17  Abraham— Justified by Faith (4:1-8)

What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, has found? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about; but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? “And Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.” Now to the one who works, his wage is not reckoned as a favor, but as what is due. But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned as righteousness, just as David also speaks of the blessing upon the man to whom God reckons righteousness apart from works: “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds have been forgiven, and whose sins have been covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will not take into account. (4:1148)

If there is any doctrine that the chief enemy of man and of God desires to undercut and distort, it is the doctrine of salvation. If Satan can cause confusion and error in regard to that doctrine, he has succeeded in keeping men in their sin and under divine judgment and condemnation, which the unredeemed will one day share with Satan and his demonic angels in the eternal torment of hell.

Every false religion of the world—whether a heretical branch of Christianity, a highly developed pagan religion, or primitive animism—is founded on some form of salvation by works. Without exception, they teach that, by one means or another, man can become right with deity by attaining righteousness in his own power.

The entire fourth chapter of Romans is devoted to Abraham, whom Paul uses as an illustration of the central biblical truth that man can become right with God only by faith in response to His grace, and never by works. Verses 6–8 pertain to David, but Paul is simply using David as an illustration to substantiate what he is teaching about Abraham.

We can assume several reasons for Paul’s choosing Abraham as the supreme example of salvation by faith. First, Abraham lived about 2,000 years before Paul wrote this letter, demonstrating that the principle of salvation by faith rather than by works was not new in Judaism. Abraham was the first and foremost Hebrew patriarch. He lived more than six hundred years before the Old Covenant was established through Moses. He therefore lived long before the law was given and obviously could not have been saved by obedience to it.

Second, Paul used Abraham as an example of salvation by faith simply because he was a human being. Until this point in Romans, Paul has been speaking primarily about theological truths in the abstract. In Abraham he gives a flesh and blood illustration of justification by faith.

The third, and doubtless most important, reason Paul used Abraham as the example of justification by faith was that, although rabbinical teaching and popular Jewish belief were contrary to Scripture as far as the basis of Abraham’s righteousness was concerned, they agreed that Abraham was the Old Testament’s supreme example of a godly, righteous man who is acceptable to the Lord. He is the biblical model of genuine faith and godliness.

The majority of Jews in Paul’s day believed that Abraham was made right with God because of his own righteous character. They believed God chose Abraham to be the father of His people Israel because Abraham was the most righteous man on earth during his time. Like many cults today, they took certain scriptural passages and twisted or interpreted them out of context in order to support their preconceived ideas.

The rabbis, for example, pointed out that the Lord told Isaac, “1 will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven, and will give your descendants all these lands; and by your descendants all the nations of the earth shall be blessed; because Abraham obeyed Me and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes and My laws” (Gen. 26:4–5). They pointed out that the Lord called Abraham “My friend” (Isa. 41:8). Habakkuk 2:4 was often rendered, “The just shall live by his faithfulness,” rather than “by his faith.” Instead of understanding faithfulness as being a fruit of faith, they had the notion that justification could be earned through one’s efforts to be faithful. In the same way, the rabbis interpreted Genesis 15:6 as referring to Abraham’s faithfulness rather than to his faith.

Several Jewish apocryphal books taught that Abraham was justified by keeping God’s law. In Ecclesiasticus (also known as The Wisdom of SiracK), Abraham is said to have become right with God because of his obedience (44:19–21). The Prayer of Manasseh even asserted Abraham’s sinlessness: “Therefore thou, O Lord, God of the righteous, hast not appointed repentance for the righteous, for Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who did not sin against thee” (v. 8). In The Book of Jubilees the writer says, “Abraham was perfect in all his deeds with the Lord, and well-pleasing in righteousness all the days of his life” (23:10). Some rabbinical writings claimed that Abraham was so inherently good that he began serving God when he was three years old and that he was one of seven righteous men who had the privilege of bringing back the Shekinah glory to the Tabernacle.

By using Abraham as the supreme scriptural example of justification, or salvation, by faith alone, Paul was storming the very citadel of traditional Judaism. By demonstrating that Abraham was not justified by works, the apostle demolished the foundation of rabbinical teaching—that man is made right with God by keeping the law, that is, on the basis of his own religious efforts and works. If Abraham was not and could not have been justified by keeping the law, then no one could be. Conversely, if Abraham was justified solely on the basis of his faith in God, then everyone else must be justified in the same way, since Abraham is the biblical standard of a righteous man.

ABRAHAM WAS NOT JUSTIFIED BY HIS WORKS

What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, has found? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about; but not before God. (4:1–2)

Paul begins by asking, What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, has found? He was asking, in effect, “Because we agree that Abraham is the peerless example of a justified man in God’s sight, why don’t we look at him carefully in order to determine the basis of his justification?”

In this context what then is the equivalent of therefore, tying the discussion of Abraham to all that Paul has said in the preceding chapter. As noted above, after asserting that both Jew and Gentile are justified by faith (3:30), the apostle brings Abraham into the picture because he knew that this greatest of Jewish patriarchs, their forefather according to the flesh, was used by the rabbis as the ultimate example of man’s being justified by works. Paul will demonstrate that, to the contrary, Scripture clearly teaches that Abraham was saved by his faith alone.

Abraham was the human forefather of God’s first covenant with His chosen people. He was therefore, according to the flesh, the human standard of a genuine Jew and of a man who is right before God. The whole Hebrew race came from his loins, and what was true regarding his relationship to God must therefore be true of all his descendants.

According to the flesh refers first of all to physical lineage. But in this context it also suggests human effort in regard to justification. Paul has already asserted that Jew and Gentile alike are justified by faith (3:30) and in 4:2 he refers to the traditional Jewish idea of Abraham’s justifying himself by good works. Therefore, according to the flesh could refer to reliance on human works.

In a hypothetical syllogism, Paul says, For if Abraham was justified by works, then he has something to boast about. The major premise is that, if a man could be justified before God by his own human efforts, then he has ground for boasting in himself. The minor premise is that Abraham, as a man, was justified by works. The necessary conclusion would be that Abraham therefore has something to boast about.

The major premise is true: If a man could be justified by works, he would indeed have something to boast about, because he would have merited his own salvation. But, as Paul goes on to demonstrate, the minor premise is not true. Consequently, the conclusion is untrue. Abraham did not have anything in himself to boast about before God.

ABRAHAM WAS JUSTIFIED BY HIS FAITH

For what does the Scripture say? “And Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.” Now to the one who works, his wage is not reckoned as a favor, but as what is due. But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned as righteousness, (4:3–5)

On the positive side of his argument, Paul first appeals to Scripture, the divine and infallible truth upon which all of his arguments are based. Quoting Genesis 15:6, he declares, And Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. Early in the Genesis account of Abraham, which begins with chapter 12, Moses was inspired to write of the patriarch that he was made right with God only because of his faith. Because Abraham believed God, and on no other basis, his belief was reckoned to him by God as righteousness.

In his letter to the Galatian churches, the apostle cites the same verse from Genesis and then goes on to say, “Therefore, be sure that it is those who are of faith who are sons of Abraham” (Gal. 3:6–7). Several verses later he refers to the patriarch as “Abraham, the believer” (v. 9). Because Abraham was the quintessential man of faith, he is in that sense “the father of all who believe” (Rom. 4:11). Through his faith in God, “Abraham rejoiced to see My day,” Jesus said, “and he saw it and was glad” (John 8:56).

The writer of Hebrews describes the faith by which Abraham was declared righteous by God: “By faith, Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs of the same promise; for he was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God” (Heb. 11:8–10).

Like Paul, who wrote this epistle to Rome, Abraham was sovereignly and directly chosen by God. Neither Abraham nor Paul was searching for God when they were divinely called and commissioned. Abraham had probably never heard of the true God, whereas Paul knew a great deal about Him. Abraham was seemingly content with his idolatrous paganism, and Paul was content with his traditional, but false, Judaism.

