Righteousness: Signed, Sealed, and Delivered

This morning we're continuing on in our series through Romans 4. We're in chapter 4. We're picking up where we left off after spending some time in Genesis.

And you'll see why here in a second. It feels like we just keep talking about Abraham. And we are because Paul is using him as an example to us all.

So if you have a Bible or you have a bulletin in front of you, we're looking at Romans 4 verses 9 through 15.

Romans 4:9–15

Romans 4.

Is this blessing then only for the circumcised or also for the uncircumcised?

For we say that faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness.

How then was it counted to him?

Was it before or after he had been circumcised?

It was not after but before he was circumcised.

He received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised.

The purpose was to make him the father of all who believe without being circumcised.

So that righteousness would have been counted to them as well.

And to make him the father of the circumcised who are not merely circumcised.

But who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised.

For the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be the heir of the world did not come through the law.

But through the righteousness of faith.

For if it is the adherents of the law who are to be heirs.

Faith is null and the promise is void.

For the law brings wrath.

But where there is no law there is no transgression.

Let's pray.

Lord we are thankful for your word.

We pray that you might use your spirit in our lives.

To open it to us.

Let us see the beauty of Jesus.

And may we cling to him more tightly.

We ask this in Christ's name.

Amen.

Recently I had lunch with a family from church.

And we were talking about a number of things.

And then the topic of music came up.

And I shamefully and embarrassingly admitted to them.

I don't know anything about music.

I can't play music.

It seems like magic when people are up here beating these wooden things together.

And then sound comes out and it kind of all works together.

They're literally wizards and maybe witches up here that are doing magic to create beautiful sounds.

I have no idea how they work.

And they told me that they have a term for people like me.

And I said well let's hear it.

I'm all ears.

And they said I'm a music appreciator.

Music appreciator.

So as a newly minted music appreciator.

Not just an admirer.

I have to admit that whenever I look through scripture.

I'm constantly reminded of music.

Whenever I walk about my day.

Whenever I do life.

Or I'm talking to my kids or other people.

I am reminded of music.

And if you remember from last week.

Paul is no different.

Where does he go when he needs evidence.

Or when he's reminded of something.

He goes to the Psalms.

Which oh by the way are music.

Right?

They might not be the chart toppers today.

But it's the thing that Paul goes to when he needs evidence.

When he doesn't know what to say.

Or he wants to point back to something.

He goes to the Psalms.

Now as I was looking at this section of Romans 4.

I turned to the great prophet of a couple years ago.

And I couldn't get out of my head the song from little Stevie Wonder.

As some of you might know it.

Signed, sealed, delivered, I'm yours.

That's the perennial refrain.

Right?

And as you look through Romans 4.

I'm not saying that Paul consulted Stevie Wonder.

Or Stevie Wonder consulted Paul when he wrote that song about love.

But those themes are present here.

And those words are repeated over and over.

Just like in the song.

Signed, sealed, delivered.

In fact, you could even look a little closer and say.

Paul actually talks about faith in the same way that Stevie Wonder talks about love.

That righteousness by faith is signed, sealed, and it's delivered.

And as we look at righteousness by faith, we're going to look at those headings.

Signed and sealed, and then delivered.

And we'll see why in a minute.

Now if you're here this morning and you've spent any time around Christianity,

that righteousness by faith, that's kind of a big scary term.

It's familiar to us.

But it's kind of hard to define.

After all, how can anyone, let alone me, be right before God?

Maybe it's the same question that gnaws at you.

And if you're not a Christian here this morning, I'm going to let you in on a secret.

Christians really struggle with that question too.

And that's why Paul is writing this.

To kind of wade through all the feelings about this.

And explain that.

And if you spent any amount of time with us over the summer,

as we walked through the life of Abraham, we saw this again and again.

We asked the question, is Abraham, is he actually trying to wreck this thing?

Does he actually have faith in God?

Because he keeps acting like a knucklehead.

You see, the most pressing issue in Romans 4 is how do we reconcile these people's lives?

They look like train wrecks and they say that they're loved by God.

Or other people say that they're loved by God.

Or they're right before God and they're a mess.

That should resonate with us this morning.

Whether we're Christians or not,

we have to look at our own failings as we fail time and time again.

And say, am I really right before God?

I've done things wrong again.

That's the thing I said I wouldn't do.

And how does that fit with my faith?

