Abraham is not a heroic example for imitation, but a witness to the God who justifies the ungodly by promise!
A full quarter of your annual preaching could be Romans this year if you choose epistles through Trinity season. Fifteen weeks, and even with the first couple of Proper’s sliced off at the beginning (no Romans 1:8-17 or 3:21-28 this year), you get more than just the “greatest hits” version of Paul’s letter. Romans is a great teaching text, and a fantastic text to teach from. The apostle intended it that way, and it still teaches you and me today. Why not take the opportunity the “green” growth season of Pentecost offers to our Lord’s Church to grow in the Word through a study of Romans?
Jesus Christ dead and raised is clearly presented in this week’s epistle pericope as the fulfillment of promise. Abraham believed God’s promise that he would be the father of many nations, though he was as good as dead and so was Sarah his wife. The trust in God’s promise is what counted Abraham righteous. No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what He had promised. That is why his faith was “counted to him as righteousness” (Romans 4:20-22). Paul affirms that the promise is not to Abraham alone, but to all who share that trust (4:23-24). The audience of God’s promise and Paul’s Old Testament proof are the same: The many intended and immediate recipients of the first century epistle and you and your hearers this Sunday. That is the brilliant, universal emphasis in Paul’s application. It was not for Abraham’s sake that “counted to him” was written (Romans 4:23), it was for ours (4:24)! Abraham did not even have a Bible to read. Moses’ patriarchal narratives along with the rest of Torah would not be written down for another four hundred years. But what is written down aims at applying the promise in the present tense, a promise fulfilled in the death and life of Christ (4:24-25).
So, Christ’s death and life have a purpose and an audience. And the audience is everybody, all who believe in Him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord (4:24), that is, trust in the promise of God in Christ. It is that trust which justified Abraham, and the same trust that justifies folks still today. And the purpose of Christ’s death and life? Paul makes it explicit at 4:25: Jesus our Lord was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification. The prepositional phrases in play are both dia plus accusative case, which all my baby Greekies become habituated to translate as “onnaccounna” (on account of). It works in English for many situations but may not always render faithfully the intention of the original language. This is because the English phrase most often denotes causation, where the Greek may express a wider range of nuance, including purpose. This is why the English Standard Version “for” at 4:25 is a quite brilliant rendering. Jesus was delivered up for our trespasses (this would nuance as due to, because of, onnaccounna! our sins, sin not just as status but also the deeds that landed us there), and raised for our justification (Jesus was not raised because we were righteous, notice – justification is a status not realized except in the death and resurrection of Christ; Paul indicates that our justification is an end, a goal or result of Christ’s resurrection). Read Romans 4:25 and 5:18 together to appreciate the consistency of Paul’s perspective: As one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men.
Christ’s death and life, in other words, has one purpose and one effect. It was lived, died, and raised in order to justify and vivify. And (good news!) it has done so. You are justified in Christ. Proclamation of this fact produces the faith that grips the promise, not just for Abraham, but for all who hear it: It will be counted to us who believe in Him (Romans 4:24). Your task as preacher, then, is to proclaim the saving death and resurrection of Christ which forgives sin (delivered up for our trespasses) and justifies (raised for our justification), trusting that the proclamation of Christ produces exactly what the scripture says: The faith of Abraham that is credited to him as righteousness, and the faith of your hearer which receives the benefits of Christ’s death and life.
Christ’s death and life, in other words, has one purpose and one effect. It was lived, died, and raised in order to justify and vivify.
So, how do you proclaim Christ’s death and life responsibly, when the text of this Romans 4 pericope seems intent to narrate Abraham and Sarah substantially more than rehashing the life and times of Jesus? Is this not, in other words, more an exercise in exemplifying a faith story than it is a Jesus delivery? Should your preaching not follow suit if you want to preach biblically? Should you not simply exposit the patriarch and matriarch, taking the opportunity to teach Genesis as an example of following God in spite of uncertainty? I suggest distinguishing a choice (one between teaching on Abraham’s faith or delivering Jesus’ death and life for the salvation of your hearer) is a false dichotomy, one that misses a major point which, unfortunately, seems subtle to some and so bears repeating. Preacher, you do not produce faith by talking about faith. You do not create trust by offering a lesson or a lecture on trust. Faith talk is dead hand talk, because that is what faith is, the dead hand that receives the gifts God puts into it. Overhear in that reminder the extreme language Paul uses in this pericope about Abraham and Sarah: Who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist (4:17); believed against hope (4:18); his own body, which was as good as dead (4:19); the barrenness of Sarah’s womb (4:19). Never focus your preaching on the handiness of that dead hand, nor even on the deadness of it. Faith never talks about itself at all, never waves its own flag, proclaiming “look how much faith I have, look how big my faith is.” Faith only and ever talks about what it has received, confesses only the gift it grips. Faith confesses not itself but the Christ. Never “look how big my faith is,” but “look how big my Jesus is.”
As a result, how do you preach this practically? Two things above all. First, preach Abraham Christological rather than morally. Abraham is finally in Romans 4 not a heroic example for imitation, but a witness to the God who justifies the ungodly by promise! You do not want to leave your hearers admiring Abraham’s grit, resilience, uncertainty-management, or spiritual courage. You want them to believe in Christ, to trust His sufficiency, not Abraham’s and certainly not their own! As you treat this text, your sermon craft must let Abraham point beyond himself to the God who raises the dead in Christ. Paul dwells on Abraham’s faith because that is what clings to a promise, a specific promise fulfilled in Jesus crucified and raised. Preach Abraham as the one with dead hands who received Christ ahead of time. It is a story that anticipates Easter: God bringing life from barrenness, hope from death, righteousness not from achievement but from simply and desperately clinging to a promise. Abraham’s confession becomes the Church’s confession. It is not “look at faithful Abraham,” but rather “look at the God who keeps His promise in the death and resurrection of Jesus.” This directs your hearers not inward to some kind of quality in their believing, but rather outward, toward the crucified and risen Lord, the object of their faith.
Second, preach Christ’s death and resurrection as present-tense gifts for your hearer, not merely past-tense events to be explained. The patriarchal past can tempt us into thinking it is time for a history lesson, and that sort of teachiness can derail the primary purpose of the pulpit, which is proclamation over against pedagogy. Paul refuses to leave Jesus in history alone. So should you. These are not names, dates, and events. They are purposive and quite present: Jesus was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification. That is how Paul preached it and, again, so should you. The sermon is not a lecture about how justification works in theory, any more than it is mere explanation of Abraham’s mindset. The sermon is, rather, the living proclamation that Christ’s death has answered for your hearer’s sin, and Christ’s resurrection is God’s verdict of righteousness, imputed to her, spoken over her, identifying her, spoken into her ears, and spoken into her conscience in the now.
Preach in such a way that your people leave not merely informed about Romans 4 but absolved by Romans 4. Let your hearers concretely and personally hear that Christ has carried their trespasses to the cross, and His resurrection means their justification is real. That it stands already (present tense!) secure before God and will to the last day (now and not yet). Your sermon will deliver the goods not by producing “admiration for faith” but by handing over Christ Himself in promise. Faith will follow, because faith is born from hearing the preached Christ (Romans 10:17), just as Abraham trusted the God who gives life to the dead.
God bless your preaching this week!
Additional Resources:
Craft of Preaching-Check out 1517’s resources on Romans 4:13-25.
Concordia Theology-Various helps from Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, MO to assist you preaching Romans 4:13-25.
Lectionary Kick-Start-Check out this fantastic podcast from Craft of Preaching authors Peter Nafzger and David Schmitt as they dig into the texts for this Sunday!
The Pastor’s Workshop-Check out all the great preaching resources from our friends at the Pastor’s Workshop!
