Watch video on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5mXo52zhuM
Program Transcript
Romans: New Life Through Christ
Most people know what it feels like to wrestle with change. We recognize the gap between the life we hope for and the life we often experience. We try to do better, try to grow, try to move forward. Yet sometimes the struggle itself reminds us how much we need help beyond our own strength.
In Romans, the apostle Paul speaks directly into that human experience. He reminds us that our relationship with God does not begin with our effort, but with God’s grace received through faith. Through Jesus, the Father draws humanity into a relationship of grace and transformation by the Spirit.
Long before laws, rituals, or systems of religious performance, there was a man who simply trusted the promise of God. Abraham believed that the God who gives life to the dead and calls things into existence could fulfill what he had promised.
This trust became the foundation of his relationship with God. Abraham’s story reminds us that faith is not about perfect certainty or flawless obedience. It is about trusting the
faithfulness of the One who makes the promise.
From this foundation of faith, Paul unfolds the larger story of salvation. Through Jesus Christ, humanity is brought into peace with God. What was once broken has been reconciled. What was once marked by fear now stands within grace.
Salvation is not a single moment but a living story with depth and movement. We have been welcomed into peace with God. We are being shaped and renewed through the work of the Spirit. And we look forward with hope to the fullness of life God is preparing.
Even our hardships can become places where hope grows. Perseverance shapes character, and character deepens hope, until we discover that God’s love has already been poured into our hearts.
Paul then turns to one of the most powerful truths in the gospel. Through Christ’s death and resurrection, we are invited into a new way of living. The old patterns that once held us
captive no longer define who we are. We are called to live as people who belong to a different kingdom.
This does not mean perfection overnight. Instead, it means that our lives are now shaped by a new allegiance. Where sin once held authority, grace now leads us toward righteousness and life.
Yet Paul does not pretend that the journey is easy. In one of the most honest reflections in all of Scripture, he describes the struggle many believers recognize within themselves. The desire to do what is good meets the persistent pull of old habits and broken patterns.
This tension reveals something important. The law can name what is good, but it cannot give the power to live it. The struggle itself reminds us that our hope does not rest in our own strength, but in the grace of God at work within us.
Romans reminds us that the Christian life is not a straight path of effortless progress. It is a journey shaped by trust, grace, struggle, and hope.
From Abraham’s faith, to Christ’s reconciling work, to the Spirit’s transforming presence, the message echoes again and again:
These words lead us to the heart of Paul’s message in Romans. In the passage that follows, we hear how faith in Christ brings peace with God and fills our lives with a hope that does not disappoint.
1 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.
Romans 5:1–5
As we explore the book of Romans, may we rest in the assurance that our lives are held within God’s grace. The one who began this work in us is faithful to carry it forward.
Program Transcript
Romans: New Life Through Christ
Most people know what it feels like to wrestle with change. We recognize the gap between the life we hope for and the life we often experience. We try to do better, try to grow, try to move forward. Yet sometimes the struggle itself reminds us how much we need help beyond our own strength.
In Romans, the apostle Paul speaks directly into that human experience. He reminds us that our relationship with God does not begin with our effort, but with God’s grace received through faith. Through Jesus, the Father draws humanity into a relationship of grace and transformation by the Spirit.
Long before laws, rituals, or systems of religious performance, there was a man who simply trusted the promise of God. Abraham believed that the God who gives life to the dead and calls things into existence could fulfill what he had promised.
This trust became the foundation of his relationship with God. Abraham’s story reminds us that faith is not about perfect certainty or flawless obedience. It is about trusting the
faithfulness of the One who makes the promise.
From this foundation of faith, Paul unfolds the larger story of salvation. Through Jesus Christ, humanity is brought into peace with God. What was once broken has been reconciled. What was once marked by fear now stands within grace.
Salvation is not a single moment but a living story with depth and movement. We have been welcomed into peace with God. We are being shaped and renewed through the work of the Spirit. And we look forward with hope to the fullness of life God is preparing.
