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Plunging
into the Promises |
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A Pocket Paper Robert J.
Morgan This week I received a very nice letter from a woman who had been reading Then Sings My Soul. She said that almost every morning she wakes up with a song in her heart, and most of the time it’s a hymn. During her devotions, she looks up the hymn that has been on her mind. But the other morning, she said, she woke with anxiety. Some doors had opened for her that seemed too big for her. She was asked to be the keynote speaker at a conference, and she was overwhelmed and fearful. The first thought that came to her when she awoke in the morning was, “I can’t do this,” and feelings of acute anxiety swept over her. During her morning devotions, the anxiety wouldn’t leave. She said that she had been working hard for the last few years to overcome her tendency toward anxiety and to cultivate peace with God. Now all the anxiety seemed to have come rushing back in one morning. But then the words of an old hymn came suddenly to mind: “My faith has found a resting place, not in device or creed. / I trust the Ever-living One—His wounds for me shall plead. / I need no other argument, I need no other plea; / It is enough that Jesus died, and that He died for me.” And she discovered once again that anxiety can not exist in the soul that is resting in simple faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. I know that Hebrews 11 is called the “Faith Chapter of the Bible,” and I can’t argue with that. But I think Romans 4 comes in a very close second, and today in our study through the book of Romans we’re coming to this wonderful chapter. So if you have your Bibles, turn back with me to Romans 1, and let’s trace the unfolding logic of the Apostle Paul as he writes this book. He begins with a wonderful prologue or introduction in Romans 1:1-17. Verses 16 and 17 state the theme and thesis of the book: “I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then for the Gentile. For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written, ‘The just shall live by faith.’” When Paul uses the word “righteousness” here, he is talking about a way for you and me to appear as righteous, holy, sinless people before God so that we will qualify for everlasting life. In other words, he is saying in verse 17—the theme verse of Romans—“In the Gospel a way of being made righteous and qualified for heaven has been revealed to us, and it is by faith from first to last.” We can never be declared righteous in God’s sight or qualified for heaven by trying to live a good life, by trying to be righteous through our own efforts, or by trying to build a ladder of righteousness that reaches up to heaven, because we are all imperfect sinners. But in the Gospel God reveals another way in which we can be declared righteous—it is by faith. So that is the prologue, the introduction, the theme of the book of Romans. Then we have a long and rather disheartening section of Romans, the first great section of the body of the book itself. It begins with chapter one, verse 18: “The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness…” And he goes on for the rest of chapter 1, all of chapter 2, and much of chapter 3, demonstrating and arguing that no one in all the earth, no one in the totality of human history can ever be declared righteous in God’s sight by living a good life, by keeping the law of God, by doing good works. He says in chapters 1b and 2a that the wrath of God is being revealed against the non-Jewish world, the Gentiles, because of their sinfulness. He says in chapters 2b and 3a that the wrath of God is being revealed against the Jewish world because of its sinfulness. He says in Romans 3:9-10, that the wrath of God is being revealed against the entire world, because all have sinned. There is none righteous, not even one. There is no one who understands, no one who seeks after God. And he sums up this great,
dismal section of Romans in chapter 3,verse 20: Therefore
no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather,
through the law we become conscious of sin. And then we come to the very heart of Gospel. Romans 3:21-28 is arguably the very core of the entire Bible. I call it the “Ground Zero of Scripture.” We looked it last Sunday night with the time that we had. But let’s just read a little of it again: But now a righteousness
from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the
Prophets testify. This
righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who
believe. There is no difference,
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified
freely by His grace, through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented him as a sacrifice of
atonement through faith in His blood. Now, with that as background, we come to today’s passage. Most commentators begin the next great section of Romans with chapter 4, verse 1. But as I have read and re-read this passage, I’m quite certain it should begin with chapter 3, verse 29. So let’s begin today’s Scripture reading there, and today I want you to notice three great truths that anchor the Christiain life. I’m going to call the first one “A Great Fact.” Behind all of the Christian life, there is a great fact. What is it? We are saved by grace through faith. A Great Fact Is God a God of Jews only?
