not guilty in the courtroom of God. This is a legal concept here. I am justified before God, declared righteous.

David speaks of the blessing on the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works. And he quotes from Psalm 32:1-2, we won't go back there. It's basically recorded for us here. This along with Psalm 51, psalms David wrote after his sin with Bathsheba. What does he say? “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds have been forgiven, whose sins have been covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will not take into account.” (verses 8-9) Now this is the man, according to verse 6, whom God credits righteousness apart from works. The other side of that is He does not credit to his account his sin. And the end of verse 8, “blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will not take into account,” there is our phrase, “will not credit to his account,” will not reckon to him. This is the same basic Greek word that has been translated “credit” or “impute,” depending on your version.

So what does it mean in verse 6, God credits righteousness? The other side of that is He does not credit sin to your account. “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds have been forgiven, whose sins have been covered.” (verse 8) Blessed, spiritually prosperous and happy is the man whose sin the Lord will not credit to his account. That's the point.

So we're not looking for our works to be imputed to our account or credited to our account, we're looking for our sins not to be. And so we have the other side. That's why the wrath of God, Romans 3:25, God displayed Christ as a propitiation in His blood. It took His death to satisfy the righteous demands of a righteous God; the penalty for sin had to be paid. So it turns away the wrath of God, so that when I believe in Him God now doesn't credit my sins to my account. He credits His righteousness to my account. I am absolved, my sins have been propitiated; the wrath has been turned away. It's like somebody came in and paid your debt. I come in and say, how much do I owe you? Nothing. Why? It's all be erased, wiped clean, marked paid in full. That's what Christ did. He paid it in full. So my sins are forgiven, they are covered, they are not credited to me anymore. See the beauty of that? What is David holding on to? That God will credit his works to his account? I mean, he needs mercy, he's a sinner. Oh the blessedness of knowing God is not crediting my sins to my account but rather crediting righteousness.

Verse 6, just as David speaks of the blessing. And we have the word “blessing” and then this word “blessed.” The blessing which to the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works. What does that mean? Well the other side of it is your sins are forgiven, they are covered; God is not crediting them to your account anymore. He's credited His righteousness; it's all taken care of. The account has been paid in full, God has been propitiated, His righteous wrath has been turned away; the price has been paid. What a beautiful picture that the devil attempts to continually corrupt by saying it takes works.

We keep making a point of righteousness here in this context referring to a legal action of God to declare us righteous, to credit us with His righteousness. That's different, for example, than Roman Catholicism. You talk to Roman Catholics, who do say they believe in salvation by grace through faith. But they have a different view. He's talking about crediting righteousness to our account. Roman Catholics, I'm picking them out because their doctrine on this is clear, they believe you are morally made righteous, for example, through baptism. So there is a moral change, now you are righteous. But the rest of your life you have to be working on maintaining that righteousness, adding to that righteousness, reacquiring that righteousness. You can lose it altogether through mortal sin. So that's why it's important to understand this is a legal setting of God crediting something to us. It's not that now He made us morally righteous, for example, when you were baptized, as Catholics would say. But now the rest of your life is spent trying to keep that righteousness, to hold on to it, to add to it, to do penance, to make up for losses, and so on. That's not what we are talking about. A major difference here in this passage.

What are we talking about when we talk about God crediting righteousness? Well the other side of that in verse 8 is He's not crediting sin to your account. That's what we're talking about. We're talking about making you morally righteous now so that it becomes a matter of works from the standpoint He's giving you His righteousness. So they could say; you have righteousness by faith but from here on it is works and involvement in the church, which of course keeps people under hold because you don't have that righteousness as your permanent possession. And without the church to help you sustain it and enable you to take care of your failures when you sin, that's why there is no salvation ultimately for them outside the church. It becomes a works system.

Look at verse 9. Now we are back to Abraham. Because the problem with the Jews is circumcision is absolutely necessary for salvation. And these Jewish believers are promoting that. Is this blessing then, the blessing of knowing sin is not credited to your account but God's righteousness is? Is this blessing of salvation then on the circumcised or on the uncircumcised also? For we say, as we read the account in Genesis 15:6, faith was credited to Abraham as righteousness. How then was it credited, while he was circumcised or uncircumcised? The Jewish rabbis at the time taught that there were 29 years between Genesis 15 and Genesis 17. Genesis 15 is when Abraham is declared righteous and the sacrifices are divided for the confirmation of a covenant, and chapter 17 where Abraham is circumcised. I don't know, but I think that's too many years. But for the Jews there is no question, there is a long period of time.

Come back to the Old Testament, Genesis 12. Abraham is called from his homeland and going to depart ultimately to Canaan. Look at his age in verse 4 when he departs from Haran. Abraham was 75 years old when he departed from Haran. You come over to Genesis 16. Now remember it was in Genesis 15:6 that Abraham was declared righteous. Now you come to chapter 16 and you have the account of Hagar, and Abraham fathers a child, Ishmael, with Hagar. Then Ishmael is born, verse 16. Abraham was 86 years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to him. So we've gone from his being 75 in chapter 12 to 86 at the end of chapter 16. Then in chapter 17 Abraham is circumcised, and we're told in verse 25, Abraham was 99 years old when he was circumcised. So we know at least 14 or 15 years have gone by from when he was declared righteous because he was 86 at the end of chapter 16 and he had already conceived a child and that child was born in chapter 16. That would take us back to when he was 85, and he is 99, that's 14 years and allow any other time. So 15-20 years, somewhere in there, before Abraham was circumcised he was declared righteous. It doesn't matter how many years, if it was one year or one week. The point would still be the same. But I just wanted to set you a little bit in the time we have marking Abraham's age and how we know where he is.

So when you come back to Romans 4:9, was Abraham credited with righteousness before he was circumcised or after? Well every Jew knows, before: years before, a number of years before. Verse 10, he was credited with righteousness not while circumcised, but while uncircumcised. You see the whole point? How can circumcision be necessary for being righteous before God when Abraham was declared righteous by God before he was circumcised? Now remember chapter 3 verse 30, since indeed God is one, He will justify circumcised and uncircumcised by faith. There is only one God, there is only one way of salvation. I mean when you go to Hebrews, how was Abel righteous before God? By faith Abel did this. How was Noah righteous before God? By faith Noah did this. I mean, it's the pattern. It has always been by faith. Genesis 15:6 clarifies it and states it as clearly as can be, joining faith with righteousness. Abraham believed God, God credited it to him as righteousness. Was he circumcised? No. Do you believe in one God or two? One. Then circumcision is not necessary for salvation. That's the simple argument.

Now remember he's making this argument with Jews. But for us, people believe you have to be baptized to be saved. That's more foolish than believing you have to be circumcised to be saved. At least Abraham got circumcised even though it took 15-20 years after he is declared righteous. When did Abraham ever get baptized? When did Abraham ever join a church? Should those things be necessary for salvation? No, no. What works are part of Abraham being credited with righteousness? And thus was credited with righteousness. He didn't do anything, did he? Abraham believed God and God credited him with righteousness.

So what works are necessary to be a recipient of God's righteousness? Zero, zero. And any work, no matter how good it is, even like circumcision. And if we had read in Genesis 17, for a Jew who was not circumcised, he was cut off from the nation Israel. He could not be part of God's covenant people. So I'm not saying circumcision was not important for a Jew. When God met Moses on the road and his son hadn't been circumcised, God's is ready to kill him because he wasn't circumcised. I mean, God is serious about that. Is it necessary for salvation? No. So we need to be clear here. That's the argument. He was declared righteous, credited with righteousness while he was uncircumcised. And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while uncircumcised. That's what circumcision was, it was a sign, it was a seal, an identification that here is a man who believes in God and has received righteousness from Him. In that sense it is similar to baptism. It doesn't add to a person's salvation, it doesn't make him any more saved. It is simply a sign that identifies a person with Jesus Christ in this way. But does it bring salvation? No. Does it bring righteousness? No. Is it necessary to receive righteousness? No. Righteousness has always been received one way, only by faith, nothing added, no addition. We'll take some time later to talk about the place of works like in James when he says you are justified by works, and the context of that.

