After Pentecost (Proper 5) | Year A | New Testament Reading – Romans 4:13-25 |
TJ Torgerson
At the start of the book of Romans, the apostle Paul makes a statement which many ascribe as Paul's "thesis statement" for the letter he wrote to the Roman Christians.
Paul writes, "The righteous will live by faith."
By the time the reader gets to chapter 4, Paul has done quite a bit of work explaining how we all (Jew and non-Jew) are in the same boat, and that boat is sinking, showing that we all need to be made right with God.
Then, at the end of Chapter 3, Paul says it is God who justifies, and that we are justified not by works but by faith.
In chapter 4, Paul provides us with a prime example of this point: Abraham. The story of Abraham really drives home the point that we are made right with God through faith. He ends this section with the wonderful proclamation:
"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." (NIV)
Justification by grace through faith is a key tenet of Christianity. What wonderful news it is that we do not have to strive and work to earn salvation, but it can be obtained through faith. However, in our celebration of this wonderful news, we do need to be careful that we do not begin to believe that this is good news because keeping the law and earning righteousness is hard, and faith is easy.
The reason that salvation by faith is good news is not a matter of difficulty but of possibility. It is impossible to obtain salvation by keeping the law; it is possible to obtain salvation by continuing in faith.
But faith ain't easy—faith is hard... faith is very, very hard.
Perhaps a case could even be made that if earning salvation through works were possible, it would be easier than faith. Consider this:
You are traveling in an unfamiliar place and you become lost—your phone is dead, and so technology won't save you this time. You pull into a local store and, miracle of miracles, they have an ancient piece of paper known as a "map." You open it up, find your route, and are about to get on your way. But then a slightly questionable-looking guy comes up to you and says, "I overheard you planning your trip, and I just wanted you to know—you can't get there from here—the bridge is out, it's impossible—but if you will trust me enough to follow me, I'll show you the way."
You do not want to follow this guy blindly, so you ask for more information. He goes on to tell you of a very difficult off-road path. He assures you that your car will make it and the few places that you might have difficulty, the winch on the front of his truck will guarantee a safe passage.
In this situation, it would be much easier to follow the map down paved roads, but if the bridge is out, you will not be able to get to the destination. However, if this guy is telling the truth, it will be difficult; you'll have to trust him, it'll be a path that you would have never dreamed of taking, but it will get you where you are going.
Now, add to this scenario that the guy tells you that you don't want to go where you think you want to go, and he will show you the way to a different and better destination! Would it be easier to take the paved roads on the map or trust this guy?
Earning God's approval with works makes sense. Ask anyone on the street about how to get to heaven, and they will tell you, "be a good person" or "do more good than bad." It makes sense. If it were possible, that would be the easiest option.
Faith, on the other hand (which, by the grace of God, is possible), is more difficult. Because God says, "trust me, follow me, and it will be a journey of uncertainties, of struggle, of sometimes loneliness and confusion, there will be great times and growth and fulfillment and adventure, sometimes you'll get stuck, and we will need a winch to get you out, but we will get to the destination.
Faith is not easy—faith is hard. After all, look at what Paul says about Abraham in v. 18:
Against hope, Abraham believed in hope, with the result that he became the father of many nations according to the pronouncement, "so will your descendants be." (NET)
AGAINST ALL HOPE. God's promise didn't make much sense to Abraham. He was past the age of having a son—but God said he was going to have one. Could you imagine how hard it would have been to believe that?
Faith is hard, and it is hard from start to finish.
Trusting God for salvation and forgiveness is hard. We know who we are, what we've done, what we have thought about doing.
It is a huge step of faith to say, "I believe Jesus' death on the cross fixes all of that."
And that is not the end of faith—it doesn't stop at salvation. Just as God continued to ask Abraham to trust him, the same is true in our life. God keeps saying, "Take the next step into uncertainty—trust me—follow me." Continuing to follow is what faith is.
Faith is acting and living like God is telling the truth. It is not an invisible, internal, inspirational belief. It is acting like God is telling the truth—and it is hard.
Take a moment today and let go of those things you are holding on to. Trust God, follow the way of Christ.
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