Taking God at His Word
by Randy Chambers, 2014-04-28
Romans 4:3, NIV: What does the Scripture say? Abraham
believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness."
Faith is a word that is difficult for many of us to define. In Romans, The last part of
chapter 3 through the first part of chapter 5, Paul uses the word "faith" at
least 20 times in effort to convey understanding of saving faith. Even after reading
his discourse, many of us may still have difficulty defining faith in our own words.
Hebrews 11:1 states that "faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence
of things unseen." But even this definition contains abstract imagery which spurs a
variant of ideas from person to person. A simple way I have heard it stated is that
"faith is simply putting your trust in God." Simply put, we take God at His
word--that which he says He will do, He will do (Rom. 4:21; Num. 23:19; Jer. 1:12). The
same faith that saves us today, saved Abraham many centuries before Jesus was born.
"Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness." We believe
God regarding Christ, we take Him at His word that Christ is our salvation--our
righteousness (Rom. 1:16). We believe God, and it is counted as righteousness.
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