Romans 4:13-25
How can I be saved?
Welcome!
Would you open your Bibles to...
Eph 2:8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God,
Pray
Intro
√ Last week as we opened chapter 4 we found that Paul continued his argument for salvation by faith alone by taking us to the Old Testament.
As examples he used two of the Jews favorite hero’s of the faith.
Abraham and David who were both saved by faith!
√ This week Paul makes it personal…
How can you & I be saved!? (vs. 13-25)
Specifically, how is the Gentile (non-Jew) saved!?
By keeping the Law, or by faith without the Law?
√ This was a major sticking point in the early Church – the subject of the first Church counsel.
Very important today because many “Christian” denominations and groups have substituted their own forms of religious duty for the Jewish Law and believe that they are saved by faith and….
…keeping their peculiar set of rules and regulations.
Ap. Beware! Legalism is a trap that will rob you of the peace and freedom God intends for you to experience in Christ!
Saved by the Law, or by faith? (vs. 13-16)
Rom. 4:13 For the promise that he would be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.
Rom. 4:14 For if those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made void and the promise made of no effect,
Rom. 4:15 because the law brings about wrath; for where there is no law there is no transgression.
Rom. 4:16 Therefore it is of faith that it might be according to grace, so that the promise might be sure to all the seed, not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all
√ Abraham was saved before the Law!
In addition to physical lineage, the Jews also considered the Mosaic Law a special revelation of God’s standards for human conduct and the basis for their special standing before God.
Therefore, Paul turns his attention to the Law to prove to the Jewish reader that Abraham was justified before the Law was given!
Ex. Over 500 years!
The point – Abraham was justified by believing God’s promise, not by obeying God’s Law!
The promise to Abraham was given through God’s Grace. Abraham did not earn it or merit it.
Ap. So today, God justifies the ungodly because they believe His gracious promise, not because they obey His Law!
√ The Law cannot save us!
Note that in vs. 15 Paul tells us that the Law was given not to save us, but to show people that they need to be saved!
Gal. 3:24 Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith.
Gal. 3:25 But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor.
“tutor”
“a servant whose office it was to take the children to school”
To make sure we understand that we cannot save ourselves!
Ex. I thought I wanted to be a nurse practitioner until I went to school!
√ The promise to Abraham seed
The source of much of the misunderstanding of the relationship between Law and Faith is a failure to understand that there is a distinction between Abraham’s descendants according to the flesh…
The Jews
Abraham’s descendants according to faith…
The saints (both Jew and Gentile who trust God)
That is to say that God has a unique covenant with the physical descendants of Abraham through the agreement that God made with Abraham and consummated with the Jewish nation through the Mosaic Law.
Ex. The promise to give them Canaan, to put His Name in Jerusalem, to bring the Messiah through the Jewish people, to make Israel the jewel of the nations and to establish His kingdom in Israel.
Those promises were not made to any other people of nation.
But, God also promised Abraham that he would be the…
“father of many nations” (vs. 16-18 & Gen. 17:5)
…not by physical lineage – but by spiritual lineage!
That is, Abraham would be the “father”, or example, of faith to all people – Jew and Gentile alike.
The promise given to those who believe, whether Jew of Gentile, is that God will declare that person righteous and an heir not of physical Israel…
…but of the eternal glory of Heaven!
Saving faith defined (vs. 17-22)
Rom. 4:17 (as it is written, “I have made you a father of many nations”) in the presence of Him whom he believed--God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did;
Rom. 4:18 who, contrary to hope, in hope believed, so that he became the father of many nations, according to what was spoken, “So shall your descendants be.”
Rom. 4:19 And not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body, already dead (since he was about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah’s womb.
Rom. 4:20 He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God,
Rom. 4:21 and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform.
Rom. 4:22 And therefore “it was accounted to him for righteousness.”
√ Saving faith has an object (vs. 17)
“God”
Abraham trusted (had faith in) God. Faith that God would do what He had promised to do.
That’s different than blind faith in some unknown spiritual power!
Ex. The people alive in the Great Tribulation who reject Jesus Christ will place their faith in the counterfeit messiah – the Antichrist.
They will perish and spend eternity in the Lake of Fire because the object of their faith cannot save them!
Ap. Put your faith in the God of the Bible as revealed in the Son Jesus Christ!
Ex. The Jesus of the cults cannot save you, nor the Jesus of your imagination!
2Co. 11:2 For I am jealous for you with godly jealousy. For I have betrothed you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.
2Co. 11:3 But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.
2Co. 11:4 For if he who comes preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or if you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted--you may well put up with it!
Ex. Another Paul Lester!
√ Saving
faith is confident (vs. 18-19)
Note that Abraham’s faith was confident. That is, in spite of his personal circumstance…
He and Sarah well beyond child bearing age
They’d never been able to have kids before
…the point we must not miss is that everything in Abraham’s experience was contrary to the promise that God had given him.
That is, based upon his previous experience trying to have children, Abraham had nothing upon which to rest his faith but God’s Word!
Yet, he believed anyway! He is the example of how it is that we are to experience God – with our faith not with our eyes!
2Co 5:7 For we walk by faith, not by sight
And…
Heb 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
Abraham truly lived like that.
Ap. We are called to trust God at His Word. To simply believe that what God promises, God performs!
Ex. What area of your life has God made you a promise? Are you trusting Him at His Word, or are you still waiting for Him to show you something so that you will really believe?
Ex. Billy Graham trusting God to bring his wayward son Franklin around.
Pr 22:6 Train up a child in the way he should go, And when he is old he will not depart from it.
God honors those who honor Him with their lives – trust Him and then you will see His faithfulness.
√ Saving faith is persistent (vs. 20-21)
The time from which God promised to give him a son, and the birth of Isaac was at least 15 years (Ishmeal was a teen).
Reminds us that God’s promises do not always fit into our time table!
It takes time to build our faith. Abraham is our example – God didn’t perform His promise overnight because He wanted to grow Abraham’s faith.
Don’t try and rush God’s promise – if you do you’ll end up with a work of the flesh – an Ishmael!
Ex. In Praise of Plodders! We’re so goal oriented that we often miss the enjoyment of the process that God is working in our lives.
God has a life time in which to do His work in your life – don’t panic – just believe that He is at work and enjoy the process!
√ Saving faith has a reward (vs. 22)
More than a son, God gave Abraham something he could never get by his own effort…
…right standing with God!
God granted Abraham that righteousness through faith.
The reward of faith is that we can please God and will be declared righteous even though we are ungodly sinners!
Ap. We will not experience the fullness of that righteousness until we are called to heaven. That is the reward for trusting God at His Word.
Saving faith received (vs. 23-25)
Rom. 4:23 Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him,
Rom. 4:24 but also for us. It shall be imputed to us who believe in Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead,
Rom. 4:25 who was delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification.
√ You can be saved too!
Check out vs. 24
“but also for us. It shall be imputed to us who believe in Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead”
Paul takes Abraham’s experience…
…the “father of faith” – the man whom 1/4 of the world’s population looks to as an example of a man of God…
..and tells us that we can be saved just like he was by simply believing!
Believing what?
That Jesus…
Was crucified for our sins (vs. 25)
Was raised from the dead (vs. 25)
…and that God will then “impute” to us the righteousness of God.
“impute” = “to put to your account”
Ex. Ever wanted to trade bank accounts with someone?
For those who trust in Jesus for their salvation God promises to trade personal inventory accounts with Jesus!
Your unrighteousness for His righteousness!
That’s a good deal!
√ God confirms the promise with a sign
The Resurrection!
Note that vs. 24 & 25 Paul tells us that Jesus was crucified for our sins…
…and raised for our justification.
The understanding is that God the Father has confirmed the promise of salvation through faith in Jesus by raising Him from the dead!
Ap. You can be assured that your faith in Jesus is not in vain because God has given us a sign upon which to rest our faith – the Resurrection of Jesus from the dead!
Close
√ Paul has given us several irrefutable reason why justification is by faith alone:
• Since justification is a gift, it cannot be earned by works!
(vs. 1-8)
• Since Abraham was justified before he was circumcised,
circumcision has no relationship to justification. (vs. 9-12)
• Since Abraham was justified centuries before the Law,
justification is not based on the Law. (vs. 13-17)
• Abraham was justified because of his faith in God, not
because of his works. (vs. 18-25)
Ap. Why would anyone want to try and earn what God has given us by simple faith!
How can you tell if you’re trusting God by faith?
Simple – are you experiencing peace of mind and freedom from the fear of condemnation?
If not, then you still haven’t fully trusted in God.
That doesn’t mean you’re not saved, it means that you’re still growing in your knowledge of what God has done for you.
Pray and ask God to free you from the bondage of a works oriented religion!
Ex. “Will work for salvation”!