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Romans 4:5   However, to the one who does not work but trusts God who justifies the ungodly, their faith is credited as righteousness.

This statement of Paul is central to his whole argument in these early chapters of Romans.  It is therefore important that we get it right if we are to understand the only basis on which can have a right relationship with God and an eternal inheritance in his heaven.

The phrase ‘the man who does not work’ is not intended to imply that Abraham was lazy, that he did nothing!  In fact, James (using the exact same Old Testament verse that Paul used, Genesis 15:6, as a proof text for his argument) points out that it was Abraham’s ‘work’ which proved beyond doubt the reality and genuinesss of his faith (James 2:20-24)!  The important thing (and James and Paul are in full agreement on this point) is that Abraham was not relying on his works for his standing before God.  Anything Abraham did was a response to his being credited with the righteousness that has its source in God and not in Abraham’s ability to earn it.

We really must get this right.  I must ask myself, “Am I seeking to live a good life so that God will accept me into his heaven?”  Or am I, like Abraham, seeking to live a good life because God has already accepted me as a candidate for heaven on the basis of his grace, and the finished work of Christ on the cross, alone?

Jesus himself verified that this was the sole basis of Abraham’s salvation – “‘Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad.’  ‘You are not yet fifty years old,’ they said to him, ‘and you have seen Abraham!’  ‘Very truly I tell you,’ Jesus answered, ‘before Abraham was born, I AM!’” (John 8:56-58)!  Are you ‘trusting’ the God who ‘justifies’ the ‘wicked’, i.e. all men in their natural state?  As Jesus also said, “I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (Luke 5:32). 

– Bruce Christian