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Would you please turn your Bibles with me to Romans chapter 3? So we’ll be looking at this passage from Romans chapter 3 verse 27 to Romans chapter 4 verse four. So what we’re gonna look at from this passage is, we’ll try to answer this question: what counts for Christians? What counts for Christians? Last time we looked at Romans chapter 3 verses 1-26 and observed three things from the passage about the revealed righteousness of God. We saw that God shows his righteousness in sentencing sinners, in sentencing sinners. That’s from verse 1 to 20. We saw that God shows his righteousness in saving sinners, in saving sinners. That’s from verse 21 onwards to 25. And then we have
seen that God shows his righteousness in sacrificing Jesus, in sacrificing Jesus. That’s from 25b to 26. Today we will consider the next section, that is Romans 3 verse 27 onwards, and observe two main points from this section. First is that our justification is the means to God’s blessing, justification is the means to God’s blessing. That we’ll see from chapter 4 verse 3 to 12. And the second is that our justification is a means to God’s promise, the justification is a means to God’s promise. That we’ll see from chapter 4 verse 12 to 25. The passage from chapter 3, 27 onwards is an introduction to that chapter. In other words, the way we enjoy God’s blessing and promise is through justification.
That's what we see. That's what we'll see. That shows us that justification is not an end in itself, but a means to something greater. As we look at these points, we will see what truly counts for Christians. The word counted occurs many times in chapter 4. If we scan through chapter 4 of Romans, then you'll see that word here in verses 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 11, 22, 23 and 24.
So Paul, after showing that both Christian — sorry, both Gentiles and Jews have sinned and have no inherent righteousness in themselves to stand before God justified, shows that God through Jesus gives them the righteousness that they require when they put their faith in the Jesus on that cross. So in this context, in this context, he raises this question: “Then what becomes of our boasting?” That he’ll see in verse 27 of chapter 3. “Then what becomes of our boasting?” Paul answers it saying it is excluded, it’s not there at all. Then he asks, “By what kind of law? By law of works?” Again he replies to
his own question saying, “No, but the law of faith.” Then he goes on to give us the explanation for why he thinks that Christians cannot boast. He says, “For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law,” apart from works of the law. Since we Christians bring nothing good of our own from our side to be justified or saved, there cannot be any boasting on our side, there cannot be any boasting on our side. Even after becoming Christians we add nothing to our salvation or justification. So as we cannot boast about our good works that we do, because they cannot
be counted as our own righteousness when we are actually operating in the borrowed righteousness of Christ to do those good works. But sadly, we see a lot of Christians boasting about themselves, right? They do it either by talking about all the great things they did for the Lord or by talking about all the bad things that other Christians did around them.
By doing the latter, they somehow project that they are better than others, based on the works that they did not do, but others did. There is no room for such behavior among Christians. There was nothing in us to boast about, there is nothing in us and there will be nothing in us to boast about ourselves. All we have contributed to our salvation is our own sin, nothing else and nothing less. Paul goes on to ask a couple more questions here in this passage, in verse: God the God of Jews only, or is he not the God of Gentiles also? Again he answers them saying, yes, of Gentiles also. And he gives reason for that in verse 30, saying since God is one who will justify the circumcised by faith and
the uncircumcised through faith. His point is that there is only one God who justifies both Jews and Gentiles, and he does that not in two different ways, but these two different groups, but only in one way, that is by or through faith. It means the same thing here. So we are justified by faith, whether Jews or Gentiles are justified by faith. Now, since it is all about faith, what law? Then Paul asks in verse 31, “Do we then overthrow the law by this faith?” And he says, “By no means! On the contrary” — what do we do? We uphold the law. We uphold the law, says
Paul. The law is our guide and the righteous standards of God in his proper interpretation. We are done with the condemning part of the law because Christ took our punishment. So now we joyfully follow the law to please the Lord and not to become righteous in God’s sight or be justified by our works of the law, but to please the Lord.
Our relation to the law changes once we become Christians, but we are not done away with it. So we uphold the law in that sense. Paul then shifts his thought here and asks in chapter 4 verse 1, “What then shall we say was gained by Abraham our forefather according to the flesh?” What did Abraham contribute in his body to gain God’s favor? What did he do? If he had contributed something, then what? Paul says, “What if Abraham was justified by works? He has something to boast about,” something to boast about, “but not before God,” he says. It is a hypothetical case. So Paul is building a hypothetical case to make his point, but the reality is in contrast to that. So Abraham was not justified by his works of the law.
