How Is Abraham Our Father?

3rd Sunday after Pentecost, 6/29/14
Romans 4:18-25


How Is Abraham Our Father?
I. He believed God’s promise.
II. He received God’s righteousness.


What’s the world’s most famous question? Is it, “What came first—the chicken or the egg?” Or, maybe you’re thinking it’s, “If your friend jumped off a bridge, would you jump, too?” Or maybe it’s much more practical such as, “How many times do I have to tell you?”

I studied a ranking of world famous questions, and none of those were on it. So, what is the world’s most famous question?

It’s this one: “To be or not to be” from Shakespeare’s play Hamlet. I’ll admit I couldn’t recall any of the circumstances surrounding this question. Do you? It’s not a very pleasant subject. Hamlet spoke it as he pondered suicide.

Today we have a question before us. I didn’t look if it made the ranking of the world’s most famous questions. I didn’t have to. I’m sure it’s not there. That’s likely due to the fact that only a minor percentage of the world’s population cares.

But that doesn’t mean it’s not an important question. In fact, since the answer to it directly involves a sinful person’s eternal future, I can’t think of any more important question to ask and to answer.

In today’s text from Romans 4, St. Paul states, “Abraham…became the father of many nations.” In the verses right before our text Paul calls Abraham “the father of us all. He is our father.” Many of the Roman Christians to whom Paul wrote these words weren’t descendants of Abraham. They were Gentiles. The people hearing these words today are Gentiles, not Jews.

So that leads us to ask, “How is Abraham our father?” Let’s use that question to focus our hearts and minds on God’s word this morning and may our Lord use his word to provide us with the important answers.

Part I.

Along with famous questions there are also good questions. Here’s one of them. What is air? Some people might have a difficult time defining it. We know that we breathe air. When feeling confined and closed in, we state that we need to get some air. We use fans at this time of year especially to move air. There are times in our relationships when we feel the need to clear the air. But what is air? I’ll defer to the scientists among us to help you answer that good question.

Here’s another one: what is faith? We would all claim to have faith, specifically, Christian faith. We confess our faith. We feed our faith. But what is faith? The Bible states, “Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see” (Hebrews 11:1).

Paul speaks about the faith of Abraham in the words before us this morning. I’m sure you’d agree with me when I state that Abraham had a great faith. I’ve often thought that Abraham’s faith was far greater than my own. That faith enabled him to do some great things. But Paul doesn’t focus our attention on what Abraham did because of his faith. He focuses our attention on what Abraham trusted God to do. He was sure of what he hoped for and certain of what he didn’t see. Well, what was that? Paul tells us, “Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, ‘So shall your offspring be.’ Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead—since he was about a hundred years old—and that Sarah’s womb was also dead.” Abraham trusted God to do what was humanly impossible. God had promised him a son and had promised that his offspring would be as numerous as the stars. There was only one problem. Neither Abraham nor Sarah his wife was a spring chicken anymore. In fact, they were elderly. They had gotten to the point in their lives at which it was no longer possible for them to have children. Paul puts it rather crudely. He faced the fact that his body and Sarah’s womb were dead. But he didn’t give up hope. Why not? Because of his faith. “Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised.” God promised him a son; so a son he would have. God would make it possible.

That’s a tremendous faith! But that’s not even the most amazing fact about his faith. Even more astounding is that as great a hero of faith as Abraham was, he knew he was not saved by his own good works. Abraham knew his sins. If you read through the events of his life in Genesis you’ll come across them. Abraham knew that as wealthy as he was, he couldn’t buy forgiveness for a single sin. He knew he could earn his own forgiveness.

No, Abraham trusted his God to give him forgiveness. That’s what made Abraham’s faith great. He trusted his God to do for him what he had promised—to forgive wickedness, rebellion and sin, to be gracious and merciful to him.

Sound familiar? That’s the same faith that lives within us. Earlier today we confessed our sins and immediately heard God’s pronouncement of forgiveness. Today’s communicants will receive the assurance of their forgiveness and eternal life as they receive their Savior’s body with the bread and his blood with the wine. It’s all ours by faith in God’s promises to us.

How is Abraham our father? He believed God’s promise.

I imagine you joined me in being impressed by the faith of Abraham. He and his wife could no longer have children but he knew God would give him one anyway. He trusted God to do what was humanly impossible. Do you? I mean, if we share the same faith as our father Abraham, shouldn’t we trust God to do what’s humanly impossible? If we did, we wouldn’t worry. If we did, we wouldn’t depend so much on ourselves. We’d be willing to let go and let God. But we struggle with that. So what’s the solution? Recall that every day God always does what is humanly impossible. He takes your sins and sends them away as far as east is from west. He takes a sinner who deserves hell and writes his or her name in the book of heaven at their baptisms. He has chosen us to be his dearly loved children. He does all that because of what Jesus did. Abraham looked forward to what Jesus would do; we look back. And there God did for us what we could never do for ourselves no matter how hard we tried. God promised our salvation. God fulfilled it. Now he promises to bless us with forgiveness and eternal life. Abraham believed the same thing. That’s how he’s our father.

Part II.

In the mid-1800s Scottish essayist Thomas Caryle developed his Great Man theory. Caryle wrote, “In all epochs of the world’s history, we shall find the Great Man to have been the indispensable saviour of his epoch.” In other words, a great human being would arise to save the day or change the world. He considered people like Martin Luther and Napoleon to be such great men. Caryle would claim they changed the world all on their own.

I don’t think Caryle would consider Abraham to be one of the world’s Great Men. But he should. Indeed Abraham is recognized even on the pages of Scripture to be a great hero of faith.

But that wasn’t Abraham’s doing. It was God’s. All God’s doing. We don’t know the circumstances of how Abraham came to faith in the true God. Obviously it was through the working of the Holy Spirit as it always is. But we do see the results. Abraham recognized that his greatest need was not food, clothing and shelter, but the forgiveness of sins. He understood that as a sinner he was not inherently right with God.

He also understood that the greatest gift he could receive as a sinner was the righteousness of God. Paul states it this way, “It was credited to him as righteousness.” In theological terms he was justified. God declared him to be not guilty. God could do that in view of the work that Jesus would do for all sinners.

Abraham trusted that God would give him a son and that one of his descendants would be that Savior. By faith in that Savior Abraham was right with God. He possessed the holiness that Jesus would one day win for him.

By faith in Jesus we possess the holiness that Jesus won for us.

How is Abraham our father? He received God’s righteousness just as we do.

What comfort that gives us to know that we share the same faith as Abraham, that we are made right with God in the same way that he was! What’s so comforting about it? God never changes the rules. He has never had different ways of saving sinners. There’s always and only been one way. That means when you join Abraham in really making a mess of things with your sins, you can be absolutely sure that, as a repentant sinner you are forgiven. God has not suddenly come up with some way you need to make yourself right with him. That means when your guilt over some sin is sucking all the joy and strength out of your life, you can be sure God isn’t going to demand a pound of your flesh to make things right with him. He already accepted his Son’s payment of his flesh and blood on Calvary’s cross. With faith in Jesus God credits you with righteousness just as he did Abraham. What a blessing to know that nothing changes when it comes to our salvation and our relationship with our God. What a blessing to know that indeed Abraham is our father! Amen.