Psalms 32 and 51 are David’s public confessions of sin, written after his adultery with Bathsheba and the murder of her husband, Uriah. These psalms express David’s deep remorse and his plea for God’s mercy.
In Romans 4, when Paul speaks of the forgiveness that comes through faith, he quotes Psalm 32 to highlight the blessedness of being forgiven by God, emphasizing that righteousness is credited apart from works.
So also David speaks of the blessedness of those to whom God reckons righteousness apart from works:
“Blessed are those whose iniquities are forgiven,
and whose sins are covered;
blessed is the one against whom the Lord will not reckon sin.” (Romans 4.6-8)
Many people have a hard time understanding Romans 4. The good news is you don’t have to understand it to experience it.
Greg was a teenager when I served a church in Louisiana. He didn’t understand this passage. In fact, he couldn’t read it. What he did do was experience it. The last time I saw him, he was a pastor of a small church in Louisiana, serving God with all his heart.
Like the blood that covered the sins on the Day of Atonement in the Holy of Holies, the blood of Jesus Christ shed on the cross covers our sins and forgives all of our wrongdoings.
Good News to All
Circumcision was one of the four boundary markers that identified Hebrews from Gentiles from the days of Abraham even to today.
In order to include Gentiles in the people of God, something had to happen. God showed, through Paul and Abraham, how faith is what reckons us as part of God’s family.
Is this blessedness, then, pronounced only on the circumcised, or also on the uncircumcised? We say, “Faith was reckoned to Abraham as righteousness.”
How then was it reckoned to him? Was it before or after he had been circumcised? It was not after, but before he was circumcised.
He received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. The purpose was to make him the ancestor of all who believe without being circumcised and who thus have righteousness reckoned to them,
And likewise the ancestor of the circumcised who are not only circumcised but who also follow the example of the faith that our ancestor Abraham had before he was circumcised (Romans 4.9-12).
It’s important to understand what the term “righteousness” meant in the Old Testament. More than the ethical implications of the word, the righteous in the Old Testament were those who belonged to God’s covenant people.
As God’s covenant people, the Hebrews were expected to reflect His attributes, such as righteousness, justice, faithfulness, and loving-kindness. However, in the Old Testament the primary meaning of being “righteous” was to belong to God, rather than focusing solely on ethical behavior.
God’s grace, received through faith, is what makes us part of God’s family today. Just as the Hebrews were expected to reflect the character of the God they loved and served, we are called to do the same.
Faith is not meant to leave us unchanged; instead, it places us in God’s family, where we are to reflect His nature to the world.
Greg, mentioned earlier in the article, is a perfect example of this truth. He received Jesus by faith and became a part of God’s family. God transformed his heart, making him a gentle, loving, and caring husband, father, pastor, and dedicated worker in his business.
This is the way the good news of God’s saving activity works. The Holy Spirit applies the message to our hearts. We receive it in faith, making us members of God’s family. Then, the Spirit transforms us from the inside out.
YouTube Discussion
Rudy Ross and I discussed this passage on YouTube today. It is on the Bob Spradling channel.
Real Voices 