Good morning.
That clock will confuse me forever at 132, so I brought my old runner’s watch. It will do me more good here than running, so I do have an accurate watch. Whether I abide by it is a whole different matter, as you know.
So, if you will return with me to the last part of Romans 4, verses 13 through 25. I think probably you have already read these, and that will be helpful, but we will read them again, because it is always good to read the Word of God.
Again, in verse 13, Paul said:
For it was not by law that the promise was to Abraham or to his seed, that he should be heir of the world, but by righteousness of faith.
For if they which are of law be heirs, faith is made vain, and the promise made of no effect; for law works wrath, but where no law is, neither is there transgression.
Therefore, it is on the principle of faith, that it might be according to grace, in order to the promise being sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of Abraham’s faith, who is father of us all, according as it is written, I have made thee father of many nations, before the God whom he believed, Who quickens the dead, and calls the things which be not as being; who against hope believed in hope, to his becoming father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be.
And not being weak in faith, he considered not his own body already become dead, being about one hundred years old, and the deadening of Sarah’s womb, and hesitated not at the promise of God through unbelief, but found strength in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully persuaded that what He has promised, He is able also to do.
Wherefore also it was reckoned to him as righteousness.
Now, it was not written on his account alone that it was reckoned to him, but on ours also, to whom, believing on Him Who is raised from among the dead, Jesus our Lord, Who has been delivered for our offenses, and has been raised for our justification, it will be reckoned.
Let us pray.
Father, we are always grateful for Your Word. We confess before You that we do not understand it all, but we know Your words are spirit and life. We ask You to breathe upon Your Word. Give us a deeper understanding of what these thirteen verses mean.
Help us to understand what was accomplished in these thirteen verses and what we have now because of the work of our Lord Jesus in these thirteen verses. We ask all of this, that You would just speak to us this morning and help us to enter into the reality of what this means, and not just have a doctrinal study of what this means. This we ask in Your precious name. Amen.
Well, I think you know already the burden of the subject. We sent out a little outline. Now, let me say one thing before: that is not the outline. Do you understand? That is my outline. There are many good outlines, and I am not telling you just to go by this, but to continue to read the Word.
As a matter of fact, one thing I learned in the study of the Word from those brothers who trained us was: read the Word. Read the Word. Then get to the point where you can outline the Word for yourself. Then maybe you can go to commentaries before you get all of their—well, I will not say brainwashing. I do not mean that. You know what I mean. You should find out for yourself what the Word says.
So, this little outline we will get into today in a moment. The last time we spoke was on the first part of Romans 4, verses 1 through 12. Today we will be completing this chapter, Romans 4:13-25.
Now, this whole chapter continues the matter of justification by faith, which was first brought to us in Romans 3:21-31. There is no more important thing for the Christian to know than this matter of justification by faith. You cannot begin the Christian life without it. It is our starting point. It is our launching pad. It is the beginning through which we enter into relationship with the Father through the Lord Jesus Christ.
The other thing is, without justification by faith, the Christian life is not just difficult—you know my favorite phrase—it is impossible. We have to know it. It is of this kind of importance.
Now, in the whole of Romans 4, Paul deals with a single man: Abraham. I thought it curious, when I read this so many times at Brother Kong’s instruction, that Paul would devote a whole chapter, after he had finished explaining justification by faith, to Abraham.
Now, why is that so? It is because we do not just need to understand doctrine. That can become some hard system where we understand the facts, but do we understand the reality of justification by faith?
Abraham is the biblical illustration and the test case of what justification by faith means. He is the inception of it. He is the beginning of it. You cannot understand the reality of justification by faith unless you see it illustrated in life. The life in which Paul, and the Bible, clearly illustrate it is Abraham.
So that is the reason Paul took what some might consider this little parenthesis to spend so much time on Abraham. It is not a parenthesis at all. This is to be our experience as well.
