Listen in to the Romans 3:21-4:15 Podcast
Romans 3:21-4:15 Podcast Commentary: A Person is Justified By Faith, Not By the Law
In our Romans 3:21-4:15 podcast and commentary, we explore one of the most pivotal doctrines of the Christian faith: justification by faith. The phrase “For we maintain that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law” has long been a cornerstone of Christian theology. This section of Romans reveals the profound truth that righteousness is not earned by following the law but is a gift credited to those who believe in Jesus Christ. This shift from the law to faith as the means of righteousness revolutionizes how we understand God’s plan of salvation.
Exploring Romans 3:21-Romans 4:15
In this passage, Paul teaches that God’s righteousness has been revealed through faith in Jesus Christ, and it is available to all who believe—both Jews and Gentiles. He emphasizes that justification is not achieved by works but by faith. “However, to the one who does not work but trusts God who justifies the ungodly, their faith is credited as righteousness” (Romans 4:5). This powerful statement reveals that God justifies those who have faith in Him, regardless of their past, making them righteous in His sight. It echoes the truth that salvation is not about human effort but divine grace.
Paul further stresses that if righteousness came through the law, faith would be meaningless. “For if those who depend on the law are heirs, faith means nothing and the promise is worthless” (Romans 4:14). The law, while holy, cannot save; it only reveals our sin and our need for grace. The promise of righteousness through faith, on the other hand, is sure, because it is grounded in God’s unchanging character.
Commentary Insights
Engaging with Romans 3:21-4:15 through various study guides, sermons, and theological commentaries can deeply enrich our understanding of justification. These resources help believers grasp how God’s righteousness is not earned but credited through faith in Christ. As we reflect on this passage, we are reminded that the Christian life is not about striving to meet the law’s demands but resting in the grace and righteousness God freely gives to all who believe.
Website and Books We Like
- BobGeorge.net
- Classic Christianity Book by Bob George
- Simple Gospel – Simple Grace by Bob Christopher
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Podcast Transcript
Transcript of Romans 3:21-4:15 Podcast
Wanna discover your freedom in Christ? Then listen in as Mike Stone and Kevin Smith talk about it today on Grace Coach. Welcome to Grace Coach. My name is Kevin Smith, and I've got my best friend with us today, Mike Stone. What's up?
Hey, Kev. Hey. You you say that I'm your best friend every week. I'm honored. You are my best friend.
I Not one of. Yeah. You're you are it. You are it. I've got, I've got a handful of other guys that I've known for 25, 30 years and their dear friends also.
But I think what sets you apart from everyone else is, the connection we share of what we've done for the gospel of Jesus Christ and just our connection there just sets you apart. That's awesome. Everybody else. Yeah. And, you know, Kevin and I met 30 years ago at a church in Chicago.
It was a singles, maybe 35 years ago, and it was a singles event. And, well, we ended up talking to each other instead of we're both single at the time. I remember that day like it was yesterday. We were at, a restaurant after church with a bunch of, people, a lot of women. Single ladies.
Single ladies. And, man, it was just you and I at the end of the table, and we were talking up a storm. And I was kind of oblivious to everybody else. I knew there was something special there and, thank God we connected into bible studies and and it's been it's been great journey. Yeah.
I'm sure the girls at this at the lunch in there were were asking themselves what what's going on at the end of the table with those 2 guys? I mean, this is a singles get together. We we were kind of ignoring them, but, it's all good. It's all good. Listen.
Today, we're studying, Romans chapter 4. I'm very excited about it. And there's a lot of stuff in here primarily about Abraham and his journey, his experience with God. And really it's the main point of this from what I've read is it tells you how to get right with God and how not to get right with God. So it's a it's a both and you can see both sides of the coin, what to do and what not to do.
And we hope that, you guys will be very encouraged to it, but let's do a little bit of review. We, like I said, we're in Romans chapter 4. Let's do a little review of chapter 3 just to bring us up to speed. Mike, what do you, get any thoughts on chapter 3? Yeah.
In chapter 1, Kevin, Romans 1, it says that the Gentiles have no excuse, and they were under the wrath of God. These are lost Gentiles who are not born again. And in chapter 2, it says that lost Jews who are not born again are also under the wrath of God and also have no excuse. And so Paul goes on to say that there is no advantage in being a Jew because the Jews thought they had an advantage. Just like religious people, whoever they might be, think they might have an advantage over unreligious people.
And we're not talking about religion here. We're talking about relationship with Jesus Christ. Amen. But in thinking that you have an advantage over a Gentile as a Jew, there's gonna be some questions that a self righteous Jew might ask. And Paul brings up these loophole questions in chapter 3, in Romans 3:9 he says, What shall we say then?
