Romans 3:27 to 4:8 “Righteousness Apart From Works"
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· 3 viewsPaul presents a clear case that justification is by faith alone, and he calls the lives of Abraham and David as a witness to this truth.
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Good Morning, Calvary Chapel Lake City!
Well… welcome to December! Another year has flown by.
Being that we are in December… we will be Christmas Caroling once again… and enjoying some fellowship afterwards.
Sunday, Dec 22nd at 5:30pm.
Youth Group plans to Carol as well and afterwards meet for a Youth Group party at the Boyd’s house from 7-9pm.
Should be a fun night for all as we bring some Christmas blessings to our neighbors.
Well lets open our Bibles to Romans. Romans 3:27 to 4:8.
We are reading Paul’s letter to the saints in Rome … written somewhere around 57 A.D. … it remains the great treatise on the Gospel.
For several weeks we read how all mankind has sinned and falls short of the glory of God… that was the opening “condemnation” section of the Epistle.
Which clearly laid out the case that God would be just for judging mankind…
But in His love, mercy and grace… also provided a way for mankind to be justified through faith in Jesus Christ… the “Justification” section of the Epistle.
God solved the divine dilemma of remaining holy and just to judge sin, but also to justify sinners which He did through Jesus Christ’s sacrifice… He paid our price for sin… thus making a way for us to reconcile our relationship with God.
Last week, we looked at what might be called the “pinnacle” of Romans… vv 21-26… where Paul revealed how mankind can be right with God through faith in Jesus Christ.
Such a powerful passage that had several theological concepts all concentrated in just a few verses…
Namely Righteousness, Justification, Redemption, and Propitiation.
Donald Grey Barnhouse… in his 4 volume series on Romans devoted 15 chapters… 143 pages to those six verses.
If ever you think we’re moving slow… Barnhouse reflected on when he first preached Romans to his Philadelphia church… and wrote…
“For three and one half years I never took a text outside of the epistle of the Romans.”
And, the result? He wrote, “I saw the church transformed; the audience filled the pews and then the galleries; and the work went on with great blessing. But just as important as the transformation of the church, there was the transformation of the preacher.”
I say Amen to all of that! Let it be so here as well!
Today, we are blessed to continue to look at Justification through faith… where Paul writes in a Jewish context…
His readers would know all boasting is excluded as salvation is a free gift which comes not by works, but through faith.
And, Paul will use the lives of Abraham, the Patriarch of the Jews… and king David… as illustrations or justification by faith alone.
Which is immensely important to understand… and so many Christians get it wrong today.
The title of today’s message is “Righteousness Apart From Works.”
Let’s pray!
In reverence for God’s word, please stand as I read our passage.
Rom 3:27 to 4:8 “Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? No, but by the law of faith. 28 Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law. 29 Or is He the God of the Jews only? Is He not also the God of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also, 30 since there is one God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. 31 Do we then make void the law through faith? Certainly not! On the contrary, we establish the law.
4:1 What then shall we say that Abraham our father has found 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 accounted to him for righteousness.” 4 Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt.
5 But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness, 6 just as David also describes the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness apart from works:
7 “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, And whose sins are covered; 8 Blessed is the man to whom the LORD shall not impute sin.”
Praise God for His word. Please be seated!
After Paul’s declaration that mankind is “justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus...” (V24)…
And Paul’s additional statements… that God is the righteous just judge…
We’ve read in Romans 1:18… that God’s wrath on sin has been revealed…
A just judge CANNOT allow sin to exist and go unpunished… there’s no justice in that…
A price had to be paid… so in grace… God sent His Son who propitiated… or satisfied God’s wrath on sin…
V25 reads… “… whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness… ”
Sin requires a blood sacrifice… and Jesus shed His blood once for all paying the price for the sin of mankind.
And through faith in Jesus Christ… God also becomes the “justifier” of sinners…
Through faith… and only through faith… God declares the sinner righteous.
