“WHAT saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness “(Rom. 4:3). Here, then, troubled soul, here is the answer to the question that torments you! You have to meet God; you need righteousness for that, and the more you try to attain to it, the worse you discover yourself to be, is it not so? In fact, you had no idea you were a thousandth part so bad as you have been finding out lately, since you went to hear some earnest gospel preacher perhaps, or some Christian spoke a word to you about your soul. It is righteousness you want, is it not? Well, here is the solution of the difficulty, God’s remedy for your disease. The authority is divine, His word. What saith the Scripture? Your thoughts, and man’s thoughts generally, are all astray. The Word of Him who cannot lie, says,” Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.” The question now for your soul is, Do you believe God?
Abraham had no more righteousness in himself than you have, not a whit. But he looked away from himself to God. He believed God. There is no better, yea, no other, anchorage for a soul than that. God Himself meets your case. On the ground of the finished work of Christ (future in Abraham’s ease past now), God accounts righteous every soul who believes Him. You have no righteousness, and your best efforts, moral or religious, can never attain to it. God accounts it to the believer. It is on the principle of faith. Abraham believed God, ―an example for all time. Again we ask, Do you believe?
“Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt” (vs. 4), continues the apostle. That is, if you had to work to obtain salvation, God would owe it you for the work done. He would be your debtor. The reward would be a debt, and not reckoned of grace. But we are His debtors. He, the God of all grace (1 Peter 5:10), counts us righteous in grace. All the works of all the religious souls of Christendom together offered to God could never purchase the pardon of your smallest sin. But the finished work of Christ is of such infinite worth before God, that it would save the whole world today, but for unbelief. How brightly Abraham’s faith shines out amid the darkness of an unbelieving world! Do this, and thou shalt live―ended at Calvary.
Working time is over. It is the day of grace. Your soul trouble will continue so long as you work. It is no good trying to be your own saviour. No doubt Satan has told you, and your poor deceitful heart thinks it true, that you must be better first before you can be saved. Better! There are very few troubled souls that Satan has not preached that false gospel to. Better! You will never have fewer sins than you have this moment. Each day you live the sum increases, and will never diminish. Each day you get worse, instead of better. God remembers thousands of sins against you that you have long forgotten, “The thought of foolishness is sin” (Prov. 24:9), So long as you are on that road you are not like Abraham. You do not believe God. You still believe in yourself; you still have hope in your works.
But what saith the Scripture further? “But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.” “Worketh not.” Note it well, “worketh not.” The oily who leaves off working, who ceases from his deadly doings; the one who gives up himself, and his works, but believeth, on God; this is the one who follows in the steps of Abraham, ―who takes God at His word, ―who’s (faith is in Him, and not in himself in any way whatever. Who “believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly.” Wondrous sentence for a poor troubled sinner! Ungodly we all are, and vain indeed our efforts to be godly in the flesh. As unlike God as darkness is unlike light, and utterly without strength, and incapable of turning that darkness into light by all our efforts and all our works. To be godly, is to be like God in heart and way. No one is that, nor can be in the slightest degree whatever, till he is justified. Justification must come first. And God justifies the ungodly.
If He justified the godly, where would you find them? And where would you be? Maybe you think He would find some godly ones amongst the ranks of the religious. Without Christ our religion is a sham, Pharisaism, hypocrisy. The experience of millions is, they feel in some measure they are ungodly, and they try to be godly. They try to be ranked among a class that God does not justify. He justifies the ungodly. Are you one of those? Yes? You are the one to be justified. He does not justify ungodliness, but He justifies the ungodly from his ungodliness. He justifies them on the ground of the finished work of Christ. Believe God. The moment you believe Him, you are justified (Acts 13:39). You are accounted righteous. Your faith is accounted for righteousness. He says so. Believe Him. “To him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.”
Now let us put verse 4 and 5 side by side: ―
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“Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt.”
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“But to him that worketh not, but BELIEVETH ON HIM that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.”
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In which verse, now, are you? Will you continue to seek to make God your debtor? or will you believe Him, and be debtor to Him? Righteousness is what you need in His presence. You have it not; you cannot obtain it; God gives it. He counts you righteous in His own presence, once and forever, on the ground of the finished work of Christ, the moment you believe.
“Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works, saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin” (vss. 6-8). Hence it is no new doctrine. David fell asleep (a man after God’s own heart) trusting God. “Righteousness without works” was his joy and confidence before Him. Had it been otherwise, how would he have stood? He knew the blessedness of righteousness without works, and describes it for others. There is no blessedness which can compare with it. Do you know it?
God imputeth righteousness without works. It is on the ground of pure grace, in answer to the infinite value of Christ’s finished work. “In all your doings your sins do appear,” and to add one to Christ’s work is to mar it. It stands out on the page of the eternal Word of God as, the great foundation of all blessing to sinners, and the world at large. “Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered.” Weigh it well, troubled one. Take God at His word. Believe Him now. “Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures” (1 Cor. 15:3). This is true for the feeblest believer. Your sins are forgiven for His Name’s sake (1 John 2:12). “Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more” (Heb. 10:17). They are forgiven by God, and forever. Iniquities forgiven, and sins covered.
How deeply blessed is it to pass on day by day the midst of a world steeped in sin and iniquity, with a heart at perfect peace with God, our iniquities in the depths of the sea, our sins covered by the precious blood of Christ. “Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.” It seems too good to be true, does it not? It is true for all that. The Lord says it. He will not impute, sin; mark it well, He will not. It has been imputed already to Christ for you. You are clear forever the moment you believe. All hinges on that. The work of the cross is the ground of it; the word of God is the pledge of it; faith appropriates it, and receives the blessing; unbelief will reap the fruit of its folly in hell.
“Cometh this blessedness, then, upon the circumcision (the Jew) only, or upon the uncircumcision (the Gentile) also?” (vs. 9). Nothing can be plainer, it is for all. Abraham is the father of all those that believe (vs. 11). We appeal to you, therefore, troubled soul, will you believe God? Dare you go on trifling with your precious soul, insulting God by offering Him the filthy rags of your own self-righteousness, after all He has done? He is worthy of your heart’s confidence. Grace abounds; and from the moment you believe Him, you are justified from all things, accounted just in His holy presence, to walk henceforth in the pathway of practical righteousness, the fruit of faith, till you are landed in perfect day in His everlasting glory. E. H. C.