Over the years of talking with people about spiritual issues, I’ve only met a few that truly fit the mode as atheists. Most are at least skeptics or agnostics instead of atheists. I know that there is a good argument that in reality, there are no true atheists in the world. Everyone has some belief in God which is why they are opposed to Him. But that’s not my concern to argue for or against this morning. Rather a few people that I’ve conversed with on both sides of the Atlantic have stated clearly their denial of God as Creator and therefore denial of God as Redeemer and Judge. I always find it fascinating to hear their rationale for atheism and their objection to the gospel.
Most people, however, have some interest in spiritual matters. Though they know little of God or the gospel, they expect to be in heaven when their life ends. I have met a few people that expect to be in hell; but they remain the exception to the norm. Most people believe in an afterlife; and most believe they will be in the heaven-side of afterlife.
For what reason does anyone think he or she will be in heaven? Or why, to phrase it differently, does anyone think he or she will be accepted by God for eternity?
Outside of the gospel of grace, you can boil all reasons into three categories: First, the good that I do or works. Many people consider their good deeds and kindnesses to others as adequate for acceptance by God. Some are highly motivated to give away money or do charitable deeds because they believe this to be the golden key to unlock heaven for them. Paul addresses this concept, and then dismantles it, in Romans 4:1-8. If you can do enough good deeds to merit God’s favor then you will have something to boast about before God. Yet, Paul explains, not even Abraham, the friend of God, found acceptance based on his works of righteousness. He believed God and that faith, was counted as righteousness.
The second category is the ritual that I embrace or “circumcision” as in the case of Romans 4:9-12. The argument of the typical Jew on why he was accepted by God would have quickly gone to the ritual of circumcision—that mark which signified him in covenant with God. But Paul argues that circumcision did nothing for Abraham’s standing with God. Rather it came later as an indicator that he had faith that God had counted as righteousness. Abraham did not trust his circumcision for standing with God; nor should any Jew trust circumcision for righteousness; nor should any Gentile trust whatever ritual he would substitute for circumcision as the means to righteousness.
I watched the practice of rituals at a Catholic service on one occasion. Attendees bowed, nodded, or knelt before an icon of Jesus at the front of the church. They did the sign of the cross at certain points in the mass. They received the wafer from the priest and uttered the appropriate words as they partook of what they believed to be the actual body of Christ. As they left the service, attendees dipped their finger in a font of holy water and stroked their foreheads with it. All of these were vain rituals. Rituals mean nothing without the gospel whether they are Catholic or Baptist rituals. For indeed, Baptists, too, have rituals: singing, praying, walking the aisle, giving, and attending various functions mean nothing without the gospel. They become mere rituals that substitute for reliance upon Christ alone for righteousness.
The last category is the morality that I practice or law. This is the focus of our text this morning to demonstrate that one’s moral adherence to the law cannot produce righteousness. Morality may improve one’s present life but it holds no promise for eternity. Yet many think that because they do not participate in certain sins that they are righteous and therefore, accepted by God. Paul takes that mindset to task. We’ll join him in doing the same.
Verse 13 has the first of eight uses of the word “promise,” a reference to the unilateral covenant that God made with Abraham. “For the promise to Abraham or to his descendants that he would be heir of the world was not through the Law [or better, “not through law” without the definite article], but through the righteousness of faith.” The promise was not grounded in Abraham’s conformity to the Mosaic Law—which would not be given for another 430 years (Gal. 3:17). Yet in spite of this, many Jews thought that conformity to the Law of Moses was the way to righteousness. Both here and in Galatians 3, Paul continues to use Abraham as an argument for righteousness by faith alone apart from the works of the Law (Rom. 3:19-20).
What’s the big deal about a promise made centuries ago? How does it apply to us whether it is received by faith or by adherence to the Law?
Whatever the nature of the promise might be, it is only as good as the one making it. We place stock in a promise when the one offering it is known to be dependable.
If someone is known for lying, yet that person makes a promise to give you something or do something for you, will you believe that person? Probably not; at least you have no reason to believe him. His character does not vouch for his word. He could even sign an agreement that guarantees that he will do what he has promised but if he is prone to lying you will have no reason to count on his promise.
But Paul is speaking of “the promise to Abraham or to his descendants” that God made. Here the eternal God, “who cannot lie,” as Paul told Titus (1:2), promised Abraham that He would be a shield to him and that his reward would be great (Gen. 12, 15, 17). When Abraham asked God for more details, the Lord told him that his descendants would be as the stars of heaven—innumerable. Obviously, as we read in Genesis and throughout the Scripture, God’s promise had to do with His eternal purpose to redeem a people for Himself. Abraham would have a son, Isaac, and they would have “descendants” but the true heirs of this promise would be those living on eternally in God’s presence (e.g. Rom. 2:28-29; Gal. 3:13-14). Paul explained to the Galatians that the blessing of Abraham was not physical but spiritual; “so that we [Jews and Gentiles] would receive the promise of the Spirit through faith” (Gal. 3:14). The Apostle goes on to detail in Galatians 3 that God’s promise to Abraham singled out his seed, referring to his ultimate heir, Jesus Christ (3:16). Therefore, those who are in Christ also receive the blessing promised to Abraham. The promise to Abraham is ultimately fulfilled in the gospel of Christ.
The gospel promise, though, is only as good as the one making it. The Lord God who created the heavens and the earth, who holds every molecule in the universe together, who raises up and brings down kingdoms and nations, who gives life and breath to every living thing, who has no beginning and no ending, who is not threatened by the anger of men, who has no need or lack; this Lord God gave the gospel promise through Christ. It is a certain promise because He is infinitely dependable. Not one promise of God falls to the ground. He has the power and wisdom to accomplish all that He promises. He is not fickle so that He changes His mind from one season or century to the next.
While God promised Abraham a son, the ultimate reason was so that in him “all the families of the earth will be blessed” (Gen. 12:3). In other words, God’s promise contained the gospel. Paul explained in Galatians 3:8-9, “The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, ‘All the nations will be blessed in you.’ So then those who are of faith are blessed with Abraham, the believer.” Who but our God could be counted on to fulfill such a far reaching promise!
Notice how Paul clarifies the nature of the promise or what we might even term the content of the promise: “the he would be heir of the world.” We must admit that this is strange language! Yet it took this kind of language for the Apostle to capsule the immeasurable worth of God’s promise in the gospel. Jesus Christ has secured forgiveness of sins through His atoning death and He has secured an eternal inheritance for all that believe. He is showing us, as John Piper puts it, “future grace” in this statement. The gospel goes beyond this life! Through the gospel we are “heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ” (Rom. 8:17). In other words, all that God owns, and that’s everything in the universe visible and invisible, we will share in with Christ for eternity.
It’s precisely what Jesus had in mind in the beatitude: “Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth” (Matt. 5:5). Though Christians are considered the outcasts of the world in this life, the day will come when those humbled by the gospel through faith in Christ will inherit the new heaven and the new earth! Paul uses similar language to the Corinthians to help them understand the weightiness of belonging to Christ. “For all things belong to you, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or things present or things to come; all things belong to you, and you belong to Christ; and Christ belongs to God” (1 Cor. 3:21b-23). So, is the promise worthwhile? It involves all that is in Christ and all that Christ reigns over as Sovereign Lord.
That’s the whole reason that Paul capsules the far reaching effects of the gospel as an eternal inheritance so that we might understand that something of such infinite value is not a reward for a few paltry good deeds. It is “not through the Law, but through the righteousness of faith.” Think about the folly of trusting in personal morality as the means to secure the eternal inheritance of the world. We have sin after sin that accompanies us day after day. Sure, along the way we do some right things. We act morally proper at times. We have a chance to steal and we don’t do it. We are tempted to commit adultery but refrain. We find a situation in which a lie would seem to help us but we tell the truth instead. In all of these things we swell with pride that we’ve done the right thing, and therefore subtly worship ourselves instead of giving glory to God. Yet so many think so little of the excellence of eternity in God’s presence as an heir of God and fellow heir of Christ, that they think a few right choices and few good deeds merit what it cost the blood of Jesus Christ to secure. Do you see how belittling to God this kind of thinking is? Do you see how blind to the glory in eternity this kind of thinking is?
