Studying His Word and His Works

Listen to the study here: Romans 4:9-16

Read here: Romans 4

• Review
  • Calvin on theme of Romans: “Man’s only righteousness is the mercy of God in Christ, when it is offered by the Gospel and received by faith.”
  • Luther: Simul iustus et peccator = At the same time, righteous and a sinner! Romans 3:23-25, all have sinned AND are justified by His grace
  • Really important to connect back to Romans 1:17, righteous shall live by faith, which is connected to Habbakuk 2:4. 
  • In OT, righteous looked forward to gospel, while Christians today look back to gospel. Paul uses Abraham as the example in v. 1-4 and continues here.(Galatians 3:8, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham).

Intro

• In Schreiner’s commentary*, he titles his chapter about these verses “Abraham, The Father of All Peoples.” Technically, Abraham is not the father of all peoples. This is describing Abraham’s faith, and that faith in God is what makes us all a Christian family. Schreiner describes this as “Abraham’s family of faith.” So, Abraham is not our father genetically, he is our “Father in the Faith,” in the same way Matthew Maury is the “Father of Oceanography.” That’s the context of “father” here.
• Verse 9
  • Paul asks “who is this blessing for?”, connecting back to not just v. 1-8 but before that in Ch. 3, and before that v 1:17, righteous shall live by faith, and before that in Habbakuk, and before that in Genesis, etc.
    • David’s blessing from Psalm 32 that Paul quoted in v. 7-8 was probably thought of by Jews as specifically towards them, the circumcised.
    • Paul doesn’t provide his own interpretation of Psalm 32, but connects back to Genesis 15:6 (faith counted as righteousness), just as he had in verse 3.
    • Paul is saying Sola Fide is the way to understand the blessing David describes in Psalm 32. The blessing is for the faithful. It is for the believer.
• Verse 10
  • Again, we see Paul trusting the historical accuracy of Scripture, down to the timing of receiving the outward sign of the covenant vs. the moment Abraham believed. According to Scripture, Abraham believed first, then he was circumcised(Genesis 17).
    • It’s a simple argument, but profoundly important. If circumcision is first, then a works-based salvation is the conclusion. “Do these things to receive salvation,” like the Jehova’s Witness do, or the Catholics do, or the health and wealth “prosperity gospel” people do(faith connected to your wealth), or the progressive “Christians” do (you aren’t the sinner, society is, so work to overcome society’s sins, like “whiteness” or “intolerance,” or “the patriarchy,” or whatever is the next deceptive thing to distract you from a real relationship with Jesus). What Paul is saying here is NO, it is not necessary to get circumcised (or baptized) or do any other works to be in a right relationship with God. Just believe.
• Verses 11-12
  • So why do circumcision (OT) at all, or baptism (NT), if works don’t matter? Because it’s a sign and a seal. Schreiner says the purpose of using these words is to say, for Abraham, circumcision was not intrinsic or essential to faith, but instead confirms, documents, ratifies and authenticates the right standing by faith that Abraham already had. Verse 11 says Abraham had faith “while uncircumcised,” removing any doubt that circumcision was essential for righteousness.
    • The father of all who believe– alludes to Gen 12:3, and Gal 3:6-14, which promises all nations wil be blessed in Abraham.
      • A friend of mine moved to a new town and visited a church where the preacher asked the people to repeat the phrase “God is gonna make my name great!”, which connects back to Genesis 12:2, where God said he would make Abraham’s name great. But, we can read here in Romans that Paul focuses on Abraham’s faith, not on his riches. Not on making a name for himself. It was his faith that was counted to him as righteousness. My friend had stumbled into a “prosperity gospel” church. The preacher, dressed in a gold-threaded shirt and expensive shoes, spouted a false “what can I get for me” gospel. But from Romans 1:1, Paul teaches the true gospel is about surrender, obedience, being a “doulos” of Christ, to follow Jesus no matter what. Great name or not.
      • Paul connects to this in another letter, Galatians 3:6-14, which we read some of last time. Again, like in the Romans 4:1-8 study, Paul saw Abraham’s faith as “preaching the gospel.” The OT faithful looked forward to Christ. And we look backward to what Jesus did for us on the cross. 
    • Verse 11 is more focused on gentiles and verse 12 more on Jews, with Abraham as the “father of the circumcised.” Abraham had a broader circle as “father of the faithful,” and a smaller circle as the “father of faithful Jews.” If you know what an Euler diagram is (a.k.a. Venn diagram), imagine Jews as one circle and faithful as another circle, and the Jew circle is partway in the faithful circle because not all Jews were faithful but just practiced works.
