Listen in to the Romans 4:16-25 Podcast
Romans 4 Podcast Commentary: Righteousness to All Who Believe in Jesus
In our Romans 4:16-25 podcast and commentary, we dive into a transformative section of Paul’s letter to the Romans. This passage highlights the power of faith in God’s promises and reveals that righteousness is credited to all who believe in Jesus Christ. The phrase “The words ‘it was credited to him’ were written not for him alone, but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness—for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead.” captures the heart of this passage and its implications for all believers. It underscores that just as God credited righteousness to Abraham for his faith, He now credits righteousness to us when we believe in Jesus Christ, who was raised from the dead for our justification.
Exploring Romans 4:16-25
Romans 4:16-25 emphasizes the centrality of faith in receiving God’s promises. Paul explains that the promise of righteousness does not come through observing the law but through faith. He uses the example of Abraham, whose faith in God’s promise to make him the father of many nations was counted as righteousness (Romans 4:3). Paul makes it clear that the same principle applies to us today. Just as Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness, we too are credited with righteousness when we place our faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
The key themes in this passage focus on the foundational truth of the gospel: righteousness comes through faith, not works. “He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification” (Romans 4:25). Jesus’ resurrection is central to our justification, as it affirms that God’s promise of salvation is secure.
Commentary Insights
Engaging with Romans 4:16-25 through study guides, sermons, and theological commentaries offers deep insights into the nature of faith and justification. These resources help believers better understand how God credits righteousness to us—not through our works, but through our trust in Jesus Christ. As we reflect on this passage, we are reminded that our hope is built not on our own efforts, but on God’s faithfulness and His promise fulfilled in Christ’s death and resurrection.
Podcast Transcript
Romans 4:16-25 Podcast
Wanna discover your freedom in Christ? Then listen in as Mike Stone and Kevin Smith talk about it today on Grace Coach. Well, hello. This is Mike with Grace Coach. Good to be with you.
I'm with my cohost, Kevin Smith. What's up, Mike? Yeah. Good to be here. Great to be here.
Love, love what we're talking about today. Well, I always say that because I love the Bible. How about it? Amen to that. And I love God's grace, which is the core of what we talk about on Grace Coach.
And also not just what you and I talk about, but I wanna announce to the world or let me just say to our podcast listeners because I know the world's not listening. On February 6th, we are having our 1st ever live Zoom bible q and a. February 6th, please mark your calendars. Please call in and go on our website where you can find the link. You click on the little pink box, that's got all our details.
It will be at 7 PM on February 6th, live q and a. Ask any questions you want about the bible, about God's grace, about, our new identity in Christ, all the things that we talk about on Grace Coach. If you have listened to us and you have some sort of question, please do us a huge favor. You would give us in great encouragement just to click on that link on February 6th, give us a few minutes of your time, ask a question, and let's have some fun talking about God's grace. Yeah.
It's gonna be fun. And that's, Kevin, 7 o'clock Central Standard Time. Oh, great clarification, Mike. Oh. Alright.
Well, we are going to keep on moving through the book of Romans. We're still in chapter 4. We're gonna do chapter 4 verses 16 to 24. I wanna do a quick review of, the last podcast, Romans 4 1 to 15. You know, Kevin, in Romans 43, it says that Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.
So Mhmm. Him and Sarie were getting up there in years, and they wanted to have a child, and nothing was happening. And then God promised that he would give Abraham and Sarah a child, and Abraham believed that. And he was credited as righteous. So what does that mean is that Abraham was right with God when he put his faith in God at that point.
And that is the same for us today as we'll read some in some scriptures, that when we put our faith now in Jesus, he gives us new life, and we are credited as right with him. Amen. Perfect a okay no matter what we do, what we think, God sees us as righteous. That's right. Basically, the gift of God.
Our righteousness is God's gift to us. It's nothing that we can earn, nothing that we can work for, And that's what we're gonna be looking at in this book of Romans today. It's just that contrast. Are you doing it by works or are you doing it by faith? That's the bottom line.
That's right. Romans 45, it also says, this is this is an amazing verse. However, to the one who does not work but trust God Yes. Justifies the ungodly. You know, he doesn't justify the godly because the godly don't need to be justified.
Yeah. It's the ungodly, the unrighteous, and that's who every everybody has that issue. We're born that way. We're born in the image of Adam, spiritually dead, unrighteous, and ungodly. But when, again, we put our faith in Christ, it's not about working for God, doing the right thing.
Although doing the right thing is a good thing, but it's not what our righteousness with God is hinged on. Exactly. It's just hinged on faith in Christ. And, Kevin, you wanna read, Romans 416 through 17? And this is, I'm just gonna say this.
This verse right here, this first verse, really, I don't know. I'm not gonna say tripped me up, but I spent a lot of time studying this first verse out, and I would love to hear what you think of it. Let me read it real quick. Romans 416 through 17. This is why it depends on faith in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring, not only to the adherent of the law, but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all.
As it is written, I have made you the father of many nations in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. Man, is there a mouthful in that thing? You know what tripped me up, Mike? What what do you think tripped me up or or just caught my eye in those 2 verses? I do not know.
It is not only to the adherent of the law, but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham. You know, why would he why would he put that in there? It's my it was what that that kept on just bugging me, man. Why did he put to those who adhere to of the law? Yeah.
So what he's doing here, he's making a distinction as he's doing through the whole book of Romans and through all of his other writings between Jews and Gentiles. So when he's talking about the promise comes by faith, so it may be by grace and guaranteed to all Abraham's offspring, he's talking about believing Jews and believing Gentiles. And that's why he says, he is the father of us all Jews and Gentiles. And that's when he says in 17, it is written, I made you a father of many nations, both Jews and Gentiles. He is the father in the sight of God in whom he believed, the God who gives life to spiritually dead Jews and Gentiles.
And so he's just saying this promise is not just for the Jews. It's for the Gentiles too. They didn't have the law. Now the Jews thought that they became righteous by following the law, and that's why it was so hard for them to understand that the Gentiles could be made right too because they said that the Gentiles don't have the law. How could they be made righteous?
And so that's why this righteousness is for all people who put their faith in Christ, not just the Jews, but, again, the Gentiles. As I was looking at this, it's it's basically couldn't mean those who obey the law because the law came 430 years after Abraham. That's right. Later the promise. That's what 17 says.
I mean so he couldn't have been referring to that. So I think it was really just a principle that he was just establishing, you can't be justified by the law. Even if you are trying to follow three chapters. You know, no one is justified by following the law. I mean, it just makes it so evident and plain.
You know, back in Romans 4, 1 to 15 that we read last week. So what what does Paul do? He brings Abraham in, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. So if you ask a Jewish person, who is your God? They would say the God of Abraham, Isaac, and and Jacob.
So he's bringing Abraham into this thing. Even Abraham believed God, and he was credited as righteous not by the law, but by faith. Then in Romans 46, he brings David into this thing. You know, David, the Jews love David, and he says David says the same thing when he speaks of the blessedness of the one to whom God credits righteousness apart from works. Yep.
He was rocking their world. Yes. He was. Those are the big the big dogs of the truth of faith, man. David, Abraham, he was lining them up.
Last week, when we were looking at that section, it's a great insight to say from David's perspective, you know, his sins were covered. But for from our perspective in the new new covenant, our sins are taken away. And so that we we can't hammer that home enough. There's a distinction between how God dealt with the sins of the old testament folks. I mean, ultimately, they are all forgiven by Christ.
But in the Old Testament, their sins were covered because they had to make sacrifices. God told them to make sacrifices for their annual sins, which all foreshadowed Jesus Christ. His ultimate he was the spotless lamb of God. And when he sat down, there's no more sacrifices in the temple. That's really the reason why we as Christians, you know, we don't need a temple.
We are the temple. We are the temple of God. God in the Old Testament, you would go to the tabernacle, to the temple. Yeah. That's what we're gonna lose.
The Holy of Holy. If you wanna if you wanna find where God is today, he's living in you. That you were the temple of the holy and the holy spirit lives in you. That is beautiful, bro. That is beautiful.
