Romans 4.13-25
messenger dox
Call to worship:
Pastor michael Champoux
OT: Genesis 17.1-5
pastor andrew loginow
NT: Luke 1.68-79
song:
the lord almighty reigns
Historical reading:
pastor bobby owens
apostle’s creed
song:
his mercy is more
Confession & Pardon:
pastor zachary mcguire
song:
see the destined day arise
Sermon:
dr. alex loginow
Romans 4.13-25
Introduction
Do you know what your name means? Bethany and I named each of our 6 children with intention. Every time she was pregnant, we had a boy or girl name ready that had meaning behind it. I was named after my grandfather, my dad’s dad. Alex means, “defender” – it’s Russian and is derived from the Greek Alexander, which means, “defender of men.” My name is not Alexander, just Alex, so defender.
Loginow comes from the Russian Loginov, which means, “Son of Logan.” Logan in Russian tradition refers to St. Longinus, which was the name given to the unnamed Roman solider who pierced the side of Jesus on the cross and confessed Jesus to be the Son of God when Jesus died. So, the true meaning of Loginov is “son of the gentile convert.” Do you know what your name means?
Romans 4 is teaching us about what our name means. We saw last week St. Paul is using Father Abraham to show the Jews that Abraham, who is, in many ways, the source of their identity, was justified, declared righteous, made right with God by faith. Last week we also saw that Abraham is not merely the father of the Jews, but of the gentiles, of the nations, as well. Abraham is the father of all who have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. As Christians, our identity is also tied to Abraham, but we will continue to see in the text this morning that Abraham is our father, not because we physically descend from him, or because we’re circumcised, or because we keep the law, but because we have the same faith Abraham had – the source, strength, and substance of our faith is the same source, strength, and substance of Abraham’s faith.
Promise
Now we pick St. Paul’s argument back up in verse 13. We know this is a continuation, we know it’s building on what we’ve read before by the word for – it’s explaining how the arguments connect. Everything we saw last week about Abraham’s faith and circumcision leads us to this explanation – the promise that Abraham and his offspring will inherit the world isn’t through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. Note the word promise; promise is the idea that governs this entire section.
I want to help you see this clearly; we want to make sure we’re doing good work interpreting; we want to have good hermeneutics. I won’t bore you and or use too much time explaining the history of why this is the case (we can discuss it later, if anyone wants to), but you might feel the pull, in a passage like this, or any passage, to read with too narrow a scope – “St. Paul’s discussing this one specific promise to Abraham.” It is true that the promise to Abraham in Genesis 17.5 is the example the apostle is using, but the word promise is pregnant with gospel theology. Verses 13-16 use words that only find their true meaning in the gospel – grace, faith, promise – so the word promise here cannot be restricted to Genesis 17.5 when we read this in light of all of Scripture, which only finds its meaning in the gospel of Jesus. The promise takes us all the way back to Genesis 3.15 and includes all the promises of God, which find their yes and amen in Jesus (2 Cor 1.20).
In verse 14 St. Paul tells us why the promise cannot be fulfilled through law and he does so through this hypothetical question. St. Paul says, “Let’s assume you’re right for a minute; if that’s true, if the ones who keep the law inherit the promise, then faith is null, and the promise is void.” If law-keeping is how we inherit the promise, then faith is empty. I don’t know if anyone else’s kids do this, but our kids will leave empty food boxes, empty drink containers in the cupboard, in the fridge, like the took the last of whatever food or drink and returned the empty container as if there was still something in it. So, the next person goes to get whatever food or drink with the promise that there’s some left, because it’s in the fridge or cupboard, and it’s empty. That’s true of faith, if we’ve got to keep the law to inherit the promise – faith is empty. If we must keep the law to inherit the promise, then the promise is powerless, like a remote with dead batteries.
Verse 15 continues, the law doesn’t produce the inheritance of the promise, the law produces wrath. The law reveals our sin and drives us to Christ. The law reveals that we break God’s law in thought, word, and deed, by what we do, and by what we leave undone. If there was no law, there would be no transgression; as the Russian novelist Dostoyevsky said, “If there is no God, all things are permissible.” But there is a God who did give his law, and it produces his wrath against our sin.
The WSC Q14 asks, “What is sin?” The answer, “Sin is any want of conformity there unto or transgression of the law of God.” When we pray the Lord’s Prayer, we say, forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors. Every time I lead the Lord’s Prayer, either here, or at a funeral, or a wedding, there’s always some confusion at that part because some people have memorized forgive us our trespasses as we also have forgiven those who trespass against us. Both are good translations because our sin is debt to God’s holiness, it is transgression against his law.
This is why verse 16 says the inheritance of the promise is not from law-keeping, but from faith, according to grace. This was the rally cry of the Protestant Reformation; this is the heart of the gospel – we are justified, made right with God: by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. Salvation is initiated by God, purely, exclusively, sovereignly by grace, unmerited favor. In his sovereign grace, God gives us the gift of faith – knowledge of who Jesus is and what Jesus did, assent of that knowledge, and trust in Jesus alone. That faith produces repentance in everyone who believes – repentance is humility, confession of sin, and turning back to Christ.
