Just Believe! – Romans 4:16-25

Romans 4:16-25
Therefore it is of faith that it might be according to grace, so that the promise might be sure to all the seed, not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all (as it is written, “I have made you a father of many nations” ) in the presence of Him whom he believed—God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did; who, contrary to hope, in hope believed, so that he became the father of many nations, according to what was spoken, “So shall your descendants be.” And not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body, already dead (since he was about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah’s womb. He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform. And therefore “it was accounted to him for righteousness.”

Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him, but also for us. It shall be imputed to us who believe in Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification.

Welcome once again to Delving into the Scriptures! Today I hope we can wrap up Romans 4 – which will wrap up the reasons why we should have faith…

We could certainly spend the next month or so looking at the life of Abraham – but the primary example of Abraham was his faith. First his faith in God to move away from where he was, to where God called him. His faith later in life that he would be the father of many nations. His faith that God would come through with His promise – no matter what appeared to be the odds stacked against him. His faith later in life to bring his son as a sacrifice – despite it now being well past the time that he could be replaced. The primary example we see in Abraham is that of faith and belief in God and His promises.

They key message here I wanted to focus on though was verses 20 and 21 – He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform.

What a summary then of faith!

• God promised
• Abraham believed
• Despite obstacles, mitigating circumstances and ‘impossibilities’, he did not waver in faith
• By maintaining his faith – he was strengthened – and even worshiped God
• He was fully convinced that God was able to perform.

What can we then learn from this? The first thing is – if God has promised it, it will happen – all you need to do is know that. But then this is the essence of faith – believing that God is who He is and will do what he says.

Secondly, by the example of Abraham, our faith will be tested. BUT, by maintaining our faith we will be strengthened (see also James 1:2-3) – straightened in belief, faith and in ourselves.

Also, what was Abraham’s response to the testing of his faith? He worshiped God. He no doubt thanked God for His promises, for who He is. This is a perfect example for us – when we are tested in our faith (often enough for me in any case!), we should continue to believe and worship God.

Thirdly – and we know this from the old testament – God comes through. We know that God promised – and we know that God delivered, despite all of the obstacles. Having the fulfillment of belief – this will then strengthen your faith for next time. It should also encourage us to thank and worship God again! Don’t forget to thank God!

And how easy is it to forget! Take the example of sickness – when you are under it, there is almost nothing worse. As soon as you are better – you can almost forget you were sick – since you don’t feel it, you don’t really remember it. So when the promise comes through, give thanks to God straight away! Think back on the hardships that you endured, the faith that you showed, the time you spent in prayer, and thank God for bringing you through in faith, with a successful outcome.

Now I would say for most of us – we are not 100 years old and believing for a promised child. Though there are things in our life we do believe we were promised. There is even the simplest of faith, that is, faith that God is, and that he has done what is written. Even in these simplest of things – believe in God. Know that He has done, and that he will complete the things He has promised in our lives – small, large or just plain impossible!

Lord God, teach us faith – teach us how to believe, how to focus on You, how to worship even in adversity and doubt. In Jesus Name. Amen.

Faith is a requirement! Romans 4:13-15

Romans 4:13-15
For the promise that he would be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. For if those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made void and the promise made of no effect, because the law brings about wrath; for where there is no law there is no transgression.

Welcome back once again to Delving into the Scriptures! As you may notice Delving is now on it’s own site – www.delvinginto.com – everything else should be the same!

Todays post should be nice and short… I think this passage reads very well in the New Living Translation – It basically explains it for us (it’s a good ‘explanatory’ translation I am finding).

Clearly, God’s promise to give the whole earth to Abraham and his descendants was based not on his obedience to God’s law, but on a right relationship with God that comes by faith. If God’s promise is only for those who obey the law, then faith is not necessary and the promise is pointless. For the law always brings punishment on those who try to obey it. (The only way to avoid breaking the law is to have no law to break!) (NLT)

If righteousness comes through the law, then faith would not be necessary – we could just ‘do the acts’ required by the law and move on… But – as we have covered before – the only good of the law is to bring about knowledge of sin – for we do not know it is sin until someone tells us!

This is one of the biggest traps of ‘religion’ – we all naturally want to fall into the ‘acts’ of Christianity – we say the prayers, go to fellowship, do the ‘right thing’, even read our Bible and don’t fall asleep when the preacher rattles on – but this is just obeying the law – this is not faith! Faith is living thing – faith is not playing church…. Have a think about it – what things do you do that are just playing church, obeying the law? I am not saying we need to lose these things – but we need to examine them and ensure we are doing them in faith – not just because we thing we have to….

So then – faith is a requirement. We have to believe that Jesus walked this earth, died for our sins, and rose again on the third day. Faith is the key to moving on from knowledge of sin and judgment – into eternal salvation.

Sounds so simple hey!

Lord Jesus, teach us what it means to have faith in You. Show us our sins that we might turn away from them and turn to you in Faith. Amen.

Righteousness comes first – Romans 4:9-12

Romans 4:9-12
Does this blessedness then come upon the circumcised only, or upon the uncircumcised also? For we say that faith was accounted to Abraham for righteousness. How then was it accounted? While he was circumcised, or uncircumcised? Not while circumcised, but while uncircumcised. And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while still uncircumcised, that he might be the father of all those who believe, though they are uncircumcised, that righteousness might be imputed to them also, and the father of circumcision to those who not only are of the circumcision, but who also walk in the steps of the faith which our father Abraham had while still uncircumcised.

Welcome back to Delving into the Scriptures! My apologies for the delay if you read this through email or the RSS – I am in the process of moving back to Australia, and it has been crazy! All is going well however, and we will be back in Australia in about 2 weeks.

I think there are two clear messages in this passage from Romans. The first is the obvious message on circumcision. The Jews at the time that Romans was written held circumcision as the physical sign that they were holy and justified – and therefore Paul covers this not only here but also in other letters of his, as the Jews claimed that you had to be circumcised to be saved – and this was a stumbling block for many for obvious reasons!

Circumcision came as a seal upon of Abraham’s righteousness. If you think of a document, the ‘seal’ of that document comes last – it is the ‘certification’ that something is right and true. That certification comes after the document is written and signed – in other words, complete. So this circumcision of Abraham came after he was accounted as righteous! You will see as we go to the next passage, that he was also accounted righteous before the law was ever given too – which basically continues to back up our messages of before – righteousness comes first.

Going a little further though – these days circumcision is understood to be ‘old covenant’ and not many people push that guys get circumcised for salvation, and those that do have some scriptural issues…. But – we still have different things that people have said, and some still claim fervently. And this is where the second message of this scripture is.

An example is the claim ‘you must be baptized before you are saved’ – There are quite a few people who hold to this doctrine. I can see where they come from in this belief – there is a lot of scripture in this area, and a quick reading may well bring you to believe this. But if you look at the Bible closer, and take into account not just one verse but the whole message of the Bible, and this section in Romans is just one example – righteousness comes before the ‘seal’ of that righteousness. You are first saved – you can be saved for 3 seconds and die and you will still meet God forgiven of your sins. But then baptism is something that you should do through obedience – it is an act of obedience to God that you would then go and get baptized – it is not a requirement of salvation.

This isn’t the only distortion around – it’s just one of the more common ones. Remember – you are first saved, righteousness comes first – and then the rest may follow.

They key here is ‘scripture interprets scripture’. You cannot take one passage, verse or word from the Bible and take it out of context. It must first be read in the context it was written (for example, a letter, a historical account, poetry, etc), and then it must work with the rest of scripture, as God does not contradict Himself. You need to take that verse with the understanding of all of scripture, and then apply it. I’d love to take some time here to cover this, but maybe one day I will dedicate some posts to the study of scripture. In the meantime though, if you have some time, I’d recomend the ‘Bible School’ series at Generation Word, which has an excellent set of audio teachings!

We will finish of Romans 4 hopefully in the next post – but the summary remains the same – it is through faith that we are saved – not through anything else! It is Faith in Jesus alone that will get us there. I hope to see you next time!

Lord Jesus, give us revelation to your Word through the Holy Spirit. Without you these are just words on paper that we could take and twist to our own purposes – reveal to us Your message, show us your Grace and Will in Jesus Name, Amen.