[Romans 4.1-25] 2026.08.09 Hope against hope
[Romans 4.1-25] 2026.08.09 Hope against hope
Hope against hope
Big Idea: Be fully and joyfully convinced, hoping against hope, in the God who credits righteousness to those who trust in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead.
1. Convinced of a righteousness credited, not earned
2. Walking with father Abraham in steps of conviction
3. Convinced by the risen Jesus, hope against hope, and give glory to God
Does anyone watch TV anymore? Or is everyone watching something on the internet?
I have to admit: I don’t watch much TV anymore, and so I don’t know if any TV channels still do this.
Many years ago, back in black and white and even colour TV days, they would put the credits before the show begins.
They would show the names of the actors, the director, the producers, the hair stylists, the assistants, to show their appreciation that’s it’s a team effort.
A lot of people had put in hard work to make the show happen.
Later on, they would put the credits at the back of the movie.
Perhaps there were a lot more people in the credits and they figured that if someone want to see who was credited for what, they would sit around and wait.
After that, they would have the credits at the back, but they would show it at superfast speed, so that if you really want to see the credits, you have to record the show and pause it.
Now, as soon as the show’s finished and before the credit started to roll, you press the link to the next video, because who really cares about the credits?
In today’s passage, we will see a person who gets credited.
But even more impressive than the person who gets credited is the Person who does the crediting.
It’s God himself who’s crediting and the person being credited is Abraham.
Imagine that: being credited by God himself!
How about you? What would God credit you with?
What would God say about you, that’s to your credit?
Open your Bible with me to Romans chapter four, beginning from verse 1.
In today’s passage, we’ll see three things:
1. Convinced of a righteousness credited, not earned (vv.1–8)
2. Walking with father Abraham in steps of conviction (vv.9–17a)
3. Convinced by the risen Jesus, hope against hope, and give glory to God (vv.17b–25)
But before we look into it, let’s pray, “Father, by your Holy Spirit, please convict us with your truth, that we might trust you even more. For Jesus’ sake, Amen.”
1. Be convinced of a righteousness credited, not earned (vv.1–8)
For over the past few weeks, the 915 service has been learning this memory verse, “all have sinned and have fallen short of the glory of God”.
Everyone is a sinner; no one is exempt.
However, despite how bad we are, God has promised to justify us, that is, God has promised to make us right with him, even though we’ve fallen short of his requirements of us.
God himself had paid the redemption, the cost of justifying us, in the death of his Son Jesus Christ.
God has made us right with Him.
It was all God’s work.
We could not claim any credit for ourselves.
To make his point even clearer, Paul points to Abraham, the ancestor of the Jews.
Surely, if there was anyone who was good enough, it was Abraham.
That was what some of the Jewish teachers taught.
They would say that father Abraham was so good, that he kept the law before it was even given.
There was a record of one of them saying, “Abraham was perfect in all his deeds with the Lord”, (Jub.
23:10).
To many Jews, Abraham was the prime example of what it meant to be righteous before God.
However, the Christian faith is one which tells us to be convinced of a righteousness credited, not earned.
Look with me at chapter 4:1-2, “What then will we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, has found? If Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about—but not before God. ” I love this word that the Bible used here.
Abraham found something, he discovered something.
What did Abraham find?
He had nothing to boast before God; he discovered that he had no righteousness to brag about before God.
Here, the Bible is not saying that he has something to boast before men but not before God.
No, Abraham didn’t live a life that was worth boasting about before men or God.
For a large part of his life before he was 75, he was an idol worshipper.
He lied multiple times to protect himself, even if it meant putting his wife at risk.
He had nothing to boast before God, no righteousness by which he could appeal to God.
However, Scripture says instead that, "Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness" (v.3, quoting Gen.
15:6).
Abraham believed God, he trusted God, and God credited it to him as righteousness.
In God’s eyes, Abraham was righteous, because Abraham trusted him.
The Bible puts it like this, in verse 4, “Now to the one who works, pay is not credited as a gift, but as something owed.”
Wages are owed to the worker as a debt.
Your boss doesn’t give you money as a donation or as a gift.
Instead, he gives you money because that’s part of the agreement.
You work for him and he owes a debt to you for working for him.
It’s a little like this: Nobody writes a thank-you card to their employer for their salary.
If you’re polite you might say thank you in person, but really, you didn’t have to.
If you’re a self-employed person, you might send an invoice for your job and you expect the person to pay the invoice on time.
Or put it another way.
On your birthday, do any of your guests send you an invoice for the gift they got for you?
Do they expect you to pay them for their gift to you?
No!
And if they do, they aren’t really your friend, are they?
It would be an insult to your friendship.
Wages are not gifts and gifts are not wages.
That’s Paul's point about our standing before God.
Look with me at verse 5, “But to the one who does not work, but believes on him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited for righteousness.”
God can justify the ungodly and the undeserving.
The person who believes that God can do that is the person whom God credits with righteousness.
Have faith in God, trust in God, and God will credit you with righteousness.
In other words, God will say, “You see that person who trusts me? That person who trusts that I can justify the ungodly woman, the wicked man, the evil people? That’s what righteousness looks like.”
At first sight, it seems to go against what we believe about God.
Shouldn’t God refuse to justify the wicked?
After all, God says in Exodus 23:7, “that he will not justify the guilty”.
To be sure, God is not unjust; he does not justify the wicked without seeing that justice is done.
But thanks be to God, as we read in Romans 3:25, God himself had paid the price for the guilty when he presented Jesus as the propitiation, the atoning sacrifice, for sinners like you and me.
It’s because of what God has given in the Person of Jesus, that guilty sinners, wicked sinners like you and me, can be made right with God, because we trust in what God has done for us.
Once again, this highlights that our righteousness before God is not by works but by faith, by trusting in Jesus.
One example of God’s grace and mercy for wicked sinners is King David.
David said that the man whom God credits with righteousness apart from works is blessed.
Look with me at verses 7-8, which is a quote from Psalm 32:1-2, “Blessed are those whose lawless acts are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the person the Lord will never charge with sin.”
The man who is forgiven is blessed; to be blessed means to be happy.
It’s someone who’s happy because God is happy with that person.
God is happy with that person, forgave that person, whose sins are covered.
God would not revisit that person’s sin anymore.
Imagine that there’s a file in this USB flash drive that contains the evidence of something horrible that you’ve done, something that you’re utterly ashamed of.
It may be the record of an outright lie, it may be a plan to cause someone’s downfall.
As long as that USB drive is there, you will be nervous, there’s evidence of your guilt.
Imagine the Supreme Judge came to you, took the USB drive and said that you don’t need to worry about the USB drive anymore.
Someone else was sentenced for what you did.
You’re free to go.
The USB drive is gone, forever.
The Judge is happy for you to go, and you’re happy to go, because you, the guilty, had been set free.
You’re free to go, not because you deserved it, but because someone else was sentenced in your place.
Of course, you can doubt what the Judge said and refuse to accept the good news.
Or you can trust what the Judge’s said and find relief and happiness that you’re finally free.
The Bible tells us that even our tiniest sin against God, be it a thoughtless word, a loveless thought, is enough for us to fall short of the glory of God.
Any of these would be enough to disqualify us from being in the presence of God.
However, God, in his infinite mercy and wisdom, provided a way out, not by works but by our trust in what he’s given us in Jesus.
God has done it; he has declared his forgiveness in Christ.
Have we received it?
Do we trust God in his word?
Do we know the happiness, the blessedness that is ours in Jesus, because God is happy with what Jesus has done for us?
No amount of work that we do can qualify us for the reward of forgiveness from God.
As the ancient Christian writer Origen once said, "faith relies on the grace of the justifier, works rely on the justice of the rewarder."
Are you seeking a reward from God for your works?
Or are you seeking a gift from God from his grace?
This is why our invitation to the 500 households within our ten-minute radius can never be limited to people who have sorted their lives out.
We welcome people who have messy lives, who are imperfect, who are ugly, who are different, because God himself welcomes them.
