Counted As Righteous: Romans 4:1-8 (Sermon)

WELCOME / TODAY 

The apostle Paul has been writing to the church in Rome. Some recipients had Jewish heritage, and others did not. Some were religious and others were not. The cultural division between the two was significant. They were not that different from us today, with political, cultural, and economic divisions. The Times They Are A-Changin’ as Bob Dylan wrote. God was doing something new in the first century, and Paul was his spokesperson. Paul shared the good news about Jesus, which was familiar. The church had heard this message before, but there was a way the gospel could connect the head and heart, Jew and Gentile, God and man, that had not happened yet for all of them. The third Chapter of Romans establishes a need for everyone, including the religious, to embrace the gospel. Chapter 4 provides a focused examination of the founder of the Jewish faith and their greatest king, establishing a connection to non-Jewish individuals.

TEXT 

I am going to ask R. and J. S. to read for us. Would you please stand with me in honor of God’s Word, if you are able? 

What then shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.” Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness, just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works: 

            “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.” (Romans 4:1–8, ESV). 

PRAYER 

The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Let’s pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for your Word, it is light and life to us. Help us comprehend what you are saying. We pray this in Jesus’s name, Amen. You may be seated. 

STRUCTURE & MAIN IDEA

I recently heard a pastor talk about his growing love for himself. He felt like he came away from college with a need to love himself more. That struck me as odd. Perhaps I misunderstood him. People try to love themselves these days without much effort. I know that is not the case for everyone. Some, and I have in the past, struggle with self-hatred. Yet, even from my experience, that too can be a form of self-centered obsession. In the end, when we stand naked before God, stripped of all our accomplishments and religion, what makes us loved or lovable? How can we be in a good relationship with God when we don’t love ourselves, each other, or God rightly? Our passage explores an answer. The answer is not rooted in what we have done, are doing, or will do. The answer is not in our race or ancestry. The Bible teaches that our being okay before God is grounded in him. In our passage, we have two examples from the Bible: Abraham and David. In our eight verses, Paul posed a question, supported it with evidence, and transitioned from principle to the Bible. The point Paul was making was that the father of God’s people and the king of God’s people believed in God’s work, not their own, and consequently, we should too. That’s what counts in life and death. 

QUESTION 

Let me show you how I came to that conclusion. If you have your Bibles, please turn to Chapter 4 of Romans. What does it say? 

“What then shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh?” (Romans 4:1, ESV). 

Paul tended to ask questions to teach, especially in the book of Romans. “What then shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh?” (Romans 4:1, ESV). What did Paul mean? What was he talking about? Was he referring to a skin condition or a tan? No! He was exploring the earthly reality of Abraham, opposed to the spiritual one. What do we know about him? We read about him in Genesis, but there is an interesting reference to him in Joshua. You don’t need to turn there, but Joshua, Chapter 24, verse 2 documents that Abraham and his family served other gods before they served God and traveled to the Promised Land. What that means is that Abraham was an idol worshipper before a God worshipper. Genesis tells us that God called Abraham to leave his homeland and go wherever God would lead him. Abraham obeyed, [] but he was no saint. 

• He repeatedly lied about his relationship with his wife and instructed her to do the same. 

• Although God promised to give him a massive family, after decades of infertility, Abraham took matters into his own hands. He went outside of his marriage to try to make God’s promise come true.  

ABRAHAM

So did Abraham gain, as Paul questioned, because God saw Abraham’s good behavior? No. Did God put his good deeds on a scale, and did they outweigh the bad ones? No. Paul wrote,

“For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God” (Romans 3:2, ESV).  

He was not commended or blessed because he obeyed. He could not brag to God, “You know God, you are lucky to have me as your follower, aren’t you? I bet you wish everyone on the planet were like me.” Think of the audacity it would take to die and go to heaven and say something like that? Absurd! Abraham had nothing to showboat about. 

KNOWING 

How did Paul know that? Did he appeal

• To the senses? No. 

• To logic? No. 

• To science? No. 

• To commentators? No. 

• Or to experience? No. 

What did Paul write in verse 3? He opened the Bible. God’s Word, the Old Testament. It was and is the ultimate authority and guide to all of life. It provides an accurate account of the most significant spiritual work of God, as well as His promises and plans for us. 

VERSE 3

Look at verse 3: 

“For what does the Scripture say? ‘Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness’” (Romans 4:3, ESV). 

