Q1. (Romans 5:1-2) According to verses 1-2, faith is a key to salvation. For Abraham (4:3), what was the
relationship between faith and justification? For us (5:1-2), what is the relationship between faith and
justification? In your own words, just what does it mean to be justified?
All God's gifts are given to faith, not to unbelief. As Pastor Ralph first states, "faith is a key to salvation."
The 1st crucial gift for Christians is to realize our sinfulness and come, the 2nd gift, with any kind of faith, to
confess our sins + ask Jesus Christ to forgive us and take the lead in leading us in our lives.
As Pastor Ralph first asks, "For Abraham (4:3), what was the relationship between faith and justification?"
I suggest the 1st part of (same chapter, 4) verse 18: "Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so
became the father of many nations..." Verse 19 begins the details of that hope, or faith: "Without weakening
in faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead––since he was about 100 years old--and that
Sarah's womb was also dead. Yet he did not waiver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was
strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had
promised."
Abraham's not weakening, not waivering between belief and unbelief about what God promised to him, and
going even further in being "strengthened in his faith", and giving "glory to God"-- before the miracle -- being
fully persuaded"-- before the miracle -- was the faith that led to justification. I prefer to use the word righteousness, as I understand the word better. To justify means to make righteous. Righteous means:
"morally right or justifiable; virtuous".
The only thing that made Abraham righteous (that caused his justification, or, the miracle to be given to him
as a sign of his righteousness (and ultimately God's plan for a covenant relationship with Abraham + his descendants, in the familial line of David leading to Jesus) was, Abraham's faith. It wasn't anything that Abraham
did. It was his faith that justified him, or his faith made him righteous -justified- in God's sight.
So the relationship between faith and justification is that faith must come before justification (or anything else).
That faith of Abraham's was key to all that followed in his life and his descendants. And we know that faith is
not something we can pretend. Abraham was blessed to be "strengthened in his faith" BEFORE the miracle of
Sarah giving birth. This is after the Lord God told first Abraham that "so shall your offspring be" as numerous as
the stars, and at that time it was just as unbelievable, because Sarah has ALWAYS been barren. When the Lord
God first told Abraham, "Abraham believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness." -Genesis 15:6
Just as with us, who had faith in Jesus as our Saviour in saving us from our sins - it is faith.
God gives us "credit' for the faith. He counts it as righteousness; essentially believing the "right" way.
Not an action on our part, not anything that we do: we either have faith, or, we don't. And therefore,
we don't earn righteousness, but God "credit's" us with righteousness. He rightfully judges us as having our
heart in a ready place for him to work with us because of our faith. Based on what Christ has done, we have
faith: "...our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace into which we now
stand." -Romans 5:1,2
As I said before, that I don't like the work "justified" as much as I like the word "righteousness".
But if I use the work "justified", it means something like- our lives being originally sinful, had to be justified to
earn a right relationship with our God (who made us first on equal standing with him). God had to have a good
reason to bring us into rightful, forgiven, relationship with him. Through the death, shed blood, and resurrection
of his only Son, Jesus Christ, was the only way it could be changed - our relationship to God our Maker, who be-
came God, our Redeemer. What Jesus did justified us before the Father, God, who judges all that he created.
