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.

Romans 4:1-12

“The Faith of Father Abraham – Part 1”

Romans 4:1-12 (Message #9)

March 13, 2016 (Sligo, Ireland)

INTRODUCTION:

Salvation by works was a common misconception among Jews. Therefore, it became a major stumbling block for Early-Church Christians who just imported some of their erroneous Jewish thinking into their newfound Christian faith (cf. Acts 11, 15, Galatians, etc.).

The Apocryphal book of Ecclesiasticus taught that Abraham was given justification and the rite of circumcision because he anticipated the Mosaic Law. Habakkuk 2:4 was incorrectly translated: “The just shall live by their faithfulness.”  Thus, Law-keeping was generally believed by the Jews to be a fundamental element of salvation.

Even today among Christians the question of how God dispensed salvation in the OT is still confusing for many. In fact, many people think that the OT saints were saved by the works of the Law, and NT saints are saved by grace through faith. Some assert that Law-based salvation only extended from Moses until Christ and that the Law entered because the Jews rejected grace. Either way, many Christians mistakenly believe that God has two ways of salvation—(1) by keeping the Law, and (2) by grace through faith.

TRANSITION:

I used to teach in a seminary in Brazil. I eventually got so that I could anticipate many of the questions that my students would ask even before they posed their question. It was the same way with the Apostle Paul. In chapter 4 of Romans he anticipated the question people would ask; namely, “How were OT saints saved?” By good works? By Law-keeping? By animal sacrifices? By religious rites? By their covenant connection to Israel? NO!!!

In Romans 3 Paul teaches that salvation is by grace through faith, apart from the works of the Law. The question arises whether this then is a change from how God justified people in OT times. The answer is, “NO! Salvation has always been by grace through faith.”

MAIN BODY:

Verse 1: “What then shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh?”

• Abraham was revered by the Jews as the father of their nation, their great patriarch, and a shining example of a righteous man who was justified before God. The question, though, is “How did Abraham get justified before God?” Remember, Abraham was born long before the giving of the Law so the works of the Law obviously played no part in his justification. “How then did it happen?” Paul asks.

Verse 2: “For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God.”   

• Paul’s point is that Abraham was NOT justified by his works but by his faith in God, and because this was true he had no basis for boasting. In fact, we know that no one has a right to boast before God, ever, even the best of people. Abraham, like us, was just a sinner who threw himself on the mercy of God and believed that God would one day provide a perfect sacrifice to atone for his sins, and not for his only, but for the sins of the whole world.

Verse 3: “For what does the Scripture say? ‘Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.””

·         As always, Paul’s answer is based in Scripture. “What does the Bible say?” This should be our default question as well, on every subject.

• Paul here quotes Genesis 15:6. In the context the LORD had just finished telling Abraham that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars in the heavens, and the Word of God says that Abraham believed God, and God reckoned his faith to him as righteousness.
• Paul writes about the faith of Abraham in other places too. In Galatians 3:6-9 we read, “Even so Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. ⁷ Therefore, be sure that it is those who are of faith who are sons of Abraham. ⁸ The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the Gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, ‘All the nations will be blessed in you.’ ⁹ So then those who are of faith are blessed with Abraham, the believer.” And you can read more about Abraham’s faith in Hebrews 11:8-12, 17-19.

Verse 4: “Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due.”

·         This is simple, straight forward logic. If you work at a job you are recompensed with wages. It is your just pay for honest labor. The money you receive is not a gift; it is money owed to you. You’ve earned it. But in this context, “the one who works” refers to a religious person who is frantically trying to win God’s favor and attention by means of good works and religious acts. Basically Paul is saying that if you want to try and earn your salvation by your own efforts God will pay you what you have earned, but your wages will turn out to be a pittance and certainly not enough to pay for your ticket to Heaven.

·         A gift, on the other hand, is some good thing you receive, not because it is owed to you, but because someone wants to bless you and make you happy. You can’t work for a gift. Your only two choices are to accept it or reject it. You can’t earn it.

