Romans Chapter
Four Lesson 47
Justification Illustrated
Introduction:
1. The Place of Chapter 4 in Romans
- Does God save one way in the time of the New Testament
and a different way during the OT period??
Emphatically no!
2. The Method that Paul uses is to present 2 case
histories
#1 is Abraham 4:1-5 his text Gen. 15:6.
#2 is
David 4:6-8 his text is Psa.
32:1-2
3. What about these men that Paul uses in Rom 4??
- What makes
Abe so important? His place in Jewish
thinking!
This is
not surprising also for another reason, the Prophet Isaiah told them to look to
Abraham, you who pursue righteousness! Isa 51:1-2
If Paul can establish that Abraham had a
standing with God on the basis of faith,
and that you think that you have a standing with God based on your own works; your better
than Abe, aren't you?
- In Paul's argument we will see that one of the things
that he's doing by using Abraham is that if he can prove to his Jewish readers
that no amount of works performed by Abraham could have saved him, then where
does that leave them?
What about David?? Why is he here also??
- Is there a better choice to demonstrate that a justified
man or woman can sin??
- David though is a good example, the one after God's own
heart, that
recognized his sin, recognized his guilt
and confessed it before the Lord and he
was restored to fellowship with the Lord.
[1 Sam 13:14]
4. The
Structure of Romans 4
1. Justification is by faith not works -
4:1-8 [4:2]
- as proved by
Abe 4:1-5
- as proved by
David 4:6-8
2. Justification is by faith not rite, ritual 4:9-12 [4:9]
3. Justification is by faith not by law 4:13-22 [
4. Justification by faith applied to us 4:23-25
5.
Imputation in Romans 4. [key word and concept]
- 11 times we have logidzomai,
logidzomai, in ch-4 along with pistis,
pistij, key word.
- Feel the weight of the word logizomai
in the this chapter.
4:3; 4:4; 4:5; 4:6; 4:8; 4:9; 4:10; 4:11; 4:22; 4:23; 4:24
Abe's discovery
4:1-3
- Whatever greatness attained by
Abraham, and it was truly
tremendous, he had nothing to boast of before God, it did not
commend him to God.
Who was Abraham?
1. He
was the patriarch of
[similar in stature to the
nation
2. He was also called the friend of God, Jas. 2:23.
3. It
was his seed that was to be the source of universal blessing of all men. Gen.
12:3 "And in you all the families of
the earth shall be blessed."
Why is Abe such a good case to use to teach justification by faith not
works??
- Thought then that Paul is building up to here is that
when you bring up the name of Abraham, surely with all that he has going for
him he would be an exception to justification by faith; maybe we all need to be
justified by faith, but Abraham, look at his credentials.
Textual
note: hapax that Paul's use in
the context shows just how precise he is here.
forefather = propa,twr
- used of a relationship that was physical only; no
spiritual overtones to it at all;
- The question
we must answer is what does "according to the flesh" mean?? clearly not talking about the flesh as the Sin Nature here.
- Therefore "according to the flesh"
refers to human works; what he would be able to produce normally from his own
ability.
4:1
"What then shall we say that Abraham our forefather has discovered that
is according to the flesh to be the case that has abiding results?"
- Look down at vs:5; Just Who does God justify??
Note on "discovered" eu`ri,skw is perf.
tense; past
completed action; he made that discovery once not twice and the results extends
even to the present;
What is
this saying then?? No one has ever been
justified except the same way that Abraham was, that is what he
discovered! Sole fide!
The
perfect tense of discovered in vs:1 is going to be
applied to us; actually to all those in every
generation of the church age.
Look at
Discovery part #1; Abe's deficiency 4:2