If salvation is obtained by faith, then what does faith look like? And so we pick up in Romans 4 as Paul starts to expound the great man of faith: Abraham.
What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, discovered in this matter? 2 If, in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about—but not before God. 3 What does Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”
4 Now to the one who works, wages are not credited as a gift but as an obligation. 5 However, to the one who does not work but trusts God who justifies the ungodly, their faith is credited as righteousness. 6 David says the same thing when he speaks of the blessedness of the one to whom God credits righteousness apart from works:
7 “Blessed are those
whose transgressions are forgiven,
whose sins are covered.
8 Blessed is the one
whose sin the Lord will never count against them.”
whose transgressions are forgiven,
whose sins are covered.
8 Blessed is the one
whose sin the Lord will never count against them.”
Note that the main point that Paul presses right from the get-go is that righteousness and faith are intertwined. Why is this so?
Lets first consider our faith in God. Then we'll move to God's righteousness. Then we'll talk about the consequence this has for community.
Our righteousness is not constituted by our deeds. It is solely constituted upon one thing: our faith in Christ. We'll discuss what this faith looks like as we continue through Romans 4 and 5. At this moment, we'll focus upon why our righteousness is only constituted upon faith in Christ.
To put faith in something is not to simply trust it. I can trust that the chair I am sitting in has enough strength to hold me up. But that doesn't necessarily mean I have faith in the chair. Faith constitutes a change in the individual. The person moves from unrighteous to righteous, and thus faith cannot be mere trust. I can trust that God will provide, but that does not mean that I have faith. I can know the principles and subscribe the to truth that God provides without ever coming to full acceptance and being changed by the belief that God provides.
Faith takes more than belief. It takes more than trust. It is only faith when the inner most fabric of our being fully subscribes to it. To have faith in Christ is to have complete and utter surrender to the character of God. It is more than trusting God that you will make it to heaven. You have complete trust that every experience that comes is from the hand of God. He is sovereign, even through the free-will of men. Nothing comes apart from God. This statement is made by Paul, who suffered lashes at the hands of the Jews 5 times, 3 times he was beaten with rods, once pelted with stones, shipwrecked 3 times, spent a day and a night in the open sea, had been constantly on the move, had been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from his fellow Jews, in danger from Gentiles, in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea, in danger from false believers, had gone without sleep, had known hunger and thirst - often going without food, and has been cold and naked.
This man who has suffered more than anyone else that I know - save Christ - was able to then stand on Mars Hill and tell them about the "God who gives all things."
Does your faith look like that? Do you have that kind of faith in God that you can bear such a suffering and still not attack the character of God?
Righteousness is indeed constituted upon faith. We forfeit our glory for the glory of another. We lay down our lives for the life of another. Our comfort and convenience doesn't matter. What matters is the glory of God forever. Anything that we say, do, think, or teach that is separate from the glory of God is brought under question and immediately repented of. We all have blind spots and we have all temptation. It is how ruthless we are to be converted to the image of God and how desperate we are to display the glory of God that speaks louder than our failures.
In this sense, I can understand why it would be that righteousness and faith are intertwined. But how is God righteous? Does God have faith in Himself?
Don't forget that God is 3 persons.
Jesus was always about glorifying the Father and proclaimed that His words were Spirit. He never did anything that He hadn't seen His Father do, and never spoke anything that the Spirit didn't first give utterance. In this way, He laid aside His own glory for the glory of the other two persons in the Godhead. He cast Himself aside for the sake of His Father and the Holy Spirit.
God the Father was about glorifying the Son. The way that He spoke to Jesus and the way He speaks to us is through the Holy Spirit. He does nothing of His own, but continues to display Himself through His Son and through the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit does not speak anything to us that has not been spoken by the Father. The Holy Spirit doesn't have its own words, but is only the messenger from the Father to us. In this way, the Spirit has denied herself (the Hebrew word ruach is feminine) in order to promote the Father. But the Spirit also has the passion to glorify the Son. She speaks concerning Him and leads us into all truth.
Thus because God defers to the other two parts of the Godhead, He both places faith in the other two by giving them all glory and honor and is credited as righteous for it. One of the most challenging aspects to understand is that in deferring glory to the Son and the Holy Spirit, the Father gains a greater glory. So it is with the Son and the Holy Spirit as well. In forfeiting our glory to glorify God, we find that we are all the more glorious.
Don't think that I am speaking of humanity as being gods. Any glory that we receive can only be a reflection of God's glory; for apart from God there is no glory. Apart from God there is no righteousness. We can only truly understand righteousness in the context of God's righteousness.
And how does this pertain to community?
When we are willing to give up our names and reputations for the sake of promoting our brothers and sisters, then we have obtained to righteousness beyond the conventional dimensions. It is amazing to me how unwilling many are to give up their own names and honor. They have worked so hard for so long, why would they allow all their toil to be in vain?
It is such a worldly way of perceiving. The heavenly perception reasons that in honestly giving up our names and reputations for the sake of others - and not in hope of regaining that reputation and honor - that we find deeper manifestations of honor and glory. If there is any other reason for our humility than to honor and promote and respect those brothers and sisters around - out of our love for them - then we are the greatest deceivers. It is manipulation and deception - which are both of the devil - to try and use people so that we might gain honor and respect.
God knows our secret hearts. I haven't yet obtained to this calling. It is something altogether more pure than I have become. By God's grace, I pray that I might be able to match this one day - maybe even today - but for now I continue to fall short.
I think we ought to all be humiliated and cut to the quick whenever we read the book of Acts. Our Christianity is utterly anemic and does not even bear comparison. These men - fishermen and louts - turned the world upside down. Our Christianity doesn't come close. And I think it all comes down to this one point that Paul is making: our faith is not a faith unto righteousness.
We might be able to put faith in God, but to put faith in another believer that we only see once a week is absurd. We have not been made on as He is one, and the result is that we officially have been made into a Christian culture instead of a Church. We have a Sunday Club. Some places around the world there are people that are required to meet more than Sunday and a midweek Bible Study. In those communities, God has wrought a likeness that our Western Culture cannot comprehend.
What is it that would cause such men - as unlearned as they were - to be so equipped by God to even debate against the most pristine that religion has to offer? The Holy Spirit had its own logic and law. The law of Grace compelled them to love one another. That love was not cheap. It cost everything. It cost honor and reputation for the sake of a higher one's honor and reputation; namely, the honor and reputation of God, but secondly the honor and reputation of those believers that you are with daily.
This is what we're called to.
Do you have faith for that?
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