Faith Not Works
Romans 4:4-8 · Bob Eckel · Apr 30, 2006
Romans (2005-07), No. 29
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/48262350286536

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

All right, today our task is Romans 4, 4 through 8. And I think just to kind of set the passage straight, David, could you read for us chapter 4, 1 through 8? So start with verse 1. And Mike taught last week 1 through 3. And we're going to set the stage for 4 through 8 by revisiting that. So go ahead, David. 1 through 8?

Yeah. What then, shall we say, that Abraham, our forefather, according to the flesh, has had? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. But what does the Scripture say? And Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.

Not to the one who works his way does not reckon his favor, but his words do. To the one who does not work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned as righteousness. Just as David also speaks of the blessing upon the man to whom God reckons righteousness, apart from works. Blessed are those whose lawless deeds have been forgiven, and whose sins have been covered. Blessed is the man whose sins the Lord will not take into account. All right, good. Thank you, David.

So, verse 4, then, is in the King James, Now to him who works the wages are not counted or reckoned as grace, but as debt. Now, the question comes up here and I'd like some discussion about this. Think of how this relates to your earthly job versus the wages God has paid. Everybody understand the question or the comment in terms of reflecting on this? So Dave, let's say you go to work this week and your employer basically feels like not paying you. What's your response going to be to that? Seriously, this is kind of an interesting concept to take into consideration a little bit.

We all work for a living. At least most of us do, or we have spouses that work. In other words, we're counting on an income, or through retirement or whatever means, we're counting on an income that's meeting our earthly needs and sometimes our wants and desires, right? I mean, who's going to define need versus want and desire? I don't want to do that here today, for sure. But in general, we are really depending on a world system to provide our income. no matter what the source. Now, we can say we're depending on God for sure. I mean, we trust all things to him.

But the practical aspect, David, is if your employer says no paycheck this week, you know, this is not going to happen. But you are expected to show up for your employment. What's the response to that? Well, the response is one that I think really is entitlement, isn't it?

Think about that. We work for a living So we therefore deserve or are entitled to an income. And that's world system dynamics. It's world system dynamics. I'm working for a living. I deserve an income. Hi guys. So what we're dealing with here is this concept of the wages that are paid for our work. versus the wages that are paid by God in terms of trying to contrast those two concepts. And I think this is a worthwhile thing to think about. So if we're not paid for our earthly employment, we sense this entitlement is no longer granted. But now think about the concept of grace.

Debt really is related to entitlement. Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace, but as debt. So where's the debt in the workplace? Craig, your job. Who's in debt? Your employer is in debt to you. Is he or she not? Because you've worked and you have this entitlement to an income. So because of the effort you've put forth, your employer is in debt to you. because he justly owes you your due income.

Grace. Very different concept. It is so different that we can't even really conceptualize it or take it in or describe it. Grace is favor. And do we think that our employer is going to be paying us because he or she has this view that this is a favor they're doing for us? No, they're indebted to us in terms of the earthly effort. And I think we could sit here and ponder this for a long time, but let's move ahead.

Romans 11, 6, "...and if by grace, then it is no longer by works, otherwise grace is no longer grace." Isn't that beautiful? And if it's by grace, then it's no longer by works, otherwise grace is no longer grace. If God sensed an indebtedness to offer us his favor, then ultimately we would be working our way into his acceptance, his righteousness. But if it be by works, then it's no longer grace. So, I mean, this verse so nicely dissects this in terms of trying to define the differences between entitlement and favor.

Consider the parable of the laborers and their reward. I don't know whether we should take time to do this, but here's a nice painting of, I'm not sure where this is shown, what museum it's in, but this is an exemplification of the laborers in terms of what their expectations were. Maybe we should take a look at this. Let's go to Matthew 20. Now keep in mind, there's an application here that may be a little bit, you know, out of the purpose of this particular parable. So, the parable of the laborers, Matthew 20. For the kingdom of heaven is like a man that is a householder, who went out early in the morning to hire laborers in the vineyard. And when he had agreed with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into the vineyard.

And he went out about the third hour and saw others standing idle in the marketplace, and said unto them, Go ye also into the vineyard, and whatever is right I'll give you. And they went their way. Again he went out about the sixth and ninth hour and did the same. And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing idle, and saith unto them, Why stand you here this day idle? And they say unto him, Because no man hath hired us.

