How can a man be right with God? That is the age old question that has led to myriad responses. I encountered a common though interesting one while in Central Asia a couple of weeks back. We walked into a small clothing shop in hope of striking up a conversation that might lead to discussing the gospel and an opportunity of leaving a New Testament and gospel materials. A young man greeted us and eagerly sought to show us his merchandise. After we talked for a few minutes, he realized that we had traveled near his home city, so he even more eagerly talked with us. He wanted to let us know his pride in his heritage.
When I asked him to tell me more about his heritage he soon came to his religion. He told us that he was Muslim and that he tried to follow the commands of the Koran. He went into detail of things he had done while growing up but how he had recently changed his behavior. It reminded me of those I've heard giving testimonies of life changes after conversion. When we pressed him a bit more about what was necessary for him to be right with God he said that in the afterlife there would be a giant scale. On one side would be placed a person's good works; on the other side, one's sins. If the good works outweighed the bad then that person would be accepted with God and rewarded. If the bad outweighed the good then that person would be condemned. He seemed quite pleased with his explanation.
I told him, "That's dangerous!" He looked surprised. I continued by explaining that I was a lot older than him and that knowing my heart, even when I wanted to do the right thing, I still had far too much sin to rely upon good deeds to outweigh the bad. I explained that the older I grew the more I came to see my sinfulness and inadequacy before God. I told him that I needed righteousness adequate to stand before God, and that I didn't have it nor did I know anyone else that had it. That righteousness, I explained, is found only in God's gracious gift through Jesus Christ.
I think that this stunned him but he continued with his works orientation even though he seemed to give some pause in knowing how to respond. He showed the fear common to every heart that comes when one hears the gospel. It is a fear of no longer trusting in self or in one's concept of God or one's religious principles. It's the fear of relying upon the righteousness of Christ alone.
Yet when we come to a point of grasping our sinfulness and God's holiness this gospel truth is the sweetest taste to our souls! To know that God justifies the ungodly not the godly, consoles the most troubled heart weighted down with sin. That's precisely what Paul helps us to see in our text. He calls justification the blessing that belongs to the man whom God credits righteousness apart from works. No balancing scale with Paul! He understood the danger of such reliance upon the flesh. It is Christ and Christ alone upon whom sinners must rely for righteousness before God.
That's a good place to start. Do we justify ourselves? Consider the word "justify." It is a legal term that means to declare righteous. So when Paul talks about Abraham believing God and God crediting him with righteousness, he refers to this very thing of justification. He uses an accounting term with the legal concept. Righteousness—or a right standing with God—is credited or accounted to or imputed to the account of the sinner through faith. Who does the justifying in this case? Who credits the account of the sinner with righteousness? It's not the sinner—he's trapped in his sin. He has nothing to commend himself to God. He has no way to raise himself from the ash heap or to make himself alive or to bring light into his dark world. God must intervene or he is hopeless.
Paul has to set the stage to show that you cannot have it both ways. You cannot combine works and grace for salvation even as some traditions do in our own day. That's why the Reformers emphasized that salvation is by grace alone so that any hint of reliance upon one's own righteousness would be laid aside. So Paul writes, "Now to the one who works, his wage is not credited as a favor, but as what is due." He had just expounded the truth that the great patriarch Abraham was not justified before God by his works. Rather, "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness." The Apostle explains that reliance upon faith alone gives no place for reliance upon works.
He uses a simple illustration. If you work at a local department store or building supply store, for every hour that you put into your job your employer is obligated to pay you. When you receive your paycheck you do not go to the boss and tell him, "Thank you for the wonderful grace you've shown to me by giving me this check!" Of course not! You earned it. You labored for the company so the company had a legal obligation to compensate you for your labors.