Verse 5: “And to the one who does not work but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness,”    

• In the whole context, Paul has been using Abraham as his example. According to Genesis 15 Abraham had kept no law, had rendered no service, and had performed no ritual to earn God’s favor. He had simply believed God’s promises to him, and as Paul says here, “his faith was credited to him as righteousness.” When Paul says, “…And to the one who does not work…”  he’s not talking about spiritual laziness with no effort expended to seek after a godly life. He’s referring specifically to the fact that Abraham was not doing anything to try and merit God’s favor. He merely took God at His word and his faith was counted to him as righteousness. He understood that salvation is a gift.

Verses 6-8: “…just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works: ⁷ ‘Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; ⁸ blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.’”

• Here Paul quotes King David’s words recorded in the Septuagint in Psalm 32:1-2, “How blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered! How blessed is the man to whom the LORD does not impute iniquity.” In other words, God does not continue to credit unrighteousness to a sinner that repents, but rather, forgives him when he confesses his sin and turns from it. And this has nothing to do with good works, and everything to do with pure unadulterated grace.  

Verse 9: “Is this blessing then only for the circumcised [Jews], or also for the uncircumcised [Gentiles]? We say that faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness.”     

• There are two questions in play here. The first is: “Is this gracious gift of God’s righteousness only for the Jews, if is it also for the Gentiles?” Of course, we have already answered this. There is ONE MEANS of salvation and it is for both Jews and Gentiles. Jesus is the only Saviour and the only way to approach Him is by faith. Nothing else works.
• The second issue is in the second sentence: “We say that faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness.” Abraham had not earned God’s grace, because grace is a free gift. It can’t be earned. Abraham had simply believed God and God counted that faith to him as righteousness.

Verse 10: “How then was it counted to him? Was it before or after he had been circumcised? It was not after, but before he was circumcised.”     

• You’ll notice that Paul is leading us through this discussion very slowly and deliberately. He uses repetition, saying the same thing in different ways. He wants to make sure that we get it.
• “How then was it [i.e. faith] counted to him? Was it before or after he had been circumcised?”  Abraham was declared righteous by God [see Gen. 15:6] approximately 14 years before he and his servants were circumcised as a sign of the covenant with Jehovah. Moreover, according to Galatians 3:17Abraham lived 430 years before the Law was given through Moses, and thus, he couldn’t have been justified by the Law.
• Moreover, when you stop to think about it Abraham wasn’t even a Jew when God declared him “righteous” because there still wasn’t such a thing as a Jew. Abraham came from Ur of the Chaldees in Sumer of Mesopotamia. That was in what is today southern Iraq. One day the LORD appeared to Abram and promised him that if he would leave Ur and journey to a land that he had never seen God would make his descendants outnumber the sand on the seashore and the stars in the sky. God also promised Abram that from his descendants one “seed” would be the Saviour of all mankind. Abram obeyed God and left the city and journeyed across the Fertile Crescent into the land of Canaan where he and his descendants were pilgrims until God gave them the land as an inheritance. Abraham had two sons—Ishmael and Isaac, but God said that the covenant blessings would only come through Isaac. However, Isaac wasn’t a Jew either. Isaac eventually had two sons—Esau and Jacob. God said that He would give the covenant blessing through Jacob’s line. But Jacob wasn’t a Jew either, at least not yet. In fact, he was a low-life sneaky-weasel of a man that seemed to have little worth as a human-being. But God chose to use him anyway. After working him over and doing a tune-up on him, God changed Jacob’s name to Israel. This man Jacob/”Israel” ended up with 12 sons, but they weren’t Jews either yet because there still wasn’t such a thing. But those 12 sons of Israel grew up, got married, had scads of children and became the fathers of 12 tribes, that today we call the “Twelve Tribes of Israel,” which is just another name for the Jewish Race. All of that historical detail just to say that Abraham, during his lifetime, was no more Jewish than I am! So God declaring him righteous had nothing to do with Jewishness!