In the rest of chapter 4 Paul explains about that and shows us that God's blessing and promise are based on justification by faith alone. So Abraham was justified by God because of his faith, not because of his works, and because Abraham had this faith in God justified him, and through that justification God blessed him and promised him. That's the point that Paul is making in this chapter. Now the question is, what is justification? You have been using this word a lot. What is justification is an act of God's free grace, wherein he pardons all our sins and accepts us as righteous in
his sight only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to us and received by faith alone. This is a definition according to the Westminster Shorter Catechism. So once again, justification is an act of God's free grace, wherein he pardons all our sins and accepts us as righteous in his sight only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to us and received by faith alone. So when we have faith in Christ, that faith is counted to us as righteousness. So God gives us his righteousness, Christ's righteousness. He imputes on us when we have faith in Christ, and thus he justifies us, pardoning all our sins, forgiving all our sins. So we will understand what justification is as
we consider what it does here. So the first point that we'll be looking at is, our justification is a means to God's blessing. Chapter 4, verse 3 onwards. Romans chapter 4, verse 3 onwards. “What does the Scripture say? Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.” Verse 4.
So in verses 3 to 5, Paul is showing that it is belief in God or faith in God that counts as righteousness. What righteousness is this? In the previous passage we see that it is the righteousness that God shares with us. It is God's righteousness that he is willing to share with us. It is his own righteousness that he covers us with, like a blanket, like a coat. When did Abraham get it? The moment he believed in God. The moment he believed in God. We will see more about what he believed about God in the following verses. So 5, Paul uses antithetical parallelism to make his point. So there are two contrasting ideas here. Paul shows that a person who works, that is, a worker, receives his wages as it is
proper for him to get for his work. It is wages, it is salary, not a gift. So there are many employees here, right? You work hard for your companies and do they at the end of the month gift you? They pay you for your work, right? So a worker receives his salary's wages and it's not a gift. However, Paul shows that a person who does not work but just believes, the believer, and receives something for his belief, then whatever he receives is a gift, not wages.
because there is no work involved to get paid. So you work hard, get your salary, and go give some pocket money to your kids. Is that a salary for them? It's a gift. To the one who does not work but just believes that God forgives and saves or justifies the sinner, his faith is counted as righteousness, and that righteousness is a gift. We don't earn it, we don't work hard for it, we just receive it by faith. And Paul jumps from Abraham to David and talks about what David said in Psalm 32, verses 1 and 2. So look at verse 6 here in chapter 4. He says, “just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from the works.” Now here he links this blessing to the righteousness that God gives
to justification. In verse 7 and 8 he says, “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.” There are a couple of things to be noted here. First, God justifies the ungodly. God justifies the ungodly. And the second is, God will not count his sins. God will not count his sins in verse 8. God justifies the ungodly in verse 5, and God will not count his sin in verse 8. When is justification happening? While the person is still ungodly and having sin in him. It's
not like once a person is cleansed of his sin by doing his good works then God will accept him and justify him. No, while the person is still ungodly, while the person is still a sinner, while he could do nothing to save himself by his own works, to him, God counts righteousness apart from his works.
This is like a double cure. It's like a double cure. His sins are covered or forgiven on one side, and God's righteousness is imputed to him on the other side. So sins are forgiven and righteousness given. That's justification. When does this happen? The moment he believes in God. The moment a person puts his faith in God. That is what we see happening here in the life of Abraham. Abraham believed and was declared righteous.
He was justified by God himself. So those who are justified by faith are the blessed of the Lord, says David here. The blessed of the Lord. It is the blessing that we receive. Let us once recall the story. In Genesis 1, God made everything in six days, right? And on the final day, God formed man and woman and blessed them. But in chapter 2 they disobeyed God and brought upon themselves curse and death. God blessed them in chapter 1, and in chapter 2 they fell, they sinned against God, and in chapter 3 we see God cursing them because of the sin and disobedience, the punishment for their sins. However, in Genesis 3 itself
God promised that he will save them through Eve’s offspring, that is Jesus. We know that. Fast forward the story, we see God calling Abraham out of Ur of the Chaldeans to the promised land. Then God said that he will bless Abraham and will make him a blessing to all the families of the earth. So God is singling out a Genesis chapter 12 and promising a blessing. He says, “In him all the families of the earth will be blessed.” We just turn with me to Genesis chapter 15, Genesis chapter 15, few verses, in verse 4 to 6 we read this: “And behold, the word
of the Lord came to him, “This man,” that is his servant Eliezer, “shall your heir,” God says to Abraham. “Your very own son shall be your heir. And he brought him outside and said, look toward heaven and number the stars. If you’re able to number them, then he said to him, so shall your offspring be.”
