Through the Righteousness of Faith part 3

Rom 4:13 For the Promise that he would be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the Law, but through the righteousness of faith.

When we look at this we may affirm its truth visually and what we think is mentally. However, often we fail to realize that what we consider faith alone is not reflective of what it should be. So to further help us to see through faith, we will examine what is the opposite of "through faith."

Charles Spurgeon saw the immense concern and the significance over getting this wrong. He wrote a Gospel book called all of Grace that spelled out how the Gospel is through Grace alone. Often people today think they affirm grace alone, but impose what they think the bible adds to Grace alone. Some might say that you must do this, or you must do that. All be it they may be well intended in their direction, they are grievously imposing the requirement of action that conflicts with and actually nullifies the notion of grace alone.

1. To illustrate, let us look at what Abraham did not do:
2. Abraham did not pray a prayer
3. Abraham did not perform a religious ceremony
4. Abraham did not confess sins
5. Abraham did not "repent" of recent sins that he committed
6. He did not ask for anything from God, like forgiveness or contrition
7. He did not ask God into his heart
8. He did not utter some words to acknowledge God
9. He did not build a theology of faith
10. He did not put hope in his faith
11. He was not aware that the action of believing got him anything beyond the promise of an heir
12. He was not int iced to believe for man centered reasons
13. He did not believe in order to get righteousness
14. He did not believe in order to go to heaven when he died
15. He did not know that believing would make him an heir

Now, make sure I am clear on the fact that many (not all) of these are truly blessing and by-products that come from the promise. I am not belittling any of these truths, but simply illustrating that they were not part of what was sought, nor were they employed to encourage Abraham to believe.

Further, let's make sure we don't attribute something to faith, that Abraham did not have that many today impose on saving faith. Abraham did not have a seminary degree. Abraham did not have multiple theological facts in correct order or properly configured. To illustrate:

1. Abraham did not think that faith is what brought blessing
2. Abraham looked to God to fulfill a promise and not to the composition of his faith
3. Faith was exercised in a promise of God
4. Abraham's Faith is not an intellectual accumulation of truths to be understood
5. Abraham would not have "shared' his faith with someone else, the promise was to him to believe, if God were to make a promise to others to bring forth a child, God would need to author that.
6. Faith was not the vehicle that he would share with others to be the recipient of righteousness, rather others would need a promise and the need to exercise their faith in a promise;
7. Faith was for God to supernaturally put life, or bring forth life from their dead bodies.
8. Faith's substance did not play a role in the ability for God to accredit him, rather he believed.
9. The action of exercising faith in God to do what seemed impossible yet that God said he would do.
10. Faith was not in some past truth about God
11. Faith was not in some future truth about God
12. Faith was not that God did something in the past or will do something in the future
    

So Believing God, is the basis for Abraham's accreditation of righteousness. He did not have a number of truths figured out, nor did God require him to figure them out in order to receive the promise. He did not know many great facts about God's revelation, but he did know that it was outside of his ability to do what God said that he would do by Promise, and that he did not waiver in unbelief, but was strengthened in Faith believing that what God promised, he was able also to perform. That seems to be the heart of the composition of his faith. He knew his own vessel was not apart of the solution or object to fulfill the promise, and he was strengthened by the fact that he believed what God promised, God alone was able to do it.

So consider this in our composition of the Gospel if you will. Do we have a message of truths to be understood and believed upon accompanied with efforts at religiosity and morality? Do we have a promise like that of Abraham? That we must believe that God is able to do and we are to likewise be strengthened in faith in God being able to do what he said he would do.

Is there such a promise that comes from God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit today to us? are we called to exercise faith in a promise? Later, we see that Paul says, now this promise was not written for Abraham's sake alone but for us also. Could the faith that results in righteousness for us require the same pattern as Abraham?