Romans 4 Garden to garden city
Notes
Transcript
Bible Reading
Bible Reading
What then will we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, has found? If Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about—but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him for righteousness. Now to the one who works, pay is not credited as a gift, but as something owed. But to the one who does not work, but believes on him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited for righteousness.
Likewise, David also speaks of the blessing of the person to whom God credits righteousness apart from works:
Blessed are those whose lawless acts are forgiven
and whose sins are covered.
Blessed is the person
the Lord will never charge with sin.
Is this blessing only for the circumcised, then? Or is it also for the uncircumcised? For we say, Faith was credited to Abraham for righteousness. In what way, then, was it credited—while he was circumcised, or uncircumcised? It was not while he was circumcised, but uncircumcised. And he received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while still uncircumcised. This was to make him the father of all who believe but are not circumcised, so that righteousness may be credited to them also. And he became the father of the circumcised, who are not only circumcised but who also follow in the footsteps of the faith our father Abraham had while he was still uncircumcised.
For the promise to Abraham or to his descendants that he would inherit the world was not through the law, but through the righteousness that comes by faith. If those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made empty and the promise nullified, because the law produces wrath. And where there is no law, there is no transgression.
This is why the promise is by faith, so that it may be according to grace, to guarantee it to all the descendants—not only to the one who is of the law but also to the one who is of Abraham’s faith. He 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, the one who gives life to the dead and calls things into existence that do not exist. He believed, hoping against hope, so that he became the father of many nations according to what had been spoken: So will your descendants be. He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body to be already dead (since he was about a hundred years old) and also the deadness of Sarah’s womb. He did not waver in unbelief at God’s promise but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, because he was fully convinced that what God had promised, he was also able to do. Therefore, it was credited to him for righteousness. Now it was credited to him was not written for Abraham alone, but also for us. It will be credited to us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. He was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.
What kind of family
What kind of family
As we do every week,
lets briefly recap
where we have been in our travels through the book of Romans.
The book of Romans
gives us a detailed explanation
of how salvation works.
How God has been preparing the world
for the salvation
that was to be revealed in Jesus.
Paul,
the author of the book,
starts by showing his readers that firstly,
the Gentiles are guilty.
They saw enough of God in the world,
in creation,
that they are responsible for rejecting God.
He had revealed enough of himself in the world
that they could come to know him
and seek him
and recognise him
only through creation.
Nevertheless
the Gentile world chased after idols instead
. They worshipped all the other gods
, the made up gods
instead of worshipping
the one true God.
As a result the Gentiles are guilty.
And there justly liable before God.
You can almost imagine the Jewish readers of the book sitting there,
listening to this
, and nodding their heads along with Paul’s argument.
Yes they would say,
the Gentiles are guilty.
Yes they have rejected the one true God
Yes they are degenerates and sinners.
Yes they do justly deseve God’s judgement.
But then Paul says
brothers,
we are no better.
The Jews are just as guilty.
For Although we have the law,
Although we had all the promises,
Although we had all the gifts
of being part of God’s covenant people,
nevertheless we disobeyed God’s law.
We, the Jews are equally guilty.
We are equally justly judged by God,
because even though we thought we obeyed the law,
we fell far short of what God required of us.
Paul therefore shows us that there are none in the world,
no one at all in fact,
ever in all of history, t
hat was righteous before God.
No one that is except Jesus
The whole world is guilty.
But then
Paul shows us the answer to this problem.
if everyone is guilty,
then how can anyone be saved?
How can anyone bear God’s wrath?
Paul answers that towards the end of chapter 3
, which is what we looked at last time,
the justification is through faith.
That is our declaration by God,
that we are right before him,
that we are considered as not guilty.
It is based on faith in Christ Jesus.
But what is the nature of this faith? What does Justification do?
Which brings us then to today’s passage,
and we discover little bit more about justification by faith.
And we see firstly,
that when we are Justified,
we get a new family.
When we are justified,
we get a new family.
What then will we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, has found? 2 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 credited to him for righteousness.,a 4 Now to the one who works, pay is not credited as a gift, but as something owed. 5 But to the one who does not work, but believes on him who declares the ungodly to be righteous, his faith is credited for righteousness.
