Chapter 4
See this line below - OK, I have learned enough for 2023. Reading on through to the end. NEXT YEAR, I will pick up at vs 13.
2023 - In the outline, a main point was begun in 3:21 and runs through 5:21. That point is "Justification: The Provision of God's Righteousness. 1:18-3:20 was about Condemnation: The Need of God's Righteousness. After Justification, we will move on to Sanctification. So these main topics are pretty important. Though the end of 3, we saw "The Source of Righteousness, and now in Chapter 4, we will cover The Example of Righteousness.
2023 - Paul just finished showing that Abraham in the past and Gentiles in his own time, were all justified the same way - through faith counted as righteousness. But looking at the outline, we might also say that what was shown is that Gentiles, and all those "before" the Law, were condemned by the revelation of God in nature - in creation - and also by the embedded knowledge of God that all men have. This knowledge is part and parcel of our being. Most deny it, preferring to worship a lesser god, because, in my thinking, such are less demanding than God. Or because they are not so high as God, their judgment is not as guilt-provoking, and no one enjoys guilt and shame.
So what then did Abraham gain, if anyone can have faith? (Remember, this is written to the Jewish Christians in Rome.) This important verse:
2 For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. [Rom 4:2 ESV]
Abraham was a good man, overflowing in good works. If works were what mattered, Abraham could show himself to be the best of the best. But since it is NOT about works, those works could never be bragged about to God, only to man.
2023 - The critical part of this verse is "...but not before God." Man might think Abraham was the best man who ever lived and that his "goodness" made him righteous, but Paul says that was not enough for God. And note that Abraham was good BEFORE circumcision. So before the covenant, works were not enough, and then AFTER the covenant, works were not enough, and then when the Law came, works were not enough, as we shall see, and today, under the New Covenant, works are NEVER ENOUGH. This has always been the way sinful man - believing himself wonderful - WANTS it to work, this or on a curve - but it has never - past present or future - worked this way.
2023 - This verse:
3 For what does the Scripture say? "Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness." [Rom 4:3 ESV], and the original: 6 And he believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness. [Gen 15:6 ESV]. Paul's point with this is that it was not the works in vs 2 that made Abraham righteous in God's eyes, it was that he believed God's words to him.
Then Paul highlights the contrast between something received because of works and something received as a gift. If we work hard enough for salvation, then salvation is our wages, not a gift. We've earned it so God OWES US. But if instead of works we depend only on faith, that faith is counted as righteousness, there is no performance requirement, and salvation is a gift. This is how it would work if there was a possibility of works salvation. Paul quotes David in the OT saying "Blessed is the one to whom God will not impute sin". These seem to go in another direction...Paul has been talking about righteousness earned instead of gifted but now he talks about sinlessness. So...we have to recognize that sin precludes righteousness. So there is no neutral state. You are righteous or you are sinful. So if we depend on our works to make us righteous, and mess up even once we are excluded from any possibility of righteousness. We are charged with that sin, and the punishment is death, and all our good works are insufficient to "overcome" that sin. It has been imputed to us, and there is no procedure to atone for that sin - to make it right with God our judge. There is no way out of the consequences of sin through works. But if we believe, we know that we do, and we have the peace of God, assuring us of His salvation.
2021-2, Vss 4 and 5 contrast those who work to earn their pay with those who don't work but have faith. Here are the verses:
4 Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. 5 And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness, [Rom 4:4-5 ESV]
How could you say it more plainly than this?
So having established now that salvation can never be "earned", but only gifted to all who believe, Paul tears down the wall that says salvation is exclusive to the Jews. Paul makes the point that faith was counted as righteousness in Abraham's case BEFORE he was ever circumcised.
2023 - This verse:
11 He received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. The purpose was to make him the father of all who believe without being circumcised, so that righteousness would be counted to them as well, [Rom 4:11 ESV].
