November 25th, 2012
The Essence of the Gospel
Romans 4:9-25
Key Verses 24-25, "but also for our sake, whom it shall be imputed, if we
believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord for our sins of the dead, which is
then given, and to justify our sake."
What would be the most important question for us? If we think rationally, we
know that there is no more important issue for us as the question of how to have
eternal life. But there are different opinions in the world about how we can
have eternal life. We can divide these opinions roughly into two groups: The
first group says that a person can obtain eternal life through his good deeds.
This group includes almost all the ideas of the world, such as Buddhism and
Islam. The other group says, however, that man can receive eternal life through
the grace of God. This group is Christianity.
Paul tells us in this passage that we are recognized as righteous through the
grace in Jesus Christ and have eternal life. We want to learn about this in
more detail today.
1. Not by our good works, but by grace (9-16)
In the world, a person is recognized by his good deeds as righteous.
Unfortunately, there is no man who has done nothing bad at all but only good.
It is impossible for us humans to be recognized as righteous from God through
our deeds because we have transgressed any commandment. For example, everyone
has lied at some time.
But God offers us a new way to be recognized by him as righteous: If we confess
our sins and believe in Jesus Christ, we can experience the forgiveness and be
recognized as righteous people. We are God's children and then have eternal
life.
Paul wants to illustrate this with the example of Abraham.
He asks us in verse 9: "Is the blessing (of God) only for the circumcised
or also for the uncircumcised?"
The circumcision of the Jews is something like the baptism for Christians. And
the Jews believe that a person belongs to the people of God through
circumcision.
Abraham was recognized through his faith by God as righteous, when he was still
uncircumcised. Later he received
circumcision as a seal of his righteousness of faith. So circumcision is not an
absolute prerequisite to be accepted by God as righteous. The Christian baptism
is not an absolute prerequisite to become God's child. Rather, the baptism
serves to fix our faith in the gospel (11).
According to Genesis 12:2-3 Abraham received the following promise: God will
give him a vast country, make a great nation out of him and make him a source
of blessing for all peoples.
From Hebrews chapter 11, we learn the meaning of this promise: The vast country
is the kingdom of heaven, the great people means to make numerous children of
God and the source of blessing for all the nations, that one of the descendant
of Abraham comes as the Messiah and all the people saved from sin and makes
them children of God.
So: The Old Testament tells of the divine promise, such as to Abraham. And the
New Testament describes the fulfillment of this promise through Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ is the real blessing. And each of us can receive God's blessing through
faith in Jesus Christ and become a blessing for countless people.
Paul tells us in verses 14-16, why we can’t become God's children through the
law. The law stipulates that a person who has violated any bid, is not
righteous, but transgressors. We have transgressed some of commandments of God
and were actually disqualified to be children of God and to receive the promise
of God. We were lost and hopeless. But by God's grace we are saved and become
children of God.
That is why Paul says in verse 16: "Therefore, the righteousness by faith
has come, so that they live through grace and the promise of God remains valid
for all the descendants, not only for Jews but also for those, who live through
faith like Abraham. That is why he is called the father of faith."
2. God sees our faith (17-22)
We now know, why Abraham was accepted by God as a righteous person.
Abraham had no child, although he was already 99 years old and his wife 89. But
he believed in God. What did he believe?
Abraham believed that God can raise the dead alive and calls that which is not,
as if it were there. And he didn’t become weak in faith, although his body was 99
years and was unable to become a father of a child. He looked neither to his
old body nor the womb of his wife. Instead, he looked at the almighty God and
believed in his promise. He believed the word of God, "So shall your
descendants be" (17-19).
He staggered not at the promise of God, but knew with full certainty what God
had promised He was able also to perform (20).
"Faith" means that you have a firm confidence in God and his
promise, even though it looks impossible. Abraham had a firm confidence that
God will fulfill His promise surely, although he could not see it. So we should
firmly believe that Jesus died on the cross for our sins and rose from the
dead. This promise is the central promise of God. Because God is all-powerful
and faithful, he has fulfilled his promise.
Although the promise of God sometimes looks impossible in our eyes, for the
Almighty God it is no problem to meet them. We are to believe that God gave Jesus
for our sins and raised Him from the dead. We should also believe that God has
prepared a heavenly kingdom for us. He will raise us from the dead and lead us
into the kingdom of heaven. If we remember that our God has created out of
nothing heaven and earth though his word, without much difficulty we can believe
in God in the resurrection of Christ, our resurrection and the kingdom of
heaven. We can also believe that God guides us to the best way, although we do
not know all the details.
3. The essence of the Gospel (23-25)
Let's look at verses 23-25. Paul calls this the essence of the Gospel:
"The fact that it was imputed to him, is not written only for his sake,
but for our sake: If we believe in Him who has raised Jesus our Lord from the
dead, then he is given to death for our sins and raised for the sake of our
justification. "
There are two key points of the gospel, namely, that Jesus died for our
sins and that he rose again for the sake of our justification.
The first key point of the Gospel is that Jesus gave them our sins. If we read
the Bible, we can find some useful informations. A friend of mine read the
Bible because the Bible is the best seller. The first key point of the Bible,
however, is that Jesus Christ died for our sins. The sacrificial system is the
central message of God in the Old Testament. The priests bring sacrifices of animals
for the people, so that God forgives the guilt of the people and blesses them.
Jesus Christ fulfilled the meaning of the animal sacrifice system in the Old
Testament completely through his sacrifice once and for all for our sins. That
is why John the Baptist said of Jesus: "Behold, the Lamb of God, who
carries away the sin of the world" (John 1:29). Because Jesus Christ died
on the cross for our sins, God need no more animal sacrifices. We just need to
confess our sins and believe that Jesus Christ died for our sins and rose from
the dead. Then God forgives us all our sins, how bad they may be, and takes us
warmly as his children.
If we accept the truth that the Son of God had to die because of our sins, we
will realize how bad our sins and how great the grace of God for us is. We
should recognize the great love of God for us and really believe in the impact
of the sacrificial death of Christ.
And if we believe in Jesus' death for our sins, God forgives our sins
completely and the Spirit of God dwells in us. If we allow the Holy Spirit to
work mightily in us, He purifies our hearts from sin such as unbelieving
thoughts and habits and guides us to live a life of pleasing to God. Our hearts
and our practical life can be cleaned through God’s grace repeatedly, and we
can better live a holy life.
Therefore we ought to renew our faith in Jesus' sacrificial death and
resurrection repeatedly, so that God can cleanse us by his Spirit and renew us.
We are to remain grateful God for his love and devotion. Since our ungrateful
and fatalistic thoughts will disappear and we can happily live and be thankful
God and other people.
The second key aspect of the gospel is that God raised Jesus our resurrection from
the dead.
The Resurrection of Jesus is the first fruits of resurrection. This means that
God will also raise us from the dead as next fruits. God has adopted us as
righteous people and God's children. When the time comes, He will also raise us
up from the dead and lead us into His kingdom (1 Cor. 15:20-24). Because of
this promise, Christ's death and his resurrection is a good news for all of us.
There is no better news than this. We believe in this message, we have no
reason to be sad or depressed. Therefore, says St. Peter, "Blessed be the
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath begotten us again to his
great mercy unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the
dead, to an incorruptible and undefiled inheritance that is kept in heaven for
you "(1 Peter 1:3-4).
Paul also says in Romans 8:18: "For I am convinced that our sufferings at
this time are not to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in
us."
We are very grateful to God for the gospel. We are to glorify God and praise
him. From a grateful heart we should share this gospel with other people. We
are to make all people of the world known the gospel as more people as possible.
God should be praised.