The first part of Romans 4, I said, is entitled “Believing God.” It is faith’s inception. You know what inception means: it is the beginning. The last thirteen verses, Romans 4:13-25, are faith’s progression.
We are introduced to Abraham in those first twelve verses and find out that, in fact, he was justified by faith alone. But in those last thirteen verses, we see the progression of faith in the man’s life. After all, God is not just after initial faith—believing in the Lord. God wants a people of faith: a people who grow in faith, a people who progress in faith, a people who lay hold of faith as they live.
So I think that is perhaps an explanation of the two different parts of Romans 4. We will look at:
Now, as we begin, let us begin with this matter of the principle of faith. The dominant word in this last part of Romans 4 is faith. It occurs six times, and you ought to notice this.
This was a habit I developed from Brother Graham Scroggie. I love the fact—I do not know if you have his little handbook—but if you do not have Scroggie’s Bible Handbook, I have the soft-cover one, you are missing something. I suggest you go find it. If it is out of print—and I do not know if it is—you should go looking for it on the internet and see if you can find it.
One thing Graham Scroggie did that I thought was so powerful is that he often ended his short summaries of every book with keywords. When you see the keywords, you begin to understand the writer’s emphasis. If you read on through it, as I think Lance used to say—oh, I do not think it was Lance; I will think of another person—“la-di-da,” and just go through it glibly without discovering these keywords, you will miss the writer’s point.
So, first of all, the most important word in this last section of Romans 4 is faith. Why do you think that is so? It is simply because God is looking for a people of faith.
Do you remember what the Lord Jesus said in Luke 18, when He spoke about the parable of the unjust judge? The whole importance was that men ought always to pray and not faint. But when He came to the end of that, it almost seemed a contradiction in this matter of prayer. He said:
When the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?
That is a quite important statement of our Lord Jesus. In other words, at the end of everything, when He comes and finds a people, will that people be a people of faith like Abraham was? This is the point in that parable in Luke 18:1-8.
So, this very important phrase in Romans 4:16 is the principle of faith. The whole of the Christian life is based on this principle. God uses principles because they are His ways, and this is the way for His people: the principle of faith. If we do not understand its importance, we cannot live the Christian life. That is the thing.
Now, the dictionary defines what principles are. It is quite interesting the way this human, worldly dictionary defines principles. As a matter of fact, when it uses the illustration that follows the definition, it says, “the principle of Christianity.” I thought that was astounding. Even the worldly dictionary used that illustration.
But a principle is a fundamental truth. This is the most fundamental truth. It is a proposition that serves as the foundation for a system. It is a foundational truth. More than that, if you look at it carefully, it is a foundation for a system of belief or behavior, or for a chain of reasoning. The illustration is the basic principle of Christianity.
Now, Paul begins in Romans 4:13 with two words that he often used: not and but. We may think these are extraneous words. As a matter of fact, with my sort of dyslexia, I miss these little words often when I am reading, and Linda reminds me when I miss a thee or an and. But they were not little words to the Apostle Paul. They meant everything. By these simple words, he made his point abundantly clear again and again.
Romans 4:13 says:
For it was not by law that the promise was to Abraham, or to his seed, that he should be the heir of the world, but by righteousness of faith.
These two things—law and faith, or the principle of law and the righteousness that comes by faith—are totally contradictory principles. They are not the same thing. They are diverging roads which never meet. They are the antithesis of each other.
Paul wants to make that his first point in this last section: not by law, but by righteousness of faith. These two principles are clearly illustrated: the principle of law and the principle of faith.
I like what William R. Newell said when he said, “Faith and law are contradictory principles.” They are not the same, and we need to see that. That is the point of the end of Romans 4.
You cannot understand the Old Testament, you cannot understand the New Testament, and you cannot understand the whole of the Bible unless you understand that these two principles are mutually exclusive. I want to make that very clear, because as you go through it, it changes our worldview of what the Christian life is.
If we are under law, what does that mean? If we are under the righteousness of faith, what does that mean? It is very important. This is why Paul began with this first.