He was already declared righteous - he was already saved - before he was sealed as God's own in the flesh by circumcision. That is, he was a GENTILE when he was saved. And that next line..."The purpose was...". NIV says "So then...", KJV and NKJV say "that he might be..." NASB says "so that..." Paul is clearly stating that Abraham's faith was declared righteousness by God BEFORE circumcision on purpose. Why did it come before? To make him the father of all who believe without being circumcised SO THAT righteousness by faith could apply to them also. So many things going on here...Like, if it didn't work this way for your father it is not going to work this way for you. We don't really do things that way now so we miss this crucial perhaps cultural and certainly LEGAL requirement. This is God's requirement, not man's. Sin is passed down from generation to generation through fathers. If God legally requires that sin be applied to all in this way - that is, through genetic association - then God also requires that the "cure" for sin - that is salvation by faith alone - must also come this way. So what is being stated is that SINCE Abraham was counted righteous BEFORE he was a Jew physically, then righteousness by faith alone is available to both circumcised and uncircumcised. So Paul is making a little leap here...in that Abraham had NO progeny at all at this time. So it is not that Abraham had children before circumcision and so those kids could be saved, and then more kids after circumcision, so therefore both circum and non--circum can be saved by faith. Paul makes it "bigger" than that. It is not about the kids, but about Abraham. Abraham was saved as a Gentile, therefore all Gentiles can be saved. That's what Paul is saying. But there is room for argument as I see it. Paul says we can "attach" Gentile offspring TO Abraham even though NONE of his children would have been called a Gentile. All his sons were circumcised. Does the story of Melchizedek apply here in that he was not physically a son of Levi at all, and yet he was a priest of God? Paul, it seems to me, to make this argument valid, MUST SHOW that this is not about those who are Abraham's physical descendants, but spiritual descendants. He is declaring that all who are ever saved are the spiritual descendants of Abraham. We need to see that argument, he needs to "prove" that thesis now, for this argument to be valid. Where will he go next?
2023 - He continues the above by pointing out that Abraham is the father not of those who are "only" circumcised, but those who are both circumcised and who ALSO walk in the faith. So the other side of the coin is that being circumcised, or being a DIRECT DESCENDANT of Abraham, does not mean you are automatically declared righteous. That is not enough. So clearly, even though we used the word "genetic" above, this is NOT about biology. The word "Father" is not being used here in a physical sense. Paul is separating it from the physical in two ways - he is covering both possibilities. It is brilliant really. By doing both, he shows us that he is talking spiritually. He is saying that Abraham was the first of his kind - the first justified on the basis of faith alone...NO!!! That does not work, else no one before Abraham was saved. This is showing that Gentiles BEFORE there were Jews can also be included here, because they could be saved pre-circumcision also, just as was Abraham!!! Paul is also projecting salvation by faith backward in time from Abraham! AND, we could say that those saved by faith before Abraham are nevertheless the children of Abraham spiritually, as much as those who came after him! Does this tie to "the Lord said to my Lord"? I think ti does!!! Spiritually, David is the son of Jesus in the same way that say Abel is the son of Abraham. Spiritual relationship - kinship - is superimposed on the physical world, and does not require any kind of blood relationship. It is beyond all that!!! This is huge!
OK, I have learned enough for 2023. Reading on through to the end. NEXT YEAR, I will pick up at vs 13.
Therefore, it is applicable to the uncircumcised. In Abraham's case, circumcision was the seal of the covenant of faith, not the cause of the covenant. He was counted righteous by faith before circumcision so that he is the Father of both the Jew and the Gentile. Justification by faith is applicable to all because it came before circumcision, and long before the law. Abraham is the Patriarch of all those saved by faith.
2021-2, Circumcision did not "save" Abraham any more than baptism saves us today. Baptism is the seal, the mark, the public profession of what has occurred between a man and his God. The man knows, and the seal shows -confirms - the transaction. You cannot undo circumcision, and you cannot undo a baptism.