The problem is that many people transfer that concept to God and eternity and righteousness. They have the idea that God is the "boss" who has employed them and as long as they do a few good things along the way He is obligated to give them eternal life. Never mind that they've been stealing from the "company." Never mind that they've cheated on their "timecard." Never mind that they've wrecked company morale by complaining, arrogance, and gossip. Never mind that they've disobeyed what the "Boss" demanded of them.
Do you see how ridiculous it is to think that God owes us something for a few paltry good deeds? We tend to elevate our good deeds and think little of our sin and rebellion against God and His authority. We think that God owes us something while we continue in anarchy against Him.
So, on one hand, to look for God to give a paycheck of righteousness for our good deeds puts the Creator in a position of obligation to the creature. "The thing molded will not say to the molder, 'Why did you make me like this,' will it?" (9:20). As Paul explains in detail in chapter 9, God is not obligated to us at all. We exist for His glory not vice versa. On the other hand, to expect a paycheck of righteousness for our good deeds reveals that we know nothing of the folly of our hearts and the judgment that will follow. Paul has already laid this out with clarity in chapters 1-3. He showed over and over our need for righteousness before God. The one thing we need is the one thing we do not have and cannot achieve by our power or ability or strength. And if we could achieve it then grace would be unnecessary; and if grace is unnecessary then God is not needed.
The thing that often stands in the way of salvation is this reliance on works. To trust in God's grace means that I no longer trust myself for salvation nor do I trust my baptism or the church or the countless religious activities that I do. Here is the very heart of grasping the gospel. The gospel is not about me and what I do; it's all about what God in Christ has done to save me from my sin. It's not about my work or my service or my worship or my giving or my piety. It's about the sufficiency of Christ as the righteousness of God for sinners that trust in Him.
Notice how Paul words it, "But to the one who does not work but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly…" He's not teaching antinomianism or lawlessness; that is very clear when he comes to chapter 6 where he clears up any misconceptions. What he means by work is that of working in order to achieve righteousness. It's doing good deeds with a view to thinking that it obligates God to give salvation. He puts it bluntly, "the one who does not work but believes," to also show that he's not talking about combining faith and works to achieve righteousness. Works are abandoned! "He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy…" (Titus 3:5). What's the difference? How does the kind of righteousness that Paul speaks of differ from what we generate by our own power? Hear how he explains it to the Philippian church. "More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith" (Phil. 3:8-9). It is first, not a righteousness derived from the Law as I meticulously and legalistically follow the details of the Law. It's not what the flesh achieves. Rather it is the righteousness that comes from God and that is only through faith in Christ. It is divinely bestowed righteousness. And if God gives it you can be sure that He finds it sufficiently acceptable before Him for eternity!
God does something remarkable when the sinner believes: He imputes righteousness to the sinner. Even though the believer is still a sinner and still struggles with sin, God through Christ has done what the sinner could never do. He declares the sinner to be righteousness. Of course, God does not do this apart from Christ having satisfied eternal justice and Christ having fulfilled the law on behalf of all that will believe. God had to be just in declaring sinners righteous (3:25-26), and that justice is found in the public death of Christ at the cross.
Christ's righteousness is not given just because a person has faith. He might have faith in his works or faith in the church or faith in his baptism or faith in his nationality. Paul makes it quite clear which type of faith credits the sinner with righteousness. "But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness." Faith focuses on "Him who justifies the ungodly." Here is the God who saves sinners! Aren't you thankful that Paul did not say that God justifies the godly? If that were the case, then none of us would ever be justified. It's not those that are whole that need a physician, Jesus taught; rather it is those that are sick that need a physician. It's not the godly that need to be justified; it's the ungodly.
Here is love immeasurable! Here is mercy unfathomable! Here is kindness beyond comprehension! Here is our God! Here is the richness of His grace!
Think upon that phrase for a moment more: "Him who justifies the ungodly." How many among us struggle because you think God does not accept you because you are not godly enough? You labor to be better. You cry yourself to sleep as you think of your sin. You worry and live in anxiety because you just know that God will never look your way because you are too much of a sinner. This verse is for you! God justifies the ungodly.
