NOTES for Rom 4:13

Reading the Epistle to the Romans, it becomes important for us to realize that, by believing in God, we stand in one rank with the great prophets and righteous ones, inheriting them not by flesh and blood, but by spirit. We can accept this, but then we must also realize what today's Gospel reminds us of. If we believe, we cannot renounce what is the necessary companion of our faith. It appears, what is so difficult about answering a direct question by saying that you believe in Jesus? But it is hard, because by this one is afraid to acknowledge this kinship from Abraham. It is often repugnant to admit openly that, in believing in Christ, you acknowledge yourself as a member of the Church, and not only that - you go to services. What can be a greater manifestation of wildness than taking upon yourself all the outward marks of a believer? Faith is faith; after all, we all believe in something, but why exaggerate everything so much? Yet this simple wildness is often the necessary confession of Christ, which is always given to us with great difficulty, but without it our faith becomes something abstract. And very far from what Paul calls righteousness.