Radio Broadcast Monday 11/04/2024

Classic Christianity – Book of Romans P16 (11-04-24)

By Faith in The True Jesus We Are Credited As Righteous Before God

~ When a person places Faith in Jesus, God in the flesh, for having taken away their sins on the cross for them personally, they become indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God for Life Eternal. So it is by Faith, not by works of the law that gives a person saving Life. That is obvious to us that are saved, but it is not at all obvious to those who are still working at trying to attain their own salvation by what they do or don’t do in their own lives. And Paul goes into much detail about this, laying out the fact that when someone works at something, it is no longer a gift, but is something they themselves are earning, and as such they expect to be paid what they earned. It’s an obligation to be paid to them. But here is a key point in all of this, if a person is working, to earn, then they are NOT receiving the Free Gift from God. They are calling God a liar by their very actions of working towards what God said He has freely done for them. And hence, with ALL religions of the world, it is works based salvation. It doesn’t matter whether a person is a Protestant or a Catholic, they are two sides of the same coin. Both Catholicism and Protestantism teach some form of ongoing forgiveness, and thus a person needs to do something in order to be saved, or maintain salvation, because with ALL religion it is man centric, based on what they are doing, instead of God centered, based on what Jesus has ALREADY Done.

Now this salvation is for ALL people by Faith in the True Jesus, both for the true Hebrews and the Gentiles. And it’s so important that we understand the Truth about Jesus, and not believe in some other Jesus based on the figment of our imagination, based on Satan’s lies. But sadly, most people want to place faith in the lies, they will place faith in themselves, or what their priest or pastor teaches, or trust in their traditions, or even in their own understanding of things, instead of the TRUTH of the word of God.

~ What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather, has discovered? If Abraham was indeed justified by works, he had something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”

Now the wages of the worker are not credited as a gift, but as an obligation. However, to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness. And David speaks likewise of the blessedness of the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works:

“Blessed are they whose lawless acts are forgiven,

whose sins are covered.

Blessed is the man

whose sin the Lord will never count against him.”

Is this blessing only on the circumcised, or also on the uncircumcised? We have been saying that Abraham’s faith was credited to him as righteousness. In what context was it credited? Was it after his circumcision, or before? It was not after, but before.

And he received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. So then, he is the father of all who believe but are not circumcised, in order that righteousness might be credited to them. And he is also the father of the circumcised who not only are circumcised, but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised. Romans 4:1-12

Pray to God:

Do you really want to know the WHOLE Truth of what is going on today?

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you.” Matthew 7:7

Lord Jesus, teach me the truth of the world today and give me the wisdom to know the truth and identify the lies of the devil. Thank you God.”

~ “Now we come now as we approach chapter four, as he continues this, this argument, this explanation that he’s trying to give to get people to see he’s talking to the Gentile world also talking to the Hebrew world. And so he says, What shall we say then that Abraham? What did he discover in this matter? In other words, you say that you’re a follower of Abraham. What did he have to say in regard to this? He says, if in fact, Abraham was justified by works, then he had something to boast about. Now, remember, in the last passage, as we talked about last week, it says that the purpose of the law is to shut the mouths of all people, because there’s nothing to brag about. And so he’s saying, Abraham, if he was justified by works, well, then he had something to boast about, but not before God. You may boast before man that you’re doing okay, but not before God. Now, what does the Scripture say then it says? Abraham. It says believed God. In other words, he trusted what God said for him to do, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” ~ Bob George

Bible Study Booklets

Join Bob George in this chapter by chapter exposition of the letter to the Romans. Available for download the complete series on the Book of Romans. Romans has been described as the most dynamic, life changing document ever penned. It is a study in systematic theology, a defense of the Gospel, and a practical guide to Christian living all in one.

Announcer 0:12
Welcome to Classic Christianity Radio with Bob George Bob’s clear, timeless teachings on the complete forgiveness and unconditional love of Jesus Christ will transform your life as you learn about God’s amazing grace. Let’s join Bob as he teaches us from God’s Word.

