Morning Prayer: 18 July – Romans 4:13-17a ~ on receiving the promise by faith

Reading through Romans

+ In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Opening sentence

Praise to You, Lord Jesus Christ, King of endless glory. You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed and have come to know that You are the Holy One of God.
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A reading from Romans: Romans 4:13-17a (NLT)

Souls in the Bosom of Abraham (Souvigny Bible about 1100 AD)

Clearly, God’s promise to give the whole earth to Abraham and his descendants was based not on his obedience to God’s law, but on a right relationship with God that comes by faith. If God’s promise is only for those who obey the law, then faith is not necessary and the promise is pointless. For the law always brings punishment on those who try to obey it. (The only way to avoid breaking the law is to have no law to break!)

So the promise is received by faith. It is given as a free gift. And we are all certain to receive it, whether or not we live according to the law of Moses, if we have faith like Abraham’s. For Abraham is the father of all who believe. That is what the Scriptures mean when God told him, “I have made you the father of many nations.”
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Reflection: Romans 4:13-17a (John Stott, The Message of Romans: God’s Good News for the World)

The promise in mind must still be Genesis 15:5, that Abraham’s posterity would be as numerous as the stars. It was a promise without any conditions or requirements attached to it. God’s word came to Abraham as gratuitous promise, not as law. He simply believed God and was justified.
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Why does Paul assert so strongly that [the promise] is received and inherited by faith, not law? He gives three reasons.

The first is an argument from history. Namely, that ‘the covenant previously established by God’ could not possibly be annulled by the law which was given 430 years later….

Secondly, there is the argument from language…. Law-language (‘you shall’) demands our obedience, but promise-language (‘I will’) demands our faith. What God said to Abraham was not ‘Obey this law and I will bless you’, but ‘I will bless you; believe my promise’….

Thirdly, Paul now develops an argument from theology…. The reason justification is by grace through faith… is so that the promise … may be guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring — not only to those who are of the law (meaning Jews who trace their physical descent from Abraham) but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, that is, all believers, whether Jews or Gentiles, who belong to the spiritual lineage of faith….

All believers belong to Abraham’s seed and so inherit Abraham’s promise. The fatherhood of Abraham is a theme which runs right through this chapter.
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Canticle

Christ, as a light illumine and guide me. Christ, as a shield overshadow me. Christ under me; Christ over me; Christ beside me on my left and my right. This day be within and without me, lowly and meek, yet all-powerful. Be in the heart of each to whom I speak; in the mouth of each who speaks unto me. This day be within and without me, lowly and meek, yet all-powerful. Christ as a light; Christ as a shield; Christ beside me on my left and my right.

Blessing

May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you, wherever He may send you. May He guide you through the wilderness, protect you through the storm. May He bring you home rejoicing at the wonders He has shown you. May He bring you home rejoicing once again into our doors.

+ In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

Morning Prayer: 17 July – Romans 4:9-12 ~ on faith first

Reading through Romans

+ In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Opening sentence Praise to You, Lord Jesus Christ, King of endless glory. You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed and have come to know that You are the Holy One of God.
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A reading from Romans: Romans 4:9-12 (NLT)

Now, is this blessing only for the Jews, or is it also for uncircumcised Gentiles? Well, we have been saying that Abraham was counted as righteous by God because of his faith. But how did this happen? Was he counted as righteous only after he was circumcised, or was it before he was circumcised? Clearly, God accepted Abraham before he was circumcised!

Circumcision was a sign that Abraham already had faith and that God had already accepted him and declared him to be righteous — even before he was circumcised. So Abraham is the spiritual father of those who have faith but have not been circumcised. They are counted as righteous because of their faith. And Abraham is also the spiritual father of those who have been circumcised, but only if they have the same kind of faith Abraham had before he was circumcised.
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Reflection: Romans 4:9-12 (John Stott, The Message of Romans: God’s Good News for the World)

Did Abraham’s justification come before or after his circumcision?

Paul’s answer to his own question is brief and blunt: It was not after, but before! In fact it happened long before. For his justification is recorded in Genesis 15 and his circumcision in Genesis 17, and at least fourteen years (even twenty-nine years according to the Rabbis) separated the two events.

Although they were separated, they were not unrelated, however. Abraham’s circumcision, though not the ground of his justification, was its sign and seal. For Abraham received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised.
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Implication: the order of events for adult converts is plain. First, we are justified by faith, and then we are baptized as a sign or seal of our justification. But we must get the order right, and we must also clearly distinguish between the sign (baptism) and the thing signified (justification).
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There was a double purpose in the fact that Abraham was justified by faith, and circumcised only later. First that Abraham might be (as he is) the father of all who believe, and so have been justified, but have not been circumcised, i.e. Abraham is the father of Gentile believers…. The second purpose was that Abraham might also be (as he is) the father of the circumcised who in addition to their circumcision also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised.

Thus Abraham is the father of all believers, irrespective of whether they are circumcised or uncircumcised…. For where circumcision divides, faith unites.
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Canticle

Blessing

+ In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

Morning Prayer: 16 July – Romans 4:1-8 ~ on Abraham’s faith

Reading through Romans

+ In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

A reading from Romans: Romans 4:1-8 (NLT)

abraham090807_01 — Abraham’s Journey from Ur to Canaan József Molnár ( 1821-1899) Hungarian National Gallery, Budapest

Abraham was, humanly speaking, the founder of our Jewish nation. What did he discover about being made right with God? If his good deeds had made him acceptable to God, he would have had something to boast about. But that was not God’s way. For the Scriptures tell us, “Abraham believed God, and God counted him as righteous because of his faith.”

