Peter Barnes | Romans 4:1-5
SERMON NOTES
ABRAHAM JUSTIFIED BY FAITH
(Romans 4:1-5)
– Abraham was justified the same way as New Testament Christians
1. We have an alien righteousness.
– 4:1-3; the Book of Jubilees in the second century B.C. said that ‘Abraham was perfect in all his deeds with the Lord’.
– Not so! Abraham could not accomplish God’s promise; God had to do it (Gen.15:1-6). We need a righteousness outside ourselves.
– James 1:21-22 is dealing with justification at the very end.
2. We cannot earn this righteousness.
– 4:4; we earn death by our sins (Rom.6:23)
– you do not regard your pay check as a work of grace! But salvation is!
3. We who are ungodly can be justified.
– 4:5; How can the holy God justify the ungodly? (see Ex.23:7; Proverbs 17:15)
– Calvin: ‘faith adorns us with the righteousness of another, which it begs from God.’