…
9 Is this blessing only for the circumcised, then? Or is it also for the uncircumcised? For we say, Faith was credited to Abraham for righteousness.,f 10 In what way then was it credited—while he was circumcised, or uncircumcised? It was not while he was circumcised, but uncircumcised. 11 And he received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith,h while still uncircumcised. This was to make him the father of all who believe but are not circumcised, so that righteousness may be credited to them also. 12 And he became the father of the circumcised, who are not only circumcised but who also follow in the footsteps of the faith our father Abraham had while he was still uncircumcised.
What is happening here is
That Paul is starting to make a claim
about what happens when we are justified by faith.
The Jews believed
that because of their physical descent from Abraham
, as his physical children
, that they inherited the promise that God had made to Abraham.
Now as modern western people,
we don’t get the significance of this.
We live in such an individualistic culture,
that we don’t really understand
how huge of a thing this was to the Israelite people.
To get it,
To understand exactly what this meant for them
we have to think back to when this promise was made.
You see
The promise referred to here
Is made by God originally in Genesis chapter 12, and in Genesis chapter 15.
What The Jews of the day believed
was that Abraham was considered to be righteous
by virtue of his good works.
When you read the writings of the rabbis
around this time
you find that they considered Abraham
to be an exemplar of good godly living.
They believed in effect that God made his covenant with Abraham
on the basis of Abraham
subconsciously obeying all of God’s law.
Some in fact believed that Abraham was so holy,
and so righteous,
that even though he did not have the law of God
which came some centuries later
that he nevertheless obeyed God’s law
simply because he was a good man.
But when you read Gen 12 and 15,
you see that’s not the case at all!
What happens is there was this man named Abram
whom God calls
and tells him look up at the stars,
God says to Abraham as many as the stars in the sky
so many will your descendants be.
I will make you the father of many nations.
In the whole world will be blessed through you.
And yet Abraham was an old man,
his wife Sarah was barren,
and so it seemed like this promise that God had made was impossible.
And yet Abram believed in this promise.
Abram did not have to do anything special to get this promise.
He did not live a particularly holy life.
he wasn’t somehow more holy than the other people of the day.
But God in his wisdom selected Abram
and his decedents to be the bearers of the promise
that all the world would be blessed through his offspring.
And this promise, being bearers of this promise, was a source of identity for the Jews.
They believed that they were someone,
that as a people they were special,
simply because they were the descendents of Abraham.
But Paul says
No. you are not an heir, by virtue of your birth.
You are not part of God’s family because of your bloodline.
That’s not how the promise family works.
The promise family is a family of faith!
It was Abraham’s faith
that was credited to him as righteousness.
Being part of this family is on the basis of the promise,
it is not on the basis of works
, it is not on the basis of physical descent,
it is not on the basis of anything else
other than faith in God’s promise.
Now what was this promise?
What is this promise of God?
Was it the promise only
that God would multiply Abraham’s descendants?
Is it the promise only
that the Israelite nation would become a large nation?
Is it the promise only
that there would be many Jews?
Is that the promise that Abraham believed in that God credited to him as righteousness?
No friends
, the promise which Abram believed,
the content of his faith,
was the pointer to Jesus.
All nations will be blessed through you
is what God says.
That is a promise of Jesus.
Abraham was saved
by the same faith
that we
are saved by.
The Israelites who have faith in the priestly system,
were saved by the same faith
that we are saved with.
Just like the promise to Abraham pointed to Jesus
So too the priestly system
Pointed to Jesus.
Abraham believed, in a way, in Christ.
The Israelites in a way believed in Christ.
They are saved by faith in Christ.
And we today are saved
by our faith in Christ.
The essence of our faith
is the same regardless of what time period in redemption history we live in.
And if we believe in Jesus,
we join Abraham’s family.
It is a family of Faith.
The little children song is correct.
Father Abraham had many sons
and many sons had Father Abraham
I am one of them and so are you
so let’s all praise the Lord.
Do you see friends,
when you come to Jesus when you come to faith,
when you trust in the promise that your sins have been forgiven,
when Jesus died on the cross,
you join the covenant family of God.
The promise family of God.
You inherit eternal life as a result,
but you also inherit all your brothers and sisters in Christ.
NT Wright opens his commentary on this chapter with the story of a little boy.
