Message: In Romans 4 Paul used Abraham as an
example to show that he was credited as righteous due to his faith before he was
even circumcised. The idea of having right standing before God without being
circumcised was a huge stumbling block to the Jews because this was the sign
God required of them and anyone who lived among them. They wanted the new
gentile converts to also be circumcised but Paul is teaching them that faithis what made Abraham righteous just like faith is what makes a Christian
righteous. He further explained that Abraham accepted the physical reality that
he was 100 years old and his wife was past the years of child bearing, but because
God had promised that he would be a father of nations he knew that God could
and would make it happen. Faith is a big topic in Christianity and we often use
faith as the basis for things that we want, but our biggest testimony of faith
is our salvation. Just like Abraham accepted his physical reality and had faith
that God would make him a father, we accept the reality that we are born into
sin and can’t be made right by our own doing. Our faith is the understanding
that in our sinfulness, God makes us right before him and he works a miracle in
our hearts that changes our sin nature. Abraham still had to participate by
being intimate with his wife, but God worked the miracle of conception in her
barren womb. Likewise, we still participate by intimate with God, and he works
the miracle of conception in our hearts. Sarah birthed her promised son that
would multiply and make Abraham a father. We birth life and multiply the
kingdom of God.
Command: Let the miracle of salvation draw us
to intimacy with God.
Promise: Our promise is salvation through
faith.
Warning: If we are not intimate with God we
fall into a pattern of trying to obtain our salvation through works just like
the Jews believed their salvation came from circumcision.
Application: We don’t struggle with circumcision,
but we carry other traditions and ideas that we believe make us a Christian.
When we understand that the miracle of salvation came from God, we stop trying
to make it happen by our own works. In other words, we stop trying to “act like
a Christian” and we start to truly become one. We accept the miracle of our
salvation by faith and our intimacy with God reveals that miracle because it produces
good works. Our good works and our faith is multiplied out onto others as our
lives becomes a living, breathing testimony. We make this more complicated than
it really is but the point is that we don’t earn our righteousness. It’s
impossible. Some people really struggle with the idea that God makes them
righteous and they are never able to move on into intimacy with God that brings
the miracle of change. Instead they struggle and struggle to make themselves
right. My challenge to myself is a little different today. I have already
accepted the miracle of salvation and I have experienced intimacy with God, but
I feel an urgency to help people turn this around in their hearts so they can
truly be set free. When people are truly set free they will multiply the
kingdom just like Abraham’s seed multiplied the earth.
