Romans 4:13-25

“The Faith of Father Abraham – Part 2”

Romans 4:13-25 (Message #10)

March 20, 2016 (Sligo, Ireland)

INTRODUCTION:

Last Sunday we looked at Romans 4:1-12. What did we learn from that passage? Let’s review for a moment:   

·         In verses 1-8 we learned that Abraham was not saved by good works or keeping the Law.  

·         In verses 9-12 we learned that Abraham was not saved through religious rituals including circumcision.   

·         BUT rather, he was saved by faith in God’s promises, by God’s grace, by God’s mercy. In fact, Abraham is the father of all who come to God by faith, whether Jewish Christians or Gentile Christians.  

TRANSITION:

            Today we look deeper into Abraham’s faith and specifically into the covenant God made with him—what theologians call The Abrahamic Covenant.  

MAIN BODY:

Verse 13: “For the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world did not come through the Law but through the righteousness of faith.”

• “The promise to Abraham and his offspring” This was God’s unconditional unilateral covenant. Notice: some covenants are bilateral meaning that they are two-sided and mutually binding on both parties. If either party fails to uphold his end of the bargain then the other party is released from all responsibility. But God’s covenant with Abraham was unilateral, meaning one-sided. Without obligating Abraham to anything God said, “I will bless you. I will give you a land for you and your descendants. I will make of you a great nation.”
• “…heir of the world” – [Look at Genesis 12:1-3; 13:14-18; Chapter 15; 17:1-8, 16-21; 18:9-19; 21:2-5; 22:17-18 for all parts of this unilateral covenant.]    
• God promised to be a shield for Abraham, to protect him.
• God promised to give him and his descendants a land of their own, which God would show to him. [N.B. In Genesis 17:8 God says, “I will give to you and to your descendants after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession.” In other words, the land of Israel rightly belongs to the Jews because God gave it to them as a gift.]
• God said He would make of Abraham a great nation.   
• Great nations would come from him. Abraham would be the “father of many nations.”  
• God promised to bless him and said his reward would be very great.
• God promised to make Abraham’s name great.
• God promised to multiply his seed as the stars of the heavens and as the sand that is on the seashore.
• God said that Abraham would be a blessing. In him all the families of the earth would be blessed.  
• God said that Abraham’s seed would possess the gate of their enemies [i.e. to overpower them].
• God promised blessings for blessers, and curses for cursers.
• The whole world would be blessed through him and his offspring.
• Abraham would have a son of promise that would come forth from his own body, an heir, through whom would come a Saviour.      

Verse 14: “For if it is the adherents of the Law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void.”   

• Notice that “IF” is merely rhetorical, for the sake of discussion. Paul’s whole argument is that keeping the Law saves no one. God promised all these blessings to Abraham long before the Law was given at Mt. Sinai. Abraham believed God and his faith was reckoned to him as righteousness 430 years before the Law was given.  

Verse 15: “For the Law brings wrath, but where there is no law there is no transgression.”

·         The Law, because it reveals sin and even provokes people to sin (cf. Rom. 7:5) produces wrath, which is the natural consequence of sin. But what if people don’t know the rules? Transgression is defined as overstepping a clearly defined line placed there by God. Paul’s point is that where there is no Law it is still sin, but it does not have the character of transgression.

·         LAW ==> Wrath ==> Death. The Law is like “The Titanic”, flawed and going down. All who hold on to it will sink and be lost forever.

·         Promise ==> Faith ==> Life. But the promise of God embodied in Christ is like “The Carpathia”, the only hope of rescue. Therefore, if you want to be saved, get to the Carpathia as quickly as possible. Swim to Jesus!    

Verse 16: “That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his [Abraham’s] offspring—not only to those who are of the Law [Jewish Christians], but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham [Gentile Christians], who is the father of us all,”

·         “…it depends on faith” Ephesians 2:8 is one of the clearest passages about the close correlation between faith and grace: “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that, not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works so that no one may boast.”   

·         “…in order that the promise [of salvation to any who come by faith] may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring” Grace is the bedrock. God’s Promise is the foundation. Faith in God’s promise is the house built on top of that foundation. Gentile Christians who share Abraham’s faith, like him do not possess the Law.  

Verse 17: “…as it is written, ‘I have made you the father of many nations’—in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.”    

·         Here Paul cites God’s words to Abraham recorded in Genesis 17:4-6.

·         “…who gives life to the dead” Paul is probably referring to the birth of Isaac to Abraham and Sarah, both of whom were “as good as dead,” meaning way past child-bearing age. Isaac’s birth was a miracle! It may also refer to Abraham’s belief that God would raise Isaac from the dead as mentioned in Hebrews 11:19.

·         “…calls into existence the things that do not exist.” God is able to create things out of nothing, just as He did at the creation of the world.     

Verse 18: “In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, ‘So shall your offspring be.’”    

