 You're welcome all to class. We'll begin. Can I ask Tharun, can you lead us in prayer, please? It's all right for you. Can you lead us in prayer? Sure. A little bit of background noise, but I can. Father, thank you a lot. Thank you for this time where we could learn things together. Father, we pray for your leading and your wisdom to guide us as we learn. We thank you for this time. We invite your spirit to take complete control and teach us the things that we really need to learn. We thank you and we ask this in Jesus name. Thank you. Could hear the sun in the background. Yeah, it's around me. Okay. Okay, so we're looking at Romans chapter four. Okay, we began looking at Romans chapter four. And I said in the introduction last week that, you know, we divide these chapter four into two main sections. In one section, Paul establishes that faith came before the law and the covenants. And he uses the example of Abraham. And why does he use the example of Abraham is because, you know, every Jew, for every Jew, Abraham is there for fathers and patriarchs. So he says that Abraham had faith and he received this righteousness by faith. He received it even before he received the law or the circumcision, which is the sign of the covenant, even before these two things, the law and circumcision. He had faith and he was justified by faith or he was made righteous by faith. Supporters saying that so both circumcision and law came after the faith. And, you know, he's saying that, you know, we need to walk in the faith of Abraham. So he's guiding that attention and catching that attention by keeping an example of Abraham. On other part of chapter four, he's giving us insights into Abraham's faith. What he's saying in the second section, the second half of Romans chapter four is that faith is what both Jew and a Gentile must walk in. Okay, so whether you are a Jew or a Gentile, you have to walk in the faith of Abraham. It's not keeping the law. It's not circumcision. It's not even your conscience, but it is, you know, it is walking in the faith of Abraham. Then he talks about Abraham's faith in God and he says, this is how we, you know, whether we are Jews or Gentiles or Greeks must have faith in God. Okay, so we just see how amazingly Paul is expressing the mind of God in helping his audience of people that he's writing to both the Jews and the Gentiles, helping them see that faith is more important than, you know, keeping the law or any kind of rituals or even circumcision. Okay, so that is what we looked at in verses one to verses 12. In verses nine to 12, he talks about, you know, that Abraham was justified by faith or made righteous by faith even before circumcision. And we also saw that in verses 13 to 16, he receives the promises because, you know, he believed in faith. It was through grace by faith. And we talked a little about grace, what are the aspects of grace. And then in verses 14, sorry, verses 17 to 21, you know, he talks about the steps of Abraham. Okay, and we see in verses 17 to 21, the Holy Spirit summary of Abraham's life of faith. Okay, this is where we stopped last week, right? We stopped it was 17. Yes. Yes, no. Yes. Okay. Okay, so we'll move on from verse, we'll move on to verse 17. On verses 17 to verse 21, he gets into the fate of Abraham. Okay, can somebody read verses 17 to 21, please. It is written, I have made thee a father of many issues. For heaven, God who could hence the dead, and calleth those since she did not as though they were, who against his hope, the link, and hope, that he might become the father of many nations. According to that which was spoken so shall die soon to. And they not weak and faint, and they are not weak on body. Now death, when he was about a hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of death. Thank you, Asha. Okay. So in this verse, it was very interesting because it was 17 to 21 is the Holy Spirit summary of Abraham's life of faith. Now, why do I say it's a Holy Spirit summary of Abraham's life of faith? It's because the Holy Spirit is basically inspiring or giving the revelations of truth to Paul. We know 2 Timothy 316 says all scriptures inspired by God. So it's a Holy Spirit inspiring Paul to write. And notice in these verses, there is no mention of Abraham's struggles or mistakes. It's not talking anywhere about his mistakes or struggles. It's just talking about his faith. So if he did not read the Old Testament, if he did not read Genesis, you know, then and we just read these verses that Paul is writing, then we say, wow, you know, Abraham was such a man of such great faith. But when we read his life in the book of Genesis, we read that, you know, he, yes, he had faith, amazing faith. He was, he's an example of faith. He is a pattern of faith that we are asked to follow and to imbibe in our lives. But we see that, you know, there's no mention of Paul is on Abraham's struggles or mistakes. Okay. And but we know that, you know, Abraham did, you know, make mistakes, he did commit mistakes. But he was also a man of great faith and God asked him to leave his father's household. He stepped out in faith. But we also see that he made mistakes twice. He was afraid for his own life. And he said a partial life, a lie, which is a lie. A partial lie is a lie. Okay. About his wife that she's my sister. We also know when we read Genesis chapter 15 that, you know, he was tired of waiting for God's promise to come to pass. It was 15 years since God promised him that he will have