Living by Faith - Romans

The Unity of Faith

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Living by Faith

Lesson: 12-64

Genre: Talk

Track: 012

Dictation Name: RR311F12

Location/Venue:

Year: ?

Let us worship God. Serve the Lord with gladness, come before His presence with singing; enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise. Be thankful unto Him and bless His name, for the Lord is good, His mercy everlasting, and His truth endureth to all generations.

Let us pray. Almighty God our heavenly Father we give thanks unto Thee for the blessings of the past week; for Thy providential care and Thy mercy unto us as a people. Oh Lord our God, recall us by Thy word and by Thy Spirit to the righteousness, to the justice which Thou hast ordained, that we may again be a free people in Christ; that we may be strong and effectual unto the ends of the earth for Thy names sake. Bless us this day by Thy word and by Thy Spirit, and give us joy in our calling. In Jesus name, amen.

Our scripture is from the 4th chapter of Romans verses 1-8. Our subject: The Unity of Faith. The Unity of Faith, Romans 4:1-8.

“4 What shall we say then that Abraham our father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath found?

2 For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not before God.

3 For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.

4 Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt.

5 But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.

6 Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works,

7 Saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered.

8 Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.”

We miss the whole point of Paul’s letter to the Romans if we fail to see that what Paul is stressing emphatically is that the Old Testament and Jesus Christ are teaching one faith; one plan of salvation, one way to God and none other.

Thus Paul stresses here and in the chapter to come the unity of the faith. As against the Judaizers, and as against the Hellenizers, both of whom wanted to put a division between Christ and the Old Testament revelation. Paul insists on their unity.

It is amazing to read passages like this and to think of the perversity of dispensationalists, who reading the plain text, can still say that men were saved in the Old Testament by works, and now by grace. To hold to the Old Testament revelation without Christ, Paul is telling us, is to hold to a false religion. And to hold to the New Testament faith in Christ without the roots, the Old Testament, is again to hold to a false religion.

Paul’s opening statement in the first verse raises a question; what kind of righteousness or justice did Abraham find? Was it by works or by faith? Humanly speaking, that is pertaining to the flesh, how was Abraham saved?

Now, first of all, we must recognize when we speaks about the justification that Abraham was seeking, he is not talking about an abstract justice or righteousness. Abraham did not want a concept of righteousness or justice that one finds in statesman, philosophers, educators, or sociologists, or in religious leaders. Abraham sought it in one source, in God.

Paul seeks to eliminate every possible source of justice, other than God; so he raises the question in verse 2: “For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not before God.” There is one source of justice, and Jew and Gentile must seek their justification, their righteousness, from that one source; for there is none other.

Moreover, as we have seen, Paul says that justice cannot be apprehended, nor isolated from the God of justice. It is not an abstract universal. There is no justice or righteousness which Abraham, Moses, or John Doe could know, which would differ from that justice known by Paul, by Luke, by Timothy, by Abraham, by Moses, and all the saints of the Old and New Testament.

That justice which comes from God, for every other idea of justice is injustice. There are a variety of ideas about justice, but there is only one justice; that which reveals the being of God.

So in verse 2, Paul makes it clear; Abraham could not be justified in any way other than through Jesus Christ. For if Abraham were justified by works he hath whereof to glory, but not before God.

The phrase: “But not before God” can be translated: “There is no such thing before God.” So here again Paul is stating: “There is no possible justice or justification or righteousness except from God. So that no one can talk about justice or justification or righteousness apart from God.”

For what saith the scriptures? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.

Apostate cultures seek to define justice apart from God. What they are in effect saying is, that we are Gods will set forth what is justice. They are manifesting the fall, because the essence of the fall is that every man is his own God. Now, there has been a strong current both in Judaism and in Christianity to believe in a justice apart from God. In fact we read in some strands of Judaism about Abraham having been saved by works, such statements as this: “Abraham was perfect in all his deeds with the Lord, and well pleasing in righteousness all the days of his life.” or this: “Abraham our father hath performed the whole law before it was given.” And we find in Arminianism a great many statements that indicate that it is a man’s faith, which is a form of works, which saves him.