Bob George 0:29
We have been studying through the book of Romans. And as we concluded last week, and as we were talking about last week, that what the Apostle Paul is doing is dealing with two categories of people. Here, you have the Hebrew and you have the Gentile. And as we’ve said before, that from God’s vantage point, there’s only three categories of people on the face of the earth, Hebrew, Gentile and ecclesia, the church made up of both born again Hebrews and born again Gentiles. That’s how he looks at the world. And so we understand the truth of that, that how Christ, Jesus, came to this earth in order to bring salvation, not only to the religious Hebrew, but to the heathenistic Gentile, which was an unthinkable thought to the Hebrew, that these heathenistic Idol worshiping Gentiles could come to Christ by faith, and they also would come to Christ by their works. And this was a mystery to them. They could not figure this out. And so Paul had to spend great sums of time in all of his books that he wrote again, reiterating over and over and over again that you’re saved by faith and faith alone in Christ, Jesus. And last week, we talked about how that God neutralized the entire world by abolishing the law in his flesh, so that the Hebrews could not brag about the law because He abolished it. The Gentiles never had the law. We have to keep that in mind, folks, the Gentiles were never given the law that was given to the Hebrew, we just went over and stole it, but it wasn’t given to us by God. So he’s saying to us, and he said to us that here is the Gentile world that did not pursue righteousness, and you’re saying that they have obtained it, and here we were working for our righteousness, and you say, we haven’t attained it. They said, You got it. He said, Why? Because you went at it by works and not by faith. Because no man will ever be declared righteous in the sight of God through obedience to the law. That didn’t mean some men. It said, No man or woman, or boy or girl will ever be declared righteous in the sight of God through obedience to the law, the righteous requirements of the law are 100% not 99.9 not Ivory soap religion. It is 100% and that’s why James was able to say that if you have kept the whole law and just violated in one point, you have violated how much of it? All of it, no man can stand before God in his own righteousness. We don’t have any. And that’s why, at the cross, we had to be cleansed of any everything that we are unrighteous. We were cleansed of all of our unrighteousness, so that, not that we could go and build our own righteousness, but so that we could be filled by Him and His righteousness, there is no righteousness in us. Our righteousness is him, period, and so it is because we’re in Christ, Jesus, who has become for us our righteousness. He is our righteousness. We stand in His righteousness, not in ours. Do we understand that?

Now we come now as we approach chapter four, as he continues this, this argument, this, this, this explanation that he’s trying to give to get people to see he’s talking to the Gentile world also talking to the Hebrew world. And so he says, What shall we say then that Abraham? What did he discover in this matter? In other words, you say that you’re a follower of Abraham. What did he have to say in regard to this? He says, if in fact, Abraham was justified by works, then he had something to boast about. Now, remember, in the last passage, as we talked about last week, it says that the purpose of the law is to shut the mouths of all people, because there’s nothing to brag about. And so he’s saying, Abraham, if he was justified by works, well, then he had something to boast about, but not before God. You may boast before man that you’re doing okay, but not before God. Now, what does the Scripture say then it says? Abraham. It says believed God. In other words, he trusted what God said for him to do, and it was credited to him as righteousness.

Now, if I put a million dollars into your bank account, that million dollars would be credited to your account, would it not? Are we together? It would be credited to your account. And if you have a million dollars in your bank account, and that bank account is in a bank, where do you go to get the money? To the bank. You say, I want to go to the store. I’m sorry you get food there, but you’re not going to get your money there. The money’s in the bank. Your righteousness is in Jesus. You can’t go to Budda, or you can’t go to Mohammed, or you can’t go to the Pope, or you can’t go to Luther and get righteousness. There’s only one place for righteousness to be found, and that is in the Righteous One, who is Christ, Jesus. So he’s saying, you may boast, if you think Abraham could have boasted, if his righteousness is due to works. But he said, Not before God.

Abraham believed God. That’s all he did. He trusted God in what God said, and it was put into his bank account the righteousness of God. It was credited to him as righteousness. Now, when a man works, we’re told his wages aren’t credited to him as a gift. In other words, if you had an automatic withdrawal on your account out of your work, they put it automatically into your into your bank account. It wouldn’t be put in there under the designation of a gift. Would it? This is your gift for the month. It’s a gift. I work for it. And so a man works, his wages aren’t credited to him as a gift but as an obligation. You come and work for me for a week, and I’ve agreed to pay you what I’ve agreed to pay you at the end of the week, I don’t give you a gift. I have an obligation to pay you what I said I would pay you. And so he’s saying, when a man works, his wages are not credited to him as a gift, but an obligation. However, to the man who does not work but trust God who justifies the wicked. Now again, why does he say that God justifies the wicked? Did the Hebrews think they were wicked? No, did the Gentiles know they were wicked? Yeah, they probably did. But he’s saying that for us to see that God doesn’t justify the good, because there aren’t any. Remember when they came to Jesus and said, Good teacher, and what did he say? Why do you call Me good? Only God’s good. So if you’re going to call me good, call me God. If you don’t want to call me God, don’t call me good, little paraphrase there, but that’s what he was getting at. Don’t call me good unless you’re going to call me God, because only God is good.

And so he’s saying that all of us have fallen into the category. We come into this world under this designation, so to speak of of having a heart that is wicked and deceitful above all things, and who can know it? So it says, however, to the man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness. Now folks, people say, that’s simple faith. And you’ll have people who say, Well, that’s cheap faith. That’s cheap grace. You hear people calling at and I said, Listen, friend, if Grace cost a penny, it would be too much. It would cease to be grace. Grace is free. Now it cost Jesus his life, but please don’t call it cheap grace, because it cost Jesus his life to pull this off, but when he pulled it off through the giving of his own life for you and me, and was raised from the dead so that you and I could have life from the dead. Don’t call that cheap grace that cost him his life.

And so you’re dealing here with the fact that he justifies the wicked, and his faith is credited as righteousness. And people will say, well, is that? You mean that’s all you have to do? It’s not the case. If Is that all you have to do? It’s recognizing what all he did. It is coming to the point of getting out of the realm of this being just a historical event that took place 2000 years ago, and to realize that Jesus went to a cross for you, for you. He went to a cross for you and for you, and for you and for me. He went to a cross to take upon himself the sins of the entire world, going back to Adam and forward to all eternity. Now, today, we say, Oh, I believe that. No, we don’t. We still have confession booths. To do what? Go get forgiveness. If Titus hadn’t destroyed Jerusalem in 70 ad, you’d still be killing bulls and goats back there. That’s not good enough. Why then we have every week altar calls, where we stream people forward in order. Get their sins forgiven over and over and over and over again.

So we say, out of one side of our mouth, I believe this, but out of the other side of the mouth, we talk as if we don’t believe it. And he said, I want to tell you something, guys, I justified the wicked, and you qualified. I justified the wicked. And when you come to me by faith in recognizing the truth of something, I have sinned. I am a sinner. I have sinned. But those sins were placed upon Jesus 2000 years ago at the cross, and there he who knew no sin became sin for me, so that I could become the righteousness of God in Him. He did that for me. When you get it out of the realm, he did it for the world and bring it down to you and me. You’re ready for salvation. You’re recognizing something about yourself. I’m a sinner, and those sins had to be paid for, and without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness, and Jesus shed his blood, and therefore at the cross, He made me a forgiven person.

Now we’re told in the scripture that while we were yet enemies, we were reconciled. That’s what the Cross did, reconciliation. When did that reconciliation occur in your life? Before you were born. When Christ died on a cross 2000 years ago, there he who knew no sin became sin for you. And it says, while you were yet enemies, Christ died and took away your sins. Then how much more, having accomplished this reconciliation, shall you be saved by His life. You’re not saved by the death of Christ. You’re saved by the life of Christ. You’re saved from the consequence of sin, which is death, by the gift of God, which is life. And that’s why Paul says, without the resurrection, we’re to be pitied of all people and are still in our sins. Didn’t he know a cross occurred? Of course, he knew a cross occurred, but he also knew that was provided for you and me at the cross is only received in Christ, just like the money that’s put in the bank is only received in the bank. So what do you come to Jesus for? Himself. You come to him for him. You don’t come to him for necessarily what he did for you, but for him. Now, you can’t have one without the other, the cross without the resurrection. But don’t mistake one for the other, because the cross is what cleared the deck for the divine action of bringing life to you and me. We were dead in our sins and the uncircumcision of our sinful nature, God made you what? Alive. With who? Christ. He forgave how many of our sins? All of them.

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Bob George 13:12
Now, what does faith do? What does faith do? You’ve just heard the gospel. What does faith do? Say, Thank you, or be begging for what you already have? Which is, which is, it? Says, Thank you. What else can you say when someone’s done something for you? What would you say? Do you go, if a million dollars is in your bank, do you go up to the teller and say, Oh, please, Mr. Teller, please give me my money. Would you do that? Why? Well it’s your money. The teller and say you’re an idiot, write a check. You don’t sit there and beg for what you have. It’s yours. You just go claim it by faith. And that’s what faith is, folks. There’s a difference between belief and faith. A person says, I believe in Jesus, good, so does Satan. But have you put faith in Him? I believe that chair would hold me. I’ve looked at it, I’ve analyzed it, sit there and say, Yeah, I think it hold me, but I’m not going to sit in it. Why? Well, I’m not sure it’ll hold me. You see what I’m getting at, folks? You’re faith puts it action. My belief system says, I believe that’s true. Faith says, I’m going to test it to prove it’s true. And so he’s saying to us that our faith in Christ Jesus is credited to us as righteousness.