Because the inheritance rests on grace and not law-keeping, it is guaranteed – it is firm. If your inheritance, your justification depended on your obedience, how do you know if you’re good enough? (St. Paul has already showed over-and-over that you can never be good enough, but let’s assume for a minute it’s possible that you can be). You would never know; the dark cloud of worry, anxiety, self-righteousness, and defeat would follow you all the days of your life, and you would be afraid to die because you don’t know if you’re good enough. But because the inheritance, justification rests on grace alone, it is firm, guaranteed, nothing can affect it because it is from God and based purely and exclusively on his sovereign election and grace, unmerited favor – you did nothing to earn or deserve it.
Verses 16-17 tell us this grace has been poured out on both Jews and gentiles, on the circumcised and the uncircumcised. This was the promise to Abraham that Pastor Mike read from Genesis 17 – that Abraham would be the father of many nations – of us all. Abraham who believed in God who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. We could do a whole sermon on the theology packed in that phrase; of course, it calls us back to the creation account in Genesis where God created all things ex nihilo – out of nothing. But St. Paul also calls our attention to God’s creative, life-giving power in the life of Father Abraham.
Verse 18 says that Abraham believed in hope against hope – there was no reason for hope, but despite that, in hope Abraham believed God’s promise. Verse 19 – His faith didn’t weaken even though he was almost 100 years old – God promised him a son, which is how the Genesis 3.15 promise would continue, but Abraham was 100 years old! There’s a word play we don’t want to miss in verse 19 – St. Paul says Abraham was a s good as dead (because he’s basically 100) and notice the footnote in the ESV on the word bareness: it’s the word deadness; the Greek text says the deadness of Mother Sarah. So, Abraham’s as good as dead because he’s old; Sarah’s womb is dead because she’s post-menopausal; but their faith was in the God who gives life to the dead and calls into existence things that do not exist.
Verse 20 – Abraham didn’t waver in faith, he didn’t doubt, he wasn’t at odds within himself concerning God’s promise. But Abraham grew strong in his faith – that verb translated grew strong is passive, so don’t read that as Abraham made his faith stronger as if Abraham was at a different level of faith or that believers can be at differing levels of faith; no, Abraham passively received the strengthening of his faith from God. It’s all grace. God’s grace filled him with the conviction; he was convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. And verse 22 says that is why Abraham’s faith was counted to him as righteousness.
Have you noticed the vocabulary along the way explaining why Abraham’s faith was counted as righteousness – grace, faith, hope. Grace: unmerited favor initiated by the sovereign decree and election of God. Faith: knowledge, assent, and trust in the promise of God. Hope: confident expectation that God’s promises will come to pass, even when everything inside you and around you feel or says otherwise.
Fulfillment
And the good news is that verse 23 says that this was not written for Abraham alone, but for our sake, as well. The faith of Abraham and the whole OT is for us – the church! Because Abraham’s faith is the same faith we have – faith in the Lord Jesus. Abraham believed God’s promise from Genesis 3.15 that the seed of the woman would crush the head of the serpent. In Abraham’s covenant with God the Genesis 3.15 promise was furthered by the seed of Abraham in Sarah to have a son and through the line of Abraham’s son, the blessing of the nations.
Matthew 1 tells us that through the line of Abraham would come the incarnation of the only begotten Son of God – the eternal 2nd person of the holy trinity, who is truly God and truly man. Like Abraham’s son was conceived in the dead womb of Sarah, the Lord Jesus was conceived through the virgin womb of Mary by the Holy Spirit. Jesus then lived righteously, without sin and that why he was delivered up, crucified for our trespasses, the trespasses revealed by our law-breaking, which produce God’s wrath. And then Jesus was raised for our justification – resurrected so that we are declared righteous before God. By God’s grace through faith in Christ, our sin was imputed, charged, transferred to Christ and Jesus’ righteousness is imputed, transferred, charged to our account.
Do you see the beauty? Do you feel the freedom? St. Paul does not want you to look at Romans 4 and think, “Abraham’s faith was strong, I need to try my best and be like Abraham.” The point is not Abraham, but the point is faith. The source, strength, and substance of Abraham’s faith is the same as ours. The point is to see Jesus. Christ Jesus is the source, strength, and substance of Abraham’s faith and Jesus is the source, strength, and substance of our faith.
Conclusion
Do you know what your name means? Not just your given name, your Christian name, as they used to say, but your new name. If you have faith, you’ve been given a new name – you are the church, you are elect, you are chosen, blessed, forgiven, saved, justified, righteous, you are a Christian, you are a believer, you are in Christ. If you believe you are a son or daughter of Abraham because your trust is in the true and better Son of Abraham – the Lord Jesus Christ. The source, strength, and substance of Abraham’s faith is the same source, strength, and substance of your faith – Jesus Christ.