But we are not saved because faith is the ground of our salvation, but it is the vehicle through which God gives it to us, and faith itself is the gift of God.

When Genesis 15:6 tells us, and Paul repeats it here in the third verse: “Abraham believed God and it was counted unto him for righteousness.” The Hebrew word for ‘believed’ is the same word essentially, in a slightly different form, that we have in our word: ‘Amen.’ Abraham said Amen to God. He said: “Thy will be done.” He was ready to accept it, even unto the loss of his son Isaac, and it was counted as righteous. Abraham was ready to say: “Thou art just, oh God, in whatever Thou dost do and ordain.” And this was his righteousness, because he said amen to God.

We are saved by faith, never on account of our faith; but by faith we receive Gods salvation.

Thus what God said to Habakkuk: “The just shall live by faith” was Gods way with Abraham; it was Gods way with Moses and with David, with Elijah, and with all the saints of the Old Testament. There are no changing dispensations. Paul rules that out, and what the Judaizers and especially the Hellenizers were trying to do was to say: “There is a difference. That’s a different plan of salvation, and now we have a new one.” And this Paul denies. It is the whole point that he is driving home over and over again. There are no changing dispensations, the whole of scripture, the law and the prophets, the apostles, are the expression of the God who says: “I am the Lord, I change not.”

Paul continues then in verse 4: “Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt.” Or as Verkuyl translated it in the Berkeley version: “Now to a workman, wages are not credited as a favor, but as an obligation.” When we work for somebody, our work gives us a claim on them; they owe us something in return, it is a contractual relationship, and something is due to us. And Paul is here stressing the difference between gifts and rights; man has no rights in relationship to God. God gives him gifts, God can never be indebted to man. There is no work that man can do that will add something to God.

Our Lord made this same point when he talked about the unprofitable servant, and said in Luke 17:10 “So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you say: “We are unprofitable servants, we have done that which was our duty to do.” Our proper relationship to God is not one of rights, but of prayer; a dependence on God’s grace. Prayer is a denial of works as the means of justification.

Prayer says that out relationship to God, our standing before Him, depends upon His grace. In verse 5 we read: “But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.” I have cited Verkuyl and I will cite him once again, his translation of verse 5: “While to the person who is not (worked?) by law, but whose faith rests on him who makes the ungodly righteous, to him faith is accounted for righteousness.”

Now the sad thing is, the word law is not in the text. Verkuyl added it in terms of the common misapprehension here. I knew Dr. Verkuyl, he was in his 90’s, and I believe he died about 102, and active to the last; a tall thin man who walked miles over the hills of Berkeley every day, calling on the sick, maintaining a ministry when he was long since retired from teaching. A very wonderful man, but he was wrong. The word law is not in the text. The reference in the text is to trying to save oneself by humanistic means, by self justification. And Paul says that a man cannot be just on his own terms, only on Gods terms. So that when a man in his relationship to God puts his trust not in what he is, but in what God is, then that constitutes saving faith.

Paul then quotes from David, stressing thereby the unity of the Bible, because he writes, and the rest of this passage verses 6-8 is a quotation from David, from Psalm 32:1-2. “Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile.”

So says David. David is speaking of the blessedness of forgiveness, of those who sin, has atonement. There is for such men no imputation of iniquity or guilt. Sin is not reckoned to such a man’s account by the judgement of the throne, by God the Lord. These verses in Psalm 32 give us the first Beatitudes in the Psalms; and three words are used for the offense: Transgression, Sin, and Iniquity, which refer to man’s rebellion, his waywardness, and his depravity.

But God through His grace grants forgiveness, through the atonement. Kirk Patrick describes this forgiveness and I quote: “It is the taking away of a burden, and the expression “To bear iniquity” is covering, so that the foulness of sin no longer meets the eye of the judge and calls for punishment. It is the cancelling of a debt which is no longer reckoned against the offender.”

What David and Paul say, is also said by Solomon and in the New Testament by John. For example, Solomon in Proverbs 28:13 says: “He that covereth his sins shall not prosper.” He that tries to make atonement for his own sins through his works. “But whosoever confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.”

