In the previous chapter, Paul presented something that went way beyond radical.  No doubt the Jewish reader would interpret Paul’s epistle as heretical.  Without a doubt the unbelieving heathen would have had eye brows raised to the sky in shock as they, (along with their religious and pious Jewish neighbor), read that salvation does not come from keeping rules and regulations…from trying to be “good little boys and girls,” from trying to be mystical or spiritual…but by faith, apart from the deeds of the law! 

Well then, “for what purpose was the law given?” his readers must have wondered!  Years ago a Hindu philosopher came forth after a ten year silence and declared to his followers at an ashram (a Hindu religious retreat) in India that the whole world runs by the Ten Commandments.  Even the completely estranged from God, the Hindu who worships everything…millions of gods…can read the law and make that correct observation.  And that is correct by the way…just not complete.

Paul said that the law is not made void through faith but rather it is established!  It is completed!  It is satisfied and the debt is put to rest!  Paul presented the completion of the picture for the heathen, for the religious, for the entire world in revealing that the sole reason that the law was given was to show people that they are desperate sinners…we can’t help but sin because sin is not so much what we do…it is our condition!  And in that condition, our works cannot make us right and so we, us, all of us…are in desperate need of a Savior.

“We’re not voiding the law,” Paul insisted, “we’re fulfilling the very reason for which it was given…to make you see your need for a Savior and to drive you to the love and grace of God in Jesus Christ…because His work…has settled the debt!”

So after arguing theologically in Chapter 3 that justification and salvation come simply by believing, Paul makes his point historically and heroically here in Chapter 4.  Heroically?  Yes, now he takes his truth and he strikes at the root of the root within the hearts of the religious elite. 

Jesus, when rejected publically and being resisted openly by the Jews, actually there in John Chapter 5 verse 16, John writes that, “the Jews persecuted Jesus and sought to kill Him,” when that was going down, how did Jesus plead with them?  He proclaimed that in Him there is no condemnation…no accusation…but only life…and then He told them that there is one who accuses them…Moses!  What?  Right there in John 5 verse 45…Moses in whom you trust, in other words, the law…it does not save you, it accuses you!  And oh by the way, the law and everything that Moses wrote about, mighty Moses in whom you boast and trust, all that he wrote about…was about Me, Jesus proclaimed!

But Paul is going to go even deeper.  All the way to the one whom they called their father…Abraham.  The root of even Moses!  The predecessor to the law…the primary character in the story of God’s dealings with the Jew…and so he begins his history lesson…practical Paul, there in Chapter 4.

Romans Chapter 4 Verses 1 – 3

• Verse 1 is worded by the translators in an awkward way and so looking at the original text in the Greek, what Paul is saying here is more practically phrased, “think about our father Abraham…do you think that he observed and progressed in the things of God according to his works?”
• And immediately the thoughts of the Jews would go to the recorded and traditionally-taught works of Abraham.  Was it when Abraham left Ur of the Chaldees at the command of God, a place of sophistication and wealth to go to a place of risk…that he knew nothing of just because God commanded him to go.  Was it then that God declared Abraham righteous?  No.
• Was it when Abraham took his son Isaac to Mount Moriah in order to offer him as a sacrifice just as God had commanded…was it then that God declared him righteous?  No.  And what’s interesting is that these Jews knew these stories, this text, these Genesis accounts front and back.  If they were Jews in any middle to upper level of their communities then they had the entire Book of Genesis memorized!  And so they were probably with Paul completely as he brings to their remembrance when precisely Abraham, their father, their hero, the root of their confidence and trust…Moses…was declared righteous within the pages of scripture.
• It’s Genesis 15; they know that!  God declared Abraham righteous when Abraham simply believed Him.  It’s not works folks, Paul is pleading.  It’s not our own external righteousness Paul is even exposing historically.  Those things are good.  Those things will be there but understand, and we know this, the mind and the hands and the feet and the intentions and the actions and the works…they are all slaves to what?  The heart!
• If I say I love my wife and then I don’t pour my life out to learn her and to serve her and to protect her and to please her then I lie!  In my heart there is love for sure…but it is for me!  If a person says they love God and yet they live their life patterned after precisely what cost Him everything then folks, they lie…and John would write in 1 John that the truth is not in them man…they have a heart condition you see… 
• The heart is the origin, the place, the connection point where true belief either exists as shown by its servants (the mind, the hands the feet, the works) or it doesn’t exist as shown by its servant…works.  And Jesus told us to watch for this.  Look out for this.  That we would know who does love the Lord, who are His disciples by their lives man…we can identify you see by their abiding in the Word and their peaceful, graceful after taste…that wonderful power that comes from just being free.
• Jesus said that in John Chapter 8 verses 31 and 32.  “If you abide in My Word (speaking of works man…works driven by what is in the very heart of a person…the Word) if you abide in My Word, you are My disciples indeed, and you will know the truth and the truth will make you free!”  It all begins in the heart man. 
• Paul says, think about it.  Abraham was not pronounced righteous when he was doing something spiritual or sacrificial.  He was pronounced righteous by God when he simply believed.  That is why he left Ur.  That is why he was ready to offer up Isaac…not because he was a good man…but because he believed God, trusted Him…his life simply followed suit.  His works simply obeyed his heart.  And it’s the same with us.