You begin to see that this phrase dominates Romans and Galatians. Galatians, for those of you who may not know, is the companion book to Romans, but it has a more direct or confined emphasis. Galatians deals with law and grace. That is really all it is dealing with when you get down to it: law and grace.
Romans is much broader than that in its sixteen chapters. It goes through quite a bit more. But both of them are centered on explaining these two principles to the people of God: what we do not live by and what we do live by. That is the point of the principle of faith: these two divergent roads.
Let me refresh your memory in case you think I am exaggerating. Turn to Romans 1:16-17. For all of you to understand the book of Romans, you must understand that these are the principal theme verses. This is the summary of Romans. This is the importance of Romans.
For I am not ashamed of the glad tidings, for it is God’s power to salvation to every one that believes, both to Jew first and to Greek.
For righteousness of God is revealed therein on the principle of faith to faith, according as it is written, But the just shall live by faith.
This is the whole point of Romans. Brothers and sisters, how do we live the Christian life? Is it by religious rules? Is it by imposed mandates, divine mandates nevertheless, saying, “You shall do this,” or, “You shall live this way,” or, “You shall live that way”? Or is it by life through the righteousness of faith, which is all based on grace?
If you do not understand that, you will live a confused Christian life. You will constantly be under guilt because of your failures. You will constantly be contemplating how miserable you are, in one sense. If you do not believe me, read Romans 7, because it is going to be a while before we get there. Paul was a miserable creature when he thought he had to live under law.
But it was only when he discovered the freedom, the grace, and the power of living under the righteousness of faith that his life was totally transformed. That is this last section.
This phrase, “the principle of faith,” occurs in Romans 4:16, Romans 5:1, Romans 9:30, and Romans 9:32, if you are taking notes. But it occurs eight times in Galatians. I will not give you all those verses. You can find them yourself. But in Galatians, Paul made a point that we must understand the principle of faith.
I will read just one verse. Turn to Galatians 2:16. Maybe that will help you understand Paul’s emphasis in that book.
Knowing that a man is not justified on the principle of the works of law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, we also have believed on Christ Jesus, that we might be justified on the principle of the faith of Christ and not of works of law; because on the principle of works of law no flesh shall be justified before God.
Do you understand that? It is quite important: no flesh shall be justified. This is the importance of what Paul left for us. We have to understand it. We have to realize that it is the most important and foundational principle of all the Christian life.
That is what Abraham discovered four hundred and thirty years before the law ever came. If you do not believe me, read Galatians 3:17. It says that a covenant established with Abraham is not excluded because a later covenant, four hundred and thirty years later, followed it.
The preceding covenant was the foundation. Then the law came, and we are going to get into that in a moment: why the law came in. I know this is a mystery to most people.
But let me tell you, first of all, for you Gentiles: when I was in Israel, they called us—I think it is slang, probably a little bit of a dirty word—goyim. That is what they called me. I am a goy. I have to look it up; I have not. But we are Gentiles. You do not have the law. You do not live under the law.
It is a mystery to me that Gentile believers who call themselves Messianic Christians go back and embrace the law. It was never intended to be. Most of you in this room, unless you are Jews—blood Jews—you are not under the law. Not at all.
Therefore, it makes clear in these verses that righteousness of faith came to Abraham so that all the seed—the nations, the Gentiles, the Jews—could be included, and no one would be excluded. Just think: if righteousness were based on the law, every one of us would be excluded. None of us would be included.
That is what this section is dealing with. Nothing man can do by his religious acts, or by trying to follow divine rules, can lead to justification. Nothing you can do. That is the story of Abraham. He believed God, and it was accounted to him as righteousness. That is the revelation of Abraham.
Nothing man can do. All that man does is excluded except for believing God.
Romans 4:14 says:
For if they which are of law be heirs, faith is made vain, and the promise of no effect.
That is a very clear, direct statement. He could not have been any clearer. That is why I call this book a masterpiece. It is abundantly clear.
Look at Romans 4:15:
For law works wrath, but where no law is, neither is there transgression.
The law, brothers and sisters, was never meant to justify. Never. It was meant to convict. It was meant to expose our sins. It was meant to show us that we could not live up to that holy requirement. It is just and holy, but that was the purpose of the law. It was meant to expose sins.
Galatians 3:24 speaks of it in this way:
So the law has been our tutor up to Christ, that we may be justified on the principle of faith.
In the King James Version, it uses the word schoolmaster: “the schoolmaster to bring us to Christ.” Now, granted, the law was a hard schoolmaster.
You know, when I went to school—you hate old people giving these illustrations—I did not walk ten miles in the snow and back twenty miles in the snow, nothing like that. But I had a schoolmaster who happened to be my football coach. He was Coach Bailey, and he was the head of discipline for Brookland Junior High School.
Now, I know you call it middle school. That still confuses me. But when I was old, we called it junior high school. I remember Coach Bailey had a paddle in his office. He was the head of discipline. He used to paddle students.
I know several of you parents are going to faint outright when you think that a principal or vice principal, which he was, would actually paddle a kid. I am going to tell you a little secret: I think we would be better off if we still had paddles in schools. Oh, I got amens for the first time. I think we would be better off. Sorry, young people. I know it is unthinkable to you.
But I will never forget: Coach Bailey caught me one time. My mother made cigarettes—this was when I was an unbeliever; I was not saved—when she was a cigarette operator for Philip Morris. Now they have a more pretty, cleaned-up name, but that was when tobacco was king here and in Petersburg.
My mother would have these bags full of Marlboros. I was the Marlboro man in the neighborhood. All the kids, all the teenagers, would come to me for Marlboros.
I remember one day, I had the total lack of sense to be in the men’s bathroom at Brookland Junior High School, smoking a Marlboro, and in walked Coach Bailey. It was a terrible thing. I will never forget it.
First, it was the office. Then, because I was one of his athletes, he said, “Wait till this afternoon.” I think the time in the office was easier than the afternoon.
But, brothers and sisters, the whole point is this: the law is a schoolmaster, a harsh schoolmaster, that leads us to Christ. That was the purpose. It was to show our unrighteousness. It is like a giant divine magnifying glass, even with one of those special extra-magnifying lenses, where you see sin for what sin really is.
That was the only purpose of the law. It has unyielding demands. If you do not think so, read James 2:10.
For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.
Think of that. I would say I was happy if I got a ninety-five in school, as rare as that was in high school. But think of it: one point. Ten commandments, one point. Just think of it. That is the terror of the law.
Now, do you understand why Paul said, “Not by law, but by righteousness of faith”? It is impossible. The law is impossible for us. Its purpose was just to expose.
Romans 3:20 says:
Wherefore by works of the law no flesh shall be justified before Him; for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
If you read Romans 10—and we are not going to take time to read it—when it is talking about election, the children of Israel, the nations, and the mystery of election, it says very clearly that the problem with the Jews was that they trusted in a righteousness based on the law, the outward. They did not trust in a righteousness based on the principle of faith. That is God’s main issue with them.
You might say, “Well, this seems like a bait and switch. Why did God give them that law that they could never keep to begin with?” It was so that they would see, they would know, and they would enter into what it means to live by faith. That is the whole of it.
Verse 16 is Paul’s summary in this first section. There is a big word that Paul often uses in his writings, translated into English as therefore:
Therefore, it is on the principle of faith, that it might be according to grace.
It is grace. Grace and law could not be any different. Grace is something we do not deserve. Grace is something we cannot do in ourselves. Law is something we try to do to meet divine commands. That was what Paul was dealing with.
Oh my, two o’clock already. Not quite, right, Evan? The runner’s watch says it is only 11:34.
Well, Abraham—this chapter says some pretty amazing things about Abraham. In Romans 4:13, it says that he should be heir. In Romans 4:16, it says that the promise is sure to all his seed, and that he is father of us all.
