The Importance Of Faith

The Startling Implications of Justification
(Romans 4:1-25)

Having established that the death of Jesus Christ atones for our sin and makes us right with God, Paul proceeds in the letter to the Romans to explain the startling implications of his teaching that we are justified by faith, not by religious ceremonies or moral achievements . Faith establishes a relationship with God that has far-reaching implications for our lives, opening up possibilities through God’s creative power that far transcend our present circumstances. Rob Yule preached this sermon at Greyfriars’ Classical Service on 6 May 2007.

This is a very Jewish passage, but the whole point of it is to demonstrate that non-Jews — Gentiles — are acceptable to God if they have faith in Jesus, the Jewish Messiah. Paul uses typical Jewish arguments, and relevant Jewish illustrations, to show that Gentiles can come to God on equal terms with Jews through Jesus Christ.

At the end of chapter 3 Paul showed that we are made right with God, not by ‘works’ — not by human effort or anything that we have done — but by faith in Jesus Christ, whose death on the cross atoned for our sin.

This lays Paul open to a Jewish objection: ‘If we are saved by faith, not by works, what about our father Abraham? Isn’t he an example of someone who was accepted as righteous by God because of his moral integrity and righteous actions?

So Paul answers in chapter 4 with a midrash — an extended commentary — on Genesis 15:6 (which he quotes in verse 3): ‘Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.’ Paul presents Abraham as the pattern of a person who is justified by faith. Abraham was accepted by God because of his trust in God.

Truly understood, justification by faith has amazing implications. It means:

1. We are saved by faith, not by our religious observance (4:5-12)

Jews were very proud of their distinctiveness from other nations. The badge of their distinctiveness was circumcision, a religious rite administered to every Jewish male when eight days old.

But Paul explains that Abraham was not circumcised till long after God had accepted him by faith and given him the promise of many descendants. It was nearly fourteen years later, in fact. Faith came first, circumcision came later. Circumcision was the sign or seal of his prior faith.

The priority of faith is very important for church-going people to realize. We are not saved by our observance of religious ceremonies — by attending church, participating in worship services, not even by being baptized — however important these may be in themselves.

Attending church doesn’t make you a Christian, anymore than visiting a stable makes you a horse! What makes you a Christian is faith in Jesus Christ — then attending church means something real; it is an expression of your faith, of your love for God.

Baptism on its own doesn’t make you a Christian. In fact, for many infant baptism may become an inoculation to save them getting the real thing! Faith must come first, then your baptism will be a sign and seal of a living relationship with God through Jesus Christ.

God offers salvation to anyone who believes. It’s sometimes hard for religious people to accept this. Salvation is for anyone who trusts in Jesus — even for the most unlikely and irreligious person. This offends some people, who object to the company God keeps.

Paul makes a startling statement in Romans 4:5: that ‘God justifies the wicked’. How can God do this? How can a righteous God accept the wicked? It seems a preposterous assertion — as inconceivable as a ‘square circle’, a ‘solid sky’ or a ‘swampy desert’.

The answer is that justification would indeed be preposterous and inconceivable — were it not for the atoning death of Christ on the cross. The only reason God ‘justifies the wicked’ (4:5) is that ‘Christ died for the wicked’ (5:6, REB). God accepts the wicked as righteous, not because he overthrows the moral order, but because Jesus Christ his Son died in a sacrificial death on the cross for our sins and for us sinners.

Therefore anyone who has faith in Jesus Christ can come to God and be saved: criminals, prostitutes, secular people, whoever you are. You don’t have to be a religious person. You just have to have faith in Jesus.

2. We are saved by faith, not by our moral achievements (4:13-15)

Jews were justly proud of the Torah, the moral law summed up in the Ten Commandments. But Paul shows that this too was not the basis of Abraham’s salvation. In fact, Abraham was justified by faith 430 years before the Law was given to Moses on Mount Sinai.

Moreover, Paul says, the law ‘brings wrath’ (4:15). It doesn’t bring rewards for those who keep it, but penalties for those who break it. The Law exposes sin. It is faith that effects salvation.

When you think about it, this is a wonderful teaching. Though it means that no one is good enough to earn salvation, it also means that no one is bad enough to be excluded from salvation. Everyone of you who has faith in Jesus can be saved — because Jesus died for your sins on the cross. You are not saved by your good works — by your moral efforts — but by God’s amazing grace and mercy.

3. We are saved by faith, not by our personal circumstances (4:16-25)

There’s a destructive philosophy prevalent today that says that our circumstances determine what we are. If we are brought up in poverty then we’ll end up in crime; if we were abused in childhood we’ll end up abusing our children. It not only destroys personal responsibility; it destroys personal hope. It is a counsel of despair.

Look at the personal circumstances of Abraham and his wife Sarah. They were still childless, and beyond child-bearing age, when God promised Abraham that he would be the ‘father of many nations’ and have innumerable descendants (4:18-19). If Abraham and Sarah had accepted their situation and lived according to their circumstances, this promise would have been an absurdity. But Bible scholar William Barclay observes that every time the Bible mentions a woman being barren or childless, a child was subsequently born to that person. The Bible is not a book of limiting circumstances; it is a book of unlimited possibilities.

Two statements are made here of God’s supernatural ability (4:17):

(1) In the beginning God made the original creation out of nothing. Abraham believed that God ‘calls into existence the things that do not exist’ (4:17b, NRSV). New Zealand poet James K. Baxter once said that human beings make something out of something; the devil makes nothing out of something; but only God can create something out of nothing.

(2) God is the God of resurrection. Death is not the end. Abraham believed that God ‘gives life to the dead’ (4:17a); that God can raise the dead to life.

These two grounds — creation out of nothing and resurrection of the dead — were the basis of Abraham’s unswerving faith in God’s ability to do what he’d promised. Believing that God could bring into a universe existence out of nothing and raise the dead to life was what enabled him and Sarah to have a child, though they were well past child-bearing age and this seemed quite impossible from a human point of view. God answered Abraham and Sarah’s faith, giving them Isaac, the child of promise.

Faith is synonymous with hope. Faith is a hope-filled attitude to life. The basis for this is faith is the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead (4:24-25). The fact that Jesus was raised to life from death shows us God’s ability to perform creative miracles in face of seemingly impossible circumstances. This is the basis of our belief in God’s power to heal the sick, as well as our faith that God can work all things — even difficult, hopeless or tragic circumstances — for the good of those who love him. So faith is our confidence in adversity as well as our salvation for eternity.

Rob Yule, 6 May 2007
© 2007, Greyfriars Presbyterian Church