A Study of the Book of Romans

Lesson # 11 

“It’s All About Faith!”

Romans 4:17-25 

       Faith, even by Christians is sometimes thought of in terms of being something mysterious. We know its value. In fact later the writer of Hebrews himself tell us that ‘without it is impossible to please Him (God)”

(Heb 11:1). We all want to exercise “great” faith, but we honestly do not know how.  If we are honest we will admit that we are intimidated by scriptures such as Matthew

17:20 which say, “if you have the faith of a grain of Mustard seed, you be able to move mountains.”  We want to have that kind of “great faith” but we don’t even begin to understand how to attain it. 

“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 (17) (as it is written, “I have made you a father of many nations”) 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; (18) 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.” (19) 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. (20) He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, (21) and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform. (22) And therefore it was accounted to him for righteousness."  (23) Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him, (24)  but also for us. It shall be imputed to us who believe in Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, (25) who was delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification.”

       In Romans chapters one, two and three Paul has been pounding in the fact that we are all sinners. Everyone stands guilty before God, the pagan man, the moral man and the religious man alike. Then in chapter four Paul began talking about how we can be made right in the sight of God through faith. 

First, The Basis of Faith (4:16-17)

“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 (17) (as it is written, “I have made you a father of many nations”) 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”

       In verse seventeen the writer says that God “calls those things which do not exist as thought they did.” What exactly does that mean? God calls Abraham a father when he wasn’t. Early in his life, God called Abraham when he was still called Abram and said, “Abram, I’m going to make you a father of a great nation.” (Gen 12:2). Abram was already 75 years old when God first told him this. Fourteen years later when Abram was 99 years old (Gen 17:5) God reassured him of his previous promise and changed his name to Abraham, “father of many.” Can’t you imagine when somebody met him and said, “Oh, that a good name, Abraham, “father of many,” how many children do you have?”  “None,” He would have to answer. They would at least think to themselves, “That kind of strange name for a man with no children.”

       At some point we run into the danger of placing our “faith in faith” not faith in Christ. “All of us remember the crash of the ValueJet airliner in the Everglades of Florida. No doubt, because of that catastrophe, many people are flying more in fear and less in the faith in the reliability of airplanes. But it is not what you feel or hear that determines whether you crash. Most, if not all, of the people on that ValueJet would have no doubts in their minds concerning the reliability of the airplane. Every person on that flight could have had absolute faith that they would arrive safely at their destination. But the reliability of the airplane did not depend on their faith in it, it depended upon the plane itself. On the other hand, you could board a flight to Florida with a pounding heart and racing pulse, believing in your mind that it was going to crash, and still arrive safely at your destination. Again the reliability of the plane does not depend upon your lack of faith, it depends on upon the plane itself.”  [J. David Hoke. “Faith Beyond Sight.” (Rom 4:16-25) – www. Horizonnet.org/sermons/rom16.html]

       Abraham’s faith is not exemplary because of its strength or lack of it, but because the object of it was God! 

Secondly, The Barrier to Faith (4:18-20a)

“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.” (19) 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. (20) He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief…”

       There are always barriers to faith. The greatest barrier to Abraham’s faith was the Unfavorable Circumstance (v. 18) “contrary to hope”

       Abraham had been promised by God that he was to be the “father of many nations.”  God affirmed this promise to Abraham when he was 100 years old and his wife Sarah was 90 years old. They were both far beyond the child-bearing years. Abraham naturally speaking had no reason to believe that he would in his old age become the father of many nations. How could any person have a child that late in life?

       This would surely be a record for the Guinness Book of World Records. It lists many records for achievement. How much does it list as the weight of the heaviest man? He weighed 1,069 pounds. How tall was the tallest man? He was 8' 11". What is the world's record for bearing children? It lists it at sixty-nine. The record states that a Russian peasant women achieved this great honor. She had eight sets of twins, seven sets of triplets, and four sets of quadruplets. And this leaves another sixteen individual births. She was pregnant over thirty-five times. I think she will probably keep that record intact. But where the Guinness Book of World Records is wrong is that it states that the oldest mother gave birth in October, 1956 at the age of fifty-seven. Sarah would beat that record by a comfortable margin.

       God had delayed the fulfillment of this promise to Abraham and Sarah until it was naturally impossible. George Muller says, “There is no glory for God in that which is humanly possible. Faith begins where man’s power ends.”

       Warren Wiersbe says, “The application to salvation is clear, God must wait until the sinner is ‘dead’ (to his own efforts) and unable to help himself before He can release His saving power. As long as the lost sinner thinks he is strong enough to do anything to please God, he cannot be saved by grace. It was when Abraham admitted he was ‘dead’ that God’s power went to work in his body. It is when the lost sinner confesses that he is spiritually dead and unable to help himself that God can save him.” (Warren Wiersbe. Be Right. (Wheaton, Victor Books, 1984) p. 44)

       Satan can always raise up circum-stances in the life of a believer that cause them to say, “Now, look here. God cannot fulfill his promise to you!” But our challenge is to look past the circumstances and believe God. The text says that Abraham “did not consider his own body already dead,” but this does not mean that he ignored the facts, that he just avoided think about the fact of his old age and his wife’s infertility. Literally it means that he  “considered carefully and chose to believe anyway.”  Abraham chose not to dwell on the obstacles to faith but on the object of faith.

       Abraham “did not waver” or as the KJV says “staggered not” in unbelief. The word translated here (diakrithenai) means “to be divided in one’s mind or to doubt.”  When a believer focuses all their attention on the circumstances they are likely to waver in unbelief but if one looks to God they grow in strength. Abraham was able to take God at His word, so that he did not waste time wavering or worrying.

       Some of you are saying to yourselves, “Do you mean that Abraham never doubted?” And that answer is. “Of course not!” Abraham had his doubts. That is only natural. Anyone would. He had his doubts but he chose not to dwell on them. Doubting is not a sin. It is what you do when doubt comes that matters. You either fight your way through the doubt or you give in to them. Faith is always a struggle, always a battle. If faith were without effort, it would not be faith.  

Third, The Benefits of Faith (4:20b-22)

“… but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, (21) and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform. (22) And therefore “it was accounted to him for righteousness.”

       What this faith did in Abraham’s life. 

·        It Strengthened him in his faith. 

·        It Exalted God - “giving glory to God” 

·        It Persuaded Him that God had the power to do what he had promised.

            The text says in verse twenty-one that Abraham was “fully convinced.” What were the truths on which Abraham had his heart and mind “convinced”? I believe that are at least three crucial truths revealed here. First, Abraham was “convinced” of God’s Truthfulness. One of the things that convinced Abraham that the promises would come true is that it is impossible for God to lie (Titus 1:2). Secondly, Abraham was “convinced” of God’s Faithfulness. Abraham staked his life on the God’s willingness to keep his promises. Third, Abraham was absolute convinced of God Ability. Verse twenty-one says that he was “fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform.”   

·        It was counted to him for righteousness.

       Abraham was as totally unable to meet God’s standard of perfect righteousness than you or I. The good news is that the Lord will take the faith that He Himself enables a person to have and counts that faith as righteousness in our behalf.

Fourth, The Beneficiaries of Faith (4:23-25)

“Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him, (24)  but also for us. It shall be imputed to us who believe in Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, (25) who was delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification.”