It’s Not About You – Romans 4:13-25

A text – Romans 4:13-25

4:13 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.
4:14 If it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void.
4:15 For the law brings wrath; but where there is no law, neither is there violation.
4:16 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,
4:17 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.
4:18 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.”
4:19 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.
4:20 No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God,
4:21 being fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.
4:22 Therefore his faith “was reckoned to him as righteousness.”
4:23 Now the words, “it was reckoned to him,” were written not for his sake alone,
4:24 but for ours also. It will be reckoned to us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead,
4:25 who was handed over to death for our trespasses and was raised for our justification.

A reflection:

Paul is trying to pound home to the Roman Christians that they don’t have to be Jewish to be saved from eternal death by the God of the Jews, the God of Abraham, and the God of Jesus. Jesus’s death and resurrection is not exclusive. This saving act is for ANYONE who believes in it. ANYONE. This saving can’t be achieved. It can’t be earned. It can’t be accumulated, like points. It can’t be inherited, by accident of birth. It is a gift available to anyone who hears it and believes it. In fact, Paul is saying, it doesn’t really matter how lawful you have been, or how direct your descendance from Abraham is. Nothing saves you except faith that God keeps God’s promises.

Paul’s portrait of Abraham in these verses show him as a man who simply took God at God’s word, no matter how crazy or unbelievable the promises God was making sounded to him. Father of many nations? At age 99? With a wife who could not have children? Abraham trusted that whatever God said, he would make it come to pass. God keeps God’s promises. This trust, this belief, was reckoned unto Abraham (was put onto his “scoresheet”) as righteousness. Since that is true, Paul says that any of us who believe in the God who raised Israel’s Jesus from the dead will also be raised, just as he was. The saving comes from faith, not works or knowledge or anything we can do for ourselves.

Chapter 8 of Romans was key for Martin Luther. When he came to be sure about what Paul was saying, and that it was actually true, Luther realized that all the works the Roman Catholic church tried to get people to do were worth nothing toward salvation. Jesus had already done it all, and all we had to do was believe in it. Of course it is prudent and a way of living-out-the-faith to be lawful and help our neighbor. But our salvation has already been accomplished, not by us, but by Jesus. That is very good news to those of us who regularly screw up. We just make mistake after mistake, forgetting how we are meant to act. And God loves us anyway. Believe that God loves you. And believe that God keeps God’s promises. Then you will be able to have faith. It’s not about you. It’s about God, and God is good.

A prayer:

Lord God, Thank you for loving us. Thank you for saving us through believing in you. Thank you that our saving is not something we earn, but something you give us as a gracious gift. Help us to humbly remember that fact and accept it.  Amen.