p. 1 | NOT A DEBT, BUT A GIFT by Ellet Joseph Waggoner

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, Cal. · Sep 22, 1890

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 16, No. 37.

NOT A DEBT, BUT A GIFT.

By Ellet Joseph Waggoner

LET us take a very brief review of the first three chapters of Romans, that we may the better understand the force of the fourth, as we begin it. The first chapter, after the introduction, treats of the terrible depravity and blindness of the heathen, and how they lost the knowledge of God which they once had. It closes with the statement that they themselves know that for their deeds they deserve the condemnation to death, which God has pronounced upon them.

In the second chapter we have all men brought into the same condemnation with the heathen. There is no room in the writings of Paul for any of the modern speculation about future probation for the heathen. They are all shown to be justly condemned to death. To this sentence the Jews would give a cordial assent; but now he declares that all who know enough to judge the heathen, thereby condemn themselves, for they show that they know better, yet they do the same things.

Passing on through the second chapter, we find the truth stated that to every man God will render according to his deeds, whether good or evil, because he is no respecter of persons. Thus we learn that it is doing, and nothing less, that finds favor with God, and that the Gentiles, who are without the written law, really have the law, and will be judged by it at the last day. Next, the matter is brought home directly to the Jews, and they are shown to be guilty of transgressing the law, while making their boast in it; and thus he shows that in reality they are not Jews at all, for only those are Jews who keep the law. The man who has not received the outward sign of circumcision, but who keeps the righteousness of the law, is an Israelite indeed; while the man who has been circumcised, and who may be able to trace his genealogy to Abraham, is not a Jew at all, if he does not keep the law.

In the first nineteen verses of the third chapter the fact is emphasized that both Jews and Gentiles are in the same condemnation; all are within the sphere of the law; it speaks to all; and as a consequence, all are declared guilty before God. The conclusion from all this is that by the deeds of the law no flesh can be justified in the sight of God. The law is the perfect pattern of truth, therefore it must declare all men guilty and not righteous; and no one can hope to atone for his guilt by deeds of righteousness, because his best efforts come far short of the required standard, and so really add to the measure of his guilt.

In this extremity the righteousness of God without the law, in the person of Jesus Christ, is manifested. This righteousness is just that which the law demands, and it is put upon all who believe in Christ. Without money and without price, this righteousness is freely given to all who exercise faith in his blood. This righteousness put upon the sinner, takes the place of his sins, which are removed as far as the east is from the west, and he who before was a sinner now stands justified before God, his righteousness attested to by the law, although he has not done the law. He has been justified by faith, without the deeds of the law. This removes all ground for boasting, for no man has anything by his own merits. There is one God, both of Jews and Gentiles, and he justifies both Jew and Gentile in the same way, namely, by faith, for his own sake, through the merits of Christ. Thus it is by faith, and not by works, that the law is established in the hearts and lives of men.

And now the Jewish objector returns to the attack with a question very similar to that with which the fourth chapter opens: "What shall we say then that Abraham our father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath found?" Rom. 4: 1. He has nothing to say to the charge that the Jews as a class are guilty, and cannot be saved without the aid of a power outside of and greater than themselves; but certainly Abraham, the good old father of the nation, must have gained something by his good

works. Well, says the apostle, if Abraham was justified by works, he has something whereof to glory. He can boast that his own hand has wrought righteousness and salvation. But we read, "but not before God." That is equivalent to saying, "But Abraham was not justified by works, and has nothing whereof to glory before God;" and the proof is given in verse three: "For what saith the Scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness."

The scripture to which the apostle refers is Gen. 15: 6. God took Abraham out and told him to look at the stars and see if he could number them, and said that his seed should be as numerous. And the record is, "And he believed in the Lord; and he counted it to him for righteousness." Paul quotes this in the passive form, but without changing the sense. This scripture proves conclusively that Abraham was not justified by works, and therefore has nothing to boast of, as to the flesh, any more than any other man. His righteousness was not something of his own working out, but was freely given him by the Lord, because he simply believed what the Lord said.

"Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt." Rom. 4: 4. Righteousness is the thing under consideration, and so the expression, "to him that worketh," means, to him that works to secure righteousness. It is very evident that if a man works out his own righteousness, the reward which he gets is not a gift, but the payment of a debt. If he does it all himself, he puts God under obligation to him, to give him the reward of righteousness. He can then come to the Lord and demand his dues. But no man can put God under any obligation to him. The apostle writes: "Who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again?" Rom. 11: 35. The Lord himself said to Job: "Who hath prevented me, that I should repay him? whatsoever is under the whole heaven is mine." Job 41: 11. Whatever the Lord does for man, he does for his own sake. See Ps. 23: 3; Isa. 43: 25. Therefore the statement in Rom. 3: 24-27 stands unshaken. Even Abraham is no exception to the truth that righteousness—conformity to the law—comes alone through faith in Christ.

"But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness." Rom. 4: 5. "There," says the antinomian, "I knew there was nothing at all required of us." Not quite so fast. Remember that we have already learned from the same epistle that God "will render to every man according to his deeds." Rom. 2: 6. When the Lord Jesus comes, bringing his reward with him, it will be "to give every man according as his work shall be." Rev. 22: 12. Works can by no means be left out of the account.

But works are of no account in securing righteousness for the remission of sins, and that is what is under consideration in this chapter, as we learn very clearly from the next three verses:—

"Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works, saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin."

Here we learn that when the apostle speaks of one that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, having his faith counted to him for righteousness, he means the forgiveness of sins, which is accomplished, not through any good works of the sinner, but by the imparting of Christ's righteousness to take the place of the sin. The simple process of bestowing righteousness for the remission of sins is set forth in Zech. 3: 1-5; Isa. 61: 10; Rom. 3: 22-25; Titus 3: 3-7.

E. J. W.