“Can I Get Some Credit?”

(Romans 4:13-25)

Series: Romans – United in the Gospel [on screen]

Rev. Matthew C. McCraw, EdD

First Baptist Church, Bartow, Florida

March 20, 2022

Introductory Comments:

It’s my joy to be back in the book of Romans. This morning we are in chapter 4, verses 13-25. 

In this passage, Paul is continuing his discussion about Abraham being justified before God by belief in God. Abraham is credited with the righteousness of God because of his belief in God.

Most of us know how credits and debits work on an account. I’m of the generation that I use an app to do most of my banking. I can get on my app any time of the day and see money coming in and money coming out. On my app, I see a lot of debits, meaning I see a lot of money coming out of my bank account. Most of the time, it contains the word “Amazon” somewhere in the transaction description. However, if you want to avoid going into debt, you need to have some credits coming in. In my case, I get paid twice a month so I have at least two credits per month. However, when those debits start to add up, I start to think, “I need some money coming in! I need some credits in my account!”

Well, today’s sermon is entitled, “Can I Get Some Credit?”[on screen]

As we continue our discussion of Abraham, let’s pray together and ask God to speak to us.

(prayer)

You see, in the account that I spoke earlier I needed credits coming in. So also, we need credit when it comes to the spiritual economy. Because of the debt caused by our sin, all of us need some credit put in our spiritual account. We need the righteousness of God to be credited to us.

As Paul continues to discuss the righteousness of God being credited to Abraham, Paul offers three clarifications about his teaching. 

Let’s look at the first:

I. Not the Law . . . faith. (13-15) [on screen]

The first section of this paragraph is primarily a review of what Paul has already said in the previous chapters. Let’s look at verses 13-15:

13 For the promise to Abraham or to his descendants that he would inherit the world was not through the law, but through the righteousness that comes by faith. 14 If those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made empty and the promise nullified, 15 because the law produces wrath. And where there is no law, there is no transgression.

Paul explains once again that the promise that God gave to Abraham to bless him and his descendants was not conditioned upon Abraham’s observance of the law of God. 

As a reminder, Abraham was around way before the Old Testament law was put into place. 

Rather than the law, Paul tells us at the end of verse 13 that the promise was based on, “ . . . the righteousness that comes by faith.” Remember, Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness. 

Paul then pushes his point further by pointing out that if we are heirs of (or if our inheritance is based upon) the law then faith is empty or pointless. 

As we learned last week, if we have to earn the promise then it’s not based on belief, forgiveness, or faith; it’s what we’ve earned or what we deserve by working for it. 

Paul then says that the law produces wrath. Well, what’s that all about?

Remember, Paul said in Romans 3:20, “For no one will be justified in his sight by the works of the law, because the knowledge of sin comes through the law.” [on screen]

The law doesn’t fix our sin problem, the law shows us our sin problem; the law doesn’t eliminate wrath, the law produces wrath. 

If we didn’t have a law to show us our transgressions (or our sins) then we wouldn’t know that we were in sin. However, we do have the law, so we do have our knowledge of sin. The law won’t help us with our sin problem because are unable to completely fulfill the law. 

One pastor said, “Trying to escape the penalty of the law by works of the law is like trying to quench your thirst by drinking salt water.” It just won’t work, chu