Romans 4:18-25

Rev. Jerry Hoek

Belgic Confession 22-23

Introduction: 

“Do you accept me?” It is a question that many may struggle with regularly. We all want to be accepted by others, especially those whom we like and respect. Some go to great lengths in order to be accepted. Some young children may do whatever mom or dad says just to be accepted by them. Teenagers are more concerned with their peer group and will do whatever it takes to be accepted by them. For some that means wearing just the right clothes; for others it means getting involved in alcohol or drugs. Some adults work long and hard at their jobs so that their peers or bosses will accept them. We want to be accepted.

The question I would like us to consider is how badly do we want God’s acceptance? We work very hard so others will accept us. Are we as concerned about God accepting us? And if so, what do we have to do to gain God’s acceptance? That is what articles 22-23 discuss in the Belgic Confession as it discusses justification by faith. It is also what Paul talks about in this part of Romans. Let’s read Romans 4:1-25 [pray]. We will focus on verses 18-25.

I. Abraham’s Faith

II. Abraham’s Righteousness

III. Our Righteousness

IV. Our Faith

I. Paul explains justification by faith by first looking at Abraham’s Faith.

In verse 18 he begins talking about faith by comparing two kinds of hope. Literally, Paul says, “Against all hope, in hope.” Now how can one not have hope and still have hope? There are two different kinds of hope here.

The first hope is that which is based on human circumstances. This is the hope that is based on our past human experiences. For example, on our flight home from Webster, Claire was talking with a woman next to her who had a daughter who had been seriously injured in an accident. The daughter is a wife and mother of 5 children but her mental capacity has now been reduced to that of a 5-year-old. Doctors may say that humanly speaking, all hope is gone for a recovery for her.

The second kind of hope is the hope that is based on God. This hope takes over when human hope is exhausted. This is the kind of hope that says, “There is no hope, but I believe that God can do all things, and therefore I have hope.”

God had promised Abraham that he would become the father of many nations. This would become a reality when a son would be born to him and Sarah. That was the thing Abraham desired more than anything and a promise that he was clinging to.

The problem was that there was no longer any human hope for this promise. Verse 19 says that Abraham’s body was as good as dead.” His reproductive life was dead because he was almost 100 years old. It was humanly impossible now. Moreover, Sarah was barren and also very old. They were in the time of life when they were thinking more about death than creating a new life. There was no human hope; it was a lost cause.

But that is not the end! “Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed!” Verse 20 says, “He did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God.” He did not ignore the human facts; he studied them long and hard. But in spite of the loss of all human hope, he still had hope that God would act. In fact, he “was strengthened in his faith.” The worse the situation became, the more confident he became that God was going to keep His promise. How could he do that?

The answer is in verses 20-21: He “gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised.” “Gave glory to God” means he accepted God for who God was. Abraham believed God had the power to do whatever God chose to do.

God would keep his promise, but it would not be in any usual human way. So we get the picture of Abraham wondering in awe at how in the world God was going to do what was humanly impossible. He believed even though he had no facts to base his belief on.

A television program preceding the 1988 Winter Olympics featured blind skiers being trained for slalom skiing, impossible as that sounds. Paired with sighted skiers, the blind skiers were taught on the flats how to make right and left turns. When that was mastered, they were taken to the slalom slope, where their sighted partners skied beside them shouting, “Left!” and “Right!”

As they obeyed the commands, they were able to negotiate the course, depending solely on the sighted skier’s word. It was either complete trust or potential catastrophe. Abraham couldn’t see as well, but he followed and believed anyway. But what is important to note is what this gained for him from God.

II. Abraham’s Righteousness was the result.

In verse 22, Paul simply states a powerful truth, “This is why, ‘It was credited to him as righteousness.’” It was because of Abraham’s powerful faith, his willingness to believe in spite of all evidence that he received or was credited with righteousness. What does faith have to do with righteousness? What is the connection?

What is “righteousness?” This term must be seen in its Old Testament setting of the covenant. In the covenant, the people could expect certain things from God. They could expect God to bless them and care for them. They could expect God to be their God in every way. Also in the covenant, God expected certain things from His people. They were to obey Him and keep His commandments. They were to love God above all and their neighbor as themselves.

Generally speaking a “righteous” person is one who has done what has been expected of him in the covenant relationship; he has obeyed God’s law. Righteousness is the perfect keeping of God’s law. It was this righteousness that Abraham was credited with.

What does “credited” mean? Note that his faith itself was not a substitute for keeping God’s law. Rather because Abraham believed that God could fulfill his promise, God declared or pronounced him to be righteous. Yet believing God would keep His promise, Abraham gave himself fully over to God. Because of this, God said to him, “I now view you as one who keeps my law and fulfills my covenant perfectly! You are righteous!” God would view Abraham as a perfect partner in the covenant.

What is crucial for us to see is that the same thing can be true for us as well. We too can be declared righteous. Verses 23-24 state it very clearly: “The words, ‘It was credited’ 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.” What was true for Abraham can also be true for us. Let’s look a bit more closely at what this means for us.

III. Let’s look first at Our Righteousness.

What does it mean that we are “righteous?” It really means the same thing as it did for Abraham. God wants His people to be in a special relationship with Him. He wants us to live with Him and love Him in all we do.

The problem is, of course, with our sin. Sin makes it impossible for us to do what God expects us to do. So we are in a hopeless and lost situation. It is humanly impossible to please God and receive the blessings.

What is God’s answer to our problem? Two weeks ago, we saw how God gave us Jesus Christ to be our atonement. Jesus took on himself all our sins and thus removed them completely. More than that, God now declares us to be “righteous.” Not only does God not view us as sinners, but now as perfect people. People who always do the will of God in every part of their lives.

When we are justified, we are declared not guilty and we are viewed as never having sinned. In a more positive vein, justification means that God accepts us. When we are justified, God allows us to come to Him. We are acceptable and God in fact does accept us.

Paul says that this righteousness is also credited to us. How? “Jesus was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.” We get to take the credit for Jesus’ obedience and apply it to ourselves. This marks one of the greatest exchanges or trades of all times.

In the sports world, there are often trades between teams. One needs a pitcher; another needs a shortstop, so they trade. The intent is to make the trade fair so that both sides benefit.

In the real world, there is a trade between Jesus and ourselves. And this trade would shock the world if it were in sports. We give Jesus our guilt and punishment, the crummy stuff. Jesus gives us His perfect standing, His righteousness. That is tremendous grace on the part of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! But that is the promise that God has for us: God will accept us and give us life instead of death.

Now what is the key? What has to happen for this trade to occur? The same thing that happened with Abraham: We must have faith.

Article 22 of the Belgic Confession says, “We believe that for us to acquire the true knowledge of this great mystery the Holy Spirit kindles in our hearts a true faith that embraces Jesus Christ, with all his merits, and makes him its own, and no longer looks for anything apart from him… And therefore we justly say with Paul that we are justified “by faith alone”or by faith “apart from works.” However, we do not mean, properly speaking, that it is faith itself that justifies us; for faith is only the instrument by which we embrace Christ, our righteousness. But Jesus Christ is our righteousness in making available to us all his merits and all the holy works he has done for us and in our place. And faith is the instrument that keeps us in communion with him and with” all his benefits.”

IV. What should Our Faith be like?

Faith for Abraham meant that he knew the promise would not come from himself. That is where our faith must begin as well. The song “Rock of Ages” has this line: “Nothing in my hand I bring, simply to thy cross I cling.” That is the beginning of faith: we have no hope in ourselves.

That is something that we must continually emphasize for ourselves. We tend to think that we can bring things to God and help with our justification. We will try to live a good life and do the right things to obey God. If you ask a long-standing member of a church why he or she should be allowed to enter heaven after they die, you will often get the answer that they have tried to live a good Christian life.

Now if you press you will also discover that they really believe it is only what Jesus has done for them that makes the difference. But it betrays the tension that we often have within ourselves. We feel we need to do something to help God out.

We can bring nothing to God; if any one is going to save us from the mess of sin that we are in, it is going to have to be God alone.

Article 23 says, “We believe that our blessedness lies in the forgiveness of our sins because of Jesus Christ, and that in it our righteousness before God is contained, as David and Paul teach us when they declare that man blessed to whom God grants righteousness apart from works. And the same apostle says that we are justified “freely” or “by grace” through redemption in Jesus Christ. And therefore we cling to this foundation, which is firm forever, giving all glory to God, humbling ourselves, and recognizing ourselves as we are; not claiming a thing for ourselves or our merits and leaning and resting on the sole obedience of Christ crucified, which is ours when we believe in him. That is enough to cover all our sins and to make us confident, freeing the conscience from the fear, dread, and terror of God’s approach, without doing what our first father, Adam, did, who trembled as he tried to cover himself with fig leaves. In fact, if we had to appear before God relying; no matter how little; on ourselves or some other creature, then, alas, we would be swallowed up.”

If we are to receive the gift of righteousness as Abraham did, then it must be complete full faith on the Lord alone and nothing else right now as well. We tend to think of faith as something that we will need for when we die and in the meantime we will take care of ourselves.

So we have faith for our eternal future, but for now we also try to have: the right clothes and body to go in them so that we feel good about ourselves or a good retirement program and good bank account to fall back on. These are the things that the world bases its hope on. We need faith in God alone right now or the results may be tragic.

