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ROMANS: THE GOSPEL OF GRACE (TALK 7/12: THE BEGINNINGS OF JUSTIFICATION)

SMALL GROUP DISCUSSION QUESTIONS CONNECT: How can you grow in recognising Jesus as your only rescuer?

WARM-UP Questions

1. What do you think are the common misunderstandings of what it means to ‘have faith in God’?

Read Romans 4:1-3 2. What is Paul hoping to achieve by referring to Abraham as an example of ‘justification by faith’?

3. What part of Scripture is Paul quoting in verse 3? What does he mean by ‘credited to him as righteousness’? How is that true for us?

Read Romans 4:4-15 4. What are the three possible sources of justification that Paul rules out? Can you give his reasoning and

logic for each of them, one-by-one?

5. In what way does believing in God involve a transfer of trust away from ourselves and to God? Are there any areas in your life, or times, in which you have found this particularly challenging?

Read Romans 4:16-25 6. How was it evident to Abraham (and Sarah) that they were helpless without God? How is that true for all

of us in some way?

7. Why do you think it is often in the most trying of times that we grow in our faith? Can you think of an example in which this was true? How did you grow?

8. What are the dangers of thinking that we can contribute to our own salvation even in the smallest of ways? How can we be on guard against this as individuals and as a church?

9. Did the quality of Abraham’s trust in God ever waver? Why was Abraham’s (and our) justification not dependent on the quality of our trust but the one in whom we trust?

10. In what way was Abraham ‘fully persuaded’ that God could and would do all that he promised? How can we share the same assurance of God’s promises?

11. What are the rhythms of our life that can help us to be reminded and grow in our confidence of God? 12. Who can we made righteous by faith? How is our faith like Abraham’s? How is it different? 13. How can we be actually even more confident than Abraham was? 14. When it comes to justification, how does it matter that Jesus was raised from the dead?

APPLY (this week): Choose a verse from Romans 3 or 4 to memorise and meditate on this week. Focusing on it word-by-word and create a prayer based on that sentence.

PRAY: Gracious God, thank you for the good news that we are saved not by trusting in ourselves but by

trusting in you. Please help us to increase our trust by growing in our confidence of who you are, what you’ve done, and the goodness of your promises. Please help us to walk by faith. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

For sermons and additional resources, visit STBARTS.COM.AU

ROMANS: THE GOSPEL OF GRACE(TALK 7/12: THE BEGINNINGS OF JUSTIFICATION)

GOING DEEPER RESOURCES Video • ‘Faith – Romans 4:1-9’ by Ray Galea

https://mbm.org.au/bible-talks/faith-am/

• ‘Faith – Romans 4:8-15’ by Dan Lee https://mbm.org.au/bible-talks/faith-pm/

Audio • ‘Romans 4’ by Christopher Ash

https://resources.thegospelcoalition.org/library/romans-4 • ‘1 Voice’ by Stephen McAlpine

http://midland.providencechurch.org.au/sermons/2017/7/31/romans-11-17-x83tc-cc7t3-8hdte-tllj2-jsct4-sgl8a

• ‘Romans 4:1-12’ and ‘Romans 4:13-25’ by Kevin Anderson https://soundcloud.com/aletheiagainesville/romans-41-12 https://soundcloud.com/aletheiagainesville/romans-413-25

• ‘God Justifies Freely’ by Jim Spence http://www.st-helens.org.uk/resources/media-library/src/talk/95/title/god-justifies-freely

Helpful Books and Articles • ‘9. Study and Exposition of Romans 3:21-31’ by Greg Herrick

https://bible.org/seriespage/study-and-exposition-romans-321-31

• ‘What is Justification? What does it mean to be justified?’ from gotquestions.com https://www.gotquestions.org/justification.html

• Romans (Read, Mark, Learn Series) by William Taylor (St Helens Bishopsgate): https://www.koorong.com/search/product/romans-read-mark-learn-series-helens-bishopsgate-st/9781845503628.jhtml

• Romans (The Story of God Bible Commentary Series) by Michael Bird: https://www.koorong.com/search/product/romans-the-story-of-god-bible-commentary-series/9780310327189.jhtml

Talk 7/12 (ROMANS SERIES): 02/09/18 “The Beginnings of Justification”

by the Rev’d Adam Lowe

Bible Passage: Romans 4:1-25

Over the last six weeks we’ve been exploring Paul’s letter to the Romans, and the good news, that we can be set right with God. • That we can be justified, not by our effort, or goodness, or because God ‘owes us one’,

but because God offers his righteousness to everyone who believes.

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes. (v.16)

• We are justified by faith, not by works. We are justified by the one in whom we put our trust, not by the things that we do.

• Many listening would have thought this sounded like some radical new teaching. And so Paul now sets out to prove, not only that we’re justified by faith, and what he means by faith, but that actually, justification by faith has ALWAYS been the way that God has done it.

