The Effectiveness of Faith – Part 1
Romans 4:1-8
October 8, 2017
As you know we are now dealing with our 3rd SOLA which is SOLA FIDE,
Or the belief that man is justified by faith alone.
We spent the last two Sunday nights looking at the Necessity of Faith, and we saw that “without faith it is impossible to please” God.
THAT DEFINITELY MAKES FAITH A NECESSARY THING.
What we begin looking at tonight is THE EFFECTIVENESS OF FAITH.
We know that faith is all God accepts,
What we also want to know is how well it works.
I went to my mom’s this past week and while I was there broke a connector to a hose on my pickup which caused it to overheat. I went to the parts store to get a new connector and while I was there I spoke with a mechanic to ask him how to get the old connector off. He said, “You have to have a special tool, but it doesn’t work.”
What he was saying was that the tool was necessary, but ineffective.
We learned faith is necessary, now we want to know how effective it is.
In examining this, it is important once again to restate the GOAL:
Our goal is to achieve a RIGHTEOUS STANDING before God.
Romans 1:18 “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness,”
God’s wrath is on the unrighteous
So achieving a righteous standing before God is the goal.
The word we used for this is: JUSTIFICATION
And theologically speaking it is referred to as FORENSIC JUSTIFICATION.
That is a legal term whereby God judicially declares man to be just.
You picture the judge on the bench, then the trial, and then the judge issues his declaration and hits the gavel thus securing his ruling.
That is what we are looking for from God.
We are looking for the Judge to declare us to be just and hit His gavel.
Now, here is what you should know
About the HISTORICAL DEBATE regarding justification.
This is where Rome and Reformers differed.
This is where the church was split.
Both Rome and the Reformers believed in an actual forensic justification.
Both believed God would declare man just.
BUT HERE IS THE DIFFERENCE.
Rome believed in what is called ANALYTICAL JUSTIFICATION
That is “justification under analysis”
Analytical implies something that is true by definition.
If I tell you that “a bachelor is an unmarried man”
You understand that to be true under analysis.
So, under Rome’s view of justification,
God declares men just who are actually just.
• If you stand before God as a righteous man, God will declare you
righteous.
• If you stand before God as a sinful man, God will declare you sinful.
It is analytical justification, and it is what Rome believed and taught.
The Reformers however believed in SYNTHETIC JUSTIFICATION
When you talk about something being synthetic
You are talking about something being added to the original.
The Reformers believed the righteousness God required
Was not originally present in man,
But was added to that man by God.
It was an alien righteousness, not of himself,
Added to the account of the sinner.
Man is declared righteous, not because he is actually righteous under analysis, but because that righteousness is added to him.
• That means that God doesn’t simply declare men righteous who are righteous.
• God declares men righteous who are actually sinful because He adds
righteousness to them.
In an extreme paradox we can say that Christians
Are both sinful and righteous at the same time.
Because God has synthetically justified them.
That is the difference between Rome and the Reformers.
And it is an important distinction for this reason.
• If Rome is right then man must engage in whatever actions will make him righteous (i.e. justification by works)
• If the Reformers are right then it is not about works, but rather man must give God whatever He requires in exchange for righteousness.
Based upon that understanding we found last week that
THE THING GOD REQUIRES IS FAITH…it is necessary.
Now we are asking: DOES IT WORK?
And for that we look to the most famous example in Scripture.
We look to Abraham.
There are three main points in this text tonight.
#1 A FAMOUS EXAMPLE
Romans 4:1-3
If you are familiar with the flow of Romans
You know that Paul has just revealed to us
The great justification process of God.
Romans 3:19-22 “Now we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks to those who are under the Law, so that every mouth may be closed and all the world may become accountable to God; because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin. But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction;”
That is a tremendous statement.
• Paul revealed that the Law (works) never allowed anyone to achieve analytical justification before God.
In fact, the Law never made anyone righteous.
All the Law ever did was condemn men and leave them without excuse.
• However, justification is still possible because “the righteousness of God” is available “through faith in Jesus Christ”
Paul was there saying again that
We are declared righteous before God, not by works, but by faith.
But he understands that Jews are going to have a tough time swallowing this, so from there he moves to EXHIBIT A
“What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, has found?”
This is a big one.
Abraham was the father of the Jews.
Abraham was the initial recipient of all those promises
That the Jews so persistently hang their hat on.
In fact, you will even remember that many Jews considered themselves righteous before God for no other reason but that they were children of Abraham.