He saith unto them, Go ye also into the vineyard, and whatever is right, that you will receive. So when evening was come, the lord of the vineyard said unto his steward, Call the laborers, and give them their hire, beginning from the last unto the first. And when they came that were hired about the eleventh hour, they received every man a denarius. But when the first came, they supposed that they should have received more, and they likewise received every man a denarius.

And when they received it, they murmured against the householder, saying, These last have worked but one hour, and thou hast made them equal unto us, but who have borne the burden and the heat of the day. But he answered one of them, and said, Friend, I do thee no wrong. Didst not thou agree with me for Denarius?

That is what is thine, and go thy way. I will give unto this last, even as unto thee. Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? Is thine eye evil, because I am good? So the last shall be first, and the first last, and many are called, and few are chosen."

So we could take this parable and dissect it for the next hour in terms of all the potential applications of the parable, but the principle is this. God's favor is on his own terms. And what are those terms? What's God's favor based on? Absolutely. It's not based on anything that is of us. So he calls the shots, right? And that's what grace is. Grace is favor for the unworthy.

And we're going to look at this unworthiness a little bit more, the ungodly, which is part of the text that we're looking at here today. So back to, you know, I don't want to spend too much time on that picture, but, you know, you can envision this Back into the example that I tried to provide a few minutes ago of thinking about working for your wages, right? So here are these guys, they've been working all day and they've been out in the heat and been sweating and they're tired now and they're getting paid the same as these guys who only worked an hour. What's the deal here? The deal is, is works brings about debt.

And the view of entitlement is not the principle of grace. We are owed nothing. And it's by God's great favor and love, ultimately, that we're drawn unto Him. Any thoughts about 4.4 in terms of kind of where we went with that verse before we go ahead?

Carol? I think if you're coming out of the world system, which I was at age 45, it was so difficult to understand grace. I kept asking for the definition. And when it finally hit mind and heart, it just knocked me to my knees. Isn't it unbelievable? And, you know, preparing for this lesson yesterday, it was unbelievable to me how increasingly beautiful the concept and the fact of grace really is. It's unbelievable. And if you look at the last page of the lesson, which I don't want to jump ahead, but we're going to get back to grace in terms of the way the world views it and really think about this in a lot more detail. Thanks for sharing that. That's great.

Alright, verse 5 then, but to him who does not work but believes on him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. Now Denny says, and I kind of like this actually, although I modified what he said with one word, the whole Pauline gospel could be summed up in this one word, and I put in parenthesis phrase because that's not one word, God who justifies the ungodly, in the verse. Do you agree with that? Paul's gospel, or the gospel in general, but I mean the way Paul reflects it particularly, is really perfect for the body.

And that's, quote, God who justifies the ungodly. Define ungodly. And this is the principle we're going to build on now, Carol, that you just brought up. How do you view ungodly? And I had a nice talk with Hal yesterday about this. In fact, that's one reason among many that I called him to say, Hal, What's ungodly mean to you?

Well, it means, if you look at the definition, and I looked at many sources, it kept kind of being repeated in a fairly exaggerated and exuberant manner as destitute of reverential awe towards God, condemning God, being impious. Well, that's not me. Is that the way you felt before you were saved, Barbara? I mean, destitute of reverential awe. condemning God and pious.

I mean, is that most people? Most good people of the world? Is that their view? Is that what the ungodly really reflects? It's really true. When you walk in the world system and most non-saved people of the world would think men are mostly, let me pause there, men are basically good. with a little bit occasionally bad habits, right? Or we make mistakes, but we're basically good people. And to use that as a term to define the ungodly would be a term that we would never accept. Never. So then I would say, are there a matter of degrees?

Maybe some are more ungodly, like the Romans one group that we've read about, you know, the people who are involved in homosexuality and and incest and beyond. Those people are really bad, but those who are a little less ungodly are those people who maybe aren't quite that far, but kind of moving in that direction. But what about these people who seem to be living good lives? It's a matter of whose perspective is important here. So, by man's perspective, yeah, there are degrees. By God's perspective, no. So let's build on that.

Let's turn to Romans 1.18 and 19 and 24 and 25, and then we're going to turn to Romans 3.10 to 12.

