Please be seated. Well, good morning. It’s good to be with you again on this Lord’s Day. And this morning we’re going to be looking at this text from Romans chapter 4, verses 13 to 25, looking at the faith of Abraham. And if you would be good enough to I’ll turn to that passage, Romans chapter four, verses 13 to 15, and I will, it’s on page, looks like 1197, I think. Let’s hear God’s word.
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 adherence of the law who are to be 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. In hope, he believed against hope that he should become the father of many nations. As he had been told, so your offspring shall be.
He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead, since he was about 100 years old, or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah’s womb. No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God. But he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. That is why his faith was counted to him as righteousness.
But the words, it was counted to him, were not written for his sake alone, but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus, our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.
The word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Amen. Heavenly Father, just ask that the meditations of our hearts and the words of my mouth would be acceptable in your sight this morning. In Christ’s name. Amen. Well, when I was very young, growing up, one of the little songs that I was taught as a child is this one that you might be familiar with. I won’t sing it, but I’ll read the words. Father Abraham had many sons. Many sons had Father Abraham. I am one of them, and so are you. Let’s just praise the Lord.
Anyone familiar with that one? Growing up? Yes. And then there’s these little arm motions and so forth that go along with it. And you know, over the years, I’ve thought about that song that I learned as a child many times. And there is a tremendous amount of good theology in those short words.
The promise made to Abraham in Genesis 12, which was read earlier, was that he would be the father of many nations. At one point, God told Abraham to look up at the sky and look at the stars and to see if he could count them. And he said, your descendants will be as numerous as the stars in the sky. You might recall that one of the arguments or discussions that Jesus had with the religious leaders was about who the real children of Abraham were. Abraham’s children, Jesus said, were not necessarily those who were descended from him biologically. His true children were those who shared the faith of Abraham.
And this is the great truth that the Apostle Paul seeks to unpack for us in this passage from Romans chapter four. The book of Romans, of course, is about the righteousness of God. which comes to us through faith. In chapter one, Paul writes, I am not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. For the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith as it is written, the righteous shall live by faith. I think we all understand that we need righteousness. We were created to be like our Heavenly Father, to live in his image, to reflect his goodness, his righteousness, his truth, his loveliness, and all these things.
And of course, we don’t do that. We fall short of it, as Paul says. Fall far short of it. We fall short of the glory of God. We fall short of reflecting that. in our words and our thoughts and our deeds day by day. We fall short of that righteousness. And we, so we are saved, we are made righteous, we find that righteousness given to us by faith, that righteousness which we require. And that is how, Paul reminds us here, Abraham was saved.
He believed God. He had faith in God and that was credited to him as righteousness. Thus it is that Abraham becomes a superlative example of saving faith. And you and I are invited to share that faith of Abraham. And so what I want to just do this morning in the short time that we have, given that faith is so important, And given that Abraham is that superlative example of faith, I just want to ask three questions and hopefully answer them as we’re looking at this text. First, what exactly is the faith of Abraham?
Secondly, what does that faith look like today, 4,000 years later for us? And then thirdly, how do we know that we actually have that faith, that we share in that faith? So first, what was Abraham’s faith? What does it look like? What was that faith that he had?
Well, faith, again, as I’m sure you know, in and of itself does nothing. Everyone has faith or something or someone. But to be effective, faith has to have a proper object, have something proper to put itself in. That is, faith has to be put into something or someone worthy of bearing its weight.
Just for example, you can have a very, very strong faith in a thin sheet of ice. In such case, your faith will not save you from falling through the ice and getting cold and wet. And maybe even worse, drowning. On the other hand, you can have a very weak faith in a strong, thick sheet of ice. And your faith may be weak, and you may step out on that ice timidly. But the ice, the object of your faith, is strong. And you’re going to be fine. So it’s the object of our faith that is most important.
And that, of course, is what we find for Abraham. Where was Abraham’s faith located? Well, verse 17 of the passage says, he believed in the God who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. He believed in the God who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. And even more specifically, He believed the specific promise of God that he would become the father of many nations. Now, we have to understand this, of course, in the context.
This was not an easy faith for Abraham. Yet he believed, it says, working against hope in verse 18. The idea that he would be the father of many seemed, Especially as more and more time went on, it seemed increasingly hopeless. It seemed increasingly unlikely that this was going to be the case. And again, you know the situation. You’re familiar with the story, I’m sure.
He and his wife, Sarah, were childless. They were childless when Abraham was 75 years old, when God first made the promise to him. And they were still childless 10 years later when God reaffirmed that promise. And again, they were still childless when Abraham was 99, and God again reaffirmed the promise.
So we’re talking here about 25 years. At all this time, God, or Abraham, continued to believe God and trust him. In fact, in verse 20, Paul writes that Abraham grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God. All this time, this promise lay ahead of him. It seemed hopeless. He was getting older. Sarah was getting older. And yet he continued to believe and trust God and give glory to him.
Now again, just to say that It’s the object of his faith that is most important, and we see that in Abraham’s life, because if you remember the details of Abraham’s story, which you can read in Genesis 12 through 22, you know that Abraham’s faith wasn’t always perfect.
He wavered from time to time. There were times when he had his doubts and his questions. At one point in Genesis 15, he’s questioning God about this, We see it again in Genesis 17, and even laughs there when God reaffirms the promise. And there are other times of vacillation in his, and you remember this story where he’s trying to protect himself and Sarah, and actually lies about his relationship with his wife. But the thing that the key here is that in spite of these vacillations and these doubts and these questions that he had, His default position is faith.
This is where he keeps coming back to. It’s like a ship, if you will. It might be rolling and healing in a difficult sea, but it always comes upright. And that’s where Abraham was. His default position was faith. And over time, he grew in that faith. So more specifically, Abraham’s faith was a resurrection faith. It was a faith, as verse 17 says, in the God who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. He needed this kind of faith. He needed a resurrection faith. Why?
Because, as verse 19 says, from a child-conceiving point of view, Abraham’s body was, quote, as good as dead. And the same verse says, Sarah’s womb wasn’t a whole lot better at that particular point. I remember one pastor I heard preaching on this that says, Abraham’s body was as good as dead, and Sarah’s womb was even deader. And so looking at this, Given Abraham’s abilities to procreate at 100 years old and given the barrenness of Sarah’s womb, Abraham knew that only a life-resurrecting, creating-out-of-nothing God would be able to keep the promises.
He needed a resurrection God. He needed a God who could create out of nothing. That’s the God he trusted in. And verse 22 says, Abraham remained fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. He believed in a resurrecting God, a God who could call into existence things that were not.
We see the same faith actually exercised later on in Genesis chapter 22 after Isaac is born, after the child of promise is born. And Isaac, at this particular point, is growing. And God calls him now. And he says, take your son, your only son, and sacrifice him on Mount Moriah. And he willingly obeys. And he goes, and again, if he sacrifices his son, again, what’s going to happen to the promise?
Hebrews chapter 11 tells us this, in verse 17 and 19, by faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac. And he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom it was said, through Isaac shall your offspring be named.
He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead. from which figure, to be speaking, he did receive him back. Abraham’s faith is a faith in a resurrecting God. This was Abraham’s faith, a faith in a God who creates what was not and resurrects what has died. He believed in this God’s promises, even when, from a human point of view, it looked hopeless. Abraham’s faith was a resurrection faith. It was Abraham’s faith in a God who gives life to the dead, and God rewarded that faith with righteousness.
And this is the kind of resurrection faith that you and I are to share. Which brings me now to the next question. What does this faith look like now, 4,000 years later, after the time of Abraham? Well, Abraham was called to believe in certain promises of God, that promise that, but I wonder, so far as I can tell, none of the specific promises that Abraham was called to believe in apply to us. I just, is anyone here who is 75 years old or older, never had children, been told that you’re going to be the father or mother of many nations? No hands up, I kind of thought not. So how then can Abraham’s faith be a model for ours? How can we be those who, as verse 16 says, share the faith of Abraham?
I think the answer is in verses 23 to 25. We read this, but the words it was counted to him were not written for Abraham’s sake alone, but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification. Notice again the theme of resurrection and bringing back to life. Abraham’s circumstances and ours may be significantly different.
