Romans 4-5

Ancient Roman ruins (vikgr)

Greetings again. In the first part of this series of the Book of Romans, we concluded in chapter 3, verse 31.

Beginning in the fourth chapter of the Book of Romans. Written around 57-58 A.D. The Apostle Paul is addressing the brethren at Rome, not necessarily to Romans in general.

Turn in your Bible to the Book of Romans, chapter 4.

Verse 1 ── “What then shall we say that Abraham our father has found according to the flesh?” 

Verse 2 ── “For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, …”

And, he’s talking about here – not the works of the Law but rather good works, hence, obedience to the LORD God.

“ … but not before God.”

Verse 3 ── “For what does the Scripture say? ‘Abraham believed God, and it was accounted [or imputed] to him for righteousness.’” 

We read a statement from the Book of Genesis that is repeated several times throughout the New Testament. Paul quotes it twice, and James quotes it once.

Verse 4 ── “Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt.”

Verse 5 ── “ But to him who does not work …”

Now, this word “works” we’re going to read several times in these passages. I don’t want to spend too much time on it, but I just feel compelled to say some things. So, throughout here we’re going to read the word “works,” or “the law,” or the “work of the law.” You’ve got to understand that the Apostle Paul is talking about the law of the regulations of the Levitical Priesthood, or sometimes called the Law of Moses. And I like to call it just the law or the traditions of Jewish-ness – Jewish traditions. 

Verse 5 ── “But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith, is accounted for righteousness.”

Verse 6 ── “just as David also describes the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness APART FROM WORKS.”

Verse 7 ── ‘Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, And whose sins are covered.’ 

Verse 8 ── ‘Blessed is the man to whom the LORD shall not impute sin.’” 

Many of us, brethren, continue to struggle with things that we did in our youth. Teenagers and into our 20s. Quite frankly, a lot of people, when they’re teenagers and up into the early 20s, do things that aren’t very smart. And we are reminded by these beautiful words of the Apostle Paul ── ‘Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven. And whose sins are covered.’ Because if you’ve gone to the LORD God and have asked for forgiveness, those problems of your past are gone! And we need to BELIEVE this, and understand it, and take great hope in it!

Verse 9 ── “Does this blessedness then come upon the circumcised only, or upon the uncircumcised also? For we say that faith was accounted to Abraham for righteousness.”

Verse 10 ── “How then was it accounted? While he was circumcised, or [before he was circumcised?].”

Verse 11 ── “And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while still uncircumcised, that he might be the father of all those who believe, though they are uncircumcised, that righteousness might be imputed to them also.” 

So you see, it isn’t just that you believe and then you go on sinning and do not obey. Because we cannot obey the LORD God’s Law and live a perfect life IN OUR OWN STRENGTH. It takes the faith of God to trust that the LORD God will help us through with the glorious Holy Spirit. Later, we find in the Book of Galatians, and I believe back in the Book of James, how the Patriarch Abraham was not justified by faith alone, but also with works ── obedience to the Law.

Verse 12 ── “and the father of circumcision to those who not only are of the circumcision, but also walk in the steps of the faith which our father Abraham had while still uncircumcised.” 

Verse 13 ── “For the promise [we’re talking about Abraham] that he would be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed THROUGH THE LAW, …”

Again, we hear this phrase ‘the law.’ 

“ … but through the righteousness of faith.” 

Verse 14 ── “For if those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made void and the promise made of no effect.”

Verse 15 ── “because the law brings about wrath; for where there is no law there is no transgression.”

So, over and over again – the law, the law, the law. And I want you to understand, he wasn’t talking about the Ten Commandments here. He’s talking about Jewish traditions – as taught by the Pharisees. And, in fact, the Apostle Paul spent his entire ministry fighting their misunderstanding – sometimes to the point of them trying to kill him. And, I think, one time he was killed, that’s just my personal view. And God ‘raised’ him back up! Because He wasn’t through with Paul. And, Paul spent his entire ministry fighting Jewish leaders who were trying to bring the New Testament Church members to make them adopt Jewish traditions. And you can read about some of these warnings that Paul had over and over and over. 

