---

Psalm 33:1–12 • Genesis 12:1–9 • Romans 4:13–25 • Matthew 9:9–13, 18–26

Today’s theme is God keeps his promises. Our call to worship psalm celebrates the righteousness and faithfulness of the Lord who called into existence all that came to be. Our Old Testament reading from Genesis recounts the calling of Abraham that marks the beginning of God’s work of salvation for the whole world. The epistolary reading from Romans revisits the call of Abraham with a focus on God’s promise of inheriting the world to those who trust in the Lord. The Gospel text in Matthew positions Jesus’ calling of tax collectors and his healing of a woman along with his raising of a young girl between his statement that he did not come to call the righteous but sinners.

Reminder: This introductory paragraph is intended to show how the four RCL selections for this week are connected and to assist the preacher prepare the sermon. It is not intended to be included in the sermon.

How to use this sermon resource.

God Keeps His Promises

Romans 4:13–25 NIV

Don’t we all long for healthy relationships — for secure relationships with people we can trust? Have you ever had someone break a promise to you? Probably all of us have. [Consider making this personal. Share an example from your life.] We know the pain of broken trust. We also fall short of keeping our promises.

But here’s good news: God is not like us in this way. God keeps his promises. Always.

This promise-keeping faithfulness is at the heart of the passage we’re looking at today, which speaks about righteousness. Many people associate righteousness with rule-following or simply being a good person. Biblically, however, righteousness is first and foremost about relationship — about being in a right relationship with God.

And here’s more good news: “the righteousness of God is given through faith in Jesus to all who believe” (Romans 3:21 NIV). In other words, right relationship with God is not something we achieve; it is something we receive as a gift.

That is why Scripture speaks so often about faith. God calls us to faith, to believe in him, which is another way of saying that he calls us to trust him. And this call to trust makes sense because God has shown himself to be completely trustworthy. Right relationship always depends on trust.

Crucially, this trust is grounded in who God is. God is a triune God — Father, Son, and Spirit. God is not a solitary or distant deity, but three-in-one. God is in himself a righteous relationship trust. There is never a hint of doubt or suspicion between Father, Son, Spirit.

And that is the very relationship we are called into by our loving Father. The right relationship the Son has with his Father, by the Spirit, is the very relationship the Son shares with us. He includes us in this relationship of perfect trust — the relationship we long for and our hearts were made for.

So, let’s read our passage by Paul, who was a key early Christian leader and missionary who spread the message of Jesus and wrote many letters in the New Testament. The book of Romans is one of those letters.

¹³ It was not through the law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of the world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith. ¹⁴ For if those who depend on the law are heirs, faith means nothing and the promise is worthless, ¹⁵ because the law brings wrath. And where there is no law there is no transgression.

¹⁶ Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring—not only to those who are of the law but also to those who have the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all. ¹⁷ As it is written: “I have made you a father of many nations.” He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed—the God who gives life to the dead and calls into being things that were not.

¹⁸ Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” ¹⁹ Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead—since he was about a hundred years old—and that Sarah’s womb was also dead. ²⁰ Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, ²¹ being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. ²² This is why “it was credited to him as righteousness.” ²³ The words “it was credited to him” were written not for him alone, ²⁴ but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness—for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. ²⁵ He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification. Romans 4:13–25 NIV

Before we understand Romans 4, we need to understand the story behind it, because the apostle Paul is talking about Abraham who lived two thousand years before Jesus was born. He’s considered the ancestor of the Jewish people, but more importantly, he’s someone to whom God made a promise.

And God keeps his promises.

God promised him three things — a land for his descendants, a family, and a blessing. Abraham’s family would grow into a nation and through his family, all nations would be blessed.

This week is a great time to read the story beginning in Genesis 12. Why not read it together with others?

Years passed after that promise, and nothing happened. There was still no child, no family, no land, and no nation. In Genesis 15, Abraham said, “Lord, you promised me descendants, but I still have no child.” God told him to look up at the sky and count the stars if he could. Then God said, “So shall your offspring be.” And “Abraham believed the Lord, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” Abraham trusted God — not because the situation made sense, but because he believed that God keeps his promises.

