All Roads Lead to Romans
November 9, 2014 :: Romans 3:27-4:25
I have an audacious goal for today’s sermon. I want to get all the way through chapter 4! We haven’t quite finished chapter 3 yet, but I want to try to not only complete that but to make it all the way through the fourth chapter of Paul’s letter to the Romans.
Here’s why. 3:27 through 4:25 is really all about the same thing. It’s the next step in Paul’s argument. In his thought process, it’s all really one thing.
In 3:27-31, Paul is going to make some statements about the gospel, and then he’s going to illustrate, defend, and apply those statements in chapter 4 using the example of Abraham.
Remember Abraham? How many were here in 2003 when I preached all the way through the book of Genesis? How important was Abraham back then in that book?
Well, it turns out that Abraham is one of those “roads that lead to Romans.”
And Paul is going to say today that he is “Father Abraham.” Not just because he is the father of the Hebrew race, but because Abraham is the father of...faith.
We’re going to learn some lessons about faith from Father Abraham this morning.
Last week, we hit the highest point in Paul’s explanation of the gospel of grace.
Paul explained to us in amazing terms how God has solved our righteousness problem–how we who believe on Jesus are now justified–declared righteous.
Remember all those righteousness words?
God solved our righteousness problem, which solves our wrath problem[!], by presenting Jesus as a propitiatory sacrifice for our sins and redeeming us, purchasing our freedom. And He did this as a gift. “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”
And God’s answer to our righteousness problem was also the answer to His righteousness problem. Because He, in His forbearance had left sins of believers before the cross unpunished.
But God is not unrighteous. Jesus’ sacrifice paid for those sins, as well, so that God is both just (righteous) and the justifier of those who believe in Jesus.
That’s the gospel, friends, and it’s best news in all the world.
So...in verse 27, Paul begins to both apply and defend his gospel.
Paul doesn’t end Romans in 3:26. He has a lot more to say about how that gospel works out in real life (especially between believers in conflict with one another) and how it’s true even though there are many objections raised against it.
He begins with implications of the gospel for boasting. 3:27
“Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. On what principle? On that of observing the law? No, but on that of faith. For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law.”
“Where, then, is boasting?”
Paul’s saying, if this gospel is true (and it is) then where does that leave our feelings of moral superiority?
Because we all have them. Especially those who have the Law, the Jews.
“Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded.”
No one can boast under this gospel. No one but God.
How come? What law is at work, what principle?
The law of works? No, the law of faith.
In other words, faith is the operative, driving, central idea in this gospel, and if faith is the operative, driving, central idea, then there is nothing for a believer to boast in.
What Paul says in 3:28 is his main point:
“For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law.”
Do you believe that?
That a believer is righteous before God apart from their doing what the Law commands?
That a believer is right with God apart from being good and doing good?
That a believer is declared righteous apart from doing the works of the law?
That’s what Paul has argued, and that’s what Paul intends to defend. V.29
“Is God the God of Jews only? [They’re the ones with the Law.] Is he not the God of Gentiles too? Yes, of Gentiles too, since there is only one God, who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith.”
Do you see how Paul argues? He says that there is only one God. That’s like the first thing that any Jew ever learns. “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one” (Deut. 6:4).
And if there is only one God, then He is the God of both the Jews and the Gentiles.
Those who have the Law and those who do not. Those who are circumcised and those are not circumcised but have faith in Jesus.
V.28, “For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law.”
By faith alone.
So, someone will ask, what does that do to the Law then? V.31
“Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the law.”
“Are you saying, Paul, that the Law is null and void and useless?”
“No, no, no. May Genoita! May it never be. No, the Law, properly understood and applied has lots of use. I’ll show you later how. But keeping the law os not how anyone gets justified.”
“For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law.”
Do you see how Paul is insisting on this?
It is so important!
Now, in chapter 4, Paul illustrates and further defends this idea by using the example of Father Abraham. Chapter 4, verse 1.
“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. What does the Scripture say? ‘Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.’”
Do you see how Paul is making his point?
He uses that word “boasting” again. If Abraham was justified by works of the law then he had something to boast about.
Did Abraham have anything to boast about?
Paul says, “Not before God!”
And he takes us back to Genesis chapter 15, verse 6.
“What does the Scripture say? ‘Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.’”
Do you remember that passage? I know it’s been a long time since we were in Genesis together, 11 years, but I made a lot of fuss over that verse at the time. It’s one of the roads that leads to Romans.
Paul reaches back in his mind through his Old Testament to show how the Father of the Jews was reckoned as righteous, and it wasn’t because Abraham obeyed the law. It wasn’t because he had done all that God had commanded.
