Bible, please, and turn with me to Romans chapter
4. Beginning with chapter 1 verse 18, the apostle
argues that all men are sinners. He does that
quite effectively and concludes that all have
sinned and come short of the glory of God. Now
in the last part of chapter 3, beginning with
verse 21 and end of chapter 4, he deals with
how sinners can be saved. The salvation is described
here by the phrase justification by faith. It
might be good for us to define once again what
justification is. Someone has said that justification,
or to be justified, means just as if I'd never
sinned. That's okay for where it goes, but it
doesn't quite go far enough because, you see,
that brings me back to the point of innocence.
But justification does something more than that.
Justification is the judicial act of God whereby
he declares righteous in his sight the one who
puts his faith in Christ. So it's not just being
innocent or being as though I've never sinned,
but it means to be righteous. in the sight of
God. That's what a justified person is. And justification
comes by faith. We have emphasized that now for
a couple of weeks as we have concluded chapter
3 in our teaching. I'd like to call out this
morning faith righteousness as opposed to works
righteousness. Because it is a righteousness
that comes to us as a gift from God by faith.
Therefore it is faith righteousness. Faith righteousness
is not a Paul created doctrine, nor is it even
new with the New Testament. As a matter of fact,
people were saved throughout the Old Testament
on the same basis as you and I are saved by faith
through God's grace. They may have believed a
different promise or some other aspect of God's
revelation than we've been given, but Nonetheless,
it was their faith in that promise or revelation
that saved them. This is true of Abraham, who
is the example before us today. The story is
told of the experience of Dr. Harry Ironside,
who was for 18 years the pastor of Moody Church
in Chicago. He's been with the Lord now over
30 years. Dr. Ironside was on vacation one summer
and visited a church and went to Sunday school.
How would you like to be the Sunday school teacher
where Dr. Ironside or someone like that would
come and sit and do your teaching? Well, the
teacher didn't know who he was. And in the course
of the lesson, the teacher asked the question,
how were people saved in Old Testament times?
And after a little pause, one of the students
lifted his hand, one of the men in the class,
and he said, by keeping the law. And the teacher
said, that's right. But another hand went up
and it was Dr. Ironside's hand. He said, you
know, my Bible says that by the deeds of the
law shall no flesh be justified. Well, the teacher
was a little embarrassed by that and so he said,
well, does somebody else have an idea? And the
student, another student lifted his hand and
this one said, well, they were saved by bringing
sacrifices to God. Yes, that's right," said the
teacher, and he tried to go on with the lesson,
but there was another hand that went up, and
it was Dr. Ironside's hand again, and he said,
my Bible says that the blood of bulls and goats
cannot take away sin. Well, the teacher, who
was unprepared, was frustrated by this time and
finally realized that there was someone there
who knew more than he did, and so finally he
said, well, then you tell us how people were
saved in the Old Testament. And so Dr. Ironside
wanted to explain that people were saved in the
Old Testament just like they're saved today by
faith, by faith. Abraham illustrates that to
us, folks. You have to remember that the apostle
is writing here, particularly with the Jews in
mind. And so he brings Abraham before them. And
one could not bring a more important and revered
figure before a Jew for consideration. Let's
read what he says. What then shall we say that
Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh,
has found? For if Abraham was justified by works,
he has something to boast about, but not before
God. For what does the scripture say? And Abraham
believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.
Genesis 15 .6 Now to the one who works, his wage
is not reckoned as a favor, but as what is due.
But to the one who does not work, but believes
in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is
reckoned as righteousness. Just as David also
speaks of the blessing upon the man to whom God
reckons righteousness apart from works. And in
Psalm 32 he quotes these words. Blessed are those
whose lawless deeds have been forgiven and whose
sins have been covered. Blessed is the man whose
sin the Lord will not take into account. Is this
blessing then upon the circumcised or upon the
uncircumcised also? That is, upon the Jew or
upon the Gentile also. For we say faith was reckoned
to Abraham as righteousness. How then was it
reckoned? While he was circumcised or uncircumcised?
not while circumcised, but while uncircumcised.