Even our hardships can become places where hope grows. Perseverance shapes character, and character deepens hope, until we discover that God’s love has already been poured into our hearts.
Paul then turns to one of the most powerful truths in the gospel. Through Christ’s death and resurrection, we are invited into a new way of living. The old patterns that once held us
captive no longer define who we are. We are called to live as people who belong to a different kingdom.
This does not mean perfection overnight. Instead, it means that our lives are now shaped by a new allegiance. Where sin once held authority, grace now leads us toward righteousness and life.
Yet Paul does not pretend that the journey is easy. In one of the most honest reflections in all of Scripture, he describes the struggle many believers recognize within themselves. The desire to do what is good meets the persistent pull of old habits and broken patterns.
This tension reveals something important. The law can name what is good, but it cannot give the power to live it. The struggle itself reminds us that our hope does not rest in our own strength, but in the grace of God at work within us.
Romans reminds us that the Christian life is not a straight path of effortless progress. It is a journey shaped by trust, grace, struggle, and hope.
From Abraham’s faith, to Christ’s reconciling work, to the Spirit’s transforming presence, the message echoes again and again:
These words lead us to the heart of Paul’s message in Romans. In the passage that follows, we hear how faith in Christ brings peace with God and fills our lives with a hope that does not disappoint.
1 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.
Romans 5:1–5
As we explore the book of Romans, may we rest in the assurance that our lives are held within God’s grace. The one who began this work in us is faithful to carry it forward.
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.
Listen to audio: https://cloud.gci.org/dl/GReverb/GR076-Pandel-YearA-Proper5.mp3
Sunday, June 7, 2026 — Proper 5
Romans 4:13–25 NRSVUE
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Program Transcript
So, let’s get to it. We have several texts to dive into today. Our first passage of the month is Romans 4:13–25. I’m going to be reading from the New Revised Standard Version, the updated edition. It is a Revised Common Lectionary passage for Proper 5 in Ordinary Time, June 7.
For the promise that he would inherit the world did not come to Abraham or to his descendants through the law but through the righteousness of faith. 14 For if it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. 15 For the law brings wrath, but where there is no law, neither is there transgression.16 For this reason the promise depends on faith, in order that it may rest on grace, so that it may be guaranteed to all his descendants, not only to the adherents of the law but also to those who share the faith of Abraham (who is the father of all of us, 17 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. 18 Hoping against hope, he believed that he would become “the father of many nations,” according to what was said, “So shall your descendants be.” 19 He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was already as good as dead (for he was about a hundred years old), and the barrenness of Sarah’s womb. 20 No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, 21 being fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. 22 Therefore “it was reckoned to him as righteousness.” 23 Now the words, “it was reckoned to him,” were written not for his sake alone 24 but for ours also. It will be reckoned to us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, 25 who was handed over for our trespasses and was raised for our justification.
All right, man, we come to Holy Scripture seeking to bear witness to the living Word of God, Jesus Christ. What does this passage tell us about the God revealed in Jesus?
[00:09:09] Matt: There’s a few things that really stand out to me with it. The first is really centered on verse 16. Faith is something that’s bequeathed to us. It’s not something that we’re capable of attaining.
There’s a unique phrasing here in this particular translation to those who share the faith of Abraham. The sharing of the faith there within the Greek is specific to something that’s been handed to you and you partake of it or participate within it. Think of it as you’re at a family dinner and grandma lays something down in front of you. You didn’t choose it, you didn’t help make it, but it nevertheless is being served to you. It’s grandma’s food. She made it, but it’s being presented to you to participate in, to engage with.
That is the nature of faith. The recurring theme, I think, in most of Romans is this idea of, whose faith is it we’re talking about? Is this my faith that originates independent of anything else? Or is this the faith of Jesus Christ lived out in, for, and as the human condition in general that then is bequeathed to me and I reside in this?