a son. And there has been no sign of a son. You know, it's been 15 years of his journey of faith. And, you know, that is the promise has not yet come true. And then he's telling God in Genesis chapter 15. Did you mean that, you know, I'll have a son through Sarah or through others? You know, Eliezer, my servant, who's, you know, others around me are having children, having sons. So are you going to choose one of them who's going to, you know, fulfill the promise of, you know, of generations to come would be as numerous as the stars in the sky and the sand in the sea shore. That's when we see that God cuts a covenant with Abraham, you know. And God tells him, no, it's from your own womb, Sarah's own womb that, you know, you will have a son. You know, we also see that after Genesis 15, you know, Abraham was prompted by Sarah, you know, and we see that Abraham thought he waited a long time. And he thought maybe God meant that you should have a son through someone else or anyone else in this household. And so he purts Ishmael through Hagrid. In spite of God telling him in Genesis chapter 515, when he presented his doubts to God, he laid it before God, but said it's not through anyone else, but it's through Sarah's own womb, you will have a son. You know, yet we see after Genesis 15 that he gives in to Sarah's prompting. Maybe Abraham thought he waited for a long time. And he thought, you know, maybe God meant that he'll have a son through anyone in this household. So he purts Ishmael through Hagrid. So from scripture, we see that Abraham's life of faith was not a perfect one. But now when the Holy Spirit is looking back at Abraham's life, he's not mentioning about his failures. It's not mentioning about his low days in life. So this is a powerful lesson that we can learn in our lives as well. That, you know, when we journey this journey of faith, when we journey this walk of faith, as we are asked to, you know, walk the faith of Abraham, we may have ups and downs in our lives, but God wants us to keep going, you know, and ultimately we journey into that place of perfect faith. And this is what happened in Abraham's life. You know, yes, he started out in faith, but we see, you know, through his journey of faith, there were low points in his life, times of failure when he made choices based on his own decisions in his own flesh. And what we see that, you know, through all of this, God was journeying him into a place of perfect faith. So why do I say that God is taking him into this journey of perfect faith is what we see in Abraham's life. And you know, when I was born, the son of promise that Abraham had to wait for 25 long years, you know, when he was 75 years, God gives him this promise. So when he was 100, that, you know, his body was good as dead, that, you know, he gives, you know, they have, sorry, they have Isaac. And we see that when Isaac grows up, he's a son of promise, you know, Abraham is excited, but God tells him to go and offer up his son as a sacrifice. And what does Abraham do? No questions asked. You know, the very next day, he takes the wood, he takes the fire, he takes two servants, he takes Isaac. He goes to place that God says, I will show you where you have to offer, you know, Isaac as a sacrifice. And, you know, he was convinced and he takes Isaac, when he's going to offer him up as a sacrifice, you know, I'm sure all along Abraham was convinced that even if he offered Isaac up to God as a sacrifice, God could raise him up from the dead. Okay. And we read this in Hebrews. Okay. He came to that place of perfect faith in God that he knew that even if he's going to offer up his son, a son of promise that God had waited in, you know, had got a promise and had to wait for, you know, 25 long years, we read that in Hebrews 11 verse 19, he says that he received him as though he raised him up from the dead. Of course, he did not kill Isaac, but we read in Hebrews chapter 11 verse 19, when it says that, you know, when God says, don't harm and don't kill him, you know, you know, Abraham says, he received Isaac back as though he was raised up from the dead because maybe in Abraham's mind, he's already offered up Isaac as a sacrifice. You know, he was dead, but then he receives him back as though he was raised up from the dead. So as far as Abraham and God were concerned, it was as though a resurrection had taken place. There's not literally a resurrection, but in their minds because, you know, imagine this father going to offer up his son, and he's thinking that, okay, his son is already dead because God requires that of him. But when God stops him, you know, it's like, as it to say, he's receiving his son back from the dead. So far as far as Abraham was concerned, Isaac was good as dead and it was from the dead that he received him back. And this was kind of, you know, something that pointed out to the future of, you know, the resurrection of Jesus Christ. So we see that, you know, now Abraham had come to that place where he was fully persuaded that God would fulfill his promise. And it did not happen overnight. It was not a smooth journey. But he eventually got to that place where he was fully persuaded that God had from what God had promised for his life. God will perform it. Okay. So the Holy Spirit through the Apostle Paul is looking at this and is highlighting this for us and showing us that, yeah, in our journey of faith, you know, we will not be perfect. We will have our ups and downs. There are times when we will give into the things of our flesh. There are times when we will doubt God. But, you know, we can all journey and come to that place of mature faith where God wants us to be, where he sees us to be. Where he says, you know, that we are fully mature in the fullness of Christ. And James chapter two was 22 says, through Abraham's work of faith, no, he was made perfect. He was made mature. Okay. To Abraham's works, his faith was made perfect. His faith was made mature. Okay. So it was through his works that his faith was being made perfect and mature. And so Paul is telling us, encouraging us that we too have to walk in the steps of the faith of Abraham. In verse 17, he's quoting the promise that God made to him that I will make you a father of many nations. Now God put this in the heart of Abraham. God decided that he would do this in the life of Abraham, that he was going to make him a father of many nations. It was a done thing in the heart and the mind of God. Okay. So Abraham is hearing this promise from God. And, you know, who is this God? You know, this God is a God who brings back, you know, or gives life to the dead. He's a God who calls things that are dead as though they exist. Okay. So who is this God that, you know, Abraham is hearing from or Abraham is hearing this promise from God? Who is this God? This is a God who gives life to the dead. And he's a God who calls things which do not exist or does not exist as though they did. Okay. So the two things about God that we can learn about from here. Okay. God is a God who gives life to the dead. Okay. Things might look dead in our lives. Things look dead in Abraham's life, but he's a God who can resurrect. He's a God who can revive. He's a God who can give back life to the things that seem dead impossible in our lives. Can you say an amen to that? You know, God resurrects. He revives. He gives life to things that are dead in our lives. So maybe there are things in your life where, you know, people have spoken prophetically over. You have heard God speak. God has said things in your life, but you have many years now, you know. You've not seen anything happening in those areas. And maybe you've just shelved it or it's like a close book for you. Or it's something that you see as good as dead, but you know, our God is a God who resurrects. He's a God who revives. Amen. Okay. We just look at a verse in Hebrews chapter 11 verse 12. Okay. So can somebody read Hebrews chapter 11 verse 12 please for us. Hebrews chapter 11 verse 12. Anyone can read that quickly please. Hebrews 11 12. Therefore, from one man and him as good as dead were born as many as the stars of the sky in a multitude, innumerable as the sun, which is by the sea shore. Thank you. Let's look at this beautiful language that is here for us. It says from one man who is good as dead from such a man came generations, generations as many as the stars in the sky. And the sand in the sea shore. Generations that are so innumerable that you can't even keep a count off because we can't count the stars in the sky or the sand on the sea shore. So it says from one man comes a nation that is innumerable. So this is actually telling us something about God and how he works in our lives. Things in our life, situations in our life are as good as dead. But God releases something huge, something big, something unimaginable. And that is what he did in Abraham's life. Now, how did Abraham position himself to see that? This is what Paul goes on to explain in the upcoming verses. Before we look at that, we need to remember that when God speaks his promises to our hearts, we need to keep two things in mind. He is basically inviting us to believe in him as the one who gives life to the dead. So even if our situations look hopeless and helpless, it's not a problem to God that it looks hopeless and dead and there's no life. We need to keep in mind that we need to believe in him who's made this promise and the one who gives life to the dead. Something that we can keep in mind when God gives us his promise. And also, second thing is God calls things that do not exist as though they did. It's not there, but God says it is there. And we can tell God, God, we still haven't seen it. We still haven't become what you are asking us of or what are you calling us. But God says, I have made you. For example, we can look at ourselves and say, God, I am weak, but God looks at us and says, I have made you strong. We are still weak. We can't feel his strength. But God is telling us that I have made you strong because he calls things that does not exist as though they did. We can look at ourselves and say, God, I am not a conqueror. I have failed. But God looks at us and says, I have made you more than a conqueror. So we can say, God, I have not become what you are calling me, what you are saying of me, what you are speaking of my life. I can't see that. But God says, I have already made you that. It's already done in the spiritual realm. We just believe that we step out in faith. We cooperate with God. We take hold of what he has taken hold of us. And we believe that to come to pass in our nature. So God is telling Abraham, I will make you a father of many nations. And he's saying that your generations would be as innumerable as the stars in the sky, sand on the seashore. Abraham is saying, God, I don't even have one son. I'm not even arrived at that place where I'm a father. Leave alone being a father of many nations. But God is telling Abraham, you've