But for now stay with Romans 4. Verse 11: “…that he might be the father of all who believe without being circumcised, that righteousness might be credited to them.” You see how that word logidzami, credited to them, reckoned to them, imputed to them, something that is not inherently theirs but God gives to them. Why? Because when they believe in the propitiatory work of Christ, it is credited to them. So His wrath is turned away, their sins have been paid, they have been redeemed. Now righteousness can be theirs. They are forgiven, they are cleansed, their account is paid in full; they are acceptable before a holy God. So the Gentiles can receive salvation by faith. You don't have to be circumcised.

Verse 12, he becomes the father. And incidentally, just an aside, the Jews believed Gentiles could be saved by converting to Judaism and being circumcised, but they didn't believe Gentiles could ever call Abraham their father. They always would be second class citizens, even when they converted to Judaism. But verse 11 says that Abraham becomes the spiritual father of the uncircumcised when they believe, the Gentiles. And, verse 12, “the father of circumcision,” that would be Jews, to those who not only are of the circumcision. Now note here, he is going to make a line between the physical descendants of Abraham. Verse 12: “Who are not only of the circumcision, the physical descendants of Abraham, but who also follow in the steps of the faith of our father Abraham, which he had while uncircumcised.” In other words Abraham is not truly your father if you don't believe. Now he is not here blending one people of God, he keeps them separate—the Gentiles and the Jews. He becomes the spiritual father of the uncircumcised in verse 11 because he was credited with righteousness while he was not circumcised. He becomes the father of the circumcision, the Jews, but a specific line of Jews—those who follow in the steps of the faith of our father Abraham. So to be a recipient of the covenant promises God gave to Abraham and his physical descendants, you had not only to be a physical descendant of Abraham, you had to be a spiritual descendant by having the same faith in God that Abraham had. Now the Gentiles can be the recipient of those spiritual blessings also.

That does not mean now that Gentiles are Jews, I keep reading in commentaries, it simply means that the Gentiles receive spiritual blessings as God had promised in the Abrahamic Covenant, that in you all families of the earth will be blessed. But there are still physical promises to the physical descendants, special promises to those physical descendants who are also the spiritual descendants of Abraham. For Jews, their works are not part of their salvation in the sense of being necessary to be credited as righteous before God. We have to follow in the steps of Abraham to be saved, no matter who we are because there has always been only one way of salvation. And it's not because Abraham did it, it's because he's an example, a clear example of how the one God saves people. When you believe in Him, your sins are forgiven, they are covered. They are not credited to your account. David said it in Psalm 32. Rather you are credited with His righteousness, it's paid in full, there is no debt owed, you are absolved.

How did that happen? By faith, just like it happened with Abraham 4000 years ago. Nothing has changed, right down to today. Isn't it sad how confusing it gets? We need to be careful as the church. Oh yeah, we know this truth, we've heard it. We have to hold onto it, we have to be clear with it. We can't be turned aside; we can't add things to it that confuse it. It's the purity of the word of God. 1 Peter 2:2: “like newborn babes long for the pure milk of the word…” There are people who say, we have so much in common with them, we agree on moral issues, we agree on this, we agree on that. We don't agree on justification by faith, we don't agree on anything that really matters. I don't want to blur the issue. We're people of faith like they are people of faith. What does that mean? It's faith in the God who justifies the ungodly that saves, not faith, as though it floats around. Oh you have faith? We're people of faith, too. You're Catholic? We're Protestant, we're Mormon; we have faith. Who said that faith saves? Faith isn't righteousness, faith in the God who justifies the ungodly by the provision of His Son to be the satisfaction, to satisfy the demands of God's righteousness by His death. Having that credited to our account is what happened. Pressure is off, it's all by faith.

You don't have to join this church to get saved, you don't have to give money here to be saved; you don't have to get baptized here to be saved. You can do all that and go to hell. The one thing you have to do is place your faith in Jesus Christ and Him alone, not Him and your good works. If you trust in your works than you will be anathema, cursed to hell. Only by faith in Him alone can you be saved.

Let's pray together. Thank you, Lord, for such a wonderful Savior and such wonderful salvation. Lord, we indeed, ungodly, hell-deserving sinners, under your wrath and justly so. What a marvelous truth. You are the God who justifies the ungodly and you do it in a way consistent with your righteous character so we can be absolved of our guilt, not have our sins credited to our account, but have it marked paid in full, be credited with your righteousness. What a marvelous plan of salvation. Lord, we give you praise. In Christ's name, amen.