Romans 6:3 - The truth about baptism

Baptism is something of a comfortable word these days. It many churches it means a ceremony where a few drops of water are sprinkled on an infant. In Paul’s day it meant a more violent ceremony, involving immersing. In fact immersion is a better translation than dipping, which is still too gentle. The Greek word was used of ships being sunk, the historian Josephus used it of crowds flooding into Jerusalem. Jesus referred to His death as a baptism (Mk 10:38; Lk 12:30). So the word baptism is a very dramatic word. I am thankful to Leon Morris (Epistle to the Romans) for this information. He says that “we ought not to think in terms of gentleness and inspiration, it means death”. This is why Paul starts talking about baptism here. He is talking about death, about dying to our old way of life, of the old man being put to death. So if you have died to the past, to what you used to be, then seeking or wanting to live like that again just makes no sense at all.

Paul says we were baptized into Christ and into His death. We were thrust into Christ and into His death. If you truly are a Christian then you have been united with Christ’s death, you have been united with His life, you have been united with Christ in every way possible. All this being true, how can you possibly contemplate sin as a viable option?

Let me just finish the comments with a few more words on our practise of baptism. Infant baptism certainly does no justice to the way baptism is used in this chapter (and there are other arguments against infant baptism). I support believer’s baptism and think that baptism by immersion is more faithful to the first century meaning of the word than sprinkling or pouring. However, in charismatic churches, where baptism by immersion is by far the most common “method”, we perhaps do not treat the solemn side of baptism well. It is very much a celebration, and in one sense it certainly should be, but as we have seen it is also a decisive break with our old life. It is also sometimes treated a little casually. On this matter the greater formality with creedal statements etc at infant baptism and confirmation better represent the solemnity of what baptism means. Now I do not believe that baptismal practice of a church is a salvation issue (there are people who are far better Christians than I am who support infant baptism), but baptism is important, and all of us need to better appreciate the richness of what baptism actually means, and its continuing significance for our lives.

Romans 6:2 - Let's not sin!

Paul is horrified at this suggestion, for it shows a complete lack of understanding of what the gospel is about, and what sin is. The gospel is most definitely not about our being “let off”. Sin is utterly destructive, it is destructive to the one who sins and to those around him. It also shows a complete lack of appreciation of what happened on the cross and what our believing in it means. Christ died on the cross because of our sin, He took upon Himself the punishment that should have been ours. We died to sin. How did we die to sin? Well Christ died for us , He died the death we should have suffered. We also recognised the reality of sin, we admitted our guilt, and we said that we want rid of the sin. Not just rid of the penalty, but to be free of sin in our lives, for it to have no further home in our being. To willingly continue to sin is a denial all that the cross is about.

Romans 6:1 - Let's sin?!

Paul continues his argument with the imaginary person presenting objections. In the previous chapter Paul has said that where sin increased grace increased all the more and the effects of God’s grace are infinitely greater than those of man’s sin. This might then lead someone to suggest that seeing the final results of sin are so wonderful (ie the grace of God) then we should sin all the more so that grace will increase even further. A similar misunderstanding of God’s grace and the gospel is often demonstrated today. The gospel is sometimes caricatured as meaning we can do what we like because God will forgive us. As Christians we can even think like that sometimes, thinking that it doesn’t matter if I sin because God will forgive me anyway.

It should also be noted that justification and sanctification are two sides of the same coin. Any attempt to think it possible to be justified without any work of sanctification going on in our lives is utterly unbiblical. However, sanctification in no way contributes to our justification, rather it is part of the fruit of it.

The phrase “go on sinning” is actually incorrect. The Greek says “remain in sin”. Sin is not just something we do, it is a state we are in, it is something we are. When we repent and believe we become a new creation in whom sin has no part, and who has no part in sin.

Romans 5:20,21 - That grace might reign

5:20

“The Law was brought in so that the trespass might increase”. This does not mean that the Law was introduced so that people would sin more! Rather, it means that it makes clear the state that we are in. The Law is good, its commands are good, but it does not and cannot make us good. Instead it shows up how far short we fall of God’s standards. Sceptics often object that the penalties in the Law were too harsh, eg stoning people for various sexual sins, but this misunderstands the purpose of the Law. It was not given to enable us to achieve righteousness, nor was it given so that societies in general should adopt all its details (though societies would do very well to adopt its precepts). Rather it was saying, this is what a perfectly godly society will be like, and in such a society there will be no sin and no sinners. Now we are all sinners, so the Law highlighted man’s shortcomings, or rather his abject failure.

But the Law was not the end of the matter. Instead where sin increased, where the full depravity of the human condition was highlighted, grace increased all the more.

5:21

Sin reigned in death. Sin brings death, and death is an inherent characteristic of a sinful people. But grace overcomes the effects of sin. Sin reigned through unrighteousness, grace reigns through righteousness. The righteousness of Jesus Christ, and the righteousness that He produces in us through the Holy Spirit. The purpose of the gospel is to bring life. The Law does not and cannot bring life, because of the sinfulness of man.

Romans 5:18,19 - One act of sin, one act of obedience

5:18

All our problems stem from Adam’s sin, from the sin of one man. As an aside, this makes it almost certain that it is necessary that there was indeed an original Adam. Now this does not necessarily mean there has to be a young earth, nor does it necessarily mean that there were not any material (as opposed to spiritual) ancestors of Adam. There are debates that can be had about these matters, but this is not the time to be going into them. However, it seems clear that one trespass was the result of all our problems. We might wonder how this can be so. Well one could think of someone taking drugs once and as a result of that one action heading down a road of addiction, with all that that entails. Everything can be traced back to that one act, even though many subsequent acts of sin would have followed.

The converse is that one act of righteousness has resulted in justification and life for all who believe.

5:19

Adam’s act of sin has clearly led to all being sinners. We can see the results all around us, and throughout history. Likewise the obedience of one man leads to many becoming righteous. The subsequent acts and decisions matter, they all count, but the source, the starting point is one act by one man.

Romans 5:16,17 - The gift

5:16

Paul now highlights a further difference. Judgement came after one sin, as recorded in Genesis 3. It brought condemnation on mankind. Mankind was condemned to be under the power sin, death and the devil. The gift, ie God’s gracious act in sending His Son to die for us, followed many trespasses. Many sins had been committed. The use of the word trespasses also points to the Law, for it means a transgression of a Law. Numerous sins had been committed, yet the act of grace outweighed them all. And God’s gift brings justification, not condemnation. The gospel is a gospel of freedom. If we turn it into a gospel of condemnation we know we are going in the wrong direction. However, this most definitely does not mean it is a gospel of condoning sin. Paul will deal with this point in some detail in the next chapter.

5:17

The trespass brought death to all. Since Adam death has reigned in the world. The gift of grace is radically different, it brings life. It is a gospel of life. God provides a gift of grace and this brings righteousness and life. We are to reign in life. This is not just future but has a present application as well. Reigning in life starts now. The work of transformation of our lives has begun and is continuing. It will be brought to completion on the day of Christ’s return, but it starts now and we start to experience the beginnings of this now.

Romans 5:14,15 - Overflow

5:14
How does Paul know that the Law is not the focal point? Because death reigned from the time of Adam. Adam was judged guilty and death entered in. The time of Noah is a prime example that sin was rampant and was taken into account, for that is why the flood came. Sin has reigned since the time of Adam. The Law is far less central to human history than the Jews thought. The Law was and is important, but it does not have the place or purpose that the Jews thought it did.

5:15
There are similarities between Adam and Christ, but also enormous differences. The chief similarity is that everything stems from the actions of one man. Sin and death entered in through one man, likewise life entered in through the one man Jesus Christ. As an aside, there is debate over exactly what death means, namely whether it is spiritual death or physical death. Part of the argument is that Adam did not actually die immediately, but lived for hundreds of years. However, he did die physically, and death is certainly part of the human condition. I think we have to take it as physical and spiritual death, the two are inextricably linked. If Adam had never sinned he would never have died. Likewise, in the new heaven and new earth there will be no more death. This then leads to the question of animal death and the age of the earth. Some say death in Romans 5 is applying only to mankind made in the image of God, others say it includes all death, animals and humans. I tend to favour the former view on this question, and at least think that you cannot make a watertight argument for animal death and human death being equated.
The argument here is also a further counter to the Law position. If the effects of one man’s sin extended to all humanity, surely the effect of the the Son of God’s act of grace will also extend to all humanity?

Romans 5:12,13 - Sin entered the world

5:12

There are arguments over whether this section, the latter half of chapter 5, belongs with the previous section, or with chapters 6-8. In one sense the answer seems blindingly obvious: it forms a bridge between the two. Paul has not suddenly dropped one topic and started another, but is transitioning from one aspect of the gospel to another.

Paul contrasts and compares Adam and Christ. All men derived from Adam. All of the new creation derives from Christ. In the previous material there has been a lot of “we”, that is absent from the rest of this chapter, and Paul is explaining general principles here.

Sin entered through one man, and death through sin. And so death came to all men because all sinned. There are debates over the exact way to take all this. Some think of all men being infected with Adam’s corruption and so all are sinners, and all die. Others see it as saying that every single man sins, so everyone experiences death. The more traditional view, and the one most in line with the Greek text, is that the one act of sin by Adam led to death and sin affecting the whole of humanity. In our individualistic society we find this hard to take, but it seems to be what the Bible says. There are also arguments over whether death means spiritual death or physical death, and whether all death (ie including animals) is included in this, but we don’t have time to go into that here.

Whatever the exact interpretation it is undoubtedly true that all men have always sinned, and are sinners, and all die.

5:13

What is Paul saying here? The context is all about contrasting Adam and Christ. What did the Jews focus on? They were completely focused on the Law, they saw everything as hanging on the Law. Paul seems to be saying that that is not the case at all. Sin was in the world long before the Law came. If the Law is the be all and end all of everything then this sin cannot be counted, for you cannot be charged with breaking a law that does not yet exist. Yet people were sinners before the Law, and sin was counted against them. So the Law is not the hook on which everything hangs.

Romans 5:10,11 - Reconciled

5:10

We were reconciled with God. There was enmity between us, once we were enemies of God. We were against Him, He was against us. But that is no longer the case, through the cross we have been reconciled. When did this happen? While we were still God’s enemies, and it was God who took the initiative, not us. Stressing yet again that there is no basis for our reconciliation in ourselves, it is all of God. Jesus died on the cross for our reconciliation, but He was also raised from the dead. Jesus is living and active. We will be saved through His life. As has often be said, we are saved, we are being saved, and we will be saved. Our salvation has an effect in our lives now, in this life. We should expect to see some of the fruits of that salvation. Actually the Greek can be taken in two ways, it could be, as NIV, “saved through His life”, or it could be “saved through sharing in His life”,or as Phillips puts it, “through His living in us”. This indeed is the thought that Paul goes on to talk about in the next few chapters.

5:11

The proud Jew or moral man boasts in his own righteousness, but the one saved by faith boasts in God. This is a fundamental difference between Christianity and all other religions. All others are founded on works, all based on us achieving something, the gospel is based on what Christ achieved. Through Christ’s work we have received reconciliation.

Romans 5:8,9 - Saved from God's wrath

5:8

However, God’s love is far greater. Christ died for us while we were still sinners. There was nothing in us to commend us to God. There was nothing religiously righteous about us, and we certainly are not good, sin does awful things to us. The motivation came purely from God’s love. Note that it talks about the love of God, and then says Christ died for us. As it says in John 3:16, God so loved the world that He gave His only Son. The Father and the Son are one and are in complete agreement, working in perfect harmony with each other. People who talk about the cross as “cosmic child abuse” or who reject the atoning nature of the cross do nothing but demonstrate their own ignorance and spiritual blindness.

5:9

We have been justified by Christ’s blood. The whole sacrificial system of the Old Testament was pointing forward to the one true sacrifice who would genuinely take away all our sin, truly pay the price for all our wickedness. So if we are justified we are certain to be saved from God’s wrath. This is probably looking forward to the coming wrath, the judgement of God upon all of the earth. We have no need to fear this for we have been justified, declared right. And this is not on the basis of anything we have done, but on the basis of what God has done, so it is built upon a sure foundation. However, we should perhaps also bear in mind that in Rom 1:18 Paul said God’s wrath is being revealed against all mankind. Ie there is a present element to this as well. We stand in God’s grace today, we are no longer subject to wrath. But this does not mean we will not suffer (see 5:3). As an aside, the Greek actually just says “the wrath”, rather than “God’s wrath”. For Paul God’s wrath is the only wrath that exists.

Romans 5:5-7 - Hope does not disappoint

5:5

If one puts one's hope in something, and especially if one also publically declares that hope, but then the hope comes to nothing then we can feel ashamed. But our hope in Christ will not put us to shame, because our hope is in what He, the Son of God, has done, not in what we have done. We can be absolutely confident that He will complete the work that He has started. God had poured His love into our hearts through the Holy Spirit. So the work of Christ isn’t something that is impersonal that we happen to qualify for, God has poured His love into our lives. He has given the Holy Spirit to us, ie God Himself comes to dwell within us.

5:6

Christ died for us when we had nothing to offer. He died while we were still powerless, at just the right time. What was right about the time? It was God’s choosing, the moment in history was chosen. It was a time when Rome dominated Europe and the Middle East. There were good roads and a common language. So the good news could spread easily. And we were powerless. Christ died for the ungodly. He did not die for the good, there would have been no need to do that, but He died for sinners. Note “while we were still powerless” implies that we are no longer powerless.

5:7

Here Paul is referring to the difficulty in finding some who would willingly die for a righteous person. Righteous here means someone in right standing with God. Paul may have been thinking of someone who was “righteous” in the terms that Pharisees thought of someone being righteous. Then he refers to a good person. In the first instance it is someone who is “religiously” righteous, and such people are not always held in high regard, nor are they often liked. A “good” person is someone who is respected and admired by all. For such a person it is conceivable that someone might “dare to die” for a good person.

Romans 5:3,4 - Glorying in suffering

5:3a

We stand in the grace of God, but we need to understand what that means in practical terms. As verses 3 and 4 make abundantly clear it does not mean an easy life, and definitely not one free from suffering and difficulty. I guess we would all like a problem free life, but that is not the promise (though we will have times of peace and freedom from major problems). Rather the promise is how God will see us through these times, and work in us to bless us in the midst of these times. When we go through trials we experience many emotions. Guilt will often be one of them, wondering if we are suffering because we have done wrong. Has God abandoned us? Is He angry with us? We can feel overwhelmed. We need to remind ourselves that we stand in the grace of God. We are in right standing with the Lord. So, rather than seeing suffering as a punishment we “glory in it”, because we know that it produces fruit.

5:3b,4

So what is the fruit that suffering produces? First it produces perseverance. It teaches us to keep on going, to continue doing the right thing, to keep on following God. Part of what God wants to produce in us is a character that persists in trusting in Him, in following Him. This is the attitude that Jesus has. And this character produces hope. Now see the order here. We would probably go in reverse. We would want the hope first, then that would produce the character, then we would be able to persevere. But God’s order is not that way around. He produces the perseverance first, in fact the suffering comes first, then the perseverance. Our keeping going makes us into the sort of person that is more Christlike, then we will find hope arising in us.

Romans 5:1,2 - Standing in grace

5:1

Remember there were no chapter divisions in the original. Paul has just finished saying Christ has been delivered over for our sins and raised for our justification. The focus of the letter now moves on. In the first part we had Paul’s demonstration of the sinfulness of all of mankind, and how we are all, Jews and Gentiles, under God’s wrath. Then he moved on to how all can be justified by faith in the sacrificial death of Christ and His resurrection. What is required of us in order to be justified is not works, but faith. Now Paul moves on to the practical consequences for the Christian life. A faith which has no effect on our everyday lives is no faith at all.

The first thing he notes is that we have peace with God. This is not the peace of God (though that will be a consequence of it) but peace with God. We were at enmity with God, we were under wrath, but now we have peace with Him because we have been justified. Ie we are in good standing with God. We have this through “our Lord Jesus Christ”. Note that it says our Lord. Jesus Christ is our Lord, we make Him the “boss” of our lives.

5:2

“We have gained access” is actually better translated “We have gained introduction”. The thought is not that we have merely gained access, but we have been introduced to the Father by the Son. When someone introduces you to someone else there is a much greater sense that we are in the right place, that we belong. The Son has introduced us to the Father, He speaks on our behalf.  We stand in the grace of God. This is where we stand right now, in the grace of God. The dominant factor in your life is not your sins, not your mistakes, not the things done against you, not the things that have gone wrong, but the unlimited grace of God. If we want to understand life we need to understand that it is God’s grace that governs our life. Whatever our circumstances are right now we need to know that the grace of God is more important. “And we boast in the hope of the glory of God”. Earlier Paul has said that we all fall short of the glory of the God. Now in Christ we have the sure hope that because of Christ we will actually attain all that God intends for us.

Romans 4:23-25 - Raised for our justification

4:23

All of Scripture was written for all of us. The Old Testament had immediate relevance and benefit for the original hearers, it was also given by God for future generations. Likewise the New Testament had immediate relevance for the 1st century hearers, and also for us. This is especially true of the book of Revelation! The grounds for believing this to be the case are that the Bible was given by God, the words are God breathed.

4:24

So, just as Abraham’s faith was credited to him as righteousness, God was also looking ahead to the present time. Our faith is credited to us as righteousness. Faith is the key to salvation. Abraham showed the way that God works. It is not any old faith that gains righteousness, but faith in the God who raised Christ from the dead. The Father and the Son were working together, Jesus came to fulfil the father’s will.

4:25

Jesus was delivered over to death for our sins. He died in order to pay the price of our sins. He was raised for our justification. If Jesus had stayed in the grave then we would never have known that our sins had been paid for. The death may have been noble, but there would have been no evidence that it was sufficient to pay the price of our sins. In fact the conclusion would have to have been that it was not sufficient. But He was raised, and we are justified.

Romans 4:20-22 - Fully persuaded

4:20

“Did not waiver in his faith”. Now let’s look a little at Abraham. In many ways he certainly did “waiver in his faith” as we think of it. Abraham slept with his servant girl. He laughed at the promises of God. His faith was no artificial faith. Yet in all this he continued to follow God. Faith does not mean never having any doubts, never having any struggles. It means to continue to walk step by step after God even when we are struggling.

Abraham “gave glory to God”. This means that he decided that God and His promises were the most important factor in his life. We should do the same. In the midst of doubts, uncertainty and struggles we should reckon that God is the most important factor in our lives, the overriding reality.

4:21

“Being fully persuaded that God had the power to do what He had promised”. This is the crux of the matter for us. Abraham received a promise, there was no way within the powers of Abraham and Sarah that this could be fulfilled, but Abraham believed that God had the power to do what He had promised. Likewise, there is no way that we can live up to God’s righteous standards. Instead we trust in Him. We trust that Jesus’ death on the cross has fully paid for our sins, we trust that through the power of the Holy Spirit He can and will transform us into the people He wants us to be. All our trust is put in Christ, and none in ourselves. Our faith must always be in God alone.

4:22

That is why it “was credited to him as righteousness”. Want to get right with God? Then put your trust in Him, put your trust In Christ’s work upon the cross. Now why is faith so important to God? It is because it is getting back to reality, back to the truth of the matter. There is a logic in it. We were created by God. We did not chose to come into being, we did not chose what we would be, we did not create the universe in which we find ourselves. We were utterly dependent upon God, yet we rebelled and decided that we could live without Him. We could decide what is right and wrong, we could supply all our needs. We were wrong. Not just a little bit wrong, but utterly at odds with reality, completely deluded. When we think we can prove ourselves righteous all we are doing is continuing that delusion. When we put our trust completely in Christ and His work we are returning to reality, returning to sanity.

Romans 4:18,19 - Against all hope

4:18

Hope is a key concept in Paul’s thinking, especially in Romans, but elsewhere as well. Remember that faith, hope and love are the three primary virtues. There is a clear distinction between Paul’s use of hope and the common usage of the word. Today it means an aspiration or wishful thinking. In the Bible there is much more certainty about it, for it is founded in God, not in our desires or plans. “Against all hope”. Based on the “facts” there was no way Abraham was going to become the father of one, let alone a nation. Yet Abraham believed. And because he believed he did indeed become the father of many. Now Paul is drawing parallels here with our spiritual condition. There is no way that man can become righteous, that we can become what God intends us to be, if we rely on our own resources. Instead our faith has to be in God, our hope has to be based on what He has said and done. When we do this our hope becomes a sure hope built on a sure foundation.

4:19

Abraham faced up to the fact that his body was as good as dead, as was Sarah. This means he faced up to the fact that Sarah was barren and he was old. Faith is not ignoring the realities of a situation, rather it is facing up to the realities and then factoring God into the equation. Man lives life as if there is no God, this is not the way we were meant to live, and this is why when we come to Christ things become so different, and at times so difficult. Life with God is completely different, the possibilities are completely different, and we need to learn to think and act differently.

Romans 4:16,17 - The Creative Call of God

4:16

The Greek in this sentence is actually quite difficult to decipher for there isn’t a verb in this sentence. This is part of the reason why different versions of the Bible translate some things differently and why formal translations (seeking to be as true as possible to the original words) are not always more accurate than dynamic translations (seeking to convey the meaning). Faith and grace, not having the law or works, are the means by which the promise comes. It is by grace because it needs to be by grace. Any other way is doomed to failure because of our failure. Works cannot inherit the promise, so it has to be by faith. The salvation is also universal and was always intended to be universal (Gen 12:2,3) (definitely not universalism, just in case anyone is wondering). If it was by Law this could not be so for the Law brought a clear distinction between the Jews and everyone else. Faith and grace means the promise can be received by all peoples, Jews and Gentiles. We are all Abraham’s children for he is the man of faith.

4:17

Paul seals his argument with a quote from Gen 17:5. Note that God said “I have made you ..”, there was no element of doubt in this. It wasn’t something that might happen, but something that was already settled. It was always God’s plan.

God is a God who gives life to the dead, and calls things that are not as if they were. Jesus is the supreme example of God giving life to the dead. Callings things that are not as if they were. Now the Jew may have objected that the Gentiles were lost in a sea of immorality, and would have had some evidence to back that up, but God calls things into being. He announces, or declares, what will happen before it has happened. Indeed, throughout Isaiah that is one of the main features of God that distinguishes Him from the idols. Through the cross Gentiles receive forgiveness and through the Spirit a work of transformation begins.

God calls into being. All of God’s creation comes out of nothing. There was no universe until God called it into being. There was no nation of Israel until God called it into being. So it is with the church, with Jews and Gentiles being God’s people. We are the product of the creative call of God.

Romans 4:14,15 - Where there is no Law

4:14

Paul continues the argument that salvation is by faith, not law. In Genesis, especially Genesis 15, faith is central to God’s working with Abraham, and His promises to him. So if Law is the basis for God’s promises being fulfilled, for receiving the blessings then God’s dealing with Abraham make no sense. The statement “his faith was credited to him as righteousness” is rendered meaningless. The gospel actually makes more sense of the Old Testament than the Jewish interpretation of the Law does.

If Law is the basis for receiving the blessings then the promise is negated as well. God’s promises to Abraham did not depend upon the Law. This left a mystery. How could a wicked people (which includes all Jews and all Gentiles) inherit the promises of a righteous God? It is the cross which answers this problem.

4:15

The Law brings wrath. Now many folk don’t like the idea of wrath. Well to such people there is only one thing to say, just because you don’t like it doesn’t mean it isn’t true. The Law shows up our sinfulness, it demonstrates how far short we fall of the glory of God. Therefore the Law brings judgement upon us. It also, as Paul will show in chapter 7, provokes sinful desires in us. Because we are told not to do something it makes us more likely to do it.

So while Law is unable to do anything to save us, it is still necessary. “where there is no law there is no transgression”. Transgression refers to overstepping the mark, crossing the line. We need to be told where the lines are. The Law shows up what is truly in our hearts, it highlights our need for salvation.

Romans 4:12,13 - Through faith

4:12

But the Jews are not excluded either, nor are they rejected. If a Jew, who is circumcised, believes in Christ then he too is counted as righteous. Abraham is their father too. But the key aspect of Abraham, the aspect we must follow, is to have faith in God. The Jews focused on the wrong thing, they put the emphasis on circumcision. This is a fundamental human weakness and we see it again and again in Christianity as well. A church will seek God, receive faith, receive inspiration from the Holy Spirit and start doing a really effective work, start seeing many people come to Christ. They will develop a system to manage the situation. Then they will start putting the emphasis on the system instead of on the faith in Christ, the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the things that really produced the fruitfulness.

4:13

Abraham existed long before the Law was given, yet he was the one to whom the promises were given. At his calling he was told all nations on earth would be blessed through him (Gen 12:2,3). He was given various related promises throughout his life. Notably in Gen 17:5 God tells him he has been made the father of many nations. All this happened before the Law came, but during the time when God told him his faith would be counted as righteousness. Now see how the Jews had got things so wrong and we need to beware of getting things equally wrong. See also that the Law was, and is, clearly significant. In terms of pure bulk it accounts for a significant part of the Bible, in terms of history it accounts for a massive part of Israel’s history. Yet it was not the goal, nor was it the way to the goal. Rather it pointed to and prepared the way to the goal.

Romans 4:9-11 - When was he circumcised?

4:9,10

“Is this blessing only for the circumcised ...” This is the fundamental question that faced the early church and it crops up in several places in Acts and especially in Paul’s letters. Much of the early opposition to the church came from the Jews, and there were those within the church who argued that Gentile converts needed to be circumcised. We find it hard to appreciate why they should think like that. Abraham was regarded as the archetypal Gentile convert, and Abraham was circumcised, therefore circumcision was essential, or so would go Jewish thinking (Gen 17). However, Paul shows that that is a fundamental misreading of Genesis. Abraham was declared righteous because of his faith. Circumcision came some thirteen years later. This is the key point that Paul is making, faith is primary, circumcision is secondary.

4:11

Circumcision was a sign of the covenant. It was a seal of what had already happened (being counted righteous on the basis of faith), it did not achieve anything itself. So Abraham is the father of all who are uncircumcised but who believe. And the purpose is that righteousness might be credited to all who believe. God wants to credit righteousness to us.

Romans 4:6-8 - Blessed are those who are forgiven

Having referred to Abraham Paul makes a brief digression to David before returning to Abraham. David, of course, was a key figure in Jewish history. Paul’s shows that he too found that righteousness does not come from works. There are numerous Psalms he could have quoted from, but the one actually chosen is Psalm 32:1,2. Although he just quotes from the first two verses, the whole psalm is an expression of David’s joy at receiving God’s forgiveness. In the psalm he speaks of the agony he endured when he refused to confess his sins, followed by the release when he finally acknowledged them. David tells of how God has then become his hiding place, his deliverer. Then we are urged not be stubborn, but to receive the guidance of the Lord. This so aptly applies to the Jews, but they were still persisting in their stubbornness, refusing to confess their sin and come to Jesus in need. On the two verses actually quoted, blessedness belongs to the one whose sins are forgiven. It also expresses the completeness of Christ’s sacrifice. Our sins are covered and will never be counted against us. Any apparent blessedness based on any so-called goodness of our own is illusory, only blessedness based on God’s forgiveness is real.

Romans 4:3-5 - Abraham believed God

4:3

Paul is quoting from Gen 15:6. This is what Scripture says, what the Bible says, what God, the God of the Jews, says. “Abraham believed and it was credited to him as righteousness”. There is no mention of works here. All that had happened is that Abraham had believed God’s promise. “Credited” is an accounting term, it refers to a balance sheet, and on the plus side God has counted Abraham’s faith as righteousness. Works did not enter into the equation, only faith.

4:4,5

If someone works then their wages are not given as a gift, but as an obligation. Under your contract if your employer did not pay the correct salary, despite your having worked as agreed, you would rightly complain. And in actually paying you the employer is only doing what he is legally obliged to do, for you have earned it. However, if we show faith in God righteousness is given not as an obligation, for we have done nothing to earn it, but as a gift. Righteousness is freely credited to us. Notice that Paul says “God who justifies the ungodly”.  That is us. We are by nature ungodly, indeed every single human being is ungodly by nature. Yet through Christ God justifies us. Earning or deserving does not enter into the equation at all.

Romans 4:1,2 - What about Abraham?

4:1

Remember that there were no chapter or verses in the original. This chapter is a continuation of Paul’s argument. At the end of the previous chapter he has just said that in the gospel we uphold the law. Now he is going to demonstrate how this is the case. He uses two examples: Abraham and David. The most important is Abraham. The nation of Israel was started with Abraham, indeed God’s plan of redemption began with him (Gen 12:2,3). Moreover, the Jews were very proud of their Abrahamic heritage (eg John 8:39). Moreover, Abraham was a Gentile who became a Jew, the first Jew infact, and Rabbinic teaching saw him as a model for Gentile converts. So how did things work out with Abraham? This would be very important.

4:2

If Abraham was justified by works, then the Jews would have a good argument against the gospel, against what Paul was preaching. And indeed much Jewish teaching said that Abraham was indeed justified by works, and his faith was seen as a work. If this was true then Abraham could boast, but no one can boast before God. A Jew may be proud of his heritage and law keeping, but ask him if he would boast of this before God, would he give the same answer? Atheists and sceptics sometimes make proud statements against God, but they would do well to ask themselves. Would they say the same things if they were really standing before God? And as Christians it is good to imagine how we would react standing before God. Convincing or persuading men is a whole different ball game than convincing God!

If we look at Abraham’s life we also see that boasting was not one the things that he did.

Romans 3:29-31 - Only one God

3:29

Judaism was the only monotheistic religion of the time, the only one that said there was one God. If there is one God He must be the God of all creation, of all men. Indeed the Old Testament makes it clear that He is God of all the earth. So He is God of the Gentiles. Moreover, God’s initial promise to Abraham (Gen 12:2,3) says that all peoples will be blessed through him. God is not the God of the Jews only. People sometimes say “well  it is OK for you to believe that”, or “that is OK for Christians ...”. God is the creator of all things, everyone will have to answer to Him. His laws apply to all people.

3:30

There is only one God, and every good Jew knew this. Therefore He must be the God of the Gentiles. But the Law had brought a clear distinction between the Jew and the Gentiles (ie all non-Jews), yet God had promised to bless all people through Abraham. So how could that be? If justification is by faith then it is possible. The circumcised and the uncircumcised are all justified by the same faith. As an aside on this, there are some “theologies” which end up with Israel and Gentile believers being treated differently. Dispensationalism/pre-trib rapture theologies usually end up doing this. Jews and Gentiles are justified by the same faith, and in Christ they are made one (Eph 2:11-22). So any theology that says otherwise is in error.

3:31

OK, so no one can be justified by the Law, and justification by faith is the way for all the world. So does this mean that the Law is now null and void? Here Paul is using Law to refer to the whole of the Old Testament. His answer is a resounding no. In fact, quite the opposite is true. Justification by faith upholds the Law, just as Jesus said He came not to take away the Law but to fulfil it. And in the next chapter Paul will demonstrate how this is the case. The gospel is the goal of the Law.

Romans 3:27,28 - Who's boasting now?

3:27

Paul now returns to the Jew, or possibly also the moral Gentile. The Jew was proud of his Jewish heritage, a moral person may be proud of their “goodness”, but in the gospel there is no room for boasting. On our own merits what have any of us got to boast about? All we can offer God is a catalogue of sins and a deeply corrupted nature. The “law that requires works” itself testifies against us. So instead we rely on the “law” that requires faith.

3:28

“We maintain that a person is justified by faith, apart from the law”. Implicit in all this is that a person needs to be justified, we need somehow to be shown to be in the right. Men try many ways in order to achieve this. The religious way is to try and achieve this by works, by good moral behaviour or by following religious rituals, or a mixture of the two. Others try to achieve it by proving their own wisdom, their own cleverness. Even the atheist who rails against God is trying to prove that he is right to reject the existence of God. All these attempts fail because of the fundamental fact that we are a fallen race, and the empirical evidence to support this claim is vast. Just turn on the news, look at your workplace, look at yourself! The gospel answer is that we are justified by faith in the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ, and obeying the law has nothing to do with it. Now, we need to be careful here. In discarding the law here Paul is discarding it as a mean of justifying ourselves, he is most definitely not discarding its moral standards. He is countering those who argued that Gentile Christians needed to observe the Law, in particular circumcision.

Romans 3:26 - No debt outstanding

3:26

The cross demonstrates the justice and righteousness of God. Sometimes people ask “why couldn’t God just forgive?” The answer is that sin is far more serious than that. When something seriously wrong is done it cannot be just swept under the carpet, just overlooked. On the cross our sin was fully confronted and fully paid for. Islam has a form of forgiveness, but there is no justice, the sin of a man is not atoned for. Only in the gospel is our sin atoned for. We can be confident that God has nothing against us, there is no debt still to be paid. The cross solves the conundrum of how can a righteous God love an unrighteous people. Through the cross we are made righteous.

3:27

Paul now returns to the Jew, or possibly also the moral Gentile. The Jew was proud of his Jewish heritage, a moral person may be proud of their “goodness”, but in the gospel there is no room for boasting. On our own merits what have any of us got to boast about? All we can offer God is a catalogue of sins and a deeply corrupted nature. The “law that requires works” itself testifies against us. So instead we rely on the “law” that requires faith.

Romans 3:25 - Penal substitution

This verse is usually mistranslated, or inadequately translated. ESV translates it properly when it says “whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood”, other translations usually soften this. Propitiation means “one who turns aside wrath” and many people don’t like the idea of God’s wrath. Such thinking is usually the result of having an inadequate idea of how terrible and destructive sin is, your sin and my sin, the effect my sin has on me and the effect it has on others. Right at the start of the preceding section starting in Romans 1:18 Paul has said the wrath of God is being revealed against all godlessness and wickedness, and the succeeding verses have majored on man’s wickedness. This evil presents a major problem and only an understanding of the cross that includes Jesus paying the price of our sin is adequate to deal with it. There are many who object to “penal substitution”, but such people have a woefully inadequate view of sin, and their ideas offer no hope. I for one am glad and relieved that Jesus has paid the price for my sin and turned aside God’s justifiable wrath against me and my sin.

How was this turning aside of wrath achieved? Through Christ’s blood. All the Old Testament points to sacrifice atoning for sin, for shedding of blood atoning for sin. There is no escape from this, and Jesus is the perfect sacrifice. No, I don’t fully understand it, I don’t fully understand how Jesus’ death pays for my sin, but I know that it does and I believe it, I put my trust in His death for my sin.

How do we receive this forgiveness? By faith. Christ’s death was totally effective, but we still need to receive it by faith. An argument of Calvinism is that Christ died only for the elect (limited atonement) claiming that any other view is merely saying that Christ provided the possibility of being saved. However, I do not find this view convincing. One could draw a parallel with someone who was rightly convicted of a crime being given a pardon. In order for that pardon to be activated the person has to admit their guilt. The pardon was totally effective, it was given to the individual, but the person had to admit their guilt. In the same way, Christ died personally for you and me, His sacrifice was totally effective, but you and I need to repent and believe in order to receive it. However, my primary reason for not finding it convincing is that the Bible says Christ’s death was totally effective, and it says I must believe. It is as simple as that.