Romans 4:1-12
As we look into the New Testament today, we'll be reading from the Book of Romans, chapter 4, verses 1 through 12. We'll see how
Abraham was saved not by works, but by faith.
Salvation is not like wages that you earn or works that you can boast about. Abraham was not saved by keeping the law because the law had not been given.
Nor was he saved by obeying a religious ritual. It was all by God's grace. We'll see how David was saved. You know, David wrote Psalm 32 after his great sin with Bathsheba. Can God forgive a man who commits adultery, deceit, and murder?
The answer, of course, is yes. When David repented and turned to God, he was forgiven. Even though the Lord allowed David to feel the bitter consequences of his sins. God justifies the ungodly, not the righteous. And you will see how you can be saved simply by believing God's promise, as Abraham did.
Faith and promise go together, just as law and works go together. Abraham is the father of the Jewish nation physically, but he is the father of all believers spiritually. At Calvary, our sins were put on Christ's account. When you trust Christ, God puts Christ's righteousness on your account.
That's why we call the gospel good news.
Now, what can be more blessed than to know that your sins are forgiven? Hallelujah.
Know the Bible
While it is true that Abraham believed God, so he was justified (Genesis 15:6), it is also true that he believed God, so he obeyed God's command to offer Isaac (Hebrews 11:17), so the same faith by which he was justified was also expressed as obedience to God, but he did not earn his justification as a wage as the result of his obedience (Romans 4:1-5). In James 2:21-24, it quotes Genesis 15:6 to support saying that Abraham was justified by his works when he offered Isaac, that his faith was active along with his works, and his faith completed his works, so he was justified by his works insofar as they were an express of his faith, but not insofar as they were earning a wage.
In other words, being someone who is faithing, someone who is justified, and someone who is a doer of the law are all linked so that we become all three at the same time such that only those who are one are also the others, and anyone who is not one is also not the others. This is how Paul can say that only doers of the law will be justified (Romans 2:13), that we become justified through faith apart from having done works in order to earn it, and that the faith by which we are justified does not abolish our need to be a doer of the law, but rather our faith upholds it (Romans 3:28-31).
In Palms 119:29-30, he wanted to put false ways far from him, for God to be gracious to him by teaching him to obey His law, and he chose the way of faithfulness by setting His law before him, so this has always been the one and only way of becoming saved by grace through faith. Our salvation is from sin (Matthew 1:21) and sin is the transgression of God's law (1 John 3:4), so while we do not earn our salvation as a wage as the result of obeying God's law, living in obedience to it through faith in Jesus is intrinsically the content of the gift of him saving us from not living in obedience to it.
In Titus 2:11-14, our salvation is described as being trained by grace to do what is godly, righteous, and good, and to renounce doing what is ungodly, so we do not earn our salvation as the result of having done those works and we do not do those works as the result of having been saved, but rather God graciously teaching us to do those works is itself the content of His gift of saving us from not doing those works, Furthermore, in Titus 2:14, Jesus gave himself to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people of his own possession who are zealous foe doing good works, so becoming zealous for doing good works in obedience to God's law is the way to believe in what he accomplished through the cross (Acts 21:20).
In Matthew 4:15-23, Jesus began his ministry with the Gospel message to repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand, which was a light to the Gentiles, and God's law is how his audience knew what sin is (Romans 3:20), so repenting from our disobedience to it is a central part of the Gospel message, which is in accordance with Jesus being sent in fulfillment of the promise to bless us by turning us from our wickedness (Acts 3:25-26), which is the Gospel that was made known in advance to Abraham in accordance with the promise (Galatians 3:8), which he spread to those in Haran in accordance with the promise (Genesis 12:1-5).
In Genesis 18:19, God knew Abraham that he would teach his children and those of his household to walk in His way by doing righteousness and justice that the Lord may bring to him all that He has promised. In Genesis 26:4-5, God will multiply the children of Abraham as the stars in the heaven, to his children He will give all of these lands, and through his children all of the nations of the earth will be blessed because he heard God's voice and guarded His charge, His commandments, His statutes, and His laws. In Deuteronomy 30:16, if they love the Lord their God with all of their heart by walking in His way in obedience to His commandments, statutes, and laws, then they will live and multiply and God will bless then in the land that they go to posses. So the promise was made to Abraham and brought about because he walked in God's way in obedience to His law, he taught his children and those of his household how to do that in accordance with spreading the Gospel, and because his children did that.
In John 8:39, Jesus said that if they were children of Abraham, then they would be doing the same works that he did, so the way that the children of Abraham are multiplied in accordance with the promise is not through having physical descendants, but through teaching people to do the same works as Abraham in accordance with spreading the Gospel. Likewise, God's law is how the children of Abraham knew how to be blessed by walking in God's way (Psalms 119:1-3), so the way to inherit the promise through faith of being a blessing to the nations is by turning the nations from their wickedness and teaching them to obey God's law again in accordance with spreading the Gospel. So believing in the promise is directly connected to teaching in obedience to God's law.
