Romans 4

==Romans 4:1==
1What shall we say then that Abraham our father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath found?
Paul here asks the question regarding Abraham, the physical ancestor of the Jews, and what he had found in relationship to this concept of justification and “the law”, the OT.
==Romans 4:2==
2For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not before God.
Kept in context this goes back to Romans 3:27-28 which speaks of works according to the Old Law of Moses. If Abraham had been justified by these kinds of works, then he would have had something to boast about. But he didn’t, not before
God. We’ll see more of this distinction in the coming verses.
==Romans 4:3==
3For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.
The scriptures (the old testament again) teach that Abraham believed God and God accounted it as righteousness. What kind of belief? The belief that demons had? No. The kind of faith called for in the New Testament, which is the point of bringing Abraham into this. It is the obedient faith. How can I prove this? I read about Abraham in the scriptures Paul is referring the Roman church to. Specifically Genesis 26:5 among others.
In Genesis 15 God promises to give Abraham an heir from his own bowels. Abraham believes God. Why, because God told Abraham to leave Ur, to leave his father’s household, and go to a land that God would show him. Abraham believed God then and obeyed. God kept His promise. So when God makes another promise, Abraham, who has the right kind of faith, an obedient faith, believes that God will keep this promise too.
Why then does it say that God accounted it as righteousness? Because no spiritual system of that time, including the Patriarchal System that Abraham was under, could actually save anyone. Only the blood of Christ could do that. But God, with an eternal perspective, could count those who obeyed Him like Abraham as righteous because God knew He would keep His promise to send the Messiah. God based Abraham’s righteousness on the saving grace to come, and Abraham’s specific kind of faith.
==Romans 4:4==
4Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt.
Here is that contrast. Under the old law, to keep eternal life, you had to earn it by living perfectly before the law of Moses just as Christ did. Abraham’s reward was not reckoned based on that kind of work but a looking forward to the promised saving grace, the blessing of all nations through Abraham’s seed.
==Romans 4:5==
5But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.
Again the contrast from the other side. This isn’t about works according to the old law, working off debt or earning eternal life by living perfectly. It is about Abraham not working according to the law of Moses, which came much later after his death, but having that obedient faith accounted as righteousness.
Just to reinforce the point, since I’m probably loosing you here. It cannot be general work that Paul speaks of here, because Jesus himself said that faith is a work (John 6:29). Paul can only be referring to the works spoken of in the overall context of the book so far.
==Romans 4:6==
6Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works,
King David lived under the Old Testament and he understood its limitations. It could not make one righteous without someone living perfectly by it (as Christ did). David then explained how men who looked forward to the Messiah, who had an imputed righteousness, were blessed. More below.
==Romans 4:7==
7Saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered.
David could not have been talking about the Old Testament because the Old Testament could not forgive sins. He was talking about the future when the Messiah came and took away the sins of the world. That’s when true forgiveness came.
Those Israelites/Jews who looked forward to this time by remaining obedient to the will of God, had their sins rolled forward to the cross every year. The sacrifice of the animals could not take their sins away. David is actually prophesying here of the coming of Jesus.
==Romans 4:8==
8Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.
But the man who remained faithful to God would rely on the fulfillment of God’s promises to eventually take away sin. Sin was not imputed to them, and righteousness was, even though at that point in time, they could not have them literally forgiven (because the OT could not forgive sins, only condemn). The very word “faithfulness” engenders the idea of obedience.
==Romans 4:9==
9Cometh this blessedness then upon the circumcision only, or upon the uncircumcision also? for we say that faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness.
Paul, using David’s words, describes Abraham’s promise asking the question: did this blessing come on the Jews only or on the Gentiles, too? It is a rhetorical question because God’s promise to Abraham was that all nations would be blessed through his seed, not just the Israelites (who did not even exist then).
==Romans 4:10==
10How was it then reckoned? when he was in circumcision, or in uncircumcision? Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision.
Paul then asks when Abraham was imputed as righteous by his faith, before or after he was circumcised. Genesis 15 is where he is imputed as righteous for his faith in God. He is not circumcised till Gen 17.
Paul’s point then is that righteousness is outside of the law of Moses, even for Abraham. The Jews, who put their stock in being the descendants of Abraham but also in the keeping of the law, had a problem. Abraham, their great progenitor, was not under the law.
