WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.600 Follow along will be on Romans chapter 4. 00:00:03.919 --> 00:00:04.179 ! 00:00:04.179 --> 00:00:08.919 Nearing the end of his time in office, 00:00:08.919 --> 00:00:16.240 President Joe Biden issued a full pardon to his son Hunter Biden for some pretty serious crimes. 00:00:16.240 --> 00:00:16.240 00:00:30.000 --> 00:00:39.000 There is commuting of sentences and pardoning of offences for political friends. 00:00:39.000 --> 00:00:45.000 Now we don't have the exact same situation in Canada, probably a good thing. 00:00:45.000 --> 00:00:49.000 Nevertheless, our justicism is not perfect. 00:00:49.000 --> 00:00:59.000 We have kind of an interestingly similar situation whereby we credit convicted felons, 00:00:59.000 --> 00:01:01.000 those that have been convicted of serious crimes, 00:01:01.000 --> 00:01:10.000 with 1.5 years time served for every year, or sorry, 1.5 days rather, 00:01:10.000 --> 00:01:14.000 for every day that they are held in pre-sentence custody. 00:01:14.000 --> 00:01:18.000 Now, I don't know if you knew this, I'm not a lawyer, if I'm getting something wrong, alright? 00:01:18.000 --> 00:01:20.000 Bit of grace. 00:01:20.000 --> 00:01:26.000 Even more, sometimes convicted offenders are given conditional discharge. 00:01:26.000 --> 00:01:34.000 Maybe they plead guilty to a lesser crime, so that no jail time is imposed at all. 00:01:34.000 --> 00:01:38.000 Now, I don't want to debate the legitimacy of this practice, 00:01:38.000 --> 00:01:43.000 or talk about whether our justice system is needing reform or not. 00:01:43.000 --> 00:01:52.000 I bring up this point, these two points, simply to say that just because something is legal 00:01:52.000 --> 00:01:56.000 doesn't necessarily make it morally just. 00:01:56.000 --> 00:02:02.000 Allowing guilty people to walk free by crediting them with time they did not serve, 00:02:02.000 --> 00:02:10.000 or by giving them a completely blank slate of pardon, it doesn't exactly scream justice, does it? 00:02:10.000 --> 00:02:16.000 In fact, it kind of screams the opposite, a miscarriage of justice. 00:02:16.000 --> 00:02:21.000 If this is the case, if you're feeling kind of the way I do, 00:02:21.000 --> 00:02:25.000 this is maybe a bit of a frustrating aspect to our justicism. 00:02:25.000 --> 00:02:30.000 I, again, I'm not trying to debate the legitimacy of justice reform or how things are, 00:02:30.000 --> 00:02:38.000 but just the fact that guilty people are given time served for time they didn't end up serving, 00:02:38.000 --> 00:02:40.000 and they get to walk free. 00:02:40.000 --> 00:02:45.000 If this is truly a miscarriage of justice, as we go into Romans chapter 4, 00:02:45.000 --> 00:02:47.000 we are put in a bit of a dilemma. 00:02:47.000 --> 00:02:55.000 After making an airtight case, it's been a couple weeks now since we've been in Romans, 00:02:55.000 --> 00:02:59.000 so it might be a bit, your memory might be a bit foggy, 00:02:59.000 --> 00:03:04.000 but making an airtight case at the complete unrighteousness of humanity 00:03:04.000 --> 00:03:14.000 from Romans chapter 1, verses 18, all the way to chapter 3, verse 20, 00:03:14.000 --> 00:03:20.000 Paul turns to the topic of righteousness and how mankind can enjoy it. 00:03:20.000 --> 00:03:25.000 And he uses this term throughout this chapter, 00:03:25.000 --> 00:03:28.000 and especially in verses 3 and 8 of chapter 4, 00:03:28.000 --> 00:03:35.000 he talks about accredited righteousness or an imputed righteousness, 00:03:35.000 --> 00:03:41.000 which sounds like, at least with first reading, 00:03:41.000 --> 00:03:45.000 that God is letting people off scot-free, 00:03:45.000 --> 00:03:48.000 or he's giving them time served. 00:03:48.000 --> 00:03:52.000 And if that's the case, then I think we need to wrestle with the fact 00:03:52.000 --> 00:03:56.000 that God might be engaging in a miscarriage of justice. 00:03:56.000 --> 00:03:58.000 Or at least, let's ask that question. 00:03:58.000 --> 00:04:01.000 Let's be a bit of a devil's advocate in this regard. 00:04:01.000 --> 00:04:05.000 Does God issue presidential pardons? 00:04:05.000 --> 00:04:12.000 Does he merely pronounce a judgment, 00:04:12.000 --> 00:04:21.000 but ultimately people don't have to serve any degree of time in jail? 00:04:21.000 --> 00:04:24.000 It's an important question. 00:04:24.000 --> 00:04:28.000 I think it's a question we need to walk towards and wrestle with 00:04:28.000 --> 00:04:32.000 as we enter into Romans chapter 4. 00:04:32.000 --> 00:04:38.000 A righteous and holy God who is perfect in every way, 00:04:38.000 --> 00:04:42.000 how does he allow salvation to happen to guilty people? 00:04:42.000 --> 00:04:44.000 That's the big question for us this morning. 00:04:44.000 --> 00:04:47.000 So, we're going to turn to Romans chapter 4. 00:04:47.000 --> 00:04:52.000 We're going to consider this topic by looking at one of the greatest figures in Old Testament history, 00:04:52.000 --> 00:04:54.000 the patriarch of patriarchs. 00:04:54.000 --> 00:04:56.000 If there was a drummer, it would be a drum roll. 00:04:56.000 --> 00:04:57.000 Abraham. 