Genesis 11:27-12:1

More than anyone else Abraham (called Abram until God changed his name) teaches us true faith.  We must have Abraham’s faith (Rom. 4:16).  Thus a study of his life is of great importance.

His story begins in Ur of the Chaldees (Babylon, currently Iraq), being told by God to leave his homeland and family to go to a country that God would show him. 

It is a time of nation-building as Genesis 10 indicates.  Following the flood (Gen. 6-9) the families scattered to various places where they organized themselves into city-states.  The story in Gen. 11 of the tower of Babel shows how religion was a necessary aspect of national life.  It also illustrates how the truth about God began to be corrupted by sinful mankind who, as always, sought to rule his own life.

Ur, lying between the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers, was a prosperous city known for the worship of the moon god Nannar.  A ziggurat (like the tower of Babel) was built in his honor.  Abram lived in Ur long enough to obtain a wife (Sarai) and to be involved in their worship (Josh. 24:2)  Being called of God, however, he left with his father moving to Haran, a city in northern Mesopotamia perhaps named for his brother.

There is a question as to Abram’s full obedience to God, since he didn’t leave his family behind.  But it can be said that Abram listened to God.  He made a major move leaving home and going to a place of which he knew very little.  Faith listens!

What keeps us from listening to God?  Life has no end of noise, competing voices and distractions.  Technology is constantly revised and upgraded, and we are plugged in, with our Bibles on our tablets and phones, but the latest text, email or tune easily takes priority. 

Listening to God takes quiet time.  With Bible in hand there must be regular and frequent times when we focus on our Lord.  Consider the words of F. B. Meyer from Keep In Touch with Jesus …

Ask Him to wake you morning by morning for communion and Bible-study. Make other time in the day, especially in the still hour of the evening twilight, between the work of the day and the avocations of the evening, when you shall get alone with Him, telling Him all things, and reviewing the past under the gentle light which streams from His eyes.

Romans 8:31-39

v Under grace there is assurance, 8:31-39.

In Rom. 1-8 and especially in Chapter 8m we have been climbing among the majestic peaks of God’s provision.  As high and lofty as each of the mountains of God’s provision are, we only now come to “The Grand”, the apex of God’s grace for His children.  This is a summary, answering the initial question, “What then shall we say to these things?”  The Spirit uses three rhetorical questions to exalt the gracious God who provides “all things that pertain to life and godliness” (2 Peter 1:3).

·        If God is for us, who can be against us? (v31-32)

For many people who come to Christ by faith out of a background of abuse and hatred, the truth that amazes them is this: GOD IS FOR THEM!  The God Who was their Judge is now their Father.  His goodness known no limit: if He spared not His own Son will He not with Him freely give us all things?  If God is for us, that is enough.  (To appreciate this even more meditate on Psalm 73, esp. v25-28.)

·        Who is he that brings a charge against God’s elect? (v33-34)

The answer is “no one.”  But it is the reasoning that is so magnificent.

1.      Because God justifies (declares righteous).  God is the Judge who pronounces the sinner guilty.  So when He pronounces the believer righteous in Christ, there is nothing anyone else can say.

2.      Because Christ died.  He took our sin and punishment, satisfying the wrath of God.

3.      Because Christ is risen.  Our new nature is tied to His resurrection (Rom. 6:9-11).  If Christ is risen, never to die again, then we are secure in Him.

4.      Because Christ is at the right hand of God.  He is at the place of majesty and blessing.  His provision has been accepted by God the Father.  He is seated, reminding us that His work is finished (Heb. 10:11-13).

5.      Because Christ makes intercession for us.  Jesus lives forever as the eternal provision for our sin.  He prays for us, that our faith will not fail (Lk. 22:32), that the Father will keep us (John 17:11).  Though we sin, He is our Advocate (1 John 2:1-2).

Before moving on note that this assurance of “no condemnation” does not depend on what the believer does but what God does.  In each of the five phrased either God or the Son of God are the subject.  What grand grace!

·        Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? (v35-39)

Remember that Rom. 8 has made it clear the believer lives in a fallen world, groaning for God’s deliverance.  Paul himself knows this, that trials are part of life (all the day long), especially for the believer standing for Christ.  But none of those trials separate them from Christ’s love.  This is so valuable to know in difficult times: God loves us! And not only do we conquer (God keeps us through hard times); we grow.  The trials are, in fact, for our good and are the context in which we are conformed to Christ’s image. 

Thus Paul can conclude: there is nothing related to life, to the spirit world, to time, to space, nor anything in creation that has the capability to separate us from God’s love.  God’s abundant grace is available to His children, and He will not withhold it from them.  Is your spirit lifted high as you think about this?  Give God the praise He deserves.  Then yield yourself to Christ that you might live under grace.

Romans 8:28-30

v Under grace there is a sovereign promise, 8:28-30.

This (v28) is one of the most quoted promises in all of Scripture, and rightfully so.  Nevertheless by keeping it in the context there may be a couple of insights otherwise missed when we quote v28 apart from v29-30 and all of Rom. 6-8.

·        The certain of the promise (we know).  All of God’s promises are certain.  But we are assured here because it is a promise that applies even to the darkest times of life when we might waver or doubt.

·        The scope of the promise (all things).  This applies to all our sufferings and trials (that is the context).  But it includes every situation, even our failures.

·        The nature of the promise (work together for good).  This is the essence of the promise.  God will sovereignly work in all things to bring about good.  To understand the promise we must understand good.  We usually have in mind what we think is good.  Usually it involve getting out of trouble in some way.  But God has His own idea of good which, in fact, is truly good.  The immediate context tells us what God’s purpose is for us in all things.  It is that we be conformed to the image of His Son (v29).  He predestined us for this.  In fact, this is linked to our adoption as sin (8:14-17).  This link is spoken of in Eph. 1:4-5: God chose us before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless (i.e. like Christ) having predestined us to adoption as sons.  Isn’t being under grace amazing?  We can know that whatever the circumstances God will so work as to use them to His (and our) goal of righteousness.

·        The recipients of the promise (those who love God, are called according to His purpose).  The promise is for those who are justified, for they are the ones He has called.  They are the ones who have turned from sin to love God.

·        The foundation of the promise (v29-30).  This promise is not based in the ability or accomplishment of those who love god.  It is rather based in what God does.

1.      God foreknew.  He knew ahead we would reject Him as all men do.  His knowledge of us was bathed in His loving choice as well (Amos 3:2; Hosea 13:5; 1 Cor. 8:3).

2.      Those He foreknew He predestined to be conformed to Christ’s image.  This happened before Creation (Eph. 1:4) when God determined beforehand His choice.

3.      Those He predestined He called.  Having made a choice, God then calls men to Himself.

4.      Those He called He justified.  Having called us He then does the work of justification, of declaring us righteous by the work of Christ and in response to faith.

5.      Those He justified He glorifies.  Those given a right standing before God will someday stand complete before Him in heaven.  “Sanctification is glory begun; glory is sanctification completed.”

Do you not see God’s grace in this?  Every life situation for those who love Him will be used to conform them to Christ, and that is true goodness.  Life’s hardest trials will not be lost to futility but will bring about God’s good for His children.