Summary: Abraham’s faith was unswerving in spite of all obstacles. In belief, do you want to be listless with the majority, or victorious with the minority? Will you count for the Lord? Will you serve Him and not yourselves? Christ was delivered up, and raised for our justification.

17. ROMANS CHAPTER 4 VERSES 18-25 MESSAGES IN ROMANS – ABRAHAM’S UNSWERVING FAITH AND THE IMPORTANCE OF THE RESURRECTION FOR SALVATION - MESSAGE 17

[A]. THE PERSEVERING FAITH OF ABRAHAM HAS EXALTED HIM

{{Romans 4:18 IN HOPE AGAINST HOPE he believed, in order that he might become a father of many nations, according to that which had been spoken, “So shall your descendants be.”

Romans 4:19 Without becoming weak in faith he contemplated his own body, now as good as dead since he was about a hundred years old, and the deadness of Sarah’s womb,

Romans 4:20 yet, with respect to the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief, but GREW STRONG IN FAITH, GIVING GLORY TO GOD,

Romans 4:21 and being fully assured that what He had promised, He was able also to perform.

Romans 4:22 Therefore also IT WAS RECKONED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS.”}}

(a). VERSE 18 – IN HOPE AGAINST HOPE

Just consider for a moment the enormity of Abraham’s faith. God had given him a promise of heirship early in his life, yet by the age of 99, that promise still had not come to fruition. In spite of all obstacles in what we might consider a hopeless situation, Abraham held to that promise in hope, against all hope, for his hope was in the God of hope who can not deny Himself. In hope, beyond what is expected in nature, his faith remained firm. God had promised to him descendants as the stars of the sky in Genesis 15:5 and he took God at His word and held fast to that promise in faith and hope. This was in order that he might become the father of many nations.

I called this a persevering hope. I must say again about hope that it is not to be understood in terms of earthly hope as in relying on some wish – “I hope it won’t rain today.” Biblically, it meant a secure position in faith, settled and firm. There is nothing insecure about Christian hope. My hope is in the Rapture. That means I don’t think in terms of it might happen, but an assured, settled position without wavering that it WILL happen. My hope is in a new body, and that is a 100% certainty as I see the passing of my friends in pain, going to the Lord. Not to have this unswerving hope is like being in a boat with a large hole in the bottom.

I do not wish to cover this now, but the matter of Hagar is considered a lapse in faith by Abraham, and a blemish in hope by some. I have done more on this in the Galatians series. In Romans 5 which we will do later on, there is a progression in hope but I select one verse for now – {{Romans 5:4 “and perseverance, proven character, and proven character, HOPE.”}} Abraham knew all about perseverance.

The subject of hope is big in Romans, the word being used 17 times. One verse that ought to characterise every Christian is this one – {{Romans 8:25 “but with perseverance we wait eagerly in hope for what we do not see.”}}. As we have seen with Abraham, faith and hope are very closely linked. Have you met Christians who have a sort of hope about the future and heaven? They are not really sure, or are they? Well there are plenty like that and it is not good. Preachers, do something about that matter!

The Lord has not left us comfortless. The Holy Spirit is our Companion and leads us into all truth and into all hope. I know a close friend who is having so many medical issues with melanomas throughout his body. He rejoices in hope about seeing the Lord and one day having a new body. This is an enduring hope, settled, strong, and reassuring to others. This is what hope is and lines up with the verse just quoted where we wait eagerly.

Reader; Those who listen - do you have that hope? Is your faith fixed in the Lord, and do you have that hope for the future that can not be altered or dismissed, and will not waver in trying circumstances? That is what the Lord wants for you.

{{Romans 15:13 “Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”}}

(b). VERSE 19 – THE REALITY OF ABRAHAM’S AGED BODY

Abraham assessed his condition in the cold light of day. He contemplated all the facts before him and he considered all the obstacles that confronted him connected with the eventual fulfillment of God’s long-standing promise of an heir. Believers need to be realists. We need to look objectively at situations and face them. At those times faith will always ride above these obstacles. Obstacles must never be allowed to override faith and hope.

Abraham evaluated them for what they were. In a situation that seemed hopeless, he did not become weak in faith and that is a critical understanding here. Two great obstacles reared their heads. The first was his own body, then about 100 years old, past the stage of fathering a child to all intents and purposes, and as good as dead, and it would continue in that state. Secondly he had to contend with the barrenness of Sarah’s womb, for she, too, was “past it”.

