Biblical Accounting - Romans 4:1-12

0:55But for the Reformers, it made all the difference in the world. It was a huge, huge difference. I've heard it said that the formal cause of the Reformation was scripture alone. That's the formal cause where the way that they defend it, the place that they're getting authority from is scripture alone. That's the formal cause of the Reformation. But I've heard that the material cause of the Reformation, the reason why it mattered so much. Much, the reason why they fought so much.

1:34The material cause of the Reformation was sola fide, faith alone. This is why the Reformation was such a big deal, and why it was such a big deal to the Reformers, is because of faith alone. They believed that the gospel was central to the Christian faith, and they believed that the doctrine of faith alone was central to the gospel. Justification by faith alone. Sola fide. That's the confession of the Reformers. That's the confession of Protestants. And in the middle of the 16th century, the 1500s, this was formally condemned by the Catholic Church. They had a council called the Council of Trent, and they were taking on these doctrines that the Reformers were teaching based on Scripture.

2:34And the Council of Trent put out an official document that became the official doctrine of the Catholic Church. And one of the lines says this: If anyone saith that by faith alone the impious is justified in such wise as to mean that nothing else is required to cooperate in order to the obtaining of the grace of justification, let him be anathema. Let him be cursed to hell. If someone claims faith alone in a way that they mean that nothing else is required to cooperate in order to obtain justification, let him be anathema. That's their official declaration. Let him be cursed.

3:19And they were quick to claim that this was the historical position of the church, that ever since the early church, this is what the church has believed. We should not say faith alone. But this quote, I'm going to read to you a quote from Clement, who lived in the first century, like the same one that Jesus lived in. It's a very early church, right? He said, This: We are not justified through ourselves, or through our wisdom, or understanding, or piety, or works, which we have done in holiness of heart, but through faith, by which the Almighty God has justified all who have existed from the beginning, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen. So, Clement gives this understanding that no, in no way are we justified by works, it is all by faith. That's the historical understanding of the church. Well, back to the 16th century. On the one side, you have the Roman Catholic Church saying you'd better not say faith alone.

4:25And then you have the Reformers saying, We have to say faith alone. That's an essential part of the gospel. And if you don't accept the doctrine of faith alone, then you don't really even understand the gospel. So between these two sides, battle lines were drawn. Men and women were killed, all for the word alone, alone. You see, the Roman church was fine with saying that we're justified by faith. They're fine with saying that we're justified by grace.

5:08The key point in the conflict was the word alone. The reformers kept saying we're saved by faith alone. The reason why this was a big deal to the Roman church is because they believe in the doctrine of infused righteousness, infused righteousness, while the position of the reformers was that of imputed righteousness. When we are declared to be righteous, when righteousness is imputed to us, it is instantly declared upon our account. Something is transferred to us. This is a legal, forensic reality that becomes true about our lives, that we have the righteousness of God, like we've been studying in Romans.

6:00Righteousness is imputed. It's declared on our account. But the other position, this alternative doctrine is infused righteousness. The teaching that, yes, salvation is by faith. Yes, salvation is by grace, they would say. But what happens when you become a believer is that God begins to give you righteousness. He begins to work it in your life. So that over time, as you do more and more righteous things, as you grow and grow, this righteousness is infused so that when you get to heaven and you see the Lord face to face, you're actually saved, at least in part, by those works. They'd say, yes, it's by grace. God gave you those works by infusing that righteousness into you so that whenever you're justified, it's a cooperation between faith and your works.

7:05The doctrine of infused righteousness says this. We are righteous before God because of our righteous behavior, because of the righteousness that transforms and changes us. Now, you can see how that doctrine would be abused, right? That doctrine of infused righteousness. And not every Catholic church abused that, but a lot did. And you can imagine the temptation, right? You know. A man coming along and saying, let me tell you how you can infuse a little bit more righteousness into your life.

7:39All you got to do is give me a little more money. You can see how this would be abused. Within the past 30 years, 30 years for us and our generation, Catholics and evangelicals, evangelicals, have tried to come together to bridge this gap between themselves. And they'll put out all these documents saying, you know, we're all believers in Jesus. We're all saved by grace. We're all saved by faith in Jesus. They've even changed the word infused righteousness to imparted righteousness. It sounds a lot like imputed righteousness. But the content is actually the same. They never change the doctrine. And actually, you'll notice in those documents that have those men coming together saying, we believe this, we're saved by faith, they never include the word alone.