In fact, if God has welcomed us into his family, we dare not turn anyone away.
We dare not make them feel unwelcome, because God himself has welcomed us.
The Welcome to Life ministry exists to say the opposite: come as the ungodly and be counted righteous in Christ.
That’s why we’ve set up the Discover course and the Welcome Tent.
As a church, we won’t congratulate ourselves on how well we’ve done, be it attendance or by how well we run.
We are a church that believes in him who declared the ungodly righteous, and we simply long to see that God declares even more ungodly people righteous in Jesus.
Friends, stop asking "what have I achieved for God?" and start asking "what has God credited to me in Christ?"
There’s nothing that even compares with what God’s credited to you in Christ.
If you have sin, if you committed wickedness or thought ungodly thoughts, turn to God for forgiveness.
In Christ, he has cancelled your sin; in Christ, you are forgiven.
Let the relief that comes from being forgiven be turned into the joy David is singing about.
2. Walking with father Abraham in steps of conviction (vv.9–17a)
This blessing from God is not for just one group of people, but for all who would believe.
Look with me at verse 9, “Is this blessing only for the circumcised, then? Or is it also for the uncircumcised? For we say, Faith was credited to Abraham for righteousness.”
Even Abraham himself wasn’t credited to be righteous because of his works.
He was credited to be righteous because of his faith, because of his trust in God.
In fact, he trusted God many years before he was circumcised.
God credited righteousness to Abraham while he was uncircumcised and told him to get circumcised as a seal of Abraham’s righteousness, which came about by faith.
Abraham wasn’t circumcised to be righteous.
Abraham trusted God, was credited as righteous, and then he was circumcised.
And so, the Bible calls Abraham the father of all who believe but are not circumcised, that is everyone who’s not a Jew physically but trusts in the Lord Jesus.
The Bible also calls Abraham the father of all those who are physically circumcised (that is, physically Jewish) but more importantly, these people also walk in faith.
They follow in the footsteps of Abraham while he was still uncircumcised.
That is, Abraham is the father of all who put their trust in God, who has faith in God, who is credited with righteousness because of their trust in God.
Abraham’s their father, not in the physical sense, but in the spiritual sense.
Abraham’s children are those who follow in the footsteps of Abraham, walking in faith.
Lleyton Hewitt was the last male Australian tennis player to have the World No.1 ranking.
That was almost 25 years ago.
One of his most famous celebrations after winning a point is holding his hand toward his head and shouting, “C’mon”.
25 years later, his son Cruz Hewitt is also playing tennis.
When he wins a point, he would often do the same “C’mon” to honour his Dad.
He wants to acknowledge that he’s following in his father’s footsteps.
When we walk in faith, trusting in God, we’re following in Abraham’s footsteps.
To follow in Abraham’s footsteps is to walk and behave in a way that’s based on God’s promise to Abraham and not by our obedience to the law.
Paul makes this very clear in verses 14-15, “If those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made empty and the promise nullified, 15 because the law produces wrath. And where there is no law, there is no transgression.”
There’s no point in faith or promises if we could receive God’s righteousness by obeying the law.
What the law does is to show us where we have failed as lawbreakers, and as lawbreakers, we deserve God’s wrath.
The law is good and tells us when we have sinned by trespassing the law.
It shows us when we’ve stepped across the line.
While the law is good, it’s bad news for us because we cross the line all the time.
The law shows how bad we are but also how good God is in promising us righteousness by faith.
This righteousness that God credits to sinners is not an easier alternative to the law.
It is not that the law was too hard, so God is making it easier for us by presenting us with something called faith as a simpler task by which we receive righteousness.
No, even our faith comes from God.
We can no more manufacture trust in God by ourselves than we can obey his law perfectly.
No, faith means trusting that God has done everything: he has paid for the sins of all who trust in him, and we depend on him completely.
Contrary to popular belief, fully trusting God is far harder than relying on ourselves.
We are often tempted to give ourselves some credit or claim a little glory for our salvation.
But that’s not faith.
Faith is fully trusting in what God has done and giving him all the credit, and telling people it’s God whom we glory in.
