Faith in Jesus Counts as Rigteousness in God's Sight

Romans 4:1-8; 13-17 At God’s command, Abraham left his home 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 and worshiped him.

When God commanded to sacrifice his son, 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?  Can we do it?  Paul writes:

What then shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh?  If Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about-- but not before God. 

            The righteous, obedient, holy life of Abraham was praiseworthy—it merits our imitation.  If anyone had a 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 and as holy as Abraham was—he didn’t match up to God.  Abraham couldn’t justify himself and neither can we.

And yet, Abraham was right in God’s sight—he had a living relationship with God that would extend beyond his earthly life.  But if that had not come from his obedience to the will of God—how had it come to him?  It came through faith. 

For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.” 

Abraham’s good works—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 heavenly books because in one column was God and in the other column were the works of Abraham.  Man’s goodness and God’s goodness do not add up as equals.

That said, God had credited something else to Abraham’s account that did equal up to a life with God and that was Abraham’s faith.  It is trust in God that matters—for Abraham and for us.  The question is:  why does our faith and trust count for so much in God’s sight?  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 does faith make all the difference in our life with God?  When works and obedience are not enough to have a life with God—when “the wages” for that that kind of life are still not enough to “buy” a place with God—why then does faith matter so much?  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.

Our faith counts as righteousness in God’s sight—NOT because it is a human work—but because its object (what we believe in and lay 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.  We see 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.  This deserves God’s judgment!

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 had 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 said that the wages of sin 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.  His death on the cross has paid the penalty for David’s lawless deeds.  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 sinners.

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.  And so then…

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. 

It HAS to be that way so that we can be absolutely confident that we DO have a life with God.  Jesus is the only foundation we can rely on.  Paul writes:

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 and the law always brings wrath because God’s standard is perfect obedience.  So it is for us.

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 nations are blessed with forgiveness- by his death 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 in a Savior God who justifies the ungodly and forgives the sinner through faith.  Amen.