The scriptures tell us repeatedly how we are justified by faith and not by
works. Paul spoke of Abraham being justified by faith, saying, “For what does the
Scripture say? "ABRAHAM BELIEVED GOD, AND IT WAS CREDITED TO HIM AS
RIGHTEOUSNESS” (Romans 4:2-3). Abraham was made righteous, not by his works
but because he believed God. A few verses later Paul will write about
when Abraham was given credit for righteousness. He says, “How then was it
credited? While he was circumcised, or uncircumcised? Not while circumcised,
but while uncircumcised” (Verse 10).
If we look back at what the Old Testament
scriptures say about Abraham having been made righteous by his faith, we can
see what Paul said being confirmed. God had promised to give the
Abraham was made righteous by faith long
before God commanded him to be circumcised. That did not happen until
about fifteen years later (Genesis, chapter 17) when God told Abraham that circumcision was his covenant requirement
and that any male who was not circumcised would be cut off from his
people. Abraham was a righteous man and he obeyed God and met his
covenant requirement.
Abraham’s faith justified him and gave him
credit for righteousness before he was circumcised. How, then, can James
say what he did about Abraham's works?
James speaks of
Abraham being justified by works:
James 2
21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up Isaac his
son on the altar? 22 You see that faith was working with his works,
and as a result of the works, faith was perfected; 23 and the Scripture
was fulfilled which says, "AND ABRAHAM BELIEVED GOD, AND IT WAS RECKONED
TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS," and he was called the friend of God. 24
You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone.
James seems to be in direct conflict with Paul
regarding faith and works. It does not appear to fit with Paul telling us
that Abraham was justified by faith, apart from works. James tells us
that faith without works is useless (James
All scripture is inspired by God (2 Timothy
A few verses later
he tells us how the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. The Word became
flesh as Jesus. Jesus is the Word of God from the beginning and He is the
creator. The Father spoke through and did all of His creation work
through Jesus. Jesus is speaking through both Paul and James and Jesus
does not change and He does not lie. Paul and James are both speaking the
truth.
In another place Paul spoke of the creation
works of Christ and said, “For by Him all things were created, both in the
heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or
rulers or authorities--all things have been created through Him and for Him” (Colossians
1:16).
When Paul said that the creation works of Christ included rulers, authorities and thrones, he has gone beyond the original creation. He is speaking of everything that has been created on earth from Adam until now. It includes what is happening in the lives of men and women today and it includes the positions of power they may have attained.
No one attains any position of power in this life unless Jesus
placed them there. That includes all rulers, whether good or evil.
God has placed them all into power to fit with what He has planned for
man. Paul says more about that in Romans, chapter 13, when he tells us, “there is no authority
except from God, and those which exist are established by God”.
Peter said that when the prophets foretold of
the coming grace, “the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating as He predicted the
sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow” (1 Peter
It was the Spirit of Christ that spoke through
the prophets when they spoke of the cross to come and the glories that it would
bring. He spoke through Moses and Abraham to tell us how Abraham obtained
righteousness by faith and He also speaks through Paul and James as they show
how it applies to us. We need to do a better job of listening to Jesus
and believe Him.
We are looking at that great statement about
Abraham's faith found repeatedly in the scriptures that says, “Then he believed in the
LORD; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness”. Moses recorded
it first in Genesis and the New Testament scriptures refer back to it several
times. We read two of those references, one made by Paul and one by
James. Paul referred to it and said that it shows how Abraham was
justified and made righteous by faith, apart from works. James referred
to that same scripture and said that when Abraham did his work of offering
Isaac, that passage of scripture was fulfilled and “as a result of the works, faith was perfected”.
If there is a
conflict, then Moses is a part of the conflict. If James was off
track, then Moses must have misquoted something that God said when Abraham had
completed his work of offering Isaac on that altar. Moses tells us what
God told Abraham (Through the angel) after he was restrained from killing his
son. The angel told Abraham, “By Myself I have sworn, declares the LORD, because
you have done this thing and have not withheld your son, your only son, indeed I will greatly
bless you, and I will greatly multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens
and as the sand which is on the seashore” (Genesis
22:16-17).
That is the same promise
that God had made and that Abraham had believed some twenty-five years earlier
and Moses recorded scripture that said how Abraham was given credit for
righteousness because he believed God. If Abraham had already been
justified and made righteous by faith for believing that promise previously,
why did God tell him that He would keep that promise because Abraham had obeyed
Him and offered Isaac on that altar? Was his faith being perfected by his
works? That is what James said.
A little later the
angel tells him "In your seed all the nations of
the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice". That was another promise that God had made to Abraham
previously (In Genesis 12:3) and God had attached no strings to that
promise.
God had made both of those promises to Abraham
before he ever heard and obeyed God’s command to offer Isaac. God had
also justified him and declared him righteous before he did his works of
obedience but James said the scripture was fulfilled when Abraham obeyed God
and did his works. Moses is saying exactly what James said. He says
that God told Abraham that He would keep His promises to him “because you have done this thing” and “because you have obeyed My voice”. Abraham’s faith was perfected by his works.
Remember, James said that scripture (That gave
Abraham credit for righteousness because he believed God) was fulfilled when
Abraham offered Isaac on that altar. If the scripture that spoke of
Abraham being made righteous by faith was fulfilled when Abraham offered Isaac,
then God foresaw Abraham obey Him and do that work when He first gave
Abraham credit for righteousness. In other words, that scripture was
prophecy of what was to come with Abraham’s works.
If the scripture was fulfilled, then Jesus was speaking and what He said in that scripture was fulfilled because Jesus is the Word of Scripture. When Jesus made that statement through Moses, He was foreseeing the future and prophesying of what was to come.
He foresaw
Abraham obeying Him and offering Isaac on the altar as He was giving Abraham
credit for righteousness because of his belief in Him some twenty-five years
earlier. When it happened, the scripture was fulfilled. If that
scripture had not been fulfilled, it would have been false prophecy.
Jesus does not lie; He foreknew that it would happen because He was already
there.
We need to understand God’s freedom in time to
see the connection. The Psalmist (David) spoke of God having foreseen him
and said, “My frame was not hidden from You, When I was made in secret, And
skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth; Your eyes have seen my unformed
substance; And in Your book were all written The days that were ordained for
me, When as yet there was not one of them” (Psalms 139:15-16). In that same
chapter he writes, “Even before there is a word on my tongue, Behold, O LORD,
You know it all”.
God had foreseen David before he had been
created. Every day of his life had been ordained and written in God’s
book before he was born. It appears that it included every word that he
would speak. If it included his prayers, then God heard and answered his
prayers before he was born.
In Jeremiah, chapter 1, God says, “Before I formed you in
the womb I knew you, And before you were born I consecrated you; I have
appointed you a prophet to the nations” (Verse 5). God “knew” Jeremiah “before” he was born and He
selected him as a prophet because He foresaw a man of faith. He
consecrated him and made him a prophet and He planned Jeremiah’s life story
around what He foresaw in him.
God is now in all time in the past and He is
now in all time in the future. Jesus once told the Jews, “Your father Abraham
rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad” (John
Jesus was present in all time then and He is present in all time now. Jesus was then present before Abraham was born and at the same time He was present when Abraham believed that promise of having descendants like the stars in the heavens and later when he obeyed God’s commandments with his works.
Jesus, the Word, made that promise to
Abraham and when Abraham believed His word of promise, Jesus gave him credit
for his faith because He was already watching Abraham obey Him and offer Isaac
on the altar. He was also watching him obey his covenant requirement of
circumcision.
Abraham was not justified because he
obeyed God and was circumcised or because he obeyed God and offered Isaac on
that altar. He was justified by his faith but when he obeyed God and kept
his covenant requirements, his faith was perfected by his works. If he
had not perfected his faith with his works, Jesus would have foreseen his
disobedience and Abraham would never have given credit for righteousness
to start with.
If God foreknew the Psalmist and if He
foreknew Jeremiah, then He can also foreknow us. If He foreknew us, has
He not also planned what we will become based on what He has foreseen in
us? Paul seems to be saying exactly that in Romans, chapter 8.
Paul spoke of how
God causes our life:
Romans 8
28 And
we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love
God, to those who are called according to His purpose. 29 For those whom
He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son,
so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; 30 and these whom
He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified;
and these whom He justified, He also glorified.
