Romans Chapter 4– John Karmelich

 

 

1.                  Years ago, I heard an illustration that is a great summary of living the Christian life.  It goes as follows:  “I (as a young Christian) spent years trying to live the Christian life like I was pushing a bus up a hill.  It finally occurred to me that the bus has a motor.  Following Jesus is not about pushing the bus; it’s about getting aboard and riding it.”

a)                  As I read Chapter 4 this week, I kept thinking about that illustration.

b)                  Chapter 4 continues Paul’s thoughts on “salvation by faith alone” as opposed to trying to earn God’s favor by our efforts.

c)                  We’ll come back to “how to ride the Jesus’ bus” in a moment.

2.                  Chapter 4 is Paul conducting his own bible study.

a)                  Most of Chapter 4 is Paul talking about the character Abraham from the Book of Genesis.

b)                  In a sense, what I’m writing here is a commentary of a commentary on Genesis.

c)                  Paul is going to pick out selected verses from Genesis about Abraham, and talk about their significance.

d)                 Paul also talks about King David who lived 1,000 years after Abraham. 

e)                  In both cases (Abraham and David), Paul wants to show that these men believed that going to heaven is 100% about trusting in God’s promises to them as opposed to their own efforts.  They both “got on board the bus”.

3.                  With that said, let me summarize some key points about Chapter 4:  The single most important verse in the chapter is a quote from Genesis 15:6 (NIV):

a)                  "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness."

b)                  Here is why that verse is essential: 

i)                    In Genesis Chapter 15, Abraham is described as “righteous” before God.

a)                  “Righteous” is the idea as being “perfect’ in God’s eyes so that Abraham gets to spend eternity in heaven.

c)                  Here is the key:  Abraham does not get circumcised until Genesis Chapter 17.

i)                    If you haven’t noticed, Genesis Chapter 15 comes before Genesis Chapter 17. ☺

d)                 The point is God called Abraham “righteous” long before he gets circumcised.

e)                  This is important as many Jewish people of Paul’s time, (and some today) believe that one is saved by the ritual of circumcision.  They view that ritual as being more important than “just having faith in God”.

4.                  At this point, it might be good to define just what “faith” means in context to salvation.

a)                  Here’s a definition that I like:  “Faith is simply a convicted heart reaching out to receive God’s free and unmerited gift of salvation”.  (John MacArthur)

b)                  Let me give you a practical illustration:  Suppose I gave you a cashier’s check for two hundred million dollars.  You didn’t do anything to deserve that check.  In fact, I gave you that check despite the fact you’ve been a bad-person.  I did it just out of my own generosity.  “Faith” is accepting the fact the check is good and going to the bank to cash.  (Faith is not “testing” the check by going to the bank to see if it is good or not.)

i)                    Does that mean if I have doubts, my faith is no good?  No.  Later, we’ll get into a discussion of “increasing one’s faith” and what that means.  In a sense, growing in faith (i.e., having less doubt) is what Christian maturity is all about.

5.                  Now let’s get back to the “get on the bus” illustration that I used to open this study.

a)                  I believe the majority of people living in the world believe that going to heaven requires “doing things”.  Even in the greater Christian world, there are people working hard to discipline themselves and committing sacrifice upon sacrifice in order to get into good standing with God.  They are “pushing the bus up a hill instead of getting on board”.

b)                  Even among those of us who understand this principal, the danger of “doing things” constantly creeps back into our lives. 

i)                    Our egos want to “do things to please God”.  We write bible studies. ☺

ii)                  Every now and then I have to remind myself that God is not impressed with my resume.  God loves me just because He loves me, and not based on anything I do.  Further, God wants to bless you and me just because He wants to show His love to us, again, and not based on anything we do.  He wants us to climb on the bus.

c)                  With all of that in mind, we’re going to start Verse 1 and get into a long discussion of Jewish people and circumcision.

i)                    Remember that Paul’s audience were 1st Century Jewish-Christians.  The issue of the moment for Paul is had to deal with a false-Jewish-view that the only way to salvation required circumcision.

ii)                  Much in the same way many Christians believe today that baptism is a requirement for salvation as opposed to a “sign” of one’s faith.

iii)                Another modern application is to beware of “things” we are doing to try to please God as opposed to the realization that God just picked us only because He loves us and that’s it.

iv)                Paul is focusing on the issue of salvation.  The issue of Christian behavior “after” salvation is another issue.  We’ll talk about “faith” and “action” later in this lesson.

6.                  Chapter 4, Verse 1:  What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather, discovered in this matter? 2 If, in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about--but not before God. 3 What does the Scripture say? "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness."

a)                  Remember that when Paul wrote Romans, there were no chapter breaks.

i)                    The chapter breaks and verse numbers were added many centuries later.

ii)                  My point here is, is in order to understand Verse 1, we have to understand what Paul was saying near the end of Chapter 3.  It is a continual thought.

iii)                Back in Verse 28 of Chapter 3, Paul said, “For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law.”

a)                  This means that Paul is arguing that one gets to go to heaven by “faith” as opposed to keeping the law or some ritual like circumcision.

b)                  This was a radical concept to the Jewish way of thinking of that day.

iv)                Chapter 4 is an expansion upon that theory that one is saved by faith alone.

a)                  Chapter 4 is a “bible study” to support that theory.

b)                  What Paul is going to do in Chapter 4 is show that “saved by faith” is supported in the Old Testament, which Jews accept as God-inspired. 

c)                  To paraphrase Paul, “Do you Jewish people believe that the Old Testament is the word of God? Great, so do I.  Given that, let me show you in that text that God says a person is going to heaven based on faith alone.”

d)                 With that, Chapter 4 is a bible study, mainly about Abraham, but also a little about King David, who came a thousand years later.

b)                  OK, why Abraham?  Of all the bible characters, why this guy?

i)                    Abraham is considered “the first Jew”.  He was the one individual God called to start the Jewish race.  God said to Abraham in a sense, “Hey you, yes you over there. ☺  I need a guy to start a nation of people to be My “chosen people”.  Whether you like it not, I picked you.  Now deal with it and get on the bus.” ☺

ii)                  A nickname for Jewish people is the “Sons of Abraham” as he is the father of the Jewish people.  We’ll talk more about who is and is not a “Son of Abraham” in this lesson and future lessons in Romans.

c)                  Now we can talk about the verses themselves.  Verse 3 is pivotal.  It says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness."

i)                    Again, this is quote of Genesis 15:6.

ii)                  God first picked Abraham in Chapter 12.  He was called “Abram” at that point.

iii)                Abraham was 75 years old when he was picked by God in Chapter 12.  (Reference Genesis 12:4).  By Chapter 15, Abraham was in his 80’s.

iv)                The point here is both Abraham and his wife were past the child-bearing age by Chapter 15.  In Chapter 15, God promised that through Abraham, he would have many children.

v)                  The main point of Genesis 15:6 is that Abraham believed God’s promise to him, and at that point, God said Abraham was “righteous”.  The word righteous in that context means God now saw Abraham in right-standing before Him. 

vi)                A point we are getting to is circumcision doesn’t happen until many years later in Chapter 17.  Abraham was “righteous” long before he was circumcised.

d)                 With all of that in mind, Verses 1-3 should now be a little easier to understand:

i)                    Verse 1 says, “What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather, discovered in this matter?”

ii)                  Abraham “discovered” he was justified by faith because he believed God.

iii)                Verse 1 says, “Abraham, our forefather”.  Paul was Jewish.  He also thought of Jewish-Christians as still being direct descendants of Abraham.

