“Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?”
1. Larry James, Saul’s conversion. 2005, oil, Abraham's Journey to Christ, accessed June 29, 2024, https://lsjames-studioart.weebly.com/abrahams-journey-to-christ-2005-by-ls-james.html
Romans 4 ESV
What then shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh? 2 For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. 3 For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.” 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, 6 just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works: 7 “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; 8 blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.” 9 Is this blessing then only for the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised? For we say that faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness. 10 How then was it counted to him? Was it before or after he had been circumcised? It was not after, but before he was circumcised. 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, 12 and to make him the father of the circumcised who are not merely circumcised but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised.
BIG IDEA
Prompted by God for the infinite, Abraham actually “believed in the LORD” for posterity, which God justified him as faithful and imputed his righteousness to him so as to model a standard for all who likewise believe the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation apart from efforts to earn it. The key to this freedom is Romans 4:5 And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness.
EXEGETICAL OUTLINE vv 1-5 Justified by faith, Abraham has nothing to boast in and of himself but for the righteousness of God imputed to him.
vv 6-8 King David was overjoyed as one to be envied, for despite his failures, his transgressions are forgiven, his sins concealed from filth and not imputed with iniquity, he stands righteously blameless before God.
vv 9-12 God declared Abraham righteous for his faith thus making him the standard for all who believe with or without circumcision that came far later as an outward sign.
INTRODUCTION This study aims to expound the faith Abraham was justified for and, credited with righteousness, became the standard for all who “believed in the LORD” even the Lord Jesus Christ regardless of circumcision, conduct and character, let alone the 613 commandments of the Mosaic Law with its exhaustive Levitical, customary and judicial demands all of which Jesus fulfilled for his redeemed.
HISTORICAL AND LITERARY CONTEXT
Born of Judaism, Christianity dawned upon the Greco-Roman world of classical antiquity wherein lingua franca, Roman roads and imperial cults impacted the populace of the Mediterranean, the Levant, the Balkans, Western Europe and Brittania. And while Rome gloried as the seat of the Augustus that pedaled the pomp, politics and philosophy of Pax Romana, the commercial strip of Corinth rebuilt by her Roman overlords that connected to mainland Greece, sheltered a man whom “they say, “His letters are weighty and strong, but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech of no account” (2 Corinthians 10:10 ESV). It is here in the Greek city of Corinth in AD 57 after his third missionary journey (Acts 18:23) that the Apostle Paul lauded Abraham against the damning truth that “by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight” (Rom 3:20). Paul, being Latin for Saul, was a Roman citizen and a Hellenized Jew from Tarsus well-versed in Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek; for having been mentored by Gamaliel (Acts 5:34; 22:3) from the Pharisaic school of Hillel where justice and righteousness fused in covenant theology, it explains how “the apostle to the Gentiles” (Rom 11:13) often connected Roman legalism and Stoicism with Jewish belief. Paul thus drafted his law-free “gospel” like a treatise and, via the hand of Phoebe as scholars suggest, pitched it shamelessly (Rom 1:16; 2:16; 16:1) to Roman believers whom he intended to visit en route to Spain after delivering a collective gift to the poverty-stricken church of Jerusalem. How these house churches thrived in Rome, most of whom Paul never met (16:3-15), scholars have credited to the missional work of ethnic groups at Pentecost, the Diaspora sparked by Stephen’s martyrdom and Claudius Caesar’s expulsion of Jews in 49 AD (Acts 2:1-11; 8:1-4; 18:2) which unwittingly left Gentile Christians behind to flourish under the policy of Pax Romana spanning from 27 BC to 180 AD. Thus when Messianics returned five years later, hostilities inflamed a predominantly Gentile church which Paul purposed to reconcile, via discourse, certain “disputable matters” (Rom 2:17-3:2, 9; 4:1-22; 11:13-25; 14:1).
Paul thus pitched a sobering truth to Jew and Gentile: that “the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against” every soul depraved by named and nuanced sins “who knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them” (1:18-32). As such, mankind is altogether worthless save for “the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe” (3:22). Hardened as man was toward sin, and sinning still, Paul summoned the proud to a man Jews applauded, one whom John the Baptist had previously preached to “many of the Pharisees and Sadducees” in the wilderness of Judea saying, “And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father,’ for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham” (Matt 3:1-9; cf. Jn 8:33-39). Paul, taking cue, pitched his: “What then shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh?” (Rom 4:1). Jews, by tradition of written and oral laws and folklore, developed a narrative about Abraham that had them “say” their progenitor evoked a righteousness in and of himself which Paul wrote off as “flesh” befitting for man “but not before God.” Jesus himself said years before, “It is the spirit that gives life, while the flesh is of no avail” (Jn 6:63 NAB; cf. Rom 7:18; 1 Cor 2:14; Gal 3:3; Phil 3:3). Flesh, pertaining to three - ‘the soft substance of the living body which covers the bones and is permeated with blood’, his corrupt nature and the exhaustive Mosaic law, - is altogether vain and powerless to save one’s soul. Abraham therefore fared no better, for like any other man given to cowardice, lies and idolatry, he stood before God neither right nor reasonable but a “worm” of a man bereft of God, goodness and good works (Jos 24:2-3; Gen 6:5-6; 12:10-20; 16:1-16; 20; Jb 25:6; Ps 22:6; Isa 41:14). Depravity, in Paul’s view, had thoroughly soiled everyone since the Fall that “they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened” despite the myriad evidence “for what can be known about God” (Rom 1:18-32; 3:9-18). Man, without God and void of worship, is no better than the beasts made on the sixth day of Creation. A beast may have emotions, bear similar traits and texture to man but because it is void of reason, it breathes, moves and lives instinctively with innate responses to seasons, months and years. “What then shall we say that Abraham, our ancestor according to the flesh, has discovered regarding this matter?” (Rom 4:1 NET) Nothing! For if “the flesh is of no avail” as Jesus declared, then Abraham, being all but bestial who only “know by instinct like unreasoning animals” (Jude 1:10), discovered nothing about “the LORD, God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth.” But unlike “fools” and scoffers who mocked “the things of God” (Rom 1:22-23; Jos 24:2-3; 1 Cor 2:10-11), Abraham differed from them when, gifted with faith to believe (Eph 2:8-9), perceived the “invisible attributes” of God viz. the stars in the Mediterranean night and embraced the god known as Yahweh to the ancient Kenites and worshiped him only as “the LORD, God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth” (Gen 14:22). That Yahweh, “a man of war” who annihilated powers, principalities and nations, bent to Abraham and declared Himself his “shield” and “exceedingly great reward” (15:1; Ex 15:3), it's only befitting that he believed. To think: if the antediluvian “Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD ..[and] did according to that all God commanded him” (Gen 6:8-22; Heb 11:7), how does Abraham compare by any standard of dispensation? “For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God” (Rom 4:2, emphasis mine). Did Abraham live by a moral code God was indebted to oblige? Was he degenerate to jeopardize his wife and the houses of Pharaoh and Abimelech just to save his skin? Did Abraham make restitution in fear of God? Did Abraham earn his wealth of livestock, gold and silver (Gen 12:16; 20: 14-16)? Did Abraham reflect on his sins and repent? For the record, repentance was never a precondition to the covenant God made with Abraham (Gen 15) nor did Abraham have the intuition to groom himself as a prime candidate. It may also be noted here that Abraham, as a proselyte to Yahweh (Jos 24:2-3), was not the first and only “to call on the name of the LORD” for the descendants of Seth and Enosh did long before. Melchizedek, for example, worshiped “God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth” (Gen 4:26; 14:17-20; Heb 7:1-4). This God, then, who “justifies the ungodly” defined as wicked, impious and irreverent, vindicated Abraham out of sheer favor. “Where, then, is boasting? ..For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God (Rom 3:27; 4:2). With no “works” of righteousness to boast, his was a “faith” gifted by the LORD acting on a prevenient grace (Eph 2:8-9) that softened his heart to faithfully believe God for posterity and concluded him, once and for all, righteous (Gen 15: 4-6 cf. Rom 4:1-12) albeit imputed to him. If it was otherwise, Abraham was justified to glory in the “flesh” of self-righteousness for which tradition has hailed him impeccable. Paul, on the other hand, identified Abraham as “the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness” (Rom 4:5).
