EXPOSITORY THOUGHTS FROM ROMANS CHAPTER 4
(Scripture quotations from the NEV)
1What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather, discovered in this matter? 2If, in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about—but not before God. 3What does the Scripture say? "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness."
Paul has already dealt with the notion that the Jewish nation might have had an advantage, and could boast that they are in a better position to receive God's justification because they were chosen in the first place to be the custodians of God's Law and Statutes. While it is true that the Word of God first came in a systematic form to the Jews. in the New Covenant, they have nothing more to boast, because the Law has revealed that they are just as sinful before God as the Gentiles. God had allowed their sinfulness to remain unpunished because He knew that there was going to come a time when His Son was to go to the cross and be their substitute for sin; and not only the Jews but the Gentiles as well, giving opportunity for the whole world to have their sins blotted out through faith in Christ.
Paul now goes back before the time of Moses to the time of Abraham, long before the Law was given to the Jews. Actually, long before the Jewish nation existed. At the time of Abraham, the group of people who were in the mainstream of the will of God was Abraham and his family.
Paul talks about what Abraham's experience was concerning faith and works. The Jews considered Abraham as being the father of their nation, so his experience would be significant, and Paul knows it. He brings in a reasonable doubt that Abraham was justified by works. He was justified all right, but not by works. If he was justified by works, then he would have a basis on which to boast. He would have been able to point to his good works and say to all: "Look at what I have done!" But Paul says that he might very well boast if he had a mind to, but he could not boast before God.
This brings up the point about the good works that we do for God. Can we really point to them and say that we are in a better relationship with God than others because of them. Paul doesn't think so. What God is concerned with is not the good works we are doing, but whether we are doing what He tells us to do. If, in fact, we are doing what God tells us to do, ie: doing the will of God, then all we can be are obedient servants.
Paul then points to the Scripture as his authority. Genesis 15:1-6:
"After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram, I am your shield, your abundant compensation, and your reward shall be exceedingly great. And Abram said, Lord God, what can You give me, since I am going on from this world childless, and he who shall be the owner and heir of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus? And Abram continued, Look, You have given me no child, and a servant born in my house is my heir. And behold, the word of the Lord came to him, saying, This man shall not be your heir; but he who shall come from your own body shall be your heir. And He brought him outside his tend into the starlight and said, Look now toward the heavens, and count the stars, if you are able to number them. So shall your descendants be. And Abram believed; and He counted it to him as righteousness."
Abraham listened to the word of God that came to him and he took God at His word and believed him. This was good enough for God. Abraham had good standing with God because of his faith. This is what Paul is emphasising: that if we take God at His word and believe it, then we can have righteousness reckoned to us irrespective of the quality of our works.
4Now when a man
works, his wages are not credited to him as a gift, but as an obligation.
5However, to the man who does not
work but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as
righteousness. 6David says the same
thing when he speaks of the blessedness of the man to whom God credits
righteousness apart from works:
7"Blessed are they
whose transgressions are forgiven,
whose sins are covered.
8Blessed is the man
whose sin the Lord will never count against him."
Paul now uses a down-to-earth image about a man receiving wages for his work. If he does a job of work and receives wages for it, that payment is not a gift but has been earned by the sweat of his brow. The man has done a day's work, so the payment is made to him because the employer is obligated to make the payment. There is no choice involved. Therefore, if God were to reward a person according to his works, there is an obligation on the part of God to pay him what he is due. The person who does the work would expect the payment from God as wages for his work, therefore there is no sense of God's gift or grace in what he receives.
But then, the man who does not work but trusts God who is in the justifying business, his faith is credited to him as right standing with God. This has come irrespective of whether the man has done any work for it or not. It has come on the basis of his trust in God. Paul again uses Scripture, well known to the Jews, as his base of authority:
"Blessed is he who has forgiveness of his transgression continually exercised upon him, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputes no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit." (Psalm 32:1,2).
This would have been a prophetic word, because the actual experience of Jews of David's time was the obligation to keep the Law of Moses and to continually offer sacrifices for sin at the Tabernacle (this was before the Jewish Temple was constructed). The concept of having sin forgiven through the exercise of faith was unknown. David spoke as he was inspired by the Holy Spirit, and he may not have fully understood what he was saying himself. But it was said, showing that God had a plan for justifying those who had faith in Him even then. Paul uses this quote to point out that even while the Jews were under the Law there was the opportunity to have sins forgiven and cleansed through faith apart from the obligation to observe the Law.
9Is this blessedness only for the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised? We have been saying that Abraham's faith was credited to him as righteousness. 10Under what circumstances was it credited? Was it after he was circumcised, or before? It was not after, but before! 11And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. So then, he is the father of all who believe but have not been circumcised, in order that righteousness might be credited to them. 12And he is also the father of the circumcised who not only are circumcised but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised.
Paul goes on to challenge those who may think that the blessedness of the person receiving forgiveness of sin through faith applies only to those who are circumcised under the Mosaic Law. Paul questions that notion and suggests that the same blessing may apply to those outside the Jewish Nation and therefore not directly subject to the Mosaic Law.
Paul mentions that what is under scrutiny is Abraham's faith that was credited to him as righteousness. Paul wants to establish just when that credit came to Abraham - before or after he was circumcised. This point is important, because if it was after he was circumcised, then the Jews could rightly say that Abraham was subject to the Mosaic Law which made circumcision the evidence that a person was a real Jew and therefore an appropriate recipient of God's blessings.
But Paul clearly says that the accreditation from God came before Abraham was circumcised. This shows that circumcision was not a prerequisite for being declared righteous before through faith. Actually, his circumcision was a seal that he already had righteousness by faith before his act of circumcision. This is very similar to the belief that it is not that baptism in the Name of the Lord is a prerequisite for salvation, but that baptism is an act that shows that a person is already saved after accepting Christ as Saviour and Lord.
By logic then, Paul shows that Abraham is the father of all who believe but who have not received the sign of circumcision to show that they are part of the Jewish Nation. This means that anyone from a Gentile nation, who decided to place their trust in the living God would have his faith credited to him as right standing before God. This opens the door wide for Gentiles to become Christians with equal standing with God to the Jews who become Christians. It takes Christianity away from being merely an extension of Judaism.
Paul says that Abraham is also the father of the circumcised, that is of the Jews who exercise the same faith that Abraham had before he was circumcised. This means that Jews, even though they are practising Jews, if they exercise faith in Christ, can be saved and have the same standing with God as the Gentile believers have who have exercised the same faith.
13It 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. 14For if those who live by law are heirs, faith has no value and the promise is worthless, 15because law brings wrath. And where there is no law there is no transgression.
Paul is now saying that Abraham and his children received the promise about him being the heir of the world before the institution of the Mosaic Law. Therefore right standing with God is not dependent on the observance of the Law. Abraham was never subject to the Mosaic Law, and yet he was declared righteous before God. In showing this, Paul is saying that righteousness for Christians also does not depend on any observance of the Law. The promise of God comes through the righteousness that comes as a result of a person exercising faith in Christ.
Paul emphasises this by stating that if those who live by law are heirs of the promise, then faith has no value, and the promise is worthless. This is what legalistic Christian leaders do to their people by trying to get them to live by a set of outward rules in order to be acceptable Christians in their congregations. They are devaluing the faith of people, and cutting them out of receiving the promises of God. The promises of God are only for those who are exercising faith in Jesus Christ. The promises are therefore of no effect to those who are trying to be right with God by observing a set of moral laws, Jewish or otherwise. There a many Christians who are depending on the promises of God, while trying to order their lives according to set of moral laws. What they do not know is that their attempts to observe those laws are making the promises of God ineffective to them. Because of this, some Christian leaders need to recognise that they could be overthrowing the faith of their followers in the way they lead them, especially in those churches that have strict laws governing who can be members.
The law brings the consciousness of sin, and consequently the wrath of God upon those who depend on the law for their justification. As we have seen before, the function of the Law is to show people their sinfulness and their inability to ever be justified before God if they remain subject to the Law. Where there is no Law, then there is no consciousness of sin, because there is nothing to transgress.
16Therefore, 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. He is the father of us all. 17As it is written: "I have made you a father of many nations." He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed—the God who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were.
Paul moves on from proving his position to stating it. He has provided ample Scriptural foundation for the points that he is making. He summarises in saying that the promise of being able to stand before God without the conscious of sin comes by faith, so that God is free to exercise His grace, and to give a guarantee to all of Abraham's offspring, or descendants. This is the doctrine: God's grace, and the guarantee of the fulfillment of God's promises comes by faith.
Paul further states that the necessity of entering into the promises of God through faith is for those who are of the Law; that is, the Jews. He makes a distinction between the Jews and those who are of the faith of Abraham, as if those of the faith of Abraham are the true beneficiaries of the promises of God. Paul is quite clear about the truth that, as he has already proved, Abraham is the father of both Jew and Gentile. He further quotes Old Testament Scripture, from Genesis 17:5, to underline his point.
