They got their money the old-fashioned way - they earned it! No doubt you remember this
slogan. It was made popular by television ads for a well known brokerage firm. While they
were very clever ads, of course, any person who thinks about it for very long will
conclude that many people with the real money in this country did not get it by earning
it, instead they got it in the true old-fashioned way - they inherited it!
Nonetheless, the ads were done very well and did appeal very powerfully to the common
desire in all of us to be successful through hard work. We are all taught from a very
early age that we must work hard to make something of ourselves. We are taught that with
hard work come many of the benefits of this life. We are encouraged to be all that each of
us can be.
Motivational speakers tell us that if our attitudes are right, and if we truly apply
ourselves, nothing will be impossible for us. You may have heard a clever illustration
used to make this point. It is the story of the frog who fell into a pail of milk. He
found that he could not leap out of the pail though he had tried every conceivable way. He
was floating in the milk and so could not get enough leverage to leap over the high sides
of the pail. But rather than give up, this frog did the only other thing he could do. He
paddled and paddled and paddled to keep afloat. And an amazing thing happened. All of his
paddling churned a pad of butter. He hopped on the pad and launched himself out of the
pail. The moral of the story is that if you work hard, your hard work will pay off.
The problem comes when you apply this to Christianity. One preacher, misguided in his
understanding of the truth of the Gospel, told that story to an audience and told them,
"Just keep paddling, keep on working, keep on doing your best, and you will make
it." And unfortunately, this accurately reflects the common view of a great many in
our culture today. A lot of people believe that if you try to do the best you can,
everything will work out concerning going to heaven. The real problem with this thinking
is that it is totally wrong. This is entirely the opposite of what the Bible teaches
concerning salvation. The Bible teaches that we are saved by faith, not by works.
Do you understand how you must be saved? Do you understand how you get to heaven? Do
you understand what faith is? Do you understand the central role of faith? It is vitally
important to understand the role of faith in relating to God. You see, the Bible teaches a
powerful truth. Simply put, the Bible teaches that faith is all you need. Faith is the key
to our salvation.
Much has been made over the years of how every person has some sort of divine spark of
righteousness which only needs to be fanned into a flame. It is thought by many that their
own righteousness, however imperfect, will be sufficient to gain entrance into heaven.
This is a common fallacy of our day.
Paul, thus far in the book of Romans, has shown this fallacy to be a misunderstanding
of the way to heaven. He has shown that it is not by attempting to be righteous that any
of us gain entrance to God's kingdom. It is by grace through faith in Jesus Christ that we
must be saved. Now he turns his attention to explain this truth. And it is a truth that is
good news to all of us who have failed to attain true righteousness by our own efforts.
Indeed, all have failed and fallen short of the glory of God.
He uses two illustrations to make his point clear. Both are from the Old Testament. He
holds up before us an Old Testament saint, Abraham, and an Old Testament sinner, David.
Both illustrate the primacy of faith. Abraham illustrates how no human being should be
exalted in receiving salvation and David illustrates how no human being need be excluded.
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. (Romans 4:1-2)
People often boast in their own works. To ourselves and to others, our works may look
impressive. But it takes more than our works to impress God. We might boast before others,
but we certainly have no room to boast before God. Those things we can create certainly do
not compare to those things God has created. Our most perfect work, when put under a
microscope shows more and more imperfections as the magnification level is increased. But
God's creation, the more it is magnified, reveals an increasing glory and wonder.
Now, to the Jews, Abraham was a hero. Surely, if anyone could be saved by works,
Abraham could. But as righteous as Abraham may have been, his works did not save him.
What does the Scripture say? ''Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness." (Romans 4:3)
Righteous deeds did not earn Abraham his salvation. The righteousness that Abraham was
given came to him because of his trust in God. It was because Abraham believed God that
he was made righteous. Righteousness was credited to him because of his
faith.
The word translated "credited" can be translated accounted, reckoned,
imputed, or counted. The point that is being made is that when we believe, God transfers
His righteousness to our account. Sin is transferred from our account and
righteousness is transferred to our account. It is not our righteousness, it
is His. And it is made ours by faith.
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. (Romans 4:4-5)
So we see that salvation is a gift. And faith is the key to receiving this gift.
Salvation is not given to us by God because of some obligation on His part. If we
received what we deserve, it would not be salvation. None of us wants to get what we
deserve - what God owes us. Therefore, we have to ask ourselves a very important question.
Do we want a fair trial or a free pardon? God offers both. I want the pardon.
