Turn with me to the book of Romans this morning, Romans chapter four. There's an outline in your bulletin that you can follow along with if that is helpful. Romans, we're making it into chapter four this morning. And in chapter four, Paul continues the subject of the revelation of the righteousness of God, which he introduced back there in verse twenty one. You remember that he spoke about three chapters on what we would call the doctrine of human sin. And he spent almost three chapters showing us why we need the salvation described beginning in verse 21 when he said, But now the righteousness of God, apart from the law, is revealed, being witnessed by the law and the prophets. And he begins to expound the good news and the adequacy and the power and the ability of Jesus Christ to save. And it was Jesus who said, I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance, didn't He? He said that if you've read the Gospels. And He said, it's not those that are well that need a physician, but those who are sick. And He said that. to these self-righteous Pharisees, and some of those that thought they didn't need a salvation as radical as Paul describes in this section of the book of Romans. But this is pretty radical, isn't it? That God has a Son, and that God has to give His Son to die under His own anger and wrath. so that you and I can escape that judgment. That's pretty radical stuff, isn't it? And that radical solution shows us at once the radical nature of our disease, doesn't it? But it also shows us the absolute incredible radical nature of God's love and of God's grace. It shows us both of those things. And Paul is an excellent expounder of that. And that's what he's doing in this portion of the book of Romans. And Paul said, you know, to the Corinthians, he said, I desired to know nothing among you but Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Well, have you ever asked the question, how did Paul preach Christ crucified? How did he do that? Right here. This is how he did it. You think what Paul wrote to the Romans was somehow different from what he preached in synagogues and what he preached to the Gentiles? Not at all. What Paul wrote to the Romans is what he preached and disputed about everywhere in his evangelistic ministry. So here's how to know and preach Christ crucified. The way Paul is doing it. So in in chapter three, verse twenty one, he begins talking about how God saved by this revelation of his saving righteousness. And he explained that all the way down through chapter three. Now, in chapter four that we're beginning this morning, it's time to do a little more outlining. Now, you'll notice that chapter four, verses one through eight, or you'll notice it in a moment. is further substantiation and explanation of the conclusions that he's made in chapter 3, verse 27 through 28. Look at 27 through 28. Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law of works? No, but by a law of faith. Therefore, we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law. Now, chapter four, the first eight verses, Paul's returning to that conclusion and he wants to say more about it. He wants to substantiate it more. Verse one. What then shall we say that Abraham, our father, has found according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, He has something to boast about. You see, he's returning to verses 27 and 28. He's returning to the subject of boasting and the subject of apart from work. For if Abraham was justified by work, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness. Now to him who works, The wages are not counted as grace, but as debt. But to him who does not work, but believes on him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness. Just as David also describes the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness apart from works. Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven. and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord shall not impute sin. So chapter four, verses one through eight, is an exposition and a substantiation of Romans chapter three, verse twenty eight and twenty seven. Now, verses nine through sixteen, also resumes the theme that he introduced in verses 29 through 30. Look at 29 through 30 again. Or is he the God of the Jews only? Is he not also the God of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also. Since there is one God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. Now, look at verse nine in Romans four. He is now going to resume that subject that he introduced in verse twenty nine. Is he the God of the Jews only or also the Gentiles? Verse nine, Romans four. Does this blessedness then come upon the circumcision only? or upon the uncircumcised? You see, he's returning to chapter 3, verse 30. He says, I have more to say about this. Is it upon the circumcised only or upon the uncircumcised? For we say that faith was accounted to Abraham for righteousness. How then was it accounted? While he was circumcised or uncircumcised? Not while circumcised, but uncircumcised. And he, that is Abraham, received a sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while still uncircumcised, that he might be the father of all those who believe, though they are uncircumcised, that righteousness might be imputed to them also. and the father of the circumcision to those who are not only of the circumcision, but who also walk in the steps of the faith which our father Abraham had while still uncircumcised. For the promise that he would be heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his