God does His
creation work through Jesus. He completed the first creation in the
garden but He is still working on the new creation. His new creation work
that creates man in the image of God, in Christ, is still under way. For
those that He foreknew as loving Him, He predestined to become sons of
God. He is causing all things to work together for good in the lives of
those who have chosen to love Him. He is bringing about the new creation
story that creates them in the image of Christ Jesus, who is in the image of
God.
God foresaw every person who would ever live
on earth before there was an earth. God also foresaw and foreknew all of
the faithful ones who would love Him before they were born. He foresaw them keeping the greatest commandment to love the LORD
God with all of their heart and soul and mind. He saw them loving Him
with obedience to His Word.
God is causing all
things to work together for good to those who love Him. They are the ones
that have been called and justified and who have been predestined. We are
justified by our faith, so if God has already justified us then He also foresaw
our faith being perfected by our works. He is creating our life stories
as good stories by causing everything to work together for our good if He
foresaw us loving Him.
When Paul says that God will cause all things
in our lives to work together for good if we love Him, he does not mean having a life of health, wealth and happiness on
this earth. God is causing earthly things to happen in a way that will
bring good spiritual results, not good earthly results. Paul recorded that
scripture (Romans
We are justified by faith just as Abraham was
justified by faith but love is greater than faith (1 Corinthians
Remember, Jesus said, “If you love Me, you will
keep My commandments” (John
The Father loves
those who choose to love Jesus and who show their love with obedience to His
word. They are the ones who will have an
abode with God (That heavenly home).
God causes good to
come to those who love Him but He will not make us love Him. Paul says
that God “desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the
truth” (1Timothy 2:4). If God desires that all men come to the
knowledge of the truth and be saved, then He desires that all men will believe
His Word and choose to love Him with obedience. We have been given the
power to make that choice but God has foreseen what choice we will make.
Good things are promised to those who love Him
but bad things are promised to those who do not choose to love Him. We
can see that in Pharaoh’s life. Paul wrote, “For the Scripture says
to Pharaoh, "FOR THIS VERY PURPOSE I RAISED YOU UP, TO DEMONSTRATE MY POWER
IN YOU, AND THAT MY NAME MIGHT BE PROCLAIMED THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE EARTH”
(Romans
When Paul tells how the scripture spoke to Pharaoh and told him that He had raised him up so as to demonstrate His power in him that His name might be proclaimed throughout the whole earth, Jesus was speaking to Pharaoh through Moses. Jesus, the creator, was creating His salvation story.
Pharaoh’s life was a part of
His creation story but Pharaoh’s part would not be good for Pharaoh.
Pharaoh and his army died in the sea to demonstrate God’s power to save His
people. Jesus made it happen. Paul is telling us how Jesus causes
true life stories to come about to fit His salvation plan when he speaks of
what happened in the life of Pharaoh. Jesus, the creator, is the Potter
and man is the clay. The potter works with the clay to creat vessels of
His choosing.
After speaking of
Pharaoh, Paul continues that discussion and speaks of God being the Potter and
we are the clay. The Potter chooses what kind of vessel we will
become. Paul was speaking of the Potter when he spoke of how God raised
up Pharaoh for His purposes and then spoke of how He hardens whom He desires
and has mercy on others. He chose to harden Pharaoh’s heart to bring
about that old Hebrew story and make Pharaoh into a vessel destined for
destruction.
Jesus is the Potter
and the creator. We read previously where Paul spoke of His creation work
in Colossians, chapter 1. Remember, he said that all things were created
by Him “whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities--all things
have been created through Him and for Him” (Colossians
Remember, just a few
verses previous to his discussion of the Potter, Paul tells us how God is
creating our life story by causing all things to work together for good if we
choose to love Him (Romans 8:28-30). Jesus, the Potter, is creating
vessels of honor and vessels of dishonor, based on what He has foreseen in the
clay before Him. If He foreknew us to be vessels that would choose to
love Him with obedience, He has predestined us to become vessels destined for
glory.
We must believe that
God is involved in the creation of our life story because we pray daily for God
to make things happen for us. When we pray to Him and God answers our
prayers, then He is allowing us to be involved in the creation of our life
stories. If we pray little, we will have little input. If we pray
more, we will have more input and a better life story may come about for us.
