John Owen · 33 of 157

Sermon IV. Romans iv. 20. · Part 1

Sermon IV. The steadfastness of the promises, and the sinfulness of staggering.

“He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief.” — Rom. iv. 20.

In the first chapters of this epistle, the apostle, from Scripture and the constant practice of all sorts of men of all ages, Jews and Gentiles, wise and barbarians, proves all the world, and every individual therein, to “have sinned and come short of the glory of God;” — and not only so, but that it was utterly impossible that, by their own strength, or by virtue of any assistance communicated, or privileges enjoyed, they should ever attain to a righteousness of their own that might be acceptable unto God.

Hereupon he concludes that discourse with these two positive assertions:—

First, That for what is past, “every mouth must be stopped, and all the world become guilty before God, chap. iii. 19.

Secondly, For the future, though they should labour to amend their ways, and improve their assistances and privileges to a better advantage than formerly, “yet by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified in the sight of God,” verse 20.

Now, it being the main drift of the apostle, in this epistle, and in his whole employment, to manifest that God hath not shut up all the sons of men hopeless and remediless under this condition, he immediately discovers and opens the rich supply which God, in free grace, hath made and provided for the delivery of his own from this calamitous estate, even by the righteousness of faith in Christ; which he unfoldeth, asserteth, proves, and vindicates from objections, to the end of the 3d chapter.

This being a matter of so great weight, as comprising in itself the sum of the gospel wherewith he was intrusted, — the honour and exaltation of Christ, which above all he desired, — the great design of God to be glorious in his saints, — and, in a word, the chief subject of the embassage from Christ to him committed (to wit, that they who neither have, nor by any means can attain, a righteousness of their own, by the utmost of their workings, may yet have that which is complete and unrefusable in Christ, by believing); he therefore strongly confirms it in the 4th chapter, by testimony and example of the Scripture, with the saints that were of old; — thereby also declaring, that though the manifestation of this mystery were now more fully opened by Christ from the bosom of the Father, yet indeed this was the only way for any to appear in the presence of God, ever since sin entered the world.

To make his demonstrations the more evident, he singleth out one for an example who was eminently known, and confessed by all to have been the friend of God, — to have been righteous and justified before him, and thereon to have held sweet communion with him all his days; to wit, Abraham, the father according to the flesh of all those who put in the strongest of all men for a share in righteousness, by the privileges they did enjoy and the works they did perform.

Now, concerning him the apostle proves abundantly, in the beginning of the 4th chapter, that the justification which he found, and the righteousness he attained, was purely that, and no other, which he before described; to wit, a righteousness in the forgiveness of sins through faith in the blood of Christ. Yea, and that all the privileges and exaltations of this Abraham, which made him so signal and eminent among the saints of God as to be called “The father of the faithful,” were merely from hence, that this righteousness of grace was freely discovered and fully established unto him; — an enjoyment being granted him in a peculiar manner by faith of that promise wherein the Lord Christ, with the whole spring of the righteousness mentioned, was enwrapped. This the apostle pursues, with sundry and various inferences and conclusions, to the end of verse 17, chapter 4.

Having laid down this, in the next place he gives us a description of that faith of Abraham whereby he became inheritor of those excellent things, from the adjuncts of it; — that as his justification was proposed as an example of God’s dealing with us by his grace; so his faith might be laid down as a pattern for us in the receiving that grace.

Now, this he doth from, —

First, The foundation of it, whereon it rested.

Secondly, The matter of it, what he believed.

Thirdly, The manner of it, or how he believed.

First, From the bottom and foundation on which it rested, — viz., the omnipotency or all-sufficiency of God, whereby he was able to fulfil whatever he had engaged himself unto by promise, and which he called him to believe, verse 17, “He believed God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were.”

Two great testimonies are here of the power of God.

1. That he “quickeneth the dead:” — able he is to raise up those that are dead to life again.

2. He “calleth things that are not as though they were:” — by his very call or word gives being to those things which before were not, as when he said, “Let there be light, and there was light,” Gen. i. 3; by that very word “commanding light to shine out of darkness,” 2 Cor. iv. 6.

These demonstrations of God’s all-sufficiency he considereth in peculiar reference to what he was to believe; to wit, that “he might be the father of many nations,” verse 11, — of the Jews, “according to the flesh,” — of Jews and Gentiles, according to the faith whereof we speak. For the first, “his body being now dead, and Sarah’s womb dead,” verse 19, he rests on God “as quickening the dead,” in believing that he “shall be the father of many nations.” For the other, that he should be a father of the Gentiles by faith, the Holy Ghost witnesseth that they “were not a people,” Hos. ii. 23. The implanting of them in his stock must be by a power “that calleth things that are not, as though they were,” — giving a new nature and being unto them, which before they had not.