Verse 16 ── “Therefore it is of faith that it might be according to grace, …” – that is, an undeserving pardon, a free gift from the Eternal One!. “ … so that the promise might be sure to all the seed, not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all.” 

The Patriarch Abraham is the father of all the faithful.

Verse 17 ── “(as it is written, ‘I have made you a father of many nations’) in the presence of Him whom he believed ── God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did.” 

Verse 18 ── Abraham, “who, contrary to hope, in hope believed, so that he became the father of many nations, according to what was spoken, ‘So shall your descendants be.’” 

Again, back in the Book of Genesis.

Verse 19 ── “And not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body, already dead [meaning he was an old man] (since he was about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah’s womb.” 

So they’re both well advanced in age. And God has told him, ‘You’re gonna have a son!’ Well, notice …

Verse 20 ── “He did not waver at the promise of God, through unbelief, but was [strong] in faith, giving glory to God.”

And here’s verse 21, if you have a little marker on you, please mark Verse 21 – in my opinion is the very best definition in the entire Bible of what faith is. 

This is the best definition of faith you’re ever gonna read! Abraham, “and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform.” 

Faith is believing in the promises of the LORD God. So, to believe the promises of the LORD God, you’ve got to believe that God exists, you have to believe that the living word of God is the word of God, and then you’ve got to read and study God’s living word! And you need to study these promises that the LORD God made to you! In prayer and supplication, go to the LORD God and say, You have told me from Your word that this is what You will do. And I believe You! I place my life into Your righteous right hand! Truly, that is the Scripture I used this past Sabbath on Facebook – Isaiah 41:10.

Verse 22 ── “And therefore ‘it was [imputed] to him for righteousness.’”

Verse 23 ── “Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him.” 

Verse 24 ── “but also for us. It shall be imputed to us who believe in Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead.”

Verse 25 ── “who was delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification.”

That is why we have our Savior, who came out of His tomb!

5th chapter of the Book of Romans. 

Verse 1 ── “Therefore, having been justified by faith, …”

Well… that’s a handful. Isn’t it? “Justified” means being made right in the eyes of God. Not in our own eyes. Because our eyes don’t count. But, it’s how the LORD God views us! ‘Being justified by faith …’ – alright, that faith is the faith that comes from Jesus Christ through His Spirit, and it lives within us! Faith is one of the fruits of God’s Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23).

“…we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” 

Now, I’ve said before, I don’t fear dying – or, I don’t fear death. But I don’t want that death to be painful, or miserable, or prolonged. But the idea of going to bed, putting my head on the pillow, and then waking up ── and God willing ── being in the glorious kingdom of God, that doesn’t cause me fear. 

Verse 2 – “through whom also we have access by faith into this grace …”

To understand grace, we need to evolve ── spiritually speaking ── from believing and following the Old Covenant, and you have to evolve and become practitioners and believers, reaching out and taking hold of the glorious New Covenant! So, what is this grace? What is that love, that kindness? And the fact that we mere mortals, small as a human sperm cell ── we don’t truly deserve the LORD God’s grace and mercy. Yet, the LORD God has chosen us out of a huge sea of humanity. And we have been blessed with the gift of the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, the gift of repentance, the gift of baptism, and the gift of the glorious Spirit of God. And now, our names have been written down in the Book of Life, and we can look forward to the glorious and powerful Return of our Savior, Jesus Christ, and the establishment of the kingdom of God upon the Earth ── knowing and having faith that we will be a part of it! 

“…in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.” 

Talking about the resurrection. That’s talking about becoming a full-time, full-fledged, forever member of the glorious kingdom of God!

Verse 3 ── “And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, …”

And, yes, I know that’s hard to do. You know, our Lord Jesus said - in the Apostle Luke’s version – Luke 6 - of what we often call the beatitudes – “…’ Blessed are you poor, For yours is the kingdom of God. 21) Blessed are you who hunger now, For you shall be filled. Blessed are you who weep now, For you shall laugh.’” And there are times when we certainly feel like weeping. O’ my, I know I do. Especially when you thought you had friends and fellow brethren that would support you, and wanted to be with you, would defend you, protect you ── only to find out that they don’t. That’s the stuff of tears, right there. 