If God foreknew everyone who would choose to
love Him, has He not also consecrated them for His purposes? Did it not
also happen with Abraham? Did not God foresee his faith being perfected
by his works before it happened and give him credit for righteousness because
of what He foresaw? Did He make it happen for our instruction?
Paul spoke of Abraham's faith and how it was
credited to him as righteousness and said "Now not for his sake only was it
written that it was credited to him, but for our sake also, to whom it will be
credited, as those who believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the
dead" (Romans 4:23-24)
Remember, the
greatest commandment is to love the LORD our God with all of our heart and with
all of our soul and with all of our mind. Abraham showed his love for God
when he obeyed the voice of Jesus. Because he obeyed His voice God kept
His promises to him. God caused it to happen like it did and He had Moses
record that story for our instruction.
Do you suppose that
God would have declared him righteous if he had foreseen Abraham refusing to
comply with His covenant requirement? God told Abraham that any male who
was not circumcised would be cut off from his people. Abraham knew that
God always keeps His word. He knew that God would cut him off if he
refused to comply and he kept his covenant requirement that very day. God
had already foreseen Abraham meeting that covenant requirement when He gave him
credit for righteousness because he believed God.
Abraham had full
assurance in God's word. Jesus is the Word that Abraham believed and he
was, therefore, justified by faith in Jesus. Remember, our favorite verse
of scripture tells us how much God loved us, because He sent His Son into the
world so that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life
(John 3:16). That can only happen for those who truly believe in Him and
that includes believing His promises. True belief in Jesus means we must
believe what He says with obedience.
We can see that in
John, chapter 3, if we look at what John wrote later in that chapter.
John repeated the basic message of John
True belief in Jesus demands obedience to His
word because He is the Word. If we don’t believe that He means what He
says, then we don’t believe in Him. Abraham was justified by his faith in
Jesus when he heard His commandments and obeyed Him and did what Jesus
commanded him to do. God gave Abraham
credit for righteousness before he did his work of obedience but later He told
him that He would keep His promise to him, “because you have done this thing”.
God foresaw our works of faith and chose us to
be His children if He saw us having Abraham’s faith. Paul spoke of God
having foreknown us and choosing us when he wrote, “He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we
would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption
as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His
will” (Ephesians 1:4-5). He says that we have “been predestined
according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will”.
We have been predestined by God based on the
choices that He foresaw us make in life. If He foresaw us making the
right choices, the Potter will have planned our life story as good ones before
we were born and He will create us as vessels meant for glory.
Jesus once told the crowd, “Truly, truly, I say
to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has
eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of
death into life” (John 5:24). He said that it “has” happened for those who hear Jesus and
believe His word.
If we already “have”
eternal life, then we already have been justified and made righteous by faith
in Him. We must, however, have a faith that believes Him when He tells us
that the Father will love those who choose to love Jesus with obedience to His
word. Our faith must believe Him and obey Him to the end. We can’t
see the end but God can.
That explains why
Paul said some of the things that he did. Paul had faith if
anyone had it. He had the kind of faith that brings credit for
righteousness. He tells us how he had given up the things of this life
and counted them as rubbish in order to gain Christ and His righteousness
(Philippians 3:9).
He was not striving for righteousness derived
from the Law, “but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which
comes from God on the basis of faith”. He wanted to obtain righteousness like
Abraham obtained righteousness. He knew that he could only receive the
promises by having been made righteous by faith in Christ Jesus.
Paul then tells us what he was doing in order
to obtain righteousness by faith. He said, “I press on so that I
may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus.
Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I
do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I
press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ
Jesus”.
Paul once spoke of that old Hebrew salvation
story and how the things that happened to that earthly nation, happened for an
example and it was written for our instruction and then he wrote, "Therefore let him
who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall." (1 Corinthians 10:12)
Their story was an earthly copy of our spiritual story. They had
been saved out of slavery but most of them would never receive their land.
We need to see the example and know that we can fall.
Paul already had the kind of faith necessary
to bring him credit for righteousness but he could not see the end and know
that he would never fall so he had to keep pressing on toward the goal.
God could see the end but Paul could not.
Just as that old Hebrew nation had been saved
out of slavery to be given an earthly land but they lost their faith in God and
lost their land, Paul knew that the possibility existed that it could happen to
him. He knew that he could fall and be disqualified and lose the eternal
land and that is why he kept fighting.
