Righteousness from faith

Anthony Gentle

Tanilba Bay Baptist Church

Romans 1-8 • Sermon • Submitted 3 years ago

Romans 4

Faith

Justification

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In faith we receive the blessing through Abraham, a blessing that ultimately counts as our righteousness.

Notes

Transcript

Stepped plans

Let’s say you want to lose weight. You can jump on the internet and you can find a massive amount of advice on how to go about this. If you do this, you will no doubt find various promises as long as you follow a particular a 5 step process. Or perhaps another will be a 7 step process. Or maybe if you want less steps, I’m sure you’ll find a 3 step process.

But perhaps its not weight loss your after. But the internet is still full of 7 steps to living stress free. 12 steps to a healthy marriage. 8 steps to have better behaved kids.

Now I’m not going to necessarily dispute the wisdom in all of that online advice. Some of it will be good. Some of it well… not so good.

But as I was reflecting on it, it made me think - why do we seem to love these stepped approaches to achieve our desired outcomes?

Now maybe I’m wrong, because I’m only guessing, but I can’t help but think these approaches make it simple, but not too simple.

Now what do I mean by too simple? Well, I could perhaps simplify weight loss to: eat healthier and exercise more. I could perhaps simplify marriage problems to: show your spouse more love.

But the problem is, eating healthier requires life style changes. Showing your spouse more love requires knowing how to show them love.

A few steps, assuming it’s good advice, can help break things down to make things manageable.

Now this approach can be very good, if you have a specific goal your trying to achieve. But it doesn’t always work.

The more complex a system, the less likely it will be to work.

You see, here’s the thing. For a lot of us, perhaps everyone to some degree, if we’re honest, then we can recognise that our life is a mess.

Perhaps there are relationships out of order. Perhaps an underlying angst that we feel. There might be pressures you feel coming from lots of different directions, some real, some perceived.

And so we think, if only there were a few steps I could take and make everything better, I would do it.

Well, guess what. Did you know that some of the world religions actually offer you this?

Let’s take Buddhism. Did you know they have an eight-fold path to enlightenment?

Just follow their steps and you can start turning your life around.

Buddhism is actually proving quite popular these days. You’ll often see little statues of Buddha in peoples houses.

From what I can tell, the reason it is so popular is because they offer nice little things in your life that are not too hard to do, which make you feel better.

But it’s not just Buddhism.

It might be far less popular to the average Australian, but Islam also have a path for us.

They call it the five pillars. Which among other things include their five daily prayers, fasting a Ramadan, and a pilgrimage to Mecca.

In some ways, I can see the attraction. It is clear. You can measure how well you’re going with them.

Now, because we love these stepped approach to things, we can do something similar with Christianity.

And when life falls apart we usually assume that it’s because we’re not doing the steps properly.

Perhaps we’re not praying right. Maybe you’ve skipped going to church too many times. You’re not reading your bible. You’ve dropped the amount you put in the offering bag.

Whatever it may be.

Now don’t get me wrong. Each of those things I just mentioned are very good. Each of them we should be committing to because they each make a difference.

But… and there is a very big but… these various aspects of the Christian walk are not like the eight-fold path for the Buddhist, or the five pillars for Islam.

Because while they are important, they do not save us. You see their is something far more fundamental to all of this which is the only thing needed for the believer.

And that is the focus of this fourth chapter of Romans.

It’s that little thing we call faith.

Now, most of you will be very familiar with this Christian concept of salvation coming from faith alone.

But yet, it can be so easy for each of us to unknowingly add things like prayer and bible reading to the requirements.

Now this is where this morning I want to be very careful. The last thing I want to do is to discourage you from good Christian practices - but yet I want us to be honest with ourselves and ask, are we really living by faith and faith alone, or do we add extra requirements to the list.

Abraham

Now this morning, when we jump into Romans 4, we’re going to see that Abraham is going to feature very significantly. So it’s worth our while to pause a moment and look at Abraham briefly.

Now maybe you know this or maybe you don’t, but not only do we as Christians look to Abraham as the father of faith, but Islam also look to Abraham as the father of their religion. You might recall that before Abraham had Isaac, who we will consider shortly, he had a son to a slave woman called Ishmael, and it is through the line of Ishmael that we find Islam. But that’s a story for another day.

But Abraham comes at a very pivotal point in the overall story of the Bible.

You see, the Bible starts with a perfect creation, but it only takes to the third chapter before sin enters and everything goes down hill.