Abraham had to rely on God’s promises for years before seeing only glimpses of God’s promises slowly becoming a reality.
Anyone with any worldly sense would call Abraham a fool for trusting God’s promise of descendants who would one day inherit the world.
And yet, Abraham walked with conviction.
He walked in faith.
When we walk with conviction in what God has done, we follow in Abraham’s footsteps.
A person who’s wise according to the world may call us fools for trusting in a God who made promises through the Bible.
They may mock us, show us contempt, and even be hostile to us.
But as a people who trust in God’s promises, we walk with conviction, knowing that God will give to those who have trusted him, just as he’s promised.
We walk in the footsteps of our father Abraham.
Someone who walked by faith was Michael Ryman’s grandmother Irene.
As a young woman, she had a condition which meant it was dangerous for her to have children.
In God’s grace, Irene became pregnant with Michael’s father Stephen.
There were many doctors telling her to give up her pregnancy because of the danger that Stephen would pose to Irene.
One wrong kick from Stephen inside Irene and they could both be in danger.
And yet, Irene trusted God and decided to keep Stephen.
She could’ve thought of her own safety first, but she was convinced that following God’s instructions was more important than even her own life.
Irene was walking in Abraham’s footsteps in trusting God.
How about you?
How are you following in Abraham’s footsteps in trusting God?
Would you stop following when the going gets tough?
Or would you join Abraham, and Irene, and countless others, as we walk with conviction, trusting in the promises of God?
3. Convinced by the risen Jesus: hope against hope, and give glory to God (vv.17b–25)
What did it look like for Abraham to walk in faith?
It means to be convinced even when you’re hoping against hope, ultimately giving glory to God.
Look with me at verse 17, “As it is written: I have made you the father of many nations— in the presence of the God in whom he believed, the one who gives life to the dead and calls things into existence that do not exist”.
That’s the God whom Abraham believed.
He is the God who gives life when there’s none, who gives existence when there’s none.
If God has promised something, that something will happen, for nothing will be impossible with God.
Even when there seems to be absolutely no hope from our point of view, if it’s God’s will, there’s always hope, and that hope is sure.
It is in this God that Abraham believed, hoping against hope, that God would make him the father of many nations, even when he was facing the deadness of his own 99-years-old body as well as the deadness of his wife Sarah’s womb (v.19).
There was no denying it; there was no way that they could have a son of their own, not with their basically lifeless bodies.
It would be like a 99-year-old man in a nursing home, going to find an old lady in another nursing home, getting married, and then looking for a house near a nursery school or preschool.
Nobody does that because it just doesn’t happen!
There would’ve been so many reasons for Abraham to waver in unbelief.
Everything that he was taught about life and the human body told him that this would not work.
But there was one thing he was convinced of, that he held onto above all else.
He was fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised (v.21).
That’s what faith looks like – being fully convinced that God was able to do as he had promised.
It’s this faith, this trust in God, by which he was credited by God as righteousness (v.22).
Abraham was credited by God as righteous, because he trusted in God.
It’s more than just knowing about the facts of God; it’s being so convicted by God’s promises that you would hope against hope.
This righteousness that God credits Abraham with wasn’t just for Abraham alone.
Look with me at verses 22-24, “Therefore, it was credited to him for righteousness. 23 Now it was credited to him was not written for Abraham alone, but also for us. It will be credited to us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead.”
For those of us who are convinced that God raised Jesus from the dead, God credits us with righteousness also.
It’s not because we have done anything to deserve God’s righteousness.
Rather, it’s a trust that God has said that he would do the impossible, that he would raise Jesus from the dead, that we’re forgiven because of what Jesus has done.
It’s because we trust what God has promised in Jesus that we, too, are credited with righteousness.
Verse 25 sums up what we believe about Jesus: “He was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.”
We believe that God himself delivered Jesus up to pay for the redemption of our sins and that Jesus was raised for the justification of our standing before God.
Because Jesus rose from the dead, we know that our justification before God is sure.
We are justified before God, we are made right before God, on the basis of our faith, our trust in what God has done.
