Bible Study - Romans Chapter 4
Bible Study - Romans Chapter 4
| 1 What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, has found? |
Abraham is the literal and physical father to the nation of Israel, (and of the Arabs as well.) He is the man God made an everlasting covenant with. Among the things promised were that Abraham would be the father of a multitude, many nations. Also through him the whole earth would be blessed, foretelling of the coming of the Messiah who was a descendant of Abraham. And that the land of Israel would belong to his descendants. So Paul asked this rhetorical question about Abraham who lived 400 years before the Law of Moses. So keep that in mind when Paul brings up the Law in the following verses. |
| 2 For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. | If Abraham had been justified by his own works then he could boast that he was righteous by his own power. But Paul adds the point that no works could justify Abraham before God. God's goodness is perfect. No matter how good we are we are hopelessly filthy with sin in the presence of God. Therefore Abraham was not justified by works. He was not justified by the Law as that did not yet exist. So Abraham had no reason to boast. |
| 3 For what does the Scripture say? "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness." | Paul quoted Genesis 15:6 that makes it clear that what made Abraham righteous was not his works, but that he had faith in God. Abraham was humble and knew he was dependent on God. |
| 4 Now to the one who works, his wage is not credited as a favor, but as what is due. | Here Paul was referring to an employee doing the job he was hired for. His wages are not given as a favor, but because they are what is due to him. Thus neither the work nor the wages are a gift, but a transaction. |
| 5 But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness, |
Continuing the analogy from verse 4, Paul presented a person who does not try to earn forgiveness for his sin nor his salvation by his own works. This person puts their faith in God. Through the sacrifice of Jesus, God justifies this person even though they are a sinner. It is faith that brings righteousness, not works. To be clear, righteousness results in works. But never and in no way do works bring righteousness. A person who is trying to earn their salvation is denying Jesus' sacrifice and the grace of God. |
| 6 just as David also speaks of the blessing on the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works: | Grace is not a New Testament concept. True Judaism teaches that we are utterly dependent on God. And that salvation is entirely due to the grace of God. David understood this and put it in his psalms. Following the Law of Moses did not earn salvation. It was the way to identify with Yahweh and God's people. It was nomistic, not legalistic. We have nothing in the west like nomism, so it looks like legalism and justification by works to us. |
| 7 "Blessed are those whose lawless deeds have been forgiven, And whose sins have been covered. 8 "Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will not take into account." | This quotation is from Psalm 32:1-2, which is a psalm written by David. It is inarguable that having our sins forgiven would be a blessing. Psalm 32 goes on about how unconfessed sin hurts us, while confessing our sins to God brings forgiveness. Then God is our hiding place, our preservation from trouble. David was a man who lived under and by the Law of Moses. But it was not following the Law that brought forgiveness. It was turning to God with humility, acknowledging our sin before God, and being dependent on Him. |
| 9 Is this blessing then on the circumcised, or on the uncircumcised also? For we say, "Faith was credited to Abraham as righteousness." | Paul's rhetorical question asked if the blessing of having sins forgiven by God was just for the Jews or if it was also for the Gentiles. Answering his own question Paul quoted Genesis 15:6 about pre-Law Abraham being justified by his faith in God. |
| 10 How then was it credited? While he was circumcised, or uncircumcised? Not while circumcised, but while uncircumcised; | Here Paul made the point that Genesis 15:6 was not just pre-Law of Moses, it was pre-Covenant and pre-circumcision. Circumcision was part of the Law of Moses, such that the Law is frequently referred to euphemistically as the circumcision throughout scripture. However, circumcision predates the Law. It was part of the covenant with God which is in Genesis chapter 17. The point Paul was making is that according to the Torah circumcision and the Law were not requirements for forgiveness of sins and salvation by God. |
| 11 and he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while uncircumcised, so that he might be the father of all who believe without being circumcised, that righteousness might be credited to them, 12 and the father of circumcision to those who not only are of the circumcision, but who also follow in the steps of the faith of our father Abraham which he had while uncircumcised. |
