Paul is confident of the future for all believers; there is reconciliation/peace and so no looming judgment; and this is nothing of us but all of His grace. This future state seems to be in his mind in this section of his letter. But it is also for now:
Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, wehave peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand (Romans 5 v 1-2)
We don’t just receive this act of grace for our future security but we live in it and live out of it; every day is a grace day.
U2 wrote a song called Grace and it finishes with these lyrics:
Because Grace makes beauty Out of ugly things
Grace finds beauty In everything
Grace finds goodness in everything
Inspiringly challenging. To see God in a fallen yet created world; To see God in a manger; To see God on a cross; these are the starting points of finding and stepping into grace.
Whatever happens today from the moment you rise it is all because of His grace to look upon you, bless you, love you, favour you and He does that through every single thing around you.
The more you understand that every part of your physical world is both the place where God is revealing who He is and where He also hides to be searched for, then you will begin to understand what it is to have accessed by faith into this grace in which you now stand.
Standing before God as we all will do is not a fearful prospect for the follower of Jesus.
Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, wehave peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 5 v 1
I have seen many leave this life with total confidence based not on their performance but because Christ/God in Jesus has already decided our fate.
The gospel is this: God removes the barrier of sin between us and Him and we are declared innocent by Him and for Him (we are justified). How? It is by the impact of the historical event of the cross and resurrection of Jesus in our lives.
We don’t wait for judgment day to find out the result. We live in this truth today, this is the peace with God that comes through our justification. There is no looming terrifying judgment for the follower of Jesus.
By faith he made his home in the Promised Land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. Hebrews 11:9
Abraham lived in tents, he didn’t settle down.
We can become content with what we have and how far we have come.
The call of the Spirit for those who have even reached Canaan is to move on.
Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed … (Romans 4 v 18)
“For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God” Hebrews 11:10.
Abraham lived 2,000 years before Christ and we live 2,000 years after Christ. Yet Abraham saw past us to see the same thing that John saw in Revelation 21 – a city coming down from heaven to earth – a God ordained world.
Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed … (Romans 4 v 18)
Because of that hope he was content to live in tents, looking for God’s fulfilment. He was believing for it to happen in his lifetime.
“All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance… People who say such things show they are looking for a country of their own…they were longing for a better country – a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God.” Hebrews 11:13-16
Faith seizes on a revealed event in the future and lives in anticipation of it.
There is always more of God. The Holy Spirit pioneers with us to receive more of God on our way towards the heavenly home.
Only in heaven will we be able to say we’ve arrived. Until then keep pioneering.
Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed … (Romans 4 v 18)
Paul’s use of the promise to Abraham in order to explain the power of faith in connection to our righteousness gives us the opportunity to savour this wonderful story of him and Sarah.
Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, “So shall your offspring be.”Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead—since he was about a hundred years old—and that Sarah’s womb was also dead. Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. This is why “it was credited to him as righteousness.” The words “it was credited to him” 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. He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification. (Romans 4 v 18-23)
But this great covenant of our faith given to the father of many nations all happened in a vision and a dream.
After this, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision (Genesis 15 v 1)
As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep (Genesis 15 v 12)
Abram had a vision, he was awake, very much conscious but having an encounter with God that no one else was seeing or hearing. Then he had a deep sleep and dreamt something that was still counted as real.
Here is the point: Abraham’s faith was found in the unseen reality of the world around him. He was taken into ‘another’. Paul would call this the ‘heavenly realms’ in Ephesians. Abraham teaches us to trust despite no evidence.
Keep believing even if the reality if not what the promise we have been given. That’s it.
We now move into reading an amazing and well-known story of Abraham and Sarah. Paul uses the story of Abraham and Sarah to demonstrate that just as God fulfilled His promise to miraculously bring children to them and actually ‘many nations’ He has also again created out of nothing the faith found in Gentile believers.
Of course this story isn’t perfect. Abraham made mistakes. But he kept bouncing back and got back on track with his faith in God’s promise. That is why God credited his faith as righteousness. Abraham held onto the conviction in God’s promise and acted on that promise. This is the faith Paul is speaking of. This is our faith.
“Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, “So shall your offspring be.”Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead—since he was about a hundred years old—and that Sarah’s womb was also dead. Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. This is why “it was credited to him as righteousness.” The words “it was credited to him” 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. He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.” (Romans 4 v 18-25)
At a prayer gathering this week a Pastor described his church as in a time of enduring. They are going through difficult times. This position is a place of faith. Great faith is the faith that endures. To please God we need to believe He exists even when it looks like He doesn’t. To believe He isn’t a million miles away even when it feels like He is. To believe He is with you even when there is little to show for it. The pressures of your life can be the evidence of God’s work in your life. The presence of God is more important than the answers of God.
Do you look at the elite and wish you were one of them? Are other people just a bit closer to God than you? Then the Apostle Paul is writing to you.
He has shown us in this letter so far that no amount of achievement makes us acceptable to God and He is not pleased with what we do but our trust in Him. Now having just written, ‘faith means nothing and the promise (of belonging) is worthless’ if it depends on our obedience to God, for all that our efforts do is lead us to ‘wrath’ (punishment) and ‘transgression’ (failure) he then elaborates on this further and if you feel just not quite good enough read this:
“Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring—not only to those who are of the law but also to those who have the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all. As it is written: “I have made you a father of many nations.”He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed—the God who gives life to the dead and calls into being things that were not.” (Romans 4 v 16-17)
Did you spot yourself in these verses? I have underlined them.