Yeah. It's really unbelievable, this difference between the old and new covenant and how the new covenant superseded the old covenant, but let's keep reading, Kevin. Romans 4 18 through Yeah. This is this is a good section too. Yeah.
Through 21. In hope, he believed, he being Abraham, believed against hope, alright, keep that in mind, that he should become the father of many nations as he had been told, so shall your offspring be. He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead, since he was about a 100 years old, or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah's womb. No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God. Alright.
I'll stop there. I went to 20. Yeah. And 21 says then being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he promised. So as this the text says, and we mentioned that they were a 100 years old.
Yep. Who today, a 100 years old, is giving is giving pregnant and giving birth and having a family? No. We're just it's too late. Yep.
Hey, dude. It was a stretch for us. I was 40. My wife was 38. You know, when we got married at 4038, that was a stretch, bro.
Yeah. But God told him he promised him a son and that that son would be heir of the world and become the father of many nations. Yeah. So Abraham's okay. I I believe.
But, again, you know, this whole story is just a shadow of things to come, which everything in the Old Testament is. The Old Testament sacrifices were a shadow of Jesus' one time sacrifice. You know, going back what you said about the covered the sins were covered, which I hear way too much in Christian preaching today, you can't bring in that our sins are covered because just put a piece of paper on a table then cover them. It's just covered. Right?
It's not removed from the table. It's not taken away. So there's a huge difference between this covering of sin that happened in the Old Testament with Old Testament sacrifices year after year after year Yes. Through the new covenant onetime sacrifice. Hebrews says it was a onetime sacrifice is about 5, 6 times.
Right. One time for all people. The thing about it is, Mike, is, you know, the difference is is that we, as new testament believers, we can rest in our relationship with God. In the old testament, they were working their butt off, they were busy. Those priests were making sacrifices and everything else.
So we as new testament believers in Christ, we can rest in the sufficiency of the cross, the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, period. Period. No commas. No commas, period. Or it should be exclamation points.
Yes. Exactly. Alright. So getting back to the scripture here, we just talked about Abraham and his whole situation with Sarah and their barrenness to their womb. And so we can't move on from this without talking about kinda this glaring thing for anybody who's read Genesis 15 through 18.
They had a plan b. They came up with a plan b, right? They did. Sarah said to Abraham, why don't you go sleep with my handmaiden, Hagar? Okay?
And so they basically took matters into their own hands. They had Ishmael. And in my mind, and maybe some people who are listening to our podcast, they would say, alright. That's a wavering of faith. That's taking the bull by the horns and trying to make it happen like a lot of us do in life.
When things aren't working out, like, oh, I'm gonna get take control of this and, you know, make this now how how do you how would you explain that, Mike? You know, he he went with he went with Hagar. He went with Hagar. So the way I do look at it, ask the question, is Abraham any unrighteous as a result of sleeping with Sarah's maidservant, Hagar? You you would say, yes.
He's just fallen out of fellowship with God. He's become unrighteous. He needs to ask God to forgive him over and over, but that's not the case. He's he's the father of all who believe. That hasn't changed.
He still is right as he was before the promise, before he went to his plan b. And so that's a great picture of God's unbelievable forgiveness and that our our identity never changes. We never become unrighteous once we are right with God. We never up become unholy, ungodly. Yeah.
Some of our decisions aren't the best, but neither was Abraham's. Right? Because look Right. Through Ishmael came another nation that was rebellious towards God. Huge.
I really think that that was all part of God's plan anyway. Absolutely. You know, just the whole line of Ishmael and, I mean, it says he's a wild donkey, and you know that that's the case. Anyway, as I just kinda wrestled through this, what I came to, it's God's sovereignty and God's omniscience that he knows Abraham. He knew Abraham despite him doing a stupid thing.
Abraham still believed God, And God knew that. God knows our hearts. He knows every thought we think. He knows every action we take. We can't get away with 1 iota of anything.
He is omniscient. He knows everything. He's outside of time. Yeah. We have our lives point a to point b.
