“It’s all about Faith”
Sola Fide
Romans 3:27 - 4:12
For the next three weeks our topic will be
on faith:
- 4:1-12 Sola Fide: Justification through faith alone
- 4:13-25 The Promise received through faith
- 5:1-11 Peace through Faith
1.
Last week we talked about two words:
justification and propitiation.
a.
If you missed that message, you can get it from
my website clayritter.com
b.
Justification - status - “just as if I had never
sinned - the greatest need of mankind, to be justified, to one another, and
with God.
c.
When something happens between two people, they
seek to be understood, they seek to justify, they want to be reconciled.
2.
Paul is telling us “You’re right to want to be justified before God, to be right with God…
But you’re not going to accomplish it by obeying the rules, doing good things
for God, or by going through a ritual. “
a.
The ONLY WAY to achieve the status of being
right with God is through the process of propitiation…
b.
Meaning:
Receiving what Jesus did on the cross.
His death, burial, and resurrection.
But the hour
is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in
spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. John 4:23
(Your Hevenly Father wants a relationship
with you!)
“I am the
way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.
John 14:6
(The way to have the relationship is through
the person of Jesus!)
3.
So you might be thinking "OK I get it,
but...How do I do that? How do I apply
what Jesus did for me to my life?"
a.
One word:
Faith! It’s all about faith!
27 Where is
boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? No, but by the law of
faith. 28 Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the
deeds of the law. 29 Or is He the God of the Jews only? Is He not also the God
of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also, 30 since there is one God who will
justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. 31 Do we
then make void the law through faith? Certainly not! On the contrary, we
establish the law.
4.
Paul has been talking/writing in a way that
could make the non-Jew feel that the case Paul is making doesn't apply to him,
a.
And I believe Paul wants to make sure that
non-Jews, you and I, understand that this incredible work of God is applicable
and available to everyone; Jew and Gentile alike!
b.
Matter of fact, the reality of what God has done
through Jesus Christ "establishes the law" - it fulfills what God
promised.
5.
Key phrase: ”a man is justified by faith apart
from the deeds of the law.”
a.
In other words, you want to be right with God,
and that's great, but you cannot obtain this status of justification by working
for it.
b.
You can’t buy it, you can’t earn it;
justification can only be obtained through FAITH.
c.
The doctrine of Sola Fide "justification by faith alone" - (today you learn some Latin!)
6.
“OK, I get it, but what does that mean? What does that look like?” I’m glad you
asked!
a.
To help us understand, Paul pulls out two “big
guns” – Abraham and David
4 What then shall
we say that Abraham our father has found according to the flesh? 2 For if
Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before
God.
7.
Backstory: (picture of Abraham) is of course the
father of the Jewish nation, but Paul here is making an important point: Abraham was right with God, but NOT because
he was a Jew.
a.
Why? Because Abraham wasn't a Jew when he was
justified! He was a Chaldean who lived in Iraq
8.
See if you go to the account of Abraham (turn to
Gen 11). Abram as he was known at the time, was born in the ancient area
identified as “Ur of the Chaldeans (MAP of Iraq),” ("where are you from?
Urrrrrr....)
a.
Ur is an area in southern Iraq, which at the
time of Abram’s birth was the center of worship of the moon god “Nanna.”
b.
(Picture of the Ziggurat)
c.
Matter of fact, Abram’s father’s name was Terah,
which is the Hebrew word for moon, probably named after this moon god.
d.
Joshua confirmed all of this, noting that
“Long ago
your ancestors, including Terah the father of Abraham and Nahor, lived beyond
the Euphrates River and worshiped other gods.’"Joshua 24:2”
9.
Point? Abraham didn’t have a heritage of god,
may not have even had knowledge of God, and he certainly wasn't a Jew (yet!)
a.
But God revealed Himself to Abraham, and God
gave Abraham a promise:
And I will
make your descendants multiply as the stars of heaven; I will give to your
descendants all these lands; and in your seed all the nations of the earth
shall be blessed. Gen 26:4
10. The
promise:
a.
Abraham would have a son (implied), as he and
Sara were old and barren
b.
From that son would come a nation, a numerous as
the stars in the sky
c.
That nation would possess the Promised Land
(that’s why it’s called the Promised Land!)
d.
All the nations - all people - would be blessed
by this nation.