not arrived there, but that is what I've made you to be. That is who you will be. So sometimes in life, God speaks things in our lives. He calls things in our life. He decrees things in our life. We receive prophetic words. We don't see ourselves being there. But we believe by faith because God who has made it can bring things to life. When he has said it, he's already seen it even before Abraham was born, even before the foundations of the earth. He had this promise in mind for Abraham. He's already seen his generation. We live in 2022, but he's already seeing the years that are in the future. And he's seen the many nations, innumerable generations of Abraham. So one thing that we can learn from Abraham's life is, Abraham, God says, I want to start calling you. Who I made you to be. And I want you to start calling yourself who I made you to be. And that's why we see that even before Abraham became the father of many nations, God changed his name from Abraham to Abraham, the father of many nations. He changes his wife's name Saraya to Sarah, somebody who's the mother of generations to come. So he's saying, start calling yourselves what I have made you to be. So God is saying, even before you see it, believe it. And even before you see it, start calling yourself that. So we start declaring over our lives what God has made us to be, who he has portioned us to be, who he's decreed us to be. In the spiritual realm, that is something that is a done, completed thing in the heart and mind of God. But what God has planned in our lives, we need to start declaring it over our lives so that we can see what is already done in the spiritual realm, becoming a done thing in the natural realm that we are living. So when he speaks his promises over Abraham's life and he speaks promises over our lives, he's calling something to existence that does not exist. But for God it's already completed, it's already done, it's already existed. But for us it's not in coming to existence. And he's saying, this is what I made you to be. I made it to be the father of many nations and this is where you will be, you will get there someday. So we need to join together in our journey with God, in our faith journey with God. And say, God, I don't see things coming in the natural, but I just believe I'm journeying towards where you are taking me to be what you're decreed for me or what you're planned for me to be. So how did Abraham journey into that? How did Abraham journey into the promise that God gave him that I have made you a father of many nations is what we read in verse 18 following. In verse 18, we see that in verse 18, he says, who contrary to hope, in hope believed so that he became the father of many nations according to what was spoken, so shall your descendants be. The first thing Abraham had to do was, there was no reason for him to have hope, but he had hope. And he just did not have that hope, but he believed. Okay, hope is quite different from belief and faith. Hope is important. Hope and believing are not the same things. Hope is basically having a desire for something. It's, it's hoping something in the future that will happen. You desire something to happen in the future, but faith and believe, which is, you know, goes synonymously. The faith and believe is something that we believe in the now that will happen here in the now. So that's why the definition of faith is the substance of things hoped for, which means I'm hoping for something. But my faith is a substance of that, which means that faith is a reality. Okay, the faith is a reality is a substance of what I am hoping for. Hope is out in the future. I cannot see that. Okay, but my faith is a substance of it. Okay. For example, you know, this water bottle, I can see it. It's a substance. It's a solid matter. Okay, hope is something in the future, which we are hoping for that we will see. But faith is a substance, which means we see it in reality. It's like this. It's something solid. It's something that I can see. It's something that I can take hold of. So faith is a reality, the substance of what I'm hoping for. Hope is in the future. I cannot see it, but faith is a substance. That means I begin to see it. It's substance. It's something that I can see. I can view it. I can feel it. So my faith is saying I got it. It's here. It's in my heart. But, you know, in reality, it's something that is happening in the future. So there was no reason why Abraham could have such hope, you know, that he would be the father of many nations when he's already 75 and there's 15 years have passed and the promise was given to him. There's no sign of the promise. He reaches 100, you know, he has that hope that he will be a father, but he believed. So faith and belief, you know, is something that the same because it comes from the same root word so we can use it interchangeably. So faith is something that we, you know, we can't see, but, you know, we believe that it's here. We can experience and hope is not faith because hope is something that we desire something to happen way in the future, but faith and belief is now. Okay. Faith is a substance of things hope for. That means something we hope for in the future, but here right now, you know, it's a substance. It's matter. It's something that we can take hold of. We can see it in faith. We believe that it's going to happen. We've got it. It's here in our heart. It's just to translate into something that happens in reality, in the natural realm. That