Romans 4:13-15

Main Idea

Paul contrasts faith and the law to show that God's promises are received through faith, not by works of the law. The inheritance of God's promises comes solely by His grace through faith in Jesus Christ.

Key Points

• The Promise Comes Through Faith (Romans 4:13)

  • God's promise to Abraham was given before circumcision and before any law-keeping.

  • Abraham did not earn God's favor by obedience; he received God's promise by faith.

  • The origin of God's promises is His grace, not human merit.

  • Believers today receive God's promises in the same way—through faith alone.

• If Inheritance Came by Law, Faith Would Be Empty (Romans 4:14)

  • Paul presents a logical argument:

    • If inheritance depends on law-keeping, faith becomes meaningless.

    • Grace and works cannot both be the basis of justification.

  • Mixing works with faith corrupts the gospel just as poison contaminates pure water.

  • Faith is not another work we perform but the means by which we receive God's gift.

• The Law Produces Wrath (Romans 4:15)

  • The purpose of the law is to expose sin, not to save sinners.

  • Law establishes God's righteous standard and therefore reveals transgression.

  • Since all people break God's law, relying on it only results in condemnation.

  • The law is the wrong instrument for obtaining salvation; it points us to our need for Christ.

Gospel Application

• No one is righteous enough to earn God's promises.

• Christ alone fulfilled the law perfectly.

• Jesus bore God's wrath so believers might inherit God's promises.

• Assurance comes from resting in Christ's finished work rather than our imperfect obedience.

• Christians pursue holiness out of gratitude, not as a means of earning God's favor.

Memorable Quotes

• "The promises come by faith, but wrath comes by the law."

• "The promises' origin is not in the law but in God's grace."

• "The law cannot redeem you. The law cannot make you righteous."

• "Worthy is the Lamb."

Theme

Receiving God's promises through faith alone instead of relying on obedience to the law.

Primary Passage

• Romans 4:13–15

Supporting Scriptures

Justification by Faith

• Genesis 15:6

• Romans 3:21–28

• Galatians 3:6–14

• Ephesians 2:8–9

• Philippians 3:8–9

The Purpose of the Law

• Romans 3:19–20

• Galatians 3:19–24

• James 2:10

• Matthew 5:17–20

Christ Our Righteousness

• 2 Corinthians 5:21

• Romans 5:1–11

• Hebrews 10:11–18

Historical Context

Paul wrote Romans to explain the gospel clearly to both Jewish and Gentile believers. Many Jews believed covenant blessings were tied closely to obedience to the Mosaic Law. Paul points to Abraham because Abraham was declared righteous before receiving circumcision and centuries before Moses received the Law. This demonstrates that God's plan has always been salvation by grace through faith.

Westminster Standards

Westminster Confession of Faith

Chapter 11 – Of Justification

• Justification is an act of God's free grace.

• It is received through faith alone.

• Faith is not the ground of justification but the instrument by which believers receive Christ.

Chapter 19 – Of the Law of God

• The moral law reveals God's righteousness.

• The law cannot justify sinners.

• The law remains useful in directing believers toward thankful obedience.

Westminster Larger Catechism

Q. 70–73

• Explain the nature of justification.

• Faith alone receives Christ and His righteousness.

• Good works are the fruit of salvation, not its cause.

Q. 95–97

• Describe the proper uses of God's moral law.

• The law convicts sinners and drives them to Christ.

Westminster Shorter Catechism

Q. 33

Justification is an act of God's free grace, wherein He pardoneth all our sins, and accepteth us as righteous in His sight, only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to us, and received by faith alone.

Q. 35

• Sanctification follows justification but does not contribute to it.

Will you please turn in your Bibles with me to Romans chapter 4. Romans chapter 4, and this morning we will read verses 5 through 15. The sermon will come specifically from 13 through 15. Romans chapter 4, beginning at verse 5. But to him who does not work, but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness.

Just as David also describes the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness apart from works. Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord shall not impute sin. Does this blessedness then come upon the circumcised only, or upon the uncircumcised also? For we say that faith was accounted to Abraham for righteousness.

How then was it accounted? While he was circumcised, or uncircumcised. Not while circumcised, but while uncircumcised. And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of righteousness of the faith which he had while still uncircumcised, that he might be the father of all those who believe, though they are uncircumcised. that righteousness might be imputed to them also, and the father of circumcision to those who not only are of the circumcision, but who also walk in the steps of the faith which our father Abraham had while still uncircumcised.

For the promise that he would be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. For if those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of no effect, because the law brings about wrath. For where there is no law, there is no transgression. Thus ends this portion of the reading of God's word. A flower fades, but the word of our God endures forever.

Let's pray. Father, you have given us your word, words on a page that your spirit can use to bring about faith and eternal life. Lord, we pray that you would please wield your sword even against our own minds and hearts, that you would cut down every vain imagination of our hearts, that you might destroy one of our biggest enemies, our own pride and self-righteousness. Lord, we pray that as we come to the preaching of your word, that you would please restrain my lips foolish and sinfully speaking things that I ought not to. Lord, we pray that you would please preserve me from error. Lord, even in all these words, I pray for your people that they might have your word open before them, searching the scriptures to find out whether these things are so. Lord, please use your living and active word to work in our hearts.

We pray in Jesus' name, amen. What Paul is really describing in these passages is faith versus works, or faith versus the law. It's comparing and contrasting. And he's been doing this all the way through chapters one, two, and three. And he's using Abraham as this prototype, as this example of law versus faith.

And when did God make Paul, or when did God make Abraham his child? When did he make promises to him? And Paul teaches that Abraham's law-keeping could not procure God's promises. Nor could Abraham somehow make himself righteous enough to procure God's grace.

Paul says something really striking here. The law produces wrath. God's anger. And I hope by the time you walk out of the doors today that you will think to yourself, That I am an heir of the promise by God's grace. That I am an heir of God's promise by God's grace through faith in Jesus Christ. That's how we receive the promise. There's a young lady who came and talked to me a while ago.

She had been raised in the church, in a very highly law, structured type congregation. Sanctification and holiness was right in front of her face all the time. And she regularly struggled with assurance of salvation. She grew up saying, I have always loved Jesus. I've never known a day I didn't love Jesus, but how do I know that I'm saved? How do I know that any of these promises are actually for me? Until, as she was studying through passages like this, she finally came to a place, years and years later, into her 20s where she realized, it's not about my law keeping.

It was like the scales fell off the eyes of her heart and she saw the glory of Jesus. And how much the depths of God's love was for her. Because while her desire for holiness and sanctification was good, it was never why God had loved her in the first place. And I hope that you'll come to that place as we continue to work through this passage and through the rest of Romans, to see God's great love for you. Because what Paul tells us specifically here in Romans chapter four, verses 13 through 15, is that the promises come by faith. But, wrath comes by the law. Promises, God's promises come by faith or through faith. But wrath comes through the law. None of your rule keeping has ever earned you God's blessings. None of your law obeying will ever earn you God's promises. And none of your trying to be good enough ever earn you the inheritance that God offers in Jesus.

So, as we go through this passage, just one verse at a time, verses 13 through 15. First, we will look at the promise's origins. That the promise is not from the law, but from faith, in verse 13. And secondly, we'll look at verse 14 and see that there's a base truth. That if inheritance came by the law, then faith is futile. If inheritance came by the law, then faith is futile. And lastly, we'll look at verse 15 and see the truth about the law. That the law produces wrath.

So look with me first at verse 13, the promise's origin. For the promise that he would be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. What is this promise here that's being talked about, and who's the he, right? This is Abraham. This is going back up to the earlier parts of Genesis chapter 15, when Abraham believed God. God had made promises to him.

Go look up at the stars in the sky, count them if you can, and your descendants will be more numerous than those. Go look at the dust of the earth and your descendants will be greater in number than those. I will make you a father of many nations and you will be the inheritor of the world. I will bless those who bless you and I will curse those who curse you. I will make your name great. He makes all these great and amazing promises to Abraham. And when did he do that? When he was circumcised or uncircumcised? When he was a perfect law keeper or a law breaker? When he was uncircumcised. when he was a goyim, when he was a Gentile.

