Romans 4:1-17, Thursday Night Worship, March 5th, 2020

Last Thursday night we looked at the verses found in the letter to the churches in Rome, Romans 4:1-17.  The ability to link to Abraham was a very important consideration to ancient Jews... if you look at Luke's Gospel he takes us all the way back to Adam in Jesus' genealogy, but Matthew (the most Jewish of the Gospels) is content to just link Jesus to Abraham.  This link to Abraham was all the was needed... Jesus is not only of the house of David but a child of Abraham.

Paul's message is that we all are blessed through Abraham and let us not forget the verses that speak of creating children of Abraham from the very stones themselves.

Please take a listen, it wasn't a long sermon by any means.

Be a blessing to someone today!

In Christ,
Roy

Romans 4:1-17 New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)
The Example of Abraham
4 What then are we to say was gained by[a] Abraham, our ancestor according to the flesh? 2 For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. 3 For what does the scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.” 4 Now to one who works, wages are not reckoned as a gift but as something due. 5 But to one who without works trusts him who justifies the ungodly, such faith is reckoned as righteousness. 6 So also David speaks of the blessedness of those to whom God reckons righteousness apart from works:

7 “Blessed are those whose iniquities are forgiven,
    and whose sins are covered;
8 blessed is the one against whom the Lord will not reckon sin.”

9 Is this blessedness, then, pronounced only on the circumcised, or also on the uncircumcised? We say, “Faith was reckoned to Abraham as righteousness.” 10 How then was it reckoned to him? Was it before or after he had been circumcised? It was not after, but before he was circumcised. 11 He received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. The purpose was to make him the ancestor of all who believe without being circumcised and who thus have righteousness reckoned to them, 12 and likewise the ancestor of the circumcised who are not only circumcised but who also follow the example of the faith that our ancestor Abraham had before he was circumcised.

God’s Promise Realized through Faith
13 For the promise that he would inherit the world did not come to Abraham or to his descendants through the law but through the righteousness of faith. 14 If it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. 15 For the law brings wrath; but where there is no law, neither is there violation.

16 For this reason it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his descendants, not only to the adherents of the law but also to those who share the faith of Abraham (for he is the father of all of us, 17 as it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations”)—in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.

Footnotes:
Romans 4:1 Other ancient authorities read say about