Genesis 17 documents the establishment of the Covenant with Abraham and his descendants. God changed his name from Abram to Abraham, promised he would be father of a multitude of nations, and that the land of Canaan would belong to him and his descendants. The sign of the covenant was circumcision. But Abraham's righteousness already existed before all of that. Abraham was to be father to a multitude of nations. And this was fulfilled by the willing sacrifice of Jesus. Jesus brought a new Covenant that fulfilled the original Covenant. Thus Gentiles could be grafted in and become descendants of Abraham. Being grafted in was always an option. But under Judaism the Gentile was required to convert, be circumcised, and follow the law as a Jew. Now that is no longer necessary. Gentiles who were uncircumcised and had not converted to Judaism could become children of Abraham and children of God by becoming disciples of Jesus. In Acts when a Christian would be questioned by Jews they would often take the Jews through a mini-history of the Jews. And when they got to the part where it was pointed out that they had rejected the Messiah and killed Him, they would continue listening. It was when the person speaking said that Gentiles could be saved without becoming Jews first that they would erupt with anger and violence. Their identity as God's chosen people was threatened. So it was necessary for Paul to point out that if having faith in God while being uncircumcised and outside the Low of Moses was good enough for the father of all Jews, then it was good enough for Gentiles of this time as well. |
| 13 For the promise to Abraham or to his descendants that he would be heir of the world was not through the Law, but through the righteousness of faith. | In this verse Paul explicitly stated the point he had been arguing since 1:14. The whole point of the Covenant was so that all people would be able to become descendants of Abraham, not just the Jews. This made a way for everyone to reconcile with God by having faith in Jesus. |
| 14 For if those who are of the Law are heirs, faith is made void and the promise is nullified; | In other words, if following the law made people heirs of Abraham then it would eliminate any need for faith. And this would cancel out the promise of the Covenant. In fact, it would void the Covenant and the Law. Neither could even be started with someone outside the Law and Covenant without faith in the equation. If you have to be within the Covenant and Law to be right with God in the first place, then there can never be a first person to start it all. |
| 15 for the Law brings about wrath, but where there is no law, there also is no violation. |
To be clear, this verse is not saying that doing the right thing doesn't matter. Some things in the law like eating pork are a violation under the Law of Moses, but are not a violation for someone not under the Law. But things like murder, theft, fornication and such are violations both under the Law and outside of the Law. However, this verse is referring the purpose of the Law of Moses. It was to convict and convince the Israelites of their sinful nature and their utter dependence on God. They were surrounded by nations of such vile evil that just talking about it would make a normal person want to vomit. Even with the Law the Israelites repeatedly would start to copy the evil practices of the surrounding nations. It seems clear that without the law they would have become so corrupt that Jesus could not have even had a ministry in Israel, let alone fulfill the Covenant as the Messiah. |
| 16 For this reason it is by faith, in order that it may be in accordance with grace, so that the promise will be guaranteed to all the descendants, not only to those who are of the Law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all, | Faith and grace are the two parts of salvation. Faith is our part, putting our faith in Jesus. Grace is God's part, making it possible for us to be forgiven of our sins by Jesus' willing sacrifice. The undeserved and unearned gift of grace from God is ours if we just put our faith in Jesus. It is by faith that the promise of the Covenant is fulfilled. Paul specifically identified the Jews of his time as those under the law. But he specifically identified Gentiles as those of the faith of Abraham. In other words, Abraham is closer in status to the Gentiles outside the Law than the Jews under the Law. This was an earth-shaking declaration for a Jew of that time to hear. Thus Abraham is the father of Jews who follow the Law and have faith in God and Gentiles who don't follow the Law and have faith in God. |
| 17 (as it is written, "A father of many nations have I made you") in the presence of Him whom he believed, even God, who gives life to the dead and calls into being that which does not exist. | Paul was quoting from Genesis 17:5 here. If only Jews are the descendants of Abraham, then this part of the covenant couldn't happen. Thus Paul pointed out the contradiction between what most Jews believed and scripture. To those who believed it was impossible, Paul pointed out that the Covenant was with God who created everything out of nothing and can raise the dead. Since they believed God can do all that, it was ridiculous to think that God couldn't make sons of Abraham out of Gentiles. |
| 18 In hope against hope he believed, so that he might become a father of many nations according to that which had been spoken, "So shall your descendants be." | Against the doubts in his mind that God's promise wasn't possible in the natural, Abraham had hope and faith that God would do what He said He was going to do. The quote is from Genesis 15:5 where God had made the promise, but not yet the Covenant. |
| 19 Without becoming weak in faith he contemplated his own body, now as good as dead since he was about a hundred years old, and the deadness of Sarah's womb; | Abraham was an old man and his wife Sarah was an old woman. They had no children and both were past the age of having children. In the natural God's promise was not possible. Despite that Abraham's faith was strong. |
