By Robert Olsen, Ph.D.
Professor of Historical Theology and Director of Intercultural Studies, University of Mobile
SAVING FAITH
Romans 3:21–4:5
Falling Short (3:21–26)
The question that every religion tries to answer is how to be made right with God or how to get on God’s good side.
Throughout history, people have tried to satisfy God through various means — sacrificing animals and crops, bringing offerings to idols or in extreme cases, performing human or child sacrifice. What all these religions have in common is that they believe salvation is by works.
Thankfully, God has revealed Himself to us in Scripture so we no longer have to wonder about these things. God tells us plainly how we can be reconciled, and it is not by what we can do for God but rather by what God does for us.
Paul points out that everyone has sinned and therefore deserves damnation. But in spite of our wickedness, God chooses to justify us by the work of Jesus Christ.
It is not our works that save us but Jesus’ atoning work on the cross.
While we are sinners, we are counted as righteous in God’s eyes because He sees us with the righteousness of Christ.
Finding Hope (27–31)
The salvation we receive is a gift of God. It is not something that we can earn or something we deserve. We live in a world in which people think they can be good enough to enter heaven.
Paul has established that there are no good people; everyone is a sinner. Because we receive salvation as a gift, we have no room to boast.
Christians can never think we are somehow more deserving of God’s love than others because of our own goodness.
Since we are justified by faith in Christ and not by our own works, does this impact us? What are we to do? First, we are to live in a way that pleases God because we are thankful for what God has done for us.
We do not do good works in order to be saved, but we do good works because we are saved. Second, because this is the only way for people to be made right with God, we need to tell this to other people.
It has already been established that everyone is a sinner in need of salvation, so because we have the knowledge of salvation, we need to share it.
This is what has driven missions throughout history, and it should drive us today.
Following Faith (4:1–5)
To make his point, Paul uses Abraham as an example. Abraham is the father of the Jews. Surely, if anyone was good enough on his own to be justified, it was Abraham. But Paul points out that even Abraham was justified by faith, not by works.
Considered righteous because of his faith and not because of his works, Abraham had Christ’s righteousness applied to him just as it is with us today.
Some people believe that in the Old Testament, Jews were saved by works and only after Christ’s resurrection are we saved by faith, but Paul points out that it has always been salvation by grace through faith, even in the Old Testament.
This likewise means that it is the only way people are saved today, which motivates us to support missions and to share the gospel with all cultures since they can only be saved through the gospel, not by the works of their own religions.
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