The burden of our last study on Romans 4:16-22, was on the Bible truth that the righteousness of God is imputed by faith that it might be according to grace... {16}.
We looked at the faith of Abraham, by which: “it was accounted to him for righteousness.” {22}
Abraham believed God. Most people believe “in God.”
In fact, in 1:18-23 we saw that everyone knows there is a God.
Last night {08/25/01} we watched a debate on CSPAN between Alan Keyes and Alan Dershowitz. Dershowitz said he was an “agnostic Jew.” {oxymoron - agnostic: doubts there is God; Jew: praise God}
But having only the knowledge that there is a God will result in condemnation.
If a person is not convicted of their own personal just condemnation by a Holy God: Unless the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ is revealed; the end of that person is eternal hell.
The Gospel is the means by which God has chosen to reveal His Christ. When the word of God is preached in the power of the Holy Spirit, Sin becomes sin! God is seen as just in His condemnation of sinners. Then a person needs a Substitute.
Do you believe “in God,” or, do you believe God?
Abraham believed the promise of God.
Abraham believed God and specific things about God.
God’s promise that Abraham believed had three aspects:
Land, seed, and blessing to all nations.
The “promise,” I said, refers primarily to salvation.
We must not limit the promise God made to Abraham to a race of people, even to the Jews, or to a small piece of geography in the middle east.
We looked at the fulfillment of the promise in regard to how it applied directly to Abraham and his natural offspring. But my emphasis was on the fact that the promise was to the Seed, that is Christ.
Galatians 3:16-19
16 Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made. He does not say, "And to seeds," as of many, but as of one, "And to your Seed," who is Christ.
17 And this I say, that the law, which was four hundred and thirty years later, cannot annul the covenant that was confirmed before by God in Christ, that it should make the promise of no effect.
18 For if the inheritance is of the law, it is no longer of promise; but God gave it to Abraham by promise.
19 What purpose then does the law serve? It was added because of transgressions, till the Seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was appointed through angels by the hand of a mediator.
So the fulfillment of the promise in the aspect of seed, in the normal manner is seen in the multitude of offspring, countless as the stars in heaven and the grains of sand on the seashore, but specifically in the single object to whom the promise was made, even to Jesus Christ, the Seed!
We looked next at the aspect of Abraham being a blessing to all nations and saw that while the Jews failed to be a blessing to the Gentiles {the nations}, the fulfillment of the promise was in the Christ.
The promise of God did not fail because of the unbelief of the Jews because the ultimate fulfillment of the promise to be a blessing to all nations is in Christ.
Isaiah says, concerning Messiah:
Isaiah 49:6
Indeed He says,
'It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant
To raise up the tribes of Jacob,
And to restore the preserved ones of Israel;
I will also give You as a light to the Gentiles,
That You should be My salvation to the ends of the earth.'"
And Paul affirms that this prophecy of Isaiah applies to Christ:
Galatians 3:6-9
6 just as Abraham "believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness."
7 Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham.
8 And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying,
"In you all the nations shall be blessed."
9 So then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham.
The gospel is not in the blessing that the Jews were supposed to be to all the nations. cf Galatians 3:8 & 3:16. The blessing of the promise is in Christ!
We also looked at the aspect of land and saw that while the most popular interpretation today says that the present nation of Israel, constituted in 1948, is the fulfillment of the promise as to land; Joshua says:
Joshua21:43-45
43 So the LORD gave to Israel all the land of which He had sworn to give to their fathers, and they took possession of it and dwelt in it.
44 The LORD gave them rest all around, according to all that He had sworn to their fathers. And not a man of all their enemies stood against them; the LORD delivered all their enemies into their hand.
45 Not a word failed of any good thing which the LORD had spoken to the house of Israel. All came to pass.
God has fulfilled His promise in the aspect of land and the Jews forfeited the land through idolatry.
I then argued that the greater fulfillment of the aspect of land has to do with the church in that glorious future of the New Jerusalem, and quoted,
Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones: “The promise referred not only to the Jews possession of the land of Palestine but to that great day which is coming, when the ‘kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ.’ It is the promise concerning the great and glorious day when ‘there shall be new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness,’ and Christ and His people shall reign in glory in this glorified world.”