I know that Christ died for sin.

But did Christ die for me?

If you remember, so far in Romans,

Paul has been working through this bigger argument

that everybody's guilty.

Everybody.

Alright?

No one is righteous.

No, not one.

And last week we saw these great mountains of men in the faith.

Abraham and David.

And even them were saved by faith.

Even them are made right in the presence of God by faith.

Not by what they had done.

And here in this text,

there's this weird, peculiar fascination

and zeroing in on circumcision.

And so as we look at that,

we have to deal with what did it mean?

It meant to be righteous by faith.

And we'll explain that in a minute.

So first, faith signed and sealed.

If you notice as we read through Romans 4,

it seems like Paul is like actually fighting somebody.

He's debating them,

but we don't know who.

He's responding to some kind of argument.

And if we miss that idea,

and we just read it as Paul talking about what he thinks,

it seems like Paul is going nuts.

And you're like,

Paul, you just said this,

but then you said this again.

These ideas are all mixed up.

Now, Paul might not be actually responding to a person,

but it's kind of like shadow boxing.

And if you were a middle school boy

or a middle school boy once,

you've all shadow boxed on the playground, right?

You're fighting that imaginary person.

It might be even your own shadow,

but they're really there

and you're really slugging it out.

Paul's doing the same thing,

except for he's not slugging out with a shadow.

He's slugging out over theology.

Look with me at verse nine.

We see the battle lines of this argument

are clearly drawn.

And they are this.

He asks this kind of question.

Is this blessing then only for the circumcised

or also for the uncircumcised?

We say that faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness.

So it's circumcision versus uncircumcision.

And we have to figure out what's going on.

Now that blessing that he's talking about,

he's pointing back to what he just talked about

a few verses earlier.

When we said that blessing,

is it tied to something somebody does

or who they are?

Or is it tied to something different?

Remember, Paul is parroting back the songs of his day

when he says,

blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven,

whose sins are covered.

Blessed is the man against whom

the Lord will not count his sin.

So blessing or being blessed is tied to those things

and not to who Abraham is

and what he's done,

his actions,

or what David has done.

That might seem obvious to us

if we know the lives of those two men.

I just said Abraham acts like a knucklehead.

David is no better.

We see all of his sin on display.

But these men are righteous

because they put their faith in the Lord.

Now we see this kind of foray into circumcision.

It's both.

It's for both, it says.

Look at verse 10.

How then was this righteousness

or this blessedness counted to him?

So we know that he received it,

but was it before he was circumcised

or was it after?

So the question is,

can circumcision,

can it secure righteousness?

Oh, man.

Abraham was righteous because of his faith,

not because of circumcision.

And we see that in the timing

that Paul is trying to draw out.

He's trying to show us how this works out,

that he was righteous before he was circumcised.

So think back as we walk through Genesis.

He was righteous in Genesis 15.

And he gets circumcision much later.

Paul kind of goes on about this

and he says,

not only does it secure,

not secure righteousness,

but it plays no part in it whatsoever.

It's not even a portion.

It's not even one little iota.

If we think about that in our own faith,

we can understand that.

None of our works,

none of the things that we do

actually secures our right standing before God

or our faith in Jesus.

That we can identify with.

But as we look back to Genesis 15,

we know this,

that Abraham is counted as righteous

and God is the one that's doing the work.

And then after a period of time,

he receives the sign of circumcision.

Now sometimes that's difficult for us to grasp

because when we read the Bible,

we think about,

it seems like maybe not that much time passed.

Like if he's talking in Genesis 15

and then in Genesis 17,

is that the next day

or is that like breakfast the next morning?

Like how do we know how long has passed?

For just for perspective,

in 15 to 17,

he's talking about maybe 10 to 15 years.

So it's not like he put his faith

and is declared righteous

and then he receives the covenant sign the next morning.

Some time elapses.

When we think about that,

we have to think about the fact that

Abraham is called righteous

and then many years later,

receives the sign.

But it's not just a sign.

It does something different.

As Stevie Wonder reminds us, right?

It seals.

What in the world does that mean?

Well, when we think about that,

we have to think through

all the struggles

that the New Testament church had.

And one of those

is the fact that

they get really confused about circumcision.

Think about Paul's own interactions

with some of the other apostles.

They actually kind of duke it out over this.

