Believe Him

DEVOTION

ROMANS

BELIEVE HIM

Rom 4:18-25

18 Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, "So shall your offspring be."   19 Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead — since he was about a hundred years old — and that Sarah's womb was also dead. 20 Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, 21 being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. 22 This is why "it was credited to him as righteousness." 23 The words "it was credited to him" were written not for him alone, 24 but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness — for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. 25 He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.

NIV

Here it is, the central focus of the whole of scripture, the main point, where the rubber meets the road. Righteousness only comes through faith in Jesus Christ. That is not to say we actually are righteous in thought, words or deeds. But in the eyes of God, we are holy and blameless, but only because we are in Christ. God sees his own righteousness reflected because he sees us through Jesus. Abraham did not have Jesus to believe in, but he believed God, he believed God would do, what in physically was impossible. It would be possible for Abraham to shire a child, although we are being told he considered his body dead, which is he did not think he could product a child. It had been a while ago that Sarai offered her servant Hagar to Abraham thinking she could raise a family through her. Hagar did have a son, Ishmael, and we know that trouble that came from that idea. But now it is years later and Abraham and Sarah are older, and the promise was that Sarah would have a son. God promised and we are told Abraham believed that promise. This promise came after the Hagar thing and the birth of Ishmael, so it was not that Abraham was trying to fulfill the promise. He was eighty six years old when Ishmael was born. The Angel of the Lord came to Abraham when he was ninety-nine. That would have meant Ishmael would have been thirteen when God promised Abraham that Sarah would have a son. He believed God and so it was credited to him as righteousness. God did what he promised he would do. This is the place where that rubber meets the road. God has promised us certain things. The whole of scripture is filled with his promises. Do we believe him? Paul is saying those words of God, “it was credited to him” were not just for Abraham, but for all of us who believe God raised Jesus from the dead. So if we want to be credited righteous, we have to believed God against all odds, all physical evidence. When God says, we have to believe it. Do we only believe for certain things? We should believe even for the uncertain things, if God promised it. But then because God promised it, then it should be a certain thing. What he promises is certainly going to happen, so then we should just believe. But do we try to make it happen? Do we interfere with God’s ways and try to accomplish his will in man’s ways? What about if we are old, past what the world considers retirement age? Are we like Abraham, being old, and thinking it is too late in life for God to accomplish his plan in our life? We cannot think like that, we merely have to believe God. God knows all our days, he knows how many days we have left. He does not intend for any of us to sit back, relax, and grow old doing nothing until we die. He knows how many days we have to accomplish his desire for our life. So then when he promises we have to believe. The question is how do we know what he promised us? When we read his word, there are many promises and the Spirit within awakens us to them. So it still comes down to the central point. God promises and we believe him or we don’t. If we want to be credited as righteous then we have to believe him.