Craig, could you read Romans 1.18 and 19 for me?

And Ruthie, could you do Romans 1.24 and 25? Jim, how about Romans 3 10 through 12?

So if we could just look at those passages now, these are all relevant to the topic. Go ahead All right suppress the truth and unrighteousness, right okay Romans 1 24 and 25 Ruthie Now, if we're using this to define the ungodly, we're looking at the extreme again, aren't we?

But let's think about the self-righteous man. the person who's trying to please God, not being saved, but yet believing there is a heavenly being of some sort, and he or she is living a life that's generally a pretty good life from a human perspective, and they do not view themselves, nor would we view them, as being ungodly like the verses that we just read in Romans 1. So what's wrong with the concept here? And Craig, you know, opened up the door to that in terms of God's view versus ours. But what is the person who's trying to live the good life trying to prove?

Okay, and what's the basis of work? And? And debt, right? Okay, and the basis of works brings back the evidence of that works to yourself, right? The reason we think we deserve a paycheck is we put in the time, and the effort, and the brainpower. So we are deserved a paycheck because the earthly system says, I'm indebted to you for what works you've done. In terms of God's righteousness, when we work to get his pleasure, we in fact are bringing credit onto ourselves as what we've accomplished, so God owes us something, right?

So the ungodly, from his perspective, those people are equally as ungodly, although I think the punishment for their ungodliness may be different than the person who God is finally giving over to their own ways and wills. But to some extent he does that with the ungodly who are trying to live a righteous life in their own power, in their own strength.

Grace is a whole different principle. An entirely different principle. Yeah, Carol? Did you just say that God treats them differently? Has there never been a principle? No, I'm just saying that I think those those people are equally, you know, unacceptable to God.

I mean, it may be that the punishment of a lifestyle can be different for those who are self-righteous trying to get God's pleasure by their works, but yet his, you know, lack of acceptance is equal for both. And I think we can all agree with the fact that the consequences of some sins are far greater than the others in this earthly life. And there's some hint in the scripture, I think, and I don't want to go there now, that the ultimate punishment for those who are not saved may relate to their earthly life, right? I mean, they're only measured based on their earthly life. If they're unsaved, they all end up in the same place. But nevertheless, degrees of punishment may, in fact, vary some. But that's not really what we want to study here today.

So let's then look at Romans 3, 10 through 12. Who had that? Jim? Yeah. So as it is written, there is none righteous, not even one. And that pretty much sums it up, doesn't it? Keep in mind, Romans 1 and 2 and 3 describe all these different classes of citizens, how they fall short of the glory of God. And the conclusion of those passages is that there's none that do righteous, no, not one.

Bear with me here a second. I'm going to read. This is from Newell's Commentary to the Romans, and I just have a couple of brief paragraphs to read here. We are all ungodly, and when we place our faith in the God who is in the business of declaring righteous the ungodly who trust him as they are on the sole ground of the shed blood of Christ, then we are justified, accounted righteous by God.

No, it's not the regenerate, the born-again man who's declared righteous, it's the ungodly. Important principle, right? It's not the penitent man or the praying man as such, but the ungodly. It's not the professing Christian who's escaped the defilements of the world through certain spiritual experiences. but the ungodly who believes as such on the God who declares righteous the ungodly who believe on him as such. And of course it's not the church member Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, Episcopalian, Roman Catholic, or Plymouth Brethren as such but the ungodly. This is not either putting a premium on ungodliness but telling the truth as it's stated. If you've not relied on God as an ungodly one, you have yet to be declared righteous, for He is the God who declares the righteous the ungodly who believe on Him."

Comments? Thoughts? I think sometimes we need to be reminded of that. I know I do. I mean, not that I believe I have any self-worth. I mean, but the issue is God saves the ungodly. And that's the group that we've been pulled out of. And we're now declared righteous because we believe that that's true.

I thought it was interesting this morning I mentioned to Margaret when I read these kind of none but the hungry heart daily, it's a nice kind of daily devotional. I may not get in the word when I travel every day, but this is my beginning of each day. So this morning's I thought was really kind of relevant to our topic today is called Liberty for All. Now keep in mind that this salvation experience is not only being declared righteous, but it relates to our life also. So this says, if you died with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to ordinances?

