Phil Johnson || Sola Fide || Faith Alone

[Music] you as Jeremy said we are celebrating the 500th anniversary of what's really the symbolic start of the Protestant Reformation it's it's really hard to pin down when the Reformation actually began I think it began sort of glimmers of it before Luther's time but it's been now more than 500 years we're actually technically in the second half of the Protestant millennium right now because last week or about 10 days ago on October 31st we observed the 500th anniversary of when Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the door of the castle Church in Wittenberg and that is the event that most people would say marks the symbolic start of the Protestant Reformation the truth is those 95 theses weren't really an attempt by Luther to overturn or overthrow the doctrine of the Catholic Church what he was concerned about was the Catholic Church taking advantage of its power to bilk money out of German peasants in order to build st. Peter's Cathedral in the Vatican they're in st. Peter's Square that's what was going on and Luther was angry about the fact that the Pope was sending men to Germany to to essentially extort money from people for whom Luther was pastoral irresponsible and so he wrote his ninety-five theses as an attack on the sale of indulgences and that began a conflict that caused him to re-examine the gospel and it was his discovery of the gospel sometime after he nailed those 95 theses to the door he discovered the gospel in Romans and that in my view is what really set the Protestant Reformation on fire it was a rediscovery of the Gospel message and tonight I want to look at the gospel from Romans chapter 4 so if you have your Bibles turn to Roman's 4 but I want to start by calling your attention to a passage near the end of Romans 3 so we have some context by the way the middle of Romans 3 starting at verse 21 is where Paul first begins to explain why the gospel is good news I hope you understand that the book of Romans is Paul's most thorough and systematic presentation of gospel doctrines he introduces the subject right after his opening greeting back in Romans 1 verse 16 and 17 most of you know that by heart where he says I'm not ashamed of the gospel it's the power of God unto salvation for those everyone who believes to the Jew first and also to the Greek for in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith as it is written the righteous shall live by faith and that sets the theme for the whole book of Romans way back in Chapter 1 and of course the gospel is good news you know that and that is literally what the word gospel means glad tidings the Greek word is Evangelion which comes from two Greek words that mean good and announcement or message so it's good tidings good news the gospel is literally the best possible news of all so when Paul mentions the gospel in Romans 1:16 and says he's not ashamed of it your ears might be ready for something that is really positive and uplifting here comes some good news we think but in verse 18 practically the next thing Paul says chapter 1 verse 18 for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth the wrath of God is revealed that's not good news at all and furthermore Paul continues then for two-and-a-half chapters demonstrating that according to Scripture all of us are guilty and all of us deserve God's condemnation none of us deserves favor and there is nothing we can possibly do to change that situation or to earn redemption for our selves we're already doomed so by the time you get midway through Romans chapter 3 he's mentioned the gospel back in chapter 1 read all the way through Romans 3 you might be thinking where is the good news what happened to the good news and Paul actually brings us to a point in Romans 3 where you might even think good news isn't a possibility he does this he says in Romans chapter 3 verse 19 so that every mouth might be stopped and the whole world may be held accountable to God for by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight since through the law comes the knowledge of sin he's saying God's righteousness which is revealed in his law demands the damnation of sinners and God's law cannot be broken and so he brings us to a point where everything seems hopeless it doesn't sound like good news is even possible but then right there in the middle of Romans 3 the book of Romans takes an abrupt amazing unexpected turn and in verse 21 he begins to talk about a completely different aspect of God's righteousness verse 21 but now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law although the the law and the prophets bear witness to it the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ unto all and upon all those who believe and so now the Apostle Paul has in mind a righteousness that is given to and bestowed upon all who believe in other words as Paul is going to go on and explain in detail he's talking about a righteousness that does not belong to us but it's imputed to us it's put to our account and we get full credit for it verse 24 we are justified by God's grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus and then the passage that follows all the way to the end of Romans 3 is in my view the very heart of the and the key passage of the book of Romans this is the the center of what Paul wants to say in the book of Romans and he here he sets forth the very heart of gospel truth and in fact Romans three verses 21 through 28 might be the most single most important passage about the gospel anywhere in scripture it's the nucleus of this epistle to the Romans which was written to give an extended exposition of the gospel and so in other words Romans 3 verse 21 marks the turning point in Paul's presentation of the gospel this is where he stresses for the very first time that we are justified by faith and not by works that we perform he also stresses that we're saved because of a righteousness Christ earned on our behalf not because of any righteousness we attain for ourselves and and Paul packs an amazing amount of gospel truth into those 11 verses at the end of chapter 3 he establishes a right view of justification he establishes a right view of the atonement he establishes a right view of the law and he puts works in their proper place he shows the folly of thinking that salvation hinges on racial or ethnic distinctions and and above all he shows us why the gospel is truly good news in short after he's proved that all of us are ungodly sinners he announces that because of what Christ did to propitiate God and to atone for our sins God can graciously justified the ungodly by grace alone through faith alone and as Paul moves into Romans four he has just one aim in mind and that is to provide biblical proof from the Old Testament about this doctrine of justification by faith incidentally Romans 3 was a fierce battle ground during the Reformation between the Roman Catholic Church and the Protestant reformers and verse 28 where Paul some this at this point this was the subject of the most intense debate that verse in the English Bible reads therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law that's Romans 3:28 but in the German Edition Martin Luther made the point of that verse even more emphatic by adding the German word for alone in their Sola so that it read therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith alone apart from the deeds of the law and then Luther's Roman Catholic critics accused him of twisting the meaning of that verse by adding that word alone now I have to say if I were translating scripture I personally would try to be as literal as possible and I wouldn't deliberately add any words but in Luther's defense if you properly understand this passage the clear sense of what Paul is saying is that faith alone is the instrument of our justification there's nothing other than faith that is needed to lay hold of that justifying righteousness look at everything Paul says to support this view starting in chapter 3 verse 24 he says we are justified by His grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus in some verses that says we're justified freely verse 27 says boasting is excluded because we're justified under a principle of faith not works verse 28 for we hold that one is justified by faith apart from the works of the law so think about what he's saying he eliminates legal obedience he eliminates works good works of all kinds which would include religious rituals as we're about to see in chapter 4 he expressly says we are justified freely there's no way to read any idea from this text other than the truth that sinners are justified by faith alone as we get into Romans 4 you're going to see that faith alone is precisely the formula Paul is defending here and nothing but a deliberate spiritual blindness would permit anybody to study this passage and conclude that sacraments or rituals or works of any kind can be instruments of justification that's what Paul is disproving and yet that is precisely what the Roman Catholic Church teaches listen to this from session 6 chapter 7 of the Roman Catholic Council of Trent this is the council that was convened in the 16th century to try to answer the Protestant Reformation and here's what they said this Catholic council said about justification quote the instrumental cause of justification is the sacrament of baptism which is the sacrament of faith without which no man was ever justified so in other words at the height of the controversy during the Reformation Rome's bishops gathered together and conceded that grace and faith are necessary for our justification but they suggested that salvation by grace through faith alone is not sufficient to save anyone they insisted that a work a sacrament the int is the instrument by which justification must be obtained Catholic Church still insists on that idea today and I think you'll see that the upon what the Apostle Paul teaches in Romans 4 cannot be reconciled with Roman Catholic doctrine and if you read the history of the Protestant Reformation you'll notice that the Reformers often differed among themselves on various things they disagreed about baptism and and sometimes about the use of the sacraments but the one thing that they all agreed on without exception without any wavering whatsoever they all agreed that faith alone is the instrument of our justification they all said with a unanimous voice we do not obtain justification by any work or any ritual but we obtain justification by faith alone Sola fidei and the doctrine of justification by faith alone became the center and the rallying point for Protestants during the Reformation and that Latin phrase Sola fidei has become kind of a rallying cry for Reformation minded private Protestants because it affirms the same principle Luther stressed and every major Protestant reformer who came after him all affirmed that faith is the sole instrument of justification you can't add anything to faith as a condition for justification and one other principle by the way that all the Protestant reformers agreed on in unison was the principle that we call Sola scriptura we'll talk about that tomorrow morning but that has to do with the authority and the sufficiency of Scripture one