8:34It's never faith alone. And so in that point, there's still this divide between us and the Catholic Church. We believe that we are saved by faith alone. Our works play no part in our justification. We are righteous by faith alone. Now, why? The boring history lesson. Why the long introduction before we even get to the text today? Because we need to know that when we come to the passage that we're going to study today, men and women have been killed because of their interpretation of this passage.

9:16Battle lines were drawn. Swords were unsheathed. Fires were kindled at the stakes. And men and women were led to their deaths because of their interpretation of the passage that we're about to read this morning. So, this might seem like small details to us, but for them, these were things that were worth staking their lives on. So, let's pay attention to the text this morning. The righteousness of God has been imputed to us apart from works of the law. Today, in our text, we're going to see three characteristics of the righteousness that saves. Three characteristics of righteousness by faith alone. And those three characteristics is that this righteousness is an unearned gift, it is an undeserved blessing, and it is an unconditional offer. It's an unearned gift, it's an undeserved blessing, and it's an unconditional offer. Offer. Follow along as I read Romans chapter 4, verses 1 through 12. 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.

11:09Just 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. Verse 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. 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. 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 him. Them as well, 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. Pray with me. Father, as we come to this long text, we pray for help to get through it, help to understand it.

12:23We pray for help to pay attention, to have active minds as we seek to understand what you're teaching through the Apostle Paul in this passage. Help us be people who understand faith, who understand what it is and why it matters. And help us be people who have faith, people who trust in you. In Jesus' name. Well, the first characteristic of the righteousness that saves is that it is an unearned gift. It is an unearned gift. In the previous chapters, Paul had declared something to be true about the sin of all mankind. He says, I charged that all are under sin. And then he proved it with Scripture. He quoted passage after passage after passage. Well, in our text today, he's kind of following that same pattern. He has declared that it is faith that saves. Last week, we looked at some of the practical remedies. Of if that's true, if faith saves, and what does that mean for us? Well, now he's going to go back and prove that doctrine with some Old Testament scripture.

13:40Remember, this is probably a good taste of what it looked like when Paul was arguing in the synagogues. If you remember, Rome was a place that Paul hadn't been yet. He hadn't been there to minister to the church. He hadn't been there to argue in the synagogues. But everywhere else he went, he went to the synagogue first. He argued and tried to prove that Jesus was the Christ, the Messiah. And we can always wish that we got to hear those arguments. But I think in Romans, we get a little bit of taste of that. He was never there to argue in the synagogues. And maybe this is what it looked like: that he's bringing up the fact that we're all under sin and then proving it with the Old Testament Jewish scriptures. That he's bringing up the fact that we can only be saved by faith and then proving it with the Old Testament scriptures. And that's the pattern we see today.

14:31He is proving that righteousness is by faith. And if there is one person to go to in the Old Testament to convince the Jew that righteousness is by faith, there is no better person than Abraham himself, the father of the Jews, the father of the circumcised, who, before the law and before his circumcision, had faith and was justified. Look at verse 2. 1. Romans 4, 1. What then shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather, according to the flesh? So what was gained by Abraham? What did he find? What did he find out? What did he acquire? Paul is speaking to the Jews as a Jew. He says, what was gained by our father according to the flesh? What did he get? Did he get something to boast about? Verse 2. For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. So he says, if Abraham was justified by works, if he did do something in order to get his righteousness, in order to get his justification, then he would have a reason to boast, like we saw last week. But he doesn't. That's not how it works with God. He says, not before God. Abraham was not justified by works, and so he does not have something to boast in. And here's his proof. Look at verse 3. For what does the scripture say? He turns to the scriptures. What does the scripture say? Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.

16:20He quotes the passage that we read this morning. God said, I'm going to bless you, Abraham. And Abraham said, How? I don't have any kids. What is this gift you're going to give me? And God says, no, your heir is not going to be some other person in your household. Your heir is going to be your own son. God made a promise to Abraham, and Abraham believed that promise. They go on to do the thing in the night where they cut the animals and the smoking oven comes in between them. But the point that Paul is making, the passage that he quotes, is that when God made the promise, Abraham believed God, and God counted that to him as righteousness. Before the law, before works of faith, came faith itself.

