We have been studying Romans 4 and looking at the examples
of Abraham and David and how they got a revelation of righteousness by faith.
In our last lesson we looked at how David saw and prophesied this righteousness
by faith which would be given to the New Covenant Christian. Today we shall
look again at Abraham and the example that he left for us;
“Cometh this blessedness then
upon the circumcision only, or upon the uncircumcision also? for we say that
faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness. How was it then reckoned? when
he was in circumcision, or in uncircumcision? Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision.”
Rom4:9-10
Note 1: The blessedness that this
verse is speaking about is the blessedness of the New Covenant Christian to
whom God has imputed righteousness without works and is not imputing sins upon
them. This person is a blessed person. They have the righteousness of God. They
are righteous by faith.
Now the
question we need to consider is when did God declare Abraham righteous by
faith? Was it before he was circumcised or after he was circumcised? The answer
is before. That is to say God declared
Abraham righteous by faith when Abraham was still uncircumcised.
This is
a very very crucial point to understand because the religious people believed
that a person became righteous after they were circumcised. An uncircumcised
person was filthy, unclean and unrighteous. Such a person was absolutely
unworthy. It is one of the reasons they utterly despised the Gentiles. Today’s
religious people no longer insist on circumcision. They have replaced it with
living holy and not sinning.
And yet
Paul reminds them that God declared and called Abraham righteous at least 13
years before he was circumcised. This was a very uncomfortable reality for
them. It went against everything they believed about righteousness and God.
This was a very strategic verse for Paul to make his argument for righteousness
by faith. It still is.
Note 2: The time between when God
declared Abraham righteous and when Abraham was circumcised was over thirteen
years. We can calculate this by considering the following;
The
time when God counted Abraham righteous was in Genesis 15:6. This was before
the birth of Ishmael which took place in Gen. 16:15. At this time Abraham was
not circumcised.
When
Ishmael was 13 years old Abraham circumcised him and also got circumcised on
the same day (Gen. 17:25-26).
This means that Abraham’s circumcision took place
at least thirteen years after God had declared him righteous.
Remember that God
declared him righteous in Genesis 15:6 before Ishmael was born. And yet he got circumcised thirteen years after the birth of Ishmael.
For at least 13
years he had been righteous before God without being circumcised.
The religious
minds just struggled with this thought. This was impossible. If a man had said
it they would have declared him a heretic. The problem was that it was God who
had said it. It was Holy Scripture. Even today the religious minds are baffled
by this. How can a person be righteous yet they still sin? How can you be holy
when you have sins and habits in your life?
Note 3: Today the religious community
don’t believe or agree that a person can be righteous without first doing right
things, behaving holy and not living in sin. They insist that you cannot be
righteous if you are living in sin or addicted to some sin or terrible habit.
And yet even today God makes and declares the Christian (Abraham’s seed)
righteous when we are still living in sin. God makes and declares us righteous
even when we have habits and sins that we are addicted to. God still declares
us righteous.
In the
same way that Abraham believed God and was declared righteous even though he
was uncircumcised, even us today, when we believe God and the work of Jesus
Christ on the Cross are declared righteous by God even though we still have
struggles with sin. The righteousness of God is by faith. It is a faith
righteousness
“And he received the sign of circumcision, a
seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised:
that he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be not
circumcised; that righteousness might be imputed unto them also” Rom4:11
Note 1: This verse calls the circumcision of Abraham a sign and a seal of the faith righteousness which he already had even before he was circumcised. This is very clear in this verse. God used circumcision as a constant reminder to Abraham of the covenant between them and of the righteousness he had been given by faith. It was never intended to be something that Abraham would boast about or use to
show others his holiness. This was private! That’s why God didn’t tell him to
cut off a finger. God never intended for people to use circumcision to judge
the righteousness of others.
Note 2: Many times when we preach on
faith righteousness the uninitiated and the ignorant claim that we are saying
that works are useless and that one should not live holy and do right things.
They claim that we are encouraging people to sin and do whatever they want to
do. After all they are already righteous. Paul’s answer to this is God forbid!!
Abraham
was uncircumcised when God declared him righteous but he didn’t stay
uncircumcised forever. Eventually he did the right thing and got circumcised.
The key issue to note here is that the work of circumcision followed the faith.
It did not precede it. First, Abraham believed God and was declared righteous.
Then at least 13 years later he got circumcised.
First
we have to believe that God has made us righteous and holy. Then later we can
begin to walk in this holiness and live a holy life. We don’t first live holy
lives before we become righteous. We first become righteous and then live holy
lives as a result.
Holy
living does not lead to righteousness. Righteousness leads to holy living.
Righteousness always comes first. The holiness is a fruit of the righteousness.
“…even so now yield your members
servants to righteousness unto
holiness. For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from
righteousness. What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now
ashamed? for the end of those things is
death. But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness,
and the end everlasting life.” Rom6:19 &22
Abraham
is the father of us all who believe, even though our works are not yet correct
just as his works were not yet correct at the time God declared him righteous.
Righteousness has been imputed unto us also because of what we believe. Just as
it was unto him. God is treating us the same way and even better.
“And the father of circumcision
to them who are not of the circumcision only, but who also walk in the steps of
that faith of our father Abraham, which he had being yet uncircumcised.”
Rom4:12
Good
actions and holy lives are necessary. They are expected. When we are born again
we are expected to live as born again people that have been delivered from sin
and ungodliness. But these good actions should always follow the faith. They
always come after. They are works of righteousness.