And, in all of this… Paul asks the question… perhaps in anticipation of a question from his audience… or to dismantle their prideful misconception that salvation can come by achieving instead of through believing.
Which is ludicrous! A child can read Romans and understand that salvation is through faith alone…
Even thus far in Romans 1-3… Paul had repeated this idea…
Romans 1:17 “...the righteousness of God is revealed from faith...”
“The just shall live by faith.”
“by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight...” Rom 3:20
Righteousness is “through faith in Jesus” Rom 3:22
God’s wrath was satisfied and righteousness demonstrated… “by His blood, through faith” Rom 3:25
God is the “justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.” Rom 3:26
Faith is to trust Jesus Christ for salvation. The root word for faith means “to have confidence.”
On a human level… how honored do you feel when someone tells you, “I have full confidence in you.” Or, “I trust you.”
It feels good… it’s tremendously honoring.
On a eternal level, our faith… our trust… our full confidence is Jesus Christ is one of the highest forms of praise to God.
Can you trust Jesus to save you?
Jesus said, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” (Jn 3:16)
Do you believe in Jesus and His promises for eternal life through faith alone in Him?
Paul had to drive this point home to his readers because many of them struggled with the simplicity of faith without works.
And still today… this is a struggle for many Christians. Many Christians are in bondage to works.
They torture themselves mentally trying to either achieve salvation by works… or to keep their salvation by works.
When repeatedly… even in just the few verses I’ve read thus far… the emphasis is faith… belief…
And to emphasize faith alone… and tackle this issue of works based righteousness… Pauls asks in V27…
“Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? No, but by the law of faith.”
If you have ever imagined getting a pat on the back from God for your good works earning you salvation… or some accolade… a trophy of sorts because of your personal merit… this verse and the next chapter is going to tackle that thought like a linebacker sacking a quarterback.
Paul asks… because of all I have just written… “Where is boasting then?”
Boasting is “proud confidence.” In this context… ‘self-glorification.’
I’ve never enjoyed being in the presence of a boaster. I used to work in insurance, and worked with some of the most arrogant people… men and women.
The egos when they walked into the room could be almost felt.
Their prideful boasting of their achievements was reflective of their idols of money… and accolades… recognition by man.
It was very difficult for me to be in their presence.
And, when someone boasts over their works in the presence of God… I can imagine to some degree the feeling of God.
But, not completely… because I have NO comparison of experience of being God and sending my Son from eternal heaven to temporal earth… to suffer and die for the creation He created.
And, then for that creation to boast in themselves… robbing my Son of the praise, honor, and glory He deserves.
I my human mind… I think I would feel outraged.
It’s shameful boasting… and justifiably deserves a response of righteous anger… and the full weight of God’s wrath.
What we deserve is wrath… but, if we approach God through faith in His Son… what we receive is the gift of God.
And, according to Eph 2:8-9 “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast."
Salvation is the gift of God… it’s basis is grace… and faith is the instrument… the only means by which justification is given,
… so we can’t boast in our works.
If you want to boast… boast in what Paul boasted about… Gal 6:14 “But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ...”
In Paul’s day the cross was an object of shame… and the death penalty.
But, for Paul… the cross was an object of glory for it represented Jesus’ atoning sacrifice.
Where is boasting then… when it comes to being justified as righteous before God? It is excluded!
Excluded means shut out. You think you’re going to walk into heaven because of your good works.
No you’re not. You’ll be excluded meaning “completely shut out”…
There’s no room for boasting in salvation.
It’s a gift… it’s not earned.
The only way that salvation could be sure is if God made it a gift.
If Salvation had the slightest inkling of dependence upon mankind's reliability in being good… no one would be saved.
Rom 3 was clear there is none righteous, none who understands, none who seeks… mankind has turned aside… is unprofitable… none does good, no, not one.
So, no one can boast.
Not even Jews who had the covenants and the law…
Even going back to Chapter 2 of Romans… Paul condemned religious Jews for their national pride… and pride in their reception of the Mosaic law (which they didn’t keep)…
Paul wrote in Rom 2:17 “Indeed you are called a Jew, and rest on the law, and make your boast in God...”
Again in Rom 2:23 “You who make your boast in the law, do you dishonor God through breaking the law?”
The Jews felt like they had a lot to boast about…
But Paul corrects them… there is no boasting in salvation.
Which prompts a second question in V27 “By what law?”… which could be rendered “On what principle?”
“Law” here in Gk means “principle.
By the principle “Of works?” … Through works of observing the law?
Paul emphatically replies “No (lit. “not at all”) but by the law or principle of faith.
This is so frustrating for any person who is a doer… the self-made man… for the natural man who deeply desires to achieve righteousness by their works.
Even the thought of “being justified freely by His grace” (V24)… is so counter to the fiber of the natural man’s being…
Because there is NO room for personal merit and man’s pride is shattered… in God’s offering of salvation by grace through faith.
So Paul adds it all up and the only reasonable final tally is this V28 “Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law.”
The word “conclude” is log-id´-zom-ahee… that same accounting word that will be repeated 11x in Chapter 4… as imputed, accounted, and counted.
On the eternal ledger… the numbers don’t lie… the conclusion… the final count is that mankind is only justified… “declared righteous”… by faith alone… and not through any deed… not of works… not by keeping the law.
And, I encourage you to remain cautious all of your days to anyone… be it a friend… or your Aunt Sally… even your Pastor… or the most respected Theologian with all of man’s credentials…
Be cautious of ANYONE who teaches the lie of adding to faith in Jesus Christ to be saved… or to maintain your salvation.
It is confusing… and enslaving.
Chuck Smith often used the phrase “heavy trip.” Like watch out for someone who would lay such a ‘heavy trip’ on you that you have to add to Jesus’ finished work on the cross.
That’s not the gospel… that’s not good news… and yet so many Christians are misled by this twisted teaching of the Gospel and Salvation…
… when if you just read the word of God like V28… how much more plain can it be?
In vv 28-29 of Rom 3… Paul addresses what seems to be his Jewish readers and establishes through two rhetorical questions that God is not only the God of the Jews, but also the God of the Gentiles.
And, despite the bitter hatred and separation that Jews had from Gentiles in that day… their OT was clear that God was for the stranger (Exo 23:9)…
And, numerous verse promised salvation for the Gentiles…
Isa 11:10 “For the Gentiles shall seek Him...”
Isa 49:6 “I will also give You as a light to the Gentiles, That You should be My salvation to the ends of the earth.’ ”
Isa 60:3 “The Gentiles shall come to your light...”
Mal 1:11 “My name shall be great among the Gentiles...”
So, despite their prejudices… whether Jew (the circumcised) or Gentile (the uncircumcised)… as Paul writes in V30 justification remains through faith… and God is as much the God of the Gentiles as He is for the Jews.
But, we all must come to Him in the same way… through faith.
And, perhaps I sound like a broken record as I repeat “by faith” or “through faith” a number of times…
But, I am just echoing Paul… and the echo and the repetition is needed because for some reason… the simplicity of “by faith” and receiving the “gift of God” is very difficult for many to understand and to truly internalize.
That was true in Paul’s day… and unfortunately… though our Christian American culture is only a minority Jewish…
There remains a prevalent false teaching on salvation by works.
But it’s through faith… through faith alone… and by grace through faith.
Are we clear?
Wrapping up Chapter 3… Paul anticipates another Jewish objection, “Do we then make void the law through faith?”
Void means “render inoperative.” Is the law now ‘null and void’?… we might say.
The NLT reads, “… if we emphasize faith, does this mean we can forget about the law?”
And Paul responds emphatically again, “Certainly not!”
“On the contrary, we establish the law.”
The purpose of the law does not change because of justification by faith.
Historically, the law was added because of transgressions and it served to silence anyone who thought they could keep the law perfectly and achieve righteousness.
The law served the purpose for people to cry out to a Savior.
The Law is established, meaning to “make stand”… some translations read “we fulfill the law...”
And, the law is fulfilled when it leads a person to faith in Jesus Christ.
Gal 3:23–25 reads, “But before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law, kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed. 24 Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. 25 But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor.”
No longer under law, because once faith is established in a person’s life the laws work is complete… but it’s not void.
Many Christians don’t understand the role of the law and the role of faith today…
And, if you go back in time to the OT… this becomes even more confusing for the average Christian.
If you ask the average Christian how are people saved (“declared righteous”) today… and how were they saved in the OT?
Many will say salvation today is by faith in Jesus, but in the OT it was by keeping the law.
NO!… This is not right.
In the OT… righteousness was by faith in the coming Messiah…
And, today righteousness remains by faith in Jesus Messiah who came.
They looked forward… and we look back to Messiah… always by faith.
And, Paul illustrates this in Romans chapter 4… which is a foundational chapter to establish that salvation is based upon grace through faith, and not upon works.
Not that I’ve met many Jews in Indiana, but if somehow you found yourself in a conversation with a Jew…
… and they were to attempt to establish their righteousness based upon their heritage as a Jew… and the rite of circumcision as a sign of Abraham’s covenant…
… if they said that to you, how would you respond?
Chapter 4 is a foundational chapter to answer this question… and to establish that in the Old Covenant and in the New Covenant… it’s always been by faith.
And, to further illustrate this point, Paul in Chapter 4 will call to the witness stand key witnesses of Judaism.
In the OT, to convict a man of a crime, “by the mouth of two or three witnesses the matter [was] established.” (Deut 19:15)
Keeping with that principle… Paul now calls two OT witness to the stand… namely Father Abraham and king David.
Two of the greatest men in Israel’s history… two men whom God made covenants with.
Rom 4:1 “What then shall we say that Abraham our father has found according to the flesh?”
What did Abraham find or discover during his experience of living life about… being justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law?
Which is the context of what we just read in V28.
Abraham is thought of very highly amongst Jews…
He is the chief of the Patriarchs… Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
God established the Abrahamic covenant with him in Gen 12, and reiterated in Gen 15 & 17…
… promising land to Abraham… promising to make him a great nation… promising a descendent from him who would bless all nations pointing to the Messiah Jesus…
But his life was not without controversy. There were many blemishes on his record.
Abram comes onto the Biblical scene around age 70 as a man from Ur of the Chaldeans… a pagan land.
According to Josh 24:2, Terah, the father of Abraham, worshipped pagan gods. Abraham was raised in pagan idolatry prior to his encounter with Yahweh… and it’s commonly thought Abram served other gods like his father.
Not once, but twice, Abraham lied about his wife Sarah being his sister…
Abram feared man over God… and put Sarah (Sarai at the time)… in harms way where the local ruler (Pharoah first… then king Abimelech about 17 years later)… plan to take Sarah as their wife…
Not good on many levels. Not good the first time, but then to do it again?
I’m sure there’s a sermon there to preach… Guys… I’m not sure what the parallel blunder would be for us… but let’s at least try to learn from our mistakes.
God intervened twice on Sarah’s behalf… preserving her purity and keeping the covenantal promise intact.
Then there was the Hagar incident.
Prior to Sarah giving birth… when she was barren… she follows suite with the custom of the day to allow her servant to be with her husband and bear a child whom they would adopt.
Instead of holding to God’s promise…instead of being a strong leader… Abram takes matters into his own hands, at age 86, yields to his wife’s voice…
And, Hagar bears a son… Ishmael.
Conflict arises between Sarah and Hagar…
And then when Abraham was 100… Isaac is born… and he sends Hagar and Ismael away… abandoning them with nothing but some bread and water.
At least that time, God confirmed He would care for them.
And so, let’s ask again “What then shall we say that Abraham our father has found according to the flesh?”
For all his faith and stories of great deeds, certainly he also learned his flesh was weak and he was flawed.
With that…
Rom 4:2 “For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God.”
“If” Abraham was justified by works… not when… if is a conditional clause… and Abraham did not meet the condition.
He was not justified before God as holy, blameless and perfectly righteous.
There’s no way Abraham could look in the mirror and claim he was a perfect man who could be declared righteous by his works.
He had nothing to boast about… especially not in the presence of God. Abraham… like all mankind… would find himself silenced before God.
Now… some of you are familiar with the passage in…
James 2:21 which reads “Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar?”
And, James 2:24 “You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only.”
DO NOT confuse “justified by works” as meaning you can earn your salvation by works.
That is NOT the intention of James… this goes against the context of what James presents.
Unfortunately, many Christians are confused by that passage and it is often taught incorrectly to promote a works based gospel.
Abraham’s believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness in Gen 15…
Faith alone… trusting in God alone is the basis for justification.
Gen 15 is when it is written that Abraham was justified before God.
In Gen 22… about 20 or 30 years later or longer… is the Abraham and Isaac account.
And in this Abraham’s faith from all those years prior was evident.
Abraham’s faith could be justified or declared righteous by other people with the Isaac account.
Calvin wrote [And, NO… I’m not a Calvinist just because I’m quoting him… Calvin wrote…], “For the question with him [James] is not, how men attain righteousness before God, but how they prove it to others that they are justified...”
Another scholar wrote, “Works serve as the barometer of justification, while faith is the basis for justification.”
Abraham was justified before God through faith… and the willingness to sacrifice Isaac justified him before men.
Don’t get this confused.
Have you ever been to a party where someone walks into a group of people… and drops some bomb of a comment and then walks away?…
For some of you… that may feel like what I just did, but that’s not my intent…
This is a huge topic… and I encourage you to study this more… but please… keep justification simple.
Don’t muddy it by adding works… a red flag warning should arise in your mind whenever someone does.
To help us with any confusion… Back in Romans 4… Paul clearly said in V2 that Abraham had nothing to boast about…
Clearly we could see that recapping his life…
And then Paul writes in vv 3-4, “For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.”
Paul quotes Gen 15:6 which is the second time God promised Abraham’s descendants would be innumerable.
It’s a reiteration of the Abrahamic covenant.
The writer of Hebrews backs Abram’s expression of faith even further to Gen 12.
Heb 11:8 reads, “By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going.”
That was when Abram left Ur of the Chaldeans to travel to Canaan.
We see great faith in Abram right from the beginning.
Many of us either wouldn’t leave everything we knew… or in the least would ask God, “Ok Lord, I’ll go, but can you at least tell me where I’m going?”
Abram just went. He got the details later after obeying step 1.
And in Gen 15, after the LORD / Yahweh… reiterates the promise…
Gen 15:6 reads, “And he believed in the LORD, and He accounted it to him for righteousness.”
Genesis 15:6 is the first time the word “believed” is used in the Bible.
And, it’s no accident that Paul would quote from Genesis… the Book of Beginnings… and from the beginning righteousness is established upon belief.
And, who is the author of Genesis? None other than Moses.
…who was given and wrote the Mosaic Law… some 430 years after Abraham.
And Moses had no problem documenting that righteousness by faith predated the law by that long.
Another interesting word in Gen 15:6 is “Accounted” in Hebrew… has the same accounting, calculating, or crediting one’s account… definition as does it’s Greek counterpart.
Last week we discussed in length the idea of “imputed righteousness.”
As defined… “The righteousness of Christ is put onto the account of believers, making them justified before God despite their own sinfulness.”
And, God saw fit to impute righteousness onto Abram prior to Messiah ever coming… because of Abram’s faith in God and His promise.
There were no good works… and even later in that passage Abram prepares a sacrifice… and only God, not Abram, passes through the offering.
Therefore, the covenant was unilateral, not bilateral… it was based on God's faithfulness to see it through, not Abrams.
There was no room for Abram to mess it up… and it was not based on works.
I think ‘Justification by faith’ is such a difficult concept for some because it is so counter-cultural… not just to our society… but to the doing nature of humanity.
And, to paint the picture of how gracious and counter-cultural justification is…
And to discuss the significance of the Gen 15:6 quotation… Paul continues in…
Rom 4:4-5 “Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace [as a gift in this context] but as debt.” [debt meaning “that which is owed.]
We can all relate to working a job and earning wages.
You work… and you are owed a wage…
The paycheck comes NOT as a gift… but because it’s earned.
Upon reception of a normal paycheck, you’ve probably never sent a thank you card to your employer… because you were entitled to the paycheck, and your employer was obligated to pay it.
But the economy of man is NOT the economy of God. His ways are higher than our ways…
A system of works lowers God to any mere employer who is in debt to us because of our work.
But, God does not owe us salvation or blessings because we earned it.
“God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son...”
His motivation is love and redemption…
Forever strike the thinking from your mind that God is obligated to offer… and that we are entitled to receive justification.
The employer - employee relationship is not our relationship with God.
V5 “But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness,”
Don’t confuse the contrast in VV 4 & 5… the contrast is not between a worker and a non-worker… rather between a worker and a believer.
And, note the word “but believes on Him”…
Justification comes through belief in Jesus… NOT because of our work of faith.
Some people want to make faith a work. Be careful not to twist faith and manipulate it to look like works.
God’s design is one of grace through faith… which stands opposite to the principle of works.
God is not the justifier of the godly, but of the ungodly.
Jesus said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.” (Mark 2:17)
And, any person who falls short of the glory of God… which is the entire human race… can be declared righteous before God…
Righteousness can be put onto their account…
How? I hope you know the answer by now…
Through good works? NO.
But through faith in Jesus Christ.
Now… in V6… Paul calls his second witness of justification by faith… king David.
David for ‘being a man after God’s own heart’ was not a stranger to sin.
By worldly standards, David’s sin makes Abraham look minor.
David might find himself in a State prison today, where Abraham would like get probation and released.
David allowed lust to get the better of him… David saw Bathsheba… and instead of fleeing youthful lusts… instead of heeding the warnings that she was married (2 Sam 11:3)…
He sent for her and got another man’s wife pregnant.
He then tried to cover it up by pulling her husband Urijah off the battlefield… getting him drunk… and telling him to go home an be with his wife.
But he would not enjoy good food, drink, and the company of his wife while other men were at war. Urijah was honorable.
So, David ordered Urijah back to battle… with this instruction to the commander of the army… “Set Uriah in the forefront of the hottest battle, and retreat from him, that he may be struck down and die.”
David ordered for Urijah to be murdered.
And, when David got the news that Urijah was dead… he married Bathsheba.
This is all just low down and dirty. And, David would pay for his sins…
God raised up adversity against David’s house… he took his wives (plural… which was another sin of David’s)… and gave them to another man (who happened to be David’s own son Absalom who aspired to take his father’s throne.
And, the child of Bathsheba and David was also struck by the LORD.
David was far from perfect, but he never worshipped foreign gods… He never forsook the One True God… He trusted God… and David would humble himself in the sight of the Lord and repent of his sin.
After his sin with Bathsheba David wrote Psalm 51… David’s prayer of repentance…
… And likely related to the same sin… Psalm 32 follows Psalm 51 focusing on God’s forgiveness…
And, a key lesson extracted from that Psalm is what Paul quotes in Romans 4:6-8.
Paul extracts from Ps 32:1-2… that David “describes the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness apart from works...”
When I read the entirety of Psalm 32… it’s obvious to me that the psalmist is blessed because of the forgiving nature of the LORD…
… what’s not so obvious is what Paul concludes in that imputed righteousness is “apart from works.”
The “apart from works” comment by Paul is tremendously insightful and easy to miss. But, it’s a key… if not the key point from this quote from David.
Let’s re-read Rom 4:7-8 “Blessed [lit. “happy” the same word repeated 9x by Jesus in the Beatitudes… Blessed…] are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, And whose sins are covered; 8 Blessed is the man to whom the LORD shall not impute sin.”
In Romans, Paul references “lawless deeds, and sins (twice)”… in Psalm 32, the psalmist uses the words “transgression, sin, and iniquity.”
And the point is… despite the motive and awareness of our misstep with God…
… regardless of all out rebellion and disloyalty (which is transgression or lawless deeds)
… or simply missing the mark even unintentionally (sin)…
… or conscious and intentional wrong-doing (iniquity)…
Regardless of the wickedness against God… He is gracious to forgive.
And His absolute divine forgiveness is expressed in three verbs… three actions by God…
“are forgiven”- lit. “to send away”… sin is removed as far as the east is from the west.
Erased completely from record and remembrance.
“are covered”- which speaks of sacrificial atonement, whereby the relationship between mankind and God is reconciled because of a blood sacrifice.
In the OT sins were covered by animal sacrifice, but the sacrifice would be repeated because sin reoccurred… and animal sacrifice could not take away sins. (Heb 10).
In the NT, Jesus’ sacrifice was a “once for all atonement event”…
Heb 10:12 reads, “But this Man [Jesus], after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God...”
“shall not impute” - speaks of imputed righteousness… iniquity was not charged to the account of the wrongdoer… and God’s attitude toward the forgiven person is they are justified.
David experienced the grace of God first hand… and these Psalms 32 and 51 are his testimony of God’s grace for him… and all who have experienced God’s touch of forgiveness.
Now… in that exposition and reading of Psalm 32… did you figure out how Paul came to the conclusion in Rom 4:6 that God imputes righteousness “apart from works?”
Where is Psalm 32 did David write about works?
Did you catch it?
It’s not there. David didn’t write about works.
He makes no mention in Psalm 32 of works in his description of the person who is blessed because of their forgiveness by God.
And that’s the point… that’s what’s so insightful about Paul’s observation… works has NO role in the imputation of righteousness…
Not in the OT… and Not in the new.
Let’s close with this. In Psalm 51… David’s prayer of repentance after Bathsheba.
I read through that Psalm as well looking for a mention of works.
And, I found only this mentioning of works…
(and Worship team you can come)
Ps 51:16-17 “For You do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it; You do not delight in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, A broken and a contrite heart— These, O God, You will not despise.”
If there was any good work one could perform in the OT it was that of religious rites and sacrifices.
But, God did not want works… He wanted the sinner to truly be heart broken over and humbled in spirit… truly repentant for their sin.
God wanted something deeper than a meaningless ritualistic sacrifice…
In two verses prior, David cried out, “Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God, The God of my salvation...”
And, this is how salvation comes… by crying out to God in full trust in His provided sacrifice.
It’s not by earning salvation… but having faith in Jesus Christ fully…
Only He can save.
Let’s Pray!
As we now take communion. Let glorify God for Jesus’ sacrifice… and humble ourselves before Him.
1 Cor 11:23-29 “...the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread; 24 and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” 25 In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.” 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes. 27 Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. 28 But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. 29 For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body.”
Please distribute the elements...
Communion is a time for us to look three directions…
We look back remembering Jesus’ sacrifice… His broken body and shed blood for the remission of our sins.
His new covenant. Salvation by faith and in grace.
Look forward in hope of His imminent return… we proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes. He is coming.
And, looking inward to examine ourselves… to take communion in a worthy manner.
Time to do business with God.
Once you have prayed… take the communion elements individually.
Our worship team will play one worship song, and then close us in prayer.
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If you have never accepted Jesus as Lord...
...either let the cup pass and do not partake in communion -or- the better option...
…first accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior today.
Our Elders will be up front to guide you in a prayer of faith… to confess Jesus as your Lord and Savior.
… then take communion.
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