All of Grace Romans 4:13-15 For the promise that he would be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. For if those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made void and the promise made of no effect, because the law brings about wrath; for where there is no law there is no transgression. The promise of the Christians faith is eternal life and an earthly inheritance in the world to come. This all comes by faith in the Son of God who loves us and gave His life for us. But the law brings wrath. The “law simply declares what is right, and requires conformity to it; it does not give either power to obey, or atonement for not obeying. Hence, in itself, it worketh, not righteousness, but wrath; for man becomes fully liable to wrath when he comes to know, through law, the difference between right and wrong (cf. John 9:41, ‘If ye were blind, ye should have no sin’)…” (The Pulpit Commentary) Romans 4:16-18 Therefore it is of faith that it might be according to grace, so that the promise might be sure to all the seed, not only to those who are of the Law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all (as it is written, I have made you a father of many nations (Genesis 17:5) in the presence of Him whom he believed-- God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did; who, contrary to hope, in hope believed, so that he became the father of many nations, according to what was spoken, So shall your descendants be. Therefore it is of faith that it might be according to grace…“Grace and faith are congruous, and will draw together in the same chariot, but grace and merit are contrary the one to the other and pull opposite ways, and therefore God has not chosen to yoke them together. He will not build with incongruous materials, or daub with untempered mortar. He will not make an image partly of gold and partly of clay, nor weave a linsey-woolsey garment: his work is all of a piece and all of grace.” (C. H. Spurgeon) It is of faith by grace so that the promise might be sure to all of the seed of Abraham. If we had any minute part of it—if it depended on us, it would not be secured. This does not mean that there is nothing that needs to be done. “John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist movement, described God’s grace as threefold: prevenient grace; justifying grace; and sanctifying grace. PREVENIENT GRACE…. stirs up within us a desire to know God and empowers us to respond to God’s invitation to be in relationship with God. God’s grace enables us to discern differences between good and evil and makes it possible for us to choose good…. JUSTIFYING GRACE… , points to reconciliation, pardon, and restoration. Through the work of God in Christ our sins are forgiven, and our relationship with God is restored. According to John Wesley, founder of the Methodist movement, the image of God — which has been distorted by sin — is renewed within us through Christ’s death. SANCTIFYING GRACE…Salvation is not a static, one-time event in our lives. It is the ongoing experience of God’s gracious presence transforming us into whom God intends us to be. John Wesley described this dimension of God’s grace as sanctification, or holiness….Through God’s sanctifying grace, we grow and mature in our ability to live as Jesus lived. As we pray, study the Scriptures, fast, worship, and share in fellowship with other Christians, we deepen our knowledge of and love for God. As we respond with compassion to human need and work for justice in our communities, we strengthen our capacity to love neighbor. Our inner thoughts and motives, as well as our outer actions and behavior, are aligned with God’s will and testify to our union with God…” umc.org/what-we-believe/our-wesleyan-heritage Yahweh told Abraham: “I have made you a father of many nations”; and Paul adds, “in the presence of … and Him whom he believed,” as for him on the Damascus Road, after Jesus death and resurrection.And likewise when Jesus called Peter—a fisherman by trade, He saw a fisher of men. “Jesus saw the real fisherman. He looked beneath that rough exterior and saw what this braggart could become through the riches of His grace. He saw a man who could stand up and preach a sermon that would bring thousands to the altar crying out ‘What shall I do to be saved?’ And because He recognized what this diamond in the rough could become through the power of grace, Jesus loved him and called him to be a disciple. Isn’t that wonderful? And that’s why you and I are where we are right now. It’s why we’re not pulling the smelly nets of sin around anymore. Jesus passed by and looked at us. He didn’t see us as we were, but as we might become through His marvelous transforming power. Oh, the riches of His grace!” (Riches of Grace, Joe Crews) God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did… “He is the God who specializes in breathing life into deadness, and speaking the Creative Word, which brings into existence things that were previously nonexistent. The magnitude of these concepts of God is so vast that they should not be overlooked because it is possible that some believers believe in a God is so far removed from the One revealed in Scriptures.” (D Stuart Briscoe) WHAT ABRAHAM DID: Romans 4:19-22 And not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body, already dead (since he was about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah’s womb. He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform. And therefore “it was accounted to him for righteousness.”[Romans 4:22 Genesis 15:6] WHAT WE ARE TO DO: Romans 4: 23-25 Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him, but also for us. It shall be imputed to us who believe in Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification “Notice the parallel between what Abraham did and what we are to do. Abraham gave glory to God (v. 20). He believed in God (v. 17), not in certain random occurrences. Abraham did not just believe the dead were quickened, and that certain inexplicable things happen. He believed in God, the one who brought these things about. He believed what was spoken (v. 18) precisely because he believed the Speaker. In the same way, in an identical way, we must do more than believe that Jesus came back from the dead. We must believe on Him who raised Jesus from the dead. We believe in a Person who says and does things; we do not proceed straight to those things which are said and done. But we may not detach them from the other direction either. Just as we cannot be justified by the predicate apart from the subject, neither can we be saved by the subject apart from the predicate. THE SAME PROMISE: We must also see that, at bottom, Abraham believed the same promise that we do. Abraham believed in the God who quickens the dead (v. 17), and we believe in the God who quickens the dead (v. 24). Abraham believed in the God who gave him the nations of men (4:13, 17, 18), and we believe in the God who raised Jesus for “our” justification (v. 25). Who does that pronoun refer to? Remember that we have just learned that Abraham is the father of believing Jews and Gentiles both, and that he understood this as meaning that God was giving the world to him (4:13). Our justification is therefore, over time, the world’s justification.”—not the whole world but those who respond by faith. canonwired/sermons/sermon-fully-persuaded-romans-4-17-25/
Posted on: Sun, 31 Aug 2014 11:07:47 +0000
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