3 For what does the
Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for
righteousness.” (Gen 15:6)
11. Now
this is an interesting word, the word is logizomai, it means to have wages placed
to your account.
a.
How are wages placed to your account? One way is where you are getting paid for
your work.
b.
Some of you here may have direct deposit, after
you finish your week, the company owes you wages, and they deposit logizomai
those wages to your account.
12. God
could have chosen to operate this way:
You do good stuff, obey my laws, and then I’ll put righteousness to your
account.”
a.
But that’s NOT what God did: No! God chose, out of mercy and grace, to
make righteousness a GIFT.
13. Which
brings us to the second way that money can be placed in your account: By someone giving you a GIFT.
4 Now to him who
works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt.
14. Now
we can relate to this, because so much of our world is based on the reward
system:
a.
If you do your homework and study for the test,
you get a good grade.
b.
If you work, you get paid.
c.
If you work hard, you get a promotion.
d.
There’s nothing wrong with this system, but it’s
not how God operates!
15. How
does God operate?
5 But to him who
does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is
accounted for righteousness,
16. Translation: God doesn’t justify the person who
works; God justifies the person who
believes.
17. This
may seem elementary to some of you here, but can I tell you that it can be very
tricky, which is why I believe Paul is spending a lot of time on it
a.
For the person that is first coming to God,
justification through faith alone can be hard to accept:
b.
We've been taught all of our lives “you have to
work for what you receive”
c.
We feel there must be something we have to do in
order to deserve salvation.
18. But
it can also be tricky for the person who is already saved; they too can fall
into the trap that they need to be doing more for God in order to stay in good
graces with God.
a.
In either case it's not only wrong, it's
actually dangerous, because it takes God out of the picture.
19. This
is exactly what happened in Judaism:
Look, Judaism isn’t some erroneous cult.
a.
The law, the prophets, the rituals, these were
all given by God to the Jewish people as a BRIDGE to the time God would send
the Messiah, Jesus Christ!
b.
That’s why Jesus was born into the Jewish
nation, He preached to the Jews first, He taught in the temples,
c.
He declared to them “I am the one you’ve been
waiting for!”
d.
The issue was that they had moved so far towards
works and ritual that they had taken God completely out of the picture!
e.
By the time Jesus arrived, they didn’t even need
God!
20. That’s
why Paul is being so adamant:
a.
It’s not about trying; it’s about trusting
b.
It's not about doing; it's about believing
c.
It's not about working; it's about receiving
d.
The doctrine of justification by faith alone,
Sola Fide, is foundational to the Christian faith.
21. It's
also one of the primary targets of our enemy Satan, because without this
doctrine, Christianity FAILS.
a.
It would suffer the same fate as Judaism, in
that it would become a lifeless organization of rules and traditions.
b.
Matter of fact, you can see it in some
denominations today.
c.
That is not a judgment; I believe God is
saddened at the sight of His church becoming lifeless.
22. Sola
Fide goes against the thought process of the natural man,
But God has
chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise 1 Cor 1:27
a.
If we could do it ourselves, we wouldn’t need God. If we could do it ourselves, we wouldn’t WANT
God!
23. And,
notice who God justifies: not the godly, but the ungodly!
a.
In other words God knows who you are, He knows
what you've been up to, He knows your secrets...
b.
He's not asking you to clean up your act, He's
asking you to come as you are, and believe!
24. Think
about the thief on the cross - While Jesus was hanging on the cross, the thief
right next to him said:
“Lord,
remember me when You come into Your kingdom.” And Jesus said to him,
“Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.” Luke 23:42-43
a.
That thief didn’t have time to clean up his act,
he couldn’t do any good works, he was dying!
b.
He could only do one thing: vivid illustration, one thing - Believe! And according to Jesus, that was enough!
25. Speaking
of the ungodly, Paul brings out Big Gun #2 – King David
6 just as David
also describes the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness
apart from works: 7 “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and
whose sins are covered; 8 Blessed is the man to whom the Lord shall not impute
sin.”
26. Now
if anyone is revered in Jewish culture, it’s (picture of) King David.
a.
He killed Goliath!
b.
He united the kingdom, made Jerusalem the
Capital.
c.
David won crucial military battles, brought
peace and prosperity to the nation.
d.