descendants through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. For if those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of no effect, because the law brings about wrath. For where there is no law, there is no transgression. Therefore, it is of faith that it might be according to grace, so that the promise might be sure to all the seed, not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all. For as it is written, I have made you a father of many nations." Now that section of Romans 4 is the completion of chapter 3 verse 30. So you can see what the Apostle is doing. He drew conclusions at the end of chapter 3 And now he returns to substantiate those very important conclusions. Now, my approach to the first eight verses of Romans chapter four is to divide this into two messages. Today, we're going to consider Paul's reasoning in these verses and his defense that justification is apart from works of the law. You'll notice the title, the exclusion of works. If there's one subject in verses one through eight, it is Paul returning to prove that works are excluded as the basis of our justification. And then next Sunday, I want to return to verses four through eight experientially, and especially I want to return to verse five and discuss what it means experientially, the words not working but believing. And we want to talk about this passage experientially. And we'll do that next week because those verses are extremely practical in order to live our lives before God. And I want to return to that next week. We can't do it all at once and we can't do justice to either understanding the passage or applying the passage if we try to do it all in one message. So, Lord willing, I will have an opportunity to emphasize the experiential aspect of this next Sunday. Now, regarding other background material, we can't understand Romans without giving appropriate weight to the fact that Paul often addresses either believing and unbelieving Jews. And you don't get Romans right if you don't understand that Paul is dealing with questions and objections that Jews often have. He's not exclusively addressing Jews, but there's certain sections of this letter that focus on addressing Jews, and we have to understand those sections correctly. Some have gone so far to say As you see so much of this in the book of Romans, they've gone so far to say that the congregation in Rome was predominantly Jewish. Now, I think that's an extreme view. I don't think the congregation in Rome needed to be predominantly Jewish in order for Paul to address the way the Jews think so much in this letter. Remember, Every New Testament Gentile was quite aware that salvation is of the Jew. Think with me for a moment about the experience of a New Testament Gentile. Now, virtually none of them were atheists. You don't have any atheists running around in the first century, do you? What do you have running around in the first century? Polytheists. You don't have any atheists running around in the first century. Everybody is a theist. They're just polytheists. They believe in many gods. And you can go to the Roman Pantheon and there's all the gods on display. Pan, many, or all, Theo, God, Pantheon, the place that displays all the gods. And in earlier centuries, you know, in Assyria, they had their pantheon also that displayed all their gods. So the New Testament Gentile is not an atheist. He's a polytheist and he's worshiping his various gods. And every believing New Testament Gentile that was saved understood that expression that salvation is of the Jew. That is, salvation originates from and through this quirky people that we always called Israel and Jews. And that's not a slur on Israel, but I'm saying they were unique. They were different. They didn't even think they had any gods. You know, after they returned from the Babylonians captivity, why did the other nations think that Christians and Jews were atheists? Why did they think that? Especially the early Christians, you know, the polytheists thought the Christians, they charged them with atheism. Why was that? They didn't have any images. They didn't have any temples. They didn't have any physical objects. And if you just looked at these people, you thought they don't believe in any God. So that's a New Testament Gentile. Even though there might only be a few Jews in the church at Rome. Every Gentile understood that what they were doing was they were turning from their false gods and they were turning to Israel's God. And therefore, anybody who was Jewish had a deep impact on how a Gentile understood God and salvation. You see, the congregation at Rome doesn't need to be 75% Jewish to be led astray. The congregation at Rome only needs five or six strong Jews in there who are mixed up on what the gospel is. And they are going to have a dominant influence amongst all these converted polytheists who are now knowing they're no longer worshiping Roman God or the Assyrian God. These Gentiles know they're now worshiping Israel's God. And if you've got four or five dominant Jews in that congregation, who are mixed up on the gospel, they are going to have a deep impact on these early Gentile Christians. And that's the thing that Paul faced wherever he went. Because, yes, the Jewish people were spread. Wherever he went, he could get a beating. He could get a beating at Ephesus and he could get a beating in Philippi and he could get run out of town. Wherever he went in the Roman Empire, the Jewish people had spread. So Paul takes time. He has to address. These early Jews, believers and unbelievers, because