To bottom ourselves upon the all-sufficiency of God, for the accomplishment of such things as are altogether impossible to any thing but that all-sufficiency, is faith indeed, and worthy our imitation. It is also the wisdom of faith to pitch peculiarly on that in God which is accommodated to the difficulties wherewith it is to wrestle. Is Abraham to believe that from his dead body must spring a whole nation? — he rests on God, as “him that quickeneth the dead.”

Secondly, His faith is commended from the matter of it, or what he did believe; which is said in general to be “the promise of God,” verse 20, “He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief.” And particularly, the matter of that promise is pointed at, verses 11, 18, — that he should be “the father of many nations;” that was, his being a “father of many nations,” of having “all nations blessed in his seed:” — a matter entangled with a world of difficulties, considering the natural inability of his body and the body of Sarah to be parents of children. But, when God calls for believing, his truth and all-sufficiency being engaged, no difficulty nor seeming impossibilities that the thing to be believed is or may be attended withal, ought to be of any weight with us. He who hath promised is able.

Thirdly, From the manner of his believing, which is expressed four ways.

1. “Against hope, he believed in hope,” verse 18. Here is a twofold hope mentioned; — one that was against him, the other that was for him.

(1.) He “believed against hope;” that is, when all arguments that might beget hope in him were against him. “Against hope,” is against all motives unto hope whatever. All reasons of natural hope were against him. What hope could arise, in or by reason, that two dead bodies should be the source and fountain of many nations? so that against all inducements of a natural hope he believed.

(2.) He “believed in hope;” that is, such hope as arose, as his faith did, from the consideration of God’s all-sufficiency. This is an adjunct of his faith, — it was such a faith as had hope adjoined with it. And this believing in hope, when all reasons of hope were away, is the first thing that is set down of the manner of his faith. In a decay of all natural helps, the deadness of all means, an appearance of an utter impossibility that ever the promise should be accomplished, — then to believe with unfeigned hope is a commendable faith.

2. He was “not weak in faith,” verse 19, μείωσις, “minimè debilis,” Beza. He was by “no means weak;” a negation that, by a figure, μὴ ἀσθενήσας, doth strongly assert the contrary to that which is dented. He was no way weak; that is, he was very strong in faith, as is afterwards expressed, verse 20, He “was strong in faith, giving glory to God.” And the apostle tells you wherein this his not weakness did appear: saith he, “He considered not his own body being now dead, when he was about a hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah’s womb,” verse 19. It was seen in this, that his faith carried him above the consideration of all impediments that might lie in the way to the accomplishment of the promise.

It is mere weakness of faith that makes a man lie poring on the difficulties and seeming impossibilities that lie upon the promise. We think it our wisdom and our strength to consider, weigh, and look into the bottom of oppositions and temptations that arise against the promise. Perhaps it may be the strength of our fleshly, carnal reason, but certainly it is the weakness of our faith. He that is strong in faith will not so much as debate or consider the things that cast the greatest seeming improbability, yea, impossibility, on the fulfilling of the promise: it will not afford a debate or dispute of the cause, nor any consideration. “Being not weak in faith, he considered not.”

3. He was “fully persuaded,” verse 21, πληροθφορηθεὶς, “persuasionis plenus.” This is the third thing that is observed in the manner of his believing. He fully, quietly, resolvedly cast himself on this, that “he who had promised was able to perform it.” As a ship at sea (for so the word imports), looking about, and seeing storms and winds arising, sets up all her sails, and with all speed makes to the harbour; Abraham, seeing the storms of doubts and temptations likely to rise against the promise made unto him, with full sail breaks through all, to lie down quietly in God’s all-sufficiency.

4. The last is, that “he staggered not,” verse 20. This is that which I have chosen to insist on unto you, as a choice part of the commendation of Abraham’s faith, which is proposed for our imitation: “He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief.”

The words may be briefly resolved into this doctrinal proposition:—

Observation. All staggering at the promises of God is from unbelief.

What is of any difficulty in the text, will be cleared in opening the parts of the observation.

