Romans 4:23-25, A Gospel Summary

As I was studying through Romans, I was hit by the richness and depth of Romans 4.  I think we all focus on Romans 3, 8, and maybe 12.  However, Romans 4 is where Paul brings out the witness of Abraham in his case for the gospel of faith.  At the end of Romans 4. Paul begins to bridge the gap between Abraham and his Roman readers, and subsequently to us as well.  ²³ But the words “it was counted to him” were not written for his sake alone, ²⁴ but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, ²⁵ who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.  Verses 24 and 25 are one of those wonderful summaries of the Christian gospel.  We have the basic Christian gospel in its most compact form.  Lloyd-Jones in the third volume of his Romans commentary quotes Martin Luther saying “In these verses the whole of Christianity is comprehended.”  Let’s break these verses down and examine the different components of the gospel message. 

One is that the gospel involves faith in God.  Paul states, It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord.  We must believe in Him who raised Jesus.  We must have faith in God.  We must desire to glorify God, to please God, and to glorify his great and holy name.  Much of what passes as evangelicalism today never mentions the name of God, let alone glorifies Him or exalts Him as God.  Much of what we hear in churches today centers around us, around man.  It is all about what I bring, what I say, what I do, and how God loves me.  Rarely do we hear a sermon about the great and wonderful works of God, or about His attributes, or about His character.  Rarely do we sing a song that focuses completely on the nature or character of God, without mentioning what God has done for me, or what I bring to God.  Faith in God glorifies God and God alone.  Remember, what Jesus has done on the cross was designed to reconcile us back to God.  Everything starts with God and ends with God. 

Secondly, again look at what Paul states.  It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord.  Many people believe in God.  Jews believe in God; Muslims believe in Allah, which is Arabic for God.  However, believing in God is not enough.  We must believe in the God who raised Jesus from the dead.  We hear a lot about the cross in Christian circles, and we should.  However, it seems we hear little about the resurrection.  The resurrection is one of principal importance.  The resurrection of Christ defines Christianity.  Paul states in 1 Corinthians 15, ¹⁴ And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. ¹⁵ We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised.  You see the point?  If Christ has not been raised from the dead, then our faith is in vain and we should go about our business and live our lives in our sins.  However, we are to believe in the God who raised Jesus Christ from the dead.  We may believe in God, but to be truly saved, we must believe that He raised Christ from the dead. 

In verse 25, Paul specifies some things about Christ that we must also take onto account if we are to be justified as Christians and of the same faith as Abraham.  He states about Christ, ²⁵ who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.  Jesus was not put to death, or dragged off to the cross against His will.  He was delivered up.  By whom?  By God.  God delivered Jesus up for our sins.  This is the love of God for His people.  God sacrificed His own so that sinners could be reconciled back to Him.  Paul later in Romans 8 states this again, ³² He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all….   This word gave him up is the same as delivered up.  God gave up His son in order that sinners might be set right with God. 

Jesus was delivered up FOR our trespasses.  For means “on account of.” It was because of our sins, our trespasses, that God delivered up His son.  Paul is narrowing the definition of the gospel.  First it started with God. Then he narrowed it a bit more when discussing what God did in the resurrection of Christ.  Now he narrows it even more by stating that God delivered up Jesus for the sins of His people.  The word “trespasses” means disobedience, violations of the law, sins against God.  God has taken all of our sins and put them on Christ.  In 2 Corinthians 5:21, Paul explains this:  For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.  God laid all of the sins of His people on Christ in order to secure salvation for sinners.  Do we truly believe that Jesus took the sins of sinners and paid for them with His life?  This is part of the gospel. 

Paul finally states, Christ was raised for our justification.  But I thought Paul elsewhere stated that Christ’s death on the cross secured our justification?  We need to take Paul’s statement as a whole: ²⁵ who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.  The cross and the resurrection cannot be separated, for they are all part of the same plan.  You can’t have one without the other.  Paul wants us to remember that Christ’s death and resurrection go hand-in-hand.  Lloyd-Jones again in his massive Romans commentary states, “If God had not raised Him from the grave we might draw the conclusion that our Lord was not able to bear the punishment of the guilt of our sins, that it was too much for Him, and that His death was the end.  But He was raised from the dead; and in raising Him up God was proclaiming that His Son had completed the work, that full expiation has been made, that He is propitiated and completely satisfied.”  We cannot have Christ’s death without the resurrection.  Christ’s death on the cross secured justification for us, and His resurrection demonstrated that it was completed. 

We as Christians must always remember the example of Abraham.  He took God at His word, and acted on it.  His faith was solid, despite what he knew about himself.  Furthermore, Abraham did not look at himself as the one who secured the promise, but to God and God alone.  He worshipped God and consequently his faith grew stronger.  It was not works or anything that Abraham did, but it was the trust that he had in God that justified him before God.  In fact, it was his faith, despite everything else he did to the contrary, that secured his justification.  Abraham messed up plenty of times afterwards, but it was not works that secured justification in the first place, and it was not works that kept his justification afterwards.  It was God and God alone that justified Abraham, and it was God and God alone that kept Abraham.  We can rest assured in the promise of God because it is God who ultimately is faithful, and keeps His promises.