The Bible said that Abraham was reckoned to be righteous because he believed God’s promise.
Genesis 15:6, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”
Now, Paul is going to repeat those phrases again and again. They are really important.
This, by the way, is the first place where faith is mentioned in the Bible. Genesis 15:6. Not that people didn’t have faith before Abraham, but it’s the first place that it’s called that in the Bible. “Abraham believed God, and it was credited [reckoned, counted] to him as righteousness.” There’s our dikaiosunay again. V.4
“Now when a man works, his wages are not credited to him as a gift, but as an obligation.”
If you and I agree on a job for me to do and how much I’ll get paid, and I do it, you don’t say, “Hey, great job. I think I’ll give you out of the goodness of my heart what we agreed upon as your wages.”
“Now when a man works, his wages are not credited to him as a gift, but as an obligation.” v.5
“However, to the man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness.”
And Paul is saying, “That’s what happened with Father Abraham!”
He didn’t do all the works of the Law. He merely believed in God’s promise. Even though Abraham was wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness.
Do you see how potentially scandalous this is?
Simply believe, and God will declare someone who is wicked to be righteous?
Paul says, put yourself in the shoes of someone wicked like that who realizes that they are now justified. V.6
“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.’”
That’s not Genesis. That’s Psalms. Psalm 32.
King David whom we know was not a perfectly righteous man. He had been at times downright wicked.
But David knew the blessings of being justified. “Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will never count against him.”
3:28 “For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law.”
Really?
Don’t you have to be Jewish to be righteous? Don’t you have to be circumcised to be forgiven? Don’t have you have to have the Law? V.9
“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?”
What’s the answer to that one?
Anybody know? First, why does it matter?
Well, circumcision was the mark in the body of a Jewish man that he belonged to God and was under the law of God.
And the chronology matters. If Abraham was circumcised before he was justified, then maybe that’s a pattern for everybody. But if he was justified before he was circumcised. If he had faith first, then maybe that’s a pattern for everybody.
Which was it?
In what chapter was Abraham circumcised? Genesis chapter, what?
Seventeen.
In what chapter did Abraham believe God and it was credited to him as righteousness? Chapter 15. V.10
“It was not after, but before! 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. [That’s the Gentiles, that’s us, friends!] 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.”
Father Abraham!
Father of the Jews. And Father of the Gentiles who have faith.
3:28 “For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law.”
And Father Abraham’s life proves it. V.13
“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.”
Did Abraham have the law? Even after he was circumcised, he didn’t have the Torah! He had commands from God, but not “the Law.”
What Abraham had was the promises. We called them back in Genesis, “The Abrahamic Covenant.”
What were the promises of the Abrahamic Covenant?
Offspring, Land, and Blessing.
Paul lumps them together in verse 13 as Abraham being promised to be “heir of the world.”
I love that!
And he asks, do you get to be heirs of the world by law-keeping? V.14
“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.”
I think that’s a “no.” You don’t get to be heirs of the world by law-keeping.
Because no one keeps the law the way they should and an unkept law brings wrath. Those who have the law are more accountable. They not only sin, they transgress the law. So law-keeping is good whenever it occurs but it is never saving only condemning because it never occurs the way it should.
Law is not the way to justification.
3:28! “For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law.”
That’s how it was for Abraham, and it’s how it will be for Abraham’s true children. V.16
“Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace [a gift!] and may be guaranteed to all Abraham's offspring–[he loves that word “all”] not only to those who are of the law [Jews] but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all. As it is written: ‘I have made you a father of many nations.’ [Genesis 15:5]”
Father Abraham.
When I was a kid, we used to sing, “Father Abraham had many son, many sons had Father Abraham. I am one of them, and so are you. So let’s all praise the Lord!”
And when I got a little older, I came to think that that just wasn’t true.
I’m not Jewish!
I don’t have the Law. I’m not ritually circumcised. I’m not from the twelve tribes.
Abraham is not my father.
But Paul says, “Oh yes, he is. If you believe in Jesus.”
“Abraham is the father of us all” who believe.
3:28! “For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law.”
Just like Father Abraham.
So, what is faith?
Because all of a sudden, it seems really important.
Before, you might have thought that works were really important. Obeying God’s commands (always a good thing) is really important. Finding out what God requires and doing that seemed really important.
But now, it’s becoming obvious that faith is really really important.
What is faith?
Well, we can tell by look at Abraham.
First, faith focuses on God. V.17
“He [Abraham] is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed–the God who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were.”
Faith focuses, not on what we can do, but on what God can do.
