Word of Salvation – Vol. 43 No. 21 – June 1998

 

Right With God Through Faith

 

A Sermon by Rev. J. Haverland on Romans 4

Scripture Reading: Genesis 12:1-7, 15:1-6; Romans 4

 

Congregation.

Over the past couple of decades in our western society we have seen a great emphasis on people’s needs; not just their basic needs for shelter, food and clothing, but also their social and psychological needs.

We all recognise that there are great needs in our society, needs generated by the present state of our nation – broken marriages and homes, unemployment and racial tension.  Many people are alienated and lost.  They are depressed and searching.  They think poorly of themselves and are not fulfilled.  They have a need to be loved, to be treated fairly, to be helped physically, socially and spiritually,

Our society has responded by seeking to assist people in their need by means of all sorts of support groups and helping agencies.

The church, also, has responded to these needs by providing social programmes to give people employment, budgeting advice to help get their finances in order and counselling to help reconcile marriages and families.  All of these are good things.

But as the church has tried to deal with the obvious problems in people’s lives, there is the danger of missing needs that are less obvious but even more important.  Sometimes we are so busy dealing with the surface problems and felt needs that we miss the deepest need of each person.  The greatest need each person has is to be right with God.  The most important question you can ever ask is, “How can I be right with God?”

Children, if you have an argument with someone else at home or at school, then things are not right between you and that person.  You have a problem, a difficulty, and that has to be set right.

Now things are not right between God and us – and so we must be set right with God.  We can’t do this on our own – God must do this for us.  The Bible describes this as being justified.  Today we want to consider how we can gain a right relationship with God; How can we be justified?

To help us understand this, the Apostle Paul quotes the example of Abraham: how did he get right with God?  He uses Abraham as an example because he was the founding father of the Jewish nation.

 

A.  ABRAHAM DID NOT GET RIGHT WITH GOD THROUGH….

1.  His Works (vss.4-8)

In verse 4 we are given the illustration of someone who works.  If someone is employed in a job then he is working for a wage.  At the end of the day or the week he is paid for his effort.  When his employer gives him his pay, this money is not given to him as a gift – rather, he has earned it.  His employer is obliged to give it to him.  He deserves it.

By contrast Abraham did not earn his salvation.  He did not gain his relationship with God through his own effort.  This was hard for the Jews to accept because the rabbis taught that Abraham earned his righteousness because he was obedient.  It is true that he was obedient – God called him and he left Ur and went to the land of Canaan.  But he wasn’t justified because he was obedient – he was justified because he believed God.

You won’t get right with God by your efforts.  There are many people who do plenty of good deeds.  But they won’t get into heaven on the basis of what they have done.  You cannot work your way into heaven.  You can’t earn your salvation.  You can’t make things right with God by trying hard.  Abraham couldn’t do it, and nor can you.

So Abraham did not get right with God through his efforts.  Nor did he get right with God through circumcision.

2.  Nor through circumcision (vss.9-12)

Circumcision was the sign and seal God gave to Abraham as the mark of the covenant.  It was the distinguishing mark of the people of God.  It set them apart from the heathen people around them.  The Jews put a lot of emphasis on this sign; they were different from the uncircumcised pagans!  They thought that they were okay because they were circumcised.  Not so!

Verses 9-12 take Abraham as an example again.  Was he made right with God before or after his circumcision?  The answer is, before!  In fact, many years before!  This shows that his justification was not based on circumcision.  The cutting away of part of our skin doesn’t cut sin out of our hearts or lives.  Circumcision was only an outward sign of an inner reality.

We could apply this today to baptism because this is the New Testament replacement of circumcision.  The sprinkling with water can’t wash sin out of your heart or life.  It is only an outward sign of what God can do inside of you.  Most of the children here have been baptised; but your baptism will not save you.  You must be right with God and this doesn’t happen by circumcision or by baptism.

Nor does it happen through the law.

3.  Nor through the law (vss.13-15)

The Jews put a lot of emphasis on the law – the Torah, as they called it.  God had given them the Ten Commandments and many other laws which set them apart as His people.  Over the years the scribes had added many other laws as well.  The Pharisees of Paul’s day prided themselves on keeping the law perfectly.  They thought that this made them right with God.

But this was not so.  Abraham wasn’t justified by keeping the law.  He could not be justified by the law because the law brings wrath (vs.15).  Paul does not develop this because has explained this in chapters 1-3.  In chapter 3 verse 20 he concludes this by saying, “Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin.”

This is true of us as well.  We can’t get right with God by keeping the law because we can’t keep it perfectly.  “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”  “There is no one righteous, no not one.”  We don’t even live up to the standard we set for others, let alone the standards God gives us.

None of these things will save you.  Not all your good deeds, nor your baptism, nor your attempts to keep God’s law.  You might put a lot of confidence in these things, but they are worthless as far as salvation is concerned.

 

How then was Abraham saved?  How did he get right with God.

B.  HE WAS SAVED BY FAITH IN GOD’S PROMISE

When God called Abraham out of Ur, he gave him many promises: “I will make you into a great nation; you will have many descendants; I will give you the land of Canaan; your name will be great; all peoples of the earth will be blessed through you.”

It wasn’t easy for him to believe these promises; there were many obstacles to faith.  In verse 19 we read that “he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead – since he was about 100 years old – and that Sarah’s womb was also dead” – she too, was old and had never had a child.

From a human point of view it seemed impossible – it required a miracle.  Yet he believed – He believed that God was powerful, that God could do it, that God would keep his promise.

Inherent in the promises to Abraham was a promise about the Lord Jesus Christ.  The blessing promised to the nations would come through Jesus; he would be born out of the Jewish race of which Abraham was the father.

Those promises about the Lord Jesus Christ have been fulfilled and today we are the heirs of the promises given to Abraham.  Blessings promised to all peoples have come to us, through the Lord Jesus Christ.

Today we inherit the whole world as the realm of God.

We are promised a relationship with God through Jesus: “I will be your God and you will be my people.”  These promises are for us and for our children, and for everyone God will call to himself.

In the New Testament God has made even more promises to us in and through Christ.  He promises rest for the weary, hope for the hopeless, forgiveness for the sinner, eternal life for the perishing, the joy of heaven for the distressed.

There are many great and precious promises which can be yours.  But you must do what Abraham did.  You must believe, and you must call others to do the same.  Yet it is not always easy for us to believe.

For some people the difficulty is intellectual – sometimes the Christian faith seems beyond belief, far-fetched, impossible, hard to believe.

For others the problem is personal.  They look back over their lives and the things they have done and they ask, “Would God actually forgive me, after what I have done, knowing my own heart, knowing how far I fall short?”

For still others the problem is one of lifestyle – they think about what they will have to give up.  They know that faith in Jesus as Saviour also means submitting to Him as Lord and they don’t want to do that.  There are certain sins they are not prepared to give up.

Yet, God calls you to lay aside your doubts and to believe.  When you believe you will find that though the Christian faith is beyond our reason, it is still reasonable.  When you believe, you will find forgiveness for your sins; and you will find that God will give you strength to serve the Lord Jesus.

Do you believe?!  It is possible to sit in church for many years and yet not believe.  It is possible to be baptised as a child and not come to faith in Christ.  It is possible to go to catechism and attend Bible studies, but to fail to have a living faith.

Do you believe?  And are you calling others to believe?  Do you live and speak as a witness for Jesus?

To believe you must recognise that Jesus is both man and God, human and divine; that he died on the cross for your sins; that he rose; that he ascended, that he will come again!  To believe you must be convinced that these things are true.  And you must trust Jesus, depend on Jesus, follow him, build your life on the truth about him; live your life in a relationship with him.

If you believe, then God will credit righteousness to you.  Abraham believed.  He was “fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised” (vs 21).  This is why it was “credited to him as righteousness.”  God brought Abraham into a relationship with him through faith.

This wasn’t just written for him, but for us also – for us reading this all these years later.  If you believe in Jesus, God will set things right between you and him.  He will take your sin and give it to Jesus, and he will take the righteousness of Jesus and give that to you.  It will be credited to you, as though it was reckoned to your account; so that when God looks at you, he sees you as clothed with the righteousness of Christ.

People today have many needs physical, social, psychological, emotional.  But the greatest need we have is a spiritual need – and the greatest spiritual need we have is to be right with God.

That doesn’t happen through your good efforts, it doesn’t rest on your baptism, it can’t be achieved by trying to keep the law.  The way to be right with God is to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ – Jesus, who was “delivered over to death for our sins and raised to life for our justification.”

Are you right with God through faith?

Amen.