Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Romans.  Tonight is study #39 in Romans 3,  and we are reading Romans 3:22-28:

Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference:  For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith. Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.

I will stop reading there.  Last time we looked at several verses stating that we are justified and made righteous by the faith of Christ, which is really saying that we are saved by the faith of Christ.  That is the faith that was counted, imputed, or reckoned to us.  All of these words in the Bible are a translation of the same Greek word.  God looks at the faith of Christ, and He counts it toward us.  It is His work of faith. 

What is the faith of Christ that justifies us?  It is what He did at the foundation of the world.  By faith we can understand that the Lord Jesus Christ carried out the atonement, as He had faith in the Father.  He had faith that He would be able to perform the doing of it to the point of death.  Just think about this.  God had never died before.  God had never been laden with sin before.  He had never experienced such things in all of His history of being God from everlasting, and He had always been absolutely perfect, righteous, just, and holy, and He had always been alive.  He is the Great I AM, the ever-existent One, and that had been His condition for all eternity past, without beginning and without end.  He fills the whole spectrum of eternity, and He has lived.

Then within the Godhead a plan was developed, a salvation program to purchase a people for Himself.  You know, it is just mind-shattering to think about with our puny, little minds.  Not only did God design and plan this in the utmost detail by creating the world, and by creating man in His own image, but His plan called for man falling into sin, and the thousands of years of history in which man would rebel against Him.  And from that whole of mankind, He determined to save certain individuals, the elect people of God, and there would be a specific number of souls that would be the few out of the many.  Knowing all this vast amount of information at the foundation of the world in eternity past, God laid the sins of all the elect upon Himself, the Lord Jesus Christ who was a Person in the Godhead, and He would bear those sins.  So the counsel of the Godhead was that Christ would bear the sins of these individuals, paying for them in full to satisfy the Law’s demand for justice.  The payment was death because the wages of sin is death.  After Christ died, the Law was satisfied through the blood (life) of Christ that was given for the sake of these certain ones, and then He rose from the dead.  The Father raised Him up from the dead. 

Certainly, it required tremendous faith to implement, carry out, and fulfill the salvation program of God, and the Lord Jesus did so perfectly.  In doing so, He performed the work of faith, and the works were finished at the foundation of the world, according to Hebrews 4:3.  This is the Bible’s “law of faith,” which says that no flesh (man) is justified by the works of the Law.  No human being is justified by his own works of any kind, regardless of what Law it happens to be, whether it is one of the Ten Commandments, or whether it is the “law of faith” wherein God commands us to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.  That cannot justify us because it is a work of the Law, and no man can be justified by his own work of faith.  However, the Bible states that we can be justified by the faith of Christ, and it was a work of the Law that He performed, but that was not man that did the work, but God that did the work, and that is a different matter.   The “law of faith” according to the Bible’s teaching is that it is Christ’s faith.  Christ’s work of faith justified (certain) sinners, made them righteous, and saved them.  But any attempted or actual work performed by man comes under the condemnation of the Bible, and you cannot possibly be justified by it.

Last time we looked at several Scriptures in the context of Abraham’s faith.  It spoke of Abraham being justified by faith.  For example, we looked at Romans 4:3:

For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.

We also looked at Galatians 3:6:

Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.

We spent some time discussing how this Greek word, Strong’s #3049, in this form (third person singular) is found nine times, and several times it is translated as “it was accounted (or reckoned)” to him for righteousness.  But I pointed out two times, once in Luke and once in Mark, the same form of this word was translated as “he was numbered.”  So the context determines how this was translated.  In other words, this word can rightly be translated as “he was accounted.”  The word “accounted” is the same word that was translated as “numbered.”  So it could say here: “He (Christ) was numbered to him (Abraham) for righteousness.”  It was simply a matter of the translators’ belief that it was referring to Abraham’s faith, and that is why they translated this as “it was accounted.”  They thought it was Abraham’s belief that was counted to him for righteousness, but that will not harmonize with the whole of Scripture.  The Bible does not allow for Abraham’s faith to be counted to him for righteousness.  So it must be understood to be referring to Christ’s faith.  It would be most proper to translate this as, “…and he (Christ) was accounted to him for righteousness.”

In Romans 4, God said in Romans 4:2:

For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not before God.

