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Ambassador Baptist Church
1926 Babcock Blvd
Pittsburgh, PA 15209
(412)477-3210
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   You Are Here: Bridge / Galley / Pastor's Pen / Pathways Through Paul
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Pathways Through Paul Daily Devotional
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Pathways Through Paul
Daily Devotional

February 3
Click on verses for Full Scripture
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Today's Pathway:


 Romans 3:31-4:8
  1. Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.
  1. What shall we say then that Abraham our father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath found?
  2. For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not before God.
  3. For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.
  4. Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt.
  5. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.
  6. Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works,
  7. Saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered.
  8. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.

His Majesty's Service

 In Romans 3:31 Paul responds to the allegation that his doctrine is nullifying the law. He states emphatically that he is not rendering it useless, but rather establishing it. There are several reasons for this. First, as we have seen previously, the Law served to show people their sinfulness and their need of a Savior. Second, the Law showed that God would not forgive sin without a substitutionary sacrifice being offered. Third, the Law taught that justification could not come through adherence to the Law, but that salvation came by faith.

 We referenced Romans 4 on January 31st, but since we are in this passage today let's look at it again. Abraham, the biological father of the Jewish nation, was justified by God. The Jews knew this and looked to Abraham's leadership and life for examples of how they should be and what they should do. They stated that they were "Abraham's seed" (John 8:33), and thus put much confidence in him. So Paul asks, "What did Abraham find to be the truth concerning justification?" It could not have come through his works, because then he would have been able to glory in how great he was, and we know that all glory belongs to God and "that no flesh should glory in his presence" (I Cor. 1:29). So what is the answer? Paul writes that the Bible has the solution: "Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness."

 The word "counted" is a bookkeeping term which means to put to one's account. It carried the legal meaning of crediting something to another’s account. So according to Paul, God placed righteousness on Abraham's account, even though he was a sinner, because of his belief. Kenneth Wuest explains it this way.

"God credited to Abraham’s account righteousness. The actual payment had not been made, the actual bestowal of righteousness had not been consummated, because our Lord had not yet paid the penalty of man’s sin and had not yet been raised from the dead. Abraham possessed righteousness in the same manner as a person would possess a sum of money placed in his account in a bank."
Thus, because of Abraham's faith, God credited righteousness and justification to him.

 In Romans 4:4-5 Paul points out that if a man had to work for his salvation that God would be a debtor to him and would "owe" him something, much like an employer owes his employee a paycheck for the work that he has done. However, salvation is given by the grace of God, not by debt or obligation. So salvation can not be "earned'. It is offered by grace, and it is received by faith.

 Having established the Law by using it to show Abraham's justification by faith, Paul now establishes it by pointing out David's faith in verses 6-8. The quotation here is from Psalm 32:1-2. David wrote that a man is blessed when God does not charge him with his sins or regard him as being guilty. This shows clearly what Paul meant by speaking of imputing righteousness without works. It means to pardon sin, and to treat with favour; not to charge a man's sin to him; but to treat him, although he is undeserving and ungodly, as though the sin had not been committed. And how does this happen? By Faith!

Pastor Mark J Montgomery

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His Majesty's Service
Home of Ambassador Baptist Church
1926 Babcock Blvd
Pittsburgh, PA 15209
(412)477-3210
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