7th September 2026

7th September 2026


Pray (ACts)


Read (Romans 4:13)


Message (Alan Burke) 


I got given a book last year to read on my holidays. It’s called ‘Incompetence, Bad is the new Good’. Honestly, I wouldn’t recommend it, but the idea is that no one can be "prejudiced from employment for reason of age, race, creed, or incompetence”. Imagine it: like I get the reason for age, race, and creed, but incompetence? Well, if that is how society worked, it would be even more of a disaster than it is. What about someone who couldn’t follow basic instructions, continued to ignore what they had been told, who failed time and again? You may not like this, but we fall into that category. The LORD is clear, and we often don’t get the basics right. We ignore what he tells us and we fail time and time again. If our status before our God was dependent on how well we did, our abilities, we’d be stuffed. Our sin is much worse than incompetence; it is high treason against a holy God. 


Here, Paul once more brings us face to face with how our eternal destiny is not dependent on us, on our works, but on God’s free grace, and I, for one, am so, so, so very thankful for that. Once more, he takes us to Abraham and how “It was not through law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of the world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith”. The point that he is making is that Abraham’s righteousness did not come by what he did. There were those, though, who would have been some who pushed back at Paul’s reasoning; how he dismisses Abraham’s works and the sign of circumcision were what made him righteous before God, those who would have argued that Abraham kept the law. 


Let’s think about this: who did the Lord give the law through? The Lord gave the law through Moses, 430 years after Abraham (see Gal 3:17). Abraham didn’t have the law to follow; he only had the promises of God, and God didn’t say, “Here Abraham, here’s a promise for you, but what you have to do is keep the law of Moses, what you have to do is all that it requires of you, and you’re going to be righteous. Now I know you don’t have the law of Moses, but I still expect you to keep it.” Don’t be daft. But there is one thing that I want you to notice, how Paul says “heir of the world”. If you’re familiar with the promises given to Abraham, you’ll know that God promised him many descendants (see Gen. 12:2; 13:16; 15:5; 17:4–6, 16–20; 18:18; 22:17), he promised him the land of Canaan (see 12:7; 13:14–17; 15:7, 18–21; 17:8), and that all nations would be blessed through him (see 12:3; 18:18; 22:18), it was never promised though, that Abraham would be heir of the world. 


Yet Paul understands that the promises given to Abraham of how he would be a great nation (Gen 12:2), that in him all the families of the earth would be blessed (Gen 2:3), that his offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies (Gen 22:17), that in his offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed (Gen 22:18) were being fulfilled in Christ. And since Christ inherits all things, those who belong to him share in that inheritance, for Abraham was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God (Heb 11:10). 


He was living by faith when he did, longing for a better country—a heavenly one (Heb 11:16). He was looking forward to God’s eternal kingdom, which he became an heir of the world through a righteousness that comes by faith, as God’s Covenant of Grace will be finally and fully realised in the new heaven and the new earth (see Rev 21&22). And for all who belong to Christ, then we are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise (Gal 3:29). Thankfully, our hope isn’t based on our incompetence; it is based on the perfect righteousness of Christ in whom we are heirs according to the promise.


Pray (acTS)


Sing


WSC
Q59 Which day of the seven hath God appointed to be the weekly Sabbath?
A. From the beginning of the world to the resurrection of Christ, God appointed the seventh day of the week to be the weekly Sabbath; and the first day of the week, ever since, to continue to the end of the world, which is the Christian Sabbath.
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