Do the Jews have any advantage? And he says, Not at all. For we have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles are all under the power of sin. There is no one righteous, no not one. So why is that?
Why is there no one righteous, no no not one? And that's because of what happened in the Garden when Adam disobeyed God, the spirit of God that Adam was created with left Adam and Eve and all of us are born into Adam's image. Yeah. I mean, it's it plainly says that the whole world is shut up under sin. And it like you're saying, no Jew every Jew and every Gentile, that is equals the whole world.
It's the whole world. There's nobody else. And so that's a big problem. I guess I would call that the bad news. That is how all Jews and all Gentiles, all people come into this world spiritually dead in the image of Adam.
Well, fast forward, Jesus came into the world to take away our sins and then rise from the dead and that anyone who believes in him will have eternal life. And so the life that was lost in Adam is now received in Jesus Christ. And then Paul goes on to say in Romans 3 at the end, but now apart from the law that the Jews were staunchly under. Mhmm. The righteousness is now given through faith in Jesus Christ, not by the law, and is given to all who believe.
And that's to both the Jews and the Gentiles. The law had to end at the cross so that the Gentiles could be made right with God. There had to be a way. It wasn't going to be through the law of Moses and that ended Romans 104 that Jesus was the end of the law, and now that the Gentiles can come to faith in Christ and be made right with God also. Yes.
I mean, that is a key word, like we're talking earlier, apart. So it's not the law is a part of being righteous. The the law has no part in our righteousness, you know, in Christ. And so you just wanna make that clarification that it is holy and solely our belief in Jesus Christ when that is united with faith, that we are in right standing with God. That is the only way.
That's the the bottom line main message that we want to highlight in Romans chapter 4. That's right. Because the law has a purpose, but it's not to become right with God. The purpose of the law now is to bring you to Christ. Absolutely.
And once you come to Christ, you no longer have any use for the law. It's done its work. And we're gonna see that in chapters 4, 5, and 6. Absolutely. And, most people don't really get that clarity of understanding of the purpose of the law.
I'm not even saying that people are following, although there are some people who, you know, try to follow the ten commandments and, you know, are doing their best and they pick and choose whichever ones they want. But what I see is people are making their own laws, and and it's more of a generic laws. It's not the law. It's not the law that Moses brought down, but it's something that they have created in their mind, whether it's going to church, reading their bible study, having their quiet times. All these things that they can talk to other people about and say, yeah, I'm doing the Christian stuff.
Therefore, I am righteous with God. And I'm it's a it's a dog and pony show as we you and I used to joke about, you know, we'd see people and they just have this dog and pony show of Christianity. Like here, look at my little show I'm doing of being a good person. And until you come to the realization that your righteousness has nothing to do with you being a good person, but it is basically a gift. That's really what the book of Romans says.
It's a it's a understanding. We're celebrating Christmas this month. We're all gonna be exchanging gifts, but we've got the most important gift ever given to anybody, and that is our relationship with god through Jesus Christ. And if we would just wholeheartedly receive it, and more importantly, live into it every day. And know that we are righteous, because of Christ.
But we don't. We think we're righteous based on our, I'm doing this and I'm doing that, put in the fill in the blank, whatever you wanna fill in. Yeah. Really, the question is, Kevin, you know, you really have to get down to the nitty gritty and say, how righteous are you? I mean, I use righteous as Billy Graham was.
Absolutely. Absolutely. Why? Because you have the righteous one, Jesus, living in you and so did Billy. Are you as righteous as the apostle Paul?
Absolutely. That's a tall order to stand up to. Right. The apostle Paul was born again, had the living Christ living in him, and he was as righteous as we are. We also have the living Christ living in us.
And then the final question would be, are you as righteous as Jesus Christ? Yes. Okay. I that's where I draw the line there. Right?
But if you think about it, you are as righteous and right with God as Jesus because you have again the righteous one, Jesus Christ living in you. And when God sees you, he sees the righteousness of Christ. Man, I hope people just camp out on that. Just pause the podcast. Just listen to that for a moment.
We are if you have trusted Jesus Christ as your Lord and savior, you are as righteous. You're one with him. He lives in you. You live in him. It's, you know, our union with God through Christ.
Just camp out on that. Think of that. Let that sink into your the bottom of your soul, and please, for my sake, because I have lived many, many, many years of the Christian life under works. Like, what I just said is me as part of my story of doing good things. I I've said this on the podcast before, but I used to be a very, very busy Christian, and I'm still a very busy guy.