When Abraham was first called by God, he lived in Ur of Chaldea (Gen. 11:31; 15:7), a thoroughly pagan and idolatrous city. Archaeologists have estimated that it consisted of perhaps 300,000 inhabitants during Abraham’s time. It was an important commercial city, located in Mesopotamia on the lower Euphrates River, a little more than a hundred miles northwest of the Persian Gulf. The people of Ur were highly educated, being proficient in such diverse areas as math, agriculture, weaving, engraving, and astronomy. Contrary to the claims of liberal scholars of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, it has been proved that by Abraham’s time the Chaldeans had developed a system of writing.

The Chaldeans were polytheistic, having a multitude of gods, the foremost of which was called Nanna, the moon god. Because his father, Terah, was an idolater (Josh. 24:2), Abraham obviously was reared in paganism.

When God called Abraham, or Abram, which was his original name, He gave no reason for selecting that pagan from the millions of others in the world. Nowhere in Scripture is the reason given. God chose Abraham because that was His divine will, which needs no justification or explanation.

After commanding Abraham to leave his country and his relatives and to go to the land that would be shown to him, God sovereignly and unconditionally promised, “I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; and so you shall be a blessing; and I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Gen. 12:2–3).

With no guarantee but God’s word, Abraham left his business, his homeland, his friends, most of his relatives, and probably many of his possessions. He abandoned his temporal security for a future uncertainty, as far as his human eyes could see or his human mind could comprehend. The land he was promised to inherit was inhabited by pagans perhaps even more wicked and idolatrous than those of his home country. Abraham may have had only a remote idea of where the land of Canaan was, and it is possible that he had never heard of it at all. But when God called him to go there, Abraham obeyed and began the long journey.

Because he only partly obeyed God, however, bringing along his father and his nephew Lot, Abraham wasted fifteen years in Haran, where the group lived until Terah died (Gen. 11:32). By that time Abraham was seventy-five years old, and as he continued the journey to Canaan, he also continued to obey God only partly by taking Lot with him (12:4).

When Abraham, Sarah, and Lot reached Shechem in Canaan, Abraham received another sovereign and unconditional promise from God: ‘The Lord appeared to Abram and said, To your descendants I will give this land’. So he built an altar there to the Lord who had appeared to him” (Gen. 12:7). As Abraham continued his journey through Canaan, he built another altar “to the Lord and called upon the name of the Lord” (v. 8).

But Abraham’s faith was not perfect, just as no believer’s faith is perfect. The first test he had to face was a famine in Canaan, and Abraham went to Egypt for help instead of to God. That disobedience put him in a compromising situation with the pharaoh. He claimed that his beautiful wife was his sister, fearing that the pharaoh might kill him in order to have her for himself. In so doing, Abraham dishonored the Lord and caused plagues to come upon the pharaoh’s family (Gen. 12:10–17).

The Lord gave repeated assurances to Abraham, and Abraham responded in faith, which God “reckoned … to him as righteousness” (Gen. 15:6). But again, when testing came, he relied on his own judgment rather than the Lord’s word. When Sarah was getting beyond normal childbearing age and remained barren, Abraham took her foolish advice and took matters into his own hands. He committed adultery with Hagar, Sarah’s maid, in the hope of having a male heir by her. But as always, his disobedient act backfired and again caused misery to the innocent (see Gen. 16:1–15). He also brought future misery to his own descendants, with whom the Arab descendants of Ishmael, the son by Hagar, would be in continuous conflict, as they are to this day.

Despite his spiritual imperfection, Abraham always came back to the Lord in faith, and the Lord honored that faith and continued to renew his promises to Abraham. God miraculously caused Sarah to bear a son in her old age, the son whom God had promised to give Abraham. And when the greatest test of all came, Abraham did not waver in his trust of the Lord. When God commanded him to sacrifice Isaac, the only human means through which the promise could be fulfilled, Abraham responded with immediate obedience, and God responded by providing a substitute for Isaac (Gen. 22:118). The writer of Hebrews declared that it was “by faith [that] Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac; and he who had received the promises was offering up his only begotten son; it was he to whom it was said, ‘In Isaac your descendants shall be called.’ He [that is, Abraham] considered that God is able to raise men even from the dead; from which he also received back as a type” (Heb. 11:17–19).