“ … and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.” 

Which literally means, the resurrection into the glorious kingdom of God! We truly rejoice in that, we think about that! We set our hearts upon that!

“ … knowing that tribulation produces perseverance [patience].” 

Verse 4 ── “and [patience creates experience]; [and experience], hope.”

Verse 5 ── “Now hope [never has to be apologized for], because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit [which] was given to us.”

The central meaning of the Days of Unleavened Bread! God’s Spirit becoming a part of us! And that’s what that bread means. We are imbibing the unleavened Bread of sincerity and truth. For a week, we follow the symbolism – the teaching point – that we need Jesus Christ, we need the mind of Jesus Christ, we need the Word of Jesus Christ, we need the hope of Jesus Christ, we need the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, we need the kingdom of Jesus Christ.

Love is the fulfillment of the Law of God. Yet, the often fickle love that we have, that we are born with, will not fulfill the spiritual Law of God. Because it takes the glorious Spirit of God, the fruits of God’s Spirit, which includes love ── spiritual love that we were not born with to fulfill the spiritual Law of God. 

Sadly, so few of our peoples understand these things. The LORD God not only gifts us love, but the Holy Spirit is the love of God. That is what is imparted to us, placed within us – the very love of God. A love that we never had before. And that’s the love that comes into us. A kind of faith which we never had. Many say that they just don’t have faith. Well… the faith we need is not something we can just work up. The faith we need is what the LORD God gifts us through the glorious Holy Spirit placed within us. We can’t just work it up. How does God’s Spirit place it with us? It’s the FAITH OF CHRIST. It is the same faith that our Lord Jesus used to walk on the water, that He used to raise the dead, to heal the sick and brokenhearted. And I don’t think many people in these worldly churches understand this. That we need to have a divine love, a divine faith that we were not born with and is not naturally within us. It is something that must be gifted to us from the LORD God. And that’s by the grace of God ── and an unmerited, undeserving gift.

Verse 6 ── “For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. 7) For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. 8) But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9) Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. 10) For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. 11) And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.”            

Our Lord Jesus Christ was the ‘atonement’ for us in the reconciliation to Father God.

Now… “we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son.” O’ my, there is so much greatness right there! Sadly, the majority of the Protestants tend to leave our heavenly Father out of it altogether. And most don’t even realize and understand that God the Father is coming to Earth with His Son and all the holy angels! (cf. Revelation 21:3). Most only focus on our Lord Jesus Christ. Television evangelists basically say to just “come on down, and give your heart to the Lord” ── with their southern accent making the word Lord sound like lard. And, they make it sound as if that’s all there is to it! Just accept Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, and poof ── you’re saved! But, ponder upon this – if you (God willing) are going to sit upon your throne with our Lord Jesus Christ, our Lord Jesus certainly couldn’t sit on His throne until He overcame Satan, the Devil. Our Master and Elder Brother – our Savior – had to conquer Satan! And… where Adam had disobeyed and rebelled against God the Father, our Lord Jesus (the Second Adam) obeyed God the Father. If you’re going to sit upon your throne with Him, you have to OVERCOME! In fact, overcoming is so important that our Lord Jesus tells us SEVEN SEPARATE TIMES! (see: Revelation 2:7, 11, 17, 26; 3:5, 12, 21).

Our Lord and Savior ── His Son. What does He have to do with it? He is the One who makes it possible to reconcile us to God the Father. We’ve got to be reconciled to God the Father first, before our Lord Jesus can save us. It’s important – pay close attention. Our Lord Jesus Christ was the ‘atonement’ for us in the reconciliation to Father God. 