| 20 yet, with respect to the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief but grew strong in faith, giving glory to God, | Despite the physical reality staring him in the face, Abraham knew God could and can do anything. There are two key points in this verse. First, Abraham's faith grew strong because he was walking in that faith. Muscles do not grow until they are used and challenged. Faith is like that. The second key point is that Abraham was giving glory to God before the promise had happened. He was acting and praising God like it was already done for him. We are naturally pessimists like Eeyore from Winnie The Pooh. We can easily picture everything going wrong. Abraham showed trust and gratitude to God when the evidence before his eyes said it couldn't be. He believed in faith. If God can create everything out of nothing, then giving an old couple a child was nothing. |
| 21 and being fully assured that what God had promised, He was able also to perform. | The word perform is ergazomai in Greek. This word doesn't have a direct English equivalent as it has various meanings and is a vague term. It can mean creating something, making something happen, or interacting with something. What is clear in every possible way to translate this word is it refers to doing activity in general. In this context it means Abraham kept going. In other words, Abraham kept going because his faith assured him that God's promise was a sure thing. |
| 22 Therefore it was also credited to him as righteousness. |
Paul quoted Genesis 15:6 like he did back in verse 3. Abraham was righteous because he walked in faith. It should be noted that he never lost faith in the promise. But he did allow his wife Sarah to turn him away from God's plan and what God meant in the promise. She reasoned in her mind that the way for this to happen was if Abraham got her Egyptian maid pregnant. It is no surprise that this led to jealousy and drama between the maid and the wife. Eventually Hagar had to leave with the boy named Ishmael. Ishmael is the father of the Arabs. The God who is going to do what He is going to do gave Abraham his son Issac by his wife Sarah. But there has been conflict between the descendants of Ishmael and the descendants of Issac to this day. Sarah didn't hear God's promise herself. She had no basis for her "plan" other than her own reasoning. And it made her own life difficult. If Abraham had not listened to Sarah's misleading how much suffering and violence would have been avoided then and through the millennia after? Today people who claim to be Christians listen to the word of people who are ignorant of what scripture says and are too in love with their own thoughts and reasoning. These make up silly arguments based on fluff and nonsense. A Christian should not even be listening to them. A Christian should know what scripture says, recognize when someone contradicts scripture, and not listen to the misleading viper. If possible they should cut out the viper out of their lives that is trying to mislead them away from God. When God sent Moses back to Egypt he asked God what he should answer when the Israelites ask what God's name is. God answered "I AM who I AM" and to tell them "I AM" sent him. Am in Hebrew is hayah which means "to be" and is related to the name YHWH or Yahweh. Am also means to come to pass. Thus the name of God means I AM, as in I exist as well as "What I do will come to pass." Another way of saying this is "The God who is going to do what He is going to do". Scripture is clear that praying to God does change what He will do. James 4:2 states that some do not have because they do not ask God for it. But there are some times when it doesn't matter whether we pray or not. The God who is going to do what He is going to do will make it happen because that is the fulfillment of His will and plan. That the nation of Israel was going to bring forth the Messiah to save everyone who has faith in Jesus was going to happen regardless. |
| 23 Now not for his sake only was it written that it was credited to him, 24 but for our sake also, to whom it will be credited, as those who believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, | In other words, this justification by faith was not just for Abraham. It is for us as well. Anyone who has faith in Jesus resurrected from the dead will be counted as justified to the Father. Our names will be in the Book of Life, our sins forgiven, and our judgment will be to determine our reward in heaven. For those who choose not have faith in God, including those who have made a fake Jesus that agrees with their own nonsense, their judgment will be for their sins. |
| 25 He who was delivered over because of our transgressions, and was raised because of our justification. | This ought to be clear to any Christian. Jesus was delivered for crucifixion to pay the penalty for our sins. And he was raised from the dead so we can be justified and reconciled with the Father. There are some who don't like the doctrine of penal substitutionary atonement. Too bad. Here and throughout scripture the substitution of Jesus for us is the basis of the gospel. It is God who created the universe. We ought to trust His word and be willing to be corrected by it. |
Scripture quotations taken from the NASB © The Lockman Foundation.