right with God

In his letter to the Romans, Paul used Abraham’s faith to illustrate how justification works. Quoting from Genesis 15:6, Paul said, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness” (Romans 4:3). The Greek word that is translated counted, logizomai (log-idˊ-zom-ahee) means “to reckon or count to someone, particularly: to put to one’s account (Romans 4:4); hence figuratively: to impute, to attribute: generally, of God’s imputing righteousness (Romans 4:6, 11)” (G3049). The thing that caused righteousness to be imputed or attributed to Abraham was him believing God. Believing God has to do with confiding belief in the truth, being persuaded of the truthfulness of God (G4102). Paul explained about Abraham’s faith:

In hope he believed against hope, 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 hundred 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, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. That is why his faith was “counted to him as righteousness.” (Romans 4:18-22)

Paul said that Abraham’s faith did not weaken when he thought about how old he was or the fact that Sarah was not able to conceive a child (Romans 4:19). “No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God…That is why his faith was ‘counted to him as righteousness’” (Romans 4:20, 22). Unbelief is not just a lack of belief but can be a turning away from the truth such as in apostasy (G570) or an unwillingness to be persuaded, obstinacy (G543). Abraham grew strong in his faith and was “fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised” (Romans 4:20-21).

Paul used the word logizomai eleven times in Romans Chapter 4 to emphasize the point that God has an accounting system that is used to consider sins against him. Faith is what gets measured by God to determine our right or wrong standing before him. Paul explained in his letter to the Ephesians that faith is not something that we can produce on our own, it is a gift from God. Paul said, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9). Paul indicated that the heart is where faith originates, stating, “For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved” (Romans 10:10). Paul also said, “faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ” (Romans 10:17). Jesus talked about this in his explanation of the Parable of the Sower. Jesus said:

Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God. The ones along the path are those who have heard; then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. And the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear the word, receive it with joy. But these have no root; they believe for a while, and in time of testing fall away. And as for what fell among the thorns, they are those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature. As for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience. (Luke 8:11-15)

Matthew’s version of Jesus’ explanation of the Parable of the Sower included a statement about the amount of fruit that could be produced by holding God’s Word fast in an honest and good heart. Matthew said, “As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it. He indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty” (Matthew 13:23). Matthew indicated that the key to bearing fruit was understanding God’s Word. The Greek word that is translated understands, suniemi (soon-eeˊ-ay-mee) means “to comprehend; by implication to act piously.” When suniemi is used figuratively, it means “to bring together in the mind, to grasp concepts and see the proper relation between them. Hence, to comprehend, understand, perceive” (G4920).

James emphasized the point that faith without works, or the producing of fruit, is useless to us in God’s accounting system. James reasoned, “What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, be warmed and filled,’ without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works is dead” (James 2:14-17). James argued that it was the acting out of one’s faith that God counts to him as righteousness. James asked, “Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, ‘Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness’—and he was called a friend of God” (James 2:21-23).

Paul cautioned the Corinthians against boasting about outward appearances rather than what is in the heart (2 Corinthians 5:12). Paul made it clear that being reconciled to God was the primary objective of God’s justification of sinners. Paul said, “So we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. How differently we know him now! This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!” For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ” (2 Corinthians 5:16-21, NLT).

God’s plan of salvation was formulated before there was a need for anyone to be saved. Ephesians 1:4 tells us that God selected those who would be adopted into his family “before the foundation of the world.” Abraham was the first person that was called into a relationship with God. It says in Genesis 15:6 that Abraham “believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness.” To believe someone or to believe in someone means that you have “belief, in the sense of receiving something as true and sure” (H539). Another word for believing is faith. You might refer to someone who believes as a person who has faith. Abraham had faith in God. As a result of Abraham’s faith, God counted him as righteous. That meant that Abraham was considered to be right with God. Romans 3:28 tells us that we are “justified by faith.” Justification means that we are absolved from the consequences of sin and admitted into the enjoyment of God’s divine favor. It is “spoken of character: to declare to be just as one should be, to pronounce right” (G1344). Paul explained Abraham’s justification by faith in his letter to the Romans. Romans 4:1-12 states:

What then shall we say was gained by Abraham, 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 inhim who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness, just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works:

“Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven,
and whose sins are covered;
blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.”

