“Only the Best”
“Only the Best” (Romans 4:1-5,13-17)
Series: Exactly What I Needed
by Pastor Nate Walther
The 2nd Sunday of Lent (3/1/2026)
ONLY THE BEST. It’s kind of a motto for our lives. As Americans, we expect our country to have the best standard of living, the best military, and the best medical care. Professionally, we want to be the best at what we do, get the best pay, and receive the best benefits. For our kids, we look for the best schools, the best dental care, the best sports opportunities. In our homes, we want the best materials: that nice hardwood furniture, those striking stone countertops, or those energy-efficient windows & appliances…
If we think that way everywhere elsewhere in our lives, we don’t easily “turn it off” when it comes to our faith. And that’s OK. God wants us to have the best for our faith too! The problem comes when we make faith about what we do, choose, or think. Like so many other things in my life, it’s easy to take matters into my own hands to ensure that I get the best! But if we want the best for our faith, God paints a dramatically different picture for us today in his Word.
As we look again to our sermon text from Romans 5, it intersects so well with our theme today. Abraham is the father of the Jewish faith & a great paradigm for faith in general. What we heard at the beginning of verse 2 only makes sense, if anyone had reason to boast it was Abraham! Yet that only makes what we heard at the end of verse 2 even more striking, “But not before God…” As God expects “only the best,” this is him telling us in his Word that not even Abraham could cut it — Abraham, who moved a month’s journey away from his family to some place he had never seen before, all because God told him so. Abraham, who washed the feet of random strangers that showed up on his tent-step and served them with the finest meat from his flock & produce from his field. Abraham, who risked life and limb not just to rescue his nephew Lot from powerful kings who had captured him, but he also rescued many other unworthy, evil citizens of Sodom and Gomorrah (whom God would later destroy!).
Granted, God does commend Abraham, but did you notice it was for a completely different reason? Verse 3, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” Abraham did have something going for him, but that something was faith. Which is interesting when you consider that faith is always contrasted to works in the Bible. Here and in verse 4, God doesn’t say he credits righteousness to people for what they do, as something they earn; rather, he credits it for the opposite reason: for faith. And the thing about faith in the Bible is that it’s not just some abstract, “you’ve just got to believe.” Faith always has an object, it always relies on something else. In particular, Abraham’s faith was about what someone else did. “Abraham believed God” That’s what was “credited (or calculated) to him as righteousness.”
I’m sure Abraham wanted the best in his life just like us, and there was plenty a guy like him could earn for himself. But what about all the things he couldn’t earn for himself? For all his accolades, Abraham had sin. He questioned God at times, one time even sleeping with his own maidservant (Hagar) to try to fulfill God’s promise about having a child that would lead to blessing for the world. It didn’t work. The world’s Savior from sin did not come from that child born to him (Ishmael). Abraham and all nations were still in their sin… But give Abraham credit for one thing: he didn’t settle for what he could do, and he continued to live by faith that God could do something better. That’s what God eventually did give him “credit” for, since God eventually would provide a child for him & his wife (Sarah) in their old age (Isaac) who would lead to a Savior for the world.
So also, dear brothers & sisters of Jesus, do you want the best? Good! God has wired that into your heart and mine. Don’t settle for anything less. So every time we’re tempted to think more highly of ourselves because we go to church when others don’t, or we go about our career in a godly and respectable way even when our coworkers don’t, or we are being honest in our classes when classmates are cheating and trying to us AI… stop! Don’t settle for that! Because what good is a gold star before the one who made the stars? And every time we’re tempted to make faith about how much more we know than others, or how committed we are in our convictions, or the fact that we go to the right church when others don’t… stop! Don’t settle for that! God knows more than us and expects a lot more than that from us. And every time we’re tempted to minimize our own sin, and we revel in the fact that we haven’t done the bad things that others have, or we pretend those sinful thoughts we have aren’t affecting the way we look at our spouses or at the success of others… stop! Don’t settle for that! After all, God is pure holiness and wants us to enjoy such perfection with him, not some cheap, sin-corrupted version of it.
Don’t hear what I’m not saying. Do those good things too, just realize they won’t cut it. And more than anything, live by faith. Because we get more by focusing on the object of our faith and what he does. It’s what this season of Lent is all about. Last week we began Lent with the traditional reading about how Jesus overcame the devil’s temptations for 40 days in the wilderness – it’s a reminder of how Jesus perfectly overcame every temptation to sin for us as our substitute! During Holy Week we will end Lent with the traditional readings about how Jesus went on trial and died on the cross– it’s a reminder of how Jesus perfectly suffered the penalty for all sin for us as our sacrifice! This time of the year is all about focusing on how Jesus can do more for than we can do for ourselves. And it’s exactly what we need. When God calculates Christ and his good deeds to our account, he is able to credit so much more to us than if he were to calculate only our deeds (good & bad) to our account.
Have you ever been there yourself? You’re trying to solve a problem at work, or maybe you’re just looking at the family budget, and the numbers don’t add up. But then some extra funds come along, the math changes, and everything works out! One of my favorite real-life examples of something like this is when UPS implemented software that prioritized right-hand turns over left-hand turns. It seemed extremely minor, but changing that one variable meant that in one year their drivers drove nearly 30 million less miles, they saved 3 million gallons of fuel, and they required 1,000 fewer trucks. Such a seemingly small change made a huge difference… Now take a huge change and apply it to our faith. If faith were only about what we do, God must add up all our sins and factor them into the equation too. Then, if you consider two possible outcomes for eternity – one without any imperfection in heaven and one with imperfection in hell – there’s just no way around it, we’re spending eternity with our sin! But if you add Jesus as Savior from sin to the equation, and the math completely changes. That’s where God is able to keep all of his promises to us in full.
Help others see it. In a world that longs for “only the best,” anything short of it can throw people into a tailspin. Which is really bad, because it’s rare for anyone truly to be the best at something. Even if they are the best at one thing, they will usually struggle with other things that relate to what they are trying to accomplish. The world’s best three-point shooter may not be a particularly good defender. Or the most brilliant scientific mind may not have the best people-skills, which limits what he or she can get done. Even the best presidents have ton of flaws (anyone would when put under a microscope)… If only the best will do, then no one will do; which means what everyone really needs at the end of the day is Christ, who was the best at everything for them! If you love someone, always be thinking about how you can bring Jesus into their lives.
And don’t miss ithist for yourself either, dear Christian. Whenever you look at yourself and struggle and think, “I’m not the best! I should be a better mom, a better husband, a better person…” – And you and I should be! – or if ever we think, “How could God ever settle for someone like me to spend eternity with him in heaven?”, remember what we heard earlier, “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life!” (John 3:16) That’s not my take on the subject as a pastor, nor is it some inspirational quote AI fashioned for a coffee mug. The words from our Gospel reading are Jesus himself saying that faith in him will make all the difference. Christ’s love, forgiveness, and power can make a real difference for you in your God-given callings. Don’t underestimate how everything can change with one variable, especially when that one variable is Jesus. He really does bring “only the best.”
Abraham had a lot going for him humanly-speaking, and he was a wealthy man. Yet God always kept Abraham looking for more. For years promising a child, but not giving him that child; and even what God gave Abraham that child, he still promised a great nation from this son that Abraham would never live to see!… It worked. It kept Abraham looking for something better. The Book of Hebrews tells us that Abraham lived as a sojourner on earth. Despite all that he had, he saw that heaven was what he needed all along. His story is our story. Whenever we find that we’re lacking, and when we are kept waiting, we don’t have to settle for something less than the best or do anything to fix it. Just live by faith. Just let God do what he’s promised all along. That’s when Christ will give us EXACTLY WHAT WE NEED. Amen.
