The Means of Justification
4: 18-25
The means of justification DIG: Abraham’s life may have been filled with love for God, good works, and obedience to religious rules. But none of those things made him acceptable to God. What did? How did Abraham receive God’s promise? How can others receive it? What obstacles did Abraham overcome to believe God’s promise? What does it mean to have strong faith? How has God credited you with righteousness? How have you responded?
REFLECT: How does Abraham’s example inspire you to have deeper faith in ADONAI? What are some of the ways that your faith could influence others? What was the last time someone else’s faith made a difference in your life? Explain. What are some things that can keep your faith from growing? What do you usually do when you experience doubts? What can you learn from Abraham about dealing with obstacles to your faith?
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God (Ephesians 2:8 NIV).
Almost everyone in Abraham’s day, as in our own day, had faith of one kind or another. Some of them believed in idols, others trusted in luck or fate, and many simply had faith in themselves. Abraham’s faith, however, had a divine object. He had faith in YHVH, and he acted on it. The faith people witness in our lives may not automatically communicate the object of our trust. They will see the effects of our faith. If they ask, we must be ready to tell them that our faith rests in Yeshua Messiah. We have faith because we believe in Him.100
Trusting in Yeshua Messiah: For he was past hope, yet in hope he trusted that he would indeed become a father to many nations, in keeping with what he had been told, “So many will your seed be” (Romans 4:18; Genesis 15:5). What was his hope? To have a son. He had no human grounds for hope, but he had divine grounds for hope because God made a promise.
Abraham believed in spite of circumstances: Figuratively, so far as fathering a child and fulfillment of God’s promise of descendents was concerned, Abraham’s trust did not waver when he considered his own body – which was as good as dead, since he was about a hundred years old ( ninety-nine to be exact) – or when he considered that Sarah’s womb was dead too (she was about ninety). The door was absolutely and forever closed so far as having descendents was concerned. However, his faith was not weak even though his body was weak. He did not, by lack of trust, decide against God’s promises. On the contrary, by trust he was given power as he gave glory to God (4:19-20), for he was fully convinced, despite their obvious obstacles of being so old, that what God had promised He could also accomplish (4:21). The thought is not that Abraham’s faith was strengthened so that his physical powers again became able to bring children into the world. No. Isaac was the result of a biological miracle performed by God in answer to Abraham’s faith. The glory would thus be to God.101
It is a profound lesson to learn that God’s promises can only be fulfilled by God’s power, and human efforts to affect His will, no matter how sincere or clever those efforts might be, are doomed to failure, and dishonor God rather than bring Him glory. In warning the Galatian believers against the legalistic Judaizers (see the commentary on Galatians, to see link click Ag – Who Were the Judaizers), Paul said: Tell me, you who want to be in submission to the system that results from perverting the Torah into legalism, don’t you hear what the Torah itself says? It says that Avraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and one by the free woman. The one by the slave woman was born through the miracle-working power of God fulfilling His promise (Galatians 4:21-23). Ishmael illustrates the product of legalistic human self-effort, whereas Isaac represents the product of God’s sovereign and gracious provision. Paul reminded the Galatian believers that, because of their trust in Yeshua Messiah, they were: like Isaac, children of promise (Galatians 4:28 NASB). They were God’s children by the working of His divine grace, not by the work of their own human efforts.102
Dear Heavenly Father, How awesome You are! Praise You that our salvation is not based on any good works we do. Our faith is the key to salvation. True faith springs from a heart of love and will work itself out in good works, but it is the loving faith that is the key. Praise You that Yeshua willingly laid down His life (John 10:15) as the Lamb of God. He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption. The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God! (Hebrews 9:12-14 NIV).
We praise You for such love you showed in being our sacrifice so we could receive the righteousness of God. He made the One who knew no sin to become a sin offering on our behalf, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God (Second Corinthians 5:21). We lift our eyes from the trials and problems of life. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. (Second Corinthians 4:17-18 NIV). We choose to focus on how awesome and wonderful You are and we look forward to praising you eternally in heaven! We love You! In the holy name of Your Son Yeshua and the power of His resurrection. Amen
The relevance to salvation is clear. ADONAI must wait until the unbeliever is dead and unable to save himself before He can release His saving power. As long as the unbeliever thinks he is strong enough to do anything to please God, he cannot be saved by grace. It was when Abraham admitted that he was dead, that the power of Ha’Shem performed a miracle. It is when the lost sinner confesses that he is spiritually dead and unable to help himself that the LORD can save him.103
Paul concluded his illustration about Abraham by saying, for him, faith was trusting in YHVH. This is why it was credited to his spiritual bank account as righteousness (Romans 4:22; Genesis 15:6, 17:17 and 21-27, 18:14, 21:2). In his own sinful flesh, Avraham was totally unable to meet God’s standard of perfect righteousness. But the gospel of salvation, the Good News of God (Romans 1:1), is that the Lord will take the faith that He Himself has enabled a person to possess, and count that faith as divine righteousness on the believing sinner’s behalf. For you have been delivered by grace through trusting, and even this is not your accomplishment – but God’s gift (Ephesians 2:8-9).
The application of Abraham’s faith: But Avraham also had a literal resurrection faith. It was necessary for what Judaism regards as his greatest “work.” His willingness to sacrifice his only son Isaac, through whom Ha’Shem had said the promise would be fulfilled (Genesis 17:21 and 22:1-9). This act is referred to throughout the High Holy Day services, and Genesis 22 is one of the regular Torah readings on Rosh ha’Shanah, a feast on which the shofar is blown one hundred times, and the shofar is associated with the resurrection of the dead (Matthew 24:31; First Corinthians 15:52; First Thessalonians 4:16, and Revelation 8:2). Abraham’s willingness to offer up Isaac as a sacrifice is mentioned twice in the B’rit Chadashah as an example of great faith (Hebrews 11:17 and James 2:21). Here, it establishes the background for the conclusion of our study into Abraham’s faith, which says that we, who have become believers in Yeshua, have the same kind of resurrection faith that Abraham did.104
But the words, “it was credited to his spiritual bank account . . . ,” were not written for him only. They were written also for us, who will certainly have our account credited too, because we have trusted in him who raised Yeshua our Lord from the dead (4:23-24). This is a radical statement, for it says that Abraham was not special. Whereas Jewish midrashim attribute unique ability, holiness and power to him, enabling him to have trust far beyond what ordinary people can attain to, Paul insists that such trust is available to everyone. This is the Good News, that through faith in Yeshua Messiah anyone can have the same close, personal relationship with El Shaddai that Avraham had! Apart from salvation, indeed, many believers have received promises from ADONAI, just as Abraham did, and have seen God fulfill them.
The content of our hope (verse 18) is that because we have fully identified with Yeshua, who was delivered over to death because of our offences and raised to life in order to make us righteous, we too will be resurrected to sinless, eternal life with ADONAI (Romans 4:25; Isaiah 53:4 and 12). He was delivered up on account of our offences – to make atonement for them; and He was raised to life on account of our justification – that it might become an established fact. The next chapter elaborates on this theme.105
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