Well, if it is not by our moral adherence to law that we secure the promise of God to inherit the world, then by what means do we receive the promise? Quite simply, “through the righteousness of faith.” Paul reminds us that eternity is not about what we have done but all about what God in Christ has done for us. It’s not our righteousness that gives us favor with God but the righteousness of Christ imputed to us through faith.
And what is this faith? It is reliance on Christ alone for righteousness. It is trust in the death of Christ as sufficient to satisfy eternal justice on our behalf. It is dependence on Christ’s faithfulness to every detail necessary to declare a sinner as righteous before the eternally holy God. The promise of God is not a payment for our morality but the reward of Jesus Christ’s finished work, for all that believe in Him.
Due to the tendency to rely upon one’s morality and good deeds for standing with God, most people have an aversion to the biblical gospel. I qualify “gospel” because many come up with their own gospel that cuts out the cross, that knows nothing of imputed righteousness, and that keeps self-dependence or rituals as partners with Christ. The reality is that men do not want to depend upon Christ alone for their salvation. They don’t mind trusting Him partially; but not wholly.
Yes, I trust in Jesus but I think that my moral behavior counts for something before God.
Yes, I trust in Jesus but I think that my obedience to the Law helps me out before God.
This kind of attitude and belief pervades the religious climate of our world. It’s very common in the U.S. People are glad to add Jesus to their good deeds and morality.
Christ is not a partner or an add-on or an extra help for sinners that desire forgiveness and right standing with God. Christ is all—period!
Paul helps us to see this by showing the illogical rationale of trusting in the law for righteousness.
If shows us a condition or potential circumstance. “For if those who are of the Law are heirs, faith is made void and the promise nullified.” Paul’s “if” asks us to suppose for a moment that adherence to the law could count for righteousness before God. The Greek does not have the definite article, the Law, which indicates that the Apostle is likely using law in a broad sense. It may be that when we think of law we mean the Ten Commandments. Or we may have in mind the additional civil and ceremonial laws in the Mosaic Law. Or we may think of law as the codes of morality in a given society whether written or unwritten. The emphasis on law in this context is upon the action that one takes due to a belief system or moral code or system of ethics. One acts on this code because he thinks that he can earn points with God or even achieve righteousness with God. But what if one could do that?
If you can achieve righteousness through morality then “faith is made void.” The word means that faith becomes meaningless or empty. The perfect passive verb indicates that this always and permanently voids faith.
But wait a minute! Don’t we find repeated calls to faith throughout Scripture? Is not the most famous verse in the New Testament a call to faith in God’s only begotten Son? Is not the most famous Psalm, the 23rd Psalm, a description of God’s care for the one that has faith in Him? Is not faith heralded as the only way to please God (Heb. 11:6)? Did Jesus not come preaching, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:15)?
Do you see the predicament that arises when we substitute dependence on a moral code or adherence to a set of laws or values for righteousness? We make void the very faith that the gospel calls us to. And if faith is voided then also is grace. That’s part of Paul’s continuing argument in 4:16. “For this reason it is by faith, in order that it may be in accordance with grace…” Faith operates effectively because of the grace of God at work in our souls. But if we do not need faith then we also do not need grace. And quite logically, since grace is God at work on our behalf, then when we do not need faith we also do not need God!
Consider the audacity of emptying Christianity of faith. It is the steely look of one that says to God, “I really don’t need You for righteousness; I don’t need what Christ has accomplished; I can do it myself.”
Here is the sad reality. Multitudes of religious people, many populating Baptist churches and other Protestant churches, have essentially told the Lord by not relying upon faith in Christ alone, ‘I can do it myself.’ Could it be that there are some among us whom that describes?
He goes even further. When we rely upon our system of morality or code of ethics or the Golden Rule for righteousness “the promise is nullified.” What promise does Paul mean? He’s referring to the gospel promise made to Abraham of the righteousness by faith through Christ on behalf of sinners. This promise made in the gospel is nullified or rendered to no effect. In other words, the gospel means nothing apart from faith alone in Christ. If we are clinging to anything that we’ve done that might accord with the Ten Commandments or the Golden Rule or any system of morality as the means to righteousness, then we have rendered the gospel promises void.