That is a big clue!  Do not look to Abraham as being justified by his own work.  The Bible will not allow that, for no man is justified by the works of the Law.  And that directs us to James 2 where God gives a very fascinating discussion on works and faith.  We will read James 2:17-18:

Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works.

This is another reason we can understand the statement in Hebrew 4:3…let me read it because I keep referring to it.  It says in Hebrews 4:3:

For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.

Is it just a coincidence that Revelation 13:8 tells us that Christ was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world?  Are the statements in Hebrews 4:3 and Revelation 13:8 to be understood together?  Of course they are to be understood together.  Christ, the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world, was slain (killed) from the foundation of the world.  And, again, this statement in Hebrews 4 that we which have believed do enter into rest (salvation)…although the works were finished from the foundation of the world has to be the work of Christ in offering up Himself as the Lamb.  He was also the High Priest Melchisedec who slew the Lamb, and that is the “work of faith.”  And again, it says in James 2:18:

Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works.

That is the faith finished at the foundation of the world.  And there is an often misunderstood statement in Jude 1:3:

Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.

The “faith” is referring to Christ.  He is the embodiment of faith, just as He is Wisdom, and Love, and man other wonderful, good things.  Christ is that “faith once delivered.”  If you take the time to look up that word “delivered,” you will see it is the same word used when Christ was delivered up to the authorities for crucifixion.  But here, that delivery has to do with that one-time payment for sin, which is also revealed in Hebrews, in Hebrews 9:25-26:

Nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year with blood of others; For then must he often have suffered since (from) the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.

(The word “from” is the same word used in Revelation 13:8 where it says that Christ was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.) 

You know, sometimes we forget.  The Lord must open up our eyes, or we will remain in darkness and not be able to see a truth at all.  But then we look at verses like this and wonder why people cannot understand and clearly see what we are seeing, because in verse 25 God points out that Christ (who is after the order of Melchisedec) is not like the Levitical, earthly priest who had to offer for sins often.  If He had been like them, then it says in Hebrews 9:26: “…For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world.”  Obviously , this is indicating that He suffered (for sin) at the foundation of the world which Revelation 13:8 does matter-of-factly declare:  “…the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.”  And Hebrews 4:3 supports that the work of His faith was finished at the foundation of the world.  But most people just cannot see that, and we have to leave that in God’s hands. 

But, again, it was “the faith which was once delivered unto the saints,” and the saints are the elect, and Christ was delivered on behalf of the saints.  He stood in our place, and He bore our sins and took our punishment.  And that is only by the grace and mercy of God that we have been delivered from such great wrath and eternal death.

Let us go back to James 2.  By the way, the “man” who is speaking here is the Lord Jesus.  And there are several instances in the Bible where Christ is referred to as an unnamed “man,” and this is one of them.  Again, it says in James 2:18:

Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith…

He is speaking to professed Christians.  And today there are about two billion people that profess to be Christians, or followers of Christ, and by making that profession, they are claiming to “believe.”  Again, it says in James 2:18:

Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works.

This is why “faith without works is dead.”  All kinds of people say, “I accept Christ.  I believe in Jesus.  I have faith (belief).”  Christ is saying, “Very well, now show me your works.  Show me your faith without your works.”  He is saying this because their works cannot justify them.  Their “work of faith” by itself is empty and meaningless.  It is dead.  It has no power to save.  It has no ability to bring that poor soul into heaven, even though he has been told that.  He has been deceived, and it cannot save his soul.  So Christ is saying, “I will shew thee my faith by my works.” 

You see, Christ has the works, and His works were finished at the foundation of the world when He offered up Himself for the sins of His people.  And if someone has faith but they lack His works, they remain under the wrath of God, and they will suffer the fate of all other sinners under the wrath God.  It does not matter if they are atheists, or Buddhists, or professed Christians.  If you have not had your sins paid for by the atoning work of the Lord Jesus Christ, it does not matter what comes out of your mouth, or what you are convinced of in your mind.  You are dead in trespasses and sins.  You faith is dead, as well as your soul, because there has never been grace bestowed upon you.  You never had God’s mercy granted to you, and you are still under the wrath of God and subject to eternal destruction.  This is the Bible’s truth.  It is certainly not what you may have heard in your church or from countless other professed Christians like yourself, but it is the Bible’s truth.  The only “work of faith” that can be counted for righteousness is Christ’s faith, and not your own.

We have run out of time, and we will have to stop at this point.  Lord willing, we will pick this up when we get together in our next Bible study.