00:04:57.000 --> 00:04:59.000 He is the father of the faith. 00:04:59.000 --> 00:05:01.000 He is righteous. 00:05:01.000 --> 00:05:05.000 He is the exemplar of faith in the Old Testament. 00:05:05.000 --> 00:05:12.000 His faith is not in question, both from a biblical standpoint and the Jewish tradition. 00:05:12.000 --> 00:05:15.000 And we're going to look at this belief of Abraham. 00:05:15.000 --> 00:05:23.000 And through it, we're going to ask how God's righteousness can be credited by faith apart from works. 00:05:23.000 --> 00:05:30.000 And then we're going to ask the question, how can he refuse then to credit our sin against us? 00:05:30.000 --> 00:05:35.000 So, on one hand, God's righteousness is credited by faith apart from works. 00:05:35.000 --> 00:05:39.000 And on the other hand, God refuses to credit our sin against us. 00:05:39.000 --> 00:05:45.000 So, if you have a scripture journal, page 20, we're going to read verses 1 and 2. 00:05:45.000 --> 00:05:50.000 What then shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather, according to the flesh? 00:05:50.000 --> 00:05:56.000 For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. 00:05:56.000 --> 00:05:58.000 Pause really quickly. 00:05:58.000 --> 00:06:03.000 It's helpful for us to remember that Paul, he is addressing a mixed congregation. 00:06:03.000 --> 00:06:06.000 We talked about this the first week of our time in Romans. 00:06:06.000 --> 00:06:12.000 Romans, Rome, even though Paul wasn't there, he has a lot of affection for this congregation. 00:06:12.000 --> 00:06:20.000 He is writing to the Roman church after the expulsion of Jews from Rome, 00:06:20.000 --> 00:06:25.000 and then the lifting of that expulsion so that the Jews have come back. 00:06:25.000 --> 00:06:28.000 So now the church is wrestling with its identity. 00:06:28.000 --> 00:06:30.000 It is both Gentile and Jewish. 00:06:30.000 --> 00:06:34.000 And how, then, do we embrace the biblical faith? 00:06:34.000 --> 00:06:40.000 How do we live in harmony and fellowship with one another? 00:06:40.000 --> 00:06:45.000 The question Paul here, then, is addressing is a very important one. 00:06:45.000 --> 00:06:51.000 And he is asking the question in a bit of a hypothetical sense. 00:06:51.000 --> 00:06:55.000 Whether, actually, maybe it's not hypothetical, but likely it is. 00:06:55.000 --> 00:07:01.000 Whether it's hypothetical or not, the question persists, and it goes something like this. 00:07:01.000 --> 00:07:05.000 Surely the righteousness of God given through Jesus is good. 00:07:05.000 --> 00:07:07.000 And maybe it's even great. 00:07:07.000 --> 00:07:09.000 But what about the law? 00:07:09.000 --> 00:07:11.000 What about the law keepers? 00:07:11.000 --> 00:07:15.000 If there are the Jewish people in the congregation, they would say something like, 00:07:15.000 --> 00:07:17.000 but what about us law keepers? 00:07:17.000 --> 00:07:21.000 God has given us the law, and the law brings righteousness. 00:07:21.000 --> 00:07:24.000 So then where is the place of Jesus in this? 00:07:24.000 --> 00:07:27.000 And then, I guess, a secondary question. 00:07:27.000 --> 00:07:30.000 Is there two separate tracks of salvation? 00:07:30.000 --> 00:07:34.000 Okay, one through Jesus, and then one through Jesus plus the law. 00:07:34.000 --> 00:07:36.000 How does this work out? 00:07:36.000 --> 00:07:48.000 Paul frames this question by asking the question simply by going to Abraham, who is the father. 00:07:48.000 --> 00:07:49.000 Now, I'll just say this. 00:07:49.000 --> 00:07:54.000 Verses nine, he is setting this up so that he can get to verse nine and following, 00:07:54.000 --> 00:08:00.000 where he's going to talk about circumcision and what it means to be a true son of Abraham. 00:08:00.000 --> 00:08:01.000 Now, we're not going to get there. 00:08:01.000 --> 00:08:06.000 If you'd see in the liturgy booklet, the reading was originally supposed to go to verse 12. 00:08:06.000 --> 00:08:09.000 But there's a lot to unpack in verses one to eight. 00:08:09.000 --> 00:08:14.000 So we're going to actually touch on verses nine and following next week. 00:08:14.000 --> 00:08:20.000 But Paul really is setting up this question of how then are we to understand faith? 00:08:20.000 --> 00:08:30.000 And in light of faith, how are we to understand the place of Abraham and being the father of faith that he is, 00:08:30.000 --> 00:08:33.000 but both to the father of Jews and to Gentiles. 00:08:33.000 --> 00:08:41.000 But here, Paul is really addressing this question about the nature of righteousness. 00:08:41.000 --> 00:08:45.000 So he frames this question by asking first about boasting. 00:08:45.000 --> 00:08:50.000 If Abraham was justified before God through his good works of keeping the law, 00:08:50.000 --> 00:09:00.000 Paul is saying he would have a case of, sorry, a claim to his own salvation, or at least an aspect of it. 00:09:00.000 --> 00:09:02.000 But this isn't the case at all. 00:09:02.000 --> 00:09:03.000 How can Paul say this? 00:09:03.000 --> 00:09:06.000 Again, Abraham is the father of the faith. 00:09:06.000 --> 00:09:09.000 He is the one that Jewish people were to emulate. 