Neither Abraham nor his most immediate heirs—his son Isaac and his grandson Jacob—ever owned any land in Canaan, except for a small field near Mamre in which the cave of Machpelah was located. Abraham bought this plot from Ephron, a Hittite, for the burial of Sarah (see Gen. 23:3–11). Abraham himself and Isaac, Rebekah, and Leah were also buried there (49:31). Many years later, according to Jacob’s request, his body was brought back from Egypt by Joseph and his brothers for burial alongside Jacob’s father and grandfather (Gen. 50:13–14).

As is always the case with true belief, the Holy Spirit enlightened Abraham’s mind and heart to recognize the true and only God, and enabled him to respond in faith. Abraham saw the Promised Land and wandered through it as a nomad, but he never possessed it. Even his descendants did not possess the land until more than a half century after the promise of it was first given.

Just as Abraham trusted God’s word to give him a land he had never seen, he trusted God’s power to raise Isaac from the dead, if necessary, by a divine miracle he had never seen. It was in response to Abraham’s faith in God that it was reckoned to him as righteousness.

Was reckoned is from logizomai, which carried the economic and legal meaning of crediting something to another’s account. The only thing God received from Abraham was his imperfect faith, but by His divine grace and mercy, He reckoned it to Abraham’s spiritual account as righteousness. That gracious reckoning reflects the heart of God’s redemptive revelation and is the focus of both the Old and New Testaments. God has never provided any means of justification except through faith in Him.

Even though Abraham’s repeated disobedience was sinful and brought harm to himself and others, God even used that disobedience to glorify Himself. Those acts of disobedience testify that, contrary to rabbinical teaching, Abraham was sovereignly chosen by God for His own divine reasons and purposes, not because of Abraham’s faithfulness or righteousness. Abraham was chosen by God’s sovereign, elective grace, not because of his works or even because of his faith. His faith was acceptable to God only because God graciously reckoned, or counted, it as righteousness. It was not the greatness of Abraham’s faith that saved him but the greatness of the gracious Lord in whom he placed his faith.

Faith is never the basis or the reason for justification, but only the channel through which God works His redeeming grace. Faith is simply a convicted heart reaching out to receive God’s free and unmerited gift of salvation.

What was true in regard to Abraham’s faith is true in regard to every believer’s faith. Now to the one who works, his wage is not reckoned as a favor, but as what is due, Paul declares. But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned as righteousness.

Although faith is required for salvation, it has no power in itself to save. It is the power of God’s redemptive grace alone, working through the atoning work of His Son on the cross, that has power to save. Faith is not, as some claim, a type of work. Paul here makes clear that saving faith is completely apart from any kind of human works.

If man were able to save himself by his own works, then salvation would be apart from God’s grace, and Christ’s sacrifice on the cross would have been in vain. If such righteous works were attainable by men, then salvation would not be a gift of God’s grace but would be a wage that is due. Not only would works righteousness obviate God’s grace, it would also rob Him of glory, for which all creation was made. “For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things,” Paul reminded the Roman believers later in this epistle. “To Him be the glory forever. Amen” (Rom. 11:36). The primary purpose of the gospel is not to save men but to glorify God. In another beautiful benediction in the middle of his letter to the Ephesians, Paul exulted, “Now to Him who is able to do exceeding abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen” (Eph. 3:20–21).

There are many reasons why sinful man cannot save himself by his own works. First, because of his sin he is incapable of reaching the divine standard of righteousness, which is absolute perfection. Second, no matter how generous, sacrificial, and beneficent his works might be, they could not atone for his sins. Even if God recognized all of a person’s works as being good, the worker would still be under the divine penalty of death for his sins. Third, as noted above, if men were able to save themselves, Christ’s atoning death was useless. Fourth, as also already noted, if man could save himself, God’s glory would be eclipsed by man’s.