Romans Chapter 4 Verse 4

• So think of it this way, and we talked about this last week.  If Abraham would have been counted righteous for any of his acts of obedience…for leaving Ur of the Chaldeas, for sacrificing his son Isaac…then salvation would be his reward.  In other words, God would owe him…which completely nullifies grace.  Simply not the case.
• Works are good.  Following the Lord and obeying Him will certainly brings about blessing…because in doing as the Lord has commanded, He is well able to bring you into circumstances of abundant life! 
• Works are natural for the believer, for the righteous.  Good works and a life that honors God will just flow man…a manifestation as we talked about of what is in the heart…but the works don’t make you righteous….your righteousness makes ya work!  You don’t HAVE to love your neighbor, you get to and in that there is freedom.  You don’t have to read your Bible, you get to and in that there is wisdom.  You don’t have to come to church, you get to and in that there is blessings! 
• And so you see it’s Abraham’s belief man, his trust in God that produced these wonderful acts of obedience…it’s faith alone…the works are just the fruit on the vine…not the vine itself.  Paul clears it up for us in verse 5…

Romans Chapter 4 Verses 5 – 8

• So Paul is just churning and burning here.  He is preaching such a powerful sermon right now to his brethren the Jews!  Our father Abraham got this y’all, are you better than Abraham?  Nope.   Our hero Moses got this my homies, are you better than Moses?  Nope.  Well guess what, our king got this to, David.  Has there ever been a king so great as King David?  In the eyes of the Jew, not a chance…and so Paul just delivers what I like to say is the conversion catalyst!  I wonder how many Jews hit their knees in bankruptcy after reading this and opened their hearts to God’s grace apart from works and the righteousness that even David spoke of which is only found in Jeshua Meshiach!  Jesus Christ!
• Paul gives us such a wonderful wonderful practical, theological and historical hope and truth!  He says our lawless deeds are not simply outweighed by our lawful deeds, he says they are forgiven!  The word there in the Greek is aphiemi which literally means, to be put away as in a divorce…in God’s righteousness apart from works, apart from the law…our sinful fallen state has been utterly cast away from us in the eyes of God.  But how Paul?
• Through the everlasting and sufficient covering of sin…covering of sin?  Yes that is lingo that the Jew would readily understand.  Lingo that David used in Psalm 32…but how could all the sin of all men of all time be covered in one sacrifice?  The Jews would know, the scripture would foretell, the prophets would proclaim…by the perfect and eternal sacrifice of God Himself providing the Lamb…just as the angel spoke to Abraham upon Mount Moriah…
• And then the gift, the blessed assurance, the hope, the firm and unchanging truth that Paul had found that Saul had missed…verse 8, how filled with joy and approved of God the Father is the man to whom the LORD shall not impute sin…and the implication is rather than sin being imputed…given freely, counted on his account…rather than sin…righteousness!
• And now for you Jew, for you gentile, for us, for all men and women who would believe in Jesus Christ and be filled by Him, God’s blessings are given eternally and immediately on the basis of God’s abundant grace and not on the basis of my good works and THAT WAY, He and His loving blessings…His presence, His truth, His hope, His joy, His power…are always available to me.
• I mess up, but He doesn’t.  I sin, but He never did.  I fall short, He ascended into heaven!  And so in Him, being born again by His indwelling Spirit, even though I am a busted formation of dirt, the breath of life from God in me is restored to all of the glory of the perfect garden and I am alive unto Him.  Knowing Him, talking to Him, hearing Him, watching Him, hanging out with Him, just being near to Him who created all things and near to Him whose glory fills not only my own heart to overflowing but every place that I go!  He is forever all around me why?  Because the door is never shut!  I can always come to Him on the basis of God’s grace towards me…
• And that is utterly apart from works.  That is the root of works Paul has pled.  That is to place your belief and life in Jesus Christ and be saved from all of this toil and tragedy…and walk with Power on High!