Romans 4
Bible Passage: Romans 4
After reading through this chapter several times, I would like to use the following 3 verses as a basis for my sharing on what we can learn from Romans 4 today:
20 He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God. 21 and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform. 22 And therefore “it was accounted to him for righteousness.”
(Romans 4:20-22)
Walking into a Precious Moments store, I pick out a card that read, “God keeps His promises”. Accompanying those words on the card was a drawing of an ark with all the cute animals on it.
Truely, God has given mankind much blessings, even from way back in the beginning of creation, like how He saved Noah and his family from the great flood that destroyed all the others on earth. However it was because of Noah’s unwavering belief in the promise of God that caused him to continue with the building of the ark in dry weather, and with everyone else jeering at him.
Noah’s faith caused him to be justified (righteous in God’s eyes, freed from sin) and be saved (not having to suffer permanent death).
In fact, the main message of this entire chapter is that we are justified by our faith, not by keeping the law, not by rituals, not through circumcision or baptism, but by our faith.
From Noah, to Abraham, to Elisha in the Old Testament, to Joseph (and Mary), Jesus Himself and Paul in the New Testament, these people have all demonstrated a firm belief in God, wearing their badges of faith in different circumstances.
These verses not only show us that a steadfast belief in God’s promises is important, but that we must proactively seek to improve our faith, to the level that we are strengthened by it. And after gaining more strength from a firm faith, to be able to give glory to God.
A brother kindly showed me these verses in the following chapter which we will be reading tomorrow that nicely illustrates this idea of how our faith can strengthen us and we are still able to praise God in difficult circumstances, “And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope. Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.” (Romans 5:3-5)
Elder James tells us that we must ask in faith, and this faith is firm. For if we doubt, we are like waves driven and tossed about by the wind. (James 1:6-8)
Do we believe in the power and sovereign of our Creator, Saviour and Lord? Hymn 366 shares about how we keep our faith in God even as we experience different and sometimes difficult circumstances at various stages of our lives. Will our faith be able to carry us through, make us righteous, and ultimately allow us to see God in our heavenly home?
4 Comments
biblereadingcompanion
Hymn 366 – “Have Faith in God” is indeed an apt hymn for today’s sharing. So just let me share an upbeat, lively version of this hymn today and wishing that we could sing like this in church as well 🙂
Biblereader
Salvation is by faith in Jesus Christ and His Words. However, faith is not only believe, it is much more than just believe. The basic component of faith is to believe and trust in God. This basic component can be found in all other denominations of Christianity.However, true faith is not only do we believe in God, we believe in His Words and obey them. Today there is efficacy of forgiveness of sins through baptism is solely because of our faith in that baptism can forgive sins and by doing what Jesus’s commanded us faithfully, can there be such an effect. Likewise for Holy Communion and foot washing. This itself separate us from most of all other Christian denominations.
JoyousConcerto
@biblereadingcompanion: That sounds very lively! Certainly different from how we usually sing it. Good stuff that’s worth learning from.
@biblereader: Yes, you’re right. Noah faithfully carried out God’s instructions when circumstances pointed him to a totally opposite direction. ‘Faith’ built upon expectations of receiving only good things in life will easily fall apart when hard times come. Some other religions have their members believing that they can save themselves if they do more good deeds, perform some rituals etc. but God says these ‘works’ or ‘law’ cannot justify and save us.
PS
Abraham believed God when God told him that his descendants will be as many as the stars. God accounted it to him for righteousness. (Genesis 15:5-6)
Romans 4:21-22 and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform. And therefore “it was accounted to him for righteousness”
Romans 4:23-24 Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him, but also for us.
What do we have to believe in to be imputed with the righteousness from God?
Like Abraham, our descendants as many as stars and sand?
What do we have to be fully convinced of?
Romans 4:24-25 It shall be imputed to us who believe in Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification.
Taken literally, we need to believe in more than God is able to give life to the dead.
Romans 4:24-25 says that righteousness shall be imputed to us when we believe that God has raised Jesus from the dead (God had raised Jesus from the dead by making Him overcome death, this is more than raising a dead man from the dead, Lord Jesus had done so when he was on earth), and He has taken away our sins.
Abraham was to believe in life coming from him.
We are to believe that we cause a death and God overcomes death.