Remember John the Baptist confronting that mindset?
Matthew 3:7-9 “But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? “Therefore bear fruit in keeping with repentance; and do not suppose that you can say to yourselves, ‘ We have Abraham for our father’; for I say to you that from these stones God is able to raise up children to Abraham.”
Abraham was a big deal to the Jews.
Paul wants to know what it was that caused God to declare him righteous.
(2) “For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about,”
We’re going to look at Abraham
And we’re going to find out why God accepted him.
And if it can be proven that Abraham earned God’s favor
Then we’ll look into the human right to boast about what they’ve done.
That’s the investigation here.
And Paul waste’s no time answering whether or not Abraham can boast.
THE ANSWER IS A RESOUNDING “NO”
“but not before God. For what does the Scripture say, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”
(There’s your SOLA SCRIPTURA there)
Paul says that the Scripture makes it plain that
Abraham’s justification was a synthetic one.
He did not achieve righteousness,
But instead had righteousness added to him.
Well, let’s go look a little closer at the passage.
TURN TO: GENESIS 15:1-6
You will notice right off the bat that Moses says, “After these things…”
And that is very important transitional statement.
Everything in Genesis builds on top of itself.
You actually find yourself in a great bit of trouble when you start cherry picking stories and studying them out of context.
The “things” Moses is referring to is Abram’s decision
To forsake the world and entrust his prosperity to God.
God has been systematically
Producing and pruning Abram’s faith.
God first gave him faith, and then God began to grow that faith.
And it was actually very early on when God proved to Abram
That He had the ability to bless him and the ability to protect that blessing.
And the real defining moment for Abram
Came in the previous story back in Genesis 14.
To make a long story short, a war broke out in the area
And Lot was kidnapped as a result of it.
Abram then went and rescued Lot (a feat Abram should never have been able to accomplish) and when Abram returned he was met with a choice.
Abram was confronted by two kings.
1) The King of Salem (a picture of Christ)
2) The King of Sodom (a picture of Satan)
The King of Salem brought a blessing, the King of Sodom brought a bribe.
And the reason this was such a defining moment for Abram
Is because Abram had been a very worldly man his whole life.
Abram loved the world, Abram pursued the world, Abram sought to acquire the world.
And yet at this moment he had a choice to make.
To either accept the blessing of God or the benefits of the world.
Well you remember that Abram chose grace.
He refused the bribe of the king of Sodom and instead
Chose to give a tithe of all his possessions to the servant of God.
Abram was letting go of the weeds in his heart
And pledging to let God be his portion and provider.
It was a monumental step of faith.
AT THIS POINT, Abram is ready to believe the promise of God.
And God is ready to offer the relationship.
“After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, “Do not fear, Abram, I am a shield to you; Your reward shall be very great.”
Now at first that may seem like a strange statement,
But not when you consider the decision Abram just made.
He just turned his back on his usual way of getting ahead.
He just left his worldly security behind.
In short, he quit banking on the world system
And put all of his surety on the back of God.
And anyone who has done that
Certainly knows the type of anxiety that can come with it.
For a parallel, Abram just did what the Rich Young Ruler would not.
He agreed to forsake his possessions for the sake of something greater.
Now you also remember that when the Rich Young Ruler left Jesus,
It got the disciples to thinking.
Matthew 19:27 “Then Peter said to Him, “Behold, we have left everything and followed You; what then will there be for us?”
Can you detect the anxiety in Peter’s question?
Well Jesus assured Peter that they would be rewarded for their sacrifice, and that is precisely what God is doing for Abram here.
“Do not fear, Abram, I am a shield to you; your reward shall be very great.”
God was promising to protect the interests of Abram
And to prosper him accordingly.
Abram did not make a costly decision with the king of Sodom, Abram made the smartest decision of his life.
Placing his future and his hope on the back of God
Was the safest thing Abram ever did, and God is reminding him of that.
But no sooner does God say that,
Then does Abram reveal his biggest hurdle.
(2-3) “Abram said, “O Lord GOD, what will You give me, since I am childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” And Abram said, “Since You have given no offspring to me, one born in my house is my heir.”
Now understand this.
• Abram is not doubting if God can give him a great inheritance…
• Abram is not doubting if God will give him a great inheritance…
God has already proven those things to Abram.
Abram is merely questioning the purpose of it since he has no heir.
GET THIS:
Abram is not doubting God, Abram is doubting Abram.