Verse 6, he says, “And Abraham,” that is he, “believed in the Lord, and he,” that is God, “God counted it to him,” that is Abraham, “as righteousness.” Again in Genesis chapter 22, if we look at chapter 22, verse 17 and 18, we see God speaks to Abraham again, repeating his promise here. He says, “I will surely bless you and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore.
and your offspring shall possess the gates of his enemies, and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.” So God’s promise and blessing that we see here to Abraham. Now we need to understand that there is a multiple fulfillment to this blessing. First, God blessed Abraham with Isaac. That’s an immediate fulfillment of this promise of the offspring. Second, Paul uses this verse to point to Christ in Galatians chapter 3 verse 16. If you could quickly open Galatians chapter 3, you’ll see this verse in 16. “Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring,”
and Paul says, “It does not say, ‘And offsprings,’ plural, referring to many, but referring to one, ‘And to your offspring,’ who is Christ.” So this is the second thing. And the third is Peter uses this verse to show how Christ blesses his people from all the earth, in all the earth. That we see in Acts chapter 3 verse 25 and 26. So Acts 3, Peter says, “You are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant that God made with your fathers, saying to Abraham, ‘And in your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed.’”
Verse 26, “God having raised up his servant,” that is Jesus, “first,” he’s talking to Jews, “to bless you by turning every one of you from your wickedness.” How is he blessing his people? To bless you by turning every one of you from your wickedness, from your sins, from your transgressions, from your iniquity, from all the evil that you do. The blessing here is turning away from — who is doing that? God is doing that. God turns us away from our sins through Jesus, and that’s part of our justification. So we know that Peter is talking to the Jews as he is explaining it. But is it only for the Jews? Is this justification
by faith only for the Jews? Paul answers that from verse 9 onwards in Romans chapter 4. Look at Romans chapter 4 verse 9. Look at this passage here. “Is this blessing then only for the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised? For we say that faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness. 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. And he received the sign of as a seal of 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. 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.” First, Paul starts off answering the question, when was Abraham justified? So when was Abraham justified? Is it before his circumcision or after it? It is obvious that before Abraham was circumcised, he showed his faith in God, justified by God. Then what is circumcision? It is just a sign or a seal that he had faith and was counted righteous before God. Paul says that there is a purpose that God did things in this order,
first justification then circumcision, so that the later, so that later the circumcision party cannot claim that this justification is only for the circumcised, only for the Jews, but that this justification is for all the peoples of this world, whether Jews or Gentiles. And the only condition to be justified is not circumcision but faith in God, not any human works but faith in God, just as Abraham had believed. God requires faith first from both the circumcised and the uncircumcised party, that is both Jews and Gentiles, to justify them before him. Now this blessing is available for all the people from all the nations of the earth,
regardless of caste, class, religion. Who can enjoy this blessing? Only those who are justified by God are counted as righteous before God. How can one be counted so? The key here is faith or belief, which is the link to access the blessing. So it links you to Christ Jesus, in whom you will be justified, and by your union with him you will enjoy all the benefits and the blessings. It is like when a very poor woman, very poor woman who had nothing in this world, marries a very rich man, becomes rich by her union with him, by her marriage to him, his riches
will be hers and she can enjoy them. So it is with us who believe. When we are joined to Christ, Christ is the husband, the church is his bride. We enjoy all that is his. His righteousness becomes ours. His holiness becomes ours.
That's justification. So remember these things as we go forward from this passage. Our works do not count for our justification. Our sins are not counted in our justification. God will not count them. He'll forgive them and forget them. He'll never bring them up again.
Our faith is counted towards our justification. Our justification is counted as a gift. It's not that — it's not what we earn. It's a gift, and our justification is a means to God's blessing. It's a means to God's blessing. I'll come to our second point and we'll see our justification is a means to the promise. And we look at it from verse 13 onwards. Verse 13 onwards. For the promise to — So in verse 13, Paul talks about the promise that God made to Abraham that he would be the father of many
and says that this promise Abraham received is because of his faith that was counted to him as righteousness. Notice the word offspring here. If we bring Galatians 3:16 again into view, then the promise is fulfilled in Jesus primarily and in Abraham in a secondary way. Jesus is a true heir of the world as he saves people from among many nations of the world to himself, and when he comes back he will rule over them and rule over all the earth. And all those who put their faith in Jesus will be the children of — and in that sense Abraham will be an heir as well
but in a secondary sense. Jesus is a primary heir of this great promise that God has given to Abraham. Paul says that if the heirs are to be those who keep the law or live by the law, then faith and promise becomes meaningless. Faith and promise becomes meaningless if God, you know, gives it to those who just keep the law based on their works. If men work it out to obtain it, then it is their wages and not a gift. Our promise that is received by faith, that's what verse 16 onwards says. 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 the one who shares faith of Abraham. And Paul's point is that not only to Jews but also to the Gentiles who shares that same faith. The faith of Abraham who is the father of us all. Since it is a promise made by grace, it ought to be received by faith. And since God is the one who promised it, he will make sure that it is applied to Abraham's offspring.
