A promise is a promise. When we are growing up and are little, perhaps I should say, when we were naive children, we believed that a promise was a promise. I suppose it did not take too long for us to realize that not all promises are kept promises. As adults we tend to believe promises less now than when we were little children. Unfortunately, that is the nature of our sinfulness. We can make promises, but we cannot always keep the promises we make. There is only One who has ever made promises that He has completely kept and of course that One is Christ our Savior.
Our text begins with Paul speaking about the promise made to Abraham and his offspring. The promise of a Savior was not given first to Abraham and his offspring. The promise about which Paul is speaking here is the promise that narrowed down the line of the descent of the One who would be the Savior of the world. Up until the time of Abraham, the promise of a Savior was simply an unspecified promise, at least as far as through whose line of descent the Savior would be born. Certainly the promise was still a valid promise, but God had not yet specified through whose line the Savior would come.
The promise itself was first given to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Of course we are familiar with that historic account, that was the start of the whole mess we are in, in our world today. It was because of Adam and Eve’s sin of disobedience, their sin of believing the lies of the father of lies the devil himself, Satan, Lucifer. They believed his lie that they could be like God, knowing good and evil. It was their naive belief in Satan’s lie that brought the need for a Savior. This sin of disobedience is one of those times that what man broke, man could not repair. In order to repair what man broke, the manufacturer, the Maker, the Creator had to step in. So, in the Garden of Eden, there was only Adam and Eve. There were no other cultures or tribes of people. And I do not like to use the word race of people because that word comes out of the fallacious teaching of the theory of molecules to man evolution as if the different “races” as they are labeled evolved at different times. Indeed, we know that in Adam and Eve all nations and cultures reside. Anyway, when Adam and Eve sinned and God promised to send a Savior, His promise was to send a Savior for all people. There was no specification as for any particular group, tribe or culture, simply the promise to send a Savior. And this fact and information is important.
Later, God did get specific. He did narrow down, at least the line of descent, the family, the tribe through which the Savior of the world would be born. That specific promise was given to Abraham and to his line of descent, his offspring, Isaac, Jacob, and so forth. Here again, just as God’ first promise to Adam and Eve was an unconditional promise of a Savior, so was God’s promise to Abraham that is it was an unconditional promise that through his line the Savior would be born. And this is what Paul is talking about in our text, “the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith” (v.13). In other words, this was a gift that was given, not something that was earned or deserved by Abraham and his descendants.
Today, June 11, 2023, as we read these very words of Paul, we understand that he is speaking, not only to the Romans some 1900 years ago, but God, writing through Paul, is looking through time and is writing to us here today. The promise was not simply to Abraham and his offspring, but the promise of a Savior is given to us, too.
The promise, not the Law, was given first. The Law, that is the Ten Commandments, the ceremonial and Civil laws were given after the promise. The promise was giving in the Garden of Eden, immediately after Adam and Eve fell into sin. The Law did not come until later.
The Law, in particular, the Ten Commandments, the ceremonial and civil law were given to Moses, even after Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Certainly the law, that was written on the hearts of those living before the written Law was given, stirred each generation to be aware of what was right and wrong, of what God expected, but the written law was not given until a long time after.
The law was given to Moses and the children of Israel. The law was given to show them their need for a Savior. The law was a constant reminder of how sinful we really are. The law only accuses. The law only shows us our sins. The law only reminds us how we have failed and how we continue to fail. As Paul says, “if it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. For the law brings wrath, but where there is no law, there is no transgression” (v. 14, 15). Here again we see the purpose of the law. All religions in the world fall into one of two categories. Either we save ourselves or we are saved by someone outside ourselves. Either the law saves because we can keep it or we are saved by someone who was able to perfectly keep the law.
Simply stated, the law cannot save. All the laws of Moses, all the sacrifices that were demanded, really did nothing for saving anyone. All the sacrifices of the Old Testament merely showed the people that there was a price for sin. The price of sin is death. Blood had to be shed. Yet, none of the blood of any of the animals that were sacrificed did anything to earn any merit. All the sacrifices of the Old Testament were meant to point to the one sacrifice and of course that one sacrifice, that once and for all sacrifice was the sacrifice of Christ on the cross.
