Romans 9, Why is God at work among the Gentiles, not the Jews?

In the previous chapter, Paul eagerly described the freedom and peace that comes to the Christian. Now he changes the subject and expresses his concern and grief for the people of Israel.  Deep inside his concern is a question: Why is God doing this?  He does not have a good answer....

Romans 9: 1-2
I speak the truth in Christ--I am not lying, my conscience confirms it in the Holy Spirit-- I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. 

Paul changes the subject.  He is deeply grieved about something...

Romans 9: 3-5
For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, those of my own race, the people of Israel. Theirs is the adoption as sons; theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises. Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of Christ, who is God over all, forever praised! Amen. 

Paul is in anguish over the rift his ministry has revealed, that while the Gentiles are embracing Jesus as the Jewish Messiah, many Jews are not!  Paul summarizes, in a torrent, the many advantages that the Jews have.

Romans 9: 6-13
It is not as though God's word had failed. For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel. Nor because they are his descendants are they all Abraham's children. On the contrary, "It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned." In other words, it is not the natural children who are God's children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham's offspring. For this was how the promise was stated: "At the appointed time I will return, and Sarah will have a son." Not only that, but Rebekah's children had one and the same father, our father Isaac. Yet, before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad--in order that God's purpose in election might stand: not by works but by him who calls--she was told, "The older will serve the younger." Just as it is written: "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated."

Paul argues that God had a higher plan, not just working through the children of Jacob, but "children of the promise".  It is a divine plan, independent of individual right (or wrong) actions.

Paul makes his arguments with a string of Old Testament quotations.  The Old Testament passage quoted in verse 7 is Gen. 21:12; the quote in verse 9 is from Gen. 18:10,14; the quote in verse 12 is from Gen. 25:23 and the quote in verse 13 is from Malachi 1:2-3.

Romans 9: 14-24

What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all! For he says to Moses, "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion." It does not, therefore, depend on man's desire or effort, but on God's mercy. 

For the Scripture says to Pharaoh: "I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth." Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden. 

One of you will say to me: "Then why does God still blame us? For who resists his will?" But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? "Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, `Why did you make me like this?'"  Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes and some for common use? 

What if God, choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath--prepared for destruction? What if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory-- even us, whom he also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles? 

This passage is similar to a discussion on the existence of evil and has the flavor of the book of Job.  "Why is God allowing this bad thing to happen?" Paul asks.  The answer, roughly, is that we don't really understand God, that God has a plan but has no obligation to tell us its purpose.

The Old Testament passage quoted in verse 15 is Exodus 33:19, the quote in verse 17 is from Exodus 9:16  and that in verse 20 is from Isaiah 29:16 and Isaiah 45:9.

Romans 9: 25-29
As he says in Hosea: "I will call them `my people' who are not my people; and I will call her `my loved one' who is not my loved one," and, "It will happen that in the very place where it was said to them, `You are not my people,' they will be called `sons of the living God.'" 

Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: "Though the number of the Israelites be like the sand by the sea, only the remnant will be saved. For the Lord will carry out his sentence on earth with speed and finality." It is just as Isaiah said previously: "Unless the Lord Almighty had left us descendants, we would have become like Sodom, we would have been like Gomorrah."

Paul cites Old Testament passages to show that the move to working among the Gentiles has been part of God's plan all along and that the plan also includes a portion of the Jewish people.

The Old Testament passage quoted in verse 25 is from Hosea 2:23; the quote in verse 26 is from Hosea 1:10; the quote in verse 28 is from Isaiah 10:22-23 and that in verse 29 is from Isaiah 1:9.

Romans 9: 30-32
What then shall we say? That the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained it, a righteousness that is by faith; but Israel, who pursued a law of righteousness, has not attained it. 

Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the "stumbling stone." As it is written: "See, I lay in Zion a stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame."

Because the Jews have the advantage of the Law, Paul argues, they have been blind to the need to step past the Law to the Messiah.

The Old Testament passage quoted in verse 33 is portions of Isaiah 8:14 and Isaiah 28:16.

Romans 8, The Intercession of the Holy Spirit

Paul has argued that the despair in the previous chapter has been met by a supernatural spirit provided by Jesus.  He elaborates here.

Romans 8: 1-2, 
Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.

The solution to the conflict is the Spirit released in us through Christ.  Still to be discussed is how that works in practice, but the emphasis that there is no longer any spiritual condemnation or spiritual despair is very reassuring!

