{"id":1439,"date":"2010-01-06T17:53:02","date_gmt":"2010-01-06T23:53:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ministryofgrace.org\/blog\/?p=1439"},"modified":"2010-01-06T17:53:02","modified_gmt":"2010-01-06T23:53:02","slug":"romans-413-promise-received-through-faith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/romans-413-promise-received-through-faith\/","title":{"rendered":"Romans 4:13 – Promise Received through Faith"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Romans 4:13<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

For the promise that he would be the heir of the world<\/span> was<\/span><\/em> not to Abraham or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.<\/span><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

Truth to Learn<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

God\u2019s promise of salvation is based on faith, not obedience.<\/p>\n

Behind the Words<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

The word translated \u201cpromise<\/span>\u201d is epangelia<\/span><\/em>, which is made up of epi<\/span><\/em>, used as an intensifier, and angel\u014d<\/span><\/em>, meaning \u201cto tell\u201d or \u201cto declare.\u201d Hence, epangelia<\/span><\/em> refers to \u201ca message, a summons, or a promise.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHeir<\/span>\u201d is from the Greek word kl\u0113ronomos<\/span><\/em>, which is made up of kl\u0113ros<\/span><\/em>, meaning \u201ca lot\u201d or \u201ca die\u201d and a form of nem\u014d<\/span><\/em>, meaning \u201cto have in one\u2019s possession\u201d or \u201cto distribute.\u201d This word is a reference to the person who possesses the right to receive an inheritance.<\/p>\n

Meaning Explained<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Paul is covering all the bases, making sure that the Christians in Rome who are predominantly Jewish have no way to twist what he is saying into anything resembling \u201crighteousness through obedience.\u201d This verse says something a little bit different from what we found back in verse 10. That verse had to do with righteousness being imputed as a result of faith. This verse is talking about the promises that God made to Abraham. These promises include:<\/p>\n

\u00b7 <\/span><\/span><\/span>Gen 12:2<\/span><\/strong> \u2013 that God would make of Abraham a great nation<\/p>\n

\u00b7 <\/span><\/span><\/span>Gen 12:3<\/span><\/strong> \u2013 that in him all the families of the earth should be blessed<\/p>\n

\u00b7 <\/span><\/span><\/span>Gen 15:5<\/span><\/strong> \u2013 that his descendents should be as numerous as the stars<\/p>\n

\u00b7 <\/span><\/span><\/span>Gen 17:5<\/span><\/strong> \u2013 that he should be the father of many nations<\/p>\n

It is probably this last promise to which Paul is specifically referring when he says that \u201c\u2026 he would be the heir of the world.<\/span>\u201d<\/p>\n

His point is that this promise was made to Abraham through the righteousness that comes from faith, not from obedience to the Law. In fact, if you read the Old Testament carefully you will discover that the Law of Moses came some 300 years after Abraham died. Hence, not only was he declared righteous through faith (just as we are declared righteous by faith) but the great promises that were made to Abraham (like the promises that are made to us) were given to him in faith, not obedience. That is, Abraham didn\u2019t have to be obedient in order to receive the promises, he simply had to believe.<\/p>\n

In a similar manner, the promises made to us concerning our salvation are not dependent on us being obedient before or after we are saved, they are based solely on our \u201conce for all time\u201d saving faith. In other words, there is no sin that we can commit that will prevent God\u2019s promises from being fulfilled if we have truly accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior!<\/p>\n

These promises are based on faith, not obedience! Hallelujah!<\/p>\n

Application<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Perhaps you are convinced now that you can\u2019t earn your salvation. But do you realize that you can\u2019t keep your salvation (receive God\u2019s promise to you) by obedience either? <\/span><\/p>\n

In God\u2019s service, for His glory,<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"signature\"<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2010 Will Krause. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –<\/p>\n

<\/span>If this message or this link was forwarded to you by a friend and you wish to receive future verses directly to your inbox, you can call the church phone \"\"(618) 614-3070<\/span><\/span><\/span> and leave a message telling us your name and e-mail address or you can send an e-mail to:\"e-mail<\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Romans 4:13 For the promise that he would be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. Truth to Learn God\u2019s promise of salvation is based on faith, not obedience. Behind the Words The word translated \u201cpromise\u201d is epangelia, which is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[612,204,630,330,592],"class_list":["post-1439","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-abraham","tag-faith","tag-heir","tag-promise","tag-world"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pd5geA-nd","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1439","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1439"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1439\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}