Christ's PreciousPromise:

THE BOOK OF ROMANS MAnE CLEAR-l 0

"Faith That Is Creditedas Righteousness"

1Yy Desmond Ford

The fourth chapter of Romans shows us that ourpart in salvation is the same asfor Abraham.

Faith in Christ is credited to us as righteousness.This begins a life of good works. Salvation is 1Yyfaith because all the best things in life arefree.

I c-I orne with me now,please, to chapter

. foue of Roman,. Thi,chapter is an expansion on how weare restored to God. Christ hasdone the work necessary, but wemust believe.

You see, there's "Christ for us"and there's "Christ in us." Weappropriate Christ for us by faithalone. When we do that, the HolySpirit comes into our heart. Thensanctification begins.

The moment you believe, theSpirit comes in. That's because youare declared righteous enough-inChrist-to receive the Holy Spirit.(There is no other way sinners can

be holy enough.) Now God is foryou, not against you. Now you cansay, ''I'm never left alone. 1 neednever feel inadequate."

Jesus said, "I will come to you"(John 14:18 NIV). The coming ofthe Holy Spirit is the coming ofChrist. Any religion that elevatesthe Spirit above the Son is not aChristian religion. It has Christiansin it, but it's not a Christian reli-gion. That's because the Spiritdoesn't speak of himself 00hn16:13). It's a mistake to have a reli-gion talk all the time about theSpirit over and above the Son.

The Spirit's very important, butJesus said, "He will not speak of

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himself. He will witness to me. 1send him to you." The coming ofthe Spirit into our life is the com-ing of Christ, and that's the begin-ning of sanctification.

Sanctification a BeginningThe fourth chapter tells us howsanctification begins to work.

Sanctification begins when wereceive the Holy Spirit. But we can-not receive the Holy Spirit until weare holy. The only way we sinnersare counted as sufficiently holy toreceive the Holy Spirit is throughhaving Christ's perfect righteous-ness imputed and reckoned to us.We can say then that sanctification

begins with justification. In fact, it can-not begin until we are first justified.

Please do not confuse what I'msaying with the idea that justificationmerely begins the Christian life. Orthat we don't need justification oncewe are sanctified enough.

This would imply that sinnerscould somehow become so skillful atholy living in this world that Godwould accept us for what we are-notwhat we are counted in Christ! Weneed justification all the time, everystep of the way, like a rainbow archingover our whole life span.

However, justification does beginsanctification. There is no other way toreceive the Holy Spirit, the Agent ofsanctification, except by beingdeclared as holy as Jesus through faithin the Savior.

Meaning of LawChapter 4 enlarges on the phrasefound in chapter 3, ''To which the Lawand the Prophets testiry" (verse 21).

People often think this word"law" is the same thing as the TenCommandments. That's not accurate."Law" is a term with several meanings.• One of the meanings "law" has is

the whole Old Testament.• Another meaning is the

Pentateuch. (The Pentateuch isthe first five books of the OldTestament. These five books, thatconstitute the basis ofJudaism, aretraditionally understood to bewritten by Moses.) In Romans it'sused that way.

• However, it's also used to refer tothe moral elements of thePentateuch as comprehended inthe Decalogue. So "law" has sever-al meanings.

• In Galatians, Paul's eye is on theceremonial elements in Israel'seconomy when he uses "law."

• In Romans, Paul's eye is on themoral elements of the law.

Law and ProphetsNotice Paul wrote, "The Law and theProphets." That means the whole OldTestament. "Law" means the first fivebooks of Moses, and "Prophets" meansthe rest of the Old Testament.

Jesus gives us an example of thisusage. Jesus said, "Do not think that I

have come to abolish the Law and theProphets" (Matthew 5:17).

He was not saying, "Do not think Ihave come to abolish the TenCommandments and the Prophets."Jesus was saying, "Do not think that Ihave come to abolish the writings ofMoses and the rest of the OldTestament. "

Law and Prophets and GospelChapter 4 enlarges on the statementthat, "The Law and the Prophets" ofthe Old Testament bear witness toChrist's way of salvation.

The key word here is a Greekword logizomai, which is sometimestranslated as "account," "reckon," or"impute." Chapter 4 explains how weare counted righteous-and that'sanother translation of logizomai,"counted."

What then shall we say thatAbraham, our forefather, discov-ered in this matter? If, in fact,Abraham was justified by works,he had something to boastabout-but not before God. Whatdoes the Scripture say? "Abrahambelieved God, and it was credited[logizomai] to him as righteous-ness." (Romans 4:1-3)

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Abraham and FaithThe last phrase, "Abraham believedGod, and it was credited to him asrighteousness," is a quotation from thefirst book of the Bible, Genesis. That'sfascinating because Paul is quoting thevery first time in the Bible that theword "righteousness" is used!

This same verse that uses the wordrighteousness for the first time is alsothe first verse to use the word"believed! "

Genesis 15:6 says, "Abram believedthe Lord." That means Abraham trust-ed God. He laid hold of God. "And he[the Lord] credited it to him as right-eousness." Abraham's belief, u-ust, lay-ing hold of God was credited, reck-oned, imputed, accounted, and attrib-uted to him for righteousness.