And Jesus said in Matthew 5:5 “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.”
In discussing eschatology {last things} last Sunday, I said that a person must make a choice about the focus of the Bible. Is the central theme of the Bible on a race of people called the Jews, and will this focus culminate in a restoral of the Jews to a kingdom on earth, in all of the past glory of Solomon?
In this view, named Dispensationalism, the church plays a minor role in God’s purpose. They call the church a “parenthesis.” They teach that when the “church age” is complete, God will remove the church; the Jews will be restored to their former glory, and the wall of separation between Jew and Gentile will forever be established. That is another way of salvation!
The other option is that the focus of the Bible is on the church.
It may not be necessary to make this point, but I will. When I say the “church,” of course I am referring to the body of Christ. Christ is the head of the church. Apart from Jesus Christ there is no true church. When I emphasize that the focus of the Bible is on the church, of course, I mean Jesus, because the focus of Jesus is on His church!
Now the focus, or central theme of the Bible, cannot be on the Jews and at the same time be on the church. The reason eschatology is important is because your view of last things will interpret Scripture for you.
Your view of last things will interpret how you understand the fulfillment of the promise of God that Abraham believed.
My eschatology says that the focus, or the center of activity,
of the Bible is on the church:
The kind of faith that Abraham had produces the church, all believers of all time.
Jesus said: “I am the Good Shepherd.” John 10:11-30
11 I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep. ...
14 I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My own.
15 As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep.
16 And other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they will hear My voice; and there will be one flock and one shepherd. ...
26 But you do not believe, because you are not of My sheep, as I said to you.
27 My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.
28 And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand.
29 My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father's hand.
30 I and My Father are one."
Paul, in Ephesians wrote:
“... Christ loved the church and gave himself for it.” Ephesians 5:25
That itself is an eschatological claim.
The reason that I am laboring with this emphasis on the promise of God as it applies to the church is that I am convinced that many local churches “have left their first love” {Rev 2:4}. They have compromised the gospel in order to draw a large crowd “with itching ears,” to build a building, or a budget, or to brag on how many baptisms they have done.
A brother in Christ who was not in a Southern Baptist church when the Lord saved him, began to read the Alabama Baptist and had the following observation:
“It seems to me,” he said, “that Southern Baptists concentrate on
‘The Three B’s,’ buildings, budgets, and baptisms.”
Paul insists that gospel is not a new doctrine, i.e., the gospel is not
something introduced in the N.T. age, but that the gospel is what God,
“... promised before through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures, concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord....” {1:2-3} and,
“the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets....” {3:21}.
After that long introduction, we will deal with how the promise to Abraham’s Seed, i.e., Christ is carried over into the church.
Why was the O.T. Scripture written and preserved through the ages?
Why is there an historical record in the O.T. of the faith of Abraham?
Was it so the Jews could have a record of “father Abraham?”
Well partly, but the primary reason is given in our text:
Romans 4:23-25
Lloyd-Jones: “... the Apostle goes on in verses 23 to 25 to say one of the most important things that any human being can ever consider. Martin Luther says of these verses something like this: ‘In these verses the whole of Christianity is comprehended.’
Look closely at these verses {23-25}. What was written?
Abraham believed God. Abraham believed specific things about God!
Abraham considered the obstacles, his age and the deadness of Sarah’s womb, and “contrary to hope, in hope believed!”
For whom then was it written? “for us!”
Who are the “us?”
Us, who believe specific things that God has said.
We are Trinitarian. Do not forget God the Father.
The Model Prayer begins, “Our Father...”
We worship God the Father through Jesus the Son.
Do not forget God the Holy Spirit.
Abraham’s faith is typical of the Christian’s faith. No, more than that, it is the same faith in the same Savior, that Jude calls, “our common salvation.” Jude 3
There is one God and one gospel, and justification is based on faith in Christ.
Therefore, justification was not imputed to Abraham for his benefit only.
