Romans 4 verses 13 to 25

Romans 4 verses 13 to 25

So this morning we continue with our look at the book of Romans, and just to recap, having explained in the first few chapters that all mankind sins, and is therefore under God’s wrath – Paul moves on to explain how we are put right with God – how we are rescued from God’s wrath.

And he wants to make it clear especially to the Jewish believers in Rome that people are not put right with God by obeying the Jewish law.

As he says in chapter 3, which Campbell preached about a couple of weeks ago, “a righteousness from God apart from law has been made known... and this righteousness from God – in other words right standing with God – comes through faith in Jesus Christ to ALL who believe.”

So a person’s right standing with God is dependent on faith in Jesus – not on obeying religious rules and rituals.

To illustrate this point Paul introduces Abraham at the beginning of chapter 4 and explains that Abraham wasn’t justified – wasn’t put right with God by works – by good deeds – but because he believed – because he had faith in the living God.

And of course this is a basic tennet of Christianity that many people – including many Christians, do not really grasp.

Let me ask you – how do you think you are put right with God? Do you think that coming to church, giving a bit of money to charity and trying to lead a good life, – will make you righteous in God’s eyes..

Do you think on judgement day God will tot up your church attendance and your good deeds and how much money you’ve given and say come on then you’ve passed – you’re just about good enough to get in to heaven?

If you do, then you are very mistaken. Good deeds and going to church are worthy things to do but they will not put you right with God or secure your forgiveness.

And if you’re a Christian are you still - albeit perhaps subconsciously - working for your salvation.

Are you still trying to be good enough to be saved. Are you still trying to impress God with the work you do for Him and your efforts on His behalf?

I ask because I still meet Christians who don’t really believe they’re saved. They don’t really believe that God has accepted them purely because they’ve believed in Jesus.

They don’t believe it can be that simple. There’s a part of them that wants to justify their salvation to prove to themselves that they deserve it.

But as Paul explains here salvation doesn’t work like that.

Abraham and his descendants were put right with God – not through the law but through the righteousness of faith verse 13.

And we can never attain righteousness – right standing with God - by adhering to the law - by trying to be good enough - by trying to impress God.

This only brings warth – verse 15 – because however hard we try, we can never measure up. We will always fall short.

No, being seen as righteous by God depends on faith alone verse 16.

And the promise – the promise of being put right with God rests on grace  – on 

God doing everything necessary for us to be saved – not because of our good works - but because of what Jesus has done for us.

Sometimes GRACE is described as God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense.

I think many of us forget that Jesus lived a perfect life. He never sinned. He never fell short. And when we put our faith in Jesus – when we truly believe in him – 

God sees us not in the light of our shortcomings – but in the light of Jesus’ perfect life.

When we believe in him an exchange takes place. We give Christ our sins and shortcomings and he gives us his righteousness and forgiveness. And there is nothing we can ever do to deserve this.

Salvation is a gift and it’s a gift that we receive the moment we come to believe in Jesus – the moment we are born again.

I think the trouble is we are often rewarded in life for achieving things. As children we may be given a reward for being good or doing something helpful – so deep within us is an expectation that salvation must be like this too – in some way it must be deserved.

But it isn’t. And it can never be deserved.

We can look at some especially prominent Christians who do great things for God and think – wow they’re going to be first in the queue for heaven.

But even these prominent Christians still sin. They’re not perfect. Far from it. 

They don’t measure up.

They still struggle with temptation and no doubt sometimes their thoughts are far from holy. And sometimes they may go off the rails completely.

It’s quite interesting when you look at the lives of some of the great biblical characters; you see how many things they got wrong and how far from perfect their lives were.

Noah got drunk, Abraham lied about Sarah being his wife. Jacob deceived his dying father Isaac, to secure a birth right that wasn’t rightfully his.

Jonah deliberately disobeyed God and ran away from him. He then having preached to the people of Nineveh, waited expectantly for their destruction and when God chose to be merciful to them he was angry.

David deliberately put Bathsheba’s husband in the front line of battle so he’d be killed, and then committed adultery with her.

All these people were far from perfect but they had genuine faith in the living God and it is their faith that saved them.

And this is what Paul explains in verses 22 to 25. Abraham’s genuine faith in God – was what made him righteous in God’s sight.

And this same faith will also make us righteous if we too believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead verse 24.

So the crucial question for us this morning is do we have a genuine faith in the 

living God? Do we truly believe in Him?

Because if we do – then we are Abraham’s descendants, genuine children of God, and heir’s with him of the promise of salvation.

But how do we know if our faith is genuine? Well we can test ourselves to see what we really belive. Paul says a bit later in Romans chapter 10 - that if we confess with our mouths that Jesus is Lord and believe in our hearts that God raised him from the dead we will be saved.

So if you believe in your heart that Jesus really was resurrected from the dead and therefore you know and can state unequivocally that he is Lord – he is God – you will be saved.

You have done the work that God requires of you. As Jesus said, the work of God is this – to believe in the one he has sent.

So, the only proviso for salvation is that our faith must be real. It must be genuine – as Abraham’s faith was genuine.

Genuine gold or silver bears hallmarks, and genuine Christians should also bear hallmarks

What are these hallmarks? Well James says in his letter that genuine Christians should bear fruit.  He says that faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is not the genuine article.

Genuine faith should be seen in changed lives and good deeds.

James sentiments are similar to those of John the Baptist who told those coming to be baptised that they must bear fruit in keeping with repentance.

Again John was saying that genuine repentance should be evident through the fruit that a person bears.

The fruit doesn’t save the person but it is a sign – a hallmark that they are genuine believers who are saved.

Another hallmark of a genuine Christian is that they will persevere in their faith. 

Their faith won’t just be a flash in the pan. They will endure in their faith and continue to believe in Jesus even when life gets tough.

This is why for instance Jesus says in Matthew’s gospel that he who endures to the end will be saved.

I don’t know if some of you remember a Duracell battery advert. There were a load of toy rabbits with batteries in hopping around on the floor. After a couple of hours quite a few of the rabbits stopped hopping as their batteries went flat.

But the Duracell bunnies went on and on.

Christians are like the Duracell bunnies because we have the Spirit of Jesus living in us and he enables us to believe and endure to the end.

Again it’s not our endurance that secures our salvation.  Our endurance is a hallmark that our faith is genuine.

So there is amazing good news in these chapters from Romans, and that is that genuine faith in Jesus – believing in him – secures our salvation and puts us right with God for ever.

Salvation thank goodness isn’t performance related – because if it was - none of us could ever measure up.

Jesus has measured up for us and fulfilled the law perfectly – and when we put our faith and trust in him God sees us in the light of his righteousness and credits this righteousness to us as a gift.

So if you’re a Christian on occasion you will fail and fall short. But do not feel condemned or useless when this happens.

I feel that God wants some us here today to realise that all Christians fail and fall short – even the most famous and seemingly holy ones.

And part of the secret of living in relationship with God is not to be downcast and discouraged by our failure – but to live in the knowledge of the forgiveness that God offers.

When we confess our sins God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

If we concentrate on our failure we will feel failures.

However if we live in the knowledge of forgiveness – we can always put the past behind us and move on.

I think God wants us to realise that if we have genuine faith in Jesus – we are saved. We are accepted by Him.

He sees us as righteous – made right with Him.

And because of this we can do what He asks us to do. We are not to be held back from serving Him by our sin and failure to get things right or a feeling that we’re just not good enough or worthy enough.

God has freed us to serve him. He has qualified us to serve him – because Jesus has measured up for us.

So be of good cheer beloved. If your faith is real – so is the promise of salvation.

And despite what the Devil may tell you, you are qualified to serve God. You are good enough to serve God.

So stop hiding away and holding back from serving God. Roll up your sleeves and with His help, get on with the task of leading others towards the faith that has saved you.

In the name of the living God.

Amen.