Now he says, David says the same thing when he speaks about the blessedness of the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works. Now, guys again, this is a totally foreign teaching to the Hebrew, who all of his experience has been, I am working. I’m trying to obey the law. I’m obeying the dietary laws in order that I might be righteous in the sight of God, and here they’re coming along saying, everything you’ve been taught is wrong. Think about that. Don’t you love when someone points out that you’re wrong? I mean, doesn’t that just thrill your heart? Oh, good. Thank you for pointing that out to me. No, we don’t like to be wrong, but he’s coming. Jesus entered into this scene and said, guys, everything you’ve been taught is wrong. You have put the emphasis in the wrong place. You have misused the law, just like a person would take a hammer that was developed to build a house and put it into the hands of a murder and hit somebody in the head with it. You have misused it. You’re wrong. That righteousness is by faith and faith alone. And Paul had to stand up in through the face of people who hated his guts for what he was saying. And he was saying, Take David as an example. Same thing. He speaks about blessedness of the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works. And he quotes the Scripture, blessed are they whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered, Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will never count against him. That was David’s belief that God would, in due time, provide a way whereby our sins would be taken away. Taken away.

Is this blessedness only for the circumcised? Now, who is the circumcised? The Hebrews. Or also for the uncircumcised? In other words, is this blessedness Paul saying that I’m talking about, is it only for the Hebrews, or is it also for the Gentiles? We have been saying that Abraham’s faith was credited to him as righteousness. Under what circumstances was it credited? Was it after he was circumcised or before he was circumcised? Which was it? It was before. It was not after, we’re told it was before. So Abraham believed God and it was credited him in righteousness before the act of circumcision ever took place. It says after he received the sign of circumcision. Now, what was the purpose and the sign of circumcision? It was a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised.

Folks, we don’t have a big deal going on with circumcision. That’s not a big teaching in Christendom, is it? And if it was, it only applies to half of the population. So we, we don’t. It’s not one of those things that is really emphasized. So we have a little difficulty grabbing a hold of where’s the importance here. But to the Hebrew that was a sign, that was a seal of righteousness. Let’s apply something else that some people say today, because any time you add to Jesus, you subtracted from Jesus. We wouldn’t say circumcision. But would there be a group that would say baptism? Well, could you not then put the substitute the same principle. After he had received the sign of baptism, which was an indicator of the righteousness that you had by faith or you were still unbaptized? Would that not also be true? You see, what we have here is, again, was your faith credited to you as righteousness before you were baptized or after you were baptized? Well before. And so what you’re dealing here with is the same choice and the same principle that people use today, who claim that you’re saved by baptism, and you have huge denominations who say You’re saved by baptism, which would be the same thing as saying You’re saved by circumcision. No difference. It’s just a sign. And so he’s saying, under what circumstances was it credited? What was before he was baptized or after he was baptized? He received the sign of baptism, a seal of the righteousness which he had by faith while he was still unbaptized. So then is he the Father of all who believe but have not been baptized or circumcised in order that the righteousness by be credited them? You see the same argument that’s taking place here, guys? The same thing that you’re dealing with today, with people who say that you’re not saved unless you speak in tongues, you’re not saved unless you’re baptized, you’re not saved unless this is no different. The same principle. Is saying you’re not saved unless there’s circumcision. So the same principles apply here. And what he is trying to get across to us is that you come to Christ by faith and faith alone. What you do after that, it could be multi fold. If you were living back, then you’d probably go and got circumcised. Today you can go get baptized. Does baptism have anything to do with your salvation? Not a thing. If it did. Paul could not have said, I didn’t come to baptize, but to proclaim the gospel because of the God. If baptism was in the gospel. He couldn’t make that kind of a statement. Could he, of course, some people say, Well, he was just saying it that he didn’t come to baptize. He just came to preach. No, he didn’t come to preach. He came to preach the gospel, and there’s no baptism in the Gospel.

