How does the righteousness of faith work? It works by not working for it!
What then shall we say that Abraham our father has found according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” (Romans 4:1-3)1
That last sentence, “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness,” is repeated six times in the Bible. Abraham was blessed by God, and the way he received the blessing was by BELIEVING that he was righteous before God. When Paul says “according to the flesh,” he means trying to obtain right standing with God through self-effort. Paul is asking the question, “What did Abraham discover about his own righteousness?” Nothing! As we will see, Abraham wasn’t a model citizen. He was more a model of God’s grace! He obviously wasn’t made righteous by his works.
Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt. (Romans 4:4)
Do you see how extreme this righteousness of faith is? If we’re working for it, it becomes a debt, not a gift. If the blessing of God is a reward for good behavior, then we get the credit for earning it. Yet, in that system the flip-side would also true: we would lose the blessing of God by bad behavior. If the blessing of God is truly a gift, then Jesus gets the credit, and we can’t lose it even when we fail!
In Romans 10, Paul said the Jews were ignorant of God’s righteousness, and they tried to establish their own righteousness.2 But it’s impossible to establish our own righteousness. We can’t believe that we’re righteous by what we DO and still believe we’re righteous as a GIFT. A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways.3
Some of us are very strong-willed. We can last decades striving to maintain our righteousness and do it our way. However, even the hardiest human stock has its breaking point. We will either break in our morals, in our emotions, or in our bodies. The sad thing is that the more we try, the harder it is to just let go because we have invested so much in it!
But to him who DOES NOT WORK but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness. (Romans 4:5, emphasis mine)
The scandal of the Gospel is that a Holy God justifies wicked, ungodly people!
Only for the one who “DOES NOT WORK” for it can the blessing be given to him as a gift. Abraham is a great example of someone who was not justified by works. On two occasions he lied about his wife being his sister and was willing to let Sarah be taken by two different kings (Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and Abimelech, king of Gerar) to be among their wives.4 We don’t have polygamy today, but we can envision what Abraham did: he gave his wife away for these men to do with her what they wanted! He had an “honorable” reason for it: to save his own hide!
Abraham wasn’t a model of integrity. He was a model of someone living under the grace of God. God never punished or rebuked Abraham, and the Bible even calls Abraham “God’s friend.”5 In fact, God defended Abraham, and scared those kings half to death when they found out Sarah was Abraham’s wife! He stopped the kings from touching Sarah, and He blessed Abraham with great wealth: “livestock, sliver, and gold.”6
In the “hall of fame of faith” in Hebrews 11, there is no record of Abraham’s sins.7 Why? No sins of any of the heroes of faith are recorded in Hebrews 11 because it’s straight from God’s book of remembrance in heaven, and heaven does not keep a record of sins!
Which system do you want to be under? Law or grace?
(from pages 225-227 of Unveiling Jesus)
Want more from Tricia Gunn? Check out excerpts from the Unveiling Jesus 20-part series!
Unveiling Jesus, by Tricia Gunn, is a verse by verse study of the pure gospel of grace. It’s an amazing journey of love, identity, and freedom in Christ.
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1All scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New King James Version. Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission.
2Romans 10:3
3James 1:8
4Genesis 12 and 20
5James 2:23
6Genesis 12-14, 20; Genesis 13:1 and 24:35
7Hebrews 11:8-10, 17-19″
