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Humanity is broken. The world is a mess. Tensions are rising between nations. In the United States, there is a growing divide between the two main political parties. There seems to be growing animosity between racial groups. There is a growing inequality between the super-wealthy and everyone else. Most people are unfulfilled and unhappy.

Why? We are alienated from the Creator, who is the source of life, meaning and blessedness.

Our greatest need is to end our estrangement from Him; get right with Him; be transformed by Him.

There is a way that can happen, but there is only one way, and that’s what this part of Rabbi Paul’s letter to the Romans is about.

Let’s review what we have covered so far. Paul is writing to Messiah’s community in Rome, a community made up of Jewish people and people from the nations. This great rabbi was the Lord’s Representative, and what he writes should be received as if it was the Son of God Himself who was writing to us.

The message that Paul brings is the only message that is capable of reconciling human beings to the God from whom all people are estranged. It is the only message that turn unrighteous people into righteous people. The Gospel is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes – but in a divinely ordained order: first to the Jewish people, then to the Gentiles, the peoples of the nations.

What is the Gospel? It is a message of bad news and good news. Human beings, who have been alienated from God by joining the rebellion of the fallen angels, and are headed to Hell, not Heaven, to death, not life, can be saved by knowing that the Son of God came into this world through the incarnation; lived a perfect life; died an atoning death; overcame Satan and the demons, sin and death and Hell by rising from the dead. The Son of God then ascended to Heaven, to the right hand of God the Father.

When we know these things and believe these things, and transfer our loyalties to the Three-In-One God, God redeems us. God saves us. God makes us righteous. The Father and the Son send their Spirit to us, who gives us new life and a new nature. We become the sons and daughters of God. We live forever. Our greatest need has been met.

Both the Jewish people and the Gentiles have sinned and fallen short of who they were designed to be and the way they were designed to live, and are under the power of sin. They need to hear and believe this message if they are to be saved.

After the judgment of the Flood, the nations of the world suppressed the truth about God. They turned their backs on their Creator. They became godless, wicked and perverse. Even those who haven’t given themselves entirely over to evil and are trying to live what they consider to be good lives fall short and do not live up to their own moral code. They need the Gospel if they are to be saved.

The Jewish people, who had the tremendous benefit of the divine revelation found in the Law, the Prophets and the Writings, have fallen short. Because of the Law, we know what is right and what is required of us, but all too frequently don’t do what is right and what is required of us. We know the Law but all too often break the Law. We too need to believe the Good News if we are to be saved.

If some of the Jewish people were unfaithful to God and divine revelation, even if it is a majority, and removed themselves from participating in the promised blessings, God is not unfaithful. God is faithful and will fulfill all His promises to the Chosen People, and to everyone else.

Salvation – not more money or better politicians, is our greatest need. Salvation only comes as a gracious gift from God, based on our faith. Salvation cannot come as something that we can earn by our efforts. Torah observance will not save anyone, since salvation is not based on works, even doing the works that the Law demands.

Salvation is based on faith – knowing God and being faithful to God and the Word of God.

This very, very important principle – that salvation comes only when we have faith, and not by our efforts, works, good deeds Torah observance or law-keeping, applies to everyone – the Jewish people and Gentiles, the peoples of the nations.

And this very, very important is not a new principle. This is the way salvation has always worked. Moses teaches us that Abraham, the father of the Jewish people, is an example of how salvation is experienced. Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness. God considered Abraham to be righteous; to be in a right relationship with Him – on the basis of Abraham’s faith, not on the basis of Abraham’s law-keeping.

Again, this principle of being saved by faith, not works, applies to the Jewish people and to the Gentiles, and Paul again refers to Abraham as his example. This crediting of righteousness to Abraham, this giving of salvation by God to Abraham happened when Abraham was a Gentile – before he was circumcised. And Abraham was still credited with righteousness when he became the first Jewish person. This teaches us that Gentiles become righteous on the basis of faith, not works, and Jewish people become righteous on the basis of faith, not works.

