"Tight lines" is a blessing fishermen offer each other, a wish for lines taut with the weight of good fish. May God grant that the lines written here be taut with His blessings.
Wednesday, 04 March 2009 | |||
|
Unwavering Faith | |||
|
In our text for this week,
Romans 4:13-25
, Paul expresses what I might say is the difference
between self-confidence and faith. Generally I have a fair amount of the
former, but less of the latter. Faced with a broken or malfunctioning appliance or electronic device, I am pretty fearless about loosening the screws, taking the back off, and plunging in to make repairs, even when I've never dealt with that sort of machine before. I trust in my ability to reason out how something is supposed to work and then to set about making it work right again. I've been successful with garbage disposals, clothes dryers and television sets, not to mention automobiles. Sometimes, though, I can't accomplish a thing. I've pulled a computer hard drive apart to absolutely no avail, except to assure by my fumbling that it was completely beyond repair. I've gotten in a car repair mess or two where I thought I was doing everything right, but I finally had to turn the job over to a professional. It can be hard to know how far you should trust your own abilities. Paul's talk about law and grace is a case for caution about one's own moral ability. Obedience to law, doing what's right, like mechanical aptitude, is a good thing, a way of setting one's personal life in order. The problem comes in a mistaken overconfidence that what I am able to do rightly in obedience will finally make my life work out well. How many times have I thought I was doing almost everything right, only to have life go to pieces all around me in ways I can't hope to repair? Abraham is held up as the example for all of us to place our trust in God, rather than in our own ability to accomplish what is good. With regard to having an heir, Abraham at first attempted to make it happen through what was possible for him, a child through the handmaid Hagar. But God asked him to believe in what Abraham had not been able to accomplish himself, a child through his wife Sarah. Contrary to verse 20, it seems as though Abraham did waver at first (see Genesis 17:18), but he does come around to a full persuasion to trust in God, as our text says. I'm going to abstain from most of the debate over imputed versus infused righteousness that surrounds this text (and chapters 3 and 4 in general). But I'm inclined to think that Abraham being "credited" with righteousness in verse 22 (and verse 3 earlier) does not have to mean that he is only regarded as righteousness, rather than actually becoming righteous by the work of Christ. As James 2:21-24 says clearly, Abraham's faith was clearly displayed in what he did. His trust in God was made manifest in obedience, which is also a major theme in Romans, as in the phrase "the obedience of faith" (a connection which is severed by mistranslation in Romans 1:5 in the TNIV, almost certainly with a theological agenda). In any case, may we learn Abraham's kind of faith, trust in God that allows us to go forward in obedience, even when we cannot see how it will all work out. | |||
|
Profile |
I am the pastor of Valley Covenant Church in Eugene, Oregon. I love to flyfish and hike along the beautiful rivers in our area. I welcome your comments as I share sermon work in progress and occasional other thoughts.
Thank you for visiting this blog. I invite you also to visit my web page.
|
Blog Posts |
Archives |
|
|
SurgeMail - Blog Server Software |
Windows Mail Server Software |
UseNet News Server Software