Eventually Abraham and his wife, Sarah, did have a son named Isaac. Over time their family grew into a nation called Israel. Centuries later God rescued Israel from slavery in Egypt, and through their leader, Moses, God gave them something called the Law. The Law was a set of instructions showing people what life with God should look like. It shaped Israel’s worship, their ethics, their justice, and their daily life. But the Law also revealed something difficult about the human condition. Even when we know what is right, we struggle to live the way God designed us to live.

Now we come to Paul’s letter to the Romans. The church in Rome included two different groups of people. Some were Jewish followers of Jesus who had grown up with the Law of Moses. Others were Gentiles — non-Jewish people who had no background in the Law at all. This created tension in the church, and a question emerged: What about Abraham? Surely Abraham stands as the supreme example of righteousness before God. Paul agrees — but not in the way some might expect.

Long before the law was given, Abraham trusted God’s promise, and “it was credited to him as righteousness” (verse 22, quoting Genesis 15:6). Paul’s understanding of faith is trust that leads to righteousness or right-relationship. And Paul is using Abraham as his strongest evidence for his argument.

See, earlier in the letter, Paul established that Abraham was declared righteous by faith, not by following the law. Now he explores further the nature of that promise given to Abraham and the kind of faith which enables him to receive it.

As he does so, he draws Abraham’s story into direct connection with our own. In this way, he is reminding us of God’s call and promise to us to trust in him for righteousness. God is inviting us today to receive and have part in the very relationship Jesus has with the Father by the Spirit. And answering that call requires faith, trust. God has proven his faithfulness in the Lord Jesus, and we can trust his call to us, and we can trust his promises.

Let’s go back to verse 13: “It was not through the law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of the world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith.” In Genesis, the promise is spoken in terms of land, offspring, and blessing. Paul interprets it in light of God’s unfolding purposes and dares to say that Abraham was promised inheritance of “the world.” The promise to Abraham always pointed toward God’s intention to bless all creation.

However, what matters most for Paul is not the scope of the promise but the means by which it was given. The promise did not come through the law. Abraham naturally did not earn it by obedience to commandments that had not yet been given. The law of Moses would come centuries later. The promise came “through the righteousness of faith.” Notice Paul’s choice of words here. He could have said simply “through faith,” but he specifies “through the righteousness of faith.”

Faith is not some psychological attitude or a religious feeling. Faith is how we receive what God gives. When we understand faith as trust, that makes perfect sense. We cannot receive from one we do not trust unless it is under coercion or force. And God does neither. He calls us to know him, and in coming to know him we come to see that he is trustworthy.

God is not building a relationship with you based on your performance. God builds it on his promise.

“For if those who depend on the law are heirs, faith means nothing and the promise is worthless,” (verse 14).

If inheritance depends on law-keeping, then faith has no role to play, and the promise itself collapses under the weight of human failure. Relationship with God becomes contractual, not built on trust. Verse 15: “because the law brings wrath. And where there is no law there is no transgression.” The law, good and holy as it is, exposes sin and reveals humanity’s inability to secure righteousness on our own. It shows us what is required, but it cannot give us the power to fulfill it. The law can name what is good, but it cannot give the power to live it. If the promise depended on the law, there would be no relationship, only a contract we could not uphold.

Verse 16: “Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring …” Faith and grace belong together. Faith receives what grace gives. And because the promise rests on grace, it is secure — not only for those who live under the law, but also for those who share the faith of Abraham. Here Paul expands the family of Abraham beyond ethnic or legal boundaries. Abraham is “the father of us all. As it is written, ‘I have made you the father of many nations’” (verse 16–17).

This is a radical claim. Abraham, the ancestor of Israel, is also the ancestor of all who believe. Not by blood, but by faith, by trust in God’s promise. The people of God are defined not by ancestry or achievement, but by faith in the God who makes promises and keeps them.