This is a citation from Genesis, Chapter 15, verse 6. The significance is monumental. In the Old Testament, people were counted right with God in the same way that they are counted right with God in the New Testament: by faith through grace. In the Old Testament, Jesus was a shadow that people longed for when they made their annual sacrifices to cover their intentional and unintentional sins. They didn’t know who he was, when he would arrive, or how he would arrive. Yet, God’s faithful followers banked on God’s mercy, rather than their performance and merit. How did they know God would be merciful and true to his word? How did Abraham know God was the true God? Abraham asked God for confirmation. And he gave it to him. God spoke to him in definitive ways. And over time, what God had promised came to pass. The proof was in the pudding. At a miraculous age, God gave Abraham and Sarah a child. A decade later, God provided a substitute sacrifice in the place of his son, Isaac, right at the critical moment. God spoke to Abraham notably and once offered a supernatural dream bolstering belief. The Bible didn’t say God looked into the future and gave Abraham what he deserved. It doesn’t say that Abraham was more intelligent or better than other people. No. What does Romans 4:3 say was the reason that God blessed Abraham? He “believed God, and it was counted as his righteousness.” That is something we all can do. 

RIGHTEOUSNESS 

What is righteousness? Righteousness is derived from the same root word as justification. It means deemed right. God wants us to be righteous people. However, we often live wrongly. We rebel and go our way. We take shortcuts and hold on to habits that run interference with God. We know what to do, but we often do the wrong things. We try and fail. God offers us opportunities daily to turn around and get back on track with him. Through ongoing faith in Jesus’s substitutionary death and consequent repentance, we find our rightness in relation to him.

WORK 

Paul circled back to a principle at hand. 

“Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due” (Romans 4:4, ESV). 

Remember, Abraham was not working for God at first. God was working for him. Paul connected the dots with this principle: when we work, we get paid. When my son worked for Mario’s Pizzeria, they paid him. When my daughter works as a teaching assistant at her school, she gets paid. None of that pay is a gift. It is a wage and one’s due. That makes sense. 

NO WORK 

Paul then looked at the inverse. Before we read verse 5, what happens when a person doesn’t work? What is the wage for not working? Nothing! We might say, “Poverty.” Paul wrote another letter to a church in Thessalonica, Greece. They believed the end of the world was coming. They stopped going to work each day. They wanted to be ready for Jesus’s return. Why slog through another grueling day of taking care of the animals, driving hard, pounding out a living if Jesus is coming back to end it all any second? However, Paul wrote to them that if they don’t work, they won’t eat. He encouraged them to get off their rear ends and start getting things done, in a sense. God will come back, but not when we expect him. So, we understand what happens when we don’t work. Spiritually speaking, what happened to Abraham, who didn’t do spiritual work before God approached him? How did God treat Abraham? What do you think? [] Paul already quoted the Bible, saying God blessed him, not because of his work, but because of his faith. 

VERSE 5

Friends, what was true for Abraham is true for us today. Look at verse 5, 

“And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness” (Romans 4:5, ESV). 

Through faith, one is right with God, not through moral superiority, purity, or pedigree. That is good news for us today. 

FAITH A WORK 

However, maybe it leads you to a question: “Where did Abraham’s faith originate? How do we get faith? Do we bring to the potluck of God’s grace our faith, and he brings the main course, side dishes, and drinks? Yes, we bring faith, but where does it come from? Paul wrote to the Ephesians in what we know today as modern Turkey, 

“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Ephesians 2:8–9, ESV).

Faith is a gift. Faith comes from God. Do other authors say the same thing? Yeah. Hebrews 12 states, 

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. (Hebrews 12:1–2a, ESV)

Our faith is founded and perfected in Jesus. Faith is a gift from God. When it comes to the ultimate rationale for our ledger saying we are in the black, positive, right with God, it was not because of our effort, but God’s. God makes maggots monarchs, unrighteous right, ungodly godly, and sinners saints. That is incredible! Let that sink in. []

HOW DO WE KNOW? 

Paul went back to the Bible to give another biblical example. Look at verses 6 through 8 of Romans Chapter 4. 

Just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works: 

            “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.” (Romans 4:1–8, ESV)

Recall with me the life of David. What did he do that was lawless and sinful? [] He committed adultery and was behind the murder of the husband of the wife he cheated on. David knew lawlessness and sin on a first-name basis. What happens to us when we sin grievously? What happens when our sin hurts others? He felt the heaviness of it like a backpack filled with bricks. He infused those memories and emotions into his psalms. Paul was quoting David’s Psalm 32. 

SELF-MANAGED SIN

In the middle of Psalm 32, David described a period before he came clean with God. He was hiding his transgressions, trying to manage them apart from going to God. How did that work out for him? What do you think? [] Maybe you have been there? I certainly have. That can feel like soulish nausea. David wrote about being in that uncomfortable place. He wrote,  

            For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away 

      through my groaning all day long. 

