Romans 4: 1-3

(Romans 4: 1-3)

 

『What shall we say then that Abraham our father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath found?  For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not before God. For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. 』

 

What kind of faith do we choose? Do you believe that if you believe in Jesus, you are saved? Do you believe that “Jesus shed blood for me, and when I relied on the power of that blood, I am free from all sin and go on to the way of salvation”? However, God says in the Bible that "man will not be saved unless he is born of water and the Holy Spirit." God tells us to be born again, people value the blood of Jesus. The difference between people's faith and God's faith is the difference between man looking at sin and God looking at evil. Man thinks that if he is free from sin, he is saved, but God says that he must be saved only from the evil that causes sin. God says, "Salvation must be fundamentally changed." People make every effort to improve.

 

People think about faith: humans think and believe for themselves. God is saying that it is a gift to the born again. Therefore, since people believe in faith in a state full of evil, they do not receive grace from God. Although people have come to believe in God, they cannot be saved unless they receive the gift of God's grace. To obtain the gift of faith from God, it is impossible without repentance to deny self.『 Paul, a servant of God, and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God's elect, and the acknowledging of the truth which is after godliness; In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began; 』 (Titus 1: 1-2)

 

Faith is the faith of those whom God has chosen. The faith of the chosen ones is not the kind of faith they believe because they have been told by the church that "believing in Jesus is saved."『 But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. 』 (Galatians 3:23)

 

The law of Israel is the law of God's wrath. If people break one thing, it is a terrible law to be judged. All human beings are sinners who cannot escape the law. When people try to keep the law and realize that it is impossible for them to keep all the laws, they realize that they cannot be saved unless they deviate from the law. The way out of the law is to die on the cross with Jesus, who died by the law. God gives the dead the faith of revelation. The faith of this revelation is not obtained by human knowledge and experience.

 

『Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law? For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman. But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise. Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar. 』(Galatians 4:21-24))

Who are those who want to be under the law? They will be those who try to keep the law. Those who are born after the flesh are those under the law of Sinai. In parable, it is Ishmael son of Hagar.

 

『But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now. 』(Galatians 3:29) Ishmael was born after the flesh. He who follows the Holy Spirit is Isaac. Isaac was the son of Abraham when he was 100 years old. Isaac is born again. It is life from Sarah's dead womb. This faith is the gift of God. Abraham had a son in a state of physical impossibility. Ishmael tormented Isaac. Today, those who seek to keep the law persecute those who have followed the Holy Spirit. Those who follow the Holy Spirit are those who died on the cross with Jesus Christ.

 

In Genesis 17: 17-18, Abraham speaks at the age of 99. We see Abraham's failure to believe in God's promises.『Then Abraham fell upon his face, and laughed, and said in his heart, Shall a child be born unto him that is an hundred years old? and shall Sarah, that is ninety years old, bear? And Abraham said unto God, O that Ishmael might live before thee! 』

 

Although there is a word promised by God, the reason why we do not follow the word of promise is because the flesh responds. Since Abraham had a son named Ishmael, he changed God's promises to his own thoughts.

 

『 And God said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou shalt call his name Isaac: and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him. 』 (Genesis 17:19)

 

Even if the Bible says that we cannot be saved unless we are born again as spirit bodies, we have a body that can be seen with our eyes, so we change the word of God according to our own ideas. There was no promise of God in Abraham's heart until Isaac was born. There is no God's promise in our hearts until we are born again into the spirit body. Like Ishmael, those who look to the flesh are those under the law. But like Isaac, those who look to the body of the spirit are those who are under the law of the Holy Spirit.

 

『And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah's womb: He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform. And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness. 』 (Romans 4: 19-22)

 

When Abraham was 75 years old, he heard God's voice and left home. But the Bible tells us that faith at that time is not saved faith, but faith at the age of 100. Abraham's 100-year-old faith is what Luther realized: "It is saved by faith." It is not simply that if we believe we are saved, but saved faith is a gift to those who repent. If we do not have the faith of life, we cannot be saved. The faith of life is the faith of those who repent and die with Jesus. It is faith that cannot occur in the flesh. If you think there can be such faith, you must discard it. It is the faith of those who are born of the Spirit.『 But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name. 』 (John 20:31) If we are not born again, we cannot trust in the name of Jesus.