I have found much comfort in
this passage during this season of life; a season of much looking back, a
season of sometimes seeing myself as I was rather than as I thought I was.
Seeing one’s selfishness and egocentricity and sin is not pleasant, acknowledging
one’s blindness is difficult. If I was that person then, who am I now? One can
only continually seek and trust the mercy and grace of our Lord Jesus – what I
was then outside Christ I am still outside Christ; but also who I was then
inside Christ I am now inside Christ. Ah! The tension of the already-not yet; can
there be any doubt that we desperately need Jesus?
Paul has spent the first three
chapters of Romans demonstrating that, “…all have sinned and fall short of the
glory of God…” (3:23). As he drives home this universal truth he does it in the
context of justification by faith:
“But now the righteousness of
God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the
Prophets, even the righteousness of God which is through faith in Jesus Christ
to all who believe. For there is no difference; for all have sinned and fall
short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the
redemption that is in Christ Jesus…” (3:21 – 24).
Throughout the first three
chapters Paul is not only addressing the church in Rome as a whole, but he also
specifically addresses Gentiles and Jews. This begins in 1:16 - 17:
“For I am not ashamed of the
gospel, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for
the Jew first and also for the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is
revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, ‘The just shall live by faith.’
”
In Chapter Two Paul turns to
the Jews in the congregation and deals with judgmental attitudes toward
Gentiles, but later in Chapter Eleven Paul will have a word for the Gentiles
regarding judgmental attitudes toward Jews. Paul is an equal opportunity
preacher.
In Romans 3:29 Paul writes, “Or
is He the God of the Jews only? Is He not also the God of the Gentiles? Yes, of
the Gentiles also…”
We come to Romans Chapter 4:1 –
5:11 against this backdrop, with its four movements that conclude the first
section of Romans (1:1 – 5:11): Abraham – David – Abraham – Concluding
Crescendo. Note that the second section of Romans (5:12 – 8:39) also has a
Concluding Crescendo – one which is well known to many Christians (I recall the
thrill of reading Romans 8:31 – 39 for the first time and then reading it aloud
to a friend of mine who was also coming to know Jesus).
Up until Chapter Four Paul has
quoted many Old Testament passages, but he has not evoked Abraham. He has
mustered OT passages to demonstrate that we have all sinned, that none of us
are righteous. Could it be that there were still some Jews thinking, “Well,
what he is saying may be true for some people, but it isn’t for me, for I am a
descendant of Abraham and I carry the sign of circumcision. Paul’s argument may
seem airtight but it isn’t, because I am circumcised just as Abraham was.”
Paul is saving the best for last
when he begins Chapter Four with, “What then shall we say that Abraham our
father has found according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works,
he has something of which to boast, but not before God. For what does the
Scripture say? ‘Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for
righteousness.’ Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as
debt.”
In other words, “Oh, by the
way, if you are thinking that Abraham was justified by what he did
(circumcision) rather than by who he believed and trusted (God), let me point
something out – that ain’t so! Abraham believed first and was justified.” (Paul
picks this line of thought up again in verse 9).
This reminds me of Jesus in
Matthew 5:17 – 20; right after affirming the Law and the Prophets, which must
have pleased the Pharisees, He says, “For I say to you, that unless your
righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will
by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.” Bummer for the Pharisees.
The first movement of Romans
4:1 – 5:11 portrays Abraham believing God and receiving God’s gift of
justification and acceptance and relationship. Abraham didn’t earn it, he
couldn’t earn it – and neither can I, and neither can you.
And so when I look back and
see myself as I was, and see things which appall me about myself, I am driven
to the Cross and the grace and mercy of Jesus Christ, I am driven to Romans 4,
and I am amazed that just as Abraham believed God so I can believe God…and so
you too can believe God. God doesn’t ask us to measure up because He knows we
can’t – but He does ask us to believe Him, to trust Him, to confess our sins
and turn to Him and live for Him by His enabling grace. God in Christ has
broken down every barrier to a relationship with Him – if there are barriers
today it is because we have built them, not God. As Paul writes Romans 4:1 – 5:11
he will lead us into not only the forgiveness of God, but also the love of God,
the love that brought about the forgiveness; and the love of God that is in the
Concluding Crescendo of 4:1 – 5:11 will be amplified in the Great Concluding
Crescendo of 8:31 – 39.
This passage is of great
comfort to me; I hope you find comfort in it too.
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