And when, as we looked last time at Genesis chapter 16, when he wasn't a perfect law keeper, he had just pawned off his wife, or he had just, sorry, that's later. He had just taken his wife's handmaid, almost like a concubine, to try to accomplish the righteousness of God by works. We're gonna accomplish this in our own feats, it doesn't go well. Abraham is being used here to show that the promises of God, that he would be the heir of the world, was not through the law. And this is where I want to be very careful here, because what we read even today, in 17 and 18 of Genesis, was Abraham's faith, like his own thinking, perfect?

What did he do when God doubled down on the promise to him? God appears to him again. He says, you're going to become a great nation. And he says, all right, give it to Ishmael. Give it to Hagar's boy. I know it's causing all sorts of problems, but God, just do it through that. I'm 100 years old. I said, no, no, no, no. No. Next year, you're going to have your own son. And what does Abraham do? On his face. In the posture of reverence, He laughs. So even He's wrestling through in His heart, how can this be? Lord, I know and I believe that You are my shield and my very great reward.

I know that Your promises are true, but I don't see how this is humanly possible. Thanks be to God, our absolutely perfect faith, our understanding of how God is going to accomplish all things isn't whether or not we'll actually be righteous. God isn't waiting for you to be perfectly right in all of your theology, to have all of your theological I's dotted and all of your eschatological T's crossed. You have many things that you're still working out in your faith and it's not about you coming to an absolute perfect, perfect theology. You may wrestle with the Lord.

You may struggle with how is God going to bring about these things, and yet still believe. The promise that Abraham would be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law. Abraham didn't receive the promise that he would become the inheritor of the world Because he was good enough. Or because he had to try hard enough. No, while he was still messed up Abraham doing things that we just shake our heads at. That's when God met him and gave him the promise. For those of you who believe, when did you hear the promise for the first time? When did you hear the good news? that you could be made right with God. Was it when you were perfect?

I mean, if this was chalk and talk, I would ask you, I would say, okay, everybody, whoever believes that they are regenerate, whoever believes that they are born again, if we were in a different type of setting, I would say, raise your hand if he saved you when your life was perfect and you haven't sinned since then.

And if Abraham was in the room, he would raise his hand too. No, he wouldn't. None of us would be able to raise our hands. And this is Paul's whole point. Chapter 4 isn't divorced from chapter 3. Paul is showing that even Abraham fell from glory. Even Abraham was a sinner. Even Abraham needed to have a righteousness that came by faith in Jesus.

So the promises origins are not Not in the law, but the promises origins are in God's goodness. So maybe in your life you've been wrestling with like, well, I'm not sure if I'm good enough to call myself a Christian. I'm not sure I'm good enough or holy enough yet to become a member of the church. I'm not sure if I'm good enough to tell other people about the promises of God because I still got sins I'm messing up in my own life. If you're waiting until you're good enough, to think that somehow you're going to be able to hold on to the promises, you're going to die waiting.

The day of salvation will pass by you. Because the promises' origins are not in the law but faith, but through the righteousness of faith. You will never be righteous enough in your own to stand before the holy and righteous God. But Jesus, our high priest, who is righteous, stands at the right hand of God the Father Almighty, making intercession for his people day and night. He is our righteousness. He is our hope. The promises, origins, are in God's grace, not in the law.

But then I want you to look at Paul's logical turn here. He wants to press this even further in verse 14. In verse 14, he's going to talk about a base truth, or if you want to go into some Latin stuff, a reductio. He wants to reduce it down. It's like he's boiling the sap out of a maple tree, and he's going to boil off all the water and reduce it down to just its core thing.

And notice what he says in verse 14. For if those who are of the law are heirs, Faith is made void and the promise made of no effect. Whoa! Did you catch it? He is saying there is an irreducible logic here. If the promise is obtained because you are able to perfectly keep the law, That's how you're going to become the heir. You have no place in your heart, in your life, or anywhere else for faith. Faith is made void and the promise of no effect. And this is the absolutes that Paul is using.

A lot of people get really squeamish with this type of thing, because we don't want to slip into what theologians call antinomianism. We don't want to just turn into lawless lives, or we don't care about our morality, we don't care about how we treat people, we don't care about the outwards of how we think in our lives and treat people. And so we get a little bit squirmish when we hear words like, well if we have law versus faith, Or faith is made void and the promise made of no effect, right? We think, oh Paul, can you really say that?