But there's a difference in my motivation for my busyness. I'm not trying to be busy for god to make up for my sin. That was my mentality. Maybe not blatantly, I would never maybe say that to somebody, but subconsciously, that is what was going on in my life. Now I know that I blow it all the time, and that is another good point about this is that of this chapter in Romans 4, that it makes, the in verse 7 and 8 talks about David.
Alright? I'll just read those verses. Verse 7, Romans chapter 4 verse 7 says, blessed are those whose lawless deeds have been forgiven and those who sins have been covered. Okay? So that's the old testament quote of David from the Psalms.
And he says what he knew. He said what he knew, but that's not what we know because our sins are not just covered. Our sins are taken away completely. So camp out on that too, friends. Your sins are taken away.
They're not just covered. God has cast them as far as the east is from the west. When he comes back again, Hebrews tells us, he's not coming back with reference to sin. Alright? So stop making a big deal about your sin, you know, and we're not giving anybody a free license to sin, but you are going to sin.
You are going to do stupid stuff, and just be thankful that God has forgiven you. And be at peace with that. Yeah. Yeah. Let's get into, Romans 41 because we're gonna talk about Abraham.
Then we're gonna talk about, you know, his life. And Yes. Yes. So it says in 41, what shall we say then that Abraham, our forefather, according to the flesh discovered in this matter? Now notice the it says our forefather.
It wasn't the Gentiles forefather. He was the Jews forefather. So Paul's talking in his he's a Jew. He's he's from a Jewish family, Jewish heritage. He was a top Pharisee.
So Abraham is the Jews forefather. What did he discover? If in fact Abraham was justified by works, well, then he had something to boast about, but not before God. Right. And what does the scripture say?
Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness. So, you know, this whole thing about how did Abraham what did he do? What did he believe? Well, God told Abraham who was childless that he was going to have a son. Yes.
His son would be heir of the whole world. Now they're up there in age. Right? They were probably in their eighties or nineties, both Sarah and Abraham. But Abraham believed God That that would happen.
And Yep. That one belief in God, he was credited as right before God because of his belief. And we're gonna read later in 4 that this righteousness that was given to Abraham isn't for him only, but is for us today who believe that Jesus Christ rose from the dead. And God will credit righteousness to anyone who believes that Jesus rose from the dead. Yeah.
I mean that's a great story. You can read it in Genesis, 15 and 17 of Abraham. But again, just highlighting, it wasn't his circumcision, it wasn't his obedience in that sense, it was simply his belief. He believed God. Now do we believe God?
And what do we believe? What is the what is the key thing that we need to believe? Well, a lot has transpired since the time of Abraham. And, you know, it's all about the cross work of Jesus Christ. And so we simply have to believe what the new covenant promises are in Christ.
Yeah. And it's not just the cross, but it says that us who believe that Jesus rose from the dead. We've gotta move past the Good Friday event, which Absolutely. When Jesus died on the cross and get to the Easter event that Jesus rose from the dead. Now here's the thing about Abraham, you know, because we're always thinking our religion puts all this emphasis on our sins.
After Abraham was credited as righteousness when he believed God that he was gonna have a son, he comes home and Sarah is very impatient, his wife. And she says to him, I want a son. I want you to go sleep with my maidservant, Hagar. Okay. This is after Abraham just become became the father of all who believe.
Mhmm. Sarah puts him in this situation and says, I want a son. I want you to sleep with Hagar, my maidservant, and they and he did. He listened to his wife, which was a smart thing. Right?
We should be listening to our wives. But as a result of that, Ishmael was born, and he wasn't the the son of the promise. He was the son of not waiting on God. He not not waiting on God's promise that God promised Abraham a son. When we think about all of our sins and all the things we do wrong Hey, look what Abraham done.
Right after he became right with God, Sarah says, I want you to go and be with my maid servant, and I wanna have a son. And Sarah had a plan b. Sarah had a plan b on that. Yeah. So, anyway, in verse 4, it says, now to the one who works, wages are not credited as a gift, but not as an obligation.
So we know that when we work, we're not paid as in the form of a gift. We're paid because we worked for. And that's what this says to the one works wages are given as are not credited as a gift but as an obligation. And catch this in verse 5. However, to the one who does not work, but trust God who justifies the ungodly, their faith is credited as righteousness.
So what here, Kevin, is, the apostle Paul saying in verse 5 is the opposite of working for the lord. Yep. The opposite of that. Because if you work, then you have something to boast about. Then you have something to boast about.
Yeah. You earned it. You know, we go to work, we make money. There's no problem with that. And it says, the to the one who does not work, but on as a 180, but trusts God.
