A. I like the old story about a man who fell off a cliff, but managed to grab a tree limb on the way down.
1. The man began to call out: “Help, help, is anyone up there?”
2. Then the man heard a voice saying, “I am here. I am the Lord. Do you believe me?”
3. The man replied, “Yes, Lord, I believe. I really believe, but I can’t hang on much longer.”
4. The Lord then said, “That’s all right, if you really believe you have nothing to worry about. I will save you. Just let go of the branch, I will catch you.”
5. There was a long pause, and then the man cried out, “Help, is anyone else up there?”
B. Another story tells of a city being bombed during wartime, and a father who picked up his son and ran for a shelter.
1. On the way, the bombing intensified and the father wasn’t sure they would make it to the shelter.
2. Seeing a deep hole, the father put his son down and jumped into the hole.
3. When he told his son that he would catch him in his arms if the boy would jump into the hole, the boy said, “But I can’t see you, father!”
4. The father looked up at the silhouette of his son against the background of explosions and burning buildings and said, “But you don’t have to see me, because I can see you.”
5. With faith and trust, the son jumped into his father’s waiting arms.
C. True faith is the willingness and the ability to trust in what we cannot see.
1. In 2 Corinthians 5, when Paul was describing the faithful Christian’s trust in their heavenly home, he wrote: “For we walk by faith, not by sight.” (2 Cor. 5:7)
2. Faith is essential for our relationship with God.
3. Faith is essential in the process of being made right with God – we are justified by faith.
4. And faith is essential in the process of continuing in relationship with God – we walk by faith.
D. In our continuing study of Paul’s letter to the Romans, we return to chapter 4, where Paul is still talking about Abraham and how his example relates to the New Testament doctrine of justification by faith.
1. Twice in the verses we looked at last week, Paul declared that Abraham was made right with God because of his faith.
a. In verse 3, Paul wrote: Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him for righteousness.
b. Then, in verse 9, Paul wrote: Faith was credited to Abraham for righteousness.
2. As Paul was making those statements about Abraham’s faith, he was contrasting the “faith” approach to salvation with two other approaches.
a. In Rom. 4:1-8, Paul was showing how Abraham was saved by faith and not by works.
b. In Rom. 4:9-12, Paul was showing how Abraham was saved by faith and not by circumcision.
3. Today, in Romans 4:13-25, Paul will move on to the next logical step as he employs the example of Abraham, when he says that Abraham was saved by faith and not by keeping the law.
a. What is interesting about this third point that Paul makes is that he doesn’t make the same kind of argument about the law as he made about circumcision, but he could have.
b. In Paul’s argument about circumcision, Paul argued that Abraham couldn’t have been saved by circumcision because the moment when he was saved by faith came 13 or more years before he was circumcised.
c. The same argument could have been made about the law since Abraham lived 500 years before the giving of the law to Moses.
d. But rather than making that argument, which was certainly true, Paul instead presents the inherent weakness of attempting to be saved by the law and then shows the absolute superiority of salvation by faith and the kind of faith that is necessary.
E. The theme of “promise” binds this entire section together.
1. The word “promise” appears for the first time in Romans in today’s section.
2. The word “promise” will appear as a noun 4 times in today’s section, and it will be used in its verb form one time.
3. As you know, the concept of promise is central to the story of Abraham.
4. In today’s section, Romans 4:13-25, Paul makes three points about the promise to Abraham.
a. First, the promise is based on faith, not the law (vs. 13-15).
b. Second, the promise, because it is based on faith, unties Jews and Gentiles in to one people of God (vs. 16-17).
c. Third, the faith with which Abraham responded to God’s promise was firm and unwavering (vs. 18-22).
5. And then, most importantly for us, Paul draws the parallel to the way righteousness was credited to Abraham and the way it is credited to us through our faith in Jesus (vs. 23-25).
6. So let’s dive into the text and learn these important lessons that God wants us to learn.
F. Paul wrote: 13 For the promise to Abraham or to his descendants that he would inherit the world was not through the law, but through the righteousness that comes by faith. 14 If those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made empty and the promise nullified, 15 because the law produces wrath. And where there is no law, there is no transgression. (Rom. 4:13-15)
1. The promise that came to Abraham had three distinct parts – a land promise, a seed promise, and a blessing promise.
a. God promised to make Abraham the father of a great nation, to give that nation a land of its own, and then to bring great blessing to the world through that nation.
b. That promise, first given in Genesis 12, is the foundation for the sending of Christ to the world some 2000 years later.
c. So, when Paul talks about “the promise” to Abraham, we can understand that it is shorthand for “the promise of salvation.”
2. Paul points out that when God gave the promise, it had nothing to do with the law given to Moses 500 years later.
3. Paul then sketched out three things that would happen if the promise came by keeping the law rather than through faith.
a. First, if that’s the case then “faith is made empty.” (or useless, void, no value, worthless)
1. It is either one way or the other. The way of faith and the way of law are mutually exclusive. You can have one or the other, but you can’t have both.
b. Second, if that’s the case then “the promise is nullified.” (or void, worthless, canceled)
1. If you earn salvation by works, then you don’t need God’s promise.
c. Third, if the way to salvation is by law, then our situation is hopeless, because the law produces wrath.
1. Our efforts are doomed to failure, because no one can keep the law perfectly.
2. James 2:10 reminds us that to break any part of God’s law is the same as breaking it all.
3. Think of the law like a chain with many links, if one of the links is broken, the chain is rendered as useless or unable to do its job.
4. Paul has already developed the theme “the law brings wrath” because it shows us how far we have fallen short of God’s will (3:20) and Paul will come back to this idea in chapters 5 & 7.
a. But what does Paul mean when he says “and where there is no law, there is no transgression?”
b. Paul is making a specific point about the difference between sin and transgression.
1. Transgression is sin, but not all sin is transgression.
2. Anytime we fall short of God’s general will, we sin, but when we directly violate a commandment God has given directly to us we commit a transgression.
3. So, when Israel sinned, the punishment was greater, because the law was given directly to them.
G. Having shown us clearly why the law can’t save us, Paul now shows us the superiority of salvation by faith.
1. Paul wrote: 16 This is why the promise is by faith, so that it may be according to grace, to guarantee it to all the descendants—not only to those who are of the law but also to those who are of Abraham’s faith. He is the father of us all. 17 As it is written: I have made you the father of many nations. He is our father in God’s sight, in whom Abraham believed—the God who gives life to the dead and calls things into existence that do not exist. (Rom. 4:16-17)
2. The promise has to be by faith, because it has to do with God’s grace.
a. Grace is unmerited favor – and since grace by its nature involves that which is undeserved, it excludes the idea of working to obtain salvation – so that no one can boast.
3. Because salvation is by grace through faith, it is guaranteed to all of Abraham’s descendants – Abraham’s offspring.
a. Not just the physical descendants of Abraham, but most importantly his spiritual offspring.
b. Abraham is the father of all who believe – and specifically, Paul has in mind the Jewish and Gentile Christians in Rome.
4. But the most important thing about salvation by faith isn’t Abraham himself, but the God in whom Abraham believed.
a. Ultimately, faith saves because it rests on God’s unchanging character and abilities.
b. Paul emphasized that Abraham believed in “a God who gives life to the dead and calls things into existence that do not exist.”
c. This most certainly alludes to the experience of Abraham and Sarah being given Isaac, the son of promise, by bringing “life” through Sarah’s “dead” womb – and from a reproductive point of view, both of them were “dead” at 100 and 90 years old respectively.
d. As we see in the original creation in Gen. 1, God called into existence things that did not exist, and God did the same by promising to make Abraham the father of many nations before he had a single descendant.
e. Abraham believed in a miracle-working God.
d. How wonderful it is that as Abraham’s descendants, we have the same God and can believe that God has the same miracle-working power today!
H. In the next verses, Paul explored Abraham’s faith in greater detail: 18 He believed, hoping against hope, so that he became the father of many nations according to what had been spoken: So will your descendants be. 19 He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body to be already dead (since he was about a hundred years old) and also the deadness of Sarah’s womb. 20 He did not waver in unbelief at God’s promise but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, 21 because he was fully convinced that what God had promised, he was also able to do. (4:18-21)
1. What was the promise that Abraham had believed?
a. Verse 18 specifies that he believed in God’s promise to make him the father of many nations.
b. That promise must have seemed incredible to a 75 year-old man with a 65 year-old wife with no children.
c. But imagine how that promise must have become even harder to believe as the next 24 years passed with no signs of the child of promise.
2. Paul says that he did not weaken in faith even when he considered his own body already dead (at 100 years old) and also the deadness of Sarah’s womb.
a. The Cottonpatch Bible Version says: “He kept the faith even when the cards were stacked against him.”
b. If Abraham had focused on the reality of his situation, he could have found a thousand reasons to doubt and give up on God’s promise.
1. He could have thought, “I’m too old. She’s too old. We’ve tried for years, but nothing worked. Our friends think we are nuts. Nothing like this has ever happened before, and so how could it happen now?”
3. Also, I would encourage you to keep in mind that Abraham didn’t have a Bible to read with great stories of God’s power and God’s ability to keep His promises.
a. All Abraham had was God’s promise to him – and he tightly clung to it.
4. Verse 21 is so amazing: he was fully convinced that what God had promised, he was also able to do.
a. That’s the kind of faith that God wants us to have.