Thus making Abraham the father of us all who are justified by faith in Christ Jesus. Paul here quotes scripture and shows what kind of faith Abraham had. It's very interesting to see here. Look into the word with me from verse 17 onwards in Romans chapter 4 verse 17 onwards. As it is written, Paul is quoting from the scripture, I have made you the father of many nations, in the presence of God in whom you — in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. 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. Verse 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, and when he considered the barrenness of Sarah's womb. No unbelief made him waver considering the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. That is why his faith was counted to him as righteousness. Truly Abraham's confidence in God is great. So Abraham's confidence
was not in his own physiological capacity or Sarah's biological ability. Look at verse 19. It says Abraham was almost about 100 years old, and his body is like Arnold Schwarzenegger's body, right? No, it says his body was as good as dead. As good as dead. It is almost dead. And what good can come out of it? If Abraham would have visited all the doctors in this world, all the experienced doctors in this world would say, “Nothing good will come out of you, Abraham.”
“Nothing good will come out of you.” The world cannot give any hope in that situation. But Abraham believed in God's power and God's promise. Abraham hoped against all odds. He did not weaken or waver in faith about their situation, but instead grew strong in his faith. And even in that hard situation he glorified God and was fully convinced. He fully believed in God's promise. That faith, that belief, God counted to him as righteousness. This justification became a means for the promise to continue through him. Now, why is this story of justification of Abraham written? Why is Paul writing about Abraham and all this thing? Paul says in verse 23, but the words “it was counted to him” were not
written for his sake alone but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was trespasses and raised for our justification.” So these are written for our sake, for our sake. It is not just Abraham who is in this God’s story, but you and I too are in this story, and God is writing this story if we believe in this gospel that Jesus came down to this world and lived a perfect life keeping all of the law and was justified by the Spirit for his obedience
as according to First Timothy 3:16, and that he took all our sin upon him and died in our place on that cross under the wrath of God, our just punishment, and that Jesus was raised by God on the third day from the grave, then our faith, our belief, unites us with him and we will share in his justification. We will share in his justification. There is, God will cover our sins and remember, and he will cover us with Christ’s righteousness and treats us as if we had never sinned. This status is a gift that God promised to bless us with when we put our trust in Jesus. This is guaranteed. Eternal life is guaranteed. The forgiveness of sins is guaranteed because God raised Jesus from the grave, from the dead.
We become part of that promise to Abraham. We become the children of Abraham, the promise God gave to Abraham. We become Christ’s inheritance. What a blessing, what a promise it is to be among God’s people, under this great and glorious God, gracious and merciful God. So remember three things from this portion. Our justification is a means to God’s promise, and through promise — sorry, the promise through justification rests on God’s grace, rests on God’s grace. And the promise through justification is guaranteed. It is God who promised it, you will never break it. If you are here and if you are not a Christian, please take time to think about these things. God loves to bless you and make his promise come true in your life. You cannot turn yourself away from your sins and join God’s family by yourself, by your own works.
New Year resolutions won’t help you, but God can turn you and save you. All you need to do is look to Jesus and trust him, acknowledge your sins before him, cry out to him, ask him to save you. Nothing more, nothing less, and he will take care of the rest. It will give you rest from your sins. The blessing and the promise are fulfilled in and through Christ, and faith is a key to them. Put your faith in Jesus, for he has paid the price for your sins. Will you think about it today? Will you think about it today? And if you are a
Christian, then live out this blessed life that God has given. You’re already blessed in Christ. Do you realize that your faith is already counted as righteousness and you no longer need to strive hard for your salvation by your works? You can’t. Again, you can’t keep it by your works. You are already righteous in God’s sight. That’s a positional sanctification. So just live out the reality that you have experienced in Christ. He clothed you with his righteousness, so just practice it daily. We do good works as Christians salvation again or keep our salvation, but we do good works because God has clothed us with his
righteousness, and the good works are righteous deeds that we do. And when you look at other Christians, what do you do? You peep through that coat of righteousness and try to find their faults, to judge them or condemn them? But if you see someone not living up to this status, then gently remind them that their behavior is not up to the righteousness they possess in Christ. However, be very patient with those brothers and sisters who are weak or annoying. We are all weak, right? And we are all annoying to others as well. So be patient with them, for you’re already sharing
the promised inheritance with them. They are your brothers and sisters forever. You will have to live with them in heaven forever. Just imagine that. So live on good terms even now on this earth. Be righteous in dealing with the of others and help them to follow the path of righteousness that was counted to them and for you as well. Take courage, there is hope. The God who started working in us is still continuing to work in us, and he will continue till the end until he sees the full image of Christ in
us. Till that day he won’t stop working in us. Till that day he won’t stop working in your brothers and sisters us. So keep that in mind as we pursue love and unity in the church. May God help us.