Sunday School Lesson
May 12
Lesson 11 (KJV)
Counted as Righteous
Devotional Reading: Genesis 15:1–6
Background Scripture: Romans 4
Romans 4:13–25
13 For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.
14 For if they which are of the law be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of none effect:
15 Because the law worketh wrath: for where no law is, there is no transgression.
16 Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all,
17 (As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were.
18 Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations; according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be. 19 And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sara’s womb:
20 He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God;
21 And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform.
22 And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness.
23 Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him; 24 But for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead;
25 Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.
Key Text
He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform.—Romans 4:20–21
Examining Our Faith
Unit III: Standing in the Faith
Lessons 10–13
Lesson Aims
After participating in this lesson, each learner will be able to:
1. Summarize Paul’s view of Abraham.
2. Explain faith’s role in being counted as righteous.
3. Brainstorm ways to celebrate with loving actions God’s blessing of grace through faith.
How to Say
It Abraham Ay-bruh-ham.
Deuteronomy Due-ter-ahn-uh-me.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer Isaac Dee-truck Bahn-hahf-ur.
Eye-zuk.
Moses Mo-zes or Mo-zez.
Torah Tor-uh.
Introduction
A. “The Primitive”
German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s resistance to Nazi rule cost him his life in 1945. While directing an illegal seminary, Bonhoeffer wrote to his brother-in-law about his practice of daily Bible reading. He found that practice drew him back to the basics, or what he called “the primitive.” “In matters of faith,” he said, “we are always consistently primitive.” He meant that however elaborate our ideas or practices may be, we must always come back to our starting point: a fundamental attitude of trust in God’s mercy. Our text today focuses on this primitive foundation.
B. Lesson Context
Romans 4 is part of Paul’s overall argument supporting his statement in Romans 1:16–17:
I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.
Romans 1–3 explores God’s primary challenge in keeping the ancient promises, namely, the profound sinfulness of all human beings (3:23).
Chapter 4 begins the discussion of the remedy to universal sin. Far from facing a hopeless situation, humans have a model available to them of how to approach God. That model is the life of Abraham. When God promised that He would bless the world through Abraham, Abraham chose to respond in faith (Genesis 15:6; quoted in Romans 4:3, 9, 22; Galatians 3:6; James 2:23). Paul’s readers, especially those of Jewish heritage, would have agreed that Abraham’s legacy was important and valuable. The question in dispute is precisely what that legacy is. Paul argues that Abraham had a relationship with God because he placed his faith in God and trusted God’s promises. Nothing else. In the New Testament, faith equals trust in God as the one who has promised to bless humanity. Jesus modeled that trust by submitting to His sacrificial death on a cross, being confident that God would work for good through Jesus’ shame and suffering. That trust is the basis for any relationship with the same merciful God.
I. True Heirs of Abraham
(Romans 4:13)
A. Not by the Law (v. 13a)
13a. For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law.
Paul does not exclude the Jewish people from God’s concern, nor does he minimize the importance of the Torah (the Law of Moses). But Paul builds on the insight that the promise predates the law (see lesson 10) since Abraham lived before Moses (about 2167–1992 BC and 1530–1410 BC, respectively) and the giving of the law (Exodus 19–20). Thus, it follows that the promise was the foundation of the law rather than the other way around (see Galatians 3:17).
The idea that Abraham would inherit the world comes in part from Genesis 12:1–3, which describes Abraham’s offspring as a blessing to the world. This was sometimes interpreted as meaning that Abraham’s family would literally govern all the world. But we see that Jesus’ followers—Abraham’s true seed (Galatians 3:7)—inherit the world (1 Corinthians 3:21–23; see Romans 4:17, below).
B. The Righteousness of Faith (v. 13b)
13b. But through the righteousness of faith.
Faith, which biblically might be defined as trust in God and His ability and intention to keep His promises, can characterize any person, not only those who were given the law. God is the God of all, both Jews and Gentiles (Romans 3:29). The relationship between God and humans rests on something deeper than the law, the thing that characterizes one group but not the other. That deeper reality is faith in Jesus. God chooses to credit us with righteousness when we come to Him through such faith. Through the righteousness that only comes from God’s gift to us, we also stand to inherit the world as promised to Abraham.
What Do You Think?
How does your life reflect your trust in God?
Digging Deeper
What difference does it make that you cannot and do not need to try to earn righteousness?
