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Title: A Condition of the Heart
Before we begin today, I need to recognize the fact that it’s been no less than five Sundays since we’ve been in the book or Romans so I want to recap what we’ve studied in chapter four up to this point. Paul is at the stage of his argument when he is addressing the Jewish questions of salvation being either by faith or by works.
For the average Jew who believed Christ was the Messiah, this was an especially difficult quandary because of trying to figure out how the law worked into the equation.
At the start of Chapter four Paul makes the claim that everyone’s salvation, whether Jew or Gentile, is based on faith, not on works, not on observing the Law. He first uses Abraham, the father of the Jewish faith to prove this, and then goes further, citing a Psalm that David wrote as further evidence that these two men believed their faith was not of their own doing, but rather by God’s hand.
V13 “for the promise”
Paul is an excellent teacher. Why? Because he makes his arguments from scripture. He doesn’t speak eloquently or poetically about why he believes what he believes. Rather, he carefully explains his conclusions as being fully based on scripture and scripture alone.
For this audience, the Jews, Paul has the advantage that the Jews hold the O.T. scriptures in very high regards. In that light, Paul knows that he doesn’t have to prove what he believes, he has to show them what scripture says.
It is the same for us today when we evangelize. The western church has made a grave mistake in the way we have told out believers we must go out and be prepared to refute every argument, or to be versed in every philosophic school of thought to prove the Gospel as truth.
Friends, the greatest thing about the gospel is this: It is true. Christ didn’t command us to “prove” it to other people. He commanded us to share it with other people. It will prove itself on the basis of the Holy Spirit’s conviction in that person’s heart.
Why do I say all this based on these three words “for the promise”? I’ll tell you. Just as Paul earlier looked back into the O.T. at the Abraham account and asked this question, “Which came first, Abraham’s faith or his works?” His faith. His faith counted him as righteous in God’s sight. His faith caused him to do the work that he did. His faith was the basis for how he lived his life.
Now Paul makes another observation into the Abraham account. He takes his argument a step further. Paul turns to the Jews who still hold that the Law is what makes them righteous and asks, “When did Abraham receive the promise?”
430 years before the Law was established through Moses!
So how then could Abraham possibly be counted as righteous by the Law? Essentially Paul says that because the Law came 430 years after the promise to Abraham these promised cannot be dependant upon the Law! They can only be dependent on faith!
Paul is really putting together an airtight argument. I can just see the looks on the Jewish faces as they read this letter.
V14/15 (read)
J.I. Packard explains Paul’s thinking better than I could when he says:
“If the inheritance were dependant on obedience to the law, faith would have no place in the divine scheme of things, and the promise would be void, since the Law cannot bring about the obedience it requires for fulfillment.”
I know that’s a bit wordy, but Packard really hits the nail on the head. Essentially what he says is that the Law let’s us know when we’ve fallen short. It has no power to make us better. The Law was established to show us how we should live, but in order to live that way, we have to have faith and trust in God to change us into who He wants us to be!
Let me put it another way: If I gave a Christian a manual on how to act like a Christian, and in that manual were things like, read your Bible for 15 minutes each day, pray 15 minutes each day, before every meal, before bedtime, attend Church at least three times a month, get baptized, teach scripture to your children, obey all of the ten commandment, etc.
And for the sake of the argument, let’s say this non-believer takes this pamphlet and follows it strictly for the rest of their life and dies at age 99, never having strayed from this book, and is standing before Christ at judgement, Christ will say, “Why do you believe you are going to Heaven?”
His reply, “Because I followed all the rules”
“Fine. But did you believe in me?”
Friends, Christianity is not a list of do’s and don’ts’s. It is a condition of the heart. Either Christ resides their as your Lord, as your savior, or he does not.
Paul looks at his people, the people he loves and asks this very, very, very difficult question. I see your behavior, and I applaud it. But then he asks what we must be asking each other more often in the walls of this church. “Why are you doing what you are doing? Because of routine, because of guilt, because of upbringing? Or because you can’t help it? Loving Jesus is what you are, because Loving Jesus is what He make you?”