Faith Is Trusting When Your Circumstances Are Bad

in
 

Romans 4:13-25

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. 14 For if it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. 15 For the law brings wrath, but where there is no law there is no transgression.

16 That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring—not only to the adherent of the law but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all, 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.

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.” 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. 20 No unbelief 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. 22 That is why his faith was “counted to him as righteousness.” 23 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 who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, 25 who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.

 
 

Paul wants his readers to understand that God’s promise to Abraham came before the Law was given to Israel, which means the promise does not depend on the keeping of the Law. Rather, it depends on faith.

Faith is not believing in the miraculous—Jesus walking on water, e.g.— faith is trusting God when the circumstances around you are bad. God told Abraham that he would give Abraham and Sarah a child, despite the fact that they were very old. To his credit, Abraham trusted that God would fulfill that promise. In the same way, we trust that the Father will save us through Jesus. Abraham is our great ancestor in the faith because of how he trusted God.

Faith is trusting God when the circumstances around you are bad.

How will you need to exercise faith today?

 

Abraham: The Model Believer

in
 

Romans 4:1-12

4 What then shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh? 2 For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. 3 For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.” 4 Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. 5 And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness, 6 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.”
9 Is this blessing then only for the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised? For we say that faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness. 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. 11 He received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he 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, 12 and to make him the father of the circumcised who are not merely circumcised but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised.

 
 

In Romans chapter 4, Paul makes a dense argument, explaining how Abraham is actually an illustration of what he has been saying about faith. I know this is hard stuff, but it’s worth it!

To understand that point Paul makes with Abraham, we have to go back and be reminded of how the biblical story plays out:

Genesis 3→Adam and Eve rebel against the Lord, bringing death and destruction into the world.

Genesis 4-11→Humanity spirals deeper and deeper into death and destruction, and human idolatry culminates in the Tower of Babel. The result is that humanity is scattered.

Genesis 12→God starts the plan to rescue all of humanity by making a promise—a covenant—to Abraham. Abraham’s family will be the means by which the entire world will be rescued and blessed.

Genesis 15→God renews his promise to Abraham, and Abraham believes in the promise.

Genesis 17→Abraham is given a mark in his flesh—circumcision—as a sign of the covenant.

Exodus 19→Abraham’s descendants—the Israelites—are given a new covenant at Mt. Sinai that is meant to mark Israel as the covenant people.

Israel fails to uphold the covenant, and finds itself in exile.

Jesus obediently keeps the covenant and dies as the perfect Israelite on behalf of His people, thereby bringing blessing to the entire world.

So, Paul looks back at Abraham and sees Abraham as the model believer and the founder of faith because Abraham trusts God even before he receives the mark of circumcision. So, circumcision is not the way you become part of God’s covenant people—faith in the heart is how you become part of God’s covenant people.

So, Paul’s point is that Abraham is the spiritual ancestor of everyone who puts their trust in God.

The Bible says that Abraham trusted God and it was his faith that made him righteous and that was before Abraham was circumcised. Paul’s point: Abraham is the spiritual father of everyone—both Jew and Greek—who puts faith in God. You don’t have to be circumcised in the flesh to be part of Abraham’s family, which means Gentiles who trust Jesus are now part of God’s covenant people.

Why did God do this? Well, Paul explains that when you are paid wages, your employer isn’t giving you a gift, but merely what you are owed. In contrast, when God just blesses someone with grace it’s a free gift and not some obligation that God was forced to provide.

The point: we who have been justified by faith in Jesus ought to be so grateful!