Episode 68: Romans 4

Today's meditation is based on Romans 4 from the Passion Translation

Because Abraham believed God’s words, his faith transferred God’s righteousness into his account.

When I work, I earn wages. It can’t be considered a free gift, because I earned it. But I cannot earn God’s righteousness. It can only be transferred when I no longer rely on my own works, but believe in the one who powerfully declares the ungodly to be righteous in his eyes. It is faith that transfers God’s righteousness into my account!

Complete wholeness came when God’s powerful declaration of righteousness was heard over my life. Apart from my works, God’s work is enough. Like David, I can say that happy fulfillment is ahead for me because my rebellion has been forgiven and my sins are covered by blood. Happy progress came to me when I heard the Lord speak over me, that he would never hold my sins against me.

This happiness is available to all who believe.

Abraham received the gift of righteousness while he was an uncircumcised gentile. God transferred his righteousness to him by faith. So now this qualifies him to be the father of all who believe among the non-Jewish people. Abraham is my “father of faith,” and God also transfers his righteousness to me by faith. I can claim Abraham as my true father of faith because I walk in the way of faith that he displayed.

God promised Abraham and his descendants that they would have an heir who would reign over the world. This royal promise was not fulfilled because Abraham kept all the law, but through the righteousness that was transferred by faith. For if keeping the law earns the inheritance, then faith is robbed of its power and the promise becomes useless. 

The promise depends on faith so that it can be experienced as a grace-gift, and this gift now extends to me as a descendant of Abraham, the father of us all. I am part of the many nations that God made Abraham the father of. 

He is my example and father, as Abraham believed, so do I believe that God can raise the dead and call into being things that don’t even exist yet. Against all odds, when it looks hopeless, like Abraham, I believe in God's promises and fully expect him to fulfill them. I take God at his word.

My faith is so strong that it cannot be undermined by physical facts and circumstances. I will never stop believing God’s promises. I am made strong in my faith, and because I am mighty in faith and convinced that God has all the power needed to fulfill his promises, I glorify God!

Just as righteousness was credited to Abraham's account through his faith, this declaration of righteousness from God is also spoken over me. I believe and embrace the one who brought my Lord Jesus back to life, and his perfect righteousness has been credited to my account as well. Jesus was handed over to be crucified for the forgiveness of my sins and was raised back to life to prove that he had made me right with God.

Until next time, be blessed and be a blessing.

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