2022 - An interesting way to look at it. The Law was a physical covenant, with physical requirements, and it was sealed with the physical seal of circumcision. The New Covenant is of faith, and faith alone with no physical requirements, and is sealed by baptism, which leaves no physical evidence, but is nevertheless a seal.
Next Paul turns to the promises made to Abraham. These promises were made 100's of years before the Mosaic Law. So it was not the Law that "earned" the promises. That's not where they came from. This verse is giving me no end of difficulty:
14 For if it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. [Rom 4:14 ESV]
Adherents of the Law means Jews post-Sinai I think. If the promises are only to them, and only because they follow the Law, then I get that faith is null. The promises would then be "due" because they were earned. But how does that make the promise void? (2023 - Because it is no longer a gift, but a paycheck if one perfectly keeps the law. It is no longer promise, it is contractually obligated pay. I think that's what it means.) MSB note says that making a promise contingent on an impossible condition nullifies the promise. As in, I will give you a million dollars if you leap this tall building in a single bound. So the pre-supposition here - that I may have missed in previous verses - is that the Law cannot be perfectly followed. That is impossible, so the promise would be contingent on the impossible, which is not the kind of thing a just God would ever do. (2023 - I can see the point being made...but is that really what it says? We have past Rom. 3:23, so we know the Law cannot be kept, but is Paul really going all the way back there? I guess he could be, this section started in 3:21....)
vs 15 is just as difficult and there is no help in the MSB:
15 For the law brings wrath, but where there is no law there is no transgression. [Rom 4:15 ESV]
The Law brings wrath in that violation of the Law brings guilt, and guilt is judged harshly under the Law (wrath). So those who follow the Law only, bring wrath upon themselves. Gentiles know nothing of the Law, so breaking the law in ignorance has no consequences? That can't be right. If that's what it means then everyone except the Jews would be saved!
2022 - This is all "legal" talk. If you don't know about a law, then you cannot be guilty of breaking it. You can accidentally break it, and the Law of Moses is chock full of sacrifices (reparations) that you can make for your mistake. But that guilt, that you did not know about, does not stick with you. You can expunge it. On the other hand, there are NO sacrifices in the Mosaic Law that expunge deliberate, pre-meditated sin. There was the annual scapegoat, that delayed the punishment, but the guilt remained always...until the perfect sacrifice and the way of salvation. This is what it means.
Not making much progress here...Going to just push on and do what I can.
Ohhh! The Gentiles, even though they don't know anything about the law and don't break the law - because you can't justly punish someone for violating a law they didn't know about - must still have faith to be justified. Faith is still the basis for Gentile salvation. If the basis was the law, then they couldn't be condemned because they don't know the law!!! That is what it means! Faith alone saves, completely apart from the law, and this is true for both Abraham's seed and Gentiles. And since all are saved the same way, all are Abraham's spiritual descendants, because they are "born into salvation" through faith, just as our father Abraham was saved through faith!
This is the answer to those who believe in a universal salvation. That all are saved, because they don't know any better. Because it isn't fair to condemn them for what they do not know. Paul says it is their lack of faith that condemns them, and he has previously established that God is revealed even in nature. Everyone has opportunity to recognize God and to believe in Him. There is no excuse for having no faith.
This MSB note on vs 17:
17 as it is written, "I have made you the father of many nations"--in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. [Rom 4:17 ESV]
"calls into existence the things that do not exist. This is another reference to the forensic nature of justification. God can declare believing sinners to be righteous even though they are not, by imputing His righteousness to them, just as God made or declared Jesus "sin" and punished Him, though He was not a sinner. Those whom He justifies, He will conform to the image of His Son.. (8:29,30).
One last point on chapter 4 (and I am sure I missed hundreds of points in this chapter):
25 who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification. [Rom 4:25 ESV]
I get that Jesus was delivered up for our trespasses. Here is the MSB note for Jesus being raised for our justification:
"The resurrection provided proof that God had accepted the sacrifice of His Son and would be able to be just and yet justify the ungodly."