Romans 4:1–3: “What then shall we say that Abraham our father has found according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something of which to boast, but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? ‘Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.'”

April 29th, 2022 by Pastor Ed in devotional

The Apostle Paul was directing his argument directly at his Jewish readers in 1st-century Rome. The Jewish leadership looked to “Father Abraham” as the supreme example of a man who was righteous before God. The teachers of the law had been teaching “works righteousness” in direct contradiction to Scripture for many centuries. They were teaching that Abraham had kept the law perfectly, even before the law was given. They said that Abraham kept it in anticipation of the law that was coming. So Paul uses Abraham, the “Father of the Faith,” to show how far the Jewish teachers had moved away from true faith, showing that just the opposite is clearly recorded in the Book of Genesis, and that the Jew has no genetic advantage because his is a descendent of Abraham.

We love the humility of Bible expositor Pastor Harry Ironside. He was the pastor of Moody Church in Chicago 18 years. One summer while on vacation, he visited a Sunday School class in a local church. The teacher was struggling with the concept of salvation by faith. The teacher asked the class, “How were people saved in Old Testament times?” After a pause one man replied, ”By keeping the law.” “That’s right,” said the teacher. But Ironside could not remain silent and gently but firmly said, “My Bible says in Romans 3:20 that by works of the law shall no flesh be justified.” The young teacher was a little bit embarrassed and not knowing what else to do, asked, “Does anyone else have an idea?” Another in the class offered, “They were saved by bringing sacrifices to God.” “Yes, that’s right,” the teacher agreed and tried to go on to another part of the lesson. But again Dr. Ironside could not ignore this obvious error and once again, gently corrected the teacher by saying, “My Bible says in Hebrews 10:4 that the blood of bulls and goats cannot take away sin.” By this time the humbled teacher was sure that the visitor knew much more about the Bible than he did so he asked Ironside, “Please then tell us how people were saved in the Old Testament?” Ironside gently said, “By faith—the same way we are saved today.” OK, that’s simple. Why do we make it so hard?

“LORD, keep us close to Your word today and use us to humbly share the truth of Your amazing grace.”