There is no dual-covenant teaching here – the false teaching that God has one way of saving the Jewish people – by keeping the law – and another way of saving the Gentiles – by faith. No, no. God saves Jews and Gentiles the same way He always has – by His grace, as a gift to undeserving people, when they have faith.

That brings us to 4:13. The Rabbi continues teaching this same theme: salvation, righteousness, receiving God’s promise of a great inheritance (which is our greatest need) come through faith, not through obedience to law. Again, Paul uses Abraham as his example. 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.

The Lord’s promises to Abraham – that he and his descendants would be blessed; that all the families of the Earth would be blessed through them; that they would possess the land; that kings would come from Abraham who would rule nations; that Abraham’s descendants would possess the gate of their enemies – these promises when combined together make a promise that Abraham and his descendants would inherit the world – this great promise was not based on Abraham keeping the law, since the law had not been given, and since law-keeping was not the focus of Abraham’s life.

The promise that Abraham and his descendants would inherit the world was based on Abraham’s faith, belief in God and a loyalty to God. It was Abraham’s faith which made him righteous. It was Abraham’s faith which motivated him to consistently do the right things, to act in a way that was consistent with being righteous.

The same salvation-by-faith-not-law principle applies to the Jewish people and to the peoples of the nations. The Jewish people have the Law, but don’t consistently live according to the Law. The Gentiles have law; they have their own internal moral codes and their own laws, but they don’t consistently live according to their moral codes and laws.

The nature of law is effort and obedience. And law, when violated, results in wrath and punishment. Keeping the law is an insecure basis for salvation, since none of us are capable of living according to the law we have.

The nature of faith is something different. The nature of faith is knowing truth and a transferring of loyalties. I can do that! I can’t live 100 percent according to the law, but I can learn about God and learn to trust Him and try to be loyal to Him.

No one can keep law sufficiently to gain the inheritance that God has promised. If gaining the inheritance is based on keeping the law, no one will be an inheritor. For if those who depend on the law are heirs, faith means nothing and the promise is worthless, because the law brings wrath. And where there is no law there is no transgression. If faith is based on law keeping, faith will amount to nothing and those who approach God on the basis of law will not receive anything. The promise will not be given to them. It will not be fulfilled, making it worthless for them.

Law is limited as to what it can do. It can’t secure salvation. It can’t be the basis for inheriting the promise. What law does do is bring wrath, because when law is given, it clarifies what God wants. It intensifies the consequences for defying what God wants. It turns an unconscious sin, an unaware sin, a sin that hasn’t been highlighted and put into focus, into a more deliberate kind of sin, into a transgression kind of sin. When law is given, people are held to a higher standard and are more responsible to keep the law; and if they don’t keep the law, greater punishments are given. The law brings wrath.

Thanks be to God for His wisdom and grace that made salvation, becoming righteous, receiving the promise of inheriting the world, which is our greatest need – not on the basis of law but on the basis of faith!

Things go with things: law, obligation, effort, disobedience, failure and wrath go together. Faith, grace, righteousness and the promised inheritance go together. And the Lord, by basing salvation, righteous and an amazing inheritance on faith, not on law, made it possible so that everyone can be included. 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 (the Jewish people who have faith – and specifically Messianic Jews) but also to those who have the faith of Abraham (the Gentiles, the peoples from the nations who become Christians).

The Rabbi reinforces this truth by quoting the Torah: He is the father of us all. As it is written: “I have made you a father of many nations.” The Lord promised Abraham that he would be the father of many nations. Abraham became the father of many nations, like Israel and Edom and some of the Arab nations. But, there is a spiritual component to the fatherhood of Abraham as well. It was God’s plan for Abraham to become the spiritual father of many nations. Of course, he is the spiritual father of the nation of Israel, but he is also the spiritual father of other nations. And if those nations other than Israel did not have the law, then there must be another way, other than the law, for people from those others nations to become the spiritual children of Abraham.

That other way is for the peoples of the nations to have faith like Abraham. Anyone who has faith like Abraham becomes a spiritual child of Abraham, and Abraham becomes their spiritual father. And they become Abraham’s heirs and share in the promise of inheriting the world that God promised to Abraham and his descendants.

