Grace and Promise
Romans 4:13-17 · Mike Doyle · Jun 11, 2023
Romans (2022-25), No. 27
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926193140377

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

Okay, good verses today, I think. We'll see if we can't get through them and understand a few things. So I thought, you know, a lot of this goes back to Genesis where the promise was made to Abraham by God. And one of the things you have to understand about this covenant relationship between God and Abraham is that it's a unilateral Covenant. You know what that means? You know what a bilateral and a unilateral is? If a bilateral, it's two parties. A unilateral, one guy says, I'm going to do this. And it doesn't matter if the person he says it about picks up on it or not, he's still going to do it.

So God says to Abraham in Genesis 17.1, Now, when Abraham was 99 years old, and I like this, he's 99 years old, the Lord appeared to him and said, I'm God Almighty, walk before me and be blameless.

And then he starts in, I will establish my covenant between me and you. I will multiply you exceedingly. Abraham listened to that, and it says Abraham fell on his face. And God talked to him, saying, As for me, behold, my covenant is with you, and you will be the father of a multitude of nations. No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be called Abraham. For I have made you the father of a multitude of nations and I will make you exceedingly fruitful and I will make nations of you and kings will come forth from you and I will establish my covenant between me and you and your descendants after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant. To be God to you and to the descendants after you I will give to you and your descendants after you the land of your sojourning, all the land of Canaan for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God." So this is 25 years after the first meeting between God and Abraham, and he believed God then.

Well, he believed, what did the faith do for him? What benefit did he get from believing? He got in on the deal. He became the recipient. God said, I'm going to do this. But if you want to enter in, you just have to believe me. That's it. And that's basically what these verses are going to be about.

Charles Colt says that the Holy Spirit is not expressly mentioned in Romans 4. But we find these two things, the promise and the Holy Spirit, could not be realized by the believer without the Holy Spirit, and I agree with him about that. The gift of the Spirit underlies the truth of this chapter, but presented kind of in a veiled way for spiritual apprehension rather than in a plain statement.

Galatians 5.5 says, for we, by the Spirit, on the principle of faith, await the hope of righteousness. So what is the hope of righteousness? It does not mean that we hope to get it at some point. We already have it. It rather comprises everything that comes into view of a man who was righteous and has the Spirit. Such a one has an outlook on a whole scene of divine glory.

So Abraham was, is righteous. So verse 13, we start out today, says, for the promise to Abraham and to his descendants that he would be an heir of the world was not through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. The promise to Abraham and his seed that he should be heir of the world was by faith. It wasn't by law. And we'll expand on that. That was the principle upon which the inheritance could be possessed. Salvation comes to you and me on the principle of faith. You want a part of it? All you gotta do is believe it.

Abraham was told by Jehovah that he was gonna be the father of many nations and that all of the list of stuff that we went through in those eight verses. So he was to inherit the world and his seed might hold all that God gave to them for God's glory and God's pleasure. Again, for the promises of Abraham's descendants would be air of the world and not through law, but through the righteousness of faith. The inheritance is the whole vast scene of the glory shortly to be revealed.

It is all to be possessed and held for God's pleasure by Christ and his joint heirs, which is us. But the ground on which we can have part in it is righteousness of faith. Keep that phrase in mind. The ground that I and you and Abraham had a part on it is the righteousness of faith. As a promise, though, that Abraham would be heir of the world.

Vincent says, and this was kind of good, Paul here takes the Jewish conception of the universal dominion of the messianic theocracy prefigured by the inheritance of Canaan, how the Jew thought about this. Divested of its Judaic element, in other words, circumcision and keeping the law, and raises it to Christian truth. You get it by faith.

So the phrase, the righteousness of faith, we're not to understand that the faith exercised by the sinner is righteous in quality. And what I mean by that, just because you exercise faith doesn't mean that God owes you. There's not a quality, there isn't a quid pro quo there. The promise made to Abraham was not upon the basis of any attempted obedience to the law on his part under any circumstance.

But because that faith was his exercise, which faith was as such a nature as to cause God to put righteousness down to his account. Why? Because that's the way God set it up. And he'll explain as we go through, as we've been going through this study here, righteousness of faith, righteousness not by law, righteousness not by right.

Why was the promise to Abraham and his descendants not made through a law system? We would have much preferred if it was. Because it's really difficult for us to banish the thought that some human merit in God's great saints doesn't get us anywhere. We talked about that last week. Faith is the sole ground for blessing. There's no other ground. Abraham was a blessed man, right? but he became heir of the world on another principle altogether, simple faith, simple faith.

So the bestowal of that which is promised presupposes a continuation of the graciousness of him who made the promise. And this graciousness becomes equally impossible, as does the believing confidence, if the law must be fulfilled to secure it. In other words, who's gonna guarantee this promise? Is it the one who made the promise? Or is it the one who said, okay, thank you for the promise? Well, obviously, if God has to depend on me, I'm sunk.