Christ died with a view of making atonement for His sheep and He was raised from the dead with a view of our justification.
The story of Abraham, must not therefore, be limited to Abraham, or to the Jews. What was true of Abraham is true of every person who ever has been, or ever will be, reconciled to God. This is God’s only way of reconciling men unto Himself. There is no other way. So the Apostle tells us not to look to Abraham as some strange or odd bit of history. For, “it was not written for his sake alone.”
God revealed His power to Abraham by creating life in the deadness of Sarah’s womb. For us, this power is manifested in His raising Jesus from the dead.
4:23 Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him,
These things were not recorded as mere historical facts, but as illustrations for all time of God’s method of justification by faith {David Brown}
Romans 15:4
For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.
Please study the O.T.
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,
Abraham was not justified by a faith that was different from that of every true believer in Jesus Christ. Therefore Jesus could say, “Abraham rejoiced to see My day and was glad.” {John 8:56}
However, the Christian enjoys the knowledge that God has fulfilled the promise to which Abraham looked forward. Yet its fulness is tobe seen in that New Jerusalem that comes down from heaven.
How can a person know that they are right with God?
That was the queston Job asked: “... But how can a man be righteous before God?” (Job 9:2)
How can a man know that his sins are forgiven? that his sins will not be imputed to him? How can a man approach God with confidence? Romans 5:1 tells us. But we must be justified by faith; even as was Abraham.
Abraham believed that God could bring life out of deadness.
Belief in the N.T. is often equated to belief in the resurrection of Jesus from the dead because this event was the ultimate vindication of Christ’s claim to be the Son of God, and the proof of God’s acceptance of His redeeming work on the cross.
1 Corinthians Chapter 15 is an extended argument for the necessity for belief in the resurrection of Christ. 1 Corinthians 15:17 “If Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins!”
resurrection of Christ. 1 Corinthians 15:17 “If Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins!” The theme of every sermon in the Book of Acts is the resurrection of Jesus from the dead!
“... us who believe in Him....”
This is a most important point.
If there is no believing in a risen and glorified Jesus there is no justification.
Contrary to what some so-called “hardshell” Baptists preach, a person is not justified in eternity. The teaching that one of the elect of God will not come to faith in Jesus Christ in this life is a lie of the devil.
We are elect in Christ, but our justification waits on faith in Jesus.
The God who chose us in in Christ in eternity past, also predestined the means of our hearing the gospel with “ears to hear.”
Jesus said, “All that the Father gives Me, will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will be no means cast out.” John 6:37
It is not God who believes in Jesus Christ, but the sinner who is being justified.” {John Murray}
Jesus said: “Therefore I said to you that you will die in your; for if you do not believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.” {John 8:24}
Justifying faith is not a general belief “in God,” in some “generic higher power,” but it is to believe specific things that God has promised in His Word.
25 who was delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification.
Trapp says, “This one verse is an abridgment {summary} of the whole Gospel, the sum of all the good news in all the world.”
There is evidence that this Christological statement in verse 25 was an early confessional statement, perhaps a hymn to be sung in worship.
“who was delivered up because of our offenses,
and was raised because of our justification.”
“... who was delivered up....”
Jesus was judicially delivered into the hands of men in fulfillment of prophecy,
I wonder if you have noticed how many references to Isaiah there are in Romans.
There must be a book out there that analyzes how effectively Paul uses Isaiah. Didn’t Paul say “...the gospel of God which He promised before through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures.” {1:1-2}
Isaiah 53
1 Who has believed our report?And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? 2 For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant,And as a root out of dry ground.He has no form or comeliness; And when we see Him,There is no beauty that we should desire Him.
3 He is despised and rejected by men,A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him;He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.
4 Surely He has borne our griefs And carried our sorrows;Yet we esteemed Him stricken,Smitten by God, and afflicted.
5 But He was wounded for our transgressions,He was bruised for our iniquities;The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,And by His stripes we are healed.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray;We have turned, every one, to his own way;And the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.
7 He was oppressed and He was afflicted,Yet He opened not His mouth;He was led as a lamb to the slaughter,And as a sheep before its shearers is silent,So He opened not His mouth.