Is it really that if I mingle in a little bit of law or a little bit of works with my faith, that it really dilutes it down? He says yes. If you got a water cup, and you take just a little bit of arsenic and you put it in the water cup, The whole cup is poison. Because it means you're trusting not in the pure, not in Christ, but it's constantly this trusting in myself plus Jesus' works. And Paul says, no. No, if those who are of The law or heirs, if those who are in all of their rule keeping, and all of their obedience, and all of their, I'm going to do X, Y, and Z, then it's nothing more than arithmetic. God says, do not commit adultery, I don't commit adultery, thus equals, I'm an inheritor. I get all the good stuff from God. I get the world, I get the kingdom, I... Why? Because I kept my end of the equation. Because I did my part. Yeah, sure, God did His, right? But the equation wouldn't be complete unless I did my plus part.

Paul here, inspired by the Holy Spirit, says, no, no, no, no. If you are made an heir, By the way, air, for you children, I'm not talking about A-I-R, like the stuff you breathe into your lungs, but the air, air meaning H-E-I-R, like the stuff you get when people die, they give you their things, you become the inheritor. So, you get the stuff, right? God is saying, if you're a Christian, you get the world. You get the new king, new heavens and the new earth. You get all the promises. God himself, that's what it means to be an air.

If you think that it's by your law keeping, faith is made empty, void, hollow. You see, faith, we want to use faith in this idea, like, I'm doing something. I'm actively thinking, I'm stirring up my own heart, I'm holding on to something, right? We talk about faith as an active thing. But faith is to those who receive Him. It's not something that we are actively doing.

The only reason why we can have faith is because faith itself is a gift. Faith is a hard thing, language-wise, but it's The best illustration I can give you is we're people sitting on the side of the road as beggars. Clothes tattered, health in shambles, our feet are paralyzed. We can't do anything to help ourselves except just waste there and die.

And the Lord comes. It brings out our hands, His hands. He lifts up our chin. He puts water in our mouth. And because He gives us everything, we drink. See, it wasn't because we drank the water that we're saved. No, it's because He came to us. He gave us that which we could never keep ourselves, the law.

The base truth is, if your inheritance, if you think that you receive the promise because you're keeping the law good enough, you've essentially said, I don't need God's promises actually. And I don't need faith. I can do it on my own. Or at least I can do my part. But why? Why is it this case?

That's what Paul gets at with verse 15. Our third and final point here. There's a base truth about the law. The truth about the law is that it produces wrath. Look at the man of verse 15. Because the law brings about wrath. For where there is no law, there is no transgression. Why do we have laws in the United States? Some of you might say, well, because they want to annoy me with their rules, right? We have law, because law tells the person who wants to do something evil, if they're good laws, should tell the person, what you're doing is bad. Here's the line, and you shall not cross it.

And what happens if you break the law? If I decide that I want to drive 115 miles down 61, I may have a great old time. But the law produces wrath. I'm going to get a ticket, I'm going to put handcuffs on my wrists, and I'm going to be taken down to the jail. Because there's anger, there's wrath that comes from law.

Law is punitive. If you steal your neighbor's stuff, you'll be punished. If you punch somebody in the face, the law says you must be punished. If you do any number of things, if you go over the property line and you start tilling in other people's fields and reaping a harvest that's not your own, there's laws against it and you'll be punished for it. That is the nature of the law. Because the law brings about wrath. It's inherent with law. You put down laws because people are sinners. Because people do wrong things.

That's why Paul says in the second half of this, for where there is no law, there is no transgression. If there's no lines to cross, you can't cross the line. That's what that word transgression means, right? Trans means across, and then digress means movement, right? So, you're walking across a line. If there's no line, you can't step across the line. If there is no law, you can't break the law.

But the point is, we know that there is law. We know that there is wrath. This is tying into Romans chapter one, where God has made his wrath known by giving people over to their sins, allowing humans to walk in our transgressions. And so he says the law brings about wrath. So how can you be saved by your law keeping? If the law brings about wrath, and the nature of law is that it's for the outpouring of wrath, for the outpouring of punishment and anger upon those who do wickedness, how can you inherit the promise by law keeping?

It's the wrong tool. It's the wrong tool. If I need to buff the paint on our car, I'm not going to bring a blowtorch. It's the wrong tool. You bring an oxyacetylene torch and you put it on a cutting tip, and you bring that white hot torch to your paint, are you going to buff out your paint? No, you're going to destroy the paint and destroy the metal.

