Studies in Romans by T.

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · February 19, 1908

Studies in Romans.

By T.

The first part of the fourth chapter of Romans was considered in the study last week. In those first verses of the chapter it was learned that Abraham found righteousness from God thru faith. The “law of faith” that brought this righteousness was considered, showing that God has provided a “law of faith” that is as definite in its operations as any of the so-called “laws of nature.” Verses nine to twelve of this fourth chapter tell the condition that Abraham was in when he received the gift of righteousness, and read as follows:

“Is this blessing then pronounced upon the circumcision, or upon the uncircumcision also? for we say, To Abraham his faith was reckoned for righteousness. How then was it reckoned? when he was in circumcision, or in uncircumcision? Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision: and he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while he was in uncircumcision: that he might be the father of all them that believe, tho they be in uncircumcision, that righteousness might be reckoned unto them; and the father of circumcision to them who not only are of the circumcision, but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham which he had in uncircumcision.” Rom. 4:9-12.

The foregoing verses form a strong basis for hope to every individual that is born into this world. God did not require Abraham to become perfect before He bestowed the blessing of righteousness upon him. But it was right while he was in the condition of a sinner, it was while he was in uncircumcision, that he received the gift of righteousness.

Unless men can be helped as sinners, there is no hope for them, “for all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God.” Rom. 3:23. Many a person has sunk into despair beneath his load of guilt and sin, feeling that he could not be saved for the reason that he had been so sinful. It appears to him that his life has been so dark with the deeds of unrighteousness that he can never approach the throne of God’s grace to ask for pardon and cleansing. He tortures himself continually with the question, Can God extend His salvation to one who is so blackened by sin as I am?

God sends His word to every soul. That word reveals His perfect and glorious righteousness, and causes the sinner to feel his load of guilt. As this load of sin rises before the sinner it has the tendency to cause an indescribable despair, and if we are not careful, Satan will come in right at this time to discourage and dishearten the one whose mind is made to see and feel the enormity of sin. Satan’s effort is first to keep people thinking that sin is not so very bad; he tries to have us think that we have not been very wicked after all. But when God’s law reveals the sinfulness of sin, and shows it in all its hideous enormity, then he turns his tactics and tries to have us feel that we have been indeed so very wicked that there is no cleansing for us. He would impress us with the idea that we are absolutely without hope in the world.

But observe how successfully Satan is met by the promises of the Lord. “But to him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is reckoned for righteousness.” Rom. 4:5. “For while we were yet weak, in due season Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: for peradventure for the good man some one would even dare to die. But God commendeth His own love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Rom. 5:6-8. God takes the ungodly man who repents, and justifies him—He makes him righteous. God takes the man who is weak, He takes the man while he is yet a sinner, and commends His wonderful love by giving His Son to die for the hopeless and helpless erring one.

In another one of his epistles, the apostle Paul says:

“Faithful is the saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief: howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me as chief might Jesus Christ show forth all His long-suffering, for an ensample for them that should thereafter believe on Him unto eternal life.” 1 Tim. 1:15, 16.

Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. He did not come to save righteous men, for the simple reason that they would not need salvation; they had never been lost. But there are no men righteous by nature in this world, for “all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God.” And so all this wonderful, abounding love of God is bestowed upon men while they are yet sinners, and all for the purpose of leading them to forsake their sins and come to Him for the satisfaction and joy that there is in His righteousness.

Abraham’s faith, then, came to him while he was in uncircumcision, and this was all for the purpose, according to the text quoted at the beginning of this article, “that he might be the father of all them that believe, tho they be in uncircumcision, that righteousness might be reckoned unto them.”

God knew beforehand all the difficulties that would surround the man who is loaded with sin. He knew that when he would try to break away from that sin he would be held in chains that it would seem impossible to break, and so the Lord surrounds the sinner with a wealth of promise. He shows him that he can not make himself righteous in order that he may be fit to come into the presence of God; but on the other hand, the Lord stands ever ready to reckon His own righteousness unto the one that believes, and this righteousness that the Father Himself furnishes makes the adequate preparation of character that is presentable in the court of the Eternal.

We can never reason out how the Lord can take a sinner and make him righteous. We can not reason out how the Lord can do away with all of a man’s past life and place in its stead the perfect life that Jesus lived. Neither can we reason how it is that a grain of corn and a grain of wheat and a grain of barley and an acorn may all be planted in exactly the same soil and have exactly the same conditions, and yet each will produce its kind perfectly. The acorn produces the oak, and the grain of wheat produces a stalk of wheat by a law that never fails or varies. How can this always be the case when the soil and the air and the moisture that surround these seeds are exactly the same? We may place the grain of wheat or the acorn in any soil that we like and each will always produce its kind. Changes of soil or climate do not change the unalterable law that whatsoever we sow we shall also reap. But if we ask how this can be, we do not find any man wise enough to answer or to even give a surmise as to the “how” of it.

No more can we tell how the Lord can take the sinner and thru faith produce within him a perfect character, and thus fit him to dwell eternally with the “saints in light!” We may not know how it can be, but we can have the blessed knowledge that it is so. And that is the experience that each one of us should seek. We should gain the reality of the knowledge, and in the endless development of the knowledge of Christ in the great circuit of eternity we may have time to find out something about how it is done. T.