According to What Promise?

 

The Promise and the Resurrection.

 

In Christ- Everything. In Christ- Righteousness.

 (Excerpt)

Everything in Christ. 

Speaking of Christ, the apostle says, "All the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us." 2 Cor. 1:20. There is no promise of God to any man [aside from in Christ].

AMEN!

*

The Inheritance and the Heirs 

Romans 4:13-15

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.

Where Is the Promise? 

A very natural inquiry upon reading the thirteenth verse would be, Where is there any promise that Abraham and his seed should be heirs of the world? Many think that no such promise is contained in the Old Testament. But there can be no doubt about the matter, for the apostle says that there was such a promise. If we have not found it, it is because we have read the Old Testament too superficially, or with minds biased by preconceived opinions. If we consider the connection, we shall have no difficulty in locating the promise.

Of what is the apostle speaking in this connection? Of an inheritance through the righteousness of faith, and also of the fact that circumcision was given to Abraham as a seal of this righteousness which he had by faith,  and therefore as the seal of the inheritance which was to come thereby.

Where in the Old Testament do we find the account of the giving of circumcision, and of a promise in connection therewith? In the seventeenth chapter of Genesis. Then that must be the place for us to look for the promise that Abraham should be the heir of the world. Let us turn and read:

"And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee and to thy seed after thee. And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God. . . . And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and you." Gen. 17:7-11.

The reader will at once say: "Yes; it is plain enough that there is a promise here; but what we are looking for is the promise that Abraham and his seed should inherit the earth; and I do not see that here. All that I can see is a promise that they should inherit the land of Canaan."

But it is certain from the connection in Romans that we are on the right track, and we shall soon see that this is indeed the promise that Abraham and his seed should be heirs of the world. We must study the details of this promise. And first let us note the fact that the inheritance promised is an everlasting inheritance.

Abraham himself is to have it for an everlasting possession. But the only way in which both Abraham and his seed may have everlasting possession of an inheritance is by having everlasting life. Therefore we see that in this promise to Abraham we have the assurance of everlasting life in which to enjoy the possession.

This will appear still more clearly when we consider that the inheritance is an inheritance of righteousness: "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." Rom. 4:13. That is just what we have in the promise recorded in the seventeenth of Genesis. For that covenant was sealed by circumcision (see verse 11), and circumcision was the seal of righteousness by faith. See Romans 4:11

Rom 4:11  And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised: that he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be not circumcised; that righteousness might be imputed unto them also

The Gospel Was Preached to Abraham.

 

Turn Me From My Iniquities.

 

The Work Is To Believe.

 Too many believe their good enough status causes their justification in the sight of God. They consider themselves godly, God-fearing people and as such they are superior to all the ungodly, non-God-fearing people who make no claims to belong to God. Yet the truth of the matter is only the ungodly are justified by God. Yes, you read that right. Everyone has to realize, and have a deep-seated comprehension of the fact they have absolutely NO righteousness of their own at all and none of their claims will give them righteousness. They could be perfect God-fearing people in all their actions but unless they realize their perfection is filthiness, stained by the sin that caused ALL their righteousness to be like filthy rags, it means nothing. God alone justifies the ungodly and our believing that God does this, that Christ is our righteousness will make it so.  Truly the ungodly are justified by God, because we can be nothing but ungodly without God's righteousness. 

We are told…

Joh_6:29  Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.

The work is to BELIEVE on Christ and His righteousness!

(Excerpt)

Romans 4:5 But to him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly,  his faith is counted for righteousness

Justifying the Ungodly. 

God justifies the ungodly. No others need justification. 

But mark that he does not justify ungodliness. 

That would be to call evil good, and to deny himself. But he justifies or makes righteous the ungodly, and that is just what they need. He justifies the believing sinner by making him a new man in Christ Jesus, and this he can do and still be just. To make a new man in righteousness is perfectly in harmony with his own character as Creator.

Working Not. "But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness." 

Bear in mind that justification is the subject under consideration. When the apostle speaks of not working, it is evident that he means not working in order to be justified. A man is not made just by works,  but the just man works yet always by faith. "The just shall live by faith."

Rom_1:17  For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.

 It is faith that makes him continue to live justly. The reality of the works of faith is made more prominent in the latter part of this chapter.

I Choose the Righteousness of My Creator.

 Recognizing God as the Creator.

Do you recognize God as your Creator?  

If you don't, does that mean you believe it's pure chance that you exist, that we all exist? Even those who believe in the big bang have to continue on back further than the bang that created us to what created the bang? You could keep going back and back until you are in a corner of nothingness, with nothing, because ultimately there had be something that started something.  We cannot take nothing and create something from nothing- it's impossible, completely and utterly impossible. And the big bang takes something to make something, not nothing creating something.  The absurdity of it all is so obvious, yet Satan has blinded the minds of many people, a lot of whom consider themselves of superior intelligence. 

Hope or no hope.

Belief in God or no belief in God.

I know I exist now in this moment and I know that I can cease to exist in the next moment. I can either choose to believe that if I cease to exist in the next moment that there will be another moment when I will again exist or I can believe that is it, no more existence whatsoever.

If I choose to believe this current existence of mine is all there is of life, truly hope is non-existent. There is so much unfairness in the existence of so many, exponentially more unfairness than what would be considered fair- that to believe this is how it is supposed to be- is truly horrific. 

Hope.

Hope tells me that if I believe in the evidence of the unseen that there is so much more to my existence than what is happening with me right now, and happening to all of us. The teeny tiny portion of people who live a life seemingly problem free… wait, there  is no such teeny tiny portion of people. All, without any exception, have problems in their lives. What might be considered a problem to someone wealthy might not be considered a problem to a poor person, someone considered physically beautiful might have a lot of problems that someone not beautiful in that way would have and vice versa. Problems big or small, significant to the person experiencing them, make up our lives. We live in a constant state of potential problems. This existence isn't what was intended. 

We have a Creator. A righteous Creator who has given us hope. In that hope is the knowledge that our existence in this problematic filled life is temporary towards an ultimate existence in perfection. That perfection is our uniting completely with our Creator. After having made the choice to separate from Him, we make the choice to join with Him. We recognize the wrong choice and because our Creator loves us, we are forgiven for making that wrong choice and allowed to accept that our Creator has made a way to make that wrong choice right again. 

We have HOPE. We live with that HOPE.

We choose to live with HOPE or no hope, that choice is ours to make.

I choose HOPE! I choose the righteousness of my Creator!

(Excerpt)

'Romans 4:4 Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. 

Debt and Grace. 

"Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt." It is necessary to keep in mind what the apostle is writing about. The subject is the means by which a man is justified. 

To him that works for justification, the reward of righteousness is not a gift of grace, but the payment of a debt. That is, it would be so if there were any righteousness by works. In that case, the man would come to the Lord and demand of him his due.

But no man can put the Lord under obligation to him. 

"Who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again?" Rom. 11:35. If any one could do something for the Lord for which the Lord would be under obligation to him, then all things would not be from him.

That is to say, the idea of justification by works is opposed to the fact that God is the Creator of all things.

And, conversely, the recognition of God as Creator is the acknowledgment that righteousness comes from him alone.'