Salvation: Standing Before God Without Sin

Paul’s letter to the Romans is an extended, 16-chapter, explanation of the gospel. It is a careful explanation of what Christianity is all about. Careful but also sometimes complex. There is one bit in today’s section that I puzzled over for ages and I am still not sure I understand it. I am not going to tell you which part it is.

Four weeks ago, we looked at the first chapter where Paul kept talking about the gospel, the good news. He said, “I am not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God that bring salvation to everyone who believes; first to the Jew, then to the Gentile” (1:16). There is quite a bit about Jews and Gentiles. Paul was writing to a church of Jews and Gentiles. There might have been some tension between them, but there were also question about whether the gospel is different for Jews than it is for Gentiles. Is it necessary to keep the Jewish laws? Are we saved by the law or by God’s grace? What is the gospel?

Then Paul plunged into the topic of sin. Everybody, he says – Jews, Gentiles, people outside the church, people inside the church – is a sinner. Jews have history with God. They have the law. That is an advantage. They know what God requires. But, actually, it is a disadvantage too because no one can keep it. The law tells us what we should do, but we can’t, so it highlights our sinfulness.

That is very bad news, but I actually cheated a little bit last time because I didn’t want us spending three weeks feeling condemned. We carried on a little further. 3:21 starts with “But”.

Romans 3:21

But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.

There is a new type of righteousness that does not depend on obeying the law. This righteousness is received through faith in Jesus Christ and is what the law and the prophets were all leading up to.

In the section from 3:19 through to the end of Chapter 4 the word righteous, or righteousness, occurs 13 times. This is a major theme. How can we be righteous? How can we stand before God sinless? 3:10 said, “There is no one righteous, not even one”. 3:20 says, “No one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by observing the law”. No one can stand before God sinless. Not even those who work really hard to obey God; it is not possible to do that without failing over and over again.

But… but there is a righteousness that is a gift.

Romans 3:21

This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.

All of us have failed. None of us is righteous. But what if our sins are taken away? What if our sins are forgiven? If our sins are taken away, then we are without sin; we are righteous before God. Incredible!

In this section, Paul contrast two ways to be saved – two ways to be able to stand in God’s presence. One is by obeying the law. It is a salvation that we earn by our good works. I said there are two ways to be saved but we already know that this one is impossible: “no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by obeying the law” (3:20). But some people Paul was writing to believed they were saved by obeying the law. So, Paul says, “Ok, lets consider that”. Let’s suppose there are two options: on the one hand law and obedience; on the other hand, grace, a free gift from God received through faith.”

Paul would have been thinking primarily of Jews who understood that we are saved by keeping the law. But maybe we believe that too. It is natural for us to think we must earn whatever we get. If we were to ask people in the street what Christianity was about, if they have any idea at all, they might think it is about keeping God’s law – living in a certain way so that God will be happy with us and take us to heaven when we die. We shouldn’t criticise people for thinking that, because there is something inside us that probably thinks the same thing. There is always a cost. We say, “There is no such thing as a free lunch”. It is just the way the world works. You earn; you receive. You work; you get paid. You be nice to me; I’ll be nice to you. You pay money; you buy an item. That is the way the world works. A transaction takes place

The second reason we should not criticise people for thinking that salvation has to be earned is that maybe we haven’t old them.

The Jews that Paul was writing to had huge admiration for Abraham, the father of their nation. So, Paul takes them back to Abraham and asks, “For Abraham, was it law or was it grace? Was it works or was it faith? Was it earned or was it a gift?”

READ Romans 4:1-25

Was Abraham justified by obeying the law? No. Even way back in Genesis 15:6, it says, “Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness”. Even in Genesis it was faith. “It was credited to him”. God made him righteous. It was a gift.

Paul doesn’t mention this here, but the law wasn’t given to Moses until centuries later. Clearly, Abraham was not saved by obeying the law.

Paul illustrates it from David as well. Psalm 32 says, “Blessed are those whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed are those whose sins the Lord will never count against them.” We are righteous when we are forgiveness and forgiveness is a gift.

Abraham received a gift from God. David talked about people who received a gift from God. Jews, look at this. This is consistent in your scriptures. God has been talking about a free gift for millennia.

Question (4:9): Is this blessing from God only for the circumcised – only for Jews? Or, is this gift also available to those who have not been circumcised?

Well, guess what. Abraham received it before he was circumcised. He was later circumcised, not to become righteous but as a sign of the righteousness already received.

So, Abraham is the father, the first, of all those who have been forgiven without having been circumcised. The Jews thought of him as the father of the Jews but Paul says Abraham is the father of all who, like him, trust God irrespective of whether that have been circumcised or not – Jews and Gentiles.

Here is the bit I struggled over. I get v.13. Paul is simply reiterating that Abraham and his children (those who have faith in God) were not saved through the law but through faith.

I think vv.14, 15 are saying we have a choice. We can depend on the law. We can decide to be good people and impress God. But, if we do that, then we reject God’s promise of forgiveness. If God offers us a righteousness by faith and we say, “No thanks, I’ll earn it”, we have rejected the gift. We have chosen the law, but the law actually brings wrath. What a dumb choice, rejecting God’s gift!

Or we can choose faith, and Abraham illustrates what faith is. He was about 100 years old; Sarah was about 90 years old. She had never been able to have children, so what are the chances at 90? Paul describes Abraham as being “as good as dead” and Sarah’s womb as being actually dead. And yet God said they would have a son, and Abraham would become the father of many nations. Clearly, clearly clearly that was impossible. Not going to happen!

But Abraham believed God. Abraham believed that God could give life to the dead and could create things out of nothing. “Against all hope”. There was no chance of this happening. But Abraham continued to believe. If God said it would happen, God was able to make it happen, and God keeps His promises, and so against all hope, Abraham continued to hope. He didn’t waver. He was strengthened in his faith (v.20). It doesn’t say that Abraham strengthened his faith but that he was strengthened in his faith. In other words, God helped Abraham have faith. It was by faith but God helped with that too, and, because it was all from God, Abraham gave God the glory.

It was because of that faith that Abraham was considered righteous.

Faith means: if God said it, I believe it. God had said they would have a son; Abraham believed it. God helped him stay strong, and Abraham gave the glory to God.

Look at vv, 23,24. This free forgiveness was not for Abraham only. This is written for us as well. We too can be forgiven and stand before God without sin. We have the same choice. Will we try to earn out own salvation, in which case, we reject God’s free gift? Or, will we say, “I cannot do this. I cannot keep the law. I fail miserably. I believe in Him who raised Jesus our lord from the dead.” In other words, this gift of righteousness is given to all who believe in God.

There is a way to be righteous, to be forgiven, to be justified, to be saved. But there is only one way.

Romans 3:25

God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of His blood – to be received by faith.

Romans 4:25

He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.

God gave Jesus to die for us. He took our sins on Himself and paid the price for them. And He rose to give us a new life as justified people. Jesus provides the only way we can stand before God without sin.

We can say, “No, no, I’ll do it myself”, or we can say, “I cannot do it myself. I know how sinful I am. I deserve judgement. My only hope is that Jesus died for me. I don’t trust me; I trust Jesus.”

Two songs come to mind” Frank Sinatra’s sang, “I did it my way”, and John Newton’s, “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost but now am found, was blind but now I see.”

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