Reflecting on Colossians 2.20, here's the text.

When it comes to spiritual growth and walk, any help from ourselves is a hindrance. The source is wrong. On the death side, we're to receive deliverance from sin's power through the Spirit from the cross. On the life side, we're to receive growth through the Spirit from the Lord Jesus. It's a matter of receiving, not contributing. We are branches, not vines. The old elementary legal rudiments of a legal age of works for those living in the world, having an earthly temple and worship, is not correct.

Believers are seated in the heavenlies in Christ and are spiritual people with a sanctuary in heaven. Touch not, taste not, handle not, such commandments of men have no value. They perish with the using. Voluntary humility, neglecting of the body, fasting, etc., have a show of wisdom. They gratify religious pride and self-righteousness. They puff up the fleshly mind, but they're not of any value against the indulgence of the flesh. The flesh is not subdued by fasting, nor pride by whipping, nor worldliness by neglect of the body. These are of no avail, though men glory in them.

Only the Holy Spirit brings one into liberty, and that through the cross. The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death." It's not only our coming to know the Lord and being accepted as a member of the body of Christ and declared righteous, it's our life that really reflects those same truths and those same principles. So I just read the Stanford, None but the Hungry Heart from today. That, I think, was very appropriate.

All right, so Romans 5, 6 through 8, which is going to be probably four months from now, states, For when we were yet without strength in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely will one die for a righteous man. Yet perhaps for a good man, some would even dare to die. But God commends his love towards us in that while we are yet sinners, in Christ died for us. That kind of sums up this degrees of ungodliness, doesn't it? The good man, right? Or how about for a righteous man? But yet, the ungodly encaptures everyone.

And it's really something that, again, I think we need to constantly keep in mind. All right. Define does not work. Let's get back to the text again. We're in Romans 4, 5 now. To him that works is the reward. I'm sorry. Yeah, verse 5. But to him that worketh not, but believes on him that justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. So define does not work. Or worketh not.

Well, it relates to the principle of faith. So these are contrasting issues, the issue of works and faith. And faith is described by Jameson, Fawcett, and Brown as merely the instrument that puts us in possession of the blessing gratuitously bestowed. Again, I always like for faith believing what God has revealed. It's a simpler definition, but yet faith is the opposite of working.

Jesus answered the Pharisees and said to them, this is the work of God. What was the work of God? Not this act, not that act, but was believing in him whom he hath sent. So that's very simply the work of God. So not working is really in fact taking on this atmosphere of faith that surrounds us by God's great grace.

So the question I have for us now is what was Abraham's faith based on? So this is reflecting back on the verses that preceded our text for today, verses 1 through 3. Well, he believed in the promises, didn't he, that ultimately embraced Christ. So let's go back to Genesis here a second. So Margaret, would you look at Genesis 12, 3? And Barbara, would you do Genesis 15, 5? So these are promises to Abraham by God. Genesis 12, 3.

And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse them that curse me. And in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. All right. And 15, 5. And he brought him outside and said, look now toward heaven, and count the stars, if you are able to number them. And he said to him, so shall your descendants be. All right. All right, good.

So, you know, and I think Abraham... Howell often says this, and I'm a little less clear as to how good of a view Abraham had of Christ, but I mean, I think Howell thinks he had a pretty good view of what the cross was going to be all about. I just am not certain about how good his view was, but nevertheless, his view was clearly believing God in his promises, and that clearly would lead to the Lord Jesus Christ himself.

Galatians 3.8 says, And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached beforehand the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed. So Paul says in Galatians that Abraham at least had a reasonable view about what the blessing was going to be related to.

And that blessing, of course, was based on the principle of faith. I mean, the gospel is about Christ. I mean, right? Right. So, I think Paul is saying here that he absolutely, you know, was preached the gospel. But the question is, how clear was that to Abraham? I think probably it was clear.

I mean, if you're preached the gospel, Yeah, and that principle, that gospel principle, the broad principle is that of faith, right? And faith is believing what God has revealed. Abraham was given a certain amount of truth that he was asked to believe, and he did. He was counted righteous for that belief. And I think if you course the whole Old Testament, boy, the people that are identified in the Old Testament lived by faith. There's no problem believing that they were counted righteous before God's eyes.