00:09:09.000 --> 00:09:18.000 And at this time, a tradition was developing whereby Abraham, even though he was the father of faith, 00:09:18.000 --> 00:09:23.000 that it wasn't so much the faith that justified him or made him right with God, 00:09:23.000 --> 00:09:27.000 but that he was almost like a proto-law keeper. 00:09:27.000 --> 00:09:28.000 Okay? 00:09:28.000 --> 00:09:29.000 The law hadn't yet been given. 00:09:29.000 --> 00:09:33.000 Nevertheless, Abraham was the one who would keep the law. 00:09:33.000 --> 00:09:35.000 But Paul says not at all. 00:09:35.000 --> 00:09:38.000 In fact, Abraham is the father of the faith. 00:09:38.000 --> 00:09:39.000 Why? 00:09:39.000 --> 00:09:46.000 Because he simply believed God and the righteousness that God gave him was based not on what he did, 00:09:46.000 --> 00:09:49.000 but what he believed and in who he believed in. 00:09:49.000 --> 00:09:52.000 This is what Paul is saying here in verse 3. 00:09:52.000 --> 00:09:54.000 And this is what he says. 00:09:54.000 --> 00:09:57.000 For what does God, sorry, what does the scripture say? 00:09:57.000 --> 00:10:02.000 Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness. 00:10:02.000 --> 00:10:04.000 I'll just pause really quickly here. 00:10:04.000 --> 00:10:10.000 Because Paul, he appeals to the very words of God of scripture. 00:10:10.000 --> 00:10:19.000 Paul, in other places, to the Athenians in Acts, he is going to appeal to philosophy. 00:10:19.000 --> 00:10:24.000 He's going to appeal to rhetoric and logic. 00:10:24.000 --> 00:10:26.000 He is going to point to the pantheon of gods. 00:10:26.000 --> 00:10:28.000 He's going to meet people where they're at. 00:10:28.000 --> 00:10:31.000 In this case, he is appealing to scripture. 00:10:31.000 --> 00:10:37.000 And it is not just because the Jewish people would have held on to scripture as the ultimate authority, 00:10:37.000 --> 00:10:42.000 but there is so much at stake here when it comes to what true biblical faith is. 00:10:42.000 --> 00:10:44.000 He appeals to the highest authority. 00:10:44.000 --> 00:10:49.000 So we see in verse 3, for what does the scripture say? 00:10:49.000 --> 00:10:59.000 Paul then quotes Genesis chapter 15, where God promises Abraham in his extreme old age. 00:10:59.000 --> 00:11:02.000 Again, Abraham is very, very elderly. 00:11:02.000 --> 00:11:07.000 That he would have innumerable offspring, even though at the time of the promise, he had none. 00:11:07.000 --> 00:11:12.000 And the likelihood of him having children in a natural way was almost certainly zero. 00:11:12.000 --> 00:11:14.000 Why? 00:11:14.000 --> 00:11:21.000 Because his wife, Sarai, who would later become Sarah, she was also very, very, very elderly. 00:11:21.000 --> 00:11:23.000 Their time had passed. 00:11:23.000 --> 00:11:26.000 They were a barren couple. 00:11:26.000 --> 00:11:33.000 Yet Abraham believed that God would bless him because God said he would. 00:11:33.000 --> 00:11:47.000 Abraham believed God and God counted to him his belief in God's salvation, which is what we have in mind here, what Paul has in mind here. 00:11:47.000 --> 00:11:50.000 He counted to him as a righteous man. 00:11:50.000 --> 00:11:59.000 That when God looked at Abraham because of his faith, he deemed him or counted him or imputed to him a righteousness. 00:11:59.000 --> 00:12:05.000 And this is where we encounter the first of the many references to this term counted. 00:12:05.000 --> 00:12:11.000 So in the English Standard Version, which we're using here, it will use the word counted or counts. 00:12:11.000 --> 00:12:15.000 And if you go through chapter four, it's used numerous times. 00:12:15.000 --> 00:12:18.000 And in our section, verses three to eight, it's used five times. 00:12:18.000 --> 00:12:23.000 So it's important for us to get a handle on what it means. 00:12:23.000 --> 00:12:27.000 For Paul, he is using this term. 00:12:27.000 --> 00:12:43.000 It's a financial word or an accounting word to describe how Abraham is made righteous or justified before God because of the faith that is credited to his account, so to speak. 00:12:43.000 --> 00:12:58.000 The term is used to describe money or credit, being credited to an account that comes about in two separate ways. 00:12:58.000 --> 00:13:08.000 The first, very simply, is that funds are credited or imputed to one's account because they've worked for it, they've earned it. 00:13:08.000 --> 00:13:12.000 You work, you are owed pay, you are paid. 00:13:12.000 --> 00:13:19.000 The worker is deserving of her wages, the man has earned his pay, the money is credited to his account. 00:13:19.000 --> 00:13:25.000 But there's a second way it is used, and that is to talk about a gift. 00:13:25.000 --> 00:13:31.000 Something unearned or undeserved and therefore cannot be demanded or boasted about. 00:13:31.000 --> 00:13:34.000 This is what Paul is getting at in verse two. 00:13:34.000 --> 00:13:37.000 A gift is given because the giver wants to give. 00:13:37.000 --> 00:13:42.000 The giver, he or she is not under obligation to give. 00:13:42.000 --> 00:13:47.000 The giver wants to give simply because they desire to. 00:13:47.000 --> 00:13:58.000 Or maybe it's a situation where the creditor wipes out the account owing, not again because they're compelled to, but as an act of kindness. 