Fact or Fiction, Romans 4 (2)

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Romans has three main sections to it, there are three stories, if you will, to this mansion. If we will roam this house and spend time in its rooms, and enjoy the furniture, it will not only change our lives, it will put us in a place where God can use us to change the lives of others.

Chapters 1 – 8 are the first section, and it deals with what we’ve done, our sins, and who we are outside of Jesus Christ – sinners. We have two problems before God can begin His work of renovation, the things we’ve done and the persons we are. What does it matter if our sins are forgiven if we are still sinners? It doesn’t matter, our lives are not changed, we are still living as dead people.

Chapters 9, 10, and 11 explore the sovereignty of God – I’d say these are the three most difficult chapters in the Bible, and if we aren’t familiar with them it would do us good to start reading them, and read them again, and again. We’ll likely still have questions when we’ve worked through them, but questions are good, it’s okay to say, “I’m, not sure about that. I don’t quite understand that.” Our goal should always be, “Do I see Jesus better today than yesterday? Do I love Him more today than yesterday?” Since Jesus is God and I am not, living with questions is quite okay if I realize that Jesus holds all of the answers to all of my questions.

The last section of Romans is chapters 12 – 16, and that is about living in close and intimate relationship with one another. Paul really messes with us in this section; he affirms God’s calling in our lives, but he also challenges us to stop playing religious games and get on with serious life in Jesus Christ. Our friends and neighbors need us to stop playing games, they need us to get serious about one another and the Gospel.

The first section of the first section is Romans chapter 1 through verse 11 of chapter 5. We have rebelled against God and we are all sinners, all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God – whether Jew or Gentile. We have God’s written Law, we have God’s natural law written on our consciences – and we have all rebelled against God, we are all born sinners, and we’ll see in chapter 5, that we have all been God’s enemies. This isn’t a case of us being naughty littles boys and girls, this is a case of us being God’s enemies and deserving God’s judgment.

If we stopped minimizing sin, perhaps we would better understand that our lives ought to belong completely to Jesus Christ – that we ought to be, as we’ll see in Romans chapter 12, living sacrifices. That when people see us that they can say, “There goes a living sacrifice, there goes a woman, there goes a man, there goes a child, who is living sacrificially for Jesus Christ. There is a church living a sacrificial life.”

And so in the second half of Romans chapter 3 Paul makes clear that the only way our sins can be forgiven is for us to trust in the death on the Cross of Jesus Christ, it is only in Jesus and through Jesus that we can be justified – that God can look at us as if we’ve never sinned and have always lived righteously.

Do we believe this fact, or are we trusting in a fiction that we really aren’t all that bad, that we can live up to the Law, that if we do more good than bad in this life that God will accept us? And keep in mind, this is not just about how we live, it is about whose life is living within us – because eternal life is meant to be lived here and now, not just in the hereafter. We are called to live supernatural lives – and I don’t think we necessarily understand that, let alone experience it.

Paul begins Chapter 4 with saying “Look at Abraham, look at David – they were justified not because they kept God’s Law, but because they believed in Him, they believed God’s Word, God drew them into a relationship with Himself – they are justified by faith and their sins were forgiven and they lived in an intimate relationship with the Living God.”

9 Is this blessing then on the circumcised, or on the uncircumcised also? For we say, “Faith was credited to Abraham as righteousness.” 10 How then was it credited? While he was circumcised, or uncircumcised? Not while circumcised, but while uncircumcised; 11 and he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while uncircumcised, so that he might be the father of all who believe without being circumcised, that righteousness might be credited to them, 12 and the father of circumcision to those who not only are of the circumcision, but who also follow in the steps of the faith of our father Abraham which he had while uncircumcised.

There were Jews in the Roman congregation who were believing a fiction that Abraham was justified before God because he was circumcised – and Paul says “That’s not true, that’s not a fact, that’s a fiction.” Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him as righteousness and he was called the friend of God – and after that God instituted circumcision as a sign of Abraham’s belief; Abraham was not justified because he was circumcised, he was circumcised because he was justified.

As Paul points out in chapter 2, and as he will point out in chapters 9, 10, and 11 – you can be circumcised and still be dead in your sins. And that ought to remind us that we can be baptized, whether as infants or as adults, and still be dead in our sins. To the believer baptism is sacramental, to the family of the infant dedicated or christened baptism ought to be covenantal – but baptism in and of itself is not salvation just as circumcision was not salvation.

to be continued....