5. If you know the story of Abraham, then you might question Paul assessment of Abraham’s faith.
a. You might ask, “But didn’t Abraham laugh at one point when God renewed the promise?
b. Or you might bring up the time when Abraham decided God needed help in bringing a descendant so he married the young handmaiden named Hagar and she gave birth to Ishmael for him.
c. I think the point that Paul was making was that, overall, Abraham maintained a firm conviction in God’s promise and acted on it.
d. Abraham had his momentary doubts, it is true, but they were always overcome by his faith in God.
6. Ultimately, Abraham’s faith in God was rightly placed, because God eventually did what He had promised.
a. Isaac was born when Abraham was 100 years old and Sarah was 90.
b. Can you imagine the 100 year old father and the 90 year old mother in the maternity ward of the hospital.
c. It was indeed a cause for laughter, and so they named him Isaac, which means “he laughs!”
d. There are 15 million Jews in the world today and all of them are physical descendants of that old man and that old woman – and that is no joke!
e. Even greater than the physical descendants of Abraham, about one third of the world’s population, over 2.2 billion people claim to be followers of Christ, which make them the spiritual descendants of Abraham.
7. All of that because Abraham believed and it was credited to him as righteousness.
I. As Paul brings this chapter to an end, he circles back to where he began in Romans 4:3.
1. Paul wrote: 22 Therefore, it was credited to him for righteousness. 23 Now it was credited to him was not written for Abraham alone, 24 but also for us. It will be credited to us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. 25 He was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification. (Rom. 4:22-25)
2. Paul’s reason for bringing up the example of Abraham is to help us understand that our own salvation is by grace through faith.
a. Just as God “credited” Abraham’s faith “for righteousness,” so God does the same thing for us who believe in Jesus.
3. Notice that Paul is quick to point out that it is not just faith in general that saves us.
a. Nor is it just a general faith in Jesus that saves.
b. Rather, we are saved by believing in the One who raised Jesus from the dead.
c. We must believe in the God, who by His grace allowed Jesus to be delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.
d. The Christian faith rests on the reality of those two events that actually happened 2000 years ago.
e. The Christian faith rests on the death of Jesus on the cross for our sins, and the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.
f. Through the crucifixion Christ paid for our sins, and through the resurrection Christ guaranteed our right standing before God.
4. As I have been saying for the past three weeks, the right way to be made right with God is by grace through faith in Jesus.
a. Through faith in Jesus and what Jesus did through His crucifixion and resurrection, we believe that God credits our spiritual account with the righteousness of Christ.
b. His righteousness covers over our unrighteousness so that we are justified before God.
5. There is a powerful illustration of this that comes to us from the Chinese language.
a. I am told that the Chinese character for “righteous” has two parts.
b. The top part means “sheep” while the bottom part means “I” or “me.”
c. So “righteous” in Chinese is literally “sheep” over “me.”
d. The righteous lamb of God is over me (covers me).
e. When God looks down on me, He sees only the Lamb of God and declares me righteous.
J. So, as I bring this sermon to a close, I want to challenge us to put our faith in God.
1. Do we really believe that what God has promised, God will do?
2. Do we really believe in God’s promise that we are saved by grace through faith? (Eph. 2:8)
3. Do we really believe in God’s promise that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ? (Rom. 8:1)
4. Do we really believe in God’s promise that eternal life is in His Son and that whoever has the Son has life? (1 John 5:11-12)
5. Do we really believe in God’s promise that all things work together for the good of those who love God, who are called according to his purpose? (Rom. 8:28)
6. God calls us to believe His word and to walk by faith – will we do it and take Him at His word?
K. Allow me to end with this illustration.
1. The African impala is a magnificent animal – it has amazing leaping ability.
2. An impala can jump upward over 10 feet high and it can jump outward over a distance of 30 feet.
3. But amazingly, these splendid creatures can be kept in a zoo and are contained by only a 3 foot high wall.
4. How can it be that they can jump 10 feet high and 30 feet long, but are held in place by a 3 foot high wall?
5. What zoo keepers have discovered is that an impala will not jump if they cannot see where they will land.
6. Even though the zoo wall is only 3 feet tall, zookeepers have positioned it in a way that the impala can’t see where it will land.
7. So, even though they have the ability to break free, they don’t have the confidence to launch themselves out into the unknown.
8. God calls upon us to trust in Him – to walk by faith and not by sight – to launch ourselves into the unknown even though we can’t see where we will land.
9. That’s what Abraham did and that’s what God calls us to do - to trust Him and let go, knowing that He will catch us, because He can see us even though we can’t see Him.
10. God will do what He has promised, if we trust in Him.
Resources:
Romans: Be Right, The Bible Exposition Commentary, by Warren Wiersbe
Romans, The NIV Application Commentary, by Douglas Moo
Romans, Interpretation – A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching, Paul Achtemeier
“Faith – Yes! The Law – No!” Sermon by Ray Pritchard
“The Oldest Dad in the Nursery” Sermon by Ray Pritchard
“A God Who Justifies The Wicked” Sermon by Dan Williams
