4.1: Paul uses Abraham as an example of a person who is not saved not by works, but by faith. As this example he becomes the picture of how all are saved.
4.2: As we have nothing to boast about (3.27), so Abraham has nothing to boast about in his relationship to God because it was by faith.
4.3-5: The reality that Abraham is justified by faith is shown in the fact that what he receives is not an obligation on God’s part, but a gift.
4.6: Paul points to David’s words as well. Paul has been bringing up many Old Testament examples to remind his readers both of God’s promises kept and of the importance of the Jewish Scriptures.
4.7-8: God’s grace flows not because of what we have done, but simply because of God’s heart of forgiveness that will finally be fully revealed in Jesus Christ.
4.9-12: Paul returns to his argument that salvation if for all with a very skilled argument. He points out that since faith preceded circumcision and because God’s promise to Abraham was that he “would be the father of many nations” that salvation is for all nations. This argument flows from God’s two covenant encounters with Abraham. In the first (Genesis 15), God promises to be Abram’s shield and his great reward. Abraham believes God’s promise and it is credited to him as righteousness. In the second encounter (Genesis 17) God calls on Abraham to circumcise the males in his household. So faith precedes circumcision and Abraham can be considered the father of both circumcised and uncircumcised.
4.15: “Where there is no law there is no transgression” -- Paul has made it clear that there is law in every person at some level, so there is always transgression.
4.17: “gives life to the dead….” These words may refer to the following verses where God brings life to Abraham who is as good as dead and a child to Sarah whose womb is barren. As such these words point out the place of faith in the face of hopeless times and causes. Abraham holds on to the belief that God will do what God has promised.
4.20: Abraham is strengthened in his faith as he lives in relationship to God. Watching God act causes him to become stronger in his faith.
4.25: In his death Jesus bears the penalty for our sins. In his resurrection God says “yes” to his work and so we are able to be justified. These words connect with Isaiah 53, "Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed."
5.1: “Therefore” reminds us to look back at where we have just been. Paul has been teaching us about the righteousness the comes to both Jew and Gentile through faith in Jesus Christ.
5.1: This verse begins an incredible list of the benefits that comes to those who are justified by faith in Christ. The first benefit we experience is “peace with God”. This peace means that our relationship with God has been restored. Such a restoration is a startling thing when we recall how difficult it is to restore broken relationship in our own relational worlds. This peace with God denotes not only the restoration of a relationship but the benefits that flow from restoration. The benefits are captured in the Hebrew word for peace “shalom” which mean all the joy, wholeness, and completeness one can take. When our peace with God becomes reality we begin to experience that shalom.
5.2: The theme of “faith” (Romans 1 “In this gospel a righteousness from God has been revealed, a righteous that is by faith from first to last. As it is written, ‘The righteous will live by faith.’”) again is put forward by Paul. While Paul insists that faith leads to doing God, it is always faith first and last that connects us with God.
5.3-5: Our faith also makes it possible for us to turn suffering into something good. When we suffer in a way that honors God we become people of who show we are God’s. Job says, “When he has tested me, I will come forth as gold.” Job 23.10
5.4: The reason that character produces hope is we see in our developing character the power of God at work. In seeing this power we know that God is real and his promises are sure.
5.5: God’s love being poured into our hearts makes it possible to handle our suffering in a way that reflects Christ who said, “Father, forgive them for they don’t know what they are doing.”
5.6-11: This next section points out how God reached out to us when we did not deserve it. The result is our justification and more incredible benefits. Some words of C.S. Lewis seem fitting at the beginning of this section, “"If God were a Kantian, who would not have us till we came to Him from the purest and best motives, who could b saved?"
5.6: “still powerless” The idea is that we had no ability to turn our hearts toward God.
5.6: “at just the right time” God sets his plan in motion for the coming of Christ and so he sends him at just the right time both for our salvation and the maximum impact of spreading the gospel. When you look at the period in which Jesus comes and the gospel is spread it is a unique time in history and especially in Israel. Remember that if Jesus had come after 70 A.D. there would have been no Israel. If he had come before 25 A.D. (in
terms of ministry) the situation in Israel would not have been conducive for his message and his person. Jesus truly does come “at just the right time”.