00:13:58.000 --> 00:14:10.000 The individual who is no longer a debtor or the recipient of the gift cannot boast somehow about not having read in the ledger or having this wonderful gift that they have. 00:14:10.000 --> 00:14:12.000 They have simply received. 00:14:12.000 --> 00:14:17.000 And the proper way to receive is with thankfulness. 00:14:17.000 --> 00:14:26.000 So on one hand, there's this credited term that describes wages earned and also gifts received. 00:14:26.000 --> 00:14:37.000 And it would seem to me, and what Paul is getting at, is that these two ways of looking at the term credited, they are exclusive to one another. 00:14:37.000 --> 00:14:38.000 A wage isn't a gift. 00:14:38.000 --> 00:14:40.000 A gift isn't deserved. 00:14:40.000 --> 00:14:49.000 What happened to Abraham wasn't righteousness credited to him as his due, but rather a gift from God because God wanted to give it. 00:14:49.000 --> 00:14:54.000 So verses four and five really hammer this home. 00:14:54.000 --> 00:14:56.000 Read with me verses four and five. 00:14:56.000 --> 00:15:03.000 Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift, but as his due. 00:15:03.000 --> 00:15:16.000 And to the one who does not work, but believes in him, and presumably this him is God, who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness. 00:15:16.000 --> 00:15:33.000 So we see that the righteousness that Paul is envisioning here, appealing to scripture, appealing to Genesis 15, is a gift given by God, imputed or counted to Abraham because of his faith. 00:15:33.000 --> 00:16:02.000 Paul says in verse five that it is the ungodly that are justified by God, not the godly, but the ungodly, which is to say that even if we had the option of working for our salvation, it would ultimately be a futile effort because how can the ungodly ultimately have some kind of divine righteousness that would please the godly God? 00:16:02.000 --> 00:16:03.000 God. 00:16:03.000 --> 00:16:06.000 Or the eternal God. 00:16:06.000 --> 00:16:09.000 The gift of righteousness is just that. 00:16:09.000 --> 00:16:11.000 It is a gift. 00:16:11.000 --> 00:16:13.000 And friends, this is the heart of the gospel. 00:16:13.000 --> 00:16:16.000 This is what the reformers would call the great exchange. 00:16:16.000 --> 00:16:21.000 We give Christ our sin. 00:16:21.000 --> 00:16:23.000 We literally impute it to him. 00:16:23.000 --> 00:16:24.000 We credit Christ. 00:16:24.000 --> 00:16:28.000 We, God, takes our sin, credits it to Christ. 00:16:28.000 --> 00:16:35.000 So God looks at Christ and it says in scripture that he was numbered with the transgressors. 00:16:35.000 --> 00:16:47.000 So God looks at Christ in this great exchange and he doesn't necessarily see the righteousness, the purity, the perfection, the moral uprightness, the divine faithfulness. 00:16:47.000 --> 00:16:50.000 Instead, he sees our sin. 00:16:50.000 --> 00:16:54.000 And then in this exchange, what does God do? 00:16:54.000 --> 00:17:12.000 He imparts to us, imputes to us, credits us with the very righteousness of Christ so that he looks at us and he doesn't see the sin and the hangups and the constant abuse that we hurl at others or receive from others. 00:17:12.000 --> 00:17:17.000 Instead, God himself, he sees the righteousness of Christ. 00:17:17.000 --> 00:17:19.000 This is the great exchange. 00:17:19.000 --> 00:17:24.000 But returning to the opening question about a miscarriage of justice. 00:17:24.000 --> 00:17:27.000 In a way, does this not seem unjust? 00:17:27.000 --> 00:17:34.000 I guess maybe this isn't exactly the best way to steel man it, but I think it's a good way to put it. 00:17:34.000 --> 00:17:39.000 To ask in a critical way. 00:17:39.000 --> 00:17:46.000 Is it simply that we believe in God? 00:17:46.000 --> 00:17:52.000 In some kind of way we have a faith in God and that gets us out of jail? 00:17:52.000 --> 00:17:54.000 This rescues us from hell? 00:17:54.000 --> 00:18:03.000 We can avoid eternal damnation but enjoy eternal bliss forever just because we believe? 00:18:03.000 --> 00:18:06.000 I mean, it seems almost too good to be true. 00:18:06.000 --> 00:18:10.000 What about our punishment? 00:18:10.000 --> 00:18:19.000 Does this not make the free gift of God's justification seem a bit too free? 00:18:19.000 --> 00:18:23.000 Does this not make it a bit scandalous? 00:18:23.000 --> 00:18:33.000 Years ago, I was connected to a ministry just through some friends in Toronto where they would do a neighborhood clothing giveaway. 00:18:33.000 --> 00:18:41.000 And very soon after they would give away these clothes, good quality clothes from donors. 00:18:41.000 --> 00:18:45.000 They would go through and make sure there's no rips or tears or stains. 00:18:45.000 --> 00:18:53.000 They put an end to the free giveaway right away because the free gift was so quickly abused by the people. 