Sixty–seven year old Tomas Martinez was living on the street in Santa Cruz de le Sierra, Bolivia, when he was approached by police officers who had good news for him. His ex-wife (whom he had abandoned years earlier) had died and had left him her fortune of $6 million. However, Martinez thought the police were there to arrest him for his drug and alcohol related issues, and he fled without hearing what they had to say. Local newspapers called him the “new millionaire paradoxically not knowing his fortune”. Martinez has never been located.
This morning we’ll talk about another inheritance – one that is far more valuable and which, unlike Tomas Martinez’ inheritance, is available to everyone. But unfortunately, just like Tomas Martinez, most people end up missing out on that inheritance because they fail to receive it when it is offered to them.
This morning, we’re near the end of a section of Paul’s letter to the churches in Rome that began back in chapter 3, verse 21. In this section of his letter Paul has been primarily addressing his fellow Jews and reminding them that their righteousness before God is not a matter of what they can achieve but rather a result of God’s grace that they receive.
Here in chapter 4, he is using the example of Abraham to prove to the Jews that the things that they were relying on as the basis for their relationship with God were all inadequate. He began by pointing out that it was not anything that Abraham had done, but rather his faith that resulted in God counting His righteousness to Abraham. Then, as we saw last week, he showed that not even a religious ritual like circumcision made Abraham righteous since that didn’t occur until at least 14 years after Abraham had been declared righteous as a result of his faith.
This morning, Paul will address the third way that the Jews considered themselves to be righteous – keeping the law.
So go ahead and turn in your Bibles to Romans chapter 4 and follow along as I read beginning in verse 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. 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.
(Romans 4:13-17 ESV)
In this passage, Paul restates the argument that he has been making over and over again in this section from another perspective. He points out that all are going to receive one of two possible spiritual inheritances. On one hand, I can be Abraham’s spiritual offspring and be an “heir of the world” along with him and the rest of his spiritual descendants. That inheritance is priceless. On the other hand, I can choose to be an “adherent of the law” which leads to inheriting wrath. That inheritance is pointless.
I’m sure that every single one of us here, given the choice, would pick the priceless inheritance that results in becoming an heir of the world. None of us would intentionally choose God’s wrath. But, as we’ll see this morning, I don’t just get to pick the inheritance directly. Instead the inheritance I receive is a result of another choice I make – where I am going to place my confidence and my trust? And here is the bottom line when it comes to obtaining that priceless inheritance of being an heir of the world:
A priceless inheritance awaits
those who trust in God’s promise
There are three key questions we must answer this morning in order for us to make sure that we don’t become spiritual Tomas Martinezes who end up missing out on this priceless inheritance that God desires for us to have:
1. What does it mean to be an “heir of the world”?
2. Why can’t I become an “heir of the world” by being an “adherent of law”?
3. Why is trusting in God’s promise the only way to receive this priceless inheritance?
Let’s tackle those questions one at a time.
What does it mean to be an “heir of the world”?
It’s interesting that this is the only place in the Bible where we find this term “heir of the world”. There is not any one place in the Old Testament where God specifically promised to make Abraham “heir of the world.” But God did make a number of promises to Abraham and a couple of those promises, along with the words of Jesus, give us a pretty good picture of what Paul meant when he used that phrase. Let’s look at two passages from Genesis that contain God’s promises to Abraham:
And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you. And I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God.”
(Genesis 17:7-8 ESV)
God makes two amazing promises to Abraham and if we’re not careful, we could easily miss the significance of both of them. First, He makes an everlasting covenant to be the God of Abraham and his descendants. The implication there is that the relationship between God and Abraham was going to survive Abraham’s death which implies the future resurrection of Abraham. Jesus confirms that is exactly what God meant with His own words:
And as for the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was said to you by God: ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not God of the dead, but of the living.”
(Matthew 22:31-32 ESV)
The only way Jesus’ words could be true is if Abraham had obtained eternal life through his faith in God’s promise.
The second promise in that passage is that God would give the Promised Land to Abraham and his descendants. God didn’t just promise that succeeding generations would get the land, He promised that Abraham himself would receive it. This is another indication that Abraham was going to experience a resurrection so that he could receive that promised inheritance.
Let’s briefly look at one other promise to Abraham that will aid our understanding:
I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies,
(Genesis 22:17 ESV)
God promised Abraham that one day his descendants would “possess the gate of their enemies.” In other words, there will be a future kingdom in which all of their enemies will be subdued. That seems to be the idea that Jesus also expressed in the Sermon on the Mount:
“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
(Matthew 5:5 ESV)
All of those promises made to Abraham apply to all of us who have been justified through faith, as Paul confirms in Galatians 3:
And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise.
(Galatians 3:29 ESV)
Do you see the progression there? If we are Christ’s then we are Abraham’s spiritual offspring. And if we are Abraham’s spiritual offspring, then that means that we are heirs, just like him and that all the promises made to Abraham also apply to us.
With our limited time this morning, we don’t have time to look at all of the references, but I have listed for you in your outline a number of passages in both the Old and New Testaments that confirm that Jesus’ disciples are going to reign with him in His future literal, physical kingdom.