And they say,

hey, some people are saying,

you got to be circumcised first

and then you come to faith in Jesus

and then you get baptized

and you're good.

Or something like that.

But they're mixing it up

because they're not understanding

this part about sealing.

And up until this point,

the language of sign is obvious to us.

We know that.

We see signs everywhere.

Signs on the highway

that point us to get off on the exit.

Signs that tell us to do stuff

or signs that point us to things.

But seal is a little bit more squishy.

If we think about seal

like sealing an envelope,

not licking the back

over and over again

and then get that nasty taste

in your mouth,

not that seal, right?

But putting a wax on something

to verify that it's true,

to authenticate it.

And then maybe if I'm a king,

I'm putting my ring in it

and sealing it

to make sure nobody

is going to falsify those things.

That's what seal means.

And that's what Paul

is pointing us to here.

Look with me at verse 11.

He, being Abraham,

received the sign of circumcision

as a seal of the righteousness

that he had by faith

while he was still uncircumcised.

The purpose,

which we'll get to in a minute,

was to make him

the father of all who believe

without being circumcised

so that righteousness

would be counted to them as well.

So that sealing is ratifying

and securing in some capacity

what is already true

in Abraham's life.

We're all familiar with that seal,

closing that envelope

and knowing that it's protected

and it's kept.

This seal is ratifying

what Abraham had by faith,

that righteousness.

Now, if you've been around

a Reformed or Presbyterian church,

you know that this section

is what we go to

when we talk about baptism.

So let's just talk about it

there for a second.

It doesn't say the word in here,

but the concept is ever present.

Now, immediately,

I just got puzzled looks

when I said that

because you're like,

hey, I didn't see baptism

in this at all.

Why are we talking about this?

And some of you

are probably thinking,

okay, here goes the shell game

of Presbyterians.

They're going to trick me

and I don't see it in the text.

Just follow along with me, okay?

Yes, it does not say baptism in here.

But what does it say?

It does say circumcision,

which is what?

A sign and seal

of righteousness by faith.

And as we think about that,

what is baptism doing?

It's doing the same exact thing,

signing and sealing

righteousness by faith.

So this is Abraham,

who was righteous by faith,

very clearly,

receiving the sign.

So who's it applied to?

Abraham and who else?

All of his believing children?

Some.

All of his unbelieving children?

Them too.

It's applied to believers

and their children,

whether they believe or not.

Okay?

So the sign of righteousness

by faith,

which is circumcision,

is applied to believers,

people that are righteous

by faith like Abraham,

and then all of their children.

Okay?

That sounds very similar

to baptism.

It's because it is.

If you remember

in places like Colossians,

that connection

is made very clearly.

It's even called something like

the circumcision of Christ.

Okay?

The relationship between

baptism and circumcision

is that they both signal

righteousness by faith.

And when we see that

applied to believers

and their children,

then the consistent thing

is to say baptism

is applied to believers

and their children.

Even though nowhere in this text

does it say baptism.

We're talking about

the same thing.

So often we can fall

into this idea

of a word concept fallacy.

If it doesn't say the word,

it's not talking about the thing.

But we don't do that

with other parts of scripture.

Right?

Think about the Trinity.

It doesn't say the word Trinity,

but we know it's there.

We know it's going on.

The same is true

here in baptism.

The Old Testament sign

of faith is circumcision

and the New Testament sign

of faith is baptism.

It's signifying

and sealing the same thing.

Righteousness by faith

and they're applied

to believers

and their children

just like Abraham

and his children.

Now,

with that,

let's turn our attention

back to

what is he talking about?

That's one practical application

of this text.

But what are we supposed

to do with all of this?

Abraham,

you're righteous by faith,

but how are we supposed

to think about that?

Well,

he's talking to us

about this idea

that both Jews

and Gentiles

have a share

in the kingdom.

Abraham is the father

to both of these people,

whether they have circumcision

or not.

And that last phrase

that we just looked at

is kind of,

in verse 11,

is indicative of this.

Those who walk

in the footsteps

of faith.

He's talking about

anybody that walks

in faith

after Abraham.

Those people

have the sign

and those people

are the people

of faith.

I love college football.

I love it.

It's awesome.

It's really fun

to be all wrapped up

in there.

I get some grins

of some opponents here,

but let me tell you what.

I think college football

is great.

It can be all-consuming

if we're really honest.

