14. " Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him; but for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead; who was delivered for our offenses, and was raised again for our justification." (Rom. 4:2323Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him; (Romans 4:23).)
In this passage and chapter we may see the saints conforming to the principle exhibited in the Lord. He got into His position of blessing and of exercising the power of life-giving Spirit, through death by resurrection-in this it was that the power and glory that were in Him shined out. Now in this fourth chapter, we find the father of the faithful, as the representative of the whole family, assimilated in measure to the principle fully carried out in the Lord. And so is it with every believer. The promise is given to us in all the barrenness and unfruitfulness of surrounding circumstances, and the sentence of death passes over every means in us, or around: yea, but we have the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, hut in Him that raised the dead. But Abraham's faith was in God, and nothing could touch or remove that; the deadness of Sarah's womb, the suggestion of nature about his own great age; none of these things even came near to touch his faith. They might, indeed, have distracted him from faith, and led him to give up hope, if rested upon, but the ground of hope they could never touch; that was in God: God had promised, and He was faithful, and able, and true: but they did not prevent his faith, for it also was of God, and had, therefore, in it that resiliency of life, which being of God, gave it. Oh that the saints remembered this more surely, there would be less fear and trembling than there is in many, as the aspect darkens around them. Perhaps, with all its self-complacency about religion, there never was an age in which there was so little trust in God as the present!
And how does Abraham's faith shame us: he had, as it were, only a promise to rest on, though it were the promise of the faithful and true God-the way how God could be just while dealing with a sinner and imputing righteousness to him, was not then fully opened-to us it is, and that as a thing once done and accomplished forever. He was delivered on account of our offenses, and has been raised on account of our justification, and, as it were, in the very presence of this past work, God says, Trust yourselves in all your wretchedness to Me, and I will clear you. Shame, shame, shame, on the unbelieving believers, who still doubt. Surely, to do so is not only to make God a liar, but to give a judgment, as it were, against the worth and value of that death and resurrection so presented, and to grieve the Spirit.