"It was counted to him”

Romans 4:16-24

Mankind by its sinful nature looks for loopholes, and the sad news is those of us who study the Scriptures, attend church, even teach, and preach and go by the name Christian are often found guilty of being lawbreakers.  Jan will say Bob the speed limit is such and my response is “I’m going with the flow of the traffic.”   Is it all right to flow with the other law-breakers, and what does that lead to?  Most of our mothers went to the same school on quotes, do you recall this one: “So if everyone else is going to run into a building on fire are you going to follow them?”

Now it has often been stated in Scripture that Salvation does not come from your acts of right living, but by the grace of God and through the faith given to you by the heavenly Father.  But that did not slow down the chosen people, they made rules and laws that required them to perform outward acts, acts to be seen by men, for mankind was the one on the stage of their lives, not God. 

So all who are called Christians have learned to walk by faith and not sight.  We have learned to walk by faith like Abraham; wrong, oh so wrong, our churches are filled with people who believe God is going to grade on the curve.  They are putting faith in mom and dad’s faith, in the church they attend, and when ask the question; Why should God allow you into heaven, they come up with some of the dumbest answers, “I’m a good person, I have never committed the big sins, I’m a Baptist, a Catholic, a Methodist, a Lutheran, a Presbyterian, and the list keeps going, but it is written, “The just shall live by faith.”  The message of the Bible is not what you can do for God, but what Jesus Christ has done for you, it is Jesus with not one thing added, and it is grace extended to sinners.  The Scriptures state clearly; “Because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.  For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.”  (Romans 10:9-10)

It is clear that Abraham heard the voice of God, and God told him he would be the father of many nations, and yet he was 100 years old and Sarah was about 90 years of age and still had not had a son.  Now you understand that Abram who became Abraham was not raised under the law, the law had not been given; he was living in a land where they worshipped idols and when God spoke to him Abraham believed God.  We are told by the apostle Paul in Romans 4:16-23, “That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring—not only to the adherent of the law but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all, as it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations”—in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, “So shall your offspring be.” He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead (since he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah's womb. No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. That is why his faith was “counted to him as righteousness.”

Now do not miss this; “But the words “it was counted to him” were not written for his sake alone, but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.”

Never forget Religion is about what we can do for God, Christianity is totally about what God has done for you.  My prayer is that if you had the wrong answers about heaven, that today you would bow your knee to the Father and confess your sins, and receive the free gift of Christ coming to live in you, the hope of glory.

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice