Near the close of the third chapter of the letter to the
Romans, we hear Paul say “Since God is one, He will justify the circumcised by
faith and the uncircumcised through faith” (3:30). If we are hearing Paul
from within his appropriate first century context, and hear him as a Jewish
Jesus believer that does not have a conception of salvation or justification
that pits “works” versus “grace” as the means to obtain righteousness and to go
to heaven as the goal of one’s life, it should be impossible for us to
disconnect justification from the issues of covenant markers and covenant
inclusion. Paul is more than abundantly clear that righteousness
(justification) is realized by all, Gentile and Jew, through adherence to the
covenant marker of confession of Jesus as Lord (believing in Him), with the
covenant markers that are collectively addressed under the title of
“circumcision,” which had been used to separate and divide and limit who could
be recognized as the people of God, falling to the wayside.
This is what Paul is addressing when he deals with the issue
of justification. This is the ground of the discussion about
righteousness. Any thought that Paul has the imputation of an alien
righteousness, or an exchange of sinfulness for righteousness, anywhere in
sight when he addresses the issue of justification or the attaining of a state
of righteousness, is beyond the pale of what is to be found in Romans,
Galatians, Philippians (or any other Pauline work). That is not to say
that it is impossible that God grants His righteousness, as a quality, to those
that believe in Jesus, and does so because of their faith, because God is
certainly not bound against doing such a thing. The point, however, is
that this is not communicated in any way by Paul (or any other New Testament author).
However, while we will allow that qualifying statement to be
on offer, we should also accept, and do so without any equivocation or
qualification whatsoever, that Paul (as is also the case for every other New
Testament author) does not present the “works of the law” as a means to work
one’s way into a state of God’s favor (whatever form or state one believes that
favor may take), and that this is to be juxtaposed with faith as a gift of
grace that stands in diametric opposition to works, and that this is what Jesus
was presenting, was the source of the opposition against Him, and what
ultimately got Him killed. Such a proposition lacks any historical,
cultural, or religious grounding and needs to be finally and completely
dismissed, with all the prejudice one can muster. Quite simply, such an
idea has no place within a discussion of the message of Jesus and the
subsequent ministry of His disciples and apostles, for this idea had no place
in the time in which Jesus lived or within the worldview from which Jesus
fundamentally operated. “Works of the law,” or “works,” are the catch-all
term for Jewish covenant markers, and Paul is never to be found discussing
justification without reference to them, without reference to Jew and Gentile
relations, or without reference to Gentile inclusion in the covenant
people. Undeniably then, producing an
exegesis on Paul’s thoughts that starts from and includes such a premise, can
only lead in unfortunate and ultimately irrelevant directions.
In Romans, as Paul makes his points concerning Gentile
justification as Gentiles that believe in Jesus, rather than Gentile
justification (inclusion in the covenant people via adopting Jewish covenant markers)
we come face to face with Abraham. In what is obviously a continuous
stream of thought, as he continues what he has been doing from the start of the
letter and his first mention of Jew and Gentile in verse sixteen of chapter
one, Paul transitions from “is God the God of the Jews only? Is He not
the God of the Gentiles too? Yes, of the Gentiles too! Since God is
one, He will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through
faith” (3:29-20), to “What then shall we say that Abraham, our ancestor
according to the flesh, has discovered regarding this matter?” (4:1)
What matter is this? It is the matter of
justification---of the determination of who is to be considered as the
righteous ones, along with how they reach the point at which they are so
considered. As it is worthy of endless repetition, Paul’s answer to this
is “belief in Jesus as Lord/Messiah/King/Christ/God-manifest.” The story
of Abraham, with Paul’s recapitulation of that story following his discourse on
justification which is about defining the covenant people of the covenant God,
is the clincher for Paul’s argument, as Abraham is well understood to be the
father of the faith. Abraham’s position is unchallenged. His story
is well known and oft-rehearsed. If Paul can make his case concerning the
justification of Gentiles, and do so in a one-to-one correspondence with the
story of Abraham, then he will have won the day.
Before diving further into this fourth chapter of Romans, we
do well to consider that which, when discussing justification and so bringing
thoughts of covenant and its promises and blessings into play, comes to mind
when Abraham is mentioned. Naturally, because Paul is talking about God’s
calling and election of a covenant people, the calling and covenant with
Abraham is foundational. This turns us to chapter twelve of Genesis, and
the genesis of the Abraham story, which begins with “Now the Lord said to
Abram, ‘Go out from your country, your relatives, and your father’s household
to the land that I will show you. Then I will make you into a great
nation, and I will bless you, and I will make your name great, so that you will
exemplify divine blessing. I will bless those who bless you, but the one
who treats you lightly I must curse, and all the families of the earth
will bless one another by your name” (12:1-3). There are additional
covenant speeches, made by God to Abraham, which we will recount shortly; but
undoubtedly, when we consider what we have heard from Paul to this point in
Romans, as he has made his case for Gentiles and their justification (their
righteous covenant standing in the eyes of God/their righteousness), the words
of “all the families of the earth,” and the collective awareness by the Jews of
those words spoken to Abraham, not to mention their connection to “bless,”
would be of special significance to Paul.
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