In 1988, the news reported of a skydiver photographer who had jumped from a plane along with numerous other skydivers and filmed the group as they fell and opened their parachutes. On the film shown on the telecast, as the final skydiver opened his chute, the picture went berserk. The announcer reported that the cameraman had fallen to his death, having jumped out of the plane without his parachute. It wasn’t until he reached for the absent ripcord that he realized he was free falling without a parachute.

Until that point, the jump probably seemed exciting and fun. But nothing could save him, for his faith was in something that wasn’t there. Faith in anything but an all-sufficient God can be just as tragic spiritually. Let us hear a warning today to live in faith in God alone at all times.

But let us also hear a positive word of comfort from this teaching. This should help us not to be overwhelmed with the circumstances of our lives. There are so many things that can overwhelm us. Your job and the frustrations with it. Your problems with family relationships and tensions. Your concern with your health or the health of a loved one. The problems that seem to abound in the world around us. There are so many things around us that cause us to lose hope. We may begin to wonder about the promises that God has made to us.

The lesson here is keep on believing that God will save in the future but also help us in the present as well. Abraham had no reason for believing in God’s promise. He believed anyway and God richly blessed him. We have no human reason to believe that we will be forgiven and spend eternity with the Lord. We have no human reason to believe that things will get better for those with problems. Keep on believing anyway because our belief and trust is in God the Creator and Redeemer.

Keep on believing and this faith will be richly rewarded. You will be rewarded in the future with eternal life. You will be rewarded in the present as we live in confidence and joy knowing that God will help us.

Snapshots from Kenya – Kapenguria (Part 2)

I love a good bargain. Put me in a used book store with the prices cut down from what a new book would cost and I’m thrilled! When I was in seminary and our cash flow was really tight, I would go to the Eerdmans Publishing Company bookstore occasionally and they would have textbooks, commentaries and other research books for 80-90% off the regular price. I would spend $25-30 and come home with a stack of books and proudly show them to Claire. I would tell her how much each book would have cost at a regular price and then how little I spent on it! “Here are $300 worth of books and I only spent $30!”

I still love a good bargain and when I walk through almost any store, my eyes are drawn almost immediately to “clearance” signs. There is something about getting a lot for just a little bit of money that really is exciting to me.

When Claire and I were in Kenya, we found some amazing “bargains” at the Rev. Joseph Murupus Academy as well as in the surrounding town of Kapenguria. As Joseph and Mary Murupus took us on a tour of the school, we saw the bargains that we at Faith Church had “purchased” at almost every turn.

Rev. Murupus showed us tables and benches that the students would soon be using so that the children would no longer have to eat their meals on the ground. He showed us the desks that were being assembled that the high school students would soon be using in their new building that was under construction.

He pointed out just a few of the students that had been assisted by the gifts from Faith Church. These were students who otherwise would not have been able to go to school there. We met with the Grace Committee, which decides how the money is used and saw page after page of the names of students who our small gifts had been helping.

We walked off the school grounds and into a nearby community and saw a grandmother sitting outside her mud hut. Her son and daughter-in-law had both died of AIDS and she was now taking care of her 8 grandchildren, housing them in a round hut about 10 feet across. The roof on her hut was leaking badly and it looked like it had been damaged in a fire. The “bed” was a slab of mud a few inches off the floor and I couldn’t begin to imagine what it would be like to cram 9 bodies in that hut to sleep at night.

We stepped out of the hut and walked over to a house that had just had a frame and a roof on it. We were told that the gifts from Faith Church were being used to build this grandmother a new house which was maybe the size of our church kitchen. They were going to put in the windows and doors next but this 80 year old grandmother would be responsible for putting on the mud walls.

The more we walked around the more I was impressed by what our brothers and sisters on the Grace Committee were doing with the money we had sent them. We started out setting aside about $1,400 to help 1 or 2 students with their school fees. We later found out that the $1,400 was used to help about 15 students. That was our first glimpse into what a “bargain” giving money to help the church in Kenya could be. Since then we have learned that the little we give, at least relative to other things we spend out money on, goes so far in a place like western Kenya.

In the coming two months, we will have yet another opportunity to see what a bargain giving to the needs there can be. Our goal is to raise $400 so that the school there can purchase 100 books for their students and the library there. Think of how much it would cost to buy 100 books here in the United States. A typical children’s dictionary costs around $15 each. A grammar textbook on Amazon starts at $20 and can go up quickly from there.

If I could buy 100 good books and spend only $400 dollars at a bookstore, I would be delighted. I would consider it a bargain! We have the opportunity to have such a bargain this season through giving to the Sunday School books for Kenya effort. And the best thing about this is imagining seeing the faces of these students as they begin looking through the books for the first time.

Pastor Jerry  

November 2007