Tag: abraham

Romans 4:13-25 – Christianity 101

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment

promise to abraham

“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.” 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. Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. This is why “it was credited to him as righteousness.” The words “it was credited to him” were written not for him alone, but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness—for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead.  He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.” (New International Version)

Sometimes it’s easy to lose sight of why we are here and what we are really supposed to be doing.  There’s just so much stuff going on around us all the time that it seems like we have spiritual ADD and can’t focus on what’s most important.  Certain people irritate us, we scramble to making a decent living, there never seems to be enough time to accomplish everything, and there is adversity and obstacles all along life’s way.

There’s a lot going on in the book of Romans.  At first glance, like our lives, it seems complicated.  The Apostle Paul had all kinds of words for the Christians: hope; faith; righteousness; and, justification, just to name a few.  But all those ideas funneled to and pointed toward a singular focus: the Lord Jesus.  Everything in church and life comes down to Christ.

The church was losing sight of why they existed.  Within the church at Rome were both Jews and Gentiles together as one people of God.  They didn’t always see eye-to-eye on everything.  The Gentiles thought the Jews were stuck in tradition and needed to move on.  The Jews had centuries of history behind them of God working through them; they thought the Gentiles needed some solid Old Testament law to bolster their primitive spirituality.  Would the church take their cues on life from the Gentiles, or the Jews?

Paul essentially told the church that they were focused in the wrong direction.  The issues and problems of living the Christian life were to take a back seat to faith in God.  To prove his point, Paul went back to Abraham as Exhibit A of what it means to live with and for God.

It went down like this: God made a promise to Abraham of progeny in his old age; Abraham believed what God said; Abraham demonstrated his faith by having the confident expectation (hope) that God is good for his promise; and, God declared (justified) Abraham to have a right relationship with himself (righteousness).

In other words, the heart of Christian faith and practice is: God makes promises; people respond in faith, hope, and love.  Law and the willpower to keep it doesn’t even come into the equation.

Christians are the spiritual children of Abraham.  All God’s promises are fulfilled in Christ.  We respond to God by believing in Jesus. The redemptive events of Jesus make us just and right.  So, what does this mean for you and me?

We are not to get sidetracked with trying to make others like be like us.  Instead, we are to proclaim the promises of God in Christ so that others might respond by believing and embracing those promises.  Furthermore, we have no need to try and get God to like us, notice us, and/or listen to us.  God has already made and kept promises to us, demonstrating his love, mercy, and grace through his Son, the Lord Jesus.

Our lives are not to center in our abilities, or lack thereof, to live a godly life.  Rather, our lives are to revolve around the person and work of Jesus Christ through faith, with the hope that God will always hold to his promise to be with us, which frees us to love others.  This is Christianity 101.  This is the faith we embrace.

Righteous God, you have made and kept promises to me.  My ultimate deliverance from sin, death, and hell isn’t through my ability to keep the law, but in your Son’s life, death, and resurrection.  Help me to live by faith in Jesus who loved me and gave himself for me; in the strength of your Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Hebrews 11:17-22

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment
            I have always thought that kids are collectively closer to God than most adults.  The older one gets it is far too easy to become cynical, having had a bevy of expectations and/or dreams squished in the press of life.  But kids tend to not have that kind of history.  They simply believe. 
 
            Maybe Abraham was a kid at heart.  When God gave him a promise that it would be through his son Isaac and not anyone else that the great spiritual inheritance would be passed on, Abraham simply believed.  In fact, he was so thoroughly convinced that God was good for his word that even when the most contradictory of circumstances seemed to warrant that it was not going to come to pass, he still believed.
 
            At the heart of genuine authentic biblical faith is the simple unshakable conviction that one can completely bank his/her life on the promises of God.  So, even when God came along and told Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, child-like Abram just reasoned that even if his son were dead, God would just do the most impossible thing of all by resurrecting his lifeless body.
 
            Abraham is the father of all who believe not because he always did the right thing and never stumbled.  He is our spiritual ancestor because of his simple faith placed firmly in the God whom he believed could do the impossible.  It is faith that ought to dictate how we pray and how we go about living.  It is faith that really should determine how we make decisions and how churches should lay plans.  And it is faith in the promises of God which ought to cause us to respond to him like a little child.
            God of the impossible, you are the one who fulfills every good word in and through Jesus Christ.  I trust you, that as I proclaim the good news you will continue to do your work of raising others from spiritual death through the power of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Genesis 16:1-14

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment
            The way the daily lectionary readings work is that Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday lessons reflect on the Scriptures for Sunday; and, the readings for Thursday, Friday, and Saturday anticipate the Scriptures for the upcoming Sunday.  So, in today’s Old Testament lesson, we get some further rumination on the theme from this past Sunday on listening to the voice of the Lord.
 
            God had told Abram that he would give him and his wife Sarai a son.  But years had passed and the promise had still not materialized.  Thus, in contrast to hearing and internalizing God’s voice, the text says that “Abram listened to the voice of Sarai” to have a child through her servant, Hagar.  In his impatience and discouragement, Abram thought that maybe he had to use some ingenuity and think up a plan in order to see God’s promise realized.
 
            But this was not God’s intention.  All along the Lord had promised to give Abram and Sarai a son, the two of them, despite their advanced age and Sarai’s barren womb.  It did not seem very probable, especially when times passes and nothing seems to be happening.  We might understand why Abram and Sarai went with their own plan, thinking that it might be God’s means of fulfilling his plan.  Yet, it was neither sage nor right.
 
            I wonder if you, like me, expect immediate results to the promise that Christ will build his Church?  Perhaps you, like me, grow weary waiting for God’s promises and his Word to be fulfilled.  Sticking with basic spiritual disciplines such as silence and solitude so that we can listen well to God is a wise plan; going off the spiritual reservation to look for answers to problems or dilemmas because we are not sure if God is going to show up to help is a foolish plan.  We must trust God in what he says, and live our lives consistent with what he has told us he will do.
            O God, I admit that I am growing weary waiting for you to work!  Forgive me for my impatience, and strengthen me in my faith so that I will fully trust your revealed promises in Jesus Christ.  Amen.