It Depends on Faith

 Genesis 12: 1-9, Romans 4:13-25

In our Genesis passage God gives a command and a promise to Abram, later to be renamed Abraham. God tells him to go to a land God will show him and God will make of him a great nation. Now Abraham had plenty to doubt. He was 75 and his wife Sarai was past childbearing age. Yet having faith in the impossible he went as the Lord told him.

In Romans, Paul says the promise that he would inherit the world didn’t come to him through the law but through the righteousness of faith. The law brings wrath and violation. Both of these don’t fit into the new covenant of grace which God has created for us. So, if following the law doesn’t bring it, what does? It depends on faith. The promise then rests on grace – unmerited favor, not in keeping any laws. This promise is guaranteed not only to those who follow the law but to all who share in the faith of Abraham. Paul is saying here that it comes to Gentiles along with the Jews.

Paul expands on the Abraham story by telling how even when all the odds were against him – with Sarai being barren, he had hope against hope growing strong in his faith being fully convinced that God was able to do what God promised. His faith then was reckoned to him – made him – righteous. What is this faith in the impossible that makes us into righteousness? It is belief that Jesus was handed over to death for our sins and was raised for our justification.

The promise of a new life doesn’t come from obeying a set of rules, following the old covenant where we would most probably fail. Keeping it fully is truly impossible for us as humans, but it rests on grace – God’s free gift to all who believe. Grace is the new covenant as Paul states in the book of Ephesians, “By grace you are saved, it is a gift of God, not of works anyone should boast.” Amen

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