Righteousness
Apart From Works
Now
to one who works, wages are not reckoned as a gift but as something due. But to
one who without works trusts him who justifies the ungodly, such faith is
reckoned as righteousness. So also David speaks of the blessedness of those to
whom God reckons righteousness apart from works: “Blessed are those who
iniquities are forgiven, and those whose sins are covered; blessed is the one
against whom the LORD will not reckon sin.”
Is
this blessedness, then, pronounced only on the circumcised, or also on the
uncircumcised? We say, “Faith was reckoned to Abraham as righteousness.” How
then was it reckoned 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 ancestor of all who
believe without being circumcised and who thus have righteousness reckoned to
them, and likewise the ancestor of the circumcised who are not only circumcised
but who also follow the example of the faith that our ancestor Abraham had
before he was circumcised.
For
the promise that he would inherit the world did not come to Abraham or to his
descendants through the law but through the righteousness of faith. If it is
the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise
is void. For the law brings wrath; but where there is no law, neither is there
violation.
For
this reason it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace
and be guaranteed to all his descendants, not only to the adherents of the law
but also to those who share the faith of Abraham (for he is the father of all
of us, 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.
Romans 4:4-17
We
can all run what appear to be good races by doing good things for others and
obeying the rules. But when we arrive at the final checkpoint – and have not
made sure our name is recorded in the Lamb’s Book of Life, we are disqualified
from entering the race – heaven.
Are you running for Jesus, or are you running for
nothing?
It we could earn our salvation,
Christ would not have died to provide it.
Our Daily Bread –