Hero Worship from Romans 4

Today I am commenting on Romans 4:1-25, which reads:

What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, discovered in this matter? If, in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about—but not before God. What does Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” 

Now to the one who works, wages are not credited as a gift but as an obligation. However, to the one who does not work but trusts God who justifies the ungodly, their faith is credited as righteousness. David says the same thing when he speaks of the blessedness of the one to whom God credits righteousness apart from works: 

“Blessed are those whose transgressions are forgiven; whose sins are covered. Blessed is the one whose sin the Lord will never count against them.”  

Is this blessedness only for the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised? We have been saying that Abraham’s faith was credited to him as righteousness. Under what circumstances was it credited? Was it after he was circumcised, or before? It was not after, but before! 

And he received circumcision as a sign, a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. So then, he is the father of all who believe but have not been circumcised, in order that righteousness might be credited to them. And he is then also the father of the circumcised who not only are circumcised but who also follow in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised. It was not through the law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of the world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith. 

For if those who depend on the law are heirs, faith means nothing and the promise is worthless, because the law brings wrath. And where there is no law there is no transgression. Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring—not only to those who are of the law but also to those who have the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all.  As it is written: “I have made you a father of many nations.” 

He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed—the God who gives life to the dead and calls into being things that were not. Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead—since he was about a hundred years old—and that Sarah’s womb was also dead. Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. This is why “it was credited to him as righteousness.” 

The words “it was credited to him” were written not for him alone, but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness—for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.

Humans love to worship their heroes.

I remember very clearly an incident that took place when I was returning by an airplane from a denominational meeting. I boarded the plane and sat in my seat and noticed that in front of me a few rows sat a prominent denominational personality. I knew about this gentleman but I did not know him and so I remained where I was.

What I found very interesting was that as pastors leaving this denominational meeting were boarding the plane many of them made a special effort to shake the gentleman’s hand and to recognize him for the personality that he was. I don't suppose there is anything particularly wrong with that, but it does go to show that even pastors can sometimes succumb to hero worship.

The Jewish people of the Bible also indulged in hero worship.  Along with Isaac, Jacob, and Moses, one of their biggest heroes was Abraham.  Abraham was the human founder of the Jewish faith, and thus the Christian faith.  If the foundation he laid was that of works, then we must work to gain our salvation.  If the foundation was the grace of God, then we gain our salvation via grace.  Let us investigate this:

Abraham was Blessed by God:

On their face God's promises sound a lot like those made by politicians today. Abraham would become a great nation and he would gain a great name and he would be a means of blessing and cursing. It sounds so much like those politicians that talk about cutting taxes increasing benefits and reducing the national debt all at the same time. However, we must recognize that God is not a human politician.

Unlike many politicians God actually delivered on His promises. We see that nothing is too hard for God and what we find is that there are Jews in every nation on earth. We also find that modern Israel is an advanced nation with many advanced features to their culture and to their economy. Abraham is revered by Jews, Christians, and Muslims. It's easy to see that God really did deliver on his promises to Abraham.

So, what did God require of His constituency? Merely to vote yes. To believe in God's promises and to trust them and to accept God as the governor of life.

What was the source of God's favor? Was it grace or was it works? This is a bit like asking which came first, the chicken or the egg? We need to investigate further.

Abraham was Justified by Grace:

Paul did not believe in straddling fences. For him, it was going to be our works or our grace, but it was not going to be both! It has been said that not to choose is making a choice and Paul does not give us that option.

From Paul's perspective it's like being a little pregnant or a little dead. These things are very digital, either you are pregnant, or you aren't. Either you are dead, or you aren't. And either you are saved by works or by grace.

What we see here is that God gives us a clear choice: be judged by our works or by His grace.

What we know is that our works will fail. The Scriptures tell us that none are righteous no, not one. The Scriptures tell us that our righteousness is as filthy rags before God. On the other hand, God's grace is sufficient; it will never fail us! Which would a rational person then choose?

We must grasp the depths of forgiveness by God's grace. All our sin past, present, and future is forgiven by His grace and we will receive mercy to help us live through the human consequences of our sin.  The eternal penalty of sin is repealed. 

Imagine if you owned a toxic waste dump and you were required to clean it up and to restore the property as if no human had ever been there. This is nearly impossible for the federal government with all the financial and other resources that it has available to it. It is completely impossible for an individual or small business to undertake and complete that kind of remediation process. Well, our lives were turned into a toxic waste dump by our sin. Our ability to clean up our lives is even less than our ability to clean up a toxic waste dump. Only by the power and grace of God can our lives be made clean, and our sin forgiven.

Abraham was Saved by Faith:

Abraham believed God. Now it is easy for us to think oh, Abraham believed God; that's nice. But we must understand what the word “believe” means in this context.

To believe the way that Abraham believed means to trust and rely upon without reservation. It means to have no fallback position and no plans in reserve. He was all in all the time with God and he had reserved no other options for himself

Thinking of time, we must understand that he did this before circumcision, before any establishment of the Jewish law, and he really did it even before God fulfilled his promises to him.  Four decades after God had told him he would become a great nation he and his wife Sarah had had no children. Yet, he still believed God. Yet, he still trusted God. Yet, he still obeyed God.

His obedience is how he showed his faith. We show our faith by our works but what we must understand is that works follow faith. Faith is the locomotive of the train and works are the cars.

God responded to Abraham’s faith and trust by imputing righteousness to him. This does not mean that Abraham was righteous in himself. We know that Abraham made mistakes and yes, Abraham at times became fearful and apprehensive. Yet he never stopped trusting God and therefore God's righteousness was placed upon him due to his faith.

Abraham’s faith was like that of the man who was afraid to fly. When he was met at the arrival airport by his friend he was asked “I thought you were afraid to fly. How could you make this flight?” Whereupon the man replied, “I didn't put all my weight on the seat!”

Now truthfully, we know that he put his entire weight on the plane, and whether he was afraid or not was not important. What was important was what he did, and what he did was that he trusted the plane by getting on it and flying to his friend’s location. The same is true of us. We may be afraid, we may have apprehension, we may sometimes waiver, but in the end, we find our God is trustworthy and what we commit to Him He will keep until the end.

Conclusion:

No doubt we're all familiar with the phrase, “Live by the sword and die by the sword.” We all have to live by the rules even Abraham.

Abraham had to decide, would he live by works or by faith? If Salvation is through works, then that is what Abraham had to do and that is what we must do. But if Salvation is through faith then that is the road that Abraham had to take and that we must take also.

In this passage Paul clearly asserts that Salvation is by grace through faith. Like other parts of scripture what Paul teaches here is reinforced by other passages including Ephesians 2:8-9 which says, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.”

So, the bottom line of my comments today is that Abraham was not really a hero. He was just a man who had faith in God. We can be just as heroic as Abraham by expressing that same faith in our lives. Like Abraham we must live by the rules. Do we want to rely on our works or on our faith in God's grace? Which decision have you made?