of the defining principles of Protestantism is our conviction that the Bible is the supreme and final authority and every other truth claim every other doctrine every other spiritual truth has to be brought to Scripture and evaluated by that Sola scriptura deals with the source of our spiritual authority solafeet a had to do with the way of salvation so Sola scriptura is sometimes known as the formal principle of the Reformation and Sola fidei is known as the material principle today we speak of five solos we're going to look at those this weekend these were not listed together and named in that format until sometime in the 20th century but they do perfectly summarize the key principles of the Protestant Reformation there are those two key principles the material principle solafeet a meaning faith alone the formal principle Sola scriptura meaning Scripture alone Sola gratia means grace alone Solus Christus means Christ alone and soli Deo Gloria means glory to God alone and those are the five great themes that resonated in the teaching of all the Magisterial Protestant reformers they began with Scripture alone as our sole and supreme authority and but with that as their starting point they insisted that the Bible teaches no other way of salvation except the salvation that is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone and furthermore they said God's glory alone is the reason and the result of our salvation and ultimately then it's not about us the gospel is not about us it's not merely for our sakes it's about God and it's all for his sake for his glory and so these five SOLAS have become the means by which we commemorate the key principles of the Protestant Reformation scripture alone is our authority faith alone as the instrument of our justification grace alone as the means of our justification and the glory of God alone as the purpose and end for which everything was made Christ alone being the security and the source of our justification and here's what I want you to see in the time we have together tonight all five solos are affirmed in principle by Paul right here in Romans four and the Protestant reformers recognize that furthermore this passage and those five principles would serve well as a manifesto for reforming the teaching of the church about the gospel even today we need these truths again it's interesting by the way that every one of the five SOLAS is under attack on various fronts within the church today even among Protestants the principles of Sola fides and Sola gratia are under constant attack today today is a massive amount of pressure to set aside our doctrinal differences with Rome and people are saying we should reunite all Christians from all traditions in a way that ignores these great biblical principles so that we can get along and but even where these doctrines are under direct attack the gospel is compromised and where they're not under direct attack they are often subject to horrible neglect that's why I'm grateful for the 500th anniversary of the Protestant information because it's caused a lot of Protestants to haul these principles out of the closet and look at them again which is what we need to do frankly and I've said this many times I firmly believe it the Protestant Church of this current generation is every bit as much in need of reformation as the Church of Rome was prior to the 16th century we need a new Reformation listen to this excerpt from John MacArthur's messages on Revelation chapter two and three he's got a book coming out next year called Christ's call to Reformation and he says in that book that the church today is no better off than the medieval Roman Catholic mess and then he writes this quote if that sounds like an overstatement consider these questions what demonstrable difference is there between the indulgences Tetzel sold and the holy water and anointed scraps of cloth that are peddled by charismatic charlatans on TV what's the difference between a pope who speaks ex cathedra and a pastor who exposes his own dreams and mental impressions as if these were fresh revelation from the Lord and what separates the worship of Mary and the veneration of the saints from the way today's self-proclaimed apostles often visit the graves of their forebears to soak in the anointing of Charles Finney or aimless Aimee Semple McPherson today's Ave angelical 's have forgotten the gospel they've traded the simplicity of the gospel for a confused and confusing message and they've moved away from biblical terminology and biblical ways of thinking and they have substituted a message that may sound softer and easier to accept it may be more broad-based and friendly but it's actually a corrupted gospel that confuses people who hear it and obscures the great truth of salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone even the best of Angelica --ls today have exchanged the principle of Sola fidei for a lot of meaningless language about inviting Jesus into your you have multitudes of Protestants today who believe there's something the believer must do in order to acquire justification whether it's walking down an aisle or praying a prayer or inviting Jesus into your heart or getting baptized or whatever we have our own little Protestant rituals and these have become instruments of justification in the minds of many many people and that is a denial of the principle of Sola feeding and it incorrectly diverts the focus of the gospel away from what God does for the believing sinner so that people are actually thinking there's something the believer needs to do for himself the true gospel is focused on Christ and on his work alone he supplies all the righteousness that's necessary for us to be acceptable to God that's the doctrine of justification by faith that is the heart of the gospel that's the truth Paul has been stressing in the latter half of Romans 3 the righteousness we need comes to us by faith from Christ and as we reach chapter 4 Paul is going to use Scripture alone Sola scriptura to prove the principle of Sola fidei faith alone and along the way he also stresses the principles of Sola gratia grace alone Solus Christus Christ alone and it's soli Deo Gloria glory to God alone and we're going to see these one at a time starting with Sola scriptura scripture alone and I'm not going to spend a great deal of time on this point tonight because we'll look at Sola scriptura tomorrow but to start with here I want you to notice that Paul here in Romans 4 uses Scripture to prove his case the question he raises in verse 3 is the question Paul always ultimately came back to what does the scripture say that's the question we have to ask any time anybody estates a truth or a doctrine what does the scripture say and Paul points thereby to the one supreme authority that decides every debate scripture this is the singular source that settles every doctrine it's the word that answers every question it's the infallible revelation that adjudicates every religious dispute it's the Bible itself and he systematically demonstrates that what he is teaching here in Romans three at the end of that chapter is rooted and grounded in truth that has always been there in the Word of God from the beginning and in fact he goes back to the beginning and he draws from an array of scriptures starting in the book of Genesis showing us that Abraham and David and all who were ever saved in the Old Testament were justified by faith so that the system of salvation Paul is teaching us here the doctrine of soteriology that the outlines throughout the book of Romans is the very same gospel by which Abraham and all his offspring have ever been saved all his spiritual offspring but here for the first time we see the gospel with all the meat on its bones it's this is not just like in the Old Testament the gospel was there but it was there in outlines and shadows the substance which is Christ is clear to us now for the first time and so Paul is gonna expound on that he's saying now we can finally see romans 326 how God can be both just and the justifier of the one who believes in Jesus so in other words he's saying the gospel is not a departure from what the Old Testament taught the gospel is the final and complete fulfillment of what the Old Testament promised and Paul proves that from Scripture Romans 4 verse 3 what does the scripture say that's the same question isn't it that the Bereans asked in acts 17 what does the scripture say acts 17:11 they examined the Scriptures daily to see if these things are so now think of this Paul was an apostle he had full apostolic authority when Paul taught or proclaimed the gospel message in its apostolic power and purity the oral message I proclaim was the Word of God spoken with infallible authority because he spoke as an apostle with that full authority and in 1st Thessalonians 2 first Thessalonians 2:13 he commends the Thessalonians because they received his oral teaching as divinely inspired listen to that verse verse the Salone ins 2:13 we thank God constantly for this that when you received the Word of God which you heard from us you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is the Word of God so notice what he's saying it was commendable for the Thessalonians to believe he commends them for that when they believed Paul's oral teaching they were believing infallible and authoritative truth and they were receiving the gospel by faith what they did was a good thing but notice what acts 17 goes on to say about the Bereans these Jews it says we're more noble than those in Thessalonica they received the word with all eagerness and they examined the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so the Bereans not only received what they heard from the apostle paul like the Thessalonians again that was a good thing but even better they checked the truth of it against the Old Testament Scriptures to see if these things were true and thus they affirmed the truth of it by consulting what is the ultimate authority the written word of God that is the principle of Sola scriptura and it doesn't mean that scriptures are only source of truth you know you can check the scriptures front and back and you will never discover in the Bible what the boiling point of water at sea level is there are some truths that we learn from other sources besides Scripture so Sola scriptura is not a claim that the Bible tells us everything we can possibly know but Sola scriptura means simply that there is no other source of truth that is ever as sure or infallible or as trustworthy nothing is as important or profound or authoritative as the Bible scripture is the highest most reliable most permanent most definitive source of divine revelation and for those of us who have no access to apostolic teaching verbal teaching or other forms of special revelation scripture is the only Word of God that we have access to but it's sufficient and so Paul turns as he always does to scripture it's interesting Paul never makes a doctrinal argument based on raw apostolic authority alone unless he's giving fresh revelation that was not available in the Old Testament if something is taught in the Old Testament even though he has apostolic Authority and could just declare the truth he always goes back and proves it from Scripture always and when he's expanding on principles especially that were revealed or even foreshadowed in the Old Testament or even truths that were just implied in the Old Testament but shrouded in mystery he always draws his strongest arguments from the Old Testament Scriptures and that's what he does here and in this case as we've seen already the subject is the principle of justification by faith that's the second Reformation principle I want to show you now from Romans four he begins with Sola scriptura and he uses that principle in order to clarify and establish the principle of Sola fille de Sola number two faith alone and in order to make his case biblically he first turns to Abraham the great father of the Jewish race and he says let's see how Abraham was justified so I'll read beginning with verse one Romans four verse one what then shall we say was gained by Abraham our forefather according to the flesh for if Abraham was justified by works he has something to boast about but not before God now let me pause there and say that the Jewish rabbis of Paul's time actually did teach that Abraham was justified because he was perfect in his obedience to God one of the apocryphal Jewish writings is known as the prayer of Manasseh Manasseh you know was a wicked King in the Old Testament who ultimately repented and prayed a prayer of repentance that's not recorded for us in Scripture but there was this extra biblical apocryphal account of his prayer of repentance and it was one of the Jewish writings that had been collected and they said this was Manasses prayer quote therefore you O Lord God of the righteous have not appointed repentance for the righteous for Abraham and Isaac and Jacob who did not sin against you but you've appointed repentance for me Who am a sinner now where does that come from why would they say Abraham didn't sin well you could look at Genesis 26 verse 5 where God is speaking and God does say Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge my commandments my statutes and my laws and one of the old Jewish commentaries the Mishnah commenting on that text included a note that said this quote we find that Abraham our Father had performed the whole law before it was given and another source the book of Jubilees said Abraham was perfect in all his deeds with the Lord and well-pleasing in righteousness all the days of his life so there was this deep strain of thought in Jewish tradition it was extra biblical tradition and in fact it was a totally wrong idea but this deep strain of thought and teaching in Jewish tradition that said because Abraham is said to be just justified he must have had a perfect righteousness that he obtained by living righteously all the days of his life but Paul cuts to the very heart of the matter verse 2 if Abraham was justified by works he has something to boast about in other words if it's true that Abraham was justified because he was inherently righteous then Abraham really has something to brag about but keep reading but not before God in other words in God's eyes even Abraham has nothing to boast about why verse 3 for what does the scripture say abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness it's saying he believed God and it was counted to not that he obeyed but that he believed now Paul is quoting there exactly verbatim from Genesis 15 verse 6 so keep a marker here or keep your finger in Romans 4 and let's look at Genesis 15 for just a second because here's the setting for Genesis 15:6 Abraham and Sarah were actually well past childbearing age by this time Abram had obeyed the Lord he left his homeland with his family and he left his extended family behind and he believed that God would give him a land and that he would be the father of many nations because that was the promise God made to him but now Abraham is an old man he's 85 years old by this time he's living in tents as a vagabond he doesn't own any land in fact he never owned any land except for a plot he purchased to bury his wife Sarah when she died he had not inherited any land and he hadn't fathered a single child and suddenly in Genesis 15 1 the word of the Lord came to Abraham and a vision this is the second time that the Lord makes this promise to him Genesis 15 1 fear not Abraham I am your shield and your reward shall be very great and Abraham said you know that's great Lord but what will you give me for I continued childless and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus in other words I'm gonna die someday and right now my servant is in line to inherit my entire household what happened all those promises you gave me in ur of the chaldeans you have given me no offspring and a member of my household that is one of my servants will be my heir and behold the word of the Lord came to him this is verse 4 this man shall not be your heir your very own son shot be your heir he brought him outside and said look toward heaven and Number the Stars and if you are able to number them and then he said so shall your offspring be so Abraham looks at those stars now there he was already an old man in his 80s never having fathered a child and he looked at those millions of stars verse 6 and scripture says he believed the Lord and he counted it to him as righteousness now notice what happens next the Lord confirms his covenant he reaffirms it verse 7 he said to him I am the Lord who brought you up out of the earth the Caddy's to give you this land to possess but he said O Lord God how am I to know that I shall possess it he said to him bring me a heifer a heifer 3 years old a female goat 3 years old a ram three years old a Turtledove and a young pigeon and he brought him all these and cut them in half and laid each half over against the other so he split these animals into two sections but it says he didn't cut the birds in app because they were too small and when the birds of prey came down on the carcasses Abram drove them away and as the Sun was going down a deep sleep fell on Abram and behold a dreadful and great darkness fell upon him and then in verses 13 through 16 the Lord again reaffirms the specific terms of the Abrahamic covenant look at verse 17 where the Sun had gone down and it was dark behold a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between those pieces on that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram saying to your offspring I will give this land now notice what happened there Abram fell asleep and that was the Lord's doing the Lord put him to sleep and executed this covenant that's the symbolism of the spirit animals and that's how you did a covenant as you walk between those dead animals it was like saying to the person you were covenant in with this is what'll happen to me if I break this promise but God put Abraham to sleep walked between those animals himself in order to emphasize that this was a totally unconditional covenant it was the Lord's doing and his a he's not requiring anything from Abraham Abraham contributes nothing who simply laid hold of the promise by faith so throughout that account its Abraham's faith not any works he did now back to Romans four so the point is Abram didn't have to work for this blessing no promise was extracted from him on his side of the Covenant he was required to do nothing and in fact God put him to sleep in order to emphasize this point this is a one-sided unconditional covenant now read what Paul says in Romans 4 verse 4 now to the one who works his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due in other words if you want to work for your justification you can do that but you will get what you earn and since scripture says all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags in other words even the best things we do are tainted with sin and defiled that's Isaiah 64 verse 6 we'll get what those are worth you want to earn a wage you'll get the wage you deserve but the wages of sin are death and to the one who does not work verse 5 but believes in him who justifies the ungodly his faith is counted as righteousness now let me say something about this expression his faith is counted for righteousness you have to be careful how you read that because the context determines its meaning this doesn't mean that our faith is a suitable substitute for righteousness it doesn't mean that God pretends our faith is our righteousness it doesn't mean that our faith is meritorious like righteousness would be it's not about the the merit of our faith this simply means that our faith appropriates a legitimate righteousness that God imputes to the account of the believing one look at a head at verse 6 David speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God imputes righteousness apart from works this is the idea he's saying there's a perfect righteousness that is put on the ledger of the person who believes for he's credited with perfect righteousness even though he didn't earn it it's this is the righteousness of Christ that's imputed to us and if we had time in this session I'd show you why I believe this is a righteousness Christ merited as a man by His perfect obedience under the law all the days of his earthly life that's why he said to John the Baptist when he went to be baptized did you remember John the Baptist was not inclined to baptize him but Jesus said let it be so now for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness he didn't need to fulfill righteousness for himself he was doing this for his people and by obeying every jot and tittle of Moses law Christ was earning merit that he didn't even need after all he was the sinless perfect son of God but if you are a believer that merit that he earned that perfect righteousness that He fulfilled as a man that is credited to my account and to yours just in the same way our sins were imputed to Christ and he paid the price of them this is not as some people would like to say this is not a legal fiction this is a real and valid righteousness that is imputed to us it's put to our account it's the perfect righteousness of Christ who stands in for us as our substitute and there's nothing we can do to earn that righteousness in fact if you try to earn it this text says you'll be paid a wage according to what you really deserve and trust me we don't want that now let me point out that these two verses romans 4 verses 4 and 5 are a clear irrefutable statement of the principle of Sola fidei here is the doctrine of faith alone clearly in Scripture now to the one who works that is the person who's doing rituals and performing sacraments and adding up good works to it try to accumulate merit in God's eyes for such a person his wages are not counted as a but as what is due he'll get what he is coming to him once you blend any form of human work into the mix what you thought was grace isn't grace anymore that's Romans 11 verse 6 if it is by grace it is no longer on the basis of works otherwise grace would no longer be grace so Romans 4:5 to the one who does not work that is the one who's given up trying to earn merit for himself he believes in him who justifies the ungodly his faith is counted as righteousness now I ask you where is there room in that formula for anything but faith there isn't faith alone Sola fidei faith is the sole and sufficient instrument of our justification so Paul has established Sola fidei and he's proved his point using Sola scriptura by the justification of Abraham but someone then is going to say well that's all fine for Abraham because he lived before the law was given what about those who were under Moses law they are surely expected to earn merit for themselves aren't they and even a lot of Christians have that misconception I was reading a commentary on this passage by a well-known Christian author who wrote and I'm quoting him under the Old Testament law righteousness came by man behaving but under the gospel righteousness comes by believing in fact is if that were true it would nullify everything Paul says here it would nullify the need for grace if anybody could gain righteousness by behaving but Paul proves that that's not true he moves from Abraham who lived before the law to David who lived under the law and this is our third point where he proves the principle of Sola gratia grace alone verse 6 just as David also speaks of the want of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven and whose sins are covered blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin he's quoting from Psalm 32:1 of two great Psalms of repentance David wrote after he confessed his sin with Bathsheba and Paul shows that the very heart of David's confession was a recognition that he was justified by faith faith through grace alone through faith by grace alone I should say in fact listen to the first two verses of Psalm 32 blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven whose sin is covered blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity and in the King James Version psalm 32 verse 2 says this blessed is the man unto whom the lord imputeth not iniquity that's the Kings James expression throughout all these verses and it's retained in the New King James as well it's the word impute impute it's a great word impute or in the noun form imputation it's a vital theological term the ESV uses a simpler word count but the idea is to reckon or to account that's literally what it means it's an accounting term and in both of these passages that Paul cites from the Old Testament Genesis 15:6 where righteousness is imputed to Abraham by faith and psalm 32 where david says iniquities are not imputed to those who believe you'll find the same Hebrew verb is used for the concept of imputation and it's a word that means to account to consider a regard or reckon the Greek equivalent which is used eleven times right here in Romans for is as a word that similarly means to impute or to reckon to number to account and both those words the Hebrew word and the Greek equivalent have legal overtones when they're used in an expression like this these are words that pertain to courtroom verdicts in other words and so the reckoning that these words describe is not merely an accounting trick it's not like God is cooking the books here this is a legal reckoning such as would take place in a court of law and they did what they described is the verdict that is given in the court of God's judgment so that the justified person is both declared righteous and accounted righteous because of the merit Christ has brought to the ledger and all the sin and the guilt on the debt side of the ledger is erased because Christ paid that debt in full and the sins of his people were imputed to him or put to his account imputed and he paid the price and that's why David could rejoice in the reality that God does not impute our sins to us it's not that he ignores those sins but he imputes them to Christ who paid the full penalty for them and therefore God can impute the merit of Christ to us and justify us completely apart from any works that we do isn't that a wonderful truth it's the trading from of my sin that I trade that away and Christ takes it and pays for it and in return I get his righteousness and I get all the credit for it and I want you to see how grace comes into it under the law God says he will by no means clear the guilty that's numbers 14 verse 8 God says I will by no means clear the guilty so justification is something that pertains to grace not law if you're looking for a remedy for your sin by legal obedience or ritual religious ritual you won't find it there but the gospel offers grace to those who simply lay hold of the promise by faith now Paul is going to prove further that justification has nothing to do with ritual or race or birthright or the works of the law and so he returns now to the example of Abraham and here we come to the fourth great Reformation principle that has its foundation in this passage soli Deo Gloria or glory to God alone remember I said earlier that there was a Jewish tradition that held that Abraham was blessed because he was so perfect and righteous in obedience that he rendered to God and they said he actually fulfilled the law of Moses before the law of Moses was even given and if that or the case Paul says Paul Abraham would really have something to boast about but and and some of the glory would belong to Abraham not to God but Abraham had nothing to boast about because none of the glory was Abraham's remember that claim that the rabbis made that he perfectly obeyed the whole Mosaic law even before the law was given what about the initiation right circumcision had he obeyed that when he was declared just that's the very issue Paul brings up here verse 9 is this blessing then only for the circumcised or also for the uncircumcised we say that faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness how then was it accounted to him