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For what does Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” Romans 4:3

I love to study Paul’s letter to the Romans. In his brilliant lawyer-ese throughout this letter, Paul makes solid arguments—often submitting the opposing questions before they’re asked—and then, every time, slam-dunks the close. In chapters 1 through 3, Paul clearly demonstrates that all have sinned and fall short of God’s holy requirements, and that no one can be justified by good works. We cannot earn righteousness because it’s impossible to keep every law perfectly…but, in fact, justification is a gift of grace through the blood of Jesus.

And because these stubborn Jewish leaders he was talking to liked to claim their acceptance by God because they were descendants of Abraham, Paul uses their very argument against them by quoting Genesis: “Abraham believed God, and it (his belief) was credited to him as righteousness” (Genesis 15:6). If there was such a thing as a mic in first-century Rome, it would have been dropped. Yep, this was a crystal-clear statement that justification is by faith—not works. In fact, Paul takes the financial concept of “credited” and runs with it (using this term 9 times in chapter 4 alone). Let’s take a closer look…

The term “credit” or “credited” denotes a one-way transaction. I have money, you have an empty-ish bank account. I deposit my money into your account, and now you have been credited what was mine and is now yours. You did nothing but gladly accept the new balance that pops up when you log in to your bank account. Paul was reminding the rule-pushing Jews, much to their chagrin, that their “father Abraham” didn’t actually DO anything to earn or deserve God’s righteousness credited to him. (And in verses 6-8, Paul also uses David as an Old Testament example for them, which you can study from Psalm 32:1-2.)

“Believing in Him who justifies the ungodly,” Paul summarizes in verse 5, “his faith is credited as righteousness.” Pausing here to tackle another oft-used term of our friend Paul, which is important to understand in the whole “crediting” concept: justification. This is used about 30 times in Romans, and it’s a legal term that declares the two aspects of Jesus’ work on our behalf: 1) It’s a pardon from the guilt and penalty of our sin; and 2) it’s the crediting of Christ’s righteousness to our account.

OK, so what’s this word-study exercise all about? Well, it delivers amazing, astounding, glorious news! When we surrender to Jesus as Lord and Savior, we accept the free gift of grace that He offers to forgive our sins…by His death He paid the penalty on our behalf, taking the wrath we deserve. We are forgiven and rescued! But, as those TV infomercials used to shout, “Wait! There’s more!” Not only are we forgiven of our sin—past, present, and future—we are credited with the righteousness of Christ!

Going back to the whole banking analogy (which I’m borrowing from our pastor, who borrowed it from another pastor): If our massive, unpayable debt is cancelled, no cops are waiting to take us to jail, and we’re able to waltz out of the bank debt-free. Yay! But we’d still be walking out flat broke—we’d still have to get to work and start earning. But Jesus didn’t just rescue us from God’s righteous wrath. He credited to us His righteousness! In other words, the gazillionaire who paid off your proverbial debt also gave you access to everything he has—in fact, he adopted you as his child! So, now you will even receive an unfathomable inheritance one day.

Friend, THIS IS THE GOSPEL. By grace, through faith in Jesus—not by our works—our sin debt (yesterday’s, today’s, and tomorrow’s) is forgiven. We can’t earn it or get credit for our own efforts. But, in our belief we are in Christ, and the righteousness of Christ is credited to us. So, when God looks at us, He sees the perfection, beauty, and purity of His Son. So, what do you say? Are you ready to take the credit?

“Heavenly Father, I cannot earn my way back to You. Thank You for sending Jesus to pay the penalty I owe, taking the wrath I deserve, and—amazingly—crediting to me His righteousness. May I never take this for granted.”

 For His Glory

 Julianne Winkler Smith
TRBC Women’s Life