Romans: By His Grace - For His Glory
8th in the Series
A Life of Faith
Romans 1:17
April 14, 1996
by J. David Hoke
For in the gospel a righteousness from God is
revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written:
''The righteous will live by faith."
(Romans 1:17 NIV)
Gullible. It never ceases to amaze me just how gullible people are. When
P. T. Barnum said, "There's a sucker born every minute," he was right. It seems
that there is no limit to what we will believe.
Listen to some of the titles that have appeared in the tabloids found in
grocery store checkout lines: Cow Mattresses Help Cows Produce More Milk - Mom On Diet Of
Only Chicken, Lays Huge Egg - World War II Bomber Found On The Moon - Women Gives Birth To
Two-Year-Old Baby: Child Walks And Talks In Three Days - Adam And Eve's Bones Found In
Asia: Eve Was A Space Alien.
The sad thing is that many people believe this sort of nonsense.
Gullible is certainly a word that can be used to describe many people. But gullible has
also been used to describe Christians as well. Many people, enamored by the so called
logic of rational thinking, believe that Christians are gullible for their faith in the
supernatural. That we believe in miracles and in an unseen God is evidence of our own
gullibility, they think.
The Bible, however, teaches that faith is the key to everything for the
Christian. By faith we come to Christ. By faith we live our Christian lives successfully.
Without faith it is impossible to please God. In other words, faith is central for
Christian living. What to the world may seem like gullibility is in fact the key to unlock
the door which will eventually lead us to certainty.
Vance Havner, the famous Baptist evangelist, when he was alive, used to
tell the story of an elderly lady who was greatly disturbed by her many troubles both real
and imaginary. Finally she was told in a kindly way by her family, "Grandma, we've
done all we can do for you. You'll just have to trust God for the rest." A look of
utter despair spread over her face as she replied, "Oh, dear, has it come to
that?" After telling that story, Vance Havner would say, "It always comes to
that, so we might as well begin with that!"
Well, let's begin with that today and see just what the Scripture has to
say concerning faith as it relates to our salvation and the living of our lives.
Righteousness Revealed
For in the Gospel a righteousness from God is revealed . . . (Romans
1:17a)
The apostle Paul has already made the point that God is powerfully
working in the Gospel to effect the salvation of sinners. He points out the truth that
everyone who believes in the message of the Gospel is saved. It is the object of this
Gospel message that is the object of our faith - Jesus Christ.
When Paul writes that in the Gospel a righteousness from God is
revealed, he is really speaking of the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. You
see, Jesus Christ is the message of the Gospel. The Gospel centers in the person of
Christ. It is all about His sinless life, substitutionary atonement, and supernatural
resurrection. He is the object of the Gospel, and the object of our faith.
So in the Gospel we see a righteousness from God centered
in His Son, who died on the Cross as the sacrifice for our sins. Christ's righteousness is
revealed to us in a number of ways. Two are vital to see. We must see that Christ is
righteousness and that He imparts His righteousness to us.
This is what the Gospel reveals, and it is vitally important for us to
see this truth. This is the function of preaching the message of the Gospel. This is why
Paul emphasizes "Christ and Him crucified" in his preaching of the Gospel. This
is why we celebrate the Lord's Table together to remember the righteous One who was
crucified in our place. It is important to understand this truth because this truth is the
basis for our salvation. The Gospel is an explanation of why we can be saved.
We can only be saved because of what God has done. The Bible teaches
that we are all sinners by nature and by choice and that we are totally unable to save
ourselves. The Gospel is all about the intervention of God on our behalf. It is about His
sovereign work in bringing us to salvation. Salvation is something God has made possible
for us through His Son, Jesus Christ. And unless we understand the message of the Gospel,
we will be confused about how we must be saved.
Faith for Living
. . . a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it
is written: "The righteous will live by faith." (Romans 1:17b)
The way that the righteousness of God is given to us is through faith.
You see, it is only Good News when we come to understand that God offers His righteousness
to us through Jesus Christ. If all we understand is that Christ is righteous and we are
not, that is not Good News. That is Tragic News. But the Tragic News that we are without
righteousness and unable to save ourselves gives way to the Good News when we realize that
Christ extends His righteousness to us.
