And as a result of Abraham’s faith, as a result of his confident trust in God’s promise, it was reckoned, or credited to him as righteousness. To reckon or credit literally means to put credit to ones account who has no credit or account. God gave credit to Abraham, who had no credit or standing before God. And what God gave Abraham was righteousness, which as we discovered earlier in this series is the quality or state of being right with God. As a result of his confident trust in God’s promise, Abraham was given credit by God as being right with Him.
And in the same way today, for us to receive rescue from selfishness and sin requires that we trust in God’s promise regardless of our circumstances. We see Paul reveal this reality for us as he concludes this section of his letter:
Now not for his sake only was it written that it was credited to him, but for our sake also, to whom it will be credited, as those who believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, He who was delivered over because of our transgressions, and was raised because of our justification.Here we see Paul explain that the story of Abraham is recorded for us in the Bible to reveal for us the reality that all humanity throughout history receives rescue from selfish rebellion and sin only by placing their confident trust in God and His promises. For Abraham, it was his confident trust in God’s promise that he would be the forerunner who would be the Father of many nations, both Jewish and non-Jewish. Little did Abraham know at the time, that he would also be an example to follow, for all humanity, both religious and irreligious, as to how one can be rescued from the problem that selfishness and sin presents.
For the members of the church at Rome, and us today, when one places their confident trust in God’s promise of rescue from our selfishness and sin by believing, trusting and following Jesus as Lord and Leader, it is reckoned, or credited to them as righteousness. God gives credit to those who had no credit or standing before God. And what God gives those who believe, trust, and follow Jesus as Lord and Leader is righteousness, which as we discovered earlier in this series is the quality or state of being right with God. Paul concludes by reminding us that Jesus Christ entered into humanity to be handed over to be treated as though He lived our selfish and sinful lives so that we could be treated as though we lived Jesus perfect life; so that we could be declared not guilty of having a problem with God.
So what are you focused on? Where are you placing your trust? Maybe as you look at your circumstances, you feel like there is nothing that you can possibly do to rescue yourself. Your circumstances are overwhelming: you have done selfish things that have hurt God and others that you are ashamed of. You feel that your circumstances are beyond repair.
And the reality is that you are absolutely right. And you are exactly like every other person on the planet. You see, Christians are not better than non-Christians; they are just different. And there is only one difference between a Christian and a non-Christian; the only difference between and follower of Jesus and those who do not follow Jesus is that the follower of Jesus has been forgiven and rescued. The follower of Jesus has responded to their circumstances of selfishness and rebellion by receiving the rescue that comes from trusting in God’s promises instead of our performance or our circumstances.
And the timeless hope we have is that we can receive the forgiveness of sin and enter into the relationship with God that you were created for by trusting in God’s promise by believing trusting and following Jesus as Lord and Leader. Because, the timeless reality is that Rescue requires trusting in God’s promises regardless of our circumstances.
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