God only saves the person who does not trust in his work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly. Until a person confesses that he is ungodly, he is not a candidate for salvation, because he still trusts in his own goodness. That is what Jesus meant when He said, “I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance” (Luke 5:32). Those who are righteous in their own eyes have no part in God’s redemptive work of grace.

In the parable of the vineyard Jesus illustrated God’s impartial grace. From a human perspective, the men who had worked all day deserved more than those who worked only the last hour. But Jesus’ point was that the landowner, representing God, had the right to do as he willed. He did not defraud the all-day workers, but paid them exactly what he had promised and they had agreed to.

By God’s standard, every person’s work falls far short of earning the redemption He provides. On the divine scale of perfect righteousness, even the most devoted and longserving Christian is not a hair’s breadth closer to earning his salvation than is the most vile criminal who accepts Christ on his deathbed.

Even genuine faith does not in itself merit or produce the perfect righteousness apart from which no man can come to God. His faith is rather reckoned as that required righteousness.

The “reckoning” Paul speaks of here is justification, that forensic act of God whereby He imputes Christ’s perfect righteousness to the sinner’s account, then declares His verdict that the forgiven one is fully just. In his book Redemption Accomplished and Applied, John Murray wrote, “God cannot but accept into His favour those who are invested with the righteousness of his own Son. While his wrath is revealed from heaven against all unrighteousness and ungodliness of men, his good pleasure is also revealed from heaven upon the righteousness of his well-beloved and only-begotten” ([Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1955], p. 124).

God thus justifies the ungodly, not by simply disregarding their sin—but having imputed our sin to Christ, who paid the penalty in full, He now reckons Christ’s righteousness to us. “Surely our griefs He Himself bore, and our sorrows He carried; yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed” (Isa. 53:4–5).

Because God credits the believer’s sin to Christ’s account, He can credit Christ’s righteousness to the believer’s account. God could not have justly credited righteousness to Abraham had not Abraham’s sin, like every believer’s sin, been paid for by the sacrifice of Christ’s own blood.

Before the cross, the believer’s sin was paid in anticipation of Christ’s atoning sacrifice, and since the cross the believer’s sin has been paid in advance.

Commenting on God’s reckoning righteousness to believers, Arthur Pink wrote,

God’s reckoning a believer’s faith as His own divine righteousness is an incomprehensible but incontrovertible truth. It thrills the heart of those who place their faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

When a penitent sinner is confronted by the majesty, power, and justice of God, he cannot help seeing his own lostness and the worth-lessness of his own works. By divinely-given insight he realizes he is worthy only of God’s condemnation. But God gives divine assurance that, through a sinner’s faith in Jesus Christ, He not only will save him from condemnation but will also fill him with His own eternal righteousness.

The truly penitent sinner cries out with the prophet Micah, who confessed, “With what shall I come to the Lord and bow myself before the God on high? Shall I come to Him with burnt offerings, with yearling calves? Does the Lord take delight in thousands of rams, in ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I present my first-born for my rebellious acts, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?” (Mic. 6:6–7).

A simple acrostic, using the letters of the word faith, may help in understanding the elements of saving faith. “F” could represent facts. Faith is not based on a blind leap into the unknown and unknowable, as many liberal and neoorthodox theologians would have us believe. It is based on the facts of God’s redeeming work through His Son Jesus Christ.

In his first letter to the church at Corinth, Paul declared,

To further show the importance of the fact of Jesus’ resurrection, Paul went on to say, “If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain, your faith also is vain …. and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins” (vv. 14,17).

The letter “A” could represent agreement. It is one thing to know the truth of the gospel; it is quite another to agree with it. The believing heart affirms the truth it receives from God’s Word.

The letter “I” could represent internalization, the inner desire of a believer to accept and apply the truth of the gospel to his own life. Speaking of Christ, the apostle John wrote, “He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:11–13). Internalization also involves the genuine desire to obey Christ as Lord. “If you abide in My word,” Jesus said, “then you are truly disciples of Mine” (John 8:31).

