Romans 4

Read Romans 4.

            In Romans 4, Paul is making a case that he makes more explicitly in Galatians 3:17. There, talking about God’s dealings with Abraham, says, that Moses’ law was given 430 years after the promise to Abraham. His point in both cases is that Israel was looking to the wrong place in their history. They were relying on the events at Sinai as the basis for their national standing. Paul wants to redirect them to the promises to Abraham.

            Israel saw Moses’ law as a privilege; Paul wants them to see it as an obligation, a burden—an obligation they and their ancestors haven’t fulfilled very well. The real privilege is to be children of Abraham, who Paul significantly notes, was declared righteous before he was circumcised. Abraham’s righteousness was declared because he trusted God’s promise.

            Israel understood Moses’ law as an ID badge. “How do we know we are God’s people?” “We were given circumcision—and Sabbath and kosher law and cleanness law. We are unique.” Paul wants them to see that those answers impose an obligation (4:4), so those answers ultimately condemn Israel.

            The real ID badge, the real answer to the question, “How do we know we are God’s people?” is faith in God’s promise. Trusting in God’s promise entails no obligation. It simply clings to the promised gift, a promise kept in Jesus: “The words ‘it was credited to him’ were written not for him alone, but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness—for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification” (vv. 23-25). So, the key to salvation—for Israel and for us—is not what we do, but in whom we trust, namely, Jesus.