4/24/10 Romans 4
Faith from the Old Testament
From time to time people will ask how were people saved in the Old Testament? The short answer is the same as we are today, by faith. Here in Romans 4 Paul gives us the example of Abraham’s faith where by God credited him righteousness. Faith often is a nebulous idea to many, so we must define faith in this context. In different passages the same word may have different meanings or nuances, if you do not believe this just look up the definition of “up’ in the dictionary. The same word can even mean different things in the same passage or sentence. Consider this sentence. “This morning after I woke up I rode my bike up to my friend’s house, and he asked if I would go with him to pick up his bike from the bike shop, and when he learned there was no charge for the repair his spirit was lifted up.”
In this passage we can define faith as an “adherence to the promises of God.” Righteousness and justification were not given to Abraham because he followed the law, he was before the law, or that he was a great example of moral purity, he had failed, but because he believed, trusted, or as this passage states he had faith in the promises of God.
God had promised Abram in Gen 12:1-3 that Abram would be made great, bless those who blessed him, and all the families of the earth would be blessed through him. In Gen 15 God promises that Abram will have a son and here Abram believes God. In Gen 17 Abram is 99 years old and God promises that he will have innumerable descendants and God changes his name to Abraham “father of many.” He also promises that these descendants will come through his wife Sarah. God then fulfills his promise in Gen 21 by giving Abraham a son through Sarah. In Gen 23 then God test Abraham’s faith (adherence to the promises of God) by asking him to sacrifice his son and Abraham has faith that the promises God has made will be fulfilled even if he sacrifices his son.
Abraham’s faith continued to increase over the time of being called from Haran in Gen 12 all the way to Gen 22 where God asks him to sacrifice his son of promise. (Ro 4:19-21)“19Without becoming weak in faith he contemplated his own body, now as good as dead since he was about a hundred years old, and the deadness of Sarah’s womb; 20yet, with respect to the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief but grew strong in faith, giving glory to God, 21and being fully assured that what God had promised, He was able also to perform.”
This is the faith that saves and justifies. This is the same faith that is required of us today to be saved and justified.
Prayer: Father, thank you for saving on the basis of faith and that it is not works that must be done. Thank you for so great a salvation that is found in your Son Jesus Christ. I ask that my faith will mature as Abraham’s did and that I will not waver in unbelief but will grow strong in faith, give glory to You, in Jesus name. Amen.