      • The main conclusion of verses 9-12 is Abraham is the “Father of the faithful.” A secondary conclusion is that Genesis is describing real history. From the moment time began in Genesis 1:1, to the timing of Abraham’s belief, to his age (Romans 4:19, etc.), Paul trusted Genesis was real history. I trust it, too.
• Verse 13
  • The word promise comes into play. The subtitle above v. 13 in the ESV Bible is The Promise Realized Through Faith. Schreiner says v. 13 defines the content of the promise by saying that Abraham would become heir of the world. That the faithful would inherit the earth.
    • God’s promises to Abraham included descendents (Genesis 12:2, 13:16, etc), the land of Canaan(12:7, 13:14-17, etc.) and that all nations would be blessed through him (Gen. 12:3, 18:18, 22:18). “Heir of the world” follows from merging these three elements of the promise. 
    • Schreiner says the universal character of this promise is another way of saying God will reclaim the world that was lost through Adam’s sin.
      • Abraham’s story pointed ahead to the promise of God reclaiming the world. Think about how Jesus taught us to pray in Matthew 6, “thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven.”
    •  In Romans 4:13, Paul also connects back to 3:21-4:8, that faith, not works, gives us a right standing before God.
    • Paul also begins shifting from circumcision to “the law,” perhaps to show that circumcision is just one aspect of the broader Jewish law.
• Verse 14
  • This is huge, faith and God’s promise is futile if we can achieve it through works. It’s crazy how so many groups try to inherit a promise through works, like Mormons and their temple rituals and secret handshakes and passwords, or prosperity gospels and their attaching of wealth to faith.
    • The only works that matter are Christ’s work on the cross. When we try to add to that, through rituals and law keeping and whatever, we are in essence believing that Christ’s work was meaningless. That the gospel is “null and void.”
      • Paul already established righteousness by faith in Rom 3:27-4:8. There is an antithesis between believing and doing, stated in Rom 4:2-5, and restated here.
• Verse 15
  • The law brings wrath, that is actually a huge statement, it is saying what Paul said before, that none are righteous (3:10, cited from Psalm 14). We all break the law eventually.
    • Schreiner mentions the reason God’s wrath is activated by the law is that people fail to keep it. There is nothing in us that makes us capable of perfect law-keeping, that’s why attempts at salvation by works lead to God’s wrath, not his blessing. 
    • Where there is no law there is no transgression doesn’t mean that people who haven’t heard the law are off the hook. Romans 2:12-16 states Gentiles, and therefore everyone, has the law in written form or in their hearts, so that they either do it or don’t (see discussion of general revelation in the Romans 2:1-16 study). Paul uses “transgression” here instead of sin to refer to a revealed command, a written code. And there IS a revealed command, but even before that, sin was in the world (Romans 5:13). Like in Abraham, faith preceded works; in humans, sin preceded the written law.
      • If you lived in a pagan nation like Hawaii before Christianity, you would have some versions of God’s law, but also many that were not, like murder of innocent people through human sacrifice. But Jews had the written law, and Paul is basically saying here that Jews had a greater responsibility to uphold the law than Gentiles. Or maybe it’s like when I lived in Texas and the limit for redfish was 3 between 20 and 28 inches, and I saw a visitor with 5, 15-inch redfish. They didn’t know the law, but if the game warden showed up, they would still get a ticket. 
• Verse 16
  • IT “depends on faith,” and “rest on grace”, IT being the promised inheritance, which is salvation mainly, but also what we pray in Matthew 6, “thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven.” Restoring Earth to what it was before Adam sinned.
    • This promise depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace, revealing that saving faith is a God-given faith. As mentioned before, God’s gift of faith is different than faith that the sun will rise, that calculus works, etc. We merely receive this gift, this covering of our unrighteousness with Christ’s righteousness so that we can now relate to God. IT is that infinitesimal moment, that instant in time, when His gift of faith becomes our faith. And from that moment on, it is a team effort! 
    • Guaranteed to all his offspring, not just Jew, but Jew and Gentile. Remember, 1:18-32 covered unrighteousness of Gentiles, 2:1-3:8 the unrighteousness of Jews, and 3:9-20 is unrighteousness of all. If all unrighteous, Paul is saying here that all believers are made righteous through faith in Christ. 
    • Guaranteed not only to the adherent of the law, which sounds like law-keeping leads to salvation, but it only sounds like that if we take it out of context. He is referring to the Jews. The promise is guaranteed to believing Jews, not just law keepers.
• Up next: Romans 4:17-25
• *References used throughout this Bible study are found in the introductory lesson.