Romans Part 2 - FaithSample

THE OBJECT OF FAITH

A few years ago, it became popular to buy plaques that said Faith or Believe. A friend had two of these very pretty plaques on her wall and I asked her what she believed in, which confused her. I asked her what the object of her faith was, and what she placed her belief in. She blankly said, “The words, they're religious, right?”

When God asked (Abram) Abraham to move from his comfortable, affluent lifestyle in Chaldea to become a nomad in a land that was promised to him, but in which he only owned a burial plot, he had to have a grounded faith, a sustaining faith, in a God so magnificent, so powerful, so sovereign that Abraham could do nothing but obey. Faith has to be more than a word; it has to be a relationship, a connection, a confidence in the Holy Unseen One. Faith has to have an object in which to believe. Verse 18 begins,

“Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed.”

When Abraham came to the end of himself, when all human possibilities failed, he knew God could not fail. Abraham was fully persuaded that God had the ability to keep His promises, 4:21.

Hope also must have an object on which to anchor itself. The covenant God made with Abraham was based on God’s inability to fail and within that covenant was a promise that all of the nations of the world would be blessed through Abraham. That covenant carried the promise of the Messiah to all people so that all who come to salvation, both Jew and Gentile, come through the Abrahamic Covenant. That is why Abraham is called the father of our faith; we are connected to him not by natural origin but by the same faith, in the same promise. Abraham acted rightly and faithfully in believing in God’s promises and God gave, or imputed, to Abraham something he could not earn or take for himself:

Righteousness that is, God’s, righteousness given in the name of the Promised One, the One who would bless the nations, the One who would be raised from the dead in fulfillment of the covenant with Abraham.

The last verse of chapter 4 is full of meaning. He, Jesus, was delivered for our sins… He was our sacrificial Lamb, our substitute, our propitiation.

Why?

God’s justice had to be satisfied, a justice that demanded death for sin. No filthy sinner would do, only a sinless person, in right standing with God, could step in between God and man and satisfy both God’s demand and man's need.

That Jesus was raised tells us God’s justice was satisfied; sin was atoned for; our ransom has been paid; “…to our justification,” tells us everything! He did it for us. God accepted it as justice for our debt owed, and not only imputes the righteousness of Christ to us, but Christ's gracious sacrifice justifies us in God's sight.

To the Glory of God Alone, Through Christ Alone, in Faith Alone, by Grace Alone according to Scripture Alone. Alone, without your help or mine, it’s all His gift to us in Christ Jesus.

-Jinet Troost

Family Corner Devotional Questions

Why does our faith make us righteous?