The beginning of verse 16 includes this idea of the promise depends on faith but that in order that it may rest on grace. So, grace is the means by which faith comes to us.
I spend a great deal of time teaching on the nature of spiritual practices throughout the history of the church. I think formation is a valuable thing. But at the end of the day, all it does is awaken us to what is already true. It doesn’t produce anything other than awareness. I can’t change the innate nature of it is finished in my life. I can just see it more clearly.
So that’s the primary theme that recurs for me throughout this passage, but it spills over in, into the remainder of the Book of Romans as well. But I do, this verse, in verse 19, speaking of Abraham, “he did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body.” It doesn’t say he didn’t consider his own body.
He considers it. The triune God is not into denial. We don’t stick our heads in the sand and pretend there’s not problems happening around us that don’t seem to align very well with what this promise is.
We consider those things but we rest on the promises, that those things are out there and impact our perceptions at times, does not change the validity and the solemnity of the promise itself.
[00:11:51] Anthony: That’ll preach. Seriously, Matt, just thinking about that and here we are in a world that is broken, warmongering, it’s dark on so many levels, and it could look like darkness has won the day, but what you’re saying is circumstances don’t dictate the reality. Is that right?
[00:12:11] Matt: Absolutely.
[00:12:11] Anthony: Yeah.
[00:12:12] Matt: Absolutely. And I, this is, again, I think one of those moments where the psychology jumps in to inform the theology. Neither is it healthy to pretend everything is okay. The fact that it is finished does not nullify the fact there’s a variety of misery in the world.
And I don’t know that it’s constructive to … I think of it this way. When Jesus encounters suffering, he weeps. He weeps with others and he sits in that pain. He doesn’t deny the pain is there. He assumes the pain. And if we are to exist in the world that as he is, so are we.
I really come up frequently against this idea that we should almost just ignore the things in the world that seem to be assaulting the promises. I would submit that really is just saying that we don’t believe the promises and we are that defensive, that we can’t let anything come against those promises. We can’t set our gaze on those things because if we do, it’s going to make our belief in the promises collapse. The promises in my own life and my own church are really a byproduct of having looked square in the eye, those things that stand in contradiction to it.
[00:13:31] Anthony: Yeah, that’s really helpful. And I’m, as you were talking, I’m thinking about this inaugurated kingdom in Jesus Christ, the already / not yet aspect of it, that all things are being made new, that’s where it’s all heading, but we’re not there yet.
Matt: Yeah.
Anthony: And in the meantime, what I also hear you saying is that it doesn’t give us permission not to engage, you know, and not to be honest about where things are, that we can lament while also trusting in the hope that is eternal in Jesus Christ. Amen and amen.
And you’ve already touched on this, but I want to dig a little deeper. It says he’s hoping against hope. And is there anything you would want to say maybe on a personal level to people who are struggling to trust God’s promises in light of what they’re seeing about them? Because again, it could seem like darkness is winning the day. What would you say?
[00:14:25] Matt: The first is to be fair with yourself. Acknowledge that trust is not a light switch that’s either on or off but it’s something that grows over time. I think there’s a reason … whenever scripture uses metaphors or similes to try and explain the nature of Christ in the Church and that relationship, I really pay a lot of attention to those metaphors. They’re given to us for a reason.
The nature of the Church as a bride and Christ is the bridegroom, this marital relationship — I have been married for 23 years this coming November. I trusted my wife the day we married. The depth of that trust after 23 years of life together, of all the highs and lows and disappointments and successes shared mutually together, the trust I have in, with, and for her today is infinitely greater than the trust I had when I began the journey with her 23 odd years ago.
We, particularly those of us who have been heavily influenced by any variant of fundamentalism, there is this all or nothing belief. You believe God or you don’t. You trust God or you don’t. That’s not, first, that’s not how the Greek of the words themselves work, but even in the writings of the early church, we don’t encounter that type of concept.