So the opposite of working to get right with God is trusting God by faith. They are 180s. They are completely the opposite of each other. Yeah. It says, but the one who trust god who justifies not the godly, god doesn't justify the godly, he justifies the ungodly.
The godly don't need to be saved. It's the ungodly who need to be saved. And it says their faith is credited as righteousness. So here, Abraham is the Jews guy. Abraham, Isaac, the god of Abraham, Isaac, and and Jacob.
And now he's talking about David like you mentioned. David, he's one of the Jews guys. So he's bringing Abraham into this, he's bringing David into this, and he's saying they both they both said the same thing that God will credit righteousness apart from your works. You know, it is kind of amazing, you know, Jewish people read Genesis. I mean, that's part of the Torah.
I mean, and they still don't see it. How do you think that they can read that story and go on living with the law? I mean, they talk about having some serious blinders on, which we know Romans tells us, Jews have blinders on. Yeah. Well, I guess if the shoe fits, wear it.
So, you know, you'll you'll take any verse you read and mold it into your belief system, unfortunately. And but thank God at the time after the rapture and at the end of the tribulation, God will come for the Jewish people. Yes. Right now he's turned to the Gentiles. Most churches today are filled with Gentiles and not Jews or some Jews, but that they're a remnant.
But fast forward, at the end of the tribulation, he's gonna make a turn to the Jewish people. And that is gonna be exciting times. You know, I I tell tell guys that worked at a lot. We have really cool discussions, and so it's gonna happen. He's gonna crack the sky one day.
That's right. Come down in the clouds. That's right. So it says, is this blessedness in verse 9 only for the circumcised, the Jews, or also for the uncircumcised, that's the Gentiles? We've 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? It was not after, but before. So in the story of Abraham, he believed God that he would have a son and he was credited as righteousness. And then after that, God wanted Abraham to be sir circumcised.
And in the verse 11, it says, and he received circumcision as a sign, a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. You know, it is I I mentioned that, Romans I meant Romans, but Genesis, 15 and 17, and I really wanna encourage everyone to go back and just read those chapters. They're not long, but they're really, really great stories. And, I'm pretty sure in gosh, I think it's either 15 or 17. Yeah.
It's when, God makes the covenant with Abraham, and it's really cool. It's an old testament tradition where they would split the animals, and then both people would walk through, you know, the splitting of the animals. God put a sleep on Abraham and God went through the animals with, the flaming pot and basically made a covenant by himself. And it just is a great picture of what Abraham brought to the the the table. Because when 2 people would make that covenant, they would, walk through it, and it would be like, if I don't hold this covenant, I'm I will die, you know, to the death.
So god said, I'm not even going to allow you to, have any responsibility in this covenant. This covenant is going to be all on me as he basically threw that, pot walk through. Yeah. Very cool. Yeah.
So in verse 11, it says again, he received, he, Abraham, received circumcision as a sign of the seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. And it says then, so then he is the father of all who believe who have not been circumcised, that would be the Gentiles. In order that the righteousness might be credited to them also. And he is then also the father of the circumcised, who not only are circumcised, but who also follow in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised. So we're it's real wordy but if you just take one sentence at a time and ask yourself who is the circumcised, who is the uncircumcised, it all makes a ton of sense.
Absolutely. Absolutely. So, Kev, let's just take, a couple more verses, Romans 13 to 15. You wanna read that? Chapter 4 verse 13 says, for the promise to Abraham or to his descendants that he would be heir of the world was not through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.
For if those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made void and the promise is nullified. For the law brings about wrath, but where there is no law, neither is there no violation. Yeah. So it clearly says that it was not through the law that Abraham received this promise That he would be heir of the world when he was Right. Credited to his righteousness.
But again, through the righteousness that comes by faith. Yeah. But those who depend on the law are heirs. Those who are still under the law, who haven't come to Christ by faith. And if they are heirs then faith means nothing and the promise is worthless.
You are still under the law. If you're still trying to get right with God by your works, by your good behavior, then it says the promise is worthless to you. Mhmm. But you want to realize that the purpose of the laws we're talking earlier is to bring you to Christ. It's like a mirror to show you that you have a problem that's even worse than your sins.
It's a problem of unbelief and that you are not born again. And the and the law will show you your need for Christ. And so that's the purpose of the law is to bring you to Christ and be saved. Absolutely. Absolutely.
Beautiful stuff. Yeah. Well, Merry Christmas to you, and it is a wonderful, wonderful time of year as we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ and everything that he has done for us through his birth, death, and resurrection. Merry Christmas, guys. Thank you for listening to Grace Coach.
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