2021-04-14 Romans 4

Romans 4:13–15 ESV

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.

I. What was the promise to Abraham, and why does it matter?

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.

A. Let’s talk about the promise to Abraham.

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.

Illus: So much misunderstanding of the promise to Abraham exists because we place the emphasis on the wrong part. In the promise God places the promise and gives the means to the promise.

The promise to Abraham is that through his seed he would be a blessing to all nations. It was that through creating a great nation in him, all the nations of the world will be blessed.

Christ is the fulfillment of the promise God made to Abraham. Understanding this is essential in understanding the story of scripture.

The nation, the law, circumcision, and all the rest are the means to the end not the end in itself.

Let me illustrate. Imagine with me that out of the benevolence of my heart I gave you a check for one million dollars. To get that check you had to fly to Windhoek Namibia. That’s alright because I’ll book your flight for you.

Tomorrow morning you will drive to the Alexandria airport. You fly out of Alexandria to the DFW airport. From DFW you fly to Doha Qatar. In Doha you change planes and fly to Johannesburg. Finally in Johannesburg you get on a plane to Windhoek.

You might be a person who enjoys flying. While enjoying the warmed up TV dinner on one of your flights you think this is the life. I have gotten what we promised me, a coach seat on the way to Windhoek Namibia.

But the coach seat on the flight was not the promise, it was simply the seat to get you to my promise. If you settle for the seat, you don’t get the promise.

This is how we have completely misunderstood the promise of Abraham. We have settled for the mean, and not the end. We settled for the plan to the promise and not the promise itself.

The nation, the law, and circumcision were means God used to acomplish his promise, not the ends of the promise.

The end of God’s plan was not to make Abraham into a great nation, it was that through the nation, every person might be made righteous through the finished work of Jesus Christ.

Genesis 12:1–3 ESV

1 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. 2 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. 3 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.”

B. What made Abraham righteous is the same thing that makes you righteous.

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.

Illus: From the beginning what made you apart of the people of God was faith.

Let’s just use the different terms scripture uses.

-What make you a child of Abraham’s promise is faith.

- What makes you apart of the nation of God is faith.

- What makes you apart of the people of God is faith.

- What makes you apart of the family of God is faith.

- What makes you a Christian is faith.

- What makes you a child of God is faith.

Abraham’s offspring were never offspring of blood. They were the line of men and women who trusted in the promise of God.

True Israelites were never those born into a nation, but those who trusted in the promise of God.

The people of God were never those who practiced the law, but those who trusted in the future sacrifice of Christ.

Do you see the picture?

In the early church there was a push to redefine what made you apart of the people of God. They wanted to say that their history of being apart of the nation of Israel made them apart of God’s people. A national Israelite who did not trust in the promise was just as foreign to God as a pagan gentile who worship the pantheon of Greek gods.

Galatians 3:6–9 ESV

6 just as Abraham “believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”? 7 Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. 8 And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.” 9 So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.

II. You can’t hold to both.

14 For if it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void.

A. Israel forgot their identity just as we do.

14 For if it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void.

I’ll say it over and over what made the people of Israel the people of God was faith. When the people of Israel ceased to trust God they ceased to be his people.

Hear me out on this, as Christians we carry the name of God, but our moniker does not make us apart of God’s people.

The moment we cease to be people under faith in the grace and lordship of Christ, it doesn’t matter what we call ourselves we won’t be God’s people.

Israel left faith in God to embrace religion and nationalism. Over time their identity was less and less of being the children of promise and more and more in what they did, and loyalty to a nation. For them hope was no longer found in the dependence of faith, but in other empty places.

We face the same road. Anything that takes your hope away from Christ alone and your mission from the gospel alone is a false idol that slowly moves your heart away from God.

Hear what scripture is saying... when you leave faith for anything, the promise is null and void.

When you embrace a self centered religion which is all about meeting your wants... the promise is null and void.

When your faith is all about your works, the promise is null and void.

When you find more hope in nationalism than the cross, the promise is null and void.

There are any number of good things that are cheap and worthless idols which take your heart from Christ.

Look at what Jesus said regarding the elite religious men of his time...

Matthew 23:27–39 ESV

27 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness. 28 So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. 29 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous, 30 saying, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ 31 Thus you witness against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. 32 Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers. 33 You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell? 34 Therefore I send you prophets and wise men and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, and some you will flog in your synagogues and persecute from town to town, 35 so that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah the son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar. 36 Truly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation. 37 “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! 38 See, your house is left to you desolate. 39 For I tell you, you will not see me again, until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’ ”

B. When Israel lost their identity, they ceased to be the people of God.

14 For if it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void.

Illus: As we move into summer I do not know that there is anything better on a 90* 100%humidity day than a rout 44 sonic drink.

Why are sonic drinks so good? Because the styrofoam holding that perfectly crushed sonic ice holds you drink cold for hours and hours.

I do have a bad habit. I will regularly leave my sonic drink in my truck. Sometimes for days. Occasionally I’ll get in my truck grab my several day old drink (not thinking) and take a quick swig. What once was the perfect vanilla dr. Pepper is now a watered down nasty warm yuck.

What once was a genuine treat is now a watered down shadow of its former self.

That is what happened to Israel, and I do believe it is what is happening to the American church. Even our church.

Slowly but surely the Israel’s faith in God became more and more watered down to a point there was little to none left.

We are walking the same road. I am far more concerned with the eroding faith of practicing believers than I am about the eroding lives of people outside of the church.

We have and are abandoning God. Even when we may still call ourselves Christians, we no longer see the gospel as our hope and faith as our righteousness.

Has our faith become null and void?

Listen again to who Paul says we are.

Galatians 3:13–14 ESV

13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”— 14 so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.

Galatians 3:28–29 ESV

28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.

III. What then is the purpose of the law?

15 For the law brings wrath, but where there is no law there is no transgression.

A. We have the law to show us our desperate need for Christ.

If it has always been faith, what is the purpose of the law?

The law is a benevolent God’s way of helping men see his standard of righteousness.

Imagine living without God communicating the law. God would still punish you, but you would have no clue what for.

God gave the law so that you would see where you were falling short.

He gave the law so you would see a desperate need to believe in his promise of blessing. To believe in Christ.

The law is a guide to show our brokenness and see our sin. It is the gift of God to help us see a need for a righteousness greater than our own, the righteousness of Christ.

Romans 7:7–8 ESV

7 What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” 8 But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead.