ABRAHAM’S FAITH IN ROMANS 4 by Vicar Jacob Garrison
We confidently confess that there is only one way for all people to be saved and it is by faith in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This is clear enough if you read the New Testament, but when reading the Old Testament, it’s easy to wonder what exactly people believed in to be saved. It is clear that they needed to trust in the coming Messiah sent from God, born of a woman, to be delivered from Satan (Genesis 3: 15), but just how much did they need to know about Him? It’s easy to point to many clear passages about Jesus’ suffering and death that are give by the prophets, but what did people believe before the prophets? What did they believe before Moses wrote the first five books of the Bible? Did they need to know about Jesus’ resurrection? Did they need to believe in the two natures of Christ? How specific was their knowledge of their Spirit-created faith?
In Romans, chapter 4, St. Paul makes the argument through Abraham, who was alive far before Moses and the prophets, that they knew a lot of specific details about how God was going to save them. St. Paul begins by asserting Abraham was justified by faith in God and then stating at least four things Abraham believed about God: 1. God would deliver according to His Word/Promise (vv. 13, 20), 2. God would make Abraham an heir through his Offspring (v. 13), 3. God would bless all people by Abraham’s Offspring (v. 16), and 4. God would bring forth Abraham’s Offspring from the dead (v. 19), Now let’s compare the content of Abraham’s belief in God to how Paul presents the content of the gospel that we be-lieve in Romans chapter 1.
In Romans 1: 2-5 St. Paul states the gospel of God is that “which He promised be-forehand through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures, concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh, and de-clared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead. Through Him we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations for His name.” Though worded differ-ently, the content of Abraham’s faith in God is the same as the gospel of God Paul and we believe in: 1. God delivers according to His Word/Promise (v. 2), 2. God the Son Himself is the Offspring of Abraham/David, Who alone can make others sons/heirs of God the Father (v. 3), 3. God blesses all people through the name of Jesus (v. 5), and 4. God raises Jesus from the dead in order to do all these things (v. 4).
Looking at this comparison, people in the Old Testament, even before the state-ments of the prophets, had a clear picture of their Spirit-created faith. It was not a vague hope that God would save them in the future, but a certain hope that after Abraham’s Offspring was struck by satan he would be resurrected from the dead so that all nations could be called the blessed children of God even though they deserved to be cursed children of wrath, and they believed it because the Holy Spirit worked through God’s Word to create faith in their hearts. From this, the Holy Spirit must have led them into many other aspects of the faith that we have outlined in the New Testament. If the Offspring of Abraham, a hu-man, was going to be able to make others the children of God, then He must have been God Himself as well, because only God can beget His own children. This would have led to an understanding of the two natures in Christ. If the Offspring of Abra-ham was both God and man, but was also going to be resurrected from the dead, then the striking of his heel mentioned in Genesis 3: 15 must have led to His death, paying for the consequences of sin (Genesis 3: 3). They would have clearly under-stood the atonement.
The gospel of Jesus Christ is the power of God for salvation (Romans 1: 16), and it is the only way to salvation. God has made His plan of salvation clear and accessible by faith since the beginning. The content of Abraham’s faith is proof of this. Now with the New Testament and all the work of Abraham’s Offspring accomplished on the cross, how much more we should cling to and proclaim all God has done for us.
THANKS FOR YOUR SUPPORT
The Missionary Network Care/Support thanks Good Shepherd for the donation to support Rev. Dr. Michael Paul & Irene Paul, serving in Taiwan. Donations help maintain LCMS missionaries presence and ministry activities on the mission field and are an encouragement that congregations take advantage of opportunities to support them as they serve our Lord and Savior in spreading His Word throughout the world.
KNNA RADIO
KNNA will be our mission project for August. KNNA –LP 95.7 FM pro-vides both Lutheran and community programming for the Lincoln area. Most of the programming (about 80%) is Lutheran theology drawn from the Scriptures and the Lutheran Confessions. Check out the schedule on the bulletin table for Proclaiming the One, The Word of the Lord En-dures Forever, Daily Word Bible Study, Table Talk, etc. The communi-ty menu includes Local Sports, When Music was Music, Soundscape Jour-neys, etc. Donations for August will help to support Good Shepherd’s ra-dio station and its ministry. Dona-tions in August have been $479.00.