Justified by faith alone and “declared righteous” (4:6 NLT), Paul’s gospel (2:16) not only extolled Jewish covenant theology that complemented justice with righteousness but echoes the four Gospels and eulogize Abraham whose God is “the justifier of the one who has faith” (3:26; 4:2-11) regardless of circumcision. Abraham, felled by depravity, could no doubt be teary to be “a friend of God” (Isa 41:8; 2 Chr 20:7; Jas 2:23) “just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works: “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.” Paul evoked David who, infamous as “a man of war and have shed blood” (Ex 15:3; Deut 32: 39-43; Chr 28:3), was likewise thrilled to be justified by faith to the point of envy (cf. Strong’s 3107 blessed makários: happy; to be envied). For how could he not be envied when, lauded as the “beloved” king of a united Israel, he is pardoned of every crime, forgiven of every sin and declared righteous by “the LORD” (Gen 14:22; 50:24; Ex 3:15; Ps 32; Acts 7:32). What then does righteousness look like for “the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin” (Rom 4:6-8, emphasis mine)? If the Lord, meaning “a person exercising absolute ownership rights” (Strong’s Greek 2962 kýrios) so desires, then by his sovereign will, he has deliberated and negated all of David’s sins, past and present, as absolutely nothing thereby presenting him with a constant clean sheet even as a fallible pilgrim on earth. So, with regards to negligence that led to David’s lust for another man’s wife culminating in the loss of an innocent child, the man is guiltless! With regards to his homicidal plot against her husband Uriah, an upright man, pardoned! (2 Sa 11; 23:8-39). With regards to the time when “he entered the house of God and ate the bread of the Presence, which it was not lawful for him to eat nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests” - innocent! (Mt 12:4). For proudly pursuing a census of Israel and Judah that provoked the LORD to butcher 70000 men, blameless! (2 Sa 24:1-17 cf. Ps 78:49) It reasons then when Paul referenced “David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works” David could have muttered in so many words: “that despite my bloodbaths, treacheries and lawlessness, my transgressions are forgiven; my sins concealed from filth and, not imputed with iniquity, I rejoice for the fact I am judicially pardoned, acquitted and absolved of all crimes, being effectually righteous before the LORD.” But to think this righteousness was gifted to a few “lawless” antinomians needless of atonement, restitution or reason, God credits the same “to him who does not work [nor toil for forgiveness and salvation] but believes in him who justifies the ungodly [defined as wicked, impious and irreverent, that], his faith is counted as righteousness” (Rom 4:5). This gift of righteousness, that is never a license to sin (Rom 6:1-2; 2 Pet 2:20-22) nor compromise nonetheless sanctifies even the saint living sinfully like the ones Paul censured (Rom 1:29-31; 7:15-25; 8:31-39; 1 Cor 7:14) let alone his dubious self (1 Cor 7: 8-11; 21-24; 9:6-7; 2 Cor 11:8-10; Eph 6:5-9). If such grace seemed to betray the LORD [Heb יְהוָֹה] who once proclaimed “..I will not justify the wicked” (Ex 23:7) and later declared “He who justifies the wicked and he who condemns the righteous are both alike an abomination to the LORD” (Prov 17:15), Paul invoked His sovereign election (Rom 8:28-30) to plainly say, ”Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use?” (Rom 9:21 cf. Ex 7:3, 13, 14, 23). It baffles us then that despite the ‘skeletons in the closet’ of every believer in thought, word and deed, God’s covenant still includes “the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, [because] his faith is counted as righteousness” (Rom 4:5).
“Is this blessing then only for the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised? For we say that faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness. How then was it counted to him? Was it before or after he had been circumcised? It was not after, but before he was circumcised..”
