I want that kind of credit card...

Romans 4:1-8

Observe:
Two people's lives and words are used as examples to prove Paul's point that the just will live by faith: Abraham and David.
Paul contrasts the ideas of works and faith or belief. Other key words are righteousness, credit, justified. He also compares the spiritual transaction between Abraham and God to a financial transaction: when a person works, he is credited with wages (the employer owes the employee). However, Abraham did not work, he believed and God credited him with righteousness (it is not that God now owes Abraham anything but as a gift he credits it to Abrahams account).

Interpret:
Paul uses Abraham because he was considered the father of the Jewish faith. If the father of Judaism was credited righteousness because of what he believed as opposed to what he did, then all the rest of humanity cannot earn God's righteousness through works either. Paul also uses David because he was THE king that everyone looked back on. Paul uses these two important figures to add authority to his argument: "Look, I'm not making this up. Even Abraham and David talked about this."
The main argument here is summed up in Romans 6:23 "For the wages of sin is death." If it was about earning anything, all that humanity would earn is death because they have sinned. Apart from faith in God, death was being credited to our account. But, when a person puts their faith in God and his promises, God does not count their sins against them anymore ("The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord") - like that bank account is wiped out - and instead credits righteousness to their account.

Apply:
God is gracious and merciful. He could have made me (and the rest of humanity) to draw from the account of death that I had built up but, simply because I trusted him, he cancelled that account and credited my account with righteousness.
Again, there is no cause for arrogance - I have nothing to boast about. As Paul says, "If, in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about..." But he wasn't so he doesn't and neither do I. Why am I righteous? Because God chose to credit my account. Not because I had any merit -I didn't (couldn't) finally bank up enough righteousness to get chosen. The fact that he chose me is nothing to boast about - he chose weasels like Jacob so all I'm saying when I get arrogant about God choosing me is that I am in the company of weasels (and properly so).
Finally, this righteousness that was credited to my account means that I should not take it for granted. I don't believe that God will take it away from me but he would be entirely justified to do so because it is his righteousness in the first place. I know that if I had given someone something so valuable and they took it for granted and abused it the way that I abuse God's righteousness, I would want to take it back. O, God, please forgive me for the way that I have abused your amazing gift!