I do not know if you understand well the sovereignty of God in God’s choosing before the foundation of the world, but do you know the name Abraham? That man from an idol family, that unbeliever from Ur of the Chaldees? The definition of Abram is “high father.” When the Lord changed his name to Abraham in Genesis 17, I believe, it meant “father of a multitude.”
He is father of those that walk in the faith of Abraham. But in one sense, this is not just talking about Abraham. It is talking about the heir. Abraham was not the heir of the world, but Jesus, our Lord Jesus, is the heir.
Do you remember that marvelous parable where the father builds a vineyard? It is an illustration of God and all creation. He builds a vineyard, puts a wine vat around it, and lets it out to husbandmen. I think it is in Matthew 21, if I am remembering correctly.
In that parable, the time for receiving the master’s fruit came, and he sent bondmen. They killed one, beat another, and did all these awful things. Then the master sent other bondmen. Now, do you know what that is talking about? It is talking about the prophets. He was always sending people to the children of Israel that their eyes might be opened, but because of the blindness of the law, their eyes were closed.
Then the master said, “I will send to them my only son. They will respect my son.” Do you remember those words? “They will respect my son.” But when His son came, they said, “This is the heir.” Those were their words. Christ is the heir. Everything we get is because of Christ. Through this One Who is the heir, they killed Him.
Do you not think that is a history of creation, from the beginning of creation in Genesis 1 all the way up to the death of our Lord Jesus on the cross? That is what the parable of the householder is all about.
Not only that, it says the promise is sure to all his seed. This is not just about Abraham, because if you read Galatians, Paul makes it very clear that his seed is always singular. He said, “His seed is Christ.” That is Who the seed is. That is Who we, as children, are in.
It is not Abraham. He might have been the father of the faithful, or the father of those who believed in righteousness by faith, but he is not the Father of all. You remember when the Lord Jesus came to Mary Magdalene and appeared to her after His resurrection. He said, in John 20, “Go tell the brethren”:
I go to My Father and your Father, and to My God and your God.
This is the Father of all. Thank God for this chapter, where we see clearly the one thing God is looking for: a people that understand the principle of faith.
Now, the second thing is that we not only need to understand the principle of faith, but we need also to understand the power of God’s promise. Faith can be a lecture unless you understand that it is all wrapped up in the promise of God. That is the whole answer.
The whole thing is because Someone promised He will do it, and He never fails in His promise. This is what we see in Romans 4:16-20. Righteousness of faith is based only on the promise of God.
Abraham did nothing to receive justification by faith. If you read this chapter, the reason Paul spent so much time on Abraham was to illustrate once and for all that all he did was believe God. That is what he did. It was not what he did; it was his response.
I think that is clearly the answer: we must see the power of God’s promise. It is part of faith’s progression. Not only do we initially believe and are saved—and for many Christians, that is the whole of the Christian life. I think I heard it last night from my brother: they are happy with that. They know they have eternal life, and that is all they need.
But in the progression of faith, there is something much more than that. We can begin to discover the power of God’s promises. That is exactly what we see in Abraham.
Let me read Romans 4:17:
According as it is written, I have made thee father of many nations, before God whom he believed, Who quickens the dead and calls the things which be not as being.
This is what Abraham experienced. The Lord quickened the dead. Abraham was dead. It was impossible. That is a strong word to say about somebody: “You are dead.” But that is exactly what Ephesians 2 says about us. We were dead in our trespasses and sins.
There was no way you could become righteous. It was impossible. You were not even alive. Abraham was not alive when it came to the promise. He could not do it.
You remember the story when he was told by God in Genesis 17 that he would receive a son. Do you remember what it said? He fell down laughing. It says even more graphically than that, and I love the way it is put in the Bible: he fell on his face laughing.
Sarah was no better when you go to Genesis 18. You remember the three men came, and by the way, I think one of those three men was God Himself. I think it was one of those pre-incarnate appearances of the Lord Jesus, because if you read what that One says to Abraham, it is in the first person. It is God speaking to them.
