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Romans 4:20–25 (ESV)
Today is Palm Sunday. In the church’s traditional liturgical calendar, this is the beginning of Holy Week, focusing on the final week of Jesus’ ministry before his crucifixion and resurrection. It begins with the Triumphal Entry.
Jesus’ disciples (as well as the readers of the Gospel accounts) are expecting big things to happen. Is Jesus going to take his seat on the King’s throne and usher in the promised Kingdom? The narrative climax has been headed toward Jerusalem already for some time.
In Luke’s gospel account, Jesus is already focused on going to Jerusalem in chapter 9, though the Triumphal Entry isn’t until Chapter 19.
Jesus is determined to go to Jerusalem to accomplish that for which he came. Luke seems to be alluding to Isaiah 50:7, “I have set my face like a flint…”
In John’s Gospel, the Triumphal entry happens in Chapter 12 (out of 21 chapters), soon after the raising of Lazarus from the dead in Chapter 11. Chapters 12-18 describe the events of Holy Week.
In the Gospel accounts (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) we witness Jesus’ determination to accomplish what the Father sent him to do.
Mark 10:45 (ESV) — For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
We are also aware of animosity toward Jesus from various circles, especially from the Pharisees and Scribes. In John’s Gospel, this happens after Lazarus was raised from the dead, and even before the Triumphal Entry.
John 11:47–48 (ESV) — So the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the council and said, “What are we to do? For this man performs many signs. If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.”
It wasn’t only Jesus’ antagonists scheming to betray him. One of his own twelve disciples conspires with the Jews to betray Jesus (Matt 26:14-16; Mark 14:10-11; Luke 22:3-6).
Our text for this morning is not a traditional Palm Sunday passage. In fact, we are simply continuing in our series through Paul’s Letter to the Romans. We happen to have a text describing the theological realities of Holy week from a different perspective.
Instead of focusing on the crowds, the Pharisees, the Roman soldiers, or even Jesus’ betrayer, we will focus on the part of God himself.
Our text this morning focuses on God’s participation. Specifically, we will encounter some statements about “why” God did what he did during Holy Week.
We will look at three “why” statements today, and my hope is that these three “why” statements inform your meditations throughout this week, including our Good Friday service and Easter Sunday next week.
Romans 4:23–24 (ESV)
Have you ever asked yourself “why” the Bible was written? Or, why certain events were recorded in the Bible? Though the Bible faithfully and truthfully reports real historical events, it is not simply a historical account or history textbook. It does not claim to capture all of the historical events in its timeframe.
Often in apologetic situations, someone may ask why certain books were included in the Biblical canon, and why some were not accepted. This is a fascinating topic, and one that you may perhaps need to study.
But, the question I’m asking is a different one. Why were certain events recorded and not others? Why were certain characters highlighted and not others?
At a 30,000 foot level, the reason is to tell the story of God’s salvation history. Consider all the stories throughout Creation that could bring glory to God. What we have in the Bible is God’s story of the salvation of mankind.
That still feels too theoretical or abstract. The bible is not just recorded salvation history for “people” out there.
Did you see the insight in vv. 23-24 about why certain things were written in scripture about Abraham? Paul claims that Genesis 15:6 was written for us. These words weren’t written for Abraham alone, or even for the Jews as they fled Egypt to enter the Promised Land.
The words, “it was counted to him” were written by Moses several thousand years ago because God wants you and me to understand critical spiritual truths.
Here is what Paul says later in the letter:
Romans 15:4 (ESV) — For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.
The Psalmist in Psalm 102 even had a sense of the effect of his words for future generations:
Psalm 102:18 (ESV) — Let this be recorded for a generation to come, so that a people yet to be created may praise the LORD:
The goal is that the LORD would be praised.
The Apostle John was even more specific in his Gospel. He tells us near the end why he wrote what he did.
John 20:30–31 (ESV) — Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
John is not just writing so that his readers could know what Jesus said and did. In fact, he acknowledges that he left a lot of things out of the story. John included what he did so that you would respond in a certain way—that you would believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
I believe Paul has a similar goal for what he’s including about the life of Abraham. In fact, I think that Paul is claiming that God had Moses write certain things about Abraham’s life in the Book of Genesis so that Paul’s own readers (including you and me) would have a certain understanding and response.