The highlight of the verse is that Abraham did not grow weak in faith. That is a problem we all have in that over time, not seeing any fulfillment, our faith can grow weak. Often we are too much creatures of reality and human reasoning. Faith looks beyond ourselves to the anchor of our faith who is the Lord. Faith does not depend on us, BUT on Him. Abraham is the shining example of a faith regarding an heir that extended over many decades. Could we have waited that time without faith becoming weak?

Many Christians are weak and sickly. They pay lip service to belief but are not anchored in their faith. There is no real assurance. This is not glorifying the Lord one little bit. Christians can not live selfish lives in these hostile days when opposition is mounting rapidly. We must have the boldness that is found in Christians in Nigeria and the Sudan and through Africa, in Iran and China, where all is black and white. Our fellow believers are severely persecuted; killed by satanic Islam and totalitarian governments, yet these men and women are shining examples of faith and hope.

There really is no place for weak and sickly Christians in our society. Attend to yourselves. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. How is your intense bible study going? Are you studying the word, not just casually reading it? Are you immersing yourselves in the bible? You will not grow any other way. Do you approach the bible as if it is starvation rations?

(c). VERSE 20 – GIVE THE GLORY TO GOD

{{Romans 4:20 yet, with respect to the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief, but grew strong in faith, giving glory to God,}}

So, as far as procreation was concerned both of them had long passed the place of no return, yet Abraham’s faith did not weaken but held on to God’s promise. In all this Abraham did not oscillate between belief and unbelief. He did not waver or vacillate or have a divided mind in the mental struggle regarding this. In this matter he was strengthened, made strong in faith in his unchanging God. As the increased difficulty, so the strengthened faith. God provided for each passing day in the circumstances and strengthened that faith. What could Abraham do more than to give glory to God, for the coming biological miracle would be to God’s glory.

How easy is it to grow in faith (strengthening faith) when circumstances become more difficult. How is that logical? Well it is in the logic of God. The Holy Spirit makes us stronger in challenging trials. A man who subsides in faith when difficulties come, needs to examine himself to see if he is really in the faith. At the first shower of rain some run away and hide. I think this is what the parable of the sower is all about. The majority came to nothing but the minority went on to produce good seed themselves. In belief, do you want to be listless with the majority, or victorious with the minority? Will you count for the Lord? Will you serve Him and not yourselves?

In verse 20 there is one phrase we must not miss and it is “giving glory to God”. Our lives either glorify God or dishonour God. Which is it for you, for me?

I like what Barnes said – [[ “Giving glory to God” - Giving honour to God by the firmness with which he believed his promises. His conduct was such as to honour God; that is, to show Abraham's conviction that he was worthy of implicit confidence and trust. In this way all who believe in the promises of God do honour to Him. They bear testimony to Him that He is worthy of confidence. They become so many witnesses in His favour; and furnish to their fellow men, evidence that God has a claim on the credence and trust of mankind. ]]

(d). VERSE 21 – THE FULL ASSURANCE OF FAITH

{{Romans 4:21 and being fully assured that what He had promised, He was able also to perform.

Surely the substance of faith rests in the character of God. Faith must be the anchor that grasps the rock that is unmovable. Abraham knew God to be that Rock, so faith was anchored in the substance of the Rock, not in his own perceptions or his own efforts. Therefore there was full assurance in the promise God had given Him because that promise rested in the very character of God. If God had promised it, then there was no way in the world would God not be able to perform it. This was the character of Abraham’s faith - God promised so God will perform! In that he had bold assurance with no crevice for lingering doubt. “God says it; I believe it!”

The term used is “fully assured”. If you were a bottle, what sort of bottle would God want you to be? Some bottles have very little liquid; some might be half full; others mostly full, and some are full to the brim. Translate that to assurance - Some have very little assurance; some might be half way there; others are mostly walking in assurance, and some are fully living in godly assurance. Abraham was in the last category, AND SO SHOULD WE.

We have all heard the expression, “God says it; I believe it,” but it is easy to say that, yet not transpose it over into daily action. The bible is the core and engine room of our faith and godly relationship, and without God’s inspired words we will never be living in a state of being fully assured. We hold every promise of God in absolute assurance as if He is holding our hand and won’t let go.