God had to appear to Abraham to show him the power of the promise. God has to appear to us to show us the power of the promise.
In Genesis 18, Sarah was making food for these three men based on Abraham’s instructions. This One Who spoke, Whom I believe was God Himself—our Lord—said, “What about Sarah? At this time in a year, Sarah will have a seed, bear a child.”
Sarah, in the tent listening as she prepared the food, was laughing. Then God said, “Did you laugh?” She was no better than Abraham. If you think Abraham was righteous in himself, both of these dear ones in the Old Testament lied to God.
Abraham said, “I did not laugh.” God was very patient. He knows us altogether. He said, “Okay, we will name the boy Isaac,” which means laughter. I think that was the genius of God.
Then when Sarah said, “Oh, I did not laugh,” He said, “Oh, you did not laugh either.” Then God just said, “You laughed.” That was the end of the story.
Oh, how impossible it is for us unless we really see the promise of God. There is nothing we can do. There is nothing we can do in ourselves. But when you see the power—there is the promise of God—there is power in that promise to help us and make us able to believe.
Back to Genesis 18. Do you remember what God said to Abraham?
Is anything too hard for the Lord?
That was His word. “Is anything too hard for the Lord?” Abraham could not believe it. He fell on his face laughing. He then lied about laughing.
You remember Mary, the mother of Jesus. When the Lord appeared to Mary and told her she would have a Son, and His name would be Jesus, He explained Himself:
For nothing shall be impossible with God.
Why is that? It is because the promises of God have resident in them such power that He can make the impossible possible. That was the story of Abraham. His body was dead; he could not have a son. It says even in this chapter that he considered the deadening of Sarah’s womb. She could not have a son.
It was not that it was going to be difficult and they would need some fertility drugs. It was utterly impossible—except for one difference: there was a promise. That promise had incredible power.
Brothers and sisters, do you know that? Do you know that the promise has incredible power?
Look at Romans 4:19-20:
And not being weak in faith, he considered not his own body already become dead, being about one hundred years old, and the deadening of Sarah’s womb, and he hesitated not at the promise of God through unbelief, but he found strength in faith, giving glory to God.
Brothers and sisters, something happened in Abraham. When the promise became reality, he was strengthened on the inside.
Now, if you think this progression of faith means Abraham’s faith got stronger, you are wrong. I think Brother Darby had an enlightened thought when he said, “This is not Abraham’s faith. This is faith that is given. This is faith that is made available to us.”
When we start to think on the promise of God, He awakens in us what is called an inward strengthening of faith. That is not the faith of Abraham. It is the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ.
I appreciate so much that Romans uses that phrase, “the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ.” I am sorry, but there are many translations that have translated that as “faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.” I think it is far more than that. God does something through that promise, and He puts that faith within us.
There is an inward strengthening as He puts that faith in us. It literally means, Darby said, “gifted with strength.” He did not have the strength. His body was dead. She did not have the strength. Her womb was dead. But God did something when He made that promise. He came into them, and He birthed faith in them which was not of themselves.
This is Romans 4. How wonderful it is. This is what it means, dear brothers and sisters, about the righteousness of faith. How we need a right reaction to God’s promise.
If we have a right reaction, then God’s promise can transform us. But we need first of all to understand that it is not our strength, not our power, and not our faith. It is something gifted, something done inside of us when God grants us revelation and we see the promise.
This is what it means, the gifting of faith in Ephesians 2. How weak is our faith? When that happened, something happened in Abraham. He did not hesitate at the promise of God. Is that not wonderful?
When God strengthened him, when God gave him that revelation—“This is My promise. Is anything too hard for the Lord?”—then inside he was transformed. He could then believe the promise of God in the power of the promise of God.
Sarah’s own testimony, as stated in Hebrews 11:11, was:
Through faith also Sarah herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged Him faithful Who had promised.
