Romans 4
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Faith is not about what we do but about who we trust
Faith is not about what we do but about who we trust
In Romans ch four we are introduced to a guy named Abraham.
if you’ve been in the church awhile you may know that name.
Abraham is the founder of the Jewish faith. God called him as the one where Israel, Judaism would begin. Paul is writing as a JEwish person to both Jews and gentiles to describe how even the founder of the faith could not rest on his own accomplishments.
If it could be done, Abraham could have done it. But not even Abraham did it.
So this morning we are looking at Abraham and Paul is continually removing the supports that humanity has tried to use to find any sense of peace or salvation from anything other than God. As my kids would say yoinks it out. We haven’t been able to get to the new life that Christ offers on our own. We need Him to show us.
Home last week. When I am home I am not the tallest, or even second tallest. Out of 12 people in my immediate family, I am fourth tallest. My dad was 6ft7. My nephew is 6ft5. My bro in law is 6ft4 and I am a measly 6ft3. So when I’m home I look up to people.
Let’s say that I am in my sister’s house and there is something that I need out of a high shelf, much taller than I am. My nephew comes up and tries to get that thing out of the shelf and he can’t. Well, if my 6ft5 nephew can’t get it then I can’t get it. He is the marker that I need something else. He shows me that I need something to help me get that thing off of the shelf.
That’s what we are looking at this morning. Abraham is a hero of the faith. He is the founder of the Jewish religion. He is by virtue of that the founder of the Christian religion. Abraham is the guy. God told him to pack up his belongings and move to where He would tell him and Abraham went. God made promises in Abraham’s life and Abe believed Him. Not based on what he experienced but based on who God is.
There is not much of a greater spiritual giant than Abraham. And Romans 4 tells us that not even Abraham could get the item off the shelf. Abraham couldn’t find the very thing he was searching for. The only thing that got him anywhere was to believe the God who spoke over the circumstances he faced or created.
If even Abraham couldn’t get the item off the shelf. If even he couldn’t be made righteous on his own. Then certainly we can’t. We aren’t tall enough.
If Abraham’s works were enough for God, then we would have two options:
We attempt to work harder
We are tempted to give up
Anything we do to get close to God does not justify us. Anything we have done to keep our lives distant from God, as in sin, does not have to end in condemnation. All we do to get near or escape as a means of meriting our lives before God is movement away from Him.
But He has solved our attempts to work harder and our temptation to give up by providing justification in Christ.
all off our attempts to work harder and our temptations to give up crash into the revelation of Jesus Himself.
Faith is not about what we do but about who we trust
Faith is not about what we do but about who we trust
For the rest of our time this morning we are going to use faith to see the God who is greater than all our attempts to work harder and greater than our temptation to give up.
But first we have to talk about Abraham. He is pivotal to understanding the next couple chapters in Romans.
Way back in Genesis 12 we see Abes introduction. God shows up to Abraham, then abram and says
Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
God tells Abraham to go and he goes. He trusts that God is directing and leading him.
Abe and his wife continue on following God but have no children. That is key to God’s promise. How can he be the father of a nation if he doesn’t have any kids.
We hear this concern in Genesis 15:1-6
After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: “Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.” But Abram said, “O Lord God, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” And Abram said, “Behold, you have given me no offspring, and a member of my household will be my heir.” And behold, the word of the Lord came to him: “This man shall not be your heir; your very own son shall be your heir.” And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.
Abraham has done what God has asked him but there is still not proof of the promise. But Abe still believes God’s promise over his circumstances. And it is that line, “credited to him as righteousness” that Paul, the author of Romans, picks up on.
Abe is the founder, the head, the OG of the Jewish religion. He is revered and told in almost every story.
But the thing that Paul picks up on is not what Abe does but who Abe trusts.
Think of a hero in your favorite movie or book. In every movie or book there is a hero. And that hero has a lot of good qualities and a lot of experiences that allow them to get to the end of their journey. To complete their task. But they never complete it alone. There is always a larger hand that moves them toward their goal.
Let’s talk about two major cinematic heroes: Woody and Buzz.
In the final movie, now spoiler alert but it’s worthwhile to share. We have woody and Buzz and gang who have been heroes all through the movies and have developed skills and abilities. They can get through a lot. But at the end of the movie there is a situation that they cannot get out of. They need someone else. They need addition.
Let’s watch the clip.
No matter what they do, they need help. They need more to live.
This is Abraham. No matter how great he is. No matter what he has done. The most important thing about him is who saved him, not what he has done.
Let’s look at what it means to trust God instead of trusting our own ability.
Trust in the God who justifies the ungodly
Trust in the God who justifies the ungodly
And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness,
Paul is slowly removing the structures through which faith had been wrongly issued
Abraham was not necessarily outrightly ungodly. That isn’t at stake here. What is at stake is the fact that even his own whipped up righteousness can’t get to where he needs to be. IT is the fact that Abe couldn’t be godly enough that it made him ungodly.
If Abraham could have earned righteousness then it would not be a gift but payment. If you could earn righteousness you would be owed righteousness. But no matter how much Abe did he could not earn righteousness, it was offered to him. He believed God’s offer. And that belief was credited to him as righteousness.
God justifies the ungodly because there is no other way.
IT is because we are ungodly that we need to be made right.
That is great news. Because no matter which way we go
We attempt to work harder
We are tempted to give up
We have not been able to come up with our own righteousness. We need another. And the God in whom we are called to trust will make us right in Him.
God can deal with your sin.
He will offer you rest when you attempt to work harder
He will invite you in when you are tempted to give up.
Trust the God who gives life to the dead
Trust the God who gives life to the dead
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.
Now I know that there are a number of times where I have said, I love this verse. But I will tell you this is one of my favorite verses ever.
This is how we hear about God.
He raises the dead
He calls things that are not as though they were.
He has power and He is creative.
The promise of raised life is the only promise that gets us anywhere
have you worked so hard that your faith feels numb? Have you been tempted to give up because your faith feels dead?
Cactus in the mountain. personal.
Hang onto those arid places of faith
He will breathe life into our attempts to create faith on our own
He will create water in the desert when you are tempted to give up.
God will tend your faith.
Trust God who is able to do what he had promised
Trust God who is able to do what he had promised
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.
When we think about who it is we are called to trust we have to think about the things that that individual has said.
Are they trustworthy?
Have they done what they said they would do?
And in Abraham’s case, God had said things that hadn’t happened yet. But he could count on what God has already said.
Abraham lived as though the things that God had promised had already come true. That’s how much faith he had.
WH Auden’s definition of faith, “to choose what is difficult all one’s days As if it were easy”, is a great definition of what Abraham goes through.
As he looked to the character of God and the promises of God, Abraham was able to trust the work of God in His own life.
That’s where we see the intersection of belief and righteousness
Not in what was owed
or earned
but in who Abraham believed.
This is helpful for us. In our attempts to achieve and our attempts to give up.
Because in either case we have a God who shows up in both cases and offers us forgiveness, freedom, and new life.
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.
Our actions as individuals and as a church cannot move Christ. Christ has already moved. Our role is to see and believe in the Christ who has already revealed Himself.
When we achieve it is often for more
When we want to give up it is often because we haven’t been able to get to where we want.
But Christ is present in both.
Not being formed into what we want Him to be
But revealed as who He is.
Our role is to believe the God who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were.
Where in those three do you need to place your trust?
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