What does Abraham mean to you? What do you know of the fellow? He is the Father figure of Jews, Christians and Muslims alike but for different reasons. Today we pick up Paul’s letter to the Romans again. Today is about example. The example of Abraham is important because so many people count him as a patriarch. But where does Abraham fit into our gospel?
What is our gospel in the words of Paul?
Romans 1 verse 16 - 18 (NIV)
I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power
of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for
the Gentile. For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed,
a righteousness that is by faith from first to last,
just as it is written: "The righteous will live by
faith."
So Paul, having examined how we have lost righteousness and shown that we cannot obtain for ourselves, he has declared
Romans 3 verse 21 - 24 (NIV)
But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has
been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness
from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no
difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are
justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
The next part of his argument is that Abraham is an example of righteousness by faith.
Paul’s argument goes like this:
READ Romans 4
Bible commentators get excited about Romans 4 because it is a commentary on a Bible passage. In fact we have three commentaries on the passage in question, which is Genesis 15:1-6 They are Romans 4, Hebrews 11:11 and James 2:18-24.
Hebrews 11:11
But we must concentrate on what God is saying through
this passage.
First Abraham is the Father of many nations. Islamic teachers
in this locality tell their students that Abraham is their prophet. The Jews of
Paul’s day claimed Abraham as their Father. But he is the Father of many
nations. He is the demonstration that the gospel in not confined to one culture
or even one religion. Our gospel is the good News for Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist,
Sikh, Jew or any other religion or non religion. It is inclusive because it
does not matter what you are born to, who your parents were or initiated you
in. What matters is whether you have believed God and received the
righteousness that comes by faith in Jesus Christ.
Abraham believed
God and it was credited to him as righteousness. The word credit is an
accountancy word. Righteousness put into your account. Not that it is a
variable amount. As my bank balance is from day to day. You either have
righteousness or you don’t. You either are in favour with God or out of favour.
First three NOTS
Righteousness is not earned as wages
this is where we have our biggest problem in our
capitalist culture. We know that government handouts are actually them giving
us our money back! So when they announce your pension increase yo are meant to
appreciate their generosity in returning your own money! The credit crunch is
the result of people thinking that banks are giving you money. They are not .
They are lending, expecting you to not only pay it back but also pay them
enough to employ their staff and allow themselves huge profits. The credit
system is based on you paying back more than you received. So we have a proverb
“ there is no such thing as a free gift.” And “ if it seems to good to be true,
it probably is.” Talktalk told me the other day that my phone calls and
broadband are free but I pay a monthly fee. So called ‘Freeserve’ has
disconnected our old email service because we have not paid them any money for
so long.
BUT righteousness from God is different. We have already
shown you cannot earn it. God instead, gives it freely through his Son. There
is such a thing as a free gift. It is Jesus. It is credited on the basis of
faith. You belive. God gives. There is no credit check to see if you are credit
worthy, God knows you are not. No minimum payment and a lifetime of paying. It
is not about work, it is about being forgiven.
Righteousness is not because you have been ritually doctored.
This is an argument about which came first : chicken and egg. I don’t know. Which came first: faith or circumcision? Faith. Circumcision, which defines Jewishness, was a sign of a righteousness that had already been given on the basis of faith. That means Abraham is the Father of all Gentiles and Jews – because he is the Father of faith, not genetics! This principle is important. Faith must come first, the action second. Baptism must follow faith not precede it. That is why we practice believer’s baptism. It is not the act of baptism that makes you a Christian, it is the believing. The baptism is a demonstration of an inner change of heart. It is neither an equivalent to circumcision or Bar Mitzvah or coming of age. It is your response to having come to Jesus in repentance and faith.
Righteousness is not obeying the law
Interestingly Paul does not use the argument that The law was not given to Abraham. After all it came through Moses. That would make the law more significant than it is. What he actually says is that if Abraham was righteous by obeying the law the faith and promises were irrelevant. God had no need to make promises because Abraham would have been acceptable regardless of promises and Abraham could have been acceptable even if he was an atheist. That makes nonsense as righteousness is about a relationship with God so he who comes to God must believe he exists and rewards those who seek him. The point of the Law was not a means of righteousness but a means of judgement. The Law tells you that you are unrighteous and subject to the wrath of Godnot his blessing. The end of v15 is obvious. For example before the seat Belt law, driving without one was Ok, it may not have been safe but it was not criminal. Now is a criminal offence because of the law.
As we have seen before, having said what righteousness is not, Paul now moves on to what it is.
It is a faith like Abraham’s. v16-17
The point here is that God promises and you don’t have to work for it if it is promised. Secondly that Abraham is rightly the father of many nations but not because of heredity or genetics but because of faith . And we now move into exploring what faith is. Faith in Abraham our example is believing God who makes alive the dead and call things that are not as though they were. The first in Abraham’s terms is to have a son by Sarah even though they were both well past child-bearing. The second appears just a weird statement. I think it means that Abraham could believe a promise as fact even when there was no evidence. He believed God would make him the Father of many nations and his children as numerous as the stars in the sky when he had no children.
Faith is hope in the face of the impossible. v18-22
Hope is a vital word in the world. Without it people live in misery, depressed and mindlessly living out lives. Hope spurs people to action and to emotions such as joy, love, peace and all the other fruits of the Spirit.
The problem is that logically hoping for the impossible is just that. And as such can be seen as crazy. We say we believe in God but we cannot prove his existence to ourselves, let alone a cynic. Faith is trusting the impossible and finding it to be real and consistent with our experience. When faced with disaster we can either say ‘Where is God?’ Or I have hope that God will make sense of it. The thought in verse 20 seems to relate to Abraham being sent to sacrifice his only legitimate son, Isaac. Having seen God creates the impossible in the birth of Isaac, he id told to sacrifice him, an action which in itself is contrary to God’s way. But Abraham believes that yet another impossible can happen so he plods on, not knowing that God was going to stop him and establish a law that such practices are wrong. That is what faith is, choosing to follow God, knowing his way is both correct and good for us.
I have already drawn your attention to the last three verses.
Faith is about believing the impossible. That a dead Jesus could rise from death. That after I am dead, cremated, ashes dispersed, I shall still be alive because Jesus has paved the way to eternal life, which in itself is full of impossibilities.
I think as Christians we glibly read these words. We need a few cynics around to remind us how amazing salvation is. Our rebellion is dealt with and we are made righteous, acceptable to God because Jesus was raised from the dead and is in heaven speaking on our behalf to God.
Our conclusion is that faith – believing the impossible has happened and will happen and receiving salvation as free gift from God is what makes us acceptable to God. Nothing else.