Page 33 - Romans Student Textbook.doc

again that a son would come to him through Sarah. Sarah laughed. Abraham asked that Ismael could be
his heir. But they also coupled God’s promise with faith and still continued to pursue the sexual
relationship through which eventually Isaac was conceived. For both of them the issue came down to
trusting that the God of creation was able to do whatever He promised — no matter how impossible His
promise might seem to them. It was God’s great grace to Abraham that provided for him his son Isaac. It
was not his works or his law-keeping that brought him an heir, but it was God working in a miraculous way
to keep His word to Abraham.

As he closed out this illustration Paul made the following application to the lives of the Roman believers,
which, because it was written down for us to read, applies to us as well.

But the words “it was counted to him” were not written for his sake alone, but for ours also. It will be
counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our
trespasses and raised for our justification.31

His point is simple. The same type of faith that Abraham showed in the promises of God is the same type
of faith that we must have in the promises of God that provide us with salvation from our sin and make us
righteous before God. He has now set the context which needed to be in place so that he could explain in
its fulness just what it is that Christ has done in his work to provide his wondrous salvation to those who
trust in Him. In the next four chapters Paul will systematically explain Christ’s great redeeming ministry.

Theology That Helps Us Live to God’s Glory Now

There is no racial, ethnic, social or political barrier that God favors in those who follow Him.
Abraham serves as the example for all people of all times as to what it is that God requires of
those who would follow after Him. What he requires is simple trust that when God makes a promise, He
will fulfill it no matter how difficult that fulfillment may seem in the life of the person to whom the
promise is given.

The faith that Abraham showed when God promised him a son, and a land is the same type of faith that
we are to have in the promise of forgiveness from sin and eternal life that are given to us in and through
the person and work of God’s Son Jesus. We are to take God at His Word and live with confidence in Him
that strengthens us to walk in obedience to His Word with the help of His Holy Spirit.

31 Romans 4:23-25, ESV.
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