So if I depend on God, he said it, So Hebrews 7.18 says, for on the one hand, there's a setting aside of the former commandment, because the commandment was weak and useless. For the law made nothing perfect. And on the other hand, there is a bringing in of a better hope. faith, righteousness of faith, through which, what do we do? We draw near to God. We draw near to God.

So the reason God hates for me to go to Him and say, I trust you, and I'm gonna do all these good works, and you're gonna like it. Why doesn't He like that? It's because I offer to Him something that he didn't say was acceptable to him. In other words, I'm saying to him, well, I'm gonna, actually, rather than trust you, I'm gonna rest in my own ability to earn this righteousness.

And your son did everything on the cross, and we're gonna discount that, and we're gonna look at how good I do. If you think about it, real simple. If you're under a law system, it's all about self. If you're under a grace system, it's all about God. For if those who are under the law are heirs, talking about the Jews, faith is made void and the promise is nullified. So how does the law nullify the promise of Abraham? Faith and law are contradictory principles. Paul shows absolutely diverse meanings on this.

Reflect on this for a minute. What did it cost God to give Christ? What did it cost Christ to put away sin, our sin at the cross? What honor God has given Him because of the suffering of His death? What future plans God has arranged through Christ having made peace by the blood of his cross to reconcile all things upon the earth, things in heaven and things on the earth. How can you possibly think that there's something I can do to add to that or something that I can do that would be superior to that?

He completely shuts out the legalist from airship of seed because those persons who were the possessors of the promise, who on the basis of law had entered upon the inheritance of their father Abraham on the ground that he had been offered to them as a reward for the fulfillment of law, if that's what your mindset is, then faith which according to its essence is a confidence in the attainment of salvation, would be rendered totally void. Totally void. And the promise which was of full assurance of that which is promised would be made of no effect.

Newell said that, we were having a great discussion this morning in Sunday school about salvation, and how do you get it? You get it by believing the gospel. So here's my question. I probably ought to direct it just to Courtney. The question is, if I go to the Lord and say, I believe the gospel, but I want to add all this other stuff to it, does that make void the promises? It says so here. If those who are under the law are heirs of faith, faith is made void and the promise is not, how can you possibly get saved where I got five things I gotta do and one thing I gotta believe? Does one cancel the other? What do you think?

If you really understand that the only way is faith, you'll forget about all this doing stuff. and recognize that your standing, your righteousness is purely on the basis of faith only in God himself. Now, by that easiness of conscience on account of which we keep doing dead works, We neglect all God is, we neglect all that he's done, and desires for us and substitute our uncertain fearful trifle notions of the works that shall please God. What works will please God? We would make God come to our terms instead of gladly accepting his great salvation and resting in the finished work of Christ.

William knew, it's so simple. I feel like Donald Trump, it's so simple. Law, Paul explains, given to sinners, what does it do? It simply brings forth God's wrath. For sinners in the nature of the case will always transgress, always. Law doesn't give any life. It doesn't give any power over the flesh. So Paul calls it administration of death and condemnation in 2 Corinthians.

So, how do I say this? If we would just simply accept God's salvation, Newell says, it is a worldlyly bold presumption then when God is calling all to behold the Lamb, to be found asking God to behold our goodness and our works. How foolish is that? Law Paul explains, given to the sinner simply brings forth this wrath. For the sinners in the nature of the case will transgress. Yeah. Verse 15 says, and the law brings forth wrath, but where there is no law, there is no violation. You understand the difference between sin and a violation?

Or what's the other word I'm looking for? I'm sorry. Trespass, yeah. What's the difference between a law and a trespass? I'm sorry, sin and a trespass. Let's get it straight here. Sin and a trespass. Sin and a trespass. They say if you keep repeating it enough, they'll get it. Sin and a trespass. We're all sinners. We just are born sinners, and we sin and sin and sin and sin. All have fallen short of the glory of God. But what trespass is, is the violation of a statute, where someone comes along like God and says, you can't do this, and do this, and you can't do, and every time you step over that line, not only do you sin, but you trespass.

So that's what he's talking about here. The law brings forth wrath, but where there is no law, there is no violation, there is no trespass. So this application is clear as it is meaningful and as positively as well as negatively. The thing law generally and in particular the law of God given by Moses provokes by its very excellence the hostile self-will of man and so detects his enmity and works out wrath and a result. We talk about this all the time. You take a two-year-old child, walk around the living room, put something on a table, and say, don't touch that. What's the next thing that's gonna happen? They're gonna touch it.

On the other hand, where there isn't any law, there's no transgression. Well, that seems like an easy way out, But remember, we might not be under a law, but we are a sinner. It's not a question of sin here, but of violating positive principles and prescriptions, which later, of course, could not be till the law giver uttered the authorizations. In other words, how long was it from the time the promise was made to Abraham and the law came? 450 years.

