Romans 4:13-25
For the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith. For if it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. For the law brings wrath, but where there is no law there is no transgression.
That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring—not only to the adherent of the law but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all, as it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations”—in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, “So shall your offspring be.” He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead (since he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah’s womb. No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. That is why his faith was “counted to him as righteousness.” But the words “it was counted to him” were not written for his sake alone, but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.
Abraham’s descendants did inherit the land as promised. Abraham’s descendants both physical and spiritual are numerous beyond counting, as promised. But Abraham was looking forward to something beyond even these amazing things.
Hebrews 11:8-10
By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.
The whole world became Abraham’s inheritance. Not the world of sin but the redeemed world, the world of faith. The promise of this world was made to Abraham and to us as his spiritual offspring.
Revelation 21:1-4
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
Accepting this inheritance requires an attitude of meekness.
Matthew 5:5
“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.”
Meekness is an inwrought grace of the soul…it is equanimity of spirit that is neither elated nor cast down, simply because it is not occupied with self at all. – Vine’s expository dictionary
Meekness is necessary to trust. Trust is only as good as its object. Trust in God is as good as our understanding of who God is. Abraham trusted that God could bring the dead back to life. Abraham and Sarah were past the point of childbearing but they trusted in the promise God gave them. And when God fulfilled His promise by giving them a son, Abraham didn’t fail in his trust but was ready to sacrifice Isaac as commanded.
Hebrews 11:17-19
By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son,of whom it was said, “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.”He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back.
It was this faith in God that God counted as righteousness. There is a tendency to think of this as attribution or supposition with an inference that such imputation is merely a way of thinking about something. However, the Greek word is much more solid and calculating. It means to count like numbers in a bank. God didn’t think Abraham’s belief was a worthy thing rather because of Abraham’s belief God deposited His own righteousness into Abraham’s account.
That righteousness is also deposited into our accounts through the same mechanism, God’s grace through faith.
Ephesians 2:4-9
But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
John 6:29
Then they said to Him, “What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?”
Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent.”
Romans 10:9-10
because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.
John 11:25-26
Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”
brotherpayne 