The Book of Romans is about the Gospel. In Galatians Paul warns about, and condemns to hell anyone, himself or and angel who preaches another Gospel. Romans is a clear message that salvation is by the grace of God.
The doctrine of justification by faith is at the heart of a correct understanding of the Gospel. Paul has set forth the wrath of God. Paul then destroys any hope of a person being justified before God by any form of works, which includes following a system of law and observing ritual circumcision.
In our last study we made the following main points from 4:9-15, as Paul calls on the example of Abraham:
In 4:9-12, Abraham is the primary example in Scripture that justification is by faith and not by works. The argument Paul uses is simple but yet irrefutable. Using circumcision as the first example of the futility of trusting in works, Paul asks the question: “How then was the righteousness of God imputed to Abraham; after he was circumcised, or before he was circumcised?”
Any fair reading of the historical record in Genesis will show that Abraham believed God and that the “righteousness of God” was imputed to him before he was circumcised. Not less than 14 years passed between the time of Abraham’s being justified and when God commanded circumcision as a seal or authentication of Abraham’s justification. You must see that the example of Abraham extends to all who are justified? Any attempt to require conditions “in order to be saved,” amounts to salvation by works and not by faith, and is “another gospel.”
In the second argument for not trusting in works, or “deeds of the law,”
vs 13-15, Paul destroys any hope in the law for justification. The law was given to Moses 430 years after Abraham. If those who trust in the law are the heirs {beneficiaries} of the promise, then faith is void {empty}, and the promise is worthless.
The reason he gives for not trusting in obedience to law is “because the law brings about wrath; ....”
Today we will continue with Paul’s argument that Abraham’s justification was by faith. We will look at the promise {singular} which includes aspects of:
1) Land; 2) his seed; 3) and his being a blessing to all nations.
We will take a three-pronged approach to the exposition of this passage.
Explanation or exegesis; eschatological implications; and the promise itself.
These three lines of thought will not always be distinct and I will try to not confuse anyone.
Another thing that I want you to carefully consider: If what I preach is different from what you have understood in the past, all I ask is for you to listen and then test what I preach by the Scripture. If you disagree and can support your doctrine by sound exegesis, then we have some basis for further discussion. It is a matter of sinful pride to think that what you first learned must be true when you are faced with a clear word from God that teaches you correctly. One sign of being a believer is to be teachable.
I am aware that a great many people have been caught up in the popularity of the
“Left Behind” series of books. The reason that I keep bringing this up is that the eschatology {doctrine of last things} presented in those books is absolutely contrary to what Paul is presenting in the Book of Romans. I am not trying to be confrontational or mean-spirited, but I am committed to preaching the truth as I understand it.
Romans 4:16-22
vs 16 The “promise” largely means salvation to all the seed. So the word promise is singular, as to salvation, and not plural, but with aspects as to land, seed, and blessing.
“Therefore it is of faith that it might be of grace, ....”
Dr. Charles Hodge: “Nothing is sure for sinners that is not gratuitous. A promise suspended on obedience, they could never render sure. If salvation be in any form or to any degree dependent on merit, the goodness or the stability of man, it never can be sure, nay, it must be utterly unattainable. Unless we are saved by grace, we cannot be saved at all. To reject, therefore, a gratuitous salvation is to reject the only method of salvation available for sinners.”
If, in fact, we are saved, we have nothing to boast about. If you in any way boast that you have believed while someone else has not, it is no more grace!
Can we in some way grasp the magnitude of the faith of Abraham?
Picture in your mind a man standing out on the open plain on a dark night looking up into a clear sky that is brilliant with countless stars.
Genesis 15:1-6
“Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceeding great reward.”
But, “Lord GOD, I don’t have any children, and now I am too old.”
“Then He brought him outside and said, ‘Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them.’
And He said to him, ‘so shall your descendants be.’
And he believed in the LORD, and He accounted it to him for righteousness.”