But we are both called to believe in the same God. He was called to believe in a God who would give life, new life, to his very old body. We are called to believe in him who raised Jesus from the dead. We are called to believe in the same life-creating and life-resurrecting God. That’s the faith that we are to share, believing in that resurrecting, life-giving God.
More specifically, we’re called to believe that Jesus was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification, to believe in that resurrection, the resurrection of Jesus. This is not, this is another one of those, this, by the way, this statement here in verse 25 is a wonderful statement to believe that Jesus was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification. This is one of those many summary statements that we find peppered throughout the New Testament, summary statements of the gospel. Christ was delivered up for our trespasses, and he was raised for our justification. It’s a summary of Christ’s atoning work.
He was delivered up over to death for our sins. Jesus’ death, as you well know, is a substitutionary death, a death in our place, a death for our sins. And the scripture teaches that the wages of sin is death. And on the cross, Jesus paid that. He paid those wages for us. He himself said that he came to give his life as a ransom for sinners. John the Baptist pointed to him and said, behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
Isaiah, the prophet, looked forward to his coming and said, he was wounded for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace. And with his stripes, we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, and we have turned everyone to his own way. And God has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He died for us. That’s the death for us.
But Jesus didn’t remain dead. He rose from the grave, and as it says in this summary statement, he was raised for our justification. Christ’s resurrection was a demonstration that he had triumphed over sin and death, for death could not hold him. And now we are made righteous in Christ. Jesus’ death and resurrection go together as two sides of the same coin. Jesus was given over to death for our sins, and he was raised to be the wellspring of new life.
And this is the gospel that Paul is expanding for us in the entirety of the book of Romans. It is in this great and wonderful truth that we are called to place our faith. we are to believe in a God who raised Jesus from the dead for us and for our justification.
And in believing this, we too, like Abraham, are credited with righteousness. And when you put it all together, you discover this. The faith which Abraham exercised 4,000 years ago and the faith that we are called to have are not really any different. For both him and us, it’s a resurrection faith. It’s a faith in the God who raises from the dead and gives life where there had not been life before. The big difference is where we stand in sacred history.
Abraham is at the beginning. of a long chain of God’s promises and actions, which then reached their fulfillment in Jesus Christ. That chain began with the promise to Abraham to make him the father of many nations and to bless him, and that through him all peoples would be blessed. That chain of promises then continued in the story of the Old Testament and the story of of Isaac and Jacob, and then through Moses and Levi, and David and Solomon. And it was further ratified, and the prophets, and most especially Isaiah. And through these many centuries, this promise of life kept being renewed. And it always was a resurrection faith throughout, because Israel was always falling. They were always sinning. They’re always turning from God, and they always needed to be revived and renewed.
One of the most wonderful pictures of that is in Ezekiel itself, where you have this picture of this valley of dry bones. And you say, well, these bones live. Is there hope for Israel? Is there hope for God’s people? They’re dead. And then you have this wonderful picture of the spirit blowing and the bones joining back together and flesh coming back on and they live. It’s a picture of the power and the purpose of a God who raises from the dead and gives life.
And ultimately, of course, the faith, the promise comes to its fulfillment in one descendant of Abraham, Jesus, and through him all peoples are blessed. He would be the one delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification. So the only difference really between Abraham’s faith and our faith is that he looked forward from the beginning of that sequence and we look back. But it’s the same faith. He believed in the God who would fulfill his promises by raising a son from his and Sarah’s good as dead bodies. We believe in the God who has fulfilled his promise by raising his own son for our justification. In both cases, it is a faith in the God of resurrection who brings life out of death and who makes all things new. That’s the faith. of Abraham, and that should be our faith, if we are children of Abraham, sharing that faith.
Which brings me really to the final question, how do we know when we have that faith of Abraham? How do we know when we have that resurrection faith? And I think the answer is really pretty simple, and it’s when we live by it. When we live by it, when we make choices in our lives that only make sense because we believe in a resurrecting God and in the resurrection of Jesus. When we live our lives in the light of that day by day, that demonstrates that we have that faith. And again, Abraham is our example.