they have a dominant influence on these Gentile churches. You see it coming up in Colossians. You see it in Galatians, very heavily in the book of Galatians. So that's the environment we're dealing here. We got Gentiles worshiping Yahweh. Now, should they be circumcised or not? Do they need to keep the law or not? Are they on equal footing with the other Jews or not? Do the promises made to Abraham, do they apply to these Gentile Romans? Those are all the questions he's talking about in this letter. See, it comes up over and over again. So that's the background. That's what's going on here. And that'll help you understand the Book of Romans. When we were considering chapter two, I illustrated and I said, you know, Paul in chapter two, he's having this debate with his unbelieving Jewish friend and we as Gentiles are listening in on the side as they talk about us as we went through chapter two. Well, now, when Paul is specifically addressing Gentiles, he drops a hint. He tells us that he's doing that. Chapter two, verse 17. You see, he did that. Look at chapter two, 17. Indeed. You are called a Jew and rest on the law and you make your boast in God. Now he's singling out the Jews there to really think about this. Chapter two, verse twenty three, he does that again. You who make your boast in the law. No Gentile did that. The Jews were the ones who were doing that. You see, he drops these hints where he's going to focus down and and talk to the Jewish mind. He does that in a number of places. Chapter 3, verse 9, he widens out again and he stops talking to the Jews and he makes this statement. What then? Are we better than they? Not at all. We have already previously charged that both Jews and Greeks, that they are all under sin. We Jews are not better than those Gentiles. We've charged that everybody is under sin. And then in verse 10, you know, as it is written, All have sinned. There are none righteous. He broadens and he's really addressing them all. But when he gets to chapter four, verse one, and I'm going to read the New American Standard translation there, he makes this statement. Chapter four, verse one. What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather, according to the flesh. Now he's talking back to the Jews, isn't he? But that kind of language. What then shall we say that Abraham, not simply our father, but our forefather according to the flesh, has found? And so now he's going back and he's specifically addressing, excuse me, these Jews. Now, there is no doubt, and we'll get there, that later in this section, Paul is going to explain that Abraham is also the father of all believing Gentiles from every nation. That's where he's going to head in that second major section of this chapter. But in verses one through eight, the focus of his remarks is back to his Jewish friend described in chapter two. Now, you'll notice then in chapter four, verse nine, he's going to go broader again. Does this blessedness then come upon the circumcised only or upon the uncircumcised also? For we say that faith was accounted to Abraham for righteousness. And now he's going to start talking about the Gentiles again, about this blessing. And he's certainly reasoning with the Jews in those verses, too. And then it's pretty broad. But when you get to all the way to chapter seven, verse one, you'll see he drops another one of those hints and he goes back and he says, I've got to specifically talk to Jews at this point. And look at what he says in chapter seven, verse one. Or do you not know brethren. Now, that's not brethren, Jew and Gentile brethren. That's my brethren, according to the flesh. Look what he said. For I speak to those who know the law. Okay, they're his brethren, they're his ethnic kinsmen brethren. And Paul talks that way multiple places, not only in Romans, in other places. But he gives us a little signpost there, you see. Or do you not know, brethren, for I speak to those who know the law, that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives. And so now he says, I'm going to specifically want to address you Jews that think a certain way, who know the law. So you need to follow those signposts in order to interpret your Bible correctly. And that doesn't just happen in the book of Romans. Now, coming back to chapter four, verse one, let's follow the apostle now regarding the exclusion of works. He wants to reinforce this conclusion, and so he engages his Jewish friend with a question. What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather, according to the flesh, has found? And again, I'm following the New American Standard rendering of the text here, the phrase Abraham, our forefather. In that phrase, I detect that specific question addressed to the Jews. It's an appropriate question for all of us to think about, but he wants these Jews to think about this. Now, I know in verse nine, he'll point out that believing Gentiles have every right to be called the children of Abraham and that believing Gentiles will have equal rights to Abraham's inheritance. But if in verse one he is already saying father or forefather, with the meaning of Father of us all in verses 11 and 16, He has said it before He's proved it and explained it. What am I saying? I probably lost some of you. I'm saying when He says Father of us all later in this chapter, it does not have the same meaning when He says Our Forefather in verse 1. That's what I'm saying. In verse 1, when he says, Our Father or Our Forefather, he means the man from whom we are physically descended. That's what he means in verse 1. But