Notice what it says. Underline in your Bible, if you do not mind underlining: received strength. It does not say Sarah had strength. It says she received strength to conceive seed and was delivered of a child when she was past age. Impossible, right? Because she judged Him faithful Who promised.
What a difference. This is the progression of faith. When we come to the place in ourselves where we say, “Lord, for us it is equally impossible. But Lord, would You ignite in me that inner strengthening? Would You do that gifting of faith so that I, too, will not hesitate at the promise of God?”
You remember doubting Thomas, poor fellow. All his life he will have to live with the legacy that he was a doubter and did not believe. You remember he said with all of his strength, “I will not believe unless I take my finger and put it in the wounds of His hands. I will not believe unless I take my hand and put it into the wound in His side.”
Then something marvelous happened: the Lord appeared to him. I suppose he got a little more humble at that point. The Lord appeared and said, “Thomas”—Didymus, you know, the twin; apparently he had a twin brother. I wonder if they were both doubters.
But He said, “Come here. Take your finger and put it in My hand. Come here. Take your hand and put it in My wound from the spear.” It is clear there that Thomas did not do it. I think Thomas was convinced. God strengthened the doubter to believe.
The Lord did have a little more direct word for him. He said:
You believe because you see. Blessed are those who believe and do not see.
But I believe at that moment the doubter was changed. How marvelous. This is the power of God’s promise.
Then you look at this matter of being fully persuaded. Let me read Romans 4:21-22. Go back to chapter 4, in case you think I left chapter 4.
And being fully persuaded that what He had promised, He is able also to do. Wherefore also it was reckoned to him as righteousness.
That is the secret. Have we come to the point in faith’s progression that we are now fully persuaded—not in our own circumstances, not in our own strength, no longer in our own abilities, but simply that the One Who promised is able also to do it?
That is a sea change for a believer. When we come to that point, then we can say like the Apostle Paul, “I am fully persuaded,” not because of what I can lay hold of, but simply because You promised. When You promise, it can never fail.
I think this is as clear as anything. This is the testimony of Abraham, and this is to be the testimony of every believer.
“Fully persuaded” is Paul’s phrase. It is only Paul’s phrase. If you look it up, no one else used that phrase. Paul said at the end of this letter—I think it is in chapter 14—“Let each be fully persuaded in his own mind,” talking about days and things like that, respecting these things.
Then, when he wrote of his son Timothy in his last writing, he said in 2 Timothy that Timothy had been fully persuaded from his youth. Oh, that we would get fully persuaded.
I think that was the clear aim of faith’s progression in Romans 4: that we would be like Abraham, and that we, too, could say we are fully persuaded.
You remember the Apostle Paul used that as his own testimony five times in his epistles. He said, “I am persuaded.” That was Paul’s testimony. That was Abraham’s testimony. That was Sarah’s testimony. That is to be our testimony in the progression of faith.
May the Lord do this. Paul, when he wrote Philippians 1:6, said:
Having confidence of this very thing, that He Who has begun in you a good work will complete it unto Jesus Christ’s day.
That is the secret of being fully persuaded: believing Him Who promised, not believing our circumstances, not looking at our condition, not looking at our failures, not looking at where all things are askew, but looking solely unto the One Who promised, because only He is able to do it.
Then you come to the last section: the reckoning of faith. I will read those verses again, Romans 4:23-25:
Now, it was not written on his account alone that it was reckoned to him, but on ours also, to whom, believing on Him Who is raised from among the dead, Jesus our Lord, Who has been delivered for our offenses and has been raised for our justification, it shall be reckoned.
This was Paul’s concluding thought in this chapter. It was not written for Abraham alone. Brothers and sisters, had it been written for Abraham alone, it would simply be an Old Testament history lesson.
Sometimes I think that is the way we look at the Old Testament. We marvel at men and women of faith like Deborah, and we say, “Look at them. Oh, that I would be like them.” Well, did you know it is God’s point that you will be like them?