God had already seen the end for Paul and He
has seen the end for us because He is there. We, like Paul, however,
can’t foreknow and foresee the end so we must follow Paul’s example and keep
pressing on toward the goal.
Paul says the same thing in 1 Corinthians,
chapter 9, when he spoke of what he was doing to become a partaker of the gospel
(Verse 23). He compared it to competing in the games. He said that
it was like running a race to win the prize. He says, “Therefore I run in such
a way, as not without aim; I box in such a way, as not beating the air; but I
discipline my body and make it my slave, so that, after I have preached to
others, I myself will not be disqualified”. The next thing that he said was
to give us the example that we just read about in chapter 10 where those
unfaithful Hebrews fell and became our examples.
If he said that he was making that effort so
that he would not be disqualified, then he is telling us that we can be
disqualified and not win the victory even if we are running the race. If
we quit the race and stop obeying Jesus, we will be disqualified and fall
short. We will lose our race but Jesus would have seen it before we started.
The Hebrew writer said the same thing when he
wrote of how our Christian life is a race (Hebrews 12:1-2). He says, “let us run with
endurance the race that is set before us”. He tells us to fix our eyes on
Jesus. We are to look at the race that Jesus ran as He endured the cross
and its shame to win the victory. After telling us how the Father
disciplines us to help encourage us in our race, he tells us how being trained
by it, “afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness”. Remember, we
obtain righteousness by faith.
We can only obtain righteousness by faith in
God’s Word. We must believe Him and do our works of faith. The only
works that will justify us are the works of Jesus. We can only be
justified by His blood (“having now been justified by His blood” – Romans 5:9) by
faith in Him. God justified Abraham by faith when He foresaw him
believing in Jesus with obedience. Abraham obeyed Jesus and did a copy of
His works when he offered Isaac on that altar. He was doing a copy of the
works that God would do to redeem us from sin when He offered His Son for
us. Remember, God gave His only begotten Son for our salvation.
He told Abraham that He would keep His promise
to him “because you have done this thing and have not
withheld your son, your only son”. He had to obey Jesus
and be willing to offer his sacrifice and we must be willing to obey Him and
offer our sacrifice. Jesus offered the
only sacrifice that can cleanse us of our sins but He demands that we believe
Him when He tells us, “Whoever does not carry his own cross and
come after Me cannot be My disciple” (Luke 14:27). I must be crucified with Christ (Romans 6:3-13). I must obey
Jesus and offer my sacrifice just as Abraham believed and obeyed Him and
offered his sacrifice.
We are justified and
saved by grace through faith, not as a result of our works, but God created us “in Christ Jesus for
good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10).
If I refuse to do the works that He created me for and refuse to carry my
cross and make my sacrifice, I will never have been a true believer.
I must keep the faith until the end if I am to
receive what has been promised. That is what Jesus was saying when He
told the church at
If I am not faithful to the end I will not
have been one of the called. God will have foreseen my imperfect faith
and I will never have been given credit for righteousness in the first
place.
Remember, the Psalmist said that every day of his life had been recorded in God’s book before he was born. If that is true for us, then our whole life story has been planned and written and Jesus will bring it about as a potter creates a vessel from clay.
If He wrote
our life story before we were born, then He planned what we would become based
on what He foresaw in our love for Him. If we are now living the story
that has already been written, then it is as if we are reading our story out of
God’s book as we live that story. We can read our story but He will not
let us read the ending until we get there.
No one likes to read a book with a bad story
ending and certainly not one that will turn out to be our life story. We need
to help God create a good life story with a good ending for us and love Him
with all of our heart and soul and mind. We must love Him with obedience.
If God foresees us loving Him until the end, He will bring about a good life
story for us by causing all things to work together for good in our lives.
We must have the faith of Abraham to receive
the promises. Abraham knew that God would keep His
word and that is faith that justifies. It appears that it will justify us
before we do anything if God foresees us believing in Him with obedience to the
end. If I have Abraham’s faith, some day I will hear God tell me how I
will receive the promises “because you have
obeyed My voice” and “because you have done this thing”. For those who will choose to love Him and hold faithful to
the end, the Potter will “make known the riches of His glory upon vessels
of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory” (Romans
Johnny Rogers 3-31-08
Revised 2-20-10
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