Romans 4 English
Standard Version Anglicised (ESVUK)
Abraham Justified by
Faith
4
What then shall we say was gained by[a] Abraham, our forefather according to
the flesh? 2 For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast
about, but not before God. 3 For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed
God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.” 4 Now to the one who works,
his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. 5 And to the one who does
not work but believes in[b] him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted
as righteousness, 6 just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to
whom God counts righteousness apart from works:
7
“Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven,
and whose sins are covered;
8
blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.”
9
Is this blessing then only for the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised?
We say that faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness. 10 How then was it
counted to him? Was it before or after he had been circumcised? It was not
after, but before he was circumcised. 11 He received the sign of circumcision
as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still
uncircumcised. The purpose was to make him the father of all who believe
without being circumcised, so that righteousness would be counted to them as
well, 12 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.
The
Promise Realized Through Faith
13
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. 14 For if
it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the
promise is void. 15 For the law brings wrath, but where there is no law there
is no transgression.
16
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,
17 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. 18 In hope he believed against
hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told,
“So shall your offspring be.” 19 He did not weaken in faith when he considered
his own body, which was as good as dead (since he was about a hundred years
old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah's womb. 20 No distrust made
him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he
gave glory to God, 21 fully convinced that God was able to do what he had
promised. 22 That is why his faith was “counted to him as righteousness”. 23
But the words “it was counted to him” were not written for his sake alone, 24
but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from
the dead Jesus our Lord, 25 who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised
for our justification.
Matthew Henry's Commentary
Verses 1-8
Here
the apostle proves that Abraham was justified not by works, but by faith. Those
that of all men contended most vigorously for a share in righteousness by the
privileges they enjoyed, and the works they performed, were the Jews, and therefore
he appeals to the case of Abraham their father, and puts his own name to the
relation, being a Hebrew of the Hebrews: Abraham our father. Now surely his
prerogative must needs be as great as theirs who claim it as his seed according
to the flesh. Now what has he found? All the world is seeking; but, while the
most are wearying themselves for very vanity, none can be truly reckoned to
have found, but those who are justified before God; and thus Abraham, like a
wise merchant, seeking goodly pearls, found this one pearl of great price. What
has he found, kata sarka—as pertaining to the flesh, that is, by circumcision
and his external privileges and performances? These the apostle calls flesh,
Phil. 3:3. Now what did he get by these? Was he justified by them? Was it the
merit of his works that recommended him to God’s acceptance? No, by no means,
which he proves by several arguments.
I.
If he had been justified by works, room would have been left for boasting,
which must for ever be excluded. If so, he hath whereof to glory (Rom. 4:2),
which is not to be allowed. “But,” might the Jews say, “was not his name made
great (Gen. 12:2), and then might not he glory?” Yes, but not before God; he
might deserve well of men, but he could never merit of God. Paul himself had
whereof to glory before men, and we have him sometimes glorying in it, yet with
humility; but nothing to glory in before God, 1 Cor. 4:4; Phil. 3:8, 9. So
Abraham. Observe, He takes it for granted that man must not pretend to glory in
any thing before God; no, not Abraham, as great and as good a man as he was;
and therefore he fetches an argument from it: it would be absurd for him that
glorieth to glory in any but the Lord.
II.
It is expressly said that Abraham’s faith was counted to him for righteousness.
What saith the scripture? Rom. 4:3. In all controversies in religion this must
be our question, What saith the scripture? It is not what this great man, and
the other good man, say, but What saith the scripture? Ask counsel at this
Abel, and so end the matter, 2 Sam. 2:18. To the law, and to the testimony
(Isa. 8:20), thither is the last appeal. Now the scripture saith that Abraham
believed, and this was counted to him for righteousness (Gen. 15:6); therefore
he had not whereof to glory before God, it being purely of free grace that it
was so imputed, and having not in itself any of the formal nature of a
righteousness, further than as God himself was graciously pleased so to count
it to him. It is mentioned in Genesis, upon occasion of a very signal and
remarkable act of faith concerning the promised seed, and is the more
observable in that it followed upon a grievous conflict he had had with
unbelief; his faith was now a victorious faith, newly returned from the battle.