Verse 12 ── “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death [speaking of the Second Death] spread to all men, because all sinned ──” 

Honoring and worshiping God the Father and our Lord Jesus correctly is to keep and obey the LAW OF GOD – summed up in the TEN COMMANDMENTS – that They established in Their love for all mankind. If mankind would only abide in God’s love,  then they would keep and obey the Law of God. But mankind, as a whole, is rebellious, because we are born carnal – born under sin. So those who are flesh cannot please God. But, brethren, we know – “But [we] are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if ANYONE does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.” – Romans 8:6-9. 

Adam disobeyed the LORD God. And, if there was no transgression, then how did Adam sin? Why then did the second death spread to all men? He was going to die because of the natural laws of decay and death ── but, because of his disobedience,  the second death (the ultimate penalty for disobedience against the LORD God) was therefore spread to all men. So, Adam couldn’t have sinned, had the LORD God not explained the Law of God to Adam.

Verse 13 ── (“For until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law.”

Again, sin is not imputed when there is no law. So, the Law of God (summed up with the Ten Commandments) was the Law before the physical ritual laws. Later, the Apostle Paul is going to say that the physical ritual laws were added because there had been transgressions of the spiritual Law. It was added to try and help them live without continuing to break the spiritual Law. It is clear to those who see and hear what the Spirit has to say. 

Verse 14 ── “Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, …”

The ultimate penalty of the Law of God (see: Revelation 20:14; 21:7-8) was being enforced!

“ … even over those WHO HAD NOT SINNED according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come.”

Verse 15 ── “But the FREE GIFT is not like the offense. For if by the one man’s offense many died, much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the One Man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many.”

Verse 16 ── “And the gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned. For the judgment which came from one offense resulted in condemnation, but the FREE GIFT which came from many offenses resulted in justification.”

Verse 17 ── “For if by one man’s offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.)”

Verse 18 ── “Therefore, as through one man’s offense JUDGMENT CAME TO ALL MEN, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man’s righteous act the FREE GIFT came to all men, resulting in justification of life.” 

Understand, it doesn’t mean that the free gift of the justification of life has come to all men yet, because the world has not yet been judged. But it is going to be, and it will be upon all men. So, first, the condemnation because of the transgression of the Law. Then second, the grace by the glorious righteous act of our Lord Jesus Christ – and it hasn’t been applied to everyone yet. But His part of it has been done.

Verse 19 ── “For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous.”

Verse 20 ── “Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound. …” 

Now … which law is he talking about here? Is he talking about the Ten Commandments? No. The Apostle Paul here is speaking about the Old Covenant physical ritualistic laws ── meaning the laws surrounding the Jewish religion, the Temple, the animal sacrifices, and the ceremonial washings that they did in the Old Covenant. 

So, “moreover the law entered …” He’s talking about the gathering together of the people of the house of Israel, who escaped the bondage of Egypt on the night of the Passover. Brought out of the land of Egypt by the righteous hand of the Eternal One. And now, while they are free from that Egyptian culture, eventually the LORD God directed the Patriarch Moses and Aaron to set up a physical Levitical priesthood with physical rituals and laws for the people who were physical and carnal-minded. And here the Apostle Paul says, “Moreover the law entered [meaning, the Old Covenant agreement] …” The law entered, and then… “… the offenses …” abound. Then he says ── 

“ … But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more.” 

A reference to the glorious New Covenant! There was no such concept as grace in the Old Covenant. The closest they got to grace was the sacrificing of animals, like a lamb, goat, bull ── those were a substitution for grace. In the New Testament, here the Apostle Paul is talking about grace. Our Lord Jesus Christ lived His life in the very personification of grace! 

Verse 21 ── “So that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life [by] Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Again, talking about the New Covenant! Talking about the promises of the New Covenant! And the ultimate promise of the New Covenant is eternal life! I point out again ── the Old Covenant did not give the people hope for eternal life. Yet, on the other hand, the New Covenant – sanctioned by our Lord Jesus Christ, taught by our Lord Jesus Christ, taught by the Apostle Paul ── does have, hold, and present an offer for eternal life!

“ … grace might reign through righteousness …” 

And righteousness comes through the mind, the Spirit, of our Lord Jesus Christ living within us! CHRIST IN US!         

“ … eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” □

to be continued...

PART I