¹³ For the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith. ¹⁴ For if it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. ¹⁵ For the law brings wrath, but where there is no law there is no transgression.

Romans 4:13-15

In the last post, we showed how Jesus justified and redeemed us. He saved us from being a slave to sin. Jesus did all the heavy lifting to make us free. Here we see an example of how God set faith up as the door to this redemption. Paul takes us all the way back to Abraham and shows us how he was justified by faith and not by works, making justification by faith a precedent well before the law was written. We don’t have to work our way out of our slavery to sin. Faith has always been a simple thing.

Romans 4:3…Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.

The law has always been hard work to keep.

As I was reading this little section of scripture, I heard one phrase in my mind, “this is why they hate the Bible.” The reason people hate the Bible is that within it is the law that God has given to expose our sin. It not only exposes us but also brings wrath (punishment) to those who break it. People would rather say that the Bible is old and out of date than allow it to show us our great need for God. I get it. No one likes to be corrected or told they are wrong. Just look at this study for a second. We’ve been walking through the first few chapters of Romans and it is painstaking and hard. We are stripped bare and our sin is laid right out in the open. Another reason people hate the Bible is that it gives them the remedy for their sins. It’s Jesus and it is only Jesus but people want to be their own God and savior. They want to be the commander of their own souls but we were bought from sin’s grip with a price. He died so that we might live. We have to come to terms with that. It is and there isn’t any other way.

The law is given so that when our sin is exposed, we might turn and repent. Sadly, many run headlong all the more into their sin trying to rid themselves of truth’s grip.

The gospel is called the simple gospel for a reason. God has made a way through simple faith. He has made us heirs of this grace by nothing that we have done.

Look at this: Romans 4:14 For if it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void.

If you were able to keep the law you wouldn’t be an heir. Sons and daughters do not become heirs because they do everything just right. It’s impossible anyway. An heir is an heir because they belong to the successor. The successor chooses you to belong to them. By faith, we belong to God and He belongs to us.

Thanks for Listening,

Starla