Readings

Heidelberg Catechism LD 23

59 Q. What good does it do you, however, to believe all this?
A. In Christ I am right with God and heir to life everlasting?

60 Q. How are you right with God?
A. Only by true faith in Jesus Christ.
Even though my conscience accuses me of having grievously sinned against all God's commandments
and of never having kept any of them, and even though I am still inclined toward all evil, nevertheless,
without my deserving it at all, out of sheer grace, God grants and credits to me the perfect satisfaction, righteousness, and holiness of Christ, as if I had never sinned nor been a sinner, as if I had been as perfectly obedient as Christ was obedient for me.
All I need to do is to accept this gift of God with a believing heart.

61 Q. Why do you say that by faith alone you are right with God?
A. It is not because of any value my faith has that God is pleased with me.
Only Christ's satisfaction, righteousness, and holiness make me right with God.
And I can receive this righteousness and make it mine in no other way than by faith alone.

Romans 3:29 - 4:25 (NIV84)
29Is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles too? Yes, of Gentiles too,
30since there is only one God, who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith.
31Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the law.
1What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather, discovered in this matter?
2If, in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about—but not before God.
3What does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”
4Now when a man works, his wages are not credited to him as a gift, but as an obligation.
5However, to the man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness.
6David says the same thing when he speaks of the blessedness of the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works:
7“Blessed are they whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered.
8Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will never count against him.”
9Is this blessedness only for the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised? We have been saying that Abraham’s faith was credited to him as righteousness.
10Under what circumstances was it credited? Was it after he was circumcised, or before? It was not after, but before!
11And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. So then, he is the father of all who believe but have not been circumcised, in order that righteousness might be credited to them.
12And he is also the father of the circumcised who not only are circumcised but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised.
13It was not through law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of the world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith.
14For if those who live by law are heirs, faith has no value and the promise is worthless,
15because law brings wrath. And where there is no law there is no transgression.
16Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring—not only to those who are of the law but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all.
17As it is written: “I have made you a father of many nations.” He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed—the God who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were.
18Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, “So shall your offspring be.”
19Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead—since he was about a hundred years old—and that Sarah’s womb was also dead.
20Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God,
21being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised.
22This is why “it was credited to him as righteousness.”
23The words “it was credited to him” were written not for him alone,
24but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness—for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead.
25He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.