iv)                There is also the idea that people of non-Jewish decent become “Sons of Abraham” by their faith in Jesus.  Paul taught this in Galatians:

a)                  “Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, “In you all the nations shall be blessed”. So then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham.” (Galatians 3:7-9,NKJV)

e)                  Getting back to Romans, Verse 2 says, “If, in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about--but not before God.”

i)                    That means if Abraham did “something” prior to God calling him “righteous”, he could boast before God about how special he was.  He could say to God, “You have to let me in to heaven.  I circumcised myself.  Check my pants!” ☺

ii)                  The point is God picked Abraham long before he got circumcised.  There was no ritual, no effort, no sacrifice, and no good deeds that Abraham had to do in order to get into heaven. 

f)                   Verse 3 is the pivotal verse of “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”  Now that I’ve beaten this verse to death, I can move on. ☺

7.                  Verse 4:  Now when a man works, his wages are not credited to him as a gift, but as an obligation.

a)                  We are now back to the idea of trying to work one’s way into heaven.  What this verse is saying in effect is, “If you are trying to work you’re way into heaven, all the things you are doing is counting against you instead of counting for you.”

b)                  There is an interesting theory (I don’t necessarily support it) that God will judge a person based on what they think is right and wrong.  God will then show those people how short they come to their own standards. 

i)                    For example, if you believe the way to get into heaven is to obey the 10 Commandments, God will show you on Judgment Day your failure to live up to your own expectations of keeping those commandments.

ii)                  I give this theory because when people try to please God by their own efforts, they are insulting God whether they realize it or not.

a)                  Imagine God saying, “I gave up my own son to die for the punishment of your sins, and that’s not good enough for you?”

b)                  That is why our own efforts are counted as “debt” toward God and not as something positive.

iii)                God once said of himself through Isaiah, “I am the LORD; that is my name! I will not give my glory to another or my praise to idols.” (Isaiah 42:8 NIV)

a)                  Notice the phrase, “I will not give my glory to another”.

b)                  That includes you and me.  One attribute of God is He does not share His glory with others.  When we get to heaven, we only thank Him, and not ourselves.  We can’t brag about anything we do.  Even “cashing the check” of accepting Jesus is a gift from God. (See Ephesians 2:8).

c)                  In summary, this verse is teaching that what we do to please God for our salvation counts against us, not for us.

i)                    It should be another motivation tool to not try to work our way into heaven.

ii)                  Going back to my “pushing the bus” illustration to open this lesson:  “Trying to push a bus with a working motor uphill is not only painful, but a waste of time.”

8.                  Verse 5:  However, to the man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness.

a)                  I want to focus on the phrase “but trusts God who justifies the wicked”.

i)                    When we think of wicked, we tend to think of mass-murderers, people who hurt children, or some other hideous crime.  It never occurs to us to look in the mirror.

ii)                  Remember my previous lessons on Romans are compared to an army boot camp.  Paul is like an army drill sergeant constantly telling us what “scum” we are.  My point here is that all people are considered “wicked” before God.

iii)                In Chapter 3, Paul quoted the Psalms that said, “There is no one righteous, not even one”.  Those Psalm quotes describing humanity goes downhill from there.☺

b)                  Let’s jump to the conclusion of Chapter 4, which is the first verse of Chapter 5:

i)                    “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”  (Romans 5:1 NIV).

ii)                  Paul concludes this “justified by faith” section by saying if we believe in Jesus for the payment of our sins we have peace with God.

iii)                Here’s a scary thought:  The opposite of peace is war.  If we have peace with God through Jesus, does that mean God, in a sense is “at war” with us prior to our belief?  In a sense, yes, because of our sin disease, God considers all of us “wicked” and beyond help.  At the same time, God knows all things and He chose us in advance to spend eternity with us.  He may think of us as wicked, but at the same time has the love for us to want to remedy the situation.

c)                  OK, let’s talk a little about “pre-destination”.  Why us and not others? 

i)                    The term “pre-destination” refers to the idea that God knows all things, and therefore God picked some people to spend eternity with Him, but not all.