When people work, their wages are not a gift, but something they have earned. But people are counted as righteous, not because of their work, but because of their faith in God who forgives sinners. David also spoke of this when he described the happiness of those who are declared righteous without working for it:

“Oh, what joy for those whose disobedience is forgiven, whose sins are put out of sight. Yes, what joy for those whose record the Lord has cleared of sin.”

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Reflection: Romans 4 (John Stott, The Message of Romans: God’s Good News for the World)

In Romans 4… Paul further clarifies the meaning of justification by faith. He uses what Scripture says about Abraham and David to elaborate the significance of both words, ‘justification’ in terms of the reckoning of righteousness to the unrighteous and ‘faith’ in terms of trusting the God of creation and resurrection.
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Abraham and David show that justification by faith is God’s one and only way of salvation, first in the Old Testament as well as in the New… for Jews as well as for Gentiles.
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The crediting of faith as righteousness is a free gift, not an earned wage, and that it happens not to those who work but to those who trust, and indeed who trust the God who, far from justifying people because they are godly, actually justifies them when they are ungodly.

This emphasis on faith (Abraham believed God) plainly shows, then, that God’s ‘crediting faith as righteousness’ is ‘not a rewarding of merit but a free and unmerited decision of divine grace’. Faith is not an alternative to righteousness, but the means by which we are declared righteous.
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https://youtu.be/2BtaCeJYqZA
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Canticle

Blessing

+ In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

Morning Prayer: 15 July – Romans 3:27-31 ~ on righteousness through faith

Reading through Romans

+ In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

A reading from Romans: Romans 3:27-31 (NLT)

Can we boast, then, that we have done anything to be accepted by God? No, because our acquittal is not based on obeying the law. It is based on faith. So we are made right with God through faith and not by obeying the law.

After all, is God the God of the Jews only? Isn’t he also the God of the Gentiles? Of course he is. There is only one God, and he makes people right with himself only by faith, whether they are Jews or Gentiles. Well then, if we emphasize faith, does this mean that we can forget about the law? Of course not! In fact, only when we have faith do we truly fulfill the law.
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Reflection: Romans 3:27-31 (John Stott, The Message of Romans: God’s Good News for the World)

“All human beings are inveterate boasters. Boasting is the language of our fallen self-centredness…. All boasting is excluded except boasting in Christ. Praising, not boasting, is the characteristic activity of justified believers, and will be throughout eternity. So ‘let him who boasts boast in the Lord’, and ‘May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.’”
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“The gospel of justification by faith alone also excludes all élitism and discrimination…. This identical truth applies to all other distinctions, whether of race, nationality, class, sex or age. Not that all such distinctions are actually obliterated… but these continuing distinctions are rendered of no significant account. They neither affect our relationship with God, nor hinder our fellowship with one another. At the foot of Christ’s cross and through faith in him, we are all on exactly the same level, indeed sisters and brothers in Christ.”

‘The message’, writes Dr Tom Wright, ‘… is simple: all who believe in Jesus belong to the same family and should be eating at the same table. That is what Paul’s doctrine of justification is all about.’

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“Faith upholds the law, i.e. justified believers who live according to the Spirit fulfil the righteous requirements of the law….”

“Here are three implications of the gospel of justification by faith alone. First, it humbles sinners and excludes boasting. Secondly, it unites believers and excludes discrimination. Thirdly, it upholds the law and excludes antinomianism. No boasting. No discrimination. No antinomianism.”
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Canticle

Blessing

+ In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

Morning Prayer: 14 July – Romans 3:21-26 ~ God’s righteousness revealed

Reading through Romans

+ In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

A reading from Romans: Romans 3:21-26 (NLT)

But now God has shown us a way to be made right with him without keeping the requirements of the law, as was promised in the writings of Moses and the prophets long ago. We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are.

For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. Yet God freely and graciously declares that we are righteous. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins. For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood. This sacrifice shows that God was being fair when he held back and did not punish those who sinned in times past, for he was looking ahead and including them in what he would do in this present time. God did this to demonstrate his righteousness, for he himself is fair and just, and he declares sinners to be right in his sight when they believe in Jesus.
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Reflection: Romans 3:21-26 (John Stott, The Message of Romans: God’s Good News for the World)

Nobody approaches God’s standard of righteousness. Bishop Moule: ‘The harlot, the liar, the murderer, are short of God’s glory; but so are you. Perhaps they stand at the bottom of a mine, and you are on the crest of an Alp; but you are as little able to touch the stars as they.’
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Paul teaches three basic truths about justification: 1. Its source – the saving initiative from beginning to end belongs to God the Father; Grace is God loving, God stooping, God coming to the rescue, God giving himself generously in and through Jesus Christ. 2. Its ground – the death of God’s Son on the cross in our place effected a redemption of sinners; a propitiation of God’s wrath and a demonstration of his justice. 3. Its means – faith alone, altogether apart from works, is the heart of the gospel and unique to Christianity.

No other system, ideology or religion proclaims a free forgiveness and a new life to those who have done nothing to deserve it but a lot to deserve judgement instead…. Christianity is not in its essence a religion at all; it is a gospel, the gospel, good news that God’s grace has turned away his wrath, that God’s Son has died our death and borne our judgement, that God has mercy on the undeserving, and that there is nothing left for us to do, or even contribute. Faith’s only function is to receive what grace offers.
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To stand on the rim of the abyss, to despair utterly of ever crossing over, is the indispensable ‘antechamber of faith’.
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