The One Year Bible Club with Teaching
Commentary by Nick Boork
July 18
Romans 4:13-5:5
Commentary by Nick Boork
July 18
Romans 4:13-5:5
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July 18 ~ Romans 4:13-5:5
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. 14 For if those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made void and the promise made of no effect, 15 because the law brings about wrath; for where there is no law there is no transgression.
16 Therefore it is of faith that it might be according to grace, so that the promise might be sure to all the seed, not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all 17 (as it is written, “I have made you a father of many nations”) in the presence of Him whom he believed—God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did;
18 who, contrary to hope, in hope believed, so that he became the father of many nations, according to what was spoken, “So shall your descendants be.” 19 And not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body, already dead (since he was about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah’s womb. 20 He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, 21 and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform. 22 And therefore “it was accounted to him for righteousness.”
23 Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him, 24 but also for us. It shall be imputed to us who believe in Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, 25 who was delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification.
5 Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3 And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; 4 and perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
OKAY HERE’S MY COMMENTARY
Getting ahead of God will produce Ishmael’s…In this portion of Scripture we see Abraham receiving the promises of God by faith but he took a detour on the way. God spoke to Abraham and told him that he was going to make him the father of many nations. Abraham believed what God said to him. We know that Abraham struggled to believe the promises of God because he tried to figure out how they would happen. He decided that he would help God. Instead of waiting for the promised child to be born through his wife Sarah he came up with a brilliant plan reasoning in his own mind that because Sarah was so old she would never be able to have children again so maybe it was the plan of God for Abraham to receive the promise of God through Hagar, one of the household employees, Sarah’s maid. Sarah even agreed to this initially.
How did that work out for Abraham? Well, a child was conceived alright. But this child was not the child promise but of the flesh and not of faith. When this child was born Abraham named him Ishmael. However, this was Abraham’s idea not God’s. About twelve years later Sarah did conceive miraculously and gave birth to the child of promise whose name was Isaac. This brought great hostility between Sarah and Hagar. Abraham had to send Hagar and Ishmael away. When we get a head of God and try to make the plan of God happened in our own power we will produce Ishmael’s! If you’re listening and your name is Ishmael, no offense, I’m just saying…we can apply the same principle to our own lives and ministries. It’s never a good idea to rush the things of God because the Lord knows everything and has a perfect timing for his purposes to be realized in our lives.
How do you know if you have produced an Ishmael getting ahead of God? If we disobey God, the result will be a total lack of peace and potentially lots of confusion and hostility. Remember, the Bible says God is not the author of confusion but of peace. If what we are doing does not produce peace in our own spirit, I’m talking about the inner man, it’s probably not the will of God because the Holy Spirit will always bear witness on the inside of us and lead us to do the will of the Lord. We can apply this principle of “right timing” to every aspect of our lives. God may be calling you to pastor a church but you need to trust him for this and learn to wait upon him and allow him to open the door and place you as a pastor in his timing. God may be leading you to start a business but you have to do it his way and in his time to succeed. For most of us marriage is the plan of God but some get ahead of the timing of God and rush into marriage unprepared and suffer the consequences. It’s never a good idea to rush anything especially the major decisions in our lives.
I have learned it’s better to wait upon the Lord for him to go ahead of me and open the doors and cause things to work together according to his purpose for my life instead of me trying to force things to happen before the time or outside of the purpose of God for my life. Whenever I get ahead of God, anxiety sets in and I don’t sense that inner peace and confidence of being in the middle of the will of God. When you are in the middle of the will of God for your life doing things in the right time all hell can be breaking loose around you but on the inside, you have faith, peace, boldness and confidence in the Lord and you will see him moving mountains of opposition out-of-the-way by faith!
I will never forget the time that my wife Yngris and I took a job working in security at metro airport in Detroit. We did this right after we returned from the Dominican Republic serving two years as missionaries. We believed that God was calling us to Singapore. One of the benefits of being an employee of this security company was that after one year of service you received a bonus of getting free standby tickets to fly anywhere on Northwest. At that time, Northwest was flying to Singapore and we thought to ourselves surely this was the opportunity we’ve been looking for to travel to Singapore and spy out the land so to speak. Well, after we worked our tails off for the security company it went belly up and lost its contract with Northwest after we had been there for ten months! Talk about discouragement. Our hopes and plans of going to Singapore fell apart. We just did not have the money to go.