• And if he’s going to prove that, there’s no better example than Abraham. Everyone loves him!Many Jewish people taught that Abraham was the ultimate example of obedience. That the reason that God chose him to be the father of the nations and the one through whom the world would be blessed, was because he was righteous. But Paul says, no, Abraham wasn’t righteous by his own doing,God declared him righteous because of in whom he believed.

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What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, discovered in this matter? If, in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about—but not before God. What does Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” (vv.1-4)

When Paul says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness’, he’s quoting Genesis 15. In effect saying - look - justification by faith has been here all along!

• The word for ‘credited’ is an accounting term, meaning to “count as”.It means that God did not weigh up if Abraham was worthy, but simply because of where Abraham put his trust, God counted Abraham, God declared Abraham, worthy.

Imagine for a moment that after doing a couple of weeks of work, your employer gave you an envelope with some money and said, ‘out of my goodwill, I’ve decided to give you this money’… You’d be really offended, and would say, ‘it’s not out of your goodwill’, ‘it’s out of obligation’!

• But Paul says, that’s not the case when it comes to God and Abraham. He wasn’t justified because it was owed to him - that wasn’t the source of his worth, He was justified because of in whom he put his trust.

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So what then does this sort of saving faith look like? What do we learn about a justifying faith from Abraham?

• We learn that it… • …is in God (vv.1-15)

…recognises our helplessness (vv.16-19) …trusts that God will keep his promises (vv.20-25)

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#1. IN GOD \\ VERSES 1-15

So first, a saving faith is IN GOD.

• Abraham’s faith was God-centred, not self-centred. • Paul demonstrates that by excluding the trio of obvious options,

the commonly considered potential ways to be justified: works, circumcision, and the Law.

• So note first with regards to works,Paul says, well if Abraham was justified by works, not only would he have had something to boast in - which he didn’t, BUT, righteousness would have been credited as a wage, hours x rate of pay, out of obligation - which it wasn’t!

• Paul even appeals to David, quoting Psalm 32 in verses 7-8, saying…

“Blessed are those whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the one whose sin the Lord will never count against them.” (vv.7-8)

• So here is David, the great yet flawed King of Israel, recognising that he is blessed, not as a result of the good that he has done,

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that somewhere in his life that he must have done something good…but he’s blessed because he is utterly undeserving, yet has been forgiven.

• You can’t stand before God as a worker, because all that gets checked in is our sin, no, justification comes not as a reward or a payment, but as a gift.

• The second exclusion is circumcision. Some people would have suggested that it’s through circumcision they’re saved. But Paul says, ‘No’, that makes even less sense, with a basic historical test: because Abraham was declared righteous before he was circumcised, in fact at least 13 years before, not after.

Under what circumstances was it credited? Was it after he was circumcised, or before? It was not after, but before! And he received circumcision as a sign, a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. (vv.10-11)

• Therefore circumcision could not have possibly been a condition for justification, but simply a sign that he had been justified.

• Well how about the Law? Perhaps that’s the way that Abraham was justified? To which Paul says ’no’ again.

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It was not through the law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of the world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith. (v.13)

• For not only was the purpose of the Law to convict of sin not to save us from sin, but if it was dependent on our perfect observation of the Law,then it would have been impossible for God to keep his promises because no one is capable of perfectly fulfilling it. //

• Was Abraham’s justification by works? No!If so, he would have boasted and it would have been a reward.Was Abraham’s justification by circumcision? No!If so, then he would have been circumcised before not after.Was Abraham’s justification by the Law? No!If so, God would be unable to fulfil his promise to save because it would be dependent on us.

• The means through which Abraham’s justification was received, was by faith. • And the place in which Abraham’s faith finds its focus,

is not in himself or the things that he did, is not in his identity or the people to whom he belongs, is not in his capacity or success in fulfilling the Law, but through his trust in God, and God alone.

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Saving faith, is not just a general strength, or a vague optimism, but a trust that is centred away from self, and directed in God.

• It involve a trust transfer, away from self and to God. • Trusting God more than ourselves, more than anything else. • That means there’s no room for boasting: because we can’t claim to be the cause.

We’re not left wondering: because God is the object of our faith. We’re not waiting for a performance review: because the verdict is in. We don’t have to compare ourselves: because it’s available to everyone. It doesn’t matter if our trust is small: because it’s based on the trustworthiness of God. That we don’t have to worry if we’ve done enough, or are good enough, because it’s got nothing to do with us, and everything to do with the one in whom we trust.

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#2. RECOGNISES OUR HELPLESSNESS \\ VERSES 16-19

Second, a saving faith RECOGNISES OUR HELPLESSNESS before God.

Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead —since he was about a hundred years old —and that Sarah’s womb was also dead. (vv.16-19)

Can you imagine being 100 years old, not yet having had a child, and then being promised by God that you would!?

• Sometimes as modern people we’re tempted to think, that these ancient people would have just been naive about how all of this works.

• But that’s clearly not the case, because Paul reminds us, that with the promise Abraham faces the fact that he is getting on in the years: body as good as dead, and that Sarah was also beyond child-raring age.