5.6: “Christ died for the ungodly.” It is worth checking the places and persons we find connected with the ungodly. The people during the days of Noah are called ungodly, the people of Sodom and Gomorrah are called ungodly (2 Peter), Paul in 1 Timothy says, 1 Timothy. 1:8 We know that the law is good if one uses it properly. 9 We also know that law is made not for the righteous but for lawbreakers and rebels, the ungodly and sinful, the unholy and irreligious; for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers, 10 for adulterers and perverts, for slave traders and liars and perjurers—and for whatever else is contrary to the sound doctrine 11 that conforms to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which he entrusted to me. The ungodly are not the nicest group out there-- but it is the ungodly that Christ come to die for. In this light we notice that the group in Romans 1 that is described in such God hating terms falls into the ungodly category. God sends his Son to save these--they are not necessarily forever rejected, rather at just the right time God sends his Son to die for these. We also need to note that the “ungodly” comprise the entire human race i.e. us.
5.7: Using the words righteous and good in a general sense, Paul tells us that no one will die for a righteous person, but they might die for a good person. A good person is some who is righteous and also has a heart for others. Being a righteous person does not make one a good person, but a good person is righteous.
5.8: It is God who shows his love for us. God’s love trumps his wrath.
5.9: Justification is a past action. If God has justified us how much more will we be rescued from the wrath of God on the day of judgment.
5.12-21: Paul again goes to the Old Testament to bring his point home. This time he builds a comparison between the first man, Adam and God’s perfect man, Jesus Christ.
5.12: Death comes into the world through Adam. We read in Gen. 2:15 The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. 16 And the LORD God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.” In Genesis 3 Adam and Eve eat of the tree and so bring death to themselves and to all who come after them.
5.14: Adam’s transgression was done against the very words of God. Before the law the sins of the people were against what God had made clear not through his very words, but via their conscience.
5.14: Paul begins to show the direction he is going, namely, Adam is the type of the one who is going to come, one whose actions touch all who come after him.
5.16: Again, the superiority of Christ is shown. His sacrifice covers a multitude of sins, while the fall comes from but one sin.
5.17: Paul continues pointing to the superiority of this new life. While Adam’s fall brought the reign of death, because of Christ his followers will reign in life. To reign in life is not only being rescued from death, it is to be those who reign over God’s new creation.
We read in Rev. 22:5 There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever.
5.18-19: Here Paul basically says that as in Adam all died, so in Christ shall all be made alive. This would seem to indicate that every person will someday be saved and brought into relationship with God. This we know is not true. In the book of Revelation we are told that some will be judged and thrown into the lake of fire (see Revelation 20). It might be helpful here to think back to Paul’s “sins not held against them” words earlier in this chapter. We may well find something similar here, namely, that all are saved except those the Bible tells us are not saved. Who finally are not saved? Those who consistently rebel against God and refuse to accept him and the revelation he has given them that should lead them to repentance.
5.20-21: God’s grace is greater than sin.
6.1-2: Paul takes on those who would hold that this gift of justification is reason to sin all the more. Sinning more will lead to two things in their thinking 1. God’s glory will shine more brightly against our sin 2. As we sin we will also enjoy in increasing measure the gifts of justification since our greater sin makes them more precious. Paul simply points out that you can’t be justified and still pursue sin since we’ve died to it.
6.3-4: Paul uses a powerful picture of our being united with Christ in his death and resurrection. In his death our sin is put to death. In his resurrection we begin a new life where we pursue the ways of the kingdom.
6.7: “set free from sin” means that sin no longer has the power to master us, rather we now have the ability to say “yes” to God and “no” to sin. At the same time, it is clear throughout this section that Paul is dealing with people who have said “yes” to sin, and “no” to God. Our freedom from sin puts us in some ways back in the garden of Eden where we can say either “yes” or “no” to sin. Paul insists that since we now have the freedom to say “yes” we should choose and pursue that freedom which is in keeping with our new status.
6.11: As Christ has died and lives for God’s purposes, so we are to follow his example--dead to sin, alive to following God.
6.16: Paul sets us an unexpected contrast. He tells us that sin leads to death. The expected contrast would be something like, “Virtue leads to life”. Instead he says that “obedience leads to righteousness”. The opposite of sin then is obedience. The opposite of death is righteousness. Why? Because sin at its heart is disobedience. And living righteously infuses us with life both now and for all eternity. Jesus in talking about the last judgment says, Matt. 25:46 “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”
6.17: “teaching to which you were entrusted” Paul makes it clear that the pattern for righteous living comes from what they have been taught. Their pattern for righteousness is not something they have made up on their own. The idea of entrusted means to be given over to be molded. This fits perfectly with the words of Jesus, “Teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.”
6.19: “I put this in human terms…” The illustration of slavery is a “human illustration” has severe limitations given the system of slavery in Rome. However, Paul believes it will convey the basic idea in spite of its shortcomings.
6.20-21: The people were free of righteousness, but in words that echo verse 16, such freedom leads to death. As Proverbs 14.12 says, There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.
6.23: This verse forms an excellent summary statement of what Paul has been teaching and of the gospel.
7.1-6: Paul begins to expand on his argument of 6.14 that we are no longer under the law but under grace. Here he uses another “natural” illustration of a woman who is free from the law of marriage if her husband dies. Since we have died with Christ we are free from the law which sin used to make us even more sinful.
7.7: Paul chooses the sin of coveting because it is seen as being equal to the Torah in its entirety. Coveting is shorthand for all of God’s law. Interestingly, the Heidelberg Catechism sees it the same way.
Lord's Day 44
Q & A 113
Q. What is God's will for you in the tenth commandment?
A. That not even the slightest thought or desire contrary to any one of God's commandments Rather, with all my heart I should always hate sin and take pleasure in whatever is right. 1 Ps. 19:7-14; 139:23-24; Rom. 7:7-8
7.7: The law alerts us to what is evil and wrong. Because of our sinful nature rather than avoiding what is evil, we find ourselves drawn to it.
7.8: “sin lies dead” As we saw earlier in Romans 5.13, sin is not completely dead, rather outside of the law it does not carry as clear of guidelines.
7.9: “alive apart from the law” Paul speaks in the sense that there was a time when he was unaware of the law and it’s demands. This most likely was when he was a child and did not fully understand the law. When he did understand it, sin used the law to cause a sense of death.
7.10-11: Sin, as it so often does, takes what is good and twists it so that what should have been good destroys. Some examples of this: Leadership that is used by Mao to kill millions. Sex that is turned into pornography. Enjoying God’s good creation that becomes materialism.
7.12-13: Paul reaffirms the goodness of the law. This law as we are told in Deuteronomy 32 brings life. The Law never is the source of evil, only sin misusing the law causes evil.
7.15: In a person who is coming alive to Christ there is the realization of a life that breaks the heart of the person who is living it. They can see a better way, but they can’t see a way to it. They live in the frustration of not doing what they want (because God’s Spirit has not empowered them).
7.16: Whether the person at this point on their road to God knows the Law or not, their knowing their failure shows that the law it good and should be followed.
7.17: Sin again is personified as a real force that is now dragging this person in directions he does not want to go. Perhaps we can relate this back to Romans 1 where God gives a person over to their sin and sin begins to rule their life. Here sin is ruling, but this person sees the rule and longs for it to be over.
7.18-20: These words echo Paul’s words that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” in Romans 3. It indicates the need for a righteousness apart from the Law.
7.21: “So I find this law at work” “This law” is not God’s law but rather simply how things work. Putting Paul’s words a bit differently, “I find this is how it works in my life, when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand.”
7.22: If this is a person who is on the road to faith they have become aware of God’s law and it looks good to them, a desirable way to live--but another law, the law of sin, wages war to keep the person from following the good law. This battle shows the reality of our inability to keep the law of God unless the Spirit empowers us.
7.24-25: Only Christ can deliver us.
7.25: “So then…” In his mind this person sees the wonder of following God’s ways, but he is not yet made his commitment to Christ, therefore, he remains a slave to the law of sin.
Sermon - Audio