You say, but that's what I am. I'm ungodly. Surely God cannot and will not declare me righteous before Him!
If our God relied upon your performance, then you are right. He would never declare you righteous. But He has shown you such incomparable love by sending His Son to bear away your sin and by putting on your account the righteousness of His Son. God does not look at your sin and ungodliness. He looks at the sufficiency of His Son. He looks at the righteousness of Christ on your behalf and accepts you even as He accepts His Son.
But my faith is weak. I falter. I struggle.
God doesn't look at how strong your faith is. He looks at the sufficient work of His Son at the cross. He doesn't accept you because you have exceptionally strong faith. Faith doesn't earn righteousness. It is simply the means by which God transfers the righteousness of Christ to your account. Faith is not a work. It is the conduit through which the blessing of God in Christ becomes yours. It's the means of imputed righteousness in Christ.
Have you believed? Do you look to Christ alone as your satisfaction before God? Do you rely upon His death for you? Do you depend upon His righteousness as your standing before God?
We're familiar with the word "blessed" from our study of the Sermon on the Mount. It means happy or fortunate. "The man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works" is a happy, fortunate man!
When we encounter that word blessing in ordinary conversation it often conveys something quite different than the biblical term. Someone says that he is blessed and by that he means that all is well with him. He is healthy, he has money in the bank, he's not having car trouble, his grades are good in school, his relationships are going well, and his stock portfolio looks good. I don't think we would object to calling those things blessings, at least as far as the word is used in common discussion.
But Paul has something much more intense in mind. "David also speaks of the blessing on the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works." Here the focus of blessing is ultimate happiness. The man may be in poor health; he might have lost his job and watched his finances sink; he might be rejected by his family; and his car might be broken down! But that doesn't affect the truth of what God has done. Even with all of the negative things we can imagine, if the Lord God credits you with righteousness because you've trusted in Christ, then of all men, you are most fortunate! You are the happiest of people.
True happiness is not about how many toys we've acquired in life or how many people like us or even how good our health is. True happiness is knowing that your "lawless deeds have been forgiven, and [your] sins have been covered." So what if you have lots of toys and accolades and popularity, and yet your sins are not forgiven? How long will that temporal happiness last? Ten years? Maybe twenty? What if it lasts fifty years? That's a short time of happiness in light of eternity.
What Paul speaks of by quoting David in Psalm 32 is the kind of happiness that goes deep, permeating the recesses of the soul so that even in the most difficult times there is joy in knowing that your sins are forgiven and you belong to the Lord. It's that kind of happiness that satisfies you even when your world caves in around you and you face opposition at every turn. John Piper calls it, "God-besotted joy." Do you know this true happiness of sins forgiven?
You cannot buy happiness. Many people try. Marketers tell us that we can. Yes, you can buy temporary pleasure that lasts for a few hours or days. But you cannot buy happiness—the kind of happiness that sustains you when your body grows weak with cancer or when you are thrown into prison because of your faith in Christ or when you lose someone dear to you. That doesn't mean that you live in constant giddiness. True happiness knows how to weep and grieve and sorrow. No one was happier than our Lord. He told the disciples that He had spoken to them about abiding in Him "so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full" (John 15:11). Yet we're also told that He was "a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief" (Isa. 53:3). True happiness wells up within the soul even when pain and sorrow accompany it. And it is rooted in the work of Christ—not in your works of righteousness.
"Just as David also speaks of the blessing on the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works." Here is a different worldview than is most common in our day. If you are going to have anything in life you must work for it—right?! When it comes to houses, cars, success, etc. you are right. "If anyone is not willing to work, then he is not to eat, either," Paul told the Thessalonians (2 Thes. 3:10). But in Romans 4:6, he's not talking about the work that we do to provide for our needs and to have something to give to the work of ministry (Eph. 4:28). Rather when he uses the term "apart from works," he's continuing the same argument that he labored to establish in 3:19-31. I would submit to you that this is indeed a different worldview than we hear and see everyday. And why is that the case?