Paul is definitely referring to both Jewish and Gentile Christians. To all believers. No one is in a better position or more special place than the other. Our powerful God came and called you ‘into being’ even when you didn’t know Him and even before you were born! There is no outsider in the kingdom of God. You have as much right to the promise of God as the next person.
It’s been 5 years today since David went to be with the Lord. Since then other friends and colleagues have joined him and no doubt David is making every one laugh!
As you know I write a devotional every day. Today I just want to post what I wrote 5 years ago as I was reading through the Book of Acts.
David Tinnion: ‘the believers spoke well of him’ – Thursday 16th March 2017
We continue through Acts verse by verse …
Acts 16:2 “The believers at Lystra and Iconium spoke well of him.”
This is not the negative ‘when everyone speaks well of you’ from Luke 6:26. This is not ‘everyone’ in our verse today, this is ‘the believers spoke well of Timothy’.
I am sat in my hotel room this morning knowing today will be a very difficult day. My friend of 23 years, David Tinnion, barring a miracle, will probably go to be with His Saviour today. Though my heart is broken and I grieve with his amazing wife Bobbie, I marvel at the messages that come in from around the world.
From central and south America to Europe, Africa and the many eastern and Asian nations, the believers ‘spoke well of him’.
Messages saying how David influenced, shaped, fathered, led, guided, encouraged and empowered them in some way have come flooding in. One leader said David had done more for missions in his retirement than some have done their whole life.
The believers spoke well of Timothy and Paul took that as a guiding reference to bring him onto his team. What believers say about an individual in private can be very helpful for wisdom. Their own encounter with that individual, their own personal stories and truths that perhaps no one else knows, these are the bits of information you need when searching for character issues.
Of course, it is so important to ‘speak well of someone’ to that person in order to encourage them and to keep on doing what they are doing. Through my tears this morning I am thankful that even in the 3 months of this year I remember being able to speak well of David to David on a number of occasions. Even at 70yrs of age a man needs to hear someone speak well of him.
Often we wait till someone has died to speak well of them. It is of course the right thing to do in order to honour their life. But let us use these life-giving words in life as much as we can.
I recommend David to you, the world of Elim and beyond speak well of him, he will be a good friend and help to you. However, the Saviour is calling him today, so your opportunity has gone but David’s has just begun.
For me, I am glad I have an Elim Global representative on earth (Bobbie) and an Elim Global representative in heaven making sure we get our requests in! The Bible tells me a yes on earth is a yes in heaven and a no on earth is a no in heaven. So I just need David to go along with what Bobbie says and Elim will continue to do well around the world!!!
There is nothing you can do to cause you to be saved, not one thing, it is total grace. Not one performance, not one sin-free day, not one commandment or act of purity or sacrificial giving, nothing. Get rid of the whole notion.
The Jews believed as the descendants of Abraham it was they and their land who were the promise given to him by God.
Paul disagreed.
Abraham is the ‘heir of the world’ and ‘father of all who believe’ (v11) and it is not the Law of Moses that binds the genealogy together but through ‘righteousness that comes by faith’ (v13).
We are not His for any other reason but Him.
“It was not through the law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of the world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith. For if those who depend on the law are heirs, faith means nothing and the promise is worthless, because the law brings wrath. And where there is no law there is no transgression.” (Romans 4 v 13-15)
‘Faith means nothing and the promise (of belonging) is worthless’ if it depends on our obedience to God for all that our efforts do is lead us to ‘wrath’ (punishment) and ‘transgression’ (failure).
Faith is what we receive as we trust in Jesus. Obedience is what we do as a result of that.
But no amount of achievement makes us acceptable to God. He is not pleased with what we do but our trust in Him. So let’s stop trying to perform today.
The Church should be composed of people who are different in every way but who carry the same faith and experience of God’s grace. Look around your church, is that true? Then it is a church that the Apostle Paul could envisage.
Following on from King David’s, “Blessed is the one whose sin the Lord will never count against them” (v8) Paul asks an important question: who is that for? The Jew or the Gentile? The answer is it is for anyone who has through faith been credited as righteous (Genesis 15:6) and not some outward sign that they had been accepted by God, i.e. circumcision (seen later with Abraham in Genesis 17:11).
“Is this blessedness only for the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised? We have been saying that Abraham’s faith was credited to him as righteousness. Under what circumstances was it credited? Was it after he was circumcised, or before? It was not after, but before! And he received circumcision as a sign, a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. So then, he is the father of all who believe but have not been circumcised, in order that righteousness might be credited to them. And he is then also the father of the circumcised who not only are circumcised but who also follow in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised.” (Romans 4 v 9-12)
If Abraham is then the spiritual father of all (circumcised and uncircumcised) why is this important?
(This is not to negate circumcision or any other outward sign of an inner working, i.e. baptism, that’s not the point) It is simply this:
There are no barriers to the pure grace of God to everyone and anyone. Churches that are not mono-cultural and who have an array of diversity and where the different classes and tribes worship together then we have the best display of the grace of God on the earth. This is the application of Paul calling for the circumcised Jewish Christians and the uncircumcised Gentile Christians to walk together because what holds everything in unity is their righteousness by faith given by God’s amazing grace!
I met a man the other day who had achieved so much for God but he was incredibly miserable.
Why are some believers like this?
“David says the same thing when he speaks of the blessedness of the one to whom God credits righteousness apart from works: “Blessed are those whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the one whose sin the Lord will never count against them.” (Romans 4 v 6-8)
In short, happiness is only found when you receive from God and not when you have earned something from Him (or think you have).
Sit back, receive His presence, be thankful for His forgiveness and be happy today.
Missions Paul 