Romans 3-4: Just if I'd...

We read Romans 3 and 4 and track Paul’s argument that nobody gets declared righteous by works, whether the marker is circumcision or any other religious badge. We land on the good news of being justified freely by grace through faith in Jesus, and we break down justification in plain language. 
• the circumcision debate as a window into works mentality 
• God’s faithfulness holding steady even when people fail 
• the law exposing sin rather than removing it 
• all people under sin and the end of boasting 
• justification by grace through the redemption in Christ Jesus 
• Abraham counted righteous by faith before circumcision 
• justification explained as “just as if I’d never sinned” 

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Transcript

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Romans Setup And The Debate

SPEAKER_00 0:11

Hey, this is Mike with the Out Loud Bible Podcast. Last time we started the Book of Romans. It's a brilliant book. It just masterfully lays out the gospel and how to live as Christ followers. A great book with a really strong introduction, a strong chapter one and chapter two that we read last time. And Paul got into the weeds of an issue that is very common among the churches that he was talking to in that day, this idea of circumcision, because this was the thing that Jews thought distinguished them as God's people for thousands of years, ever since Abraham what set apart God's people was circumcision. God put it into the law he gave Moses that circumcision is what all the males have to experience to be able to be considered God's people. If you don't, you're cut off. So this has been a big thing. And, you know, it's no one else is doing it. So it really is unique to the Jewish identity of who they are as people of God. And so it's really understandably hard for them to fathom that just because Jesus came and lived and died and rose again, that, okay, maybe he's the Messiah, but certainly circumcision has to count for something, right? Like, I mean, well, it's not like we just it's not like circumcision is worthless anymore, right? That still makes us God's people. We still have to do that to be God's people, right? Like it may be Jesus the Messiah that we've been waiting for, but we're still expected to be circumcised, right? Right? I didn't go through that for nothing, right? So Paul has to spend a lot of time rewiring this mindset around, no, that is a that is a law, that is a trying to uh be right with God through works mentality. And yeah, the law was here to kind of protect you, to kind of keep you close to God's heart as much as possible, but he's given us a new heart, he's given us a new spirit, and with that, what makes God's people God's people is doing what pleases him, following Jesus, following Jesus' teachings, and living a life of faith in him. Trusting that his death and resurrection, that's a big enough act of grace to get us right with God. It's a little harder to see. It's a little harder to put to put your finger on, so to speak. But Jesus changed the rules because he's Jesus and he can. So Paul is getting into the weeds here as he discusses this and tries to clarify for the sake of the Roman church, a church he has not visited, a church that is comprised of a lot of Jewish Christians and a lot of Gentile Christians who are having these debates. He's clarifying for their sake what is true moving forward specifically about circumcision, but the idea of works versus faith in general. So let's check out Romans chapter 3 and chapter 4 today in the New English Translation. Well, therefore, what advantage does the Jew have? Or what's the

Romans 3 On Sin And Grace

SPEAKER_00 3:31

value of circumcision? Okay, well, actually, there are many advantages. First of all, the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God. What then? If some were unfaithful, their unfaithfulness will not nullify God's faithfulness, will it? Absolutely not. Let God be proven true and every human being shown up as a liar, just as it's written, so that you will be justified in your words and will prevail when you are judged. But if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, what shall we say? The God who inflicts wrath is not unrighteous, is he? Absolutely not. For otherwise, how could God judge the world? For if by my lie the truth of God enhances his glory, why am I still being judged as a sinner? And why not say, well, let's do evil so that good may come of it? As some who slander us allege that we say, their condemnation is deserved. What then? Are we better off? Certainly not. For we have already charged that Jews and Greeks alike are all under sin, just as it's written, there is no one righteous, not even one. There's no one who understands, there's no one who seeks God. All have turned away. Together they've become worthless. There's no one who shows kindness, not even one. Their throats are open graves. They deceive with their tongues. The poison of asps is under their lips. Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood, ruin and misery are always in their paths, and the way of peace they've not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes. Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For no one is declared righteous before him by the works of the law, for through the law comes the knowledge of sin. But now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God, although it's attested by the law and the prophets, has been disclosed, namely the righteousness of God through the faithfulness of Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. But they are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. God publicly displayed him at his death as the mercy seat accessible through faith. This was to demonstrate his righteousness because God in his forbearance had passed over the sins previously committed. This was also to demonstrate his righteousness in the present time, so that he would be just and the justifier of the one who lives because of Jesus' faithfulness. Where then is boasting? It's excluded. By what principle? Of works? No, but by the principle of faith. For we consider that a person is declared righteous by faith apart from the works of the law. Or is God the God of the Jews only? Is he not the god of the Gentiles too? Yes, of the Gentiles too, and since God is one, he will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. Do we then nullify the law through faith? No, absolutely not. Instead we uphold the law. What then shall we say that Abraham, our ancestor according to the flesh, has discovered regarding this matter? For if Abraham was declared righteous by

Romans 4 Abraham And True Faith

SPEAKER_00 7:35

works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the scripture say? Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness. Now, to the one who works, his pay is not credited due to grace, but due to obligation. But to the one who does not work, but believes in the one who declares the ungodly righteous, his faith is credited as righteousness. So even David himself speaks regarding the blessedness of the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works. Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the one against whom the Lord will never count sin. Is this blessedness then for the circumcision or also for the uncircumcision? For we say faith was credited to Abraham as righteousness. How then was it credited to him? Was he circumcised at the time or not? No, he was not circumcised, but uncircumcised. And he received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised, so that he would become the father of all those who believe but have never been circumcised, so that they too can have righteousness credited to them. And he's also the father of the circumcised, who are not only circumcised, but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham possessed when he was still uncircumcised. For the promise to Abraham or to his descendants that he would inherit the world was not fulfilled through the law, but through the righteousness that comes by faith. For if they become heirs by the law, faith is empty, and the promise is nullified. For the law brings wrath. Because where there is no law, there is no transgression either. For this reason, it's by faith, so that it may be by grace, with the result that the promise may be certain to all the descendants, not only those who are under the law, but also to those who have the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all. As it's written, I have made you the father of many nations. He is our father in the presence of God whom he believed, the God who makes the dead alive and summons the things that do not yet exist as though they already do. Against hope Abraham believed in hope, with the result that he became the father of many nations. According to the pronouncement, so will your descendants be. Without being weak in faith, he considered his own body as dead, because he was about one hundred years old, and the deadness of Sarah's womb. He didn't waver in unbelief about the promise of God, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God. He was fully convinced that what God promised he was also able to do. So indeed it was credited to Abraham as righteousness. But the statement it was credited to him was not written only for Abraham's sake, but also for our sake, to whom it'll be credited, those who believe in the one who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. He was given over because of our transgressions, and was raised for the sake of our justification

What Justification Really Means

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justification is one of those words we get from the Bible, it's one of those Christian words that we have. Just kind of sounds big and complicated. Legalese, maybe. Justification. What does that mean? I like to remember it as this. Justified means it's made justified, never sinned in the first place. Like Paul quotes David, blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the one against whom the Lord will never count sin. Through faith in Jesus, through the grace of his death and resurrection, for you, we are justified. We can live just as if I'd never sinned. That's how pure God sees you when he sees Christ's work in you and for you. Pretty special, pretty amazing. It's good news right there.