Men are apt to pretend sundry other reasons and causes of their staggering: The promises do not belong unto them, — God intends not their souls in them, — they are not such and such, — and this makes them stagger; when the truth is, it is their unbelief, and that alone, that puts them into this staggering condition. As in other things, so in this, we are apt to have many fair pretences for foul faults. To lay the burden on the right shoulders, I shall demonstrate, by God’s assistance, that it is not this, or that, but unbelief alone, that makes us stagger at the promises.

To make this the more plain, I must open these two things:—

I. What is the promise here intended.

II. What it is to stagger at the promise.

I. The promise here mentioned is principally that which Abraham believing, it was said eminently that “it was accounted to him for righteousness.” So the apostle tells us, verse 5 of this chapter. When this was, you may see Gen. xv. 6; there it is affirmed, that “he believed the Lord, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” That which God had there spoken to him of, was about “the multiplying of his seed as the stars of heaven, whereas he was yet childless.”

The last verse of chapter xiv. leaves Abraham full of earthly glory. He had newly conquered five kings with all their host, was honoured by the king of Sodom, and blessed by the king of Salem; and yet, in the first verse of chapter xv., God, “appearing to him in a vision,” in the very entrance, bids him “fear not; “— plainly intimating, that notwithstanding all his outward success and glory, he had still many perplexities upon his spirit, and had need of great consolation and establishment. Abraham was not clear in the accomplishment of former promises about the blessed seed; and so, though he have all outward advancements, yet he cannot rest in them. Until a child of God be clear in the main in the matter of the great promise, — the business of Christ, the greatest outward successes and advantages will be so far from quieting and settling his mind, that they rather increase his perplexities. They do but occasion him to cry, Here is this and that; here is victory and success; here is wealth and peace; — but here is not Christ.

That this was Abraham’s condition appears from verse 2 of that chapter; where God having told him that he was his shield, and his exceeding great reward, he replies, “Lord God, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless?” As if he should have said, Lord God, thou toldest me when I was in Haran, now nineteen years ago, that in me and “my seed all the families of the earth should be blessed,” Gen. xii. 3, — that the blessed, blessing seed, should be of me: but now I wax old, all appearances grow up against the direct accomplishment of that word; and it was that which, above all, in following thee, I aimed at: if I am disappointed therein, what shall I do? and what will all these things avail me? — what will it benefit me to have a multitude of earthly enjoyments, and leave them in the close to my servant?

I cannot but observe, that this sighing, mournful complaint of Abraham, hath much infirmity, and something of diffidence mixed with it. He shakes in the very bottom of his soul, that improbabilities were growing up, as he thought, to impossibilities against him in the way of promise. Yet hence also mark these two things: First, That he doth not repine in himself, and keep up his burning thoughts in his breast, but sweetly breathes out the burden of his soul into the bosom of his God. “Lord God,” saith he, “what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless?” It is of sincere faith, to unlade our unbelief in the bosom of our God. Secondly, That God takes not his servant at the advantage of his complaining and diffidence; but lets that pass, until having renewed the promise to him, and settled his faith, then he gives in his testimony that he believed God. The Lord overlooks the weakness and causeless wailings of his, takes them at the best, and then gives his witness to them.

This, I say, was the promise whereof we spake, — that he should have a seed of his own, “like the stars that cannot be numbered,” Gen. xv. 4, 5. And herein are contained three things.

1. The purely spiritual part of it, that concerned his own soul in Christ. God engaging about his seed, minds him of his own interest in that seed which brings the blessing. Jesus Christ, with his whole mediation, and his whole work of redemption, is in this promise, with the enjoyment of God in covenant, “as a shield, and as an exceeding great reward.”

2. The kingdom of Christ, in respect of the propagation and establishment of it, with the multitude of his subjects, — that also is in this promise.

3. The temporal part of it, — multitudes of children to a childless man, and an heir from his own bowels.

Now this promise, in these three branches, takes up your whole interest, comprises all you are to believe for, be you considered either as believers or as rulers. As believers:— so your interest lies in these two things: That your own souls have a share and portion in the Lord Christ; and that the kingdom of the Lord Jesus be exalted and established. As rulers:— That peace and prosperity may be the inheritance of the nation, is in your desires. Look upon this in subordination to the kingdom of Christ, and so all these are in this promise.

To make this more plain, these being the three main things that you aim at, I shall lay before you three promises, suited to these several things, which, or the like, you are to view in all your actings, all staggering at them being from unbelief.

The first thing you are to believe for, is the interest of your own souls in the covenant of grace by Christ. As to this, I shall only point unto that promise of the covenant, Heb. viii. 12, “I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.”

