Romans 4:16-25: Salvation Through Faith

Romans 4:23-24.. But the words “it was counted to him” were not written for his sake alone, but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord..."

Oftentimes we say that our salvation is "through faith," but what does that even mean? Paul explains it to us in Romans 4:16-25 by showing us that our salvation came about "though faith" just as Abraham's salavatin came about--that is, "through faith."

Firstly, our salvation* is "through faith" so that the promise may "rest on grace" (Romans 4:16). In other words, we are saved by faith so that God gets the glory and not ourselves. This is a concept we have certainly seen throughout the first four chapters of Romans. We see it most beautifully in Ephesians 2:8-9: "For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast." We are saved "through faith" (a faith of which was given to us to God; a faith in which we did not produce on our own [see Hebrews 12:2]) so that salvation might be "by grace alone." Salvation cannot be "by grace alone" if it is through our works because God would owe us our salvation, and therefore it would not be by free grace (Romans 4:4-5). Therefore, it is "through faith."

Secondly, salvation is "through faith" as it "believes against hope" (Romans 4:16-21). In this section, Paul uses the image of Abraham to show us our faith. The Old Testament character of Abraham exhibits the same faith as the New Testament believers (which destorys the theory that the Old Testament Christians were saved by works). Abraham had to believe God against all hope in order to have a son because he was old and his wife was barren. Nonetheless, he believed "through faith" that God's promises would come to pass. In our own salvation, we do likewise. Although we cannot see how in the world God can save us from our unrighteousness, we believe "though faith...against hope." In other words, when we come to salvation "through faith," we believe in the unbelievable. After all, if it is easily believable, then we do not believe it through faith, but rather through sight. Salvation "through faith" means that we believe in the God who can do all things.

Lastly, salvation is "through faith" as it counts our faith as righteousness. This is what we have talked about already: the "justification" aspect of our salvation. Though faith, we are justified. Amen.

All in all, we are saved "through faith." Through faith, God's salvation rests on grace, believes against hope, and counts our faith as righteousness. Amen! Praise the God who has found a way to save his people not by works, but through faith alone!

*Note for Theology Nerds: the word this text uses to describe "salvation" is "justification." We have already looked at justification, so you should know what it means. However, I chose to use "salvation" instead of "justification" because it is a simpler word to describe the concept of God rescuing us from our sin and his wrath. Justification is one of the processes of salvation, and to be justified is to be fully saved, but for the sake of this devotional it is easier to just speak of "salvaion" rather than "justification." Just be aware that although the terms do mean different things, they are partially interchangeable. To be "saved" is to be "justified," and to be "justified" is to be "saved." However, the term salvation is a broader concept that includes all of the aspects of our salvation, whereas justification simply speaks of God "counting our faith as righteousness."