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Romans 4 "Are You Happy?"
Paul has been telling us that there is another way to be righteous than
just trying to be good. Last week we learned how Jesus Christ has both
bought us back from Satan and taken the punishment for our sins upon
Himself. He has made it possible for us to enter into heaven perfect
and spotless, because He bore our shame on the cross. Jesus has done
it all. So what is required of us? We must receive this free gift of
grace by faith.
What then shall we say that Abraham our father has found 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 accounted to him for righteousness."
Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt.
But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly,
his faith is accounted for righteousness, just as David also describes
the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness apart from
works: "Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and
whose sins are covered; Blessed is the man to whom the Lord shall not
impute sin." (Romans 4:1-8)
Abraham was a man who lived in ancient Mesopotamia, probably somewhere
in modern Iraq or Iran. When he was seventy-five years old he heard
a voice from God telling him to leave his father's house and travel
west to the land which God would show him. Since he had no children
of his own he took with him his nephew Lot. They travelled and God blessed
Abraham just as He said He would. However things did not work out well
with Lot and they decided to part, each heading in a different direction.
But although Abraham was very rich, he still was not satisfied, because
he knew that all of his wealth would be passed on to a stranger after
he died. Abraham asked God "what will you do for me?" And
God promised Abraham, "One who will come from your own body shall
be your heir." And Abraham believed in the Lord. Now this is not
an easy thing. Because by this time Abraham was one hundred years old
and they had not even dreamed of Viagra yet. Not only that his wife
had always been barren and she was well past the time of childbearing
anyway. But Abraham believed in the Lord. He believed that if God said
it, then it would surely happen.
Now we also have been given something that is hard to believe. It is
not easy to believe that God has raised Jesus from the dead. The whole
world shouts at you that it is not true. Just as Abraham looked at himself
and looked at his wife and could plainly see that he was as good as
dead, there would be no children coming from their old bodies, we also
can plainly see that the dead do not come back to life. Once the heart
and breath and brain cease to function there is no return. Especially
not after three days. But Abraham chose to believe that if God said
it, then it would surely happen. Even though his body was as good as
dead and his wife's body was as good as dead, if God wanted to give
them life, then God could do it. And the Bible says in Genesis 15:6
"And he believed in the Lord, and He accounted it to him for righteousness."
And God gave Abraham and his wife Sarah a child, Isaac, new life.
Faith is believing in God, but not just believing that He exists. Even
the demons believe that God exists and tremble. They are not counted
righteous! Abraham believed that God existed when he left his father's
house. He was trusting that God would bless him. But this is not what
made God count him as righteous. Faith is believing that God can do
absolutely anything. Faith is believing that God can make the impossible
possible. Abraham believed that God could even bring life out of his
dead body and God counted him as righteous. Do you believe in God? It
is not enough. Do you believe that God's word is true. Do you believe
that absolutely everything that God promises will come to pass. Do you
believe that God can take a selfish, messed-up sinner like you and make
him into a blameless, spotless, perfect citizen of heaven? This is faith.
Now God has made the test of faith very simple. He asks us to believe
in the impossible. He asks us to believe that He raised Jesus Christ
from the dead. This is the key to the whole life of faith. If you cannot
believe that God could do the impossible then how can you believe that
you could make it into heaven? But if God can do the impossible then
it is possible for us to be saved.
The life of faith is the life of true happiness. There are only two
ways to get anything in this world. Either you work for it, or you get
it as a gift. Imagine that your boss calls you into his office on the
last day before your vacation and says to you, "You have been working
very hard and I want to thank you by giving you a Christmas present."
But then he handed you your normal salary for the month and sent you
on your way. You would be angry. "This is not a gift! This is what
you owe me for the work I did this month." You would not be happy
to receive as a gift what you are already owed. Now consider what would
happen if you got a monthly salary from God for the work that you do
for Him. Remember that God has prepared beforehand good works for you
to walk in. There are specific things that God requires from each one
of us. Most likely you would be living in poverty, because many of the
things that God wants for you to do have been left undone. Every time
you walked into God's office at the end of the month you would feel
shame and be disappointed in yourself as God showed you all the things
that you missed and all the mistakes that you made, and when you received
the tiny amount that you had actually earned. Not only that but no matter
how hard you tried you would know that next month would not be much
better. Many Christians are living their lives this way. Each week as
they come to church they consider how far they are from God's ideal
for their lives and they leave church feeling miserable. But Paul points
to another of the Bible's heroes of faith, David, who described the
blessedness of the man who does not work, but receives the righteousness
of God by faith. The word "Blessed" means "happy".
And David writes in the 32nd Psalm, "Happy are those whose lawless
deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; Happy is the man to
whom the Lord shall not impute sin." Notice that David does not
say here, "Happy are those whose lives are perfect, who don't have
any sins to be covered up; Happy is the man in whom the Lord shall find
no sin to impute." You see David was speaking from experience.
He was the King of Israel and extremely popular. Anything he wanted
he could get, everything was going his way. But one day as his army
was out making new conquests, he went for a walk on his rooftop and
spotted a woman in a bath and was overcome by lust. He called for the
woman to be brought to him and she willingly agreed. It was so easy.
Her husband was out with the army and would never know. However they
soon found out that she was pregnant. David decided that her husband
would never come back from the battlefield and made a plan to have him
killed in action. It worked and again nobody suspected a thing. David
married the woman and it seemed that he would get away with it. But
read what David experienced. "When I kept silent my bones grew
old. Through my groaning all the day long. Both day and night your hand
was heavy upon me. My vitality was turned into the drought of summer."
Even though he was the king, and could literally "get away with
murder". He knew in his heart that he had done wrong and that he
deserved to be punished, and as long as he kept silent he felt the guilt
in his bones and the heavy hand of God upon him. But David experienced
the forgiveness of God when he confessed his sin. As long as he kept
silent his guilt brought down punishment on him, but as soon as he acknowledged
his sin that punishment turned into blessing. David did not want to
be paid in full for the deeds which he had done. David did not want
to be judged on the basis of his works. Instead he found out that true
happiness comes from the gift of God, to count us righteous even though
we do not deserve it.
Let me ask you a very simple question today, "Are you happy?"
Perhaps like Abraham you have been following God as best as you can
and feel that God has been good to you. But you have this uneasy feeling
deep in your heart, because you know that all of the things that you
have in this world are going to pass away. You are afraid that when
you die everything that you have worked for and done will simply be
forgotten. David's son, Solomon made it even more clear when he said
that a man works hard all his life amassing wealth but then has to give
it all to his son, who could just as easily squander it foolishly as
use it wisely.
Are you happy? Perhaps like David there is secret sin that is gnawing
at you and eating you up from the inside. You look like you are doing
pretty well to everybody else but inside you are half-dead because you
know what you have done. Do you feel that inside your soul it is like
the middle of summer, hot and dry?
Abraham chose to have faith, to believe that God could do the impossible,
and bring life to his old body. David chose to have faith, to believe
that God could do the impossible and forgive even a murderous adulterer
like himself. Will you also choose faith? Will you believe that God
raised Jesus Christ from the dead and that by this you also can have
eternal life and be forgiven of your sins? Would you like to find out
how happy life is when you no longer are judged, but receive the free
gift of God's grace? The good news is that this gift is available to
all who believe. To all who have faith.
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