King David won every battle he went into, except
one: The battle against his flesh!
27. Interesting,
if you read through some of David’s earlier Psalms, you get the impression that
David was fairly confident in his walk with God.
a.
He loved God, he loved God’s word, he followed
God’s precepts, he walked in God’s ways!
b.
But later in life, David found himself right in
the middle great big sin mess!
28. King
David committed the most well known affair in human history,
a.
While his men were off fighting the war (where
David should have been), he was strolling on the roof, looked down and saw
Bathsheba bathing, lusted after her, had her brought to him, had sex with her,
and she got pregnant.
b.
If that wasn’t bad enough, David committed
murder, having her husband Uriah killed to cover up his sin.
c.
I think it was quite a shock to David to realize
he was capable of such terrible deeds.
29. For
several months David told no one, he kept it to himself, on the outside it
looked like David got away with his sin.
a.
Uriah was dead, he married Bathsheba, he even
looked like a good guy for taking care of the poor widow,
b.
But inside David was miserable.
c.
The Psalm that Paul quotes from, Psalm 32,
reveals the heaviness of David’s heart:
When I kept silent,
my bones grew old through my groaning all the day long. For day and night Your
hand was heavy upon me; My vitality was turned into the drought of summer. Ps
32;3-4
d.
In other words, he was miserable. Guilt, shame,
he sounds depressed! He had gotten away with his sin, but he wasn't right with
God.
30. Now
consider this: Was David religiously active during that time? Was he participating in the religious
practices and rituals?
a.
Sure he was, he was “following the law,” doing
all the right things, but it wasn't helping.
b.
The Jews had a ritual for the cleansing of sin,
but that wasn't enough.
c.
David found himself in great need of
forgiveness.
d.
David needed to personally repent to his God in
order to experience grace.
I
acknowledged my sin to You, and my iniquity I have not hidden. I said, “I will
confess my transgressions to the Lord,” and You forgave the iniquity of my sin.
Ps 32:5
31. David
understood that the blessing of repentance, of being forgiven, of being right
with God, came through experiencing the grace of God!
a.
David came to the conclusion that there was only
one way to resolve this, and that was to seek and receive the forgiveness of
God!
b.
What was it that gave David the confidence that
God would forgive?
c.
David had FAITH - he believed.
d.
All the great things David accomplished weren't
because he was super awesome, it was because he believed God.
32. Perhaps
some of you may be in that same place:
On the outside it looks like everything is fine, but inside you’re
dying.
a.
Guilt and the shame are eating away at you.
b.
Did you know that you can experience the
blessing of repentance?
Forgiveness?
c.
You too can experience the grace of God!
9 Does this
blessedness then come upon the circumcised only, or upon the uncircumcised
also? For we say that faith was accounted to Abraham for righteousness. 10 How
then was it accounted? While he was circumcised, or uncircumcised? Not while
circumcised, but while uncircumcised. 11 And he received the sign of
circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while still
uncircumcised, that he might be the father of all those who believe, though
they are uncircumcised, that righteousness might be imputed to them also, 12
and the father of circumcision to those who not only are of the circumcision,
but who also walk in the steps of the faith which our father Abraham had while
still uncircumcised.
33. Paul’s
point? It wasn't circumcision that made Abraham righteous, that didn't happen
until Genesis 17, 14 years AFTER Abraham was declared righteous.
a.
It wasn't Abraham’s willingness to obey God and
sacrifice his son Isaac that made him righteous, that didn't happen until
Genesis 22.
34. What
was it that made Abraham righteous?
a.
According to scripture, it was his faith; God
gave him a promise, and Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him as
righteousness.
b.
Abraham embraced Sola Fide - justification by
faith alone!
35. How
do I apply what Jesus did for me to my life?"
a.
Jesus made us a promise -
“I am the
resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall
live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die.” John 11:25-26
36. Jesus
didn't’ say “whoever follows the law will live and never die,” He said “whoever believes in me will never
die”
a.
Just like Abraham, just like David, all we have
to do is believe God and we will be forgiven, righteousness will be placed onto
our account.
b.
It will be “just as if I never sinned.”
c.
We can “walk in the steps of the faith which our
father Abraham had”
d.
Sola Fide:
we simply believe God, and it will be accounted to us as righteousness.
Copyright
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