It is not the perfect faith that is required to justification (there may be
acceptable faith where there are remainders of unbelief), but the prevailing
faith, the faith that has the upper hand of unbelief.
III.
If he had been justified by faith, the reward would have been of debt, and not
of grace, which is not to be imagined. This is his argument (Rom. 4:4, 5):
Abraham’s reward was God himself; so he had told him but just before (Gen.
15:1), I am thy exceeding great reward. Now, if Abraham had merited this by the
perfection of his obedience, it had not been an act of grace in God, but
Abraham might have demanded it with as much confidence as ever any labourer in
the vineyard demanded the penny he had earned. But this cannot be; it is
impossible for man, much more guilty man, to make God a debtor to him, Rom.
11:35. No, God will have free grace to have all the glory, grace for grace’s
sake, John 1:16. And therefore to him that worketh not—that can pretend to no
such merit, nor show any worth or value in his work, which may answer such a
reward, but disclaiming any such pretension casts himself wholly upon the free
grace of God in Christ, by a lively, active, obedient faith—to such a one faith
is counted for righteousness, is accepted of God as the qualification required
in all those that shall be pardoned and saved. Him that justifieth the ungodly,
that is, him that was before ungodly. His former ungodliness was no bar to his
justification upon his believing: ton asebe—that ungodly one, that is, Abraham,
who, before his conversion, it should seem, was carried down the stream of the
Chaldean idolatry, Josh. 24:2. No room therefore is left for despair; though
God clears not the impenitent guilty, yet through Christ he justifies the
ungodly.
IV.
He further illustrates this by a passage out of the Psalms, where David speaks
of the remission of sins, the prime branch of justification, as constituting
the happiness and blessedness of a man, pronouncing blessed, not the man who
has no sin, or none which deserved death (for then, while man is so sinful, and
God so righteous, where would be the blessed man?) but the man to whom the Lord
imputeth not sin, who though he cannot plead, Not guilty, pleads the act of
indemnity, and his plea is allowed. It is quoted from Ps. 32:1, 2, where
observe, 1. The nature of forgiveness. It is the remission of a debt or a
crime; it is the covering of sin, as a filthy thing, as the nakedness and shame
of the soul. God is said to cast sin behind his back, to hide his face from it,
which, and the like expressions, imply that the ground of our blessedness is
not our innocency, or our not having sinned (a thing is, and is filthy, though
covered; justification does not make the sin not to have been, or not to have
been sin), but God’s not laying it to our charge, as it follows here: it is
God’s not imputing sin (Rom. 4:8), which makes it wholly a gracious act of God,
not dealing with us in strict justice as we have deserved, not entering into
judgment, not marking iniquities, all which being purely acts of grace, the acceptance
and the reward cannot be expected as debts; and therefore Paul infers (Rom.
4:6) that it is the imputing of righteousness without works. 2. The blessedness
of it: Blessed are they. When it is said, Blessed are the undefiled in the way,
blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the wicked, etc., the
design is to show the characters of those that are blessed; but when it is
said, Blessed are those whose iniquities are forgiven, the design is to show
what that blessedness is, and what the ground and foundation of it. Pardoned
people are the only blessed people. The sentiments of the world are, Those are
happy that have a clear estate, and are out of debt to man; but the sentence of
the word is, Those are happy that have their debts to God discharged. O how
much therefore is it our interest to make it sure to ourselves that our sins
are pardoned! For this is the foundation of all other benefits. So and so I
will do for them; for I will be merciful, Heb. 8:12.
The Bible Panorama
Romans 4
V 1–8: RIGHTEOUSNESS
COUNTED
Neither Abraham, who Jews and Christians can rightly claim is ‘our father’ in
the faith, nor David, from whose line Jesus came, were justified by works.
Their faith was counted to them as righteousness, and their sins were therefore
not imputed to them.