He doesn’t think that he can be the man God just spoke of.
Ever feel that way?
You know God can, you just don’t know if you can.
You know God is powerful, you just know you are weak.
Abram was analyzing the promise of God while looking in the mirror.
And if you analyze the promises of God while looking in the mirror,
You won’t believe them either.
But don’t analyze God’s promises in front of the mirror.
Instead analyze God’s promises in front of the window.
(4-5) “Then behold, the word of the LORD came to him, saying, “This man will not be your heir; but one who will come forth from your own body, he shall be your heir.” And He took him outside and said, “Now look toward the heavens, and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” And He said to him, “So shall your descendants be.”
God told Abram to quit looking in the mirror
And start looking out the window.
Look at these stars Abram!
Is there anything I can’t do?
Abram, I’m going to bring forth one
“from your own body, he shall be your heir.”
God was promising to do in Abram
Something that Abram could never do for himself.
And listen, that is the great God we serve!
Are you limited? Of course you are.
If it were up to you to secure the intentions of God you’d be in a world of hurt.
But it is not what you do for God, it’s what God does through you.
• When God says you are – you are
• When God says you can – you can
• When God says you will – you will
• When God says you must – you must
Abram had forsaken the world that he might obtain God,
And God was rewarding that commitment
In a way that Abram never even thought possible.
And just to make sure you understand EXACTLY WHERE WE ARE.
THIS IS GOD’S PROPOSAL TO ABRAM.
I’ve told you that the call of God is very much a process in a person’s life.
Often times God begins by revealing pieces of Himself,
And giving tastes of His goodness.
He breathes enough life into the dead man
To give the dead man the ability to see what this life is all about.
It is not full blown salvation, it is merely a taste, a courtship.
But then, after God has revealed Himself,
Then comes the offer or the proposal.
And that is the moment where salvation either occurs or not.
Everything in Abram’s life so far has been God leading up to this moment.
• He’s been revealing more and more of Himself…
• He’s been giving Abram tasted after taste…
• He’s been showing Abram what a life with Him will be like…
And now it is time to make the offer.
That is what God is doing here.
And please understand that is all grace.
From the second Abram entered the scene,
Until verse 5 of this chapter it has been all grace.
God has been offering something to Abram that he did not deserve.
It is all “by grace”.
BUT WE MAINTAIN THAT FAITH IS NECESSARY
For salvation to be reckoned, faith must be involved.
And that is what we see next.
(15:6) “Then he believed in the LORD; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness.”
For the first time we get saving faith from Abram.
He has just moved from TASTING to TRUSTING.
• He is done feeling God out…
• He is done listening to the proof…
• Abram is seen enough and heard enough…
Abram is all in.
He is entrusting all that he is to God.
He now believes in God and what God will do.
ABRAM BELIEVED GOD.
And if the story ended there, it would be a perfect happy ending to a perfect story.
BUT…
There is so much more here than just that.
“he believed in the Lord; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness.”
WHOA! STOP THE CAR!
God did what?
God “reckoned it to him as righteousness.”
• Abraham didn’t DO anything.
• You can’t find a single work.
• All Abraham did was believe God and God took that faith and in return granted righteousness to Abraham.
We would say then that ABRAHAM’S FAITH WAS EFFECTIVE
It worked…
And that is the FAMOUS EXPERIENCE that Paul is drawing on.
“What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, has found? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? “ABRAHAM BELIEVED GOD, AND IT WAS CREDITED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS.”
That is the example.
Let’s move on.
#2 THE FITTING EXPLANATION
Romans 4:4-5
Paul here (always the preacher) wants to make sure that
You get the main point, and that you don’t somehow misunderstand.
And what becomes obvious to us is that
Paul is contrasting two types of people here.
• The first person is “the one who works”
• The second person is “the one who does not work, but believes”
And all Paul is trying to do is to make sure
You understand which one Abraham was.
And we discern that by the word Moses used back in Genesis regarding how Abraham became righteous.
• Moses used the word “reckoned”
• Paul wrote it “credited”
And that is an important word to Paul.
Here is why:
If a person works and earns something,
Then you don’t use the word “credited” because it isn’t.
That would be like you working 40 hours for your boss this week and at the end of the week, the boss comes to you with your paycheck and says, “Here I’m gonna do you a favor and give you this money.”
“Give me” nothing!
I worked for that and I earned it.
But if a person “does not work” and you give them a paycheck,
Then you can talk about doing favors.