17:15And it was based on that faith itself that Abraham was counted righteous. Now, that word counted is a key word throughout this whole passage, this long passage that we're studying this morning. The word counted, it comes from accounting words. I mean, it comes from accounting language. And you can kind of see the metaphor there, right? If someone pays for your meal, you know, I think of somebody picking up your tab. We use the same kind of language. If somebody pays for your meal at a restaurant, it's no longer counted to you. It's counted to them. Or if I go to a restaurant and I pay for it, Somebody else, and then we start to leave. The waitress doesn't say, no, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. He didn't pay because she understands I paid for him. It wasn't counted to him, it was counted to me. The debt's been paid, it just wasn't paid by him. It was removed from his debt and put onto mine. Paul uses this metaphor in the same way in Philemon, verse 18. He says, If he, Onesimus, has wronged you at all or owes you anything, charge that to my account. I, Paul, write this with my own hand. I will repay it. Charge it to my account. He owes it, but I'll pay it. Count it to me.

18:51And in the passage that Paul is quoting here in Romans, that's what he's saying happened to Abraham. Abraham wasn't righteous on his own. Abraham believed God, and God credited that to him as righteousness. He put it on his account. God changed the tab in Abraham's life instantly. He imputed and declared that righteousness to be true about Abraham. Now, if something is going to be credited to your bank account, let's say you check your phone or however you check. Your bank account, and you see that some money came into your bank account. That means one of two things: either someone gave you a gift and it came into your bank account, or you worked and you earned it. It's your paycheck. It's either a gift or you earned it. If you're at a restaurant and you don't pay your bill, but your bill is marked as paid, that's because of one of two reasons. If you don't pay your bill, but your bill is marked as paid, that's one of two reasons. Either your friend paid it as a gift, or you washed some dishes and you earned it.

20:15This is where he goes in verse 4. 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. Okay, so he's continuing on with that language of counting, and he's saying, Okay, if this is counted to you, if this is added to your account, it was either a gift or wages. In Abraham's case, if he had worked for his righteousness, it wouldn't have been a gift for him. It would have been his wages, it would have been something that he earned, this righteousness. That he earned, but it wasn't. God didn't owe him anything. Abraham didn't work, and so it was a gift. Verse 5, to the one who does not work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness.

21:22The gift was that righteousness counted on Abraham's account, even though he didn't have righteousness of his own. This was not because he worked for this credit to earn it, but because he believed in God. God is the one who justifies the ungodly. That's what he says in this passage. God is the one who justifies the one who's not just, the one who's ungodly. And we saw several weeks ago how the only reason why that's possible is because of the cross of Jesus Christ. That since Jesus died as a sacrifice for sin to pay our penalty, now God shows himself to be just and the justifier of the ungodly. And that's what he says in this passage. God is the God who justifies the ungodly. Abraham believed in this God who justifies the ungodly, and it was counted to him as righteousness. He was made righteous. Paul is saying that the same principle that applied to Abraham applies to the Jews. And Christians in Paul's day. Just as it was back then, so it is now, Romans. And for us, it applies even today, in our day. That if you have trusted in the God who saves you and makes you righteous, if you have had faith in Jesus Christ, then you have been justified.

22:54Righteousness has been counted to you. It has been imputed to you, declared on your account. Righteousness has been credited to you, not because you worked for it and earned it, but because it's a gift. It's an unearned gift that God gave you when you believed. The next characteristic of righteousness by faith alone is that it is an undeserved blessing. It is an undeserved blessing. Look at verse 6. Just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works.

23:39Blessed 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. So he starts this passage by saying, just as. This is the same as. This is the same idea as this other example. Paul said that righteousness is. Counted to us as faith, that the Old Testament agrees with this when it talks about Abraham. And now he says David agrees with this as well. He talks about the same thing, he even uses the same language. David speaks of the blessing, the happiness, the happiness of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works. So Paul uses that same word again. He counts righteousness apart from works. He puts it on our account. The same language. And then he quotes from Psalm 32. And I love Psalm 32. We're not going to turn there this morning, but Psalm 32, if you could look there later in the week, is one of the most amazing passages in all of the Old Testament because it is so clear that God is the God who justifies the ungodly. It's one of the Old Testament passages that is so clear that we can be fully forgiven in spite of what we've done.

25:07Paul quotes it in verse 7: 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. And in the rest of the Psalm, David will go on to speak about how he tried to keep his sin a secret. He tried to keep it from the Lord. He tried to refuse to confess it, and it made his bones waste away. It made him sick. And then he came to the Lord. He confessed his sins. He found forgiveness from the Lord, and he tells us in the Psalms, he tells everyone who hears this psalm to do the same thing, to come to the Lord, confess, find forgiveness. And then at the end of the Psalm, he says, and next time don't go astray. You won't have to be corrected to begin with. That's his advice. But the psalm begins with these two verses that Paul quotes: Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven and whose sins are covered. And then notice the language in verse 8: Blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin. Same word, same idea.

