Faithful Abraham Romans 4:13 Therefore having been justified by faith . . . through our Lord Jesus Christ
Summary of Romans 4: 1) Works cannot save, v. 1-8; 2) Circumcision could not save v. 9-12, 3) Keeping the Law cannot save the soul either. v. 23ff
Conversion: Faith and Belief follows Regeneration (being born again) John 3,
Regeneration is a transition from spiritual death to spiritual life, and conscious, intentional, active faith in Christ is its immediate fruit, not its immediate cause. (Packer) Rom 4: 22 It was counted to him as righteousness, v. 3, 5, 9 it will be counted to us who believe in him
Faith Gk pisteuo – is a responsive apprehension of God and his saving truth; a recognition in the facts put forth of God’s answer to one’s own otherwise hopeless need, . . . a reliant outgoing of the soul in trust and confidence towards the living God and his living Son. (Packer) It expresses the idea of a movement of trust going out and laying hold of, and resting upon, the object of its confidence.
JC Ryle States:
Saving Faith is
The hand of the soul: The sinner is like a drowning man at the point of sinking. He see the Lord holding out help to him. He grasps it and is saved. That is faith. Heb 6:18
The eye of the soul. The sinner is like the Israelite bitten by the serpent in the wilderness, and at the point of death. Jesus is offered to him as the brazen serpent, set up for a cure. He looks and is healed. This is faith John 3:14ff
The mouth of the soul. The sinner is starving for want of food, and sick of a sore disease. Jesus is set before him as the bread of life, and the universal medicine. He receives it and is made well and strong. This is Faith. John 6:35
The Problem of the Law
Came after the Promise 13 For the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith . . . the promise to Abraham or to his descendants that he would be heir of the world was not through the Law but through the righteousness of faith,” Abraham was justified not by anything he did, not any ritual, or any law-keeping, he was justified because he believed the promise of God. He believed the promise of God. God justifies the ungodly who believe His promise.
Cancels the Promise 14 For if it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void.
Condemns the Sinner15 For the law brings wrath, but where there is no law there is no transgression
The Power of Faith
It Affirms the Need for Grace 16 That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace
It Assures of Salvation and be guaranteed to all his offspring—
It Allows for everyone not only to the adherent of the law but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all, 17 as it is written, "I have made you the father of many nations"-
The Process of Faith
-in the presence of the God in whom he believed,
Abraham’s Perception of God who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. He was able to believe God for what didn't exist...what had not even come into existence and he was able to believe God that what was dead could come to life. Hence, when God asked him to take Isaac up in Genesis 22 and put him on the altar and take his life, Abraham had no hesitation in doing that because he knew that God is a God who gives life to the dead. Heb 11:17 (MacArthur)
Abraham’s Patience with God 18 In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, "So shall your offspring be." He Believed against Hope- The moment of Abraham's salvation was when he believed something that was just plain unbelievable. He believed in something he could not see. He lived in something to which he could not make any contribution. (MacArthur)
Abraham’s Perseverance before God 19 He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead (since he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah's womb. . . . all those years of having absolutely nothing to indicate that this massive promise could come to pass, his faith did not diminish. It was never without strength. He did not doubt the God who had promised. His faith is strong. He was not even weak in faith in the contemplation of the reality of his own deadness and the deadness of Sarah. That is the human impossibility. His own impotence and Sarah's barrenness Gen 18:11 was in his mind, He is now in a state of deadness. He fixes his mind on that reality, but it never ever diminishes his faith because he understands that this is a divine promise, this is not something that he has to pull off. Granted, for a while he succumbed to Sarah's plot and plan. It was certainly a time of temptation and sin. But it was not the death of his faith. Abraham still counted on a God who was omnipotent and could create out of nothing and revive what had been long dead.
Abraham’s Persistence 20 No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, The key to everything for Abraham and his constant perspective was to focus on God. He was not doubtful because of circumstances outside of him. No vacillating, no staggering, no wavering, he's fixed, steady, set, locked on. ,Ps 57:7 He has a full vision of God, he's not expecting that he's going to make a contribution or Sarah's going to make a contribution.. He doesn't flip-flop. He's not wavering. He's fixed, strong in faith, literally a passive word, he's been made strong in faith, it's a divine gift. Sure in his humanness, he struggled. But his faith was always triumphant. Sure he fell to temptation and sin, but his faith was always triumphant. It was a real faith. Always God focused. It seems impossible, it seems like it can't happen, but I give all the glory to God. He has the power. He has the plan. He made the promise. He keeps His Word. Nothing is too hard for Him. All his hopes, all his dreams, all his expectations, all his anticipations and promises were bound up in God.
Abraham’s Persuasion 21 fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. Abraham was fully assured that what God had promised, He was able also to perform. We have not yet received our inheritance. Like Abraham, we have an inheritance undefiled that fades not away, reserved in heaven for us. You haven't received it. It's waiting for you. You have the promise of spiritual perfection in heaven, you haven't received it. You live in hope. You can make no contribution to it. You don't know how to get from here to there, You don't have any way to get to heaven. You want to go there, you're dependent on the promises of God which are as yet completely unfulfilled. God keeps reiterating His promise to you like He did to Abraham, and by the confirming work of the Spirit of God in your life so that you live in hope. And when you struggle with sin, like Abraham did, and when you fall to temptation, and when you doubt and have those moments of fear and wonder about those things, the Spirit of God comes alongside and comforts your heart and strengthens you and builds you up. Do you know absolutely for a fact unequivocally that your sins are forgiven? Well, you believe that because the Bible tells you that if you put your trust in Christ, your sins will be forgive, right? But you can't see the transaction, so you live in hope, you live in faith. That faith is based upon the promises of God. The promises of God are trustworthy because there is evidence that God can make something out of nothing, namely the universe, and that He has power to give life. So when we're here on Earth and we're waiting for all the fulfillment to come in the future, we live the way Abraham lived. We hope against hope but we don't grow weak in faith when we don't get the realization of our promised inheritance. We're not discouraged because we can't create our own heaven. We're not discouraged because we can't earn our own salvation. We can't gain our own righteousness by our own works. We don't waver in faith, we glorify God and we
live in a full faith and a full confidence, like verse v 21, That's how you live your life. That's how Abraham lived his life. That was Abraham's faith.
The Provision that brings Faith
22 That is why his faith was "counted to him as righteousness." 23 But the words "it was counted to him" were not written for his sake alone, 24 but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, 25 who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.
It is the object of Abraham's faith that saves, not the nature of his faith. He's not saved because of some meritorious faith. He is saved because he puts his trust in God, the true God. He fully believed in the God who could create out of nothing, the creator God, he fully believed in the God who could raise the dead and he utterly committed his life in submissive obedience to that trust. He believed that God could raise his son, could raise a child out of their deadness. He believed that God had the power to do anything when it came to giving life. John 8:56 By raising Jesus from the dead, God affirmed that He had accepted Christ's atoning sacrifice as sufficient in full.”
Gal 4:22-31 Ishmael illustrates the principle of the flesh, rejecting the promise of faith and in the flesh seeking to purchase the purposes of God by works. Ishmael is the child of human effort; Isaac is the divine provision child. Ishmael is the son born in the usual way and a representative of all those who have experienced only the natural birth, born only into the slavery of sin. Isaac is a son born of faith by a supernatural miracle and is an illustration of all those who receive spiritual birth. Ishmael equals flesh, human effort, natural power (Sinai, Law, Law-keeping). Manifesting the religion of Jerusalem where they tried to earn their way to salvation to a right relationship with God but ended with bondage. Isaac illustrates supernatural power. Isaac is like the Jerusalem above. Isaac is connected to the promise and to the freedom of being liberated from sin by the fulfillment of that promise. The contrast is simply between human effort and divine power. Isaac is a child of divine power. Ishmael is a child of human effort. Sinai is the Law and if salvation comes by the Law, it is by human effort, human power. But salvation cannot come by the Law, salvation comes by promise. It comes by divine provision. Ishmael as an illustration, connects with Sinai, which connects with the Law which connects with natural effort, whereas Isaac connects with the Jerusalem that is above, divine power, divine presence, divine promise. Abraham did not receive the promise by human effort. His human effort only brought Ishmael which brought nothing but trouble. So Abraham finally received the son of promise and the son of promise is an analogy of salvation by faith alone. Abraham made no contribution to that child on his own because he could not bring about the pregnancy of Sarah at his age, nor could Sarah produce a child. There was no way for that to happen by human effort. It was Abraham's faith that was counted to him for righteousness
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