Study Notes

I.      Romans 3:31-Right-standing is not a license to sin, but it’s the power and authority to live a life overcoming sin

A.    People are not righteous because they do righteous things, they are righteous because of their faith in Jesus, but righteous people do righteous things

1.      Going to church doesn’t make you righteous, but righteous people go to church

2.      The just conduct their lives by their faith in God’s Word

B.     This right-standing with God is so marvelous, that God had to tell us multiple times in the word to not abuse this right-standing with him-Romans 6:1-2,15, Galatians 5:13

1.      Our attitude is never, “Well I’m right with God so I’ll sin and repent.”

C.    Through faith were made righteous and our righteousness by faith enables us to uphold the law and live righteously

1.      Doing right doesn’t take place before being right

a.    You have to be made right with God before you can ever have the ability to do right before God

b.    Some people want to do right to be made right, but you can’t do right until you are made right and God makes you right so then you have the ability to do right

2.      Because I am the righteousness of God I now have the potential to do right things

a.    When you begin to see yourself as the righteousness of God, it’ll give birth to doing right things because as a man think in his heart so is he

II.     James 2:17-24-Right works spring from being made right and they are not engaged to be made right

A.    These works he’s talking about are the natural outflow out of faith and they are not things engaged to prove you are in faith

1.      If salvation took you’ll know it inside because you’ll want to do what’s right

2.      The tree is known by his fruit-Matthew 12:33

3.      These verses are not for us to look at carnal Christians and say they are not saved

B.     These works that you engage in are not works to be justified or made righteous, but they are works that you engage in because you have been justified or made righteous

1.      21-Abraham didn’t do that to be made right, he did that b/c he was right

2.      Good works aren’t things you have to do to be saved, they are things that flow out of your salvation

3.      You don’t do things to be right with God, you do things b/c you are right with God

4.      People are not righteous b/c they do righteous things, but righteous people do righteous things

5.      Good conduct is a demonstration of righteousness; it is not what determines your righteousness

C.    Genuine faith as consisting of an inward acknowledgement of God’s truth which is expressed and flows outward in the form of good works. James’ point is that if good works are subtracted from genuine faith, what is left is barren and dead. Paul’s point is that if legalistic observances are added to or substituted for genuine faith, that result too is barren and dead. 

III.   It’s paramount that you get the revelation that works don’t make you righteous.  When you get the revelation that you did no work to receive your righteousness you get the revelation that there is no work (thing) you can do to lose your righteousness-Romans 4:1

A.    3-5-As a result of Abraham’s faith God assigned righteousness to his account

1.      2-If Abraham was justified because he left his hometown and because he went to sacrifice Isaac, then he as grounds to boast

2.      Every person on the Earth has an account before God and every one of them who is not born again owes death b/c the wages of sin is death

a.    It is not possible to work that account to balance

3.      That righteousness that Abraham God was not the result of works done, but of faith

B.     I did no work to receive my righteousness, so there is no work that I can to do lose it; I received my righteousness by faith and unbelief is the only way I can loose it

1.      Yielding to guilt and condemnation makes it evident that you believe your works make you righteous; you’re saying I did something that makes me guilty and therefore unrighteous and the only way I can be righteous is to not do that thing

2.      We do righteous thing b/c we are righteous, not because we are unrighteous and have to earn it

C.    6-7-David called these righteous by faith people blessed

1.      Our familiarity with this has tried to rob us of it’s awesomeness