DAVID DECLARES IMPUTED RIGHTEOUSNESS Devotion 10 of 28 I find it deplorable that the religious climate is such as requires lengthy explanations about being made righteous. Current religious emphases have created an environment in which men find it difficult to believe the truth. This is particularly true in regard to being made righteous by God. SALVATION WITHOUT MEN'S ACTIVITY? From another perspective, there really is no such thing as the salvation of God without any activity on the part of those being saved. Noah was saved from the devastating effects of the flood. But it was not without activity. He spent over a century building the boat in which he would be saved. Israel was delivered from Egyptian bondage, but it was not without activity on their part. They had to gather their goods and prepare for the exodus. They killed a passover lamb, daubed its blood on the side and upper door posts, roasted it with fire, and ate it. From one point of view they worked, but those are not the works of reference in "the works of the law." WHAT ABOUT JAMES? When speaking of this subject, it is common for people to bring up the words of James. He wrote, "Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar?" And again, "Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only" (James 2:21,24). THE POINT If you were to ask Peter, the woman with the issue of blood, and the blind man why they were delivered, they would not point to what THEY did, but to what the Savior did! That, of course, is precisely the point made b y the Spirit in each of the cases cited. The phrase "him who does not work" takes us down to the root of the matter. It is not a surface view, but one faith grasps. It will sustain the soul, buoying it up in tumult. – Tomorrow:
"But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness, just as David also describes the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness apart from works: 'Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, And whose sins are covered; Blessed is the man to whom the LORD shall not impute sin." (Romans 4:5-8, NKJV)
Those who imagine that "he who does not work" excludes all activity on the part of men are simply foolish, and inexcusably so. Such a circumstance would be like Peter being lifted out of the stormy sea without calling on the name of the Lord. It would be like the woman with an issue of blood being healed without extending herself to come to Jesus. It would be like the blind man being healed while ignoring Christ's directive to go wash at the pool of Siloam.
There is a sense in which we are involved in justification, but not in the sense of working. Viewed from this perspective, being made righteous is like the raising of Jairus' daughter (Luke 8:54-55), the raising of the son of the widow of Nain (Lk 7:14-15), and the raising of Lazarus (Luke 11:43-44). The resurrection of these people was certainly not owing to anything they did. Of course, when life came into them, there certainly was activity. Jairus' daughter sat up. The son of the widow of Nain sat up and began to speak. Lazarus came out of the sepulcher, even though he was bound hand and foot with grave clothes, and a napkin was around his head. Their resurrection was like being justified "without works." Like them, we also were "dead in trespasses and sins" (Eph 2:1-2), and thus were incapable of doing something that would exonerate God in justifying us.
However, this is not the only perspective of salvation. That is why I have said "without works" is not the same as total inactivity. The "works" we are without are "the works of the Law" (Rom 9:32; Gal 2:16; 3:2,5,10), or "the deeds of the Law" (Rom 3:20,28). Those who theoretically accomplish such works are referred to as "the doers of the law" (Rom 2:13). Such works are themselves described as "the righteousness of the Law" (Rom 8:4), which can only be fulfilled by those who are in Christ. That righteousness is described by Moses in these words: "the man who practices the righteousness which is based on law shall live by that righteousness" (Rom 10:5, NASB). Paul referred to it as "mine own righteousness, which is of the law" (Phil 3:9).
I want to be clear about this. When it comes to righteousness in any sense, God recognizes no Law but His own. Men may honor traditions, creeds, and the likes, but God does not. He never reasons about righteousness within the context of human tradition, or commandments concocted and imposed by men. Apart from Christ, "the works of the Law" are the highest works, and pertain exclusively to fulfilling the law which "was given by Moses" (John 1:17). I know of no other "law" that God relates to righteousness, in ANY sense. However, because such "works" are found to be neither complete nor consistent in men, we cannot be justified by them. If one posits that it is possible to do them perfectly, then the Holy Spirit speaks on this wise: "For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not before God" (Rom 4:2).
If James is speaking about the same thing as Paul, then we have a gigantic contradiction on our hands. Paul makes a point of Abraham being having righteousness reckoned to him before he was circumcised (Rom 4:10). Abraham was ninety-nine years old when he was circumcised (Gen 17:24), which was BEFORE Isaac was born. Paul cannot, therefore, be speaking of "works" in the same sense as James.
It is important to note that James was writing to backslidders – people who were spiritual adulterers and adulteresses (4:4). They professed faith, but showed no evidence of it. James, therefore, speaks of works as the evidence of justification, or imputation of righteousness, and not the cause of it. We know this is the case, because James traces Abraham's justification to precisely the same point as both Moses and Paul: "And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God" (James 2:23). This is the point to which Paul traced Abraham's justification (Rom 4:3). It is also the time identified by Moses: "And he believed in the LORD; and He counted it to him for righteousness" (Gen 15:6). This was well before Abraham was eighty-six years old, at which time Ishmael was born (Gen 16:16). James points out that Abraham's faith was confirmed, not initiated, when he "offered Isaac." Abraham was not, however, justified when his faith was confirmed, but when he "believed," as James himself avows.
James' point is that those who show no evidence of faith have no evidence of being justified, or accepted by God. Furthermore, faith without works is no more faith than a body without a spirit is a person (James 2:20,26). Paul's point is that justification is without works. James confirms, however, that faith, through which men are justified, is NOT without works.
PRAYER POINT: Father, through Jesus Christ I glory in the way You honor the faith You have given to me. I acknowledge I have obtained it, and You have given me to believe. I also admit that it has required all that is within me to believe. I choose not to expend my energy on trying to understand this, but to rather give thanks to You for what you have done.