Abraham
had faith before he had the action of circumcision. We have mistakenly thought
that actions produce faith, but that's not so. Faith produces actions. Acting
right doesn't make a person right, you have to be born again first. Right living doesn’t produce right
believing. Right believing is what produces right living.
“For the promise, that he should be the heir
of the world, [was] not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but
through the righteousness of faith.” Rom4:13
Note 1:When
God promised Abraham that He would make him a father of many nations (Gen17:4-5)
and that through him He would bless all the families of the world (Gen12:3), He
did not base his promise on Abraham’s performance of some laws and rules. He
gave him this promise simply on the premise of faith. That is to say because
Abraham had believed God and would continue to do so. It was based on the
righteousness of faith.
As long
as Abraham continued to believe God, God would do whatever He had promised to
do. This was regardless of Abraham’s performance. Indeed we can see that his
performance failed many times, but he never stopped believing and God never stopped working and blessing Him. His faith was the issue.
Note 2:The
Jews are not the only seed of Abraham as most of them had interpreted these
scriptures. They are the physical seed of Abraham. However, the scriptures
explain that Abraham's true seed is anyone of any nation or language who places
faith in Christ as his Savior. The Jews are still Abraham’s natural seed, but
now we too are Abraham’s seed. Albeit the spiritual seed.
“For if they which are of the
law [be] heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of none effect”
Rom4:14
Note 1:This is
an amazing truth. That if anyone was able to inherit the blessing of God by
obeying the law and performing good works, then faith is useless and void. And
as a result, the promise which God made to Abraham and to his seed (me and you)
that He would bless us and give us all this by faith is null and void. It can’t happen
because faith has been made useless by works and religious performance. So if
there is no faith, then there is no promise. Because the promise comes by faith.
Note 2: We are
either justified by faith in our works without faith in Christ, OR we are justified
by faith in Christ without faith in our works, but not a combination of the two.
It is one or the other. Not both.
Many of
us put our faith in Christ for salvation, but then after salvation we think
that God is going to bless and deal with us based on our actions. This was the
problem with the Galatians. Paul told them that Christ had become of no benefit
to them if they were trusting in what they did to be justified with God (Gal.
5:4).
And yet
today most of us are like that. We have abandoned Christ and His work and
resorted to our own. We think God blesses us because of how much we pray, and
tithe, and fast and read our bibles. Our works have replaced faith and made
God’s promise to us null and void.
This explains why most of us are not experiencing
the blessings and anointing of God as we want to. God’s promise to us is by
faith. Not works. We are trying to get it by our works. Not faith.
“Because the law worketh wrath:
for where no law is, [there is] no transgression.” Rom4:15
Note 1: Every time there is law, the
result is the wrath of God. The law releases God’s wrath. Every time we insist
on being under the law, we experience God’s wrath. The law disqualifies us for the promise of God.
You can’t
inherit and experience the blessing of God and the work of Christ if you are
under the law. This is because you will always break the law and fail. And the
law prescribes punishment for failure, not blessing.
Note 2: The opposite is also true.
Where there is no law, there is no wrath. This is because without the law there
is no transgression. ‘…for sin is the
transgression of the law.’ 1John 3:4
In
other words, if there is no law saying that lying is a sin then that means that
if I lie, God will not hold that against me and punish me for lying. I haven’t
broken any law by lying. There is no law saying that I shall not lie. As a
result I haven’t transgressed any law even if I have lied. And God will not
release wrath upon me because I haven’t transgressed any law. He shall not
impute that sin unto me.
This explains
why God did not punish Abraham for lying about Sarah being his sister and not
his wife. It also explains why Abraham was not killed for marrying his half-sister
and Jacob for marrying his wife's sister (Lev. 18:18). God had not given the
law concerning these things yet and, therefore, there was no willful
transgression on these men's part. They hadn’t broken any laws.
Therefore,
before the law of God was given, men's sins were not being held against them.
“Therefore [it is] of faith, that
[it might be] by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed;
not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of
Abraham; who is the father of us all” Rom4:16
If our
salvation was based on our holiness, then no one would ever be saved. ‘…all have sinned and come short of the
glory of God’. All of us would be doomed and damned.
The
reason God insists on making His righteousness available to us by faith is so
that we can get it by His grace. And this grace is available to the whole
world. So anybody that is willing to have faith like Abraham can receive the
promise of God and His righteousness and justification. This makes Abraham the
father of the whole world as God had promised him. Whosoever believes becomes
the child (seed) of Abraham and an heir of God according to the promise. The key is to simply believe.
“That if thou shalt confess with
thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised
him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto
righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the
scripture saith, Whosoever believeth
on him shall not be ashamed. For there is no difference between the Jew and the
Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. For
whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
Rom10:9-13
This
then is the conclusion of the matter. Since God made salvation available on the
basis of faith in what He did, anybody can be saved. And anybody can be righteous
and holy. All they have to do is believe on the Son of God. Jesus Christ. Have
you believed on the Son of God?
“When the jailer woke up and saw the doors of
the prison standing open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself,
because he assumed the prisoners had escaped. But Paul called out loudly,
"Do not harm yourself, for we are all here!" Calling for lights, the
jailer rushed in and fell down trembling at the feet of Paul and Silas. Then he
brought them outside and asked, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?"
They replied, "Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved, you and
your household." Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him, along
with all those who were in his house. At that hour of the night he took them
and washed their wounds; then he and all his family were baptized right away. The
jailer brought them into his house and set food before them, and he rejoiced
greatly that he had come to believe in God, together with his entire household.”
Acts16:27-34NET
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