when he gets at the end of the chapter and says, Abraham is the father of us all, he has a different nuance to the meaning father at the end of the chapter. What he's doing is he is first proving to the Jew, the ethnic Jew. He's proving to the ethnic Jew that Abraham was justified without deeds of the law. Once this is proved, there can be no objection left to receiving uncircumcised Gentiles who did not have the law into the people of God. Do you see what he's saying? He's saying, look, Abraham himself was saved the way that I am preaching Gentiles are saved. And if an ethnic Jew would only understand how Abraham was saved, he would understand the gospel. He would believe in Christ. And that is as true today as it was then. Do you understand the significance of what I'm saying? Paul is doing that right here. He is saying, I must prove to my ethnic kinsmen that Abraham was justified apart from the works of the law and before he was circumcised. If I prove that, There's no longer a problem with how the Gentiles are brought into the people of God and brought into the covenant. And I would suggest to you, that's how you ought to think and that's how you ought to witness to Jews. Show them how was Abraham saved? It's pretty profound, isn't it? Paul knows not only how to evangelize Gentiles, Paul knows how to evangelize Jews. He's the apostle to the Gentiles, yes, but he knows how to evangelize Jews. So with specific application to his Jewish friend, he asked, what then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather, according to the flesh, has found? Verse two defines that has found for if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. The question is, what did Abraham find in regard to this matter of being justified apart from the works of the law and the exclusion of boasting? Well, Paul answers in verses two through four. For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about. Now, he does mean that Paul acknowledges that if Abraham was justified by works, he would have a basis upon which to boast. He acknowledges that. But Abraham doesn't have anything to boast of. because he has not done the required works. He answers, but not before God. Abraham does not have a reason to boast before God. And what does that mean? It can only mean one thing. Paul believes that Abraham has not done the required works. Had Abraham done the required works, He would have a reason, a valid reason to boast. But Paul says, not before God. Abraham has no reason to boast before God. And how can that be? Only one way. He has not done the required works. That's his reasoning in verse two. Now, he gives a positive reasoning in verse three. How was he justified? For what does Scripture say? Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness. He goes on in verse 3 and says that. How was he justified? What does Scripture say? Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness. There's no reference to his works. Reference to his faith. Go to Genesis chapter 15. Paul said that his gospel was according to the scriptures, and he's doing that in Romans four. He's quoting the Old Testament. He says, let's go back and look how Abraham was played. When was Abraham accounted as righteous? Genesis chapter 15, verses one through six. After these things, the word of the Lord came to Abram. in a vision saying, do not be afraid, Abram, I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward. But Abram said, Lord God, what will you give me seeing I go childless and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus? Then Abram said, look, you have given me no offspring. Indeed, one born in my house is my heir. And behold, the word of the Lord came to him saying, this one shall not be your heir, but one who will come from your own body shall be your heir. Then he brought him outside and he said, look now toward heaven and count the stars if you are able to number them. And he said to him, so shall your descendants be. And what he means is, so shall your descendants through Sarah be. So it's not only from Abraham's body. Abraham already had a son from his body. He had Ishmael. But when God originally gave the promise, there was something else in the promise. Abraham and Sarah shall have a son. So shall your descendants by Sarah be. And Abraham is out there looking at the Milky Way. He didn't know that we called it the Milky Way back then. But he's gazing at the Milky Way. And I think he's either 75 or 80 years old at this time. And Sarah's been barren for all those years. And he has no son. And God has just spoken His promise to him. And Abraham sees nothing within himself or within Sarah. There's nothing. And God did this intentionally. We're going to study this later. But God, you know, God wanted him to be good and old, that he would be convinced that he could not contribute to the fulfillment of his promise. That's going to be important next week. But Abraham was convinced that he nor Sarah could contribute to the fulfillment of his promise. And God gave him a promise. And what does the text say? Verse 6, And he believed in the Lord, and he, that is the Lord, accounted it to him for righteousness. The word that Paul uses over and over again in Romans 3 and 4, imputed, accounted. Where do you think Paul got that word? Right here. He got that word out of the Hebrew Old Testament. And it was accounted to him for righteousness. He trusted in the promise of God. And God justified him. It was imputed to him, accounted to him for righteousness. Now, when dealing with verse 24 of chapter 3, I explain the meaning