Some people call themselves believers, but what they really are is do-ers. They like to accomplish things for God. They are religious.
But faith focuses, not on what we can do, but on what God has done and will do.
Abraham believed that God could give life to the dead and call things that are not as thought they were...like baby Isaac! V.18
“Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed [he and faith] and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, ‘So shall your offspring be.’ [Remember how Abraham was promised offspring, and how unlikely it seemed? Why? Because Abraham was an old man. But He knew he had a powerful God. V.19] Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead–since he was about a hundred years old–and that Sarah's womb was also dead.”
Here’s number two. Faith faces facts.
Faith does not discount the hard facts. It does not pretend there are not almost overwhelming difficulties in life. Abraham faces the fact that he was an old geezer who shouldn’t by any natural process be a Daddy.
And even more Sarah shouldn’t be a mommy.
He had his eyes wide open.
But, #3. Faith takes God at His word.
Abraham knew that there were more facts in the world than he and his wife’s nearly dead old bodies.
He knew God’s promises. V.20
“Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God,”
Faith takes God at His Word. Faith soldiers on.
Faith believes that God always keeps His promises. No matter what. And that brings glory to God. V.20 again.
“Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised.”
Faith gives glory to God.
You see, when we trust in works, then we get the glory.
But when we trust in God’s work, then He gets the glory.
And God is unswervingly committed to getting His glory!
So Father Abraham gave God the glory, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what He had promised. V.22
“This is why ‘it was credited to him as righteousness.’”
Because that’s what faith leads to.
Faith leads to life.
True faith in God’s promises always is credited to the believer as righteousness.
That’s how it’s always worked. That’s how it was before the Law.
That’s how it was for Father Abraham.
And that’s how it is for us. V.23
“The words ‘it was credited to him’ were written not for him alone, but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness–for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.”
Paul has proved his point from 3:28.
“For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law.”
That’s how it worked for Abraham.
And that’s how it works for us who are Abraham’s children.
For all who believe in Jesus.
Jesus was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our being declared righteous, our justification.
Isn’t that glorious?
Now, let me give you three words of application from all of this glorious truth.
Three words.
#1. BOASTING.
What does this gospel say about boasting?
It is excluded. Abraham didn’t have anything to boast about before God.
And neither do we.
So, why do we?
This gospel obliterates our boasting. It obliterates our moral superiority.
It should end our judgmentalism.
Remember, there are two groups of Christians in Rome, and they are having trouble getting along.
Did you ever know two groups of Christians to not get along?
I’m sure that one group thought that they were better than the other. Probably both groups thought that they were better than the other.
But Paul says that boasting is excluded.
What should that do to these fighting Christians?
It should bring them together.
What about you and me? Where are we tempted to think more highly of ourselves and our works than others?
I think a lot of that goes on over social media. We love to rail against those idiots who do such stupid things and believe such stupid things.
And we point our digital fingers at them and look down our technological noses.
“I would never do that.”
“Those people are so worthless.”
“I do good things. Look at me.”
“Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded.”
#2. BELIEVING.
Not boasting, but believing.
This whole chapter is a call to faith.
It’s a call to believe like our Father Abraham did.
To focus on God and what He can do.
To face the facts, but not just the hard facts in the room, but the facts you can’t see, the facts of who God is.
To take God at His word and believe what He has promised. No matter what.
To give God the glory.
To believe God and have it credited to us as righteousnesss.
Because Jesus “was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.”
Believing.
Are you believing? Do you have faith?
Now, don’t get me or Paul wrong. That faith will work itself out in genuine transformation. The faith alone that saves is never alone. It always issues into good works.
But it’s faith alone that connects us to God’s justifying grace.
It’s only our trusting in what Jesus did for us that connects us to the righteousness we need.
“For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law.”
Believing.
Don’t stop believing. Even if it seems like you’re about dead and so is the womb of your wife. Believe the promises of God.
Believe in Jesus.
And #3. BLESSING.
That’s what was promised to Abraham. To be “the heir of the world!”
Offspring, Land, and Blessing.
And what a blessing it is to be justified.
To not have your sins counted against you.
But to have righteousness of Christ counted for you.
Rejoice with Father Abraham, and with Paul, and with King David in verses 6-8.
“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.’”
Blessings!
Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth
Thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide
Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow.
Blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside.
***
Messages in this Series
01. All Roads Lead to Romans
02. I Am Not Ashamed of the Gospel
03. The Bad News
04. Hope for Holy Sexuality
05. The Even Worse News
06. The Worst News
07. Justified
08. Father Abraham
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