Verse 11: “He received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he [already] had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. The purpose was to make him the father of all who believe without being circumcised, so that righteousness would be counted to them as well,”     

• Circumcision did not save anyone. It couldn’t. It was simply the outward physical sign of a covenant that God initiated between Himself and His people, Israel. In Genesis 17 God told Abraham that he and all his male servants, along with all his male descendants were to submit to circumcision as a seal of the unique covenant bond Abraham and his seed had with God. This set them apart as God’s chosen people, through whom He would one day reveal the Messiah, who would be the Saviour, Christ the Lord.
• But Paul’s point here again, is that circumcision entered the story after Abraham was declared righteous. Abraham found grace in the eyes of the Lord before he was circumcised.
• “The purpose was to make him the father of all who believe without being circumcised, so that righteousness would be counted to them as well,”  To whom is Paul referring here? Read it again: “…the father of all who believe without being circumcised.” That means you and me! We believed in Christ even though we had no connection to Israel or to Judaism. And Abraham is our father, too, because we follow in his footsteps of simply believing God’s promise to save anyone who comes to Him in simple faith, believing in the Lord Jesus as our Lord and Saviour. So Abraham is not only the father of the Jews but he is our father, as well, because like him we have been saved and made righteous through faith alone, apart from works, or rituals, or hoops of any kind.

Verse 12: “…and to [also] make him the father of the Circumcised [Jews] who are not merely circumcised but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised.”     

• Today around the world there are millions of Messianic Jews who have come to believe that Jesus of Nazareth is indeed the Promised Messiah spoken of through the prophets. They are circumcised Jews who love the NT Scriptures along with the Law of Moses and the OT but who realize that salvation is by grace through faith apart from keeping the works of the Law. They are our Jewish brethren. Many of them call themselves “Completed Jews.” Paul of Tarsus was just such a man. He was a circumcised Jewish Christian who reveled in the fact that he had come to know the true Messiah. He valued his Jewish roots but he also fought hard against those who tried to impose Judaism on Gentile converts to Christianity because he understood that salvation has nothing to do with being Jewish and everything to do with simple faith in Christ’s completed work on the Cross.

CONCLUSION:

One of the most precious portions of Scripture to me is John 17 that has been called “the High-Priestly Prayer” of Jesus. In it Jesus prays for His disciples, especially The Apostles into whom He had poured His life and teaching for 3½ years. But they are not the only ones He prays for there. He prays for us here at Sligo Baptist Church as well. Listen carefully.

²⁰ “My prayer is not for them alone [i.e. his Apostles]. I pray also for all those who will believe in Me through their message, ²¹ that all of them may be one, Father, just as You are in Me and I am in You. May they also be in Us so that the world may believe that You have sent Me. ²² I have given them the glory that You gave Me, that they may be one as We are one— ²³ I in them and You in Me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that You sent Me and have loved them even as You have loved Me.

Did you hear it? “I pray also for all those who will believe in Me through their message.” That’s us! We came to Christ through the witness of a bunch of Jewish guys who came to believe that Jesus was their promised Messiah. They went out and evangelized the world with that message. They wrote books and letters that became our NT Scriptures. They all died martyrs death’s because the world hated them but they never quit. They knew what they knew and were convinced that the only way to God is through His Son, Jesus. We owe a huge debt of gratitude to those Jewish guys, our brothers in the faith, who set their Jewishness aside to carry the Gospel to anyone who would listen. Eventually the Good News made its way to you and to me. The question is, are we passing it on to others who need to know, or are we sitting around comfortably waiting for someone else to go tell them?

Jesus said that when the world sees our genuine oneness with Him as proven by our genuine unity with other believers, then the world will begin to believe our message. In other words, Christian unity is a powerful proof of the validity of the Gospel message and the secret of effective evangelism. Only when we are truly in love with Christ, and truly love one another, and truly love lost people, will we begin to see the harvest we long to see. I pray that it will begin to happen soon, for I long to see it.

FEEDBACK:

            Any comments, questions, or observations about what I’ve presented?