Faith Alone

You are listening to a message from Thrive Community Church, a church located in Southwest Florida. For more info, visit us at thrive-fl.org. We're going to look at Romans chapter 4 and chapter 3. It's kind of an odd order, but we're going to start with Romans chapter 4 and then look at chapter 3 a little. So here, Paul writes this letter to the Romans. What then, shall we say, was gained by Abraham, or our forefather 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 counted to him as righteousness. Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift, but as his due. And to the one who does not work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness. And now Romans 3, chapter 3, verse 21 to 28. But now, the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it, the righteousness of God through faith in Christ Jesus for all who believe. For there is no distinction, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith. For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. So, the book of Romans, Paul is systematically giving us what I would say is the narrative, the grand narrative of the entire Bible in just a very short, theologically heavy, but short book. It's basically giving the whole grand story of why we are, where we are, how we are, what went wrong, what's right, how do we get back to where we were and where are we going. That grand narrative from beginning to end that starts in Genesis and goes to the end. It's the entire story of the Bible in kind of a nutshell here, but it is more than that. It's more than the story of the Bible. It's really the story of this world, because the Bible does not just say, hey, here's a religious book over here, and if you want to believe it, that's great, and the history of the world goes in a different direction. It's really the story of reality. This is what's really going on. Why you are here, what you are here for, what God is doing, where it's going, how you are a part of it. Now, some people say, hey, you know, we live in postmodern times, and I don't know if you've ever heard of postmodernism, but basically one of the things postmodernism says, there is no grand story. There is no overarching story, but there's a contradiction in that. I don't know if you realize that, because I've just stated this is the grand story, that there is no grand story, which is kind of like, wait a minute. So everybody has a narrative. Everybody believes in a storyline, and we're going to follow this one, because I think it fits best with reality, the way things really are, and it's got such good news for us. Okay? Such good news for us. And the way Paul sums it up here in Romans 3 and 4, it could be just, these phrases keep coming back, and we're going to look at that. It is this, we are justified freely by faith through the blood of Christ. He says that in one form or another, all the way through these chapters. Justified freely by faith through the blood of Christ. I know this is heavy theological talk. This is jargon, right? Justification. Have you ever heard that term before? Okay, you might have, or maybe not. It's basically from the court of law. It's the not guilty verdict in a court of law. But the word justification here is, in Greek, has the same root as the word righteousness. Okay? And so today we're going to be talking about, what does it mean that we are declared righteous or given righteousness by faith? What does that all mean? And we're going to do it by splitting it up in three different points. First of all, why do we need that? That kind of righteousness by faith? And secondly, what is it? And thirdly, how do you receive it? Okay? Why do we need it? Paul says the righteousness comes from God through faith. I don't know if you realize this, but this is a mind-blowing, earth-shattering, continent-shifting, reality-changing statement Paul has made. It is totally different than anything else that had been said before or ever since. It is totally different. And Paul starts this phrase, he says, but now, in Romans 3 verse 21, but now a righteousness has come to us totally different than anything else that's gone before. Now this term righteousness, this word, we hardly ever use it, do we? Oh man, that pe...