• They would have known that they were incapable of doing this, in and of themselves - they were absolutely helpless without God.

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• But the biggest advantage that they had, was they knew that they were.Because they knew that they were helpless, there was only one to whom they would look.

• The recognition of their helplessness, of their weakness, only served to ensure that their faith in God was not weakened. So often we view helplessness as weakness, but when it leads us to God, it’s actually phenomenal strength. //

• Because, faith is not based on some sort of psychological strength. It’s not some untapped inner potential to be unleashed. It’s trust that recognises the one who gives life to the dead, and calls into being things that were not.

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I think it’s not surprising at all, that so often the times in my life, in which my trust in God is both most clear and demonstrated, are the very times in which I feel like things are most out of my control. • But of course the reality is not that those times are the exceptions,

it’s just that it’s in those times I’m just more clearly seeing things for how they truly are. • We can often be tempted to think that we don’t need God,

or that we don’t need God in a certain area of our life, but the reality is that we need to trust God in everything, because it’s only then that we move away from drifting into self-reliance, and pressing back into the only one who is truly reliable.

Nothing in my hand I bring, simply to the cross I cling.

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#3. TRUSTS GOD WILL KEEP HIS PROMISES \\ VERSES 20-25

Finally, we learn from Abraham, that a saving faith,not only is in God, not only recognises our helplessness, but TRUSTS THAT GOD WILL KEEP HIS PROMISES.

Abraham would have had absolutely no idea how God would keep his promises…

• But in human terms, the situation, as Abraham waited, could look hopeless. • But instead of Abraham’s trust diminishing, it was strengthened. Why? Verse 20…

Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised.” (vv.20-22)

That even though he didn’t understand, he was persuaded that God WOULD and WAS ABLE.

• That doesn’t mean that Abraham had some unshakeable trust. We know that Abraham had some anxious moments. We know that his life was marked by mistakes, sins, and failures, as well as good, We know that when he was first promised they would have a child, he laughed!

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• But what we’re being reminded that despite those moments, his trust had a constancy that was resolved in his understanding of God.

• Not what he felt about God, but what he thought about God. • So often, trusting in God, having faith in God, is painted as a leap in the dark,

of checking your brain at the door, and remaining optimistic, despite reality! • Greg Koukl, says that faith is often incorrectly defined as:

…”religious wishful thinking, in which one squeezes out spiritual hope by intense acts of sheer will. People of ‘faith’ believe the impossible. People of ‘faith’ believe that which is contrary to fact. People of ‘faith’ believe that which is contrary to evidence. People of ‘faith’ ignore reality.” (Greg Koukl)

• But that’s not what we read here. • Abraham didn’t holdfast because of the quality of his trust,

Abraham didn’t have faith because he abandoned reason, Abraham trusted because he was persuaded!

• He had had pondered and considered the power of God. He had contemplated God, thought about God, studied God, prayed to God, and having grown in a confidence of who God is, of all that he had done, of what he was capable of, he had a resolve that said,

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I don’t know how God will do it, but I know that he will both keep his promises, and that he is able to follow through.

Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. (Hebrews 11:1)

• He simply prioritised: his understanding of the character and power of God, over his understanding of how God would precisely bring about his promise.

• Trusting in God is not the absence of thinking, but acting in response to our understanding of who God is, rather than simply the circumstance in which we find ourselves in.

• That doesn’t mean that we can trust we’ll get a certain outcome in anything, but it does mean that we can have absolute certainty for things that God has promised.

• And the amazing news is that we have even more grounds than Abraham to trust in God,because we know precisely the means through which God has fulfilled his promises.

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CONCLUSION \\ A STEP OF FAITH?

The words “it was credited to him” were written not for him alone, but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness—for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification. (vv.23-25)

This news, this good news, of justification by faith, was not just for Abraham, but it is also for you.

• That if you want to be set right with God,that it has nothing to do with how hard you work, or the people to which you belong, or how obedient you’ve been, but in whom you put your trust.

• We have even more ground than Abraham, because we know that God’s promises have found fulfilment in Jesus. That he was delivered over to death for us, for our sins,and that he raised victoriously, declaring that we have been justified.

• Abraham didn’t know that. He didn’t know how God would work out his purposes. But we do.

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• And as God invites us to receive that gift, as God invites us to put our trust in him, faith is transformed from an abstract idea, into an intentional step, informed by the facts.

• We can either think our lives are good enough, and trust in ourselves; or in great humility recognise that they’re not,and instead desperately throw ourselves, trust in the one, who saves.

• We can base our worthiness on our works - both good and bad, or we can base our worthiness on that which is given through Jesus.

• On that day of judgment, what will be your answer? All that you’ve done? Or all that Jesus has given?

• If you’re persuaded that trusting in Jesus is the answer, do not delay. Put your trust in him, for as you do, as you believe, he will credit your faith with righteousness and you will be saved.

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