1. What is your favorite board game? What makes it your favorite?
I am naturally a rule follower. For as long as I can remember, I have always felt a strong need to follow the provided rules. Whether it is a game, guidelines at a scenic park, or the directions of my boss, I have a hard time breaking clearly given rules. When it comes to games, if the rules are not clear, I get flustered. People who bend the rules and find loopholes drive me crazy.
2. Are you more of a rule-follower or a rule-breaker? Why?
3. Share a time you had an encounter with someone who felt differently about the rules than you did.
In Romans 4:13-25, Paul continues his example of Abraham, which he began at the beginning of chapter 4, by showing once again a proper understanding of the Law. This is a lesson that may be difficult to follow if you do not have your Bible open in front of you. If you need to download a Bible app or go and grab your Bible, please do so!
Romans 4:13-15 says, “For the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith. For if it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. For the law brings wrath, but where there is no law there is no transgression.”
Paul is giving a hypothetical example of an incorrect understanding of the Old Testament Law to draw out what a correct understanding looks like. In saying, “For if it is the adherents of the law who are to be the [Abraham’s] heirs, faith is null and the promise is void,” it is clear that the Law has its limits. Verse 15 shows the point of the Law, to bring “wrath.” Following the Law cannot save, but the Law does show the need for each person to be saved. Mike Winger put it well in saying, “Rules expose me as a rule-breaker.” Whether you think of the Ten Commandments when you think of the Law or one of the many Old Testament laws to the Israelites, without the Law, one cannot see their need for Jesus.
4. What rules do you struggle to follow? Do those rules have merit?
Romans 4:16-17 says, “That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring - not only to the adherent of the law but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham.” God’s promises to Abraham (that He would give him a son and that the nations would be blessed through him (to name a few) did not depend on Abraham’s perfect obedience to God to keep them. Rather, God made those promises based on His own faithfulness instead of Abraham’s. Abraham did not have to walk around fearing that God’s promises to him would be voided if he sinned because it depended on faith. Faith guaranteed this to Abraham and his heirs (Christians). In Christ, everyone who has confessed their sin and believed in Jesus’ perfect life, death, and resurrection has become heirs of Abraham. As the kids’ song goes, “Father Abraham had many sons, many sons had Father Abraham, I am one of them, and so are you.”
5. Have you made this declaration of Christ as your Lord? If so, when? If not, what is holding you back?
There is a dangerous belief called replacement theology, which says that the church has replaced Israel as God’s chosen people. While you and I (I am assuming you are a Gentile) are not Israelites and direct descendants of Abraham, Romans chapter 11 shows that the Church has been grafted in as God’s chosen people (See Romans 11:11-24 for further study).
A very dangerous, common belief is the one that says, “I have done more good than bad in my life so I know I am going to Heaven.” The person who believes their salvation depends on their good works is trapped. They never know if they have done enough good work; they are always striving to do another good thing “just to be safe.” Instead, those who have trusted Jesus for salvation can hold to His amazing words in John 10:27-30, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.”
6. How do you try and measure up? Why is it tempting to think that our good works can outweigh our bad works?
7. Why is this promise of Jesus in John chapter 10 so beautiful? How does it change or affirm your view of salvation?
Read Romans 4:17 again. “As it is written, ‘I have made you the father of many nations’ - in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.”
Think for a moment about the words we just read. God is the One who “gives life to the dead and calls into existence things that do not exist.” Who else can do that? No one except God! Time and time again, He has shown Himself faithful, yet we are often quick to believe the lies of the evil one and doubt God’s power and presence.
Read Romans 4:18-25 and continue to see Abraham shown as an example of faith.
Abraham believed the Lord. His faith was in the Lord and the commitment that the Lord had made to him. Because of this, God counted it as righteousness. Three times in the New Testament the writers recount this truth of Abraham’s faith being counted as righteousness before the Lord (Romans 4:3: Galatians 3:6: James 2:23).
8. How were people saved before the life, death, and resurrection of Christ?
Romans 4:20-25, speaking of Abraham, tells us, “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.’ But the words ‘it was counted to him’ were not written for his sake alone, but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.”
9. What similarities are there between Old Testament believers and Christians today? How is each saved? As we look back at the Messiah (Christ) today, Old Testament believers looked ahead to the coming of the Messiah. As they had to believe that the Lord would be faithful to His promises, today, we need to believe in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ (Romans 10:9).
Faith may seem like a small deal, but faith in who Jesus is and what He has accomplished on our behalf sets Christians apart from the world. You may feel like your faith is small, but Jesus said in Matthew 18:3-4, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.” Soon after that, we read Matthew 19:14, “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.” Children do not have all the answers, but they have great belief.
10. What lessons can be learned by adults about a child’s faith?
Harrison and Hagner, in their commentary on Romans, share an important note that we will conclude with, “To believe in a Christ who died for our sins is only half the gospel. The resurrection cannot be omitted - observe how Paul includes both aspects in Romans 6:3-4 when showing how the work of Christ provides the foundation for Christian living. For Paul, the death and resurrection of Christ belong together, and the former without the latter would be of little significance. Therefore, he rarely thinks of the one without the other.”