We need to have faith, real faith, great faith, like Abraham. 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. God is able to do amazing things, things that seem impossible, things like creating the universe and everything in it out of nothing; things like bringing dead people back to life; things like giving new life to a woman who was no longer able to have children.

Abraham was a man of great faith. He believed that if God promised something, He could be trusted to fulfill His promise, because God would do the impossible. 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.” The Lord promised Abraham that he would have as many descendants as the stars in the heavens. That seemed impossible, but Abraham believed God.

And when the Lord told him that he and Sarah, who was 90 years old and no longer had the ability to have children, would have a child, Abraham believed God’s promise. 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. 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. This is why “it was credited to him as righteousness.” It was Abraham’s faith in God who, if He promised the impossible, could do the impossible, not Abraham’s law-keeping, that resulted in God considering Abraham to be righteous.

That same principle – that God transforms the unrighteous into the righteous because of their faith, not because of their works, not because of their efforts, not because of their ability to live according to law – that same principle applies to everyone – the Jewish people and the peoples from the nations. 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 Yeshua our Lord from the dead.

All human beings come into this world as unrighteous. They are not in a right relationship with God. They do not consistently do the right things. Their greatest need is to become righteous. To become righteous, they need faith, not works. And the object of that faith that will make them righteous is the Good News about Yeshua. All they need to do is believe that God the Father raised the Yeshua from the dead – that Yeshua is alive right now, resurrected, the living Lord. If they believe that, and commit themselves to Yeshua’s lordship, God will consider them to be righteous, saved, redeemed, a child of Abraham and one of his heirs who will inherit the world.

There are many religions, ideologies and philosophies that promise they are the truth and we should believe them. Here’s the real truth that will save people: He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification. Yeshua died, not as a consequence for His sins – He had none, but died to atone for our sins, which prevented us from experiencing eternal life. Yeshua died and was raised to life so that God could make us righteous and we could live forever.

You want to be righteous? You want to be raised to life? You want to join Abraham and inherit the world? Choose the path of faith. Believe in the Three-In-One God. Trust the Word of God. Have faith in the promises of God, even if they seem impossible.

We need to have that same kind of faith that Abraham had – faith looks at a situation, knows it is hopeless, but knows that if God promised something will happen, it will happen.

Yeshua said: Everyone who drinks ordinary water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life. Let anyone who is thirsty come to Me and drink. Whoever believes in Me, rivers of living water will flow from within them. Do you believe Yeshua’s promise is true?

Yeshua said: My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with Me that you also may be where I am. Do you trust that Yeshua will keep His promise to return for His followers and bring them to those rooms in His Father’s house that He has prepared for us?

Yeshua said: My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness. Do you believe Yeshua will keep this promise – that His gracious activity in your life will be sufficient for you to live a successful life, and He will turn your weaknesses, problems and trials into something positive?

Yeshua said: I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in Me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in Me will never die. Yeshua promised to resurrect and give eternal life to those who believe in Him. Do you believe this?

If you have faith like Abraham, genuine faith, real faith, faith that knows that if God said something, it can be trusted, even if it seems impossible, God will take you out of the category of the unrighteous, the unsaved, those going to Hell, and put you in the category of the saved, those made righteous, those who will inherit a new and perfect and eternal world – and that is your greatest need.

Let’s pray:

Lord, salvation, redemption, becoming righteous is our greatest need. Help us to be saved, redeemed, truly righteous in Your sight!

Lord, we know that the nature of law is effort and obedience. The nature of faith is knowing truth and a transferring of loyalties. We know that it is part of our fallen human nature to choose a law approach to religion, since doing things is something that we can do and we can see, and make us feel that we are doing enough to be saved – even though it is not enough, since none of us can keep the laws we have.

Thank You for Your wisdom and grace that makes salvation possible on the basis of the unseen, on the basis of faith.

Help us have faith, real faith, genuine faith, saving faith. Help us know in our hearts that You are God, and make a sincere commitment to be loyal to You.

Lord, Abraham had great faith. Help us to have faith like him, so we become his spiritual children and he becomes our spiritual father, and we become his heirs and share in the eternal inheritance you promised him and his descendants.