was it before or after he had been circumcised it was not after but before he was circumcised he received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he already had by faith while he was still uncircumcised the purpose was to make him the father of all who believed without being circumcised so that the righteousness would be counted even to the uncircumcised as well and to make him the father of the circumcised who are not merely circumcised but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised now Paul's point here as he was the apostle to the Gentiles his point is that justification by faith is for circumcised and uncircumcised people alike in other words both Jews and Gentiles and to make that point he he goes back to Genesis and shows that Abraham was declared righteous in Genesis 15 that was fourteen years before he was circumcised which doesn't occur until Genesis 18 verse 26 and Paul's point is that if Abraham was justified before he was circumcised then circumcision can't be the instrument of justification now that same point could be made against the Roman Catholic doctrine about baptism and against anyone who believes baptism is essential for salvation in acts 10 Cornelius receives the Holy Spirit and he is wonderfully converted and the reality of his conversion is confirmed when he speaks in tongues and manifests the same gifts the Apostles had shown Pentecost so it's clear that he's saved but it's only afterwards at the end of Acts 10 when Cornelius is baptized so he's justified before he's baptized same argument Paul uses about Abraham in other words no human work and no religious ritual enters into our justification so that the glory goes to God alone and that's what Paul means when he says repeatedly as he does in Romans 3 verse 27 that boasting is excluded by the law of faith or first Corinthians 3:21 let no one boast in men and in fact the King James Version says it like this let no one glory in men all the glory belongs to God that's one of the key lessons of gospel truth the glory belongs to God alone Ephesians chapter 2 verses 8 and 9 which we will look at either tomorrow or the next day that text teaches that even the faith we appropriate our justification with is a gift of God it's a gracious work that he does in our hearts again Paul says this is so that no one may boast Ephesians 2 now we have to move on for the sake of time I'm going to skip verses 13 through 22 but you can read that for yourself it's a rehashing of the Abrahamic covenant and the promises and let me move on to the final point this is the one remaining Reformation slogan that is affirmed in this chapter number five Solus Christus or christ alone and i want you to notice how sweeping this doctrine of justification by faith is Paul is essentially demonstrating that to be justified by faith is the only means of salvation for everyone who ever lived no one can be saved or pronounced just before God except by faith there's not one plan of salvation for people who live under the law and a different plan for those who live under graves there have been people who've taught that but that's not the case everyone is condemned by the law and offer salvation by grace salvation is always by grace no one is ever justified in the sight of God except by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone and the glory is always God's alone and if you missed that point you'll corrupt the gospel Abraham was justified by faith David was justified by faith the Gentiles are justified by faith and finally verse 23 but the words it was counted to him were not written for his sake alone but for ours also and it will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification saying that Christ's resurrection is the proof of our justification the resurrection demonstrates why God was righteous to pass over the sins of Abraham and David and justify those Old Testament Saints despite their own rather serious and obvious moral failures and character flaws you know David essentially committed murder and adultery Romans 3:25 he was shown grace this was to show God's righteousness because in His divine forbearance he had passed over former sins it was to show his righteousness at the present time so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus you you could impune the Justice of God if he simply overlooked sin but he didn't just overlook sin he had Christ pay the price therefore he can retain his righteousness he is still just and yet he can justify sinners and the only way you and I can be justified is by faith if you imagine that God's assessment of you rises or Falls with your performance then you don't understand the gospel at all God's assessment of you as Paul says in Romans those early chapters of Romans God's assessment of us is about as bad as it could possibly be we're sinners and even our righteousnesses are healthy rags but if you are in Christ God has clothed you in a robe of perfect righteousness it is his sons own perfect righteousness and it doesn't get any better than that let's pray Lord we thank you for this truth of salvation by grace through faith alone Sola fidei we realize as many of the Reformers said this is the hinge of religion this is the this is the principle on which the church stands or falls may we embrace it with a whole heart and give you alone the glory as we trust in Christ and benefit from your grace may our faith be anchored solidly in him we pray in his name

Channel: Grace Community Church Laredo

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Length: 54min 3sec (3243 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 16 2017