00:18:53.000 --> 00:19:01.000 People would come first thing and they would just scoop up armfuls of clothes or bring garbage bags and stuff them to the brim. 00:19:01.000 --> 00:19:06.000 The way they got around this is they charged 25 cents for a piece of clothing. 00:19:06.000 --> 00:19:11.000 And it worked by the way. 00:19:11.000 --> 00:19:15.000 But it was so interesting that when there was a freebie, it was abused right away. 00:19:15.000 --> 00:19:18.000 Is this what is at risk here? 00:19:18.000 --> 00:19:25.000 That God is giving us a free pass and do we not risk abusing it? 00:19:25.000 --> 00:19:40.000 Even more so, James in chapter 2 of his epistle, he will quote the exact same verse in Genesis 15 that Paul does here in Romans 4. 00:19:40.000 --> 00:19:44.000 And he will then argue for something completely different. 00:19:44.000 --> 00:19:52.000 He will argue that it is not a free gift, but rather that this faith is infused with work. 00:19:52.000 --> 00:19:57.000 And that it is faith and work that seems to bring about salvation. 00:19:57.000 --> 00:19:58.000 So what is it? 00:19:58.000 --> 00:20:05.000 Do we have this free gift of salvation by God that is credited to us? 00:20:05.000 --> 00:20:15.000 Or is it, as James will say in James chapter 2 verses 20 to 24, that it is faith and works that save? 00:20:15.000 --> 00:20:17.000 It is a controversy. 00:20:17.000 --> 00:20:19.000 The plot thickens. 00:20:19.000 --> 00:20:28.000 First, I think it is important before we just jump into it to say that scripture, we will say this. 00:20:28.000 --> 00:20:35.000 As people of the English Reformation, we are, I should say, I am held to the 39 articles of faith. 00:20:35.000 --> 00:20:42.000 If you have a prayer book, rifle all the way to the back, page 700, whatever, you will see these 39 articles of faith. 00:20:42.000 --> 00:20:49.000 One of the articles says that you cannot interpret one aspect of scripture to make another part of scripture repugnant. 00:20:49.000 --> 00:20:50.000 Okay? 00:20:50.000 --> 00:20:57.000 It is a way, a roundabout way to say that all of scripture coheres, that there is no contradiction. 00:20:57.000 --> 00:21:04.000 And therefore the onus is on us to interpret one part of scripture in light of another part of scripture. 00:21:04.000 --> 00:21:19.000 So, how then do we understand this free gift of grace that seems almost too good to be true, and yet, in some way, James will talk about it in chapter 2 as being faith plus works. 00:21:19.000 --> 00:21:32.000 I think, without getting into a long kind of back and forth, and this is worthy of an adult Sunday school or maybe a mini series of sermons, 00:21:32.000 --> 00:21:45.000 but I would say that it is really summed up with this idea that James is not contradicting what Paul is saying here in chapter 4 of Romans, 00:21:45.000 --> 00:21:49.000 but he is combating something called cheap grace. 00:21:49.000 --> 00:22:00.000 Diedrich Bonhoeffer, the German Lutheran theologian who plotted to assassinate Hitler, wrote about cheap grace in a book called The Cost of Discipleship. 00:22:00.000 --> 00:22:04.000 And he speaks of cheap grace like this, quote, 00:22:04.000 --> 00:22:18.000 Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. 00:22:18.000 --> 00:22:28.000 Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ living and incarnate. 00:22:28.000 --> 00:22:38.000 You see, real justification, the justification that Paul is really honing in on and James is qualifying here, 00:22:38.000 --> 00:22:48.000 means receiving the gift of God with trust and humility, and then seeking to live a holy and obedient life as a result. 00:22:48.000 --> 00:22:56.000 So, to understand that the righteousness of God, it is given graciously by Christ and received by faith, just like Abraham. 00:22:56.000 --> 00:23:06.000 But it is a faith that bears fruit and is indeed free, but can never be cheap. 00:23:06.000 --> 00:23:08.000 It is costly. 00:23:08.000 --> 00:23:16.000 The grace that justifies is also the grace that empowers us to grow in holiness and obedience. 00:23:16.000 --> 00:23:24.000 Or as the Apostle James will say, faith without works is dead, ineffectual or false, or as Bonhoeffer says, is cheap. 00:23:24.000 --> 00:23:32.000 So, what we have between Paul and James is not a difference of substance, but a difference of emphasis. 00:23:32.000 --> 00:23:38.000 James doesn't seem to be denying that Abraham is justified by faith. 00:23:38.000 --> 00:23:48.000 Interestingly, and we didn't read this section, but James quoting our section in Genesis, Genesis chapter 15, 00:23:48.000 --> 00:23:58.000 he gives the example of this faith lived out by pointing to Genesis 22, the scene where Abraham is about to sacrifice Isaac. 00:23:58.000 --> 00:24:07.000 And God stays his hand, and God says, now I know truly that you love me above everything else. 00:24:07.000 --> 00:24:08.000 It's interesting. 00:24:08.000 --> 00:24:13.000 He never denies it, but what he is doing is he is focusing on a different kind of emphasis. 00:24:15.000 --> 00:24:26.000 This is different from God empowering our souls with grace so that we are able to live virtuously and therefore merit eternal life. 00:24:26.000 --> 00:24:33.000 It is a very important thing that we do not allow justification, which is God making us righteous, declaring that we are righteous. 