RIGHTEOUS BY FAITH

Read Romans 4.

No sinner has ever or will ever enter heaven except by the grace of God. That grace is available through faith rather than works.  It is based on what Christ has done in His work of redemption through His crucifixion and resurrection. By faith in Christ alone we have His righteousness imputed to us—that is, credited to our account. Our sins were placed on Him—the debit side of our life ledger being cancelled—and His righteousness deposited in our spiritual bank account—an inexhaustible righteousness to draw upon.

Paul illustrates this in Romans 4 by pointing to Abraham.  “For what does the Scripture say? ‘Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.’” (v.3‬). Long before the law was given on Mt. Sinai, the way of righteousness had been established. Before Abraham was marked by the covenant sign of circumcision, he had already been declared justified by faith.  The blessedness of David in being forgiven of sin, apart from his works, is mentioned also (read v.5-8).

Those of the circumcision—the Jews—wanted to think they were righteous because of a biological connection to Abraham, and their physical indication of circumcision, where Paul tells us that it is the spiritual connection with Abraham—our faith in the promise of God that saves us, as Jews or Gentiles (v.9-22).

Our part in salvation is that we do the sinning.  God’s part is that He does the saving. “Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him, but also for us. It shall be imputed to us who believe in Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification.” (v.23-25‬).