And so, Paul gives us the example of Abraham. We are Christians, are children of Abraham, by faith in Jesus. And because we are children of Abraham, certainly we can put his life and faith before us as an example of how we are to live and believe. Abraham was saved, not because of anything he did, although he did act in faith. Rather, it was by faith, the faith that God gave to Abraham that he was saved. It was by faith in the coming Messiah that Abraham was saved.
God visited Abraham. God promised to make Abraham the father of many nations, that He would give him and his descendants the land of Israel, and that the Savior of the world, notice of the world, of all people, would be born through the line of Abraham. God promised to Abraham and Abraham believed God’s promise and because of his faith, as a response of God’s promise, as a response of the Gospel, Abraham, empowered by the Holy Spirit obeyed. Notice, as always, who is running the verbs. Who is the prime mover. God is the one doing and directing the doings. All through Scripture this is what is happening.
We are children of Abraham. We are heir of eternal life. We are saved by faith, that is we are saved by Jesus’ faithfulness to keep the promises of God and we are saved by faith, given to us by the Holy Spirit that Jesus is the Messiah. Working through the means of grace, through our Baptism, through the Word of God, through the Lord’s Supper, through confession and absolution, we are given, strengthened and kept in faith. God works with us the same way in which He worked with Abraham. God comes to us through His means of grace to give us faith and to stir in us to believe the Word which He gives to us. Notice again, who is running the verbs, who is doing what. God is the prime mover, God is doing the doing, God is directing the doing. And we are being done to.
And like Abraham, we obey. We obey, not because we believe our obedience will earn anything for us. We obey not because God asks us to obey. We obey not to demonstrate anything to God, but we obey because the Holy Spirit works in us to obey. If our obedience were an act to show God the faith that we believe is in our hearts, then this becomes an act of our doing, an act of our meriting, an act of our earning, in other words, this then becomes a law and thus faith would be null and the promise would be void, as Paul pointed out earlier. Again, who is running the verbs? Who is doing what? We get it right when God is doing the doing and we are being done to. So, we obey, only as the Holy Spirit works obedience in and through us as a response of all the rest that God is doing for us, giving us faith, forgiveness, life and salvation.
So, what does this mean? This means that we need to hear the law. We need to be reminded, again and again, lest we think we can be good and earn or merit anything from God. We need to be reminded of our sinfulness, that every inclination from our heart is evil. We need to be reminded, constantly to take ourselves out of the drivers seat, as if we are the ones who are in charge and as if we are the ones who are saving ourselves.
Yes, we need to hear the law, but we also need to hear the Gospel. We need to be reminded, again and again of all that our Lord and Savior has done for us. And all that He continues to do for us. We need to be reminded that forgiveness is freely given to us. We do not earn it. We do not deserve it. We cannot pay a high enough price for it. Remember, the price for sin is eternal death and hell. Yet, the Gospel reminds us that the price has already been paid and there is nothing left to pay.
We need to be reminded that we are given faith. Faith is not something we get for ourselves. It is not something we “feel” in our hearts. Faith is a gift. Faith is the instrument which is given as the Lord gives the gifts which faith grasps and makes ours. It is kind of like when someone gives us a nice big bowl of ice cream. How can we eat the ice cream without a spoon and so as the person gives us the ice cream they also gives us the spoon. Faith is the spoon which brings the gifts from the bowl to us. And of course, the object of faith is important as well. Faith in, well, in a bowl of ice cream will not save us. Faith in Jesus Christ alone. Faith only in Jesus, that is in Jesus who is God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit as He reveals Himself to us. Faith only in Jesus, true God and true man. Faith in Jesus alone is what saves us.
We need to be constantly reminded that we are given life. God does it all. God gives it all. And we are given to. God gives life, at conception. God gives new life through Holy Baptism. God gives forgiveness and strengthening of faith through His Word, through our remembering our Baptism, through absolution, through the Lord’s Supper. God gives and gives and gives and we are given to. And so we see the need to make regular and diligent use of these means of grace.
In speaking of Abraham, Paul is speaking to us, “20No distrust made [Abraham] waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, 21fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. 22That is why his faith was ‘counted to him as righteousness.’ 23But the words ‘it was counted to him’ were not written for his sake alone, 24but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, 25who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification” (v. 20-25). God did it all, for us, because of His great love for us. Yes, we say as Abraham would say, “To God be the glory,” for Jesus’ sake. Amen.
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