00:24:33.000 --> 00:24:35.000 This is what Paul is talking about here. 00:24:35.000 --> 00:24:40.000 It is very important that we don't confuse that with the fruit of justification. 00:24:40.000 --> 00:24:49.000 The Bible calls it sanctification, that we are growing in obedience and holiness, growing in virtuous living. 00:24:49.000 --> 00:24:53.000 These two things, it's vital that they don't bleed into one another. 00:24:53.000 --> 00:24:56.000 They are surely connected, but they are separate. 00:24:56.000 --> 00:25:02.000 They are lovely and necessary compliments to one another, but they are terrible rivals. 00:25:02.000 --> 00:25:17.000 In one case, we will have justification, which is a gift from God, and sanctification, which is God empowering us as his children, as his righteous people, to live out godly and obedient lives. 00:25:17.000 --> 00:25:30.000 And if we mix those, then all too quickly we will treat our own righteousness, our salvation, as a means of working, of meriting our salvation before God. 00:25:30.000 --> 00:25:32.000 It confuses the whole thing. 00:25:32.000 --> 00:25:33.000 Consider Abraham. 00:25:33.000 --> 00:25:40.000 This is where it is really helpful to lean into Paul here and consider that Paul is pointing us to scripture. 00:25:40.000 --> 00:25:42.000 Again, chapter 3, pointing us to scripture. 00:25:42.000 --> 00:25:43.000 What does the scripture say? 00:25:43.000 --> 00:25:46.000 So let's consider Abraham. 00:25:46.000 --> 00:25:47.000 He believes God. 00:25:47.000 --> 00:25:49.000 Genesis chapter 15. 00:25:49.000 --> 00:25:54.000 And as a result, it says that righteousness is gifted to him. 00:25:54.000 --> 00:25:59.000 But he then, Abraham, lives a very sinful life. 00:25:59.000 --> 00:26:04.000 If you know the story of Abraham, he's a righteous man, he's a faithful man. 00:26:04.000 --> 00:26:06.000 He's a terrible sinner. 00:26:06.000 --> 00:26:14.000 I mean, he's not courageous when there is a possibility of him getting killed. 00:26:14.000 --> 00:26:19.000 And so he pretends as though his wife is his sister. 00:26:19.000 --> 00:26:21.000 Puts her in danger. 00:26:21.000 --> 00:26:26.000 So he can somehow avoid a potential calamity. 00:26:26.000 --> 00:26:38.000 Abraham is also a terrible father. 00:26:38.000 --> 00:26:53.000 He, well, even if you go back a little bit before, he believes God, that God will bring about this promise, but he takes it upon himself to have a child with a mistress. 00:26:53.000 --> 00:27:02.000 And then when his wife wants to kick the mistress out, he says, okay, along with a child, sends them out into the desert to certain death. 00:27:02.000 --> 00:27:04.000 He's a poor father. 00:27:04.000 --> 00:27:08.000 His children and his grandchildren, his lineage is truly a mess. 00:27:08.000 --> 00:27:15.000 Abraham, he is counted as righteous. 00:27:15.000 --> 00:27:19.000 But really quickly, we find that he is a terrible sinner. 00:27:19.000 --> 00:27:22.000 In fact, we find that Abraham is just like us. 00:27:22.000 --> 00:27:23.000 A sinner. 00:27:23.000 --> 00:27:34.000 And nevertheless, because he believed in God and trusted God, that God would do what only God could do, it says that he is counted as righteous. 00:27:34.000 --> 00:27:38.000 It's a remarkable thing. 00:27:38.000 --> 00:27:40.000 This is good news for us. 00:27:40.000 --> 00:27:45.000 For who can truly live virtuously in a way that merits God's salvation? 00:27:45.000 --> 00:27:56.000 How could we hope to obtain divine and eternal righteousness from our mortal souls, even if they are imbued with God's strength to do so? 00:27:56.000 --> 00:28:06.000 If salvation relied on our works, we would find that the works we offer are not infused by virtue, but marred by vice. 00:28:06.000 --> 00:28:09.000 We cannot not sin in this life. 00:28:09.000 --> 00:28:14.000 Our works are especially self-justifying and prideful. 00:28:14.000 --> 00:28:27.000 What's interesting here is that Paul is saying that what is counted to us is a gift. 00:28:27.000 --> 00:28:36.000 But there is a kind of wage that merits something from God that we commit. 00:28:36.000 --> 00:28:44.000 We'll see this in a few weeks when we're in Romans chapter 6, but it is the wages of sin. 00:28:44.000 --> 00:28:46.000 This is the thing that we are excellent at. 00:28:46.000 --> 00:28:48.000 We are proficient sinners. 00:28:48.000 --> 00:28:51.000 We are professional at sinning. 00:28:51.000 --> 00:28:59.000 And Paul will say in Romans chapter 6, in two short chapters, that the wages for our sin is death. 00:28:59.000 --> 00:29:08.000 But will God pay us our wages, our due wages, even after he gives us his righteousness? 00:29:08.000 --> 00:29:19.000 Paul then will, and this will be our second and final point, Paul then supplements the example of Israel's greatest patriarch, Abraham, with Israel's greatest king, David, 00:29:19.000 --> 00:29:26.000 to hammer home the point that God, he gives righteousness, but in doing so, he forgives sin. 00:29:26.000 --> 00:29:29.000 So look with me at verses 6 to 8. 