Why? Because that's what the point of the torch is. Is to cut through. That's the point of the law. The law burns. The law punishes. The law cannot redeem you. The law cannot make you righteous. All of your keeping of the Ten Commandments, no matter how hard you try, will never make you inherit heaven. So what do you do? You rest in Jesus. That was the whole point of this.

This is why Paul is using Abraham as this example. Abraham was not good at keeping the law. Abraham is not the perfect person. Abraham is just like every other person that Romans chapter 3 was talking about. Romans 3 19. Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore, by the deeds of the Law, no flesh will be justified in His sight. Why? What does the Law do? For by the Law is the knowledge of sin. The Law is the tool that shows us our desperate need for Jesus. And so, if you are using the Law to tell you, I'm good enough, That's what Paul is saying here in Romans 4.

You make faith and the promise of no effect. If you can accomplish righteousness by the law, it's not showing you your sin. And if you can't be shown your sin, you don't have any need for Jesus. And if you have no need for Jesus, you have no need for the promises of God.

So what is this passage teaching us? It's teaching us that Abraham desperately needed God's grace. Abraham couldn't work. Because if Abraham had worked for his righteousness, it would be a wage. But the promise was a gift. The inheritance was a gift. He didn't work for it, he didn't own it, or he didn't earn it, it was given to him.

So my question to you is, how do you treat the kingdom of God? Why will you withstand the last judgment day? In your heart, how do you think about Am I worthy of inheriting eternal life? Am I worthy of inheriting the new heavens and the new earth? Are you worthy? In and of yourself. If your answer is yes, that should be a big check engine light on your soul. And you need to stop and wrestle with this whole passage again. Because what this is getting to us is that we are not worthy. But worthy is the Lamb. He was the one who redeemed us from slavery. He was the one who took the wrath of God upon himself. He was the one who was righteous. And because of our faith in Him, God accounts our faith to us as righteousness.

We are not blessed because we are perfect law keepers. We say the same thing, we sing the same thing as verses seven and eight say. Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blesses the man to whom the Lord shall not impute sin Those who are blessed are not the perfect law keepers But those who have been covered over by the blood of Jesus Who are able to confess are you one who's able to confess your sins to the Lord openly and honestly and Then rest and the perfect love he has shown you in Jesus.

I Please, I beg you, walk out of these doors today and know that the only way that you will be made right with God, that you can be made right with God is by grace through faith in Jesus, not your own works. Let's pray. Lord, what an amazing thing it is for us to hear that somehow we could inherit even the kingdom of God, and that you would allow this to happen, even though we're sinful people. God, I pray, we pray that you would please fill our hearts with thankfulness, with joy, With gratitude, Lord, that you are such an amazing and good God, even to transgressors like us. Lord, we pray that we might not rest in our own strength or our own understanding, but God, we pray that you would please let us receive and rest in Jesus alone as our only hope in life and death. You are so good. Please make it true in our hearts, in Jesus' name, amen.

• Why does Paul use Abraham as the primary example of justification by faith?

• What does it mean that God's promises originate in grace rather than law?

• Why would faith become "void" if inheritance depended upon works?

• How does the law expose our need for Christ?

• What is the difference between justification and sanctification?

• Why do Christians still pursue holiness if works do not save us?

• How can this passage strengthen a believer struggling with assurance?

• In what subtle ways do Christians sometimes trust in their own performance instead of Christ?

• How does understanding Christ's righteousness produce greater gratitude and obedience?

• What practical difference should this truth make in your daily walk with God?

• Faith – Trusting in Christ alone for salvation.

• Law – God's righteous commands revealing His holy standard.

• Justification – God's declaration that a sinner is righteous because of Christ.

• Grace – God's unearned favor toward sinners.

• Imputation – Christ's righteousness credited to believers, and believers' sins credited to Christ.

• Inheritance – The promised blessings of salvation and eternal life given to God's children.

• Wrath – God's holy and just judgment against sin.

• Sanctification – The lifelong work of the Holy Spirit conforming believers to Christ.

• Transgression – Crossing God's revealed law.

• Promise – God's covenant commitment fulfilled in Christ and received through faith.