Instead, we see this as something that’s meant to be like a mustard seed that’s going to grow. It’s going to mature and not linearly. It’s not as if it just consistently goes up. Now, you’re going to hit bumps along the way where it plummets a bit and then escalates back up again.
So, that would be my biggest thing, just giving yourself space to be human. But by assuming the human condition and ascending with his physical body Jesus makes clear there is nothing wrong with being human. It is a condition he was perfectly pleased to take with him and have as the remainder of our concept of human time. He is now human and always shall be a human.
Anthony: Yes.
Matt: He is still divine, but now possesses humanity. If that’s his attitude toward humanness, I think we need to give ourselves a little, cut ourselves a little bit more slack.
[00:16:41] Anthony: Yeah, for sure. I’m thinking about Matthew 28 and Jesus had told the disciples who frankly were kind of locked in the panic room.
He tells them to go to a mountain and Scripture tells us that they worshiped Jesus when they saw him, but some doubted. And sometimes we can be so hard on people shaming them for doubt. And I do not think doubt is the opposite of faith. It’s actually quite useful to faith that we wrestle with things.
And just like you said in terms of your trust of your wife, these things have a way of maturing and growing over time, but allowing ourselves to say faith sometimes looks like two steps forward and a step back sometimes, and you’re just wrestling with things, and that’s okay because Jesus has already overcome the world, right? Isn’t that in part what you’re saying as we wrestle through this?
[00:17:30] Matt: Absolutely. And this is where I think formation is a remarkably helpful idea, as opposed to a purely discipleship perception of faith. Discipleship — and I’m pro-discipleship; I don’t want to be misunderstood. But discipleship tends to be along the lines of like catechesis where there’s some type of a catechetical or ordered understanding of the faith that is, instruct and you’re just told, “Believe this.” And you’re given a lot of great proof texts that, that explain that, maybe even some personal stories from the person teaching. Nothing wrong with any of that.
But it is instructional rather than formative. There’s something in us that has to see the light for ourselves.
Anthony: Yeah.
Matt: When I was first practicing clinically, most of my clientele was 20-somethings who are at that point in life where it’s not your parents’ faith anymore, it’s not your parents’ politics anymore, it’s not your parents’ outlook on the world, but you’re distancing from that and figuring out what you actually believe about these things.
I often interpret discipleship as this is what I feel, Matt Pandell, you should believe. Formation is, okay, you were given all that through the discipleship model, but now allow the Spirit to work within you and inform. Okay, what of that are we to hold and what of that maybe do we need to rethink or put through a new prism to ensure that what we are, the theology we’re building looks like Jesus.
[00:19:01] Anthony: Good stuff.
Program Transcript
So, let’s get to it. We have several texts to dive into today. Our first passage of the month is Romans 4:13–25. I’m going to be reading from the New Revised Standard Version, the updated edition. It is a Revised Common Lectionary passage for Proper 5 in Ordinary Time, June 7.
For the promise that he would inherit the world did not come to Abraham or to his descendants through the law but through the righteousness of faith. 14 For if it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. 15 For the law brings wrath, but where there is no law, neither is there transgression.16 For this reason the promise depends on faith, in order that it may rest on grace, so that it may be guaranteed to all his descendants, not only to the adherents of the law but also to those who share the faith of Abraham (who is the father of all of us, 17 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. 18 Hoping against hope, he believed that he would become “the father of many nations,” according to what was said, “So shall your descendants be.” 19 He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was already as good as dead (for he was about a hundred years old), and the barrenness of Sarah’s womb. 20 No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, 21 being fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. 22 Therefore “it was reckoned to him as righteousness.” 23 Now the words, “it was reckoned to him,” were written not for his sake alone 24 but for ours also. It will be reckoned to us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, 25 who was handed over for our trespasses and was raised for our justification.
All right, man, we come to Holy Scripture seeking to bear witness to the living Word of God, Jesus Christ. What does this passage tell us about the God revealed in Jesus?