is all something that is a done thing in the spiritual realm. Okay. So God speaks a word in our life, even though there is no reason for us to have hope, you know, we just believe by faith. Okay. Against all hope, it says against all hope Abraham believed, and that is how he became the father of many nations. Okay. He was the father of many nations. So hope something that would happen in the future, but he took hold of it right now in the present. He believed God and, you know, he had the promise fulfilled. He became the father of Isaac and he believed that, you know, when God could give him a son when he was 100, he could create through him generations in the future, which was innumerable as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the sea. So something that is way in the future, but, you know, something that he took hold of that promise here and now in his heart. Okay. The second thing we see is in verse 19. Verse 19 says that, we just read that, and not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body already dead since he was 100 years old and the deadness of Sarah's womb. Okay. So the second thing that we learn is in verse 19. He did not let his faith be weakened by considering the natural. Okay. Yes, the natural was there. His body was good as dead. Sarah was, you know, I think almost 75 years or 80 years and he was 100. There was no way it's humanly impossible in the natural to have a son, a child. Yes, they could not deny those facts, you know. Yet it says, you know, this did not let Abraham's faith be weakened. His faith was not weakened by considering the natural. Okay. So this teaches us something that when we focus on the natural, you know, it tends to weaken our faith. Our faith gets weakened. It prevents faith, the seeds of faith being activated in our life. The seeds of faith in our life are also, you know, being weakened when we focus on the natural. But when we, you know, focus on the promise of God, you know, the seeds of faith in our life are activated. We know that, you know, a seed, when we look at the seed, it looks as good as dead. It has no potential. It has no life. But the very seed, when you have the faith and we take it and plant it in the ground, that this seed is going to become a plant, a tree. It's going to bear the fruit or the flowers that I'm looking for. It's something way in the future. It's a hope that is something way in the future. But right now, in the eyes of faith, we're already beginning to see this plant, this tree with fruits, the fruits that we like or the flowers that we want. It's becoming already a substance for us here now in the present. But if we say, okay, if I'm not going to plant the seed, I do not know whether it's going to yield food or yield flowers. It's of no use. I'll just leave it. Then you're not taking hold of the seed of promise that has been given to us, okay? Because we're looking at the things in the natural. The things in the natural can weaken our faith. It gets our faith weakened. But when we focus on the promise of God, that's when the seeds of faith in our life is activated. That's what God did with Abraham in Genesis 15. When he was having a low point in his life, he's waited for almost 85 years and there's no son of promise. He tells God, are you really saying that Sarah and me are going to have a son or is it going to be through somebody in our household? Abraham was in a low point in his life, a low time in his life. When he thought he and Sarah will not have a son and it would be through somebody else in his household. What does God do? He takes Abraham out. It was night time. He asked him to come out of his tent. He asked him to look at the stars in the sky. And he asked him to count it. And of course Abraham is saying, God, I'm not able to count the stars in the sky. And then God tells him that's how many your descendants will be. So God is actually taking this whole conversation of Abraham's doubt, his low time, his questioning, whether they will have a son or it's through somebody in his household. He's taking this conversation and he's helping Abraham and taking him to look at, you know, taking his eyes away from the natural that it's impossible for him and Sarah to have a son and taking him to fix his eyes on the promise that God is giving him. And so he's changing his focus. Focus here is, look at me God, you know, look at me, I'm so old. Look at Sarah, she's so old. How can we have a son? And God is, you know, taking this conversation, taking his focus away from the natural to, you know, come on Abraham, count the stars, you know, count the sign on the C-shirt. It says I can't God, you know, and God is saying, you know, that many will be your descendants. You know, so when we feel that our faith is being weakened, we need to check where we are focusing our eyes on. Are we focusing our eyes on what the doctor is saying, what medicine is saying, the medical world is saying, what situation is saying? Or are we focusing on the natural? Are we focusing on our failures, the failures in the past? You know, are we focusing on the promise what God has given to us? So when we take hold of God's promise, what he's given to us, then, you know, out of faith will not be weakened by the natural and we can believe God and we see that Abraham believed God and he's not here now to see his generations that are innumerable, but he all, he, before he saw it in hope, you know, he believed in faith. He took the substance of what he hoped