NOTES for Rom 4:13-22
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. |
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If the promise of being heir of the world were "owed by law" to people, there would be no relationship in it, there would be no personhood of ours; neither the human being nor God would be participating in it. If our life were governed not by a loving God and the human being created by Him, free and choosing relationship with God, but by some terrifying universal code, then violation of the law would mean exile forever from the people of God, while observance would mean automatic inheritance, according to law, without personal relationships, without Encounter.
But the Lord grants us the promise, the inheritance of the world, not for keeping a set of rules and obeying the law, but for faith, that is, the choice of relationship, the recognition that He is God, beyond hope, as with Abraham. And God responds not by fulfilling a contract, signed and sealed, but with mercy and love.
Readings for 14 March 2025
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