Our faith is absolutely vital to our standing before God.
But how do you know whether you have genuine faith in God?
How do you know your faith is real?
In Abraham’s case, his faith grew when it was tested.
His faith was strengthened when his faith in God was tested.
That’s how we know our faith is real.
Real faith will grow and deepen when the trials of life come.
If your faith in God deepens, then it’s an affirmation that your faith is real.
If you quit when the going gets tough, if the trials of life make you question God, then it’s a sign that your faith is not real.
A Bible Commentator by the name of Moo once said, our faith grows strong as muscles do, by overcoming opposition.
If you don’t face opposition to your faith, your faith won’t grow.
In our Church, we have seven departments to help us function as a Church.
They are called the G7’s.
Each G is a different aspect of the Church.
There’s Governance, Go, Glorify, Gregarious, Giftedness, Glue, and Grow.
Each aspect is associated with one body system.
For Grow, we chose the Musculo-skeletal system.
It includes all our KOGKids ministries, all our Home group ministries, all our online groups, our Bible reading, our discipleship, because we want these groups to be places where we can exercise our faith, so that we can grow.
These groups are not study groups where you learn as many facts about the Bible as you can.
Any non-Christian can also learn facts about the Christian faith.
No, these groups are designed to be places where we help each other grow in faith.
They are places where we can share our struggles and ask our group members to support us in prayer and deeds.
If you want to see whether a person is growing in Jesus, if you want to see whether a Church is growing, look to see whether the members of the Church are trusting in God, hoping against hope.
Look to see how they respond to God’s answers to prayer.
Look to see how they respond to God’s forgiveness.
If they treasure comfort above conviction, happiness over hardship, the praises of men over the applause of heaven, then chances are they are not growing at all.
But if they are growing, they will face opposition, they will face trials, there will be dire situations when all hope seems to have faded, but they will still hope against hope, because they are convinced that God will do what he’s promised.
These are the faithful ones, whom God will credit with righteousness, because they would rather hold on to Jesus, following Him, even when it comes with shame and ridicule.
These are the ones whom God will credit with righteousness.
Be convinced by the risen Jesus.
Trust in the God who delivered up his Son for your trespasses and raised him for your justification.
So hope against hope, do not waver in unbelief, and do what Abraham did when there was nothing yet to show for it: give glory to God.
As hard as it is to trust God through the trials of life, they ought to lead us to joyfully praise our God, who will do what he’s promised, whose promises never fail.
In Jesus, we live by faith, we die by faith, and we will rise by faith.
What would God credit you with?
If you have put your trust in Jesus, and believe that God delivered him over for your sin and raised him up for your justification, he will credit you with righteousness.
He will call you someone who is righteous because you’ve trusted him.
And you will find joy and relief, you will give glory to God, because in Jesus our Lord, you’re forgiven.
Don’t waver in your unbelief any longer; don’t trust in the goodness of your works either.
Instead, be fully and joyfully convinced, hoping against hope, in the God who credits righteousness to those who trust in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead.
Here are the three questions for this week,
1. How would you describe the joy of being forgiven by God, not by works but by faith?
2. When was a time when you’re called to hope against hope, trusting in God even when it seems like a hopeless thing to do?
3. How might we be tempted to yearn for the approval of women and men, rather than being credited with righteousness by God for trusting him?
Be fully and joyfully convinced, hoping against hope, in the God who credits righteousness to those who trust in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead.
Let’s pray, “Our heavenly Father, we don’t deserve anything good from you. We are marred by sin and there’s nothing good in us that we can offer you. And yet, you are the good Lord, who is always rich in mercy. Replace our hearts of doubt with hearts of faith. By your Holy Spirit, convict us, that we might not waver in unbelief but to hope against hope, knowing that you can do what you have promised. Let us walk together in the footsteps of father Abraham, who walked the path of faith with steps of conviction. And let us throw off every sin that hinders and follow our Lord Jesus Christ, whom you delivered for our trespasses and whom you raised for our justification, and in whose name we pray, Amen.”