The Promise Made Sure -- Grace and Faith
R. S. Candlish, D. D. Romans 4:16 Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed… I. THE END IN VIEW — that "the promise may be sure to all the seed." Every promise of God is sure in the sense of being trustworthy. But the fulfilment is not necessarily sure to any, for they come short of its stipulations. The certainty here is the opposite of what is deprecated in ver. 4: "the promise being made of none effect," i.e., falling short of its full accomplishment. Let us think of the origin of the promise. 1. Let us behold the Father taking up the question of the inheritance. It is the heirship of the world (ver. 13). Who are ultimately to inherit? That must be settled before anything about it can become the subject of promise at all. And in settling that, there must be sovereign choice. 2. The Son has from everlasting an interest in the promise. The inheritance which it conveys is in the first instance destined to Him (Hebrews 1:2). He is the one seed; and others are included in the seed only as being one with Him. Through what a ministry on His part they are to become fellow heirs with Him He all along knows full well. He is to "bear their griefs and carry their sorrows"; to be "made sin," to be "made a curse" for them. Through such sore "travail of His soul" in their stead He is to obtain the fulfilment of the promise: to "see" in them "His seed"; the seed that being one with Him is to be the heir of the world, to inherit all things in Him. 2. The Holy Spirit is one with the Father and the Son; as in the essence of the Divine nature, so also in this covenant of peace. He is a party to it. The seed who are to be heirs are to be put into His hands, to be made one with the Son in His heirship, and one with one another in the Son. That the promise may be sure, He must put forth His soul-subduing power. Is He to do so otherwise than on the footing of its being "sure to all the seed"? II. THE TWO STEPS BY WHICH ALONE IT IS TO BE REACHED. But why should there be any steps? Why may not the mere fiat of Omnipotence at once secure the end in view? God has but to speak, and "Out of these stones He is able to raise up children unto Abraham." Yes! And if it were "stones" that He had to deal with, the old creation formula — Let it be — would suffice. The voice might go forth, not only figuratively, "Thy seed shall be as the sand," but literally, "Let the sand by thy seed." And if the seed could be as stones, or as sand, ever after, to be managed as stones or sand, the problem of securing that the promise should be sure might be easily solved. But it is not so. For the materials are not stone or sand, but beings who have possessed and abused the faculty of free will. The problem is solved, however, when we take into account the two steps here indicated as securing the result. 1. It is "by grace." The whole economy is alive and instinct with grace. (1) Its origin is very gracious. It has its rise in the favour which the Son ever finds in the Father's right from everlasting. What but this grace moves the Father to "appoint the Son heir of all things" (Hebrews 1:2)? And that is at once the source and pattern of all subsequent exercises of the same grace in time. (2) It is by the same grace that, in virtue of His being "appointed heir of all things," the Son is the agent "by whom God made the worlds," and "who upholdeth all things by the word of His power" (Hebrews 1:3). It is for the grace He ever has with the Father that, as the Lord of creation and providence, and now the Lord of the economy of redemption, He has "in all the preeminence" (Colossians 1:16-18). (3) For very specially this grace appears in His having constituted the Saviour of men. When He comes into the world on His errand of redemption He finds grace and favour in the Father's eyes (Matthew 3:17). When He leaves the world, His work being finished, He finds grace and favour still (Romans 1:4). It is because the Father graciously accepts Him as the righteous one (Isaiah 53:11), that He "sets Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places" (Ephesians 1:20). This grace, love, on the Father's part, how gladly does the Son always own (Proverbs 8:30, 31)! How willingly does He welcome the task that is to cost Him so dear (Psalm 40:7, 8)! (4) And now it may be seen how the Father's treatment of those who are the Son's seed, is simply an extension of the favour which He bears to the Son Himself. They are embraced or comprehended in the grace which the Son ever finds in the Father's sight. It is on this principle that the Father proceeds in pardoning, acquitting, justifying, glorifying them (Ephesians 1:6). 2. It is "of faith." Why? Simply, that it may still be all "by grace." We have seen that it is by grace alone that any are admitted into fellowship with the Son in His gracious work and ministry of substitution. Let us now see what grace there is in the terms, or the manner, of their admission, Freely, unreservedly, unconditionally; if they will; when they will. Ah! but does not this really destroy all certainty? If they will! Does it not cast doubt on everything? When they will! When will they? Will they ever? Of what avail then is all this grace to them? And yet how can the thing be otherwise? How can any enter into union with the Son, so as to have the promise made sure to them in Him, otherwise than by its being freely left to their own free choice? If the grace is to be free, it must be not only freely given, but freely taken. There can be no coercion. There must be cordial and congenial consent. No otherwise can the promise be sure to beings capable of choice. Their free, unforced yes must be got. And if that yes be got, all is safe. Hence the necessity of faith, which is simply that free affirmative response. This may be seen more clearly if we consider — (1) Faith. The whole virtue of faith lies in its being your actual appropriation of the benefit. Its charm consists in dealing with what is presented to it as its object, not through anything, even itself, coming in between, but directly and immediately, without any regard to itself at all. Now the object with which it has to deal is the promise, or rather the Son, to whom, in the first instance, the promise belongs, and is sure. The only use of faith is that it embraces Christ. (2) With its office, the nature of faith corresponds. Our entire moral nature is concerned in it. Every faculty and feeling is taken up with Christ. There is no unoccupied power of the mind within at leisure to take cognisance of the rest. (3) But how shall this full, simple, direct, straightforward faith spring up in any soul? Plainly it is not natural to man. Witness the extreme difficulty of getting men to comprehend it. A Divine teacher is needed to purge the inward sight, and open the eye of the soul. And if, for simply lodging a clear idea of this Divine method of grace in the intellect, the agency of the Divine Spirit Himself is needed, how much more when we are asked to approve of it, to go along with it and become parties to it? Thus "by grace are we saved through faith, and that not of ourselves, it is the gift of God." (R. S. Candlish, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all, WEB: For this cause it is of faith, that it may be according to grace, to the end that the promise may be sure to all the seed, not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all.