However, about 10 years later after we had started a commercial cleaning company and the Lord blessed and prospered us financially, God began to get our attention again about Singapore. During this “waiting time” we developed all kinds of evangelistic outreach and matured in our faith and walk with God. Our characters were strengthened through perseverance, faithfully serving God. This time, the door opened wide with an invitation from a church in Singapore to come and help them. Now we also had plenty of money to pay our own way! We did end up going to Singapore and serving as missionaries for over three years, planted a church and saw God move in mighty ways but it was in his time, not ours.
WHAT'S THE BOTTOM LINE?
1) God does have a purpose and plan for each of our lives.
2) When the Lord reveals his purpose for your life learn to wait upon him in prayer.
3) We must not get ahead of God and try like Abraham to help God to fulfill his purpose and plan by coming up with our own ingenious schemes which many times will produce something but not what God desires but rather like Abraham an Ishmael that will cause you a lot of trouble, contention and grief.
4) God is so faithful and good. He knows the right time and the right way for us to fulfill what he is called us to do.
5) It’s the waiting part that we don’t like. We live in a microwave society. We wanted now and we want it all five minutes ago! However, God does not work this way.
6) The Lord will use the waiting time to develop our character, strengthen, mature us and get us ready step-by-step to fulfill his plan for our lives. The Lord usually doesn’t do things early but he’s never late either!
7) When you are in the middle of the will of God the Lord will be with you in supernatural ways just like Abraham and Sarah that brought forth Isaac the child promise by the power of God. Seek God earnestly for his perfect timing about everything and He will bless you with his best in your life and ministry!
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. 14 For if those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made void and the promise made of no effect, 15 because the law brings about wrath; for where there is no law there is no transgression.
16 Therefore it is of faith that it might be according to grace, so that the promise might be sure to all the seed, not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all 17 (as it is written, “I have made you a father of many nations”) in the presence of Him whom he believed—God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did;
18 who, contrary to hope, in hope believed, so that he became the father of many nations, according to what was spoken, “So shall your descendants be.” 19 And not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body, already dead (since he was about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah’s womb. 20 He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, 21 and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform. 22 And therefore “it was accounted to him for righteousness.”
23 Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him, 24 but also for us. It shall be imputed to us who believe in Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, 25 who was delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification.
5 Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3 And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; 4 and perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
OKAY HERE’S MY COMMENTARY
Getting ahead of God will produce Ishmael’s…In this portion of Scripture we see Abraham receiving the promises of God by faith but he took a detour on the way. God spoke to Abraham and told him that he was going to make him the father of many nations. Abraham believed what God said to him. We know that Abraham struggled to believe the promises of God because he tried to figure out how they would happen. He decided that he would help God. Instead of waiting for the promised child to be born through his wife Sarah he came up with a brilliant plan reasoning in his own mind that because Sarah was so old she would never be able to have children again so maybe it was the plan of God for Abraham to receive the promise of God through Hagar, one of the household employees, Sarah’s maid. Sarah even agreed to this initially.
How did that work out for Abraham? Well, a child was conceived alright. But this child was not the child promise but of the flesh and not of faith. When this child was born Abraham named him Ishmael. However, this was Abraham’s idea not God’s. About twelve years later Sarah did conceive miraculously and gave birth to the child of promise whose name was Isaac. This brought great hostility between Sarah and Hagar. Abraham had to send Hagar and Ishmael away. When we get a head of God and try to make the plan of God happened in our own power we will produce Ishmael’s! If you’re listening and your name is Ishmael, no offense, I’m just saying…we can apply the same principle to our own lives and ministries. It’s never a good idea to rush the things of God because the Lord knows everything and has a perfect timing for his purposes to be realized in our lives.