What is it that God wants us to learn from Abraham?
Return back to the rest of verse 24.
Romans 4:24 (ESV)
What was true of Abraham can also be true of us.
Genesis 15:6 (ESV) — And he believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness.
Faith is the key to being credited with the righteousness of God. Paul has spent the entire chapter showing that this righteousness can only be received as a gift through faith.
It is faith that is “reckoned”: a faith that is apart from works, apart from circumcision, apart from the law, apart from sight—and therefore a “reckoning” that is solely a matter of grace.
— Douglas J. Moo, The Letter to the Romans, NICNT, 313.
Abraham believed God’s specific promise to him about his children being like the stars in heaven to bless all the families of the earth.
What is it that we must believe to receive this gift of righteousness?
Verse 24 tells us that we must “believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord.”
Paul is showing the similarities of our faith to the faith of Abraham, who believed in the God “who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist” (vs. 17).
Typically in the NT, we are called to faith in Jesus.
For example:
Romans 3:22 (ESV) — the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe…
Or another example from Galatians:
Galatians 2:16 (ESV) — … we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law…
But, here, Paul directs us to the one who raised Jesus from the dead—therefore putting our faith in God the Father.
There are other NT passages that point to faith in “God.”
The answer to our first “why” question is that God directed the authors of the Bible to include certain events, persons, and words (truths) so that you would believe in the one who raised Jesus from the dead, and by believing receive the gift of imputed righteousness.
Now, we consider two specific events of Holy Week which Paul refers to in verse 25.
Romans 4:25 (ESV)
First, what does Paul mean by “delivered up?” This is a phrase used throughout the Gospels and Acts to refer to someone being handed over for punishment. Jesus used this phrase over and over when he was trying to explain what was going to happen to him when he arrived in Jerusalem.
Mark 9:31 (ESV) — for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him. And when he is killed, after three days he will rise.”
This was hard for the disciples to hear. It’s difficult for us to put ourselves in their shoes (or sandals…). We know the outcome of the events of Holy Week. We know this story of the birth of the church afterwards. But, the disciples were living in the moment. They had a picture in their mind for what it looked like for Jesus to bring in the Kingdom of God, and their picture did not include him being crucified. Jesus was doing miracles, healing people, even raising the dead. His fame was growing. No one ever spoke like this man. The climactic moment seemed to be approaching when Jesus would be made King. This is why the crowds were crying out, “Hosanna!” as Jesus rode into the city on a donkey.
And yet, Jesus was delivered up to be crucified.
The New Testament is not silent about this question, but there is not just one right answer.
If this were a multiple choice answer on a test, how would you answer it?
We won’t take time to defend all of these answers this morning, but here are a few.
Jesus was betrayed by one of his own.
Mark 14:21 (ESV) — For the Son of Man goes as it is written of him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better for that man if he had not been born.”
Jesus was delivered up by his people’s own religious leadership.
Mark 15:1 (ESV) — And as soon as it was morning, the chief priests held a consultation with the elders and scribes and the whole council. And they bound Jesus and led him away and delivered him over to Pilate.
Jesus was delivered up by Roman leaders and soldiers
Mark 15:15 (ESV) — So Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd, released for them Barabbas, and having scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified.
Perhaps the more difficult answer to grasp is that God the Father delivered Jesus up.
Romans 8:32 (ESV) — He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?
In the midst of all of this, we must not forget that Jesus gave himself up willingly.
Mark 10:45 (ESV) — For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
We still have to see the “Why” question in our text. We’ve been wrestling with the “who” question, but our text directs us to the “why.”
It’s not as simple as the Jewish leaders’ jealousy or the political expediency of Pilate. Jesus was delivered up to torture and crucifixion for our trespasses.
This is certainly holy ground, and we approach with fear and trembling. I realize that this is at the center of Christian belief. But, that does not make it less shocking or amazing. Isaiah prophesied hundreds of years earlier:
Isaiah 53:6 (ESV) — All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
Isaiah 53:10 (ESV) — Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.
Paul says it slightly differently in his letters to the Corinthians.