I mean, the cross was yet to occur, and how clear Abraham saw Calvary as to what it really looked like and was is not clear to me, anyway. Anybody have any thoughts here about... Yes, Carol? I think David saw it quite clearly. He knew he lost his wife and baby, and he knew he would see that baby again. He didn't see the cross, perhaps. He knew there was God's promise. Absolutely. And Abraham really resided on God's promises. He believed God for everything he revealed to Abraham at that time.

And just ask yourselves, what's the basis of us accepting what we accept about our faith that we haven't seen yet? What about the rapture? What about our eternal security? What about the events that are yet to come? What's the basis of that? It's faith, is it not? But we believe God for what He revealed because we believe that He's made us righteous who were once ungodly, right? And all of the events of the Old Testament where prophecy has been fulfilled allow us to believe that what's future will also be fulfilled. That's intellectual to some extent. But I think you don't come to that acceptance intellectually until you've come to the fact of believing that you're a sinner saved by grace.

And I think Abraham had that same mindset. Yeah, I mean, Abraham didn't have a... He believed in what faith was for him, and the thing that God said about us that we haven't yet seen with you. Absolutely. that God has said the same thing for Abraham. Boy, and the world just can't go there with us. You just have no conversation with someone about these kinds of things.

All right, verse 6, Webster, even as David also described the blessedness of the man to whom God imputed righteousness without works. So David recognized the same truth that Abraham did, and Carol just brought that up. You're right, David also had had the ability to recognize that what was promised was not yet fulfilled.

And I think here, interestingly enough, the term blessedness really is in the form of congratulation. By the way, congratulations, everybody, because our godly position is imputed on us as righteous. Isn't that kind of neat? Being blessed is being congratulated for what you've accomplished. But here, we haven't accomplished anything. It's been imputed. But yet, congratulations everybody, you're all members of the body of Christ. Isn't that just tremendous, if you think about that? Congratulations. Man here is Anthropos, it applies to both men and women, so this is kind of the generic man.

And Ephesians 1.3 gives us an idea of being blessed, and that we're blessed, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us. with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. I mean, that's kind of a neat thing, too, to reflect on. So this blessedness is the fact that we've come to be accepted as righteous and eternally secured in heavenly places.

Now, the verb impute is one which Paul uses a lot in Romans. And we've seen it already repeatedly used. And we're going to see it. We're seeing it here. We're going to see it clearly down the path, particularly in Romans 6. But the term impute is to reckon or to count or consider or to establish. Lots of ways to define this and I think reflecting on a couple of verses that give us more insight to this.

For he hath made him. Now this actually making him is kind of establishing too. It's reckoning and imputing. He hath imputed on him who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might be considered, reckoned, imputed to be the righteousness of God in him. Same principle. Enacted upon by God because of what he's claimed was done to successfully fulfill his demand for righteousness. And that's the shed blood. And again, it's without our input. No works here. This is entirely by him.

Second Timothy 1.9, who hath saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but in accordance with his own purpose and grace, which was given to us in Christ Jesus before the world began.

Now, Romans 4, 7 through 8, and this is an interesting text here and has personal meaning to me, and I'll reflect on that in just a second. I've combined the two verses because it really flows from Psalms 32, 1 and 2, and we're pulling it right out of the Psalms.

Blessed are they whose iniquities, parenthesis, lawless deeds, are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. the man to whom the Lord will not reckon sin or impute sin. So let's dissect this a little bit now. The Amplified, I think, gives us a little bit more of kind of an uplifting and reality test of these verses. Blessed and happy and to be envied are those whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered up and completely buried in Blessed and happy and to be envied is the person of whose sin the Lord will take no account nor reckon it against him. Yes, paraphrase a little bit, but I think it really gives a much more vivid interpretation. We're to be envied. And that sin is not to be reckoned on us, even though God fully knows He saved us as ungodly individuals. Strong verses.

Now, the reason this is personal for me is when I got saved on July 14, 1978, and when that salvation was announced at the church where I went shortly thereafter, and the pastor had found out through Sharon, my late wife, that I'd come to know the Lord. And those who had recently been saved went up to the altar. I mean, it was a coveted church, actually, but all that aside, we all went up, and there were about three or four of us.

