Justification

Romans 4 is where you need to be this morning; and I would like to divide this into five sections. Before we get into the detail, though, let me ask you a question: how secure is your faith? This chapter takes us right back to the taproot of our Christian lives, which is the great gospel truth of justification by grace through faith. In chapters 1-3 of Romans Paul has relentlessly argued the universal sinfulness of all mankind, and consequently the condemnation and death that we all deserve, with no exceptions. Then from v21 of chapter 3 he changes tack completely and begins his explanation of the glorious good news that through faith in Christ and his death on the cross for our sins we are justified. We are justified by faith. What does that mean? It is a legal term, from the world of the court room, and trials and verdicts and sentences. To be justified is to be acquitted. It is to be declared innocent. How can we be declared innocent by God our Judge? Paul has just shown with a clarity that puts a stopper in the mouth of anyone who would want to defend themselves that we are without exception guilty of disastrous rebellion against God. But we can be acquitted, because of Jesus. He has stepped into the firing line in front of us. The innocent verdict on him is applied to us and the guilty verdict that should have been ours is applied to him. And he pays the penalty to atone for our sins. We walk free. That is justification. When we trust in Christ, then we are justified. There is another dimension to justification as well. It is our relationship with God. Without faith, we are estranged from God in the same way that a burglar is estranged from the one whose house he has smashed into. But because of Jesus, when we have faith that estrangement is taken away. God no longer treats us as his enemies. We are restored to friendship. More than that, he makes us his children, he adopts us into his family. We are at home with him as children are at home with their parents. A funny thing happened to a boy I know. He went sleep walking in the middle of the night, wandered downstairs into the kitchen, and set the burglar alarm off. This woke his parents and his father came downstairs expecting to do battle with an intruder. Instead, much to his relief, he found his son. He put him back to bed. In spite of the alarm and everything, the boy remembered nothing about it in the morning. The one who the father thought was an enemy who had no right to be in the home was in a moment recognised to be the son who belonged there. Even if he should have been in bed. And the father took him gently in his arms. That is the instantaneous change in our relationship with God the Father when we put our trust in Christ as our Lord and Saviour. But this is not a case of mistaken identity. We really were God's enemy, hostile to him, with no right to go near him, subject to the death penalty. And now, by faith, we have become his beloved children. The enemy becomes the son and heir, taken gently into the love and care of the Father. That is justification by grace through faith in the cross and resurrection of Jesus. It is acquittal which brings reconciliation and adoption. The innocence of Jesus becomes ours. The love of the Father for Jesus is poured into our hearts. That is Paul's message at the end of Romans chapter 3. We can never be reminded of it too often. Understand that and your life is turned upside down. Understand that and you have a wellspring of joy in your heart. Understand that and you have a security deep inside that no raging fire of lifes pressures can threaten. And just in case we should miss the point, Paul wants to remove any grounds for misunderstanding. He needs an illustration. He needs an example of a guilty sinner who was justified by faith. So he turns to Abraham. Chapter 4 begins like this (v1):

What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather, discovered in this matter?

In other words, "What was Abraham's experience? If the great saint Abraham who is such an example of righteous living was justified by faith, then it must indeed be the only way back to God for us all." And then in this chapter Paul makes a number of points from Abraham's experience which are absolutely fundamental to our own lives. First, SAVING FAITH IS GIVEN TO US BY GOD vv1-8 Verse 2:

If, in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about - but not before God.

In other words, can Abraham take any credit at all for what happened to him? Could he legitimately boast about anything that he did? Now let's remind ourselves briefly what did happen to him. It all begins in Genesis 12. This is vv1-4:

The LORD had said to Abram, "Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you. {2} "I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. {3} I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you." {4} So Abram left, as the LORD had told him ...

Really the whole story of what happens to Abraham is encapsulated in those verses.God chooses Abraham and says to him "Leave where you are. Go where I tell you. And I will bless you beyond your wildest dreams. And I will bless the whole world through you." And Abraham believes the promise, and he goes, and in time he sees the beginning of the fulfilment of the promise. He is promised a land and he gets a foothold in it. He is promised that he will father a nation and it begins through his son Isaac. Now the issue which is so important for the apostle Paul is this: who are the main characters in this story? Who can take the credit for what happened? And to answer that, Paul goes to his Bible - which was what we call the Old Testament of course. The beginning of v3:

"What does the Scripture say?

It's worth taking note of that, by the way. In an age when the Old Testament is so often denigrated as primitive, despised as immoral, or derided as irrelevant, this reminds us of the New Testament's view of the Old: if you want to know the truth then work at understanding the Old Testament - in overview and in detail. Every word, every phrase, is from the mouth of God. It is true. So: "What does the Scripture say?" he asks. Then he quotes Genesis 15:6:

Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.