So the challenge for us is to be someone who does not work but trusts God who
justifies the wicked. We must throw ourselves at His feet as the only hope for our
salvation. We must believe in Him. If we do, our faith is credited as righteousness.
Faith is the key. Faith is all you need.
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." (Romans 4:6-8)
David is brought forth as someone who had experienced the forgiveness of God though he
was a great sinner. Paul quotes one of David's psalms - Psalm 32:1-2. This Psalm was
written after David had committed great sin. In fact, David had broken three of the Ten
Commandments in his affair with Bathsheba. He had coveted her, committed adultery with
her, and murdered her husband. Think about that.
Suppose someone were to come into our church and stand up in one of our services and
tell us that he had done the same thing. Many people would be horrified. And rightly so!
These things are grave sins. In fact, for two of these three sins there was no sacrifice
to make atonement in Israel. For murder and for adultery, the penalty was death. David
stood guilty of two capital offenses.
But David's life illustrates the mercy and forgiveness of God. It illustrates that no
one need be excluded because of the greatness of their sin. You see, David threw himself
upon the mercy of God, repenting for his sin with a broken heart. And the two verses from
Psalm 32 that are quoted by Paul illustrate two important points. Blessed are they
whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered illustrates that by the
mercy of God sin is freely forgiven. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will never
count against him illustrates that by the mercy of God sin is forever forgotten. The
good news of the Gospel is that through faith in Christ your sin is freely forgiven and
your sin is forever forgotten.
This is an amazing truth. You see, even though the sins you have committed are in the
past, they are really never gone. We live in time, but God lives in eternity. He sees both
the past and the future at the same time. Think about standing here on earth and looking
up, on a clear night, at the stars. When you look at a star, even through a powerful
telescope, you are not looking at the star as it is now. You are looking at the star as it
was sometime in the past. You are looking at light that was sent many years ago. If you
could stand at a point in the universe as far away from the earth as the star Sirius, and
if you could zoom in with a telescope powerful enough to see your actions here on earth,
you could watch yourself doing what you did nine years ago. And it would be live. Dr.
Irwin A. Moon said "Everything you have ever done, you are still doing. The ghost of
your past haunts the universe." So it is an amazing fact that God chooses to forget
our sin. He marks it off His slate as if it never existed, despite the evidence of it.
I like what John Phillips said in his commentary on Romans about this:
Some years ago a wealthy English businessman purchased a Rolls Royce and soon afterward took his new car to France. When in the south of France, it broke down and he phoned the Rolls Royce people in Britain. The manufacturer flew a mechanic to France and the man's car was repaired. He expected to receive a sizable bill for this unprecedented service, but as months passed and no invoice arrived the businessman wrote the Rolls Royce Company asking for his account to be rendered. By return mail he received a courteous note from the company assuring him that they had no record of anything having gone wrong with his car! In other words, the Rolls Royce company refused to acknowledge any imperfection in their product. That is exactly what happened to David in a spiritual sense. "Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin." When God forgives, he blots out the record.
Another crutch, besides their own righteousness, upon which people lean is the crutch
of their own religiousness. People tend to trust both in the rites of religion and the
rules of religion. But like trusting in good works, to trust in either of these two
aspects of religion is folly.
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! (Romans 4:9-10)
Circumcision was the most important religious rite of the Jewish faith. It was the sign
of the covenant made with Israel. But Paul makes the important point that this rite of
circumcision was not the real issue. He asks us to notice the time when Abraham's faith
was credited to him as righteousness. He received this righteousness not after he
was circumcised, but before! There was fourteen years between the time Abraham
believed and the time when he was circumcised. Faith was the key issue, not the religious
rite.
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. (Romans 4:11-12)
The rite was important because it was a seal of the righteousness that he had by
faith while he was still uncircumcised. The rite was observed because it confirmed his
faith. The key issue again is faith. Faith is all you need. Whether you are circumcised or
not, the key is to walk in the footsteps of the faith of Abraham.
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, because law brings wrath. And where there is no law there is no transgression. (Romans 4:13-15)
Finally, we see that the rules of religion are as insufficient as the rites. The law
was not what produced the promise. The promise was made by God and received by
faith. Since we could not earn our salvation by attempting to live by law, God
made us a promise that does not depend upon the law. It depends upon our receiving
it by faith. The law only reveals our transgression. It only brings wrath.
But by believing in the promise of God, trusting in His word, we receive the free
gift of forgiveness and the free pardon for all of our sins.
You see, it is not a question of our righteousness or our religiousness, it is a
question of trusting God by faith. We are saved by faith. Faith is all we need.
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