Addressing Jews that boasted of their Abrahamic heritage and having the Law (despite neglecting “doing the works of God” Jn 6:25-31), one could paraphrase Paul to say: if repentance, good works and character was never a precondition for the LORD to pronounce Abram righteous, neither did circumcision matter for a right standing when he had earlier professed “to the king of Sodom, “I have lifted my hand to the Lord, God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth” (Gen 14:22). Abram, as an “ungodly” “uncircumcised” proselyte to Yahweh, was justified firstly for his faith demonstrated by his faithfulness since he “departed from Haran” (Gen 12:1-9) and declared righteous because he “believed the LORD” for infinite posterity. There was no moral issue involved, no tears of contrition, no circumcision but sheer belief in Yahweh. Ironically so, it was uncircumcision, deemed as unsanitary and unsanctified in some ethnic circles then and now, that stood witness to Abram's justification by faith. Circumcision, for all its worth, became a latter show for a covenant faith in God. Circumcision, for all its worth, is basically worthless to the “inner being” as Paul had earlier declared in his letter that “a person is not a Jew who is one only outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical. No, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code” (Rom 2:25-29 NIV). Therefore descendants of Abraham resembling “the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly” (Rom 4:5, emphasis mine) manifest a saving faith needless of pious acts (cf. Strong's Greek 2038 ergazomai: I work). Circumcision, as a metaphor that mortifies the flesh, summons every male and female believer to renounce and “not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world (1 John 2:15-16). And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires (Gal 5:24). Circumcision, that occurred some thirteen years after Abraham first believed, was but an outward sign and seal of righteousness (Gen 15-17). Circumcision, as that outward sign of faith, was eventually superseded by water baptism which is a public confession of faith in Jesus as Savior, Lord and King (Rom 6:1-11; 1 Pet 3:21; 1 Tim 6:13–15; Rev 1:5).
CONCLUSION
Justified by faith out of sheer belief, saints throughout history, like the fallible host named in Hebrews 11, have nothing to boast in and of themselves (Rom 4:1-3; 5:17) but for the “righteousness of God” imputed to them. It reasons then that every pilgrim bedeviled by depravity (7:7-25) on this side of heaven appears before the LORD blameless; for by faith alone - namely a saving faith that believes the Lord’s propitiation, death and resurrection - one is justified and made right with God (4:2-8) and also inherits the promises God made to Abraham regardless of circumcision, conduct and character, let alone the 613 commandments of the Mosaic Law (3:26; 4:2-11). These promises, expanded namely in the epistle to the Hebrews, speaks of “a better covenant” in Christ based on “better promises” (8:6) and, like Pauline thought, assures the justified an eternity with God in the heavenly city of Zion.
Wednesday Sep 4, 2024 (Word count from ‘Big Idea to Zion’ 2976)
© L.S. JAMES 2024
FOOTNOTES
Pax Romana Pax Romana, a state of comparative tranquility throughout Classical antiquity and the Mediterranean world from the reign of Augustus (27 BCE–14 CE) to the reign of Marcus Aurelius (161 –180 CE).” Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopaedia. "Pax Romana." Encyclopedia Britannica, June 29, 2024. https://www.britannica.com/event/Pax-Romana; Goldsworthy, Adrian. 2016. Pax Romana: War, Peace and Conquest in the Roman World. New York: Yale University Press. Accessed June 29, 2024. ProQuest Ebook Central.
Pharisaic school of Hillel "What were the Shammaite and Hillelite interpretations of Jewish Law?," Got Questions Ministries, accessed June 13, 2024, https://www.gotquestions.org/what-happens-after-death.html. See also this essay adapted from the article, Fred Zaspel, “Four Aspects of Divine Righteousness,” Reformation & Revival Journal, Volume 6, Number 4, Winter 1997, accessed June 13, 2024, https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/essay/the-righteousness-of-god/ cf. Gn 18:25; Jb 37:23; Ps 33:4-6; 99:4; 106:3; Prv 21:3; Is 5:16; 9:7; 30:18; 56:1; Jer 9:24; 22:3; 23:25 [messianic]; Am 5:24; Mt 23:23; Lk 18:7; 2 Tm 4:8
Tradition. Nancy Lynn Calvert, “Abraham Traditions in Middle Jewish Literature: Implications for the Interpretation of Galatians and Romans” (PhD diss., University of Sheffield, England, 1993), 363, accessed July 10, 2024, https://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/1862/1/DX197256.pdf
Flesh Strong’s Greek 4561 sarks: flesh (sarks) is generally negative, referring to making decisions (actions) according to self – i.e. done apart from faith (independent from God's inworking). Thus what is "of the flesh (carnal)" is by definition displeasing to the Lord – even things that seem "respectable!" In short, flesh generally relates to unaided human effort, i.e. decisions (actions) that originate from self or are empowered by self. This is carnal ("of the flesh") and proceeds out of the untouched (unchanged) part of us – i.e. what is not transformed by God. "Romans 4:1," Bible Hub, Strong’s Greek 4561, accessed July 8, 2024, https://biblehub.com/greek/4561.htm; ..that flesh in this passage being opposed to spirit, signifies services pertaining to the flesh or body, on account of which the law of Moses itself is called flesh, Galatians 3:3.. “Romans 4,” Bible Hub, Benson Commentary, n.d. accessed July 13, 2024, https://biblehub.com/commentaries/benson/romans/4.htm
Nothing Jewett, Robert. Romans: A Short Commentary. Minneapolis: Fortress Press.” 2013. pp 304-321.
