What Counts As Righteousness In God's Sight?

Romans chapter 3 is the great “justification” chapter of the Bible. Paul clearly, carefully teaches how it is that we can be right in God’s sight and have a life with God and be certain that death is not the end for us. He says in summary: “We hold that one is justified by faith APART from works of the law.” It is through faith in Jesus that God declares us right in his sight. It is through faith in Jesus we have a living relationship with God. It is through faith in Jesus that we will live forever.

But then Paul goes on to answer an objection regarding this teaching of justification by faith: “Isn’t this an innovation from what the people of God have always believed?” “Aren’t you overthrowing the law?” And in the verses immediately before our text, Paul says: “By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law.”
And beginning with our text today he shows that when he teaches justification by faith—he is simply teaching what the people of God have always believed—that this way of salvation is nothing new—but is taught by the Old Testament.

Yes the law of God has its place—it is the unchangeable will of God for how we are to live our lives—but it has never been the means of having a life with God—that has always come by faith—and he gives an example of this in the life of Abraham. Paul writes:

What then shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh?

At God’s command, Abraham left his homeland and his extended family and everything that was near and dear to him to go to a land that he did not know. Everywhere his caravan stopped he built an altar to the Lord and sacrificed to him. When God commanded to sacrifice his son, his only son, the son he loved—he did not hesitate—and would have done so if the Angel of the Lord had not stopped him and provided a substitute. In terms of obedience to the Lord—Abraham’s life was exemplary.

But what did his obedience GAIN for him in terms of his relationship with the Lord? If, in fact, Abraham had made a way to God through his obedience-- this was something to brag about—something to boast of. But had he really managed to do this? Paul writes:

If Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about-- but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.”

The righteous, obedient, holy life of Abraham was praiseworthy—it merits our imitation--if anyone had a perfect right to boast to his friends and neighbors about who he was and what he had done compared to other men, it was Abraham—BUT NOT TOWARD GOD—because God’s standard is himself—his own holiness—his own righteousness—and as holy as Abraham was—he didn’t match God.

And yet, Abraham was right in God’s sight—he had a living relationship with God that would extend beyond his earthly life. And if that had not come from his obedience to the will of God—how had it come to him? It came through faith. The Bible says: Abraham believed God—and his faith was counted to him—credited to him—reckoned to him--as righteousness in God’s sight.

All of his good works—the countless acts that sprang from his obedience to God’s commands—the fact that he was the best sort of man—still did not add up to a life with God—it didn’t reconcile the books (so to speak) because in one column was God and in the other column were the works of Abraham. But-- God had credited something else to Abraham’s account that did equal up to a life with God: and that was Abraham’s faith. The question is: how did that “add up” exactly and why? Paul writes:

To the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness...

So why did Abraham’s faith make all the difference? When his works and obedience and life were not enough to have a life with God—when “the wages” for that that kind of life were still not enough to “buy” a place with God—why then did Abraham’s faith matter so much?

Maybe it was the act of believing in and of itself, that God rewards---that contrary to other human works, faith is the human work that God is really looking for—faith is the labor that earns our life with God. But that doesn’t “add up” either because it leaves us in the same place as any other kind of work—none of us ever having believed in God as fervently as the First Commandment demands that we do.
And so what was it about Abraham’s faith that God counted in his sight as righteousness?

It was the CONTENT of what his faith laid hold of: a firm trust in the God who justifies the ungodly. Abraham had not done enough- and could never do enough- to earn a place with God- but his faith in God WAS sufficient because the CONTENT of his saving faith was the God who graciously brings sinners to himself.

It is impossible to overemphasize this biblical teaching about HOW AND WHY faith is counted in God’s sight as righteousness! All kinds of people in the world today have faith—in something—but their faith does not count in God’s sight as righteousness—it does not equal a life with God—and it certainly does not lead to eternal life.

The murderers who flew the planes into the World Trade Center had faith—but the content of their faith was a murderous lie and a satanic idol—and their faith took them to hell.

Faith counts as righteousness in God’s sight—NOT because it is a human work—but because its object (what it believes in and lays hold of) is true. And the proper object of saving faith is the God who justifies the ungodly—that is, the God who forgives sinners. Paul gives another example of the same thing in the life of David:

David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works...

All of us know the story of King David—how he committed adultery with Bathsheba—murdered her husband by sending him to his death in battle—and then hid the whole sorry mess and went back to living his life as if nothing had ever happened.

But rather than striking him dead for his sin, God sent Nathan the prophet to lead David to see the truth about his sin and cry out for the mercy and forgiveness of God. He did not deserve forgiveness (what he had actually earned by his actions was death) but David knew the Lord was the God who forgives sins—and he did: God forgave David. It was this part of his life that inspired David to write the psalm that Paul quotes:

“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.”

Please understand, David is not saying that he did not sin—he is not saying that somehow he had earned a free pass. He admits his deeds were lawless. He confesses that he is a sinner. But he also knows that God has covered that sin and not charged it to his account. How did this come about? Where is the justice in this kind of accounting?

David’s sins were covered and not counted against him because of the shedding of blood—just like the guilt and shame and sin of Adam and Eve were covered by the shedding of blood.

From the very beginning of time God had set before mankind’s eyes the wages of sin: and that is death. One innocent animal after another would shed its blood and lose its life as a reminder of the cost of sin --but also as a promise of the sacrifice to come that would cover all sins—once for all.

Jesus is that sacrifice. In our Gospel lesson today we hear Jesus explain to Nicodemus just exactly how faith saves: Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever BELIEVES in him may have eternal life. Jesus’ death on the cross has paid the penalty for David’s lawless deeds and ours. The blood that was shed there on Calvary has covered our sins. And the sins that should have been counted as ours were charged to Jesus who died under the curse of death that God pronounced upon them.

Abraham looked forward to that day in faith and so did David. We look back in faith and know it to be the accomplished fact of history.

The content of a true and saving faith is the God who justifies the ungodly—who forgives the lawless deeds of men—and that is Jesus. Jesus said of himself that “Abraham looked forward to his day” and that “David called him Lord”. These Old Testament saints had a life with God-- in the only way that it is possible to have a life with God—and that is through faith in Jesus. And it HAS to be that way so that we can be absolutely confident that we DO have a life with God. Paul writes:

For the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith. For if it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. For the law brings wrath, but where there is no law there is no transgression.

With these words Paul makes a VITALLY important point regarding our life with God and it’s this: we can only be truly confident that things are right between us and God when that life is based upon what God has done for us-- RATHER than what we have done for God.

If God had made the promise to bless the world through Abraham dependent upon his keeping the law—we would have been lost—for as obedient as Abraham was, he still was not perfect. He had multiple wives. He lied about his marriage to Sarah when he thought that another man would kill him to get her for himself. He tried to work out the fulfillment to God’s promise of a son on his own rather than simply trusting God.

If God’s promise to bless the world through Abraham depended upon his faithfulness (rather than God’s faithfulness) we would be lost-- for the law always brings wrath because God’s standard is perfect obedience.

This discussion may seem far removed from our lives but it’s not! The largest Christian church on earth—a church with as many members as the rest of churches combined—teaches falsely that our salvation depends upon our obedience to the law—thereby robbing their members of the confidence that they ought to have regarding God’s saving work in Christ that has earned their salvation from beginning to end.

Our life with God—our right standing in God’s sight—our confidence that there is another life to come when this life is over—rests safe and secure upon the work of Jesus for us—and so long as that is where our faith is found—we can be confident that we are God’s children—for our faithful God has promised us this very thing. Paul writes:

That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring—not only to the adherent of the law but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all, as it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations”—in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.

God promised Abraham that he would be the father of many nations-- when he and his family and servants were only a handful of herdsmen. God promised Abraham that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars-- when he didn’t even have a child. God promised that Abraham and Sarah would have a child --when they were decades beyond child-bearing years.

God kept every one of his promises to Abraham and ultimately fulfilled them in Jesus Christ—Abraham’s descendant.

Jesus is the one through whom the whole world is blessed with forgiveness- by his dying on the cross. Jesus is the One through whom God gave eternal life- by raising him from the dead. Jesus is the One through whom God counts us as his sons and daughters -where before he counted us as enemies.

This is what our faith rests on: the grace of God who reaches out to bless those who have not even yet begun to serve him or even know him. He is the God of kept promises and so our life with him-now and forever-is guaranteed to us who share the faith of Abraham.