Problem is that when you read Romans 6, or Romans 5, it talks about, well, these guys are all dying and they're not under the law. Why are they dying? Because they're sinners. That's why they're dying. So then as the law existed, it could be transgressed. And so think about that. So we make a law unto ourselves in a religious environment. We've just made a bunch of rules that we can transgress. You don't make the rules, you don't make a transgression. But it was not yet proclaimed by the time Abraham, who had that wholly different principle. His principle was promise. God said, I'm gonna do this. And so promise is what Abraham lived under.

A sinner forbidden under penalty to sin will only incur the penalty. And anybody who's been around more than three or four years, understands what this is. Therefore, to impose a law upon a sinner is to bring him under wrath. If I say to you, well, salvation is to believe in personal work of Christ, but you must make him lord of your life, what have I just done? I put him under wrath, okay? He becomes a transgressor, not merely a sinner.

He was that before the law was given. Transgression is a disobedience to any given law. So sin has certainly been in the world since Adam before, and for sin, the Gentiles as well as the Jews are under God's judgment. We talked all about that way back in chapter one. But the law put the Jew demonstrably under the wrath by making the Jew a transgressor. He didn't think he was, but that's what he was. Now, here's a concluding remark, I think.

For this reason, it is by faith, this is why it is by faith, in order that it may be in accordance with grace, so that the promise will be guaranteed to all the descendants, not only to those who are under the law, which are the Jews, but also to those who are the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all. Of faith here means out of faith, out from faith. That is the term laid down by God as to how the inheritance of eternal life is dispensed by God and appropriated by the sinner. Or that the man exercise faith rather than perform works.

This is God's prescription. The channel through which eternal life is given is that of faith. And in that sense, the channel becomes the source of the transaction whereby God does give eternal life. And salvation is channeled to the sinner, thus in order that it can be only by grace.

I remember when we were studying the grace class, the most amazing class. We would use Macaulay's definition of grace, which is, grace is God's unlimited, unearned, unmerited favor based on the totally adequate work of Christ. I absolutely love that definition because it's unlimited. There are no limits to God's grace. and you can't merit it.

The second that you try to merit it, it goes away. It just goes away. It's not grace anymore. That's what he's saying here. If the sinner earned salvation by his work, salvation would not be by grace. You can't have both. It would not be unmerited gift given out to the spontaneous generosity from the heart of God. But since faith is the beggar's hand, outstretched for salvation, salvation can be a gift given in pure grace. And that's how it's given. And this is so adjusted also that salvation is available to both the Jew and the Gentile.

The law was only given to the Jew, and if salvation could have been given on the basis of works, only the Jew would have been saved. For the Gentile was never given the law. Abraham, Paul says, has shown and was saved. Before the ordinance of circumcision was given, as we talked about last week, before the Mosaic Law was instituted.

Thus he became the spiritual father of both Jew and Gentile, and that both are saved exactly like he by pure faith without the necessity of works as a preliminary requirement of salvation. How many times have you heard, if you want to be saved, confess your sins?

I don't find that in the gospel. Make a commitment to Christ. I don't see that. Receive Jesus into your own heart. All of those have the same source, self. This is something I gotta do to make this salvation real, other than the fact of just believe what God has said.

Conclusion, that as the law would have defeated the promises of God and brought wrath on man instead of an inheritance, as faith is opposed to work, so grace is opposed to the law. While the grace of God who gave the promise makes the only and correspondingly the large door of faith open for Gentiles and the Jews also. Had the law been the principle, Israel, who boasted of possessing the law, though blind to their breaches of it and to their own enhanced exposure to wrath, could alone have made an effort, however vainly. They're the only ones. But grace goes out to the Gentile, no less than the Jew, who could not limit Abraham's fatherhood of many nations to his own people. not one of the true seed of it, if the promise of it given on the principle of law.

Think about this. If you're under the principle of grace, and God says, whosoever will may come, we're not losing anybody, that will will. If you're under a law system, you never know if you've done enough. Never. And so what's the answer you're given? Well, you're not going to find out until the end. Well, I would certainly like to know ahead of time if I've made it or not.

So, but the principle of faith is the only ground upon which all the seed could be blessed. Well, at the same time, this principle shuts up all the grace of God, shuts up to the grace of God as only as the only spring of blessing. This is the only way the promise could be absolutely certain to either Jew or Gentile.

Why? Why is this the only way? Because it rests on the veracity of God and not me. That's why. Abraham was not weak in the faith. He simply accepted God's word as true and unbreakable. apart altogether from the consideration of the circumstances. Faith in the living God always involves the repudiation of confidence in the flesh. It always does that.

