Romans 51 | ஆபிரகாம் நியப்பிரமானத்தை கடைப்பிடித்ததினால் இரட்சிக்கப்படவில்லை | Romans 4:13-17 |

Romans 4:13-17

Justified by Grace – Abraham

Romans 4:9-17, Does this blessedness then come upon the circumcised only, or upon the uncircumcised also? For we say that faith was accounted to Abraham for righteousness. 10 How then was it accounted? While he was circumcised, or uncircumcised? Not while circumcised, but while uncircumcised. 11 And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while still uncircumcised, that he might be the father of all those who believe, though they are uncircumcised, that righteousness might be imputed to them also, 12 and the father of circumcision to those who not only are of the circumcision, but who also walk in the steps of the faith which our father Abraham had while still uncircumcised. 13 For the promise that he would be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. 14 For if those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made void and the promise made of no

effect, 15 because the law brings about wrath; for where there is no law there is no transgression. 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 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; Romans, from chapter 3 verse 21 on to chapter 8 Paul is talking about that God has provided a salvation is provided by Christ through His work as a free gift to those who believe, not by their own works.

Why Abraham? Abraham would show the eternal truth of righteousness by grace through faith since Abraham was an Old Testament character. By using Abraham, Paul is saying this is nothing new, this is something very old. Abraham even preceded Moses.

Abraham even preceded the identity of the nation Israel. Abraham really belongs in the patriarchal period, the very primitive time.

He appears early in the book of Genesis. If Paul can establish that a man in the book of Genesis was saved by grace through faith and not of works, then he has given to us a timeless truth and nothing new at all. He is not an example of a man who earned salvation by his good works but by grace through believing.

In simple child-like trust, in complete yielded to God, he took God's word at face value, believed God. By that act of faith, he received righteousness. Romans chapter 4 can be divided up by three ways.

1. Justification by Faith not by works (V1-8)

2. Justification by Grace not Law (9-17)

3. Justification by God’s power not human effort. (18-25)

2. Justification by Grace

The ardh kumbh mela. In India where the Ganges and the Jamuna River come together. The fabled waters of these rivers meet in a conflux known to the Indians as a prahag. It is at this conflux of the

Ganges and the Jamuna called the prahag that the ardh kumbh mela takes place. It begins with a parade of stark naked Indian holy men, who by the way are not too holy or they wouldn't be stark naked. They are known as digambar sadhus and they lead this stark-naked parade to the water, followed by literally millions of Hindus. It is the world's largest single religious event, and these millions of people follow the digambar sadhus.

Now, it involves heavy expense. Some of these people are poor and they must come by foot, and they begin the journey months in advance to make sure they arrive on time. It is January and the weather is cold, and the water is freezing.

They come from everywhere, rich, and poor. All caste barriers are set aside in this event. As they gather around the waters of the prahag, there are fakirs everywhere those who sit on the bed of nails, those who walk over the glass, and those who walk and lie down on the hot coals. One of the common sights that you would see at the edge of the prahag is worshipers taking long knives and piercing their tongues to sentence themselves to eternal silence as a way to appease their gods.

Some engage in killing the use of their limbs by atrophy such as one man who was depicted there who had had his arm in

the air for eight years. His fingernail descended down here about two and a half feet off the forefinger, the others were growing all kinds of strange ways. He had held his arm up in some effort to appeal to his god for over eight years and it was utterly atrophied in that position.

Others wilfully stare at the sun until they burn their eyes and are blind. The photographs that I saw of the ardh kumbh mela in the magazine were shocking, a literal sea of millions of people on the riverbank. Their holy writings say this, quote, "Those who battle at the conflux of the black and white river, the Ganga and the Jamuna, go to heaven."

"The pilgrim who bathes at this place wins absolution for his whole family and even if he has perpetrated 100 crimes, he is redeemed the moment he touches the Ganga, whose waters wash away his sins." Now all along the water's edge there are little booths, and these are shaving booths. The deeply devout people strip themselves bare and they go into the shaving booth, and they are shaved from tip of the head to the tip of the toe, every hair on their bodies including their eyebrows and their eyelashes, shaved off.

Every hair that is shaved is collected. All this hair from all these people is thrown into the filthy water. Their religious writings say, "For every hair thus thrown in, you are promised a million- year residence in heaven."