That was the whole point. That was the concluding thought. That was the summary of the instruction in Romans about Abraham. It was not written for his benefit alone, but for our benefit.
For ours also: believing on Him Who raised from among the dead Jesus our Lord, Who was delivered for our offenses and raised for our justification. It shall be reckoned.
Brothers and sisters, I think that word ours ought to be in all capital letters and all bold letters. If I could print the Bible again, that is what I would do. It was written for us.
What happened to Abraham was not just for Abraham. What happened to Sarah was not just for Sarah. What happened to those ones in Hebrews 11, the hall of faith, was not just for them. Because without us, they will not be made perfect, is the way Hebrews 11 concludes.
He is looking for a people—a people that He can say, “Now there is faith.” That is what it means: the reckoning of faith.
You remember I told you the importance of this word reckoning. If you do not see it in the book of Romans, you will never understand the book of Romans. It means God did something, all of His own doing, and applies it to us. Therefore, He sees it as true.
It does not matter whether you see it as true. It matters that He sees it as true. That is the reckoning of faith. In the progression of faith, God at last says, “It is true.”
It was not just true of him. It was not just true of her. It is true of you. We are ourselves reckoned righteous.
I love what one writer said. I think he put it better than I can. I have told you often that this book of Romans is the divine courtroom and the divine Judge. This is what he said: “Our justification is a sovereign judicial act.”
Do you understand what that means? It means you had nothing to do with it but accept it. When He gave you faith, strengthened you in the inner man, and gifted you with faith, you believed it. That is the only reason you are saved. There is no other reason.
Then he went on to say, when a sinner is to be justified, righteousness is what he is not. I thought this was so profound. Some people fail here. They say, “Oh, I am now righteous.” No, you are not. You are reckoned as righteous.
God sees you as righteous. God claims you as righteous because of the righteous work on the cross. You are not righteous. You are confusing sanctification with justification.
This is the end of this progression—faith’s progress. We are reckoned as righteous. This is what it means. This must be every Christian’s experience.
Now, let me read to you one verse, and I will close. This is the conclusion. You know this, okay? I think you already know 2 Peter 1:4. This speaks about the power of the promises of God.
Through which He has given to us the greatest and precious promises, that through these we may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
Now, we often talk about the Bible as a book of superlatives, but this takes it to a whole other level. It does not talk about the promises, just the promises. It talks about the great promises.
It does not just talk about the great promises. It talks about the exceeding great promises. It does not just talk about the exceeding great promises. It talks about the precious promises.
Then it says the most remarkable thing. If it were not in this Bible, you would all call me a liar. But he said, by these—by these acts of God—you will become a partaker of the divine nature.
Can there be any more than that? It cannot be any better than that. Now, be careful what you do with that verse. This does not talk about man becoming God. This does not talk about you becoming divine. It talks about you partaking of the divine nature through the promises of God.
Now Christ is in you, which is the hope of glory, the mystery hidden for the ages in God but now made manifest.
Dear brothers and sisters, this is faith’s progression. Abraham did not just believe in one moment and it was over. Abraham continued. God continued working in him to the point that he no longer looked at his circumstances.
He no longer looked at the impossibilities, but he considered the promises from the One Who could not lie. When he did that, he found that something miraculous happened within. There was a gifting of faith that changed him forever.
The end of it was that he became fully persuaded. Then Paul concluded: it was not written for his benefit alone, but for ours.
May God find a people like that today. This is what He is looking for. This is precisely what He meant when He said:
When the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?
That is what He is after.
Lord, we commit to You Your Word, that Your words may become more real to us. Lord, I do not know if we can explain these things. We inadequately try. But only the Holy Spirit can take words of life and put them in us.
So that what You have promised, You are able also to do. But we are asking that You change our way of looking at things. Do not let us just look at law—what is required of me—but let us learn to live by the righteousness of faith, which is the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.
This we ask in Jesus’ precious name. Amen.