8 He was taken from prison and from judgment,And who will declare His generation?For He was cut off from the land of the living;For the transgressions of My people He was stricken.
9 And they made His grave with the wicked--But with the rich at His death,Because He had done no violence,Nor was any deceit in His mouth.
10 Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise Him;He has put Him to grief.When You make His soul an offering for sin,He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days,And the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in His hand.
11 He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied.By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many,For He shall bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great,And He shall divide the spoil with the strong, Because He poured out His soul unto death, And He was numbered with the transgressors, And He bore the sin of many,And made intercession for the transgressors.
“... who was delivered up....”
Jesus was brought before Pilate as our surety, having no personal guilt, but condemned for our guilt, that it might not be charged against us. “All that He suffered, however unjust as regarding His person, was justly inflicted at the hand of God, who, besides what meets our eye, sent invisible strokes of penal infliction to an inconceivable degree” {George Smeaton}
This carries us back to our discussion of propitiation and expiation {3:25}.
It has become fashionable to translate the Greek word as “expiate.”
Recall that “expiation” means forgiveness of sin but “propitiation” includes the idea of appeasement of wrath.
Arthur Pink explained the difference between these two terms: “Propitiation” defines the bearing which Christ’s sacrifice had Godwards: it placated Him. “Expiation” has reference to the bearing Christ’s sacrifice had Manwards: it removed the sins of His people.
The denial of the propitiatory death of Christ, or His resurrection from the dead, is a denial of the gospel. It is refusing to be saved according to the method which God has appointed.
“... because of our offenses....”
When it is said that Jesus was delivered for our offenses, the words bring out the connection between our offenses and His sufferings, and proves that it is a causal connection on the ground of substitution. There must have been a relation formed between Him and His people, a representative one. Unless that be true our sins could not possibly have affected Him, nor brought Him to the cross.
{Chapter 5:12-21 presents the Doctrine of Representation}
“... and was raised because of our justification....”
Had one jot or tittle remained to be fulfilled in the law, the resurrection of Jesus could not have taken place.
We will deal with the intent, or extent of the atonement in subsequent lessons.
For whom did Christ die?
a) Was the death of Christ intended for the elect of God to make their justification certain?
b) Was the death of Christ intended for the human race without exception?
exception?Was the sin of specific persons atoned for when Jesus died, and was buried, and arose? Or did His death only make salvation a possibility depending on the power in man’ decision? I recently listened to a very popular local preacher say in a sermon that Jesus died for those who were in hell! I think he is very wrong.
Whomever God had in view when it says in verse 25:
“who was delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification.”
If this verse applies to the human race then there is no hell because these persons will be justified. These are the ones who will believe in God with the faith of Abraham.
The faith of Abraham was imputed to him for righteousness.
Where does faith come from? It is the gift of God {3:24}
Summary of Chapter Four:
A state of righteousness in God’s sight cannot be attained by means of human works, it is a gift from God. This is not a new or novel teaching but is in complete harmony with the O.T., which to Paul is the Scripture, or the “Law and the Prophets.” Abraham is the example of justification by faith.
“Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.”
God justifies the ungodly!
Only know this: It is not what we are in ourselves, but how God regards us! It is not that we have attained some measure of goodness, even by infusion. But if asked, why God loves us and owns us as just, the answer must be that Christ has clothed us with His righteousness and God sees us as in Christ!
David is called on for proof that imputation is gratuitous. “Blessed is the man to whom the LORD shall not impute sin.” Psalm 32
Is this blessing only for the circumcised? For the Jews only?
Abraham believed God and was thereby justified before circumcision or keeping of law. Abraham believed the promise. Yes, Abraham and Sarah, in their old age would actually have a son and Abraham would be the father of many nations.
But the promise was to the Seed, to the Christ, and the ultimate fulfillment of the promise is in Christ and His church.
Using the O.T., Paul has made clear that the doctrine of justification - hence salvation - by faith, on the basis of God’s sovereign grace,
is thoroughly Scriptural.
Amen