As you then read through to Genesis 11, the world spins into more and more chaos, culminating with the tower of Babel, at which point God scatters them and brings confusion with different languages.

At this point in the story we could ask, what hope is there for humanity.

But right at the end of chapter 11, we are introduced to Abram, the son of Terah.

As the twelfth chapter begins, it’s like in the middle of the absolute chaos, we finally get a glimpse of hope.

In fact, more than just a glimpse, it is a promise from God, and it is a promise through Abram, who later has his name changed by God to the name we’re more familiar with - Abraham.

Now it’s not my intention to trace his whole life - although I’d encourage you to read through Genesis 12 through to about Genesis 22.

What I want to highlight for you now though, is that what becomes clear is that Abraham is not the most perfect person. He has quite a few faults, and slips up on a number of occasions. But there is one thing that really makes him stand out - and that is his faith.

You see, it starts with a command at the start of Genesis 12 - “Go”.

There is a real uncertainty about it. He’s going from what he knows, to what he has no idea about. All he knows is that this is where God wants him to be, so this is where he will go.

Abraham does go, but far from getting easier, God gives promises that are far-fetched and a long time in coming.

Prominent among them is the promise that he will be the father of many people, a promise that seems rather impossible given his age and that his elderly wife has always been barren.

Well, when you’re already old, you’d think time would be of the essence for this promise, but God had other plans, and through the delay we see the faith of Abraham really come out.

You see, not withstanding some notable set backs, when Abraham was 100 and his wife 90, he had the promised child.

But then his faith was stretched even further when God told him to sacrifice this one promised son. It’s a story which sounds quite horrific really, but a story that points to something truly remarkable. Abraham had faith in God.

For those of you unfamiliar with that story, you don’t need to worry. There was no child sacrifice. God provides a lamb who becomes the substitute. It’s an amazing story with many allusions to the cross, but for now I just want to highlight the importance of faith in all of this.

Romans 4

But let me come back to Romans 4 where Paul is about to bring this great father of the faith into the discussion.

Although let’s do a little recall of where Paul has taken us.

You see, in the first two and a bit chapters, Paul describes in considerable detail the problem of sin, and in particular, how it affects every single person.

Its a problem because it causes a great chasm between God and us.

In fact, this is the real problem. I described earlier this idea that we all to some degree have this feeling that our life is a mess. It’s a mess because of the chaos of sin in our lives. And as much as we can try to hide from it or ignore it, we can’t. It is always there.

But as we moved into the end of chapter 3, which is what I did last week, it changes - and Paul introduces us to the concept of justification. Not just forgiven, although that is certainly included. But a complete change of status. We are counted as clean with no basis of any charge against us.

It’s a truly amazing thing, and it brings us to the shalom that comes from God alone. Shalom is this idea of completeness. Of all things working together.

Now, prior to chapter 4, Paul has certainly mentioned that from our perspective, it is only through faith in Christ that we can attain this. Jesus has done all of the work, we just need faith to claim it. So this has certainly been mentioned.

But it is now in chapter 4 where Paul really wants to emphasize this point about faith, and hence why he has chosen Abraham to make this point.

Not a new concept

Now, throughout the chapter, Paul is going to make his argument from a number of different angles. For most of these arguments he makes, I’m only going to make a brief mention. If you’re the type of person that likes to dig really deep into the nitty gritty of the arguments, I can recommend some good commentaries.

But that being said, the first argument Paul makes is quite enlightening.

You see, his first port of call is actually what scriptures say. And remember, when Paul is talking about scripture here, he is referring to what we call the Old Testament.

And he can provide a direct quote from these chapters I briefly glanced over a moment ago.

You see, here’s the thing. It can seem very much that this idea of being right before God by faith is a New Testament idea, whereas we can be led to believe that the Old Testament is works based. That is, to be right before God, you need to do the right thing.

But Paul’s going to say: wait just a second. That’s actually to misrepresent the whole thing.

You see, as Paul points out, if you go to Genesis 15:6, you will read “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness”.

So there it is, right back in the very early chapter of the entire bible, we have a clear example where it wasn’t someones good works that got them over the line, it was their belief.

And just for good measure, Paul also includes a quote from another hero of the Old Testament - David. In Psalm 32, David talks of the blessedness of those who sin does not count against them.

The point is clear. This idea of being counted righteous by faith is not a new idea. It is the way God always intended for it.

Other arguments

Well, let me scoot through the other arguments Paul makes. As I mentioned before, I’m not going to explore them each in detail, but rather just want to give you a feel for what Paul is saying.

Circumcision

Starting in verse 9, Paul obviously has the Jewish person in mind who thinks so highly of their Jewish ways, and in particular, the act of circumcision.

But again using Abraham as the example, Paul highlights that he was credited with righteousness before he had circumcision. Circumcision in this way just becomes the outward sign of something that has happened.

Actually, we can use a similar example with Baptism. Just like circumcision, baptism is just the outward sign of an inward change. A change that must start with faith.

Law and promise

We see a new argument put forward in verses 13 to 17. Here Paul considers the distinction between law and promise. The main point being that the two concepts, law and promise, were always intended to serve different purposes. The law wasn’t intended to save.

Verse 15 states it clearly: “…the law brings wrath.”

Abraham did not become righteous through the law.

Example of Abraham

But from verse 18, Paul comes back to this positive example of Abraham believing against the odds, and through faith, gains righteousness.

You see, Paul reminds us of some of the story of Abraham that I described earlier. Though it seemed so unlikely, Abraham kept the faith, and saw God deliver.

For all of us

Finally, from verse 23, Paul makes it clear that what happened to Abraham is an example for all of us.

The righteousness that Abraham gained can be gained by us as well.

We just need to believe in Jesus Christ, the one who died and rose again for us. He died for our sin, but for our justification he was raised to new life.

Application

Well, let’s just bring this back now and consider what all of this means for us.

Well, at a basic level it answers some questions.

Occasionally you will hear certain comments like: you need to speak in tongues to be saved. Or, you need to be baptised to be saved. Or possibly even that you need to belong to the right kind of church.

Well it’s all rubbish. If you want righteousness to be credited to you, there is one thing and one thing only that you need. You need to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ who died and rose again and gives us new life. You need faith.

The building block

I’m going to suggest that faith must be the building block for which everything we do.

It is the building block to the prayers that we offer.

It is the building block to the way we talk with others and encourage one another.

It’s the building block to the choices we make.

What does that mean?

Well it means that we start with the knowledge that Jesus loves me and has made a way forward for me.

I talked before of this idea that our life is a mess and we just want a stepped approach to get us out. Buddhism offer us an eight fold path. Islam offer us five pillars.

Christianity isn’t going to offer steps in the same way.

Rather it offers us a person - Jesus Christ. And we cling to him in faith.

In faith we step out of the boat, against all the odds.

In faith, we can say, look, I don’t understand why my world is falling apart all around me. It feels terrible. It seems hopeless. But I’m going to believe that God is going to get me through it.

I’m going to believe that not only will he get me through it, but he is going to make me a better and stronger person.

He is moulding me. He prunes me. Don’t get me wrong, it hurts. But it is so much better.

Failed accreditation

When I became a Baptist pastor, there were a number of steps I had to go through. After a long process of discerning that this was what God wanted me to do, I went through the process of applying for accreditation.

This is a long and arduous process culminating in a day where Fiona had to sit beside me as I was grilled by four different committees, and a final grilling by the committees all coming together.

Well, as it happened, I received a phone call that evening, but it wasn’t the call I was expecting. You see, they didn’t think I was ready. They turned down my application.

This through me into a real spin. How could God do this to me? How could he take me down such a long and difficult path only to slam the door in my face.

Well, as it turned out, I really believe it was a blessing in disguise. And the main reason is that it really taught me to cling closer to Jesus.

In part I was too blaise. I thought I could do it on my own.

I did eventually go through the process again, and I did pass the next time.

But there was a lesson in there for me.

I could not do it on my own.

I needed faith in Jesus.

You see, when we start with that building block of faith, and then we build all the rest around it, we end up with something truly amazing. It’s amazing not because of us, it’s amazing because all that we do becomes shaped by Jesus, and not only do we gain access to eternal life, we begin to see our lives transformed into Christ’s likeness.

Conclusion

As we go through this book of Romans, we will see some extraordinary things happen, things that happen because there is a God who loves us and is looking out for us.

Our temptation is always going to be to think that somehow we need to do something to experience these extraordinary things. The truth is, unlike what every other religion will try to tell you, there is nothing you can do that is going to let you experience it, nothing that is, expect faith in Jesus alone.

When we allow this faith to shape our lives, then we can rest assured that no matter what happens, we are secure in Jesus.