The letter “T” could represent trust. In some ways and in some contexts, trust is a synonym for faith. But trust also carries the idea of having unreserved confidence in God, of trusting Him to keep His promises to never forsake us as His children and to provide all our needs. The parables of the hidden treasure and of the pearl of great price (Matt. 13:44–46) both teach the necessity of a believer’s surrendering all he has for the sake of Christ, of affirming and trusting in His lordship and His grace.

Genuine trust involves turning away from sin and self and turning to God. That turning is called repentance, apart from which no person can be saved. Repentance is so much a part of the gospel that it is sometimes equated with salvation. Peter declared, “The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance: (2 Pet. 3:9).

The letter “H” could represent hope. Every believer is saved in the hope of going to live eternally with God in heaven, although he has never seen heaven or seen the Lord in whom he believes. When Thomas refused to believe Jesus was raised from the dead until he touched his Lord’s body, Jesus said, “Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed” (John 20:29). The vast majority of those who have trusted in Christ over the centuries have never seen Him. Even those who saw Him after the resurrection and witnessed His ascent to heaven had only the hope, and not yet the reality, of their joining Him one day in heaven. Until he meets the Lord through death or by rapture, every believer must live in hope of that which he has not yet fully received.

JUSTIFICATION BRINGS BLESSING

just as David also speaks of the blessing upon the man to whom God reckons righteousness apart from works: “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds have been forgiven, and whose sins have been covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will not take into account.” (4:6–8)

Paul here cites David in order to establish that the greatest king of Israel understood and taught that justification is by faith alone. The blessing David is speaking about is salvation, God’s supreme blessing offered to fallen mankind. The only ones who can receive it are those for whom God reckons righteousness apart from works.

In Psalm 32 the man after God’s own heart declared: “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds have been forgiven, and whose sins have been covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will not take into account.”

David clearly understood God’s grace. In his great penitential psalm written after Nathan confronted him with his adultery with Bathsheba and the murder of her husband, David cast himself entirely on God’s grace. “Be gracious to me, O God,” he pleaded, “according to Thy lovingkindness; according to the greatness of Thy compassion blot out my transgressions.” He confessed, “Against Thee, Thee only, I have sinned, and done what is evil in Thy sight, so that Thou art justified when Thou dost speak, and blameless when Thou dost judge.” David knew that only God could purify and wash away his sins and blot out all his iniquities. Only God could create in him a pure heart and deliver him from guilt and from the sin that produced it (Ps. 51:1–14).

The person of genuine faith is blessed, David proclaims, because by God’s gracious provision his lawless deeds have been forgiven, because his many particular sins have been covered, and because the basic sin and depravity of his fallen nature the Lord will not take into account.

Abraham was justified only by faith, David was justified only by faith, and every believer before and after them has been justified only by faith. A sinner’s faith is graciously accepted by God and counted for him as righteousness for Christ’s sake.

The story is told of a poor farmer who had saved his money for years in order to buy an ox to pull his plow. When he thought he had enough saved, he traveled a great distance to the nearest town to shop for an ox. He soon discovered, however, that the paper money he had been saving had been replaced by a new currency and that the date for exchange from the old to the new had long since passed. Because he was illiterate, the man asked a neighbor school boy to write a letter to the president of their country, explaining his dire situation and asking for an exemption. The president was touched by the letter and wrote back to the farmer: “The law must be followed, because the deadline for exchanging bills has already passed. The government can no longer change your bills for the new ones. Even the president is not exempt from this rule. However,” the president continued, “because I believe that you really worked hard to save this money, I am changing your money for new money from my own personal funds so that you will be able to buy your ox.”

Before God, every person’s good works are as worthless as that farmer’s outdated money. But God Himself, in the Person of His Son, has paid the debt. And when a confessed sinner casts himself on God’s mercy and accepts in faith the Lord’s atoning work in his behalf, he can stand forgiven and divinely righteous before Him.

With the following touching lines from his hymn “It Is Finished,” James Proctor captured the essence of justification by faith apart from works:

(Copyright 1922. Hope Publishing Co., owner; in Choice Hymns of the Faith [Fort Dodge, Iowa: Walterick, 1944], #128.)