Is this blessing then only for the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised? For we say that faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness. How then was it counted to him? Was it before or after he had been circumcised? It was not after, but before he was circumcised. He received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. The purpose was to make him the father of all who believe without being circumcised, so that righteousness would be counted to them as well, and to make him the father of the circumcised who are not merely circumcised but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised.

Paul indicated that a person who is justified by faith will not have his sin counted against him, his lawless deeds are forgiven (Romans 4:7-8). The topic of justification becomes more complicated when you dive deeper into Paul’s explanation of justification by faith. Paul said that God counts righteousness apart from works (Romans 4:6). Paul was talking about works in the context of keeping God’s commandments. Paul explained in Romans 3:21-26 that our ability to do the right thing (works) is dependent upon God giving us the grace to do it. Paul went on to say, “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God” (Romans 5:1-2). Paul’s description of justification by faith makes it appear to be a three-step process: 1) faith, 2) grace, and 3) works, but in his letter to the Ephesians, Paul made it clear that grace proceeds faith (Ephesians 2:5).

The Greek word dikaioo (dik-ah-yoˊ-o), which is translated justification numerous times in chapters 3 – 5 of the book of Romans, has different meanings depending on which tense of the verb is used. In Romans 3:24, “being ‘justified’ is in the present continuous tense, indicating the constant process of ‘justification’ in the succession of those who believe and are ‘justified.’ In 5:1, ‘being justified’ is in the aorist, or point, tense, indicating the definite time at which each person, upon exercise of faith, was justified” (G1344). It seems that justification by faith is actually an ongoing process, but it can also be viewed as an event that takes place at a definite point in time. We see this demonstrated in Jesus’ ministry through the miracles that he performed; instantaneous changes occurred at a specific point in time; and in the lives of his disciples who were transformed over a period of years as a result of them being in fellowship with the Lord.

A unique example of justification by faith that occurred both at a definite point in time and as a result of an ongoing process is the healing of a centurion’s servant. Luke 7:3-10 states:

When the centurion heard about Jesus, he sent to him elders of the Jews, asking him to come and heal his servant. And when they came to Jesus, they pleaded with him earnestly, saying, “He is worthy to have you do this for him, for he loves our nation, and he is the one who built us our synagogue.” And Jesus went with them. When he was not far from the house, the centurion sent friends, saying to him, “Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to have you come under my roof. Therefore I did not presume to come to you. But say the word, and let my servant be healed. For I too am a man set under authority, with soldiers under me: and I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes; and to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” When Jesus heard these things, he marveled at him, and turning to the crowd that followed him, said, “I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith.” And when those who had been sent returned to the house, they found the servant well.

The centurion was a Gentile who had no legal right to ask God to do him the favor of healing his servant. When the elders of the Jews came to Jesus to plead the centurion’s case, they boasted about the good things he had done, “he loves our nation, and he is the one who built us our synagogue” (Luke 7:5). Jesus went with the Jewish elders back to the centurion’s home, but as they were approaching his house, they received a message from the centurion that indicated his actions were aligned with God’s word and therefore, evidence of him having faith in Jesus. Luke tells us that when Jesus heard the centurion’s testimony, “he marveled at him, and turning to the crowd that followed him, said, ‘I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith’” (Luke 7:9-10).

The centurion’s understanding of God’s commandments caused him to live a righteous life and also, to treat Jesus appropriately when he wanted him to do him a favor. Jesus validated the centurion’s behavior by associating it with acts of faith. Jesus compared the centurion’s faith to others that he had encountered during his ministry in Israel and said that he had not “found such faith” (Luke 7:10). Jesus’ statement indicated there are varying levels or degrees of faith that a person can have, suggesting that over time, faith can grow or diminish. Faith is not static, a one-time deposit that we receive from God. Although we cannot become more or less saved, we can become weaker or stronger in our faith, and therefore, our faith becomes more or less evident to others.