a)                  The question becomes, “If God already picked some, and not all, why did God bother in the first place?”  Why didn’t He just put the ones He wanted in heaven to begin with?  Why create the earth and all of this “testing”?

ii)                  By the same argument, one can say, “Why Abraham and not someone else?”

iii)                I take the view (other good bible scholars disagree) that free-will and pre-destiny are two sides of the same coin.  We are stuck in time and we don’t know the future.  Therefore, we don’t know who God picked.  From our perspective of stuck-in-time, we “choose” to serve God even though we somehow understand that God gave us the gift of choosing Him.

iv)                At the same time, we have to accept God is in charge and we are not.  God set up “earth” (as opposed to heaven-only) so that we would know that He picked us while we suffer from this incurable sin-disease.  It makes us appreciate God’s love even more so when we figure out there is nothing we can do to please Him.  God shows us that some do not choose Him.  This shows us, from our perspective, the concept that free-will is also a gift from God.

v)                  Just so you know, “free-will” and “pre-destination” is a classic debate in both Christianity and Judaism.  There are good scholars with various positions on this issue.  We will never fully reconcile the debate in our lifetime.  Personally, I don’t wrestle with this issue.  I accept the truth that both exist and let God worry about the details.  Our job is to know that “some people out there are saved”.  We don’t know which ones, so we pray and minister to all.

d)                 With all of that in mind, let’s now get back to Verse 5.

i)                    The negative side of trying to please God by doing “things” is that it counts against us.  The positive side of living by faith alone is God then “counts” us as being perfect-in-His-eyes, that is, “righteous” by faith alone.  We are giving God the glory for His will getting done, and not us.

ii)                  Now think about that from a “pre-destined” aspect:  It means that God picked you and me.  I don’t know why He did, but he did.  The classic joke is “If God had watched the rest of my life, He would not have picked me.”  The point is God knows al the sins we have committed, are committing and will commit in the future.  God picked us before we committed all of those sins.  Despite all of that, He still picked us.  That should give us reassurance of God’s love for us and the fact that He, and He alone gets the credit for salvation.

9.                  Verse 6:  David says the same thing when he speaks of the blessedness of the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works:

a)                  We now move from a bible-study on Abraham to a bible-study on David.

b)                  If you had to pick the second-most reverend Jewish person after Abraham, (besides Moses) David would be a great choice.

c)                  In fact, the opening sentence of the New Testament refers to Jesus as the “Son of David” and the “Son of Abraham”.  (Reference Matthew 1:1.)  Nobody else gets “opening credit”.

i)                    It was to those two people, living a thousand years apart, to which the promises of a future Messiah were given. 

d)                 This promise of a future Messiah goes way back to Adam and Eve.  There was a strange prophetic curse placed on Satan after the bad-fruit-incident.  God said, “And I (God) will put enmity (distance) between you (Satan) and the woman (Eve), and between your (Satan’s) seed and her (Eve’s) Seed; He (offspring of Eve’s seed) shall bruise your (Satan, or the Antichrist, i.e., “seed of Satan”) head, and you (Satan) shall bruise His (offspring of Eve’s seed) heel.  (Genesis 3:15 NKJV, with everything in parenthesis added.)

i)                    Understand that “seed” refers to a single male-sperm that became a man.

ii)                  That verse is biologically incorrect in that the seed (i.e., a sperm) comes from a male and not a female.  Genesis 3:15 calls the seed “her seed”.  Since women aren’t born with a seed, some see this “seed” as an implication of the virgin birth.

iii)                That “seed” prediction goes all through the bible leading to the Promised King (Messiah) which is Jesus.  My point here is that “promise of a future seed” is emphasized and promised again through Abraham (Genesis 21:12) and David (2nd Samuel 7:12).  Understand that both passages in a literal translation speak of a “future seed” that is passed on from generation to generation.

