This entire nation was divided last week over the question, 'Who is telling the truth?' Is it Kris Aquino or Joey Marquez? Kris said that her boyfriend badly mistreated her (I won't go into details). Joey replied with a challenge for a lie detector test.

It baffles me that an attractive lady like Kris with her family background (her mother was the president of the Philippines and her dad … well you know, Ninoy Aquino) and having the looks, the charm, the talk, wealth, and on, would want to fall for a married man with children like Joey.

Apostle Paul said that one of the signs of living a life apart from God is the inability to discern what is right from wrong. There are many people living in unhealthy relationships, having lost the ability to discern. Without God, life is just dark.

So far in the Letter to Romans, Paul presented two crucial ideas:

• First, all of us have fallen short of the glory of God. We are now living under the wrath of God because we gave up on God (1:18 ff.).
• Second, the good news is that God's righteousness has been revealed to us through his son Jesus Christ so that we can be put right with God. We do not need to live our lives in the dark (3:21 ff.).

Logically, the next question then is, 'How are we going to receive this righteousness of God?' or 'How is a man put right with God or justified?' Paul gives his answer in 3:28, 'For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law.'

A Hard Point to Swallow (if you are a Jew)
Notice the key point here: apart from observing the law. Why should this point be emphasized? Well, there are two important considerations. First, the Jews. They had the law all along. But they could not live up to the standards of the law. It is impossible, by observing the law, to earn one's way to heaven. Second, the Gentiles. Well, if the righteousness is something one can receive by observing the law, then the Gentiles never really had the chance to try because they were never given the law in the first place and this law is not for them. That is why Paul emphasizes the point, apart from observing the law.

But wait a minute. We must first try to appreciate how radical this statement must have been to the first century Jews. To them Paul's argument is something that no self-respecting Jews would ever entertain. You can imagine a Jew replying to Paul, 'what do you mean, apart from the law? Where does it say in the OT that you do not need the law?' The onus is on Paul to prove his point that we can be made righteous apart from the law.

A Question of Chronology
Paul goes to the OT, to the example of Abraham. How was he 'justified' before God? It must have been on the basis of the ritual of circumcision, right?

Paul's argument in Romans 4 is powerful. He shows the proud Jews that they did not really understand Abraham. The key text is the following: 'Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness' (4:3, 22; from Gen 15:6)

He asks a simple question of chronology. Which was first, Abraham's circumcision or his justification? (vv. 9-15)

The answer is clear: Abraham was declared righteous, years before he was circumcised. At least 15 years separate between God's declaring righteous of Abraham (Gen 15:6) and the circumcision of Abraham as a sign of this covenant with God (Gen 17:11). He was 99 years old. The initial vision for the nations came when he was 75 years old (Gen 12:1).

Clearly, Abraham was put right before God, before he was circumcised. And the key point is this: Circumcision had nothing to do with Abraham receiving righteousness. It only sealed it.

S = g f
So we see then that the most important thing is the right attitude to receive God's gift of righteousness, and not the observance of the law. Now let us focus on the act of 'believing.' This is now Paul's concern and he wants to show us what we can learn about faith.

Remember from high school, a famous physics formula, f = m a?

Force equals mass multiplied by acceleration.

In a similar way, we might be tempted to come up with a formula, s = g f

Salvation is by grace through faith.

The wrong formula, Paul reminds us, is

Salvation is by works through the law

But what does it all mean? What is faith? How do we really appropriate the free gift of God in Jesus Christ, his unconditional acceptance and love?

The Meaning of Faith
While salvation is a gift and you do not work for it, faith is what you need to access that salvation and it is something you need to work at constantly. Yes, faith does not come naturally for most people. We need to work at it. Another word for faith is trust. We learn to trust in God. No one begins his or her relationship with God on a complete 100% trust in God. It takes time, especially if we are not used to the idea of trusting in God but rather trusting in our own plans and actions.

You see faith is like a muscle. The more you exercise the strong you get. Just a few months ago I used have a back problem. I could not stand up for more than thirty minutes without the pain in my back. Then, one was visiting a friend who was in the hospital for a serious back injury. My friend was eager to share with me what he had learned from his physiotherapist: how to strengthen his back and hip muscles. I have been doing my exercises every day and now I can say that it works! Now I can stand up for one or two hours and lecture without feeling the pain. You see God made our muscles in such a way that the more we use them the stronger they get. In the same way, the more we exercise our faith, the stronger it gets.

Bill Bright is a man known for a strong faith in God. In the mid 1950's he gave up his personal business (it was flourishing) in order to obey God's call. He began evangelizing to the students of UCLA. Today, the Campus Crusade for Christ (better known as CCC) is in virtually every country with 25,000 full-time staff members. When I was involved in CCC during my university days, I often heard the famous line (it must have come from Bill Bright): faith is stepping outside the circle of your confidence and trusting God for the unknown.

Yes, this is the kind of faith we need to have in order to understand what God has done in our lives through his Son Jesus Christ and also to receive the righteousness he offers to us freely. We need a persevering faith.

Paul goes on to show us the importance of a persevering faith. Just look at the language he uses to describe this:

• Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed … (vs. 18)
• Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact (vs. 19)
• Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God (vs. 20)
• Being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised (vs. 21)

When God appeared to Abraham, 24 years after the first appearance in Gen 12, and told Abraham that the offspring will come from his own body and the own body of Sarah, what was his reaction?

He fell faced down and laughed. (Gen 17:17). So the son was named Isaac (which means 'he laughed').

We see then that Abraham was not perfect. At first, he laughed at what God was saying! He was, no doubt, struggling to trust God and his promises against all odds. After all Abraham 99 years old and Sarah 90 years old! You can almost hear Sarah saying to Abraham, 'Honey, I went through menopause more than forty years ago!'

So, how is a man justified? How is a man credited with righteousness just as Abraham was credited with?
It is all about faith. We need to have a faith in the living God, that he cares for us and he is able to deliver us from all evil.

In Psalm 18:19, I found out more about the nature of king David's faith in God.

From the snares of deadly traps, from the valley of the shadow of death, David confesses that God brought him out into a spacious place where he can be protected by the watching eyes of God. David has the proper understanding of who God is, 'he delights in us.'

If we had the parents who really delighted in us, then we can simply transfer the idea over to God. But what if we had no such parents? What if they were rather aloof and just were not around? What if they were abusive? Obviously, then, it will take some serious 'work' on our part to learn how to trust God.

Paul says that the words 'it was credited to him' were written not for Abraham alone but for us as well!

How is your trust in God?
Are you like David? Do you live with the assurance of salvation, that your sins are completely forgiven and that God does not count the sins against you? Are you like Abraham? Do you believe that God is able?

Do you believe that Jesus was raised from the dead for our sins and for our justification? (4:25)

In short, we know that Paul covered two important truths:

• Faith is the only means by which we are to receive the righteousness from God. It is apart from the law.
• This faith does not come naturally for most people. We need to work on it.

May the LORD bless you and guide you, as you try to understand what faith is and how faith can help you gain access to God's righteousness.