This little boy was an orphan
and he lived in the orphanage for many years,
he found out
that actually he was getting adopted.
And this filled him
with both hope
and fear at the same time.
He was hopeful because he would finally fit in somewhere.
He was hopeful because
at last he would have a home to call his own.
He was hopeful because
finally he would have the family.
But at the same time he was fearful
, what kind of family was this?
Were they good people,
where they friendly people
, where they surly people
, would he be loved,
would he be accepted what he fit in?
When we come to Christ,
When we believe in Jesus,
we are like that little orphan boy.
We find ourselves in a family
made up of all kinds of weird people.
Some are good,
some are friendly,
some are joyful,
some are depressed,
some are difficult,
some are rude.
But we are all joined not by physical blood,
But by Jesus’s blood.
That’s what kind of family we are,
a family of faith joined by the blood of Jesus.
That’s the first thing we see this morning,
When we believe,
we become brothers and sisters of Jesus.
We are family.
We are a family of faith.
If we are a family of faith,
it is worth asking the question
what are the benefits of being in that family?
The benefits of being in the Family
The benefits of being in the Family
13 For the promise to Abraham or to his descendants that he would inherit the world was not through the law, but through the righteousness that comes by faith. 14 If those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made empty and the promise nullified, 15 because the law produces wrath. And where there is no law, there is no transgression.
16 This is why the promise is by faith, so that it may be according to grace, to guarantee it to all the descendants—not only to those who are of the law but also to those who are of Abraham’s faith. He is the father of us all. 17 As it is written: I have made you the father of many nations.,r He is our father in God’s sight, in whom Abraham believed—the God who gives life to the dead and calls things into existence that do not exist. 18 He believed, hoping against hope, so that he became the father of many nations,v according to what had been spoken: So will your descendants be.,
Family names come with privileges and responsibilities.
I used to have a great family name.
Pretorius.
When you walked into our home you would be greeted pretty immediately by this imposing figure.
[slide]
This is our family Crest.
Our family dates back to October 1642,
when the first Pretorius was born in Ouddorp in the Nethelands.
Our family line is deeply and inextricably linked
to the history of South Africa.
Pretoria the city
is named for my family.
Andries Pretorius was one of the founding fathers
of the south African republic.
His father is one of my direct ancestors.
To be a Pretorius growing up in south Africa
was to share in its history.
But then I moved to Australia,
and instead of Pretorius’s being everywhere,
they were no where.
Being part of the family line
meant nothing here,
which makes perfect sense
because in no way
does my family have anything to do with Australia or its founding.
Being a Pretorius meant something.
Nowadays,
when I introduce myself as a Pretorius,
the first thing most people ask me
is if I am related to Oscar,
who by the way is a Pistorius.
Which is a completely different family name….
I used to belong to a somewhat illustrious family,
now my family name reminds people of someone who shot their girlfriend…
You see being part of a family means something.
IT carries something with it.
There are benefits to being part of a family.
And so it is with being part of the Christian family.
Being a child of God.
Being a believer.
Paul gives us benefits.
The first benefit of being part of the family is righteousness through faith.
The second benefit is assurance in times of trouble.
And the third benefit is life.
Righteousness through faith.
13 For the promise to Abraham or to his descendants that he would inherit the world was not through the law, but through the righteousness that comes by faith
We spent most of last week on this point,
so I will just quickly mention this here.
The biggest benefit
of being part of the family of God
is that we are declared righteous by God.
And that because of that we get to spend eternity with God!
But notice what this righteousness does
– it makes us inheritors of what, according to our text?
The world.
It is no small thing,
that we inherit the world.
You see when we come to Christ,
when we become believers
the bible says that we are adopted into God’s family,
and we become Co-heirs with Christ.
We become co-inheritors of the world.
We as God’s people,
as people in Christ,
will share dominion over this world
as a result of Jesus’ death on the cross.
That is something to look forward to.
But more than that,
more than the goodies we get when Jesus returns and remakes the world, w
we get to stand before God
completely free of fear of his wrath.
Because we have been declared righteous before him.
That is righteousness through faith.
The second benefit is assurance in times of trouble.
16 This is why the promise is by faith, so that it may be according to grace, to guarantee it to all the descendants—not only to those who are of the law but also to those who are of Abraham’s faith. He is the father of us all.