The blessing of righteousness apart from works means reliance on God's provision in Christ. It implies that the one believing has come to the apex of human existence: right standing with God. And he did not achieve it by some kind of ritual or following a list of regulations or acting better than everyone else. It came by grace. Grace is always God's doing. It is God taking the initiative and action necessary to change the sinner's status from one condemned to one of righteousness.
The problem, though, is that the low level of thinking about God mitigates against understanding this gospel-centered worldview that is the source of true happiness. We think that this God does not require much. If we just keep the Golden Rule—occasionally, and not do any big crimes, and throw a few dollars into the offering plate—occasionally, then all is well. The lofty majesty of God is never given a thought; His holiness that is so glorious and severe simultaneously, that the heavenly cherubim cover their eyes from the radiance coming from His throne and cry out continually, "Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God of Hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory!" (Isa. 6) When Nadab and Abihu carelessly entered His presence in the tabernacle by offering "strange fire" on the altar, fire leaped from the altar and consumed them. We must not think lightly of God!
And yet consider this: God "justifies the ungodly." He does not account our works to see if there's enough to merit forgiveness or to achieve righteousness. By His gracious action He justifies ungodly people through the all-sufficient work of His Son. He pursues sinners so that sinners forgiven, declared righteous, might know the depth of true happiness that can never be taken from him. Apart from works God credits righteousness to the sinner, and that sinner now knows true happiness by the grace of God.
Paul quotes from one of the great penitential psalms, Psalm 32, in order to expound what he means by God crediting the sinner with righteousness. "Blessed are those whose lawless deeds have been forgiven, and whose sins have been covered." One of the characteristics of this psalm is how it uses different words to describe our sin: "transgression" or our deliberate crossing of the boundary of God's Law; "sin" or our missing the mark of God's standard of righteousness; "iniquity" or our moral weakness by which we constantly wobble out of the way of God. Every way that we turn we find sin in our lives. Even when we're doing good deeds pride or boasting emerges. We can even turn good things into idols by our desires getting out of control.
Yet when the sinner is justified—when God credits righteousness apart from works—his "lawless deeds" [transgressions] "have been forgiven"; his "sins have been covered." "Forgiven" means that they've been left off; they are no more part of the account that will be opened before God. "Covered" pictures what happened when the high priest sprinkled the mercy seat with blood; no more will condemnation cry out against us. The passive voice implies that God has covered over the sins so that He sees them no more. He does not dredge them back up and dangle them over our heads. He's left them off; He's covered them up.
Then Paul drives one final stake, using what I call "reverse imputation." "Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will not taken into account." Here's the same word translated previously as "credit" (4:3, 4, 5, 6). The one forgiven by the Lord because of the death of Christ on his behalf no longer has any sin credited to his account. The sins are not imputed to the one whom God imputes the righteousness of His Son. No wonder Paul uses that word "blessed"! Here is true happiness: because of the grace of God shown to me in Christ, God no longer credits my sins to me. And how can that be? He has imputed them to (credited them to) His Son who bore them away at the cross.
True happiness is knowing that God has forgiven you through Christ. Do you know that depth of happiness? Are you putting your life focus on the fading fancies of this world? Look to Christ, my friend. Discover Him as your all in all. Find in Him the depth of true happiness that you will never find in the world.
Permissions: You are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material in any format provided that you do not alter the wording in any way and you do not charge a fee beyond the cost of reproduction. For web posting, a link to this document on our website is preferred. Any exceptions to the above must be explicitly approved by South Woods Baptist Church.
Please include the following statement on any distributed copy:
Copyright South Woods Baptist Church. Website: www.southwoodsbc.org. Used by permission as granted on web site. Questions, comments, and suggestions about our site can be sent here.
Copyright 2010, South Woods Baptist Church, All Rights Reserved