This staggers me when I think of how I trusted in my own morality and righteousness for a number of years. Because I had not come to terms with my own sinfulness and the infinite holiness of God, I trusted that my morality counted for something before God. Yet in so doing, “faith [was] made void and the promise [was] nullified.” What I had not considered was how much morality was necessary to achieve adequate righteousness to stand before God. My view of God was so low and my view of myself so high that I thought everything was rosy between God and me. I did not know that my self dependent spirit voided faith and nullified the gospel promise! I spent several years convincing myself that I was okay with God by comparing myself to my peers that made poorer moral choices. I failed to see the Lord God in His majestic holiness as unapproachable by sinful man; as so holy that even the cherubim before Him covered their eyes lest they gaze upon infinite glory and evaporate into nothingness.
If we can achieve righteousness through the law then we can boast before God of how we did not need Him or His provision of righteousness through Christ alone. Are you willing to entrust your eternity to such a claim? I dare not! You dare not! The hymn writer said it best,
I will not boast in anything
No gifts, no power, no wisdom
But I will boast in Jesus Christ
His death and resurrection
(Stuart Townend, “How Deep the Father’s Love for Us”).
Since Paul excludes the Law as the means to righteousness there would be some hearing this epistle read that reacted, thinking that he had denigrated God’s holy Law. Later, we find Paul commenting, “So then, the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good” (7:12). His concern was not with the Law as a problem but rather with those that trusted the Law as the means to righteousness. Consider what he explains about the Law.
For one thing, God never gave the Law as the means to righteousness. Instead, the Law was the divine standard, the benchmark by which a person could see an objective standard of moral behavior. He can look at the Law and see what God expects of everyone created in His image. Yet as the divine standard, when the Law is violated it also necessitates judicial action on God’s part. That’s why Paul wrote in verse 15, “For the Law brings about wrath.” That was not a dig against the Law but rather the reality that none of us fully keep the Law. Therefore, it “brings about” or produces “wrath.” Wrath expresses the divine response to transgressions. It is the patient, deliberate exercise of divine justice against sinners.
The next phrase sheds more light on what he means: “but where there is no law, there also is no violation” or transgression. We can interpret this in two ways. First, if there were no such thing as law then there would be no such thing as transgression, and therefore, no wrath against men. No standard of righteousness would exist nor would any punishment exist. Second, Paul could have meant that where no codified law exists there is no transgression, which means to break the law, but there’s still sin. Man would still miss the mark of the Creator’s moral purpose for him. In either case, it is a mute point for us because there is a law and there is also violation of the law. Since God has given us His Law, to violate it is to be held accountable to the Law. Consider the two key words in that phrase: law and violation (better, transgression). Law clarifies every transgression. How does the Law do this?
First, as a fence, the Law gives distinct barriers or limits to our behavior. You can look and admire something but “you shall not steal.” The law draws a line on how far our behavior can go.
Second, as a spotlight, the Law exposes our guilt when we cross the fence. Imagine a fence with “No Trespassing” signs posted along it. That’s the law as a barrier to sin. But if we cross the fence then a giant spotlight suddenly beams in on us, exposing the reality that we crossed the forbidden line. That’s why hearing the Law often brings on guilt.
Third, as a video, the Law stands as irrefutable evidence that we are transgressors. In the divine courtroom, the Law replays the act of transgression, assuring our guilt.
Finally, as a verdict, the Law condemns us and calls for wrath. It is not unjust, mind you. The Law calls it as it sees it.
So what will you rely upon in the face of such condemning evidence as a transgressor? Will you rely upon good deeds or rituals or morality? While all of those things may improve your life, none of them can take away the evidence of your guilt as a transgressor against the Law of God. None of those things can declare you righteous in the face of condemning evidence.
But God has provided the only sure means to fulfill the Law’s demands and to deliver you from wrath. That provision is the crucified and resurrected Son of God, who satisfied the justice demanded by the Law by bearing God’s wrath at the cross; and who gives you His righteousness so that you might know acceptance before the face of God. It is only “through the righteousness of faith” that this gospel promise made long ago becomes yours.
Once again I call you to Jesus Christ—to look to Him, to trust in Him alone as your Savior and Lord. Through the simplicity of faith in Christ all of the guilt that you have amassed through transgressing God’s Law is taken away, and your new standing of righteousness gives you peace with God. The Law produces wrath. But faith in Christ imputes righteousness.
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