Romans 4:13-17 (NIV)
It was not through law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of the world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith. For if those who live by law are heirs, faith has no value and the promise is worthless, because law brings wrath. And where there is no law there is no transgression.
Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring–not only to those who are of the law but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all. As it is written: “I have made you a father of many nations.” He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed–the God who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were.
As Paul points out here, God’s plan was always much larger than the Israelites, the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He promised to make Abraham the father of MANY nations.
And this promise was both received and fulfilled by faith, not by merit, by physical strength, or by works of the law. Abraham and Sarah had no children and no prospects for that to change at the time he received the promise of descendants as numerous as the stars. The wonder of his faith is that he believed that God would be able to pull off the promise, even though he couldn’t see or understand the mechanism that He would use.
When Abraham had received the fulfillment of the promise in Isaac, the child of the promise, he passed on that promise to him. Isaac in turn passed it on to Jacob, who passed it on to his twelve sons, and so on. Thus, each new generation received the promise, believed it, and passed it on to the next, even though it seemed painfully slow in its fulfillment. Thus, when the Israelites were taken out of Egypt, hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions strong, they could see that they had finally received the initial fulfillment of that promise. And when they were given the land, also received by faith, that was the fulfillment of another part of the promise.
A promise received by faith is received by grace, since the recipient is powerless to bring the promise to fulfillment in his or her own strength. And the promise to God’s people of salvation, justification, and true righteousness is no different. For centuries, the Jewish people had tried to attain those things by dint of their own effort but had fallen miserably short every time. They needed instead to receive those things by grace through faith. And that same path to receiving them was open to the gentiles as well.
The Lord, the God who raises the dead to life and who can fulfill every promise, no matter how unlikely, from transformation to eternal life, to world-shaking power, rewards and works not through those who strive, but through those who believe in faith.
Father, so many today see Abraham as only a shadowy, pseudo-historical figure. But Paul and Jesus both knew him to be a real man and pointed to him as a model for our relationship with You, a relationship enabled by grace through faith. And he does have a lot to teach us through his life and faith. I thank You that I myself have been saved by grace through faith. If it were purely a matter of strength or ability that saved us, I would still be hopelessly lost. But now I belong to You, and gratefully count myself as a spiritual descendant of Your servant, Abraham, the man of faith. Amen.