3-01-2026

“SO, WHAT REALLY COUNTS?”

Text: Romans 4:1-8,13-17

Sunday March 1, 2026 – Lent 2

Trinity – Creston

       Grace, mercy, and peace is yours from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!

       Our text for this Second Sunday in Lent is the Epistle lesson from Romans 4 that was just proclaimed.

Let Us Pray: Dearest Jesus, send your Holy Spirit to remind us that nothing we can do will merit salvation.  Redeemed by your saving work on the cross we are declared righteous and our works serve our fellow man and point them to you.  Amen.

Dear Fellow Redeemed in Christ:

Some of you are accountants, I know, or at least took some accounting classes. Our text from Romans chapter 4 St. Paul bases on the account, that is, the historical narrative, of Abraham in Genesis.

But in unpacking that historical account, Paul also takes us through some simple accounting—real financial accounting, I mean.

Actually, the accounting language is only the illustration; Paul isn’t teaching us how to debit and credit. But he is teaching us how God accounts with us—what God counts as true righteousness in our relationship with him.

In our relationship with God, our works count for nothing, but

Through Faith, We Are Counted as Righteous
and Heirs of God’s Promise.

  I.   Works count for nothing before God, but faith counts us righteous.

A.    Paul begins by referring to Abraham as “our forefather according to the flesh” (v 1).

1.     That means that David (whom Paul will quote in a minute) and Paul himself are Abraham’s spiritual descendants.

2.     Abraham’s descendants also include you and me, who aren’t biological descendants. Paul says Abraham is “the father of us all” (v 16b).

3.     How is that? Abraham’s “offspring” are all whose relationship with God is on the same basis as Abraham’s: faith (v 16).

B.    Paul describes all this in terms of accounting. Verses 3–8 utilize the same financial term, forms of the Greek word λογίζομαι, in every verse except verse 7 (rendered in the ESV as “counted”).

1.     Paul employs that accounting language for the workplace, to con­trast works and faith, believing—both what’s cred­ited to one’s account and what’s charged against it (vv 3–5).

a.     Workers are owed payment for their labors. Before God, however, our works are always sinful: “all have sinned” (3:23). And “the wages of sin is death” (6:23).

That’s what our works have earned, and the “due” for our sin would bankrupt us all eternally. Romans 5 further describes what we were: ungodly, weak, sinners, even enemies of God (5:6–10).

b.     Yet the “ungodly” are exactly the sort of people God credits with righteousness (v 5)! This declaration is received to one’s account, as it was for Abraham, through faith, believing, trust (v 3, citing Gen 15:6; cf Mt 9:13).

2.     Paul then quotes that other ancient accountant, King David (vv 6–8).

a.     In Psalm 32, David defines “blessedness.” It consists of the fact that our lawless deeds and sins are forgiven and covered.

b.     In financial terms, the Lord does not “count” them against us (v 8); they are not charged against or debited from our account.

C.    This is the accounting of works versus faith.

1.     It is either/or (as Paul regularly describes our relationship with God: 3:28; Gal 2:16; Eph 2:8–9).

a.     Works involve actively doing something, a futile and fatal approach to God.

b.     The antithesis to works is faith, believing, trust, which involves passive receiving—in financial terms, being credited or counted righteous, totally “apart from works” (v 6).

2.     God’s righteousness is credited to our accounts through faith, and our sinful, lawless works are “not counted” or charged against us.

Transition: Now Paul turns to another situation, also often financial: inheritance. We might spend our whole lives hoping to inherit a fortune from a rich uncle, but that’s likely to be a foolish dream, a delusion.

And banking on that delusion, we might fail to appreciate the real fortune we already have. Again by illustration, Paul might tell us that

  II.  Trying to inherit by the Law voids God’s “check” to us, but his promise we can count on.

A.    God promised Abraham and his offspring that he would inherit the world (v 13). How would that be?

B.    When Paul speaks of works, he often calls them “the law,” as in works of the law. Is that how we can receive God’s inheritance—by the law, by works?

1.     No chance (vv 13–14)! Approaching God via works of the Law, or today, by being a “good” person, renders the blessings “null and void.”

2.     In financial terms, compare this to voiding a check, making it worthless. Any approach to righteousness driven by us toward God will crash into his wrath (v 15a).

C.    That’s such a tragic mistake, because God’s “inheritance check” for us is absolutely good. It’s a promise (v 13), and God has the “money in the bank” to back it up. God’s Word is absolutely reliable.

1.     God’s promise to Abraham was already in effect through fulfillment that would come over the future centuries: “I have made you the father of many nations” (v 17, perfect tense).

2.     God said it; that settles it; so Abraham believed the promise! (This better presents the biblical order than does the bumper sticker “God said it. I believe it. That settles it.”)

3.     Despite Sarah’s barrenness, Abraham believed God could give life to her dead womb. “That is why his faith was ‘counted to him as righteousness’ ” (4:22).

D.    And what is that money in the bank that backs up God’s check, guarantees our inheritance check (4:23–25)?

1.     The guarantee, the money in the bank, is Christ crucified and raised.

When he announced, “It is finished,” our trespasses were paid for; when he was raised, we were declared righteous.

2.     And, yes, this promise is for us! When we believe, it is credited to our accounts. “If you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise” (Gal 3:29).

Conclusion: Our relationship with God is all God, all grace (v 16), all gift (v 4). It comes fully from him to us in and through Jesus Christ.

This is why it’s guaranteed (v 16) and provides us hope, a confident expectation that God is able to fulfill all of his promises (vv 18, 21). Amen.

Now may the peace of God which passes all human understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior.  Amen.