• Notice the numerous descriptions of Abraham’s faith throughout this passage. Abraham believed God’s spoken word. He trusted in the promises that came directly from God’s mouth.
• “In hope he believed against hope” In other words, when all human hope was gone, when all human solutions had been proven to be hopeless, Abraham put his hope in God.

  

Verse 19: “He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead (since he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah’s womb.”     

• Every day when Abraham looked in the mirror he saw an old man staring back at him. He saw an old codger with wrinkles and white hair, limping around and using a cane. When he looked at his wife, Sarah, he saw an old woman stooped over and having difficulty doing her household chores, long past child-bearing age.
• However, Abraham disbelieved what his physical eyes saw and believed with the eyes of faith. He chose to believe God’s promises rather than what his physical eyes told him. Such faith defied logic. It defied reason. It didn’t make any sense. You see, faith does not refuse to face reality. No, it simply looks beyond reality to see God and His promises.
• “He did not weaken in faith” Faith is like a muscle. If it is unused it becomes flabby and weak and soon begins to atrophy. On the other hand, if faith is exercised, used, and applied to difficult situations it grows stronger and bigger and more resilient. Then when something comes up that seems impossible and looks insurmountable, that’s when faith kicks in. I ask you this morning, “What kind of faith muscles do you have? Are they strong and ready to take on whatever comes, or are they weak and flabby and incapable of holding you up in the tough times?”  

Verses 20-21: “No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, ²¹ fully convinced that God was able to do what He had promised.”     

• Abraham did not distrust God, or waver, shake, rattle, or waffle.
• Instead, he GREW in faith, through trials and the testing of his faith (cf. James 1:2-4). Notice, “…grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God.” The strength came in the doing! And faith always brings God glory.
• “…fully convinced” that God could do anything; even make an old couple fertile again so that they could have a child. 

Verse 22: “That is why his faith was ‘counted to him as righteousness.’”     

·         Abraham’s faith was the real deal. It was not, “I hope, I hope, I hope.” Rather it was, “God can and God will; He said it, I believe it, and that settles it!”

Verses 23-25: “But the words ‘it was counted to him’ were not written for his sake alone, ²⁴ but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in Him [i.e. God, the Father] who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, ²⁵ who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.”     

• Verse 23 cites Genesis 15:6. But Paul says that Scripture was not for Abraham alone, but for us as well, because the same truth applies to us. If justification by faith was true for him it is true for us as well.
• In verse 24 Paul says that our faith will also be counted to us as righteousness just as it was for Abraham. Just as Abraham was justified because he believed in a God who brought life from the dead, so we too will be justified by believing “in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead.” Our faith in God’s promises about Christ will be credited to us as righteousness, but it hangs on our belief and confession of Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection (See Romans 10:9-10 and I Peter 1:20-21).
• In verse 25 notice that Paul uses the passive mood. “Christ was delivered up for [i.e. because of] our trespasses…and Christ was raised up for [i.e. for the benefit of] our justification.” = The action was done by the Father in both cases so that we might be justified before Him. 

CONCLUSION:

Today we remember that Sunday so long ago when Jesus rode into Jerusalem seated on the back of a donkey colt, being hailed by the crowd as their king. It is often referred to as His Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem. It was a happy day for many because they mistakenly believed that Jesus was coming to free them from Roman oppression. They saw Him as a liberator, a freedom fighter. However, very few of them recognized Him for who He truly was—the Promised Messiah, the Christ, the Lamb of God who had come to take away the sin of the world, the Saviour. Most people saw in Him what they wanted to see, in hopes that He could do what they could not do for themselves. 

And only a few days later, many of those that on Sunday had been shouting, “Hail, blessed is the king of the Jews,” on Friday were shouting, “Crucify him! Crucify him!” But Jesus knew all of this beforehand. None of it surprised Him, but it did grieve Him.

            Luke records these words in Luke 19:41-44, “And when He drew near and saw the city, He wept over it, ⁴² saying, ‘Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. ⁴³ For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade round you and surround you and hem you in on every side ⁴⁴ and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.” The prophecy was fulfilled in 70 A.D.

            What does that last phrase mean? “…Because you did not know the time of your visitation.” It means that they did not see their opportunity the way they should have. They blew it! They missed their chance. Jesus, the Saviour of the world, was in their midst but they didn’t recognize Him. Salvation came to them riding on the back of a donkey and they failed to connect up the dots and see Him for who He really was.

            Today Jesus is passing by again, just as He did on that day long ago. He’s here to heal and to save and to make your life new. The Bible says in II Cor. 6:2, “Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.” Will you open your heart right now and believe in Him? Will you trust in Him today, right now, as your Saviour and Lord? Please don’t leave today without getting right with Him. There is too much at stake to put it off. This is the “time of your visitation.” Don’t miss out on this opportunity to come to Jesus.