February 17, 2008 Romans 4:1-5, 13-17

¹ What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather, discovered in this matter? ² If, in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about -- but not before God. ³ What does the Scripture say? "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness."

⁴ Now when a man works, his wages are not credited to him as a gift, but as an obligation. ⁵ However, to the man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness.

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. ¹⁴ For if those who live by law are heirs, faith has no value and the promise is worthless, ¹⁵ because law brings wrath. And where there is no law there is no transgression.

¹⁶ Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham's offspring -- not only to those who are of the law but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all. ¹⁷ As it is written: "I have made you a father of many nations." He 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. (NIV)

The Work of Justification

I. It doesn=t come by works

Work is a part of life. It's not just a result of the Fall into sin. It was even a part of God's perfect creation. It's what God created man to do. Genesis 2:15 says, "The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it." Imagine how good it would feel to work a garden and pull in a perfect crop after tilling the soil and planting the seeds just right. When someone becomes a master of their craft it is a true joy to watch them work with precision and accuracy ‑ knowing exactly what cut to make or what ingredient to add.

So why is it that we so often try to avoid work? Why do some of us dread it? Sometimes our bodies aren't up for the labor. Our minds are tired. Our tools are dull. We aren=t good at it. The rules of our employer make it detrimental to producing much of anything. Our co-workers are impossible to get along with or work with. So we feel frustrated. We take breaks. We call in sick. We do all we can to get out of it.

Think also of the END RESULT. A majority of Americans are working to pay off debt ‑ just to live in their homes and drive their cars around. Paycheck after paycheck goes to bills that come in on a regular basis. No matter how hard we work we never seem to get anywhere. So going to work is like diving back in the pool to do the doggy paddle for ten more hours to get a few feet closer to a shore that seems to be getting farther and farther away - somewhat due to our own spending habits. It is a miserable way to live. IF people finally do get debt free it is as if a huge load has been lifted off of their backs and they can actually breathe again.

Jesus knew what it meant to pay off a huge debt. It=s what he came to earth to do. Matthew 5:17 ADo not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.@ Jesus came to obey the laws that we were supposed to and to pay to God what we owed Him. He came to experience and fulfill the Law when it said to AHonor your father and mother.@ He knew what a dirty job it was to sweep out a carpenter=s shop. Never once did He complain. Day and night he spent healing people and preaching the good news. His love for people and His duty to God compelled Him to often times go without shelter and sleep in order to help those who came to Him. And if all this weren=t enough, He had to go through the most difficult part of paying our debt, which meant going to the cross. It wasn=t easy for Him. He sweat drops of blood. It took hard work - impossible work - deadly work - His own blood, sweat and tears, for Jesus to pay off this debt. But finally, after suffering on the cross - He cried out, Ait is finished@, which means Apaid in full.@ The debt sinners owed to God was paid. If you want to know what it means to work - look at Jesus. He was the exemplification of work.

Some look at what Jesus did and say to themselves, AI see what a great example Jesus left me. If I want to be a Christian and go to heaven, I had better follow His example. I had better work just as hard as He did.@ The Mormon church actually describes Jesus as God=s heavenly debt consolidator. As our Aredeemer@ He takes all that we owe to God and pays it in one lump sum. But then He turns to us and says, Anow you come and follow me. Give your tithes. Go on your missions. Produce children. It will take a lot of hard work and many years - but eventually - hundreds of years after you die - you will be able to pay it off.@ Catholicism also integrates Jesus into a type of heavenly bank account in which you get a little bit of forgiveness and grace in baptism, a little bit of forgiveness through confession, a little more in the Lord=s Supper, some more in the Last Rites. Then, since that isn=t enough, you continue to suffer and recognize your sins in purgatory. Eventually after many years of prayers of people on earth and suffering you will eventually get there. This view of salvation puts these poor people in the position of the American debtor - always trying to do all he can so he can get right with God - but never feeling like he=ll ever get there. It is a miserable way to live. As Paul says, Awhen a man works, his wages are not credited to him as a gift, but as an obligation.@

II. It comes by faith

In contrast to all of this Paul lays before us the patriarch of the Jews - Father Abraham - which is rather ironic because Abraham also was a guy who knew how to work! At the age of 75 he listened to God=s call and moved from Ur of the Chaldeans to live in a tent as a stranger in foreign lands. He had to rescue Lot from enemy soldiers. He had to climb up a mountain and was told to sacrifice his one and only son Isaac! But Paul doesn=t mention any of these works when he talks about Abraham=s righteousness. Instead, he goes back to quote Genesis 15 - a section where Abraham does absolutely nothing at all but to sit and listen.

Genesis 15:1‑6 The word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision: ADo not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward.@ But Abram said, AO Sovereign LORD, what can you give me since I remain childless and the one who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?@ And Abram said, AYou have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir.@ Then the word of the LORD came to him: AThis man will not be your heir, but a son coming from your own body will be your heir.@ He took him outside and said, ALook up at the heavens and count the starsCif indeed you can count them.@ Then he said to him, ASo shall your offspring be.@ Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness.

At first all Abraham did was to doubt and reinterpret God=s promises to come through Eliezer. But God wouldn=t allow Abraham to keep doubting. He took Abraham outside and said, Alook at all of these stars! Just try to count them! Your offspring is going to be as many as these stars in the sky!@ In doing so, God (gave) life to the dead and call(ed) things that were not as though they were. God was speaking as if Abraham=s offspring were a SURE THING, and these words rubbed off on Abraham. The LORD was definitely sending a Savior - and that Savior was going to personally come through HIS offspring. These promises breathed faith in Abraham=s heart.