The faith of Abraham, even before Isaac was born, saw with God a progeny as countless as the stars of heaven. But more than that; Abraham saw the Seed, that is Christ. When Abraham’s faith was tested in the offering of Isaac, his promised son, Abraham believed that God could raise the dead. He believed that the Seed, the only begotten Son of God, would come into the world. Men would take Him and by wicked hands, nail Him to a tree. He would die. He would be buried.
But God who quickens the dead, will raise Him up!
“Alleluia, For the Lord God Omnipotent reigns!” Revelation 19:6
“... 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.”
vs 17 God who would give life from the dead would fulfill the promise to Abraham that he would be the father of many nations.
Take note of Gen 17:5 where God now calls him a father, though as yet he was not actually the father of many nations. But before God, or in God’s counsel, he is such a father. Haldane
a) From a human point of view it was indeed as impossible for Abraham
to have a son as raising the dead.
b) Abraham believed God who “called the things that are not, as though they were.”
What seems afar off and impossible to man is certain to God.
As the example of justification by faith: That God gives life to the dead, every believer is, in a sense, raised from the dead.
“And you He made alive who were dead in trespasses and sins.” Eph 2:1
vs 18 “contrary to hope, in hope believed.”
An oxymoron {contradictory terms}, e.g., jumbo shrimp, honest politician.
An oxymoron is used to enhance a statement: “contrary to hope, in hope believed.” Abraham’s expectations rested solely on the divine promise. Haldane
Abraham considered the difficulties. He even laughed at the prospect that he and Sarah would have a child. But “contrary to hope, in hope believed.”
This kind of faith is not a “leap in the dark,” but it considers the impossibility of a thing and then considers who is making the promise.
And then, “contrary to hope, in hope believed.”
vs 19 Abraham’s faith in God was contrary to nature.
Abraham and Sarah are well beyond the age of procreation.
{life spans were dramatically reduced after the flood}
From the deadness of Sarah’s womb would spring life; promised life!
Abraham was kept childless until an age when he was “as good as dead,” that the divine omnipotence might be seen as the source of Isaac’s birth.
vs 20-21 In faith, Abraham did not waiver, strengthened in faith, giving glory to God.
Moule observes that this passage suggests why God prescribes faith as the condition of justification. Faith is an act of the soul which looks away from self {as regards both merit and demerit} and honors the Almighty and All-gracious in a way not the least meritorious. Thus faith brings the creature to the Creator in the right attitude - complete submission and confidence.
The greatest insult to God is to not believe His word!
vs 22 Therefore {for this reason} it {his faith} was accounted to him for righteousness.
righteousness.We are dealing with the question: Who are the children of Abraham?
To whom was the promise intended? Who are the heirs of the promise?
We have looked briefly at the explanation {exegesis} of the text.
What are the eschatological implications?
Eschatology, or the doctrine of last things, is very important. Your eschatology is your view of the events that occur before, during, and following the bodily return of Jesus Christ. We all agree that Christ will return.
Your eschatology will necessarily interpret Scripture for you.
Take, for example, one of the professors at Beeson who is an authority on the Mosaic law and the letters of Paul: Philippians, Romans, Galatians, et al. I have great personal respect for him. In his book on the continuity of the law into the N.T., he makes the well-known prophecy of Jeremiah apply to a future restoration of Israel.
Jeremiah 31:31-34
31 "Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah--
32 not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the LORD.
33 But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.
34 No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more."
It is my understanding, as interpreted by my eschatology, that Jeremiah, by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, is saying that the “New Covenant” is not new in respect to time, but is new in the understanding of God’s grace.
What the prophets understood? 1 Peter 1:10-12
In John 13: 34, Jesus said, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” But doesn’t the O.T. say, “Love your neighbor as yourself.”? What is new about the commandment Jesus gave is its application from a new heart born of the Spirit.
The Old Covenant, or the law, as Paul has demonstrated, was never intended as a way of being justified, but rather it is the means used by God to convict of sin.
Romans 5:20
When the law is writen in the minds and on the heart, the object of God’s grace is regenerated. The application of the “New Covenant” Jeremiah presents extends from Adam to the end of the age. So my eschatology interprets the same text from Jeremiah in a very different manner.
