Romans Part 2 - FaithSample

JUSTIFIED BY FAITH

I remember when I was a child growing up in church, we used to sing a song that went like this:

“Father Abraham had many sons

Many sons had Father Abraham

I am one of them and so are you

So, let's just praise the Lord”

Maybe some of you remember it. But why would we sing a song about that? In what way are we, as Christians, Abraham’s children? And why does it matter? In today's passage, Paul will address this.

After Noah, Abraham was the first person God chose to make a covenant with. In that covenant, He promised Abraham that his offspring would be greater in number than the stars of the heavens, and “he [Abraham] believed the Lord and he [God] counted it to him as righteousness” (Genesis 15:5-6). Paul is picking up on this when discussing how the Gentiles are now part of the family of God. Though most of them would not have been direct biological descendants of Abraham, they became descendants of him because they were grafted in through a shared faith and promise. Paul says this directly in Galatians 3:29:

“And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.”

As was common in Abraham’s day, when a covenant was made between a greater and lesser power, an animal would be sacrificed, and the lesser power or “vassal” would be made to walk through the parts of the animal as a way of saying, “If you break this covenant may what happened to this animal happen to you.” The covenant that God made with Abraham was similar except that it was God Himself, the greater power, who walked through the parts of the animal (Genesis 15:17-18).

Thus, in accordance with this covenant, God Himself, as Jesus Christ, paid the penalty for the broken covenant on the cross and brought us all into the covenant and the family of Abraham. Paul is pointing out here, in Romans, that through the covenant we are Abraham’s offspring, and like him, we are justified by our faith in the Lord rather than by our works.

We are righteous in God’s eyes before, and without reference to, anything that we might try to do to please God. In Christ we are loved, we are justified, and we are made sons and daughters of Father Abraham...So let’s just praise the Lord!

-Wesley Viau

Note: For more information on how covenants work in the Bible, check out Chapter 3 of Epic of Eden by Sandra Richter.

Family Corner Devotional Questions

If Jesus forgives other family members like parents or grandparents, does that mean I am also forgiven because they're my family?

Can someone else's faith in Jesus save me?