And so it’s merely a fact of saying that you come to Him by faith and faith alone. And this argument today, as it relates to circumcision, is as strong today as it was back then, because of all of the other things that we have added to what salvation is, and the Christian, so called Christian world, is added to, church membership. You can’t be saved unless you’re a Catholic, or you can’t be saved unless you’re a Protestant, or you can’t be saved unless you belong to our assembly, or you can’t be saved unless you’re dunked in our waters, or you can’t be saved unless you babble in tongues, and we go on and on and on. And every year the Christian world comes up with a new hula hoop to tell you how you got to do to get saved. And Paul is stringently saying to us, you are only one way for salvation, and that is through a simple faith in Christ, Jesus, period, period, period. And he’s strong as horseradish in what he’s saying.

He is also Abraham, is also the father of the circumcised, the Hebrew, who not only are the circumcised, but also who walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father, Abraham, had before he was circumcised. It was not through the law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of the world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith. The law came through Moses. How was Abraham saved? Through faith, faith in who? Faith in God, faith in the same God that David said, Blessed are they whose sins have been covered taken away. They had faith in this, and God credited that to their account, and that’s how old Testament people were saved. The object of our faith. We know the object of our faith on this side of the cross. I’m glad I live on this side of the cross, aren’t you?

And I want to tell you when I was in Israel, and we were at the Sea of Galilee one time, and I was down there looking at those guys in the boats, the same kind of boats that Jesus and them were in. They were dressed like the same way, and everything else. And I thought to myself, and somebody standing down there on that sea saying, I’m God, I’m glad on this side of the cross, that would have been a hard one to believe. And you know, we kind of almost make fun of the doubting Thomas and stuff. I want to tell you something. Had you been there, you would have been doubting too. You would have been wondering, how could this be? This is a fisherman. This is a carpenter that’s going fishing with us and eating with us. How could he be God? But he is, and he proved his deity through not only the miracles that He did, but the ultimate through the resurrection of Christ Jesus.

There’s also a brilliant proof of the deity of Christ and of salvation by faith. Do you realize, guys, that for 2000 years, people just like you and me have been testifying just like Ralph was talking all over the world, people listening to our voice today on the internet all over the world were saved identically the same way that you and I were, that at a point in time in history, we recognize something about ourselves, not that we haven’t been to church lately, or not that we haven’t done this, or have that haven’t done that, but we recognize what the Bible said about us, that Bob, you’re dead. You’re dead. When you were dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave all our sins. You’re dead. I’m crucified with Christ. Nevertheless I live. Yet not I but Christ lives in me and the life that I live in this flesh of mine, I live by faith in the Son of God, the One who loved me and gave himself for me. Jesus said, I am the resurrection and the life. And whosoever believes in me though he were dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever lives and believes in me will never die. And he said, Do you believe that he?

You see, you can go to people and say, do you know you’re a sinner? And I know many, many people. I’ll tell you, I cannot tell you the number of people I’ve witnessed to that took objection to that. Hold on, I’m not that bad. Basically, I’m a nice person. And I just killed my mom and dad. But basically, I’m a nice person. You hear that all the time, basically, nice person on on death row. Basically, I’m a good person. And what he’s saying is, yeah, I made a mistake, but basically I’m okay. God says that’s not true. It doesn’t make it how nice you are. It doesn’t even make any difference how bad you are. The issue is how dead you are. How Dead is dead. And if you’ve ever looked at a dead dog or a dead person, they’re dead. And you can tickle your feet. You can tell them a funny story. They’re not going to laugh. They’re dead. And when you and I are called dead spiritually, it means you’re dead spiritually. You are dead to the life that vacated us when Adam sinned. Your human spirit is not dead. Dead. It’s dead to what vacated it, and what vacated it was the life of God living in us. My human spirit is alive to the world dead to God. That’s why we bounce prayers off the ceiling until we’re saved. And so he’s saying to us that this comes by faith and faith alone. Now he goes ahead in verse 14, for if those who live by the law are heirs, then faith has no value, and the promise that He gave is worthless. So he’s saying, if you’re going to live by the law, your faith is worthless. The promises that God made to Abraham are worthless if you want to live by the law. Now, you see people who want to live by the law. They hate this stuff, and then they come up and say, Well, maybe he was only talking about the dietary laws. Said, no, no, he’s talking about all of them. You don’t go to Mount Sinai period. You go to the empty tomb, and there you’re going to find who is going to guide you into all truth, and his name is Jesus.

Announcer 27:11
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