Now, one of the most acceptable gifts to offer, if you want to go even further than having your hair shorn, is to offer your life. "Millions who come with spiritual hunger depart with peace in their hearts and renewed faith."

What a hellish damning illusion from Satan. But it is illustrative of the systems that Satan designs that are built around the idea that you can redeem yourself, have your sins washed away and gain heaven by some ceremonies, or some religious rites, or some religious rituals, or some works of an external nature.

We are shocked that anybody would believe that you would have your sins washed away in the filthy water that would be in a place like that. You would never be able to understand from your vantage point how someone could think that every piece of hair dropped off their body into the water would gain for them a million years residence in heaven.

Any religious system that says you can gain heaven and the forgiveness of your sins by some religious ceremony or some work of the flesh. They are all the same. They may take different forms. They may be more sophisticated and more cultured, but they are all the same.

Jesus faced a very sophisticated kind of religion in His day that was no different than that kind of Hinduism. It was the religion of the Pharisees, in which they believed that by external rites like circumcision, which is a kind of shaving of its own, and by certain religious works on the outside they were buying their way into heaven and having their sins forgiven. No different at all.

There are only two kinds of religion in the whole world:

• the religion of divine accomplishment, and that is Christianity,
• the religion of human achievement, and that covers every other religion

Jesus faced it m, Paul, so you too! Paul writes in Romans 3:21-5:21, that saving faith that comes by grace. He is showing here that salvation and the forgiveness

of sin and heaven is not available to men through ritual, ceremony, self-sacrifice, religious works of any kind, but only by grace through faith in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's the only way. There's no other way.

Are not those people sincere? Yes, but they are condemned to hell forever because they are sincerely wrong. Salvation comes only by grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now we are looking at the second section, verses 9 to 17.

The key to this section is found in verse 16. The first section, it was by faith not works, and here it was by grace not law. V 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 If salvation is a matter of simply believing and you can't do anything then it has to be a gift from God.

It must be by grace. Salvation is not earned. If you can't earn it, if it must be by faith, then it has to be a gift of God's grace.

What is grace? It is God's absolutely free favour to an undeserving sinner. Abraham was justified, that is, made right with God. Abraham was brought into a right relationship with God because he believed, and that because God was gracious to him.

How was God gracious? God gave him a promise! It was by grace, to the end that the promise might be sure to all the seed. God graciously offered Abraham a promise that was the grace. Abraham received it that was the faith.

So, salvation is not earned, it is offered by God, an act of His free favour to an undeserving sinner and it is received through faith. Faith becomes the means by which it is received. V 9- 12, in the previous study that Abraham was not justified by circumcision.

Very important because the Jews believed that that's exactly how he was justified, by circumcision. In fact, they believe that's the way everybody ought to be justified.

But Paul shows in verses 9- 12 that Abraham was declared right with God, and it was 14 years later that he was circumcised. So, circumcision becomes only a symbol. A symbol that says to every other generation. They were doing on the outside but what the Lord wanted was in their heart.

The prophet repeatedly said, circumcise your hearts. Circumcision marks out a Jew. But more than that it is a symbol on the outside and every time a father went through that throughout all the history of Judaism, he was giving a symbol of what God wanted to do on the inside, cutting away the flesh, as it were.

Abraham was not justified by circumcision, and that flies in the face of everything the Jews taught. They believed they were saved by having circumcision, much as people today believe they are saved by infant Baptism. Baptism, like circumcision, is only a symbol. It symbolizes on the outside what God wants to do in the heart.

The Jews also believed that Abraham was justified by keeping the law. V 13-17, Paul deals with the issue of the law.

Abraham was not made right with God by keeping the law because the law came 430 years later. Devastating argument! The Jews believed these two things were that which brought a man into right relationship with God.

Acts 15:1, And certain men came down from Judea and taught the brethren, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.”

They believed that were saved by circumcision and obedience to the law of Moses. Paul saying that you don't come into a right relationship to God by an outward ceremony or by an outward observance of laws. When Abraham was declared right with God, he had no circumcision. When Abraham was declared right with God, he had kept no law because the Mosaic law hadn't even been given yet.

How was Abraham made right with God? V 13, For the promise that he would be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith

God gave him a promise and when God gave him a promise, he believed it. That's all. Abraham was justified by believing God's promise. That makes salvation a grace gift. It's no different than when God comes to you and says, here is My promise, if you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, I will grant to you eternal life. And you say, by faith I receive that gift. That is all, that's what Abraham did.