As I said, Your eschatology will necessarily interpret Scripture for you.
Another example, is the “Left Behind” series of books about which I have already commented. They are hugely popular. Yet I strongly disagree with the eschatology upon which these books are based. If you have read and adopted the theology of these books, then you are what is called “Dispensational.”
The term “dispensational,” comes from the view that God has programmed history into seven dispensations, or periods of time. And that God deals with men in different ways in those different dispensations. Sometimes in law and sometimes in grace. I know that there is much more to Dispensationalism, but I am dealing with basic principles.
Dispensational eschatology teaches that the primary focus of the Bible is on a race of people called the Jews. God, they teach, will restore the Jews to the land of Israel and the wall of separation between Jew and Gentile is established forever. The church is only a “parenthesis” in God’s plan and purpose.
You may be as committed to Dispensational eschatology as I am opposed to it. It is not required that you agree with me on eschatology. But I do ask that you listen to my exposition and then test your eschatology by Scripture and not by what is popular with the majority.
My eschatology says that the focus of the Bible is on the church:
The faith of Abraham produces the church, all believers of all time.
“... Christ loved the church and gave himself for it.” Ephesians 5:25
Now the primary focus of the Bible can not be on the Jews and also on the church.
It is my belief that Romans 4:9-12 destroys any idea that God now, or has ever made a distinction between Jew and Gentile, or Jew and any other person as far as justification is concerned.
“For there is no partiality with God.” Romans 2:11
This view is supported in Ephesians 2:11-18
11 Therefore remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh--who are called Uncircumcision by what is called the Circumcision made in the flesh by hands--
12 that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.
13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
14 For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation,
15 having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace,
16 and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity.
17 And He came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near.
18 For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father.
And Ephesians 3:6
6 that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, of the same body, and partakers of His promise in Christ through the gospel...”
We have looked at the explanation {exegesis} and the eschatological implications.
We will look in more detail at the promise.
There are three aspects of the promise: land; seed; and blessing.
Romans 4:16 “ 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.”
Dr. Ken Matthews, Beeson, {and he is not the professor to whom I earlier referred} said that the call of Abram is the antidote {remedy} to Babel.
He said that Genesis presents three programmatic statements;
or three divine directives:
1.Creation and Blessing: Genesis 1:282.Crime and Punishment: Genesis 3:15 Judgement: (serpent, woman, man)3.Blessing for all nations: Genesis 12:1-3Genealogy is an important distinction in Scripture:
Gen 5:1-32 is the record of the pre-flood patriarchs to Noah;Gen 11:10-26 is the record of the post-flood focus on Abram.Abram is introduced in Genesis 11:26 as one of the sons of Terah
Abram is to be a blessing to all nations: Gen 12:1-3.
A land; a seed {nation}; a blessing to all nations.Abram is first called a Hebrew {descendant of Eber 11:16}: 14:13.
Abram meets Melchizedek: 14:18.
Abram’s promise to have children id affirmed: 15:1-6.
Sarah tries to “help” by giving Hagar, her slave, to Abram so as to produce the promised heir. Galatians 4:21-30 teaches that the story of Hagar and Sarah is an allegory of the two covenants, and that Hagar represents the “Jerusalem that now is,” i.e., Jewry, and that Sarah represents the church, “Jerusalem above.”
Circumcision is given as the seal {authentication} of the covenant that God made with Abram; God changes his name to Abraham {father of many nations}; Sarah, who is 90, will have a son by a man who is 100 years old.
They both laughed. Genesis 17.
Abram’s faith is tested in the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah and the deliverance of Lot. Genesis 18-19.
Finally, Isaac, the promised son is born only to become the supreme test of faith for Abraham when he is commanded to sacrifice Isaac, Genesis 21-22.
Romans 4:17-22 is the summary of the faith of Abraham and Sarah.
