{"id":1412,"date":"2009-12-13T21:47:44","date_gmt":"2009-12-14T03:47:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ministryofgrace.org\/blog\/?p=1412"},"modified":"2009-12-13T21:47:44","modified_gmt":"2009-12-14T03:47:44","slug":"romans-45-gift-of-righteousness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/romans-45-gift-of-righteousness\/","title":{"rendered":"Romans 4:5 – Gift of Righteousness"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Romans 4:5<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness,<\/span><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

Truth to Learn<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

It is our faith that God reckons as righteousness, not our works.<\/p>\n

Behind the Words<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

The Greek word translated \u201cungodly<\/span>\u201d is aseb\u0113s<\/span><\/em>. This is a compound word made up of the privative a<\/span><\/em>, meaning \u201cnot\u201d or \u201cwithout\u201d and a form of sebomai<\/span><\/em>, meaning \u201cto worship\u201d or \u201cto give reverence.\u201d Hence, aseb\u0113s<\/span><\/em> refers to one who does not worship or someone who does not revere any god. According to The Complete Word Study Dictionary<\/em>, \u201cIt does not mean irreligious, but one who actively practices the opposite of what the fear of God demands \u2026 one characterized by immoral and impious behavior<\/span>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBelieves<\/span>\u201d is from pisteu\u014d<\/span><\/em>. This is the verb form of the word pistis<\/span><\/em> (the word translated \u201cfaith\u201d in this verse), meaning \u201cpersuasion\u201d or \u201cfaith.\u201d Hence pisteu\u014d<\/span><\/em> refers to the act of being persuaded or believing.<\/p>\n

Meaning Explained<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Remember what Paul has just said? <\/span>If Abraham earned his righteousness, then God had to give it to him because He owed it to Abraham. <\/span>But God doesn\u2019t justify those who have earned righteousness! <\/span>Why? <\/span>Paul told us earlier that there is no one who is righteous, not even one. <\/span>There is no one who understands, there is no one who seeks after God. <\/span>In other words, there is no one who has earned righteousness. We are what Paul calls \u201cungodly\u201d in this verse. Apart from His grace we are opposed to God, we are immoral and impious. That\u2019s how righteous we are based on our works.<\/span><\/p>\n

He now says that for the one who does not obtain righteousness by working (that\u2019s all of us) but who believes God\u2019s promises, He reckons that faith as righteousness. <\/span>Again, it is not because He has to, but because He wants to.<\/span><\/p>\n

Do you see? <\/span>It was God\u2019s choice to credit Abraham with righteousness as a result of his faith just as it is God\u2019s choice to credit us with righteousness because we believe His promise to us. <\/span>It was God\u2019s choice that Abraham is saved, not Abraham\u2019s, and it is God\u2019s choice that we are saved, not ours. <\/span>God did not have to declare Abraham righteous when he believed, and He does not have to declare us righteous when we believe the gospel message. <\/span>God did it for Abraham, and He does it for us because he chooses to. <\/span>That\u2019s why it is by grace and not by debt. <\/span>We don\u2019t earn our salvation by believing in the gospel, God grants it to us!<\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s what Paul is talking about in the book of Ephesians where he said:<\/span><\/p>\n

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves;<\/span> it is<\/span><\/em> the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.<\/span> (Ephesians 2:8, 9<\/span><\/strong>)<\/p>\n

Salvation is God\u2019s gift to us, not by any deed that we have done, but because He chose to give it to us.<\/p>\n

Application<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

This truth should not make us proud. On the contrary, it should humble us. Thank you, Lord, for crediting me with righteousness. I didn\u2019t deserve it and I don\u2019t deserve it, but you gave it to me nonetheless!<\/span><\/p>\n

In God\u2019s service, for His glory,<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"signature\"<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2009 Will Krause. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –<\/p>\n

<\/span>If this message or this link was forwarded to you by a friend and you wish to receive future verses directly to your inbox, you can call the church phone \"\"(618) 614-3070<\/span><\/span><\/span> and leave a message telling us your name and e-mail address or you can send an e-mail to:\"e-mail<\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Romans 4:5 But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness, Truth to Learn It is our faith that God reckons as righteousness, not our works. Behind the Words The Greek word translated \u201cungodly\u201d is aseb\u0113s. This is a compound word made up […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[557,204,618,619,367],"class_list":["post-1412","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-believe","tag-faith","tag-justify","tag-not-work","tag-ungodly"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pd5geA-mM","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1412","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1412"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1412\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}