God is Doing His Best

Romans 4

During a Catalyst conference, Louie Giglio introduced this saying: "I am not but I know I AM."

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 things that are not as though they were. Romans 4:17 (NIV)

I was watching a movie this morning called "Over 21". The wife (Irene Dunne, one of my favorite actresses) of an aspiring airman prays for her husband and can't quit figure out how to pray, and then she says, "Do your best." How often do we let God do His best?

It is so awesome having a God whom we can rely on. Only God can call the unrighteous righteous. God does His best by pronouncing grace in the midst of a miserable world. God does His best by offering life to the walking dead. So a question emerges, how?

God's plan of salvation for mankind has been evident from the beginning of our time. He offered a tree of life yet man choose to eat from the tree of good and evil. He sent a flood and started fresh yet man still sinned after getting the clean start. Then to make it easier, God bestowed righteousness onto Abraham because Abraham choose to believe and have faith.

What does the Scripture say? "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness." Romans 4:3 (NIV)

What did Abraham believe? He believed what God said! This is amazing to me. We have an entire set of books bound together in a single collection called the Bible, and these books are all attributed to God. Abraham did not have that much and yet righteousness was credited to him because he believed what God said.

Even when old age said God's words were impossible, Abraham choose to believe and have faith in God. Our collections of God's Word which has withstood scrutiny and time is more than enough to believe. People spend countless hours trying to disprove the Bible. Many have given up trying and came up with new religions and created new fantastic stories to counter the truth of the Bible (evolution, atheism, etc). These people would rather build a name for themselves and flaunt it before God, as if that would make them more like a god.

Now when a man works, his wages are not credited to him as a gift, but as an obligation. Romans 4:4 (NIV)

Building a name for oneself may seem like a great idea, but the Bible calls the wages of the work of man "an obligation". Our work is only paid out of the obligation of those we work for. No more, no less. Our work or building a name for ourselves is only rewarded because someone feels a sense of duty. Our work doesn't benefit us before God nor does it make us more like God.

God credits righteousness not based on work but based on faith. Righteousness only comes by faith. But faith in what? Abraham? God's Word?

The words "it was credited to him" were written not for him alone, but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness--for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification. Romans 4:23-25 (NIV)

Verse 24 clues us in to what we should believe: "God raised Jesus our Lord from the dead". This one belief statement is the whole reason we can receive God's grace. By believing that Jesus came back ti life by the hand of His Father, we now have hope to believe in everything Jesus told us: He has all authority; He is the way, the truth, and the life; His sacrifice paid the price of all sin; His blood will cover our transgressions of the law; and He freely offers this gift to any who will believe and follow His Way.

As verse 25 says, "He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised up to life for our justification." God is doing His best. Now we have to step up and accept it.

• Do you understand that you are not, but you can know "I AM"?
• What is your picture of God doing His best in your life?
• Is God obligated to you?
• What have you built your faith and hope upon?