He's outside. He created time. Okay? So it's kinda going to a different dimension in in God's perspective, but you gotta do that because God is God, he's not us. We I only know what you tell me.
I can see, you know, your actions and everything else, but I don't know your heart. You don't know my heart, but god does, and god knows your heart. And so the bible says, didn't waver in his faith, and god knew it, and that's why it's in there. That's really how I come down on it. And probably one more thing is that when your wife tells you to do something, you gotta do it.
Oh, really? Although this one didn't work out that well, but they all don't. The words that was credited to him were written not only for him, Abraham alone, but also for us Beautiful. To whom God will credit righteousness for us who believe in him, who raised Jesus, our Lord, from the dead. He was delivered over to death for our sins, and he was raised to life for our justification.
Man, you gotta love this. This is why this is my favorite book in in the Bible. I mean, it's it's just the gospel. This is the heart of the gospel. So I think what this is explaining in 22, it's it's explained that the righteousness that was given to Abraham is also given to you.
It's a shadow of of things to come, which is our righteousness by faith in Jesus Christ. And it says, for us who believe in him, now catch this, who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. Yes. He didn't say for us who believe in him, who believe that Jesus died on the cross. He went a step further.
We're talking about resurrection life because he goes on to explain this, Kevin, in Romans 510. I think we gotta read it because I think this might be just about one of the most important verses Mhmm. In the Bible. Yep. Romans 510, I'm gonna read.
For if when we were God's enemies lost, we were reconciled to him through the death of his son. So what happened through the death of his son when he died on the cross? God reconciled himself to the whole world. Doesn't mean everybody was reconciled back and believed that, but God reconciled himself to the whole world. How much more having been reconciled shall we be saved through his life?
So we're not saved through the death of Jesus. No. That was preparatory toward to the resurrection. Again, we talk about it. The death of Jesus is what happened on Good Friday.
But Good Friday leads to Easter, and Easter is about the resurrection of the dead. So we have to understand that we're not saved by his death. We're saved by his life. And both the verse we just read that he was delivered over to death for our sins in Romans 425 and was raised to life for our justification or righteousness. That's that's all that means.
He's saying the same thing again in Romans 510. We're saved by the life of Christ. Yes. It's that living Jesus living in us is why we have eternal life in Christ. Yeah.
It's a beautiful thing. I'm gonna read, verse 23 and 24 again. But the words it was counted to him were not written for his sake alone, but for ours also, it will be counted to us who believe. So it's it's pointing to Abraham and Abraham's faith, but it's including us who believe. You know, you have to, combine your belief with faith in order to be saved and be reconciled through Christ.
And I think the point, the bible's making that I was just earlier making is not just believe, but believe that he was raised to life. That a dead man named Jesus Resurrection. Yeah. He's now alive. The whole book of Acts is about the resurrection of Jesus.
Go through the book of acts, if you're listening here, and read through it and underline every time you see a reference towards the resurrection. I count to 25, there's probably more. I'm sorry. 25 times resurrection. Times that that they're doing this.
We're in prison. We're, out here preaching because a dead man named Jesus is now alive. That's a reference to the resurrection. So you'll find that at least 25 times. It's a great thing to do on a Saturday afternoon.
Yes. It is. The key to salvation is believing that Jesus rose from the dead. It's encouraging. I mean, just think about it.
I mean, I think about this in my devotions very often. Literally, I try to visualize the moment Jesus came out of the grave. That that pumps me up, man. I just I think about it. You know, it says that rock, the trumpet's blue, the rock busted off, Jesus wrote.
I mean, can you even imagine that day? I'm I'm just saying this from memory, but I think it says the Roman guards died. You know, some of the Roman guards died. Did you did you ever read that? They probably had heart attacks.
Well, yeah. I mean, can you imagine the the rock that was covering they rolled that big rock right in front of the grave, and it got blown away. Jesus came out of the grave. Oh my god. Yeah.
You don't make a big enough deal at the resurrection of Jesus Christ, man. Let's get pumped up. That's right. It's not just an Easter holiday. This is every day to to know that our salvation rests in the resurrection of Jesus.
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