II. Supporting Arguments
(Romans 4:14–25)
A. Not the Promise (vv. 14–15)
14. For if they which are of the law be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of none effect.
Salvation comes from God’s promise since God saves “the ungodly” (Romans 4:5; 5:6). Nothing that we can do can save us. This radical confession has roots in the Old Testament, which also affirms that human achievement does not deliver in the final analysis. The analogy of earthly deliverance (examples: Psalms 44:3; 106:6–8; Hosea 11:7–11) is a precursor to the reality of eternal salvation (examples: Numbers 21:4–9; John 3:14–15).
Rather, the Law of Moses leads one to love God and fellow human beings (Leviticus 19:18; Deuteronomy 6:5; see Matthew 22:37–40). Paul does not mean that Jews or Gentile converts who keep the law cannot also trust God. But what was promised because of faith still required faith; law-keeping could not substitute for trusting God (Galatians 3:18).
Paul’s language seems very strong here. He does not reject keeping the Torah for Jews, only the insistence that Gentiles must do so as well (Acts 15). One of the ironies of history has been that the situation reversed itself in the centuries after Paul so that Judaism and Christianity became separate religions, with Christians often persecuting Jews and using this and other texts to justify doing so. In Paul’s setting, that situation had not arisen, and his statements must be understood in his different context without condoning any religious violence.
What Do You Think?
When have you experienced someone “voiding” a promise?
Digging Deeper
What gives you confidence that God has not voided the promise He made based on Abraham’s faith?
15. Because the law worketh wrath: for where no law is, there is no transgression.
At the same time, the law has limitations. No one can violate a law that does not exist (Romans 5:13). The law could define sin’s precise contours and clarify what effects it has, but it cannot save. It worketh wrath, that is, it provokes God’s anger when humans break His law. Since God’s wrath is justified and necessary to bring about justice, the law’s function to notify us of boundaries serves a spiritually useful purpose.
Romans 1:18–32 catalogs the results of a life of sin, the terrible list of ways humans have of harming each other and themselves. These actions provoke God’s righteous indignation, but also lead to God’s mercy toward precisely all of us caught up in such evils (Romans 6:1–4). The Law of Moses emphasizes God’s sense of justice and desire for humans to live together with justice and righteousness—the appropriate responses to a genuine love for God.
B. Abraham’s Trust (vv. 16–22)
16. Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all.
It refers to the promise (see Romans 4:13, above). This verse makes two interrelated points. First, God’s saving work extends to all who will receive it in faith by trusting God’s promises and counting on God’s mercy, justice, and protection. The Law of Moses was a gift from God for previously enslaved people so that they could experience a life of real freedom (Deuteronomy 30:11–20). Its many provisions tended toward building a community of mutual support and justice (examples: Exodus 22; Deuteronomy 15).
Second, the promise to bless the world (Genesis 12:1–3) extends to all who imitate Abraham in trusting God. Descent from the patriarch involves not ancestral DNA (Luke 3:8) but a similar faith-filled life. God’s work was bigger than the law could accommodate, and God’s grace extends to both Jews and Gentiles who trust Him.
17. (As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were.
Verse 17 offers evidence for the previous verses’ assertions by quoting Genesis 17:5. Part of a story of renewed promises to Abraham, this statement reveals the enormous consequences of the then-soon-to-be-fulfilled promise of a child, Isaac (see Genesis 21:1–7). The promise extends even to the raising of the dead. This happened metaphorically for Abraham and Sarah, who were long past childbearing age (see also Hebrews 11:12), and literally for Jesus as “the firstfruits of them that slept” (1 Corinthians 15:20). The entire story of Israel and the church is one of unimagined possibilities coming to life thanks to God’s saving work.
The final clause alludes to the story of God’s creation of the world (Genesis 1:1–2:4), through which nonexistent things became realities. God’s creative work did not cease long ago but continues until all things are made new (Revelation 21:5). Creation and redemption form two sides of the same coin because both come from God’s love and proceed toward the well-being of the creature.
18. Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be. Genesis repeats the promises to Abraham three times (Genesis 12; 15; 17). Paul moves backward from the third to the second occurrence, quoting Genesis 15:5 with so shall thy seed be. Paul interprets the quoted text in two ways simultaneously. First, the promise of offspring came to Abraham, and it was fulfilled. And second, the offspring would be like Abraham, full of hope for God’s redemptive work.
Hope in the Bible is never simply wishful thinking. It is the expectation that something is to occur that is neither a given nor impossible. Two examples illustrate this: sunrise is a given, so we do not hope for it; flying under one’s own power is impossible, so we do not hope for that, either. Nor is hope simply an emotional or intellectual state. For Paul, hope is an anticipation of an objective reality, the thing expected as much as the feeling of expectation. Hope can be laid up for us in God’s presence (Colossians 1:5).
To hope against hope means that Abraham had no natural basis for believing he and Sarah could have a child. He and his wife had long passed the age of childbearing, and Sarah was postmenopausal (Genesis 17:17). The childbirth required a miracle, and the couple trusted God to provide that without knowing how it would occur.
What Do You Think?
How often do you speak of hope as a wish or a dream?
Digging Deeper
How could your witness of hope be strengthened if you only used the word to refer to hope based on God’s promises?
Against All Hope
The nurse couldn’t find a heartbeat. Doctors and attendants surrounded my wife’s hospital bed, and one of them insisted that she could feel the baby moving. They rushed my wife away for an emergency C-section. These surgeries are not performed for babies who would be stillborn; faint heartbeats indicated that our daughter was practically gone.
Many doctors would have refused to operate, our doctor said. Our daughter would likely not survive. Even if she did, she would have profound brain injuries. “Wrongful life” suits chilled some doctors from acting as our doctor did. But she was a Christian, and she believed strongly in life. She thought, Even if this child only lives for two days, it is still life. Against all hope, she delivered our daughter.
Rebekah just turned eight years old. Is your faith leading you to make a decision “against all hope”? —N. G.
19. And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah’s womb.
Paul ignores indications of Abraham’s doubts in Genesis 15:2–3 and his ill-conceived attempt to “help” God by impregnating Hagar (Genesis 16). We might be encouraged that such major lapses in judgment and trust did not nullify Abraham’s faith.
Instead, Paul’s argument focuses on Abraham’s ultimate acceptance of God’s trustworthiness. For Abraham to focus on his or Sarah’s limitations rather than the divine promises would have equaled weakness in faith. While Abraham recognized his and Sarah’s physical states, he did not see that natural limit as the end of the possibilities available to God. Paul asks his readers to embrace this same mixture of realism and hope. As creatures of God, we know our limits but recognize that God’s freedom and mercy need not always be channeled within those limits.
20. He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory to God.
This verse restates the ideas of the previous sentences but adds two dimensions. First, it clarifies what Abraham believed when he trusted God’s promise. The grammar of the Greek text serves to emphasize the promise that Abraham trusted rather than his act of believing God. God’s action precedes and forms the basis for Abraham’s faith.
Second, this verse also proposes that Abraham’s trust equaled glorifying God. Words of praise, no matter how beautiful, do not really bring honor to God unless the one who is praising lives in the hope that God’s promises will be fulfilled.
21. And being fully persuaded, that what he had promised, he was able also to perform.
Here concludes the analysis of Abraham’s trust as confidence in God’s ability and willingness to act benevolently for the benefit of human beings. The verse also describes an aspect of God’s promises: they are not idle words.
What Do You Think?
Do you react differently to a broken promise if the promise-maker lacks the power rather than the will to fulfill it? Why or why not?
Digging Deeper
What other examples can you provide of both God’s willingness and ability to fulfill His promises?
Fully Persuaded
Philip Bliss published the hymn “Almost Persuaded” in 1871. The first stanza has a lost soul telling the Spirit, “Go Thy way, / Some more convenient day / on Thee I’ll call.” The song emphasizes that the time to call on Jesus in faith is short. Bliss’s own life was cut short when, on December 30, 1876, he and his wife were killed in a train crash. He was only 38. Bliss’s life and work indicate that he, like Abraham, lived fully persuaded that God could and would fulfill His promises. And like Abraham, Bliss’s faith has inspired generations. Hymns he penned are still sung. His home in Rome, Pennsylvania, is now the Phillip P. Bliss Gospel Songwriters Museum, a testament to his ongoing influence. The time is still short! Consider what your legacy will be. Will family, friends, colleagues, and others remember you as being fully persuaded to follow Jesus? —N. G. 22. And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness. Paul refers here to Genesis 15:6: “[Abram] believed in the Lord; and [God] counted it to him for righteousness.” The word translated imputed also is translated elsewhere in this chapter as “counted” (Romans 4:3, 5) and “reckoned” (4:4, 9–10), which clarifies that God accepted Abraham’s faith as righteous action. God imputed to Abraham righteousness, not because Abraham had done good deeds or avoided evil, but because he had staked his life and his family’s future on God’s promises starting in Genesis 12. Paul uses Genesis 15:6 to paint a sharp contrast between a relationship built on command and obedience (under the Law of Moses) and one built on promises and trust. Many of his Jewish audience would probably have thought Paul overstated the case, since keeping the law ideally did show one’s trust in, and love for, God. Yet Paul makes this distinction because he wishes to show that God keeps the ancient promises through the faithfulness of the Messiah, Jesus, and that the promises embrace both Jews and Gentiles. What Do You Think? What does it mean to have righteousness imputed based on faith? Digging Deeper What other verses can you point to that support your answer? C. Our Basis of Hope (vv. 23–25) 23. Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him. If God was to keep the promise to Abraham that he would become the ancestor of many nations, then the act of imputing righteousness to him based on faith must extend to others who do the same thing. Otherwise, God would be a respecter of persons, a player of favorites (contrast Acts 10:34; Romans 2:11–16; Galatians 2:6; Ephesians 6:9). Whereas Abraham trusted God’s promise of descendants who would bless the world, Paul’s readers, ancient and modern, trust in the promise God sealed by raising Jesus from the dead. Simply believing that the resurrection of Jesus happened historically does not equate to having saving faith (compare James 2:19). To believe in the resurrection means to imitate Christ in His sufferings (2 Corinthians 13:4; Galatians 2:19–20; Philippians 3:10–11; 1 Thessalonians 1:6; 2:14). It means to trust in the final resurrection of the dead, of which Jesus’ resurrection is the promissory note (1 Corinthians 15:20–28). 24. But for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead. When does God reckon us as righteous? The verb tense of the underlying Greek could indicate a future time, such as the last judgment. But the Greek may also indicate something just about to happen or a certainty with uncertain timing. Perhaps Paul does not mean to be overly precise, as there are mysteries about the future that no one knows (Matthew 24:36). Or perhaps he signals the fact that justification occurs now and later as God continuously sustains a relationship with those who trust in His promises. This latter interpretation is in keeping with what can be referred to as the now/not yet of God’s kingdom. We are now part of God’s kingdom, but we are not yet experiencing its fullness (see Romans 8:22–25). 25. Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification. Paul’s language echoes Isaiah 53:6, 12, which anticipated that the suffering servant would be handed over to His enemies to make “intercession for the transgressors” (compare similar language in 1 Corinthians 15:3). Isaiah’s prophecy of the suffering servant was a key text for early Christians in understanding Jesus not as a tragic figure or a victim of state violence, but as the Messiah who died on behalf of others. His death was necessary to pay the price for sins, but it would have been incomplete without a resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:12–19). Jesus joined in the suffering brought about by sin in order to free from sin’s power those who trust God’s promises. Conclusion A. We Are Not Alone God counts us as righteous when we, like Abraham, trust the promises of redemption and live accordingly. We are not righteous because of the good we do or the evil we avoid, but because God acknowledges us as loyal to Him, staking all our hopes on His promises. And His offer of salvation extends to all because sin has wrecked us all. We stand together in both our need and our hope. This unity of humanity may show itself in different ways. We might wallow together in our sin, growing increasingly hostile to each other and sacrificing our common humanity on the altar of greed, envy, pride, and hatred. Or we might acknowledge our need, trust in God’s mercy, and so join in a community built on such a faith. The choice belongs to us. How do we build a community on such a basis? A church full of people who trust in God’s promises live generous, open-hearted, kind lives. They, like Abraham, show hospitality to strangers as though they were angels (Hebrews 13:2). Such a church values the whole trajectory of a person’s life of faith, emphasizing neither failures nor heroic successes but faithfulness in the face of adversity (James 1:2–3) and God’s seeming slowness to act (2 Peter 3:9). This community of believers knows itself to be saved, not because of its own merits but because of God’s mercy.
B. Prayer
God of Abraham and all who trust You, focus our minds not on our own limitations but on Your great love for Your creation. Thank You for Jesus’ sacrifice, which we accept in faith as reconciling us to You. In His name we pray. Amen.
C. Thought to Remember
Justification by faith is not an abstract idea but a reality for life.