And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal
of the righteousness of the faith which he had
while uncircumcised, that he might be the father
of all who believe without being circumcised,
that righteousness might be reckoned to them,
and the father of circumcision to those who not
only are of the circumcision, but who also follow
in the steps of the faith of our father Abraham,
while he which he had while uncircumcised. For
the promise to Abraham or to his descendants
that he would be heir of the world was not through
the law, but through the righteousness of faith.
For those who are the law are heirs. Faith is
made void, and the promise is nullified. For
the law brings about wrath, but where there is
no law, neither is there violation. It doesn't
say there's no sin, but it says there's no violation,
there's no transgression, where there's no law.
He says, for this reason it is by faith that
it might be in accordance with grace, in order
that the promise may be certain to all the descendants,
not only to those who have the law, but also
to those who have the faith of Abraham, who is
the father of us all, as it's written, a father
of many nations, have I made you. in the sight
of him whom he believed, even God, who gives
life to the dead and calls into being that which
does not exist. The Apostle brings Abraham to
our attention in this chapter to illustrate that
justification is by faith. In the text that we
read this morning, he is going to explain to
us what did not justify Abraham. Then next week
we'll see what did justify Abraham. What did
not justify Abraham? Well, the answer is three
-fold. Works, circumcision, and the law. Abraham
was justified apart from all three of these.
The apostle explains that very logically. Verses
1 through 8, he talks about the fact that Abraham
was justified apart from works. The teaching
of Judaism in Paul's day was that justification
came by works. In the Expositors Bible Commentary,
Everett Harrison has a helpful paragraph. He
says, To show that Abraham's close relation to
God was not based on works, a simple appeal to
scripture is sufficient. That appeal was the
more necessary because Judaism, even before Paul's
day, was laying great store by Abraham's piety
and was grounding it in his obedience. And then
he quotes from the book of 1 Maccabees, which
was written, as many of you know, in that intertestamental
period before the New Testament time. And this
is what the statement says from 1 Maccabees.
Was not Abraham found faithful in temptation,
and it was reckoned unto him for righteousness?
You see, that was the feeling, that was the teaching
of the rabbis in that day, that Abraham was found
faithful. He passed the test. He did not yield
in temptation and therefore his works caused
him to be justified in the sight of God. And
so it is significant that the apostle passes
over all of that information, which he knew,
because he was a trained rabbi. His teacher was
one of the most brilliant gifted men of that
day, Gamaliel. He knew what the Jewish rabbis
taught. He passed over all of that and he goes
all the way back to Genesis chapter 15 to show
that in fact Abraham was not saved by his faithfulness.
Rather he was justified by his faith. Justified
by faith. The apostle points out that if, in
fact, he had been justified by his works, there
would be two results. In verse 2 he says that
there would be room for boasting. Abraham, or
for that matter any of us who would do good enough
to get to heaven, could boast about what we had
done. And last week we saw that God will have
no flesh, what? Glory in his presence. Therefore,
he removes any basis for boasting on our part
by removing works as the means of salvation.
The second result, if a person could be justified
by works, is found in verse 4. Salvation would
come to us on God's part as an obligation. God
would be obliged to give us salvation and it
would no more at all be a grace or be a favor.
God would be simply giving us what is our dessert,
what is our due. And God will not save any man
on that basis. And so he points out that Abraham
was not saved by works, but rather he was saved
by faith. And so that we can understand the context
of this promise that Abraham believed, take your
Bible, Go back to the first book, the book of
Genesis, and look in chapter 15. In verse 1 of
the chapter, we see these words. After these
things, the word of the Lord came to Abram. This
is before his name change. The word of the Lord
came to Abram in a vision saying, Do not fear
Abram, I am a shield to you. Your reward shall
be very great. And Abraham said, O Lord God,
what wilt thou give me, since I am childless?
And the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus.
