For the promise that he would inherit the world did not come to Abraham or to his descendants through the law but through the righteousness of faith. If it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. For the law brings wrath; but where there is no law, neither is there violation. For this reason it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his descendants, not only to the adherents of the law but also to those who share the faith of Abraham (for he is the father of all of us, as it is written, "I have made you the father of many nations") - in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. 

Hoping against hope, he believed that he would become "the father of many nations," according to what was said, "So numerous shall your descendants be." He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was already as good as dead (for he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah's womb. No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, being fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. Therefore his faith "was reckoned to him as righteousness." Now the words, "it was reckoned to him," were written not for his sake alone, but for ours also. It will be reckoned to us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was handed over to death for our trespasses and was raised for our justification.

What a gift! Here, tucked away in this ancient Old Testament story of God's promise to Abraham and Sarah, is this gift of pure grace. You remember the story. God calls this aging couple - Abraham and Sarah. God asks them to go to a land that he will show them. God's promise, God's gift of pure grace, is the land they will receive, the nation they will become, and the blessing that will come from them to all the families of the earth (Genesis 12:1-3). The promise, Paul stresses, depends only upon faith. All they had to do was believe the gracious promise - and act accordingly.

Now Paul wants his readers generations later - and today - to understand that the promise that we might inherit eternal life does not come through the law. It does not depend on what perfectly wonderful and obedient human beings we are. No, as Paul would write elsewhere in Romans, "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." The promise is a gift of God's grace, through faith in Jesus, whom God raised from the dead, "who was handed over to death for our trespasses and was raised for our justification." God invites us, baptized into Christ's death and resurrection, to embrace this promise in faith. That is what the cross and resurrection at the culmination of this Lenten journey are all about. God has come among us in Jesus. And in Jesus' death and resurrection, God has gifted us with the gracious promise of forgiveness, life, and salvation. What a gift! Amazing grace! Believe it!