But at the time when Abraham, this promise was made, and Abraham was 90 some years old, And it was utterly impossible for him or Sarah to fulfill the promise that God had made to them, that they would have a son. Abraham was virtually dead, and Sarah also, as far as the birth of a child was concerned. I mean, so much so that they laughed. But Abraham's faith rose far above the circumstances, and when God spoke, So in truth did Sarah, in Hebrews 11, 11, by faith even Sarah herself received ability to conceive, even beyond the proper time of life, since she considered him, God, faithful, who had promised.

Though at first she doubted. So for this reason, it is by faith that it might be according to grace so that the promise would be guaranteed to all the descendants, not only those of the law, but also those of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all. Darby says, if then this justification was by faith to the exclusion of law, did it set aside the law?

He says, no way. The law brought the conviction of sin, nay, brought the curse from which he was under it had to be delivered. And the justification of such a one, the deliverance of such a one from the curse by such a means as Christ bearing it, gave the highest possible sanction to the law. In other words, the law demanded death if you didn't obey it. Did a death take place? Sure did, the Lord Jesus. that Christ should bear its curse, establish the authority of the law as nothing else could do. Does that make sense? You see how that works?

So it was not if accomplished God's righteousness, but man's, put it this way, if Christ's work did not accomplish God's righteousness, then it's going to be left up to man to do it. But redemption and grace and Christ's blood, effectual through faith, recognized the authority of the law and gave it sanction to it by meeting in another way the sin and condemnation incurred under it. It was on a different principle It is on a different principle altogether, wholly incompatible with law as a way of righteousness, but it recognized the claim of righteousness made by the law, and the law was made by God. When a man had failed, it met the claim of grace. Christ's death met the claim of grace and met the claim of the law.

The two could not work together, for they contradicted each other at every point. One rested in grace, the other on works. One rested on God's work, the other on man's performance. Consequently, one consequently gave man's righteousness, if fulfilled, which was not, and the other It gave man's righteousness by God's perfect work in Christ. But the grace that was incomparable with law owned and met the claim of law in order to justify freely him who had failed under it.

So paying the debt, recognize that there is a debt, the obligation which made it such though, and in that way, it puts an end to it. There is more than this in the law. It's true. I'm talking about John Darby's. I only use the image to show that putting an end to anything may fully prove the obligation under it. Do you get that?

It is not, if accomplished, God's righteousness, but man's. If you could be righteous, if you could obey the entire Mosaic law, at the end of the day, what would you be? Could you go before God and say, look, I've kept every one of your statutes, I'm righteous. Is that good enough? It's not good enough because it's your righteousness. If you, by faith, believe in the person and work of the Lord Jesus, he imputes his righteousness to you. And then you can go before him and say, is this good enough?

He said, yes, it's my righteousness. And you have it. And in order to be with me for all eternity, you must be like me. You have to be righteous like I am. But the redemption and grace in Christ's blood, effectual through faith, recognized the authority of law, gave sanction to it by meeting it in another way. So, last verse.

As it is written, the Father of many nations have I made you in the presence of him whom he believed, even God, who gives life to the dead and calls into being that which does not exist. Interesting. Here's another point of great value to be noticed about the promise.

The God of Abraham, the God whom Abraham believed, Abraham knew that he quickens the dead. He knew that God calls into being things that weren't there before. when he was called to sacrifice Isaac, what was his attitude? I'm obeying the God who said, I give life.

So this was rendered evident not only in the fact that Sarah bore no children to Abraham, but that their great age when the promise was given, they were as good as dead and the child to the heirs didn't really exist. Imagine having God, the God of the universe, tell you you're going to be a parent, and not only tell you that, but God told Sarah, not only are you going to have a son, but I'm going to come back next year and he'll be here. So he told her not only was she going to happen, but when it was going to happen. But what of all this, let me say that, but what of all this to God?

Long before the time God spoke, Abraham, against hope, he believed in hope. What a pattern of faith for this man. On the human side, everything's hopeless. On God's part, it was simply his word. That was it. But Abraham believed, hoped, and was not ashamed. God could not fail to make good what he said, so shall thy seed be. So we close yet another great and important principle.

Grace on the part of God and faith on the part of man, we have had in connection with the promises on the one hand and the redemption that is in Christ on the other. It's interesting, God's power has now been brought into the equation. not dealing with man according to any good or capacity that man has, but God that raises the dead. And according to this power, God calls things that are not as though they were. He can make them be as he calls them. This applies to Abraham's case, to the Gentiles' case, It applies to the power of nature, it applies to Christ's resurrection, and it applies to our salvation.

So let's close. Father, how we thank you. Thank you for who you are, that you're a gracious God, you're a loving God, and that you can do, on a gracious base, on a grace base, anything Absolutely anything. And so we trust you. We trust you that you are the God of grace and the God of righteousness, the God of faith. We pray in your son's precious name. Amen.