No Matter How Long

For if those who live by law are heirs, faith has no value and the promise is worthless, because law brings wrath. And where there is no law there is no transgression. Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring—not only to those who are of the law but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all. As it is written: “I have made you a father of many nations.” He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed—the God who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were.

           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. 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. This is why “it was credited to him as righteousness.” The words “it was credited to him” were written not for him alone, but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness—for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification. (Romans 4:14-25)

          Over the past couple days, we’ve been looking at faith and the Law as the source of righteousness. Sometimes, it seems as if some people who have faith get all sorts of blessings, all sorts of assurances. God spoke to Abraham several times, telling him to go out from his land to a land God would show him. He confirmed the promise several times. If you read from Genesis 12 to Genesis 21, you see that God and Abraham discuss this matter several times. Sometimes, it’s easy to forget that those ten chapters cover twenty-five years of Abraham’s life. Since we’re reading about children being born, it’s easy to forget that the story starts when he was seventy-five.

       Abraham wasn’t given credit for believing God about something that happens every day. He was trusting God for the impossible right from the start of the story. He also wasn’t declared righteous because he was following the example of a righteous family. We have no evidence to tell us what sort of family he had, He wasn’t given credit for righteousness when he effectively gave his wife to other men. 

         In a way, we face some of the same difficulty that Abraham did. We are credited with righteousness when we believe God, taking Him at His word about the forgiveness of sins through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. That happened almost two thousand years ago, and there are many people who say it never happened at all. We have been promised eternal life, freedom from sin, the provision of our needs, blessing upon blessing and more blessing besides. It’s tempting to say, “Um, God? Where’s the blessing? What good is a blessing going to be if I don’t have an heir, or the circumstances I think I need to go with the blessing? How about I give you a hand?” And yet, even with Abraham’s squirming, he kept accepting God’s word.

        Again, this is where I am. I didn’t plan to get a degree in writing, but that’s the degree I got. Almost immediately, I gave up any hope of getting a story published. Thirty years later, I have returned to that dream. The road hasn’t been easy. Even now, I’m tempted to say, “God, you know – this just isn’t likely to work out. Lots of people write and publishers reject almost all of it. What chance do I have? Is there a plan B?” One of the big reasons I haven’t given up is because I decided I wouldn’t until someone who had authority told me to. Even rejection letters – and I’m expecting them – don’t mean “stop” because those are part of the process. 

         The best blessings that come from faith aren’t the immediate blessings. In fact, if you read in Hebrews 11, the author says that the people he was writing about died before the promise was fulfilled. That brings me to what may be the most important thing about faith and blessing. The biggest blessings are not what we get for our faith, but what others get because of our faith.