26:20Blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin. So with Abraham, we saw the positive, right? He believed in God, and so righteousness was counted to his account. In David, we see the negative, that David had sinned, but that sin was not counted to his account. So these are twin truths. And David doesn't mention faith like Genesis did, but he's making it very clear that there's a category of people that have sinned, but who are forgiven. That sin is not.

27:00On their balance, that sin is not in their life, that sin has been covered and forgotten and forgiven. It does not count for them, and instead, they are counted as righteous. This is not portrayed as something that is slowly infused in our life to let us earn our own salvation. This is something that is portrayed as a reality, a current reality in our lives. That if we have believed in God and asked for forgiveness, that this is true now.

27:39We are righteous. We have been declared righteous, even though we're sinners. That sin is no longer counted to our account. Instead, we have received the righteousness of God. This agrees with Abraham's story, which Paul will continue on with in just a moment. But for now, let's just pause and marvel at how amazing of a truth this is for us. He says, Blessed is the one, happy is the one, happy is the one whose lawless deeds are forgiven.

28:17That is worth marveling at us. This is such a blessing for us. It is worth marveling at for us. Because we have shared in those lawless deeds. We have sinned. That's what should count to our account, is that sin. But that has been completely forgiven. This is a blessing. It's also undeserved. In the first point, we saw that it's an unearned gift. But here he's saying it's more than just being unearned. Because it's not just that we didn't earn it, we actually earned the opposite.

29:10We sinned. We committed lawless deeds. That earns something. The exact opposite of the righteousness of God. And yet, we still have been forgiven. Our sins have been covered, never to be brought up again, gone forever. What a blessing. And we should marvel in it. I think that's a big application of this passage as we look at these truths: is to just pause and this week to marvel in the fact that this is true for you, that you have an account that says all of your debts. And if you're a believer, that account has been wiped out. There is no debts, and you've been given righteousness instead.

30:00Application can be to copy it. As we interact with one another, you know, it can be our tendency to, yes, of course, we're going to forgive somebody. Yes, of course, we're going to reconcile with somebody, but maybe not yet. You know, maybe we want them to pay for it just a little bit. Not like making up for it if they've done something against us. We would never ask them to make up for it or something like that, but maybe we're going to make them pay for it by waiting a little bit before we forgive them. We really want them to feel the pain that they've caused us or feel that there's something in their relationship before we freely forgive. Maybe they've tried to agree to disagree with us, they've tried to make peace, or they've even agreed that they've wronged you and they've tried to apologize, you know, something like that, but then that apology isn't good enough for you. You say something like, you know, they said, I'm sorry I made you feel that way. I wish they said, I'm sorry I acted this way. You know, something, we can do all kinds of stuff like that and make people really feel the pain for the pain that they've caused us. We can drag them through forgiveness all again. And maybe we've told them we forgive them, but then we've forgiven them, but then we bring it up again. All of these kinds of things. I think rub against the grain of what we see in this passage. This is not the kind of forgiveness that we receive from our Father.

31:37Paul has already made it clear that Abraham didn't earn any of his forgiveness. And now he's quoting David, who speaks of how God completely covers over our sin, who forgives it so that it's forgotten and gone. God forgives and it's done forever. So we should try to copy this forgiveness. We should have a heart that is quick to forgive, quick to make peace and move on, quick to overlook offenses instead of dragging them out. There is nothing, if you're a Christian, there is nothing that is counted to your account. There is nothing for God to bring up later and rub it in a little bit just to make us feel bad. No, your sin is gone. It's not counted to you. There's nothing there to count. It's gone. It's been paid for. Righteousness has been imputed to you, transferred to you, declared on your account, that you have the righteousness of God.

32:50So righteousness by faith alone is an unearned gift. It is an undeserved blessing. And third, it is an unconditional offer. Righteousness by faith alone is an unconditional offer. Paul goes back to the case study of Abraham to show this. The father of the Jews, the father of the circumcised. He says, if this is true for David, that he received this forgiveness, if this is true for Abraham, well, then how is it counted? Did they have to do something for this to be true? When was it counted in their life? Was there any condition that they had to meet before they could be saved by faith? Look at verse 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. 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. 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. 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. So Paul asked the question, is this opportunity only for those who have been circumcised? Does a Gentile need to convert to Judaism? Before he can convert to Christianity, Paul answers by asking another question right back.

