Today's Scripture
Keeping Faith – Romans 4:13-25
13 For the promise that he would inherit the world did not come to Abraham or to his descendants through the law but through the righteousness of faith. 14 If it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. 15 For the law brings wrath; but where there is no law, neither is there violation.
16 For this reason it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his descendants, not only to the adherents of the law but also to those who share the faith of Abraham (for he is the father of all of us, 17 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. 18 Hoping against hope, he believed that he would become “the father of many nations,” according to what was said, “So numerous shall your descendants be.” 19 He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was already as good as dead (for he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah’s womb. 20 No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, 21 being fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. 22 Therefore his faith “was reckoned to him as righteousness.” 23 Now the words, “it was reckoned to him,” were written not for his sake alone, 24 but for ours also. It will be reckoned to us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, 25 who was handed over to death for our trespasses and was raised for our justification.
RJ's Devotion
What does the passage say?
V. 13-17 God gave the promise to Abraham, not because of what he had done, just because “God’s decision to put everything together for him” (v. 13 The Message). God promise extends to anyone who believes in what God has in store.
V. 18-25 Abraham held on to the promise, that he will be a father of many nations when he had nothing, and because of his faith he was recognized as the father of faith.
The Message Bible helps us to understand the passage better.
13-15 That famous promise God gave Abraham—that he and his children would possess the earth—was not given because of something Abraham did or would do. It was based on God’s decision to put everything together for him, which Abraham then entered when he believed. If those who get what God gives them only get it by doing everything they are told to do and filling out all the right forms properly signed, that eliminates personal trust completely and turns the promise into an ironclad contract! That’s not a holy promise; that’s a business deal. A contract drawn up by a hard-nosed lawyer and with plenty of fine print only makes sure that you will never be able to collect. But if there is no contract in the first place, simply a promise—and God’s promise at that—you can’t break it.
16 This is why the fulfillment of God’s promise depends entirely on trusting God and his way, and then simply embracing him and what he does. God’s promise arrives as pure gift. That’s the only way everyone can be sure to get in on it, those who keep the religious traditions and those who have never heard of them. For Abraham is father of us all. He is not our racial father—that’s reading the story backward. He is our faith father.
17-18 We call Abraham “father” not because he got God’s attention by living like a saint, but because God made something out of Abraham when he was a nobody. Isn’t that what we’ve always read in Scripture, God saying to Abraham, “I set you up as father of many peoples”? Abraham was first named “father” and then became a father because he dared to trust God to do what only God could do: raise the dead to life, with a word make something out of nothing. When everything was hopeless, Abraham believed anyway, deciding to live not on the basis of what he saw he couldn’t do but on what God said he would do. And so he was made father of a multitude of peoples. God himself said to him, “You’re going to have a big family, Abraham!”
19-25 Abraham didn’t focus on his own impotence and say, “It’s hopeless. This hundred-year-old body could never father a child.” Nor did he survey Sarah’s decades of infertility and give up. He didn’t tiptoe around God’s promise asking cautiously skeptical questions. He plunged into the promise and came up strong, ready for God, sure that God would make good on what he had said. That’s why it is said, “Abraham was declared fit before God by trusting God to set him right.” But it’s not just Abraham; it’s also us! The same thing gets said about us when we embrace and believe the One who brought Jesus to life when the conditions were equally hopeless. The sacrificed Jesus made us fit for God, set us right with God.
What does this passage mean to me/us?
Faith requires a vision of hope, trust, and patience. The vision of hope is to see the unseen. Abraham saw the vision of the nation that will be built, like the stars in the sky. However, the reality was that he didn’t have his own child. He was, however, still submitted to God’s plan and trusted God’s promise. Trusting that God will reveal God’s will according to God’s way. And he waited patiently. Some might accuse him of not waiting because of Ismahel. However, remember, that he waited patiently for several decades before he witnessed the first step to fulfill the promise.
In the same way, Paul is saying that the faith we put in Jesus is similar to the faith journey Abraham walked. Not because what we have done, but God prepared this promise for us. “ The sacrificed Jesus made us fit for God, set us right with God” (v. 25 The Message)
We are then called to see the vision of hope that is brought through Jesus Christ, trust in him with all we have and wait patiently for God’s will be to revealed. It’s that simple…. not.
That is why we have each other. The family of God, and the heirs of the father of faith, to come together and share the journey until we see the promise fulfilled.
Prayer
Lord, help us to see the vision of hope, trust you with all we have and live with patience in this world.
In Christ Name, AMEN.
Click to subscribe to our Daily Devotion.
You will receive a devotion in your inbox every morning.