LORD Biblical tradition attributes the foundation of Hebrew Yahwism to the Patriarchal Period. To be sure, Yahwe had been known in the remote past (Gen. 4:26) but his monotheism, as associated with his people, dates from Abraham. This is in general borne out by extra-biblical sources. Thus Yahwistic personal names of the so-called Amorites occur on Babylonian tablets prior to Abraham's time. On the other hand, it is now clear that the monotheistic crystallization which took place in the patriarchal period fits into a historic context when monotheism was in the air internationally. From prehistoric antiquity the polytheistic Semites had a god par excellence; 'el as a common noun designated any "god" but as a proper noun meant the supreme "God". Gordon, Cyrus H. “The Patriarchal Age.” Journal of Bible and Religion 21, no. 4 (1953): 238–43. accessed May 30, 2024, http://www.jstor.org/stable/1457963.
Pistis Strong's Greek 4102 pístis (from 3982/peithô, "persuade, be persuaded") – properly, persuasion (be persuaded, come to trust); faith. Faith (4102/pistis) is always a gift from God, and never something that can be produced by people. In short, 4102/pistis ("faith") for the believer is "God's divine persuasion" – and therefore distinct from human belief (confidence), yet involving it. The Lord continuously births faith in the yielded believer so they can know what He prefers, i.e. the persuasion of His will (1 Jn 5:4). Accessed July 8, 2024, https://biblehub.com/greek/4102.htm
Prevenient After prevenient Grace, however, begins to make itself felt, then the will begins to take part..There is an infusion from God's will into his will, and now prevenient Grace is changed into operating Grace..Then by His prevenient working within us He moves us to return. Gerberding, G. H., The Project Gutenberg, The Way of Salvation in the Lutheran Church. July 13, 2005, accessed July 12, 2024, https://www.gutenberg.org/files/16285/16285-h/16285-h.htm See also Strong's Greek 4102 pístis [faith] described as “God's divine persuasion.”
Faith alone Luther added the word allein ("alone" in German) to Romans 3:28 controversially so that it read: "So now we hold, that man is justified without the help of the works of the law, alone through faith". The word "alone" does not appear in the Greek manuscripts and Luther acknowledged this fact, but he defended his translation by maintaining that the adverb "alone" was required by idiomatic German: Wikipedia contributors, "Sola fide," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, accessed June 10, 2024, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sola_fide&oldid=1225214948
Effectually righteous before the LORD. "Romans 4," Bible Hub, Matthew Poole's Commentary, n.d., accessed June 11, 2024, https://biblehub.com/commentaries/poole/romans/4.htm
“inner being” Rom 7:22–23 cf. Strong's Greek 2588 kardía: the heart; mind, character, inner self, will, intention; "the affective center of our being" and the capacity of moral preference, volitional desire, choice).
Renounce Project Gutenberg, Apostolic Tradition 21.9 in Burton Scott Easton, The Apostolic Tradition of Hippolytus (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1934), 45. accessed July 22, 2024. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/61614/61614-h/61614-h.htm
Zion And if you belong to Christ [if you are in Him], then you are Abraham’s descendants, and [spiritual] heirs according to [God’s] promise (Gal 3:29 AMP). “Conclusion of the whole argument. The followers of the Messiah are the true seed of Abraham. The kingdom of the Messiah, which they possess, is the promised inheritance.” “Galatians 3:29,” Bible Hub, Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers, n.d., accessed July 27, 2024, https://biblehub.com/commentaries/ellicott/galatians/3.htm#