Is he not the God of Gentiles too? Yes, of Gentiles too, since there is
only one God, who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised
through the same faith. Do we,
then, nullify the law by this faith?
Not at all! Rather, we
uphold the law. In other words, everyone—Jew and Gentile—everyone who goes to heaven does so on the basis of the great fact of the Christian life: We are justified by faith. Now, Paul is going to demonstrate this by giving us the greatest example in the Old Testament. There was no one more revered by the Jews than Abraham, their great father and the founder of the Jewish race. Abraham was the first Hebrew. Abraham was called and set apart by God to create a family, a clan, a tribe, a nation from which the Savior of the entire world would come. Abraham was the father of the nation of Israel. He was the most important figure in Jewish history. He was God’s friend, the man who literally walked with God in the book of Genesis. What, then, was the basis of Abraham’s relationship with God? Was it his good life, his excellent morality, his perfect character? No. He was a sinner like everyone else. Abraham was justified by grace through faith. Look at chapter 4: What shall we say that Abraham, our forefather, discovered in this
matter? If, in fact, Abraham was
justified by works, he had something to boast about—but not before God. What does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed in God, and it
was credited to him as righteousness.” Now when a man works, his wages are
not credited to him as a gift, but as an obligation. However, to the man who does not work
but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as
righteousness. In other words, some of Paul’s Jewish readers, hearing him articulate this great fact of justification by grace through faith, might have been saying, “Well, this is certainly a new doctrine. This isn’t found in the Old Testament. This is new and novel and suspect.” Paul was saying, “Oh no it’s not. This is the way God has always worked. In every dispensation, in every age, in every era of history there has only been one way to be made right with God. In Old Testament days and in New Testament days, there was never a time when we could get to heaven on the basis of a righteousness of our own. Everyone who has ever made it to heaven or who ever will gets there the same way—through the blood of Jesus. Abraham was justified by grace through faith. He believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness. Now, Paul goes on almost parenthetically to say, “The same is true of the second great Old Testament Jewish leader—David.” The two greatest heroes of the Old Testament and the two most important figures in Jewish history were Abraham and David. When we turn to Matthew 1, the very first word of the New Testament says, “The genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the son of Abraham.” So Paul brings us both men as examples of those who are justified by grace through faith. Look at verses 6ff: David says the same thing when he speaks of the blessedness of the
man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works: “Blessed are they whose
transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord
will never count against him.” So this is the great fact of the Christian life—we are justified by grace through faith. It is the only way to be declared righteous in God’s sight. It is the only way to have eternal life. Now, having told us about the great faith of the Christian life, Paul goes on to describe the great father of the Christian life. Let me ask you a question. As a Christian, who is your great father? We’d probably say, “God.” He’s our Heavenly Father. Well, of course, that’s true. But the Bible presents this man Abraham as being the father of the Christian faith. Abraham was not only the father of the Jewish nation, he is the father of the Christian faith. That’s what Paul tells us here in the middle of Romans 4. A Great Father Is this blessedness
only for the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised? We have been saying that
Abraham’s faith was credited to him as righteousness. Under what circumstances was it
credited? Was it after he was
circumcised, or before? It was
not after, but before! And he
received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness that he had by
faith while he was still uncircumcised.
Now, I really dislike dealing with the subject of circumcision from the pulpit, but that’s because of my Southern sensibilities. In the ancient world, they didn’t have any qualms at all about this subject, and neither does the Bible. So I don’t have any choice but to mention this. It’s right here in the passage. God prescribed the act of male circumcision as the sign and symbol of being a Jew. Why? Well, it’s very obvious. There is a sexual connotation to it. It was a matter of procreation. Every generation of Jews produced the next generation of Jews, and the seed of Israel was passed down from one generation to the next through the loins of the fathers, preserving the Messianic line. So circumcision became the sign and symbol of the Jewish race. But now Paul is making an incisive observation about the story of Abraham in Genesis. He is saying that this act of circumcision had absolutely nothing to do with making Abraham righteous. The sign of circumcision was given in Genesis 17 as the sign and symbol of the Covenant, but it was earlier, in Genesis 15, in which we see these critical words of the Gospel: “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” So before he became the Father of the Jewish Race, he became the father of all who would be saved by grace through faith! Read on—Romans 4:11b: So then, he is the father of all who believe but have not been
circumcised, in order that righteousness might be credited to them. And he is also the father of the
circumcised who not only are circumcised but who also walk in the footsteps
of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised. 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. For if those who live by law are
heirs, faith has no value and the promise is worthless, because law brings
wrath. And where there is no law
there is no transgression. 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. 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. A Great Faith So those of us who are Christians have a great fact and a great father. But thirdly, we have a great faith. The last part of Romans 4 is, to me, one of the most powerful passages on the subject of faith to be found anywhere in the Bible. Paul gives us two things here—first a demonstration of faith and then a definition of faith. And I think it is the most tangible, practical demonstration and definition we can find in the Bible. First, the demonstration of faith involves Abraham’s trust in the promise that God would give him a child, even though he and his wife grew to old age with the promise apparently unfulfilled. Look at verse 18: Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father
of many nations, just as it had been said to him, “So shall your
offspring be.” Without
weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as
dead—since he was about a hundred years old—and that
Sarah’s womb was also dead.
And as he goes on to describe this, he gives us a profound definition of faith: Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God,
but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully
persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. What is faith? It is being fully persuaded that God has the power to do what He has promised. Now, we are saved by this kind of faith and we are sustained and strengthened by this kind of faith. I’ve found over and over again that the answer to the worries and the anxieties of life is to get into the Bible and discover those particular promises from God that meet my particular need. And when I find that promise, then I just have to know and to be fully persuaded that God has the power to do what He has promised. Not one of His promises can fail. And I rest in that and wait for the Lord to work. Now Paul is saying the same thing is true for saving faith. We have a particular need, a great worry and anxiety. We’re all going to hell. We’re all lost. But God has given us a promise. If we confess with our mouth Jesus Christ as Lord and believe in our hearts that God has raised Him from the dead, we shall be saved. And so we come to Jesus Christ and we say, “I know that I am powerless to save myself. I admit that I can never get to heaven on the basis of my own works. But I believe that Jesus Christ died and rose again, and I confess Him as my Lord and Savior.” And we are saved, we are declared righteous, we are justified by grace through faith. Look at the way Paul ends the chapter: This is why “it was credited to him as
righteousness.” The words
“it was credited to him” were written not for him alone, but also
for us, to whom God will credit righteousness—for us who believe in him
who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead.
He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for
our justification. Last Sunday morning I ended my message by telling of a young man who waited too long to make his decision for Christ. Evangelist Peter Cartwright pleaded with him, and the young man kept putting off the decision. He suddenly fell ill, and on his deathbed, the young man screamed, “It’s too late. I’m lost! I must make my bed in hell! Lost! Forever lost!” I then closed with the verse that says, “Seek the Lord while He may be found and call upon Him while He is near.” At the close of the second service, as I gave the invitation, a woman came forward, knelt with me here at the altar, and gave her heart to the Lord Jesus. Two days later, she was shot dead, killed by an ex-boyfriend who pumped her full of bullets as she got out of her car. I prayed with her at the altar Sunday, and yesterday I preached her funeral. I’m so glad she listened to the prompting of the Holy Spirit and made that decision, for it truly was her last opportunity. You and I don’t know if
we’ll ever have another opportunity like this, to confess with our
mouths Jesus as Lord and to believe in our hearts that God has raised Him
from the dead. And so I’d
like to say one more time: Seek the Lord while He may be found. Call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the
unrighteous man His thoughts, and let him turn to the Lord and He will have
mercy on Him, and to our God for He will abundantly pardon. Copyright StatementWe grant permission for any edition of The Pocket Paper to be photocopied for use in a local congregation or classroom, provided no more than 1,000 copies are made, the material is distributed free, and the copies include the notice: "Copyright (year) The Donelson Fellowship."For any other use, advance permission must be obtained from The Donelson Fellowship church office. |
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