And these are the verses that, having met with the pastor ahead of time, he thought were perfect for me. So just teaching this today just kind of makes me reflect back on a time almost 30 years ago when, in fact, at age 30, I was given these verses as life verses by the pastor then. Now, have I accepted these as life verses? Not particularly, but I like the verses because I think what it did, retrospectively, is make me reflect the truth that we've been talking about today.

And that truth is this, is that we're blessed and happy and to be envied that our iniquities are forgiven. And when I came to be saved, there was no doubt I was now saved, because this principle in its very elementary form meant something new to me. And what you were saying before, Craig, being a doubter, Initially in terms of what the ungodly really means from the world's perspective and now seeing myself in the truth of this verse These verses and then the second verse blessed and happy and to be envied is the person whose sin The Lord will not account to me or make me responsible for it And the neat thing is the skeptic would say, gee, if that's what you believe, Eccle, or if the body of Christ believes that, why don't you just go out and sin left and right?

Well, God forbid, right? If there's a truth to Romans, goodness, here's what God has done for us. God forbid that we would continue in the old ways. I mean, many times we do. But that sin is still dealt with. It's a whole different, I think, acceptance of what the Christian life is all about. Most believers still live within the atmosphere of trying to please God. although we would all want to do that, we know that that one is our own strength and our own works that bring forth our righteousness and not his. There's only the power to feel, you know, feel defeated and be in despair because our works are not sufficient.

So tremendous principle, biblical principle. Notice that both are forgiven, are covered, are Eris passive indicative, factual. Eris once occurred and passive, we are the recipients of the forgiveness and the sins being covered. Now this is the only use in the New Testament of being covered. I found that kind of interesting. So how are we interpreting this? What does being covered mean? What do you think about of sins being covered? Does that seem somehow, somewhat inadequate to you? I thought they were done away with.

Let's say we've got You know, we've got a dead dog here on the floor that somebody just ran over or something, and we're going to put a cover over that dog. I mean, does that mean that the dog is not there and dead? I mean, we don't see it anymore, but now the dog is being covered, so therefore we believe that there's no dog there. Well, if you look at the verb and go back to kind of the Greek and look at the multiple interpretations, it means it's not seen. So the dog isn't seen. The cover is over the dog. It's not relevant. Well, I'm not sure that fits. The dog's dead, even though I can't see the dog. Pardoned. I'm not sure that's a good analogy for that. Forgiven. Different terms meaning trying to interpret what covered means.

Psalm 103.12 maybe gives us a concept. As far as the East is from the West, so far have He removed our transgressions for us.

I mean, I think this photograph is inadequate because you could never really describe what this is. But what you have an envision here of is someone who's kind of You see their feet, so you know they're kind of there. But presumably what the artist is trying to do here is reflect some sort of gown or something that doesn't allow the rest of the individual to really be seen. I mean, we know that there's the dead dog there, right? But for some reason, we don't get any more information about it.

So the idea of being pardoned and forgiven is the fact that this individual who's standing here before God is now righteous. but God still sees him or her as unique. And I'm not sure whether this is an adequate example here of this principle or not, but covered seemed to me to be a little weak.

Right. The atonement, right? So Paul is simply bringing forth Old Testament verses to make a point about the fact that even David reflected on the fact that his sins were covered. In the Old Testament, the principle of atonement was kind of the bulls and goats kind of scenario, right? And that's why the next verse, I think, helps us here. Hebrews 9, 26.

Otherwise, he would have needed to suffer often since the foundation of the world. But now, once at the consummation of the ages, he has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. So remember, the sacrifice in bulls and goats can never put away sin, right? It's only the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ that has consummated the truth of sin being totally done away with. That sin has now been put away. Now, we know that the sin nature never changes, and we know people continue to sin. But before God, we're righteous because of the fact that basically it's a done deal. God's seeing us as righteous reflects on a one-time event where sin was put away by the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ himself. Absolutely. It has everything to do with it. That's right. Absolutely. Isn't that beautiful?

You know, I've heard criticism of this position saying, you know, does he know Craig for who he is or George for who he is or Jim or Rachel for who they are? Are we just a bunch of pawns that God sees Christ in us and we have no individual merit? What are your thoughts about that?

