Thank you for reading this sermon from Christ Fellowship. I hope and pray that this sermon will be a blessing of grace and truth to you. With that said, let me encourage you not to use this sermon as a replacement for your local church. Christ Jesus did not establish his Church simply for us to consume content. Instead, He calls us to be part of a real, covenant family.
I want you to imagine there’s a country club down the street. This club has been around for a hundred years and is very exclusive. Only extremely wealthy people get into the club, and not even money is enough. You need some sort of status in the community or family history. And so, the membership list is very small… very exclusive.
But one day, the club’s manager finds a dusty envelope in the back of his desk. He opens the envelope and finds the original charter for the club. On that piece of paper, it clearly says that anyone in town is welcome to join the club. They don’t need money or status to be a member.
At some point, in the history of the club, that was forgotten. What do you think would happen if the manager took that document to the current membership? There would be a revolt!
We have a similar situation developing in Romans. Paul has challenged the status quo. His Jewish brothers and sisters believed they had a right to enter God’s kingdom by virtue of their birth or status, or because they have taken the proper steps.
But Paul wants them to know, and also the new Christians in Rome who are Gentiles, that God’s kingdom does not function like an elite club. To prove it, he takes them back 2000 years, to the charter member of God’s people. His argument is simple and clear. Let’s begin reading in Romans 4:
[1] What then shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh?
Abraham was the great ancestor of the Jewish people. But why did God walk with Abraham? Was it because Abraham was such a good man? That’s the question Paul asks.
This makes a great example because Abraham was well respected by the Jewish people, even though his story is so complicated. Abraham did some great things, but he also did some foolish things.
And Paul wants to convince us that not even Abraham was good enough.
[2] For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God.
[3] For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.”
In other words, Abraham trusted God’s promise and God counted that faith as righteousness. Paul uses this verse to illustrate the Gospel that he explained to us in the previous chapter.
Like Abraham, we are sinners in need of God’s righteousness. And like Abraham, we can receive it by trusting God’s promise through Jesus.
But this is not how Jewish theologians at that time understood the story of Abraham or the verse being quoted by Paul. They believed God approved of Abraham because Abraham was so faithful. Some rabbis even taught that Abraham was perfect!
But what did they do with the story of Abraham sleeping with his wife’s servant because he got tired of waiting for Sarah to have a baby? Or the two times Abraham allowed a foreign king to take his wife?
God did not accept Abraham because he proved himself to be faithful, but Paul knew he needed to defend this interpretation.
[4] Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due.
If you do a job, you get paid, right? A paycheck is earned. A gift is not. That’s what makes it a gift.
[5] And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness,
In other words, this righteousness we need is not a paycheck. It’s a free gift of grace. Why? Because faith is not a work. By definition, faith is trusting someone else to do the work! I’m not the object of my own faith. It has to be something or someone outside of myself.
[6] just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works:
[7] “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered;
[8] blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.”
Paul doubles down by bringing in another highly respected ancestor – King David.
But David’s story was also complicated. There are a lot of good stories in the life of David. But there are a few bad ones too. David’s resume included adultery and murder.
So, when David says “blessed is the man whose sins are covered” he’s not thinking of someone else… he’s thinking of himself!
Abraham and David both knew themselves to be recipients of grace. The righteousness of God wasn’t a paycheck for them… it was a gift.
But was it a gift available to them specifically because they were Jewish? Is that why God showed them favor? Paul deals with that, too.
[9] Is this blessing then only for the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised? For we say that faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness.
[10] 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.
That’s factually correct. Genesis 15 comes before Genesis 17. God declared Abraham righteous by faith before he was circumcised.
[11] He received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the 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,
[12] 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.
If you go back and read the story in Genesis 17, what you will discover is that God gave circumcision as a sign of His own faithfulness, not Abraham’s. Abraham still had doubts.
Twelve times in Genesis 17, God promises to do something for Abraham using the phrase “I will.”
God does all the promising and Abraham does all the receiving. Joe Novenson called Genesis 17 “a jackhammer on Abraham’s self-reliance.”
I will do it… I will do it… I will do it… God says.
The Jews had turned circumcision into a mark of their own faithfulness, when, ironically, it was always intended to be a sign and seal of God’s faithfulness.
The New Testament sacraments work the same way. They work like a notary stamp confirming God’s promises to us in Christ. “This is real. This is guaranteed. Trust me.”
It was true for Abraham. It was true for David. It was true for the Roman Christians. And it’s still true for us.
We are here today to worship God for His grace. He’s been faithful to us even though we were unfaithful sinners. And so, this is not a club for people who think they are worthy of being here. But… is that how we are known by outsiders?
That, of course, is one of Paul’s main concerns. The Gospel is for everyone who believes. It’s not for the worthy, because then it would be for no one.
But is that how the world outside sees the church?
Imagine that you just became the new owner of a business, but the business you purchased has a bad reputation in the community. Numerous complaints have been filed with the better business bureau. Bad reviews are all over the internet.
As the new owner, how would you go about repairing your reputation? You have to inform customers, right? You have to change their perception. You could not simply wait for new customers to walk in the door. That would put you out of business very quickly. You need to go out and actively seek to change the perception in the community.
The world perceives the Church as self-righteous by default. They do not believe we have anything to offer that is good. Their perception is that we are the morality police, who would pile guilt and shame on them unless they keep up with our standard.
To be fair, some of that is the world’s rebellion against the Word of God. We talked about that back in chapter 1. The world is actively suppressing the truth. That’s true.
But to some measure, churches also attract religious people… people who love the rules and pay lip service to the Gospel. They don’t really see themselves as sinners in need of God’s grace. Righteousness isn’t a gift for them… it’s a paycheck.
This is the type of thing Paul was seeking to fight in this letter. It is so tempting to believe we deserve God’s favor more than other people. “I’m here. I’m faithful. I’m not the problem.”
But you’re avoiding Jesus, and you’re teaching other people to avoid Jesus too. The wide road to destruction will have just as many religious people on it as it will licentious pagans.
In other words, we don’t want to be known as a country club for self-righteous hypocrites. We want to be known by our dependence on the faithfulness of God and our love for one another. We’re here to learn about and celebrate a Gospel that is for anyone who believes.
If you’re here and you know you don’t measure up, this is for you. You don’t have to clean yourself up before you come in. You don’t have to earn a paycheck from God. Your sins are covered, and the Lord will not count them against you. Don’t walk out of here trying to earn what has already been given.
And if you’re here and you’ve been doing this for a long time, this is for you too. It’s easy to start thinking of grace as a paycheck. “I’ve been faithful. I’m not the problem.” But it’s still a gift, and maybe you’ve forgotten how much you need it to be a gift.
And when our friends and neighbors think of this church, I hope they won’t think of it as a gated community where only certain people are welcome. I want them to think of people who know how much they’ve been forgiven, and who can’t stop talking about the one who forgave them.
And as we come to the table this morning, remember, this is God’s way of saying that these promises are real.