Daily Thoughts from Romans: Abraham’s Children (4:13-25)

Daily Thoughts from Romans: Abraham’s Children

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

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, 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. 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.” 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. No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. That is why his faith was “counted to him as righteousness.” But the words “it was counted to him” were not written for his sake alone, but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.  (Romans 4:13-25 ESV)

Paul is arguing that you cannot say Abraham was justified (declared righteous) by God through faith and then add the Law and Law-keeping as the requirement for justification or you nullify faith.  When you add the Law as a requirement for salvation you actually add wrath because you highlight how we have transgressed against God and everyone fails by that standard.  And you can’t make a promise and then add conditions to it later.  It would then cease to be a promise.

So salvation has to be by faith so that Abraham can be, as God promised, the father of many nations (Genesis 17:5).  The Gentiles, who don’t have the Law, can also be sons of Abraham by imitating his faith.  Abraham’s faith included his belief that God could create something out of nothing.  His faith included believing God’s promise of a son even when that looked impossible.  His faith began with that promise and grew.

Our faith includes that God raised Jesus from the dead after he paid for our transgressions with his death.  The fact that God raised Jesus proves that Jesus’ sacrifice was accepted in payment for our sins.  If we believe that, we too are counted righteous by faith.  God reckons to our account something we could not have provided ourselves — absolute righteousness, His righteousness, a completely righteous standing before Him forever.

Someone asked me today how Martin Luther, the great reformer, could have discovered the gospel Paul talks about from Paul’s letter to the Romans.  Undoubtedly it required God opening his eyes because the church had so obscured the truth that it was hard to see.  But the text also plainly teaches it.  For all the Protestants disagree on this is the one thing, the gospel, that they have largely been in unanimity about.