• Daniel 7:27; 2 Tim 2:12; 1 Corinthians 6:2-3; Revelation 2:26-27, 3:21, 20:4
We can now answer the question we posed earlier – What does it mean to be an “heir of the world”?
• To be given entrance into the future kingdom that is ruled by Jesus and His followers
That is our precious inheritance, one that is far greater than anything we could ever imagine. And as the answer to our second question will show, there is nothing we can do to achieve that inheritance.
Why can’t I become an “heir of the world” by being an “adherent of law”?
Although Paul has frequently referred to “the law” here in Romans, we haven’t really taken time yet to explore that aspect of his teaching. Paul has already explained that the purpose of the law was never to make people right with God, but rather to show them their need for a Savior because it revealed their sinfulness. He deals with that here in more detail and also addresses the Jews who thought that they were righteous before God because they possessed and adhered to the law.
Before we look at the reasons Paul gives about why adherence to the law could never make anyone an heir of the world, we need to take a moment to define what Paul means when he uses the term “law” here. It is important to note that in verses 13-15, there is no article before the word “law” in the underlying Greek. So it literally should be translated just “law” and not “the law.”
The reason that is significant is that Paul is not referring here to the Mosaic Law which, by the way, was not given until 430 years after Abraham had been declared righteous as a result of his belief (Galatians 3:17). He’s not even referring just to the Torah – the first five books of the Bible – or the Old Testament Scriptures as a whole. Law, in this section has a much broader meaning that could refer to any kind of moral code. So he is addressing those who believe they can be righteous before God as a result of living a moral life.
Paul lays out several reasons why being an “adherent of law” can never earn the priceless inheritance of being an “heir of the world”:
1. The law can show me my sin, but it can’t do anything to cure it.
That is the point Paul is making in the last part of verse 15:
…but where there is no law, there is no transgression…
This is admittedly a difficult verse to understand, so let’s work through this carefully. First let’s note what Paul is not saying here. He does NOT say that where there is no law there is no sin. The word “transgression” has a specific meaning that we must define if we’re going to understand what Paul is writing here.
“transgression” =
a compound Greek word that literally means
“to step over the line”
Before the law, sin still existed because the root of sin isn’t breaking the law, it is breaking trust with God. Adam and Eve sinned because they first broke trust with God. They sinned even though the law didn’t exist yet. But in a technical sense, that sin was not a transgression because God had not yet given the law that established God’s standard of righteous behavior.
So even before the law, there was sin. The law did not make people sinful, it only identified the line they had crossed in order to reveal the extent of their sinfulness that already existed long before the law came along. That’s exactly what Paul had said earlier in his letter:
For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.
(Romans 3:20 ESV)
Although the law reveals the sinfulness of man, the limitation of the law was that it could do nothing to cure that problem. Following the law could never justify anyone. All the law could do was to bring sin into focus where it could be recognized and dealt with. That is why…
2. Trying to live by law only inherits wrath
That is the point Paul is making in the first part of verse 15:
…For the law brings wrath…
Here, Paul is returning to the idea that he had expressed earlier in his letter:
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.
(Romans 1:18 ESV)
Paul reminds us again of a point that he has been making over and over in his letter, particularly to his fellow Jews - because no one is capable of keeping the law perfectly, what we all deserve to inherit is not a future kingdom where we reign with Jesus, but rather God’s wrath.
But just in case there is even a tiny remaining shred of the idea that what I can do plays any part at all in my justification, Paul makes one more compelling argument in verse 14 to show why faith and works cannot coexist when it comes to my righteousness.
3. Placing confidence in my ability to adhere to the law voids God’s promise.
Before we go any further, let me just remind you that, as we saw last week, I am not saying that works have no place at all in our relationship with God. Hopefully you’ll remember that we developed this conclusion last week:
My good works are to be
a response to God’s grace
for the purpose of pointing people to Jesus
But, as Paul points out in today’s passage, if I put my confidence in my ability to adhere to the law as the way to become righteous, I have actually voided God’s promise. You’ll notice that the concept of “promise” is central in this passage. We find that word four times in our passage and we’ll see it again a couple more times in the last part of this chapter next week.
It is important to note that the word “promise” is singular every time it is used in this passage, which implies that it is referring to one specific promise of God and not just all of His promises in general. Given the context, there is no doubt that Paul is referring to the promise that God would one day bring a Messiah, a redeemer, who would be a descendant of Abraham.
We see that clearly in another of Paul’s letters that we have looked at previously while studying this section of Romans:
Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, “And to offsprings,” referring to many, but referring to one, “And to your offspring,” who is Christ. This is what I mean: the law, which came 430 years afterward, does not annul a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to make the promise void. For if the inheritance comes by the law, it no longer comes by promise; but God gave it to Abraham by a promise.
(Galatians 3:16-18 ESV)
In both Romans and Galatians, Paul is making the same point. I can try to claim my priceless inheritance can either on the basis of believing God’s promise or on the basis of how well I observe the law, but I can’t pursue both of them at the same time because they are mutually exclusive.
If I can earn my righteousness by observing the law, then God’s promise to send a Messiah who will make me righteous as I place my trust in Him is unnecessary. Conversely, if my righteousness comes through faith in the promised Messiah, then observing the law as a means of my righteousness is precluded. That idea is reinforced by the answer to our last question:
Why is trusting in God’s promise the only way to receive this priceless inheritance?
1. Only God’s grace is capable of guaranteeing my inheritance
Let’s look at the first part of verse 16 again:
…That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring…
The first thing we have to do is to identify “it”. If we look at this verse in context, it is actually pretty easy to determine that “it” refers to our inheritance that Paul described back in verse 13. Certainly the idea that my inheritance depends on faith, and not on my good works, or my religious rituals or my observing of the law, is the central concept in this entire section of Paul’s letter.
Now that we’ve identified “it”, we can make sure we carefully examine the rest of this verse. So let me ask you a question. Make sure you read the entire verse carefully before you answer.
What it is that guarantees my inheritance?
If we’re not careful, we’ll wrongly conclude that it is my faith that guarantees my inheritance. But is it not my faith, but rather God’s grace that is the guarantee. As we’ll discuss in a moment, my faith is essential, but it is not the foundation on which my inheritance rests. That foundation is God’s grace.
In verse 17, Paul shows us why that must be the case. He claims that the God that Abraham believed is the one “who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist”. Why does Paul include that description of the sovereignty and power of God at that point? Because the promise of our inheritance is only as dependable as the one who is making it. And only God is capable of doing what is required for His promise to be fulfilled.
Only God can raise the dead back to life. Only God can create an everlasting kingdom out of nothing. Man cannot do that, but God can. Even if there was some way that we could adhere to the law perfectly, which we obviously can’t, we still couldn’t do those things that are required for God to fulfill His promise. That is why only God’s grace is capable of guaranteeing my inheritance.
So if my faith is not what guarantees my inheritance, then where does it fit in this whole equation? We’ve seen that God gave Abraham a promise. That was grace because Abraham had done nothing to merit or earn that promise. Abraham received that promise by faith, by having complete confidence that what God had promised would come to pass.
I know you may think I’m splitting hairs here, but it’s important to understand the connection between grace and faith. This familiar verse confirms what Paul is teaching about that connection here in Romans 4:
For by grace you have been saved through faith…
(Ephesians 2:8 ESV)
It is clear that I am not saved by faith - I am saved by God’s grace. That was true of Abraham and it is true of all of us. Faith is merely the means through which I appropriate that grace. That was also true for Abraham and it is still the only way that I can appropriate God’s grace. The distinction is important. If I was saved by my faith, then that would mean I was saved by a work of my flesh and that would lead to boasting and take away from the glory of God.
2. It is the only way the inheritance can be available to all
By now, it should be clear that if the inheritance was only available to those who kept the law perfectly, then it would not have been available to anyone. And that would have violated God’s promise to Abraham. But, because it’s a matter of grace, the result is that it is available to all and that no one is disqualified because of his or her sin. That is true for those he describes in verse 16 as “the adherent of the law” – obviously a reference to the Jews who were trying to keep the law as a basis for their righteousness – as well as to “the one who shares the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all” – both Jews and Gentiles who responded to God’s promise by faith.
Application
This morning we have seen that…
A priceless inheritance awaits
those who trust in God’s promise
That truth has some very practical applications for all of us:
• If you haven’t already done so, receive that inheritance by faith
Although we covered this topic thoroughly over the last several weeks, it is still possible that you’ve been trying to work for your inheritance by doing good deeds or through religious rituals or by living a moral life. Perhaps you’ve even approached God through faith in Jesus, but you’re still not quite sure that alone is adequate to make you righteous before God so you’ve added in some of those other things just in case.
If so, then I encourage you to get this matter settled in your heart this morning before you leave. You can do that in a few moments when we have a time of prayer by confessing to God that you’ve been relying upon what you can do in order to obtain your inheritance and by telling God that you are now trusting in His promise and not anything you can do as the basis for your righteousness and as the means for receiving the inheritance He is offering to you.
• If you have already received that inheritance:
o Be confident in affliction
Because your inheritance rests on God’s grace, as expressed in His promise, when difficulty comes in your life, you can persevere knowing that your priceless inheritance is guaranteed by what God has done. Regardless of what you may suffer here on earth, you can be completely confident that you will reign one day with Jesus because God has promised that will come to pass.
o Be bold in ministry
Have you ever thought about what you might do for the kingdom of God if you knew you could not fail? I want to encourage you this morning to not only think about that, but then go ahead and do it, knowing that your standing with God is not dependent on the results. When I am confident that my inheritance is sure because of God’s promise and not because of anything I do or don’t do, that frees me up to be bold in how I serve other people in the name of Jesus.
o Give glory to God
When I know beyond a doubt that my inheritance is sure because of God’s promise and not anything I can do, then I will boast of God and not in anything I can do. And when I do that, God gets the glory.
Tomas Martinez missed out on a $6 million inheritance, one that he had done absolutely nothing to deserve, because he was unwilling to take the step necessary to receive it. Please make sure that you don’t do the same with a priceless inheritance that is of exponentially greater worth.
