Slide#2,3 We use the idiomNails in the coffinas,An action or event that leads tothe endofsomething.
Paul now adds 3 more nails to the coffin of Salvation by Faith + anything!
The 3 Nails are: Works, Ritual, Law.
Here Paul will masterfully lay out what the Reformers called Sola Fide! (Faith Alone)
“Any church which puts in the place of justification by faith in Christ another method of salvation, is a harlot church”. (Spurgeon)
Let’s go over justification one more time!
It is a process by which an individual is brought into an unmerited, right relationship w/God.
It does not encompass the whole salvation process.
It does mark that instantaneous point of entry that makes a person right w/God.
Paul in ch.4 gives a “PS” to ch.3 as if to say, “By the way, this isn’t some new doctrine…look it up yourself back in Moses’ books!”
Outline: Wiping Out Works; Ripping Ritual; Leveling The Law.
Slide#4 WIPING OUT WORKS!(1-8)
Paul seems to say…“hmmm, who could I pick that would best prove that God’s righteousness comes from faith not works?”
Slide#5 Interesting,Abrahamis one of the few individuals thatJudaism,Islam, &Christianity esteem as their father!
Slide#6 Rom.4:2-5MessageSo how do we fit what we know of Abraham, our first father in thefaith, into this new way of looking at things? If Abraham, by what he did for God, got God to approve him, he could certainly have taken credit for it. But the story we’re given is a God-story, not an Abraham-story. What we read in Scripture is, “Abraham entered into what Godwas doing for him, and that was the turning point. He trusted God to set him right instead of trying to be right on his own.” If you’re a hard worker and do a good job, you deserve your pay; we don’t call your wages a gift. But if you see that the job is too big for you, that it’s something only God can do, and you trust him to do it—you could never do it for yourself no matter how hard and long you worked—well, that trusting-him-to-do-it is what gets you set right with God, by God. Sheer gift. Slide#7blank
(3) He believed God – He trusted in God’s goodness. He believed God would keep His word!
(4) No, he didn’t work for his right standing w/God, nor try to earn it as his rightful wage.
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No, he took his place w/the rest of the ungodly people. (remember his father Terah “served other gods”. Joshua 24:2)
(5) God justifies the ungodly not the righteous!
Mt.9:11-13 Why does your Teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?" When Jesus heard that, He said to them, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. "But go and learn what this means: 'I desiremercy and not sacrifice.' For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.
Slide#8 (6-8) To strengthen his argument Paul calls David to the stand.
Paul uses Ps.32:1,2 to show forgiveness, covering, & the promise not to credit thesin any longer to his account.
Corrie Ten Boom, “When we confess our sins, God casts then into the deepest ocean, gone forever. And even though I cannot find a scripture for it, I believe God then places a sign out there that says, NO FISHING ALLOWED!”
Introduction
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III. Slide#10 RIPPING RITUAL! (9-12)