V 9–15: REGARDING
CIRCUMCISION
Paul then deals with circumcision in the light of being justified by faith
alone. He points out that Abraham was justified before he was circumcised and
thus circumcision cannot save anyone. For Abraham, circumcision was only ‘a
seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while still uncircumcised,
that he might be the father of all those who believe’. They can either be
uncircumcised (Gentiles) or circumcised (Jews) but neither will be justified
without personal faith from the heart in Christ. The promise of God would be
meaningless if one could only be saved if circumcised. The law brings about
wrath, but faith brings about justification in Christ.
V 16–25: RESURRECTED
CHRIST
Thus the promise is to all who exercise the same faith in God’s word and
promise that Abraham did which made him the ‘father of many nations’. In his
case it meant that, as a man of about a hundred years of age with a wife whose
womb was ‘dead’, he did not waver at the promise of God but believed Him. This
was counted to him as righteousness. Paul teaches that this Old Testament
lesson was also written for those of us in the New Testament era as a type or
shadow of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. We believe in the God of the greater miracle of raising up Christ
from the dead for our justification after He had been delivered to the cross
for our sins. Our faith is not simply in a crucified Saviour who bore our sin,
but in a living Saviour whose resurrection was God the Father’s seal on the
sufficiency of His Son’s sacrifice for us.
Encyclopedia of The
Bible
IMPUTE, IMPUTATION.
Men
are not righteous in themselves: “All have sinned and fall short of the glory
of God” (3:23). They need God’s righteousness which has been made manifest in
Christ. Above all else Paul wants to be found in Christ. Concerning this and
its relation to righteousness, he writes: “Not having a righteousness of my own,
based on law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness from
God that depends on faith” (Phil 3:9).
This
righteousness is imputed, or reckoned, to him so that, while, strictly
speaking, it is not his own, yet God reckons it to him so that he is simul
justus ac peccator: at the same time righteous and a sinner, to use Luther’s
phrase.
The
imputation of the righteousness of Christ to the sinner lies at the heart of
the doctrine of salvation. It is strange then to hear it denied, as, e.g., by
Prof. Vincent Taylor: “Imputation...can never be anything else than an ethical
fiction....righteousness cannot be transferred from the account of one person
to another. Righteousness can no more be imputed to a sinner than bravery to a
coward or wisdom to a fool. If through faith a man is accounted righteous, it
must be because, in a reputable sense of the term, he is righteous, and not
because another is righteous in his stead” (Forgiveness and Reconciliation
[1948], p. 57). With such denial of a cardinal teaching one is not surprised to
read the following definition of justification later in the discussion: “It is
the divine activity in which God gives effect to His redeeming work in Christ
by making possible that righteous mind necessary to communion with Himself”
(Ibid., p. 66). Taylor here denies clear Biblical teaching and endangers the
Christian doctrine of salvation.
A
second sense in which the word imputation has been used in Christian doctrine
is the reckoning of man’s sin to Jesus Christ. God “made him to be sin who knew
no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor 5:21).
In this classic text the apostle brings together the two truths of the doctrine
of salvation: the burden of man’s sin became Christ’s burden, and the
righteousness of God, or of Christ, became ours. The meaning obviously is not
that Christ actually became a sinner, for all of the Gospel contradicts that
position. It is rather that by virtue of His identification with the human race
sin is reckoned to Him. Although it is not explicitly said in Scripture that
sin is reckoned, or imputed, to Christ, the meaning is clear. It is said that
He “bore our sins in his body on the tree” (1 Pet 2:24), that “the Lord has
laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isa 53:6b; cf. Acts 8:35), that He was
made to “bear” the iniquities of his people (Isa 53:11; Heb 9:28). Each of
these passages of Scripture, the one from Hebrews esp., has in mind the OT
institution of sacrifice in which guilt was symbolically and ceremoniously
transferred to an animal with the laying on of hands on the head of the victim.
Applied to Christ, to whom the sacrifices of the OT pointed, the teaching is
that “he bore the punishment of our sin vicariously, its guilt having been
imputed to Him. The thought of the prophecy is, as Delitzsch says, that of
vicarious punishment, which implies the idea of the imputation of the guilt of
our sins to Christ” (ISBE, III [1929], p. 1464).
The
same teaching is set forth graphically by Paul in Galatians 3:13, where Christ
is said to have “become a curse for us.” The meaning is that He bore the
penalty for human sin, that, as Luther declared, God dealt with Him as though
He were the greatest of sinners (Comm. in loco). Sin was imputed, was reckoned,
to Him so that man might be forgiven. Imputation is thus bound together with
the teaching of vicarious salvation.
Besides
the two above doctrines of imputation, a third is the imputation of Adam’s sin
to the human race, based on the narrative of the Fall (Gen 3; Rom 5:12-21; 1
Cor 15:21f.). According to one interpretation of this Scripture, Adam’s sin was
imputed to his posterity by virtue of his having been the federal
representative of the human race. Among those who hold this view, there is a
difference as to whether that sin was imputed “immediately” or “mediately.”
According to another interpretation of the Fall, Adam’s sin was not merely
imputed to his descendants but, inasmuch as they were generically “in” him, his
sin is truly theirs. This latter “realistic” theory of the imputation of Adam’s
sin was held by W. G. T. Shedd and A. H. Strong, whereas the theory of
“immediate” imputation was held by C. Hodge and B. B. Warfield, while “mediate”
imputation was taught by Placeus.
Imputed righteousness is a
theological concept directly related to the doctrine of Justification. It is
particularly prevalent in the Reformed tradition. (http://www.theopedia.com/Imputed_righteousness)
"Justification is that step in salvation in which God declares the
believer righteous. Protestant theology has emphasized that this includes the
imputation of Christ's righteousness (crediting it to the believer's
"account"), whereas Roman Catholic theology emphasizes that God
justifies in accord with an infused righteousness merited by Christ and
maintained by the believer's good works," (Elwell Evangelical Dictionary).
Imputed righteousness therefore means that upon repentance and belief in
Christ, individuals are forensically declared righteous. This righteousness is
not the believer's own, rather it is Christ's own righteousness 'imputed' to
the believer.
A primary line of argumentation for this doctrine maintains that perfect
righteousness or holiness is necessary to be with God. All mankind "fall
short of the glory of God" (Rom 3:23) because all their 'righteousness' is
like filthy rags (Is 64:6) before the throne of God, and so all are "dead
in their trespasses and sins" (Eph 2:1), and as a result "will not
come into [God's] light for fear that their evil deeds will be revealed"
(John 3:20). All mankind is in this predicament because all are the offspring
of Adam and Eve (Rom 5) who originally sinned against God. As a result of
Adam's fall, the world was cursed and sin entered the world. But upon
confession of one's own sin and faith in Christ's death and resurrection, the
sinner is justified and counted as having the righteousness of Christ.
Although all of Christianity would agree that Christ is the believer's
chief representative and head before the perfect holiness of God, not all would
agree that Christ's righteousness is imputed to the believer. In some circles,
imputed righteousness is referred to as positive imputation - where the
believer receives the righteousness of Christ. It stands in contrast to
negative imputation - where the sin and judgment due to the repenting sinner is
imputed to Christ. Virtually all would agree with the latter, but not all will
agree with the former. The debate turns on a number of Bible verses not the
least of which deal with what and whose righteousness was credited to Abraham
when he believed God (Genesis 15:5-6).
Imputed righteousness is one of the classic doctrines of Protestantism
and traces back through the Reformers - chiefly John Calvin and Martin Luther.
These men stood against the Roman Catholic doctrine of infused righteousness
where the righteousness of the saints and of Christ is gradually infused to the
believer through the sacraments. For the Catholic, infused righteousness either
gradually dissipates as the believer takes part in worldly sins or is enhanced
by good works. If the believer dies without having the fullness of
righteousness, coming in part from the last rites, he or she will temporarily
spend time in purgatory until the sinful status is purged from his or her
record.
Therefore
IT WAS also CREDITED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS. 23 Now not for his sake only was
it written that it was credited to him, 24 but for our sake also, to whom it
will be credited, as those who believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from
the dead, 25 He who was delivered over because of our transgressions, and was
raised because of our justification. (John Piper, Faith and the Imputation
of Righteousness)
What
Does "Credited" Mean?
One
more question before we leave chapter four of this great letter to the Romans.
