According to God’s Word alone, Salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone to the Glory of God Alone. This is the good news.

God wants us all to know that all of us who have faith in Christ alone are legitimate heirs to God’s promise/covenant made with Abraham 4000 years ago.

To begin chapter 4, Paul illustrates his point that righteousness comes through faith and not works by pointing to the Old Testament examples of Abraham and David.

(1) The first point of this sermon called, “Revealing Redemption" is God‘s REPORT of our sin. It is the people's preeminent problem, and has been since Adam and Eve.

(2) The second point is the Good News – the REDEMPTION of Jesus Christ. He is the propitiation for our sins.

(3) The third point is faith REQUIRED of us. We must believe and receive the gift God offers us—His salvation.

(4) The final point is The REHEARSAL of our faith. We live according to the Heinz Principle of Faith. We trust in God while We wait for time to “catch up” with the reality of His future promises.

In this important text, Paul brings his accusation of humanity to a crescendo by showing us the depths of our sinful need and highlighting the fact that we are unable, on our own, to produce the righteousness that God requires.

God is beyond us. He transcends us and amazingly invites us into things, information and promises that transcend our ability to fully understand. These elements of transcendent knowledge do not work smoothly in the smallness of our human minds and hearts. They are too wonderful for me…. For us! Will they be welcomed and cherished as the beautiful wonders they are or thrown aside under our own judgment?

God is holding every human accountable to follow him, either through his provided teaching about Christ’s saving and ruling work or by his ethics being written on their hearts. God desires obedience over ceremony… following from the heart wholly dedicated to Jesus.

In Chapter 2, Paul begins to address those who claim to know God, but rely on their own self-righteousness. He reminds them that God is an impartial judge and calls them to repentance.

God’s wrath on our rebellion is evident and willfully embraced until Christ, through the Gospel frees us through repentance  and trust in the work of Christ for our needed righteousness.

Since the beginning of humanity, we have been warned by God through the presence of his demonstrations of wrath that our denial and negligence of him are a capital offense. We are dishonoring him and in active collaboration in suppressing the truth from others.