iv)                One has to understand Jesus as “fully human and fully God”.  The “seed” was past down from Adam and Eve, leading to Mary.  In biological terms, you could say the “Y’ chromosome was passed down from Eve’s body, and God provided the “X’ chromosome at the time of the virgin birth. 

e)                  The reason I stated all of this as a side-trip is to understand that when Paul is about to quote David in his writings in the Psalms.  Paul is picking the other main person in the Old Testament to which a specific promise was made about the coming Messiah.

f)                   In the next few verses, Paul will take quotes from the Psalms.  My point here is that Paul picked writings by David that the Jewish people would agree are God-inspired.

g)                  Verse 6 states Paul’s purpose of this verse.  It says, “He (David) speaks of the blessedness of the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works”.

i)                    That means that David argues that a person is blessed from their faith in God for their salvation and not their efforts to please God.

ii)                  We can now go to the actual quote of David in the Psalms, which is Verse 7.

10.              Verse 7:  "Blessed are they whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered.  8 Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will never count against him."

a)                  This is a quote of Psalm 32, Verse 1 and 2.  If you read the Psalm itself, prior to Verse 1, it says, “A psalm of David”.  Therefore, we know David is credited with writing this Psalm.

b)                  Now let’s look at the first phrase, “Blessed are they whose transgressions are forgiven.

i)                    The word “transgression” refers to doing anything and everything that is against God’s laws.  It includes intentional and unintentional actions.  It is when one breaks a specific law as stated in the bible (e.g., one of the 10 Commandments).

ii)                  The word “sin” comes from the Old English and means “missing the mark”.  It is like when shooting an arrow and it misses the target.

c)                  David, in the Psalms, says that a person is blessed if His (or her) transgressions are forgiven.  That means a person if forgiven by God, and they realize it, they are blessed in their life here-and-now. 

d)                 I believe the main thing people desire of God is to know they are forgiven of what they have done wrong.  We are blessed in that we no longer have to carry the guilt around in our conscious.  We may have to pay society for the harm done and suffer physical consequences for our sins, but if we ask for forgiveness of God, He will forgive us. 

i)                    Understand it is a little more complicated than just saying, “God forgive me” and then go back to committing the same sin. The confession has to come with the concept that we understand it is wrong and our desire is to not do it again.  Even if and when we fail again, we still understand our actions are sins and we desire to change that behavior.  That is a confession of sins that is forgiven.

e)                  Now we go to the second phrase that says, “Whose sins are covered”.

i)                    The idea of “covered” is the idea one can no longer see the sins.

ii)                  The point is the sin is still there, but God throws a “forgiveness covering” over the sins so we no longer have to see it.  It is God telling us we no longer have to bear the guilt for that sin as long as certain procedures are followed (i.e., confession, a price has to be paid.)

iii)                The punishment for the sins still has to be paid.  Prior to Jesus, that is what animal sacrifices were for.  That is what the cross is for.  The point of “covering” is the sin is “taken care of” and we no longer have to worry about it. Both the animal sacrifices and the cross itself is someone innocent paying the price for our sins.

f)                   One of my favorite bits of bible trivia has to do with the tabernacle.  In the book of Exodus, God describes in exact detail how to build a tabernacle to worship God.

i)                    Every dimension of every part of the tabernacle is described.

ii)                  The one exception is the “mercy seat”.  (See Exodus 25:17).

iii)                There is a box called the “ark of the covenant”.  This is a box without a lid.  The exact dimensions of the box are specified in Exodus.  The main item to be placed in that box was a copy of God’s laws.  To violate those laws are sins.  Covering that box is a separate lid called the “mercy seat”.  It represents God’s mercy in covering those sins just like a lid covering a box.

iv)                Here’s the cool part: The height-dimension of the mercy seat (lid) is not specified in the bible.  Again, every other dimension of every other aspect of the tabernacle is specified.  The only exception is the mercy seat height.

v)                  Why is that?  To show there is no “height limit” when it comes to God’s mercy!  There is no limit to God’s mercy. 

vi)                Gee, that’s great, what does it have to do with Romans 4?  Re-read these two verses in Romans 4 with the “no limit to God’s mercy” in mind.  One of the things that make us blessed is to realize that no matter how much we mess up, if we are willing to confess that sin, God does still forgive us.  We ourselves put “limits” on God’s mercy because our egos think we can do better.  God has no limit.