Abraham believed in God “… who gives life to the dead and calls into being things that were not” (verse 17). God brings into existence what does not exist! This is not an abstract theological statement. It is rooted in Abraham’s own experience, an experience written down for our benefit. Abraham and Sarah were old. The promise of descendants as numerous as the stars seemed absurd. And yet Abraham believed.

“Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations …” (verse 18). This is not blind optimism or denial of reality. Paul is clear: Abraham did not ignore the facts. Abraham and Sarah’s bodies were, as Paul says, “as good as dead” when it came to producing children (verse 19). Faith does not pretend that circumstances are different than they are.

Faith faces reality honestly — and then trusts God anyway. That can be a word of encouragement for us today. As God calls us to himself, we grow to realize that he is stronger than all that opposes us. He is also wiser than all we think we know. So, we can trust him even when things do not seem to add up, as they did not add up for Abraham. But in time, we come to see that God is faithful even with the odds are stacked against us. Ultimately, we see this played out most dramatically in his relationship with his own Son. God is faithful to Jesus even when he dies on a cross.

Let’s continue. “Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised” (verse 20–21).

Here we see the heart of biblical faith. Faith is not confidence in oneself; it is confidence in God. It is being fully convinced that God is able to do what God has promised. That is why his faith was “credited to him as righteousness” (verse 22). Abraham was rightly related to God, not because he was flawless or heroic, but because he trusted the God who gives life to the dead. And that undoubtedly nods in the direction of Jesus’ resurrection.

The words “it was credited to him” were written not for him alone, 24 but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness—for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. Romans 4:23–24 NIV

This is our story. Abraham trusted God to bring life where there was none — a son in his old age. And Christians trust God for something even greater — God’s Son.

Jesus “was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification” ( verse 25). Jesus was put to death for our sin, for the wrong we have done. He was betrayed, arrested, and executed — but this was not a meaningless tragedy. His death, his crucifixion took seriously the harm, brokenness, and failure that mark human life.

And Jesus did not stay dead. God raised him back to life to show that sin and death do not have the final word. The resurrection is God’s way of saying, “This work is finished.” The resurrection declares that God keeps his promises faithfully.

A restored relationship with God is now open to everyone who trusts him. Together, we are being invited into a new family, a new life, a new way of being and moving through the world. This new collective vocation, new purpose is shared. Because God keeps his promises to us, we can become a community where promises are kept, where trust is rebuilt, and where people are safe. Faith and trusting God are now a part of our shared life as the Body of Christ.

God keeps his promises.

At its heart, the letter to the Romans is the good news of what God has done in Jesus Christ for the salvation of the world. Righteousness does not come through following the law, human achievement, or moral performance. It comes as a gift of grace, received through faith. The righteousness that makes us right with God is not achieved; it is received. And it is received through faith, a trust in the God who raises the dead.

We are invited to face the truth about ourselves alongside the truth about who God is. Like Abraham, we look honestly at reality — our limits, our weakness, our tendency to rely on ourselves. And yet we are also called to see something more solid: God is more faithful than we are and he will never let us down. God meets us in the truth about ourselves and does for us what we cannot do.

Because this is a gift, faith — understood as trust — stands at the center. It challenges our pride and self‑reliance. We are not called to trust ourselves, but our heavenly Father. In this way, we all stand on the same ground before God.

The promise made to Abraham eventually led to Jesus. Jesus was born into Abraham’s family line, but he was far more than just another descendant. In Jesus, God himself entered human history. God stepped into our world as Jesus. Jesus trusted the Father perfectly for us. Jesus lived the faithful life we could not live. Jesus died the death we deserved. Jesus shares his relationship with the Father with us through the Spirit.

Because God keeps his promises to us, we can become a community where promises are kept, where trust is built , and where people are safe. God is not just saving individuals. God is saving and forming us together into a loving community that reflects his mission to restore the world. And God includes us in that mission — because Jesus has already done the work.

When we step back, we can see that the whole Trinity is involved in this story of salvation. The Father makes the promise. The Son fulfills it. The Spirit brings it to life in us.

God keeps his promises.

---

---

Small Group Discussion Questions