With that as a backdrop we will look at three aspects the promise:
A land; a seed {nation}; a blessing to all nations.
In each aspect of the promise we will answer two questions?
In what respect has the promise already been fulfilled and in what respect is the promise yet to be fulfilled?
SEED: The easiest part of the promise to explain from Scripture pertains to the “seed.”
The birth of Isaac to Sarah was the first aspect of the specific promise of “seed.” Indeed there are many children who trace their genealogy to Abraham.
The number of Abraham’s children is compared to the number of stars in heaven and the grains of sand of the sea.
So there is a natural fulfillment to the promise of seed.
But can we more fully understand what God revealed to Abraham? Yes!
We have a clear statement in the word of God, so we don’t have to struggle with the exegesis or interpretation.
Galatians 3:16-19
16 Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made. He does not say, "And to seeds," as of many, but as of one, "And to your Seed," who is Christ.
17 And this I say, that the law, which was four hundred and thirty years later, cannot annul the covenant that was confirmed before by God in Christ, that it should make the promise of no effect.
18 For if the inheritance is of the law, it is no longer of promise; but God gave it to Abraham by promise.
19 What purpose then does the law serve? It was added because of transgressions, till the Seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was appointed through angels by the hand of a mediator.
So the fulfillment of the promise in the aspect of seed, in the normal manner is seen in the multitude of offspring, but more fully in the single object to whom the promise was made, even to Jesus Christ, the Seed!
BLESSING TO THE NATIONS
The Jews laid an exclusive claim to Abraham as their father and tried to shut out the everyone else. The source of their error was a misunderstanding of why God had chosen out a people to be separated unto God and to receive the oracles, or the word of God and to preserve it for hundreds of years.
They confused that important role with an exemption from the wrath of God
Deuteronomy7:6-11
6 "For you are a holy {set apart} people to the LORD your God; the LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth.
7 The LORD did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the least of all peoples;
8 but because the LORD loves you, and because He would keep the oath which He swore to your fathers, the LORD has brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
9 Therefore know that the LORD your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments;
10 and He repays those who hate Him to their face, to destroy them. He will not be slack with him who hates Him; He will repay him to his face.
11 Therefore you shall keep the commandment, the statutes, and the judgments which I command you today, to observe them.
God had instructed Israel to share the blessing of His word with the nations of the earth; the Jews were to be “as a light to the Gentiles.”
Isaiah says to the Israelites: Isa 42:6
6 "I, the LORD, have called You in righteousness,
And will hold Your hand;
I will keep You and give You as a covenant to the people,
As a light to the Gentiles,
But alas, the Jews failed miserably in this aspect of the promise,
i.e., to be a blessing to the nations. cf Romans 3:1-3
The promise of God did not fail because of the unbelief of the Jews because the ultimate fulfillment of the promise to be a blessing to all nations is in Christ.
Isaiah says concerning Messiah:
Isaiah 49:6
6 Indeed He says,
'It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant
To raise up the tribes of Jacob,
And to restore the preserved ones of Israel;
I will also give You as a light to the Gentiles,
That You should be My salvation to the ends of the earth.'"
And Paul affirms this prophecy:
Galatians 3:6-9
6 just as Abraham "believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness."
7 Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham.
8 And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, "In you all the nations shall be blessed."
9 So then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham.
Having dealt with the aspects of the promise as to the “seed,” and to “all the nations of the earth,” we will look at what is, perhaps, the most difficult aspect for most people to grasp, i.e., regarding land.
LAND
It is a serious error of interpretation to make the promise, especially as it pertains to LAND, apply to only the Jews. But dear friends, that is exactly what the “Left Behind,” or Dispensational eschatology teaches.
In the previous message I mentioned a passionate encounter I had with a preacher that I met at the Southern Baptists Founders Conference in Kentucky. He was of the Dispensational eschatological persuasion and his primary assurance of the truth of that system hung on the fact of the present existence of the nation of Israel.
To him, that proved that God’s promise to restore Israel to the land was being fulfilled before our very eyes. He was as certain of his position as I was of mine; yet we have very different interpretations of Scripture.