00:29:29.000 --> 00:29:32.000 Actually, we'll back up into verse 5. 00:29:32.000 --> 00:29:39.000 And to the one who does not work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness. 00:29:39.000 --> 00:29:46.000 Just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works. 00:29:46.000 --> 00:29:49.000 And then here he is quoting Psalm 32 verses 1 and 2. 00:29:49.000 --> 00:29:55.000 Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven and whose sins are covered. 00:29:55.000 --> 00:30:00.000 Blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin. 00:30:02.000 --> 00:30:04.000 David is an exemplary king. 00:30:04.000 --> 00:30:06.000 He was a man after God's own heart. 00:30:06.000 --> 00:30:08.000 He was a seasoned warrior. 00:30:08.000 --> 00:30:10.000 He was a man of faith. 00:30:10.000 --> 00:30:13.000 He united the tribes. 00:30:13.000 --> 00:30:19.000 He establishes Jerusalem as the kingdom of the unified nation. 00:30:19.000 --> 00:30:21.000 He has many things to boast about. 00:30:21.000 --> 00:30:26.000 Yet like Abraham, he is a proficient, excellent sinner. 00:30:26.000 --> 00:30:28.000 He is excellent at sinning. 00:30:28.000 --> 00:30:47.000 We've talked about this a number of times this year about how David in one act of adultery ends up becoming, of course, an adulterer, but a liar, a deceiver, a murderer, a master at sinning. 00:30:47.000 --> 00:30:56.000 And it's not just that, but he, like David, sorry, like Abraham, ends up shirking his parental responsibilities. 00:30:56.000 --> 00:31:00.000 He is constantly at work sinning. 00:31:00.000 --> 00:31:18.000 And yet here we find Psalm 32, sin being described as lawless deeds, transgressions that are both crossing known boundaries and a disregard for God and his law. 00:31:18.000 --> 00:31:29.000 And yet, because of God's gift of righteousness, David can enjoy the blessing of forgiveness. 00:31:29.000 --> 00:31:34.000 The blessing of knowing that God does not weigh his merits but pardons his offenses. 00:31:34.000 --> 00:31:44.000 Truly the one whom the Lord does not count his sin against him is blessed, is what David says in Psalm 32. 00:31:44.000 --> 00:31:53.000 You see, the wages we should be paid for due to our sin, it really is death. 00:31:53.000 --> 00:31:56.000 The Apostle Paul is right in Romans chapter 6. 00:31:56.000 --> 00:32:02.000 Yet God, he doesn't just pay them, but he refuses to pay them. 00:32:02.000 --> 00:32:10.000 He does not issue us a termination slip, but instead promotes us. 00:32:10.000 --> 00:32:14.000 I'll pause really quickly just to share an anecdote. 00:32:14.000 --> 00:32:21.000 If you've ever been fired from a job, you guys are all upstanding people. 00:32:21.000 --> 00:32:22.000 Maybe you've never been fired. 00:32:22.000 --> 00:32:24.000 I've been fired from a job. 00:32:24.000 --> 00:32:34.000 I was in high school and I was a part of an absolutely boneheaded scheme with some of my friends to steal things from the deli. 00:32:34.000 --> 00:32:36.000 It was terrible. 00:32:36.000 --> 00:32:44.000 But we had a whole system where we would reduce the pay so we'd get hot deli stuff for like a dime, but we'd pay for it. 00:32:44.000 --> 00:32:45.000 Anyways, we got found out. 00:32:45.000 --> 00:32:52.000 And I remember the early afternoon when I probably should have been working, but I was sent home. 00:32:52.000 --> 00:32:59.000 A FedEx truck arrived and a single packet was given to me. 00:32:59.000 --> 00:33:03.000 Simultaneously, it was given to a number of my friends at the same time, all over town. 00:33:03.000 --> 00:33:07.000 And we opened it and it was our termination paper. 00:33:07.000 --> 00:33:09.000 And we were rightfully terminated. 00:33:09.000 --> 00:33:14.000 In fact, we were probably lucky that charges weren't... 00:33:14.000 --> 00:33:16.000 We weren't charged for what we did. 00:33:16.000 --> 00:33:19.000 It was absolutely stupid. 00:33:19.000 --> 00:33:22.000 What we have here... 00:33:22.000 --> 00:33:25.000 What we have here... 00:33:25.000 --> 00:33:29.000 Is God refusing to terminate us. 00:33:29.000 --> 00:33:34.000 Because of the sin we've done, which is far more grievous than stealing chicken fried rice and chicken wings. 00:33:34.000 --> 00:33:35.000 Okay? 00:33:35.000 --> 00:33:37.000 It's far greater. 00:33:37.000 --> 00:33:39.000 Wedges as well. 00:33:39.000 --> 00:33:41.000 Like the whole gamut, guys. 00:33:41.000 --> 00:33:42.000 It's not good, right? 00:33:42.000 --> 00:33:44.000 It's not good at all. 00:33:44.000 --> 00:33:47.000 But what he does is he doesn't just terminate us. 00:33:47.000 --> 00:33:49.000 He promotes us. 00:33:49.000 --> 00:33:50.000 Okay? 00:33:50.000 --> 00:33:51.000 He promotes us. 00:33:51.000 --> 00:33:56.000 Not because we have been exemplary in our work ethic. 00:33:57.000 --> 00:34:05.000 Not because we have come early and left late or worked overtime without begrudging our employer. 00:34:05.000 --> 00:34:11.000 But simply because he takes our termination and he puts it on Christ. 00:34:11.000 --> 00:34:16.000 And he gives us the very seat next to him in heaven. 