Sermon: “Resurrection Faith”
TEXT: Romans 4:23-25
REVIEW
1. Life Through Promise: Paul has been considering the ancient figure of Abraham in Romans 4. Did you know that this Abraham lived about 2000 years before Jesus? As we prepare to hear and consider the last three verses of this chapter, I want to ask you to think about this question. Why did the Apostle Paul, living in the first century and writing to a Christian church in Rome, bother to write about a nomadic man that lived some 2000 years before the birth of Jesus Christ? What was so important about Abraham? The answer: Paul wanted his readers to know something. He wanted them (and us) to know that real life comes to us as a gift of God through what the Bible calls the “Promise.” Abraham is important because God made a tremendous promise to Him, and the Bible tells us that Abraham believed God. He believed that God was able to bring life to the dead (Romans 4:21 and Hebrews 11:19) and it was credited to Him as righteousness. That credited righteousness meant life for Abraham, and that life came from the promise of God.
2. A Life of Praise: A promise has to be believed in order for it to be lived out. The whole message of the Bible is about God’s promise to provide righteousness for us through the death and resurrection of His Son. That message is something we need to hear and believe, as Abraham heard the promise of God, believed, and his faith was imputed (or credited) to him as righteousness. The more that we truly believe that righteousness comes to us through the promise of God and not through our works, the more we will truly praise God.
TODAY’S PASSAGE:
23 Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him, 24 but also for us.
It shall be imputed to us who believe in Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead,
25 who was delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification.
1. Abraham, Credited Righteousness, and You
Verses 23 and 24 of this passage say that something was written, it was written about some man, and the words that were written are important for the church to hear. The man is Abraham. The words are found in the first book of the Bible (Genesis 15:6) where we read of God’s promise to Abraham and of Abraham’s response to that promise: “And he believed in the LORD, and He accounted it to him for righteousness.” Paul says that this is not just about Abraham, but it is about you. Abraham needed righteousness in order to see God, and so do you. Abraham did not have what he needed from his own obedience and neither do you. He needed to find righteousness from outside himself and so do you.
In order for us to find righteousness from outside ourselves someone has to actually be righteous. Let me use a financial illustration to make this point. I cannot imagine money into my bank account. Someone has to have something that is worth something in order for money to end up in my account. If I do not have any resource myself, then someone else must have something of worth. That person can then give me the proceeds from his worth, and the money can be credited to my account.
Now lets talk about something much more important than money. God demands perfect righteousness. We don’t have it in ourselves. Christ had complete righteousness. We need to have some way whereby the righteousness of Christ can be credited to our account. That way is supplied through faith in Christ. We hear the Word of His perfect righteousness. We believe that He performed that righteousness for our sakes. We come to grips with some essential facts of history – namely the death and resurrection of Jesus. We see the meaning of those events. We trust in God, who raised Jesus from the dead, and we are credited with the righteousness of Christ. This is God’s way of giving us life. We need righteousness. It comes from Christ’s account. We will praise Him forever for this gift.
2. The Fact of the Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ
This plan of God for giving the righteousness of His Son to ungodly sinners is not mythology. It is history. I am currently in the middle of The Lord of the Rings trilogy. It is a brilliant fantasy series written about a place called “Middle Earth.” The author wrote a fantasy as history. That is a literary technique, and it is very engaging. The Bible is something different. It does not recount the story of an imaginary world. It tells the real story of our world. Before you can believe the system of promise that the Bible contains, you need to know that the events it contains are factually true.
Verses 24 and 25 tell us of two of the most important facts of all history. First, Jesus was delivered up to death. Second, Jesus was raised from the dead. It will not help us to address the meaning of these key events, unless we are first firmly convinced of the truth of the events. In fact, seeing and knowing the truth of the events is an important turning point in being willing to even consider the meaning of the events in a life-changing way.
Dr. Robert Reymond writes in his systematic theology textbook,
“Jesus was crucified as an insurrectionist by Roman authorities at the instigation of the Jewish religious leaders. Few if any would deny this today. But in Paul’s words, he ‘was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures’ (1 Cor. 15:4). This quotation highlights what may well be taken as the major theme of both the New Testament and church proclamation.” (Reymond, 565)
Reymond goes on to note the evidence of the empty tomb, and the evidence of Jesus’ post-crucifixion appearances. In considering this evidence he dismantles all other possible theories that have been suggested to explain away the plain and stubborn facts of these events. I have placed a copy of Reymond’s discussion on the greeting table this morning, and you are welcomed to take that home with you if you would like to consider that matter further.
I will simply note two things now for your consideration. First, the Bible, without any equivocation or embarrassment, teaches both the death of Christ on the cross and the resurrection of Christ from the grave. These events are written as facts that could be verified by the first century reader, since there were still so many observers of both the cross and of multiple resurrection appearances of Jesus Christ who were yet alive. Second, the New Testament records at least ten such resurrection appearances. In one of these Jesus appeared to more than 500 disciples at one time (1 Cor. 15:7). I encourage you to examine these matters for yourself and to be persuaded that Jesus died and was raised.
3. The Meaning of the Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ
But if, as we confess, that God is Almighty in His power, why did He deliver up His beloved Son to a death that was reserved for the worst criminals? What was His purpose in the cross and the resurrection? This is a topic that Paul turns His attention to in verse 25. There are many reasons that the Bible gives, but here Paul limits himself to one point for each event.
He says, first, that Jesus was delivered up because of our offenses. There has been much discussion over many years concerning what person or group was responsible for this horrific death. The answer is clear. I was. You were. Our sins deserved eternal punishment. Our sins were against a holy and eternal God. He was right to be angry regarding our sin. In order for Him to extend mercy to us through Christ, His holy justice needed to be satisfied. I could try to deny my responsibility, but I still have the nails in my pockets. My sin and your sin brought Him to the manger, and my sin and your sin nailed him to the cross. He was delivered up because of our offenses.
Secondly, Paul tells us, Jesus was raised because of our justification. To be justified means to be declared righteous. We need two things to be with God in peace forever. We need our guilt to be taken away. That happened on the cross. But there is something else. We need to have righteousness. Without real righteousness, no one will see God. The guilt is a negative that must be removed. The righteousness is a positive that must be given to us. Remember Abraham? He needed righteousness. How did He get it? It was credited to Him by a source outside of Himself. That source was a person. The Son of God came, lived, died and rose again. He now appears in the presence of God and testifies that we have been given credit for His righteousness. He lives forever to speak for us. His resurrection was a divine stamp of approval, and even now He testifies that His blood has atoned for all the elect of God. We needed to be declared righteous in the presence of God. Because of this, Jesus not only was delivered up to death to take God’s wrath for us, but He was then raised from death for our justification.
APPLICATION:
There is so much more to say about all of this, and week by week this is what we do. We consider the meaning of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ for us, and live in the praise of the glory of God. But here is something for you to consider now. Are the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ historical facts? Did He do these things for you? If these events are facts and their meanings are what Paul says they are, then you and I need to hear what this risen Lord has to say in His Word.
In closing, remember these two words: Promise and Praise. This is what life is all about. Together with believing Abraham, let us believe the promise of God that is given in His Word – eternal life through the death and resurrection of Jesus. Together with all the faithful throughout the centuries, let us join in the praise of God. He delivered up His Son to the death of the cross and raised Him up again for you. Such marvelous love calls you today to hear God’s Word and to follow His Son.