God said, here's a promise, if you will believe that promise and demonstrate your faith by acting on it, I will take away your sins and I will redeem you and fulfil My promise. Abraham believed it and justification is not only by faith but it is born in the grace of God.

What promise is this? The Abrahamic covenant. It was given to Abraham in chapter 12. It was repeated in chapter 15, It's repeated in chapter 18, It's repeated in chapter 22. God said to Abraham, I want you to go out of this land of Ur of the Chaldeans and I want you to go to a land that I have

planned to give you and I am going to make of you a great nation and whoever blesses you will be blessed and whoever curses you will be cursed. God said to him, I am going to give you a seed like the sand of the sea, and they will number like the stars of the heaven. At that time, Abraham and Sarah didn't have any children at all.

Sarah was barren and they were already approaching 100 years old. God gave a promise. But Abraham saw beyond the physical posterity. He saw beyond having a son, Isaac, and Isaac having a son and Isaac's sons having sons and multiplications of nations. He saw beyond being a father of many nations. He knew that there was in that promise a spiritual reality because he had heard the promise, "In thee shall all be blessed."

Abraham knew that God was talking about a spiritual promise.

Hebrews 11:10, for he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God. Abraham saw a physical seed, physical element, but he knew out of that physical seed would come a spiritual fulfilment.

The promise is described in a marvellous way in verse 13.

V 13, For the promise that he would be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith To be the heir of the whole world is a very magnanimous promise. "Abraham, I promise you will inherit the world."

If we look at the promise back in Genesis, we find the first element of the promise was that he would inherit the land of Canaan.

Genesis 15:18-21, On the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying: “To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates— 19 the Kenites, the Kenezzites, the Kadmonites, 20 the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, 21 the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.”

The book of Joshua tells us the story of him taking possession of that promise. Abraham's descendants took the land under the direction of Joshua. The promise also incorporated a nation, or a people. Not just a land but a people, a physical nation. In fact, nations, for out of Abraham came not only Israel but the Arab nations as well.

Genesis 13:16, And I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth; so that if a man could number the dust of the earth, then your descendants also could be numbered.

God gave him a seed. Exodus shows us the realization of the seed, the birth of the Semitic peoples and their history. Inherent in the promise was the blessing of the world. Not just the land and not just a people, even nations of people, but there would be spiritual blessing.

Genesis 12:3, I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” Now, here we come to a very important point. Abraham got a land, the land of Canaan. Abraham got a people of Israel, the covenant people.

The whole world getting blessed. Abraham is even called “the father of many nations.” (Romans 4:17) How could he be the father of many nations? How can he be the heir of the world? How can one man be so significantly related to so many?

The answer comes in the fourth element of the covenant;

1. The land, 2. The nations,

3. The blessing of the world, and

4. The Redeemer. Without a shadow of doubt that in the promise given to Abraham, he saw beyond Isaac to a Redeemer. Our Lord Jesus said verbatim.

John 8:56, "Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day and he saw it and was glad." Maybe Abraham saw it in the typology of the ram provided in the thicket when he would have needed to take the life of Isaac. Abraham could bless the world, as it were, and be the father of a world of people and inherit the world, as it were, is because there would come out of his loins a Redeemer who would redeem from all the nations and tongues and tribes and people by faith. All those sons of faith would be the sons of Abraham.

Galatians 3:16, 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.

Now when God made the promise to Abraham, He said the ultimate promised seed is not seeds, but Christ. So, the real seed of Abraham was Christ, and it is in Christ that all the people are blessed.

Galatians 3:29, And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.

Now the promise said that all the world will be blessed in you, Abraham. That could only be true because out of the loins of Abraham came the seed who is Christ and all who put their faith in Christ become one with Christ.

1 Corinthians 6:17, But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him. So, we are one with the seed and thus by faith we become the spiritual seed of Abraham.

Galatians 3:8-9, 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. In the genealogy in Matthew 1, Jesus was introduced to us as the son of David, son of Abraham. If you put your faith in the

son of Abraham, in the seed of Abraham, then you become a child of faith, and in that sense spiritually a son of Abraham, who is the model of faith for all the world. When you put your faith in Christ and are identified with the seed and you become an element of that seed joined to Jesus Christ, it's one seed because we are one in Christ. We then, along with Abraham inherit the world. We are the heirs of the world.

All of us who are in Christ are one with Christ. We are therefore the seed of Abraham by faith, the true spiritual seed. We are part of the fulfilment of the promise to Abraham which was to inherit the world and therefore we inherit the world.

Romans 8:17, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together. So, in Christ we inherit the world. V 13, For the promise that he would be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith

It didn't come to him through law. Through the law-keeping principle, through the principle of works, of keeping some

rules by your own effort. It didn't come to him through ceremony, circumcision. It didn't come to him through works, or law-keeping. It came to him as a promise. God said to him one day, "Abraham, if you get up and get out of town and go where I am sending you, I will do all this for you."There was no conditions.

Was the Abrahamic covenant conditional? No! When God made covenants in those days, He demonstrated the uniqueness of the covenant in a marvellous way with Abraham. Genesis 15, God was conversing with Abraham and suddenly, He put Abraham to sleep, He just shot him with a divine aesthetic and Abraham was out.

But before Abraham was out, he had collected a series of animals and God said, now you collect these animals, the heifer, a ram, a turtledove, a pigeon, and so forth. God said, when you collect all those animals, you take the large animals and cut them in half, and you put one half of the animal over here and one half over here and you don't cut the birds. Because a bird cut in half is not much left. So just put

one bird over here dead and one bird over here. So, you have got two dead birds and in-half animals. Abraham knew exactly what He was doing, and he knew why. God put him to sleep, and he just flopped down sleepy, sound asleep. A burning lamp and a smoking furnace descended and went between the pieces.

When you made a covenant with somebody, you sealed the covenant by splitting an animal in half and together you both went between the pieces. What you were saying was: "If I break my covenant, so do to me as we have done to this animal."That is a binding covenant.

But when God made the covenant with Abraham, He didn't let Abraham go between the pieces because the covenant was never with God and Abraham, it was with God and God. God said, "Here is My promise, I make this promise to you. It doesn't depend on anything you do, only that by faith you believe it."

Therefore, faith cannot be a meritorious work it is only an instrument to receive a promise. Abraham was not made the heir of the world because he had earned it.

It did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith.

Galatians 3:10, For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse; for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them.” If you want to come to God by works then you have got to do all of them and never break them. If you are going to be under the law, then you must keep every element of the law, or you are cursed.

Galatians 3:11, But that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident, for “the just shall live by faith.”

Why? Because nobody can keep all the law. That is why it says the just shall live by faith. The law is not faith. The two are mutually exclusive and antithetical. The man that does them shall live in them. If you are going to try to come to God by keeping the law, you must keep it perfectly. That's the only way you will survive.

V 13 says Christ came along and redeemed us from the curse of the law.

Why? V 14, For if those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made void and the promise made of no effect, The blessing of Abraham that God gave him a promise and said you can have it not by law but by faith.

Galatians 3:17, 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.

The law came 430 years after the promise. 430 years after the last statement of the promise, not the first, but the last recorded in Genesis; 430 years later came the Mosaic law. This whole argument just flows through Galatians.

Galatians 2:21, I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain.”

Galatians 3:1-2, O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes

Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified? 2 This only I want to learn from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? What are you doing fooling around with the law?

It was 430 years after Abraham and the final statement of the covenant that the law was given.

Galatians 3:18, For if the inheritance is of the law, it is no longer of promise; but God gave it to Abraham by promise. By promise, the word "gave"charizomai, it has the idea of giving something for good, permanently. It's in the perfect tense. He gave it and it stays given.

God gives us the promise of salvation and it is a promise to be received by faith. Paul himself had tried awfully hard to be saved by the law, hadn't he?

Philippians 3:4-8, though I also might have confidence in the flesh. If anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I more so: 5 circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee; 6 concerning zeal, persecuting the church; concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. 7 But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. 8 Yet indeed I also count all things

loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ V 14, For if those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made void and the promise made of no effect, If you have to keep God's law to be an heir, then faith is nullified. You can't have both.

Faith is made void and the promise is of no effect at all. God's just blowing wind when he makes a promise. If the original condition is law, then faith is void, the promise is useless, everything collapses. And that's really where the Pharisees were. They believed that everything hinged on the law.