STEWARDSHIP MOMENT— Mark 7: 37 — “And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, ‘He has done all things well’” When God created the world, it was “very good” (Gen. 1: 31). And here Jesus does all things well. God is always blessing, always seeking our good. We know this is so … but we still struggle to believe it. For if we really believed it, why would we ever do any-thing contrary to God’s will and Law? We know that eve-rything He tells us to do is for our good … and yet we struggle in the weakness of the flesh. Lord, we believe, help our unbelief!
LIFE MOMENT
Live as a son or daughter of God, for He loves you as only a Father could. One thing you can know about God: He will never say about you, ‘These are not Our kind of people.’ Because of Christ and what He has done for you, the Fa-ther will never say that about you.
RED CROSS BLOOD DRAW
The next opportunity to donate blood at Good Shepherd will be on Friday, August 16th from 8 am—2 pm. To make an appointment, visit RedCrossBlood.org and enter: GoodShep-herdLutheranLNK. For more information, please check the clipboard at the Information Center.
LUTHERANS FOR LIFE CONFERENCE
Hope Lutheran Church in Shawnee, KS (Kansas City area) will be hosting the Luther-ans for Life Conference for the Midwest on October 12th. The theme of the confer-ence is Life Shines in Darkness based on John 14:5 “In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not over-come it.” Rev. Evan McClanahan, author of the recently released biblical manhood re-source will speak at the conference. To complement his focus, Deaconess Rose Adle of Concordia Theological Seminary in Ft. Wayne, IN will present on Christian womanhood. Virginia Flo, Director of Volunteer Relations will facilitate a panel and wrapping up the conference will be Rev. Dr. James Lamb to address Christian citizenship. For more in-formation or to register, visit lutheransforlife.org/conferences. Questions can be directed to Erika Peterson at epeterson@lutheransforlife.org.
LUXURY BINGO
The third annual Luxury Bingo to benefit the Women’s Care Center will be held on Wednesday, Oct. 2nd at Lincoln Station Great Hall, 201 N. 7th St. in Lincoln. The event begins with cocktails and hors d’oeuvres at 6 pm and continues with the opening remarks and games at 7 pm. To register online or to get more information go to Lux-uryBingoLincoln.com. Cocktail attire is appropriate. Please contact Sarah Nagengast with questions at (402) 906-3301 or email her at sarahn@supportwcc.org. Register by Friday, Sept. 13, 2024.
NEBRASKA STATE FAIR WORSHIP OPPORTUNITY
Are you heading to the Nebraska State Fair? The Nebraska LLL will again share a message of hope and salvation found in Jesus Christ through our State Fair Minis-tries. Plan to attend the Lutheran worship service on Sunday, September 1st at 10:30 am at the AGI Family Fun Zone Stage. Guest preacher will be Pastor Cal Kapels, Christ Lutheran Church in Norfolk, NE with special music by Hannah Cmey-la of Our Savior Lutheran Church in Norfolk, NE. For more information contact Mick Onnen at (402) 364-3370, or Lloyd Probasco at (402) 613-8001.
LUTHERAN HOUR CHANGES IN OUR AREA
Changes to The Lutheran Hour broadcast in our area have been made. The pro-gram has been discontinued on WEBW 580 AM . An alternate listening option would be KCCV 760 AM at 8:30 am on Sundays. To find other airings, visit lhm.org/guide. The weekly broadcast of The Lutheran Hour is also available at lu-theranhour.org, as a podcast, on Sirius XM Family Talk Channel 131 at 10 am Eastern each Sunday, and through platforms like Spotify, iHeartRadio, YouTube, Dial-a-Podcast, and more. For the Dial-a-Podcast option simply call LHM’s main phone number (800-876-9880) and press option 3 to be forwarded to listen to The Lutheran Hour.