Apparently some later manuscripts add to verse 1, "Jesus, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit, "

Romans 8: 3-4,
For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.

So now we live according to the Spirit, not the Law.  Elaborated elsewhere, the Spirit aids us internally in thinking and doing what is right.

Throughout this passage (according to the NIV footnotes) a Greek word meaning "flesh" is being translated as "sinful nature."

Romans 8:5-10
Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.

You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness.

Here, again, is the separation into two categories, two types of lives, the Spirit-led life and the sin-lead life.  Through Christ, we have made a choice.

Romans 8:11-14, 
And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you. Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation--but it is not to the sinful nature, to live according to it. For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.

Who puts to the death the misdeeds of the body?  How much of this is "work"?  (Paul has developed part of this argument in his letter to the Galatian churches.  He describes the "transformation" which the Christian goes through in 2 Corinthians 3:16-18.

Romans 8:15-17
For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, <"Abba,> Father." The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs--heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.

"Abba" is Aramaic for Father but is probably better translated "Daddy."  May I suggest that instead of praying "Our Father" as if God were far away, that we ask, "Please Daddy."  (And, honestly, since God is neither male nor female, if your own Father was brutal or intimidating, maybe "Mommy" works just as well as a personal address to the Creator God who is also close and intimate.)

Romans 8:18-21
I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.

So -- why, again, is it that we suffer?

Romans 8:22-26

We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.

Notice the description in verse 23 -- we have the "firstfruits"  (the downpayment) of the Spirit, but still we groan.  

Romans 8: 27-30,

And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will. And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.

Paul argues that the (Holy) Spirit intercedes internally (beyond our conscious level).  In this intercession, there is a path of transformation: called, justified, glorified.  "Justified" means that one is made right before God, "glorified" is the future perfection achieved after the resurrection, in the New Heaven and New Earth.

Romans 8: 31-39
What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all--how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?

Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies.

Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died--more than that, who was raised to life--is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: "For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered."  No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The letter to the Romans reaches a climax here, in a series of exuberant, excited phrases, culminating in a confident shout that no one, NOTHING, can separate the Messiah-follower from God's love! So what are we so worried about???!

The quote in verse 36 is from Psalm 44:22.

Romans 7, The Law Creates Sin and Then Transformation

Paul continues his explanation, to Jewish readers, of the value of the (Jewish) Law

Romans 7: 1-6, From the Law to Christ
Do you not know, brothers--for I am speaking to men who know the law--that the law has authority over a man only as long as he lives? For example, by law a married woman is bound to her husband as long as he is alive, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law of marriage. So then, if she marries another man while her husband is still alive, she is called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is released from that law and is not an adulteress, even though she marries another man.

So, my brothers, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit to God. For when we were controlled by the sinful nature, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our bodies, so that we bore fruit for death. But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.

Paul argues, from a common example of the day, that Christ has freed us completely from the old restrictions (slavery) to the Law and our selfish desires.

Romans 7:7-11, The role of the Law
What shall we say, then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! Indeed I would not have known what sin was except through the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, "Do not covet." But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of covetous desire. For apart from law, sin is dead. Once I was alive apart from law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died. I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death. For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, deceived me, and through the commandment put me to death.

The commandments of the Law created (or at least revealed) Paul's selfishness.

The Old Testament quotation in verse 7 is from the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20:17, also in Deuteronomy 5:21.

Romans 7:12-13, The Law taught me to recognize sin
So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good. Did that which is good, then, become death to me? By no means! But in order that sin might be recognized as sin, it produced death in me through what was good, so that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful.

Paul insists that the (Old Testament, Jewish) Law is good in that it makes sinfulness clear.

Romans 7: 14-23, Despair

We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me.

I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do--this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God's law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members.

Paul's cries out, as a religious person trying to "be good", that ultimately he is incapable of righteousness.  His cry of despair has been echoed by Christians over the two thousand years since.

Romans 7:24-25
What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 

Thanks be to God--through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.

Rescue from despair comes through Jesus, the Messiah.  Paul continues his explanation of this transformation in the next chapter.

Romans 6, No longer a slave

In the previous chapter, Paul has emphasized the wonderful benefits of God's grace offered through Jesus, the Messiah.  Now he drives home his point by asking some practical questions.

Romans 6: 1-2, Reacting to amazing grace

What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?  By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?

Paul acts a rhetorical question -- if grace is so good, maybe we need to get lots of it by continuing to sin.  Paul shows this is a misunderstanding of the whole process.

