Romans 4:25 - Prayer Tents

Trusting God

4So how do we fit what we know of Abraham, our first father in the faith, into this new way of looking at things?G5101G2046G3767G11G2257G3962G2596G4561G2147 2If Abraham, by what he did for God, got God to approve him, he could certainly have taken credit for it. But the story we're given is a God-story, not an Abraham-story.G1063G1487G11G1344G1537G2041G2192G2745G235G3756G4314G2316 3What we read in Scripture is, "Abraham entered into what God was doing for him, and that was the turning point. He trusted God to set him right instead of trying to be right on his own."G1063G5101G3004G1124G1161G11G4100G2316G2532G3049G846G1519G1343 4If you're a hard worker and do a good job, you deserve your pay; we don't call your wages a gift.G1161G2038G3049G3408G3756G3049G2596G5485G235G2596G3783 5But if you see that the job is too big for you, that it's something only God can do, and you trust him to do it—you could never do it for yourself no matter how hard and long you worked—well, that trusting-him-to-do-it is what gets you set right with God, by God. Sheer gift.G1161G2038G3361G1161G4100G1909G1344G765G846G4102G3049G1519G1343 6David confirms this way of looking at it, saying that the one who trusts God to do the putting-everything-right without insisting on having a say in it is one fortunate man:G2509G1138G2532G3004G3108G444G3739G2316G3049G1343G5565G2041 7Fortunate those whose crimes are carted off, whose sins are wiped clean from the slate.G3107G3739G458G863G2532G3739G266G1943 8Fortunate the person against whom the Lord does not keep score.G3107G435G3739G2962G3049G3364G3049G266 9Do you think for a minute that this blessing is only pronounced over those of us who keep our religious ways and are circumcised? Or do you think it possible that the blessing could be given to those who never even heard of our ways, who were never brought up in the disciplines of God? We all agree, don't we, that it was by embracing what God did for him that Abraham was declared fit before God?G3778G3108G3767G1909G4061G2228G1909G203G2532G1063G3004G3754G4102G3049G11G1519G1343 10Now think: Was that declaration made before or after he was marked by the covenant rite of circumcision? That's right, before he was marked.G4459G3049G3767G3049G5607G1722G4061G2228G1722G203G3756G1722G4061G235G1722G203 11That means that he underwent circumcision as evidence and confirmation of what God had done long before to bring him into this acceptable standing with himself, an act of God he had embraced with his whole life.G2532G2983G4592G4061G4973G1343G4102G3588G1722G203G1519G846G1511G3962G3956G4100G1223G203G1519G1343G3049G846G2532 12And it means further that Abraham is father of all people who embrace what God does for them while they are still on the "outs" with God, as yet unidentified as God's, in an "uncircumcised" condition. It is precisely these people in this condition who are called "set right by God and with God"! Abraham is also, of course, father of those who have undergone the religious rite of circumcision not just because of the ritual but because they were willing to live in the risky faith-embrace of God's action for them, the way Abraham lived long before he was marked by circumcision.G2532G3962G4061G3756G1537G4061G3440G235G2532G4748G2487G4102G2257G3962G11G1722G203 13That famous promise God gave Abraham—that he and his children would possess the earth—was not given because of something Abraham did or would do. It was based on God's decision to put everything together for him, which Abraham then entered when he believed.G1063G1860G1511G846G2818G2889G3756G11G2228G846G4690G1223G3551G235G1223G1343G4102 14If those who get what God gives them only get it by doing everything they are told to do and filling out all the right forms properly signed, that eliminates personal trust completely and turns the promise into an ironclad contract! That's not a holy promise; that's a business deal.G1063G1487G1537G3551G2818G4102G2758G2532G1860G2673 15A contract drawn up by a hard-nosed lawyer and with plenty of fine print only makes sure that you will never be able to collect. But if there is no contract in the first place, simply a promise—and God's promise at that—you can't break it.G1063G3551G2716G3709G1063G3757G3756G3551G2076G3761G3847 16This is why the fulfillment of God's promise depends entirely on trusting God and his way, and then simply embracing him and what he does. God's promise arrives as pure gift. That's the only way everyone can be sure to get in on it, those who keep the religious traditions and those who have never heard of them. For Abraham is father of us all. He is not our racial father—that's reading the story backwards. He is our faith father.G1223G5124G1537G4102G2443G2596G5485G1519G1860G1511G949G3956G4690G3756G3440G1537G3551G235G2532G1537G4102G11G3739G2076G3962G2257G3956 17We call Abraham "father" not because he got God's attention by living like a saint, but because God made something out of Abraham when he was a nobody. Isn't that what we've always read in Scripture, God saying to Abraham, "I set you up as father of many peoples"? Abraham was first named "father" and then became a father because he dared to trust God to do what only God could do: raise the dead to life, with a word make something out of nothing.G2531G1125G3754G5087G4571G3962G4183G1484G2713G3739G4100G2316G2227G3498G2532G2564G5607G3361G5613G5607 18When everything was hopeless, Abraham believed anyway, deciding to live not on the basis of what he saw he couldn't do but on what God said he would do. And so he was made father of a multitude of peoples. God himself said to him, "You're going to have a big family, Abraham!"G3739G3844G1680G4100G1909G1680G1519G846G1096G3962G4183G1484G2596G2046G3779G2071G4675G4690G2071 19Abraham didn't focus on his own impotence and say, "It's hopeless. This hundred-year-old body could never father a child." Nor did he survey Sarah's decades of infertility and give up.G2532G3361G770G4102G2657G3756G1438G4983G2235G3499G5225G4225G1541G2532G3500G4564G3388 20He didn't tiptoe around God's promise asking cautiously skeptical questions. He plunged into the promise and came up strong, ready for God,G1161G1252G3756G1519G1860G2316G570G235G1743G4102G1325G1391G2316 21sure that God would make good on what he had said.G2532G4135G3754G3739G1861G2076G1415G2532G4160 22That's why it is said, "Abraham was declared fit before God by trusting God to set him right."G2532G1352G3049G846G1519G1343 23But it's not just Abraham;G1161G1125G3756G1125G1223G846G3440G3754G3049G846 24it's also us! The same thing gets said about us when we embrace and believe the One who brought Jesus to life when the conditions were equally hopeless.G235G1223G2248G2532G3739G3195G3049G4100G1909G1453G2424G2257G2962G1537G3498 25The sacrificed Jesus made us fit for God, set us right with God.G3739G3860G1223G2257G3900G2532G1453G1223G2257G1347