How do you know if you have produced an Ishmael getting ahead of God? If we disobey God, the result will be a total lack of peace and potentially lots of confusion and hostility. Remember, the Bible says God is not the author of confusion but of peace. If what we are doing does not produce peace in our own spirit, I’m talking about the inner man, it’s probably not the will of God because the Holy Spirit will always bear witness on the inside of us and lead us to do the will of the Lord. We can apply this principle of “right timing” to every aspect of our lives. God may be calling you to pastor a church but you need to trust him for this and learn to wait upon him and allow him to open the door and place you as a pastor in his timing. God may be leading you to start a business but you have to do it his way and in his time to succeed. For most of us marriage is the plan of God but some get ahead of the timing of God and rush into marriage unprepared and suffer the consequences. It’s never a good idea to rush anything especially the major decisions in our lives.
I have learned it’s better to wait upon the Lord for him to go ahead of me and open the doors and cause things to work together according to his purpose for my life instead of me trying to force things to happen before the time or outside of the purpose of God for my life. Whenever I get ahead of God, anxiety sets in and I don’t sense that inner peace and confidence of being in the middle of the will of God. When you are in the middle of the will of God for your life doing things in the right time all hell can be breaking loose around you but on the inside, you have faith, peace, boldness and confidence in the Lord and you will see him moving mountains of opposition out-of-the-way by faith!
I will never forget the time that my wife Yngris and I took a job working in security at metro airport in Detroit. We did this right after we returned from the Dominican Republic serving two years as missionaries. We believed that God was calling us to Singapore. One of the benefits of being an employee of this security company was that after one year of service you received a bonus of getting free standby tickets to fly anywhere on Northwest. At that time, Northwest was flying to Singapore and we thought to ourselves surely this was the opportunity we’ve been looking for to travel to Singapore and spy out the land so to speak. Well, after we worked our tails off for the security company it went belly up and lost its contract with Northwest after we had been there for ten months! Talk about discouragement. Our hopes and plans of going to Singapore fell apart. We just did not have the money to go.
However, about 10 years later after we had started a commercial cleaning company and the Lord blessed and prospered us financially, God began to get our attention again about Singapore. During this “waiting time” we developed all kinds of evangelistic outreach and matured in our faith and walk with God. Our characters were strengthened through perseverance, faithfully serving God. This time, the door opened wide with an invitation from a church in Singapore to come and help them. Now we also had plenty of money to pay our own way! We did end up going to Singapore and serving as missionaries for over three years, planted a church and saw God move in mighty ways but it was in his time, not ours.
WHAT'S THE BOTTOM LINE?
1) God does have a purpose and plan for each of our lives.
2) When the Lord reveals his purpose for your life learn to wait upon him in prayer.
3) We must not get ahead of God and try like Abraham to help God to fulfill his purpose and plan by coming up with our own ingenious schemes which many times will produce something but not what God desires but rather like Abraham an Ishmael that will cause you a lot of trouble, contention and grief.
4) God is so faithful and good. He knows the right time and the right way for us to fulfill what he is called us to do.
5) It’s the waiting part that we don’t like. We live in a microwave society. We wanted now and we want it all five minutes ago! However, God does not work this way.
6) The Lord will use the waiting time to develop our character, strengthen, mature us and get us ready step-by-step to fulfill his plan for our lives. The Lord usually doesn’t do things early but he’s never late either!
7) When you are in the middle of the will of God the Lord will be with you in supernatural ways just like Abraham and Sarah that brought forth Isaac the child promise by the power of God. Seek God earnestly for his perfect timing about everything and He will bless you with his best in your life and ministry!
ORDINATION
We provide Ministry Credentials and Ordination through Diamond Ministerial Association. Click to learn more and apply! http://www.diamondinstitute.org/ordination
ONLINE COURSES
For Bible courses and ministry resources see our online school Diamond Institute. Enroll free today and get access to our free and pay as you go courses. http://www.diamondinstitute.org/enroll
We provide Ministry Credentials and Ordination through Diamond Ministerial Association. Click to learn more and apply! http://www.diamondinstitute.org/ordination
ONLINE COURSES
For Bible courses and ministry resources see our online school Diamond Institute. Enroll free today and get access to our free and pay as you go courses. http://www.diamondinstitute.org/enroll
