The Serpent Crusher

The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.     (Romans 16:20 ESV)

This verse from Paul's letter to the Romans is filled with imagery.  The imagery isn't original with the apostle. He's echoing back to the very first prophecy in the Bible; Genesis 3:15.  After Adam and Eve rebelled against God and hid their own nakedness and tried to hide from Him, God didn't throw up His hands and quit. God is never aloof... He has always had an active, initiating role from creation on and will do so for eternity. God slaughtered an animal to cover their nakedness, which is a clear picture of one who is not guilty dying for those who are guilty. But before He even covered their nakedness He made them (and us) a promise... He promises the serpent something as well as promising mankind something... "He (the Seed of the woman) will bruise (crush) your head, and you (Satan) will bruise His heel." (Gen. 3:15)  The crushing of the serpent's head will require suffering on the serpent crusher's part. The fulfillment of this is Jesus Christ, who's suffering is unparalleled. No one suffered or ever will suffer like He did.  But His suffering would be a simple bruise on the heel compared to the glory that awaited Him... Satan's head was crushed... He will forever be the loser. Jesus won our freedom from sin by the death He died on the cross and by His glorious resurrection! The Easter story is the story of new life. We celebrate because in the process of having His heel bruised He crushed our enemy's (death) head. His resurrection is a foretaste of our own resurrection and future glory. Satan, sin, and death have been conquered. Rejoice, Christian!!

Help From God

"I will help you.”  Isaiah 41:10


“Let us hear the Lord Jesus speak to each one of us: ‘I will help you. It is but a small thing for me, your God, to help you. Consider what I have done already. What! not help you? Why, I bought you with my blood. What! not help you? I have died for you; and if I have done the greater, will I not do the less? Help you! It is the least thing I will ever do for you. I have done more, and will do more. Before the world began I chose you. I made the covenant for you. I laid aside my glory and became a man for you, I gave up my life for you; and if I did all this, I will surely help you now. In helping you, I am giving you what I have bought for you already. If you had need of a thousand times as much help, I would give it to you; you require little compared with what I am ready to give. ‘Tis much for you to need, but it is nothing for me to bestow. Help you? Fear not! If there were an ant at the door of your granary asking for help, it would not ruin you to give him a handful of your wheat; and you are nothing but a tiny insect at the door of my all-sufficiency. I will help you.’
O my soul, is not this enough? Do you need more strength than the omnipotence of the United Trinity? Do you want more wisdom than exists in the Father, more love than displays itself in the Son, or more power than is manifest in the influences of the Spirit? Bring here your empty pitcher! Surely this well will fill it. Haste, gather up your needs, and bring them here – your emptiness, your woes, your needs. Behold, this river of God is full for your supply; what can you desire beside? Go forth, my soul, in this your might. The Eternal God is your helper.”

Charles Haddon Spurgeon. Style updated.

The Nature of Faith - Romans 4

1) - The Nature of Abraham’s Faith:
Abraham’s faith was IN  GOD  (v. 17) -- the nature of faith of faith is not found in faith itself, but in the “object” of faith… Abraham’s faith was IN GOD.. Who gives life to the dead.. (God is not bound by nature…) who calls things that are not as though they were. In other words, God speaks and we are righteous even though we are not… God says what He does, and does what He says.. He gives life to the dead, and this is more than raising Jesus from the dead. Ephesians 2 tells us that we are dead in our sins until God makes us alive. When we are saved by God we are raised from the dead. God calls the dead to life. If He says the believer is righteous, then the believer is righteous. Abraham placed faith in God not in his own faith. God’s salvation is based on His character, not ours. To say that the promise comes by faith means that it comes by grace. Our faith does not trigger God’s response of grace. Rather, God’s prior decision enables us to believe. God called Abraham righteous. He calls you and me righteous if you are a believer. What God says, God does because He can raise the dead… It’s all well and good that God’s promise doesn’t depend on us, but how is God going to make Abraham’s offspring into people who are fit to rule the world? How in the face of human unfaithfulness will God find a faithful people? The answer is: God doesn’t find faithful people; He CREATES  them!  He creates out of nothing a people who He will give the obedience of faith. By God’s voice (Ro 9:12) He calls things into existence things that don’t exist. This is the same voice who said let there be light and there was light. This is the same voice that said to a 12 year old dead girl, "It’s time to get up";(Mk 5) the same voice who said to a widow’s son at his funeral, “Young man get up” (Lk 7); and to a man who had been dead 4 days, “Lazarus come forth" (Jn 11).  Right at the start of the promise of God, this voice brought Isaac into existence (vv. 18-22). The God who spoke this, spoke to an old man married to a barren woman (v19) and called into existence a son. (At Walmart they had to look for "Pampers" and "Depends" at the same time!!).. What happened to them was like a resurrection or a creation out of nothing. The central focus in this passage is not on Abraham and his incredible faith, but on God and His life giving promise (vv 18,20); it is God who had the power to do what He promised (v21). This passage talks about the strength of God (vv 17,21) and it’s center is the complete helplessness of Abraham and Sarah (v19).

2) Abraham’s faith meant acknowledging his man’s Helplessness (vv. 18-19) -- faith meant recognizing the fact that he and his wife were not capable of having children in and of themselves.. They could not, on their own, bring about what God promised, yet his trust did not waver. There is no question he struggled (Hagar.. Lying about Sarah twice to protect his own skin, and actually fell down and laughed because of the seeming impossibility of Isaac being born), but God forgave those struggles, and Abraham’s true heart came to the forefront when he was willing to sacrifice his son (Gen 22), which was the proof test.. His belief was that God could raise the dead!  He knew if God didn’t do it, it wouldn’t be done. We too, have no hope of life when we look to ourselves.. We face only death and judgment .. TRUST is our only hope!

3) Abraham’s faith shows us the shape of the GOSPEL  (vv. 20 - 25)
Paul moves from ’type’ (Isaac) to ’FULFILLMENT ’  (Jesus) -- this righteousness was not just credited to Abraham, but to all who believe in Him who raised Jesus from the dead.. Jesus was delivered up (put forth by God -- 3:25) to pay for our sins and raised up to ensure our justification..  God IS just and the justifier of all who have faith in Jesus 3: 26
God has always justified by faith.. Abraham and David are both mentioned in chapter 4 and both were OT historical figures. They were declared righteous apart from works. Then and in the NT, and now even still God saves sinners by His grace through faith. Jew and Gentile alike are saved by believing in God’s promise of His son’s death and resurrection. God will make righteous all who trust in Christ.
Abraham’s example teaches us that faith does not have to be unfaltering and perfect, but a basic conviction that God can be trusted.. The actions we take based on this belief are the proof that our faith  is genuine.