of the verb to account or to impute. That is, God is the one who justifies by first imputing Christ's righteousness to us And then God judges us and God pronounces the verdict righteous. He imputes the righteousness and judges. Now, in verses four through five, Paul, he's not done. He's got to pound on this nail harder. I really have to pound on this nail of apart from works. And so Paul is, in effect, saying, let me make sure you understand the apart from works aspect. And so he says this in verses four through five. Now, to him who works, the wages are not counted. It's the same word. It's the same Greek word throughout the text. The wages are not counted as grace, but death. But to him who does not work, but believes on him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness. This could be in the top 10, if not the top five of significant statements in all the Bible. He is contrasting the difference between faith and works. He is straining with everything that he can do with language to contrast the difference between faith and works in those verses and to illustrate the difference. Working is what one does to receive a wage. The wage is a debt that is owed to the person who has done the work. You work for one week, your employer is indebted to you to pay you for one week's wage. It is a debt. Working is what one does to receive a wage. Believing is fundamentally different from working. Working is the result of one's own capability, but believing relies on another. The object of Abraham's faith was God, and according to verse 5, Abraham relied on the God who justifies the ungodly. Abraham didn't rely on the God who justifies those who do good works. Abraham relied on the God who justifies the ungodly, those who have no works. Working involves doing. while the essence of belief is a dependent receiving. And verses 4 through 5 apply to Abraham, and they classify him as being what? What do those verses classify Abraham as being? What do those verses classify Abraham as being? What did he believe? He believed in God who what? Justifies the ungodly. Paul, what have you done? You have just classified my father Abraham as being in the class of people that you call ungodly. Do you see that? And that's what he's done. Abraham is amongst the ungodly. He believed in Yahweh, who justifies the ungodly. Whose justification is being spoken of here? Abraham's. Abraham is the ungodly person being justified in those verses. Now, maybe you're not so surprised that Paul got beaten up by the Jews so often. You know, you just don't go around calling Father Abraham an ungodly man that needed to be saved like any other Gentile. That's what he's done in those verses. He's classified Abraham as being amongst the ungodly. You see, if he can convince his Jewish friend of this, He's not only evangelized his Jewish friend, he's completely straightened out his Jewish friend's attitude about the Gentiles. They will get this. Working involves doing, while the essence of belief is a dependent receiving. Abraham believed on Him who justifies the ungodly. His faith is accounted for righteousness. What a great thing that is. The contrast between believing and working in verses four and five helps us understand the meaning of the term accounted in this passage. Why is this so important? Because so many heretics want to deny what this means. The conception of the term imputed or accounted, the conception is that something is accounted to a person that is not inherent to him or her. That something in this passage is God's righteousness revealed in the gospel. Abraham was ungodly. The ungodly are not righteous. Righteousness is not inherent in the ungodly. God accounts to the ungodly righteousness. God accounts to them what is not inherent in themselves. God's righteousness is not native to human beings. It is an alien righteousness granted to us by God's grace as verse 4 has said. We obtain this alien righteousness not by working, but by believing on God who justifies the ungodly. Christ's righteousness is credited to us. It is a gift of grace freely given, not a wage owned for work performed. You see, so this contrast between faith and working goes with this idea that which I don't have inherent in me is imputed, reckoned to me. That's extremely important. And there's evangelicals that are caving. They're caving right here. And in one more generation, they'll be Roman Catholics. Because they're caving on this issue. They're caving on the doctrine of justification based on the imputed, alien righteousness of Christ to us. They don't know the difference. When the Roman Catholic false teacher says he believes in all of these things, just like you as an evangelical. And 90% of the evangelicals don't have the theological muster to say, I do not believe like you. And this is why. And the gospel is at stake. And that's how far we have come, because people are impatient to really understand what Christ the Apostle is straining. Do you see how he is straining to explain this and make it clear? The difference, the apart from works, that works are excluded. Righteousness is alien and imputed. It's important. Our job as a church is not just to get our personal needs met. It's to defend the gospel and know how to do it. Now, this is a hill to die on. Justification by faith alone, based on the imputed righteousness of Christ alone, is a hill to die on. And many of our forefathers have died on this hill. They have. They've died on this hill. Literally. So, the exclusion of works. And this is how Abraham was justified, and he has nothing of which to