This is, in fact, what He does. And it is offered on one basis only - by
faith. In fact, we are told that this righteousness comes to us by faith from
first to last. In other words, faith is how we receive the righteousness of
Christ, and faith is how we walk in that righteousness.
But what is true biblical faith? Is faith something we do? No, on
the contrary, true biblical faith is never a work we perform because we are somehow
good and worthy. In fact, faith is rejecting all our works and trusting completely in
Christ alone. There is a little acrostic which attempts to explain this - Forsaking
All I Trust Him. True biblical faith is casting oneself wholly on the
Lord Jesus Christ as your only hope for salvation. Faith is trusting in what Jesus did on
the Cross as sufficient for you.
When John Paton was translating the Bible for a South Seas island tribe,
he discovered that they had no word for trust or faith. One day a native who had been
running hard came into the missionary's house, flopped himself into a large chair and
said, "It's good to rest my whole weight on this chair." This became some sort
of a revelation to Paton. "That's it," he said. "I'll translate faith as
'resting one's whole weight on God.'" When we are biblically believing in God, we are
indeed resting our whole weight on Him.
It is by faith that we have the righteousness of Christ inputted or
imparted to us. But it is also by faith that we live our lives every day. We must not only
trust in Christ for our salvation, we must also trust Christ with our lives. Paul quotes
from the Old Testament prophet Habakkuk when he says, "The righteous will live by
faith." (Habakkuk 2:4). We not only find this quotation here in Romans 1:17, but
also in Galatians 3:11 and Hebrews 10:38. It is one of the great statements of Scripture.
This statement was used by God to change the life of Martin Luther, an
Augustinian Monk who had been attempting to earn his salvation by doing good works. Luther
had tried in vain to achieve salvation by doing these works. But he found no satisfaction.
He thought to himself, "But what works? What works can come from a heart like mine?
How can I stand before the holiness of my judge with works polluted in their very
source?"
Luther struggled to the point of despair trying to please God. He had
studied Romans, and come across this passage of Scripture: "The righteous will
live by faith." And God began to use it to speak to his heart.
Doctor Paul Luther his son, told of what is now a very famous incident
which is preserved in a manuscript in the library of Rudolfstadt. Luther was in the Church
of St. John Lateran in Rome where there is a set of medieval stone stairs, which
supposedly were the stairs leading up to Pilate's house in Jerusalem, and as such the
stairs upon which Jesus walked. They are called the Scala Sancta or "Holy
Stairs." Many pilgrims to Rome would ascend these steps on their knees, pausing to
pray at various intervals where there were stains said to have come from the bleeding
wounds of Jesus.
It was there that God brought these words of Scripture to Luther's mind:
"The just shall live by faith." Luther saw clearly his superstition and
shuttered at it. He realized that he could never save himself by works but that he could
only be saved by the righteousness of Christ, received by faith. He descended those stairs
a new man. And, of course, he became the catalyst for the greatest reformation that the
church has ever known. In fact, it is known historically as "The Great Reformation of
the Sixteenth Century."
But notice that the Scripture does not simply say that the righteous
will be saved by faith, it declares that the righteous will live by faith.
Faith is not just something by which we enter into a right relationship with God, faith is
also the basis upon which we live every single day. It is not that we come to Christ by
faith and then we live by good works. Remember, it is by faith from first to last.
That phrase can be translated "from faith to faith." In other words, it
is from faith to faith to faith to faith, and so on. Faith becomes a way of life for us.
Faith is the principle of life for the believer.
The Bible calls all of us to trust in Christ. We are called to believe
in Christ. Do you believe? Do you truly trust Christ? Have you seen, by the Spirit, that
Christ is your savior? Does your heart call out to Him in childlike trust?
If you do not know Jesus, cast yourself on Him as your only hope of
salvation. If you have trusted Christ and have been made His by the power of the Spirit,
cast aside trusting your own strength for living - it is insufficient. Trust Him daily. He
is all you need.
Copyright (C) 1996 J. David Hoke. This data file is the sole property of
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