Father Abraham
Romans 4
Introduction
I find family resemblances to be very fascinating. Physically, I do not look much like my dad. However, I am now at the age that my dad was when I have some of my earliest memories. I find myself looking in the mirror and trying to see my dad. How do I look like him? How do I act like him? I am starting to see more of my dad in me. On the other end, I look to my children and see how we are alike. There are certain things about my children, sometimes the annoying things, that I can look and say that is all me. You would expect that there would be some family resemblance. But this is not limited to a few generations of grandfather, father and son. Family traits can be traced back over many generations. Paul does this in this passage of Romans. Paul has been dealing with the conflict between the Jews and the Gentiles. An important way of dealing with this situation is to go all the way back to Abraham. Why Abraham? The Jews had a great love for Abraham, seeing him as the father of the Hebrews. But Abraham was also the father of many Gentile nations as well, making him very suitable for bridging the gap between the Jews and Gentiles. But Paul takes it a step further. Abraham is not just the father of the Hebrew people or of the Gentile nations descended from him. Abraham is actually the father of all Christians, being our father in the faith. “Father Abraham had many sons, many sons had Father Abraham.” What I would like to do is to trace out what our family resemblance should be.
Justified by Faith
The main point that Paul is trying to make is about justification by faith. Since the Jews look to Abraham, let us see how he was justified before God. Was it by following a law and obeying some rules or by something else? How does the story go? Abraham was very old and his wife was both old and barren. There seemed to be very little hope that they would have a biological child. And yet God appears to Abraham and not only declares that they will have a baby but that Abraham will be the father of many nations. Without any proof, Abraham believed that promise. God saw that faith and declared Abraham to be justified, that is in right relationship with God. How are we justified? Same way. God reveals an amazing story of his Son coming to earth and dying for our sins so we can have eternal life. When we put our faith in that story that we cannot see the evidence for, we are justified. Not by what we have done or accomplished, but like Abraham, by our faith. Abraham’s faith, based not on what he could see but upon the character of God, should be an example to us all.
Gift of Grace
We also find that Abraham was a man who enjoyed the grace of God. We build up Abraham as a hero of the faith. In our minds, we probably think that Abraham somehow earned God’s promise for a child. But is that the case? What had Abraham done? Nothing really. He was a fairly typical person of that time, at least morally. He had good points and bad points. But Abraham had done nothing to earn this promise. God simply came to him and offered the promise and Abraham accepted. It was an unearned gift and so it was grace. As I have mention perviously, grace is a difficult concept for us as we value what is earned. It is interesting that the Jewish tradition added details to the story of Abraham. They describe him as being in Ur long before this and taking an unpopular stand against the idols. He went so far as the destroy the idols in his father’s idol shop. The reason for this addition is that the story as presented in the Bible does not make sense. There had to be a reason why God would choose Abraham. Or does there? Maybe God looked at Abraham, with all of his problems and weaknesses, and decided to give him a tremendous gift completed undeserved. As children of Abraham, we too must rely on grace. We cannot earn God’s love and we cannot accomplish enough good works to achieve salvation. But we can receive a gift that God gives us. That gift is what Jesus did on the cross. We need to reach out and receive that gift through faith.
Right Religion
When people think about God, they often think about religious rituals. There definitely is place for such rituals, even in the story of Abraham. Abraham was given the sign of circumcision after receiving the promise of blessing. But notice that it was after. This is Paul’s point in this chapter. People were arguing in the early church that the Jewish law was necessary for Christians. For the Jews, the law and circumcision were closely connected, circumcision being the sign that you had taken on the law. Paul wants the Romans to look at the chronology. When was Abraham justified? When was he circumcised? The circumcision took place after Abraham had been justified by faith. Therefore, rituals cannot save us, they are simply signs of what has already happened on a spiritual level. As children of Abraham, the same thing is true of us. As Christians, we have a rich tradition of ritual and ceremony. We celebrate baptism and communion. We sing songs and pray prayers. These are all wonderful things and they are important. But they are not things that get us right with God or grant us eternal life or bring about forgiveness of sins. They are signs of what God has already done in us. Trust in God and not in ritual. But celebrate ritual for the way it testifies about God’s grace.
Resurrection Power
One of the interesting things about Paul’s description of Abraham is his use of resurrection imagery. Why would he do this? We do not read in this story about a death and resurrection of Abraham. Paul is taking the resurrection and looking to the character of God who brings about this resurrection. The resurrection is not just a future event, it also has many previews in this life. Think of Abraham’s situation. Extremely old and married to a wife who is old and barren. When it comes to making babies, they are both as good as dead. But God breathed life into death and allowed this miracle to take place. As children of Abraham, we should be expecting resurrection power to flow in us. Too often we talk about eternal life, we speak of the time when we die and go to heaven. When we speak of resurrection, we speak of the moment when Jesus returns and God raises the dead and transforms the living. Both are very important events. But the power is active right now as well. God is in the resurrection business. He breathes life into death, light into darkness, truth into falsehood. Christianity is not just a religion with rules and rituals. It is a transforming experience and God wants to change us. Whatever is your most difficult circumstance, God wants to invade that with his resurrection power.
Holding onto Hope
We are also told that Abraham was a man of hope. What is hope? Hope is not about fooling yourself or pretending that life is different. Paul tells us that Abraham was well aware of his physical limitations. True hope is informed of the challenges and does not live in ignorance. But Abraham was able to look at those limitations and yet remain steady in his faith. Abraham had hope for the future, not because he could control his own destiny, but because he believed in the God of great promises. I saw this quote that puts this into perspective: “Hope . . . is the ability to hear the music of the Future. Faith . . . is the courage to dance it today.” As children of Abraham, we are people of hope. This is a world longing for hope. They might not be longing for religion, but they are longing for hope. We have something to offer to this world because we have hope. No matter what circumstances come our way, we have hope. We do not close our eyes and plug our ears to the problems that we experience. We take a good close look and then hold on to the God of all hope. God has made promises to us and he will be faithful to us.
Conclusion
As Christians, whether Jewish of Gentile, we are all children of Abraham. There should be a family resemblance to father Abraham. What do we know about Abraham? He was justified by faith, he enjoyed grace, he kept religion in its right place, he experienced resurrection power and he held onto hope. Those are our family traits. If we are true children of Abraham, we should be seeing those things happening in our life. Like other families, some traits may take a while to develop. Let us continue to seek the God of Abraham and pray that we would be come more like what God wants for us.
