ROMANS UNWRAPPED 58

                            BLESSEDNESS


"Even as David describes the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputes righteousness apart from works saying blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin". Romans 4v6-8.


We come now to David, another towering figure in Israel's history, and Paul continues in the same theme using the connecting words "even as"; in effect Abraham even as David.   Both these are supreme examples of justification by faith, and spanning hundreds of years of time, indicate that God's way of making men right with Himself is timeless.   In Abraham we saw that God "justifies the ungodly" v5. This does not mean He made him godly, it just means He began a totally new relationship with God, so too with David.
David was a great warrior king, who never lost a battle in the fields of war, he was a national hero, but his home life was a disaster, and in this sphere he miserably failed.   Adultery, duplicity, murder, ineptitude as a father, David was a failure as a man, if successful in office.   Today he would be described as a "flawed genius".   Yet he had about him, something more precious than success in life, he had, what he calls a blessedness .   We cannot be sure when he received this, and we know he made many mistakes afterward, so it does not mean perfection, and it was not based on any good he had done, but he had this inward contentment that was from outside of this world; he called it the standing of being blessed; he wrote about it in Psalm 1 and Psalm 32 which Paul quotes here.


This word comes from the Greek root  makarios which means "happy"-happy in the ultimate sense, approved by God, right with God, at peace with the creator and the creation, content.   The source of this is Divine approval. There is another word in the bible Accursed which means Divine disapproval.   This involves present and permanent separation from God. Mankind, created by God, can only be truly happy when reconciled to God. David knew this blessedness do you?   If you read Matthew 5v3-12  Jesus proclaimed blessedness on all His disciples.  What does it mean, how do I get it?      WHAT IS THIS BLESSEDNESS?

David puts it three ways in Psalm 32:
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1) Sins are forgiven; 2) Sins are covered; 3) Sins are not accounted against us.


This is justification, this is blessedness, this is God's approval of a human being.   Three different words are used by David to describe the entire range of sin: SIN-coming short, TRANSGRESSION-overstepping the mark, INIQUITY-the deep inward driving force of evil.   All of these are with us , all of these are contrary to God, all of these must be dealt with if I am to be right with God.   All of them are removed by one declaration of God instantaneously.   Do you think by any merit of your own you could meet God's approval? No, of course you couldn't, He approved only one man, the Son of man, Jesus, and only by faith in Him will He approve you.   Hear now the blessed tones of justification by faith.
SINS FORGIVEN..........not only the removal of my guilt, but the removal of all ill-feeling against me, no grudges held, no reminders of the past.
SINS COVERED...........buried, out of sight, as only God can do. Biblical language is "As far as the east is from the west, so far have I removed their transgressions from them"........"their sins and their iniquities I will remember no more"
SINS NOT ACCOUNTED AGAINST US.........the Divine manipulation of the heavenly ledgers!, what was debited against me totally removed from the records, transferred to Christ, and by a generosity unparalleled in all of time credited to me the righteousness of Christ!!!


No wonder David called it blessedness.

What does happiness mean to you?   We have been describing true happiness.   Human beings created by God cannot truly be happy until they are at peace with God.   How do I get this?   What do I have to do?   The answer is DO NOTHING, just believe.