It comes from verse 22: "Therefore, it [faith] was credited to him
[Abraham] as righteousness." So it says that faith is counted as
righteousness. We saw this in verse 3: "Abraham believed God and it [his
believing] was credited to him as righteousness." And we saw it in verse
5b, "His [the one who believes in him who justifies the ungodly] faith is
credited as righteousness." We saw it in verse 9b: "Faith was
credited to Abraham as righteousness."
Now
what does this mean? Does it mean that faith itself is the kind of
righteousness we perform and God counts that as good enough to be our
righteousness - or our part of the righteousness - in justification? Does he
mean that justification, let's say, costs five million dollars and I can come
up with one million dollars (namely, faith), so God mercifully says he will
count my one million as five million and cancel the rest? That would make my
faith the righteousness imputed to me - or a significant part of it. So
justification would be God's recognizing in me a righteousness that he put
there and that he acknowledges and counts for what it really is. Is that what
Paul means when he says, "faith is credited as righteousness"?
Or
is justification something very different - not God's seeing any righteousness
in me, but his crediting to me his own righteousness in Christ through faith?
And if so, what does it mean to say that faith is credited as righteousness?
And
Why Does It Matter?
Before
I answer, let me tell you why I am giving an entire sermon to this question
before we launch into chapter five, Lord willing, next week.
First,
it's because the phrase is so liable to misunderstanding: "Faith is
credited as righteousness" sounds like faith is recognized to be
righteousness. But I am persuaded that is not what it means.
Second,
because Paul spends so much time on this phrase from Genesis 15:6 -a whole
chapter. As if, to get this wrong would be to go wrong on something very
important. And that is true. Is your legal standing with God as righteous based
on what he is or what you are? You may not see why this is very big, but it is
big. On this hangs the fullness of the glory of God's grace in your
justification, and on this hangs the fullness of the enjoyment of your peace in
justification. And not only yours but all those you should bless with the
gospel. So God's glory and your peace are at stake in this question.
"Imputation"
- an Important Word to Understand
Third,
because Ephesians 4:14 says the goal of my preaching ministry should be that
you "are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and
carried about by every wind of doctrine." I want you to be strong and
stable and mature. In particular, I want you to know the doctrine of the
imputation of God's righteousness in Christ. I know "imputation" is a
big and unusual word. But this is the word that has been used for hundreds of
years to describe the truth that God "imputes" his righteousness to
us through faith because of Christ's obedience. Why should you be denied what
tens of thousands of strong Christians have been strengthened by for centuries
- the "imputation" of God's righteousness in Christ? It's a glorious
truth that will change your life if you see it and savor it for what it is.
"Imputation"
is different from "impartation." God does "impart" to us
gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit, so that we have them and they are in us
growing and they are ours. But all of that gracious impartation through the
Spirit is built on an even more firm foundation, namely, imputation - the work
of God outside of us: God's own righteousness, not imparted to us, but imputed
to us. Credited to us, as Romans 4:6 and 11 say. Put to our account. Reckoned
to be ours. I ask myself as a pastor, Why should the people of Bethlehem be
denied the knowledge of this great doctrine that has sustained saints for
centuries? Why should we cave in to the modern pragmatism that says doctrine is
impractical? And I answer: we shouldn't.
Fourth,
the experience of God's people through the centuries has shown what a treasure
this truth is in bringing people from the darkness of unbelief to the light of
hope and joy in Christ. One example is John Bunyan, the writer of Pilgrim's
Progress, who struggled terribly before he came to a settled faith in Christ.
Here's what he wrote:
One
day as I was passing into the field . . . this sentence fell upon my soul. Thy
righteousness is in heaven. And methought, withal, I saw with the eyes of my
soul Jesus Christ at God's right hand; there, I say, was my righteousness; so
that wherever I was, or whatever I was doing, God could not say of me, he wants
[lacks] my righteousness, for that was just before [in front of] him. I also
saw, moreover, that it was not my good frame of heart that made my
righteousness better, nor yet my bad frame that made my righteousness worse,
for my righteousness was Jesus Christ himself, "The same yesterday, today
and, and forever" (Hebrews 13:8).
Now
did my chains fall off my legs indeed. I was loosed from my afflictions and
irons; my temptations also fled away; so that from that time those dreadful
scriptures of God left off to trouble me; now went I also home rejoicing for
the grace and love of God. (John Bunyan, Grace Abounding to the Chief of
Sinners, [Hertfordshire: Evangelical Press, 1978, orig. 1666], pp. 90-91)
Perhaps
the most pointed way I could put it would be this: I linger over this issue of
the imputed righteousness of God in Christ because when I stand by your bed in
the hour of your death, I want to be able to look down into your face and
remind you of the most comforting words in all the world, and have you rejoice
with solid Biblical understanding in what I mean when I say: "Remember,
Christ is your righteousness. Christ is your righteousness. Your righteousness
is in heaven. It's the same yesterday today and forever. It doesn't get better
when your faith is strong. It doesn't get worse when your faith is weak. It is
perfect. It is Christ. Look away from yourself. Rest in him. Lean on him."
And
not only do I want you to cherish this for the sake of your death, but also for
the sake of your evangelism and for the sake of missions. The gospel is the
power of God unto salvation, Paul says in Romans 1:16-17, because in it the
righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith. I believe this refers to
the gift of God's imputed righteousness that we receive by faith. Paul says
that the gospel has power because this is what it reveals. This is what I want
the Maninka people of Guinea to hear and understand and believe. And the Uzbeks
and the Kazaks and the Sukumu and the Somali and your children and your parents
and neighbors and colleagues.
Does
Paul Mean "Our Faith Is Our Righteousness?
So
here is my answer to the question. No, when Paul says "Faith is credited
to us as righteousness," he does not mean that our faith is our
righteousness, or any part of our justifying righteousness. He means that faith
is what unites us with Christ and all that God is for us in him. When God sees
faith in Christ, he sees union with Christ. And when he sees union with Christ,
he sees the righteousness of Christ as our righteousness. So faith connects us
with Christ who is our righteousness and, in that sense, faith is counted as
righteousness. Faith sees and savors all that God is for us in Christ,
especially his righteousness. That's what faith does.
Now
what is the Biblical basis of that interpretation? John Owen, in volume five of
his Works (pp. 318-319) gives five arguments, and John Murray in his commentary
on Romans gives nine arguments (pp. 353-359) why "faith credited as
righteousness" does not mean that faith is our righteousness. I will give
a few of these.
First,
notice that at the end of verse 6 and at the end of verse 11 in Romans 4 you
have a very different way of expressing "imputation" or crediting. At
the end of verse 6 it says, "God credits righteousness apart from works."
And at the end of verse 11 it says, ". . . that righteousness might be
credited to them." Notice: in both of these, faith is not the thing
credited as righteousness, but righteousness is the thing credited to us.
"God credits righteousness," not "God credits faith as
righteousness." What this does is alert us to the good possibility that
when Paul says, "Faith is credited as righteousness," he may well
mean, "God credits righteousness to us through faith."
Second,
look at Romans 3:21-22, "But now apart from the Law the righteousness of
God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the
righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who
believe." Notice that it is God's righteousness that comes to us through
faith. Faith is what unites us to God's righteousness. Faith is not God's
righteousness.
Third,
2 Corinthians 5:21, "He [God] made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our
behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." Here we
have a double imputation. God imputed our sins to Christ who knew no sin. And
God imputed his righteousness to us who had no righteousness of our own. The
key phrases for us are "the righteousness of God" and "in
Him." It's not our righteousness that we get here. It is God's
righteousness. And we get it not because our faith is righteous, but because we
are "in Christ." Faith unites us to Christ. And in Christ we have an
alien righteousness. It is God's righteousness in Christ. Or you can say it is
Christ's righteousness. He takes our sin. We take his righteousness.
Fourth,
consider 1 Corinthians 1:30. John Bunyan said that, after that experience in
the field where the imputed righteousness of Christ hit him so powerfully, he
went home and looked for Biblical support. He hit upon 1 Corinthians 1:30.
"But by His [God's] doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom
from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption." "By
this scripture," Bunyan said, "I saw that the man Christ Jesus . . .
is our righteousness and sanctification before God. Here therefore I lived for
some time very sweetly at peace with God, through Christ" (Grace
Abounding, p. 91).
Christ
Is Our Righteousness
This
text says that Christ became to us (or for us) "righteousness." And
the reason Christ is our "righteousness" in this way is that we are
"in Christ Jesus." "You are in Christ Jesus who became to us . .
. righteousness." Christ is our righteousness, not faith. Faith unites us
to Christ and all that God is for us in him. But what he is for us in him is
righteousness.
So
then what is the point of all this? The point is this: When Paul says in Romans
4:22 (and verses 3, 5, and 9) that "faith is credited as
righteousness," he does not mean that our faith is our righteousness. He
means that our faith unites us to Christ so that God's righteousness in Christ
is credited to us.
Here's
a very imperfect analogy. But I will risk it in the hope of greater
understanding. Suppose I say to Barnabas, my sixteen-year-old son, "Clean
up your room before you go to school. You must have a clean room, or you won't
be able to go watch the game tonight." Well, suppose he plans poorly and
leaves for school without cleaning the room. And suppose I discover the messy
room and clean it. His afternoon fills up and he gets home just before it's
time to leave for the game and realizes what he has done and feels terrible. He
apologizes and humbly accepts the consequences.
To
which I say, "Barnabas, I am going to credit your apology and submission
as a clean room. I said, 'You must have a clean room, or you won't be able to
go watch the game tonight. Your room is clean. So you can go to the game."
What I mean when I say, "I credit your apology as a clean room," is
not that the apology is the clean room. Nor that he really cleaned his room. I
cleaned it. It was pure grace. All I mean is that, in my way of reckoning - in
my grace - his apology connects him with the promise given for a clean room.
The clean room is his clean room. I credit it to him. Or, I credit his apology
as a clean room. You can say it either way. And Paul said it both ways:
"Faith is credited as righteousness," and "God credits
righteousness to us through faith."
So
when God says, this morning, to those who believe in Christ, "I credit
your faith as righteousness," he does not mean that your faith is
righteousness. He means that your faith connects you to God's righteousness.
Peace,
Security, Freedom
Now
what difference should this make in your life?
For
Martin Luther and John Bunyan the discovery of the imputed righteousness of
Christ was the greatest life-changing experience they ever had. Luther said it
was like entering a paradise of peace with God. For Bunyan it was the end of
years of spiritual torture and uncertainty. What would you give to know for
sure that your legal acceptance and approval before God was as sure as the
standing of Jesus Christ, his Son?
It's
free. This is what Christ came to do: fulfill a righteousness and die a death
that would remove all your sins and become for you a perfect righteousness. He
offers you this today as a gift. If you see him as true and precious, if you
take the gift and trust in it, you will have a peace with God that passes all
understanding. You will be a secure person. You will not need the approval of
others. You will not need the ego-supports of wealth or power or revenge. You
will be free. You will overflow with love. You will lay down your life in the
cause of Christ for the joy that is set before you. Look to Christ and trust
him for your righteousness.
2
Corinthians 5:17-21English Standard Version Anglicised (ESVUK)
17
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.[a] The old has passed
away; behold, the new has come. 18 All this is from God, who through Christ
reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that
is, in Christ God was reconciling[b] the world to himself, not counting their
trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. 20
Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We
implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 21 For our sake he made
him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness
of God.
Philippians
3:7-11New American Standard Bible (NASB)
7
But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for
the sake of Christ. 8 More than that, I count all things to be loss [a]in view
of the surpassing value of [b]knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, [c]for whom I have
suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain
Christ, 9 and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived
from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness
which comes from God on the basis of faith, 10 that I may know Him and the
power of His resurrection and [d]the fellowship of His sufferings, being
conformed to His death; 11 [e]in order that I may attain to the resurrection
from the dead.
Galatians
2:16-21English Standard Version Anglicised (ESVUK)
16
yet we know that a person is not justified[a] by works of the law but through
faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be
justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of
the law no one will be justified.
Read
more of the In-depth Series