for. He became a reality. He took hold of it in his heart and his mind and, you know, it was a promise that God fulfilled in and through Abraham. Now we move on to verse 20. He says, he did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God. Okay. He did not let unbelief come in his way. Abraham did not allow unbelief to come in his way. Now we always have a choice. You know, we have two options. I have the promise of God and I have what, you know, the world is telling me, the natural world is telling me, my logical mind is reasoning, is understanding. Who do I want to believe? Okay. You can either believe the promises of God or you can believe what your logical mind is reasoning, is asking you to believe, think, but we say, see here that, you know, he did not waver at the promise of God and because he did not waver in his promise of God, what happened to Abraham as a result of that was he was strengthened in faith and he gave glory to God. He was strengthened in his faith. His faith journey in God grew stronger and we see ultimately where it came to. He was willing to take his only son of promise and willing to sacrifice it. With this whole hope or this whole faith that God is, you know, able to, will be able to raise up his son, raise up his son back from the dead. That is the faith that he journeyed, that Abraham journeyed into. And that is a faith that, you know, that's why he did not waver. He did not say, God, who gave me this son, you asked me to promise, you know, sacrifice him. Am I hearing you right? Are you speaking to me or, you know, but he just goes the next day. He does what God, because he knows that God can, you know, keep his promise that he can even raise it up to son back from the dead. That is the, you know, faith that he had journeyed into. And we see that he was strengthened in his faith, giving glory to God. Our scripture does not record for us in Genesis, you know, that Abraham, how he glorified God or he glorified God basically means worship God, praise him, gave him thanks. But, you know, I can just imagine in my mind, you know, Abraham saying, Father, thank you that, you know, you made me the father of nations. Not made me at the father of even one, but he's saying, Father, I thank you. You know, I have this hope and this faith that you have made me the father of many nations. You know, we can even imagine Abraham praising and thanking God say, Father, I thank you that the seed that you promised is mine. It's not through my household, but it's through mine. The seed you promised Sarah and me is yours. I thank you for that, Father. You know, you are faithful and you keep your promise. I thank you, God. I thank you in advance for the son that will be born to Sarah and me in this household. I thank you in advance that my descendants is going to be as numerous, innumerable as the stars in the sky and the star in the sand on the seashore. Now, of course, this is not recorded for us in scripture, okay? But this is what scripture tells me here that, you know, Paul is writing and he's writing to the inspiration and he's saying that, you know, he gave glory to God, which means Abraham did give glory to God. He did praise God and thank him. So when we don't waver in our promises of God and, you know, we believe God, you know, we will be strengthened in our faith and we will give thanks and glory to God even before we see the promise coming to fulfillment. Even before we see it in our naturalized, we've taken hold of it in our faith, in our hearts, in the sun. And we're saying, God, I thank you that I see this is a done thing because you are going to do it because you have promised it and you will be faithful to keep your promise. And he says that, you know, being fully convinced that what he had promised he was also able to perform. So Abraham comes to this place of full conviction of faith that his faith was fully mature and made perfect. So Abraham came to that place of being fully convinced of the promise of God that what God promised he will be faithful to do it. And then in verses 7, that is the, you know, beautiful summary that Paul brings about in verses 17 to 21. A beautiful summary of Abraham's faith and the key things that he did and this is something that we can follow. And Paul is saying, this is how we need to walk in faith and this is how, you know, as we walk in this faith, in the journey in this faith, we'll come to this place of mature, perfect faith. And then he goes on talking about righteousness by faith in Jesus in verses 22 to 25. I'll just read it. And therefore it was accounted to him for righteousness. Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him but also for us. It shall be imputed to us who believe in him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered up because of our offenses and was raised because of our justification. So what's it 23 to 25? It's a story of Abraham. It's not just for him but for us also because God is giving each one of us righteousness through faith. We will be made righteous. That means we will be made blameless. We will be made without any sin, faultless before God because of the righteousness of Jesus Christ that is imputed, put into our account through faith. And then Paul beautifully moves on from pointing out to Abraham to pointing us to Jesus now. He says Jesus was crucified for our sins. He was crucified for our wrongdoings. He was raised because of our justification. Very important here was 25. He says Jesus was raised because