boast about, and neither do you and I. Paul continues very briefly. He says, I'll give you one more example. Here it is, verses 6 to 8. David. Just as David also describes a blessedness on the man to whom God imputes righteousness apart from works. Blessed are those who lawless deeds are forgiven and those whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord shall not impute sin. Paul finds that word a second time in the Old Testament. Amazing, amazing. And he finds it in Psalm 32, and he finds it this time not in regard to righteousness being imputed to the ungodly, but to the fact that sin is no longer imputed to the man that God justifies. There's been a reverse transaction, hasn't there? David surely lacked the good works, which would warrant his justification. The point here is, is that he had evil works and he's described as having lawless deeds and sins and verses seven through eight. But God did not reckon, account or impute his sin to David. That is David's sin to himself. God did not impute David's sin to David. Now, what does that mean? that God did not impute David's sin to David. God did not ultimately hold David accountable for his sins. In the ultimate sense. That's what it means. That's exactly what it means. He did not impute David's sin to David. And why was this? Because God had imputed righteousness to him apart from works. That's why. Wow! Three things are clear. It is God who imputes righteousness. Verse 6, David describes the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness. God does it. You don't do it. I don't do it. The church doesn't do it. God does it. God imputes righteousness. And this imputation of righteousness provides the believing sinner a sure foundation upon which he is justified. The second thing that is clear when God imputes righteousness apart from works to us, it results in our lawless deeds being forgiven. Do you realize, Paul explained the whole gospel here? And he used the word forgiveness once. And if you want to learn these things right, I would urge you to start to learn to share the gospel and practice without using the word forgiveness and see if you can do it. I'm not saying you shouldn't use the word forgiveness, but I'm saying in order to get you to think deeply how to really explain the gospel, you should be able to do it without using the word forgiveness. That's what Paul has done through this letter. It comes up here because he quotes Psalm 32. Isn't that something? How far have we fallen at really being able to explain the Gospel? The basis for forgiveness here is what? Justification. The reason there is forgiveness is because there's been an imputation of Christ's righteousness. Think about it. That's the reason there is a forgiveness. And we get right back to propitiation, that God doesn't just forgive sin, does He? No, He doesn't. So, that's the second thing. When God imputes righteousness apart from works to us, it results in our lawless deeds being forgiven. Lawless deeds are violations of God's law and authority. We've accumulated a huge debt of guilt to the justice of God by performing lawless deeds. But these are forgiven. The debt is released and we are no longer obligated to pay. And God says, for I will be merciful to their unrighteousness. and their sins and their lawless deeds, I will remember no more. But the reason he does that is because he justifies us. You see, that's what the Roman Catholic is going to do. He's going to come along here and he's going to deny our doctrine of justification and he's going to quote Hebrews 8, 12. I will remember their sins no more. I will forgive their sins. What's wrong with you? Evangelicals not wanting to join up with us. How are you going to answer that? You're going to say, the only way He forgives us is the way Paul describes in Romans 3 and 4. And unless we agree on that method, we're not preaching the same gospel. That's how you're going to answer Him. So, praise God for forgiveness and high glory in it. Now we know the basis of it, don't we? Now, the third thing that's clear is Paul and the psalmist calls this a blessing. And the fact that he calls it a blessing witnesses to the fact that justification is a gift of grace. Just as David describes the blessing on the man. Blessed. Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord shall not impute sin. A blessing is not the payment of a debt or wages owed to you, is it? Of course not. A blessing is a gift freely bestowed. Those who have experienced the forgiveness of sins become conscious of having received a great blessing from God, an unexpected and undeserved gift. If you think your forgiveness is expected or deserved, you don't believe in this gospel. If your forgiveness is unexpected, I'd have never thought of it. I never believed that God would forgive somebody like me. If it is unexpected and you know it's undeserved, then you are believing like the faith described in this passage. Let's pray. Father, thank you once again for giving us an opportunity to sing your praises, to look into your word and to see the great works that you have done. There's no greater work than this, and we thank you for these explanations given. But, Lord, we are the ungodly that you have come to save, and we thank you for your love and your mercy. We can't imagine how radical it is to give your son so that we will not have our sin imputed to us, because our sin was imputed to him, that his righteousness would be imputed to us. Lord, this is beyond our conception, radical. Thank you. Thank you. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.