And I love nothing more

that when my team,

the Clemson Tigers,

stomp out the people

that are evil,

that are in my family,

the Duke Blue Devils.

I love it.

It makes me so happy inside

and when we stomp them

in football

and in basketball.

But there's some people

that are all consumed

by college football.

My college roommate

was one of those.

He referred to himself

only in the third person,

Mr. Peets.

He just got married.

And Mr. Peets,

not only did he love

the color orange

and did he love

the Clemson Tigers

and did he go to every game?

Yes.

He also only had hair

in the shape of a Tiger Paul

on the back of his head.

He was that committed.

So he might show up

on Saturday.

He might have

a really weird haircut

that got him

no girlfriends.

And he might only obsess

about Clemson football.

He might skip class

to go watch practice.

When he shows up

on Saturday,

he's wearing the jersey.

He has the sign

of being a Clemson

football player.

But nobody mistakes him

for a Clemson football player.

That might be because

he's not wearing the pads

and he's about five nothing.

Right?

He's got no future

in college football.

But he's still wearing

the thing that says

I am a Clemson football player.

But why does nobody think

that he's a Clemson football player?

You see,

it's what's inside of that.

It's not just the sign,

but it's the actual act

of going on the field

on Saturday and playing.

Mr. Peets never became a player.

He never was a player.

But those same people

that wore that same jersey

were on the field.

It makes certain

what's already true

by nature

when they suit up.

That they're playing football.

That is the substance

of the argument

that Paul makes.

Is the sign

doesn't make them

a football player.

The jersey doesn't make them

a football player.

The sign of circumcision

doesn't make them righteous.

It just seals it

and validates it.

But as we think about this,

we have to remember

that it's not unimportant,

but the physical mark

of circumcision

doesn't make us part

of God's family

just like baptism

doesn't make us part

of God's family either.

It doesn't make us righteous,

but it's still important

because it seals us

and it reminds us

of how God has kept us thus far.

We also see the freeness

of the offer of salvation.

Both in the Old Testament,

Abraham got it freely,

and for us,

and even Paul.

Paul reminds us

of that in chapter 3.

We have no room to boast.

We have nothing to boast in,

even circumcision.

It's also showing us

a lot about God,

who he is.

If you joined us

for adult community

over the last couple weeks,

we've been looking

through the minor prophets,

and there's this moment

in Jonah,

you know,

the guy who gets eaten

by the fish,

and he gets all this judgment,

and he's dropping down

into the weeds

and all that kind of stuff

because he doesn't want

to go do what God's

told him to do.

There's a moment in there

when Jonah is really mad,

but he's really mad,

and he confesses

who God is,

and he says back to God

who he is,

and he says,

God, you are merciful,

and I don't like it,

slow to anger,

abounding in love,

you're gracious.

This sign,

both circumcision

and baptism,

shows us

the same thing

about God,

that God is the one

that is working,

that God is the one

that is doing.

This is who God is.

Remember,

that confession

of God about himself

is coming on the heels

of not Israel

doing great things,

but Israel being

really,

really faithless

when they had

stooped so low

that they were going

to worship metal idols,

and God says that

about himself.

That's the same God

who works

through these covenant signs.

That's the same God

who gives us the gospel,

people.

And so when we think

of ourselves,

we have to remember

how God has worked

and how God is the one

who's taken the priority,

that God is the one

who sent his son

to die on our behalf

for our sin.

And when we receive

baptism,

or when Abraham

received circumcision,

that wasn't the thing

that saved him,

that Christ's work

on the cross

that he was looking

forward to,

that is the thing

that secured

his righteousness.

And if we're honest,

that should change us.

That should change

how we think

about ourselves.

We're not boastful anymore.

We look at other people

and we don't get angry

with them,

but we're moved

with compassion

because God,

the one who is gracious

and merciful

and slow to anger

has been merciful to us.

And that should extend

in this room

and beyond the walls

to our neighbors,

to our friends,

to the people

that we work with,

that we are called

to be gracious

and slow to anger,

abounding

in steadfast love

because we've been sealed,

we've been marked

by that same righteousness

that's at work

in our hearts

if we trust in Christ.

Now,

righteousness delivered.

Look with me

at verses 15

or 13 and following,

excuse me.

For the promise

to Abraham

and his offspring

was that he would be

the heir of the world,

did not come

through the law,

but through the righteousness

of faith.

For if the adherents

of the law

were to be heirs,

received it,

faith is null

and the promise is void.

For the law brings wrath,

but where there is no law,

there is no transgression.

Faith is not just

the instrument

of righteousness

as we saw

in the life of Abraham

in our own lives as well.

It does,

we start to see

it's bigger than just Abraham.

It's bigger than just Israel.

That faith is the thing

that delivers this promise.

And what is that promise?

It's that same thing

that was told

to Abraham before,

that he would have

many descendants

and he would have

all this land.

and he would have

it forever.

That came through faith

that could never,

ever come through

the law.

He says that

in verse 14.

That's really clear

to us.

That if it did come

through the law,

then the faith

is worthless

and the promise

doesn't even actually happen.

It's void.

And what he's doing here,

Paul is reminding us

that if we associate

with the law,

giving life to us

when we are sinners,

especially those

who had the law themselves,

not just normal sin,

but full-on transgression,

he calls it.

For Israel,

they had the law

and they should know

this most of all.

And instead of doing that,

they just didn't care about it.

There would be no land.

There would be no descendants.

All of it would be gone.

All of it.

I love showing my kids

videos of dogs

because I love dogs.

And one of my favorite

things to do

is to show them

when dogs behave badly.

Specifically,

when they're left home alone

and they start to pull,

you know,

just a little bit

of stuffing out of something,

right?

It might be a stuffed animal.

And then it goes to,

oh man,

the furniture

and what happens.

You might have seen

one of these videos before

where a dog is left alone

and his owner returns

and he's happy.

He's elated

because he has shredded

that couch.

He's disemboweled that thing

and he is sitting

in all the fluff there.

And he is so happy.

And what is the,

without fail,

the response from the owner

is like something

like bad dog,

right?

But it starts small

with pulling out

a little bit of tufts

of the arm

and then

that dog

will gut

the back

of the couch,

the cushions

and yet they're so happy.

It's a disaster

waiting for the owner.

None of that,

that little,

little pulling

out of the couch

ends up

with this giant disaster.

The same thing

is true

if we think about

relating to the law.

If the law

is the thing

we're looking to,

it feels like

we're just pulling

a little bit

and we might not

think it's a big deal.

But Paul is reminding us

it's such a big deal,

it's not just pulling

a lot of little stuffing,

it's undoing

all of history.

It's undoing

this fact

that God

has promised

them land

and many descendants.

Something small

has become

something better,

bigger,

because they should

know better,

right?

Israel should know better.

That's exactly

what Paul is telling them.

They should know

better than this.

The Jews should

know better

and that's why

it's so bad.

They have the law,

they should know better.

Their sin is more grave

because they have the law.

But it's not just Israel,

it's each

and every

one of us.

The promise

is not just to them,

but it's to us.

Abraham

isn't just a recipient

of righteousness,

so are we

if we put our faith

in Christ?

Why should we

turn again

to the law

which can't do

the thing

that we want it

to do?

We can't

turn back

to it.

We're pulling

the stuffing

out of the arm

of the couch

and we end up

with no couch

at all.

It's completely

undone.

That same God

who's slow

to anger,

abounding in love,

steadfast

in that,

it attacks

when we go

back to the law

and look

for righteousness,

when we go

back to circumcision

and put our faith

in that

and not what

Christ has done,

it's completely

undone.

That's what Paul

is trying to remind

us of.

There's no heirs,

there's no promise,

there's no land,

there's no descendants.

Here's the good news.

It doesn't depend

upon us.

We should be

really comforted

by that.

We are held

and kept

by Christ,

not our own

attempts

to live

through the law.

It doesn't come

through circumcision,

it doesn't come

through us being

Jews or not Jews,

it doesn't come

from our family,

our smarts,

our skills,

our ability,

our toughness,

our righteousness

comes the same way

that Abraham

got it,

through faith

in Christ.

Signed,

sealed,

and delivered.

You belong

to Christ

and he keeps

you there,

not you.

Let's pray.

Lord,

we're thankful

this morning

for the reminder

that we are kept

by Christ

and Father,

the righteousness

that we have

is through faith

in him,

just like Abraham,

just like the saints

of old.

We ask that you

might remind

our hearts

even when we

struggle

to see it clearly

that you would

point us back

again and again

to what Christ

has done on the cross

and not ourselves.

And we pray these things

in Christ's name.

Amen.