00:34:16.000 --> 00:34:23.000 Put another way, instead of cursing us, he curses Christ. 00:34:23.000 --> 00:34:28.000 And he gives us the blessing of his own son. 00:34:28.000 --> 00:34:46.000 You see, again, this is the great exchange where God, in his goodness and kindness, not out of necessity but out of love, pays our sinful, death-deserving wages to Christ. 00:34:46.000 --> 00:34:53.000 And he gives us this wonderful joy of being people that are blessed with forgiveness. 00:34:53.000 --> 00:35:04.000 If you remember the Sunday before Palm Sunday, we looked at this very thing in Romans chapter 3, verse 25. 00:35:04.000 --> 00:35:08.000 And we spent a lot of time in verse 25 where Paul speaks of justification. 00:35:08.000 --> 00:35:13.000 That is, God making us righteous through Christ, by him taking upon our sins. 00:35:13.000 --> 00:35:15.000 He uses the term propitiation. 00:35:15.000 --> 00:35:19.000 That Christ was punished for us so that we would go free. 00:35:19.000 --> 00:35:26.000 Next, not next week, but in two weeks, we're going to look at Romans 5. 00:35:26.000 --> 00:35:34.000 And Paul's going to return back to this and really communicate the gloriousness of our salvation through Christ. 00:35:34.000 --> 00:35:44.000 But considering, again, how we opened up the sermon by talking about a miscarriage of justice, this is why the gospel is not a miscarriage of justice. 00:35:44.000 --> 00:35:52.000 This is why God's not just simply wiping our slate away, but instead laying upon Christ the perfect justice of God. 00:35:52.000 --> 00:35:57.000 So that we are pardoned, so that we are not terminated, so that we are not cursed. 00:35:57.000 --> 00:36:03.000 And knowing and enjoying this blessedness of having God's righteousness credited to us. 00:36:03.000 --> 00:36:09.000 That this is the only way that we can be justly saved from our sinful selves. 00:36:09.000 --> 00:36:11.000 Without ignoring our sin. 00:36:11.000 --> 00:36:13.000 Without being crushed under its weight. 00:36:13.000 --> 00:36:21.000 Friends, this is how we can truly live into true and godly and righteous life. 00:36:21.000 --> 00:36:24.000 This is what human flourishing looks like. 00:36:24.000 --> 00:36:31.000 It means we don't have to live a life where we are engaging in sin cover-up. 00:36:31.000 --> 00:36:34.000 Self-justification campaigns. 00:36:34.000 --> 00:36:39.000 Instead, we can live in the assurance that God's justification, it's a gift. 00:36:39.000 --> 00:36:41.000 And he gives it willingly. 00:36:41.000 --> 00:36:46.000 And he gives it full well knowing that we are deserving of death. 00:36:46.000 --> 00:36:49.000 Because we are so proficient at sinning. 00:36:49.000 --> 00:36:50.000 It is our due wage. 00:36:50.000 --> 00:37:01.000 But friends, let us not forget that this means that Christ has a claim upon our lives. 00:37:01.000 --> 00:37:06.000 That we are not our own any longer, but we are his. 00:37:06.000 --> 00:37:13.000 Let me close with another excerpt from Bonhoeffer's The Cost of Discipleship. 00:37:13.000 --> 00:37:17.000 He's talking about the gloriousness of grace. 00:37:17.000 --> 00:37:19.000 This is what he says, quote, 00:37:19.000 --> 00:37:25.000 Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow. 00:37:25.000 --> 00:37:29.000 And it is grace because it calls us to follow Christ. 00:37:29.000 --> 00:37:32.000 It is costly because it costs a man his life. 00:37:32.000 --> 00:37:36.000 And it is grace because it gives a man the only true life. 00:37:36.000 --> 00:37:39.000 It is costly because it condemns sin. 00:37:39.000 --> 00:37:42.000 And grace because it justifies the sinner. 00:37:42.000 --> 00:37:47.000 Above all, it is costly because it costs God the life of his son. 00:37:47.000 --> 00:37:49.000 Ye were bought at a price. 00:37:49.000 --> 00:37:53.000 And what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us. 00:37:53.000 --> 00:38:00.000 Above all, it is grace because God did not reckon his son too dear a price to pay for our life. 00:38:00.000 --> 00:38:03.000 But delivered him up for us. 00:38:03.000 --> 00:38:07.000 Costly grace is the incarnation of God. 00:38:07.000 --> 00:38:07.650 For the birth of God who cannot be who cannot be who cannot be who cannot be who cannot be who cannot be who cannot be who cannot be who cannot be who cannot be who cannot be who cannot be who cannot be who cannot be who cannot be who cannot be who cannot be who cannot be who cannot be who cannot be who cannot be who cannot be who cannot be who cannot be who cannot be who cannot be who cannot be who cannot be who cannot be who cannot be who cannot be who cannot be who cannot be who cannot be who cannot be who cannot be who cannot be who cannot be who cannot be who cannot be who cannot be who cannot be who cannot be who cannot be who cannot be who cannot be who cannot be who cannot be who cannot be who cannot be who cannot be who cannot be who cannot be who cannot be who cannot be who cannot be who cannot be who cannot be who cannot be who cannot be who cannot be who cannot be who cannot be who cannot be who cannot be who cannot be who cannot be who cannot be who cannot be who cannot be who cannot be who cannot be