The Characteristics of Justifying Faith
Romans 4:13-17
Did you know that the largest scale model in the world encompasses an area of almost 10,000 square feet, includes 895,000 pieces, and was built by a team of 100 people in 1964.
It’s a model of New York City that is located in the Queens Museum of Art.
Updated in 1992, it includes every single building that was built before then in all five boroughs of New York City.
And while very much out of date, the model is billed as the cheapest and most effective way to get a bird’s eye panoramic view of New York City.
Well, in a sense this is what Romans 4 is for us when it comes to viewing our salvation from God’s perspective. Because you see, in Romans 4, Paul uses Abraham as the model of how God justifies people by grace through faith.
And it's a great choice because to the Jews Abraham was the model of justification and salvation by religious ceremonialism and works.
They said Abraham was saved because he was circumcised. And that he was saved because he kept the works of the law.
But, Paul says Contrary to what you've been taught and taught about Abraham, he was not justified and saved by religious ceremony or works—he was saved by grace through faith.
Now, if you want the Cliff Notes of Romans 4—Abraham as the model for all who have been and will be justified before God, reveals to us that salvation is not achieved by one’s good deeds, good works, good intentions, religious heritage, ability to keep the Law, be good, or by any human effort—rather salvation is by God’s grace alone and power alone through faith alone.
And specifically, in our section of verses for today, which is Romans 4:13-17we will learn three very important truths about faith from the model God provides us in Abraham.
In a nutshell, what we will learn today is that: Whereas, we are saved and receive God’s promise by faith alone, it is a faith that does not stand alone, but is dependent upon and in complete accord with the grace and sovereign purpose of God alone.
1. Faith is incompatible with works and law. (13-15)
This promise, Paul mentions in verse 13, is the Abrahamic covenant.
It was given to Abraham in Genesis 12, repeated in chapter 15, chapter 18, and again in chapter 22.
And in this promise, God essentially promises Abraham land, posterity, and blessing.
If you were to read those chapters in Genesis you would see that God promises Abraham that He is going to give him a great land and make out of Abraham a great nation and give him descendents that will be as numerous as the sand of the sea and the stars in the heavens. And that through Abraham all the families of the earth would be blessed.
And the really powerful thing about this promise—this covenant—is that all Abraham had to do to see it come to fruition was to believe God.
And that is exactly what Abraham did.
Look at Genesis 15. After reiterating the part of the promise originally given in Genesis 12 about Abraham having as many descendents as the stars in the heavens—Abraham, verse 16 tells us, “believed in the LORD and He reckoned it to him as righteousness.”
In other words, Abraham did not go out and find a knife and circumcise himself or run down to the local synagogue and dig up a copy of the Law to start obeying it so as to ensure he was worthy of receiving this promise.
First of all, as we saw last week, circumcision hadn’t even been invented yet and was still some 14 years in the future.
And secondly, the Law wouldn’t be given for another 430 years.
Listen, all Abraham did was believe God and God counted that belief—that faith in Him—as righteousness.
Now note how Romans 4:13, amplifies the promise to Abraham to say that he would become heir of the world. What does this mean?
Well the original promise given in Genesis 12:3 says: "In thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed."
Now, here we come to a very important point. Abraham is going to receive a land the land of Canaan. He is going to have a people really the people of Israel, the covenant people.
And then this huge statement about the whole world getting blessed. And he is even called “the father of many nations” in verse 17.
In other words, by virtue of the fact that Abraham is going to have physical and spiritual descendents that are too numerous to count so that he is called the “father of many nations” and because through Abraham every family of the earth shall be blessed—Abraham is the heir of the world.
And the reason why he will have so many descendents both physical and spiritual and the reason why he will be the father of many nations and the reason why through him every family on the earth will be blessed is because through Abraham the Redeemer or the Messiah would come.
Look at Galatians 3:16. Notice that Paul says that the “promises were spoken to Abraham and his seed . . . and the seed is Christ.”
In other words, the promise given to Abraham of inheriting the earth can only be realized through Christ Who is the seed or the descendent of Abraham through which God will fulfill the promise.
So, in essence, it is only in Christ that all the people of the earth and every family on the earth will be blessed.
Now look at Galatians 3:29. Note that if you belong to Christ, that is you are a believer in Christ then you by virtue of being united with Christ are Abraham’s seed as well and are also an heir of the world.
You see, when you put your faith in Christ who is the seed of Abraham, you become a child of faith and in that sense spiritually a son of Abraham who is the model of faith for anyone and everyone who will be saved.
And thus, you become a co-heir with Abraham of this promise to inherit the world.
Now if you have trouble with that, remember Romans chapter 8 where the Lord says that believers are heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ Who, again, is the seed.
So, as heirs of God we inherit what God grants... as joint heirs with Christ, we inherit what God grants to Christ and what does God grant to Christ?
Well in Daniel 7:13-14 Jesus Christ, The Son of Man, Who one day comes with the clouds is granted a “kingdom”, which encompasses all peoples, nations, and men of every language.
And then if you read just a little further in Daniel to Daniel 7:27 you see that this kingdom is given to “the saints” of the most high—that’s us—the saints are those who belong to Christ by virtue of having been redeemed and bought by His blood.
So, in Christ we do inherit the world and in fact, according to such passages as Revelation 5:9-10 will reign upon the earth.
In fact, its what the whole creation is waiting for according to Romans 8:19-23.
Listen as believers in Christ—you are one with Christ and thus, one with the seed that was to come through Abraham at just the right time in history to go to the cross as God incarnated as a man—so as to die in the place of everyone who will believe and thus, redeem them from their sins so as to be recipients of Abraham’s promise, which in part is the earth.
Look at Genesis 3:15.
The seed of Abraham who is Christ Jesus the Lord—is none other than the seed of the woman who God promised would crush Satan—who through his craftiness usurped the authority over the earth from man.
And one of the reasons Christ, who is the seed of the woman, crushes Satan is to restore to those people who have placed faith in him their original destiny of living upon and ruling over a restored earth in the Kingdom.
But again—please note in Romans 4:13 that this promise is not through the keeping of the Law but through faith alone.
In fact, according to verses 14 and 15, all the Law can do is bring God’s wrath to bear upon you—it cannot save you and never was meant to.
It was only meant to show us our need of a Savior and drive us to Him for salvation. Had there been no law—we would not have known we needed a Savior because we would not have known that we had offended God.
So, in these three verses we see that Saving faith is not compatible with the Law or with good works.
But if you will look at Romans 4:16 we’ll see what saving faith is compatible with. . . .
2. Faith is compatible with, in accordance with, and dependent upon God’s grace. (16)
Listen, it is important to understand that even though faith alone is what saves a person that faith does not ever operate alone in the sense that it is ever independent of God’s divine sovereign grace.
Were it not for God’s sovereign grace providing a way of salvation, no one’s faith would save them and in fact—no one would have or could have saving faith.
If faith operates independent of God’s grace then faith is nothing less than a meritorious work that we exercise to earn salvation.
The power of salvation is not found in your faith but in God’s grace.
Abraham’s faith, was not in itself righteousness. Rather, his faith was reckoned to him as righteousness on the basis of the fact that God would provide the person with saving faith the very righteousness of Christ Himself.
And this is what Paul is saying in verse 16.
And finally, not only is faith in accordance with and dependent upon God’s sovereign grace. . . .
3. Faith is called into being by God’s sovereign power. (17)
If Abraham is indeed the model of how all people will be saved—then all who are saved are saved by a faith, which is their own—
but which finds its source in God, Who finds great glory and joy in giving spiritual life to spiritually dead people as He calls into existence into their lives the very faith required for them to exercise so as to be saved.
That is what verse 17 is saying.
We are saved by faith, a faith that is our own, but a faith that is given to us by God.
Grace not only gives us what we do not deserve—it gives us what we cannot in and of ourselves even produce—the faith to believe and be saved!
Certainly, Romans 4:18 is true—Abraham did believe against all the odds—but only because God called into existence into his life the very faith he needed to believe.
In essence, a literal understanding of the last phrase in verse 17 would be: God speaks to non-existent things as though they existed and then they come into being and really do exist.
And since the whole context of this chapter is concerning “saving faith”—Paul’s point is that when you were saved—it was because God spoke into existence in your life the very faith you needed in order to believe in Jesus and when He did that, your faith came into existence and you believed and were saved.
In other words, even the faith required to be belief and be saved was a gift of God, which is exactly what Paul says in Ephesians 2:8-9.
CONCLUSION
So, our salvation is all of grace.
There is absolutely nothing we did or did not do to obtain it—even the faith to believe and thus be saved was given to us by God.
And if this was the kind of faith given to us by God—we really had no choice but to believe because within those whom God has called to salvation--He always calls into existence the very faith to believe and this faith does not ever fail to achieve the salvation God sends it to accomplish.
If you are a child of God by virtue of having placed saving faith in Jesus Christ alone to save you from your sins—it is only because of God’s wondrous grace in giving you this faith to see Christ and believe.
And this is why saving faith has nothing to do with our religious ceremonies and good works—it is all of grace.
And again, whereas, we are saved and receive God’s promise by faith alone, it is a faith that does not stand alone, but is dependent upon and in complete accord with the grace and sovereign purpose of God alone.
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