[00:09:09] Matt: There’s a few things that really stand out to me with it. The first is really centered on verse 16. Faith is something that’s bequeathed to us. It’s not something that we’re capable of attaining.
There’s a unique phrasing here in this particular translation to those who share the faith of Abraham. The sharing of the faith there within the Greek is specific to something that’s been handed to you and you partake of it or participate within it. Think of it as you’re at a family dinner and grandma lays something down in front of you. You didn’t choose it, you didn’t help make it, but it nevertheless is being served to you. It’s grandma’s food. She made it, but it’s being presented to you to participate in, to engage with.
That is the nature of faith. The recurring theme, I think, in most of Romans is this idea of, whose faith is it we’re talking about? Is this my faith that originates independent of anything else? Or is this the faith of Jesus Christ lived out in, for, and as the human condition in general that then is bequeathed to me and I reside in this?
The beginning of verse 16 includes this idea of the promise depends on faith but that in order that it may rest on grace. So, grace is the means by which faith comes to us.
I spend a great deal of time teaching on the nature of spiritual practices throughout the history of the church. I think formation is a valuable thing. But at the end of the day, all it does is awaken us to what is already true. It doesn’t produce anything other than awareness. I can’t change the innate nature of it is finished in my life. I can just see it more clearly.
So that’s the primary theme that recurs for me throughout this passage, but it spills over in, into the remainder of the Book of Romans as well. But I do, this verse, in verse 19, speaking of Abraham, “he did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body.” It doesn’t say he didn’t consider his own body.
He considers it. The triune God is not into denial. We don’t stick our heads in the sand and pretend there’s not problems happening around us that don’t seem to align very well with what this promise is.
We consider those things but we rest on the promises, that those things are out there and impact our perceptions at times, does not change the validity and the solemnity of the promise itself.
[00:11:51] Anthony: That’ll preach. Seriously, Matt, just thinking about that and here we are in a world that is broken, warmongering, it’s dark on so many levels, and it could look like darkness has won the day, but what you’re saying is circumstances don’t dictate the reality. Is that right?
[00:12:11] Matt: Absolutely.
[00:12:11] Anthony: Yeah.
[00:12:12] Matt: Absolutely. And I, this is, again, I think one of those moments where the psychology jumps in to inform the theology. Neither is it healthy to pretend everything is okay. The fact that it is finished does not nullify the fact there’s a variety of misery in the world.
And I don’t know that it’s constructive to … I think of it this way. When Jesus encounters suffering, he weeps. He weeps with others and he sits in that pain. He doesn’t deny the pain is there. He assumes the pain. And if we are to exist in the world that as he is, so are we.
I really come up frequently against this idea that we should almost just ignore the things in the world that seem to be assaulting the promises. I would submit that really is just saying that we don’t believe the promises and we are that defensive, that we can’t let anything come against those promises. We can’t set our gaze on those things because if we do, it’s going to make our belief in the promises collapse. The promises in my own life and my own church are really a byproduct of having looked square in the eye, those things that stand in contradiction to it.
[00:13:31] Anthony: Yeah, that’s really helpful. And I’m, as you were talking, I’m thinking about this inaugurated kingdom in Jesus Christ, the already / not yet aspect of it, that all things are being made new, that’s where it’s all heading, but we’re not there yet.
Matt: Yeah.
Anthony: And in the meantime, what I also hear you saying is that it doesn’t give us permission not to engage, you know, and not to be honest about where things are, that we can lament while also trusting in the hope that is eternal in Jesus Christ. Amen and amen.
And you’ve already touched on this, but I want to dig a little deeper. It says he’s hoping against hope. And is there anything you would want to say maybe on a personal level to people who are struggling to trust God’s promises in light of what they’re seeing about them? Because again, it could seem like darkness is winning the day. What would you say?
[00:14:25] Matt: The first is to be fair with yourself. Acknowledge that trust is not a light switch that’s either on or off but it’s something that grows over time. I think there’s a reason … whenever scripture uses metaphors or similes to try and explain the nature of Christ in the Church and that relationship, I really pay a lot of attention to those metaphors. They’re given to us for a reason.