Romans 6: 3-11, United in the resurrection

Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?  We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.  If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection.

For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin--  because anyone who has died has been freed from sin.

Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.  For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him.  The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.  In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Baptism acts out a metaphor of death and resurrection to a new life, a freer better life, as a member of the Kingdom of Heaven.

Do verses 3-11 answer the question raised in verse 2?

 Romans 6: 12-14, Offer yourselves to God
Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires.  Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness.  For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.

How does our life change, as a result of this resurrection?  If we are no longer enslaved to "evil desires", what do we do?

Romans 6: 15-19, Slavery
What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey--whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? 

But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted.  You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.

I put this in human terms because you are weak in your natural selves. Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness.

Are we really free, or are we slaves??  How does slavery enter this picture? In practice, how are we "set free from sin"?

Romans 6:20-23, Summary
When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life.  For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

What is the benefit of this new freedom/slavery?  Which comes first, the "benefit" or holiness? How does one "offer" their body to God?

In Plato's Republic, Gaucon tells the story of Gyges' Ring, a ring that makes one invisible, even to the gods, and thus allows one to get away with evil.  What does that say about the moral person?  Is one's morality simply bases on a fear of consequences? Why be moral if one does not have to be?

That question, posed by Plato five centuries before, resonates in this chapter.  Paul, like Plato, argues that one will be mastered by what one pursues.  

In the next chapter, Paul elaborates on the transformation caused by being "in Christ" and identified with the Messiah's resurrection.

Romans 5, The Gift of Peace

Salvation is offered, says Paul, through faith in the Jewish Messiah.  Even Abraham demonstrated this faith.  Now Paul describes the consequences of this salvation.

Romans 5: 1-2, Peace

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.

After arguing that faith in the Messiah is the path of salvation, Paul now turns to emphasizing the lasting practical benefits of this relationship.

Romans 5: 3-5, Value in suffering

Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.

If we are eternally protected, we rejoice even in our suffering, says Paul.  (I don't know ... I'm not very eager about that!)

Romans 5: 6-11, Christ's death for us
You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him!

For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

The salvation offered by the Jewish Messiah is due to his sacrificial death, replacing the old sacrificial system.

Romans 5: 12-15, Two Adams
Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned-- for before the law was given, sin was in the world. But sin is not taken into account when there is no law.

Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who was a pattern of the one to come. But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God's grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many!

If separation from God came into the world through the First Man, then Paul argues its remedy is offered by the Last Man.

Romans 5: 16-19
Again, the gift of God is not like the result of the one man's sin: The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification. For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ. Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men. For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.

Paul is setting the Messiah Jesus up as the anti-Adam, the solution to all problems caused by the first occurrence of Evil.

Romans 5: 20-21, The effect of the Law
The law was added so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

It is not clear what Paul means in the Law causing the "increase of trespass", but it is easy to argue that the various rules of the Law made it easier to see humanity's rebellion.

So how should we respond to this conflict between Grace and Law?  That is the subject of the next chapter.

Romans 4, Abraham as Example

An exercise -- imagine a God and Their created people.  Which ways could salvation be given?  (To everyone, including an Adolf Hitler, without requirements?  To no one?  To some -- on the basis of works and actions?  To some -- on the basis of trust?)  Paul is working through a Jewish version of this question.  He has been arguing that the Jew has no hope but to lean on God and His Messiah. Now he makes this point by going back to the first Jew, Abraham.

Romans 4: 1-3, The example of Abraham

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

The natural reaction of the Jew, to Paul's claim that works are useless, is to say, "Hey, wait a minute!  What about the book of Leviticus!  Look at all the rules we have to follow?  How can all of that be useless?"

So Paul turns to Abraham.   Does Abraham have something to boast about?  This question implies that salvation by works would put one on par with God -- one could stand up to God and say, "See, look at me.  You have to accept me now."  Instead, Abraham takes God's word, and is given righteousness as a credit, undeserved. (We leave, still unanswered, the role of all that stuff in Leviticus.)

Verse 3 quotes Genesis 15:6.  Paul repeats the quote in verse 22.

Romans 4: 4-8, David is also an example

Now when a man works, his wages are not credited to him as a gift, but as an obligation.  However, to the man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness.  David says the same thing when he speaks of the blessedness of the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works:  "Blessed are they whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered.  Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will never count against him."

Paul has argued, in chapters 2 & 3, that everyone fails God at some point.  Now we bring in another Old Testament hero, David.  The quote is from Psalm 32.  The assumption is that everyone fails God, but at some point God is willing to not "count [that] against him."

