Do You Know Scripture Is Written for Encouragement?

I am so humbled by God’s Word!

• He has not left us wandering in the dark.
• He has not left us without answers.
• He has not left us without His amazing grace.

Romans 4:23-24  teaches us that His words have been written for the sake of Abraham and for our sake as well. Before we move on I want to give a little reminder about the context. These passages are teaching that our righteousness comes through faith, not by works,  This dear ones is the main point of the Gospel. Over, and over, and over, God,  through the Holy Spirit is prompting Paul to teach and remind this truth.  Our salvation is completely  the work of the Trinity. We need only to believe!  Let’s read Romans 4:23-24 together:

Therefore it was credited to him as righteousness. Now not for his sake only was it written that it was credited to him, but for our sakes also, to whom it will be credited, as those who believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead.

God wrote the book of Genesis and the book of Romans to be a benefit for all believers  down through the ages. Look at what the Spirit teaches in these passages:

 

Romans 15: 4: For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and the  encouragement of the Scriptures  we might have hope.

2 Timothy 3:16-17: All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.

SCRIPTURE WAS WRITTEN TO:

1. Encourage
2. Give Hope
3. Teach
4. Train
5. Correct
6. Equip
7. Instruct

So That

The man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work and that we may have hope!

Notice that in each of these verses  Paul uses the words “So That.” Whenever we see these words used in Scripture the writer is drawing a conclusion. These two small words also answer the question “WHY” for us. When you are reading and studying be on the look out for these words. They help us with the understanding of what is taught.

In the Romans passage, Paul writes, ” For whatever was written in earlier times was written,

SO THAT: Why was it written? So that through perseverance and the encouragement of scripture we might have hope. Our hope is steadfast and sure! Hebrews 6:19

In the 2 timothy passage, Paul writes, ” All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness;

SO THAT: Why was it written? That the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.

In this Romans passage what was specifically written for our sake? First let’s read Romans 4:22:

Therefore it was also credited to him as righteousness.

We need to ask a few more questions of this text to come to a proper conclusion.

• What was credited to Abraham as righteousness?
• What does credited to Abraham mean?

We must go back up into Romans 4:18-21 for the answers to these questions. We know from the Genesis 17 passage that God had promised Abraham that he would be the father of many nations. But we also know that at the time of this promise Abraham and Sarah did not have any children. If we back up just two chapters in Genesis we find an account of a conversation between God and Abraham.

Genesis 15:1-6: 

God tells Abraham to not be afraid, He will be a shield to him and that his reward would be great.

Abraham responds to God and says, “O, Lord, God what will you give me, since I am childless.

God takes Abraham outside and says to him, ” Look toward the heavens and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” So shall your descendants be.

Genesis 15:6 tells us, ” Then he believed in the LORD; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness.”  We can parallel this passage with Romans 4:20-22.

Without becoming weak in faith he contemplated his own body, now as good as dead since he was about a hundred years old, and the deadness of Sarah;s womb; yet, with respect to the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief but grew strong in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully assured that what God had promised, He was able also to perform.

“Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen”. Hebrews 11:1

Faith is what Abraham exercised and it was credited to him as righteousness.

Credited means that the work of Christ on the cross paid for our sin debt. God took the righteousness and the work of His  Son  and credited it to our account. Our account was empty, we had no way of paying our own debt. But God being rich in mercy in which He loved us applied Christ’s  work to us. Our account is paid in full.

Abraham believed God. Do you believe God?

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