Second Sunday after Pentecost June 6-7, 2026
“Simple Math” Romans 4:13-25
Rev. John R. Larson Ascension Lutheran Church Littleton, Colorado
Simple math is very important in life. The Colorado Rockies are having another tough season. If they lose 100 games or more again this year, they will set a new record in Major League Baseball for futility. If a team has good pitching, they usually have a better record. Our problem is one of simple math. We have poor pitching. Part of our problem is that the earned run average (ERA) for our starting pitchers is 5.65 – the worst in Major League Baseball. If our pitchers give up that many runs, we have to score a bunch just to have a chance. That is why we are in last place.
Simple math is very important in life. Every one of us has earned a credit rating score, a FICO score. They range on the low side from 300 and on the high side to about 850. Those on the low side pay more for everything. Car loan. House loan. Credit card. Insurance rates. A bad credit score will hound you all of your life. Simple math.
But sometimes the math doesn’t work. I looked at what the cheap seats cost for the NBA finals in New York this weekend. The Spurs against the Knicks. What is your guess? $4,000 for the nosebleed section. Somebody resells their $200.00 ticket for an outrageous price. I guess it is good for the seller, but in my estimation, not good for the buyer.
Here are some numbers that also don’t add up. Look at the age of Abraham and Sarah. The reading for today says, “Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, ‘So shall your offspring be.’ Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead – since he was a hundred years old – and that Sarah’s womb was also dead.” (Romans 4:18-19) God promised Abraham that he would have millions of descendants and that from his body would come the hope of salvation through God’s promised redeemer. But the child of the promise was not born and God was running out of time to keep His word. Abraham was impotent and Sarah was past having children. He was 100. She was 90. God’s promise was simply going to be a wish. The math simply didn’t add up.
But that is when God’s math is better than any of our calculations. What is impossible for man is possible with God. It happens all the time. We see no solution. We can’t reason it out. And God, with His funny math changes the scenario.
In the chapter about the heroes of faith (Hebrews 11), we read, “Even though he was past age – and Sarah herself was barren – he was enabled to become a father because he considered him faithful who had made the promise. And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore.” (Hebrews 11:11-12)
Do you know what we count on? We count on God. We count on His grace. We count on faith grabbing onto God and making His promises our own. We learn from others and how they lived a life of faith. Today I want you to look intently at Abraham. You’re going to see how amazing grace truly is. You’re going to take delight in living in faith.
Paul begins this chapter about Abraham with these words, “What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather, discovered in this matter? If, in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about – but not before God. What does the Scripture say? ‘Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.’” (Romans 4:1-3)
Simple math. By ourselves we die. By ourselves we are empty. By ourselves we have too much sin. By ourselves we will die in sin and be away from God forever. The book of Isaiah paints this unflattering picture of all of us, “All of us have become as one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.” (Isaiah 64:6)
But God has a better math. At least, I like it much better. In this same chapter we read, “However, to the man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness.” (Romans 4:5)
Here is God’s math: 100% grace. Everything that you have in life is a gift from God. All your abilities. All your possessions. All your money. Your history. Your legacy. A gift. Freely given to you. You didn’t earn it. You didn’t deserve it. God made your cup run over.
That includes matters of your soul. That includes forgiveness of all sins. That includes your eternity whose location will be in heaven and not in hell. 100% grace. Our reading says, “Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring – not only to those who are of the law but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham.” (Romans 4:16)
Here is God’s math: 100% faith. Completely. Psalm 103 – “Oh, bless the Lord, Oh, my soul; all my inmost being bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, Oh my soul, and forget not all his benefits: He forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, he redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, he satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.” (Psalm 103:1-5)
100% grace. 100% faith. Where does your heart go to find peace? Where does your heart go to know that all is well inside of you? Where do you run when the assaults of the devil plague you? It had better be Jesus. Your confidence, trust, hope and faith must be in Him. In the next chapter in Romans we hear this word, “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand.” (Romans 5:1-2)
100% confident. 100% sure. There are some people who when asked if they will spend their eternity in heaven will say, “I hope so, but no one can be sure about that.” Maybe you say that. Maybe you think that. “I hope so…” I hope you can live in a greater certainty than a wish. You can be just like Abraham. “Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had the power to do what he had promised.” (Romans 4:20-21)
Back to Psalm 103 again, a chapter that someone has said is a chapter of “Gospel Heaping” – one gracious word after another: “For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.” (Psalm 103:11-12)
Paul, when speaking about what God’s gift to us – grace – is, and what faith – trust in God’s word – does, he isn’t speaking about betting on a long shot, or taking a chance, or living by some fanciful wish. Listen to this conviction: “If you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord’, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.” (Romans 10:9-10)
God’s math is perfect. He takes us who are filled with sin and removes it entirely through Jesus. He takes us who are but flesh and mortal and makes us immortal through the death and resurrection of Jesus. He takes things that are improbable and impossible and makes them into a reality.
There’s a little good math on our part, too. How about praise and thanks and adoration? A 100% response that says, “Oh bless the Lord, Oh my soul. All my inmost being bless his holy name!” That’s simply good math. Amen!!
