Romans 4:1-25 – Paul continues his argument about the primacy of trust as the mark of God’s people by talking about Abraham – the father of the covenant people.
- If we look at Abraham, what will we find? Are we in his family due to flesh?
- What makes Abraham special to God? Was it something he did to put God under obligation?
- No, Abraham simply trusted God… he didn’t have a list of things to point at that made him worthy to be declared right
- If someone is employed, this person doesn’t get paid because the boss is giving out gifts but because he is contractually obligated
- But in this case, we are talking about people who have nothing to offer God to put God into a place of contractual obligation.
- Humanity comes to God with empty hands… but in trust that God will render a judgment in favor of those who are ungodly in spite of this
- David talked about this undeserved blessing that comes from God. He says,
- “Blessed are the people who find their sin forgiven and taken care of… blessed is the person who God will not hold accountable for his/her sin.”
- So, is this blessing only for people who are ethnically / culturally Jewish, having been circumcised? Or is it also for the non-Jew?
- The scriptures say that Abraham was declared right / “acquitted” by trusting God. Was it before or after he was circumcised?
- Aha! He only received circumcision AFTER he was already declared right as a seal of that status which he had already received while he was not circumcised
- The purpose of this was to make him the father of all who trust God without being circumcised AND the father of those who are circumcised & trust like Abraham did before he was circumcised
- Why does this all matter? Because Abraham’s family was promised the whole world as an inheritance… but that wasn’t gonna happen if this distinction between Jew and non-Jew was the dividing line of who is in the family and who isn’t. That is why the defining feature of the family is trust in God not the Torah observance demonstrated especially by circumcision
- If it is only people who adhere to the Torah, then trust is meaningless and the promise is worthless
- The Torah actually highlights and increases God’s wrath… which makes it so the promise can’t come about. (When the Torah is out of the picture, a person can’t talk about violation’s of it as a category of sinfulness)
- Thus, the promise is dependent on trust so that it can be fulfilled as an undeserved gift (good because no one deserves it) to any and all who share the faithfulness of Abraham (regardless of Torah observance or its identifying marks demonstrating such).
- Abraham is the father of anyone who trusts in God… that’s why the scriptures record God as calling him “the father of many nations”
- God can do anything… give life to the dead (Jesus resurrection) and call into existence things that don’t exist (Creation, Abraham’s descendents)
- Abraham didn’t have any physical evidence that God’s promise of a family of descendents would come true. He just had his confident hope that God would fulfill His word
- In fact Abraham had evidence to contradict God’s word – he was 100 year old and his body was as good as dead… not to mention that he and Sarah had tried for years to have children unsuccessfully
- But he chose to trust… and he grew strong in that trust and he gave glory to God through his unwavering trust that God would do what He had promised
- God rewarded his trust by declaring him right and vindicating him
- The attribution of right-standing given to Abraham based on his trust in God is exactly what God is doing with us who believe
- We will be have this good declaration credited to our account at judgment if we trust in God who raised Jesus our master from the dead… the same Jesus who was handed over to death because of our screw-ups and who is raised from the dead in order to give us confidence of right-standing / vindication before God.
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