Do we lose our individuality because we're all identified with Christ and our righteousness is in Him? No, there are thumbs and there are second fingers and there are toes and there are knees and we all in the body function to bring glory to Him. And so therefore we are uniquely saved as individuals, but our righteousness is all in Christ. Special, huh? And that takes us out of the works domain. There's no debt here.

The debt's been paid in Hebrews 9.26 with a sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. So, we'll not impute, we won't go into the Greek there in much detail. The issue is this imputing Well, let me go back to the text here. Let's see, in verse 8, so God will not impute sin. Again, I think we kind of define that as God's not going to look at us as if we're sinful. So that concept comes across to ask the question, now or at judgment? Do we walk with that confidence each and every day that, in fact, that sin's been removed?

2 Corinthians 5.19, to wit, that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses and sin. Here's the walk, who his own self bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we being dead to sin should live unto righteousness by whose stripes you're healed. Right? So there's the life.

2 Corinthians 5.19, the declaration of not imputing our trespasses upon us.

And 1 Peter 2.24, the life that's based on that truth. Now, here's the question for you.

I'm going to make a statement, and we're not going to have much time to really discuss this. Agree or disagree, the world hates grace. I don't think the world, as Carol pointed out, I don't think the world understands grace at all. We were in Germany, right? We have our dictionary. And we're trying to find, we're at this Christian church and we're trying to find the word for grace in German, in this dictionary, to relay, and it's not in the dictionary. We didn't have an extensive dictionary. We had a fairly, fairly... But grace was not in the dictionary.

I mean, it was, because that grace is such a difficult thing for the world to put their hands around. I'm not sure the world even... I think the two nominations to think about are people who just accept grace and who live in the beauty of that concept.

I think we can be criticized for it. I think what you were saying about the world system is that you work hard and pull yourself out by your bootstraps. So yeah, they hate it because everybody wants that kind of justice of if I work hard then I get That's right. I think intrinsic in the Adam nature is the idea that we have worth, that we can merit God's pleasure.

And therefore, when we're taken out of that domain and made to be put in a position where grace is the principle, and favor is what God gives to us freely, people, I know I have plenty of people I know, do not want to believe that anybody's doing anything for them, right? And there's ultimately kind of this pride, you remember in John what he said, lust of the eyes, lust of the flesh, and the pride of life. I mean that pride of life thing keeps a lot of people from God's grace. And ultimately as they get further ingrained in their own strengths, their own powers, and their own quote self-righteousness, grace becomes a principle they ultimately hate.

Think about the face of the world that are works-based. I mean the idea of of God's gift through Christ being free with no works? I mean, the Muslim faith would really challenge that. If you know some serious Muslims, and I've never had a conversation with this, the principle of grace just doesn't make it. They just can't accept that this is a free gift.

Barbara? Along that line, how do you reconcile, for somebody who's kind of in that system as a Christian, and like the verses in James about faith without works is dead? How would you say that? Well, the works by faith are those that are expected from the new life, are they not?

And we probably don't have time to get into this great detail, but it's kind of the principle, it's not what you do, it's who you are. And once you know who you are, what you do is evidence of who you are. Let me repeat that. It's not what you do, it's who you are. And once you know who you are, what you do is an evidence of who you are.

And that's the act of grace in the Christian life, living the life that Paul says, for me to live is Christ and die is gain, right? So the world, ultimately, the principle of grace is something the world system or the individual self-righteous ungodly man or woman cannot easily accept. They have no role other than to believe. And this concept of grace, whether it's understood or not understood, the concept of grace separates many, many, many because of their fact that they, in fact, have nothing to do with it other than to believe. Okay, let's close.

Father, we're grateful for the text before us, and we are ungodly. And, you know, it's so amazing as we reflect on your truth from Genesis to Revelation that the ungodliness of each and every one of us is ingrained in who we are in Adam. And we're so thankful that you saved the ungodly, not the self-righteous. and that works demands a debt but yet grace is entirely your favor extended to us so generously and we're thankful that that grace is not only sufficient for our salvation becoming member of the body of Christ, but for the life to be lived out in each and every one of us. I'm thankful for that truth and the fact that we've been able to share your word this morning, and we pray that lives would be modified by your great grace and you'd be glorified by these principles. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.