2 Corinthians 5:21 (ESV) — For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
This is the “why” of the crucifixion. This is God’s amazing grace on display. This is the Gospel in five words:
“Christ died for our sins” (1 Cor 15:3).
Now, let’s look at the third “why” question for our passage.
Romans 4:25 (ESV)
I realize it seems premature to be speaking of the resurrection on Palm Sunday. Aren’t we supposed to hold off on speaking of the resurrection until after the grief of Good Friday? I don’t want to detract from the sobriety of what Jesus endured on Good Friday, but I do want us to meditate on what the resurrection actually means. We’ll get an entire sermon next week on the glories of the resurrection, but let this verse, and these truths percolate throughout the week.
If the last point was very familiar territory for Christian doctrine, this statement is less obvious. The Bible has a lot to say about the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, but this is the only place that ties that resurrection to our justification (that is, our being declared righteous).
One of the challenges in verse 25 is how we are to interpret these two parallel phrases:
What do we mean by “for?” The more typical/traditional translation is represented by the NKJV or NASB:
There is no debate that the first phrase has a causal sense. Jesus was delivered up “because of” our trespasses. Our trespasses were the cause of Jesus having to be delivered up.
But the same sense does not work as well for the second phrase. Our justification is not the cause of Jesus’ resurrection. Other translations allow a bit more room for a different understanding of this second phrase.
I think the ESV “for” or the NET “for the sake of” helps us get a better sense of what Paul is driving at. Several of the bible commentaries I consulted seemed to think that Thomas Schreiner has the right idea of what’s going on.
It makes more sense to say that Jesus was raised with a view to our justification. Or to put it another way, Jesus’s resurrection authenticates and confirms that our justification has been secured. The resurrection of Christ constitutes evidence that Jesus has been vindicated. At Jesus’s resurrection, God declared that Jesus was in the right so that his work on our behalf has been completed.
— Thomas R. Schreiner, Romans, BECNT, 251–252.
In other words, how would we know that Jesus’ death on the cross accomplished what he set out to do? How could we know that the substitutionary atonement was accepted? We know because Jesus was raised, and this resurrection gives us assurance that our justification is settled in Christ. This, of course, is where Paul goes next in his argument. In two weeks, we’ll be in chapter 5.
Don’t misunderstand and think that Paul is here trying to separate the cross and the empty tomb. He’s saying that both are necessary to accomplish our salvation. Jesus cried out, “It is finished!” from the cross, but the resurrection is a necessary proof of the success and application of his atonement.
Paul gets at this in the famous “gospel” passage in 1 Cor. 15.
1 Corinthians 15:17 (ESV) — And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.
We haven’t quite answered the “why” question with regard to the resurrection. Why was Jesus raised? At one level, he was raised because death could not hold him.
Acts 2:24 (ESV) — God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it.
But, connecting the question to our text in Romans (“raised for our justification), I would answer, “Christ was raised to demonstrate that God accepts those who believe in Christ.”
As a final exercise of our faith together this morning, I’d like us to consider why it is crucial that our faith has as its object a living Savior, or as our text says, that we, “believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord,”
One of the ways that we talk about the benefits of our salvation is our “union with Christ.” Through our connection to Christ by faith, we receive the benefits purchased by Christ for us.
The only way these benefits work is if we’re united to a living Savior.
Colossians 2:12 (ESV) — having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead.
Ephesians 2:6 (ESV) — and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
John Murray lists several ways our salvation is tied to a living Christ.
— John Murray, The Epistle to the Romans, NICNT, 156–157.
I can think of no better encouragement to lead us into Holy Week than the reminder that all that was purchased for us in Christ through his death is applied to us through his resurrection.
…because of the resurrection it is a living Christ who bestows on us the salvation he has won for us on the cross, who enables us by his Spirit not only to share in the merit of his death but also to live in the power of his resurrection, and who promises us that on the last day we too will have resurrection bodies.
— John R. W. Stott, The Cross of Christ, 233–234.
Or from Paul:
Romans 5:10 (ESV) — For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.
These “why” questions warrant a response.
Do you believe in the God that raised Jesus from the dead?
How to meditate on these questions this week?
Here are some other recent messages.
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