22Wherefore, “It was counted to him into righteousness,” 23but it was not written that “it was counted to him,” only because of him, 24but also for us, to whom it will be counted, to those believing upon the One who raised Jesus our Lord out of dead ones, 25who was delivered over because of our trespasses and raised because of our justification.
Notice here that, once again, faith is a fractal. It is a living pattern. That pattern showed up in Abraham’s life, but it’s not as if, well, that was his life, now you and I will have to figure out how to make salvation work in ours. No. It is the same pattern. The pattern of faith in Abraham’s life is the same pattern for you and me. That is why it says, “The words, ‘It was credited to him’ were written not for him alone, but also for us…” “But also for us.” It goes on to say we are the ones “to whom God will credit righteousness—for us who believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead.”
Actually, the fact that the logic of life is fractal works greatly to your advantage and mine, because it means we can learn from those who’ve gone before us. The patterns of life repeat themselves over and over. I think of I Cor. 10:11, “Now all of these things happened to them as examples and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the end of the ages has come,” and Rom. 15:4, “For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.” All of this expresses the same thought of Prov. 13:20: “He who walks with the wise will be wise.” This is, once again, a huge reason why I study the Bible. In the Bible, we get to watch people live their lives. We get to watch them make good decisions and bad ones, enjoy the blessings of their good decisions and suffer the consequences of their bad ones, and then fortunately be provided with a Divinely inspired commentary on it all. That is why it is of great value to slow down and actually ponder on the people we see in the Bible. There is so much to learn just observing them – and it doesn’t matter if we live half way around the world and 4,000 years later. The patterns remain the same.
In this particular case, the pattern has to do with how you and I may enter into and live a relationship with the Lord Himself. It is of course exactly what Paul has been explaining since chapter 1, that “Now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known…This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe…” (3:22) and “Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law” (3:28). The good news of this Gospel is summed up in these few words, “He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.”
Ever since the Garden of Eden, fallen man has awaited “the Seed of the woman” who would come and “crush the head of the serpent.” Fortunately for us, “When the fullness of time was come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, that He might redeem them that were under the Law, and that we might receive the adoption of sons” (Gal. 4:4). While it is true that we were created to know God and live in constant fellowship with Him, we have this sin problem. “The arm of the Lord is not too short that He cannot save, nor His ear heavy that He cannot hear, but your sins have separated between you and your God” (Isa. 59:1). “But now in Christ Jesus, you who were once far away are brought near through the blood of Christ” (Eph. 2:13). Real faith requires that we come to terms with this problem of our guilt and failures. Fortunately, our God has gone before us and made a way (a pattern) that we may all follow and it is the pattern of believing in Him who raised our Lord Jesus from the dead.
If anyone wants to really dig into the theology of the Gospel here, there are innumerable commentaries which have been written over hundreds of years and which you can consult. I will take it perhaps a little different direction since my intent is simply to ponder. Here’s my thought. When God warned Adam, He told him not to eat of the tree in the center of the Garden and said literally, “For in the day you eat thereof, in dying you shall die.” The old KJV translated it, “You shall surely die,” but the literal Hebrew is “in dying you shall die.” Our sin problem, in a sense, has two heads. In the old hymn Rock of Ages, we plead “Be of sin the double cure; Cleanse me from its guilt and power.” Sin, with its guilt, not only brought death as our final destiny. It also brought a living death. “In dying, you shall die.” In a sense, we are born dying. That is the power of sin, that its presence in our life is killing us all day every day until finally we actually physically die. Our sinfulness blinds us to our pride, makes us greedy and lazy and fearful and unkind and unforgiving and all the other horrible vices which wreck our relationships and rob us of any hope in this world.
I know from talking to others down through the years that salvation itself means a lot of things to a lot of people. I’ve known people who specifically most valued it because it freed them from their guilt. I know people who lived under horrible burdens of guilt who found the glorious freedom of forgiveness in Christ and that is what their salvation means most to them. For myself, it was (and is) not so much the guilt of sin which burdened me but rather its power. As a young man I was quite sure I knew what life was about and what it took to be happy and embarked on that course with a passion. The problem was it “didn’t work.” No matter how hard I tried, it just seemed like life got more and more hopeless, until I finally came to the end of myself.
At that point, I really didn’t know which way to turn or what on earth I was going to do with this hopeless life. That is when, one day, as I was standing up from my bed, suddenly the lights came on. I don’t know what I had been thinking about. All I can ever say is “the lights came on.” I suddenly knew that God was real, and that Jesus and the Bible and all of that was true. I frankly had no idea what it meant, but I knew that somehow God was going to “fix” me. I was a complete mess but I was suddenly filled with the hope that having Him in my life meant I could stop dying and start living.
Now, 42 years later, I can say without a doubt that two things have been true: I’ve gone on being a complete idiot, and He has saved me day after day after day. I actually got to marry a beautiful girl and stay happily married to her for 39 years (with our 40th anniversary coming up in just a few months!). I got to have three wonderful children and now have four grandchildren to boot! The Lord has allowed me to actually have good relationships with all of them and I have to assert again, if it wasn’t for Him, I’m sure I’d have wrecked them all years ago. I certainly did my best to wreck them anyway, but, at just the right times, the Lord has saved me from myself, and now I literally owe my life to Him.
Once again, the old hymn plead, “Save me from its guilt and power.” For me, what stands out most is how He freed me from its power. That is also why I study the Bible—because I want to live. Jesus said, “When you know the truth, the truth shall set you free,” and so I want to be free. I don’t want to die any more. I want to live. I don’t want to be a slave to my own stupidity. I want His freedom. And absolutely, beyond any doubt, He constantly shows me truths in the Bible that liberate me from the darkness that is my own soul.
Jesus “was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.” As Paul goes on to relate in chapter 5, “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Peace with God. That is what we all need and that is exactly what God has made available to us all through the one thing we can do—believe. That was the pattern for Abraham 4,000 years ago and it is still the pattern for you and me today!
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