That is Paul’s point.
If Abraham did anything to earn that righteousness
Then Moses could not have used the word “reckoned” or “credited”.
THE TRANSACTION THAT OCCURRED HERE
WAS DONE PURELY BY GRACE, NOT MERIT.
The only thing Abraham did was believe.
And everything Abraham received was only because of faith, not works,
Since Abraham didn’t do anything.
It is a tremendous explanation of the effectiveness of faith.
The Famous Example, The Fitting Explanation
#3 THE FURTHER EVIDENCE
Romans 4:6-8
I like what Paul does here.
He is making sure that you don’t try to disregard Abraham
Based on hermeneutic principle.
Incidentally, one of the rules of hermeneutics (Bible interpretation) is that Scripture interprets Scripture. That means that we use the overwhelmingly clear texts and total message to interpret the less clear.
EXAMPLE:
In Paul’s letter to the Corinthians he speaks of those who are “baptized for the dead” and someone may well ask, “What does that mean?”
Honestly; we don’t know, but based on the rest of the Bible we do know what it doesn’t mean.
You take the whole message to interpret the single statements.
That is why what Paul does here is important.
He has just built an entire theology on one verse (really on one word)
And it might be easy for someone to say, “That’s an isolated incident, that is not what Scripture as a whole teaches and you have misunderstood the point of Genesis 15.”
So, Paul sets out to broaden the application
By revealing that Abraham’s justification by faith is not isolated.
It happens everywhere.
Hence the, “just as David also speaks…”
So now, we’re going to give a little more evidence
And bring David into the equation.
And David speaks “of the blessing on the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works:”
Now pay attention here, because it can be slippery.
Paul quotes Psalms 32:1-2
“BLESSED ARE THOSE WHOSE LAWLESS DEEDS HAVE BEEN FORGIVEN, AND WHOSE SINS HAVE BEEN COVERED. “BLESSED IS THE MAN WHOSE SIN THE LORD WILL NOT TAKE INTO ACCOUNT.”
Do you know what David is talking about there?
JUSTIFICATION (forensic justification)
David is talking about a person whom God judicially declares just.
• Their “lawless deeds have been forgiven”
• Their “sins have been covered”
• God will not take those sins “into account”
THAT IS JUSTIFICATION.
But listen, Rome would agree with that.
• Rome would simply say that when a person does enough good that it cancels out the bad and God then forgives lawless deeds and declares a person just.
• Rome would say that after an undisclosed stay in Purgatory that a person finally becomes righteous and God will declare them just.
• Just because David spoke of forgiveness or sin being covered or sin being forgotten doesn’t indicate that man is justified by faith instead of works.
WHAT IS THE KEY WORD THERE?
It is the word “Blessed”
That is the word which reveals that this sinner
Is receiving what he does not deserve and what he has not earned.
Again, you work all week and your boss comes to you and says, “I’d like to bless you” and gives you your paycheck.
You’d say, “No, once again all you did was give me what I earned”
But if a man for whom you have not worked says “I’d like to bless you” and gives you a check then you understand the point.
SO WE FIND HERE THAT DAVID UNDERSTOOD
THE SAME JUSTIFICATION THAT ABRAHAM ENJOYED.
• David knew what it meant to be forgiven when forgiveness wasn’t earned.
• David knew what it meant to be declared righteous when righteousness wasn’t actually present.
In fact, Abraham and David are pretty similar in our eyes.
Abraham was worldly and greedy and an adulterer.
David was worldly and an adulterer and a murderer
Neither of them earned righteousness.
Both of them were only righteous because God gave it to them.
And it was given in response to one thing: FAITH
And that is how effective faith is.
FAITH IS SO EFFECTIVE THAT IT CAN ACTUALY CAUSE GOD
TO DECLARE UNRIGHTEOUS MEN RIGHTEOUS.
That is exactly what happened with Abraham
And that is exactly what happened with David.
Study their lives.
• You won’t be impressed with their morality…
• You will be impressed with their faith…
And yet, they are highly regarded throughout history as men in whom God was greatly pleased.
• One is the father if Israel
• The other is head of the Messianic Line
Both were declared righteous by God, neither had anything but faith.
DO YOU SEE HOW EFFECTIVE THEIR FAITH WAS?
Not only was their faith necessary, it was effective.
That’s the main point.
Next time we’ll continue on with Romans 4 and learn more about this faith of Abraham and why God does it this way.
