Lesson 9: The Promise Realized through Faith – 4:13-25
 13 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.
14 For if it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void.
15 For the law brings wrath, but where there is no law there is no transgression.
16 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,
17 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.
18 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.”
19 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.
20 No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God,
21 fully convinced that God was able to do what He had promised.
22 That is why his faith was “counted to him as righteousness.”
23 But the words “it was counted to him” were not written for his sake alone,
24 but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in Him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord,
25 who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.

We continue in this lesson with the difference between good deeds done to gain favor with God, and good deeds done simply because we love Him and want to serve Him because He loves us.


Our verses today begin with the statement that God’s promise to Abraham was not kept because Abraham obeyed God. God kept His promise to Abraham because Abraham BELIEVED God. And because Abraham believed God, he trusted Him to keep His promise. In Verse 19 we read that Abraham “considered his own body” – he accepted the reality that he was now an old man and Sarah’s body was past the age of being able to bear children according to all human understanding. Still, he chose to believe God’s promise that He would give them a son. This belief, this faith in God, was what God wanted.

As we continue reading our verses, we find that God meant this not only for Abraham, but also for us. Believing God’s promises – that He will make difficult things in our life into good, that He always cares for us, that He loves us, that He will never forsake us, that He is returning soon to take us to the home He is preparing for us – brings about His blessing in our lives. But just as Abraham’s life was not free of troubles and hard times as proof of God’s blessings, so ours will also have troubles and hard times (see John 16:33).

God also tests our faith, just as He did Abraham’s faith. For Abraham, the greatest test came when Isaac was about fifteen years old. God asked Abraham to offer Isaac to Him on an altar. Without waiting or questioning or arguing with God, Abraham did as God asked, and started out for the place where God asked him to make this sacrifice – a three-day journey from where they lived. Abraham did not cry out to God to question why He would ask him to do such a terrible thing. He did not argue with God that Isaac was the child He had promised. He simply took Isaac with him, by faith believing God would raise him from the dead after the sacrifice was complete. Abraham had never seen anyone rise from the dead. He had no experience to help him understand and believe. He simply believed God’s promises.


How can we tell if we are doing our good works under the Law or for love? A great way to know is to stop and look at your heart. Are you feeling anxious or fearful? Do you feel like God is always watching you to see if you’ve done enough? Then you are not free from the Law. Is your life filled with an unexplained joy even though you could name all kinds of things in your life that could be easier? Do you find yourself giving or helping someone just because it makes you happy to do so? Then you are free from the Law in Christ Jesus.

*How can you be set free if you are not free? Ask Jesus to set you free and teach you this freedom in Him. And then be sure to spend time with Him every day reading and studying the Bible and talking with Him.