And Paul's question is this: What does that mean? Does it mean that Abraham was in the starring role in this story? Does it mean that it was to his credit (as we might put it) that he believed the promise and acted on it? And the answer that Paul gives is "no!" This is not a story starring Abraham. This is a story starring God. In fact everything that counts for anything is done by God. What happens to Abraham is God's gift to him. Recently we saw the new film version of Hamlet. Kenneth Branagh adapted the play, and produced, directed and starred in the film. So it is with all that happens to Abraham. But it is not Abraham who is up for Oscars. God wrote the screenplay. God produces. God directs. God takes the starring role. I had a friend who was in another Oscar winning blockbuster - Chariots of Fire. He was an extra. I watched the credits as they rolled by at the end of the film, as the audience filed out. No mention of my friend! Who gets the credit for all that happened to Abraham? God. Abraham was like an extra. He has nothing to boast of. The glory goes to God. It is by the grace of God that Abraham believed and was counted righteous. Having faith is rather like being persuaded to give somebody your bank account number so that they can put money into it. Only it's not money that has been earned. It is a gift given to the undeserving. The gift is paid in. It's credited to your account. If it's a big enough gift you find yourself rich. But from beginning to end you have done nothing to deserve it. That is how generous God was to Abraham. That is how generous he is to us Christians. And Paul draws our attention to the fact that King David understood this perfectly well. In verses 7 and 8 he quotes David's words from Psalm 32:

Blessed are they whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered.Blessed is the man whose sin the LORD will never count against him.

We are sinners. All we do with the bank accounts of our lives when we are left to our own devices is to amass debt. We can never begin to pay it off. But God comes and wipes the debt clean from our accounts - and all our debt is transferred on to the account of Jesus. He pays it all. And then God fills our account with riches of his own. Saving faith, and everything that flows from it, is given to us by God. Then secondly, WE ARE NOT SAVED BY BEING RELIGIOUS vv9-12 The particular issue Paul deals with here is circumcision. In Genesis 17 God commands Abraham to be circumcised. And he commands that all Abraham's people from then on and for always should be circumcised. So put simply, the question is: do you have to be circumcised to be saved? Verse 9:

Is this blessedness only for the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised?

And in answer to that Pauls asks us whether we can count (and, I suppose, whether we have read Genesis 12-25, the account of Abraham's life). And he asks us which comes first: Genesis 17 (where God commands Abraham to be circumcised) or Genesis 12 (in which God makes his promise of salvation to Abraham)? 12 comes before 17 of course. The promise comes before the circumcision. Circumcision is the sign and seal of the covenant that God makes with Abraham in Genesis 15. What is a covenant? It is a binding promise. In Genesis 15 God binds himself to the promise that he has already made in Genesis 12. Then later on (in chapter 17) he gives Abraham a sign of that covenant - that promise - which is circumcision. In other words Abraham has already been given the promise by the time that he is circumcised. Salvation came before circumcision - it did not depend upon it. Verse 11:

he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised.

What is that to you and me? Well the most direct parallel is with baptism. Is salvation only for the baptised? Does our eternal destiny depend upon it? No! Of course not. Baptism is the sign of a salvation which is planned by God before the creation of the world, promised to us in the gospel of Christ, and received by faith alone. There is a wider application too, because circumcision is a kind of symbol of all our religious observance, however good and indeed God-commanded it is. Our justification does not depend on our religious observance. Our church going. Our quiet times. Our tithing. How secure is your Christian life? It is utterly secure because it does not depend on you being a good Christian and doing all the things good Christians do. It depends on God, who keeps his promise. We are not saved by being religious. Thirdly, WE ARE NOT SAVED BY BEING GOOD vv13-15 Now Paul takes the argument one stage further and moves from religious observance to moral behaviour. Does the security of our Christian lives depend upon our character? A while ago there was some very interesting correspondence in the Church Press about a Church of England report called "The Mystery of Salvation". A Jewish rabbi discusses what it says and then goes on like this: Obviously the Church of England can believe what it likes [that does sum up the problem in the C of E very neatly really!]. I happen to come from a more tolerant tradition. Jews believe that all non-Jews have a share in the world to come providing they have kept a few basic moral laws. In fact, we believe that Jews have a far harder time than non-Jews in this matter. Jews have to keep the whole body of the law of Moses, from which Gentiles are exempt. Who says the Bible is not relevant for today! What would Paul the Jew say to that? Verse 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. For if those who live by law are heirs, faith has no value and the promise is worthless, because law brings wrath.