The second is the establishment of the kingdom of Christ, in despite of all opposition And for this, amongst innumerable [passages], take that of Isa. ix. 11. “Therefore thy gates shall be open continually; they shall not be shut day nor night; that men may bring unto thee the forces of the Gentiles, and that their kings may be brought: for the nation and kingdom that will not serve thee shall perish.”

The quiet and peace of the nation, which ye regard as rulers, as it stands in subordination to the kingdom of Christ, comes also under the promise; for which take that of Jer. xxx. 20, 21.

These being your three main aims, let your eye be fixed on these three, or the like promises; for in the demonstration and the use of the point I shall carry along all three together, desiring that what is instanced in any one may be always extended to both the others.

II. What is it to stagger at the promise? “He staggered not,” οὐ διεκρίθη, “he disputed not.” Διακρίνομαι is, properly, to make use of our own judgment and reason in discerning of things, of what sort they be. It is sometimes rendered, “to doubt,” Matt. xxi. 21, “If ye have faith” (καὶ μὴ διακριθῆτε), “and doubt not:” that is, not use arguings and reasonings in yourselves concerning the promise and things promised. Sometimes it simply denotes to discern a thing as it is:— so the word is used, 1 Cor. xi. 29, Διακρίνων τὸ σῶμα, “Discerning the body.” In the sense wherein it is here used, as also Matt. xxi. 21, it holds out, as I said, a self-consultation and dispute concerning those contrary things that are proposed to us. So also Acts x. 20, Peter is commanded to obey the vision, μηδὲν διακρινόμενος, “nothing doubting.” What is that? Why, a not continuing to do what he is said to have done, verse 17, “He doubted in himself what the vision he had seen should mean;” he rolled and disputed it in his own thoughts; he staggered at it.

To stagger, then, at the promise, is to take into consideration the promise itself, and withal, all the difficulties that lie in the way for the accomplishment of it, as to a man’s own particular, and then so to dispute it in his thoughts, as not fully to cast it off, nor fully to close with it. For instance, the soul considers the promise of free grace in the blood of Jesus, — looks upon it, — weighs as well as it is able the truth of God, who makes the promise, with those other considerations which might lead the heart to rest firmly upon it; but withal, takes into his thoughts his own unworthiness, sinfulness, unbelief, hypocrisy, and the like, — which, as he supposes, powerfully stave off the efficacy of the promise from him. Hence he knows not what to conclude. If he add a grain of faith, the scale turns on the side of the promise; the like quantity of unbelief makes it turn upon him; and what to do he knows not; let go the promise he cannot, take fast hold he dares not; but here he staggers and wavers to and fro.

Thus the soul comes to be like Paul, in another case, Phil. i. 23. He considered his own advantage on the one side by his dissolution, and the profit of the churches by his abiding in the flesh on the other; and taking in these various thoughts, he cries out he is in a strait; — he staggered, he was betwixt two, and knew not which to choose: or as David, 2 Sam. xxiv. 14, when he had a tender of several corrections made to him, says, “I am in a great strait;” — he sees evil in every one, and knows not which to choose.

A poor creature looking upon the promise sees, as he supposes, in a steadfast closing with the promise, that there lies presumption; on the other hand, certain destruction if he believes not. And now he staggers, — he is in a great strait: arguments arise on both sides, he knows not how to determine them; and so, hanging in suspense, he staggereth. Like a man travelling a journey, and meeting with two several paths that promise both fairly, and he knows not which is his proper way; he guesses, and guesses, and at length cries, Well, I know not which of these ways I should go; but this is certain, if I mistake, I am undone: I’ll go in neither, but here I’ll sit down, and not move one step in either of them, until some one come that can give me direction. The soul very frequently sits down in this hesitation, and refuses to step one step forward, till God come mightily and lead out the spirit to the promise, or the devil turn it aside to unbelief.

It is as a thing of small weight in the air: the weight that it hath carries it downwards; and the air, with some breath of wind, bears it up again, so that it waves to and fro: sometimes it seems as though it would fall by its own weight; and sometimes again, as though it would mount quite out of sight; but poised between both, it tosseth up and down, without any great gaining either way. The promise draws the soul upward, and the weight of its unbelief sinks it downward. Sometimes the promise attracts so powerfully, you would think the heart quite drawn up into it; and sometimes again unbelief presses down, that you would think it gone forever; — but neither prevails utterly, the poor creature swags between both. This is to stagger. Like the two disciples going to Emmaus, Luke xxiv. 14, “They talked together of the things that had happened,” — debated the business; and, verse 21, they gave up the result of their thoughts. They “trusted it had been he that should have redeemed Israel.” They trusted once; but now, seeing him slain and crucified, they know not what to say to it. What then? do they quite give over all trusting in him? No, they cannot do so, verses 22–24. Certain women had astonished them, and affirmed that he was risen; yea, and others also, going to his grave, found it so. Hereupon they have consultation within themselves, and are sad, verse 17; — that is, they staggered, they were in a staggering condition; much appears for them, something against them, — they know not what to do.

A poor soul, that hath been long perplexed in trouble and anxiety of mind, finds a sweet promise, — Christ in a promise suited to all his wants, coming with mercy to pardon him, with love to embrace him, with blood to purge him, — and is raised up to roll himself in some measure upon this promise. On a sudden, terrors arise, temptations grow strong, new corruptions break out, — Christ in the promise dies to him, Christ in the promise is slain, is in the grave as to him; so that he can only sigh, and say, I trusted for deliverance by Christ, but now all is gone again; I have little or no hope, — Christ in the promise is slain to me. What then? shall he give over? never more inquire after this buried Christ, but sit down in darkness and sorrow No, he cannot do so: this morning some new arguments of Christ’s appearance again upon the soul are made out; Christ is not forever lost to him. What does he, then? Steadfastly believe he cannot, — totally give over he will not; he staggers, — he is full of self-consultations, and is sad. This it is to stagger at the promise of God.

I come now to prove, that notwithstanding any pretences whatever, all this staggering is from unbelief.

The two disciples, whom we now mentioned, that staggered and disputed between themselves in their journey to Emmaus, thought they had a good reason, and a sufficient appearing cause of all their doubtings. “We hoped,” say they, “that it was he that should have redeemed Israel.” What do they now stand at? Alas! the “chief priests and rulers have condemned him to death, and crucified him,” Luke xxiv. 20. And is it possible that deliverance should arise from a crucified man? This makes them stagger. But when our Saviour himself draws nigh to them, and gives them the ground of all this, he tells them it is all from hence, they are “foolish, and slow of heart to believe,” verse 25. Here is the rise of all their doubtings, even their unbelief. Whilst you are slow of heart to believe, do not once think of establishment.

Peter venturing upon the waves at the command of Christ, Matt. xiv. 1, seeing “the wind to grow boisterous,” verse 30, he also hath a storm within, and cries out, “Lord, save me!” What was now the cause of Peter’s fear and crying out? Why, the wind and sea grew boisterous, and he was ready to sink; — no such thing, but merely unbelief, want of faith, verse 31. “O thou of little faith,” saith our Saviour, “wherefore didst thou doubt?” It was not the great wind, but thy little faith that made thee stagger. And in three or four other places, upon several occasions, doth our Saviour lay all the wavering and staggering of his followers as to any promised mercy upon this score, as Matt. vi. 30, viii. 26.

Isa. vii., Ahaz being afraid of the combination of Syria and Ephraim against him, received a promise of deliverance by Isaiah, verse 7. Whereupon the prophet tells him, and all Judah, that “if they will not believe, surely they shall not be established,” verse 9. He doth not say, If Damascus and Ephraim be not broken, you shall not be established; no, he doth not stick there. The fear that you will not be established ariseth merely from your unbelief; — that keeps you off from closing with the promise, which would certainly bring you establishment.

And this is the sole reason the apostle gives why the word of promise, being preached, becomes unprofitable, even because of unbelief: it was not “mixed with faith,” Heb. iv. 2.

But these things will be more clear under the demonstration of the points, which are two.

1. When a man doubts, hesitates, and disputes, any thing in himself, his reasonings must have their rise, either from something within himself, or from something in the things concerning which he staggereth; — either “certitudo mentis,” “the assurance of his mind,” or “certitudo entis,” the “certainty of the thing itself,” is wanting. He that doubteth whether his friend in a far country be alive or not, his staggering ariseth from the uncertainty of the thing itself; when that is made out, he is resolved, as it was with Jacob in the case of Joseph. But he that doubteth whether the needle in the compass, being touched with the loadstone, will turn northward, all the uncertainty is in his own mind.

When men stagger at the promises, this must arise either from within themselves, or some occasion must be administered hereunto from the promise. If from within themselves, that can be nothing but unbelief; — an inbred obstacle to closing with and resting on the promise, — that is unbelief. If, then, we demonstrate that there is nothing in the promise, either as to matter or manner, or any attendancy of it, that should occasion any such staggering, we lay the burden and blame on the right shoulders, — the sin of staggering on unbelief.