“God’s Accounting System Greater Than Our Sin” Romans 4:1-23

In a few weeks some will pay the government money for taxes.  We try to figure our income but we failed.  When we think of accounting software we might try Quicken but God has a system far different from man.

 When man believes the promises God has given, it is accounted to him as righteousness. In this business term God charged to Abraham’s account righteousness because by his faith he believed God. Paul uses the work of man to drive home the point.  When a man works for an employer the wages he receives are not a gift but an obligation of the employer. God does not owe anyone and cannot be indebted to man by his works.  The bible teaches that the debtor is the servant to the lender and God could never be bound to sinful man and still be God.  The same term of debt or obligation is used of sin in the Lord’s Prayer.  It means sins or transgressions are a debt and a man’s works cannot lead to grace.  Grace is accounted or credited to the believer’s account because the believer trusted in a justifying God. With  God’s accounting system the believer receives a state of righteousness apart from works.

Another action of God’s accounting is the state of blessedness.  David’s history was clouded by breaking three of God’s Ten Commandments.  He coveted his neighbor’s wife, committed adultery, and murdered the husband.  How could such a man do works of righteousness and ever hope to cover these sins? Paul speaks of blessedness—a condition of blessed covers many different words such as “well-spoken of,” “happy,” and “joyful.  This condition of blessedness is considered one at peace with God.  The believer is no longer an enemy of God’s by being in this state of blessedness.  Paul quotes from Psalm 32: “Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered.”  David rejoiced that though he did commit severe sins, God still did not remove his blessings upon him. 

Finally God’s accounting system brings relationship. .  God justifies those by faith and justification is a reestablishment of an ethical and moral relationship.  With God’s choice, I am welcome to come and live in his courts.   PSA 65:4  Blessed are those you choose and bring near to live in your courts! We are filled with the good things of your house, of your holy temple.  We have a relationship of worship—worth-ship to remind us of his wonderful blessings.  We have a relationship that comes with trusting in him like Abraham and we need to follow directly in the path of Abraham’s righteousness.

I love God’s accounting better than Uncle Sam’s because there are never any mistakes. God’s accounting system is not based on my works but the works of His Son who justified me  by faith which I could never pay for and so he paid it for me.