Is there a nation in the middle east which calls itself “Israel?” Of course!
In 1948, following WWII and the Holocaust, a nation was constituted in the middle east and named itself “Israel.” Every day the news media carry stories of the ongoing conflict between the Arabs and the Jews. Are we to understand that this nation is the fulfillment of the promise by God to restore Israel to the land? Many will answer, ”yes!” The majority, in fact, would answer in the affirmative.
But I want to remind you that everywhere in Scripture the promise of land is contingent on obedience. The overthrow of the northern kingdom of Israel by Assyria and later the capture of the southern kingdom of Judah by Babylon was as a direct result of idolatry and disobedience. The return of the Jews from the exile in Babylon {which by the way included only a small number of those who were then in Babylon} was a fulfillment of specific prophecy, and it too had limitations.
So, as we have seen with the aspect of the SEED, and as a BLESSING TO ALL NATIONS, we will see a natural fulfillment and a broader spiritual fulfillment of the promise regarding the LAND.
Joshua 21:43-45
43 So the LORD gave to Israel all the land of which He had sworn to give to their fathers, and they took possession of it and dwelt in it.
44 The LORD gave them rest all around, according to all that He had sworn to their fathers. And not a man of all their enemies stood against them; the LORD delivered all their enemies into their hand.
45 Not a word failed of any good thing which the LORD had spoken to the house of Israel. All came to pass.
Jeremiah 18:1-10
1 The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying:
2 "Arise and go down to the potter's house, and there I will cause you to hear My words."
3 Then I went down to the potter's house, and there he was, making something at the wheel.
4 And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter; so he made it again into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to make.
5 Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying:
6 "O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter?" says the LORD. "Look, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel!
7 The instant I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, to pull down, and to destroy it,
8 if that nation against whom I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I thought to bring upon it.
9 And the instant I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it,
10 if it does evil in My sight so that it does not obey My voice, then I will relent concerning the good with which I said I would benefit it.
So the question for those of the Dispensational persuasion to deal with is what is left regarding the land that is yet to be fulfilled when Joshua says that God has already given the land: So the LORD gave to Israel all the land of which He had sworn to give to their fathers, and “All came to pass.”
And Jeremiah says that God has the right regarding a nation
“to pluck up, to pull down, and to destroy it...”
God is faithful to keep His word, and in my understanding, He does not have anything yet to do regarding a literal restoration of the Jews to the land.
But there is yet a future fulfillment regarding LAND.
Hebrews 11:8-19
8 By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going.
9 By faith he dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise;
10 for he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God. 11 By faith Sarah herself also received strength to conceive seed, and she bore a child when she was past the age, because she judged Him faithful who had promised.
12 Therefore from one man, and him as good as dead, were born as many as the stars of the sky in multitude--innumerable as the sand which is by the seashore.
13 These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.
14 For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland.
15 And truly if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to return.
16 But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.
17 By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises offered up his only begotten son,
18 of whom it was said, "In Isaac your seed shall be called,"
19 concluding that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead, from which he also received him in a figurative sense.
Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones: “The promise referred not only to the Jews possession of the land of Palestine but to that great day which is coming, when the ‘kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ.’ It is the promise concerning the great and glorious day when ‘there shall be new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness,’ and Christ and His people shall reign in glory in this glorified world.”
Psalm 37:9 “For evildoers shall be cut off; But those who wait on the LORD, They shall inherit the earth.”
And Jesus in Matthew 5:5
“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.”
God’s promise to Abraham involved
SEED, BLESSING TO ALL NATIONS, and LAND.
It seems to me that God has kept His promise to Abraham in natural ways and the ultimate fulfillment of the promise is sure in Jesus Christ and in the church.
“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.” Romans 4:16
The next study will deal with how the promise is carried over to the church.
This precious passage of Scripture that we examined in this study {4:16-22} was meant for every age is shown in the verses that follow {4: 23-25}.
Amen
