Romans 3:27-4:25

What’s Happening?

Paul has just said that no one can obey enough laws to enter God’s Kingdom or be put in good standing with their Creator. Rather, all people experience all the blessings of God by faith in Jesus (Romans 3:27-30). However, Paul anticipates that Jewish believers will think he is dismissing and even contradicting the Hebrew Bible. The Jewish law explicitly says that the Jews will be blessed and considered in good standing with God by obeying his laws (Deuteronomy 28:1-2). Some Jews in Paul’s day even pointed to Abraham as an example of someone who obeyed God’s laws so thoroughly that God considered him as someone in exemplary standing with him and worthy of becoming the father of all Jews. Paul assures his Jewish friends that in his insistence on faith, he’s not dismissing the Jewish laws or the importance of Abraham. He’s honoring both (Romans 3:31). Paul points out that the Hebrew Bible says that Abraham received good standing with God and the blessing of generations of children not because he obeyed but because he had faith (Romans 4:1-3; Genesis 15:6). Similarly, Israel’s greatest king, David, understood that when we disobey, the only way to be placed back in good standing with God is by asking in faith for God to treat us contrary to what our actions deserve (Romans 4:4-8). The Hebrew Bible’s most significant figures agree that the Jewish people are given right standing with God by faith, not exemplary obedience.

And this logic doesn’t just apply to the Jews. Paul points out that Abraham didn’t receive his good standing with God or the promise of children when he was circumcised but when he was still, technically, a Gentile. This proves that Abraham is the “father” of all people, whether Jewish or not. Anyone, by faith, can join Abraham’s family, receive God’s blessings, and be in right standing with God (Romans 4:9-12). While it’s good to obey God, to make obedience to Jewish laws a prerequisite for inclusion in God’s family would invalidate and dishonor God's promise to Abraham (Romans 4:13-14). The Hebrew Bible is clear: the way Jews and non-Jews are given good standing with their Creator and included in his family is by faith (Romans 4:15-17).

Where is the Gospel?

Paul continues his argument with a surprising twist. He says that Abraham’s faith was actually a belief in resurrection. God promised Abraham a son in his extreme old age. His and his wife’s bodies were as good as dead. But Abraham believed that God could raise a son from an empty womb (Romans 4:18-21). It was faith in a resurrection and a promised son that secured Abraham’s good standing with God. And it is by a similar type of faith in the resurrected Jesus that we can be given new life, made right with God, and enter his Kingdom (Romans 4:22-24).

If you have been a follower of Jesus for some time, you might be tempted to think that by virtue of your Christian upbringing or your regular church attendance, you and God are on good terms. But you’re not. The reason Paul spends so much time attacking this assumption with his Jewish readers is because it’s spiritually dangerous. In pride and presumption, we will begin to judge others for not being as moral as we are, and eventually, we may begin to doubt that we have done enough to stay on God’s good side. The Jews had a false confidence in the law. They thought that their inclusion in the Jewish family protected them. When we replace the free gift God has given us in Jesus with something we can do or perform, we begin to erode the confidence God intends to give us. God grants forgiveness, good standing, and entrance into his Kingdom fully, finally, and forever to anyone who has faith in his resurrected son (Romans 4:25). And since this is given by faith, not obedience, we can be confident that we will be members of God’s family and included in his kingdom forever. 

See For Yourself

I pray that the Holy Spirit will open your eyes to see the God who saves all people by faith. And may you see Jesus as the one who has died and risen to free us from death’s power and give us good standing with God.