ROMANS 4:1-3 ABRAHAM BELIEVED GOD Especially for those Jews who had counted on their pedigree and national identity to make them acceptable to God, the two most important men of Jewish history are used to illustrate being justified by faith. Abraham lived before the law was given to the Jews. But the scriptural record of his life showed he had nothing to boast of in himself. When he heard the voice of God in Ur, he believed God. When he left Haran for the journey to Canaan, he believed God. When God promised a nation to come from him that would bless all nations, he believed God. When he offered Isaac his son, he believed God. He failed at times because he was a man in the flesh, but he believed God.
None of the famous things he did were reasons for him to boast. If all those works, he did were causes for him to boast in for making him right before God, he would not have been justified before God. We can hold other great men and women in admiration because of their great works of charity, valor or widespread importance, but that does not justify them before God. Faith does not wipe out the teaching of the Old Testament, but it makes all the things that happened to Israel understandable. There was a reason behind all those events that are recorded. The greatest saint has no greater standing than the weakest one.
There is no merit in believing. Believing did not change Abraham's character or nature any more than it does any of us. When Abraham believed God, he had an attitude toward God that believed God would do what He promised. "Abraham believed God." The object of faith is what is important, not an act. Abraham was believing in a faithful God who cannot lie. He was believing God who keeps His promises.
Abraham was saved by faith. God's laws are not unimportant but it is impossible to be saved by simply obeying. Those laws have exposed our guilt and need but do not add to our righteous standing before God. When Abraham believed God, His faith was reckoned by God as righteousness. His faith didn't earn him righteousness. The Object of his faith did legally, as a Judge, reckon, or account that as righteousness because that reckoning is based on the work of Christ on the cross. This is like a court scene where a Judge makes His verdict on the basis of the sacrifice for sin that was made by the Lord Jesus Christ once for all.
We learn that no matter how great or small we are, when the Object of our faith is God alone, we are accepted by God on a legal standing. Christ has died for us. We are reckoned righteous because of faith in that Person. Our faith does not make us righteous whether it be great or small. When we believe God, we do the one thing we can do, without "doing" anything. God made the statement and fulfilled it. We believe in our heart that God has told us the truth. "So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God."
It is not obscure; it is a stated fact. Righteousness is not granted because in faith we act, But it is granted in a legal way when the Object is - The Lord Jesus Christ, and the righteousness is His That makes us whether we are great or small Accepted in Him who extends His grace to all, So that anyone who will believe in Him alone, Will find they are reckoned justified by the Judge on the throne.
When the Judge makes His decision on a legal basis, There is no way to change that because in some cases; People have done more good and would like to boast, Their righteous living has made them the most Likely to be acceptable to God because of what they did, And God would know about that because nothing is hid From the eyes of Him with whom we have to do - So surely all our good works will see us through.
But that idea some people have is not true at all. Being justified by faith happens when from our heart we call On the name of the Lord who alone can save us from our sin - And by His righteous cross-work is able to bring us in To the presence of this Righteous Judge, and on our behalf, Announce that He was our propitiation from God's righteous wrath. The Object of our faith makes us eternally secure - And on the unchanging Rock of Ages, our faith will endure.
"All-seeing and All-knowing God, I dare not seek to hide anything from Thee. I know Your eyes are everywhere beholding the evil and the good. I am not going to try to recommend myself in any way but I want to say again, "I believe God" without question or hesitation. May the affairs of this day testify to that in some way because I am weak in myself. By the power of the Spirit of God, may I live by faith. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen."