Our Redeemer Lutheran Church
Quincy, IL
Rev. Larry D. Troxel
The Second Sunday in Lent
Saturday, February 16, 2008 at 7:00 p.m.
Sunday, February 17, 2008 at 8:00 & 10:15 a.m.
“Abraham Is the Father of Us All”
(Romans 4:16–17)
In Jesus’ name. Amen.
What shall we say about the Old Testament patriarch named Abraham? For that matter, why should we speak of him?
Holy Scripture calls Abraham the father of all believers. But does he deserve such a title?
Consider what Holy Scripture tells us about Abraham. At God’s command, at age 75 he left behind his native land,
his extended family, relatives, neighbors, and friends, and began a pilgrimage of which he did not know the destination.1
That’s faith. As his years advanced and he and his wife remained childless, decades past childbearing years, Abraham
received God’s promise that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars and as the sand on the seashore.
And Abraham believed God’s promise.2 That’s faith. At age 99, Abraham still
childless received God’s promise that he and his wife would have a son of their own.3
That’s faith, and the promise was fulfilled when Abraham was 100 years old.4
But fourteen or more years later, Abraham faced God’s command to take his only son Isaac to Mount Moriah and
sacrifice him as a burnt offering.5 Without hesitation Abraham obeyed; that’s faith.
And as you know, at the last minute God spared Isaac’s life6 and once again
repeated the promise that the Savior for all people would be a descendant of Abraham.7
Such is the faith that Abraham demonstrated.
But Abraham also evidenced fear and doubt and acted in ways that seemed to deny his trust in God’s promises.
Twice Abraham tried to pass his wife Sarah off as his sister because he was afraid that nearby rulers would kill him in order
to take Sarah to be their own wife.8 Not once but twice Abraham did this, earning the scorn
that such an ungodly witness deserves.9 Abraham and Sarah even attempted to help God
keep His promise of a son by having Abraham marry and father a child by one of Sarah’s maids.10
That certainly was not an act of faith but rather of doubt and desperation.
So why does Holy Scripture speak of Abraham as the father of all who trust in Christ Jesus? And why does Holy Scripture give us
vivid details of his spiritual weakness and sins? Holy Scripture speaks of Abraham as the father of all who trust in Christ Jesus
because that is what God Himself has called Abraham.11 And Holy Scripture shows us Abraham’s
weakness and sins to remind us that, like us, Abraham was completely dependent on God’s grace and had nothing of his own
about which he could boast.12 Thus, Holy Scripture encourages us to rely upon God’s grace for us in Christ Jesus.
So Saint Paul wrote: “That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all …”13
As we consider this, it is essential for us to remember that the faith which believes God’s promises is itself God’s gift.14
For if faith is something we do, if faith is something we decide, then grace disappears. God’s promises rest on His grace,
His love for us that we never have deserved nor can deserve. And God’s promises carry with them the power which creates
and sustains saving faith in Christ Jesus.15 So it was for Abraham and so it is for us.
Holy Scripture says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.”16
The truly wonderful thing is that God gives us the gift of saving faith, just as He gave it to Abraham. And then God declares us
to have right standing in His sight, just as He did with Abraham, on the basis of the faith God has given us in His promises.17
Because our standing with God is based on grace through faith in all that Christ Jesus has done for us, all of God’s promises
come to us with an absolute guarantee of full and complete fulfillment. And when you consider the world in which we are living,
you appreciate how wonderful it is to have God’s guarantee that He will keep all of His promises to us in Christ Jesus.
Our minds find it almost impossible to comprehend the kind of evil that is loose in our own nation as well as in the rest of the world.
We hear of senseless killings on university campuses and in high schools. We hear of parents who beat their own children to death,
or drown them, or in some other way end their children’s lives. We hear of children and teens hounding certain other children
or teens with the most malicious gossip, resulting in misery and sometimes in suicide. And those who do so attempt to justify their
ungodliness by saying that their victim deserved such horrible treatment because the victim didn’t measure up to the
perpetrators’ self-centered ideas of what is acceptable.
Abraham lived among people who worshiped idols, such as the sun and the moon and who engaged in human sacrifice,
even the sacrifice of their own children.18 Today, people worship the idols of self and of pleasure,
and still today the lives of children, teens, and young adults are sacrificed by those who are captives of the old evil foe. And the people of our nation
remain the targets of ungodly terrorists.
How well it is that Holy Scripture so clearly declares that our lives, our future, and our right standing with God “depend on faith,
in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all [of Abraham’s] offspring … to the one who shares
the faith of Abraham.”19 God’s grace for us in Christ Jesus puts our lives and our future
on a solid foundation20 that cannot be shaken, that cannot be upset, that cannot be changed, that cannot
be destroyed. Our lives and our future rest on all that Christ Jesus has done for us — His perfect obedience to His Father’s
will in our stead, His suffering and death as our substitute, His glorious resurrection and ascension to assure us that our salvation is complete.
No matter how bad the news of each day may be, the Good News is that God loves us in Christ Jesus, has declared us to be right in His sight
because of Christ Jesus, and has named us as His children and heirs in Christ Jesus.
Long before God gave a son to Abraham and Sarah, God said to Abraham, “I have made you the father of many nations.”21
Pay close attention to the words God spoke. Even though some years would pass before Isaac’s birth, God spoke of the promise
as though it already were completed. “I have made you.”22
Once God had spoken the promise, it was as good as done, as certain as something already completed, even though the fulfillment
would take place many centuries later. God’s promises to us are just as solid, just as certain as those God gave to Abraham.
Our certainty comes from the fact that Christ Jesus is risen from the dead, ascended, and reigning as Lord of all.
You and I are among the people who make up the “many nations” of whom God spoke. Just as Isaac was the son
God promised to Abraham, so you and I and all who trust in Christ Jesus as among the “many nations” who are
Abraham’s spiritual descendants. As we invite others to hear God’s Word with us in our worship services, to study
God’s Word with us in our various Bible classes, they too become part of the fulfillment as they receive saving faith in Christ Jesus.
“It depends on faith,” which is God’s gift, “in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed
to all [Abraham’s] offspring.” He “is the father of us all.” Like our father Abraham, we will experience
our moments of fear and our times of doubt. But we have something Abraham did not have. We have the Good News that Jesus has come
and has accomplished our redemption. In Him we have forgiveness of all sin, life that is new every day by His gracious forgiveness,
and life that is eternal because His is risen and ascended for us. He takes up our fears and gives us confidence in His Word.
He faces our doubts and shines His love and the solid foundation of His Word brightly into our lives, dispelling all fear and doubt.
He even gives us His own body and blood to eat and to drink in His holy sacrament so that we may live with absolute assurance
of His forgiveness and of all His other promises to us. What Holy Scripture says of Abraham it also says of us, namely, that on the basis
of the faith God has given us in Christ Jesus, we are declared righteous in God’s sight. We live in the peace and the security
that God in His grace gives us in Christ Jesus. Amen.
1. Genesis 12:1–5; Hebrews 11:8
2. Genesis 15:6 and 22:17
3. Genesis 17:21 and 18:10, 14
4. Genesis 21:1–5
5. Genesis 22:1–10
6. Genesis 22:11–14
7. Genesis 22:15–18
8. Genesis 12:10–20 and 20:1–5
9. Genesis 12:18–19 and 20:8–10
10. Genesis 16
11. Genesis 17:4–6
12. Romans 4:2
13. Romans 4:16
14. Ephesians 2:8–9
15. Romans 1:16
16. Genesis 15:6, quoted in Romans 4:3
17. Romans 5:1 and 8:1
18. Genesis 11:31–12:1
19. Romans 4:16
20. Ephesians 2:20
21. Genesis 17:5, quoted in Romans 4:17
22. Emphasis added
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