I don’t know if you are like me at all,
but I suspect you are.
The reality is that we all doubt our faith
at some point in time don’t we?
We doubt,
we do.
What if I am not saved?
What if my life doesn’t look
like what a good christian’s life
is supposed to look like?
What about the fact that I have this stubborn sin
that seems to get me every single time.
Why cant I seem to get rid of that?
And what does that say about my eternal state before God?
Isnt the holy spirit supposed to help me deal with my sin?
And if he isnt,
or doesn’t seem to be,
am I even saved at all?
And what about the fact that I find it so difficult
to share the gospel with my friends or my family?
Shouldn’t my zeal and love for Jesus
have overcome these things by now?
Doesn’t that say something about how “saved” I really am?
And what about the fact
that even though I know God’s law,
that I know what is good and right and holy and righteous
, why is it that I still go against these things?
Why do I keep chasing after things I know are bad for me?
And why is it
that I seem not to be nearly as holy or as good or as Christiany
as that nice lady over there?
And when I look at all these things,
am I even saved at all?
We doubt friends.
we all ask these questions
at some point in time don’t we?
We all ask these kinds of questions.
But do you see the irony of the whole situation?
Do you see the almost amusing irony of all of this?
When we ask these kinds of questions,
we are actually measuring our salvation,
by our works!
We know that we come to God as hopeless sinners,
but then we go on and measure
exactly how saved we are
by how good we are…
Now it is true that over the span of our lives,
all true believers will over time become more and more holy people.
We all will turn more and more from our sin.
We all more and more will look more
like that good Christian lady we all know.
But when we measure our salvation,
our standing before God by our good works,
we have fallen right back into the trap we started out with.
The reality is that there is nothing that you can do
to make God accept you
or love you
in the first place,
and there is nothing you can do
as a believer
to make God love you any less.
Your standing before God,
your righteousness,
your clean slate is
on the basis of God’s grace alone,
through faith in Jesus.
That’s it.
Nothing else.
No amount of bible reading or lack there of
is going to separate you from God
No amount of prayer or lack thereof
is going to separate you from God.
“This is why the promise is by faith, so that it may be according to grace, to guarantee it to all the descendants”
If you believe in Jesus,
you inherit the promise.
That’s it.
It is guaranteed.
And that is comforting.
Being part of the family means we Assurance in times of doubt.
Finally:
The benefit is Life
“17 He is our father in God’s sight, in whom Abraham believed—the God who gives life to the dead and calls things into existence that do not exist. 18 He believed, hoping against hope, so that he became the father of many nations,v according to what had been spoken: So will your descendants be.,”
The bible talks about the act of conversion,
as being transported
from the kingdom of darkness
into the kingdom of life.
It is the process of taking something that is dead,
and making it alive.
a while ago there was a bit of a stir in the hip hop world.
IT seems as if Kanye west,
the undisputed king of hip hop,
has become a Christian.
Has genuinely come to faith.
When questioned about what he would say to people
who question how legitimate his conversion was,
he says this.
When you are asleep
, you don’t realise you are asleep.
But when you wake up,
you know you are awake,
and you know what it was like when you were asleep.
He calls people who don’t have Jesus in their lives zombies.
Walking dead.
And he is right.
You see what happens when we come to faith,
is that God takes our walking dead selves,
and he makes us alive.
He takes our hearts of stone,
and replaces them with beating hearts of flesh.
He melts our ice cold selves
and gives us life.
This is the gift of life.
And its not just for this life.
It is not just that this life finally has some sense of purpose.
It is not jus that in this life it finally feels l
ike there is a reason to live,
a reason to get up in the morning.
It is more than that.
IT is eternal life.
When we come to Jesus,
when we accept the free gift of life he gives,
we enter into eternal life,
into eternal rest,
into eternal significance.
Into, as 1 peter says,
an inheritance that can never perish,
spoil or fade,
kept in heaven for us,
and guarded by God’s power.
That is the benefit of being part of God’s family.
It is a statement by God
that you are clean forever.
Assurance that no matter how badly you stuff up in this life,
that your standing before God can never change,
and life eternal guarded by God himself.
Wow.
And what do we have to do to get all this?
All you need is to say thank you Lord.
For what you have already done.
Amen