And John in 1 John 1:8-9 “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

The contrast is between man’s way and God’s way. Neither in David nor in Solomon, nor in John, nor in Paul is there any reference to dispensations in God plan. There is no change of meaning from David to Paul. Paul stresses the unity of justification, the doctrine of salvation, from Abraham to the present. Abraham he calls our father, our father Abraham, the father of believers, of men in whom there is no guile, to use David’s word, which Paul uses.

Now the word guile is a very important one here, and Alexander said of this word and I quote: “Guile, deceit, including self-deception as to one’s own character and dissimulation in the sight of God. The attempt to palliate or conceal sin, instead of freely confessing it, which is an indispensable condition of forgiveness, according to the doctrine of both testaments.”

Paul would have pleased both the Judaizers and the Hellenizers if he had set the Old Testament faith and the Old Testament plan of salvation against the gospel. Both would have felt justified. But Paul did not; moreover, there is an undercurrent here that is going to come into focus in the 9th chapter, we have seen a reference to it in previous chapters, to predestination. Predestination is another way of saying: “God is sovereign” and of declaring His glory and His priority.

It is another way of saying that God saves us.

Now, in any religion, any form of Christianity in which salvation is central, in which the salvation of man is the be-all and end-all of religion, you will not have an emphasis on predestination. You will have antinomianism. Why? Because the goal of everything is man’s salvation, his fire and life insurance. So once you have that, the rest is peripheral; after all you are now set for heaven, and then you just try to keep your status in good standing, you know. You pay your dues by a minimal Christianity.

In any faith in which salvation is central, however much Christ is named, we have the triumph of humanism. Such churches offer an easy insurance plan, and the easier it is made, the more people crowd into those churches, because the emphasis is on man and man’s salvation. Such churches are ruled by men; either the pastor is ruled by petty, back biting members, or the pastor, if he is a strong personality, establishes himself and arbitrarily rules over the congregation.

But the catechism says: “Man chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.” Salvation is then not the goal of Christianity, but the starting point, just as the alphabet is the starting point of education, not the goal. The law is then necessary, because it tells us how God wants us to live and to exercise dominion, and predestination means the priority of God, it means man must serve God, not God man.

A few years back, one man took the catechism statement “The chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever” and turned it upside down: “Gods chief end is to glorify man and to enjoy him forever.” And that sums up the modern spirit in the church and out of the church, all to often.

Paul in the last verse of the third chapter, verse 31, said: “Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid, yea, we establish the law.” How can men then make an antinomian of Paul? How in view of Romans 9, can they deny predestination as a Biblical doctrine? How can so many of these churches claim to be heirs of the reformation, when they have abandoned its premises? The Bible does not give us a buffet table, a smorgasbord where we can pick and choose what we like and say: “Now this is my Christianity.” Paul calls Abraham our Father. Such references are common in Romans, in Corinthians, in Galatians, in Hebrews, James, and 1 Peter. Nor is Moses neglected, nor Elijah, nor other saints of old.

There are many references to all of them by our Lord and by the apostles. The division is not between Abraham and Moses on the one hand and Christ on the other, but between the Judaizers and the Hellenizers. In Paul’s day, the Judaizers were more important; but since then the Hellenizers have triumphed, and the faith has suffered. But what Paul tells us in Romans is that the whole of the Bible is the one word of God, one faith, one Lord, one Baptism; and that it is through this faith that we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us. Let us pray.

Oh Lord our God, we thank Thee for Thy word, and we pray that by Thy Spirit Thy word may again be believed and obeyed by Thy church. We pray our Father that Thou wouldst deliver our country from its waywardness, and make it again a righteous, a just people. We pray that we may become a beacon light of grace to the whole world. Bless us in Thy service day by day, in Jesus name amen.

Any questions now on our lesson?

Well, if not, let us conclude with prayer. Oh Lord our God whose word is truth, light and life unto us, we give thanks unto Thee for Thy so great salvation. Make us every joyful in Thee, never mindful that for us the best is yet to come in Christ. And now go in peace, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost, bless you and keep you, guide and protect you, this day and always, amen.