The Pharisees were the people of the law, they were the law- keepers, the legalists. If they're the heirs, the whole thing collapses. Everything is void. V 15, because the law brings about wrath; for where there is no law there is no transgression.

Now all the law does is show you how bad you are! If you don't have any rules, you can't break any!

So, as soon as God puts the law down it just manifests transgression and transgression leads to wrath of God. So, as soon as God gives a law, it just reveals the evil of the human heart. It just makes manifest the sinfulness of man.

Romans 7:7-12, What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, “You shall not covet.” 8 But sin, taking opportunity by the commandment, produced in me all manner of evil desire. For apart from the law sin was dead. 9 I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. 10 And the commandment, which was to bring life, I found to bring death. 11 For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it killed me. 12 Therefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good.

There is nothing wrong with the law, the law is holy, just, and good. It's just the problem that as soon as the law is revealed to me, I see my inability to keep the law, so the law simply manifests transgression and works wrath. It puts people under the condemnation of God.

Galatians 3:19, 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. Paul says to the Galatians you can't get saved by the law. It was added to manifest the evil of the heart to prepare men for the coming seed, who was Christ.

Galatians 3:24, Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. V 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 If you are not saved by circumcision, by some ritual act, If you are not saved by keeping some rules, keeping some law, if that's true, then salvation is by faith through grace. If you are saved by grace who gets the glory?

God does. But that is not what this text says. Paul is not focusing on the glory of God here. Paul is focusing on something else.

If salvation is by grace through faith, then the promise is available to everybody who will constitute the redeemed seed. If salvation is only available to those who keep the law, then who is it available to? Nobody. If it’s of faith and grace, the result is that it’s available to everybody, because nobody is disqualified by their sin.

Paul splits them into two categories

First, not only to that which is of the law.

Who were the people of the law? The Jews. Those who are identifying with the keeping of the law. Secondly to that also which is of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all. It has to do with believing Gentiles. Does the faith of Abraham is the Gentile faith?

Sure.

Was Abraham a Jew? No. Abraham was a Chaldean Gentile. That is a shocker for many Jewish people!

Abraham was a Chaldean Gentile. He had no Mosaic orientation. He lived and died before that all came to pass. He came by faith, and so he illustrates believing Gentiles. So, Paul says, if salvation's by faith and grace, then it is available to everybody, whether you are of the law or like Abraham, a believing Gentile.

Abraham becomes the father of all of us by his faith. We are all children of Abraham by faith. Now that is not to say that he doesn't have a physical seed in Israel, he does. But the message here has to do with the spiritual seed.

V17, (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; A restatement of Genesis 12, the covenant.

God intended that Abraham would be the father of many nations. A spiritual promise, and that many peoples and tongues and tribes and nations all over the world and throughout history would come to God through faith in His Messiah, and those people would become the spiritual children of Abraham. He is our father.

Abraham is the model of faith that we all follow. He is the original example of faith that we all follow. In the eternal purpose of God that Abraham was designed to be the spiritual prototype of all who come to God by faith.

Abraham heard God's promise. He received it by faith. He was an unworthy, ungodly sinner who by grace was given a promise which he believed. All of us, like Abraham, believing God enter into that spiritual seed who is Christ.

He gives two qualifications

The God who gives life to the dead.

• No one knew that better than Abraham because he and Sarah were barren.
• No one knew that better than Abraham because he was willing to sacrifice Isaac.

Because of what Abraham believed in his heart.

Hebrews 11:19, concluding that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead, from which he also received him in a figurative sense.

The God who calls those things which are not as though they were. Speaking of God's creative power. God calls things which don't even exist as if they did exist and brings them into existence. God said to Abraham, I will give you the world.

Jesus said to the disciples, I will give you the kingdom. Jesus said to those overcomers that, I will give you My throne, you will sit in it with Me. I will give you the world. I will give you heaven. I will give you eternity. You will inherit everything.

How? It is a promise, and you receive it by faith and it's offered to you by grace.

What do you have to do? You must abandon you are doing and receive it by faith. My heart has been so blessed to consider again the greatness of our salvation. I hope yours has as well.

Do you believe? Do you believe that Jesus Christ died and rose again for you? Will you receive Him by an act of faith and even that is a gift of God. Will you open your heart to Him?