Abraham said, since thou hast given me no offspring,
one born in my house is my heir. What he is really
saying there in verses 2 and 3 is that because
he was childless, According to the law of that
day, he had already arranged with his Eleazar
of Damascus to be his heir and to care for all
of his things when he died. That was so that
there could be a distribution of the goods of
the deceased. Eleazar wasn't, in essence, the
administrator of the estate of Abram. And he's
an old man at this time, some 86 years of age.
And so he's got everything all arranged. And
God says, I've got a great promise for you. Great
things are going to happen, Abraham. And Abraham
said, wait a minute, Lord. I'm 86 years of age.
I don't have any children. How can you say great
things are going to happen? Well, then the word
of the Lord came to him. This man will not be
your heir. But one who shall come forth from
your own body, he shall be your heir." What a
tremendous promise that was, and what a miracle
it would take, because Abraham was beyond child
-bearing years, as was his wife Sarai. But God
says from your own body there is going to come
a son. And then God took him by the hand and
took him outside the tent and said, Now Abraham
walked toward the heavens. And count the stars
if you're able to count them. And he said to
him, so shall your descendants be. And so God
not only said, Abraham, you're going to have
an heir, but you're going to have as many descendants
as there are stars up in the heavens. That was
God's promise, his revelation to Abraham. And
then he says, then he believed in the Lord. And
he, God, reckoned it to Abram as righteousness.
So you see, that was the promise that Abram believed.
Abram didn't call upon the name of the Lord Jesus
Christ to be saved. This is 2 ,000 years before
Jesus Christ was born. Abram believed the promise
that God gave to him. The specific revelation
that he would have a son and that his descendants
would be like the stars of the heavens. Now,
Abraham did look through a telescope, as it were,
down through the centuries, and he saw the day
of the Christ, and he rejoiced in it. But at
this point, he simply is believing what God told
him. God honored that faith and counted it to
him for righteousness. There was nothing in Abram
himself that caused God to say, boy, there's
a nice guy. He needs a white hat. He's doing
okay. I'm going to give him salvation. He wasn't
a good old boy. Abraham was called by God out
of idolatry. He was an idol worshiper just as
his forefathers, according to Joshua 24 verses
2 and 3. So there was nothing in Abraham that
caused God to say, there's somebody special,
I'm going to save him. God in his sovereign grace
simply looked down and there was Abraham and
God chose him and called him out. Abraham responded
by faith. And when God gave him the promise,
Abraham believed in the Lord in a saving sense
and God saved him at that moment. Or as it puts
it here, he counted it to him for righteousness.
Actually when it says that Abraham believed God
here in Genesis 6, excuse me, 15 verse 6, It
literally means, in the Hebrew, Abraham amen'd
God. I know amen is lost in our vocabulary today.
We hardly ever use it as sad. But Abraham was
not afraid to say amen in church. There was just
a small crowd, him and God. But when God gave
him the promise, he shouted, amen! He believed
it. He said, that's mine. I claim it for myself.
I agree with that. And God said, your faith is
counted as righteousness. And I'll go back to
Romans chapter four. That's where the apostle
gets this quotation in verse three. Abraham believed
God and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.
And you notice the word reckoned. Eleven times
in this chapter this same Greek word is used,
but in the English translations it's run across
variously as reckoned or imputed or counted.
But it all means the same thing. It's a word
that goes back to the accounting world. Some
of you here are accountants. So you can identify
very readily with this word. It simply means
to credit to an account. You go down to the bank
with your paycheck. You endorse the check, fill
out the deposit slip, you hand it to the girl,
She takes it, she punches the numbers in the
computer and what is she doing? She is imputing
that amount of money to your account. She is
reckoning it to you. She is crediting it to you
personally. And so what it really is saying here
is that God looked at the account of righteousness,
in Abraham's case, and it was bankrupt. There
was nothing there that God could look at to give
Abraham credit. He was absolutely without credit.
He was bankrupt. It was empty. So God gave Abram
a promise. Abram believed it, and God said, now
I'm going to give that account righteousness,
and he put into his account perfect righteousness
in his sight. That's what the word means. Thus,
God put to Abram's account, placed on deposit
for him, or credited to him, righteousness. That's
what it means. You see, that's what happens when
every person trusts God's promise and calls upon
Christ for salvation today. At that instant,
the bankrupt account is filled up with perfect
righteousness. God reckons the righteousness
of Christ to the believer. There are some people
who think that they are beyond that point. I've
talked to people who've said, you know, that's
great for good people, but I'm a sinner. I've
done terrible things. And when they say that,
they've missed the whole point. God doesn't justify
the good people. Now that's what religion teaches.
That's what liberal theology likes to promote.
that if you're good enough, God will justify
you. He'll pass you by, say, okay, slap you on
the back, let you come on in. But that's foreign
to the word of God. In fact, according to verse
five, who is it that God justifies? Is it the
good? What's the word? The ungodly. In other
words, friend, if you feel today that you're
unworthy of salvation, that you have no righteousness,
You are a prime candidate for God's salvation.
If you recognize that you are ungodly or without
God, God can justify you. It's possible to be
too good to be saved, but it's not possible to
be too bad to be saved. I don't care how deeply
you may feel that you've failed and you've sinned
and you're exed out before God, I'm going to
tell you you're not. God justifies the ungodly
and he may do that because you see Jesus Christ
has paid for your sins in full at the cross.
All of the demands of the law upon the sinner,
Jesus took in himself. He paid the price in full
and he said as he died, it is finished. Literally
the price is paid. So that now a person who will
may trust the Lord Jesus Christ and all of his
sin is imputed to Christ, Christ's righteousness
is given to him, and he's saved. And that's how
God receives us. Have you trusted Jesus Christ
that way? That's what happened to Abraham. He
hadn't read Romans 4 yet, but that's what happened
to Abraham. He just didn't know all of this at
that point. Now this doctrine that we're talking
about is affirmed by David. That's interesting.
David writes in a different dispensation, a different
age. He writes under the law. David wrote as
a Christian, as a believer. Not as a Christian,
as a believer. And he undergirds what the Apostles
have been saying in Psalm 32. Blessed are those
whose lawless deeds have been forgiven. and whose
sins have been covered, blessed is the man whose
sin the Lord will not take into account." Now,
he doesn't use the word righteousness or justify,
but he does use that word take into account or
reckon here, and that's why Paul uses this quotation.
David is saying the same thing. Now the interesting
thing is that David is saying this in Psalm 32
after he sinned as a Christian. You know, there
are those poor Christians who live the Christian
life, they live throughout their lives under
the fear of losing their salvation, for fear
that they're going to do something wrong and
lose out in the end. I pity them. As a matter
of fact, Dr. Harry Ironside, whom I quoted earlier,
was of that persuasion earlier in his years,
and God got him straightened out, and he wrote
a book about it. I think it's been republished
recently, in fact, as he came to understand that
justification by faith as an eternal proposition.
It takes place once and forever. You see, David
says essentially the same thing that Paul is
saying, but he said it after a terrible sin as
a believer. So the implication is that his terrible
sin of adultery with Bathsheba, that terrible
sin did not interrupt his justification. Even
though he had grievously sinned, even though
God was greatly displeased, he was still a child
of God. And he says, blessed is the man who sinned,
the Lord will not hold against him. Essentially
is what he's saying. Do you understand that once
you are saved, there is no sin that you can ever
commit that God will ever hold against you? Do
you understand that? According to Colossians
chapter 2, all of your sins have been forgiven
in Jesus Christ, past, present, and future. Blessed
truth, wonderful doctrine, justification by faith.
We are not justified by works and we can't lose
our salvation by works. We are justified by faith
through grace and we are saved by grace. It's
either all of works or it's all of grace, one
or the other. We can't mix the two. And the blessed
truth of the word is that we are justified by
faith and it's of God's grace. Secondly, we notice,
verses 9 through 12, that Abraham was justified
apart from circumcision. That's difficult for
us to understand the import of that. Because
today circumcision is a matter of hygiene, according
to most of the medical profession. I started
to say perfection, that's what some doctors would
like me to say, but it's profession. And in that
day, it was something far deeper. God may have
given it secondarily for hygiene among his people,
but he gave it primarily as a sign of the covenant
that he established with them. That's what circumcision
was all about. Now the Jews boasted in it. To
them, circumcision was just about everything.
Now they had a right to boast at first because
it was the symbol that they belonged to God,
they had trusted the Lord, they were following
him, and this was a physical sign of it. But
as the centuries transpired, the emphasis was
put less and less upon the faith and more and
more upon the ritual. Until in the day when Paul
was writing these words, the Jews had forgotten
about personal faith in the Lord, and their whole
emphasis was upon the ritual of circumcision.
On the eighth day of a boy's life he was circumcised.
And to them that brought him into the covenant
relationship with God. No emphasis on personal
faith. It was just a ritual, a rite that they
went through. Now the Jews boasted so much in
this that they looked upon everybody else who
was uncircumcised as being unworthy of being
related to God. And so the apostle writes to
these Jewish Christians who still had some of
this thinking, and he says, I want to ask you
something. When Abraham was justified, was he
circumcised or uncircumcised? And horror of horrors
to the Jews. He was justified 14 years before
he was circumcised. In other words, he was still
a Gentile when he was justified by faith. Now
you may not understand or appreciate the impact
of that, but a Jew would. That was a tremendous
blow to his pride, to his boasting, to understand
that Abraham had been justified before he was
circumcised. Now why was it that God ordered
it that way? It was so that Abraham could be
the father of the faith, quote unquote, to both
Jews and Gentiles, to all who believe. So that
today, whether one is a Jew of the circumcision
or a Gentile of the so -called uncircumcision,
one is related to God and is a part of Abraham's
descendants by faith. His family is the family
of faith. I'd like to make an application here
because there is a parallel today to what circumcision
was to the Jews. It's baptism. There's baptism.
Now, the parallel is not entirely wrong. You
see, circumcision was to the Jews an outward
sign of their inward faith in God. Isn't that
what baptism is? Yes, it is. Baptism is an outward
evidence of the fact that one has trusted the
Lord Jesus Christ. Circumcision did not add to
the Jews' salvation. Baptism does not add to
the Christians' salvation. We're justified by
faith. But baptism is right. It is ordered for
us just as circumcision was ordered for the Jews
under the law. The Lord commands that those of
us who trust Christ then follow him by baptism.
Now I'll take it a point further. I believe that
this is at least part of the origin of infant
baptism. The parallel was drawn too closely.
So the people figured, well, if there's a parallel
here then and Jewish boys were circumcised the
eighth day according to the law, then we should
have our babies sprinkled as infants to bring
them into the covenant. I see nothing wrong with
presenting a baby in dedication to God, but infant
baptism finds no place in the scripture. Now
I would like right now to quote for you every
scripture that teaches them from baptism. I want
you to get a pencil and paper handy. I want you
to write down the references because I'm going
to give you each one of them right now. Are you
ready? How'd you like that? Did you get them
all? Did you write them down? Got the point?
It's not found in the scriptures. It's not there
at all. So while there is a parallel with circumcision,
we must not draw that parallel too closely. Circumcision
was the sign that one was related to God through
the covenant of the law. Baptism is a sign that
one is related by personal faith to God through
the new covenant based upon Christ's shed blood.
Baptism is important, but it doesn't make one
saved. If today you're trusting in baptism or
some other ritual to get you to heaven, dear
friend, may I warn you that that trust of yours,
however sincere it may be, is wrongly placed.
God doesn't take anybody to heaven because he's
been baptized. Now, I was baptized as an infant.
I was sprinkled as an infant, to be more correct,
and it did something for me. It got my forehead
wet. But that's all it did. And I don't mean
to make light of something that is very meaningful
to some people, but I would like to say this.
It is not meaningful to God. It means nothing
to God. What does? Personal faith in Jesus Christ.
Now there's something else I want to say. And
that is that there is still today a circumcision.
It is an inward circumcision. The apostle says
in Colossians chapter 2 that it is a circumcision
without hands. In other words, it's not a physical
circumcision. He calls it the cutting away of
the old man from us. When you and I were saved,
the moment we trusted Christ, the Holy Spirit
did a circumcision in our hearts and he cut away
from us the old man. And that's why he goes on
to say, Now you're to put away the deeds of that
old man. You're no longer that old man. So don't
lie. Don't get angry. Don't be involved in adultery,
in immorality, in impurity. Because those are
a part of the old man and he was cut away from
you when you were saved. Rather, he says, walk
as the new man. And add to yourself humility
and love and so on. Colossians chapter 3. That's
what that's all about. So today there is a circumcision.
It's inside, it's inward, it happens the moment
we're saved. But we are not justified by our
works. Whether it be physical circumcision or
baptism, these things do not justify one. Finally,
and briefly, Abraham was not justified either
by the law. But that's very easy to understand
if you simply know the chronology of the Old
Testament. Abraham lived about 600 years before
the law was even given. So there's no way he
could have been justified by the law. In fact,
you will find three times in verses 13 through
17 the word promise. And that's why we call the
period of time from Abraham up until Moses the
age of promise. God dealt with his people on
the basis of his promise to Abraham, which was
carried on to Isaac and to Jacob and to his descendants.
And then beginning with the Jews as they came
out of Egypt to Mount Sinai, God dealt with them
on the basis of the law. But that period of time
between Abraham and up to Mount Sinai is usually
called the age of promise. You see, promise is
something that comes by grace. It's not deserved.
It's by favor. And that's how God dealt with
Abraham. And that's how God deals with us too.
God doesn't save us on the basis of the good
things we do or our obedience to the Ten Commandments.
He saves us because we believe his promise. Now
again, the apostle emphasizes the fact that God
justifies the ungodly. Not because they keep
the law, but because they trust his promise.
And all of us today who have made that decision
to trust Jesus Christ are part of Abraham's descendants.
And you notice that he says in verse 17, and
here he quotes from Genesis 17 verse 5, he says,
a father of many nations have I made you to Abraham.
Now that's true in a physical sense, isn't it?
Today not only the Jews are descendants of Abraham,
but who else? The Arabs. They are descendants
of Abraham through Ishmael, his son by Hagar,
the bondmaid to his wife Sarah. So he has many
nations in the world today and his kids are still
squabbling, aren't they? Some of us know what
that's like in raising kids. So it's true physically,
but you see it's true spiritually too that he
is the father of many nations. Because for many
nations of the world there are those who trust
the Lord Jesus Christ and who are part of the
family of God. So that in that spiritual sense
he is the father of many nations as well. You
see it's faith that counts with God. Not works,
not ritual, not keeping the law, but it's faith.
and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. He doesn't
look for self -righteousness, he looks for faith
-righteousness. Righteousness that comes by faith
in Jesus Christ. Is that the righteousness you
have today? Is that how you're intending to get
to heaven? By faith in Christ? Or are you still
planning to get there some other way? If that
be the case, then before God, I must tell you
to be a faithful servant of His, that if you're
trying to get there another way, you'll never
make it. There are many ways that seem right
unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways
of death, according to Proverbs. The only way
to get to heaven is God's way, by His provision
and His Son. If you've not trusted Christ, I
hope you will before you leave here. And then
in closing to those of us who have done that,
who are Christians, you know God has performed
a marvelous operation in us, an inward circumcision.
Does your life witness to that? Does your lifestyle
reflect the fact that God has cut away the old
man from you? Or are you still putting on the
deeds of the old man and living like a sinner?
Now we never get to the point in this world,
we believe, of sinless perfection, but we ought
to be growing more and more in holiness. There
ought to be more and more purity in our lives,
more and more love, more and more humility, more
and more Christ -likeness. Is that where you
are today in your Christian walk? I'm not saying
are you perfect, I'm saying are you growing to
be like Jesus Christ? Or are you slipping back
the other direction? If so, then today may I
exhort you as a brother in Christ to put off
the old man with his deeds and to put on the
new man which is created in Christ Jesus after
righteousness and true holiness. Let's pray.