There are a number of nations in the Middle East who claim Abraham as their father. Each one seems to have an exclusive claim to the fatherhood of Abraham at the expense of the others. But the true fatherhood of Abraham in the sight of God belongs to those who are exercising faith in Him. In these days that means that believers in the Lord Jesus Christ as the only ones who can truly claim the spiritual fatherhood of Abraham.
And this is not just any God who is involved here. This is the Living God who gives life to the dead, an allusion to the resurrection of Jesus, and who calls things that are not as though they were, alluding to the commands of God that created the world out of nothing. The power of the Living God surpasses any other power, and therefore to be acknowledged as a recipient of His grace and righteousness is no small thing. If we are sons and daughters of Abraham in His sight, even though we cannot. in the natural, claim any lineage back to him, then we can believe it implicitly. We are sons and daughters of Abraham in the sight of the Living God when we are seen by Him to exercise true faith in Jesus Christ His Son.
18Against 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." 19Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead—since he was about a hundred years old—and that Sarah's womb was also dead. 20Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, 21being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. 22This is why "it was credited to him as righteousness." 23The words "it was credited to him" were written not for him alone, 24but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness—for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. 25He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.
Paul continues to cite Abraham's testimony as a convincing proof that it was on the basis of Abraham's faith that he became the father of many nations. The birth of Isaac was not just any miracle. It is still having its effects on Christians today. It is one of the foundation stones of our faith. This goes to show that when God decides to perform a miracle, it is not just for the immediate recipients. It has to do with wider issues. For example, the notable healing of the lame man at the Gate Beautiful in Acts 3 was an important event in the life of the early church. On one level, an individual was made a functioning part of society again, but on a higher level, his healing had the result of having 5,000 new converts to Christ. This is the same in these days. When a miracle takes place, many people are affected by it. Whole communities can be changed because of one healing, or one notable conversion to Christ.
Faith can see the reality of the condition we are in right now. This is the faith that Abraham had. He took a long, realistic look at his own body, knowing that he was nearly a hundred years old. He also acknowledged that Sarah, because of her advanced age, was past her child bearing age. He lined that up against the promise of God and made his choice - to believe the promises of God over and above what he knew in the natural. In fact, the reading says that he did not waver, but was strengthened in His faith and gave glory to God. He was totally persuaded that, in spite of his physical limitations, God had the power to do what He had promised. Abraham looked away from the sense knowledge of his weaknesses and looked more favourably on the power of God. Paul says that this is the reason why his faith was credited to him as righteousness.
This makes the strong point that the type of faith that looks away from the natural weaknesses of a person to the power of God to overcome them is the type of faith that leads to being able to receive righteousness before God.
Paul also makes the point that the credit of righteousness to Abraham was not for him alone, but for us. Even though Paul was writing to the Romans around 2000 years ago, the "us" includes the people who are living for Christ today. It includes every person who believes in Christ.
How does God credit us with righteousness? It happens when we believe in the Living God who raised Jesus from the dead.
This brings a point to be considered: there are branches of the Christian church that have a "modernist" point of view. They deny the supernatural attribute of God. They also deny the virgin birth and the bodily resurrection of Christ. They have reduced Christian faith to a set of moral niceties - that if we are kind and loving toward each other and living a good life then we are true Christians. Of course, this is quite contrary to what Paul teaches. He teaches clearly that if a person is going to be credited with righteousness, he or she has to believe that God raised Jesus from the dead. If a person does not believe that, righteousness cannot be credited to that person.
This means that any person who calls himself a Christian and does not believe in the bodily resurrection of Christ, is not saved. He or she is still in sin and has not received the righteousness of Christ. This is because having a strong belief in the resurrection of Christ is essential to receiving righteousness and having a good standing before God.
Paul strengthens his view by stating that Jesus died on the cross for our sins. This means that His death on the cross settled the sin question once and for all, and the person who accepts Jesus' work on the cross is completely freed from the guilt, condemnation and bondage of sin. Then Jesus was raised from the dead to enable God to justify the person who believes in Christ. It was the resurrection of Jesus from the dead that made it possible for God to be able to give believers righteousness and the ability to stand before Him without the consciousness and guilt of sin. This makes the resurrection of Christ the central component of a believer's justification before God.
[End of Chapter 4]