9th September 2026

9th September 2026


Pray (ACts)


Read (Romans 4:13-15)


Message (Alan Burke)


I’m sitting in my study listening to ‘The Clash’ and the song ‘I Fought the Law and the Law Won’ has just come on. Can you imagine though if there was no such thing as law in society? Of course, it would depend on many factors. I imagine that those in urban settings would face much greater consequences than those who live in a rural setting, but that’s maybe because I’ve rose-tinted glasses about living on the edge of a village. But without law, society would change dramatically; daily life would be transformed. Laws do more than punish wrongdoing; they establish shared rules, protect rights, organise daily life, etc. Paul has already made the point that Abraham’s righteousness came by faith and not the law. Now he builds on that in v14-15, for it wasn’t through the law, but the promise that Abraham was justified before God that it was credited to him as righteous. 


What Paul is doing is stripping away any notion that Abraham was justified before God in what he had done, whether it was circumcision or law-keeping. No, what mattered, the only thing that truly mattered, was that Abraham believed in God; he had a righteousness that came by faith that would mean that he would be heir of the world. Heir of the world, not because of what he had done but through faith. Making the point that if those who live by the law are heirs, faith has no value (v14). The reason why faith would have no value is because then our righteousness would be based on our works by observing the law; there is no need for the promise; faith would be worthless. Instead, though, of the law bringing righteousness, bringing our justification before the Lord our God, the law does something else: the law brings wrath. 


And what is God’s wrath? It is His holy, righteous, just anger against sin, expressed through divine judgement. This is the only thing that our law-keeping merits. Now, I’ve come across many people who think that through their obedience, their law-keeping, they have somehow done enough, but as we are reminded of in James 2:10, “Whoever keeps the whole law but stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it” (Jam 2:10).


What Paul is not doing is saying that the law has no positive role in the life of the believer; of course, it does; we should desire as believers to keep the law, but it can never justify us. 1 Tim 1:8 says, “We know that the law is good if one uses it properly” (1 Ti 1:8). The law is able to guide us in holiness, in how to please our heavenly Father. Yet if we are basing our hope on our law-keeping, then what we have merited, what we have earned, what we are deserving of is God’s wrath. 


What the law should do is that it should act as a mirror rather than fool anyone into a false sense of security. For it reveals that we cannot do what the Lord requires of us; the law helps us see just how many our sins are, how we have transgressed what God requires of us. Our only confidence before the Lord is in and through Jesus Christ; it is by grace alone, through faith alone in Christ alone we are saved. So look to Christ Jesus and know that your confidence comes not from yourself but it is found in Him; stand on Christ and His righteousness and as we do we know that we have a righteousness that comes by faith.


Pray (acTS)


Sing


WSC
Q61 What is forbidden in the fourth commandment?
A. The fourth commandment forbiddeth the omission, or careless performance, of the duties required, and the profaning the day by idleness, or doing that which is in itself sinful, or by unnecessary thoughts, words, or works, about our worldly employments or recreations.
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