Romans 4
Romans 4:1-25
1 What then shall we say that Abraham our father has found according to the flesh?
2 For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God.
3 For what does the Scripture say? “ABRAHAM BELIEVED GOD, AND IT WAS ACCOUNTED TO HIM FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS.”
4 Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt.
5 But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness,
6 just as David also describes the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness apart from works:
7 “BLESSED ARE THOSE WHOSE LAWLESS DEEDS ARE FORGIVEN, AND WHOSE SINS ARE COVERED;
8 BLESSED IS THE MAN TO WHOM THE LORD SHALL NOT IMPUTE SIN.”
9 Does this blessedness then come upon the circumcised only, or upon the uncircumcised also? For we say that faith was accounted to Abraham for righteousness.
10 How then was it accounted? While he was circumcised, or uncircumcised? Not while circumcised, but while uncircumcised.
11 And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while still uncircumcised, that he might be the father of all those who believe, though they are uncircumcised, that righteousness might be imputed to them also,
12 and the father of circumcision to those who not only are of the circumcision, but who also walk in the steps of the faith which our father Abraham had while still uncircumcised.
13 For the promise that he would be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.
14 For if those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made void and the promise made of no effect,
15 because the law brings about wrath; for where there is no law there is no transgression.
16 Therefore it is of faith that it might be according to grace, so that the promise might be sure to all the seed, not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all
17 (as it is written, “I HAVE MADE YOU A FATHER OF MANY NATIONS”) in the presence of Him whom he believed—God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did;
18 who, contrary to hope, in hope believed, so that he became the father of many nations, according to what was spoken, “SO SHALL YOUR DESCENDANTS BE.”
19 And not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body, already dead (since he was about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah’s womb.
20 He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God,
21 and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform.
22 And therefore “IT WAS ACCOUNTED TO HIM FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS.”
23 Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him,
24 but also for us. It shall be imputed to us who believe in Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead,
25 who was delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification.
The Passion translations tells verse 19 like this, ““In spite of being nearly one hundred years old when the promise of having a son was made, his faith was so strong that it could not be undermined by the fact that he and Sarah were incapable of conceiving a child.”
The fact that they were incapable in the natural of conceiving a child, yet Abraham not only believed but he praised God for it in advance. I believe that it was the praising of God that kept his faith reminder going until he obtained the promise.
Whatever we are facing, we need to keep our praises flowing to keep our faith stirred. It’s hard to praise God for the answer we already have in Jesus and walk in unbelief! Only believe. Praise until you receive what you’re believing for.
Though there was a lifetime given entirely to obedience to God, it wasn’t the actions of that obedience in Abraham that made him righteous. His relationship with God, believing in the promises and God’s ability to keep them despite their impossibility, is what caused Him to faithfully follow everything God told Him to do. For the many who would follow, it was natural to observe Abraham’s actions and their resulting blessing and determine that the actions were what made him right before God. If you could just do what Abraham did, your belief in or relationship with God wouldn’t really matter. This became evident in the whole nation being able to turn their backs on God while still performing the rituals that they thought were making them right before Him. If Abraham had told God that his belief was enough and that he didn’t need to give, be circumcised, or sacrifice Isaac, this claim of belief would have been false. Believing in someone will produce evidence in actions. There will certainly be specific things that are asked of everyone that comes into a relationship with the Great I Am. In Christ this will even mean laying down all of life to find it in Him. This cannot be done without observable actions. As in Abraham, though, it will never be that reproducing those same actions makes anyone right before God. A true encounter with Him as Lord will transform all of life, but the actions taken in obedience to Him will never in themselves be what can take someone else to a right relationship with Him. Each one has to be immersed themselves in the wonder of His love. Then will come actions that are inevitable responses of obedience from that knowing of Him, and never a means of being right with Him.
Religion will both place weights of actions to be done in order to merit righteousness and determine that no obedience is necessary, just belief. It’s all about the actions, whether to be done or not. Relationship, however, removes all the weights to produce a new life that is free to be extravagant in its pure response of obedience in love that does not know the limitations of either.