Now, this is the same man whohad sworn to the Egyptian pharaohthat his wife, Sarah, was only his sister.This is Abraham, the great man offaith-whose faith occasionally balkedand faltered. You see? God counts himrighteous by faith alone, not byAbraham's performance. That'sbecause faith knits us to God.

True religion is not hymn-singing.It's not even reading the Bible andpraying. These things are good. Theyare an essential part of the fruitage oftrue religion. But true religion is theunion of our heart with God.

That's what faith does. You takehold of God.

Faith Is ReceivingFaith is an empty hand. A child's handthat takes a delicious apple doesn'tmake the apple. It doesn't deserve theapple. The child's hand just takes theapple. That's how faith is. Faith takessalvation.

Salvation is something received,not something achieved.

Paul is saying to the Romans(enlarging on the statement about,"The Law and the Prophets") that"The Law bears witness to this meansof obtaining righteousness which I'mexplaining. Look how it worked forAbraham."

By quoting from Genesis, Paul isusing that section of the Scripture-Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers,Deuteronomy-known as "the Law ofMoses," or the Pentateuch. Paul asks,

"The very first time in the Law thatrighteousness is used, how didAbraham get it? By trusting andbelieving! By faith alone!"

Naaman and WorksDear friends, our trouble is we would

rather not have righteousness thatway, by faith alone. We'd rather earnit by our works.

Remember the story of Naamanin II Kings? Naaman was the comman-der of the army of the King of Aram(5:1). But the great Naaman was aleper.

He humbled himself and went toElisha the prophet. (Elisha was aprophet in the small and despised

nation of Israel.) Elisha said toNaaman, "Go, wash yourself seventimes in the Jordan" (5:10). Naamanwas horrified and enraged. "I thoughtyou were going to do something sen-sational and impressive. What, youwant me, the noble Naaman, to washin that muddy river? I'm a nobleman!We have better rivers back home inDamascus. Tell me to wash in those.You want me to dip myself in thatwater? Jewish water?" (see 5:11-12).

Naaman wanted Elisha to think ofhim as a nobleman-who incidentallyhad leprosy. But Elisha the prophetturned Naaman's thinking on itshead. Elisha thought of Naaman as aleper-who incidentally was a noble-man.

You and I come to God somewhatlike Naaman. Naaman said, "I thoughthe'd do some great thing, such asstrike his hand over my leprosy placeand say, 'Abracadabra.' I thought firewould go forth, and steam and smoke,and I'd be healed."

And Elisha says to Naaman,"Look, if I'd asked you to do somegreat thing, wouldn't you have done itto be rid of leprosy? Why not do thislittle easy thing when I ask you?" (see5:13) .

The Best Things Are GiftsBy nature we'd rather earn our salva-tion. But how can we earn somethinginfinite? How can we ever pay for infi-nite, everlasting life with a little frag-men t of exis tence? We can't earnsomething infinite. Something infi-nite has to be a gift to us who arefinite

This really shouldn't surprise us,should it? After all, the best things aregifts, aren't they?

First of all, this life is a gift. Wedidn't arrange it. We didn't choosegrandpa and grandma and motherand father and place and time ofbirth. We didn't choose our color,sex, or race. We had nothing to dowith these things.

Second, we've been sustained bygifts ever since. We've been on thereceiving end all the time.

I'd often say to my children athome, "As long as you're receiving,you have some duties to perform as acontribution to the home." And we

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are all receiving all the time.How much do you pay for sun-

shine? I suppose in Los Angeles it'sexpensive. You have to pay for thesunshine there by enduring the over-crowding and traffic. But here we paynothing for sunshine.

How much do you pay for air? Iwas going to say "fresh air," but we allhave to endure a little smog. It's freshenough in the morning after rain.How much do we pay for it? For life-giving air?

All the best things in life are free.Including love. Parental love. Filiallove. Married love. All free.

If love is bought, it's not love.That's prostitution. Love has to befree to be real love.

Lowly Faith Finds Heavenly PlacesThe mental picture here is of anempty hand receiving the gift. Even atrembling hand can take a goldencup.

You ask, "What if! don't have verygood faith?" Listen, no one has anexcuse, because the Bible says,"Everyone who calls on the name ofthe Lord will be saved" (Acts 2:21;Romans 10:13). If you think your faithis faulty, at least you can call."Whosoever shall call upon the nameof the Lord shall be saved" (KJV, myemphasis) .

The Chosen VehicleFaith is the gospel's chosen vehiclebecause faith has no virtue in itself.Faith gives all the credit to God. Youmust go through a lowly entrancewayinto the Christian life. You are alsogoing to be kept low one way oranother ever after.

The old joke is: "I used to pray forhumility. I don't do that now. I don'thave to ask anymore. I'm a marriedman, with children." Life has manythings to humble us. Once you enterby lowly faith into the Christian life,God's going to keep you walkinglowly, one way or another.

That's because the moment weforget that we are paupers, on susten-tation from heaven, we're in danger.The only way to walk high is to walklow. It's the only way.

God has chosen lowly faith thatwe might walk in heavenly places. .:.