            For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; 

      my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. Selah (Psalm 32:3–4, ESV)

Please keep that verse on the screen. David ignored his sin with silence. What did he do instead? Maybe it was busyness and distraction that took his thoughts elsewhere. Perhaps he moved away from God. What do people run to, to try to appease their sense of judgment? He didn’t do the soul work necessary to get right with God. Consequently, he felt oppressed, sleepless, and exhausted spiritually. How does God want us to deal with the things we regret and wish we could undo? How are we supposed to process our habits that have run deep and brought so much pain? I believe the next part of Psalm 32 is a good initial step that David shared, providing insight into what David did in his management of his sin. 

            I acknowledged my sin to you, 

      and I did not cover my iniquity; 

            I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,” 

      and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah (Psalm 32:5, ESV)

When we confess our sins to God, we acknowledge them. He knows it already. So we aren’t teaching God something new. But because of what Jesus did on the cross, God then does what we can’t: he covers our sin and makes us right. He doesn’t count it against us. 

            “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.” (Romans 4:1–8, ESV)

This is what we celebrate in Communion. Jesus gave his life for this forgiveness. He gave his body and blood to suffer in our place and endure the punishment we deserve. Isn’t that amazing? Can I get an Amen? 

SIN PASSED OVER 

What do you need God to pass over, not count, cover up, and forgive? Let’s pause for a minute. [] I was thinking that we have done self-examination quite a bit recently with Romans. It can be pretty dark. It can unearth some very painful memories and hurt. Some of us have a sensitive conscience, while others do not. Some of us need to hear that we are loved beyond our wildest dreams and right with God. In contrast, others need to be reminded that our sin is serious and destructive. Honestly, I have been in both places. Let me share a story that illustrates what is going on. 

IMAGINE 

It begins in the cool of the fall with a corner store. A person throws on a coat, and his stomach growls. He walks through the glass sliding doors and heads down the candy aisle. 

What is your favorite candy? 

That was his. And lo and behold, there was a BOGO deal (buy one, get one free). He feels for his wallet. It is missing. Shoot. He has no money. He picks up a bag from the wall. “I love these. I wish I had money. I could come back.” He pockets the candy instead of returning it to the wall. “I will pay for it later.” He walks through the store. The shelves explode with merchandise. They have so much. He thinks to himself, “They won’t miss this. The owner is probably a greedy jerk. Rich people don’t need my money. People probably won’t buy two bags. I’ll take the free one. No one will notice. Everyone has stolen something in their life. Now is my turn.” His justifications were flying through his head like a supersonic jet. He looks around, and no one is watching. He says to himself, “I will ask God for forgiveness. He is loving.” 

Turning a corner, he bumps into an employee. “Do you need any help finding anything?” 

“No, thank you, I am just looking.” He was, because he already had what he wanted. The thief went to the exit. 

The person behind the counter didn’t look up. “Thanks for coming.”  

Briskly, our subject exits and enters his car. He puts the vehicle in reverse and pulls out his contraband. “This is what bad feels like.” He was alive, and the adrenaline was pumping.” He opens it and has a bite. The sweetness instantly turns sour, not from intention but from guilt. He takes a bath in shame. Arriving home seeks to fix the nagging conscience with generosity. “Do you guys want candy? I have extra.” 

“You’re the best! That is so thoughtful of you!” 

An invisible blade pierced his soul. “What did I do? I had never done this before. Don’t think about it.” It was only a few seconds of pain, but it was a tattooed impression that seared into his soul like a cattle brand. How could he make this right? “Time and distance. I will never return.” Over the following months, the guilt subsided but not entirely. Then, one day, his wife said, “Honey, we need milk before tomorrow. Can you grab some for me?” It was late, too late. The only store open was that same one he vowed never to return to. It was just a silly indiscretion. No one would remember. After his quick deliberation, he hurried to get in and out of the store. He knew where the milk was, unless the dairy section had been relocated since his last visit. He went in and grabbed the milk. 

An employee walked up, “Do you need any help finding anything?” 

“No, thank you.” He bee-lined to the check-out. 

The clerk looked up, “Can you wait here?” 

“I am in a hurry.” 

“It won’t take long.” 

His heart raced, and he wondered. Beads of sweat were forming on his forehead and his back. 

A manager returned with a clerk and paperwork. He noticed that the paper had a picture of a man wearing a coat, putting candy in his pocket. The coat was his. He knew that coat. She handed him the picture. He held it and read words written on it: MERCY. 

The manager asked, “Is that you?” 

“Ahhh.” Stalling and thinking, “How can I get out of this? What should I say? Shoot. This is so dumb.” “Yeah, that looks like my coat. Why?” 

“Well, sir. You stole the candy that day.” 

His face turned flush. “ARGH. What should I do? Do I deny it or admit it? They can’t prove anything. Do they do this to everyone? They are so greedy. What was my wife thinking? Why didn’t she get the milk? No, come on, who was really to blame? Me. I am the idiot.” “Mam, I am so sorry. I have to admit it, I did steal the candy. But, listen, I can pay for it. It was a mistake. I am sorry,” reaching for his wallet. 

“No. Sir, you can’t pay for it.” 

“What? What do you mean? I have my wallet and money.” 

“No. It was paid for.” 

“Well, let me pay for the milk. I have never done anything like this before or since. I am sorry. It was a lapse. I am in a hurry. I gotta go.” 

“No, sir, you can’t.” 

“Can’t what? Are you going to arrest me for taking some silly candy? I apologized and will pay for it. What do you want?” 

“The owner wanted you to have this, too.” She gave him another piece of paper. 

“I have to go. I don’t have time for games.”

“Sir, just look at that paper.”

The page was filled with words. Legalese. But his eyes fell on one line that blew him away, and now his mind was filled with questions. 

“You see,” the manager said, “The owner passed away, not too long ago. He said that if you ever came back to the store, accepted this picture as you, admitted to your guilt, and took his mercy, you would instantly become a part-owner of this family business. He was a great guy, generous, and kind. You can’t pay for the milk, because he already paid for it. You can’t pay for the candy because he has already done so. In fact, all the candy, the produce, and the miscellaneous items are yours.” 

“But that is insane. I don’t deserve it.” 

“Yeah, that is what we all said.” 

“What? Are you judging me?” 

“No, sir. You see, we all were caught. We were all thieves. He gave us part ownership. We don’t work for pay but for joy. We all have received mercy and are part owners now.” 

MESSAGE

Friends, wouldn’t that be incredible? I tell you this because every one of you, including me, was once a thief. We stole what was God’s, and he died to make us right with him. Our job is to believe in Jesus and receive his mercy. 

CRAZY

God can make an idolater a true worshipper.

God can make murderers and adulterers innocent.

God can make the thief honest. 

He does the unthinkable. There are consequences, yes. But the ultimate consequences are taken by Jesus. So what do we owe? Think about that. []

WHAT

Martin Luther, in the movie about him, this German reformer, discussed a dialogue between him and Satan. Satan brought up his past sin, and Luther responded with Jesus’s work. So, I came up with my own fictitious argument that might help you in your own battle with guilt and shame. 

Satan found me and called me a thief

I replied, “That was before my belief.” 

“Belief in what? You scoundrel!”

“My faith in Jesus, you Devil!”

“You’re a maggot and a robber.” 

“I was, but now I have a Savior!” 

“You committed larceny.”

“Yeah, but Christ’s forgiveness is free!” 

“Stealing requires a penalty,”

“Lucifer, he paid for me.”

“With what?” 

“His blood” 

“How do you know?” 

“God’s Word says so!”

“It is just a book.” 

“No, take a look.”

“It proclaims God’s great love

Heaven came down from above, 

God and his grace

In the form of a babe came to take my place 

Jesus the incarnate 

Live, died, and by the hands of the violent

The wrath I deserved 

Was poured on my Lord 

Now, by faith, I am adopted 

Called beloved 

A friend and brother 

God is my Father 

So, Devil, go to hell! 

Never come back, for in Jesus’s death and resurrection I dwell 

He is my hope 

And this is no joke

Christ is my strength and salvation

My joy and my obsession

I am sick of you and your lies

My gaze set heaven wise.

SO WHAT 

That is what I might say to this Adversary. And I encourage you to fight with the truth too. Let us remind ourselves of the good news about Jesus daily. God does the hard lifting, working justification and righteousness for all who believe. Do you believe it? If you do, let us sing with gusto to him who conquered death for us to be part of his family, inheritors of glory forever. We are counted as righteous and loved, just like Abraham, who believed. We are blessed and forgiven, just like David, who confessed his sin. Let us not run and hide, but let us run to expose our sin to God and cling to him as Savior. Let us race to proclaim his mercy to neighbors. And if you have never believed in Jesus’s substitutionary death, do so today, and join us in praise.

PRAYER 

Let’s pray. Heavenly Father, thank you! 

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