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Chapter 4.. but wait there's more!
A walk Down Romans Road
Here we go on to the next step of the walk!
Faith and Trust in God!
See, first we were in sin, then we realized we were in sin,
then we find out God made a way to get us out of the sin via Jesus. So the next
step is to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved. This comes by faith
and trust in the God who is!
7 “Oh,
what joy for those whose disobedience is forgiven, whose sins are put out of
sight. Yes, what joy for those whose
record the Lord has cleared of sin.”
(Taken from Psalm 32:1-3)
Now, is this blessing only for the Jews, or is it also for
uncircumcised Gentiles?[c] Well, we have been saying that Abraham was counted
as righteous by God because of his faith. 10 But how did this happen? Was he
counted as righteous only after he was circumcised, or was it before he was
circumcised? Clearly, God accepted Abraham before he was circumcised! Circumcision
was a sign that Abraham already had faith and that God had already accepted him
and declared him to be righteous—even
before he was circumcised. So, Abraham is the spiritual father of those who
have faith but have not been circumcised. They are counted as righteous because
of their faith. And Abraham is also the spiritual father of those who have been
circumcised, but only if they have the same kind of faith Abraham had before he
was circumcised. Chapter 4 verses 7-12
The thing is Abraham had faith in God to do what He promised,
and through Christ He has done this! Though the physical generations of Abraham
brought him descendants a plenty we can follow that path to the Savior Messiah,
Jesus Christ.
Paul goes on in verse 13 to share how our salvation and reconciliation
with God comes through Abrahams family line, and God Himself ordained it. We
but need to receive the faith in order to receive the promises that God has
given us in His Word.
Salvation comes by faith.
So, the promise is
received by faith. It is given as a free gift. And we are all certain to
receive it, whether or not we live according to the law of Moses, if we have
faith like Abraham’s. For Abraham is the
father of all who believe. That is what
the Scriptures mean when God told him, “I
have made you the father of many nations.”
This happened because Abraham believed in the God who brings the dead back to
life and who creates new things out of nothing.
Even when there was
no reason for hope, Abraham kept hoping—believing
that he would become the father of many nations. For God had said to him, “That’s how many descendants you will have!”
And Abraham’s faith did not weaken,
even though, at about 100 years of age, he figured his body was as good as dead—and so was Sarah’s womb. Abraham never
wavered in believing God’s
promise. In fact, his faith grew stronger, and in this he brought glory to God.
He was fully convinced that God is able
to do whatever he promises. And because
of Abraham’s faith, God counted him as
righteous. And when God counted him as
righteous, it wasn’t just for Abraham’s benefit. Romans 4:13-22
Abraham ‘s story can be read also starting in Genesis 11 and
14. It is quite a lesson in listening and obeying God to a ‘t’.
-
Did Abraham actually waver in his faith that God
would make him the father of many nations? (Site scriptures if you have them to
support your answer).
-
Does faith help us in times when we can see no
answer, no hope, in our lives today? Discuss how, or why not.
-
What does faith do for you personally? (See
Hebrews 11:1)
…for our benefit, too, assuring us
that God will also count us as righteous if we believe in him, the one who
raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. He
was handed over to die because of our sins, and he was raised to life to make
us right with God. Romans 4:22-25
The next section will provide a
fill in the blanks path through the Salvation Road through Romans. Be sure and
check back for yours!
Remember the whole point of
reading through the Romans road is to study to show ourselves approved by God.
Not just man’s view as we think but the whole salvation story and lesson that
Paul is teaching us is that it is not about how good we are or what we do to
get to Christ, it is about how He has already done it and we need to follow
that path and believe. But we will learn
more about that in the next lesson!