What was the evidence that he believed God? Well, there’s lots of them. If you look at his life, for one, he left Ur when he was called to. He believed God and followed him. He patiently waited, the scripture we read says. He patiently waited, trusting God all the way through, growing in faith day by day, even while he continued to wait. He accepted a name change, which is interesting.
Abram, which means exalted father, and then he except that the name changed to Abraham, which means the father of a multitude. That must have been fun. Still, where’s that multitude, God? I don’t see it yet. But he obeyed God’s command to sacrifice Isaac. That was a difficult one.
Over 25 years and more, he grew in faith. And you could see it, because at different points in his life, When there were choices to be made, he chose to trust God. He chose to believe in the promises, even when he didn’t understand how they were going to be fulfilled. And this is the evidence that Abraham believed God, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that are not. This is the evidence of a faith in Abraham that led to his justification. And it’s the same with us.
What’s the evidence? When push comes to shove, do you and I act in accordance to what we confess? Is the pattern of your life and mine one that reflects a faith in Christ crucified for my sins and raised for my justification? Is there evidence that I really believe that as I live my life?
When you rise from your bed in the morning, do you remember that you rise to live before a God who has raised Jesus for you and for your salvation. You can have your coffee first before you think about it, but at least at some point early in the day, do you think, yes, I have been raised this morning from the bed in order to live for a God who has given me new life in Christ. When I make choices, Big ones or small ones, do I make them out of a faith in a God who gives life from the dead and calls them to exist in things that do not exist?
When life brings one of its many discouragements, and life brings us discouragements all the time, doesn’t it? When life brings us one of its many discouragements and disappointments, do you remember, in spite of those discouragements and disappointments and setbacks, whatever they might be, that our God is a resurrection God. And he promises new life and to make all things new. Let me just give you one illustration, and there are many, many that could be brought to bear here.
In the mid-1990s, nine Trappist monks had been living and serving peacefully in Algeria for years when civil war broke out. Islamic radicals were fighting against the government and the monks here were now suddenly in danger. And they had to decide what they were going to do, whether to remain in Algiers or to flee for safety. At first, they were divided among themselves as they looked at the situation and didn’t know what they should do.
Some wanted to stay, but others wanted to leave. And so they waited, and they prayed. They talked with one another, and they continued daily to gather for worship. And then finally, they got together to make a decision. And when they did, they found that they were all in agreement to stay, knowing that staying would likely mean their death. But the whole ordeal had put their faith to the test.
It had put them in a situation where they had to decide what did they truly believe? Where was their hope? Did they really believe in the God to whom they had committed themselves? Did they really believe in what they had professed through their lives? Did they really believe that Christ had died and was raised for them? Did they really believe in the God who gives life to the dead? And the answer they discovered was, yes, they did. And they stayed. They lived there. And they died for that faith.
And by the way, it’s a beautiful story that can, if you want to, in 2010, a movie titled Of Gods and of Men was made about these Trappist monks You might not face the decision that these monks in Algeria faced, but all of us will at some time or another be called to make choices that only make sense if we truly believe in a God who raised Jesus from the dead.
At some point, we are, in different points in our lives, we are called to make those kinds of choices, belief they call us to Believe in a God who gives life to the dead and existence to things that do not exist. That’s when we know what we truly believe. Belief that we, as we deal with our own struggles within in our own lives, belief that we have been raised with Christ and that we therefore set our minds on things that are above and not the things that that are passing.
This is the faith that Abraham had, and this is the faith which God looks upon and honors those who possess it with righteousness. Let’s pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the life of Abraham, the promises you made long ago and which you have fulfilled over the over the centuries and ultimately in the giving of your son, Jesus Christ. Lord, we thank you for these great and wonderful promises which we benefit from. And we thank you for the faith of Abraham, which by your grace is now our faith, which we share, hoping as he did and trusting in the God who raises from the dead and brings into existence things that are not yet.
Lord, we are a people who are looking for that. We’re looking for things that are not yet. We’re looking forward to that time when Christ will return and make all things new. And we live now, Lord, in light of that, holding on to that promise. Help us, O Lord, to live more and more by faith, sharing the faith of Abraham. And we ask this in Christ’s name. Amen.