1) Boasting is alive and well
2) Faith Alone rules boasting out
“for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”
3: 28, “For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law”
Made right with God 100% by faith in Jesus
“Faith alone”
Why boasting is ruled out.
Boasting Pharisee style – Luke 18:9-14 “God, I thank you that I am not like other men – robbers, evil doers, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get”.
no reason to boast … absolutely nothing we can contribute
Verse 31 – Do we throw it out… do we keep it?
3) Faith alone … even for Abraham and David
Gen 15:6, “Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness”.
Gen 17 – circumcision given
Psalm 32:1-2, “Blessed are they whose transgressions are forgiven whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will never be count against him“.
Psalm 32:5 “I said, ‘I will confess my transgression to you’ – and you forgave the guilty of my sin.”
Faith alone .. not circumcision
Quotes from Judaism
“and everyone that is born, the flesh of whose foreskin is not circumcised on the eighth day, belongs not to the children of the covenant which the Lord has made with Abraham, but to the children of destruction; nor is there moreover any sign on him that he is the Lords”
“Great is circumcision, for despite all the religious duties which Abraham our father fulfilled, he was not perfect until he was circumcised”.
What was the purpose of circumcision?
Romans 4:11 – a sign and a seal
So how does this impact us today?
Firstly – No ceremony will ever make you right before God.
Secondly – We are all equally saved.
Thirdly – Right motivation
Boast in what God has done for us through Jesus -1 Cor 1:31 or Gal 6:14
Qu: What are more implications of the wonderful reality that we are saved by Faith alone?