We will never know the security and the peace and the joy that is our birthright as Christians while we try to secure our acquittal before God by being good. Don't look at the way that you live, don't look at your character, and ask yourself: "Is this good enough for God to keep blessing me? Is this good enough for God to love me? Is this good enough that I will be able to take up that place in heaven that the Lord has reserved for me?" Christ does not just buy us a ticket for the match and leave us to make our own way there. He sends a taxi to take us there. It is not only the beginning of the Christian life that does not depend on us being good enough. The continuing and the completing of the Christian life also do not depend upon our good behaviour. It's the other way around. Our good behaviour depends upon our justification. And our justification depends upon the grace of God, and the grace of God alone. So Fourthly, WE ARE SAVED BY GRACE FROM FIRST TO LAST vv16-17 Verse 16:

the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace

And then the end of verse 17:

He [that is, 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.

Isn't that mind-blowingly wonderful? We have the same God as Abraham. Abraham was an ancient man with an ancient and barren wife. But God gives life to the dead. He promises them a son and they had a son. And he calls things that are not as though were and they become real. Abraham was not righteous - but God credited him with righteousness, he counted him righteous in anticipation of the sacrifice of Christ which was to happen 2000 years later. We are secure in Christ because our salvation is by grace from first to last. Not just on the day we first give our lives to Christ, but right through until the day we die. Once Christ has taken hold of us, he will never let us go. Which brings us to the fifth and final section: Fifthly, SAVING FAITH NEVER FAILS vv18-25 Saving faith - this faith which God has given us and which depends on him and not on us - saving, justifying, faith is unwavering faith in Christ as Saviour and Lord, despite our weaknesses, and whatever our circumstances. That is the kind of faith that Abraham had. Verse 20:

[Abraham] 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.

There may be circumstances in your own life that make you feel quite helpless. If that is so, then you are no different to Abraham as far as that is concerned. But as someone has put it: "It is situations of human helplessness that provide occasions for God's power to be demonstrated and recognised." The Lord leads us into situations which are quite beyond our own resources. But he doesn't just leave us stewing in our own juice. It is precisely as we acknowledge that he is the only one who can help us that he strengthens us in our faith and lifts us up. We are not tempted, then, to parcel out the glory between him and us. There may be times in your life when it looks to you as if the Lord is not providing for you. So it was for Abraham. Genesis 12:10:

Now there was a famine in the land, and Abram went down to Egypt to live there for a while because the famine was severe.

Maybe you have failed God. You have not behaved or reacted in a Godly way in the face of certain pressures. That was exactly how Abraham behaved in Egypt where he went because of the famine. He abused his wife by passing her off as his sister and handing her over to Pharaoh because he was afraid for his own skin. Maybe there are times when you grow impatient with God. You don't like the direction in which he is taking you. So you try to get round things by bending the rules without actually breaking them as you see it. In other words you take the reins into your own hands and try to drive thing along in the direction you think they should be going. You say to yourself: "If God won't make things happen now, then I'll do it my way." That's what Abraham did when he and Sarah grew impatient with the long wait for a son, and they agreed that Abraham would have a son by Hagar. So Ishmael was born. We feel helpless. We suffer. We fail. We grow impatient. So did Abraham. But the point is this: God does not fail us. He does not let us go. He does not withdraw his Spirit from us. He does not let our faith fail. He strengthens us. He convinces us that what we have tried and failed to do, he can do in us. And we will find ourselves clinging to Christ through success and failure, prosperty and hardship, happiness and grief. As it was for Abraham, so it will be for us. We may feel the heat. But when we belong to Christ we can know this: He has rescued us and he will rescue us. He has promised it. And that will be enough for us. So in conclusion: There you have five great lessons from Romans 4, through the experience of Abraham:

Saving, justifying, faith is given to us by God. We are not saved, we are not justified, by being religious. We are not saved, we are not justified, by being good. We are justified, we are put right with God, by grace from first to last. This saving faith never fails, because God never lets go of those who trust him.

And how can we best respond to that? If we have understood this chapter then the result will be this: it will cause us to rejoice; and it will cause us to give glory to God. Rejoice that God has saved you through his Son. Verse 25:

[Jesus] was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.

Give him and him alone the glory. That is the result of the kind of faith that Charles Wesley described in these words:

In hope, against all human hope,Self desperate, I believe Faith, mighty faith, the promise sees,And looks to that alone;Laughs at impossibilities,And cries: It shall be done!