In what is generally considered to be the profoundest religious document ever penned, the Apostle Paul takes up the great theme of justification by faith, in his letter to the Romans. In this epistle he rises to great heights in presenting the relationship between God and man.
Paul asks a challenging question: “What then? are we better than they? no, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin”. The Apostle makes it abundantly clear in this letter that man is in the position of being an outcast, but for the mercy of God: “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God”.
He reiterates several times in the epistle that man has become a rebel of his own volition, and that in spite of this God offers him reconciliation through the saving name of Jesus. Over and over again he presents the picture of man’s failure to justify himself, and of a merciful God who is ever ready to pardon and receive back: “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us”.
Paul is conveying the moving fact that while the whole of mankind, with one exception, has infringed God’s law, yet He does not utterly condemn. Humanity has at all times depended upon God’s grace: “Behold the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear”.
In the epistle to the Romans Paul discourses deeply upon law and grace. His inspired writing employs a keenly reasoned analysis, and enunciates spiritual principles that invite the most earnest reflection. The great theme recurs intermittently in the chapters: man is totally inadequate, but God is supreme and is merciful to the sinner.
Paul weaves Redemption and Atonement into the strong pattern of his utterance, proving that God was in Christ as a witness to all nations: “. . . God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation”.
Apart from Divine interposition in the redemptive work of Christ, humanity would have been forever in the position of “having no hope, and without God in the world”.
Paul is diligent in amplifying that the created cannot assume a position of righteousness before the Creator. In reality man is in a circumstance of complete dependence upon the mercy and grace of God. He must turn to God in repentance—any other conduct makes him a rebel.
The Apostle introduces us to the vital fact of faith being a prerequisite to works. The correct order is faith and then works. He explains how it is possible for God to impute righteousness without works. This establishes the principle of the priority of faith: “Even as David also describeth the blessedness of man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works”.
Paul emphasizes the fundamental change that must come so that works can flow as a natural consequence. He says that there must be a complete transformation of the natural man: “Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life”.
When this transformation has taken place the regeneration will be manifested in works because of the germinated seed of faith. It is the new creature in Christ that becomes a prepared instrument for the motivation of works: “Therefore if any man be in Christ he is a new creature: old things are become new. . . . And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation”.
It is the new man to whom God will impute righteousness, the man who believes that God is supreme, the man who turns in faith to the Creator: “But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him”.
Belief must go deeper than mere academic acceptance of, or intellectual acquiescence in, the Scriptures. Every reservation, every vestige of doubt must be swept away to make way for the surging force of conviction.
The Apostle Paul cites the case of Abraham, the father of the faithful: “For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness,. The Apostle here commends the faith of one of the greatest names in the Bible. And then he accentuates the unapproachable supremacy of God: “For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not before God”.
The holy men of God turned to God for justification. They turned in faith, submitting to every requirement of the Almighty. Isaiah speaks with unshakeable conviction: “He is near that justifieth me”.
Job felt the inadequacy of self-justification. He explains his own insufficiency in words that need no explanation: “If I justify myself, mine own mouth shall condemn me: if I say I am perfect, it shall also prove me perverse”.
Paul sums the matter up beautifully in his letter to the Ephesians: “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God”. His great conclusion in chapter three has a wealth of meaning for the believer in Christ. He expounds the priority of faith: “Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law”. It is God who imputes justification.
The great Apostle is careful to point out that the prerequisite of faith doesn’t dispense with the need for works: “Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law”. Faith in Christ is indeed the “deed of the law”, because Christ was the fulfilment of the law. The Saviour was the supreme example of faith and works.
Paul asserts that a living faith must exist in order to generate works. God is able to impute righteousness without works, but the Apostle in his letter to the Corinthians stresses the great virtue of works. He declares that the foundation of faith and works is Christ: “For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ”. He then explains that there is a reward for those who build upon this sure foundation: “If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward”.
James confirms the aspect of works being a necessary adjunct to faith. It is remarkably emphasised in the second chapter of his letter, to the extent of being repeated three times, the burden of his message being that “faith without works is dead”. The importance of what he is saying is fully realised when it is understood that works represent the manifestation of faith. Works are the fulfilment of the precepts of Christ. The letter of the law is not enough.
In his weighty letter to the Romans Paul attributes all righteousness and impartiality to God: “To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus”.
The Apostle to the Gentiles envisages a new law, a new concept in righteousness. It is something quite apart from the Mosaic law, which was not an end in itself, but only a means to the end. Paul is referring to the law of faith in Christ. In what way does it operate? Its fundamental difference is sounded by Paul: “Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith”.
The new concept in righteousness was to be centred in Christ. The law and the prophets pointed forward to this dramatic moment in history when the Son of God would reflect the character of his Father to mankind, and show in his own life a way of righteousness acceptable to the Almighty: “Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ”.
We all stand in the law of sin and death and are only freed from its finality by the law of the “Spirit of life in Christ Jesus”. These words of Paul are of the greatest significance to those in Christ.
A living faith is the only article of belief that can be pleasing to God: “For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith”.
The law of Christ must of necessity be the law that has dominion over us, and Paul likens it to the “fruit of the Spirit”. His words go to the heart of the matter: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith”. These spiritual characteristics were fully exemplified in the life of Christ.
The law of Christ is the end for the believer, whereas the Mosaic law was only a means to this end: “Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith”. Then Paul enlarges upon this sublime new concept: “But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster”.
This was Paul’s great sentence in his momentous discussion with Peter. He affirmed that the law of Moses must give way to the greater law—the law of Christ, where there is “neither Jew nor Greek, bond nor free”.
The law of Christ involves a greater circumcision—that of the heart, the righteousness of faith as it is in Jesus: “And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised: that he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be not circumcised; that righteousness might be imputed unto them also”.
It is God’s grace that is able to overlook human weakness. He offers salvation in the abundance of His mercy: “Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile”.
Those who are re-born in Christ take on a new dimension of faith as new creatures of the reconciliation through the atoning blood of the Lamb of God. Paul expresses it in moving words: “Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life”.
God, who is cognizant of our shortcomings, delegated redemptive powers and authority to Christ, because His grace is limitless and His purpose is eternal.
Paul continues with his great theme that it is God who justifies: “Who shall lay any thing at the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth”. The Apostle keeps the attention focused on the central purpose of God in Christ. The Atonement was the measure of God’s love for mankind: “But for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead. . .. Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification”.
God is not willing that any should perish, and so He offers redemption and reconciliation through the Mediator, Christ Jesus. The sum total of what we are pleased to call our faith and works could never merit the everlasting inheritance that God offers by imputing justification to those in Jesus.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One