Our Faith and Righteousness
T.F. Lockyer Romans 4:23-25 Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him;… Abraham's faith was virtually faith in the saving love of God; the special manifestation of that love to him was the raising up of a holy seed. Our faith is a faith in the ultimate Seed of Abraham which has been raised up as the supreme Manifestation of God's love. I. OUR FAITH. Our faith and Abraham's are one in this - that they lay hold upon God, and God at work for us. 1. The one supreme Object of our faith. God! Whatever God may say to us, whatever he may do for us, the essential Object of our faith is himself. Yes, himself in all his saving love. And though in successive ages he may have revealed more and more of his purposes as men were able to bear it, yet he himself has been ever the same, the Object of man's trust. And though now his purposes and past actions may be variously conceived by men, and though indeed they may be more or less misconceived, yet if he himself, as the Good One, the saving God, be trusted, all is well. We "believe on him." 2. The special subject-matter of our faith. "That raised Jesus," etc. It was not revealed to Abraham how God would eventually work out salvation for mankind, but such salvation as he could grasp was promised - the raising up of a posterity which should possess the world. To us the full meaning of that promise has been made known. (1) The "delivering up" of Jesus "for our trespasses." Man's sin the necessitating cause: "that he might be just," etc. (Romans 3:26). God's love the efficient cause: "so loved the world," etc. (John 3:16). (2) The "raising" of Jesus "for our justification." The death did its work; man was justified (i.e. potentially). But if so, the justification of man through the death of Christ demanded his resurrection, just as the trespasses demanded his death. God raised him; our Lord of life for evermore. And it is this grandly operative love that claims our faith. II. OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS. 1. An objective righteousness, complete now by reason of our faith in the atoning work of Christ. What was potential for all men is actual to us, who have received it with humble hearts - even justification through Christ. 2. A subjective righteousness, pledged by the faith which trusts the living Lord. The faith itself the germ also of future righteousness, and therefore "reckoned" for what it will more and more perfectly bring forth. To us? Oh, simple condition - believe on him! - T.F.L. Parallel Verses KJV: Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him; WEB: Now it was not written that it was accounted to him for his sake alone,