{"id":1443,"date":"2010-01-07T20:57:21","date_gmt":"2010-01-08T02:57:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ministryofgrace.org\/blog\/?p=1443"},"modified":"2010-01-07T20:57:21","modified_gmt":"2010-01-08T02:57:21","slug":"romans-414-precious-promise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/romans-414-precious-promise\/","title":{"rendered":"Romans 4:14 – Precious Promise"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Romans 4:14<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

For if those who are of the law<\/span> are<\/span><\/em> heirs, faith is made void and the promise made of no effect,<\/span><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

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

Righteousness comes either by faith or by works, not both.<\/p>\n

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

The word translated \u201cvoid<\/span>\u201d is keno\u014d<\/span><\/em>, which means \u201cto make empty, to neutralize, or to make false.\u201d It is expressed here in the passive voice indicating what is done to faith.<\/p>\n

\u201cMade of no effect<\/span>\u201d is translated from the Greek word katarge\u014d<\/span><\/em>. This is made up of kata<\/span><\/em>, used as an intensifier and arge\u014d<\/span><\/em>, meaning \u201cto be idle.\u201d Hence it means \u201cto render totally inactive, to be completely idle, or to become absolutely useless.\u201d It is expressed here in the passive voice indicating what is done to the promise.<\/p>\n

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

Paul now argues the other side of the fence. Having shown that it is through faith that God reckons righteousness, he now makes a counter statement regarding righteousness through obedience.<\/p>\n

He says that if righteousness, being an heir of the world (which was promised to Abraham), is achieved by obedience (obeying the law or any other set of rules), then nothing is accomplished by faith, and God\u2019s promise is useless. After all, what value is there in a promised gift to someone if someone else can attain the same thing by working for it?<\/p>\n

Do you understand? What value is there in a promise regarding any unearned future gift if that same thing can be earned? Paul says it makes faith \u201cvoid<\/span>.\u201d That is, faith would become void of any meaning, hollow, and empty if righteousness can be earned by works. Not only that, but Paul says that the promise that God made to Abraham would be \u201cof no effect.<\/span>\u201d It would become absolutely useless and serve no purpose at all.<\/p>\n

What Paul is demonstrating is how righteousness by faith and righteousness by obedience are complete opposites. You can\u2019t have both and you can\u2019t have a combination of the two, it has to be one or the other. Either a person is made righteous by obedience or he is made righteous by faith. This is particularly significant when you consider what Paul told us previously:<\/p>\n

As it is written: “There is none righteous, no, not one; there is none who understands; there is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside; they have together become unprofitable; there is none who does good, no, not one.”<\/span> (Romans 3:10-12<\/span><\/strong>)<\/p>\n

Faith<\/span> is a matter of believing<\/em>, while obedience to the law<\/span> is a matter of doing<\/em>. Since none of us is righteous based on our doing (works), our only hope for righteousness (and salvation) is through faith. This renders that righteousness very precious because it can\u2019t be earned; it can only be given to us:<\/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,<\/span> (Ephesians 2:8<\/span><\/strong>)<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s thank God for this precious righteousness by faith!<\/span><\/p>\n

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

If you believe that Christ\u2019s death on the cross paid for your sins, then God has declared you to be righteous; you are saved from your sins. How precious does that salvation feel now?<\/span><\/p>\n

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

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

Copyright \u00a9 2010 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 4:14 For if those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made void and the promise made of no effect, Truth to Learn Righteousness comes either by faith or by works, not both. Behind the Words The word translated \u201cvoid\u201d is keno\u014d, which means \u201cto make empty, to neutralize, or to make […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"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":[204,630,504,631,330,611],"class_list":["post-1443","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-faith","tag-heir","tag-law","tag-no-effect","tag-promise","tag-void"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pd5geA-nh","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1443","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\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1443"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1443\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}