Riding on Jesus’ coat-tails!
by Pastor Stephen Abraham
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Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring (Romans 4:16a).
Have you ever ridden on someone’s coat-tails? When you’re on the coat-tails of someone else, you’re enjoying success because of the association with that person. Often, this success is not earned.
Australian Lutherans in the past have associated much with a person’s surname. A known German surname invoked familiarity, an instant trust and understanding. My surname – Abraham – isn’t a German-sounding surname. But my father, Don, was well known to a generation of Lutherans because he was president of the Luther League in South Australia for many years in the 1950s and 1960s.
And so, when I was a young man, I’d meet people of my dad’s era, and I was instantly accepted and felt welcomed purely by that association. I’d simply mention his name, and the smiles and warm handshake would come!
Did I do anything to deserve this instant trust and recognition? No! But I discovered how much this social acceptance meant when I went to New South Wales on the Christ Knows No Distance tour in the early 90s. We went to many Lutheran churches, and after worship, people would come up and ask me my surname. I’d proudly tell them Abraham and wait for the response of welcome and acceptance that had come all my life, and then … nothing! Dad’s name meant nothing to New South Welsh Lutherans! They’d move on to another of our team, hear a German surname, and then the smiles would come!
For Jews in the first century, there was a strong association with Abraham – the father of their nation. They were ‘the children of Abraham’, and their inheritance of the land and God’s blessings was through that association. Like me receiving instant recognition and validation because of my father, to a degree, they were riding on the coat-tails of their Father Abraham!
In chapter four of Romans, Paul takes the Roman Christians back to this great ancestor and sets them straight about the man upon whose coat-tails they rode. In verse three, he quotes Genesis 15:6, ‘Abraham believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness’.
Abraham’s salvation didn’t come from his circumcision (verses 10–12). He outlines in verse 13 that the great promise associated with Abraham doesn’t come by him working to earn God’s acceptance; it comes simply by trusting in God.
All of us Christians effectively ‘ride on the coat-tails’ of Jesus Christ! We receive God’s acceptance – his grace, forgiveness and eternal life – not from anything we have done or through any great ancestor, but through Christ’s work: his sacrifice for our sins.
Almighty God, I trust you. I trust in your Son, Jesus Christ, who gave his life for my sins. For his sake, forgive me and bless me with the inheritance of this new eternal life, beginning right now. In his name, I pray. Amen.
Stephen Abraham is a retired Lutheran pastor and musician who served as a school pastor and church planter in Mawson Lakes, South Australia. Stephen retired early due to a spinal injury, leaving him largely housebound with chronic pain (documented by Lutheran Media on its Messages of Hope YouTube channel in 2014). When Stephen can, he still preaches, takes school chapels and serves his local church. He also writes and records personal songs, worship songs and Christian meditations, which he shares on his YouTube channel (youtube.com/StephenAbrahamMusic).
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