of our justification. Which means that the righteousness of Jesus is a pronunciation or it's a pronouncement of our justification. Which means that the resurrection of Jesus, which means the resurrection of Jesus is the pronouncement of our justification. The resurrection of Jesus is basically a testing to the fact that we have been justified. Which means with the resurrection of Christ the case is closed. The case is closed. We have been acquitted. We have been declared not guilty. So just to give you an example you can imagine this court where the criminal is standing in his place because he has done something wrong. The charges have been brought against him and he has proved to be guilty. He's been proved to mean the wrong, proved to be a criminal and so the judge says the punishment he has to do is he has to pay 50,000 rupees for the wrong that he has done. So that is the pronouncement of the punishment for his mistake. So the judge checks in with the receipt and says the 50,000 is being paid for this person. So the judge has no option but just to declare this person who is a criminal now to be free. And then he just takes whatever he has and will know something and he just taps it or hits it and says you are a criminal. Why? Because somebody has taken the punishment that he has to pay for. 50,000 rupees is being paid with the cases closed. So the same way we stand justified for God as criminals but Jesus has paid the punishment for our sins on the cross Jesus says, Father the punishment for this person for Selena has already been paid and all that God the Father can say, case closed case dismissed Selena is free. So the resurrection of Christ actually brings the case to the close. We have been acquitted, we have been declared not guilty. So the resurrection of Jesus is a pronouncement of our justification of our righteousness. The resurrection of Jesus is a testing to the fact that we have been justified. So when we were pronounced free you know Christ's resurrection took place that's just basically what it means. So when we have been pronounced guilt free, guiltless, faultless, blameless you know it's resurrection has taken place. Or we can say that Christ's resurrection is the announcement of our justification. We can say when Christ was resurrected it means that we were announced as justified as righteous in God's sight. So we can say that Christ's resurrection is the announcement of our justification. He was raised because of our justification. That means that resurrection is the announcement of our justification. There's no more worrying about the charges that have been leveled against us because Christ has been raised from the dead. Because Christ has been raised from the dead we are justified. We stand justified in God's sight faultless and blameless. Now we see that's how beautifully Paul you know about Abraham's faith and now he's changing that and bringing our attention and drawing our attention to Jesus. He's changing our focus to what Christ did in order to justify us because he's going to move on into chapter 4 where the focus is going to be on Christ what he did the grace of God and the righteousness by faith that we receive. He's putting all this together in the person of Christ. So basically faith righteousness and the grace of God will be seen in the light of what Jesus has done for us and he's so beautifully bringing in Jesus here because he's going to transition into this in chapter 5 where he's going to focus on what Christ did. The grace of God and the righteousness by faith and he's putting all this together in the person of Christ and he's going to talk about how faith righteousness and grace can be seen in the light of what Jesus has done for us. So any questions in chapter 4 this brings us to the end of chapter 4 how beautifully Paul you know talks about Abraham's faith and then he talks about you know moves on to Jesus Christ and he's going to discuss about this in chapter 5. Yes Kennedy you have a question? Thank you very much teacher Selena what I wanted to just find out is it correct to assume that Abraham and Isaac are foreshadowed of Jesus? Okay that's a good question is Abraham and Isaac foreshadowed of Jesus not exactly but yeah what you know when Abraham was asked to sacrifice Isaac it was actually foreshadowing the resurrection of Jesus Christ to sacrifice that he would make on the cross but one way yes but they are not typically foreshadowing what about Jesus Christ. Okay thank you. Yes you have another question you have another question Kennedy because what you have Yes I did say as far as Abraham was concerned Isaac was good as dead and it was from the dead that he received him back in a manner it actually prefigured the resurrection of Jesus Christ yes it was something that you know it was something that was pointing out to the resurrection of Jesus Christ that God would raise him back on the dead thank you yes thank you Kennedy somebody else had their hand up anyone else has any question no questions I hope the explanation was clear was it clear anything else that you didn't understand you want me to explain again I can do so in the next class because we have run out of time were you able to understand everything that was explained yes no hello class no response yes okay only from Kennedy okay thank you Abhishek thank you Rupa okay we'll end class thank you all for joining class have a blessed Friday and a blessed weekend God bless you okay see you next week thank you thank you