God’s clear point here is to illuminate the nature of saving faith. Not just in the New Covenant, but all the way back to Abraham even prior to the Mosaic/Old Covenant as well. Verse five here becomes a premise for the Christian religion: “But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness.” Abraham models this both in himself (what he found with God, vs. 1) and for every other of God’s elect since. This all builds into our New Covenant understanding of grace, but it’s clear from the text that Paul is jealous to teach the church what it means to be justified through faith alone by grace alone. These are not just “Reformation truths.” These are Gospel truths! All of a person’s dutiful obedience back to God (Abraham, Moses, David, John, Peter, Paul, you, me) was not ever in a single instance the grounds for the grace that justified them! Period. What a glorious teaching it is for those who believe! This is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. By faith alone, repent and believe the Gospel, and God will impute you Jesus’ own perfect righteousness. All of this began in your life when God came to you. He started it. He’ll finish it. I pray you believe it.
This message is also available in video format: https://biblecia.com/video/to-the-saints-in-pakistan-part-8-romans-49-16/
God bless!
