Romans 4:13-18 ‘The Promise Granted Through Faith’ Pt.1

TEXT
Rom 4:13
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.

• God made a promise to Abraham that he would be the father of many nations, and that from him a saviour would come – not because of the law but because of his faith. In fact, the law didn’t come til much later.

Rom 4:14
For if those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made void and the promise made of no effect,

• Why is the promise ineffectual if by the law?

Rom 4:15
because the law brings about wrath; for where there is no law there is no transgression.

• Because the law brings about wrath – ie. the law can only show up mistakes and therefore the promise is ineffectual. Through the law, nothing can be gained, only fault shown. Another way to say this is to say that without the law, there is no transgression – that is, you can’t trespass on someone’s property if they haven’t said it’s wrong to do so. You can’t go beyond the law and break it if it doesn’t exist.
• Of course, the law is written on our hearts as well!

Rom 4:16
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

• So that God could give His promise to everyone, it had to be by grace – what a wonderful plan!
• It means that we can be Abraham’s sons as well – that is, we can be of the same faith as Abraham, we can belong to his promise.

Rom 4:17
(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;

• In addition to fathering at least two physical nations (the Palestinians and Jews), Abraham is father to many people from nations all around the world by his faith.
• God gives life to the dead, in both a spiritual and physical sense, and calls things into being which up to that point had not even existed in thought. This is mind-boggling, because you try to imagine something that has never existed in any form similar to what you imagine! It is quite hard or probably even impossible. People are modifiers. We create by modification. We discover. But we do not create from nothing. But we are created from nothing.

Rom 4:18
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."

• Remember that Abrahams faith was not a measly faith that he accepted God because of a good life and because that was the ‘thing to do’. Rather, God called him away from home to a strange land that he did not know about, told him to trust that he would bring him a son and make him into a great nation and then to top it off, asked him to have enough faith to sacrifice that son when he finally received him. Thus the phrase ‘contrary to hope’ is but a small taste of what Abraham was experiencing. He was not an extraordinary person, in that he still had the same human flaws as all of us. His faith was extraordinary at times though!

 

SUMMARY
Paul continues his example of Abraham, focussing on the promise of God to him – which led to our redemption through the blood of Christ. He received this promise by faith rather than by the law, which came after, and so should we. It also makes the point that faith is not always easy – in fact often it is against hope that we must have hope.

WHAT DO I LEARN?
I must remember that it is in the hardest of times that God is calling me to have faith – to put complete trust in Him. Sometimes the ‘hardest’ of times don’t represent particularly sad or turbulent times, but conclusions that we come to that carry weight, or things that are hard to give up but we know we must. Not all these things are bad things that we need to give up, but God is calling us to greater things – He is calling us to Himself.