“The Righteous Promise”

Scripture: Romans 4:13-25

“Promises, Promises!” It’s a phrase that we know all too well. It implies that most promises won’t last any longer than the breath that produced them. Remember the three great promises? “I love you.”; “The check’s in the mail.”; and “I’m from the government, and I’m here to help you.” Promises, promises!
Of course, one of the problems with promises is that the person who the promise is addressed to may not hear the same thing that was in the mind of the speaker! Whether they are campaign promises, medical diagnoses, romantic conversations, job descriptions, or even sermon proclamations – it is a decided struggle to know what to believe and what to take with skepticism.

A father promised his kids he would take them to the beach. While they were getting ready, he lay down to take a nap. The children were playing but were eager to get going to the beach. The father woke up, but pretended to be asleep and kept his eyes closed. Soon, his little 5-year-old daughter came over to him, pried open an eyelid, peeked in and said, “He's still in there.”
- Homiletics Online

A promise had been made, but was Dad still “in there” to live it out? And what about our heavenly Father’s promises that go back as far as Abraham. Can we trust them? Is the Lord still around to keep them?

Read Romans 4:13-15

I guess it all depends on how you intend to collect on the promise! Paul reminds the people that the promise was about kinship, and that Israel thought that it would be conveyed through their becoming worthy. They felt that it was all about following the Law as well as they could, and by offering sacrifices to relieve them of the consequences of their failure.
But Paul tells them that they got it all wrong – that the people of this world will never be able to earn the gift of kinship by their goodness – that they can never be that good! But faith in God has always been a major problem for Israel. They couldn’t trust him in the desert, they couldn’t trust him at the entrance to the Promised Land, they couldn’t trust him enough to follow his judges, and their mistrust would dog them throughout their history. But it is Hebrews 11:1 that spells out the problem – that faith is being confident in God’s promises and knowing that we can be certain of them, even though there is no hard evidence to back them up.

“Trust me!” is another one of those sayings that tend to ring hollow for us. It may have, originally, been a statement of assurance, of a guarantee that your word will always be good. But today, it is more of a joke than anything else. “I promise” and “Trust me” have become a human lie, and many people believe that when the Lord tells us to trust him, that we can no more depend on his word than we can on humanity’s.

Read Romans 4:16-17

By the 4th century, Christian faith was beginning to suffer in major ways. False teaching abounded over who Jesus was and who he wasn’t, and who could be saved and who couldn’t, and what God’s promise was really all about. But Paul seems to be telling us that, even in these earliest days of the Church, that there was some question as to who actually was an heir of the promise made to Abraham! Paul writes that heirship was established for both Abraham’s offspring through the law as well as those who were “adopted” into the family of God through faith. He remembers a verse from Genesis 17:1-7, in which God claims that his covenant with Abraham is not just for the one nation of Israel, but for his descendants in many nations.

Israel has always been very focused on genealogy. It is vitally important that they know exactly who they are in their heritage. The majority of the book of 1 Chronicles is about heritage. Both Matthew (1:1-17) and Luke (3:23-38) intentionally list Jesus’ heritage, even though each of their listings are different from Jesus back to King David, and Matthew only goes back to Abraham, while Luke takes it all the way to Adam. Regardless, it was important to show that Jesus was part of the Jewish covenant. For most, they never quite understood that Jesus was the Covenant, and not just part of it. He is the One who implements the faith aspect of inheritance.

Read Romans 4:18-25

The covenant began to come about only when Abraham and Sarah could no longer claim any glory for themselves. They were both well beyond the years when they could conceive a child, and yet that is exactly what God was able to do for them. They couldn’t, but the Lord could!
In 2 Corinthians 12:7-10, Paul mentions his “thorn in the flesh”, and claims that God works best through our weakness, that his “power is made perfect in weakness.” And this is what faith is truly about – being sure of those things that we have no assurance of, and trusting that when we “can’t”, that is the best time for God to “do”!

How strong is your faith? That’s the only strength that we really need, you know. It was faith that allowed the apostles to speak in tongues at Pentecost so that people from many other nations could understand Peter’s gospel message. It was faith that caused the chains that held Paul and Silas captive to fall off and to swing the prison doors wide open. It was faith that opened Martin Luther’s eyes to the truths that Paul had written in his letter to the Romans. It was faith that lead John Wesley to Aldersgate Street that night. Christian faith has never been about the followers of Jesus Christ doing any great and glorious acts – it has always been about Christians surrendering their strengths, so that Christ could work through our weaknesses.

And I expect that a lot of people still struggle with this concept of faith – that the things that we do only occur because of the power of Jesus (Philippians 4:13). Have you even laid in bed at night, thinking about how God works, trying to imagine how his plan always seems to come together so well, how it would be so easy to take credit for God's working, and yet knowing that you never can. It’s enough to keep you awake all night!

Anglican Bishop Michael Marshall contends that many American Christians have settled for a brand of “decaffeinated” Christianity - it promises not to keep you awake at night.
- Homiletics Online

Maybe the Bishop is right – a true and righteous walk with the Lord should keep us awake – in awe, in amazement, in thanksgiving, in glory, in unbridled joy that the Omnipotent (all powerful), Omnipresent (present everywhere through all time), Omniscient (all knowing) God wants to work his wonders through the likes of us. Caffeine is a stimulant, as anyone who drinks a couple cups of coffee before going to bed well knows! Faith should stimulate us even more.
But the Lord doesn’t work in all lives – just those who allow him to fill them with a righteous spirit. Paul tells us that it was righteousness that brought Isaac into the world through Abraham and Sarah, and that it was by faith that Abraham received his righteous credit.

God says “I promise!” God tells us to “Trust Me!” And these are not hollow and worn out phrases, they are not halfhearted expressions meant to deceive us, they are not lies that the Divine Lord tells so that people will worship and honor him. They are sure, they are perfect, they are true, and when the Lord says it, it is as good as done.
"I died to your sin and my new life is for you. Believe!"

Rejoice, for his promises are for you!