==Romans 4:11==
11And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised: that he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be not circumcised; that righteousness might be imputed unto them also:
Abraham received the sign of circumcision, a seal indicating the right type of faith which he had before he was circumcised. Therefore Abraham is called the father of those who believe, even if they weren’t circumcised. God’s blessing through Abraham came upon all nations therefore righteousness, looking forward to Christ, was imputed to all who were faithful to God before the cross.
==Romans 4:12==
12And the father of circumcision to them who are not of the circumcision only, but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham, which he had being yet uncircumcised.
Here Paul again indicates that faith is a walk, an action, a doing. It is not a mental exercise only, but a way of life. To those who say it is all internal and requires no effort on the part of man, just look to Abraham. Read Hebrews 11 and see Abraham’s faith. Read Genesis 12-26. Pay special attention though to Genesis 26:5. Why did God bless Abraham? Because God considers righteous faith and obedience as inseparable. Faith alone is not enough.
==Romans 4:13==
13For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.
The promise given to Abraham and his seed through this obedient faith outside of and before the law of Moses which the Jews were so enamored with.
==Romans 4:14==
14For if they which are of the law be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of none effect:
Paul here begins to show the distinction between the law of Moses and the law of Christ (law of faith Rom. 3:27). They which are of the law are the Jews. If they are heirs by the law of Moses, then Abraham’s faith is made void since he lived outside of the law. If Abraham’s faith is made void, then the promise to him is made of no effect because the promise was made based on faith.
==Romans 4:15==
15Because the law worketh wrath: for where no law is, there is no transgression.
The Mosaical law (“THE law”) only condemns, it does not save (move one from a state of being lost to sin, to not being lost to sin). Then Paul makes the declaration that without law, there is no transgression, echoing the statements found in 1 John 3:4. Those of you who believe we are not under any kind of spiritual law whatsoever, deny that anyone sins today since, according to your paradigm, there is no law to transgress. We are under a new and better law, one that CAN save based on the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
==Romans 4:16==
16Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all,
Paul then shows how Abraham’s promise must be of Abraham’s kind of faith, that obedient faith, so that the inheritance might be by grace. Abraham looked forward to the fulfillment of the promise of God, that divine, saving grace. Grace was a promise to all mankind, not just those of “THE law” (the Israelites/Jews), but to all who have the same kind of faith as Abraham even if a non-Jew.
==Romans 4:17==
17(As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were.
The OT teaches that God told Abraham he was made a father of many nations (not just the one, the Jews, as they thought). Abraham believed God who raises the dead back to life, God who speaks of things that didn’t exist yet as though they did. That is to say, God revealed to Abraham the future of what must be. Christ and the new and better faith system.
==Romans 4:18==
18Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be.
Abraham hoped beyond all expectations of mankind. He placed his hope in God instead, a hope that God would continue to fulfill His promises as He had done for Abraham so far.
==Romans 4:19==
19And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah’s womb:
Abraham’s faith was so strong that he did not even fear that God could not keep His promise to give him a son of his own flesh even though he and Sarah were well beyond the capacity to conceive children.
==Romans 4:20==
20He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God;
Abraham did not falter in his faith as the Jews did in the wilderness (Heb. 3). His faith remained strong and He gave glory to God.
==Romans 4:21==
21And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform.
Abraham was completely persuaded that whatever God promised God was able to do.
==Romans 4:22==
22And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness.
Because of that strength of faith, God set Abraham’s account to righteous, looking forward to the blood of Christ to actually pay the account off.
==Romans 4:23==
23Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him;
That righteousness was imputed to Abraham was not written in the Old Testament for Abraham’s sake (the Old Testament was not even begun to be written until well after Abraham’s death).
==Romans 4:24==
24But for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead;
It was written for instruction of everyone that has their debt paid by having that same kind of faith that Abraham had, an active faith that God, who raised Jesus our King from the dead, is able to fulfill His promises to us.
==Romans 4:25==
25Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.
A continued description of Christ and transition into the thoughts of chapter 5. Christ was sacrificed to pay the debt for the sins of Roman Christians (and by implication all who have that same kind of faith as Abraham). 
Christ was also raised for the justification of the same group of people. It is an important note here that Paul is saying that Christ’s death was not enough. It is through Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection that we are justified. We’ll see more on this in chapter 6.
In Truth and Love.
Category:Apocalyptic
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