Romans 4:20-22 - Fully persuaded

4:20

“Did not waiver in his faith”. Now let’s look a little at Abraham. In many ways he certainly did “waiver in his faith” as we think of it. Abraham slept with his servant girl. He laughed at the promises of God. His faith was no artificial faith. Yet in all this he continued to follow God. Faith does not mean never having any doubts, never having any struggles. It means to continue to walk step by step after God even when we are struggling.

Abraham “gave glory to God”. This means that he decided that God and His promises were the most important factor in his life. We should do the same. In the midst of doubts, uncertainty and struggles we should reckon that God is the most important factor in our lives, the overriding reality.

4:21

“Being fully persuaded that God had the power to do what He had promised”. This is the crux of the matter for us. Abraham received a promise, there was no way within the powers of Abraham and Sarah that this could be fulfilled, but Abraham believed that God had the power to do what He had promised. Likewise, there is no way that we can live up to God’s righteous standards. Instead we trust in Him. We trust that Jesus’ death on the cross has fully paid for our sins, we trust that through the power of the Holy Spirit He can and will transform us into the people He wants us to be. All our trust is put in Christ, and none in ourselves. Our faith must always be in God alone.

4:22

That is why it “was credited to him as righteousness”. Want to get right with God? Then put your trust in Him, put your trust In Christ’s work upon the cross. Now why is faith so important to God? It is because it is getting back to reality, back to the truth of the matter. There is a logic in it. We were created by God. We did not chose to come into being, we did not chose what we would be, we did not create the universe in which we find ourselves. We were utterly dependent upon God, yet we rebelled and decided that we could live without Him. We could decide what is right and wrong, we could supply all our needs. We were wrong. Not just a little bit wrong, but utterly at odds with reality, completely deluded. When we think we can prove ourselves righteous all we are doing is continuing that delusion. When we put our trust completely in Christ and His work we are returning to reality, returning to sanity.