11.              Verse 9:  Is 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. 10 Under what circumstances was it credited? Was it after he was circumcised, or before? It was not after, but before!

a)                  Paul continues his argument that circumcision does not save a person.  Paul continues to hammer the point that God called Abraham “righteous” long before he was circumcised.

i)                    Notice the last phrase of Verse 10:  “It was not after, but before!”

b)                  Circumcision is the “sign” that one is Jewish.  We’ll discuss this a lot more beginning in Verse 11.  My point here (that Paul will expand upon later), is that God is the God-of-non-Jews as well as Jews.  The “blessedness” that Abraham received is available for Jews and non-Jews alike.

c)                  OK, John I get all of that.  What’s the application?  The application is that “rituals” for Christians make nice symbolic gestures for our salvation but we aren’t saved by those rituals.  We don’t get “points” with God for completing such rituals. 

i)                    I’m not anti-ritual if one has the right perspective.  Let’s take communion.  I believe God calls all Christians to take communion regularly.  Different churches have different interpretations of “regularly”, but as far as I can tell, all Christian churches do some sort of communion on a regular basis.

ii)                  One takes communion to remind oneself of what Jesus did for us.  That is “biblical” (See Luke 22:19).  The mistake is to think one gets “bonus points” with God for regularly taking communion.

d)                 Some good rules of thumb on Christian practices and rituals are:  1) Did Jesus comment on it?  2) Was it practiced in the Book of Acts? And finally, 3) Did the Epistle writers comment upon it?  That is how you “test” if an idea is appropriate (e.g., communion) as a part of a Christian worship service.

12.              Verse 11:  And 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.

a)                  If we are saved by faith-alone, the next question would then be, “Then what’s the point of circumcision?  If Abraham was saved long-prior to being circumcised, what’s the point of completing that ritual?

i)                    In other words, if Abraham was accounted as righteous before God in Genesis Chapter 15, what is the point of circumcision in Genesis Chapter 17? 

ii)                  The answer is in Verse 11. It is a “sign” of God’s relationship to Abraham.

b)                  If I had to pick one word to remember from Verse 11, it is the word “seal”.

i)                    The closest illustration I can think of is cowboys and cattle.  To prove ownership of a cow to a certain ranch, they brand a mark on the cattle.  That cow is now “sealed” as belonging to a particular ranch.

c)                  To a Jewish person, performing circumcision is telling God, “I want to dedicate my life to you.”  I understand that I want to live my life to give you the glory.  A sign or a “seal” of that understanding is to perform circumcision.

d)                 Circumcision is to be performed on male babies when they are eight days old.  (See Genesis 17:12)  Abraham was 99 when he was told this.  Since he’s behind schedule by 98 years, 11 months and 22 days, he had to get moving. ☺

i)                    An 80-day old baby isn’t involved in the circumcision decision process.  Therefore this sign is for the parents as a sign for raising their children to serve God.

e)                  Circumcision can be looked at as “agreeing to cash the check” that God gives us.

i)                    An illustration I gave earlier about faith is like God giving you a check for a huge sum of money.  All we have to do is take to the bank and cash it.  Doing a “sign” of circumcision is like us saying, “OK, God, I realize that I am saved just because I believe the Gospel story to be true.  I’m performing this ritual of baptism or “whatever” as a visual sign to me and those around me that I accept your free gift.

f)                   There is an interesting phrase about circumcision in Genesis 17 I want to discuss here: