My reading today in Genesis shows God’s continued guidance of Abraham to complete His purposes – along the way He tests Abraham many times but especially with Isaac. So even while he is following God’s way there are tests to confirm his faithfulness and obedience.
”My aim from the beginning has been to have a people who would want to follow Me and relate to Me as the Supreme Being. I have given a free will to everyone so that, as I test My followers they always have the option of following their own way. This has consequences though. This process of growing in faith through difficulties and trials ensures that you grow to trust Me more and more and therefore come closer to Me. On your own though you would, like Adam, choose your own way, that is why I have set you free from following your own way through my death on the cross and have given you My Spirit to help you continually to make the right decisions. Ultimately the choice is always yours.”
The next few weeks we are going to spend with Paul and Abraham in Romans ch. 4. It would probably be helpful for you to read through Genesis to give you more background, while we cover chapter 4 in Romans. Read Romans 4:1-8 for this week.
Having described the magnificent work of Jesus in turning God’s wrath onto Himself on the cross in ch 3, Paul is immediately conscious of the different way Jews and Gentiles may perceive this act. Remember he is VERY Jewish himself and conscious of their way of thinking. So he asks this question in 3:29: Is God the God of the Jews only? Is He not the God of the Gentiles too? So he affirms the fact in vs 30 that there is only one way to righteousness for both the Jew and the Gentile and that is through faith. But the law and circumcision are still looming in the background.
So had turns to describe Abraham, the ultimate Jew, in the light of what he is teaching. Abraham is the forefather of the Jews. Every Jew would regard himself as a child of Abraham, so if Paul can illustrate this way of righteousness by faith in Abraham, then surely the Jews will understand it.
So what is the point Paul is making in these 8 vv? The point lies in the word, translated as “credited” and “count” in v 8, which is repeated 5 times. What is he saying then?
To be credited with something means it is given to you freely, without any cost. Abraham was justified (made righteous) not by all he did or in fact anything he did, but simply because he received a promise from God and believed Him sufficiently that he acted on it (v 5). The promise is shown in Gen 12:1-3 and repeated several times eg in Chaps 15 and 17. God promised that Abraham would, through his offspring, be the one who would the means God would return the blessing to a world, still under God’s curse on Adam. The promise was given long before Abraham had any opportunity to do something to earn it. Abraham demonstrated his trust in the promise by leaving his homeland in Ur and moving to where God had led him.
In fact, if we had to measure Abraham’s life in terms of obedience he would maybe get less than 50%. He continually messed up. Yet when it really mattered he was prepared to take Isaac up the mountain to sacrifice him, because he trusted that God would provide a sacrifice and His promise would be secure. That was, in fact huge since so many years and happenings had passed since the first promise by Yahweh to him.
So before the sign of circumcision, which we will come to and the giving of the law and what that meant, his initial reaction to God’s promise was to believe that God was giving him something which he did not deserve in any way and he received that promise by believing in God and His promise. This was ALL that he needed to do for him to be declared righteous.
Friends this teaching, which we can easily skim over, is so basic to our Christianity that we should really ponder over it at the beginning of this New Year. It goes for each one of us. How much of our Christian activity is based on believing God and His promises and instructions and following Him by responding to this love He has shown and how much is based on thinking that what we are doing is contributing to our salvation in some way?
We all tend to fall back into the mode of thinking that some or other act or “obedience” is making God see us in a better light and make our salvation more secure. Faith and faith alone is what makes us righteous and guarantees us a place in Heaven with God. May you all have a blessed week.