34:41He says, he asks, well, was it before or after Abraham was circumcised? That this was available to him. Verse 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. So circumcision is certainly not a requirement to be justified by faith. Circumcision is certainly not a condition to receive the righteousness of God because faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness in Genesis 15.

35:28And he wasn't circumcised until Genesis 17. Based on the ages that it gives us for Abraham's life, that's at least 13 years later in his life. We don't always see that gap as we just read through Genesis, but it could be even more because it doesn't list us the age of every single vision he has, but it's at least at a minimum, 13 years later, that he's circumcised. So well before he's circumcised. He is declared righteous. He had true faith.

36:06Therefore, there is no extra requirement for this faith to be effective. There's no other condition. It's an unconditional offer. It was for Abraham, and it is now. Well, if this is true, then how did Abraham's circumcision and faith fit together? What's the relationship between Abraham's faith and Abraham's circumcision? That's what he goes on to say in verse 11. He received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. So remember, a seal is like on a letter or a package or something like that, the wax stamp or whatever else they use to show you who this is from, to show you that if the seal hasn't been broken, that no one has opened this letter, it's come directly to you. It's this outward and visible sign of this reality. It's a guarantee that this letter hasn't been opened and it's directly from the emperor to you or from whoever to you. It's this outward and visible sign. That's what he says, the sign of circumcision. He received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. uncircumcised. So Paul is saying what mattered was the faith.

37:38What mattered was the faith. The circumcision that happened afterward was just this outward guarantee, this outward sign to everybody of the righteousness that was already in Abraham's life, already credited to his account, already true and permanent. He received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had, that he already had, is the idea. The seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. So why is it this way in the text? Why did God make it happen like this?

38:20Why did God show that Abraham was saved by faith 13 years before he was circumcised? That's what he goes on to say. 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. 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, 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.

39:03This happened to Abraham before he was circumcised. He had this faith. Righteousness was counted to him before all this, so that it would be clear to everyone that even the Gentile, the uncircumcised, could so that even the Gentile righteousness would be counted to them as well. That's what the text says. Righteousness would be counted to them as well. Not only to them, but also to the Jew who has faith, right? That's what he says next. Not just to the Gentile, but also to the Jew who has faith. The key is faith. That's what matters. That's the common denominator. Abraham is the father of all who believe, all who have faith.

39:48Now, Abraham is still the father of the ethnic Jews, right? Those who are actually physically Jews. That's what the promise was. Abraham said, I haven't had a child yet. And Abraham, God said, it's not going to be someone from a different house. Abraham waited through Ishmael. He waited until Isaac. So Paul is not trying to abolish every distinction here, to say there's now no difference between Gentile and Jew. In fact, he mentions these two groups, those that are saved by faith before they're circumcised, and those that are saved. Who are not just merely physically circumcised, but also have faith. The point that he's trying to make is that it is faith that matters, personal faith, individual faith in the Lord that justifies the ungodly.

40:47Faith is what makes us follow in the footsteps of Abraham. Now, when a Jew heard this, I think this had the potential of being a little bit of a slap in the face to the Jews because there's this pride of seniority. I know you've probably been on one of the ends of that in your own life. The pride of seniority. This idea of a 60-year-old Jew who has kept the law his whole life, but doesn't have this faith. And now he sees this Gentile come to faith, and he has to admit, if Paul is right, he has to admit that Gentile who just came to faith is now closer to the Lord than he is.

41:37If he's going to admit Paul is right, he spent his whole life studying the Old Testament. But now, this Gentile who has faith, you're telling me that he's closer to the Lord than I am? You can see this superiority, this seniority, this temptation. This is their turf. The Jews had home field advantage when it came to Yahweh. When it came to the Lord, you can see why Paul says in Galatians that these Jews were making much of them, making much of them being circumcised, so that they would make much of them, of the Jews. You see, this temptation of when you hear of a new convert to go and put your arm around them, take them under your wing. You know, welcome to the faith. Now, let me tell you, God also wants you to be circumcised if you're really going to be saved. Let me show you the ropes. I've been around for a long time. You see this pride of seniority. But Paul is saying in this text, Paul is addressing this. Because what he is saying is that, no, this has always been true. If you have missed this, it is your fault, Jews. This is not something that was revealed to us in the revelation of John. This is not something that was revealed to us for the first time by Jesus himself in the Gospels. This is not something we hear about for the first time in the Psalms or in the prophets. This is Genesis that we're talking about. Paul quotes from Genesis: It has always been faith that mattered.

43:23Abraham had faith before he did works of the law. Abraham had faith before he was circumcised. And the text is clear that that faith was counted to him as righteousness, even though he was a sinner. He was not saved by works. He did not earn anything. He was saved by faith alone. So we can reject the doctrine that says when we become believers, slowly in our lives, righteousness is infused into us. So that by the time we see the Lord, works are part of the reason that we're justified. Works are part of the reason that we're saved. That's a corruption, right? If we are taking the text that we studied today seriously, then he's saying in a positive way and in a negative way, this is an instantaneous thing that was declared about your account.

44:20Your sin is no longer counted against you, starting from the moment you believe. Righteousness is counted on your account, starting from the moment you believe. You have the righteousness of God. This is imputed to you. And so nothing else needs to be added to the count for us. Nothing else needs to cooperate with our faith for us to be justified. Now, there might be an elephant in the room for some of you, especially those of you who have recently read the book of James.

45:01You might know what I'm speaking of. But Paul has just declared that Abraham was justified apart from works. His faith is counted as righteousness. But then in James 2, 24, James says, listen close, you see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. It seems pretty clear, right? How are these passages not contradictory? Doesn't that seem to say the exact opposite of everything that we've just said, everything that we've just studied? You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.

45:47Well, we're running out of time, and so we need to spend more time on this another time. We could look at the word for justified. It's the same word that can be used differently. We can look at their understanding of faith and works. But for now, remember that these are two different contexts dealing with two different issues. Paul is speaking about our righteousness before the Lord, our account. Are we forgiven? Are we clean? And he says it is only faith that does that. Nothing cooperates with that. James is dealing with something different, right? He's dealing with somebody who has said that they have a kind of faith that doesn't include works.

46:30Here's a quote: What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? He's addressing the nature of their faith. He's saying that a faith that never works, a faith that never has these deeds, is a dead faith. That's not the kind of faith that saves. It's a lot like the faith of the demons. Remember that in that passage? He's dealing with somebody who seems to be almost refusing to do good works. And he actually quotes the same passage that Paul does in Genesis 15. So you know they're agreeing with one another.

47:09The issue is that dead fake faith is not the faith that saves. Yes, it is faith alone that justifies. But that faith, the nature of that faith itself, makes it so it is not alone. It is the kind of faith that produces works. And I think you see that bridge in Hebrews 11. Remember, Hebrews 11 is that passage that speaks about how these men were saved by faith. Without faith, it is impossible to please God. It says, By faith, the men of old receive their commendation. It is by faith that they receive this commendation. Well, then, what's the rest of the chapter saying?

47:50It says, By faith, Abraham did this. By faith, Abraham did that. By faith, Rahab did this. And on and on and on. So it is faith that. Counts as the righteousness. But true faith also causes righteousness in our actions, not to earn our salvation, but just because of the nature of true faith. So we'll spend more time on that another time. But before we leave, Christians, let's remember that righteousness has been imputed to us. This is something that has been declared final in your life. The righteousness of God has been placed on your account, and your sin has been taken off your account. It is no longer counted against you. We can have assurance knowing that there is no extra condition waiting to be fulfilled in order to be saved. This is an unconditional offer. We can have assurance knowing that there is nothing for us to earn in our salvation. It is an unearned blessing, an unearned gift. And we can have assurance knowing that all of our sin, in spite of what we deserve, all of our sin is completely covered and forgiven.

49:09We can be happy. We are blessed. We can have joy because righteousness is counted to all who believe. Pray with me. Father, what a joy, what a privilege, an amazing privilege, an eternal privilege for us to remember that when we believed. In Jesus Christ, when we came to you, Father, for forgiveness, when we placed our faith in your promise that you would forgive those who come to you and repent and believe, we thank you that when that happened, our sin was no longer counted to our account, and instead, righteousness is counted to us.

50:04We thank you. We remember those who have died for doctrines like this to defend the idea that we cannot earn any part of our salvation, that that undermines the gospel. Instead, we trust that all of our righteousness comes from you, and it's already a reality in our life that we have the righteousness of God. We've been forgiven. Help us remember, help that sink into our hearts, Father. Help us remember and be joyful, rejoice, be happy at the blessing that we've received.

50:58In Jesus' name, amen. Mm.