Sermon 5: Romans 4:1-15

  The principles laid down in preceding lessons cause us to wonder that any should ever suppose that the doctrine of justification by faith is going to lower the law of God.  Justification carries the law on the face of it.  The only danger is in not getting it.  It establishes the law in the heart.  Justification is the law incarnate in Christ, put into the man, so it is incarnate in the man.

  The third chapter presents the principle of justification by faith.  In the fourth chapter the principle is illustrated by the case of Abraham.  So far as Abraham had any righteousness, he could glory in that; but as an actual fact, he had nothing to glory in.  He was justified by faith alone.  Chapter 4:1-3.  If a man could do a deed meriting the approval of Heaven, he could boast to that extent.  But no flesh will ever be able to glory in God's presence.  1 Corinthians 1:27-29; Jeremiah 9:23, 24

  If a man can work righteousness, then when God gives the reward of righteousness, the man simply receives what he has earned.  But eternal life is the "gift of God."  Eternal life is the reward of righteousness and since it is the gift of God it can be so only because the righteousness is the gift of God.  Verse 4.

  Abraham's faith was counted to him for righteousness (Verse 5).  The forgiveness of sins is not simply a book transaction, a wiping out of past accounts.  It has a vital relation to the man himself.  It is not a temporary work.  Christ gives His righteousness, takes away the sin, and leaves His righteousness there, and that makes a radical change in the man.

  No man can do any works that would stand in the judgment for a moment.  Whether he is a professed Christian or an atheist makes no difference in this point.  There is no believer in Christ who would dare go before the judgment with the deeds of any day, demanding an equivalent, and risking his case on the works.  Verses 6-8 describe the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness without works.  Blessed is the man to whom the Lord, when he is working in the cause of God, will not impute sin in that work.