So the first characteristic of all the people who ever get to heaven is that some place in their lives they faced the truth about themselves: they have admitted that they are ungodly.

Not only must anyone who ever gets to heaven admit that she is ungodly, but, in addition, she admits that she is unworthy of being there.

Again, notice our sentence closely: "But to him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness." It is "to him that worketh not." This also cuts across the grain of human thinking.

We grow up in a society that, in a thousand different ways, tells us that we are rewarded on the basis of what we do. The first day that you went to kindergarten and the teacher put a star up on the chart, she was teaching you that lesson. All the way through school, when you did good work, you received high grades. If you did the best work over the twelve years, on graduation night you were allowed to make the valedictorian address while everybody else shifted in their seats. In later life, when you do effective work, you get the bonus. When you play well, you receive the medal. Wherever we live life, we are being taught that we are rewarded on the basis of what we do.

The lesson has been set to music. Those of you who have seen The Sound of Music know that in the delightful musical Maria falls in love. Standing opposite a man who has fallen in love with her, she sings a song to him:

There you are, standing there, loving me,

Whether or not you should.

Someplace in my youth or childhood,

I must have done something good.

Nothing ever comes from nothing.

Nothing ever could.

Someplace in my youth or childhood

I must have done something good.

Maria's explanation for her romance is simple: she is being loved because in her teenage years or earlier, she did something good. We cannot escape being taught that rewards come for what we do.

God does not play that game; God changes our rules. He does not justify people on the basis of their conduct. Why? The answer is found in Romans 4:4. The previous sentence states: "Now to him that work-eth is the reward not reckoned of grace but of debt."

Here's the principle. At some time or another you have probably worked for a wage. Most of us do it now. I'm sure that on the fifteenth and on the first when we get our paychecks, few of us throw our arms around the boss and thank him for what he has given us. We probably feel that we are worth about twice what we are getting. What we get in that pay envelope is owed us. If you worked and received nothing in that envelope, every labor union in the land, every law court in the country would stand behind your right to collect. The principle is clear: when you work, what you receive is a wage owed to you as a debt. It is not a gift. It is not an act of grace or kindness. It is a debt owed to you.

God is not going to justify us on the basis of what we do, because that would put God in a position of owing us heaven. Even the U.S. government understands that principle. We have a friend who as a hobby enters contests. Some time ago, she entered a contest in which, in twenty-five words or less, she described the virtues of a certain brand of carpet. As a result, she and her husband won a trip to Hawaii. It was a marvelous trip, but a few days after they returned, they were visited by an agent from the Internal Revenue Service. He informed them that Uncle Sam wanted his tax on the trip. My friends protested that they should not be expected to pay tax because all they had done was to write a mere twenty-five words. No hard work was involved in writing twenty-five words. But the agent reminded them that they had entered into a contract. What they had received was really not a gift given to them by the carpet company; it was actually a reward for writing the sentence. The government understood the principle of verse four. What you receive for work is a debt owed, not a gift bestowed.