Do you ever feel like you don’t measure up? It’s easy to do when you take God’s Word seriously. For God’s Law doesn’t just require our actions to be holy, completely focused on the glory of God and the good of others. No, our hearts and minds must be equally pure, equally devoted, equally loving. “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might” – that’s what Deuteronomy 6:5 says. “You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD.” That’s what Leviticus 19:18 says. Who can possibly live up to such high standards?
No, it’s no wonder that most of the religions of the world try to lower the bar, constructing a system of ethics or ceremonies that it is possible for sinful humans to follow. The Roman Christians to whom Paul was writing knew all about that kind of legalism, accustomed as they had been to offering sacrifices to various gods in an attempt to earn divine favor. Those who had started out life as Jews were also tempted to put their faith in circumcision, the sign given to boys when they were eight days old that marked them as members of God’s covenant community.
But Paul called them, and us, to stop relying on any sort of good works to earn God’s blessings. Instead, he pointed to the Old Testament example of Abraham, a man who simply believed God, who trusted God and His promises. And as a result of this faith, God considered Abraham to be righteous (Romans 4:3; Genesis 15:6).
Now, it’s true that God gave Abraham the sign of the covenant as a way to demonstrate his faith (Romans 4 :11; Genesis 17:10). But Paul reminds us of this: God made His promises to Abraham, and Abraham believed those promises long before he was circumcised. His faith, and God’s declaration that he was righteous – that’s what came first. That’s what mattered most, not any actions Abraham may have taken in response.
And the same thing is true for us that was true for Paul’s Roman readers and for Abraham. In the face of our undeniable sin and in the light of God’s impossibly high standards, we are simply called to trust in Christ to pay the penalty and to meet the standard for us. We are not called to earn our salvation as some sort of wages, but to receive God’s grace as a free gift (Romans 4:4-5). Let’s trust God and receive that blessing today.
Romans 4:1-12 (ESV)
What then shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh?
2 For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God.
3 For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.”
4 Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due.
5 And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness,
6 just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works:
7 “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered;
8 blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.”
9 Is this blessing then only for the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised? For we say that faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness.
10 How then was it counted to him? Was it before or after he had been circumcised? It was not after, but before he was circumcised.
11 He received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. The purpose was to make him the father of all who believe without being circumcised, so that righteousness would be counted to them as well,
12 and to make him the father of the circumcised who are not merely circumcised but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised.