(e). VERSE 22 – ASSURED FAITH RECKONED AS RIGHTEOUSNESS

{{Romans 4:22 Therefore also it was reckoned to him as righteousness.”}}

Then we come back to this repeated statement of great importance.

Then follows the justification of that unswerving faith. (We do actual “justification” in the next chapter). For the third time in this section we say again, it was the faith of Abraham that placed righteousness on his account. God reckoned to him as righteousness, that faith he had in God alone. From faith springs righteousness and justification.

Take careful note of the word “therefore” used in scripture a lot. It is a linking word that gathers up a lot of the argument and brings it to a conclusion. All the previous verses, indeed, I would say, the whole chapter, qualifies the argument Paul is making, then it leads to the conclusion of verse 22. Abraham’s unswerving faith in God led to his reckoning as righteousness.

[B]. JUSTIFICATION IS THE BASIS OF THE WORK OF CHRIST FOR US TO BE RECKONED

{{Romans 4:23 “Now not for his sake only was it written that it was RECKONED to him,

Romans 4:24 but for our sake also to whom it will be reckoned, as those who believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead -

Romans 4:25 He who was delivered up because of our transgressions, and was raised because of our JUSTIFICATION.”}}

In this final section of the chapter JUSTIFICATION is now introduced and it leads on into chapter 5 that we will begin next time.

(a). Verse 23 – NOT ONLY ABRAHAM ENTERS THIS BLESSING

We have now finished the consideration of Abraham’s faith. We saw that it had been written by Moses of Abraham that his faith had been reckoned for righteousness. Righteousness comes by the vehicle of faith, not by Law. It needs to be made clear it was not for Abraham’s sake alone that God gave these scriptures speaking of faith leading to righteousness. Paul went to a great extent to prove the “reckoning in righteousness” came about through faith and not by adherence to laws and principles. Because Abraham was uncircumcised when all this happened then it removes the declared righteousness from the Law and is now open to Gentiles.

(b). VERSE 24 – RECKONING COMES ABOUT THROUGH BELIEF

God had also intended this scripture to be written for us too. We too will have faith reckoned to righteousness, all of us who believe in God the Father who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. Faith lays hold on the miracle of the resurrection from the dead and accepts the Lord Jesus Christ as personal Saviour. That faith then is credited as righteousness. Faith to accept the resurrection of the Lord out from among the dead as a miracle, is similar to faith required to accept that God would produce new life from the barrenness and deadness of Abraham and Sarah’s reproductive abilities, which Abraham accepted without wavering.

Let us also be aware that Abraham’s salvation depended on Calvary as much as ours does. The fact that Abraham was in Paradise and not in heaven (in the Gospels’ period) only showed the way to heaven was not yet open because the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, had not yet been offered up.

The resurrection was vital as Paul points out – {{1Corinthians 15:16-19 “If the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised, and IF CHRIST HAS NOT BEEN RAISED, YOUR FAITH IS WORTHLESS. You are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied,”}}

We say we are saved by the death of Christ on the cross and that is true. We could say we are saved by the burial of Christ in a tomb, and I hope you realise where this is going. We can assuredly say we are saved through the resurrection of Christ from the dead. Each of those three parts is necessary, and over all we can say this, “We are saved by the death, burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.”

(c). VERSE 25 – DELIVERED UP AND RAISED FOR OUR JUSTIFICATION

{{Romans 4:25 He who was delivered up because of our transgressions, and was raised because of our justification.”}}

Now having established the fact of imputed righteousness which is credited to our account, we now come to focus more fully on the divine Son of God who had made all this possible. Yes, Jesus Christ was raised from the dead by the power of God. He was delivered by God the Father over to the working of justice, in order that sin’s penalty that was overhanging sinful human beings, might be totally satisfied. He met all our wrongdoing in totality, all our sinful, self-willed deviation from God’s righteous path, and satisfied the very last demands of justice. Therefore then, as a perfect sacrifice, He was raised that the execution of our justification might be complete. There would be no hope without a risen Christ, but indeed, He was raised in power and provides for us full justification.

Figuratively we nailed Christ to the cross but the Father raised Him from the dead for us, the very ones who put Him on the cross. What a beautiful substitution that Paul often speaks about. In this verse: “our transgressions – our justification”.

Here is another verse – {{2Corinthians 5:21 “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him,”}} “We the sinners – we the righteousness of God”.

Verse 25 is one of the key verses in Romans and this is the beginning of another section that leads into chapter 5, but we keep that for next time.