The nature of the Church as a bride and Christ is the bridegroom, this marital relationship — I have been married for 23 years this coming November. I trusted my wife the day we married. The depth of that trust after 23 years of life together, of all the highs and lows and disappointments and successes shared mutually together, the trust I have in, with, and for her today is infinitely greater than the trust I had when I began the journey with her 23 odd years ago.
We, particularly those of us who have been heavily influenced by any variant of fundamentalism, there is this all or nothing belief. You believe God or you don’t. You trust God or you don’t. That’s not, first, that’s not how the Greek of the words themselves work, but even in the writings of the early church, we don’t encounter that type of concept.
Instead, we see this as something that’s meant to be like a mustard seed that’s going to grow. It’s going to mature and not linearly. It’s not as if it just consistently goes up. Now, you’re going to hit bumps along the way where it plummets a bit and then escalates back up again.
So, that would be my biggest thing, just giving yourself space to be human. But by assuming the human condition and ascending with his physical body Jesus makes clear there is nothing wrong with being human. It is a condition he was perfectly pleased to take with him and have as the remainder of our concept of human time. He is now human and always shall be a human.
Anthony: Yes.
Matt: He is still divine, but now possesses humanity. If that’s his attitude toward humanness, I think we need to give ourselves a little, cut ourselves a little bit more slack.
[00:16:41] Anthony: Yeah, for sure. I’m thinking about Matthew 28 and Jesus had told the disciples who frankly were kind of locked in the panic room.
He tells them to go to a mountain and Scripture tells us that they worshiped Jesus when they saw him, but some doubted. And sometimes we can be so hard on people shaming them for doubt. And I do not think doubt is the opposite of faith. It’s actually quite useful to faith that we wrestle with things.
And just like you said in terms of your trust of your wife, these things have a way of maturing and growing over time, but allowing ourselves to say faith sometimes looks like two steps forward and a step back sometimes, and you’re just wrestling with things, and that’s okay because Jesus has already overcome the world, right? Isn’t that in part what you’re saying as we wrestle through this?
[00:17:30] Matt: Absolutely. And this is where I think formation is a remarkably helpful idea, as opposed to a purely discipleship perception of faith. Discipleship — and I’m pro-discipleship; I don’t want to be misunderstood. But discipleship tends to be along the lines of like catechesis where there’s some type of a catechetical or ordered understanding of the faith that is, instruct and you’re just told, “Believe this.” And you’re given a lot of great proof texts that, that explain that, maybe even some personal stories from the person teaching. Nothing wrong with any of that.
But it is instructional rather than formative. There’s something in us that has to see the light for ourselves.
Anthony: Yeah.
Matt: When I was first practicing clinically, most of my clientele was 20-somethings who are at that point in life where it’s not your parents’ faith anymore, it’s not your parents’ politics anymore, it’s not your parents’ outlook on the world, but you’re distancing from that and figuring out what you actually believe about these things.
I often interpret discipleship as this is what I feel, Matt Pandell, you should believe. Formation is, okay, you were given all that through the discipleship model, but now allow the Spirit to work within you and inform. Okay, what of that are we to hold and what of that maybe do we need to rethink or put through a new prism to ensure that what we are, the theology we’re building looks like Jesus.
[00:19:01] Anthony: Good stuff.
Small Group Discussion Questions
- How have experiences of broken trust — either as the one hurt or the one who failed — shaped the way you find it difficult or easy to trust others? How might those experiences affect the way you trust God?
- Where in your own life do you find it hardest to trust God right now? What might it mean to “hope against hope” without denying reality?
- What difference does it make to know we are invited into Jesus’ own relationship of trust with the Father?
- The sermon concludes by saying that because God keeps his promises, we are called to become a community where promises are kept and trust is built. What might that look like practically in your congregation this week?
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