The LORD does the same thing with us today. We get depressed over sickness and death and heartache on this side of heaven. But then He takes us outside and points to the stars and says, Aall of these will disappear one day. Jesus will come in the clouds with all His holy angels. The same Jesus who died and rose from the dead will raise you and all of my children from the dead to meet me in the clouds. He will bring you into an eternal paradise. He will do this because He covered you in His blood at your baptism. He will do this because He kept you in His blood through the Lord=s Supper. He will do this because He assured you of this home in heaven by pointing to you to what Jesus did for you.@ With these words of promise He enables us to look to the heavens like Abraham looking forward to a New Jerusalem and a great reunion at the resurrection of the dead.

After this wonderful work of faith that God produced in Abraham=s heart, Paul then quoted the golden passage in vs. 6. Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness. When Abraham believed the LORD=s promises of salvation, God didn=t just give him a pat on the back. He didn=t just give Abraham a child either. He credited Abraham with righteousness. Think of when you take back an item that you decided that you didn=t want - your account is Acredited.@ Money is put back in your account. In this case, God put righteousness on Abraham=s account - a righteousness that wasn=t there before. What is righteousness? It is a legal status in a courtroom - a status of being right. If you=re not righteous, not right, then you=re wrong. If the Judge declares you wrong, then you=re guilty. Then you=re damned. But if you=re right, then God is declaring that your defense is acceptable, and you=re saved. The two go hand in hand, as the Psalmist says in Psalm 98:2, AThe LORD has made his salvation known and revealed his righteousness to the nations.@

III. It comes to the wicked

Paul says to us, Athat example of Abraham was not just a one shot deal. Abraham sets the stage - his life shows the way that God deals with all people - no matter who they are. But LOOK at WHO Paul applies this to. To the man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness.

Doesn=t this seem rather bizarre that Paul would apply this to wicked people who don=t do any work? After all, wasn=t Abraham in fact a hard worker? Absolutely. Aren=t Christians called on to work and sacrifice themselves? Yes, they are. So why does Paul use Abraham as proof that God justifies the wicked person who does no work? Because even Abraham, in spite of all of his works and even with his works, was still in his flesh and body just a wicked sinner in God=s sight. How do we know this? Look at WHO Paul described as evil earlier in this book.

Romans 3:9‑12 Jews and Gentiles alike are all under sin. As it is written: "There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one."

Not even one does good. No one is righteous. That would include Abraham - who was a Jew. He too was under sin. Even though Abraham did great and many works, not one of them made God declare Abraham righteous. God had to put a righteousness on Abraham=s account that was not there before. He put it on there by producing faith in Abraham=s heart.

Why does God do this for us - if He says we=re evil? The promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham's offspring -- not only to those who are of the law but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham. The law naturally makes distinctions between people and discriminates based on conditions. Think about the Old Testament law for the priests. You didn=t only have to be a Levite - you had to be from Aaron=s family. Even that wasn=t enough. If you had any sort of deformity or sore you still weren=t allowed into the priesthood. It automatically kept a majority of people from ever touching foot in the Holy Place. This is what the law does. It excludes people. But if there is NO LAW attached to the PROMISE - no condition to meet - if it specifically comes to the WICKED - if it all comes from outside of us - then it makes this righteousness accessible to anyone at anytime in life. Rahab, a Gentile prostitute could get credit for it. Paul, a persecutor of Christians could get it. Moses, the giver of the Law could get it. You too can have it, because you too are wicked in God=s sight. The very nature of grace is that by it=s nature it gives things to people that don=t deserve it. These are the only type of people it can come to. God does it this way because He is in His heart and core a God of grace.

Think also of the nature of this gift that Jesus earned. God=s Word says very clearly that Jesus already paid for the sins of the world. 1 John 2:2 says, AHe is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.@ If Jesus really already paid for the sins of the world, then no sins can be paid for. They can only be paid for once. It has to be given, because it was already earned. If someone says, AI only want to be given half of the gift, I want to earn the rest,@ they are either saying that they really aren=t that evil or that Jesus= gift really isn=t good enough for them. They=d rather earn it. God says to us, Ayou don=t owe me anything for it. It is a gift. You can=t work for it, because Jesus already worked for it.@ By nature of the gift it can=t be earned or added to it. Righteousness comes by faith. It is not a righteousness that is our own. It comes from outside of us and it put onto our account. Faith is simply the vehicle through which God gives us credit for what Jesus did.

We live in a society of people who are very selfish with their time. Nobody wants to Aput anyone out.@ So we are very tentative to ask anyone to do anything, because we are all so supposedly Abusy.@ All of this causes us to be very secluded people who are afraid to ask for help. It causes us to be a segregated congregation of individual Christians - who feel no connection to one another. It=s not the way God designed it, yet we manage to be surviving.

Abraham could not have survived if without God. He would have died in the Ur of the Chaldeans childless and hopeless. Yet by grace God took Him by the hand and the heart and said to him, AAbraham, I have much better plans for you. I will make you into the Father of many nations. I will bless all nations through you.@ His promises opened Abraham=s heart. He believed God=s promises and clung to them for the rest of his life.

If you try to live life on your own - trying to grind out this Christianity thing by doing all that you=re told to do - you will fail. Christianity is about Christ. The season of Lent takes us to the cross and makes us stare at a bloody mess of a man whom we call our God and our Savior. It is a humbling and comforting thing to see Jesus hang there. We don=t want him to hang there, but if He doesn=t we die and go to hell. This is the way the work of justification works. Jesus does it. He calls on us to believe it. We can=t survive without it. This is one place where God says, AI want you to rely on me. I want to do all the work. I=ve done it all already. You are not >putting me out= by relying on me. You are complimenting me by relying on me. You making me happy by holding to my promise.@ That=s it. Do you believe it? Do you rely on Jesus alone for justification? Then join with me in saying, AAmen.@