Verse 8 quotes Psalm 32:1,2 

Romans 4: 9-12, Abraham received righteousness before his circumcision

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.  Under what circumstances was it credited? Was it after he was circumcised, or before?

It was not after, but before!  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.

And he is also the father of the circumcised who not only are circumcised but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised.

Maybe everyone needs some help from God, but are your works or religious membership required as a starter for this process?  Maybe it is a combination of works and faith?  But even Abraham is a counterexample here, for he was saved ("credited with righteousness") before his circumcision.  Before!  If Abraham can receive righteousness without circumcision (or other works) then why can't anyone else?

So, concludes verse 12, Abraham is indeed an example for all of us.  If you haven't been circumcised, then don’t worry -- neither had Abraham. (Again, we have no attempt to defend the "works" The Jew (or anyone else) might, naturally enough, say, "But then why did Abraham get circumcised?")

In our modern times we might be led to a tangential question -- what about the women?  How did salvation -- or at least Jewishness -- come to the women?  (What did happen to Greek women who wanted to be Jews?  Eg. the female version of Cornelius from Acts 10?)  Circumcision is, by definition, pretty sexist!

Romans 4: 13-15, Abraham is the example for all of us

It was not through law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of the world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith.  For if those who live by law are heirs, faith has no value and the promise is worthless, because law brings wrath. And where there is no law there is no transgression.

Whatever role the Law played, Paul argues it did not provide salvation.

Romans 4: 16-22, Salvation is by faith, not by circumcision (again, see Abraham!)

Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham's offspring--not only to those who are of the law but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all. 

As it is written: "I have made you a father of many nations." He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed--the God who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were.

Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, "So shall your offspring be." Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead--since he was about a hundred years old--and that Sarah's womb was also dead. Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. This is why "it was credited to him as righteousness."

Paul, for the sake of argument, may give Abraham more honor than due him, for in Genesis Abraham does seem to waiver!

The Old Testament quotes in verses 17 and 18 are from Genesis 17:5 and Genesis 15:5.  Verse 22 quotes Genesis 15:6 (as did verse 3.)

Romans 4: 23-25, And this for all of us!

The words "it was credited to him" were written not for him alone, but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness--for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.

Abraham is merely an example of a salvation process available to all Jews (through the Messiah.)

Paul's letter to the church in Rome

On Sundays we take a break from working our way through the New Testament and instead do some type of overview of a New Testament book or passage.  Today I want to look at Paul's letter to the church (or churches) in Rome.

Of the letters of Paul that have survived, the letter to the churches in Galatia is probably the earliest. It has a raw, unorganized intensity that reflects Paul's personal involvement with the new believers in those churches.  The letter to the church in Rome is very different.  It is more objective and much less personal (with the exception of the last chapter.)  At the time the letter was written, Paul has not yet gone to Rome and so the people of that assembly are unknown to him.  His goal in the letter is to describe, in a more organized way, his earlier arguments about God, salvation, and this Jewish Messiah, Jesus.  His letter follows a more systematic, logical form that the letter to the Galatians.

The very last portion of the letter (chapter 16) gives personal greetings from others in his party and from that we learn that Paul is surely writing from Corinth. The people mentioned are either leaders in the church in Corinth or the nearby port city of Cenchrea.  The letter was most likely written about 56 CE when Paul was in Corinth (recorded by Luke at the beginning of Acts 20.)  Possibly during that time, traveling with Gaius and Aristarchus, Paul had stayed at Gaius's home in Corinth; this is mentioned at the end of the letter to the Romans.

In Acts 20, Paul clearly expects to travel to Rome.  The letter mentions Phoebe who was a deacon in the Cencheae, a port town near Corinth.  Erastus, also mentioned, lived in Corinth.

At the beginning of Acts 20, Paul is collecting aid for the church in Jerusalem.  He intends to deliver that aid to Jerusalem and then travel back through Asia Minor, Greece and Italy to Rome and then maybe eventually to Spain.  How Paul actually gets to Rome is the subject of Acts 21-28.

There are some good internet sources on the epistle to the Romans. Here are some:

1. As always, there is a Wikipedia article on Romans.
2. I recommend the Blue Letter Bible article on Romans.
3. There is a nice Catholic commentary on Romans.
4. And a thorough view from Theopedia (a Protestant site).

Tomorrow we will return to reading through Paul's epistle.